General Conference
I really don't have a lot to say, but thought I would write here anyway.
General Conference has come and gone, and I just thought I would write to say that it was a good conference. They announced five new temples including one in Rome. That was a pleasant surprise.
Saturday morning, I got up around 5:00 AM. Our son had to be to the Conference Center by 6:00 AM so he could be an usher for this conference. That was a long day for him, as he was to stay until 9:00 PM. As it set, he was able to leave around 8:15.
It rained all day Saturday. At times it got a little bit heavy. We watched the morning conference together. That is, I watched it with my wife and daughter. She actually watched all of the sessions of conference because she had to fill out a paper for seminary. I think this is the first time for her to watch absolutely everything. I know I never watched it all when I was her age (let alone at the older ages that I am now). Between the two conference sessions, I headed to the store to pick up some groceries for a homemade beef stew on Sunday. I got home in time to take care of a couple more errands before sitting down to the next session of conference.
For the priesthood session, I had two tickets to get in (compliments of my son by being an usher). I had asked Lance Abplanalp if he would like to go with me, but he told me Friday evening that he needed to go out of town. I was kind of disappointed because I was looking forward to spending some time with him again. I left home right after the afternoon session ended. I wanted to make sure I could find some parking downtown.
Parking downtown is a real pain. Especially with all the construction going on around the area temple square. I was a little bit frustrated with the church not letting me park under the Conference Center. The ushers all were able to park under there because their name tags allowed them in. When I had dropped off my son, I asked if I would be able to get some kind of pass to park there because it was for him that I was coming to pick up. I was told no. It seems to me that they should've allowed for something like this, as I was not taking up any extra space under there, but rules are rules. I was a little irritated though. I mean, after the hours of service to not allow this seemed kind of crazy to me.
Downtown was busy. I got there in good time, but then getting up to the Conference Center took a long time in backed up traffic. I was glad that I had left as early as I had. I was seeing all the parking for $5.00, and hoping that I would not have to do that. I drove up West Temple (crawled is a better verb here), and then turned on the street right behind the Conference Center. The south side of that road was reserved for emergency vehicles, and I watched as a parking space got taken on the North side just before I got there. I decided to turn around at the top of that street and go the other way. There is a stake center just North West of the Conference Center, and they were only allowing people from that stake to park in their lot (I'm sure it was because of the Satellite feed going there). But right out on the street in front of it, a young couple left. I got my free parking, and it was closer than any paid parking I could've done. Of course it was raining pretty hard. I brought an umbrella and a jacket for my son.
I had to be in my seat by 5:30. Since it was raining anyway, I decided to go in instead of seeing what was going on around the building. I didn't see any protesters, and I really think most protesters were fair weather "friends" as I was told by a group behind me that they had seen only one. They wondered if they shouldn't have dropped him a couple of bucks because he was out in the rain and they thought he looked homeless. It was 5:00 when I sat down. Around 5:30, my son had somehow seen me from clear across the Conference Center and up one level from where I was. He has good eyes, because it was hard to see any kind of details of people that far away. I tried after he had come over to talk to me for a minute. He said it was easy because he knew I would probably be early and he knew that would mean I would be sitting near the front of my section (which he knew where that was). I don't see the simplicity of it, but he did.
Before the Priesthood session started, I talked to a guy that sat next to me. He was from Argentina and didn't speak English very well (but then who does). We were able to get some basics out, and he told me how wonderful it would be to have one of those new temples in his neighborhood. I never figured out how close it was to him, but it sounded like the closest temple to him was about 6 hours away and he said they were lucky to get to the temple twice in a year. I haven't been to the temple as often as I should and this was one of those times when I realize how much we take having the temples right in our neighborhoods for granted. I watched as they got some machines that hook up to an earpiece so they could listen to conference in their own language. It was kind of neat to be in the Conference Center for this session. There is a whole different feeling of being there in comparison to sitting in your own Stake Center. I did miss having my son sit next to me though.
At the end of conference, I called my son to see where he was and what he was doing. I couldn't understand him too well as there was a lot of noise. We both hung up and then he was right in front of me. He saw me just as we hung up and joked about us being five feet away from each other when we talked (I'm sure it was more than that, but not by much). He was able to leave then. He asked me how I had gotten his jacket in there in a Walmart bag because they usually took those kind of things from people and checked them in. I did get stopped on my way in because I forgot about my Palm Pilot in my jacket pocket and I beeped getting through the security gates.
Getting home was kind of a pain. We got stuck trying to get out of there for about a half hour of just sitting there (oh we moved about 15 feet in that half hour). We did stop in at Wendys in order to get a shake on the way home (that's kind of tradition for going to the Priesthood session that I got from my father).
We arrived home and then he went to bed. He had a slight headache from the whole days events. They did feed him a pork lunch and a chicken dinner while he was there. He also said they had all kinds of soda pop including Coke although it was caffeine free. He said that some of the older ushers brought in their own soft drinks because they didn't' feel they could go the whole day without getting a headache from caffeine withdrawals.
We were going to let our son drive downtown for Sunday, but because it was raining hard we decided we had better drive him. I'm kind of glad that we did because it wasn't easy when I hit a couple of places where there was standing water. The rain was hard and furious (just the same as it was on Saturday when I headed downtown). Anyway, I dropped off my son and headed back home. I was able to go back to bed for a little while and got up in time to watch conference. Both sessions were good. I actually thought all sessions went really well. There are a couple of the apostles that I have a harder time with, but I won't get into that here. For the most part I really enjoyed what was said. I was told to come pick up my son at 5:30. I got up there by 5:15 and my son called a few minutes after I got there.
This time, downtown had been cleared out by the time I got there. I saw a few of the protesters walking back to their cars with their signs under their arms. One simply said "Mormons are not Christian". My son tells me that when he was coming to the car, one protester was in a red cape and started to scream at him about the "stupid Mormons" that are going to hell and that he was going to heaven. He said that it was at the top of his lungs that he was yelling all of this while dancing around. I have never understood why people think they need to dress up like Satan to tell us that we are going to hell while they are going to heaven, but to each his own. My son had also noticed a whole lot of protesting outside while he was taking care of things. The favorite job my son had was to be in the area where they have peoples belongings. He mentioned to "old" guys that were a part of the ushers who started to have a contest to see who could get the things back to the people at a faster rate at the end of conference. Of course this was running the boys around a bit. At one point the one said he was giving the other an Indian curse and started to do some kind of war dance with Indian sounding lyrics. This set the other guy off and they were in each others faces doing this stupid "war dance". My son said it was funny because one of the volunteer sisters saw them doing this and looked at them like they were off their rockers (which I suppose they were). But it was pretty funny. I guess men always remain competitive and do stupid things for their whole lives!
Well, we got right home. The rest of the time at home was just spent in relaxing around the house, and enjoying our dog and family.
General Conference has come and gone, and I just thought I would write to say that it was a good conference. They announced five new temples including one in Rome. That was a pleasant surprise.
Saturday morning, I got up around 5:00 AM. Our son had to be to the Conference Center by 6:00 AM so he could be an usher for this conference. That was a long day for him, as he was to stay until 9:00 PM. As it set, he was able to leave around 8:15.
It rained all day Saturday. At times it got a little bit heavy. We watched the morning conference together. That is, I watched it with my wife and daughter. She actually watched all of the sessions of conference because she had to fill out a paper for seminary. I think this is the first time for her to watch absolutely everything. I know I never watched it all when I was her age (let alone at the older ages that I am now). Between the two conference sessions, I headed to the store to pick up some groceries for a homemade beef stew on Sunday. I got home in time to take care of a couple more errands before sitting down to the next session of conference.
For the priesthood session, I had two tickets to get in (compliments of my son by being an usher). I had asked Lance Abplanalp if he would like to go with me, but he told me Friday evening that he needed to go out of town. I was kind of disappointed because I was looking forward to spending some time with him again. I left home right after the afternoon session ended. I wanted to make sure I could find some parking downtown.
Parking downtown is a real pain. Especially with all the construction going on around the area temple square. I was a little bit frustrated with the church not letting me park under the Conference Center. The ushers all were able to park under there because their name tags allowed them in. When I had dropped off my son, I asked if I would be able to get some kind of pass to park there because it was for him that I was coming to pick up. I was told no. It seems to me that they should've allowed for something like this, as I was not taking up any extra space under there, but rules are rules. I was a little irritated though. I mean, after the hours of service to not allow this seemed kind of crazy to me.
Downtown was busy. I got there in good time, but then getting up to the Conference Center took a long time in backed up traffic. I was glad that I had left as early as I had. I was seeing all the parking for $5.00, and hoping that I would not have to do that. I drove up West Temple (crawled is a better verb here), and then turned on the street right behind the Conference Center. The south side of that road was reserved for emergency vehicles, and I watched as a parking space got taken on the North side just before I got there. I decided to turn around at the top of that street and go the other way. There is a stake center just North West of the Conference Center, and they were only allowing people from that stake to park in their lot (I'm sure it was because of the Satellite feed going there). But right out on the street in front of it, a young couple left. I got my free parking, and it was closer than any paid parking I could've done. Of course it was raining pretty hard. I brought an umbrella and a jacket for my son.
I had to be in my seat by 5:30. Since it was raining anyway, I decided to go in instead of seeing what was going on around the building. I didn't see any protesters, and I really think most protesters were fair weather "friends" as I was told by a group behind me that they had seen only one. They wondered if they shouldn't have dropped him a couple of bucks because he was out in the rain and they thought he looked homeless. It was 5:00 when I sat down. Around 5:30, my son had somehow seen me from clear across the Conference Center and up one level from where I was. He has good eyes, because it was hard to see any kind of details of people that far away. I tried after he had come over to talk to me for a minute. He said it was easy because he knew I would probably be early and he knew that would mean I would be sitting near the front of my section (which he knew where that was). I don't see the simplicity of it, but he did.
Before the Priesthood session started, I talked to a guy that sat next to me. He was from Argentina and didn't speak English very well (but then who does). We were able to get some basics out, and he told me how wonderful it would be to have one of those new temples in his neighborhood. I never figured out how close it was to him, but it sounded like the closest temple to him was about 6 hours away and he said they were lucky to get to the temple twice in a year. I haven't been to the temple as often as I should and this was one of those times when I realize how much we take having the temples right in our neighborhoods for granted. I watched as they got some machines that hook up to an earpiece so they could listen to conference in their own language. It was kind of neat to be in the Conference Center for this session. There is a whole different feeling of being there in comparison to sitting in your own Stake Center. I did miss having my son sit next to me though.
At the end of conference, I called my son to see where he was and what he was doing. I couldn't understand him too well as there was a lot of noise. We both hung up and then he was right in front of me. He saw me just as we hung up and joked about us being five feet away from each other when we talked (I'm sure it was more than that, but not by much). He was able to leave then. He asked me how I had gotten his jacket in there in a Walmart bag because they usually took those kind of things from people and checked them in. I did get stopped on my way in because I forgot about my Palm Pilot in my jacket pocket and I beeped getting through the security gates.
Getting home was kind of a pain. We got stuck trying to get out of there for about a half hour of just sitting there (oh we moved about 15 feet in that half hour). We did stop in at Wendys in order to get a shake on the way home (that's kind of tradition for going to the Priesthood session that I got from my father).
We arrived home and then he went to bed. He had a slight headache from the whole days events. They did feed him a pork lunch and a chicken dinner while he was there. He also said they had all kinds of soda pop including Coke although it was caffeine free. He said that some of the older ushers brought in their own soft drinks because they didn't' feel they could go the whole day without getting a headache from caffeine withdrawals.
We were going to let our son drive downtown for Sunday, but because it was raining hard we decided we had better drive him. I'm kind of glad that we did because it wasn't easy when I hit a couple of places where there was standing water. The rain was hard and furious (just the same as it was on Saturday when I headed downtown). Anyway, I dropped off my son and headed back home. I was able to go back to bed for a little while and got up in time to watch conference. Both sessions were good. I actually thought all sessions went really well. There are a couple of the apostles that I have a harder time with, but I won't get into that here. For the most part I really enjoyed what was said. I was told to come pick up my son at 5:30. I got up there by 5:15 and my son called a few minutes after I got there.
This time, downtown had been cleared out by the time I got there. I saw a few of the protesters walking back to their cars with their signs under their arms. One simply said "Mormons are not Christian". My son tells me that when he was coming to the car, one protester was in a red cape and started to scream at him about the "stupid Mormons" that are going to hell and that he was going to heaven. He said that it was at the top of his lungs that he was yelling all of this while dancing around. I have never understood why people think they need to dress up like Satan to tell us that we are going to hell while they are going to heaven, but to each his own. My son had also noticed a whole lot of protesting outside while he was taking care of things. The favorite job my son had was to be in the area where they have peoples belongings. He mentioned to "old" guys that were a part of the ushers who started to have a contest to see who could get the things back to the people at a faster rate at the end of conference. Of course this was running the boys around a bit. At one point the one said he was giving the other an Indian curse and started to do some kind of war dance with Indian sounding lyrics. This set the other guy off and they were in each others faces doing this stupid "war dance". My son said it was funny because one of the volunteer sisters saw them doing this and looked at them like they were off their rockers (which I suppose they were). But it was pretty funny. I guess men always remain competitive and do stupid things for their whole lives!
Well, we got right home. The rest of the time at home was just spent in relaxing around the house, and enjoying our dog and family.
posted by Craig's Blog at 11:39 PM
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