GENERAL CONFERENCE

 

                                                                                                                                                                      

GENERAL CONFERENCE                                                                                                            OF THE  CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

                     

I didn’t always like General Conference.  Oh, when I was a teenager, it was a great adventure when my folks would let me with my cousin Lynn Butterfield use Conference as an excuse to go alone to Salt Lake City. Our dads both worked for Union Pacific Railroad, and we could ride the train for free. We would board the train at midnight from Rawlins, Wyoming, where we lived and travel all night for a 9 am arrival in SLC.  (This was the 60’s. No one was worried about our safety like you would be now!)  Lynn’s married brother Roger lived there, as did five of my sisters.  We usually crashed at my sister Marcie’s apartment since she was a student in SLC and had no entanglements with husband and family. 

 

Ostentatiously, we were there for Conference.  In those days Conference lasted three days and included the Sunday closest to the 6^th of either April or October.  Maybe Sunday was the first day or the last day of the proceedings.  But we crammed in shopping trips—Z.C.M.I. (Utah’s department store) and all the other stores were up and down Main Street, not clustered in Malls as they are now—and always a visit to Keeley’s, a popular little hole in the wall that served delicious sandwiches and delectable ice cream sundaes.  We could only afford one treat there each time.  But Conference time was sale time for the merchants, and I always went back to Rawlins with at least one pair of shoes from Baker’s or one of the other now long-gone shoe stores. 

 

Once in a while, we would stand in line and jostle for seats in the Tabernacle.  Most of the time if the weather was nice, we would sit on the lawn and “listen” to the talks, then try to get a glimpse of President McKay as he left the Tabernacle.  David O. McKay was the Prophet for a long time when I was growing up.  Got a lot out of that.  RIGHT! 

 

Years later as a BYU student, groups of us would go to Temple Square for Conference (by then it was only a two-day affair) and sit on the lawn visiting with each other. Got a lot out of THAT, too.  Oh, I had my favorite speakers.  But still no impact on me.  Even when Conference began to be broadcast over cable television in my Wyoming hometown and our Sunday meetings were cancelled so we could stay home and watch, I wasn’t really interested.  In fact, I used to dread those long hours in front of the TV.  My dad would insist I come out from my room to the front room and watch with the family—he who didn’t even go to Church!  Did I get anything out of it?  I doubt it.  I always used to watch in my pajamas, and doze off or daydream, waiting until I could be “released”. 

 

I am not sure when Conference began to take on a new dimension in my life.  I suppose it was when I had sufficiently matured to understand  the scriptures better and know that the General Authorities were the “prophets” spoken of in those books.  Maybe it was when I started putting something into Conference—not as George Washington put it, “going like an empty bucket to be filled.”  Like actually being present while I was listening!  That was when I noticed some of those talks had something for me to learn from and apply in my own life. 

 

Marvin J. Ashton’s talks were always about the temporal side of life—personal finances and relationships.  I could relate to those things.  One April I remember watching Conference from my hospital bed the morning after my 4^th baby Jeremy was born and being so grateful when President Kimball spoke of food storage that I could hold my head up because we had a good amount in place.  I remember Elder Packer’s talk about spiritual crocodiles, President Benson’s landmark address about pride, Elder McConkie’s testimony of Christ (and I just felt he was going to be dead soon—and he did die just days later) and others on and on through the years.   I remember the eloquence with which Elder Maxwell spoke about being disciples of Christ and feeling that maybe, just maybe, I might be on the road to being one.  Too many General Conference memories to list.  But now I look forward to Conference.  I want to hear the broadcast, I feel uplifted when I read the talks during the following months. And since I spend a lot of time in my car, I listen to the CDs of past Conferences featuring both the spoken word and music from the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. I appreciate these spiritual influences.

 

I have changed.  And these days I am grateful for the Lord’s direction to us in this way.  We can’t go wrong in listening to and implementing into our lives the principles which the Prophets present.  That I am a better person for making Conference an important part of my life is readily apparent to me. Of this I testify and encourage you to make Conference meaningful this October 1^st and 2^nd.  Session times are Saturday 10am, 2pm and 6pm   Sunday 10am and 2 pm. Streamed live on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and the church’s General Conference YouTube channel, though there are many other platforms that will be streaming the broadcast.

Russell M. Nelson, Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will preside at the two-day conference this weekend.