I watched this week’s “Don’t’ Miss This” episode with Sister Emily and Brother Dave, below, and heard them mention this General Conference packet. You can get it for free here. If you don’t know what General Conference is, it is a semi-annual gathering for all the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It involves hearing revelation from our prophet and counsel from other leaders. It’s been going on ever since the church was founded. Gathering is an important principle of the Church of Jesus Christ. It’s cool that one of the scriptures I read in my Bible study for this week’s Come, Follow Me reading includes the principle of gathering.

Ephesians 1:10 says:

That in the ^adispensation of the fulness of times he might ^bgather together in one ^call things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him…

So General Conference is a foreshadowing of this even greater gathering in Christ, during the Millennium.

It’s so amazing that all over the world, we can gather together through technology and hear the same things. Over 18 years ago, when I was pregnant with child #4, my husband and I were traveling over Conference weekend for his business. We paid a lot of money to get Internet access at the hotel to watch Conference. What a blessing that Internet access is much cheaper these days, wherever you go, and that we can easily watch General Conference using it.

Conference time is a wonderful time to hear new stories from the prophet, apostles, and other leaders. During this time, I’ve used my share of coloring sheets and packets over the years to keep the kids quiet. I love that this packet above is for the whole family, not just for the little children to color. My kids have never really taken to coloring. The boys usually just want to wrestle during reading aloud or Conference when I’ve attempted to get them to color. My hope springs eternal though, and I will be printing this out and presenting this packet to each family member to help them stay focused. I also love that the packet has recipes (albeit not very real foodsy- I will be adapting) and a Family Home Evening lesson.

At the beginning of the video, Emily and Dave share some of their General Conference traditions, like special books to write in and pajamas. I’m sooo not there yet. I have been striving for years now to have some General Conference traditions for our family.  Here are some of the ideas I’ve gathered so far. It’s been hit and miss, but I am not giving up. I love the idea of making it as much fun as Christmas with special decorations, food, and gifts. So far I’ve got the special food, still working on the decorations and gifts.  New pajamas and books seem light years away, but the vision is lovely. Every six months, Conference seems to sneak up on me and I find myself lacking time to prepare all these wonderful things.

At least this time, we are singing about Conference. Every day this week for our homeschool devotional, the younger children and I are singing this song to get ready. It’s by Brad Wilcox and Steven Kapp Perry. Hey, you can even have special music for Conference, just like Christmas!

Here’s one of my favorite General Conference talks of all time by Elder Marcos Aidukaitis. It’s just delightful to hear stories like his during Conference time. What stories will we be basking in this weekend?