October General Conference

General conference is this weekend! In honor of the occasion, I'm going to try to remember as many details as I can about October general conference. Surprisingly, I don't remember as much as I would like.

2011. Our home teacher Christian Ulmer brought us apple cider and glazed donuts on Saturday. The donuts weren't very good; I wonder if they were imitation donuts. I ended up eating four of them that day, since it was the last day of my birthday week in which I could eat anything I wanted. When President Monson announced that the Provo Tabernacle was going to be a temple, I said, "Whoa." That evening, my mom had gone somewhere, so my dad and I left to go to priesthood. We saw our neighbor, Jeff Pay, getting into his car, so we pulled up, and I rolled down my window and asked if he wanted a ride. Since my dad and I are not conversationalists, it was kind of an awkward ride. I can't seem to remember what I did on Sunday, except that I wrote a blog post.

2010. I think after the second session on Saturday, my extended family came over. We had "fat man's misery" because it was my last day of eating whatever I wanted. Then I got ready to go to priesthood session. I was wearing a blue shirt with a pink-and-blue striped tie. My grandpa said to my grandma that I looked like "Focal Point"; I think he meant Vocal Point. My dad and I took my grandpa to our stake center for priesthood session. During the Seventy's talk about going into the desert without shoes on, my grandpa audibly said "Scorpion!" when they showed the picture. I really liked President Uchtdorf's talk about pride. Then we came home. My grandpa told everyone President Uchtdorf's joke that his wife told him (referring to pride), "It's good to give a talk on something you know so much about." For some reason, my niece Allie had gone home with my aunt. My mom took me to my aunt's house. Allie was watching her Disney Channel nonsense and didn't like the idea of Peter watching something different. We came in and Allie said to my mom, pointing to Peter, "He's fat!" My mom reproved her, and then Allie said something we didn't hear. My mom said "Allison!" Sue said, "It's true," thinking it was still about the Peter comment, but my mom said, "No, what she said was, 'You are too.'" Peter said that she had to be nice to her grandma. Peter's friend Noah was there. Joey called Noah gay (or something) because of his "spiky hair"--never mind that a few months later Joey would sport the very same hairstyle. He also criticized his socks. After Joey left, Peter asked Noah if he had said he was gay because of the brand of his socks. Noah and Peter left (after Noah had said he wanted to watch Wizards of Waverly Place--I think facetiously). I looked at the October Ensign; Sue hadn't looked at it, so I told her how it was all about the temple. Eventually we left. Allie fell asleep in the car, and when she was asleep, my mom told me that Chancey's girlfriend was pregnant. Once again, I can't seem to recall what happened on Sunday.

2009. We missionaries watched conference at the stake center. At one point we had our mission leader for the singles branch, James Fowler, go with us to try to see some people at the poor-people apartment complex. We contacted a former investigator, but she wasn't ready. After the second session, we talked about going to dinner, but James suggested we (four of us missionaries) go to his grandma's house for dinner. We watched something on BYUtv, but then The Best Two Years came on, which we couldn't watch. But James did sing the line "Mama makes the best fried chicken" from the opening song before we turned the TV off. We were cutting it close on time, and when Elder Robinson said the blessing on the food, he prayed that time would go slow. After priesthood session, we snuck our second air conditioner out of our apartment so that our "landlord" wouldn't see. We put it in our trunk to return it to the Coopers, who had lent it to us, but they weren't home. This is what I wrote in my journal that night: "Rain seems to be common weather for conference weekend, and I love it. I really enjoyed many of the talks, especially Elder Oaks's talk about obedience and love. We didn't do much between our sessions the first time. Between the afternoon and Priesthood sessions we went with James to Sister Fowler's house and she made spontaneous dinner. After Priesthood we snuck our air conditioner out but couldn't return it; we also saw the Hardings.

I think the next day we went to the Clarkson elders' house between sessions; their members had made lunch for us.

2008. After the morning session, we drove to see a potential investigator. President Clark called us while we were in our car in that area and told Elder Duncan his new companion was Elder Hobbs. (President had already told me my transfer info the day before.) I think between sessions I also started looking over our area book to make sure it was updated before transfers. Then we went to the afternoon session; when President Monson announced the Rome Temple, everyone gasped. At some point we were talking with Sister Knighten, whom we lived with, about conference, and she talked about the gasp. Before the priesthood session, we went to the Aaronic Priesthood gathering at the Merrills' house (they lived right by the church) and ate pizza and ice cream. I remember one youth talking about the Brewster branch, how it was mostly Spanish speaking. There was also a joke about a branch being more like a "twig." We tried to ask a few people about who could give me a ride for transfers, but everyone was working. After the priesthood session, we went to Leslie Couch's house. We told her I was leaving to Ritzville; she seemed sad and that might have been the time she tried to hug me and thereby learned about the no-hugging-missionaries rule. (And if that weren't the rule, she would have learned the no-hugging-Elder-Melville rule.) She asked where Ritzville was, and Elder Duncan told her it was between Moses Lake and Spokane; Leslie said, "Oh, so it's still in Washington." I think we watched a conference talk with her, although maybe that was the next night. Then we biked home in the dark and we could see the lights from the fair of East Wenatchee's Aviation Days. I wrote in my journal that night: "Much of my work in this area has ceased. I really enjoyed conference today. Then we met with Leslie, and she really has been praying earnestly for her answer. That is probably the saddest thing about going to Ritzville, leaving Leslie's progression. I'm the only one leaving this district."

The next day, after conference, we had dinner with the Lacys. Brother Lacy was the mayor of East Wenatchee, and he gave us East Wenatchee pins--an airplane flying around an apple. I had found a yellow leaf, which I put on my lapel. Also at the Lacys were the Andersons, a part-member family, and Sister Anderson pointed out the leaf on my suit, not knowing I put it there deliberately. Then we visited a potential or former investigator; he also thought my leaf was unintentional. He seemed somewhat condescending about our beliefs, but it was more of a genuine disagreement, and he was nice enough to let us in and visit with us.

2007. I had to work the Saturday of conference. I told my manager Imad (uh-MOD) that my last day was going to be October 26. Then the power went out. I tried to help some people, but our label printers didn't work, and the checkers couldn't check anything out anyway. They had to close the store and herd everyone out; they left carts all over and people had the task of putting all their stuff back. I was glad I didn't have that job. Instead, we had to put plastic all over the refrigerated items. When the power came back on, my supervisor Kat told me to wait a bit to take the plastic off, in case the power went off again. But then Imad told me to remove the plastic. I told him what Kat had said, but he told me the power wasn't going to go out. I learned later that one employee had been trapped in the employee elevator during the power outage. As my coworkers arrived that day, I told them that the power had gone out, that someone had been trapped in the elevator, and that I gave my three weeks notice. As my shift ended, I noticed some dressed-up men and young men come in--they had obviously just come from priesthood session. When I went home, my aunt and cousin (or cousins) were there. I told everyone how the power had gone out at work; they didn't seem interested. Then that night my mom and I watched an episode of That Girl, and Quin seemed interested in it, but they had to leave.

The next day Allie got mad at me for something. She said to me, "You can't go to nursery anymore! You have to go to Sunday School with your mom and dad!" She always gave the funniest threats and punishments. I didn't think she realized that we weren't going to church that day.

2005. I got up and went to the Eagleridge building where they had bagels or something for us singers. Then we were driven to the Conference Center (I think by Scott Jones). There were protesters outside, with signs like "LDS is LSD." Hillary Ulmer was talking about how her dad would say their signs sounded like Book of Mormon passages that described themselves. We waited outside for a time while some people paraded around Temple Square playing hymns on bagpipes. We went inside and practiced our songs, thus missing the first session. They provided food, but there wasn't enough food, and I was toward the back of the line, so I didn't get much to eat. Then we went and sat in the choir seats. I remember an announcer saying that there were people who wanted to destroy the spirit of the meeting but that we shouldn't pay them any mind. I remember an early speaker talking about how a preoccupation with appearance can be spiritually damaging. I took notes on that, but I didn't pay as close attention as I should have. When we sang the rest hymn, "High on the Mountain Top," we didn't sing the whole thing. When we left, we saw all the priesthood choir people coming in.

2004. We had all of the extended family come over to watch conference. I remember watching my cousin-in-law Sarah's eyes roll back as she tried to stay awake. We ate chicken and rice. And then that night we all got sick from it and threw up.

2003. I remember on Saturday going to Target. They were putting out a display of boxes of the "Lucy at the Halloween Party" toy set from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. My mom got one for me for my birthday. We also got some Halloween peanut butter M&Ms. I remember sitting in the car listening to conference while we waited for David and Ya-ping to leave the store. I was anxious to listen to conference because my nefarious seminary teacher, Brother Heaston, made us do massive conference reports. When we went to the priesthood session that night, I brought a notebook to take notes, but it was too dark to take any.

2002. My home teaching companion Brother Naylor took me to the priesthood session because my dad was working. We passed a house on Lacey that had a huge Halloween display.

2001. I think before priesthood session I was looking at the new Peanuts comic book my friend David Christensen had got me for my birthday, but maybe this happened in 2000.

My aunt Terri came up on Sunday. She liked all of the homemade Halloween window clings I had made. We were watching conference on KSL when it was interrupted for some news thing relating to the Twin Tower attacks a few weeks earlier. Terri said, "I knew something was going to happen today." My mom wanted to watch the news report for a bit. Then we switched to channel 11 to keep watching conference.

2000. I went to my first priesthood session, but I felt bad because I wasn't ordained yet since I had just turned 12. We sang "Ye Elders of Israel" and my brother David told me I would grow very used to that hymn. (Boy, was he right!) I remember Bishop Mead looking back at us. I remember seeing someone from my primary class there, and I wondered why he was there if he wasn't twelve yet (he would be twelve in two weeks).

1999. I think this year we had gone to Fillmore for conference. When we left, Grandpa Boyd gave me Halloween Oreos for my birthday. We drove on the Nebo Loop while listening to my brother's Pink Floyd (The Wall) tape and I was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

1997. I wonder if this was the time my aunt and uncle were on vacation, so all the Thompson boys were at our house. We watched the morning session on Sunday; I remember sitting downstairs and my mom saying she appreciated the way Jesse and I were paying attention (or at least pretending to); I think she said this because Quin and Chancey were being a bit rambunctious. During the afternoon session, we were jumping on the tramp, and I remember saying I was glad my mom didn't make us watch the afternoon session. But maybe all this happened one April.

1996. For some reason of which I am not quite sure, I was baptized this weekend. Since my grandpa was a bishop, I wanted to be baptized at "his" church. I remember going with my dad and grandpa to the church, where my grandpa turned on the steamy font water. I remember changing in a room by the font that had a chalkboard; I remember thinking it was a weird place for a chalkboard. Then we went into the font. I was dunked, but I remember my uncle John saying that my toe had come up, so I had to be dunked again. Then we went into a room where we sang, I think, "Have I Done Any Good?" My cousin Jesse decided he didn't want to be there anymore, so he wanted to escape. So he went behind the curtains to see if he could go out the window. My aunt Michelle from the other side of the family was playing the piano, and she got freaked out by someone in the curtains and the song was stopped. She laughed. I was not amused at the goings on, but looking back I find it funny. My primary teacher Caroline Weight had brought me a little gift bag with a pencil and one of those things made of plastic canvas that opens two ways and whatever is in the middle (in this case, a bookmark) switches sides. We went to my grandparents' house for dinner; I remember we had deviled eggs. The adults were watching the afternoon session of conference. They were told to watch for my cousin Todd in the choir, and we did see him. That night, my parents gave me a blue scripture case and my very own scriptures.They also gave me a journal and told me to write about how I felt being baptized. I said I felt different when I came out of the water, but I don't know whether I really felt that way or if I felt prompted by my parents to say that.

I know that when I post this I'll remember more stuff!