General conference teleprompt1/31/2024 ![]() When I called to tell him that was not an election, the writer balked. That symbolic gesture confused at least one Associated Press reporter, who noted in his account that Hinckley was “re-elected unanimously.” Monson - as presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and watched as the members cast their “sustaining vote.” I covered the installation of three men - Howard W. “It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable.” Wirthlin counseled in October 2008, a few months before he died. “The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead,” apostle Joseph B. Maxwell offered a potpourri of memories and advice to the all-male priesthood session in April 2004, saying “be grateful for people in your lives who love you enough to correct you, to remind you of your standards and possibilities, even when you don’t want to be reminded.” The popular speaker and writer succumbed to cancer that summer. That means I also reported the final conference sermons of their predecessors. Of the church’s 15 top current leaders, I was there when 11 of their names and positions were announced - starting with Robert D. Hinckley on losing his wife, Uchtdorf on LDS leaders’ mistakes, and British Seventy Patrick Kearon on serving refugees. Holland on his own struggle with depression, James E. I listened to powerful - sometimes controversial - speeches from leading authorities, including Richard G. Uchtdorf of Germany) and the first woman ever to offer a prayer (Jean Stevens) at one of these meetings. I reported the calling of a non-American apostle (Dieter F. I heard endless mandates to repent, pray, live worthy and avoid the world, become better, kinder and more welcoming - as well as routine warnings about Satan’s devious influence on the human mind. ![]() I witnessed the ebb and flow of protesters (even got called a “whore” by one of the more virulent Christian pamphleteers), hurried over to the LDS Church high-rise office building for news conferences, and watched the polite march of Ordain Women backers pushing to join the all-male priesthood (or at least get tickets to the all-male session of conference). In 2000, I mourned the move from the pioneer gathering place to the spacious Conference Center, where it is much tougher to get a close-up look at the leaders. But I soaked in the sights, sounds and smells of that historic turtle-domed edifice, which had hosted every Mormon president since Brigham Young, where leaders had literally pounded the pulpit in that acoustical wonder to challenge and inspire the faithful, where thousands upon thousands of Latter-day Saints had poured out their devotion, where a famous choir was born.ĭuring the next 25 years, I observed lots of men with health issues, vacant chairs, somewhat spry younger men (you know, in their 50s to 70s) take their seats.
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