General Conference Moments No One Saw Coming

I'm in a Living Prophets class this semester with Lloyd Newell. As in voice of Music & The Spoken Word and General Conference Lloyd Newell. It's fantastic. Want to know which sessions President Monson will be speaking in this conference? President Uchtdorf? Elder Holland? Hit me up. #InsideScoop

In order to prep for this weekend's General Conference, we spent some time today looking back at General Conference moments that no one saw coming. I was laughing my head off, so I didn't write down the references  for all the hilarious moments. Unfortunately, he hasn't posted the slides online (at least not yet), but I simply could not wait to share.

October 1930
Someone at KSL flipped the wrong switch during President Heber J. Grant's talk in priesthood session. Suddenly instead of hearing his talk through the Tabernacle sound system, everyone heard a play-by-play of the World Series! The presiding bishop (Bishop Sylvester Q. Cannon) ran to the broadcasting building to solve the problem. Meanwhile, the brethren at the priesthood session enjoyed 8 minutes of baseball.

Elder LeGrand Richards - October 1978
He was known for speaking longer than his allotted time, so a red light was installed on the podium to signal when he needed to be done. Elder Richards covered the light with his hand and kept on talking (seriously...he goes on for another 2 minutes after the red light!)

April 1989
President Hinckley delivered President Benson's talk "Beware of Pride." President Benson felt more comfortable with someone else delivering the address than himself. You can watch the video here.

President Hunter - April 1989

He had recently had surgery that left him weak, but he was determined to give his talk regardless. Standing at the podium with his walker, he fell backwards in the middle of his talk! He was helped up and went on with his talk as though it never happened. Later he found out he had broken 3 ribs in the fall!

President Hinckley - October 1993
I guess the air conditioning wasn't working. If you don't repent...

October 1997
I can't find a video of it, but President Hinckley challenged Elder Nelson to a duel! Elder Nelson had praised President Hinckley in his talk. President Hinckley got up after him and jokingly said, “I thought we were conducting general conference. It's turned out to be a funeral.” Everyone died laughing when he added, completely straight-faced, that Elder Nelson had “taken extreme liberty. I challenge him to a duel down in the basement of the Tabernacle right after this meeting.” Haha!  President Monson then got up to speak and said that he and President Faust would backup the prophet in the duel. Two talks later, President Hinckley cancelled the duel saying, “Brother Nelson, I’ve repented. Thanks very much for your kind words. We’ll postpone the duel.”

October 2007
President Hinckley jokingly knighted President Eyring right after he was sustained as a counselor in the First Presidency. President Hinckley's doctors advised him to carry a cane, so he did just that - he carried his cane (not using it for any support...just carrying it around and using it to knight people).

Elder Terence Vinson - October 2013
The infamous fly incident. Watch the video here. Seriously impressive self-control, Elder Vinson.

There are other great conference moments (think mission age change, the first talk given in the speaker's native language, President Monson wiggling his ears, etc.) but Greta is getting antsy to read my blog and figure out why I'm over here laughing so much.

Enjoy conference this weekend :)