2013 General Relief Society Broadcast

I just finished watching the General Relief Society broadcast, and really enjoyed the getting to know our wonderful General Presidency, through listing to them speak.  Wonderful, wonderful messages!I loved it, and especially closing with our beloved Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson.  I was excited that the very last person the camera focused on while the choir sang, More Holiness Give Me, was a darling woman in my very own ward, Sister Edy Howe.  She and her husband have just completed their Service at the MTC, as her husband was just called to be our new Stake Patriarch. 

What a wonderful story President Monson shared with us, about the sister and the loaf of bread.  I don't want to spoil the story for any of you, so go back to the broadcast and listen to it for yourself.  President Monson has more real life stories to share, than any Prophet I have heard.  He is amazing.  This story reminded me of the fact that the Lord works through us, many times, in answering the prayers of others.  We should all pray to be instruments in His hands, to bless the lives of those who need the Lord and who need us.  Visiting Teaching gives each of us an opportunity to be the one who is on the Lords errand.

Sisters, as you look around your own wards, look and find those who need you, even if they are not assigned to you to teach.  They may not even be active, or maybe not even a member of the church.  You can do something great, by following the promptings you are given to be the giver of bread, like in the story of President Monson gave tonight. 

I like the significance of bread in this story and in the scriptures, because it reminds me that I am a disciple of Jesus Christ and as such need to share my loaves with others.  Remember the story of the loaves and the fishes... Jesus took the loaves, and fishes and gave it to the people.  In John 6: 35, it reads, 'And Jesus said unto them, I am the bead of life:  he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.  Jesus is the bread of life! Now go and watch the video over again or for the first time, and enjoy a beautiful meeting.

LDS 2013 General Conference

General Conference is coming up again and once again I personally am getting excited to listen to the messages that our Prophet, General Authorities, and Church leaders have to share with us.  I don't know if I just love Conference time, but I am getting warm fuzzies already, just thinking about it.  Most years, watching General Conference has meant that my husband and I gather our children around and do our best to try to keep the kids busy, so we can maybe get a word or two that the Church leaders are sharing.  The kids married and then some of them came back to watch General Conference with us, and then there were grandkids, who came too.  I can't think of a more wonderful thing to do together as a family, but I do think we need to consider that if our children, who have little attention spans are not kept busy and engaged with conference activities, nobody gets anything out of watching conference.  Gratefully the Ensign comes out the next month with the talks, and we can enjoy them to their fullest then.

So... keeping this in mind, I wanted to share some sites where you can go for printables to keep your children busily engaged in Conference with activities, and more. 

 LDS.org has some cute ideas for children.  Here is the link to the page and an example of some of the ideas follow.  http://www.lds.org/general-conference/children?lang=eng

This site has a darling and colorful journal to copy for each child with activities in it. 
General Conference Activity for Kids http://lds.about.com/od/familyhomeeveninggames/a/fheg_bingo.htm  Here is a page of the printable as an examplel:

Conference Bingo http://lds.about.com/od/familyhomeeveninggames/a/fheg_bingo.htm

Preparing our Children for General Conference, Mar. 2009  http://www.lds.org/ensign/2009/03/preparing-our-children-for-general-conference?lang=eng

Enjoy!!!