General Conference weekend

Me, Becki, Aimee, and Carol (last year in Salt Lake City)

Becki, Aimee, and Carol

This photo of fresh flowers in a springtime arrangement was taken last year during General Conference weekend from Temple Square in the foyer of the building where the Joseph Smith movie is shown. I went out there a year ago to a reunion with my former mission companion, Carol, who lives here in Austin, while our mission president and wife, Marvin and Sandy van Dam, were home briefly from Russia, where he works for the Church. It was so fun to go there with Carol (and met up with my dear friends Becki and Aimee) and stay downtown at Little America and attend a session of conference in the conference center.

This year was just as much fun, as I stayed home the entire weekend, relaxing with the family and just watching movies and all four sessions of conference from Saturday to Sunday. In the meantime, Lindsey and I watched four movies, starting on Friday night. (Kelly and Christopher joined us for one, but played computer games in the meantime.) Conference was much better than the movies, by the way! I also did some cutting for Tuesday's card camp to keep from falling asleep. It's so cozy watching the speakers at home, that it's easy to find myself dozing off. But keeping busy doing brainless activities was a way to multi-task and feast on the wonderful words of our apostles and beloved prophet. If I were to choose the one talk which stood out in my mind the most, it would be that of President Faust, in the Sunday morning session, as he spoke about immediate forgiveness, and referenced the Amish community from the tragedy that happened last year, and gave a few other examples. I look forward to getting my Ensign to read all the talks again during the next six months.

For dinner tonight, I cooked a turkey, seasoning it with a peppercorn and garlic rub, and it turned out so delicious. Now I'll be making turkey meals this week with the rest of the 12-pounder!