Our night out with President Monson

Apparently President Monson enjoys the symphony as much as we do. The last time we came to Abravenal Hall in SLC the conductor pointed out that he was there, so Nicole was on the look out for him this time too. Sure enough, after we sit down we glance over to the same seat he was at last time, and there he was. Nicole was determined to meet him, so at intermission we began the quest. I thought there was no way it would ever happen. I figured he would be surrounded by bodyguards and tons of other people trying to meet him. We searched 3 floors with no luck. Nicole decides to see if we can go to the suite he's sitting at. Surprisingly we walked right in without any trouble. He wasn't there, so Nicole started making friends with 2 ladies who were sitting right by his seat. Neither of them were LDS, but they knew how important he was to us. They were so nice and they invited us to sit with them until he showed up. I was still skeptical, I thought there's no way we would get to meet him, but just then he walks through the door. He is a tall man with broad shoulders. We both just stared at him and finally Nicole walks up to him and says, "I just had to come up and meet you, can I shake your hand?" We both introduced ourselves and he said (in a President Monson sort of way) "So where are you from?" We proudly announced "Dallas, Texas". He said "The confusing airport" and we all laughed. Of course we wanted to stay and chat, maybe we could get the inside dish on the second coming or other mysteries. But the show was about to start so Nicole asked to take a picture. He graciously agreed, but encouraged us to be quick as to not "start a parade." At that point he made his way to his seat with his sweet wife. We walked nonchalantly out of the room and made it to the hall before we started acting like star struck teenagers meeting Miley Cirus or something. What an amazing experience to meet the Prophet, who communes with the Savior, leads his church, and preaches his doctrine. We both felt better than if we had spent the entire day in the temple. And yet, he treated us as if we were old friends. On a small scale this is what it must be like when we get to meet Joseph, or Jesus, or Heavenly Father. It was truly an amazing experience.


(Nicole's comments)

I just want to add in that before we took the picture I asked him if I could put my arm around him (for a half hug)he said, "sure" and he then put his arm around me too. After the picture was taken before we moved from our pose I gave him a little squeeze, he did the same. I said thanks and he smiled back and said, "you bet." Nathan did a perfect job of describing the experience. I just wanted to add in that it was incredible and it may sound corny but I feel like we were blessed with a little gift meeting him.
Before we left our place to go up to SLC I grabbed my purse and thought I needed my camera, which I don't know why, it's not like you can take pictures there. In fact you aren't allowed to. I knew this, I don't know why I grabbed it, I didn't give it much thought. Good thing I did. What an amazing experience I'll never forget. President Monson has always been one of my favorite apostles growing up. I remember when I was little listening to conference I loved to listen to him b/c he would always incorporate stories,(which made it easier for a little kid to follow). I also always loved him b/c he had the same name as my dad, who also incorporates stories when he gives talks/firesides. Meeting him was like visiting an old friend or a relative. It was definately the best symphony we've ever been too. We like to try and see a symphony every couple of months or so, it's one of our things. This particular one was called "Bravo Broadway". It had some of our favorite songs in it from "Beauty & the Beast, Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Brigadoon, Ragtime and many more. There were also 3 fantastic singers there to sing along with some of the songs, two ladies and a man. He sang Phantom of the opera and was the best Phantom we've ever heard.

Again a night we'll never forget!!!