Wednesday, April 1, 2015

3 Things I Love About General Conference

Twice a year, people in my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) get all excited about this thing called General Conference.
3 Things I Love About General Conference -- why would anyone want to sit still and listen to 8 hours of spiritual talks over the course of a weekend? I'll give you 3 reasons.  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}
Broadcast from this building in Utah, USA.
photo by Edgar Zuniga, Jr
Basically, we spend two days in front of a TV or computer screen watching a cumulative total of 8 hours of spiritual talks by leaders of our church. 

What's that, you say? It sounds terribly boring? Well, here are 3 reasons why I love General Conference:

1. Feels like a free day.


Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints don't really just "go" to church on an average Sunday. We run it.

Almost all of us arrive ready to speak in church, teach a Sunday School lesson, or attend various meetings relating to our church jobs. When I was the president of the children's organization, I'd show up on Sunday with a list of a dozen people I needed to talk to.

It's nice to have 2 times a year when, no matter what our responsibility at church, our only "job" on Sunday is to sit back and be spiritually fed. That, and keep our kids from destroying the house.

2. No church shoes!


I don't really mind dressing up for church every Sunday out of respect for the sacredness of the day, but truthfully, I'm a jeans and tennis shoe girl at heart. I don't spend General Conference weekend looking like a slovenly pig or anything, but... I sort of do.

At least stuffy church shoes are optional.

3. Spiritual recalibration.


Usually, I never stop moving. There's always so much to do I have a hard time sitting for a full meal these days. General Conference causes me to Just. Sit. Still. And as I listen, it re-centers me. I'm reminded of what's important and what my real priorities are.

Latter-day Saints believe that the leaders of our church are prophets in a literal sense of the word  yup, like Moses and Abraham and all those guys  so hearing from them is kind of a big deal. I always come away from General Conference feeling encouraged and full of ideas on how to do life better.



You don't have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to tune in and you can watch as much or as little as you want at LDS.org. If you want to know what we talk about, some of my favorite quotes from the last General Conference are here.

So if you need me this weekend, I'll be camped out on the couch. Probably with my hair unbrushed. And it's going to be awesome.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do your children sit for all these hours and watch the computer as well? Can you watch it on TV? What happens if you don't watch this conference?

Jenny Evans said...

They do, for the most part! (Of course there are fights about who is breathing on who and some general fidgity-ness.) We have coloring pages and activities and snacks, and we encourage the older ones to listen for the main idea of most talks and write it on a Post-it note to stick on the wall.

If we didn't watch, we'd just miss hearing it. No secret Mormon police to catch us not watching, sorry. Although we could always read through the archives after the fact if we did miss it.

Unknown said...

I can see what you mean By "free day". Some days I'd like to be able to sit still that long lol but especially if it was to take in a bit of spiritual enlightenment. Glad you enjoyed your day ♡

Anonymous said...

My favorite part is that you can eat during the meetings!

Jenny Evans said...

Yeah, you can only get away with that on a regular Sunday if it's Cheerios and you're still in a Pull-up.