General Conference Preparation #3


When I was younger, my parents could not afford to buy our family a television. They scrimped and saved for six months and rented a TV for a weekend twice a year, so we could watch General Conference. The anticipation for those weekends was almost like Christmas. I loved conference weekends: the anticipation and magic of the television, the love I felt, which I now also realize was the abundance of the Spirit, and we always closed the weekend with root beer floats.

"Traditions cement families together and give them the strength to handle whatever comes their way." (Mormon.org) Traditions unify and create a sense of belonging. They create memories and provide learning opportunities. Traditions also create security in an ever-changing world.
The Spirit helped me understand traditions were an important ingredient in creating a family-building and bonding weekend each spring and fall as we gathered to participate in General Conference. Some traditions are passed down from generation to generation, such as my family's root beer float tradition. Sometimes traditions change a little as circumstances change. For instance when our kids were small, and we were living on the west coast, we had the tradition of always going for a walk Sunday evening after conference ended. Sometimes the walks were in our neighborhood and other times we went to a park or on a trail. Fast forward many years and many moves and we now live on the East Coast. These walks now happen on our quiet Sunday mornings before General Conference begins.
I love hearing others traditions. There are times when the Spirit whispers that it is time to begin a new tradition to help strengthen our family. Usually it is one of the traditions someone has shared with me that the Spirit will bring back to my thoughts. It becomes the starting point of a new tradition that He guides us to molding and shaping into our own tradition.
A few years ago The Red Headed Hostess compiled a list of General Conference traditions she had gathered that can be found here: https://www.theredheadedhostess.com/.../monday-question.../
In the spirit of sharing, what are some of your family's favorite General Conference traditions?

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