1/23/16 Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice

     Today a group of about 130 had the special opportunity to receive training from Elder Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Tilleman an Area Authority Seventy, Temple President Hatch and Mesa Mission President Jenkins. To be invited you needed to be in a Stake Presidency or be the Bishop of one of the wards in a 10 Stake area, OR you had to be one of the tech guys in the Stake hosting the event. I was the latter. It continues to be amazing to me to have had the opportunity to serve in this way twice. When Elder Holland came to our Stake in Provo I was sure it would be the only time I would put a mic on an Apostle. That actually is still true. I felt that since I had already had that opportunity once I should give it to my assistant this time. I was glad that I did. My assistant, Brian Jensen, reported with a big smile on his face that he felt a "real, genuine love from Elder Andersen" when he was helping him with his mic. I still got the chance to interact with Elder Andersen. He even told me his iPad password so that I could set him up to use the Stake's Apple TV. He was definitely the most relaxed person in the room. Talking to him made me feel more comfortable that everything was going to be OK.
    Things did not go perfectly, from a tech perspective, even though we put in hours of preparation. Happily, we followed promptings to have backup mics ready just in case. It turned out that we needed one as Elder Andersen's mic failed. Luckily he has a strong voice and could be heard clearly by the small group until we gave him the back up mic. The other tech goof happened when I was using my phone through the Apple TV to show scriptures on the projector. The Stake Clerk, who it turns out was in the building though not invited to the meeting, sent me a text message that I had two reimbursement checks to pick up and to please come and do that. It was embarrassing, and I'm still not completely sure how that could be avoided in the future while using that technology. Oh well, there couldn't have been a kinder, more understanding audience. Those were the two noticeable glitches, those and I forgot to turn up one of the audience mics one time. Thankfully nothing that really disrupted the flow of the meeting. President Cowan hasn't fired me yet. He was actually very gracious in expressing gratitude to our team.
      The highlight of the meeting was of course the Spirit that was felt. The Savior was the main topic of the meeting. The Stake leaders and Bishops were given the chance to ask questions. Some were easy "what about beards" some were harder like the balance between showing love for a person having  transgender operation while teaching true doctrinal principles to all involved.
     My team consisted of Brian Jensen my most talented AV assistant, Bob Rhyine the newly called High Counselor over technology, and Joe Udall the Stake Clerk. Joe and Bob passed around the wireless handheld mics to people with questions. They all did a fantastic job. On the whole it was a great day. At the end Brian said "I guess we'll never see this again" meaning an event like this. I told him never say never as this was my second. Who knows what Heavenly Father has planned for us.