A confernce unlike any other

Last October President Nelson told us that General Conference in April would be unlike any other and we would celebrate the 200th anniversary of the First Vision.  We all wondered what he meant.  I heard different rumors that made me think there might not even be the traditional talks.  We usually don't make the kids watch all of the sessions, but we did this time.  I didn't want them to miss anything.  They were not thrilled about watching 10 hours of conference in two days.  Hopefully they felt the Spirit and learned something.  Kyle came over on Saturday and watched the first two sessions with us.

Jackson loves Kyle! We were all thrilled to have Kyle over.  We are all missing seeing family right now. Kyle is so much fun to have around, we love having him live so close.

The kids moved around to different seats. Jonah was in the tent chair and he was so loud!  He sure is cute though.  Jonah and I worked on a puzzle during conference.

Hallee joined Jonah in there and they sure laughed a lot.

After that Wyatt wanted to join in.  We finally had to tell them that only one person could be in at a time because they were too loud.

Hallee loved having Jackson in there with her.

Conference definitely was different.  They broadcasted it from the tabernacle and only the speakers and the first presidency was there.  It was so strange to see them sitting in their chairs six feet apart.  I bet it was so hard for them not to shake hands and hug. The Tabernacle choir wasn't there, they just played their songs from past conferences.  Each session had talks like we normally do.  They were all really good.  I think we were all in desperate need of a spiritual boost during this crazy time.  It's always hard for me to soak everything in, I have to listen to the talks a few times to really soak everything in.  President Nelson led us in a Hosana Shout on Sunday morning.  He announced that we were going to do it on Saturday so we had time to prepare.  I was grateful for all of the people that shared on social media about why it was so significant that we were doing that on Palm Sunday.  It was very special and spiritual.  President Nelson told us to prepare for conference by studying the restoration and contemplating how our life would be different without the knowledge of the First Vision and the Book of Mormon.  I really wanted to prepare and have a special experience so I have been reading a lot of books and watching some videos and movies.  One of the best books I read was by Stephen Covey and he talked about the 6 events of the restoration and how the order of them are significant and a pattern for our own conversion and our own individual restoration.   I'm so grateful that there are so many resources and information out there.  I love learning from gospel scholars.  I learn so many things that are so helpful and that I would never connect on my own.  There were two teenagers (both from Provo) who spoke during the Saturday night session.  I can't even imagine how overwhelming that would be, but they were fabulous.  President Nelson also shared a new Declaration from the First Presidency and quorum of the twelve apostles.  It is titled, "The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." He showed a video of him reading it from the Sacred Grove. It was powerful and I'm excited to study that.  I think I was waiting for something big to happen the whole time so I didn't fully appreciate how good it was, just in different ways than I was expecting.  I'm glad I can read the talks again so I can soak it all in.

Hallee set a goal to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels.  Keith started working with her Friday night and she was already getting the hang of it.

Jonah helped Hallee when Keith was tired.  He taught Wyatt how to ride a bike, so we called on him again.

Hallee gets so frustrated when she is learning new things.  She doesn't want help and wants to do everything herself, but gets so frustrated when she can't accomplish it immediately.

She caught on pretty quick.  She is still working on starting on her own. She was so proud of herself for riding alone.

Wyatt had fun riding his bike with her.

She was excited to have me help her again on Monday.  She thought these glasses went well with her helmet.

She is so cute.  I love seeing Hallee work so hard on her goals.