speaks to my heart

This is absolutely one of my favorite videos. 

With the successes I've had in music, theater, and art, I'd like to think I'm mildly creative. This reminds me of the things I'm passionate about doing (whether it be working on a new flute piece or just sewing a cute apron or digital scrapbooking). I have such a strong desire to make things that have not yet existed. This also does a great job of reminding me who I am--the daughter of the most creative Being in the universe!  This is such an uplifting video/talk/message and I think everyone in the whole world should watch it.

Makes me cry everytime.

Actually, the entire talk is amazing and can be found here in text and here on video (scroll to the bottom of the page).

I just love President Uchtdorf. He's super smart and hilarious. He gave a great talk a week ago to the young adults of the church. Plus he's a convert like me!! 

I sustain President Uchtdorf as a member of the First Presidency of the church and as a prophet, seer, and revelator. I know that he is called of God. I am so grateful for the General Authorities and their messages of love, hope, and inspiration. 

A cure for the commenting allergy...

There is a new little gadget at the bottom of each post. Taking a page out of the facebook (hehe), you can simply click "like it, love it, or dislike it." And it's totally anonymous!

Getting comments is like Christmas morning for me. But it very rarely happens on this blog. I know you readers are out there and I like to know what you're thinking!

So, if you want to make my day, leave a comment. But if the comment allergy is just THAT bad, I would love a clickety-click on that little gadget down there.

The weekend that blew my mind: Education Conference 2009

This past weekend was absolutely phenomenal. The remarks from Elder Ballard and the other speakers were so edifying. I feel like I came away from the weekend as a completely different person! I want to share everything I learned, but I'll save that for another post soon. This is a recap of the awesome events of the weekend...

Friday

Chantel, Amanda, and I drove down to Boston a bit early on Friday and made it around 2pm or so. None of us had really eaten, so we were starvin marvins. We were SO close to the hotel but Chantel took a wrong turn...and it was the best thing that ever happened because we ended up finding this:

Olive Garden!

I'd been craving Olive Garden salad for weeks we don't have one where I live. So we jumped at the chance and had an awesome lunch there. I could live off their salad forever. Yummmm. Then we found a Target...another treasure that we don't have where I live. So I was in heaven. I'm ridiculous, I know.

Not exactly how I planned to spend Friday afternoon though--I was planning on vintage shopping in Boston until Stake Conference. But I definitely don't regret Olive Garden and Target. Not one little bit. Could the day get any better?

Yes, it could.

SO MUCH BETTER.

We checked into our gorgeous Marriott, got dressed for the Cambridge Stake Conference, and took the subway to Copley Square. We went to the adult session of Stake Conference at the historic Trinity Church. It's one of my favorite places in Boston and I'm so grateful I was able to go inside and hear from an apostle! This is technically an Episcopal church building, but the LDS meetinghouse had burned down in April, so we're very grateful to the Episcopal church for lending us such a sacred and revered building.

It's huge inside and I'm pretty sure there were 2 organs. The spirit was SO strong during the conference. I felt like I was at General Conference or something. You could definitely tell there was an apostle there. This apostle to be exact: Elder Ballard.

LOVE HIM!

Everything about the adult session was awesome. By the closing hymn, I found myself crying. Feeling a little embarrassed, I looked around and saw that everyone near me was crying too. Absolutely phenomenal. And then I got to MEET Elder Ballard after the session was over!!

After the session was over, we were walking the streets of Boston, and I found a 7-11. Sounds stupid, but as a shout out to my west coast pals, I needed to get a slurpee (again, not something close to where I live). So I had a slurpee, in about 30 degree weather, not wearing a coat. I'm just that devoted. Definitely a perfect ending to an awesome day.

Saturday (HALLOWEEN!!!)

The big day!! We woke up super early and took to subway into downtown to the Boston Copley Marriott--a huge beautiful conference hotel (pretty sure there was a Tiffany's inside...). We sat with our teams for the duration of the conference. First we heard another great talk from Elder Ballard, followed by remarks from Clayton Christensen (a world leader in innovation, professor at Harvard, and former Area Seventy) and David Neeleman (founder and former CEO of JetBlue). Absolutely phenomenal men. Smartest guys ever. We mostly talked about innovative missionary work. Brother Neeleman and Brother Christensen are two of the best member missionaries in the church (according to Elder Ballard). Brother Neeleman has done amazing things for the church on the internet through his foundation, the More Good Foundation (check it out, it's amazing. And you can join in and help!)

After their remarks, we had to create an innovative missionary idea to present. For some reason the conference organizers made me a Team Leader, so I felt a lot of pressure to do a good job and make sure everyone got along and we had a great idea to present. We thought a Virtual Temple Tour would be awesome--then people wouldn't have to travel far distances to go to open houses. There is so much false info on the internet about LDS temples, and having a virtual tour would set the record straight. We presented our ideas in a big fair thing and then each person voted for the best idea.

Amy with her team's poster.

And my team made it to the top 10! So we got to present our idea in front of everyone and Elder Ballard. It was awesome!

In his closing remarks, Elder Ballard even gave our team a shout out!

Then we had a fabulously long dinner break. We couldn't decide what to do or where to go to eat, so we just went back to our hotel to get ready for the masquerade ball! It was so fun to put on our new beautiful dresses and masks. I'd been so excited for the ball for weeks and weeks! I love any excuse to dress up...

And for those that don't know, this cute gal next to me is Amy, one of our new freshman! She and I have discovered that we are meant to be BFFs. She absolutely cracks me up! We even plan on marrying a pair of brothers so we'll be related forever! I am SO happy that she was there with me over the weekend!

Don't you just love her?!

Getting ready to go

If we had gone to dinner earlier and with other people, it would've been something much different...but for lack of other choices and having like no time to eat...we ended up at Applebee's for dinner. In our formal attire. That's right. Classy to the maxxxxxx.

Pinhead and Bighead.

Dying.

Eventually, we made it to the masquerade ball at the Harvard Club in Boston. It was too dark inside to take pictures of the venue, so you'll just have to rely on the pictures from a few posts back. It was gorgeous. (Note to self: visit the Dartmouth Club in New York and compare)

AJ, Amanda, and Dillon!

When the music got too loud for Dillon hahaha

Taken at probably one of the best parts of the night. (For those in the know, you know why it was the best. Mission accomplished.) Everything about this picture makes me so happy.

I think it needs to be stated that this was easily the best dance, church or otherwise, that I've ever been to. It was about 1000x better than any prom. Everyone was dressed up and dancing the night away. The music was perfect--every song kept getting better and better. The energy kept building and building. And the place was pretty full and everyone was dancing!!!! (How often does that happen?)

To top it all off, a big circle formed in the dance floor and I just figured it was kids randomly breakdancing. Oh no no no no. It was a fully costumed and choreographed performance of Thriller. No freaking joke. It was amazing. Then at the end of the song, MJ took off his Thriller costume to reveal a Billy Jean outfit..the crowd went wild...and then they danced to Billy Jean. How much better does it get?!

Eventually we got pretty tired.

And eventually, all the epic dancing and Frankenankle didn't get along. I started having shooting pain up my leg. I thought I had rebroken my ankle or something. I couldn't walk anymore. So I had to sit out the last bit of the dance. It was soooo worth it though.

And then everyone came to sit with me!

love love love love

Boston at night. Breathtaking.

Sunday

We packed up and checked out of the hotel and drove back to the Copley Marriott for the second session of the Cambridge Stake Conference. And we randomly saw Mitt Romney there! He was probably there on Friday, but I didn't see him then. It was packed--they kept having to extend the ballroom to accommodate everyone. I spent Sunday in a wheelchair since I couldn't walk. It was so awesome to be with Elder Ballard again. It was really surreal to hear him speak and then look over to Mitt Romney and be like "Remember when you ran for President..." and then tell some story about it. To be surrounded by so many amazing people is such a great blessing.

Speaking of blessings, after the conference session was over, we snuck into a room down the hall and AJ and Dillon gave me the most amazing blessing because I was in so much pain. I am so grateful to have men in my life who honor their priesthood and are always willing (and worthy) to give me a blessing when I need it. I love the priesthood!

We all then parted ways, and Chantel and I drove up to Concord to wait for our stake Break the Fast before the CES broadcast. We killed time by reading and watching awesome church videos. Break the Fast was hilarious! I love the other YSA in the stake here and I'm bummed I only really see them once a month.

And if the day...and weekend...couldn't get any better, I was blown away by the talk given by President Uchtdorf from Salt Lake that evening.

Little wishes: I wish Lindsay could've been there with us! She would've had an awesome time and I know, if she had been in the US, she would've been there 1000000%!! And my other regret is about a boy (shocking!). So, to this particular boy, I'd just like to say that I'm really sorry I kind of avoided you at the dance when you were going to ask me to dance. I'm a really awkward person and my first instinct is to walk out of the room during a slow song. I know, I'm weird. You're definitely the most awesome person I met (remet?) at the conference and I definitely wanted to dance with you...but my fight or flight response got the better of me. Forgive me??

This weekend absolutely blew my mind!

I love the gospel!

My very favorite tradition... (and some midnight shenanigans)

HOMECOMING.

How can you go wrong with a giant fire, tons of alumni, and making the freshman run around the fire 113 times while screaming, tripping, and throwing things at them?

All hazing friendly and trying initiation aside, this is seriously my very favorite weekend of the fall. The night of the bonfire just fills my heart with so much Dartmouth spirit. I feel at one with the college and am always reminded how blessed I am to have been able to come here.

The fire kind of got out of control this year and blew to one side.

After the bonfire, most of the LDSSA met up for a pretty epic game of fugitive around midnight.

The boys went back to their room and had a small vanity moment...

The first round fugitives

The only role I could play in the game: driver.

Well after 1am, once we had froze to death, we all came back to our house and had s'mores and hot chocolate. It was awesome! Dillon did tricks with my crutches, AJ gave a lecture on "socialism," and Maurice had his very first s'more ever! Oh, and AJ finally figured out why they're called s'mores hahaha.

It was an awesome night. You can never go wrong with the bonfire and I definitely think midnight shenanigans are far superior to the big frat parties that weekend. Win win win.

Meet Frankenankle

In the spirit of Halloween and all that is spooky, gross, and abnormal, I thought I'd introduce you to the monster attached to my left leg: Frankenankle. The incisions, the ensuing limp...it's unmistakable.

The beginnings:

Once the stitches are gone...

(yeahhhh..that one is not doing so well)

And this is baby Frankenankle when it was born.

Happy Halloween!

Love, my childhood

Halloween shall be the best weekend ever

Tomorrow we're all heading down to Boston for the LDS Education Conference. The big day of the weekend is on Saturday, Halloween. I'll be spending the day hanging out with ELDER BALLARD, along with former Area Authority Clayton Christensen, and the founder (and former CEO) of JetBlue, David Neeleman. All three men have done many significant things for the church and in the world and I can't wait to hear from them....and become their new BFF.

Oh, and there will be over 600 single adults there. Overwhelming much?

The best part??

I'll be spending my Halloween night here...

...a masquerade ball at the Harvard Club in Boston.

(for the curious--it costs $199 per person to have a wedding reception here)

I'm really excited and I finally found something to wear! We drove to the nearest malls (over an hour away btw) and found nothing. I scoured the internet and I've found very few things I liked. I had a bunch I liked, fell in love with one...and then double checked the measurements and my heart broke.

My boobs were too big for the dress. I should've seen this coming. So I reevaluated my options and found that all my favorite were not able to contain what I needed contained. Soooo the search began again. After a lot of indecision, I ordered a dress:

And I love love love it! It's very different than the dresses I orginally loved, but we've all agreed that it looks much classier and grown up than the ones before. Hopefully I'll be able to wear it to other things besides this ball.

Amy and I made our masks today (best mask making party ever!) and here is the fruit of my labors:

I might add something small later tonight if the mood strikes. But that's pretty much it. It was super easy and I like it wayyyyyy better than any of the ones in the store.

But yeah, this weekend is going to be awesome! It's going be like a little vacation. I'm so excited!!

"...become as little children..."

I had the pleasure of babysitting 2 of my favorite girls from my family ward here. They are brilliant and talented and so sweet. It's funny to listen to them talk, because they are saying the exact same thing I said when I was their age. They love American Girl dolls...I LOVED American Girl back in the day.

Anyway, I noticed something while I was babysitting them that night. We were listening to different songs they liked (all Taylor Swift) and it was really fun to sing along with them with the girls. Before each song, they'd warn me if there was a bad part or bad word or something in the song. Knowing a bit about Taylor Swift, I had an impression that she was pretty tame in the language and content department. So I listened really intently to find the "bad word" in the song.

What was the culprit?

"Jerk."

Yep, the word "jerk." How many times each day do I use/hear this word? At first, I was slightly amused that the girls were trying so hard to be protective over a word most of us use so nonchalantly. I then remembered that I used to be exactly like that--words like "crap," "hell," "shut up," etc were lexical sins!

And then I thought of the scripture in Matthew:

"And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3; emphasis added)

I'd always interpreted this to mean being obedient, submitting to our Father's will, being humble, having faith, etc. as we teach each other over and over again in classes.

But what if there's something else to it?

Little children, like these girls and like my younger self, had very clear distinctions of what was right and wrong. They understand (depending on their "goodly parents") that unkind and crass words should not be tolerated, spoken, and should be regarded with the same amount of weight as our more "adult" lexical bombs. This concept can be translated to many other areas of living righteously in the world, but for the sake of the story, I'll stick with language and vulgarity.

What happened to us, adults? When and how did we stop being as the children? When did our standards begin to sag and we started accepting and using language/behavior we used to decry?

The more we conform and accept the standards of the world, the farther we are from "becoming as little children." We should always be vigilant in our standards and never say things or do things that could compromise that.

Why can't we be shocked again?

If we were desensitized...we can be sensitized again (a principle I know to be true in neuroscience).

How different would the world be if we all truly became as little children? I know the snarky ones out there would cite the crying, helplessness, runny noses of children...but in all seriousness, if we were all obedient, humble, and kept ourselves from being desensitized by the world...how awesome would that be?

Yeah, I'm definitely ready for a throwback to childhood (in its 80s and 90s awesomeness).

Whoooooooooooooo's with me???

Timing is a funny thing

Soooo, I broke my ankle, right? I feel like unless you live under a rock, everyone in the world must know by now.

I was really perturbed the whole time because my home teachers never even said hello to me...I don't care about visits--how's about just some general friendliness like "Hi, we care. How are you doing?" They never even introduced themselves to me. You know, the single girl who lives alone and has a broken ankle. Couldn't even manage to say hi in the hallway or fake a smile. The best part--both of their daughters are in my Primary class!

Disclaimer: My Visiting Teachers were awesome! Totally the bomb dot com. They visited me after surgery, they helped me move my mattress downstairs, they drove my mom to the bus to go to the airport, they gave me food, they were always calling/e-mailing/asking me how I was, they were always inviting me to thing. TOTALLY AWESOME. And they both make a mean blueberry baked good. This whole post is just about irony of the home teachers.

So, 8 weeks go by without contact. I did a lot of things myself that would've been significantly easier had I had home teachers to call. Plus it would've been morale boosting to know there were some other people who were aware of me. I was legitimately going to ask for new home teachers.

But who cares...now I can walk and do stuff and whatever. The whole "time of need" thing is over.

So I'm at the ward trunk or treat tonight, handing out candy...when one of my home teachers and his daughter (again, in my Primary class) walk up. I totally was expecting no conversation--no acknowledgment from the dad--I just hand her the candy, smile, and then they go to the next trunk. Nope--perfect timing was about to rear its ironic head.

"Soooooo, now that you're all healed up and walking, I figured this is a good time to introduce myself. I'm your Home Teacher. When can we visit you?"

No freaking joke. Despite being annoyed with them for 8 weeks, I still gave the guys the benefit of the doubt--maybe they didn't know I was on their route or didn't know who I was. Nope, they've known the whole freaking time. I mean, really? I felt so awkward.

"Oh yeah, haha. Funny how I'm better now. Anytime is good."

Dad and daughter shuffle off to the next trunk.

Dah well. I'm sure there was something I needed to gain from not having home teachers around for the entirety of being handicapped. It's just funny how impeccable the timing was.