General Conference Weekend

General Conference was this past weekend.  Mike, Connor & I were lucky enough to be able to attend a session in person this time around.  A few weeks before conference, the church's Public Relations Manager contacted me on Facebook to see if I wanted any tickets.  Is it *that* obvious on TV that I'm LDS?!?  Apparently so.  Okay, yes, I think it's probably blatantly obvious.  Anyway, so he contacted me to see if I'd be interested in tickets to any of the sessions.  I jumped on the chance & told him that the Saturday morning session would probably be the easiest for us to find a sitter for our kids that were too young to attend.  He said he'd send me three tickets & a few days later, they showed up in my mailbox.  I was so excited to go & even more excited for Connor to experience General Conference in person.  That Saturday morning, Kristin came over to our house to watch the littles, and Mike & Connor drove up to Salt Lake to meet me at my station after my show was over.  From there, took Trax up a whole whoppin' three blocks to Temple Square.  What?!?  It was cold outside...plus, I had heels on...and, okay fine, we're just plain lazy.  We wouldn't have made very good pioneers.  Here we are about to enter the Conference Center...

Holy cow!  We had great seats!  We were front & center.  And, what an amazing session to attend.  Little did I know when I picked the Saturday morning session that I would be attending an historic session!  During the Saturday morning session, President Monson announced a big change in the missionary program. He told the members of the church that the decision had been made to lower the age at which missionaries can serve. Young men can now leave on their missions at age 18, as long as they are graduated from high school. And young women can now leave at age 19.  I think every person in that Conference Center had to pick their jaws up off the floor!  For the next 3+ minutes, the Conference Center was so loud!  Everyone was talking to their neighbor about the change.  They were whispering, but when you get 21,000+ people whispering it's actually surprisingly loud.  Mike & I were part of this whispering frenzy, explaining to Connor that this meant he could leave for his mission a little sooner if he wanted.  Then, Mike & I were whispering to each other about what it meant for our other boys.  We came to the conclusion that it won't affect any of our boys much because they are all the oldest in their classes (including Cohen now that we've decided to hold him back a year), so it would only move their missions up by a few months.  Then we started talking about Vivvie.  This could really affect her.  If she decides to go on a mission, she'll be able to leave two years earlier than planned.

As I sat there, trying to listen to the speakers, I kept thinking about the implications of this decision.  And, the more I thought about it, the more excited I got.  It just makes sense to move the mission age up to 18/19.  That way, the kids aren't wasting a year at college (because--in my experience with 18-year-old boys--that year really *is* a waste), then taking a two-year break, and then coming back to focus on college again.  It makes so much sense to just send them out after high school & then let them come back to focus solely on school & careers when they get back at the age of 20.

Then, I started thinking about the girls.  I bet the number of sister missionaries will double--if not triple--because of this decision.  Now that girls can leave at 19-years-old & get home at 20 1/2-years-old, I bet many more will consider it.  I think I would have considered a mission seriously if I had been able to go at 19.  So now, the budget-freak inside me feels really strongly that I need to set up a mission fund for Viv--something I hadn't given much thought to before last Saturday.  I really feel like she needs to have a mission fund just as much as her brothers need one.  Crazy!

In addition to the big announcement, the messages during that session were just what I needed to hear as well.  I especially liked Pres. Uchtdorf's talk about living with no regrets.  It was awesome.  As we sat there & listened, Connor drew pictures of President Monson & President Uchtdorf & wrote them letters as well about how much he enjoyed being at conference & hearing the announcement about the missionary age.  Connor is insisting we mail the letters & pictures to both of them.

I think it goes without saying that it was such a great experience to be in the Conference Center.  It was also awesome for Connor to be able to have that experience at such a young age.  Hopefully, it will help him to realize the importance of General Conference.  A huge "thank you" goes out to Tata for watching the little kids so that we could go.

On Sunday, we got back to our normal General Conference traditions.  We headed down to my parents' house to watch conference together as a family & eat these heavenly things...

I won't go over all our traditions because if you've read my blog for longer than six months, you've heard it all before.  But, just know that I love being able to hang out with my family on General Conference weekend.  Plus, eating some dang good waffles never hurt anyone either.  We always have a blast!

It was a great conference.  I loved all the messages & it was so awesome to be able to attend a session in the Conference Center.  It's a conference I won't soon forget, that's for sure.  --Lindsay