Friday evening I accompanied JellaMama to her mission reunion up in Salt Lake, and enjoyed showing off Jella (although most of the RMs there just found it extremely weird that JM had a baby and avoided us--I loved it). It was a potluck and we didn't bring anything, so JM didn't eat anything. I had three plates (of food). We left early and visited some friends up in Salt Lake that we never see and had a fabulous time. They're pretty much the coolest couple in the world, despite the fact that they're both engineers. They still know how to converse with the human world, and pretty darn well even. I wish they lived closer. Sigh. Good. Times.
Saturday morning watched Conference, which was wonderful. Immediately after the morning session was over we left for Salt Lake again because we had tickets to the afternoon session. Yippee! I have never seen Conference in person, so I was really excited. JM knew that it would be a huge hassle to get Jella there and everything, but she accepted the tickets because she knew how excited I'd be. What a woman. Anyway, as I was about to drop her off to go get our seats, we decided to actually look at the tickets: "Children under 8 not admitted." I had actually heard that before, but apparently didn't think that it applied to Jella. Since we were all the way up there, we decided to listen to the session from a lawn on Temple Square, where I heard Elder Holland's superb talk. Probably my favorite of the weekend, although it had some stiff competition from Elder Nelson's, President Hinckley's Sunday morning Forgiveness talk, and Elder Bednar's Priesthood Session talk. Anyway, have any of you been to Conference live? I had heard about all of the madness outside the conference center with the Anti-Mormons in full force, but it was different up close. I would really like to talk one-on-one with a rational person of that scene, but I find that they are hard to come by. I would like to speak with them to find out what their purpose is. I don't believe that it possibly can be to change minds or to convert, so what would the purpose be? If their purpose is to convert, I would like to give them a few suggestions: screaming obscenities about men that we all feel a deep love and admiration for doesn't win any hearts. I could teach them the commitment pattern. It might actually do the Kingdom a little harm as they might have some success, but at least then I wouldn't have to listen to the offensive crap they're spewing. I would repeat it, but I wont. It was somewhat humbling however to enter the walls of Temple Square and not hear any of the outside madness--only the singing of The Choir and the sound of peace. So that was nice. As was laying on the grass with my little family looking at the temple and hearing the words of prophets. Could it get better?
Yes! Afterwards, we stopped by the Church Museum across the street. We saw some newly acquired Rembrandt etchings there, and although I wouldn't generally be a huge fan of drawings by some famous old guy, these were truly amazing. I highly recommend visiting the exhibit. Did you know that Rembrandt died with only one possession: his bible? He made art at a time when the Catholic Church didn't commission it, and therefore made all of his biblical art for free. So all of the etchings were completely free of Catholic or Sectarian influence (unlike Michelangelo and others)--just his own impressions after reading scripture. Maybe because of this, even just etchings had a very different spirit about them. We also walked through the new Joseph Smith exhibit and were again extremely touched. It was a wonderful feeling to have the Spirit confirm that the truth about Joseph Smith was being spoken inside those walls--not by the people with picket signs outside.
Went to Priesthood Session at the Marriott Center that evening, and find it funny how few men can take up so many seats in that stadium. If it were a Relief Society broadcast, all the seats in one section would be taken up before moving to another one. For the Priesthood Session, all sections were populated, and most men took up more than one seat. Good stuff. Afterwards, Jella, JM and I had my parents' gift card treat us to late never-ending pasta bowls at Olive Garden. We were there, and we were family. So I guess they're right. Nothing interesting to say about that, just another detail to show that this weekend was the best. Ever. To top the day off, Jella slept for 7 hours that night. Pure bliss.Sunday morning another pair of good friends came over to watch the session with us. They will also be one of the coolest couples ever once they're married in two weeks. The session was amazing, of course. Occupation's commercials between sessions, however, were not. I was sorely disappointed after hearing so much about them. Jella Mama also continued her long tradition of making cinnamon rolls (that take a good portion of the day to make) on Conference Weekend, much to the delight of all of our neighbors. And me.
I have a question for you. Here's a scenario for background: Between sessions, you might have seen a little video narration of a book about the walnut tree in President Hinckley's back yard that was turned into the pulpit in the Conference center. It was a cute little thing, and is an extremely touching story. I had good feelings about the whole deal until I saw the end credits, and who narrated it. I saw that it was an administrator here at Occupation. I have never met this administrator. He or she seems like a good human being. So why did I not like the little ditty anymore once I saw that he or she narrated it? Hmm... I'll let you know if I figure it out.
The Giant came over again today to do his laundry. I heard that he went inside the dryer to look for a sock and found a half-goat thing named Tumnus. That must have been cool.Bottom line is, that was the best weekend ever! Conference impressions?
1 comment:
Since you already have my conference impressions, I'll spare you here. The only other thing I have to say about is about the Walnut Tree. My b-in-law built the pulpit, and that walnut tree was dead and rotten to the core. So they could only get a very thin laminate out of it to just cover the front of the thing, and the real pulpit is built out of some other trees, because there's no way one tree, even a good one, could produce enough wood for that thing anyway. So I love President Hinckley and his story, but it ceases to be as inspiring to me when I know the truth about it. Maybe that was the underlying reason you didn't like the commercial--not the narrator.
Also, I could have told you about that baby problem. There's a room in the Conference Center they would have sent you to. Maybe next time. Or next time, why don't you just give me your tickets?
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