Conference Close to Home

We really enjoyed General conference. There are many more changes to figure outRarely do I know the speakers in General Conference, or know anybody they talk about in their stories. I know F. Michael Watson and Brook Hales because they became seventies after I worked with them as secretaries to the First Presidency, so I enjoyed listening to them as I knew them and loved them. 

This last conference, though, brought things a little closer to home. Both occurred in the last session. 


First, I was taking some notes and Peter M. Johnson began his address. When I looked up, I exclaimed, "Pete!"

Peter played basketball for Dixie College my first year there. I got to know quite a few of the players, in part because I was the Elders Quorum secretary of the ward where the basketballs lived. In fact, the other members of the EQP were Dixie basketball players. Peter was investigating the Church, and these member-missionary hoopsters spent a lot of time fellowshipping him. He was popular in the ward when he came around.

When I returned home, I learned he was serving a mission in Alabama. He later ended up at SUU and married a fellow student there, and I saw him just a couple of times in Cedar City. I looked up his bio and discovered that he joined the church about 10 days after I left for the MTC.

I doubt he would remember me from amongst all those ward members. But I remember him!

The second relationship was sweet but sad. The young man that Elder Anderson talked about, Coleman Hall, who is dealing with his father's death in faith, is one of Joshua's best friends. He is a fine young man, and acted with Joshua and Rachel in their Shakespeare production. He was also in JAKS, acting with Andrew and Miriam. Our neighborhood mourned the loss of Jason Hall.