For those of you who don't know, I work for a local fire district (like a fire department, but not part of a city municipality) and every year in early October we put on a LARGE event (seriously large, note my use of all capital letters) at the Bashas' grocery store to promote the annual Fire Prevention Week message.
Here's the rub...General Conference is almost always on the same weekend as this event. AND Leland's family almost always goes up to Pinetop for the weekend to enjoy family time and listen to conference on the radio (no tv signal at the cabin). So for the past 3 years, I've missed the family trip to the cabin in order to work at this event (well, last year the family didn't go to the cabin for conference because everyone was busy moving our entire apartment into a 10x10 storage shed and moving us into David and Lawanna's house in preparation for the purchase of our house and us having the baby...my goodness, this is a really long sidebar)
Anyway, the point is, I've always told myself that I could read the General Conference issue of the Ensign (I attempted that last year and ended up getting sidetracked and not finishing it) or that I'd listen/watch it online but I never do. Besides that, we have a son now and I don't want to miss out on family trips and memories because of a stupid work thing that doesn't matter in the long run (I mean, really, what's more important here?)
So this year, I told work I wasn't working the event and I went up to Pinetop with my family. It was kind of strange, I found myself missing it (I thrive on the event planning and organization it takes to put on something like this) but that feeling started fading and I was able to enjoy my weekend with my son, my husband, and my in-laws. Did I get to listen to all of conference? Sadly, no. We had a few technical difficulties (speakers not plugged in and another station playing Elvis over the top of conference) and also it's not incredibly easy to keep a 9 month old happy for that long and actually be able to listen to the whole thing. But the feelings I had while listening to the portions I did hear were wonderful and have inspired me to listen to the whole of conference online while I'm at work (I have my own office and listen to music and audiobooks quite often, so why not conference?)
As I listen to all the sessions of General Conference I think I'll post some feelings about the talks and speakers who make the biggest impressions on me. So watch for those coming soon.
So here's my question for the comments: My cousin, Melissa, posted about General Conference traditions on her blog and it got me wondering. What do you do to prepare yourself and/or your children to hear the words of our prophet and other general authorities?
4 comments:
We eat insane amounts of waffles and then plop onto the couch. We're too full of food to do anything but sit there and listen. And if you need to get up and stretch, you can make your way to the kitchen for leftovers.
You were probably looking for something more spiritual, weren't you. ;)
I love the food traditions! And it's not like I'm really great at paying attention to conference. I have a picture of me, Leland, Sam, Dan, and Kayley (who was 4 months old at the time) all totally comatose in the middle of conference. We're all sprawled randomly on the floor and couches.
he he he. You guys are fun. Lauren, I love listening to conference after. You can download it onto your IPOD and listen as you work, clean, drive, etc. Winslow gets his best scripture "reading" done while he drives. LOL!
On another note. Miss you guys terribly!!! Are you having family dinner on the 17th? We're thinking of dropping by!
I loved having you with us this year. We started our children out with one session of conference a day and slowly worked our way up to the whole thing. My boys would sit and work on legos through out the sessions.
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