Gather

The Man of the House and I drove south to Phoenix for the Gather conference. There was no school Friday, so we could travel during the day. We found a delicious Chinese-Korean restaurant in Mesa and spent the night in a lovely Air BnB.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at a Mexican restaurant (not so delicious as we had hoped), and headed to the conference. We got to meet Ben Schilaty, Tom Christofferson, and Richard Ostler in person. It was strange to meet so many people in real life whose books and podcasts have been so influential and inspiring to us. I was totally a star-struck goose and had nothing intelligent to say to any of them, except “thank you.” We met and made friends with other LDS parents of LGBTQ kids. The feeling of love, connection, and kindness was overwhelming and wonderful.

My favorite speaker was the very first one, Greg Peterson. Mr Peterson is president of the community college in Chandler, Arizona. He compared the way elect universities, like BYU, operate and what kind of students attend those universities with the way community colleges operate and what kind of students attend there. He suggested that if we thought of Zion more like a community college and less like an elect university, we could better meet the needs of far more of Heavenly Father’s children.

At the community college, they know that all students do not have the same goals. They try to help guide the students toward goals that will be beneficial long term, but they also help those students reach their current goals. The college knows students will probably take breaks from school occasionally, and instead of fearing that, they just make it as easy to return to school as possible.

I’ve known many people in my life who could not identify with being elite or elect. I think they would like to hear more talk about Zion where everyone who wants to be there is included.

My favorite phrase from the conference:

“If you don’t fit in Zion, we aren’t done building it yet.”

I sat in front of two of the cutest gay missionaries, one wearing a rainbow vest knitted by a granny (I can’t remember if it was his own granny or someone else’s.) They said I gave off nurturing vibes, which made me so happy.

At the end of the conference, we sang together “All Are Alike Unto God” by Janice Kapp Perry. She wrote it last fall for the first Gather Conference ever held. It is poignant and beautiful music, and I cannot sing it without weeping.

Then the Captain and I drove the five hours home to Monument Valley and our waiting kids, full of love.