179th Annual

This past weekend, Kirk & I had the great opportunity of attending our General Conference in SLC. I had been on a tour of it a couple of years ago, but had never attended conference. Kirk had not ever been there at all. Our brother-in-law (Brent) is in the Stake Presidency in Arizona and had enough tickets to share with us. We were so happy they invited us - thanks Brent & Joan. There were so many great messages & I was so grateful to be there. I sadly have to admit that there are many times when General Conference is on, that I have too many distractions and don't always listen when I am supposed to. We were able to listen to the sessions we missed as we were traveling, so I think I heard more than I ever have before. It was great! One of my favorite things was how a reverent hush came over the congregation of 21,000 plus people when they stood as our prophet & his counselors entered each session, when only moments before it was so noisy with everyone filing in and chattering to each other. I also loved it when we sang the congregational rest hymns and music just filled that enormous building. Kirk said that when all the men stood in the Priesthood session and sang "High On a Mountain Top" that the spirit was overwhelming. We had tickets to the Saturday afternoon session, Kirk had a ticket to the Priesthood session, and then we both had tickets again to the Sunday morning session. Sunday morning included the opportunity to see "Music & the Spoken Word" in person as well.

I didn't realize that you had to go through an actual security check before being admitted to the conference center. I should have figured, but it is sad that our world has come to that. This is a view from the balcony of people going through security.

I didn't have my good camera with me, so it was a little dark inside and too far away to get a good picture, but this was Sunday morning just before "Music & the Spoken Word". We had really good seats on the terrace (middle) level. We had people from Japan, Australia, and England sitting all around us. It is so amazing to know that people come from all over the world to hear our prophet & apostles speak. There were a few protestors outside, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Makes you wonder what they hope to accomplish with 22,000 members who have chosen to come and WANT to be there. Interesting!

Here we are - Brent & Joan - Kirk & Maridon - right after the Sunday morning session. Kirk's brother, Kim, had teased both Joan & Kirk about not inviting him. He told Kirk that Joan told him he wasn't worthy; then he called Joan and told her that Kirk said he wasn't worthy. What a guy. SO..... we emailed him this picture and said "Only the worthy....." That was it! Hopefully he will talk to us again!Brent & Joan had Justin, Sara, and Stephen with them and three other friends from Joseph City, Arizona. One of the boys was with their Bishop, but on their way they had a bad accident and their Bishop ended up in the hospital in Kanab, then was later flown to Flagstaff with two fractures in his neck. The highway patrol pulled Brent's pickup over (Stephen was driving) to let them know and asked if they could take another passenger with them so he wouldn't miss conference. These kids were a lot of fun!

A new apostle was sustained - the 97th - Elder Neil L Andersen. It was announced that we now have over 13 million members, 2,818 Stakes, and over 52,494 full time missionaries. Our prophet and apostles spoke to us of hope, provident living, service, and temple work, among many other things. They encouraged us to be of good cheer and be grateful for our blessings, live righteously, and to think positive. I felt the spirit so strong in the Sunday morning session and it was amazing!