Burritos and General Conference Happiness

It’s General conference season, and it has brought my beloved mission companion Airi back to Utah! You wouldn’t think she lives thousands of miles away in Okinawa since I’ve seen her twice already in the few months we’ve been home.

She’d been planning on coming here for a work conference and General Conference with her mom since back when we were still serving together in Sapporo. At the time I didn’t know that I would be here too, so it worked out fantastically!

We tried to get in to conference in the standby line with her mom and two friends from Japan since they only have translation in the actual conference center and we kind of made it in. As in we sat on couches in the lobby. But they got translation, so it was all good. Afterwards we ate delicious burritos from a taco cart. Yep.

We also had a couple of mission reunions, so it was great to get to hang out with everyone again!

I love conference season. There are only good feelings! Tomorrow I’m going to snuggle into my couch and watch this online (so convenient):

Hope you’re having a fantastic weekend!

General Conference!

Yesterday Amber and I had the fabulous opportunity to go to general conference at the actual conference center in Salt Lake City for the Saturday afternoon session, which was awesome because we got to be in the building where all of the apostles and such were speaking.

It was fun to get all dressed up and go there! Today I’m just watching on the couch in my pajamas (I have no intention of changing today). It’s great because conference really is beautiful no matter where you are. To tune into it you can go here.

Here are some pictures from yesterday’s fun:

 

 

We also ran into some friends there. A lot of BYU students sneak up there to try and get in since it’s so close.

We put the camera on timer to take pictures of the two of us together. At which point my hair really went out of its way to attack Amber.

Then it attacked me.

And then when the wind behaved Amber didn’t.

But don’t worry, we still got some good ones.

If you want to see more pictures of Amber and pretty things, click on the linkity below. (This is for you, mom)

General Conference April 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Song = Dare You to Move by Switchfoot. We may have listened to the A Walk to Remember soundtrack on the way back from Salt Lake. You can’t judge us because you know you loved that CD in middle school too.

When It’s Time To Let Go

I have to admit, usually for my blog I try to skirt around deeper topics and instead stick to the happy and fun, but today I felt like I should make an exception. Late last Saturday night, after a wonderful day full of friends and movies and music, I got an unexpected call from my dad – my Grandma Crofts had passed away.

Even though you know death is inevitable, you still never want it to happen. But I knew then that her passing was for the best, and I still do. Sure, I miss her quite a bit, but any of the reasons for me to be sad are purely selfish. My Grandma is in a better place, where she is without pain and reunited my Grandpa Crofts, who she missed and actually passed away four years ago on the same exact day. And one of the most beautiful things is that I know I can see her, and all of my other grandparents, again someday.

Today I had the opportunity to attend her funeral in Orderville, Utah with my family, and I can honestly say every part of it was beautiful, even though parts of it were tough. I loved learning more about her life, and I got to see and meet a lot of family members. I love my Grandma Crofts, and I’m extremely thankful for her example and all of the wonderful memories I have of her, and especially for being able to see her more often in recent years since I’ve been closer at BYU. I miss her, but even more than that I am glad I know she is someplace better.

Song = God Be With You Till We Meet Again

Let’s Pretend it’s October

--------- I just found this in my drafts from forever ago ---------------

--------------- so I’m posting it now. Time machine! --------------------

With all the chaos of getting ready to go to Vegas and just everyday life I wasn’t able to give General Conference quite as much attention as I would have liked. So, every night since then in place of my scripture study I decided to watch one talk from conference (it is, after all, modern scripture from living prophets). I’m not done yet, but it’s been a wonderful experience.

This is actually from the Relief Society broadcast, but it’s just lovely. It’s about having charity and not judging others. And President Monson always has the best stories to get the message across. Enjoy!

I may be extremely tired by the time I watch them right before bed, but it’s so wonderful to have the reminder of what is really most important and what I can do to improve.

Hope your day is filled with happiness! Links to all of the talks print and video can be found here.

Belated Birthday Post x2

Apparently I am just unable to blog about birthdays when they actually happen. This time it isn’t for me though, it’s for my sister Amber. She had her 19th birthday two weeks ago tomorrow, and it was a lot of fun for me because it’s the first time in four years that we’ve been in the same state on her special day. So I appeared at her door bearing gifts after regional conference (which I feel must have been a birthday present in itself, because a bunch of general authorities including Elder Packer, Elder Holland and Sister Beck were there).

Pictures:

Amber and her friends.

Sneak peak at some of the cupcakes I picked up for her from The Sweet Tooth Fairy (in above box). I’ve never bought so many cupcakes at one time before in my life. It was exhilarating.

In other exciting Amber news, she blogged for the first time in forevers yesterday. I may have been bugging her about it. I never had a blog as a freshman, but I get bored sometimes and I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be providing me entertainment.

Can I also just say one of the best things about having my sister at BYU (other than the obvious reasons, of course) is that she will come to the newsroom where I work with her magic money card (a.k.a. student dining plan) and buy me treats from the vending machine? Yeeesssssss.

Perspective

So, I’ve hit another one of those weeks of pure insanity where all you want in life is to melt into a couch and eat sugary things. But, I just got back from an awesome Relief Society meeting for my stake where we got to have a Q&A session with Sister Beck, who is the current Relief Society General President for the Church. She answered any questions anyone had about life, and gave advice on how to handle various struggles. It was really just a beautiful couple of hours, and it really put things back into perspective. I think I needed that with all the stress from school right now. It can sometimes be a little too easy to lose track of the things that are important, and what our real goal in life is.

On a completely unrelated note I discovered a new place in Provo that I’m in love with. It’s a letterpress studio with some really awesome people called Rowley Press. You should check out the story I wrote about it for upp.

And on another happy note, we got a new microwave today. It’s a gift directly from heaven. Our last microwave I’ve been using for almost a year and a half was made circa 1984 and had dials and such. I feel like microwave popcorn didn't even exist when it was made. It’s so old I can’t even find a photo of it on the internet to share its hideousness with you. But now it’s ok, because we have a functional new one so I won’t have to feel like I’m going to die of microwave radiation every time I heat something up.

(Yet another side note, I took the picture above at Utah lake when I was trying to escape from the craziness that is Provo. I have some fun ones, but negative time to edit them. So maybe they’ll be posted sometime this year?)

General Conference and Life

When I was little, I loved General Conference purely because it meant sleeping in and staying home for one special Sunday every six months. There were good snacks and I got to stay in pajamas all day. What could be better?

With this week being General Conference weekend I couldn't help but reflect on how much my feelings toward it have evolved over the past few years.

(For those of my lovely friends who aren't members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, General Conference is a weekend every six months where the Prophet and other leaders of the church broadcast four sessions of meetings across the world with new guidance and advice for members. They show it on TV (thus the watching it in pajamas), in church buildings and online. I'm pretty sure I did a horrible job explaining that, so if you're lost or want to satisfy your curiousity you can probably find more information here)

I think the next stage involved me liking conference because it was something entertaining to listen to. General Conference seems to have a abundant wealth of awesome story tellers. They are even known to tell the occasional fantastic joke.

It's more recently that I think I've understood more of the real reason for conference -- to have questions answered and prepare yourself for the future. I really started to appreciate the information that was being presented, knowledge and advice that could help me in my life. A lot of times it can serve as a reality check for current trends, or a major source of strength and comfort. As I've finally come to realize this I've learned to love Conference so much more. It's such a beautiful thing, to know what Heavenly Father wants you to know directly from His leaders. I still love staying in my PJs, but that's more of a happy side benefit.

One thing I've always associated with General Conference, even though it's not necessarily directly related, is family. Even though I haven't been home for conference for the past few years, whenever it comes around I remember all the times we sat together on the couch and snacked while watching it, and I know that even though we're almost a thousand miles apart we're both experiencing the same thing at the same time and learning together. And, during conference you can always just feel the huge amount of love the apostles and other leaders have for us.

Basically, the moral of the story is that I love conference and can't wait for the next one to come around again in April.

This post is probably way deeper and more personal than I will ever go again, but after listening to Conference for the past two days I couldn't help but write about it. It's just too important to me. So thanks for bearing with me.

On top of the Conference Center with the Salt Lake Temple in the background. I totally lucked out and got to go to the Saturday session of conference in the Conference Center, where it is broadcast from. Annie got a knock on her door late Friday night asking if she wanted four extra tickets for the next morning and she offered one to me! I LOVE her.