General Conference Weekend

This weekend is General Conference weekend, a weekend that I look forward to.  A weekend to be filled spiritually by listening to the Prophet of the Lord, to be with my family, and just take a break from the world. For us General Conference Saturday begins with all of gathered around the television eating donuts (of course the ones stuffed full of cream) and drinking milk as we watch Conference.  This has changed in the past few years.  We began our married life listening to conference on the the radio, followed by a few years when we watched it our small television with an antennae attached to the top of it.  The reception usually wasn't very good and we had to find the spot in our house where it would work and watch it there.  We haven't have cable or "real" tv in our home for the past 24 years, so we couldn't just watch conference.   Finally we were able to watch it on the internet, but in the beginning there were times it would just stop during the session and we would have to wait for it to start again,  or we have to watch it, but have the sound from the radio so that it wasn't synced together.  Now, technology has come along and we are able to watch it from the internet on our television screen.  No more crowding around  the computer monitor, and no more hoping that we won't lose the connection somewhere in the middle of the conference. Conference has also changed from having activities for my kids to do so that they could listen and still be semi-quiet (bingo was always one of our favorites) to all the kids grabbing their own journals to take notes.  Of course it is still a challenge to keep everyone awake, so we eat.  Sunday morning we eat apple cobbler during the morning session and finger foods in the afternoon session. Last conference (in October) the announcement was made for the lowering of the age for missionaries, this had a great impact on our family and changed the plans of the next year of two of my children.  This conference it was great to hear them talk about "catching the wave" of missionary work and knowing that our family is on the crest of that wave.  Sitting here today and seeing all of my kids (well, all of those who are at home) gathered together to watch conference and feeling the spirit in our home, fills me with a peace, knowing that we are on the right track - at least for today.