Conference moment: Under same tent
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Sometimes lost among the uplifting music and inspiring messages that define general conference is the simple greeting Church leaders extend to the many unseen faces watching the meetings via satellite and Internet broadcasts.
Yet to the millions of members who may never attend a single session inside the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, those warm words are as personal as a handshake.
Once members living outside North America could enjoy general conference only by watching videotapes weeks after the actual broadcast. But more then ever, the global Church community finds itself worshipping under the same "tent" during conference.
For Harold Spencer Perez, a bishop from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, the chance to listen to the words of President Gordon B. Hinckley and other Church leaders even as they are spoken is a much-appreciated blessing.
"This last conference has been historical in our city because we could watch it in our homes," wrote Bishop Perez in an e-mail sent Oct. 8, the day after the 177th Semiannual General Conference concluded. "The local cable company is the first company in our city to transmit the BYU TV Channel."
Bishop Perez invited a young man from his ward who had not been attending Church meetings much over the past year to watch general conference in the Perez home. After viewing the conference, the young man recognized much was missing in his life and told his bishop he would return to activity.
"I know the wise words of our beloved General Authorities can change the lives of many people," Bishop Perez wrote.
Meanwhile, on the morning that this October's general conference opened, Oct. 6, members of the Montego Bay Branch in Jamaica gathered for the baptism of Keith Fagan. Elder W. Robert Bingham, a returned missionary from the Jamaica Kingston Mission who participated in the ordinance, wrote that that spiritual moment was accentuated by general conference. "Following the baptism, Brother Fagan had his first opportunity to attend general conference by satellite broadcast at the branch chapel. A moment never to be forgotten."
