Conference On The Go!

The Beautiful, 21,000 Seat, 

 Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah

Twice a year on the first weekend of April and October The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds a worldwide General Conference in Salt Lake City.  During these weekends there are four two hour sessions that are broadcast via satellite and then carried throughout the world for the 14 million members to enjoy.  Many received it live.  During these meetings we have our General Authorities or top Church leaders speak to us on various principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This Conference is also viewed by many people that are not members of the Church via various cable companies. You may have even run across it yourself while remote surfing. 

Technology has allowed this to be viewed by the members in their homes via TV or computer streaming, in our meeting houses or in person.  We love to go in person but it is hard to get tickets and always so crowded with every seat filled in most cases.  The Conference is also available via the radio airwaves.  This year Jim decided to download the App for KSL radio on to his iPhone, then send the Conference via a cassette tape to our car radio.  Voila, Conference on the go!   Also in less than a week all the talks will be available via text or video on lds.org.  It is just amazing how far technology has brought us.  The days of sideband radios and cramming into the chapels, to view it via the dish or having to wait for the Ensign to be published to read it, are either completely gone or fading.

Everyone enjoys Conference in their own special way.  Lots of family traditions are set on how one might do it.  There are two hours between the Conference sessions which allow families to have lunch in between, nap or rest, or have guests over for a special meal or whatever.  We have tried all kinds of things.  What we have fallen into the last few years is watching at home via streaming on Saturday and getting dressed up and going to the chapel on Sundays.  It would usually be us, the guy running the broadcast via satellite, a few other people that don't have cable TV like us and every missionary in the area.

The point is everyone has a way that they like to spend these two weekends per year and which ever way you do it, it is a wonderful unifying experience for members of the Church.  We look forward to hearing the uplifting, inspiring and edifying messages our leaders have prepared for us about the Savior and his teachings.  One of our personal favorite things to do is just stop and think about all the wonderful LDS people we know and love and visualize us all sitting and listening to the same wonderful messages at the same time.  It is almost like being at a reunion, even though we may be separated by hundreds, even thousands of miles.  For those few hours we feel closer to you all.

Our first thought this morning was to go to San Francisco and find a nice, quiet, out of the way place to listen to the Conference.   Then Jim remembered it was Fleet Week soooo, that meant staying far away from the crowds and traffic jams in the City.  So we decided to go towards Napa and Mendocino and look at the beautiful vineyards and quaint little shops and gorgeous homes in that area.  Since we are going out to dinner tonight we decided to bring our usual picnic for dashboard dining.  Here are a few of our pictures of what we saw and did during the break between sessions.
 

Yountville's 1870.  It is a brick warehouse with lots of

 fun shops and art galleries and is

nestled in the heart of the wine country.

         

Jim and his new girl!

Cool Window

Beautiful shops and wares

I like this saying, we might have to put in up

 on the soffit above the stove, cabinets and sink.
I need a saying about garlic too!

 

Jim said I needed a photo with this pumpkin??

The Colors!  The Copper!

Lime Tree just achin' for a photo! 
Gorgeous and so healthy looking!

Have I told you lately that I adore Autumn?

Simply Stunning!

Gelato~yep, we ate dessert before lunch!  

Grown-ups can do that right?

As connoisseurs we decided it's pretty close
To the real deal! 

We drove around a bit and enjoyed the vineyards 

and the vineyard mansions.  The next thing we knew 

it was almost time for the second session of Conference.

We found a lovely grove of shade trees
 right across from this vineyard,
opened the windows and the hatch and 
soaked it all in.  The inspiration of our leaders,
the beautiful and peaceful surroundings,
 the fresh air, the quiet, 
a shared uninterrupted moment we thoroughly enjoyed
and won't forget any time soon. 

As we were heading back home Jim said, "So where shall we go tomorrow?"  We may be packing another lunch and heading to Colma to the Italian Cemetery for some solitude, a quiet place to listen to the Conference sessions again and to visit a little baby that died in 1908 that we have grown to love.  Pietro was Jim's grandmother's little brother.  He lived only 8 days.  He is not buried by any of the family so we like to visit him once in awhile.  The only difference is we won't be shopping around since it's Sunday but we count that as a good thing.  Yep, we might just do that.

 If you are LDS, what did you do for your special Conference Saturday?  I know that the Saturday night session is a special time for fathers and sons.  Our son, Chris, and his oldest son, Connor, got to go to the Conference Center in Salt Lake.  Their ward only got two tickets and they got them.  They were really excited about it.  We just love Conference and look forward to seeing all the talks again via lds.org in a few days.  Oh, and the music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is amazing too and brings such a sweet spirit to the whole weekend.  We can hardly wait for tomorrow!


Below you will find one of the quote from the Conference today.  Mormon is a nickname for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You can just substitute Christian for Mormon, as Christ is the center of our religion and beliefs.

Sister Ann Dibbs
Young Women's General Presidency
2nd Counselor