October General Conference 2018

I was going to post this sooner, but my family surprised me and came up to visit. So... posting this kind of got delayed, but it was so worth it! Haha! Now, on to conference...

A few weekends ago, the church I go to (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) had general conference and it was great! For the past few conferences, we've been multitasking and doing small, easy jobs around the house while having conference blasting from the radio or TV. This time around, the main thing I did was try to scrub crayon and unidentifiable smears off the kitchen walls while John painted the ceiling in a few spots that needed touch ups. Sounds random, but I actually feel like I listened so much better during that session. Another tip to actually getting to hear conference when you have kids is to drive while it's on. Yep. Our kids stay quiet and I can actually hear the entire first hour of a session while driving to my in-laws. It's like magic.

Something that stood out to me this year was how much ministering was talked about. It makes sense since "visiting teaching" was just changed to "ministering" 6 months ago, but I was so glad they talked more about it. By the end of conference weekend, I was finally feeling like I had a better idea of what to do for my specific sisters when my ministering assignment got completely changed... so, I guess I get to start over. Haha!

Along with the wonderful talks that were given, there were 2 things that were announced that were very exciting! First off, my hometown is getting a temple! I was outside bringing David and Brooke in off the trampoline when the new temples were announced and I didn't believe John or my in-laws when they yelled out the door that Yuba City was getting one... I just shook my head and then sat in shock for a minute once I realized they weren't just messing with me. If the rest of my family didn't confirm it, I would still think they were joking... Mostly because the Sacramento temple is only an hour away.

This picture of the Sacramento Temple was taken by my Dad!

With that exciting news, the big change this time around was that the traditional 3 hour church was changed to 2 hours! ...Okay, I'll admit that I heard this rumor a few months before conference (coming from a friend of a friend of a friend who was testing it out in their ward) and I thought it was completely fake. It seemed like in a world that's constantly getting more and more crazy, we would need more church if anything! However, once they were explaining the change, it made a lot more sense than how the rumors made it sound. In my mind, it's basically still a 3 hour church day, but the third hour is at home as a family. This is probably going to be a little tough with our kids at first, but in the end, I'm pretty excited for the change! And I'm glad it's all coming when our children are young enough that's it'll just feel normal as they're growing up. I'm thinking this new "family church hour" will help our family become closer and will also make gospel discussions feel more natural and easy in our home. And if anything else, at least it should get rid of the awkward hours for church. I felt like with the old schedule, church always ran into either my kids' nap time or lunch time... both made for a pretty stressful sacrament meeting half the time...

One last thing I wanted to mention about conference...

There were four challenges from the Prophet during the women's conference:

1. 10 Day social media and negative media fast.

2. Read and study the Book of Mormon before the year ends (basically an 80 day challenge).

3. Establish a pattern of regular temple attendance.

4. Participate fully in Relief Society. Read and study the Relief Society purpose statement.

I'm excited to see how the new church schedule will go and to try out the Prophet's challenges. I'm so grateful that we have a Prophet on the Earth today and that we can receive a personal witness for ourselves about the church and the Book of Mormon.