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Sunday, October 05, 2014

General Conference Weekend

I don't know if the last session of General Conference was really better than all the other sessions or if was simply that Benjamin napped through half of the last session so we actually heard what people were saying. Either way, the last session of General Conference was the best session.

The girls sat down to play conference BINGO, which meant they were quiet and paying attention (whereas they coloured or played LEGO through the other sessions (making them sit quietly through eight hours of church in one weekend seems like a bit much)). Rachel remarked that she quite enjoyed it. And thus we learned that boredom is a self-made problem because when you really try to pay attention there's surely something interesting to be heard.

When Benjamin was awake he immediately started bouncing off the walls again. It probably didn't help that he stole the candy his sisters were using as BINGO markers and started shoving them into his mouth as fast as he could.

"Benjamin, take a break!" I said after watching him for a few minutes.

He turned to me, with liquidized sugar oozing out of his candy-corn-stuffed mouth, and said, "Want double candy!"


I pulled him up beside me on the couch and told him he couldn't have anymore...at least until his mouth was empty. Because I really know how to put my foot down.

He eventually stopped eating candy all on his own. Even when Rachel and Miriam graciously offered him more he turned them down. "No more candy. Don't," he told them.

Good thing he's going to the dentist tomorrow. Technically it's just a dental study...to see if they can predict future cavity development. I think when I tell them about his diet I will exclude today's menu. Conference Weekend is an anomaly when it comes to food—like birthdays and Christmas and Halloween.

I especially enjoyed the foreign language talks. Not necessarily the content—because Benjamin was wildly out of control—but the very fact that they were speaking in their native tongue. I was just so excited for the members who speak those languages to hear someone speaking from the pulpit in their own language—instead of coldly translated to them by an interpreter.

I love that we interpret conference into so many languages and I have many friends who act as translators (Emile into Arabic and Claudia into Malagasy, just to name a couple) but I just don't think the translators are able to put the original feel into what the speaker is saying (with the exception, perhaps, of the Portuguese-to-English translation we heard this morning). I agree with my friend Crystal who said she'd prefer subtitles to the voiceover, which is what I think happened in the Conference Center, but I do see why a voiceover would reach a broader audience. Those unable to read who were watching would still be able to listen to the talk. That's really the only reason I could think of, though I think most people old enough to actually listen to a talk would probably be literate. But then again I can think of a wide audience of possibly illiterate or poorly-sighted who would appreciate the voiceover.

If only there was an option in the feed! I mean, you could mute it and just watch the subtitles, but then you couldn't hear the original language anyway.

They seemed to adjust the voiceover between Saturday and today, I think. Yesterday it was distracting, hearing the native language and the booming voiceover (I just didn't like the announcer-style voice—sorry whoever's voice that was) and today the native language was nearly muted with the voiceovers a little more regular (though the last foreign-language talk had that booming voice again).

Anyway...

Not to pick favourites or anything, but I loved President Uchtdorf's talk on Saturday morning (and in fact said these words to Andrew right in the middle of his talk, "Thank goodness for President Uchtdorf!"), Elder Holland's on Saturday afternoon, Sister McConkie's and President Monson's talks on Sunday morning, and Richard G. Scott's talk on Sunday afternoon. You should check them out if you missed them!

I accidentally slept through Elder Ballard's talk this afternoon. To get Benjamin to take a nap I gave into his request to "seep by me" and then no one woke us up when conference started again. So I learned nothing from Elder Ballard except, perhaps, that Benjamin's (crib-sized) bed is a little squishy. I managed to extricate myself from his bed and his grasp without waking him up so he slept for about an hour longer, giving us all a peaceful hour to really let conference soak in.

So, sorry, Elder Ballard, for missing your talk, but it was worth it. I'll read it later.

Other than that everyone stayed awake for every talk. I'd call that a General Conference Weekend win.

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