General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Hey this is Jason.  So we spent the weekend with Ashley's parents and sister.  It was a great weekend.  They came down to watch the Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with us and, unfortunately, I was gone for much of it as I had tech rehearsal for the musical I am in.  If you know much about musicals/plays then you know this is an extremely long day where you work through all of the audio and light cues in the show.  We ran through every scene and worked with the crew to help them understand when the music needs to kick in for each song and where we will each enter and where we move to on the stage for proper lighting.  This is a lot of work.  I'm on the stage about 60% of the time and it is really hot working under the bright lights.  It's crazy how tired and sore you can get when you are lugging around a huge backpack the entire time  while trying to be hunched over.  Oh, and I learned how to tap for this part as well. It's seriously been a lot of work but has been so much fun and very rewarding.  Tech rehearsal made for a long and fun day, but I would've liked to have spent more time with the family.

The kids had a blast rough-housing with Grandpa and Aunt A and loved cuddling with Grandma.  They are never disappointed until they leave.  It's pretty much a guarantee. :)  We had some fun after conference sessions playing games and watching Les Mis.  It was great. 



Also, I'm getting SUPER excited about the musical.  We're doing dress rehearsals this week and then the show starts....  Crazy!  So excited.  Life is going by so fast and is so full at the moment.  It's busy but wonderful.

Conference was great or at least the parts I got to listen to were. I think my two favorite talks were Elder Oaks "Keys and authority of the Priesthood", and Randall Ridd's "The Choice Generation". I pretty much always love Elder Oaks' talks.  I love the beauty of speaking incredibly directly.  Brother Ridd's talk was oriented towards technology and I loved the way he addressed it.  And we really are a generation of choices right now.  My favorite quote was “Owning a smart phone does not make you smart, but using it wisely can."  Great quote.  And my favorite story was President Uchtdorf's story about being on Airforce One and sitting in the pilots chair and how when he started to touch the controls President Monson came in and said something like, "Don't your dare."  :)  That's great.
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Okay, now this is Ashley. :) We're passing the computer back and forth. Lol!

It was fun to have some of my family here for conference! It's become tradition for them to come to our house, and it makes the weekend seem really special. At one point, we had put the kids down to sleep when we realized my fam hadn't seen the massive box fort in the spare bedroom, so we went to check it out. Seth got out of bed because we forgot to give him his "little lovey", which is a little blanket he's slept with since he was a baby.

He realized that Aunt A had actually climbed INTO his fort, so he got to play for a minute too. They had a blast together!

We watched the movie musical of Les Mis because Aunt A hadn't seen it before. The music has been stuck in my head since Monday when Jason and I went on our date and saw it in the theater. This sounds like it would be annoying, but it totally isn't since the music is so good! Besides watching Les Mis, we also played Resistance and Gunrunners. Good games! I feel bad that we didn't get a picture of all of us together. We simply didn't remember amidst all the fun.

So, on to conference! :D It was amazing, as always. This time, we made a train. We had a Saturday train and a Sunday train. Each time a member of the First Presidency of the church or the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke, Seth traced their name while Kai colored the tie on the train to match the tie worn by the speaker.

There are two ties in this picture because we saw the prophet both days. All the words on there are the words that the boys heard the prophet say, and they shouted them out so I could write them down. It was interesting to see what words the boys picked up on.

I also made a set of Prophet and Apostle Match Game cards. It's like the game of memory, only with the leaders of the church. Kai loved it, and he came up with a couple of other games that he played with these cards. I was so glad that he loved them! They were kind of hard work. Lol!

It's hard to say which talk was my favorite. They were all so good. Bishop Stevenson's talk was really good, and I liked Elder Hallstrom's talk during the priesthood session. (I listened from the kitchen while I was helping the kids finish their dinner. It was odd, because it's the first time I've heard the priesthood session, instead of just reading it.) One statement I thought really applied to everyone was this:

“That statement stunned me that night and has haunted me ever since,” Elder Hallstrom reflected. “Once this man decided — once any of us conclude — ‘That’s just the way I am,’ we give up our ability to change. We might as well raise the white flag, put down our weapons, concede the battle and just surrender — any prospect of winning is lost. While some of us may think that does not describe ourselves, perhaps every one of us demonstrates by at least one or two bad habits, ‘That’s just the way I am.’”

(I copied and pasted this from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865600324/Elder-Donald-L-Hallstrom-What-manner-of-men.html because this statement really stuck with me.) I also loved watching a woman, Sister Reeves, talk about pornography. Everyone needs to be aware of the terrible consequences involved with pornography, not just men. My favorite statement was from Thomas Monson. He said, "Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals." My favorite line of conference possibly. Though I also LOVED this by Henry Eyring: "If the blessings were immediate, choosing the right would not build faith." I could go on. It's always such a treat to know we have counsel and help, that our Father hasn't left us without a lifeline here in this crazy life. I'm so grateful for the prophet and apostles and for their sacrifices to be there for everyone else.