Ward Conference

Today was our Ward Conference. I was there early, practicing for the choir number and Ben was there early for meetings and to make sure the sacrament and Young Men were in order. About 15 minutes to the hour, as people were trying to sit reverently, a few were mingling in the back and families were arriving and finding seats a dull and ancient sounding chirp filled the halls of the church (but not the chapel- it only streamed in through the open doors). A few people took no notice, some looked around curiously, some went into the hallway to inquire at the awkwardly loud sound- yes, this was the fire alarm. Still, after this realization, no one took for the door or even started to leave- it was probably the act of a Primary child (the only look of panic is the mother taking toll of her children, making sure they are all accounted for and not the alarm pulling fiend). After a couple minutes of the sirens a member of the Stake Presidency entered the room and asked that we do indeed evacuate the building. While leaving, with the ward before us, we all utter silent prayers of thanks that the weather is warm, sunny and dry!

While waiting outside Jacob, my 5 year old nephew, looks at me with utter horror and says, “I left my scriptures inside, are they gonna burn?” I quickly told him it was just a practice fire drill, like at school, and his scriptures would be fine. We were let in about 5 minutes later, although our numbers had doubled as most of the rest of our ward had arrived for church.

Needless to say Sacrament started late (they could not get everyone to calm down or take their seats very quickly) and so started our Ward Conference…