My notes from general conference

A sincere testimony can help you follow the lords plan.
You meet adversity with hope.
Our duty is to invite millions to the church of Jesus christ.
Pain teaches us patience.
after Jesus was resurrected he stayed with his decibels for 20 days then he went to heaven.
Jesus shall give you a blessing of to much to receive.
Jesus loves us.
If the sheep is lead away the lamb will follow.
If you give you will have less but your testimony will grow stronger.
Don't give up to soon.
Sometimes you have to search harder to find your target.
there is no place for gossip and unkind words.
We become our true selfs by helping others.
Life is about helping others.
When we are worried about others,when we go about doing good,we touch lives that will never be quite the same.
Simple acts of kindness repeated countless times daily,are the true substance of life.
The people you most admire are likely to touch you not because of there accomplishments, but there acts of kindness,not their beauty,but their big hearts,not their success but their support.
A good character is the best tombstone.
Those who love you,and who were helped by you,will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered.
Carve your name on hearts,not marble.
Life may not always be easy.
Are father and his son Jesus Christ,in heaven love us dearly
By Becoming the answer to someone else's prayer you often find the answer to your own.
Revaluation is communication with god.
Everyone has doubts.
Choose a mate, before it's to late, and while you still have a chance,and before your to old to even dance.
God decides who we are and what you do.
You are blessed if you faithfully pay your tithing.
You con not accomplish a to be but you can accomplish a to do.

A conference talk poem

Choose a mate,

before it's too late,

while you still have a chance

and before your to old to even dance.

John baptized Him,

Emptiness He replaced with love,

Sacrifice of death,

Ushers everyone, He does,

Sins He has not.

Isn't this great?

If you receive the New Ear each month, this should look familiar. Brandon and cousin Ryan were both attending conference for their first priesthood session. Jeffrey has since passed 8 years old and was there for the first time at the conference center. And we were attending for the first time since the mission and had our first mission reunion (our new favorite holiday...and it comes twice a year!) The boys ran into Roy Matsunaga, a former assistant from the AMM. So glad a real photographer was there to capture the memory!

post game fun

What's better than General Conference?

General Conference on Easter...

...with cousins!

And missionaries.

(The aprons are to save their white shirts. They're so kind and humble, they humored me and allowed the picture.)

Conference food tradtions:

waffles with homemade syrup (no more Mrs. Buttersworth at our house), opt. peanut butter

Cave Creek Tacos

Breakfast Nachos

***This year we traded bagels and fruit for doughnuts and then chili for Ribs and hot dogs. I don't think any of the kids felt bad about that.

(Don't you love Jeff's hair? He doesn't like me to do it for him...he likes it this way better. Independence is hard...for the mom!)

Love the conference packets! Taylor got them ready for his pre-conference FHE lesson. Thanks Tay. They helped the kids stay a little quieter on Sunday-except they did most of it on Saturday before conference even started.

OK Jess, we did something different with the treats to prevent some of the getting up and down. This time, before it started everyone filled their own private bowl and kept it nearby. Dad gave some magic words to listen for. Worked much better!

(Couldn't resist, he's just so cute.)

Warm Fuzzies

During General Conference, everyone in the family wrote down ideas of things they thought we should follow up on as a family. Everybody mentioned President Monson's talk, What Have I Done for Someone Today?,  so that became the topic for our Family Home Evening lesson last night. (I love that we can watch general conference talks again anytime we want!)  We only watched a small portion of the talk, but all the kids remembered it, especially when we saw the picture of the warm fuzzies-Jeffrey's favorite part.

We focused on the idea of loosing ourselves in service to others and the following thoughts from President Monson:

Often we live side by side but do not communicate heart to heart. There are those within the sphere of our own influence who, with outstretched hands, cry out, “Is there no balm in Gilead?”⁷

I am confident it is the intention of each member of the Church to serve and to help those in need. At baptism we covenanted to “bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.”⁸ How many times has your heart been touched as you have witnessed the need of another? How often have you intended to be the one to help? And yet how often has day-to-day living interfered and you’ve left it for others to help, feeling that “oh, surely someone will take care of that need.”

We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.

We want to focus on "doing" and follow through. The boys went with me to buy warm fuzzies. We piled them in a jar so that each time someone does something kind, they can glue it on a mat surrounding a picture of President Monson and the poem he said he has used as a guide through his life:

I have wept in the night

For the shortness of sight

That to somebody’s need made me blind;

But I never have yet        

Felt a tinge of regret

For being a little too kind.

While we were talking, the spirit whispered to me that this lesson, or the results of this lesson could change the lives of our family. We all loved President Hinckley so much (Jeffrey still regular talks and prays about developing the 6 B traits), but now we have a new prophet, leading us in his own special way. Who is kinder than President Monson? And who knows how long we will have him? How long do we have to become more like him? He is one of the kindest, purest souls on earth. If each of us could be more like him, we would be better people.  He is Christ's messenger on earth today.

I remember the spirit touching my heart when President Packer testified of President Monson and reminded us to pray for him, his wife, and his family. I was similarly touched when, the next day, the prophet himself asked us to pray for him. I don't need to be told 3 times. Every day since then, I have tried to make those pleas a part of my life. I've encouraged my children to do it. I've reminded the missionaries to do it. And this is a natural extension of those prayers. We pray for people we love. We also listen to and emulate the people we love. They are all wrapped up together. Praying for the prophet not only sustains him, it changes us. Jen taught me once, that our job as mother's consists of 3 simple things: providing for the physical needs of our family, loving and teaching them to love, and helping them understand their relationship to their Father in Heaven and to their Savior, Jesus Christ. Following the prophet in this way encapsulates each of these three areas.  During this week of Thanksgiving, as a mother, as a daughter of God, I am deeply grateful to my Savior, Jesus Christ, for a prophet on the earth to love and follow.

A little help, please

This is a great week! Why? The Ensign came. It's already been a whole month since general conference. It's hard to believe. And here's where the help comes. Watching conference once each 6 months and reading each article online or when the Ensign comes is really just the tip of the ice berg. So what ideas do you have for wringing every ounce of goodness out of conference?

Here are some of our ideas:

• Each member of the family has their own copy of the conference edition of the Enisgn to bring to FHE and for personal study. (Got that one from Lisa Greene years ago when our husbands were in the bishopric together.)
• Embrace the digital age and download the music and talks from the church's website.
• During conference, there are slips of paper available for members of the family to write down ideas or impressions of things that want to study/try as a family. These become some of our topics for FHE lessons and activities.
• Create your own crossword puzzle from conference talks for Sunday activities. There are lots of websites, but this one is easy.
• Make a list of clear and measurable goals and objectives with a timeline during a Family Counsel or Family Home Evening.
• Everyone make a list of questions when they read a talk and have every bring them to scripture study to discuss.

Also, if anyone has ideas for specific talks. For example, who has a great idea for a talk dealing with the rod of iron? I love this picture, just had to add it:

• With all the talks about 'love', our kids want to resurrect an old idea. Each week we pick a different person and put little notes of appreciation in a jar. At the end of the week-that person gets the 'You are Special" plate and Dad reads all the messages.
• When I read Elder Scott's talk, I thought we could have an object lesson with a grape and a jalepeno pepper.

Elder Andersen poses these great questions during some talks given in regards to conference and counsel from living prophets.

Since the last general conference, what have we done with the counsel and encouragement we received from our Church leaders?

What is our reaction to this prophetic counsel? What has been my response and your response to this First Presidency letter of nearly eight months ago? As a parent of teenagers in a busy world, I can confirm that it takes giving these issues our highest priority to see them effectively work in our family.