April General Conference in Salt Lake City

The Oquirrh Temple, just a couple of blocks from Michael & Emmy's home.

It is not very often that we are able to travel to Salt Lake City, Utah for General Conference, but this year we made it. Last year at this time we went to SLC for Conference, but returned home just as soon as we got there, because my father passed away. So this year, we took my mother with us, and we were able to attend two General Sessions plus Ron attended the Priesthood Session. It was a wonderful conference. We left Camano Island on Thursday, April 1st and drove to Pendleton. We had planned on staying the night there, but there was a severe storm coming in from the west, and we didn't want to get caught in the spring snowstorm, so we rested a couple of hours then packed up my mom and started driving again. We drove all night and arrived in SLC around 7:00AM Friday morning. (I think we are getting too old to drive all night.....we got to our son Michael's house, and crashed.......well not literally....we just all laid down and took a nap!)

We took our grand-daughter Elena, who is 9, to General Conference with us this year. Ron dropped us off at the corner of the Conference Center while he parked the car. Elena, my mom and I found the door we were supposed to enter and got in line. The doors don't open until 8:30. There was already quite a long line, so we had to wait about 15 minutes in 35 degree weather before we were able to enter the Conference Center. Ron eventually found us inside.....we had a seat in the main section on the main floor, close to the middle. There is a special spirit when you are sitting there in person, compaired to watching conference over television. The Tabernacle Choir sounded fantastic........you just can't get the same effect watching TV. All of the talks were wonderful, and we came away feeling very edified.

We watched the afternoon session at home on TV at Michael and Emmy's house. Afterwards I tried to take some pictures of our grandkids, Elena, Alexander and James.......it was hard to get them to hold still long enough to take a picture! (but they had fun posing for the camera....)

My cute, but goofey grandkids...

Elena, 9, was really good while attending conference. It's a long time for a 9-year old to sit still, but she did great.

Our son Michael, in front of an oil painting that Emmy painted. (pretty handsome son, don't your think?)

We got spoiled rotten with good food while we were there. Emmy made fluffy rolls, apple pie and cinnamon rolls. Yum! I'm sure that we all gained a pound or two.

Below, my mom Thelma Lindsay with Emmy.

Saturday night after the Priesthood Session, I wanted to drive over to the temple and take some photos. It was 35 degrees outside, and Ron didn't get home until about 10:30, but we drove over there anyway. The temple is set on a ridge and shows up from all over the valley when it is lit up at night. I took this photo with about a 20 second shutter speed.

My mom took her little point and shoot camera inside the Conference Center, so she was able to take this photo of the Conference Center Organ and Choir members and General Authorities as they were filing in before the Conference started.

We stopped to visit Ron's parents, Doris and Joe Southworth. Doris fed us a wonderful lunch of homemade soup and homemade bread. Like I said earlier, we got really spoiled with great food.

Below, Elena with her great-grandparents.

Before we left SLC on Monday morning, we went up to the Church Office Building and met with Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi of the First Quorum of the Seventy. He and Ron have developed a close relationship over the past couple of years, ever since Elder Kikuchi came to our Marysville Stake Conference. We had thought that we would visit with Elder Kikuchi for a half an hour or so, but we visited with him for 3 hours! He is one of the kindest and sweetest men that I know. He took us on a very special tour of the office of First Presidency....very few people ever get to see that room. It was an extremely beautiful and peaceful place. Then as an extra special treat, Elder Kikuchi took us to the cafeteria in the Church Office Building and bought us all lunch. How often do you get to have lunch with a General Authority? It was a very special experience and we had a wonderful time talking to him and exchanging stories.

Our journey home was amidst wild weather......it was snowing sideways through southern Idaho and the wind was blowing like crazy. We rested in Twin Falls, Idaho at my Uncle Ed Cook's house.....he also fed us a great supper. We continued on to Pendleton Monday night, getting there late, around 11:00 PM. I'm very glad that my mother was able to take the trip with us. She had never been to Conference in the new Conference Center before.....and she was able to see Michael and his family. The next morning, Ron and I started the final drive home.......we drove over Stevens Pass instead of Snoqualmie Pass because there is a lot less traffic. It was a beautiful drive home. I think that we literally sat in the car for 4 days, but it was worth it to be able to attend General Conference in person, and sit at the feet of the Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. Maybe we'll attend October Conference as well.

PS. I need to add a rather humorous story that happened on the Friday night that we arrived in SLC. We had a "missionary reunion" with three of Ron's mission companions that served with him in Denmark: Scott Southwick (and wife Jana), Tom Farmer (and wife Karen) and Todd Kimball (and wife Robin.) We met at the Grand America Hotel in downtown SLC for dinner, at the Garden Cafe. Todd brought a photo of when they were all in the missionfield, and it was interesting to see how everyone had changed. (I have to interject here, that Ron had aged the least......he still has all his hair and it is still brown!) Todd was an eye doctor, Tom was a dentist, and Scott is a banker.

During the course of dinner, Ron leaned over to me and quietly told me that his tooth had just broken....he had been eating a salad of all things! We didn't say anything to the rest of the group, but poor Ron had to deal with the jagged edge of his tooth. As we were walking back to our car, Scott and Jana walked out with us. Scott said: "I didn't say anything during dinner, but my tooth broke while I was eating our salad." Both my eyes and Ron's eye got real wide in astonishment. Then Ron told Scott that his tooth had broken as well. It was Scott's turn to get wide eyed. Then Scott said, "Well, mine was on the right upper side," to which Ron replied, "That's exactly where my tooth broke as well!" We all had a good laugh about that, because neither one of them wanted to say anything in front of Tom about their broken teeth!

Ron and Scott's birthday's are only a couple of weeks apart.....so we all came to the conclusion that our bodies are wearing out at all the same time. Darn.....what's next?