Great Weekend

This weekend was General Conference for my church: 4 satellite-broadcast sessions of counsel and laughter and goodness from our church leaders.  I so enjoyed it this fall!

Dare I admit the following things?  Of course I do....  This is the first conference in years quite some time that I have heard all 4 of the general sessions of conference.  We didn't over-schedule anything too badly, and were able to catch up from what was somewhat unavoidable (Caleb's flag football game).  And--bonus!--I didn't fall asleep during the afternoon sessions either.  It's not that they are boring...it's that I have 6 kids and weekend afternoons are for napping, especially nice weekends like this one.

Anyhoo, we successfully made it through conference.  Sometimes it can be hard on the kids, who generally think it's long and boring.  However, I'm pretty sure they were listening part of the time, though definitely not when we were listening to Elder Andersen speak about how we believe in children and families while I was secretly wishing to locate the duct tape so I didn't have to hear one more fight....

This year, I spent some time preparing myself for conference.  That means I prayed and studied, and hoped to find some answers to the things I've been pondering over the last few months.  The Lord does not disappoint.  I listened to His servants as they directly answered some of my prayers.  I'm sure they didn't think, "I'm going to answer Tracy's prayer with this paragraph," but I am certain they heeded the Lord's suggestions and incorporated into their talks the words and feelings the Holy Ghost needed to communicate to me.  In so doing, these great brothers and sisters were able to help me figure out some of the things I need to do with myself, my family, and my home in the next several months.

That's some exciting stuff!

If you would like to watch some of the addresses from conference (or in about a week, read them), click here.  If you check out only one or two talks, here's what you should read (they were my faves): Ian S. Ardern's address from Saturday afternoon, and President Thomas S. Monson's address from Sunday morning.