General Conference trip, October 2015

We recently returned from a very special weekend in Utah with our family.  Jared did a wonderful write up that describes the events perfectly.  I added pictures.

Camille

In the fall of 2015, I felt a strong desire to take our little family to General Conference.  We’ve wanted to attend conference many times but it’s never convenient to make such a long trip, especially during the school year.  But when I realized there was a BYU home football game on the Friday night before, it made the trip all that more valuable.  I reached out to the Stake Exec Secretary and secured tickets for Saturday morning session and two for the Priesthood session.  We made the arrangements and pulled the trigger on our trip.  Everything came together nicely.  We knew it would be a quick trip but we really looked forward to seeing the prophets in person and experiencing the spirit of conference in person (and of course, singing the fight song after a Cougar touchdown).

We left on Thursday evening after school and Emma’s first basketball game and made it to Kennewick where we slept for a few hours.  We arose at 4 am and hit the road, making it to the Chik-fil-A in Centerville for lunch.

After a quick stop to stock up on BYU gear, we made it to the football game about an hour early.  Parking was easy and we changed into our newly acquired BYU gear and walked into the beautiful stadium.  The game was fantastic, BYU won 31-20.  The kids sang the fight song every time and were fully indoctrinated into the joy of Cougar football games. 

We fought some tough traffic after the game and by the time our heads hit the pillows at our dear friends the Olson’s, it was after 1 a.m.  That 7:00 am alarm clock was especially jolting but we arose quickly and got ready to attend the first session of conference.  After all, it was the whole reason we made the long trip!

After a fantastic breakfast of French toast with homemade syrup and a quick catch up visit with the Olsons, we piled in the van and drove downtown.  I distinctly remember pulling off the freeway at 9:15 and thinking that we had plenty of time but that we needed to hurry up a bit. We went to our assigned parking garage, finally found and spot and hurried over to the conference center where we dropped off Austin with our good friends James and Megan Amis.  Then we jumped into the shortest line we could find to get into the conference center, precious tickets in hand.  The line moved slowly and, just as we approached the entrance, an imposing man stepped in front of the group just in front of us, stopping the line from progressing.  After a few minutes of waiting he announced “the conference center is full, I’m sorry but we are closing the doors.”

My heart sank.  Camille and I looked at each other in total shock.  In my mind I thought, “no, this isn’t happening, I’m going to do whatever I have to to get my family into this building.”  I could tell that Camille had the same idea as we pushed forward and pleaded our case with one of the attendants.  They were sympathetic but wouldn’t let us in.  One of them suggested that we try door 4, where they let in the international visitors.  We ran around the corner, holding hands and feeling the desperation into little beads of sweat on my forehead and manifest itself in our responses to the pleading questions from our kids of “what’s happening, why can’t we get in, but we have tickets!” 

When we came around the corner my heart sank further when I saw a line of around 150 people at door 4.  And most were obviously not from the US.  Camille and I went to the front of the line and pleaded with the attendant to let us in, “we have tickets!  We’ve come all this way!”  In my mind I thought, “we are trying to do the right thing here, we are worthy to be here, we’ve made sacrifices to bring our family to the doorstep of hearing the prophet’s voice!  How can this be happening?”

My kids were in tears.  Hunter collapsed onto the ground and sobbed.  Camille and I looked at each other in disbelief and shock.  No matter what we did, we weren’t going to get in.  We had missed the wedding party and the feeling of helplessness was overwhelming.  We’d come so far and gotten so close and all for naught.  We sat on the stone landing wondering what to do next.  I talked to Hunter and helped him deal with the emotions of the situation as he was by far the most visibly upset.  As we sat quietly for a moment, a young woman from BYU-I’s press group asked if she could interview us on camera.  This cheered my kids up a bit but I’m sure our tear stained faces and sunken shoulders didn’t look great on camera.  My eyes welled up with tears when she asked Hunter what he was looking forward to most about conference and he said “hearing the prophet’s voice.”

After we spent some time dealing with our new reality, we discussed the idea of staying for the Sunday morning session.  Our original plan was to drive home on Sunday, arriving early enough to get the kids to bed and well rested for school on Monday.  But, we did have Sunday morning session tickets.  Just the Sunday before our trip, the Stake Executive Secretary had handed me tickets for the Sunday morning session even though I hadn’t requested them.  Later that day, I’d realized that we couldn’t use them so I’d offered to return them.  He suggested giving them away, which we’d tried to do but to no avail.  I’d actually promised them to James and Megan but once they heard that we hadn’t made it to the Saturday session, they demanded that we keep the Sunday tickets.  Looking back now, it was a tender mercy from the Lord that we still had those tickets and that no one we’d offered them to had been able to use them.  And James was so quick to give them back that I didn’t feel too bad taking them.  So we decided that we’d stay and attend the Sunday session and deal with the consequences of getting back to Seattle well after midnight.

The rest of the day was really wonderful.  It could really only go one direction anyway.  We listened to the rest of the Sunday morning session while seated on the grounds of temple square.  Then we walked over and had a great lunch at the City Center outdoor mall.  I ran into the daughter of my best friend from High School.  She was an exact copy of her mother, super friendly, happy personality and all.  We listened to the afternoon session partly in the tabernacle (got too hot) and partly outside (nice and cool).  We heard three new apostles called and got to sustain them (Rasband, Stevenson and Renlund).  We learned that they’d be speaking to us on Sunday morning, our session! 

(I overheard Emma tell Austin, "If this glass wasn't here, it would be so fun to play with Pollys in this.")

That night Hunter and I went to the Priesthood session.  We showed up a full 1.5 hours early.  I knew my cousin Jerry Palmer was going to be there with his three sons.  Jerry and I texted each other and were able to get seats right next to each other.  It was really good to catch up with Jerry and meet his sons.  I loved being there with Hunter and feeling the fantastic spirit that exists when that many saints are gathered together.  The song sung in the middle of the session was so powerful.  All those male voices singing together are very moving.

On the drive to Uncle Dave’s house that night, we had a long, heartfelt talk as a family about what had happened that morning.  I told them the story of the ten virgins that were waiting for the wedding party.  I told them of how the wedding party was really late and five of them were running out of oil for their lamps.  They asked the other five if they could borrow some oil from them but the five with extra oil didn’t have enough to give them.  So they first five had to leave to get oil.  While they were gone, the wedding party came through and the five with extra oil got to join the party.  Once the entire party was inside the house, the door was closed.  So when the five who had run out of oil arrived, the door was closed and locked and they couldn’t get in.  As I told this story, I could see in my kids eyes and in their voices that they knew they had just lived this story.  We had thought we were prepared, that we deserved to get in to conference.  But despite everything we tried to do, we couldn’t get in.  We had been so close to joining the saints and hearing the prophet’s voice.  We all knew that we didn’t want to be in a position to be left out, ever again.  We all realized that we have to be prepared, overly so, to make sure we get into the “meeting.”  I know this is an analogy that we will draw from for years to come.  It’s a powerful lesson that we all felt and learned from together.  And as hard as it was to go through, looking back I’m thankful for the experience.  And having missed out on the Saturday morning session made us really, truly appreciate being there for the Sunday morning session.  We will never forget any of it.

That night we stayed with Dave and Judy and their sweet dog, Elliot.  My kids loved Dave and Judy and of course the dog (a very sweet miniature poodle).  On the way back to Seattle, we asked the kids to name a couple of their favorite things about our vacation to Utah and Hunter said “staying with Dave and Judy”.

On Sunday morning, we didn’t mess around.  We got up super early and grabbed a quick breakfast of pop tarts and Fruit Loops (thanks Aunt Judy!) and got to the conference center an hour and a half early.  Once we got inside the building, we took a family picture of us holding out tickets, proof that we’d made it into the building!  There was a special spirit in the conference center.  It’s a feeling of pure peace.

As we took our seats we looked closer at our tickets and realized that we’d get to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform their weekly broadcast of “Music and the Spoken Word” before conference.  A bonus we were not expecting and another tender mercy.  The music was incredible and only added to the peaceful feeling and spirit of the meeting.  It was so amazing to gaze around the building and see 21,000 other faithful saints there to worship together.  You do feel a sense of connection between all of you.  And a connection to what is being said over the pulpit as well.  You just know that you are all there for the same reasons, to find and follow the Lord.  To find what he would have you do through revelation given through his prophet and apostles. 

President Monson spoke first.  He has always been a favorite of mine with really good stories.  As he spoke, his demeanor started to change slightly.  Pres. Monson started to slouch down as he became more and more exhausted.  First he leaned on his elbows and then his head started to lean down more and more until the microphone was above his forehead.  I remember saying a silent prayer, pleading with God to buoy him up and strengthen him enough to finish his talk.  I think that everyone there, and perhaps millions watching on TV, were saying the same silent prayer.  President Monson didn’t suddenly regain this strength and stand up straight but he did finish his talk.  And I know that millions of us felt closer to him having prayed mightily for him to receive strength in his time of need.

The three new apostles each spoke next and all shared their love and thankfulness for their wives and family members.  I loved each of their remarks and felt a special connection with Elder Renlund.  I loved the realness and rawness of his stories.  I was excited to be there to hear their first talks and I’m excited for the connection that my kids will now have with them throughout their lives.  My kids were there when these new apostles were first sustained and when they first spoke.  This is an association they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.  And these apostles will be “their” apostles as they grow up in the gospel.

After the session we drove to Michelle Butler’s house to retrieve Austin who was there playing with a second cousin he’d just met.  

We had a wonderful lunch and then began our journey home.  Somehow, I fell asleep for almost 5 hours in the van, waking up just as we entered Boise.  Because of this long rest, I was able to drive from Boise to Seattle without feeling even a tad bit sleepy.  We arrived home at 3:00 a.m.  The kids were a little late to school the next day but they all made it and I was able to work a full day as well.  Another tender mercy from the Lord.

This trip was something that we will not soon forget.  I’m so thankful for the inspiration we had to take our little family to conference.  I’m grateful for the experiences that the Lord provided us.  I know he looked out for us and lead us through a great experience that seemed unfair while we were going through it.  But the adversity taught us a powerful lesson and made the sweet things even sweeter.  I know that God loves me and my little family.