Young Women's General Conference

So Mykie and I just got back from our Utah trip. We left on Friday Morning and got back Sunday at 8pm.

We went with my Laurel advisor, DeAnn Merrill, her daughter Kari, Ami Stephens and Layna Smith. We went down to the Young Women's Conference. But just to make it clear for our Stake President (who was the only one who could get us tickets) it was NOT a church trip. It was two moms, their girls and a couple of their friends going to Utah and the YW conf. It was pretty fantastic.

We stayed at DeAnn's parents house in Sugarhouse. They were such great hosts. When we drove in that night, DeAnn's mom had a delicious dinner waiting for us. That was so sweet! Everyone had a place to sleep and the house was so welcoming.

The next morning we went shopping to the fun little scrapbook store called Pebbles in my Pocket and found some way cute stuff. then we went to the Training Table for lunch. That was yummy! You see if you order a dinner salad, then it totally counter-acts the calories from the cheese fries. Kari made a great present for the clearers of the table. This lovely little happy face.

We went to the outside mall later that day. It was a beautiful day, which is not the way it is now in Utah. We got the best days in Utah. I heard they had a "White Easter".

That evening we went to the new Deseret Book Store. That was pretty neat, we changed into our Sunday Best in their nice new bathroom. Two leaders and 5 girls, that was entertaining! We then headed over to the conference center. It was great to see so many Young Women at the conference center. The Spirit there was so great. It was so wonderful to watch the calm and hush that came over the crowd as the Prophet walked into the Conference. I wasn't watching the Prophet come in, I was watching Ami Stephen's face because she told me earlier that she had never been in the same room as the Prophet. That moment was priceless.
The Conference was great! We loved the talks and especially the one by Elder Uchtdorf who told us that we can all have our "happily ever after". That was so entertaining. I missed seeing the conference with my other girls back here in Washington, but the experience in Utah was great!

After it was over we had a once in a lifetime experience. We all got to meet Sister Elaine Dalton (Gen YW President) after stealthily sneaking through a couple of security check points and then sitting on the first row of the conference center, staring over at where she was being social with those who COULD get past that last security checkpoint and silently praying she'd come over. She finally looked our way, we waved and she headed over. WOW. Meeting her....that was a great experience. She came over and told the girls that she just felt that she needed to meet them. We told her that we came from Washington and she thanked us for coming so far. She hugged each of us, held our hands and told us special stuff. She told me "thank you" for what I do for the young women. She said that our young women need strong and virtuous women like me. Like me? That's what she said. She saw something in me. I was so overwhelmed. You could totally feel the love that radiated from her. There was no judgement, but true love radiated from her as she looked at you and spoke with you. I want to be like that when I grow up. She was so gracious.

Earlier, she told the girls in her talk at the conference that she had been given a gift. That gift was to see the girls as they truly are. What they are meant to be. And when meeting her, you really know that she was blessed with that gift. It was way cool!

The next morning we went to Music and the Spoken Word. It was pretty crowded in there. It was Palm Sunday, so I don't know if that was the reason or not, but it was crowded. We were up in the upper seating, when the announcer pointed out important folks in attendance. Among them was Sister Dalton AND President Monson and his daughter. President Monson was seated right under our tier so we didn't see him, but it was great to be in the same room as him again as he was also there at YW conference.

It was really a great trip and one that my Laurels wanted to take. I am sure that they will always have great memories of it (and photos to boot!)

Kari M took her sister's sweater with her on the trip. That made Kristin M a little like Jeremy on a bad day. When Kristin asked her mom where the sweater was, she said, "I think it went on a trip to visit grama." Which was true because all of us stayed at Kari & Kristin's grama's house. So we decided that the sweater should really visit Gramma and Utah. We took that sweater everywhere and took pictures of it's journey. It visited a metal bike stand, it had it's picture taken with a Merrell shoe advertisement, a bagpipper held it, a newly married couple at the temple held it, it took an escalator ride, it was at the conference with us in it's own chair with it's own ticket and it was in the picture with Sister Dalton. Silly girly stuff, but fun and laughter abounded!

When we got home, Kari came over and we made up a book called "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Sweater". We ended up with 14 pictures so we made one page for the photo and the second page a journaling page. Kari told me that Kristen laughed at the book. That's awesome!