[Videos] Complete footage of Eyring, Monson, Uchtdorf not praying during conferences
Here you go folks -- footage of conferences from April 2009 to October 2014 that shows that all three First Presidency members will open their eyes and look through their notes during General Conference prayers. Of all the times to do it, this is probably one of the silliest, when over 20,000 people there - and the world - are looking at them.
Also, keep in mind, there were two conferences that Eyring laughed at the words "Thomas S Monson", whatever the reason behind it, as you'll see below.
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Key for links below:
[c] Camcorder only
[cb] Camcorder+broadcast, side-by-side
Same camcorder footage in both.
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April 2009, Saturday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_lQp6MkUao[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvDqyg9s_kYNotes: Eyring looks out to audience. Looks up. Looks down. Rummages through his pockets. Monson actively turning pages in his notes. Clipped in cb: Uchtdorf constantly open his eyes, moves his folder and goes through his notes 3/4s through the prayer as well.
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April 2009, Sunday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0rsG9yxxqc[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0Q7rLOsuxUNotes: After a few seconds, Eyring looks up and then just straight ahead. Man praying very slightly mispeaks, "President s... Thomas S. Monson". 2.5 seconds after that 's' was said, Eyring laughs to hiself. 15 seconds later, he still thinks it's funny and shakes his fist, chuckling to himself.
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October 2009, Saturday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFSa8e4hHl0[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfYAeyWIQGoNotes: Eyring is still doing his jacket buttons through the beginning of the prayer, and then continues to rifle through his papers. Uchtdorf constantly opens his eyes briefly, then closes them. Monson then opens his folder. Eyring consistently looks through his notes through the entire prayer.
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April 2010, Saturday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwELLYXDDqg[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wepIjSERkT8Notes: Eyring obviously not praying. Uchtdorf opens his eyes briefly at different moments. Is Eyring bored? That's a boredom stretch [0:37].
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April 2011, Saturday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzM-H09FvSg[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXedOY8bTP4Notes: Uchtdorf blinking through beginning of prayer. Eyring goes through his notes. Uchdtdorf goes through his notes too but stops for a moment. Eyring very actively turning pages.
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April 2011, Sunday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCQVPuNaZDs[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6ktZOQ6PIcNotes: Eyring constantly looks at his folder and up. Uchtdorf blinking, so his eyes aren't really closed. Eyring laughs while in the middle of turning a page and the man praying says, "President Thomas S Monson". Note, Monson is not there during this conference. Eyring fixes his tie (just adorable). Christensen (?) next to him has his eyes closed the entire time.
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October 2011, Saturday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox4-OZLSpTs[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3CRfbXMPkgNotes: Eyring constantly looks up. Christensen eyes closed. Eyring laughs at the words, "President Thomas S Monson." Eyring does his tie. Monson is not there. Eyring leans forward and looks into the audience and at his notes.
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April 2012, Saturday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKhQP2gw6dE[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q-vaaAkZfwNotes: Eyring constantly looks through his folders. Uchtdorf removes his pen and opens his folder. Monson looks between his seats. Eyring constinues looking through his notes, pulls some papers out. Uchtdorf is impatient (but he's the one getting up next).
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October 2012, Saturday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysZ1WC3d68M[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdGRl2f75-0Notes: Eyring constantly looking through his notes. Uchtdorf rubs his eyes.
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April 2014, Saturday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMqjda5-JBA[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv4WV37cM3ENotes: Eyring constantly looks up and down, and starts turning pages in his notes. Uchtdorf eyes open and close. (Shaky footage =/)
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April 2014, Saturday afternoon
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HDq7W8oCbs[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozNXJaG7zv8Notes: Eyring constantly flipping through his pages of notes. (Shaky footage =/)
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October 2014, Saturday morning
[cb]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7UROCIny6o[c]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSLckxdHHSoNotes: Woman prayer! Has Christensen in it. Eyring looks up later than usual, but then turns pages in his notes. Uchtdorf opens his eyes too.
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I have nothing against Eyring. I really like him and Uchtdorf.
While there may be bigger things that have happened recently, including the lds.org essays that confirm Joseph Smith's 40 wives, some of which were 14 years old and others who were married to other men before Joseph was sealed to them, this is as important to me.
This is something that I feel like I could actually bring up to my family, that has adaquate and simple proof, without feeling threatening to them. They can justify it. This is something that could change the attitude towards being holier than thou in the LDS church -- because if the prophets don't close their eyes during prayers, because that's not what really matters, then do all of the silly little rules and judgement calls that people put on others really matter?
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As to whether Eyring laughed directly because of Monson being called a prophet, I believe he did for the following reasons:
1) He doesn't laugh during other prayers for no reason. If he was a laugher / read something funny, he would have laughed at other times.
2) He did it *twice*, during *two* conferences two years apart. I would put money on finding other footage of him doing the same thing at least one other time, if we had all conference footage available to us.
3) The timing is funny. If he was laughing at the mispoken "s" (2009 conference footage; for "Ezra Taft Benson" or "Spencer Kimball" or "S. Monson"?), it still wasn't funny enough to laugh a good twenty seconds later about it. You can barely hear the "s". If he was laughing at something funny he read (2011 conference footage), then why were his eyes looking at the audience just before? He was in the middle of turning a page too. There can't be that much funny stuff in his notes. This time Monson wasn't there for him to have to shield his feelings.
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