General Conference - Favorite Memories of Favorite Weekends

Twice a year we have the privilege of hearing from our Prophet, Apostles, and other leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at General Conference.  This opportunity came last weekend, and it was wonderful!  And since this was the last time we would experience General Conference with one of our children in the house, it brought back a lot of memories. 

There are several sessions of General Conference.  On Saturday, there are sessions from 10:00-12:00, 2:00-4:00, and a Priesthood session from 6:00-8:00.  Then on Sunday, we again have sessions from 10:00-12:00 and 2:00-4:00.  When you kids were little, getting through even one session seemed to take monumental effort! 

This is a picture we took on October 4, 1998.  It’s a picture of Josh, Jayna, and Dallin running around the back yard in between sessions to get the wiggles out!  I don't know why Michelle is not in this picture--she is probably running laps around the entire house!  Look how small our backyard trees were—not to mention Josh’s shorts!  

April 2003

Here we are 4 ½ years later.  Do you remember when we couldn’t get Conference on our TV, so we listened to it on the Internet in our office?  Needless to say, we were a little cramped!

Regardless, our General Conference treats were always yummy!  Knowing how long two hours can seem to a young child, and in an effort to help you kids look forward to General Conference, we started establishing some family traditions—most of which had to do with yummy food!  Some of our consistent favorites were pumpkin chocolate chip bread and gorp.  But do you also remember when we delivered homemade “General Conference Cookies” in between sessions to friends?  And how about General Conference Bingo?

Dallin with pumpkin chocolate chip bread.

Our hope was that while you were young, you would look forward to General Conference because of the fun traditions and memories surrounding it—and that your love for Conference would change and develop over the years into a desire to sit and learn at the feet of Apostles and Prophets.

October 2007

Here's Josh with his friend, Justin Mattice.  Do you think they are closing their eyes so they can better ponder the messages of the speakers???  (Note the General Conference Bingo game behind Justin's left arm.)

October 2010

We used to have a big lunch in between sessions on Sunday.

At some point that changed to a big breakfast Sunday morning.

One of the funnier Conference traditions has to do with the boys and the Priesthood session on Saturday evening.  Instead of watching this session at home, they would go to the Church to watch it.  But they would strategically choose their seats—because they prided themselves on being the first ones out of the Church parking lot when the session was over.  Then they would always go to Sonic and bring their food home to eat while watching sports—in April, it’s usually the Final Four game of the NCAA Tournament. 

Here are Dad, Josh, and Dallin after another successful evening being the first out of the parking lot.

With Dallin going on his mission in August, this might be our last General Conference with a child at home.

Here are Dad and Dallin after the Priesthood session, again being the first ones out of the parking lot.

And here was our Sunday morning breakfast.  I made french toast with Kneader's cinnamon bread.  Yum!

Dad and I were talking about past General Conference memories this weekend.  We were a little sad.  But then Dad said, "We'll have to start some of our own General Conference traditions as a couple."  And that sounds wonderful!

Kids, it will be fun to see, as you marry and combine the best ideas from both of your families, what kind of General Conference traditions your family will develop and enjoy on General Conference weekend.  It was so fun to see little Afton’s “General Conference Apostle Bags” and know that her parents are teaching her, even at the age of 2, to appreciate and be engaged in General Conference.

For anyone else who might be reading this blog, just know that I love General Conference!  And if you are interested in seeing what it's all about, you can go to this link:  

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/04?cid=HPSU040614654&lang=eng

And if you simply want to watch one of my favorite talks given this past weekend, Gratitude in Any Circumstances,  by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf', a member of our First Presidency, here you go:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/grateful-in-any-circumstances?lang=eng

The "X" Date

The dictionary defines a date as “a particular month, day, and year at which some event happened or will happen.”   But my favorite definition of a date is “spending time with my best friend.”  Sappy, I know.  But it’s true. 

Dad and I have tried to consistently go on weekly dates together.  When you kids were younger, many times it simply consisted of making dinner and watching a movie after putting all of you in bed.  But lately, thanks to an idea from Ty and Michelle, we have been alphabet dating.  We take turns being in charge and plan a date around a letter of the alphabet.  It has been REALLY fun!  It has helped us break away from the typical stuff and do things we might not have normally done.  We are all the way up to the letter X.  This time, Dad was in charge.

We started out by having having dinner at Extreme Pizza.

Notice the "X" in the middle of their logo.  :)

Dad had not included ice cream in his plan.  But there was a Cold Stone right by Extreme Pizza.  I said, "Ice cream sounds really good."  So to justify our purchase, we said we were going to buy an "extremely" cold dessert.  So we did--and brought it home to enjoy while we did the next part of our date--watch the movie, "The X Files."  I'm not a big fan of creepy alien movies and had to cover my eyes a few times, but it was pretty good.  And how could we not watch it when it fit so perfectly into our X date?! 

 

We have enjoyed alphabet dating so much that we have decided that after we finish our Z date, we will start all over again and switch which letters we plan.

I would encourage my married kids to make a weekly date a priority and pattern throughout their lives.  It pays great dividends—and who doesn’t love ice cream on a Friday night?

Dallin Receives His Mission Call

This was a very exciting week for our family, as Dallin received his mission call.

But before I show you the pictures of him opening his call, I thought it would be fun to show you a picture we took in October 2000.  This picture is in our scrapbook with this caption printed under it:

"Dallin doesn’t exactly enjoy going to church at this time in his life.  This is a picture of him crying because we’re getting ready to go to church!  It’s something that happens almost every week!"

  My how things change.  Knowing Dallin now, this should give a lot of young moms hope!

Dallin holding his unopened mission call.

And here are all our friends that came to be a part of this great occasion!

We also had lots of family joining us on facetime and phones.

 

Opening the envelope.

 

"Dear Elder Page:  You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You are assigned to labor in the Peru Lima North Mission.  It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months.  You should report to the Mexico Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, August 13, 2014.  You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language."

Dallin is so excited!

 

Hugs from Mom and Dad.

 Talking to various family members on various cell phones.

As soon as everyone was gone, Dad and Dallin went immediately

to the computer to find out everything they could about Peru!

Dallin ordered a Peru flag and Peru t-shirt.

Many of you have asked me how mission calls are assigned and if the young men and women going on missions get to choose where they go.  Here is a great video you can watch where a leader of our church explains how these mission calls are made.  The name of the talk is The Divine Call of a Missionary by Elder Ronald A. Rasband.  The talk is 11:44 long.  The entire talk is worth watching.  But if you don't have that much time, start the video at 2:45 and go until 9:45.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGHAGsaE6iE

Because we know that mission calls are assigned through the inspiration and revelation of living Apostles, we are so excited about Dallin's call to serve with the wonderful people of Peru.  We know this is where he is meant to serve and are so grateful for this wonderful opportunity in his life.

A Rather Long Introduction

I have never wanted to write a blog.  The very idea of it feels more like a burden than a joy.  That is because I am not a writer.  It takes me a long time to formulate thoughts and ideas.  For me, it is a painful and often time-consuming process. 

But recently my thoughts have been towards my family—more specifically, how I can keep our growing family connected, and how I can make sure my family knows that I have a deep and abiding faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

So I began tossing around the idea of starting a blog as one way of accomplishing this. . . but I was still hesitant to commit. Then one night, while I was reading the biography of one of our Church leaders, President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I read a story that touched me in such a way that writing a blog no longer seemed like a burden.   

Early in his career, President Eyring was teaching Stanford.  But he left tenure there to become the President of Ricks College.  During the first few years of his service there, his life was incredibly busy.  Besides all the obligations that came with being the president of a college, he was also asked to chair a 20-person Select Committee on the future of higher education in the Church.  He was asked to preside over a “Role of Ricks Task Force” that would involve a self-study and strategy development for Ricks.  He also dealt with standard issues that developed among college students in the late 1960s.   He also dealt with budget cuts at that time that created major organizational upheaval at the college.  He was also asked to be on the board of the Church’s regional hospital in Idaho Falls.  He served diligently as a high councilman in his stake.  And he was constantly receiving invitations to speak.  Most importantly, he was also the father of three young boys—soon to be four.

So what is impressive and amazing to me is that during this stressful and unusually busy time, he felt it was important to develop intimate and sustained contact with the students at Ricks College.  To help accomplish this, he committed to teach a religion class at the college every semester.  President Eyring talks about one of the experiences he had in one of his classes. 

“I was teaching from section 25 of the Doctrine and Covenants.  In that section Emma Smith is told that she should give her time to ‘writing and to learning much’ (verse 8).  About three rows back sat a blonde girl whose brow wrinkled as I urged the class to be diligent in developing writing skills.  She raised her hand and said, ‘That doesn’t seem reasonable to me.  All I’ll ever write are letters to my children.’  That brought laughter all around the class.  I felt chagrined to have applied that scripture to her.  Just looking at her I could imagine a full quiver of children around her, and I could even see the letters she’d write in purple ink, with handwriting slanting backwards; neat, round loops; and circles for the tops of the i’s.  Maybe writing powerfully wouldn’t matter to her.

Then a young man stood up, near the back.  He’d said little during the term; I’m not sure he’d ever spoken before.  He was older than the other students, and he was shy.  He asked if he could speak.  He told in a quiet voice of having been a soldier in Vietnam.  One day, in what he thought would be a lull, he had left his rifle and walked across his fortified compound to mail call.  Just as he got a letter in his hand, he heard a bugle blowing and shouts and mortar and rifle fire coming ahead of the swarming enemy.  He fought his way back to his rifle, using his hands as weapons.  With the men who survived, he drove the enemy out.  The wounded were evacuated.  Then he sat down among the living, and some of the dead, and he opened his letter.  It was from his mother.  She wrote that she’d had a spiritual experience that assured her that he would live to come home if he were righteous.  In my class, the boy said quietly, ‘That letter was scripture to me.  I kept it.’  And he sat down.”  (I Will Lead You Along, The Life of Henry B. Eyring, pp.211-212)

And there you have it.  My motivation to write a blog.  While I would never view my thoughts in writing as scripture, I do want my children to know, without a doubt, the convictions of my heart.  And my desire to accomplish this was deepened after watching General Conference this weekend.  (https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng)

So, my dear, sweet family, this blog is for you.  My desire is not only to document events and include pictures, as we have previously done, but to frequently share my thoughts, feelings, and testimony. 

My first inclination was to keep this blog private.  But I decided a public blog would also be a good way to keep our extended family and friends updated as to the happenings in our family.  And another great desire I have is to share the convictions of my heart with all my dear friends.   

So I have decided to make this blog public and have chosen to title it Glimpses—meaning it will provide you and others with glimpses into our family and my heart.  You can find it at glimpsesfromkathypage.blogspot.com.

I love you all,

Mom and Grandma