Watching General Conference in Thailand

General Conference takes place in the middle of the night Thailand time, so we don't watch it in real time. It is downloaded and then replayed the following weekend. They replay it on the same schedule as the original--which means: on Saturday, they play the morning session and then have a lunch break. Then they play the afternoon session and have a break, then play priesthood session. On Sunday, they play the Sunday morning session have a break and then play the afternoon session. It is a couple of long days, just like at home, and the members have to come to the church to watch because most of them don't have computers or other access to the broadcasts. It is a great weekend full of inspiration!

Getting ready. President Sithichai (president of Udorn Branch 2) greeting the members.

Lights out and the meeting begins:
We are so grateful for inspired prophets and apostles and other leaders to help us.

Upstairs in the chapel, the broadcast is in Thai, so we missionaries have our own little broadcast in English in a room downstairs. We are missing a few missionaries in this picture. Sister Hughes was setting up the flashdrive in the TV, and Sisters Muller and Hatch were upstairs checking on their investigators and new converts making sure they understood what was going to happen. All missionaries were seated and fully engaged with note taking materials during the broadcast. They look forward to this and talk about it for weeks beforehand. They almost have a "countdown to conference", they love it so much!

Conference was great--very inspiring!!

Our tradition for general conference at home is for Ray to make fried chicken (RayFC) and milk gravy for dinner on one of the days. The missionaries were very happy to allow us to continue this tradition here in Thailand. Ray fried 30 pieces of chicken: one breast, one thigh, and one drumstick for each person. Most of it got eaten, too!

I had him fry it outside the back door in the laundry area because I didn't want all of the grease in the kitchen. I was really glad. This area is much easier to "hose down".

Ready to eat: four platters of chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and fresh green beans. The missionaries could hardly wait!

Apple crisp and whipped cream for dessert. (I'd say they look pretty satisfied!)

There is lots to clean up after such a big meal for 10 people even in a small kitchen, but we had many willing hands.

It was a wonderful, inspiring, and fun-filled conference weekend.