Dare to Stand Alone

Oh my word!  This week has been so incredibly full of the Spirit!  I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for the chance that I had to be a youth counselor for our stake's youth conference this year.

So, rewind to about 2 days after I got back from my mission.  Some of my best friends, Jennifer, Rachael, and Ammon all came and kidnapped me to go practice a song for some youth conference kick off fireside.  They explained how the stake wanted to create an EFY experience for this year's youth conference, up to the point where they even had the counselors from the YSA group.  They asked if I would be around for the 12-14 of July.  I knew I had school going on, but it sounded so awesome, and I wanted to do it!  I knew it would be worth it.


So, two months and a bunch of meetings later, here I was!  At youth conference!  Bright and early Wednesday morning, I was up, heading to the church to prepare for the 12 or so girls that I was going to be in charge of over the next three days.  I was sporting an awesome red t-shirt, with our theme on the front and a cool word collage on the back.

(*Disclaimer:  This isn't the back of my shirt.  If I am right, I think it's the back of Rachael's shirt, but since all of the shirts look the same, you get the picture.  Literally :)

My group was group #1 and our color was dark pink, so I held up the little sign that I made for them to come and find me, and they slowly trickled in.  As soon as I had all 12 of my girls, we ate a little breakfast, and then played a couple of games.

Me and my girls started off playing a little Ninja!  I love it :)

We had a little devotional about choices and making youth conference a good experience.  I loved testifying of the truths of the Gospel to my girls. I was able to really strengthen my own testimony as I did so.  Then we headed inside to kick off youth conference with everyone!

The theme was Dare to Stand Alone based off of President Monson's talk from the Oct 2011 Priesthood session.

This was the poster that was created and hung up in all of the different buildings.

 We started off by watching the Mormon Message that was recently put out using his talk.

Watch it!  It's great!

Then all of the youth counselor girls sang "Dare to Do Right" from the Primary book.  Over the past week, I have learned to absolutely LOVE this song!  I had never really listened to the second verse before, but once I paid attention to the words, it gave me chills!  Here are the words:

Dare to do right! Dare to be true!

You have a work that no other can do;

Do it so bravely, so kindly, so well,

Angels will hasten the story to tell.

Dare, dare, dare to do right;

Dare, dare dare to be true,

Dare to be true,

Dare to be true.

Dare to do right! Dare to be true! 

Other men's failures can never save you.

Stand by your conscience, your honor, your faith;

Stand like a hero and battle till death!

Dare, dare, dare to do right;
Dare, dare dare to be true,
Dare to be true,
Dare to be true.


After listening to the Jenny Phillips version, we decided to adapt that to how we wanted to sing it.  It wasn't exactly the same, but it was similar (if you click on the link, it takes you to a bunch of clips from her Primary CD for this year, so just listen for a little bit and soon you'll hear Dare to do Right.)  I loved playing the piano while my beautiful sisters sang.

Rachael, Tosha, Shay, Shelly, Serena, and Jennifer.

I think that the song and the movie really helped to set the tone for Youth Conference.  I was able to feel the Spirit so strongly during all of this, testifying to me that what we were singing and watching was true.  

One of the amazing things about EFY is all of the amazing speakers that come, and our youth conference was no different.  We had the privilege of listening to many different speakers and learning so much from them and from their experiences.  Our first guest speaker was Meg Johnson.

Isn't she beautiful?!

She was paralyzed about 8 years ago after falling off a cliff in St. George.  And now she's a motivational speaker, which is great!  She was so funny and cute!  She talked about the theme of our youth conference, "Dare to Stand Alone," and pointed out that it was pretty interesting that they asked someone who couldn't stand if she wanted do (and I'm sure she does) to come and speak about standing alone.  

She told us about her experience and how she became paralyzed, but she also told us about some moments in her life when she had to stand alone.  One thing she mentioned that I really liked was that the most important commandment is the one that you are having the hardest time keeping.  Whoa!  Throw that into perspective!  (I believe she was quoting someone...I just can't remember who...)  It really was great.  She was funny and brought the Spirit into our youth conference. I remember looking down the row at my 12 girls and seeing them watch her and listen to her, and write stuff down in their journals!  (At least, I hope they were taking notes and not playing tic-tac-toe!)  I think they were able to feel of her sincerity and testimony.  It was the best way I can think of to start off our youth conference.

*Other Disclaimer:  Almost all of these pictures were taken by our Youth Conference photographer, Sister Gee.  Just wanted to give credit where it is due :)

Visiting Teachers!

Finally!!! For the first time in 2 years, I HAVE VISITING TEACHERS!!!! Wahoo!!!
They came and visited my roommate and I today.  It was just fun to sit down and chat for a little bit, to know that these girls care enough to stop by and say hi.


It reminded me of my mission, where we are like 100% visiting teachers 100% of the time.  Sometimes the members would joke around with us and say "well, you guys (meaning the missionaries) haven't visited me for a long time, so I'm gonna go inactive."  I would always respond with "Well, none of you have come to visit us, so we're gonna go inactive!"  As in, you should have people visiting you.  It's great for the missionaries to visit you, but you are not their primary responsibility.  They kind of chuckled a little, but didn't really say more.  But I am pleased to say that I still feel active in the Gospel after 2 years of not having visiting teachers.  (Granted, 18 months of that time was spent on the mission :)  


I am really excited to have visiting teachers though and to be a visiting teacher.  They are so important to helping the sisters in the church.  It definitely is an inspired program, and I love it.

Small and Simple Things

I still have tiny little habits from the mission I don't think I've gotten rid of yet.  For example, yesterday I used my big red backpack that I used on my mission.  Oftentimes I would just sling it over my right shoulder, and then when I got tired, I would put it around my left arm, carrying as a backpack should be carried.  While I was on my mission though, when I would do that, the backpack strap would always get put over my name tag.  So I just got used to adjusting my name tag so people could see that I was actually "Hermana Williams" and not just "Hermana Willi."

So yesterday, as I put my backpack on, without thinking, I went to adjust my name tag.  But it wasn't there!  And then I remembered that I don't wear a missionary name tag anymore.  Sad day!

Even though it's been almost 2 months since I've been home, I still have little habits.  They make me miss my mission.  I miss Peru.  I miss Spanish.  I miss all of my wonderful friends.  But one day I'll see them again.  And it will be maravilloso.

Reunited!

Okay, we were really only seperated for a little bit.  So turns out, Ilarene is having a baby!  Which means, BABY SHOWER!!!  Amberly was so good to put it all together, make yummy food (thanks to pinterest!) and be an amazing hostess.  It was so nice too, because our friend Aimee was able to come.  She's been in law school in Chicago for the past year, and I hadn't seen her since my mission farewell. So it was so fun to catch up on life (and be grateful that I'm not going into law school.)  Of course, it was great seeing Ilarene, all cute and pregnant.  She'll be popping soon! It was just so interesting how each one of our lives have kind of taken different paths, but they are all what has been just perfect for us.  We definitely missed other friends too, like Michelle and Erin, but they were certainly there in spirit!

P.S.-so I chopped my hair for the first time since I got back from my mission.  Actually (and I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this), I hadn't cut my hair since I was in the MTC.  So my hair had gone like 18 months without a good haircut (I didn't really trust anyone with my hair in Peru).  So anywho, here you can kind of see it.  It's not as short as it was when I chopped it in the MTC, but it definitely is a lot shorter than I'm used to!  I quite like it.  


Funny-ish story.  So there's a huge fire that has been burning in Eagle Mountain/Saratoga Springs for the past 3-4 days I think...  (people target practicing with exploding targets...smart.)  The unfunny part is that they've had to evacuate a lot of people from SS/EM (thankfully my family/neighborhood is safe).  So I went to Great Clips to get my hair cut, but they were closed because of the evacuation, even though they weren't in the evacuation zone.  So I went down to Fantastics Sams in SS, and found another guy that had done the same thing!  Okay, like I said, not really that funny.  Just interesting.

The Other Side

For the last 18 months, I have had the opportunity to talk to people about the Gospel, about my beliefs, about the Church, along with helping people to improve their relationship with God.  Throughout the course of my mission we taught several hundreds of investigators.  But this week, it was my turn to be the investigator.

Tuesday, there was a knock on our door.  The Jehovah's Witnesses had come to visit us.  They were two really cute girls from San Diego, probably about 21 years old.  I had had several encounters with Jehovah's Witnesses on my mission, so I was somewhat intrigued by what they had to say.  They quickly shared a scripture from Psalms with us and then left us a book called What the Bible Really Teaches.  I had seen/skimmed through it in Spanish in Peru.  It's the same in English.  While I really appreciate what these young women were trying to do in helping other people, my heart ached for them, because they are missing parts of the Gospel (parts that are essential for every child of God, aka everyone!)  But I was nice and listened like a good investigator, because, hey, I've been there.

The next day, I was on the receiving end again. But this time, the missionaries were at Temple Square.  We had our weekly temple trip and this week we headed up to the Salt Lake Temple, which was AMAZING!!!! You could really feel the Spirit in the temple.  Afterwards, we wandered around City Creek (because I hadn't been there since I got back from my mission), and then headed back to Temple Square to look around.  As we entered into the South Visitor's Center, a sister missionary from Mongolia approached us.  We introduced ourselves, told her that we had just come to the temple, and then just looking around.  She talked to us a little bit about our missions as well, about some of the awesome things about the mission but some of the hard things as well.  She then told me that she felt like she wanted to share a scripture from The Book of Mormon with me.  As I read the scripture in Moroni 10:10-12, I really felt like those words were speaking to me.  I knew it was talking about gifts of the Spirit, but I had never really felt that any of those particular ones applied to me.  But as I read, I could feel the Spirit, and I realized that the Lord was answering one of my prayers.  She also told me that she was sure that I touched the lives of many people on my mission (which is something that Satan tries to make me doubt a lot). She left each of us with an individual commitment (like an awesome missionary does!), and we said goodbye.   But I was so grateful for this sister missionary, who the Lord sent all the way over to the states from Mongolia, and for her inspired words meant for me.  Just talking to her for those 10 minutes on Wednesday made my week, and she probably has no idea.  That left me pondering on my own mission, and made me think about how many people I may have touched that I have no idea about.  I hope to one day see the fruits of my labors.

Missionary work is awesome.

Pony Express Days

So each year Eagle Mountain has it's "Pony Express Days."  It has everything from a demolition derby to a carnival to a movie in the park...pretty much everything.  Including a parade.  It was held last Saturday, and I went with my family.  I obviously missed last year's parade due to the fact that I was being a missionary down in Peru!  But the year before, I had an interesting experience at the parade, which I though about quite a bit this year.

Pony Express Days parade-first weekend in June 2010.  About 2 weeks earlier I had made the decision to serve a mission, and had started up my papers.  I honestly had no idea where I was going to go.  But I knew I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do, and that made me happy.

As we're at the parade, we see lots of things pass by, floats, princesses, marching bands, cub scouts, everything.  I'm just sitting there, innocently watching the parade when the Latino ward here in Eagle Mountain walks by.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I feel this overwhelming love for these people.  It was enough to make me start to tear up (and I don't cry easily).  In that moment, I felt like the Lord was preparing me to go and serve these people.  I felt I was going to go on a Spanish speaking mission.  I didn't tell anyone at the time about my feeling though, just in case I got called to Russia or something, and it turned out I was wrong.  But I wasn't! :)

When I opened my call about a month and a half later, and read the words "...assigned to labor in the Perú Piura mission," those feelings came back.  I felt so good about my mission call, even though I had no idea where it was (no worries though-shortly thereafter I started freaking out about learning Spanish, going to another country, etc.).  I felt that the Lord was helping me to love these people.  And I do.  I think the thing I miss most about being a missionary is the people.  I love them.  And I have since even before my mission :)

Temple-Friends-Institute

There are a lot of things that have helped me in my transition to normal peoplehood.  One of those things is the temple.  I didn't get the chance to attend the temple at all when I was in Peru, and it definitely was one of those things that I missed a lot.  The peace that you find in the temple is amazing, and I love it.

The other thing is friends.  My amazing friends.  Like Erin, Ilarene, and Beth, who have been with me through the twists and turns of college/BYU/life.  I've gone through so much with these girls, laughing together, crying together, shopping together, heck, living together :)  Then there are my friends from my home ward, like Emily, Jennifer, Rachael, and Ammon.  I've known these guys since I was 12.  They've been with me through the awkwardness of teenage years, girls camp, youth conference, YM/YW activities, the zits, dating, you name it.  I love all of these people so much.  

So....when you put friends together in a temple, it is just an amazing experience.  

Me, Jennifer, Ammon, and Rachael in front of the Draper Temple

Sometimes you gotta be a little silly and try not to fall over :)

So we decided as a group of friends we wanted to go to the temple each week.  Correction: They were already going each week.  I just decided I wanted to join them.  Ammon and I are both endowed, but Rachael and Jennifer are not.  So what we decided to do is Ammon and I would do a session while Jennifer and Rachael would travel to different temples doing baptisms.  On Wednesday, they went to Oquirrh Mountain first, then Jordan River, and ended up at Draper, where we ended up getting out about the same time!  Perfect!

I really can't say enough about how much I love the temple.  I missed it so much on my mission.  I think that almost made me more trunky than anything :)  (In fact, I specifically remember a conversation with my district leader where he told us that we shouldn't talk about the temple because it was making him trunky!  Silly elders....  :)  It really is such a blessing to be able to live close to a temple (or close to like 8 temples in my case).  

Another blessing that we have as young adults is Institute, which I've also grown to love.  It's good to have that extra lesson, extra time to focus on gospel doctrines and just dive into the scriptures.  Recently we've been doing the "Doctrines of the Gospel" class, and we've been talking about the Plan of Salvation.  I learned more about the fall, Adam and Eve, the Atonement...man it's been amazing.  I love the scripture in Moses 5:11 where Eve is basically describing the blessings that have come to them by the Fall.  Maybe it's just because she's actually talking, but I love it.  On my mission, there were people who would say that Adam and Eve committed such a terrible thing by partaking of the fruit, but with our knowledge of the Plan we realize it brought forth many blessings as well.  It definitely was a challenge sometimes, helping people understand the Fall better, but as they came to understand that, they understood better the need for the Atonement.  Which is always incredible.  

So recap: 

Temple=blessing

Friends=blessing

Gospel of Jesus Christ=blessing

Wow!  Just a few of the many blessings I have in my life :)

P.S.-Todavia extraño Español/castellano.  Y extraño Perú.  Por si acaso.