General Conference Ideas for Kids

   I had an idea last April to try to help my kids stay tuned in to our church's General Conference that is held every April and October.  Here we get to listen to all of our church's leaders as a congregation throughout the world.  It is actually pretty cool as an adult, but it is hard to pay attention as a kid.  I know because I was there as a kid myself.  It was really hard to listen to them even though they were telling us all kinds of important information.  They always have good stories that help bring the concepts home, but if you can't concentrate long enough to hear the story, it doesn't do much good, right?
   I have tried using the activity sheets that can usually be found around April and October that basically have this same concept, however, they don't really hold my children's attention for long.  They might listen to 1 talk or 2 and then they are done.  That makes it difficult for the parents to be able to listen to much more either.  Anyhow, I tried my idea this time and it worked AWESOME!!!  They stayed in the living room with me the entire conference and were actually paying attention.  For those who do not know what this is, it is 4 segments, 2 hours each, in which our highest leaders talk to all of the members of our church.  It is held on one Saturday (2 sessions) and Sunday (2 sessions).  We were only able to watch the Sunday sessions because of games and stuff, but that is still 4 hours of attention from a 9 and 6 year old!
  So, all that I did was have the kids go shopping with me to pick out 7 treats.  We got things like M&M's, Jelly beans, Smarties, Jolly Ranchers, Rolo's, Skittles, and Gummy Bears.  The important thing was to get things they enjoy, or it kind of defeats the purpose.  Once at home, we picked out 7 jars to put the candies in, and picked 7 words we thought the speakers would use frequently during the conference.  I gave some suggestions, but the kids came up with most of them.  I will list the ones we used and a few other suggestions to choose from that I actually did hear a lot this time.

Prophet
Holy Ghost
Temples
Jesus Christ
Heavenly Father
Joseph Smith
Prayer
Testimony
Rejoice
Eternal
Mission (Missionary)
Tithing
Priesthood
Pioneer
Baptism
Sacrament
Faith
Savior
The Lord

   What you do is have the kids pick out a candy from the jar whenever they hear that particular word.  For the littler things like Skittles and Jelly Beans, I let them choose 2 or 3, but everything else, just 1.  I would also suggest having the smaller candies for the words you think they will use the very most.  They will get less of a sugar rush but to them, it will still feel like a lot because the get to choose 2 or 3!  It worked out great.  They got to a point they were tired of candy so they each went in the kitchen and got a sandwich bag and started putting the candy in there to save for later, but they didn't stop listening to the talks.  I was really happy and really impressed with how well it worked!  Hope it will work well for your family too!

Here is what ours looked like!

~Stacy~

Christmas Devotional

The First Presidency Christmas devotional is really one of my absolute favorite things about Christmas. It truly starts Christmas out on the right track for me and just makes me so happy. This was was another great year...like always. If you missed it you can watch it here. The orchestra and choir preformed What Child is This, and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! I absolutely loved it! I always love a good Christmas song. And a great part about this video is a girl from where we grew up is one of the violinist that is shown playing, so that was fun to see her. 

--Michelle--

What Heaven Sees In You

This last month in Young Womens the lessons have been on Virtue, and the girls learning what their worth is. To end it all a lady in our ward with an amazing voice came in a preformed this song for us. It had touched all of the girls...so much that not one of them had a dry eye when it was over. So I thought I would share it today because I love it! I think it's beautiful!


What Heaven Sees in You

Sent to this Earth

You were saved through the ages for this day and time.
Child of great worth
Child of promise, daughter of the Divine
Pure and holy in a little white dress
You were held in a cicrle and you were blessed
And the Father looked down
And the angels surrounded that place
They knew the truth, all that you could do
And you will too
If you have eyes to see what Heaven sees in you.

Dressed in white once more
Making promises to follow in God's way
So much lies in store
For the little girl who enters at the gate
Pure and holy in a little white dress.
You were led into the water and you were blessed.
And the Father looked down
And the angels surrounded that place
They knew the truth, all that you could do
And you will too
If you have eyes to see what Heaven sees in you.

Do you understand who you are
Part of the Father lives in you
And if you continue on this path
Every promise God has given will come true

Heaven on Earth in the house of God
So much fills your heart and mind
Woman of great worth
Woman of promise daughter of the Divine
Pure and holy in a long white dress
You promise forever and you are blessed
And the Father looks down
And the angels surround this place
They know the truth all that you can do
And you do too
Cause you have eyes to see what Heaven sees in you

Will you have eyes to see
What Heaven sees in you.

--Michelle--

"Judge Not"

I had a eye opening experience a while back. It's funny my whole life I've been taught not to judge others...and yet I find myself succumbing to that a lot...sadly to admit. The blog that I LOVE, Maskcara, wrote a great post on it here, I think she puts it perfectly that women are amazing! The reason we can be a little mean or in this instance -judge- is because the ugly green monster comes out and we are a little jealous of what other have or what they do...so we tend to pick at people's faults, I guess you could say, or at least try to find some because it'll make us feel better about ourselves.  There are a few quotes that have stuck out to me lately as I've been thinking about all this:

For a while there I would compare myself with a certain someone. I would just think how easy life is for them! It seemed like EVERYTHING was handed to them on a silver patter, good looks, cute clothes, nice car, amazing house.... I would a lot of times feel bad for myself for silly reasons, like "we work so hard and try so hard, why can't we have that...or do things like." And then I found out the "behind the scenes" and realized I am extremely blessed! I couldn't believe what this person has gone through, and it made me feel like the worst person in the whole world to ever think a negative thought towards this person. At the snap of the fingers I was extremely happy for them...for what they have and what they get to do. It has made me feel even more blessed for the things I have, an extremely loving husband who works hard to support us, a healthy little girl, roof over our head, food, clothes, a loving family that I am so close with, good friends...and the list goes on. It has certainly been an eye opener for me, and I hope to be better...and more kind.

The day after I had this realization I found this talk by President Monson that is just amazing so I thought I'd share it with you. This part of the talk was just what I needed to hear. (I included the rest of the talk also, if you wanted to hear it.)

"None of us is perfect. I know of no one who would profess to be so. And yet for some reason, despite our own imperfections, we have a tendency to point out those of others. We make judgments concerning their actions or inactions.

There is 

really no way we can know the heart, the intentions, or the circumstances of someone who might say or do something we find reason to criticize. Thus the commandment: "Judge not."

I consider charity—or "the pure love of Christ"—to be the opposite of criticism and judging. In speaking of charity, I do not at this moment have in mind the relief of the suffering through the giving of our substance. That, of course, is necessary and proper. Tonight, however, I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient."

--Michelle--