If you didn't know this weekend was LDS General Conference, that means we don't have regular church meetings, instead we are welcome to go to the chapels to gather and watch the talks, however most people decide to stay home. We still uphold all of the normal Sabbath day observances and most people will still wear Sunday dress too, it just feels nicer at home in my opinion (or someone else's home) plus you get snacks, blankets and all that fun stuff. It also means that those of us with early morning meeting times outside of the Mountain Time Zone don't have to get up anywhere near as early...this is a big bonus. Especially because this year it meant I got a lie in on my birthday, oh and it meant that fast Sunday was a week early which is nice for birthdays too.
During conference Church leaders talk to a packed conference centre of 21,000 people as well as the millions viewing on screens around the world in 94 translated languages, 80 of which are translated live in the room. They talk to us about the important topics of the time such as the Refugee Crisis, they teach gospel doctrine with stories from their lives and they generally guide and uplift us. The talks are interjected with beautiful music from local stake choirs, the Missionary Training Centre choir and the Mormon Tabernacle choir and wrapped up with some pretty cute 'mormon message' videos. All in all it's pretty awe-inspiring.
I guess to the outside world it must seem mind-numbingly boring, and I will raise my hand and admit that when my first April Conference rolled around I put off watching it until I could just watch one small video at a time over a few months. This was my first October Conference and even though I was excited to be a part of it I managed my expectations just in case it was as boring as I thought it might be. Not the talks so much as the fact that its several hours long...hours... How can I watch older men and women talk on and on for hours without having something else to occupy me? Sure, I could take notes but that's just as boring, there was nothing for it but to try not to yawn constantly, right?
Wrong! Those hours don't feel like hours at all! Some of the talks didn't speak to me quite as much as others, which is completely fine and to be expected, but even those held my attention well. I took some notes, snacked a little and even coloured for a while but my attention was always listening for the answers I wanted to hear.
I was trapped by the spirit, and I was 100% happy with that.
Anyway, I wanted to give you guys a short little run down on what this crazy Mormon conference thing is, hopefully I managed that. If you wanted to watch a few of the talks, read some summaries of just have a nosey around you can find them all on www.lds.org and after a little while on the mormon.org youtube channel.
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