Above: President Cook, Elder Holland, Elder Trythall
"I don't know that I've been in a better session of stake conference. I've really, really been touched," Elder Holland said in the Sunday session of conference. "I was electrified by the prelude. The singing was beautiful. 'Ere you left your room' was beautiful--a beautiful arrangement. I've never heard that before. {Turned to Carolynn Baker and asked if she arranged it.} I want this choir to sing at my funeral!"
Lodi Stake Public Affairs became involved in the newspaper coverage of conference two months before it happened. Adelle Barrette made a personal visit to the News Sentinel to talk it over with Religion Editor Ross Farrow. We were hoping to have coverage AFTER conference, rather than before, so that we would have a chance to get some doctrine in the story.
Ross told Adelle that for something this major he would give us coverage both before and after. Kit McDermed, our new PA rep in Ione, was able to get a story with a colored picture in the Amador Ledger Dispatch.I submitted Elder Holland's official portrait from the newsroom on the LDS web site to be used with the follow-up story. That was before I found out two days before conference that I would have the opportunity to photograph Elder Holland between the Saturday sessions of conference.
I was so honored to be able to do this. I emailed Ross and asked him to use the formal portrait with the pre-conference story, and to use mine with the conference coverage the next week. He agreed. (Note to members: you are welcome to download and print the picture from the top of this post if you would like to have a remembrance of the conference.)
An interesting thing happened. Someone who read the pre-conference story on the Internet, left a comment saying, "What is an apostle? How does someone get to be one?" Ross sent me a note asking if we could answer those questions in our story.
I researched good explanations from two different sources, added my own comment, and sent it to Bishop Eric Shields (our Institute Director and unofficial doctrinal advisor) to have it checked for accuracy and to add his own quote about why we have apostles. He did a great job. I wrote this part separately from the conference story, and suggested to Ross that he use it as a "sidebar," which he did. You can find the article on the web here.
Our High Council Advisor, Steve Demetras, placed the story on his Facebook page (as did I) and suggested that others do so too. This is one way that we can share the beautiful message of conference with our friends of other faiths.
Valrie Jensen was successful in getting a good-sized story published in the Galt Herald.4-16-2010 I'm adding this beautiful video clip by Elder Holland from "Mormon Messages" in case you haven't seen it.
