Salt Lake City, Utah

Dear Friends:

In October, our family made a last-minute decision to fly to Salt Lake City, Utah.  We had several reasons for the sudden trip - gratefully, no emergencies were involved ; )  First, our church holds its worldwide General Conference twice a year.  While current technology allows everyone to enjoy Conference via cable, satellite and internet streaming, there's nothing like being at the very center of the Mormon world in Salt Lake City, at this time.

Second, my father was attending conference and this was a chance to see him and have my youngest kids spend some time with their Grandfather.  Absolutely priceless, in my book.  Third, was being able to visit with family on both sides.  My wife's folks live in Utah and I have brothers, a sister, cousins and aunts that live there.  Last, was a reunion of those that attended the Priesthood Leadership Conference at the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch - one of our favorite experiences from the summer of 2014

This was the shortest visit to Utah that our family has ever made.  Just over 48 hours there never seems like enough.  Upon reflection, however, we're amazed at everything that we accomplished.

G-Man and his grandfather

On Saturday of that weekend, one of the sessions of General Conference is held in the evening.  The Philmont Reunion was going to take place immediately after that session.  My wife and I drove to Salt Lake City and walked a few blocks to Temple Square.  This is the location of the LDS Salt Lake Temple, the most iconic building in all of Utah.  It was breathtaking, as usual, when lit at night:

Next door what the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  Smith helped establish the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830 (to learn more, go here).  The building was originally a classic hotel from years gone by, and now it's used for meetings, weddings, family history research, and a beautiful sculpture of Joseph Smith:

On one of the top floors, the reunion was in full swing.  We were able to see good friends from our fantastic experience at Philmont:

We were really surprised how many people showed up - the place was packed! These are good people, made up of Stake Presidents and Scouting leaders across the United States:

The next morning, we were lucky enough to get tickets to attend the Sunday AM session of General Conference.  My father is a Stake President - or regional leader - of the Church, and was able to secure these tickets for us to go:

Since my son will turn 8 soon, he will have the opportunity to be baptized into our Church.  As part of this decision, we wanted him to attend conference and listen to our leaders give talks about becoming better people, increasing our personal testimonies of Jesus Christ, and helping those around us.  My family all stopped just outside the Conference Center for some pictures:

The Conference Center itself is amazing.  It holds 21,000 people, with no obstructed views from any seat.  An architectural wonder, it uses radial trusses in one of the largest theater auditoriums in the world:

From lds.org

This is what it looks like with everyone taking their seats right before the Mormon Tabernacle Choir start to sing:

This young man was so fun to be with.  He loved seeing all the people, and even took notes during the entire meeting.  I know that I wasn't nearly as mature at 7 years-old ; )

While this was a whirl-wind trip, it was still a lot of fun.  I'm not sure exactly why we made the last-minute decision...but I'm sure glad we did.  While it was expensive, the priceless memories with family are sometimes too important to miss.