I usually do a post-conference trivia contest, but I thought it might be fun to shake things up a little bit and do a pre-conference guessing contest. This might be fun to duplicate in your own family and play with each other.
For the sake of the blog, go ahead and make your guesses in the comment box below. Since it’s all random guessing, I don’t think there’s any advantage or disadvantage by seeing each others’ picks. I will pick the winner for each question (by drawing if there’s a tie), and then those 10 winners will go in a drawing for the “Grand Prize,” which will be a copy of the book I was proud to be a part of:
Tell Me Who I Am: Stories of Faith, Family, and Identity
So here goes:
General Conference Guessing Game
1. How many new temples do you think will be announced?
2. What’s your guess for any auxiliaries to be reorganized? (RS, YW, YM, SS, none)
3. Take a guess at one location of a new temple. Name a state in the US or a country outside of the US.
4. Barring any absence, 11 of the 12 apostles speak in the four Saturday and Sunday sessions. Who’s your guess for the one apostle that only speaks in Priesthood session?
5. Who will conduct the first session of conference (Sat. AM)?
6. How many members of the church will be announced in the statistical report?
7. What color dresses will the women of the Tabernacle Choir wear on Sunday morning?
8. Who will be the first woman to speak in this session of conference?
9. What color tie will President Monson wear on Sunday?
10. Make a guess for a congregational hymn that might be sung at any of the four sessions.
I acknowledge that this is just for fun and has no true spiritual benefit other than to maybe make us pay a little more attention while we watch. All entries recieved by 9:30 a.m. MST on Saturday morning will be in the running for the prize. 🙂
Other ideas:
I’ve shared tons and tons and tons of conference preparation in the past, especially for the kids. This year, I decided to do a little variation on the tradition “packet” idea. Sometimes my kids just flip through the packet and pick a few things to do and then don’t seem to pay as much attention to it as I would like. So I’m trying a new approach, based loosely on this idea I saw on Pinterest:
I printed out a list of the names of the First Presidency and 12 Apostles and then cut them out. One copy for each child. (You could also use pictures instead of names.)
I skimmed through all the different packet versions I’ve seen over the years (there’s a good collection here) and printed out pages of specific activities I knew would engage my kids based on their interests, reading level, etc. Then I stapled each apostle’s name to one activity (a crossword puzzle, a cut-and-paste of apostles in the red chairs, a Friend magazine to cut up and make a collage, etc.). Not all of them are conference related. There are one or two that are just stickers or stencils and crayons to keep their hands busy. Some of them are just stapled to a piece of paper that says: “Get 3 popsicle stick puzzles and play with them” or “Play the Apostles Memory Game”
The idea is this: Whenever an apostles or First Presidency member speaks, the child finds the speaker’s name and can do that activity during his talk. There will still be ongoing bingo and traditional packet items with notetaking, etc. (see below) for them to do during all the other speakers, but it helps them to pace out different activities and change focus often.
So other than making food and gathering up snacks, I’m ready to roll! I hope it’s helpful to someone. Let me know if you have any questions.
Bring on Conference!
Diapers and Divinity 
I love the conference idea. Thanks for sharing!!
Here’s my answers:
1. Two
2. none
3. California
4. L. Tom Perry
5. Eyring
6. 14,132,538
7. blue
8. Sis Beck
9. Maroon
10. High on a Mountain Top
oooh, fun! I like guessing games 🙂
1.) 4
2.) Relief Society (although I can’t imagine life without Sis. Beck…)
4.) Brazil
5.) Elder Cristofferson
6.) Pres. Eyring
7.) Exact? 14,932,461 – approximately? 15 million
8.) Pink
9:) Sister Cook (YW Presidency)
10.) Redeemer of Israel (I’ll bet you $100 we sing that and High on the Mountain Top. Those are conference staples)
This is a good way to get us to listen! We want to see if our guesses are right 🙂
You should report the actual answers post-conference. It will be fun to see how close (or how far off) we were!
Man, I didn’t think I would get such a kick out of this!
oh, I misnumbered and missed the tie one – red striped.
1. Temples – 6
2. Reorganize – none
3. Temple location – South Dakota
4. Priesthood Session – Quentin L Cook
5. Conduction – Pres. Uchtdorf
6. Members – 14,850,000
7. Dresses – light pink
8. Female Speaker – Rosemary Wixom
9. Monson’s tie – green
10. Hymn – We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet
Just out of pure curiosity do you save all of this stuff that your kids do from conference to conference? Or do you pick certain things to save? Meaning do you add it to a collection so that by the time that they are older they will have their own conference book? Almost like a conference related scrap book? Or is it purely to keep them busy so that they will sit still and concentrate as best as they can while watching it or listening to it?
I don’t save any of their stuff; I just prepare these materials to keep them busy and engaged during conference. My kids have watched all 4 sessions of conference with us since they were babies and now they totally know the routines. They look forward to the packets and activities. When I download packets and ideas, I do save them in a file folder in my computer so that I don’t have to go hunt and gather every single conference.
Awesome! Thanks for the response…
Cheers!
Missy Bancroft
I’m so excited for when my kids are old enough to do the packets. Wyatt might be old enough to do things like collages and memory games now – maybe I’ll make him a packet! You’re wonderful for doing all this leg work for us. 😀
1. 3
2. None
3. Washington!
4. Ballard
5. Uchtdorf
6. 14,800,000
7. Yellow or Pink
8. Sister Beck! (love her)
9. Purple
10. We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet
Fun–I always love your trivia contest and this will be a fun change.
1. 4
2. None
3. Utah
4. Elder Cok
5. President Eyring
6. 14,925,000
7. Blue
8. Sister Stevens
9. Red
10. Redeemer of Israel
1.5
2.none
3.Russia
4.Elder Scott
5.President Uchtdorf
6.12.2 million
7.Blue
8.Sister Beck
9.Red
10.I Know that My Redeemer Lives
1. Temples: 4
2. Auxiliaries to be Reorganized: Relief Society. They have been in for 5 years and it seems like that is about the usual length….
3. I really have no idea. The one I’d like to see the most, though, would be Scotland. That’s where my husband served his mission.
4. Only speak in priesthood: Elder Andersen.
5. Conducting Sat a.m.: President Uchtdorf
6. Membership: 16 million
7. MoTAB dresses: Pink
8. 1st woman speaker: Jean Stevens of the Primary General Presidency
9. Pres Monson’s tie on Sunday: Red
10. Hymn: Choose the Right (it’s the primary program hymn, and they always seem to try to get that in, although, it may be a saturday afternoon special primary choir rather than a congregational hymn)
1. 3
2. RS
3. Chile
4. Elder Andersen
5. Pres. Uchtdorf
6. 14,948,223
7. pink
8. Sister Julie Beck
9. green
10. We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet
1. 4
2. YW
3. Brazil
4. Elder Bednar
5. Pres. Uchtdorf
6. 14,950,000
7. blue
8. Sister Barbara Thompson
9. pink
10. Choose the Right
Thank you so much for providing all of these resources. I can always rely on you! 🙂
Have a very Happy Conference! – MoSop
Husband’s guesses in (parenthesis)
1. Temples ~ 2 (5)
2. Reorganize ~ SS
3. Temple location ~ Maine (Mexico)
4. Priesthood Session ~ Packer
5. Conducting ~ Pres. Uchtdorf
6. Members ~ 15,000,000
7. Dresses ~ pink (blue)
8. 1st Female Speaker ~ Primary General counselor (Belle Spafford)
9. President Monson’s tie ~ pastel (whatever his wife lays out)
10. Hymn ~ We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet
I married a funny guy.
~Shari R.
1. 4
2. RS
3. Colorado
4. Elder Cook
5. Pres. Uchtdorf
6. 15,000,456
7. Pink
8. Sis. Beck
9. Red
10. Choose the Right
1. 4
2. Relief Society
3. Thailand
4. Christofferson
5. Pres. Uchtdorf
6. 14,678,532
7. white
8. Sis. Beck
9. red
10. We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet
I am so excited for conference! I wish my kids would sit still long enough to watch more than 1 session. But my biggest hurdle is my husband. I can barely get him to sit and watch 1 session. Anyway – here are my answers.
1. 5 new temples
2. the presiding bishopric
3. Brazil
4. Elder Holland
5. Pres. Uchtdorf
6. 14, 753,267
7. Silver
8. Barbara Thompson
9. Blue & yellow
10. I Believe in Christ
1. 2
2. RS
3. California
4. Elder Oaks
5. Pres. Uchtdorf
6. 14,100,000
7. Blue
8. Sister Beck
9. Red
10. We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet
1. 5
2. Relief Society
3. Brazil
4. Quentin L. Cook
5. President Uctdorf
6. 14,980,000
7. White
8. Julie B Beck
9. Red with stripes
10. Redeemer of Israel
I did conference baggies this year for the first time. I’m so excited to see my girls’ reaction- my husband said it looked like Christmas morning! Thanks for all the ideas.
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