General Conference (Part 2 of 4)

In Utah, there is a saying about General Conference: “When the saints meet, the skies weep.” In one hundred years of weather reporting, fifty-six percent of the conference weekends had been rained on. It came to be known as “conference weather.” But if it didn’t rain, then we had the most beautiful, shining day. It was like the heavens were either overcome with joy that they wept, or so happy
that they provided a beautiful day.
We watched conference on our TV in the family room, or listened to it on the radio while working on a project. One conference, I copied the whole Declaration of Independence while listening to the sessions on the radio. Sometimes, during the Saturday sessions we even took the radio outside, if it was good weather and worked in the yard with the radio booming out the voices of the speakers.
There were several general sessions of conference. Each lasted two hours. There was a morning and afternoon session on Friday, a Morning and afternoon session on Saturday and also a morning and afternoon session on Sunday. We heard talks by the General Authorities of the Church, great leaders who we respected and honored. They gave us counsel and direction, and motivated us to live better lives. The one principle I got from all of their messages was love. What they said, whether it was to chastise us for neglecting something like family prayer, or to encourage us to be more diligent in reading the scriptures, it was always said with love.