General conference

General conference is a bi-yearly broadcast of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This year's was historic because of our new prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. Michael and I were uplifted by all the sessions. We watched the Saturday sessions and the Sunday afternoon session in our hotel room. Michael went to the priesthood session on Saturday night. He and Zach went for a hamburger for many years after the priesthood session but he came straight home last night.

We went to church for the Sunday morning session because the ward was putting on a pot luck dinner at the chapel in between the morning and afternoon sessions on Sunday. Morning session is only a figure of speech here. It started at 12:00 noon. The small children there were fairly unhappy, being both tired and hungry. Although I always enjoy the talks, the music in this spring's conference was exceptional. Who would have guessed they would sing "If You Could Hie to Kolob" with a different tune?" "Called to Serve" with men's voices only was as memorable as anything the Tab Choir has ever sung at conference. My daughter had mentioned her favorite hymns on her blog and I noticed that she had a favorite included as did I.

It's so weird being in a building that is shared with no other ward. We haven't been in a situation like that since Decatur, Texas. The pot luck lunch was totally organized because they had everything already set up. They have baskets full of plasticware, pitchers (the pitchers in the Old North road building in Denton disappeared years ago) for water and all sizes of paper plates. No one really seemed to be in charge but everyone pitched in and got it done. All the missionaries seemed to have investigators there which is amazing and refreshing.

I wondered what everyone would bring since it was bound to be different from potlucks in Texas. Here's what they brought: A whole roast turkey with mashed potatoes and about a gallon of homemade gravy, roast chicken thighs, a chicken casserole, meatballs, chili, three different scalloped potato dishes, corn, rice and rolls. (Heavy on the starch is not instructions to the laundry around here.) They also brought three different chocolate cakes, chocolate chip cookies and a white cake and some sugar cookies. One of the cakes was a decorated cake. It was two-layer and as big as the bottom of a very large wedding cake and had marzipan flowers on top. No green vegetables, no salad and no fruit. I brought five-cup salad (coconut, sour cream, crushed pineapple, mandarin oranges, and marshmallows). Michael said that they picked out all the mandarin oranges so next time I will make it six-cup and put in extra oranges. Now obviously a potluck is just that and the next time I go there might be all salads and green vegetables. But I was in awe of the generosity of the members who brought huge amounts of food to share with their church friends.

I met a lovely young mom from Longview, Texas and a man who graduated from Aubrey High School (he remembered going to the Martinos' ranch) and another woman who was born in Caddo Parish which is where my folks live. Small world.

One of my favorite things about watching conference is knowing that people all over the world are watching too. Time zones may separate us from our friends and family, but this worldwide church meeting brings us together twice a year for a common purpose.