I love General Conference

On Saturday we went to Salt Lake to General Conference to attend the morning session. We were meeting Rainee, Doug, Carson and Doug's parents so that we could all be together. Rainee had decided that it would be fun to go and since Doug's Dad is being released as Stake President in May she thought she should take advantage of the tickets. Carson turned 8 in February so he would be able to attend for the first time. We were able to get some tickets as well and Jessica and Mac had obtained tickets for the afternoon session. Jessica and Mac attended Jessica's missionary reunion in Orem on Friday so they thought they would work their way back to Salt Lake and go to a session on Saturday. When they found out we were going to go to the morning session they thought it would be more fun to go with us. We were unable to find one more ticket so they could come but I thought if they tried to get one in the standby line they might have a chance. At the last minute on Saturday morning they decided to brave the cold and stand in line but when they were walking to the conference center there was a man who was trying to get any extra tickets any one was willing to give up. Well they had 2 tickets to the afternoon session so they told him they had 2 but needed 1 for the morning session. He had a ticket so they traded and they met us at the conference center. It was just so great to have all of us together and we were able to sit and partake of the beautiful spirit that is in that building. The witness you receive when the Tabernacle Choir sings is so strong and powerful that it is truly amazing. The talks were just as powerful and it is such an uplift when conference is over (I love the feeling that you can pretty much conquer anything).

After the session we went to Doug's sister's and had lunch with his family. Mac and Dad were also able to get tickets to go to the Priesthood session that evening and attend with Doug and the men in his family. We dropped off Mac and Dad and seeing the "Army of Helaman" congregate in one building is really a sight to see as they walked towards the Conference Center. We went shopping at the Gateway while they were in the Priesthood session. We were going to pick them up afterwards. The story of getting through the traffic to pick them up is now hilarious but at the time it was quite stressful. We were going to meet them at 3rd East and South Temple.We were driving and when we got just past the Conference Center there were about 3 fire engines with flashing lights and firemen were directing traffic off of South Temple and up into the Avenues. We started driving up the hill and went into a DEAD END! We turned around and went up the next street and it also was a DEAD END! After the 3rd DEAD END and passing the same cars a couple of times we decided that the only way out was the way we came in. We could not figure out what the firemen were thinking directing traffic into a DEAD END! When we got back to where the firemen were they had opened the road back up so we went back the way we had intended to go in the first place! Well because we weren't where we were supposed to be of course Mac and Dad kept walking and we played try to find Mac and Dad for 15 minutes. To increase our frustration they had also put their phones on vibrate so they couldn't hear the phones ringing and we were driving around trying to figure out where they would be. I guess we could call this Drama the"Comedy of Errors" or maybe we should call it the "Keystone Firemen", since they were running around directing traffic up 3 DEAD ENDS. We made it back safe and sound to our hotel and the rest of the evening was much less stressful.

Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast and drove up to Liberty to listen to conference at Grandma and Grandpa Shaw's and visit with all of the family. It was a great day and after listening to Conference I feel so motivated to do more, be better, and endure to the end. I love it!