General Conference Packet for April 2020

Hello!   Here's a General Conference packet I created for older kids.   I had fun creating it and hope that your kids enjoy using it. 

I thought it would be easier to get blogging done during quarantine, but the lack of routine is doing a number on all of us!   Hope all of you out there are healthy and finding the blessings in the whole world being on pause. 

Enjoy Conference!

How a New Prophet is Called Lesson

Today I taught a class to new members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   We had a lesson prepared from the manual, but after President Monson's death, we decided to switch the lesson plan over to talk about prophets and how new ones are called.    Later on, we used this same information as a FHE lesson for our family.    

First, we talked about what happens when a prophet dies.    I took a picture that was published in the April 2016, Friend magazine and made it into a pictorial explanation of what happens:

Then we discussed the information about the process  from the church website .   You can click on the link to read more, or read a summary below:  

"When the president of the Church passes away, the following events take place:

1. The First Presidency is automatically dissolved.

2. The two counselors in the First Presidency revert to their places of seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Seniority is determined by the date on which a person was ordained to the Twelve, not by age.

3. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, now numbering 14 {or in our case, numbering 13 now, since both Elder Hales and President Monson have passed away} and headed by the senior apostle {that senior apostle currently is President Russell M. Nelson} assumes Church leadership.

4. The senior apostle {President Russell M. Nelson} presides at a meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve to consider two alternative propositions:

     i. Should the First Presidency be reorganized at this time?

     ii. Should the Church continue to function with the Quorum of the Twelve presiding?

5. After discussion, a formal motion is made and accepted by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

6. If a motion to reorganize the First Presidency is passed, the Quorum of the Twelve unanimously selects the new president of the Church. The new president chooses two counselors and the three of them become the new First Presidency. Throughout the history of the Church, the longest-serving apostle has always become the president of the Church when the First Presidency has been reorganized.

7. Following the reorganization of the First Presidency, the apostle who has served the second longest {Right now, that is Elder Dallin H. Oaks} is sustained as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve. When the second-longest-serving apostle has also been called into the First Presidency as a counselor, the third-longest-serving apostle becomes acting president of the Twelve.

8. The president of the Quorum of the Twelve, along with the rest of the apostles, sets apart* the new president of the Church through a formal laying on of hands."

And lastly,  click on  the link to watch a video about President Monson's life .    It was wonderful to see a glimpse of what kind of wonderful man we've had leading the church for the last several years and what a blessing it is to live in a day and a time when we have a prophet on the earth!  

Meanwhile, here is a quote from President Monson to inspire you this week:  

Have a wonderful week!

Why is it Important to Listen to and Follow the Living Prophets?

I typed this up as an outline of a Sunday YW lesson, but it was also easily adapted to our family's FHE lesson the next night.  For both the young women and my children, I found that the process of highlighting and subsequently writing the prophet's words on the wall surrounding a picture of President Monson was a very powerful and memorable illustration. Click here for printable version of all images.
 Why is it Important to Listen to and Follow the Living Prophets? 
Lesson by Lara Goold

CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE VERSION OF THE PICTURES

Suggested Songs:
"We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet,"  Hymns, page 19
"Latter-day Prophets," Children's Songbook, page 134
 "Follow the Prophet," Hymns, page 110

Lesson Purpose:  To help the young women to understand what a great blessing it is to have a living prophet on the earth to give us guidance and direction for these latter-days.

Scripture:  "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."  Amos 3:7

PREPARATION: 
1.  print enough copies of the talk,  Believe, Obey, and Endure for every YW (or member of your family)
2.  gather pens or pencils for every YW, also chalk and tape 
3.  Print off large picture of President Monson
4. (optional) print off wallet size pictures of President Monson for each of the YW to tape into their notebooks while they take notes

OPENING PRAYER:

ANALOGY OF THE GARDEN MAZE (see this link for printable version of pictures):     Imagine you are in a maze that is made up of tall hedges.  The bushes are too thick to see through, too tall to see over, and you can't tell whether you are heading towards a dead-end until you are right there. (SHOW PICTURE OF PEOPLE INSIDE THE MAZE) You start off knowing the approximate direction of where the exit is, but quickly lose your bearings and can't do anything more than wander aimlessly until you find the correct path out.  Then you notice a little look-out tower.  (SHOW PICTURE OF MAZE FROM THE LOOKOUT) You climb the tower and you can regain your bearings again and  plot a path to the exit.

Relate being lost in the maze to being lost in the maze of our lives.  Talk about how easy it is to get caught up in the "maze of life" and focus only on what is right in front of us.

ASK:  What are some of the concerns that are in your maze of life?  (you're looking for answers like a hard physics test, getting into college, boys, friends,  etc)

WRITE:  Have one of the YW come write on the picture of the people inside of the maze, some of the answers received.

TEACH:  There is someone we can look to who has been given the keys to be on the look-out  for our day and time.  They have the perspective of being able to see all the twists and turns in the maze and give us guidance and direction that will help us to the finish line (eternal life).

SHOW PICTURE OF PRESIDENT MONSON and tape to the top of the chalkboard.

DRAW a simple watchtower underneath the picture and explain that God has given him the authority to see.

BELIEVE, OBEY, and ENDURE: 
Hand out a pen and copy of the article to each student:  Divide the YW into groups and assign each  group a page of the article to read and to circle important messages that President Monson has given to the YW for this day and this time.

HAVE EACH PERSON SHARE SOMETHING THEY'VE CIRCLED IN THE ARTICLE:   and ask for a volunteer to come make speech bubbles around the prophet and write in the words of the prophet that the YW shared from the article.   If the girls have class journals, have them glue in a  wallet size picture of President Monson and reproduce this in their notebooks while you go around the room.

 Here are some of the things that our girls came up with:  Decisions determine destiny, seminary changes lives, they are a daughter of Heavenly Father, pray for guidance, fan the flame of your testimony, choose to obey, there is a way back!  

VIDEO:   watch this video  and discuss. 

SHARE A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF FOLLOWING THE PROPHET:  and the blessings you received.  Bear your testimony about what a remarkable blessing it is to live in a day and a time that there is a living prophet.

CLOSING PRAYER:


HANDOUT (printable version below):

Additional Reading Material: 
YW Lesson:  Why is it Important to Listen to and Follow the Living Prophet?


**********************

Why We Need a Prophet Printable Pictures by Lara Goold

Printable Apostle Tabs for General Conference Journals (CURRENT FEBRUARY 2026)

UPDATED:  FEBRUARY 13, 2026 

I saw the idea for tabbed General Conference journals in several different places online.  I liked the idea and wanted to make them with our young women and for our family, but was disappointed not to find any printable versions of the apostle tabs that I'd seen.  So I made them myself and thought I'd share them here for all of you!  My favorite part of these tabs is that I made them so they are perfect sized to be cut out with a 1-1/4 -inch or 1-3/8-inch square punch !  Easy peasy! 

Here are the tabs followed by directions on how to use them! The YW loved them!   Happy Conference weekend!   (note:  these are not in order)

Preparing the tabs:

Print tabs onto white cardstock.

Punch tabs out with a 1-1/4-inch or 1-3/8-inch square punch  ( or the with scissors).

Laminate, if desired.

I started off just using regular Scotch tape as shown in the picture, but ended up preferring the invisible gift tape instead. 

Attaching the tabs:
Use a piece of clear tape across the entire tab and attach it to the notebook as shown--with only the name sticking over the edge of the paper.

Leave a page or two between each tab (you may want to count the number of pages you're working with, so you know how many) and stagger the placement of the tab, so it is just below the one before it.  Five tabs fit perfectly down the side of the 5x7-inch notebooks that we used.

I recommend placing the tabs in some kind of order (either seniority or alphabetical).  Here is seniority order:  Nelson, Oaks, Eyring, Holland, Uchtdorf, Bednar, Cook, Christofferson, Andersen, Rasband, Stevenson, Renlund, Gong, Soares, Kearon. 

A few more notes: 

Notebooks:
For our family we used 5x7-inch notebooks, which came from the dollar bin at Michael's.  These 5x8 floral notebooks from Amazon are super cute too.   For the young women, we used some extra personal progress journals that we had in our closet. They were almost identically sized, which made it easier to use the same size of everything.


Decorating:
We used an assortment of scrapbook paper, glue sticks, and mod podge to decorate the covers. 

How to make it into a YW value project (we put this inside the back cover):
Click here for downloadable, printable version (print at 60% to fit inside of 5x7-inch journal)



"Making the Most of General Conference" printable (we put this inside the front cover):
Click here for downloadable version
( I used Kristy Maguire's version)--print at 65% to fit inside of 5x7-inch journal

Happy Conference weekend! 

 

Enjoy!

*********************
.

  *This post contains affiliate links. This means that a special tracking code is used and that I may make a small commission on the sale of an item if you purchase through one of these links. The price of the item is the same for you whether it is an affiliate link or not, and using affiliate links helps me to maintain this website and support my family.