Sunday, April 5, 2009

Conference Sunday...


I just love general conference and this man. I know he is a true prophet of God and am so grateful that the Lord has sent someone in these latter days to lead and guide His church. We had a great conference day today. I planned on playing a few 'conference games' with Carter that of course involved candy. The first session I made a picnic lunch that we ate on a spread out blanket on our basement floor to watch it downstairs. Indoor picnics are always fun. Especially with juice boxes when it's not even a school day! After lunch, I put Bryce down for the nap and introduced the games to Carter. We had a list of words that he had to listen for and if he heard them in one of the talks, he got a piece of candy (we had skittles and m&m's in little baggies he could chose from). I had no idea there would be so many talks on temples. With temple being a key word, Carter ate SO much candy! It worked really well, and he was so into it. At one point, he even got up close to the tv so he could listen better. It was awesome b/c Brady and I were then able to listen too! We also had Carter identify the speaker with a list of pictures of the First Presidency and Apostles and members of the 70. When he did, he got to put a penny on it and then once he got five... a piece of candy.

My favorite part of conference, other than being with my family and not going anywhere this Sunday, and having Bryce actually nap instead of being so sleep deprived at church b/c it's at his nap time was Elder Hollands talk about the atonement.
I have always wondered why Christ while dying on the cross feels all alone and even at a point asks, "God, why hast thou forsaken me?" I didn't understand that at all. It was stated so clearly and powerfully today for me. Christ in order to truly feel what we all have felt and will feel in the future, also needed to know what it felt like to be without the comfort and presence of our Father in Heaven. He needed to experience not only physical death for us, but also Spiritual. He lived a perfect life, and always had God with Him until then end when it was necessary for him to experience that awful feeling of being alone. I loved that Elder Holland said that he believed that actually at that time, God the Father was closer to His son, than any other time, but Christ was not able to feel it. Wow. It was so powerful and spoke to my spirit so deeply. I'm so grateful for the holy ghost that I can know things for myself. To have them confirmed to me as truths. What an amazing blessing it is to be a member of Christs church on the earth today. I can't wait to read the Ensign when it comes out in a couple months and catch up on the sessions and talks I missed.
What was your favorite part about conference?

5 comments:

Melissa said...

That was one of my favortie talks too. It was one of those moments that made everything makes sense. Thank you for sharing that! And how fun for your son to be able to listen for key words! That is a great idea!

Brady said...

I too was surprised at how well he did with Conference today. I think I even listened a little better too just so I could regulate Carter's candy intake by shouting out the word before he did, thus depriving him of the candy for that word. This was better than Halloween. You know he will remember this from now on. Conference = Candy. What a fun/smart mother you are to do such games.

Emily Petty said...

That was a good game and I loved that talk too! I can't enjoy conference as much here though because of the time delay. The "morning" session is 6-8 pm and the "afternoon) from 10pm - 12 am!

Andrea said...

I too loved Elder Hollands talk. It was amazing. I also loved the brother that spoke on the Holy Ghost and likening him to a GPS. All the talks were wonderful. It was a great weekend.

Mandee said...

Elder Holland's talk was my favorite as well. I just kept thinking how could ANYONE listen to that and not believe we are Christians.