Yesterday was an interesting General Conference Day for me.

Solemn Assembly

The day started with a solemn assembly and a chance to sustain the new prophet, Pres. Nelson, his counselors, and two new apostles. I enjoyed the opportunity to feel the Spirit as the brethren were sustained and I had a chance to participate. Some people don't understand and equate this with voting. That's not really the case. The Lord has already cast the definitive vote and chosen his servants. What it represents to me is a chance to feel a witness of their call and covenant that I will continue to sustain the Lord's anointed.

There was also a change in the General Young Women's Presidency and the General Primary Presidency. I don't have much association with them right now, so that wasn't as meaningful for me.

Elder Gong

One notable occurrence was Elder Gerrit Gong's call as a new Apostle. I knew Elder Gong when he was an honors student at BYU with me. We later renewed our acquaintance when he returned to BYU as a faculty member and administrator. I've always found him to be very thoughtful, someone who asks good penetrating questions, and someone who shows a lot of love and respect for those around him. The church is going to be greatly blessed by his ministry.

The other apostle called was Elder Ulisses Soares, from Brazil. Since Elder Gong is of Chinese ancestry, this is the first time we've had brethren called to the Quorum of the Twelve in this dispensation who had non-European ancestry.

Ward Melchizedek Priesthood Quorums

To top off an already full and interesting day, I attended General Priesthood Meeting with David and Davey Shwalb, my son-in-law and grandson. It's nice to be living close enough to them to have that opportunity. The meeting was mostly devoted to announcing and explaining a change in teh Melchizedek Priesthood quorum structure in the wards. There will not longer be a high priest group in the ward, only an Elder's Quorum where both groups meet together presided over by an Elder's Quorum Presidency. The stake high priest quorum will consist of those who currently have a leadership calling of bishopric, high council, patriarch, or stake presidency.

This is the second time I've had the priesthood group I was in dissolved. I was a Seventy when Seventy's Quorums and groups were dissolved at the stake and ward levels.

The brethren have a vision that this reorganization will facilitate Melchizedek Priesthood bearers to better minister to the saints in their wards. I'm excited to see how it will work out.

I visited the White House this week as part of my NSF orientation. I was hoping the government affiliation would get me a special tour, but is was just the usual one. That said, the usual one is pretty interesting all by itself.

Security

The security was pretty amazing, as you might imagine. I had to go through three security checkpoints with armed secret service police at each one. NSF made a reservation in advance and I had to be on their lists, present a photo ID, and to through a couple of weapons screenings.

Inside

It is set up as an exhibit for tourists to walk through. This is the view looking from inside to the south lawn. There are getting ready for the Easter Egg hunt this weekend. It thought it was funny to see a soccer goal on the lawn.

Photos

They have a lot of pictures of current and past presidents on the walls.
This one was with presidential dogs. They were sure to have Pres. Trump in any of the collages which made sense.

Other Views

This is looking south through the windows towards the Washington Monument. The cherry blossoms were just starting to come out. They will be in full bloom in a week or so.
 
Here is a picture of me standing by a bust of Pres. Lincoln.

This is the red carpet the President uses to walk into Press Conferences.


This is the state dining room. There was a display of china from the different custom sets used for state dinners by Presidents going back at least as far as Lincoln.

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This is me after I exited the White House. It was kind of interesting that the road in front of the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue isn't paved. Because of security, you can only walk there, not drive.

Nearby Buildings

For some reason, it hadn't occurred to me how close other buildings would be to the White House. The Treasury Building is right across the street. (This made me think of my son, Bob.)

I also saw the headquarters of the American Bar Association, the Library of Congress, national monuments, and lots of lobbying organizations. People don't have to drive far (or at all) to get between these places.

I had a  chance to visit Neil and Sam last month. They were nice enough to drive all the way down to Houston to meet me. I was travelling to Lamar University in Beaumont, TX. It was especially good to see Will, who is growing SO big.
While Neil and Sam were there, we did take-out and played games on Friday night in their hotel room. On Saturday, we drove to the Johnson Space Flight Center, which was cool for me. I hadn't been there before an really enjoyed it.


This is a picture of us standing in line for a ride around the space flight center. It was fun to see the location where so many important things that interest me have happened.

These pictures are by a large rocket outside the big building which housed the rocket that was going to launch a later Apollo mission if it hadn't been scrubbed. The technology is impressive on two accounts. One is for the astronauts who were brave enough to sit in a tiny capsule on top of one of these things. Another is for the amazing engineers who accomplished amazing feats given the technology available to them at the time.

This is climbing up the stairs to see the Space Shuttle Columbia. We could walk all through is as well as in the plane which was used to launch it. The story about the engineer who convinced NASA to launch it from a plane after the challenger disaster was pretty interesting as well.