Church things and such

I don't often document General Conference, but I decided to snap a couple of pictures this time.  Twice a year, we stay home and watch conference at home, a broadcast from Salt Lake City, listening to talks from President Nelson, the apostles, and other leaders.  We also have established the tradition of eating crumb cake on Sunday morning.  Everyone was pretty good about taking notes.  I love it!  There were lots of good talks.  One theme emerged for me, with a phrase that was repeated at least 4 times - about joy having to do more with the focus of our lives than our circumstances.  President Nelson talked about keeping our foundations strong and making time for the Lord.  We know that more challenging times are coming - we need to prepare ourselves to withstand the hard times and find joy by focusing on the Lord and His gospel rather than our circumstances.   

I snapped a couple pictures of Weston and Savannah for their school portraits.  I don't buy them anymore, since I already take so many photos of the kids (and the school pictures are expensive).  The end of October, Weston and Savannah had their primary program at church.  It was Weston's last one, since he's moving on to the youth group in January.  Weston gave the opening message.  He talked about coming back to church after Covid restrictions and how Christ will save the universe.  Savannah also said a part, about establishing a house of order, fasting, prayer, faith and how she tried fasting for the first time recently.  Savannah also sang a verse of "I Feel my Savior's Love" with another girl.  They did really well.  I helped my little sunbeam class - one of the girls had her part memorized.  It was so touching to see the courage of the kids, getting up there and speaking in the microphone and singing the songs.  

I did one sunbeam lesson in November and three in December.  We talked about families, Joseph Smith, the Articles of Faith, and the Christmas story and the gift of being given families.  I found some Melonheadz clip art people online that looked a little bit like us (or modified them just a little bit) and like the families of my class.  I colored our family and they got to color their own.  They were put in a sealed Zipcloc bag with a picture of a temple on it to represent how we can be sealed to our families.  One family has 3 kids and the other has 6 with 1 on the way, so they had quite a few little people to color!

We talked about Joseph Smith and the blessings of the Restoration of the gospel.  For the Articles of Faith, it was a group effort Bingo style game, where they drew pictures randomly that matched the board.  They all got a little treat each time we made 4 in a row. We listened to the songs that went along with them too, since the songs are short.    

Nathan and Jared both gave talks in church recently.  Jared spoke to the congregation in sacrament meeting on missionary work.  He was calm and poised and did a great job.  He got lots of compliments on his talk.  Nathan also spoke on missionary work during a priesthood meeting.  I watched the zoom of it at home (so I snapped a little picture of the screen).  He also did a great job, and he's been a good example and missionary to those around him.  A couple of his basketball teammates and coach have been asking some questions and/or taking some of the lessons with the missionaries.  Nathan also serves as a ward missionary, so he's doing well to prepare for his own full time mission next year.