October General Conference

As members of the church, I think we often measure time by counting the months between one General Conference to another. I often remember being pregnant, laying on the couch watching conference and thinking to myself....by next conference I will be laying here holding my new baby...or within the last 2 years saying, next conference Alex will be on his mission, or next conference Mariah will be a BYU student. Well, 6 months ago, I remember distinctly saying, as I sat on the couch watching conference....next General Conference we will be somewhere in Central America, and trying to picture in my mind exactly what it would be like. Would we be eating chili and scones along with other yummy food like we always do during conference? Would we be tripping over puzzles, coloring books and legos that the kids have been working on for the past 2 days while we have camped out in the family room? I didn't know quite what to expect, but here is how it all went down:

We all got up at 6am Saturday morning to get ready and drive to the District Center in Liberia that is 1 1/2 hours away. We were not quite sure if we could get it without interruption through the internet at home and didn't want to take the chance of missing it. Lane and I had especially been looking forward to Conference this time. The kids were being pretty good sports about it. I had packed a bag of snacks, coloring books, crayons etc for the girls and Emma came with her basket of stuffed animals in tow. The District building is bigger than our church building in Santa Cruz, but not by much. There were several missionaries there along with just a handful of members from that area, and then our family. We had been told that they would have a separate room with a TV in english that we could watch. Although they did their best, they were not able to get that working for us, so we had to watch the first session in Spanish. While we didn't understand much of it, it did accelerate our motivation to learn! I sat there thinking...by next conference we WILL be able to understand this in Spanish if I have to eat rice and beans for every meal in between! Let's just say that Lane and I both have such a desire to learn this language and not understanding the talks just made us want it even more. The thing that WAS working was the AC unit and it was so cold in the room that I kept having to step outside just to get warm. Emma and I were sharing her little raincoat that she had brought, but that didn't offer a whole lot of warmth. I do have to say though, that even though we didn't understand all of the words, it was so nice to just see the prophet and other church leaders, hear the beautiful choir and see the temple grounds. There is something that is just so wonderfully comforting about all of that.

After the first session, we left and went to the best restaurant in Liberia, aka, McDonalds! ha ha....I was seriously just craving the ketchup. That sounds so wierd I know, but the stuff they call ketchup here is just not right at all. At least McDonalds has normal ketchup. We all ate a very unhealthy meal and then looked across the street to discover our next treat....Cinnabon! You see, General Conference has always traditionally meant "good food" in our house, so we were trying to keep things as traditional as possible.

We went back to the church geared up for the somewhat frustrating experience of trying to listen and understand in spanish, but we were pleasantly surprised that a couple of intelligent elders had been able to figure it out and we had another room to ourselves to watch it in english!

It was wonderful as I am sure you all know.

After that session, you guessed it...we made our way back to Cinnabon and shared some yummy hot cinnamon rolls along with a few other things. I am glad we don't live too close to Liberia for that reason!

It rained pretty hard all day, so the only picture we took was this one of us in the McDonalds parking lot. Lane was behind the camera getting wet since he couldn't hold his umbrella at the same time. The sacrifices he makes for us are endless :)

Lane and Abram went back to attend the priesthood session and the girls and I explored a little bit around Liberia, found the very small mall that they have and then made it back in time to get the boys. We actually got there a few minutes before it ended and we were able to see and hear the MTC choir that sang at the end of that session. It was a highlight of the day for me. Such an awesome powerful spirit hearing and seeing all those young Elders with their name tags on and ready to serve!

We got back home at about 9:30 pm and were exhausted but so thankful for such a great day.

This morning we decided to stay home and pray for no rain so that we could get all of conference on the internet. It was amazing that it only rained hard during the time in between sessions so we were able to view all of conference with only a few fairly short delays and freezes. What a blessing. It was fun for us because we knew that Mariah was there in the conference center with friends so anytime the cameras panned over the congregation, we were playing "where's Waldo?"....we never saw her of course, but it was fun just knowing that she was there.

It was a non-traditional conference for us in many ways, and we did not actually eat chili and scones like we have EVERY conference for at least the past 15 years, but we were together and happy, although very much missing our 2 oldest and I found myself thinking more than once...."by next conference, we will have Alex home with us again...."

I am truly thankful for a living prophet and apostles to lead and guide us. My testimony of the Gospel means everything to me and my heart is full today with love for my family and friends and all of my many many blessings.