Tonight We Each Pick One Conference Talk and Say Why

This morning Lily read over my elbow while I scrolled the list of talks, and she stopped me at "The 90 and 10." She wanted to know if it was a math talk. I'd heard it Saturday and gave her what I had, and she said the part after that was the part she'd been asking about.

That's about where the house is on the Monday after conference. There were 37 messages over the four sessions and each of us heard a slightly different weekend, so nobody here is going to hold all of them. I quit trying a few conferences back.

Start with the titles

Most years I used to sit down on Monday and try to recall the weekend, and I'd get two talks and a feeling. The printed list works better. It's in order, and a child can put a finger on one.

Look at a few from Saturday and Sunday: "Spiritual Immunity," "Jesus Lives to Lift," "Quick to Help, Slow to Judge," "You Are Good Enough To Teach," "Courage Born of Our Faith in Jesus Christ." Some of those I watched with my full attention and some I caught from the kitchen. I'm not going to tell you what each speaker said when I only know the title for half of them, and the Gospel Library app will do a better job than I would.

President Oaks's Sunday morning talk was "The Gospel of Jesus Christ Is for All." Church News reported that he taught that whatever you're struggling with, questions and doubts included, the way through is to get closer to the Savior. I'd already have said that a kid with a question should bring it to Him, so I was glad to hear it from the pulpit.

Everybody picks one

Tonight's home evening is going to be short, and I'm saying that now so I can't talk myself into a longer one once the dishes are done. Each person chooses one title from the list, not the best talk and not the one you'd mention to the neighbors, only the one you'd want to hear again. Then everybody says why in a sentence, youngest first. Parents go last. If I go first the table quietly picks something near mine.

I'm choosing "Quick to Help, Slow to Judge," mostly because I'd like Caleb to hear it a second time and I'd rather he picked it himself than have me hand it to him. We'll see.

Anyone who slept through a session, or spent two of them under the table with a truck, can still play. They pick from the page the way you'd order from a menu and then read it with you.

The part that fades

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

James 1:22-24

The man in James looks, walks off and then forgets, with nobody shouting at him. By Tuesday the schedule has taken over and whatever you meant to carry slides off, which is why one talk and a date on the calendar do more than a weekend of good intentions.

Three Mondays

Here's the plan, and I'll tell you in three weeks whether it held. The talk you pick tonight is the one you come back to on the next three Mondays, five minutes at the start of the evening, same spot at the table. Read a paragraph out loud, or watch two minutes of it, and ask one thing: did this come up for you this week?

I expect the first Monday to get a shrug. I'm hoping for something by the third, from whichever kid picked a title for no reason at all, because that's usually where the interesting answer comes from and it takes a few weeks of five-minute Mondays before a child trusts that you aren't grading it.

Write the Mondays on the real calendar tonight, because anything that isn't written down gets pushed out by a ball schedule or a late dinner. I covered getting through the weekend itself in our conference weekend setup and the parts that never work.

Skip the quiz.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many talks were in the October 2026 General Conference?

Thirty-seven messages over four two-hour sessions on October 3 and 4, which is more than a family can reasonably be asked to carry out the door. Church News put out talk summaries as PDFs today in four languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese and French), and those are handy if a grandparent would rather read in another language.

Where can I read or watch the talks?

On churchofjesuschrist.org under General Conference, and in the Gospel Library app. Read the text itself before you teach from it. A summary tells you where to look and nothing more.

What if my kids didn't hear much of it?

Let them pick from the titles anyway.

Nobody has to earn a turn by sitting still for eight hours. With a kid like our youngest, who was in and out of the room all weekend and heard maybe a talk and a half from the couch, I'd still rather he had a title in his pocket than a lecture about paying attention, and I've noticed the ones who picked on a whim are often the ones who say the surprising thing later.

What if we miss one of the Mondays?

Do it Tuesday, or in the car. The point is the third time through, and a Monday that falls on a game night shouldn't end the whole thing.

Read your one talk before you sit down with the family tonight. Then put the next three Mondays on the calendar before you go to bed.

with love, Melissa