Not Your Typical Easter

Parker and I had an unusual, yet amazing Easter weekend. Twelve boys (between 12 and 17 years old) and four adults from church drove to Utah to watch General Conference live. For those who may not be aware, our Church has General Conference every 6 months when our prophet, apostles, and other church leaders speak. This happens in Utah, but is broadcast throughout the world on TV, radio, and the internet.

Our experience began early Friday morning when we all met at our church in Concord and then took off in 3 vans. My van had 6 boys plus myself -- I think it was popular because of the DVD player (I have no other good explanation why our van would be packed while the others had only 3 boys each).

The trip was fairly uneventful until we reached Winnemucca, Nevada where we decided to stop for lunch. We had a cooler with lunch meat and other sandwich fixings, but the question was where to stop since it was about 36 degrees outside with snow flurries. After meandering around the town and seeing the finer sites of Winnemucca (don't bother including the town on your must-see vacation list), we looked up the LDS church in town and decided at least we could hang out in the parking lot to eat. Once we got there, there were two cars in the parking lot (some people were there to perform maintenance) so we were able to go inside and eat lunch in comfort. This was the first of several mini-miracles along the way that demonstrated we were being watched over with care.

We eventually made it to Utah, where we ate dinner at Wendy's and then split up to the two houses where we were staying over the weekend. We didn't arrive until about 10:30 pm, but our hosts were incredibly gracious, especially for people we had never met personally.

We got up about 6:30 am and then drove to Salt Lake for the first session of Conference. The picture below shows our group getting ready to watch this session.


Since we didn't have tickets for the second session, we watched it in the tabernacle (where the sessions used to occur before the conference center was built several years ago). Here's a picture from the tabernacle -- I was amazed at how small the building was compared to the conference center.

In-between the first two sessions, we went back to the parking garage and ate sandwiches, as shown in the picture below. Those people in cars leaving the parking garage gave us an assortment of looks -- which I interpreted to be either "Interesting, a conference tailgate party", "There's a motley crew" or "Hey, why didn't we think of that?"

Here's a view of the conference center from the outside. If you look closely, you can see the streams of people leaving the conference center after the second session. We were short a few tickets for the 3rd (priesthood) session, so a couple of the adult leaders started asking around and were able to round up enough tickets for everyone in our party.

Priesthood session was amazing -- I especially liked the talk by Elder Rasband who shared an experience of how missionaries are called to different parts of the earth. It was such a testimony that each call is made through specific inspiration from our Heavenly Father. I knew this was the case with my own missionary call, but this solidified my testimony that all calls are received this way.

We had pizza that night at the in-laws of one of our adult leaders and then, once again, got back late to our host family and went to bed "relatively" quickly.

We drove back to Salt Lake early the next morning and parked close to the conference center -- see below for a view from the parking lot.

We had 15 tickets for the session, so we were one short. After we got out of the car, one of our leaders walked over to another car that had just parked and asked if they, by chance, might have an extra ticket. They responded, "Actually, yes, we happen to have one extra ticket." Of course, this wasn't by chance and they didn't "happen" to have one extra ticket. We were being watched over once again by the One who wanted even more than us to have this trip go well. Here's a picture of all of us preparing to watch "Music & the Spoken Word" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir right before this session of conference.

When the choir sang "He is Risen" during this session, I couldn't help but think what an amazing Easter experience we were having.

We only had two tickets for the final conference session so most of the group went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building to watch this session. Parker and I were the lucky ones who were able to see our 4th live session. Below is a picture from our great seats for this session. As with each of the sessions, it was an amazing feeling when the prophet walked in and everyone stood in silence until he had taken his seat. Just to show our prophet has a sense of humor, he started to sit and then stopped and pointed with a smile at a few people in the front row that sat down prematurely.

Here's the view looking backwards from these same seats. The conference center is truly a magnificent building to behold.

Our Bishop had a friend who lives in Murray (close to Salt Lake) that was kind enough to feed our group dinner that evening. We had a great time visiting with their family and then, if our trip hadn't already been amazing enough, David Archuleta from American Idol stopped by the house (he's a friend of their family). We convinced him to sing for us (after the boys and then the adults sang for him) and he sang the most incredible version of "How Great Thou Art" that I'd ever heard. However, the testimony he shared with the group was even more amazing than his song. He talked about how he knows the Lord has been using him to share the gospel and despite all the fame he has been given, he's willing to give it all up and serve a mission if that's what the Lord wants him to do. Quite the contrast to the typical music star in the world today. Here's David with Parker (he took the time to take individual pictures with anyone who wanted one).

Here's a picture of the whole group with David.

Monday morning, we had yet another treat when Elder Christensen (from the quorum of the seventy) and his wife met us for breakfast and spent about an hour and a half with our group. Elder Christensen grew up in Concord and played football at both Concord High School and BYU and he was able to share his thoughts and feelings with the boys about decisions they will be making in their lives. Here's a picture of the whole group with Elder & Sister Christensen. It was the perfect final touch to a weekend that couldn't possibly have gone any better.

My only concern for the trip home was the significant snow that was forecast all day Monday across Nevada and in the Sierras. I know prayers for our safe return were offered by myself and many family members back home. While we had a few snow flurries during the day, I was amazed as I drove. It seemed there were constantly massive dark clouds on our left and on our right all day long with a break in the clouds consistently ahead of us. Each time we started to drive toward the dark clouds, the road turned towards the break in the clouds. Several times throughout the drive, I felt the strong impression that He who controls all things and who showed his power to calm the seas when He was on the earth was watching over us. It amazed me that 3 vans with 16 of His children were enough to alter the weather just enough to ensure our safe return.

As I mentioned, this wasn't your typical Easter for Parker and I with Easter egg hunts, candy, and family. However, it was an incredible weekend neither I nor Parker nor any of those on our trip will soon forget. Though I knew it before, I was reminded once again that Heavenly Father is real and that Jesus Christ is indeed risen and, most of all, that they care enough about each one of us to provide tender mercies and mini-miracles (as if miracles can be labeled mini) if we are open to receive and recognize them.