The Spirit of God Like a Fire...Part 2

It took me awhile to get back to writing about our trip to General Conference...hence the "part 2". Having Todd with us was a joy as we knew it would be. We played travel games on the way down and broke up the trip by stopping to eat midway down to Salt Lake. We stayed at the Hilton Airport and enjoyed Saturday morning conference in our room. The afternoon session we watched "live" in the balcony of the Conference Center where there is no bad seat. That building is still such an architectural amazement to me! Three levels of seating and not one support beam...and the acoustics are perfect! Do you think there might have been a little divine direction in those plans? We were so thrilled to hear of five new temples in planning stages and one of them in Brigham City! Who would have ever thought? And another temple in Florida...we were, of course, thrilled to hear that. We were so interested to hear Pres. Monson say that 83% of the members of the church live within 200 miles of a temple now and that percentage will just continue to increase over the years as more temples are planned and built. This was just another reminder to us that the temple IS at the center of all of our worship.

We ate dinner at JB's before Greg took off to the Priesthood session and then Todd and I thoroughly enjoyed each other, temple square, and the Joseph Smith Building during that time. We went to all of our usual "haunts" in the JS Building as the pictures indicate but really loved the statues in the foyer outside the Legacy Theater that one of the guides told us about. The much larger than life statue of Joseph Smith reading from James 1:5 is amazing. You can see the knitted ribbing in his socks and read the words in the bible. We just loved it. There was also a great statue of Joseph and Hyrum that I had not seen before. We enjoyed the reflecting pool and while there got a phone call from Sara telling us that Luke had something exciting to tell me. So Luke got on and told me about his catching two ground balls and tagging out the runners for two outs in a row in his ball game! That was so exciting! Thanks, Sara, for calling because those little achievements are so fun for us to hear about. We love to hear about all the things our little grandkids are up to!

Anyway, we then headed to temple square where we enjoyed the beautiful landscaping still very much in evidence, I might say! Todd noticed that they had already started stringing Christmas lights in some of the trees. We were lucky enough to get in toward the beginning of the film "Joseph Smith and the Restoration" showing at the North Visitors Center. I hadn't seen it for awhile and, of course, shed buckets of tears. That movie is such a testimony to me of the reality of the First Vision and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith. Todd loved seeing it again and felt the spirit as we enjoyed it together. We took a picture by the Christus upstairs and then headed over to wait for Greg. Todd really noticed the protesters this time and asked more than once why they continue to stand there and shout when no one pays any attention to them. His grandpa told him that sadly, many of them are paid to be disruptive. We talked about the difference in the spirit felt from them and that which we felt during conference and listening to those who were singing hymns along the temple block...such a stark contrast!

Sunday morning we met Brad, his sister Michelle and her husband George at Denny's for breakfast at 7:15. We were so excited that he had been able to get three tickets for the Sunday morning session and we were all able to sit together. It was a joy to have him there with us and it was an extra bonus for Todd! As Greg had a business conference Monday and Tuesday after Conference, it worked out well because Brad was able to take Todd on home and we were able to get checked into Little America in time to watch the Saturday afternoon session.

Some things we love about Todd:

1. His manners - he opened every hotel, store and car door for me all weekend! What a little gentleman! (Lori and Brad, thank-you for teaching him these important courtesies!). We were duly impressed!
   
2. His desire to please and obey. His mom had told him not to be an "ipodaholic" while he was with us and he made sure he was not. I'm sure that being with a couple of old fogies made it tempting to use it much more often than he did, but he resisted!
   
3. His intelligence and interest in all kinds of things. His understanding of technology leaves Grandpa and me behind in the dust!
4. His desire to look sharp and like a missionary while at Conference. We and he loved his new suit, tie, and belt! Even though it was probably not too comfortable to stay in his dress clothes until 8:30 at night, he did so willingly and turned many a head in the process.
5. His love of school and desire to excel. We hope he always cares about his grades as he does now!
6. His love of scouting and desire to continue to progress. It is hard to believe he will soon be an 11-year-old scout!
   
7. His love of music. We love that he loves many different kinds of music and also wants to play the piano.
   
8. That he will try most any good thing at least once.
9. He is a GREAT swimmer!
   
10. Todd loves his family so much and cares about each one of them. We love to see him play with Kate and Jack and be perfectly happy doing so. He is very proud of his Mom and Dad and his siblings.
11. We were proud that he paid such good attention to the speakers during Conference. Even he commented that the time went very, very fast because he really tried to listen and learn.
12. He is who he is and is comfortable in his own skin.
    

Todd, you will always be a leader for good if you remember who you really are! Don't let anyone change you because we love you just the way you are! Thanks for spending time with Grandma and Grandpa!