General Conference Weekend!

I always love General Conference weekend.  It really didn't start making a big difference in my life until I lived in Utah.  In California, when I was growing up, we only got the Sunday morning session - on the radio.  We'd sit in chairs in front of the radio in the living room and listen to the talks.  It was a pretty tedious stretch sometimes!!   And then we'd go to church for Sunday School only!  (Lots of people didn't come though!  I guess they thought it was a holiday or something!)

Lots of people in our ward drove up to Salt Lake for Conference - and then they'd give a report in Sacrament meeting.  It wasn't particularly meaningful to me - mostly in retrospect it is.  One man especially served as an usher, and he was always excited to report which General Authorities had come through his door!

After moving to Utah to attend BYU, we would take the bus up to Salt Lake City and see it either in the Tabernacle or the Assembly Hall.  I don't remember a whole lot about what went on - I have photos - so I know I was there!!  The first time I attended General Conference, Thomas S. Monson was sustained as an apostle!!  I did not really take note of it then.

The whole idea of General Authorities as people I could relate to didn't really occur to me until a few years later as I was able to watch conference on TV, and the men speaking - women didn't speak in Conference then - started having individual personalities to me.

After I got married and we had children, and because conference used to be on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I took to having it be my semi-annual ironing day!  I used to iron everything - and I mean everything - so it was a good way to make sure I didn't fall asleep during the talks!  And my kids seemed to not bother me when I was ironing - but they would have interrupted frequently if I had just been sitting on the couch watching TV!

In the "old days" when we had babies who napped, we'd drive in the canyon while the kids napped and listen to conference on the radio.  In many ways, there was an entire "culture" of activities surrounding Conference.  Now if you have to miss it, it's really easy to see or listen to what you missed, so making sure you get to listen at the exact moment it's going on isn't so vital I suppose.

The conference "culture" changed when we moved to California - we had to go to the Stake Center where it was beamed by satellite.  I remember being excited when we had a radio that could bring in all the sessions - but I still preferred being able to have a visual.

A couple of times, when I was YW President, and Harry was Bishop, we took the youth to Conference - we went in our van.  It was a great experience.

We have had times when someone speaking, or someone about whom someone was speaking, turned out to have a connection in our lives.  Once Elder Haight talked about Connie McMurray and how she fainted at the podium at the 8th grade graduation.  We were watching conference at the Stake Center - a part of Conference culture that is going by the wayside I think - and my kids simultaneously turned their heads and asked it that was their own Grandma Connie??  (and it was indeed!!)

It's also been fun over the years to find the people we know in the Tabernacle Choir.

So of course we were all delighted when our own Linda Reeves spoke in the Saturday morning session this time.  She did a great job - we were proud to claim her.

I ironed this time during the Saturday morning session.  I had not touched the items in my ironing basket - it's pretty good-sized - for probably over a year!  There were some pleasant surprises there too.  It was mostly table cloths, cloth napkins, tea towels, shirts, aprons, and pillow cases - the fancy kind that need ironing!  And I got them all done!  And I found a shirt I thought I'd given away!!

I will look forward to the May issue of the Ensign with all the talks.  I know I could go on lds.org and re-read them all, but I like to just wait for the magazine and browse.

So Spring Break is over, Conference Weekend is over, school starts back up tomorrow - at least there is summer vacation to look forward too!!