Preparing for General Conference

General Conference is coming up!

General Conference is my favourite time of year. We get the chance twice a year to hear from Prophets and Apostles of our Heavenly Father. But the thing is, we only get this chance twice a year. General Conference only comes around every 6 months. We need to make the most of it when it is here!

But how can we make the most of it? What do we as members of the church, or investigators, need to do in order to be prepared for this amazing conference?

I was fortunate enough this past week to get to teach a relief society lesson on preparing for general conference and making it a meaningful experience. Honestly, I am so glad that I got to teach this lesson. I learned so much about preparing for general conference. I got to talk about things that I had never talked about before.

There are so many things to think about when preparing for general conference. I found a great article on the LDS youth website called "Getting the Most out of General Conference". This article really got me thinking. It talked about different things that we can do before, during, and after conference in order to make it meaningful. It helped me realize that preparing for conference really is a process. It requires attention before, during, and after.

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General conference involves quite a bit of preparation before hand. One of the things that I hear most often is to prepare a question to bring to conference. This is extremely important. General conference is made for us, and the Lord has so many things for us to hear. But we need to have an understanding of what we want to know. Our Heavenly Father is prepared to answer our questions, but sometimes we just need to ask. When preparing before hand, we can also fast and go to the temple. These are things that we can do that will help us to be more in tune with the spirit. There are some temporal things that we can do to prepare that will allow us to be more in tune with spiritual promptings during conference. In my relief society class, we came up with a list of things that we can do in order to be more prepared. We came up with things like getting enough sleep the night before, making sure that we have all of our note taking materials ready to go, and having things prepared for the weekend. We don't want a whole lot of distractions while we are trying to listen to the wonderful messages being shared.

There things that we can do during the conference as well. The main thing? LISTEN!! We need to listen intently as the prophets and apostles are speaking to us and sharing the messages of the lord. They have worked so hard preparing for this, so we should be listening. If that means having doodle pages ready or having to take a Pinterest break every once in a while... do it. I found a couple of great focus grabbing activities that allow you to write notes while colouring or doodling. Let me tell you, I will be downloading them. You should also look your best while attending conference. Even if you are watching at home, you should be dressed for it. Take the time to show the Lord the appreciation he deserves. Sunday Best is the way to go!

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After General Conference is over, take the time to be sad, because we won't get this again for another 6 months. Once you have gotten it out of your system, take the time to review your notes and set personal goals for yourself. Also, show extreme gratitude for conference. Thank the Lord for the messages he has prepared. Thank the general authorities as well. Send them a letter. They really appreciate it. I read in an article that the words spoken at conference are like our compass for the next few months. Continuously go back after conference and re-read and re-watch the talks that were given. You will learn something new every time that you do.

It may feel like a lot of work to prepare for general conference, but I can promise you this... it's worth it. General Conference is the time when we can hear messages from the lord that are meant for us! We can learn so much during those two days, but only if we are open to it, and only if we properly prepare.

Come listen to a prophets voice! Tune in on Saturday October 1st and Sunday October 2nd at 10:00am MST. The sessions are being broadcast at any chapel and on lds.org. It is also being live streamed on youtube.

I hope you all enjoy conference this year!! Let me know what you think!

- Liz