Happy Sunday!
While in Utah last week I had a few hours in Salt Lake with the kids so I decided that we should go on a tour of the Conference Center. This is where a semi-annual conference is held for our church, during which we hear from church leaders, apostles, and our prophet, Thomas S. Monson.
We have walked around the grounds of the conference center, but never gone inside. The tour was great. The conference center is bigger than you can imagine (it seats 21,000). The many halls of artwork were a real treat to see. And I think (I hope) the kids learned something new that day.
Today I thought I'd give a photo share (all from my iphone) from our morning there.
First we had to go to the Tabernacle, for comparison's sake. Built by the pioneers in 1865, it seats 7000, and was used for general conference meetings up until April 2000.
And here is the new conference center. On this particular day the lights were dimmed, except around the organ. It was being tuned. Also, the lights in the organ attic (I think that's what they called it) were lit up (see the white/golden light behind the pipes). It was cool to get a glimpse of some of the behind the scenes workings of the organ, even from far away.
Sitting in the first balcony, I believe, Payton asked, "Is this really where they have general conference?"
I think being able to connect what they see on tv with a real life building was pretty cool.
I think this was my favorite piece of art. A stained glass depiction of Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life.
Looking up to the sklight. Gorgeous!
Looking across to our reflection.
And looking down to the fountain.
A hall of busts of each of the 16 Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
From the roof
A mural, also on the roof
And my cute kids on Temple Square
I'm glad that we took the time to do this. The hope is that someday we'll have an opportunity to attend General Conference in that building. That will be awesome.
