Here you go Roger... upon your request...
Jay and I were fortunate enough to go to both the viewing and the funeral of President Hinckley. We walked down to the Conference Center with some friends from Provo and waited in line just outside the front doors. It took about half an hour to get into the building and then they directed us to the actual conference stadium. There we all sat in “sections” while watching a video of President Hinckley. We really had no clue what was going on at first, but then noticed that as they were piling the people into the conference center, they were leading others back out. We waited there for a long time when finally it was our turn. We waited in another line for almost an hour until we finally arrived in the Hall of the Prophets. We knew we were getting closer the quieter it got, then 3 1/2 hours later… we were able to see President Hinckley. It was a quick 10 seconds, but completely worth it. It was something completely amazing.
As we left at 6:00PM, there was a line wrapped around the conference center of people waiting to get in… and we’re not talking single file lines… group lines, taking up the whole sidewalk. We were glad we went earlier and missed the longer lines and the cold. They announced that they were going to close the doors at 7:00 that night, but we heard on the news that night that people were there until 11:30.
Jay and I had talked about going to the funeral but thought with all the lines, we would have to get up and be down there at 7AM and with it being so cold, I didn’t think I could make it. Okay… maybe the 7AM thing didn’t appeal to me much either. Anyway, we got up and we were watching the news and we heard that there were tickets still available. We threw on our clothes and walked down to the Conference Center all in 10 minutes. We were about to cross the street to the North Visiting Center when an usher stopped us and gave us some pretty good seats…. And we were in!
There are no words to describe the feelings in the Conference Center that day. Even being in Salt Lake was something special. It was an opportunity of a life time. I’m going to miss his quick wit & charismatic personality, but feel very blessed to be living in a time where President Hinckley was our prophet.
What an amazing Man he was!
4 comments:
That's so cool that you got to be there. Pres. Hinckley was really the only church President I've known. Not personally, of course. I always thought of him as my grandpa (since my real grandpas have all past). I'm sure I'm not alone in that.
-Randy
Heath, thanks for the entry. I was thrilled that you got to go and felt like our family was "represented". Somehow I just wanted President Hinckley to know that we loved him. Thanks for making that happen. I am sure that his spirit was there with you.
Man...look at all we are missing out on with our dobles! That should have been us with you instead of those dobles stealers....they can never replace us...no matter how hard they try!
WOW! What a great experience. I was shocked when we heard on the news that there were still seats available in the Conf. Center and that non of the over flow seating were used at all. I think most people thought there was not way to get in .... The services were great here... I can't imagine actually being there. AMAZING!
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