Thoughts on General Conference - October 2008

I LOVE General Conference. It is an absolute spiritual smorgasbord. I love the spirit it brings into my home and the general feeling of unity that seems to be present among all the Latter Day Saints. I love the traffic jams heading towards all the Stake Centers a few minutes before 6:00 on Saturday night and the crowds of men and boys in their suits and ties at the grocery store after 8:00pm that same night. I love the messages of hope, optimism, and faith. And I love the boost it gives me to keep fighting the good fight and even try a little harder to be just that much better. What a fantastic way to spend a weekend. In fact I'm always kind of shocked and sad when it's over and Monday comes and thrusts us back into "the world" again.

My next several posts will be about General Conference. I'll begin briefly with President Monson's opening remarks for the Saturday morning session of Conference, Oct. 4th. He announced 5 new temples: Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Cordoba, Argentina; Greater Kansas City Area; Philadelphia, PA; and Rome, Italy. It was exciting to hear Philadelphia because Nate's sister and her family live there and will soon have their own temple. But the highlight of the announcement was, obviously, Rome, Italy. My reaction was much the same as the audiance who were audibly shocked and delighted. President Monson even paused for a moment because the reaction from the congregation was so overwhelming and then he smiled, nodded his head and said "Yeah!" and the audiance chuckled. I was actually quite touched emotionally and it was a really nice way to begin the next two hours of "spiritual feasting." What an amazing thing to have a temple in beautiful Rome, Italy. I can't wait to see the design of the temple. Incidentally, I've included a link to the Church's Temple Site which contains images of all of the temples across the world if you would like to see what they look like. http://www.lds.org/temples/home/0,11273,1896-1,00.html or if you would just like to know more about temples. Currently there are 128 operating temples with at least 17 more announced or under construction.

It is a testimony of the truth of the work and the fulfillment of prophecy that the work will continue to go forward no matter what, until the Savior tells us it is finished. I am thrilled to be witnessing such growth. I wonder what it must be like to be in an area of the world where there are no temples close by and to be listening to conference and hear it announced that you will soon have a temple of your very own. It must be so exciting. I will probably never have that experience. But every time a new temple is announced, it reminds me of just how blessed I am to live in an area where I can choose which temple to attend and not only that, but I can decide at the last minute and drive 20 minutes one way or 40 the other and be there. I love this, but I admit I don't truly appreciate the blessing. Otherwise, I'd be attending the temple a lot more frequently than I am now. We all would, wouldn't we?

President Monson closed his remarks by reminding us that there are still many areas in the world that are as yet unopened to the church. He asked that we pray for those areas to be opened. His remarks began the session with a remarkable spirit of enthusiasm, energy and joy in the work of the Lord.