Mormons will gather for General Conference this weekend

If you are familiar with Mormon life, you probably know that the semi-annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is this weekend. And it’s a weekend we Mormons get very excited about!

It may seem a little strange that eight (or ten) hours of listening to talks from various people is something we anticipate with such delight, but we do. General Conference is a way for us to replenish our spiritual wells, gather with family and friends, and even have a little change of pace in our schedules.

An important element of our church’s teachings is that we believe that there are living prophets and apostles on the earth today. Just like Moses, Abraham, and other biblical prophets of the Old Testament and Peter, James, John and other apostles of the New Testament were authorized leaders and mouthpieces for God, so we believe the Mormon prophets and apostles are called of God to give us guidance relevant to our day.

In my family this week, we are trying to talk every day about the upcoming General Conference and how we can prepare ourselves so that we can be ready to hear what our leaders have to say. I like what the following posts have shared about preparing for General Conference.

Stephanie at Mormon Mommy Blogs wrote this post:

Preparing Yourself for General Conference

She includes some great quotes about what General Conference means to us as Mormons. I like her idea of coming to General Conference with questions in mind. (Another Mormon woman writes about her experiences coming to General Conference with questions, and commenters join in and share some of the talks that helped them get answers and guidance.)

Larry Richman at LDS Media Talk shares a long list of great resources here:

How Can You Prepare for General Conference?

His post included the video that we watched tonight as a family: Why Conference Matters

We often have LDS parents interested in General Conference “packets” for their children — worksheets and coloring sheet and other activities to help children listen and learn during the conference sessions. The Church has various resources for children at lds.org

General Conference Activities for Children

You can also read this post by Stephanie:

Preparing Your Children for General Conference

To you who are LDS, what do you do to prepare for General Conference? To you who are curious about Mormonism, we invite you to take a few minutes to find out more about General Conference. Feel free to ask questions you may have, too.

You might enjoy this video that gives highlights of the October 2010 General Conference: