In addition to revelation, General Conference weekend comes with traditions, according to BYU–Hawaii students.
Sione Fuluvaka, a sophomore from Laie studying math, said his family has found a way to wake themselves up for Saturday’s 6 a.m. sessions. “We’d go to the chapel and oftentimes fall asleep,” he said. “My dad’s solution to this was to wake up even earlier, go running, and do a bunch of exercise. I never liked it. After all that, we’d go and watch it at the Stake Center. It worked. We were awake.”
Other students said they celebrated Saturday morning conference with a nice breakfast for their families. “My mom and I would wake up two hours before Saturday General Conference started and make German Pancakes,” said Kiersten Luekenga, a junior from Arizona studying marine biology. “They’re really good. Then we’d watch the first session.”
The Fuluvaka family didn’t have as much time for breakfast. “If I can, I will run to the fridge, grab some good food, and run to the Stake Center,” said Fuluvaka, the youngest of three brothers. “But most likely, I’ll have to do a lot more running than that. If you see me running around Laie at 5 in the morning, I promise that I’m not crazy.”
Miranda Lee, a senior from Oregon studying English, said she remembered her family recipe for making cinnamon rolls. “Usually, in the morning, we’ll make pull-aparts using a bundt pan and Rhodes rolls, which are frozen dinner rolls,” she said. “You make a cinnamon sugar mixture, pour that on top, it rises overnight, and it’s like easy cinnamon rolls.”
Students said in between sessions, their families tend to spend quality time together. “We would go outside and garden,” said Luekenga. “When we were done gardening, we’d have a water balloon fight to get yourself cleaned up. Then we watched the afternoon session. After the second session, we’d do something fun like putt-putt golfing or bowling.”
Fuluvaka received no such reprieve. “In between, we’d try to run home away from our dad so we could take a nap,” he said. “If not, he’d make us go run again between sessions to make sure we stayed awake.”
Lee said, “My mom and I would do stuff together on Saturday after the session is over.” She said they’d have quality mother-daughter bonding doing “girly stuff like shopping, having lunch together, maybe going to see a movie.”
Students said Sunday Sessions, and their accompanying traditions, are more fitting with the spirit of the Sabbath. “On Sunday, we wake up and do bacon and eggs for breakfast. In between sessions, my mom and I make cinnamon rolls,” said Luekenga. “After Conference, we play ‘Settlers of Zarahemla.’”
Fuluvaka said he loves Sunday Sessions, “Sunday! We loved Sunday General Conference because he couldn’t make us go run.”
Living away from her family, Lee said she looks for spiritual guidance in the messages. “I really do love looking forward to the different topics everyone speaks about, because then I know what I should be paying the most attention to. You start finding the patterns in what the General Authorities are saying.
“When there are multiple talks on the same subject, then I know that I need to watch out for it, and be more conscious of it. I like having a little more direction like that.”
After years of intense workouts, Fuluvaka still chooses to run on his own in preparation for General Conference. “I love General Conference, even though I had to go run before it,” he said. “It made sitting down and listening to the word of God so much greater, because I could rest, not only physically, but spiritually and be rejuvenated.”