Oct 6-8 - Saturday to Monday

Saturday October 6 2018 - Contributed by Sister Tolman

This morning I woke up early and got going on Cinnamon Rolls.  I decided that I would make three dozen instead of the typical two dozen.  I got going and got them done.  I straightened the house and then got going on preparing mini frittatas.  I got them in the oven and went to get dressed.  Elder Tolman left to go down to get Angie and let her in the parking lot.  They got upstairs and started breakfast.   It was 8:30 in the morning and they were up and going. They said that they had been right across from dad and they were missing each other but finally made the connection.  After breakfast they headed across the street for the opening session of General Conference.  They said they would get something to eat after the opening session and then go over to the JSMB or the Tabernacle for the afternoon session and then come back after that.

Griffith Family outside the Conference Center just before the Sat 10am session of conference

So we decided that we would head to the JSMB for conference.  However it was full in the Legacy Theater so we went down to the chapel.  Things got off to a rocky start as conference started and there was no sound.  They worked on it and got it going about 7-10 minutes into the meeting.  It was interesting to watch Elder Tolman.  He was getting very antsy.  I told him he wasn’t in charge and to relax.  He said that he could tell that there was something wrong before the broadcast started and it was hard for him to not be involved.

The conference setting was amazing and we were glad that we were able to hear it.  I felt some very strong feelings as we listened to this session.  After this was over we left and decided to walk across Temple Square.  There were so many people it was unbelievable.  It was wall to wall people and they just kept coming.  All of a sudden coming toward us was President and Sister Johnson our stake president.  It was so fun to see them and so unexpected.  I didn’t even know they were going to be in town.  He said he had been hoping that we would be able to see us.  We greeted briefly and then they headed for lunch.

We headed home and had lunch.  We received a phone call and President Johnson said they were in the Legacy theater and wanted to know if we would like to join them since they had two extra seats.  We joined them and enjoyed the second session.  It turned out that the person I was sitting next to was a full time missionary and served in the same area as Sister Kate Lucas which is the Missionary Department on the same floor where I work on Tuesdays.  Sister Lucas is a member of our stake.

After this we headed back to the apartment.  Angie and Robert were also heading back to the apartment.  We had some kettle corn and talked for a while.  They had gone to City Creek for lunch and they each chose what they wanted to eat.  About an hour later Angie, Rachel, Emilee, Sarah and I headed across the street for the historic conference session.  This is the first time that they are having a women’s session on the Saturday night of conference instead of a priesthood session.  I was so excited that they had been able to get a ticket for me to go with them.  Thank you Angie.

The session was really pretty amazing.  It was the first time that all three members of the first presidency have spoken and it was special because they were speaking just to the women.  I forgot my notebook so I used the back of my ticket to take all of the notes for this session of conference.  Now I can save both of them.  It was quite an amazing feeling to hear 21,000 women singing together for the middle hymn "Now Let Us Rejoice" Hymn #3. The spirit was very strong.

We returned after having a picture taken of us using the temple as a backdrop.  We had Nacho’s and then celebrated Emilee’s birthday with cake and ice cream.   She took one breath and blew out her 12 candles.

It had been a great day and we were so glad to have spent it with the Griffith family here so close to temple square and in the shadow of the conference center.

Sunday October 7 - Contributed by Sister Tolman
This morning we got up and got the pork finished for the pulled pork sandwiches.  We finished getting things straightened up and took showers before the morning session of conference started. 

Conference again was amazing.  We watched the morning session in our apartment. President Nelson spoke and he talked of the importance of the name of the Savior’s church.  He said it is not inconsequential.   He said that as we don’t call the church by the right name we are offending God.  So now we figure how to make the necessary changes that we have used for so many years so that we don’t offend God in this thing.  He also said that as we do this thing and make this change the Lord will pour down blessings the like of which we have never seen.  Isn’t that worth it for that reason alone?  But what is the real reason that we want to do this?  We want to do it because we love our Savior, Jesus Christ and his father.

I am personally excited about the new change being adopted in January about the new meeting schedule and the importance of home and family study to draw us closer to the Lord.  Angie said that they talked about it and they are not going to just move ahead as taking away but adding to in a positive way.  They are still going to do their regular FHE but on Sunday they are going to have family study time on the new topics.  This year it is the New Testament.  The great thing is that the teaching guide is already out there and we can start planning now.  I love her attitude of not making it less just because of time but making it more because of the extra time they have as a family.

There were many other talks that I can and will listen to and apply.  Many of the talks this time came with assignments such as: Read and study the 138 section of the Doctrine and Covenants.  We will start going through them slowly this week.  I am so excited to get going on this.

As soon as the morning session was over we loaded up everything we needed for two meals and headed to Angie’s for the afternoon.  She was staying at a place right by the entrance to Mill Creek Canyon.  We had lunch of hot dogs or chicken strips and then settled in to watch the final session of conference.  They have a fun thing that they do to interest the kids.  For each talk they pick three gospel words like faith, happiness and gospel.  Then they listen for those words in the talk.  If those words are mentioned, they get candy for each time that they are mentioned.  Then they pick three new words for the next talk.  They get peanut butter m and m’s for every word.  If none of the words are mentioned, they get mini candy bars.  After each talk they pause the TV and talk about the talk and what it was about and what they liked about it.  Sometimes there were some pretty intense discussions.  It was pretty cool.  It is fun to see how different people handle this situation of listening to conference talks with younger children.

After conference was over we went upstairs and had pulled pork sandwiches and veggies and chips.  Some had extra pulled pork with chips and no bread.  

This was followed by cake and ice cream.  We left the ice cream there for them to finish.  We were able to talk awhile about some of the things talked about in conference.  It had been another memorable conference with the final thing announced being 12 new temple in places like Cambodia and Guam.  We are spreading the gospel to all the world this is really wonderful.  The wonderful part is that more of these people will be able to connect their families for eternity what a sweet blessing.  This will now bring the temple count to 201.

We returned home and looked up some of the materials that were talked about in conference.  They are really amazing and will really help us come closer to the Lord if we will study them.  We read and headed for bed.  We have a long day before us tomorrow.

Monday October 8

We spent a wonderful the day with the Griffith Family.  We started with breakfast at JB’s restaurant.  Sister Tolman has saved up for this year’s birthdays for the family and treated everyone to the breakfast buffet.

After breakfast, we traveled next door to the Family History Library.

Salt Lake Family History Library - Our Home away from home

We spent several hours in Discovery Zone.   Everyone had a good experience looking for where their family came from, what their name means, something about the year when they were born, finding famous relatives, etc.   Different experiences are available with different areas on the floor.  First you get a IPad and logon with your familysearch account and then connect the IPad to the different areas on the Zone to have the various experiences.

Main area of the Discovery area - notice the large screens

We then visited the 3rd floor where we work five days a week.  All gravitated toward reference books and enjoyed looking at several books including books with maps to books containing a list of all those who received temple ordinances in the Nauvoo Temple.   

Next we attended a noon recital at the tabernacle with 30 minutes of organ music and a demonstrations of the amazing acoustics in the tabernacle.  I believe that Angie appreciated the concert the most. Then we went to the South Visitor’s Center on Temple Square.  This center contains a lot of information about temples. We listened to the history of the Mesa Temple and several other temples.  There is also a replica of the Salt Lake Temple that shows the location of many of the rooms in the temple.

We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  We visited the first and second floors.  The second floor has a beautiful chapel where we meet on Sunday afternoons for church.

JSMB Chapel

JSMB from the South Temple

JSMB main lobby

Josh, Sarah and Emilee with statue of Joseph Smith

We stopped at Desert Book right across the street on South Temple.   Robert bought us all some lunch snacks which was just enough to help us last until dinner time.  

We finished the day with a tour of the Conference Center.  We visited all the floors and finished with a tour on the top of the Conference Center where there is now a park with all types of plants including trees.  Here are several photos from the tour.

Paintings depicting Book of Mormon events

Portraits of the First Presidency

The following are taken from on top of the Conference Center

The Griffiths went to the Seniors around 4:30pm to get a chance for one on one time with them as dinner wasn’t planned until about 5:30 or 6pm.  David Senior joined us for dinner.  It was a good way to finish the day.  This was a really enjoyable day for Elder and Sister Tolman to spend with the Griffith family.