Lemonade from Lemons

Staying positive and making lemonade from life’s lemons is an important skill if you want to be happy and avoid too much stress. I often teach my students that they learn the most from the questions on the exam they miss than those that they get right. It forces them to go back and review and really learn the principles behind the problem. However, while this is of course a true principle, nevertheless the students don’t like to hear it and still feel disappointed about their mistakes.

Such was the case with our technology challenges relaying the broadcast to the 9th South Building during Stake Conference. Despite the many hours and multiple tests run by the faithful men in charge of making the technology work, even beginning at 7:00 am Sunday morning, we did not know that when the buildings filled our transmission would be so spotty and poor. In the aftermath as we have tried to figure out the “principles” better behind the system we were able to look at the graph below which certainly confirmed what we witnessed at the 9th South Building, but the question was why? We had turned off the Wi-Fi at 9th South and figured that would insure proper bandwidth, but what we didn’t account for and believe was the problem was that all the people walking into the stake center and connecting there would “choke” the signal going out.

That combined with the fact that when it was time for the actual broadcast we made the settings the highest quality, which also increased the need for bandwidth going out. Well, hopefully we have learned the principles better now and are certain that next time we will be successful – including a reliable back up for audio just in case – so please don’t give up on us.

In the meantime I can think of a few good lessons to be learned that might just turn this frustrating mishap into a treasured blessing for those who will look to make lemonade from this lemon.

First of all we are sending out much of both the Saturday evening and Sunday general sessions in print (thank you to all the speakers and a few volunteer editors). It is not the same as the spirit that witnesses the truths spoken as we gather together in conference, but I believe it can help all of us to read and get more out of the messages than we might have just listening. Maybe we will even try to do this going forward, but I’m not committing just yet so please do plan to join in person for the next conference 🙂.

Secondly, we have been talking in our family for some time about turning our phones to airplane mode when we walk into church. I even suggested to bishops at one point that perhaps we should make that announcement at the beginning of sacrament meetings. Not so much to preserve bandwidth, which it surely does, than to distance ourselves from the distraction that being “connected” provides. Sacrament meeting is the most important hour of the week and we should be able to turn off our devices that hour and focus on the sacred ordinance and the messages thoughtfully prepared. Just look at that graph again, a perfect representation of the “static” that being connected at church might cause and prevent us from receiving the spirit and the things that God would have us receive. I actually had intended to announce that myself in stake conference as an example, but of course in the crush of getting prepared and the nervousness of it all I didn’t. If only I had done that then it well could have made the difference in the broadcast. If this “lemon” could become the “lemonade” of disconnecting our devices at church, at least in the chapel at sacrament meeting then it would be worth all the troubles.

Finally, I should have followed the prompting I had to make that announcement. Too often we do not act on the promptings we receive to repent, to “be better” and “do better.” I hope that we will all follow through on the promptings we receive from conference and other times the Lord is speaking to us so that we can enjoy a greater abundance of peace and happiness in our lives.

Love,

President Nelson

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