Dieter Uchtdorf at the Marriott Hotel, Warsaw (Sunday 15th June 2014: A Few Ethnographic Shots)

In the picture above, Dieter Uchtdorf (the Second Counsellor to President Monson in the LDS First Presidency) and his wife behind him are almost being 'mobbed', as they shake hands with and sometimes embrace mainly Polish and American well-wishers after an LDS (Mormon) Conference at the Marriott Hotel in Warsaw yesterday.

I'm not LDS, but I'm interested in the sociology of religion, in particular, LDS conversion process in the local context of Warsaw, Poland.  Regarding this, my three main areas of interest concern how pre-LDS (non-) religious experience; and LDS religious and socio-cultural attractions may prompt Polish converts (recruits) towards joining the LDS.  Tied in with this, I'm interested in how convert (recruit) rational agency; local LDS branch influence; and the wider Polish socio-cultural background may impact on LDS recruitment to baptism.

However, yesterday, all that I was after capturing with my photographs was the flux of excitement that some Polish LDS members (mainly from the Warsaw Wolska and Racławicka branches in my pictures) felt during their post-Conference contact with President Uchtdorf, who for them as LDS, is an Apostle of the Lord.

Of course, in LDS culture, great emphasis is placed on the nurturing of family life, and LDS leaders are always happy to see LDS families with young children:

In the picture below, President Uchtdorf  seems to have stopped to have an animated discussion with someone, as other people listen attentively:

Again, you can see the smiles of intense excitement on LDS member faces in the background on the picture below:

As far as was humanly possible, Dieter Uchtdorf and his wife tried to greet more or less everybody individually on their way out of the Conference Hall, no mean achievement given that they'd just been two of the main speakers at a 2-hour Conference:

The picture below shows the general flux of things after the Conference, to get the shots I did, I had to stand on one of the Conference room chairs:

The final pictures below focus on Mrs Uchtdorf interacting with some Polish female LDS converts:

With this kind of pictorial ethnography, I was trying to visually capture, at a deep emotional level, what this occasion meant for Polish LDS converts.