General Conference #2

Conference was amazing! We drove down on Friday with Anna Hauser and our granddaughter Makindra (8 yrs old). Took the truck & trailer with the Tahoe loaded inside the trailer. We didn't realize that BYU was playing Utah State that night. We thought we had made it in ahead of the rush hour traffic. BUT.....where the traffic usually thins out at the Point of the Mountain, it just got heavier. It took us 2 hours to drive the 60 miles from Salt Lake to Orem. We were supposed to get into Orem about 4:30 pm, but we arrived a little after 6:00 pm. We went to dinner at Golden Corral, then picked up a few things at Walmart. They are both near the Hampton Inn where we stayed.

We had tickets to the Saturday afternoon session that started at 2:00 pm. It was quite the adventure to get to the conference center. We had breakfast at the hotel, then left Orem about 11:30 for the drive to Sandy where we got on the Trax train for the 30 minute ride to the Temple Square stop. We walked the 1 1/2 blocks to the conference center where there were people standing on the corners with signs, shouting how we were all doomed and losing our salvation, etc. for our beliefs. I told Makindra ahead of time that there might be protesters and not to pay attention to them, just ignore them and keep walking. Once we found our entrance, we went through security scanners and found seats in the balcony section. That was about 1:00 pm. We had to be in our seats at least 30 minutes ahead of time or risk losing them to standby attendees. We couldn't see the podium, but there were two big screens so we could see the speakers. In our session, the general authorities were sustained by the members, so it was neat to be able to sustain President Monson and the others in person. The session ended at 4:00 pm.  I thought it was interesting that we had tickets to the balcony, but all of the stand-by people came in about 1:45 and sat in the lower section closer to the front.  I wonder about the process used to distribute the seating assignments.

Our view of the Dais:

After the session, we made our way back to the Trax stop and waited our turn to get on a train. We didn't have to wait too long. Lynn, Anna & Makindra stood, but a sister moved her granddaughter onto her lap to give me seat (give up your seat to old people - LOL). She said that she and her husband had just returned on Monday from serving a two year mission in East Berlin Germany.  She was still getting used to the crowds and traffic, etc. in Utah.  I can imagine - I still can't get used to it - LOL.

We met Kristie Grover for dinner, then she took Makindra with her to paint pumpkins with friends.

We went to Penny & Harlo's to visit and when Lonnie got off work, he picked up Makindra and brought her to us.  We bought ice cream and sherbet at Macy's for everyone.  Had a good visit with family.

This next morning, Anna, Makindra & I left for home.  It rained until we were 36 miles outside of Burley, then we hit a snowstorm and it lasted until we got to Jerome.  After that, more rain until we got home.