Silver Fox
Brothers and Sisters, General Conference is this weekend! I have to admit, I was thrown off when I found out that it would be March 31st and April 1st ; typically held the first weekend of the months of April and October, I thought Conference would be April 7th & 8th.
That Conference even consisted of two days wasn’t made known to me until about age 14, at which point I was told, “You only have to go to one session, and Sunday morning is the most important one.” Has anyone else heard that? I can’t be the only one. Of course at that point in my life, even only going to the one session was not the most enjoyable experience for me: we had to dress in Sunday clothes (I kind of loathed dresses in my younger years) and then go to the church and sit in the chapel with the lights off and watch Conference on one of two televisions. It wasn’t even projected onto a big screen, just the standard-sized chapel library T.V.s. Living in Utah makes Conference more accessible to those of us who can get it on the local cable channel; living in The Future makes it easier for all of us, with our fancy newfangled media devices (I love living in The Future).
Of course Conference is much more than the Sunday morning session. Two general sessions are held on Saturday, and two on Sunday, with the Priesthood session being held Saturday evening. I feel like I’m in the minority in participating in Conference on Saturday (Free Sunday, anyone?), but I enjoy making an entire weekend of it, and I prefer to experience Conference via radio rather than television so that I can listen while cleaning or ironing or doing some other sort of busy work. By the time it’s over, I can hardly believe I spent a total of eight hours working on those little jobs while listening to those messages over the radio, and most times I wish there were more to hear.
During the past couple of years, I’ve sometimes found myself on twitter during Conference. This may seem contrary to participation in Conference, but the truth is that I remember many main points from Conference talks by following #ldsconf, as well as find opportunity to interact with others having insights on the talks. There have been a few instances, however, when I’ve felt sort of cheeky for being on twitter during Conference . . . like during the Sunday morning session in April, 2011 when President Uchtdorf was giving his talk and tweets such as, “Okay, okay, when are you going to talk about flying a plane?” abounded. People were literally counting down and ‘placing bets’ (not actually placing bets; more like just guessing) on how many minutes into the talk the aviation references would begin. And then, our beloved President Uchtdorf uttered the following: “With so many social media resources and a multitude of more or less useful gadgets at our disposal, sharing the good news of the gospel is easier and the effects more far-reaching than ever before. In fact, I am almost afraid that some listening have already sent text messages like ‘He’s been speaking for 10 minutes and still no aviation analogy!’” (source) Oh snap. Busted. I’ve often wondered how many souls left the TwitterStake that day from the simple feeling of having been caught being naughty.
This weekend, I’ll be attending one of the sessions at the Conference Center with my three oldest daughters. I imagine I’ll tell them about the Good Old Days of having to sleep outside Temple Square, sometimes in the snow, in hopes of scoring a seat in the Tabernacle, and when there was no room left in even the Assembly Hall, scores of college kids and families could be found outside playing Frisbee and having picnics on the grass, all under the guise of Being At Conference. Fun times.
What are your plans for General Conference? Do you have any traditions which you love? Or don’t love? Do you plan to participate on Saturday, or is Sunday the main day for you? How do you participate?