General Conference stories for boys

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General Conference begins a week from Saturday. It is two full days of messages from Church leaders for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But they aren't just for Church members. One of my favorite stories about General Conference comes from my wife, which I will share with her permission. One year when she was a young girl, her family went to her grandmother's home on conference day hoping to watch General Conference on a local access channel because they didn’t have a TV in their home. The grandmother, who had been very angry and disappointed when her daughter (my wife’s mother) left the Catholic Church, excitedly showed them the program she had been watching on TV, telling them that this kind of God-fearing gospel learning is what they need, not the Mormon church. My in-laws looked at the TV and said, “Yes, that is General Conference! That is exactly what we want to watch!” Instantly the TV was turned off as the realization struck that this wasn’t a Catholic program. But the grandmother was kind enough to let my wife’s family watch General Conference on another TV in one of the bedrooms. 

Yesterday evening I was subbing in as a leader for the primary activities for boys ages 8-11, which are held every other Wednesday evening. I wanted to help them get into the Conference spirit, so I picked out several stories told at conference about boys, that they might enjoy and might learn from. We had fun watching and talking about the stories and life lessons. 

I only spent about 20 minutes compiling these stories, and my search consisted simply of stories that were top of mind plus a few from a quick Google search. So this list is far from comprehensive, but I figured I would post them here. The story names are my invention.

1-4 Four brief moral stories told by President Gordon B Hinkley in a 1993 talk called “Some lessons I learned as a boy.”

1. “Work the shovel” at 3:04.

2. “Louie who chews his tie” at 6:45

3. “Lynn the class clown” at 7:35

4. “The school strike” at 8:56

5. From Elder Dale G Renlund in 1996 -  “Lighting a firecracker at church” at 0:40. Story also available as a dramatization

6. “Wildfire” by President Thomas S. Monson in 2013, at 3:33

7. “Befuddled copycat” by President Thomas S. Monson, from 2008, at 9:12 (an absolute classic)

8. “He refused to let me fall” by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a suspenseful tearjerker and metaphor for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, starting at the beginning of the talk. Also available as a very nicely done dramatization.

9. “Word of Wisdom enforcement” by President Russell M. Nelson, 2018, at 4:03.

I hope you enjoyed these Conference stories of and for young boys. I’m sure there are many I have missed. 

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