David and Carmen's 8th Birthday trip to Conference

For those that aren't familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints, we believe by revelation that a child should be baptized at the age of 8. Carmen turned 8 on April 2, 2013. 

It has been her decision to get baptized. I am proud of her decision. Tomorrow (April 13th, is the day). So with her 8th birthday being a big deal, I wanted her to try and catch the vision for herself of the magnitude of the Savior's church being on the earth again and what it means to get baptized. I wanted her to instead of just hearing of a Prophet of God on the earth, I hoped that she would see him and feel of the spirit that he carries. I wanted her to see and hear that there really are 12 Apostles on the earth today, just like there were in biblical times.

So every 6 months, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints gathers for a semi-annual conference. This is where the apostles and prophets talk to us about how we can be better husbands, fathers, mothers, children and sons/daughters of our heavenly father. 

I thought it would be really cool to take Carmen to this conference.  So I used frequent flier points and I took her to conference. I knew at the end of it she probably wouldn't remember everything the speakers said or even one thing the speaker said. I was just hoping that she would feel something inside.

 So we arrived in Utah the day before conference and visited our churches temple square. Carmen and her two cousins joined for the fun. We ran around checking out all the neat artifacts. The one thing that really was on Carmen's mind the whole time at temple square, was trying to find Sister Schill.

Why did she want to find Sister Schill? A week before our visit to Temple Square, Carmen had her interview for Baptism with our local Bishop (equivalent of a pastor in other religions). Our Bishop Schill knew of Carmen's trip to temple square and showed her a picture of his daughter, who is serving a mormon mission on temple square and asked Carmen to find her.  Carmen said, Bishop told us we have to find his daughter, so we must. We looked high and low and found her.

  Here is the CTR ring Carmen bought while in Utah. CTR stands for "Choose the Right".

 Carmen has a lot of cousins in Utah. She spend a lot of time with Emmily and Abby. Here is a picture of them having ice cream at temple square ( Joesph Smith building).  They then loved the reflection pond at temple square.

 So Saturday morning came and I wanted to make this visit to conference special. We woke up early, got donuts on the way and got there extra early. As we joined the crowd of 21,000 people to enter the conference center,  an usher pulled us to the side and gave a special welcome to Carmen and then presented her with a special gift for her first time to conference. The special gift was a CTR bracelet. She looked at the bracelet for almost the whole conference. This part was really cool.

Finally, as conference begun, she sat quietly the whole time. When the prophet stood and announced the two new temples, everyone in the crowd went "WOW". She made a comment to me after the temples were announced, "Dad, something special just happened"

 Carmen really enjoyed staying at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Carrie's house. She even wanted to take a picture of it before we left.

 Okay, she loved the spiritual stuff, but I think one of her favorite moments was going to build a bear with her cousin Emily.

It was only a three day trip. But we both had fun. We got home at 11PM on Sunday night and Monday at 5AM I had to go to China for 3 days.  Despite this, the trip was worth it. How do I know it was worth it. Once we got home, I had to quickly turn around and go to China, but two days after Carmen was home, April sent me a text stating that Carmen has changed. She is being an AWESOME big sister. Her behavior has changed.  I don't think this is just a coincidence.  I do believe that people change for the better when, they UNDERSTAND and FEEL that they are loved. Carmen felt the love her mom and dad have for her on this trip.  She also felt all the special love from her cousins, but most importantly I could tell she felt inside the spirit and the love that Heavenly Father has for her. 

I hope to carry this tradition on with each one of my kids as they turn eight.  I asked Carmen when Aliza turns 8, should I take her or should mom have a turn. Carmen clearly DECLARED, "MOM needs to take her, she is a A lot more FUN!!"

A special thanks for my dear companion who sacrificed a lot to make this trip happen. THANK YOU APRIL!!