I’ve always dreaded ward conference. It’s not the stake leaders shaking up the regular meetings or the big ward choir hoohah of a show off musical number (I happily participate in that one) that I mind. No, it’s my dread the announcement of the ward goals and the accounting made of the goals from the year ended that makes me squirm in dreaded anticipation. The invocation of the m word. I get all fidgety at the mention of missionary work and the often pause that follows the announcement that we didn’t make the number goal for the last year, and then I begin in with fresh new guilt as another equally ambitious goal is set for the year ahead.