Sorry about the two week gap. I had a week where my mind had run fresh out of creative insights and then a week where I was gone getting refills on them.
Me and my two friends that I've had since we stole some poor boy's ball in nursery went to Salt Lake to watch General Conference. Frankly, I'm just glad my one friend's parents thought to bring me along. One can only take so many hours of inside jokes and arguing over who should man up and eat the rest of the Doritos.
But, again, I'm sooo grateful!! I'm not sure what my problem was the week leading up to it. Some more pesky doubts probably arose like they always do and I just felt kinda....blah. So this short getaway turned out to be just what I needed.
I remember we listened to the first session in the car. My friend's gracious mother had bought all three of us little notebooks because she knew we would take notes. So we put our old ones away and used the cute, little mitch-matchy ones.
It always seemed to be a tiny testimony builder for me whenever I would look over and see my two best friends eagerly scribble something down. There are many nights when I thank my Heavenly Father for gaurdian angels both seen and unseen. These two are always in mind. They seem to know just when to bluntly tell me to stop freaking out or to give a sincere compliment. And since I tend to be the pun of most inside-jokes, there is the constant reminder to laugh through life rather than cry.
Anyways, as we listened in the car, I watched the changing scenery out the window. We were in the mountains at the time and I remember large masses of pink, yellow, and green trees. Some of the more-personal insights I received will be remembered with those beautiful patterns. Already those doubts were being dispersed.
Finally we reached Salt Lake and I suddenly became a little kid all over again.
"Look at all the people!!" I kept muttering to myself, "I've never seen so many couples in my entire life!" "Woah! Look they have a plaque about sunday school at the traffic light!" "Hey look, the tram! Can we go on the tram?" "*Gasp* an escalator and an elevator? My favorite!" "Woah...I want to jump into that fountain! It looks so fun!" "Ohh, look at the flowers. I could just lay in them!"
Another saving quality of my friends is that they have this amazing knack for tuning me and my overly-passionate excitement out. It's probably one of the things that's kept us three sitting at the same lunch table for so long. :)
Anyways, we physically attended the second session. We no sooner tumbled out of the car then a van full of boys pulled up and one of them rolled down their window.
"Hi," a couple of them shyly said.
"Hi," we smiled in return, holding back giggles.
There's not really much point to that, I just thought it was funny.
A classmate had also come and we found out where he was sitting: perfectly opposite of us. So we called him and got him to wave to us across the massive conference center. :) Later, they were trying to fill up some rows so we got to move up to the tenth! I could literally recognize the faces of prophets and apostles that I normally only saw on Mormon Messages or at home on my T.V. screen! If you got any idea of my excitement before, just imagine it now.
Of course, we eagerly continued to fill up our new notebooks and nudged each other to point out little things that we noticed. Then they had the rest hymn. The lights in the conference center came on and everyone stood to sing "Praise to the Man." The force of the sound from so many people brought tears to my eyes. Surely the very man they were singing about, the one who once held meager meetings in mere cabins, must've felt emotional at the sight. I knew he wasn't there physically but with the volume of all the voices I didn't doubt every word reached clear to Heaven.
After the conference--by which point I felt all my fears and doubts peeling away--a photographer, from the business that publishes church magazines, asked to take a picture of us. So if you see three teenage girls and a nice-looking mother in one, that's us. :)
We went shopping and I bought a goofy elephant beanie thing that I felt self-concious about in the Deseret Bookstore because everyone kept giving me weird looks. I guess it should've been nothing more than I expected though. :) We saw a pretty good number of people from our little hometown and I was startled by one of them yelling out my name and throwing her arms around me in the middle of a crowded bookstore. It still amazes me that such a small area could stretch such far distances. We had a citizen who had met someone in a different town who had met an exchange student from Germany who had come here. We may not be on the map, but we're everywhere else.
We listened to the rest of conference at my friend's grandparents' house and on the way home. I can't relate all the lessons I learned nor all the times I felt the peace I'd been seeking for. But I think it'll suffice to say that it took the world a couple months to build up my all my doubts and fears and grumpy attitudes to that point. And how long did it take the Lord to take it all down? A weekend. One of my favorite youth speakers, Hank Smith, points this out. As he says, " He probably could've done it faster." Only I'm sure He knew that any faster and I'd lose it all together.
To finish this up, I just want to share one of my favorite highlights from General Conference:
Me and my two friends that I've had since we stole some poor boy's ball in nursery went to Salt Lake to watch General Conference. Frankly, I'm just glad my one friend's parents thought to bring me along. One can only take so many hours of inside jokes and arguing over who should man up and eat the rest of the Doritos.
But, again, I'm sooo grateful!! I'm not sure what my problem was the week leading up to it. Some more pesky doubts probably arose like they always do and I just felt kinda....blah. So this short getaway turned out to be just what I needed.
I remember we listened to the first session in the car. My friend's gracious mother had bought all three of us little notebooks because she knew we would take notes. So we put our old ones away and used the cute, little mitch-matchy ones.
It always seemed to be a tiny testimony builder for me whenever I would look over and see my two best friends eagerly scribble something down. There are many nights when I thank my Heavenly Father for gaurdian angels both seen and unseen. These two are always in mind. They seem to know just when to bluntly tell me to stop freaking out or to give a sincere compliment. And since I tend to be the pun of most inside-jokes, there is the constant reminder to laugh through life rather than cry.
Anyways, as we listened in the car, I watched the changing scenery out the window. We were in the mountains at the time and I remember large masses of pink, yellow, and green trees. Some of the more-personal insights I received will be remembered with those beautiful patterns. Already those doubts were being dispersed.
Finally we reached Salt Lake and I suddenly became a little kid all over again.
"Look at all the people!!" I kept muttering to myself, "I've never seen so many couples in my entire life!" "Woah! Look they have a plaque about sunday school at the traffic light!" "Hey look, the tram! Can we go on the tram?" "*Gasp* an escalator and an elevator? My favorite!" "Woah...I want to jump into that fountain! It looks so fun!" "Ohh, look at the flowers. I could just lay in them!"
Another saving quality of my friends is that they have this amazing knack for tuning me and my overly-passionate excitement out. It's probably one of the things that's kept us three sitting at the same lunch table for so long. :)
Anyways, we physically attended the second session. We no sooner tumbled out of the car then a van full of boys pulled up and one of them rolled down their window.
"Hi," a couple of them shyly said.
"Hi," we smiled in return, holding back giggles.
There's not really much point to that, I just thought it was funny.
A classmate had also come and we found out where he was sitting: perfectly opposite of us. So we called him and got him to wave to us across the massive conference center. :) Later, they were trying to fill up some rows so we got to move up to the tenth! I could literally recognize the faces of prophets and apostles that I normally only saw on Mormon Messages or at home on my T.V. screen! If you got any idea of my excitement before, just imagine it now.
Of course, we eagerly continued to fill up our new notebooks and nudged each other to point out little things that we noticed. Then they had the rest hymn. The lights in the conference center came on and everyone stood to sing "Praise to the Man." The force of the sound from so many people brought tears to my eyes. Surely the very man they were singing about, the one who once held meager meetings in mere cabins, must've felt emotional at the sight. I knew he wasn't there physically but with the volume of all the voices I didn't doubt every word reached clear to Heaven.
After the conference--by which point I felt all my fears and doubts peeling away--a photographer, from the business that publishes church magazines, asked to take a picture of us. So if you see three teenage girls and a nice-looking mother in one, that's us. :)
We went shopping and I bought a goofy elephant beanie thing that I felt self-concious about in the Deseret Bookstore because everyone kept giving me weird looks. I guess it should've been nothing more than I expected though. :) We saw a pretty good number of people from our little hometown and I was startled by one of them yelling out my name and throwing her arms around me in the middle of a crowded bookstore. It still amazes me that such a small area could stretch such far distances. We had a citizen who had met someone in a different town who had met an exchange student from Germany who had come here. We may not be on the map, but we're everywhere else.
We listened to the rest of conference at my friend's grandparents' house and on the way home. I can't relate all the lessons I learned nor all the times I felt the peace I'd been seeking for. But I think it'll suffice to say that it took the world a couple months to build up my all my doubts and fears and grumpy attitudes to that point. And how long did it take the Lord to take it all down? A weekend. One of my favorite youth speakers, Hank Smith, points this out. As he says, " He probably could've done it faster." Only I'm sure He knew that any faster and I'd lose it all together.
To finish this up, I just want to share one of my favorite highlights from General Conference:
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