I have a friend who has been meeting with missionaries for a few months now. He was able to watch a few sessions of General Conference this weekend, for the first time in his life. Shortly after the last session ended, I received the following via text message:
Sooo conference is amazing <3 I’m kind of in love.
This happens twice a year?? I can’t believe it! Haha can I just freak out for a second? Being from a denomination where each church building has its own individual congregation and the message even varies slightly from church to church, it’s a bit of a shock to have seen this live as it happened and know that it truly exists as one unified church session for all people around the world who trust in the message shared and who have access to it. I clicked on the YouTube hyperlink to watch directly on YouTube because I wanted to see how many live viewers there were… Almost exactly 100,000. I know many of those single “views” were actually group streams with entire families or other groups watching together so that number can be multiplied… so cool!
I want to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir live and meet the Apostles and Prophet!!!!
Needless to say, I was delighted by his response, and also quite humbled. A child of two converts, I grew up attending General Conference broadcasts every 6 months at our ward building (before the internet was a thing) or watching at home on a computer. It’s something that seems so normal to me that I forget how unique and beautiful it actually is. The fact that we are part of a worldwide church, where members everywhere learn, teach, and live the same Gospel in thousands of languages across millions of cultures, is absolutely amazing.
Have we been taking it all for granted?