Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice

Twice a year, our church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - as a whole (more than 15 million members worldwide) participates in a General Conference. Broadcast from Salt Lake City are inspirational and motivational talks given by our church leaders, including a living prophet - Thomas S. Monson - in two hour sessions. No one is assigned a topic, they seek inspiration from God and there tend to be overarching themes like missionary work, love, Jesus Christ and His Atonement, faith and other important principles. The messages are incredible but however you slice it, two hours is a long time. Particularly for toddlers. So, thanks to LDS.org, Pinterest and other invaluable sites, I managed to cook up some activities for Teagan to help her listen.

A page where she could colour the ties worn by Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency.

Conference Bingo, where she had to listen for words they said and cover it with a Skittle. This went surprisingly well. When just she and I were playing. She actually heard a lot of the words on her own and was able to discern (for the most part) which picture it was. I helped her out and would shout the word they'd said again so she had another chance. This backfired when I yelled "FAITH!" and she put her Skittle on the Prophet square. "I put it on his face, Mummy." Touche. I let her keep it there.

 

It backfired again when Daddy got involved. Notice how far away he is from a board, meaning he has no idea what words he's listening for. Instead, he'd yell out random words he heard in order to "earn" a Skittle. So amidst my "FAITH! FAMILY! TEMPLE!" were his "GRIEVOUS! END OF QUOTE! KINSFOLK!" interspersed with "Don't smother your brother!" He's definitely the fun one.

Another activity that started well was our bucket 'o' Apostles. I had taped a photo of each General Authority to a treat I thought she'd enjoy, so when she saw him on the screen she would have to dig through and find the match and hopefully get excited about eating something like Twizzlers or fruit snacks. Well, I wasn't sure how into it she'd be and in the spirit of keeping our purse strings tight, found stuff we had at home rather than purchase a whole lot of candy. I thought I was being creative, putting a baby food dessert in there - I LOVED baby food fruit when I was a kid...in high school - and apparently we don't share that quirk. "MOOOOOM! Dis is for babies!" she chided me when she found Banana Plum baby food taped to poor Elder Oaks. You win some, you lose some. For whatever reason, she had her eye on a Caramel Hershey's Kiss attached to Elder Christofferson and kept hoping he'd come up. Of course he was the last speaker and she was over at our Bishop's house for his talk. Typical.

She did a great job of recognizing most of the brethren, but needed some help with ones who had aged since posing for the photo we had. In particular, poor Elder Hales was almost unrecognizable. Even after I told her several times that it was him, she refused to eat his treat because she didn't believe me. It wasn't until I did a side-by-side that I saw how much he's changed. Bless him.

Where was Mason for all of this, you ask? He tried to divide his time evenly between holding his feet, napping, screaming if no one was looking directly at him, and making questionable fashion choices with the assistance of his father. He sleeps best when snuggled, so I obliged and laid with him for the better part of the Saturday morning session. It was heavenly.

 

And among our new Conference traditions, I must make mention of our breakfast. Prepared the night before (by Brandon, no less) a scrumptious combination of sugar, pudding, sugar, Rhodes Rolls, sugar and butter. Elastic waistbands required. Delish. It's becoming a staple around here.  I shouldn't play it fast and loose with "staples" as we may be in need of those down the road thanks to this!

 

We're encouraged to come to General Conference with a question or two on our minds that we hope to have answered by one of the speakers. I have put this to the test and it has been incredible. There seem to be talks written just for me every time. Being slightly overwhelmed with life at the moment, I have been concerned about time management and prioritizing and was told that family comes first and housework can wait. You can imagine my relief. I also loved a talk about treasures in heaven vs. worldly possessions which hit home particularly hard only a few minutes after I'd opened an unexpected medical bill for what we thought were routine doctor visits for Mason...and spending entirely too much time and money on Facebook garage sale sites. Asked and answered. I always come away with a sense of hope and a motivation to be better and do better and this was no exception. All in all, a fantastically uplifting, refreshing way to spend a weekend with the three people I love most.