General Relief Society Meeting

Last Saturday was the General Relief Society Meeting in Salt Lake at the Conference Center. I don't know how it happened that all my family (well, most of them) have managed to attend meetings in the Conference Center but me, but it was the case. Mike and I were going to be in Provo for a family baby blessing (Eric and Brittney blessed their new baby on Sunday), and it just made sense to go a day early, so I decided I wanted to try and attend this meeting. I contacted a Provo friend and she got us tickets. Silly me, I didn't realize it would help to have tickets. Duh. I think we would have gotten in OK. Maybe even on the floor area and not in the balcony. But our seats were in the balcony and right in the middle. We were there in plenty of time. All those people and I didn't see anyone I knew. Suzanne saw a lady or two from her ward in Provo. I was watching for one of my student workers, but didn't see her. Like I said, I LOT of people.

Twenty-thousand women, visiting before the meeting and then

suddenly

not in a wave-type pattern, but

very suddenly

EVERYone was on their feet and silent as the Prophet and his counselors walked onto the stage.

It was very impressive.

You could hear a pin drop. No whispers, no talking. Utter and complete respectful silence.
Awesome.

The meeting was awesome as well. I enjoyed all the speakers very very much.

http://new.lds.org/pages/general-rs-meeting-sept-2010?lang=eng

above is a link to the highlights.

Suzanne and I went out to eat after the meeting and we had a nice time visiting. We were back to Provo by 10 pm, so it was a long afternoon. We left Provo around 4 pm to get there in time to park, walk to the conference center.

You know, just the logistics of all those people were quite amazing. I've been into the Conference Center for tours, I've been to listen to the MoTab during a Thursday night rehearsal while I was at a Library Conference some time ago. I attended a Christmas program some years ago with Eric when it was his choir who were the "warm up" for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. ha. [Not really. The kids sang in the lobby of the Conference Center before the Christmas program. There's a CD of that very concert and I sent it to Eric for Christmas last year, without knowing when I bought it that it was the same concert. Nice coincidence. I just thought I was sending him some MoTab Christmas music.] But in all those other times in the Conference Center, there were not the full crowds. This Saturday brought crowds. And they flowed very smoothly.

I was also very impressed with the choir. They all looked perfect. The sounded great, of course. They never moved, they didn't fidget (granted, they WERE adults--but still!! that's hard to not move and scratch your nose. ha) and were all sitting just so. And the choir director was always in the right spot at the right time when the lights moved off the concluding speaker and onto the choir. They stood up in unison, perfectly. Well, it looked pretty perfect to me, anyway. The big cameras were fun to watch, too. And the monitors are essential to anyone viewing a meeting. The place is so big that it's impossible to tell who is who as the podium is so ffffaaaaaaaaarrrrr away from your eyes. Opera glasses would be in order, perhaps. Funny, I've never seen anyone at Conference using opera glasses. The monitors work quite well. ;-)

So, that was my fun experience at the Conference Center. Thanks, Suzanne! Couldn't have done it without you.