Aaaaaand it is over. Bummer. I remember when I was younger (40) and it seemed like each session took forever. Not anymore. It goes much too quickly.
Here are some thoughts from the final session this afternoon:
1) Sunday Afternoon Session, aka “The International Session.”
2) Christoffel Golden, Jr. is from Jo’berg, South Africa. Here is a short bio.
3) Enrique R. Falabella is from Guatemala. Fascinating bio here. And he made me feel and warm and happy inside – couldn’t stop smiling.
4) Erich W. Koptischke is from Germany. Great story in his bio about his pregnant mom escaping from East Germany. He is also a great example of someone really trying to minimize a foreign accent. He is from the same area and time as President Uchtdorf, but his accent isn’t nearly as prominent. That takes work.
5) Bruce D. Porter is from some strange land called “Albuquerque.”
6) The next few hours would be a great time to act if you have anything you need to confess or ask forgiveness for. Everyone is probably still feeling the desire to be more Christlike.
7) I have the exact same tie that Elder Christofferson was wearing. So, I have that going for me.
8) Song selections in the afternoon session sponsored by Ambien®. (My kingdom for a rousing edition of “Praise to the Man” or “The Spirit of God” for a closing number.)
9) Went through 9 hours and 40 minutes of Conference without a Victor Hugo reference. Almost didn’t get Les Miz in there. (But, you’ve gotta admit, it is a great story.)
10) When I grow up, I want to be Elder Holland. Okay, okay, IF I grow up…
Sad that it is already over.
I’m so glad you provided the bio information!
Amen to #8!
Christoffel Golden, Jr. was the visiting general authority for our last stake conference. He requested that EVERYONE be 30 minutes early. Lots of people were, and lots of people weren’t, but I’m glad to say we were (despite my having given birth a couple of weeks earlier, and having a two year old.) When he came into the chapel, I was the first person he talked to, congratulating me on my new baby. Then he walked the chapel, talking to many of the people who had taken the time to come early. The next week, a member of our bishopric told about part of the priesthood leadership training. Elder Golden asked all of the attending leadership to move from where they were sitting into another area of the room. When they did, he told of a stake where he requested that, but nobody moved. Then he told them that he could tell they were not receptive enough, and that he would change his message accordingly.
I have to say that he’s pretty awesome.
Christoffel Golden Jr’s talk may have been my favorite of the entire conference. Pretty amazing.
I wondered about that accent. I couldn’t place it because it was so mild. He has beautiful speech. I love Elder Holland and his talk was fantastic as usual. (I agree with the comment – I LOLed with the beak stuffing – really, I cracked up, but the kids totally didn’t get it and looked at me like I was really loosing it!) I also loved President Monson’s story about the fire and his pause and look completely ashamed moment. I love our Prophet!
You provided some nice mid-conference entertainment for my family today. Thank you! We think you are hilarious! 🙂
lOvEd all of your posts on conference! All of it.
Thanks for the info on the elders…I was wondering about each of them. Made my work easy. : )
Elder Golden’s accent wasn’t very strong. I couldn’t even place it, and I went on my mission to Joburg. And DUDE, he really didn’t sound like an Afrikaner. Afrikaner accents are like German accents…bad enough that Charlize Theron *never* speaks in her native Afrikaans accent.
Agree that Elder Kopitschke has done amazingly well with the accent. I thought President Uchtdorf had done really well with his. I’m sure Arnold Schwarzenegger has been in the U.S. longer than either of them, and his is still really strong.
Oh, and I almost cry every time conference is over… it always goes way too fast.
I was listening to the final half hour of conference as I drove in to work and I must say Pres. Monson’s words brought a tear to my eye. And that’s saying a lot since I haven’t watched or listened to conference in a long time. And then the final song by the Choir was just the perfect ending.
I would love a recording of Elder Holland telling every story from the scriptures. If you have any connections, could you ask him to do that for me?
My favorite talk of this conference was Elder Stanley G. Ellis’s Saturday afternoon talk, hands down. Second favorite was a tie between President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s Priesthood talk and Elder Enrique R. Falabella’s talk.
His talk was my favorite from Sat also! I had just read that morning about Samuel and David. Loved it!
I may have done a little fist pump during Elder Oaks’ talk… I’m not ashamed.
All the talks were good. Especially enjoyed #3’s talk… it inspired me to send a text to my EC because he’s currently about 2000 miles away. Elder Holland made me laugh out loud with his line “that’s like trying to stuff a turkey through the beak.”
My non-Mo husband was listening on the couch and snorgled aloud at that… and when the sermon was over, said, “That was an awesome sermon. I’ll bet he gets a lot of hate mail, doesn’t he? I could hear that one again.”
We’ll be using “Stuffing the turkey” as a snorgle-inducing catch-phrase for years.
My mission president, who is also from Germany, has a very minimal accent too. He is currently the Frankfurt, Germany temple president. (Just have to throw that in cuz I think he is so awesome!)
yeah, those people from Albuquerque are so weird!
Especially if you start talking about green chiles.
HAHAHAHA! When that song started I my EC said, ‘Hey, it’s Go Tell Aunt Rhody”.
Speaking of th music, may we PLEASE strike ‘Go Tell Aunt Rhody” from the hymn book and never, never, never hear it again?!?
I never thought I’d say this about a hymn–because I really love them all–EXCEPT for Go Tell Aunt Rhody. I tried to like it this afternoon, but was unsuccessful.
I agree with the Ambien comment! Every song was so-o slow and soft. The intermediate hymn should be rousing to wake us all up! I wonder who chooses the songs.
You didn’t mention the two women prayers! I made note of that and my husband said, “So what?” EXACTLY! Why has it taken 183 years and a grassroots movement to get that little bit of equity? I’m not asking for the priesthood!
I didn’t mention the two prayers because because it just felt like any other Sunday.
And not to burst anyone’s bubble, but it looks like the prayers were assigned six months ago – long before the protesters got busy wearing pants to turn sacred meetings into a forum for their agenda.
I agree 100% with you #3! He made me happy too. He was a little hard to understand with the 6 kids laughing about his accent, but I loved his talk and the way I felt while he gave it.