General Conference...

The blessing of my being ill last weekend was that I planned to be home all weekend anyway. 

Twice each year we have General Conference for our Church meetings. This conference is held in Salt Lake City. There are five session. If you were on Mountain Standard Time they would be at 10am and 2pm for everyone with an evening session at 6pm for the Priesthood (all the boys and men). Then Sunday there would be 10am and 2pm sessions for everyone. These conferences are always held the 1st weekend in April and October. Often Easter falls that first weekend in April. I've wondered if the community wonders why in the world there is no big Church service going on Easter in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the land. Really, we are attending Church, just in our own homes and for a lot more hours than just the Sunday meeting schedule.

As a child, I can remember being able to finally receive the broadcast over the radio. Our family would gather in the living room around the radio and listen to any session we were able to get. Then we would write letters to the radio stations so they knew there were people listening to these broadcasts and they might feel inclined to broadcast again the next time we had General Conference. You often didn't know until right close to the time of General Conference is a radio station in our area would be broadcasting conference.

Then they were able to send a 'feed' to the meetinghouses and we could go there to actually see, on a movie screen at the front of the chapel, the faces of those speaking. It was truly a marvel to be able to get that kind of broadcast.

Now we can watch General Conference via BYU-TV on satellite and cable. Most people stay home conference weekends and view these broadcast (except the priesthood session) in their own homes. Although all sessions are also available at the meetinghouses for those who don't get satellite or cable.

When Claude was called as Bishop in Maryland, we were given tickets by our stake president to seats for a session of conference in the tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. It so happened that Cordell, Claude's brother was also Bishop in his ward in Utah at the time. He and Julie, his wife, also got tickets and the four of us went to two session of conference together. It was delightful to sit in that old building with them as our Prophet at the time, Gordon B. Hinckley, announced the building of a LOT of new, smaller temples around the world.

This broadcast not only goes to the members of the Church in the United States but across the world. Now things are done so quickly you can hear the messages given again by going to lds.org and clicking links to get to them in a few days after the conference. It is truly amazing.

I love General Conference. We curl up in front of the TV, I keep my tablet and pen by my side, I make notes of who spoke and their topic and any quotes I want to remember. This year I had two quotes that really touched me. Here they are:

During one of the talks Pres. Harold B. Lee was quoted as say, "Apparently the gospel is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable."  This elicited a nice chuckle from the congregation.

Another quote was stated by the speaker as follows:  "A person cannot give a crust to the Lord without receiving a loaf in return."

In May and November we receive the Ensign, the Church's magazine, with each talk published in print. I read these cover to cover and highlight quotes and ideas and stories I want to remember. Can't wait for the May Ensign this year to re-read all those wonderful talks. 

I'm happy, if I had to spend a weekend not well, it was General Conference weekend where I could be filled with that 'healing balm' of gospel doctrine plain, pure and simple.