Nov 14, 2011

My first trip to Temple Square for conference at the age of 56. 10/5/2009

In October of 2009 I was given an opportunity to get tickets for General Conference on either a Saturday  or Sunday. I choose the Sunday afternoon tickets and got 6 of them so that I could invite Tia, Scott, Brittany and Jeff A. So when I went and picked up the tickets I was also given a parking pass for a parking plaza about 2 and a half blocks from the conference center.

We had to be there by 1:30 P.M. so I figured we should leave right after the first session and travel together to SLC and go to the Conference center.  However since there were 6 of us and each of our cars would only carry five we decided to take 2 vehicles which then created the first problem, where to park the second vehicle. As we got closer Scott decided to find a spot on his own and we went toward the address. I turned one street to soon and due to the traffic travel became extremely slow. I finally decided to let Marie, Britt and Jeff out and they could then walk up and get the seats. Little did I know I would have to turn away from the parking spot and end up going an extra 10 blocks to get to the right street so I could park. I had to go up about 6 levels before I finally found a spot and then realized that there would have been plenty of room for Scott to park also. However it was too late for that since I had even had to call Marie for directions since she had taken the directions with the tickets, even my ticket. I parked and rushed to the elevator and went to the bottom floor. While in the elevator Britt called and I discussed with her where we were to meet. I then followed the lead of several college students and we ran a good portion or the way to the conference center however the J walked (ran) across the street while I went on up to the crossing light and had to wait for  couple of minutes before we could all cross.  I then went to the outside left of the group and began to fun again. In front of the Church Office Building there is a pull in area for cars to unload passengers so unlike the rest of the group I went to the left and followed the sidewalk rather than cross thru the pullout like everyone else was doing. As I rejoined the group I started to walk again and reached down to get my phone so I could call and see where they were again. To my horror it was gone. So I turned around and retraced my steps all the way back to the bottom of the elevator shat in the parking plaza. Needless to say I was tired but I hadn’t found the phone and just figured that someone must have picked it up and would have taken it into the lost and found by that time. So it was now getting close to time for conference to actually start so I turned around and started running back again taking the exact same path that I had just taken and now twice and see if I could see the phone from a different perspective. Well I did not 5 steps from where I had first missed it across the street from the conference center in front of the office building. It had slid up against a cement barrier and there it stayed no one picking it up because they were all still cutting through the pull out rather than following the sidewalk. I was glad that day for the laziness in general that we as mankind have when it comes to walking. I had missed it when I turned around because it could only be seen when walking the opposite direction.

Well I picked it up and called Britt and discovered that Marie was waiting outside of door 22 for me and we only had 10 minutes to spare. (That was when I had really started wishing that I had J Walked three time myself rather than having to wait for the lights.) I went on across with the crowd though and found Marie who then informed me that since we were late we would have to go down to door #4, all the way around to the northwest side of the center passing 14 or 15 other entrances. So we did and the line was luckily only a few feet long and we were able to enter without much further delay. We then went to the second floor but was told by the ushers that there were no seats left there and we would have to go on up to the balcony, well we explained that our children were there and still had seats for us so they let us enter. Luckily Marie had already been to the seats and roughly knew where we were to go and as we were almost there then Scott also found us and took us the final few feet. I was so relieved to sit down and there was even 5 minutes to spare before conference started. I had time to say thanks to my Heavenly Father several times, which I did, for prompting me to leave so early and then leading my feet back to my phone in the meantime.

We enjoyed conference and I was even somewhat entertained by following where the cameras were located and which one was currently transmitting the images on the large screens to the sides of the conference center. In fact the thought often occurred to me that it was like being home in front of the TV since the screens were much easier for me to see from the second level than were the speakers at the podium.

We left the conference edified and having enjoyed the one time we were able to be at conference in the center with the Prophet and other church leaders. We walked out of the second floor across the hall and out the door where Marie had first met me which was also ground level and right by the street I had crossed after finding my phone, I had sure taken the long way to get there at first. However I think Marie and I were both silently vowing to never go through that again even though I had now learned all of the ropes and it would not necessarily be so difficult getting there the next time, but we would both rather skip the travel to and from and spend the time with our children and grandchildren instead in the comfort of our home.  When we had walked the 2 and a half blocks back to the parking plaza I had to admit that I really had failed to notice which level I had parked on due to the stress of getting back together with all of them, We went to the 6^th floor and, well, nope it wasn’t on that one so I quickly bounded up the steps to the next level and finally to the eighth level where it was parked somewhat by itself with plenty of parking had Scott followed us there as well. We called them and found that they had parked in a three minute zone and had a $30 dollar ticket waiting for them. Well we left the parking terrace after going down the first four floors rather quickly and then getting stuck in the rest of the traffic trying to leave from the lower floors. It took us nearly a half hour to get back onto the streets of SLC and another 20 minutes to get to the freeway. I was sure Scott and Tia were halfway home by then but we then discovered that they had been diverted around several different streets and actually were almost a half hour later getting home than we were. Needless to say I was glad to get home from a 2 hour session of conference nearly 6 hours after leaving home to go to it.

I love conference but now I know why I love to watch it on TV.