April 3 – “The Haystorm Effect”

John Stockton Blvd.  Yep.  That’s what the street sign read as we turned into downtown Salt Lake City.  Of course I thought of Josh, since that was his all-time favorite basketball player growing up.  Salt Lake City.  Home of the Utah Jazz, or whatever their name is now.  Also home to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and twenty-five or thirty … thousand other Mormons – all in the city center with us on this beautiful day in the neighborhood.  And what brought all these finely dressed and perfectly coiffured, teeming hordes of Mormons here at this exact moment?  Today was the first day of the first in-person general conference of Mormons since 2019. 

 

And the thousands of folks streaming into the convention center also brought out what I guess could only be described as “the other side.”  There were hate monger preachers carrying huge signs and literally screaming warnings to “Repent of your demon so-called religion!”  There were few other “comments” as well, not fit to be repeated.  Some were screamed into the air.  Others were directed directly at the faces of passers-by.  The conduct of the conventioneers was, for the most part admirable.  They simply ignored the “remarks” and continued on their way.  We couldn’t see that the screamers were doing any good at all.  There were, however, several other folks who were taking a radically different approach.  In fact one of them approached me.  All he did was smile kindly and offer me “something to read.”  It was a gospel tract.  I assured him that I was a kindred spirit, a Jesus believer.  His smile broadened even more, and we chatted for a while before moving on. 

 

Meanwhile Chris had struck up a conversation with a few nearby policemen.  They were everywhere, a presence to stave off any possibility of violence.  She asked them what there was that we could still do and see.  One of them assured her that we were free to walk around the square and see whatever we wanted.  “They won’t bother you,” he assured us.  He tried to point out a few sites of interest, but got kind of stuck at one point.  He asked his partner, “What was that guy’s name who started all this stuff?”  The partner didn’t know either, so I helped them out with a sort of questioning, “Brigham Young?”  “That’s the one!” he happily exclaimed.  We thanked him for his help and continued our stroll through the masses.

 

First off … the temple was under construction.  Not just minor renovations, either.  They were doing major structural changes to the foundation to prevent future damage from the earthquakes that occasionally hit the region.  I’m pretty sure every piece of scaffolding in Utah was in use around that building.  The building itself was pretty impressive, but this reconstructive effort was even more so.

 

We did get to see a few things, at least from the outside.  The Mormon Tabernacle where the choir sings, surprised me.  It is a modern structure that reminds me of the Texans’ practice facility – a white dome-looking thing.  There was also the Assembly house.  That was a church-like structure, but it had Star of David stained-glass windows.  That’s where we noticed something strange.  Everywhere we looked there were well-dressed people of all ages, some sitting on the lawn, others walking around.  But all of them were wearing some sort of ear buds.  And they were all intently listening to something.  We found out later they were all listening to the feed from the conference inside.  It felt like something from one of those futuristic society books – like 1984. 

 

Brigham Young’s house was open for business as usual.  We were given the grand tour of his house and his office.  We didn’t get to see the house next door that he built for some of his wives.  The docent was careful to try to explain that polygamy was practiced in the Bible, but it was only OK to do it if commanded directly by God.  Guess old Brigham got the memo.  Inside the house where he lived with one of his wives was his daughter’s bedroom.  And inside the bedroom, prominently displayed, was his daughter’s actual creepy, porcelain-headed doll.  I knew this was an eerie place.  We didn’t stay long.  From there we did stop by the Museum of Church History building.  We wanted to check out the gift shop.  It was like being in a ritzy hotel gift shop (not that I have been in one of those, but I have seen them in a movie).  We browsed a bit, but finally left.  The loudspeakers were all set to play that same feed from the conference going on.  We didn’t stay long.

 

After the Temple Square experience, we headed further north (almost to the actual Idaho) to Promontory, Utah.  That’s where they nailed the last spike – the Golden One – into the railroad connecting America’s East and West.  It’s a National Historic Site now.  Yes, Chris got a stamp for her book.  I found a jackrabbit on the tracks.  And I found out his name was not Jack.  He’s Wilbur.  Unexpected, huh?  I thought so. 

Chris drove us back into town while I slept.  She told me later that she drove through a hay storm.  New one on me, too.  I figured it was a Utah phenomenon.  Apparently, though, she got behind a truck pulling a trailer full of hay bales.  The hay was doing its best to escape his clutches and return to the wild, thus creating the Haystorm Effect.  Fascinating.  Hope that guy had some hay left when he got home.

 

We made a quick Walmart stop before heading on to our next destination, Antelope Island.  We were just replenishing our snack supply.  But Antelope Island was to be my shot at touching the water of the Great Salt Lake.  Well … we saw the Lake, all right.  And there were people touching it.  But it would have taken a hike of at least an hour just to get to it.  So, as those of us in the Covid generation are so fond of saying … NO TOUCH!  But I was not all that disappointed.  We saw some really pretty views of the mountains reflecting on the water.  Oh, and we saw a bison and some pronghorn antelope.  Those are the two live appeals of the Island.  They cooperated really well for us.  They even gave Chris time to switch to the zoom lens on her camera. 

 

On the way back we were finally able to connect with Arthur and Shelley, some friends we got to know through Josh’s church in Waco.  The took us out to an Italian place for dinner.  I couldn’t pronounce the name of it when I was looking at it, so I sure can’t replicate it now.  It was a fascinating place to eat, though.  Each room was set up with a kind of theme.  One in particular was their favorite, but we didn’t get to eat there.  We did walk past it, though.  It was called the Pope Room.  They had the head of a pope encased under glass in the center of the table.  That’s right.  And as you ate, he … watched you.  Glad we weren’t in the Pope Room.  It was really good Italian food – and lots of it.  But the company was even better.  Thanks again for a great memory, Shelley and Arthur.

 

Acts 4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we musty be saved.”

 

Father, thank you for friends we can reconnect with in the strangest of places.  Amen.