thoghts on conference -- part two

Technology is amazing. I grew up (in the church) with a family who would sit faithfully for all 8 hours in the pews at the local church building and watch the sessions of conference. In the church building it's dark and usually cold, and you have to sit there in your dress clothes. But we endured.

Thanks to technology, one need not travel to a church to watch conference. Out West it's usually on local channels (in Arizona, it was on the CW, which made me laugh, and for the 2 hours in between sessions the CW would show some smutty drama it had concocted, usually under the advisement of Aaron Spelling). If you are rich and have DirecTV you have easy access to conference and BYU-TV. And then there's the Internet. Anyone can log onto www.lds.org and watch conference. You can watch archives of conference, read archives, it's truly amazing.

Except now, when we all don't pack ourselves into church buildings, it's all about accountability. Your fellow church-goers aren't sitting next to you, knowing you're watching the session. You can watch from the comfort of your own couch, in your pajamas, not your panty-hose.

Does sitting in the church watching the sessions allow you to get more out of the sessions? For me, yeah, it does.

Watching in my house offers a bevy of distractions. Oh! There's that cake I've been meaning to bake. Ah! What about the cleaning I meant to do! Hm, is that the phone I hear ringing? And next thing you know, you hear the familiar hummm of the organ announcing the end of the session.

This weekend I did a combination of it all. I watched Saturday's sessions in the church. I sat in one of the chairs in the back and froze my butt off. There were only a sprinkling of people who joined me -- mostly missionaries with their investigators and silver hairs. One of the conference-goers who caught my attention is a young girl, maybe a junior in high school. Her family lives next to the church (directly) and she was present at each of the sessions, but her parents were not. I wondered where they were and had the distinct impression that she was to be greatly blessed for her efforts.

Today I headed over to a friend's families home. We attempted to watch the morning session on the Internet, because she had just cancelled the fancy upgrade on DirecTV. The connection on the Internet went in and out through the opening hymn, prayer and the choir's first number. I made the comment that it was because everyone and their dog was trying to access the site right at that very moment. Blast those dogs!

My friend, at the end of our struggle with the Interweb Gods said, check the TV and make sure we still don't have it. Sho' nuff, BYU TV was going strong.

I watched the second session at my home, under my Snuggie with a bowl of chips and pico de gallo in front of me. The connection was spotty at best, and there were a few talks I only got bits and pieces of , but I enjoyed every word of what I heard.

I can't wait to get the next issue of the Ensign and pour over the talks I've heard, and the ones I didn't hear. (In fact, the first thing I do when I get my copy is to go straight to the talks given to the Priesthood).

Oh, what a glorious time of year.