I got to go to Time Out For Women twice this year. The 2nd weekend of November I went to St. George with my best friend, Amy Marshall. I left home first thing Friday morning, made a quick stop at the bank and Walmart in Mesquite and then met Amy, my mom and my cousin Ashley at the temple. It was lovely! After our session we met Larry and Brad at Outback for an early dinner and then went to check in to our hotel and get ready for Time Out. We stayed at The Hilton Gaeden Inn right next to the convention center where TOFW was held. Most of the presenters stayed there as well and we caught John Byetheway first thing Saturday morning and had to get a picture. It was a great 2 days of uplifting and memorable presenters like Virginia Pierce-President Hinkley's daughter, John Byetheway, Michael McLean. Amy and I only stayed up until 1:30 this year unlike last year when we stayed up until 3:30. We had breakfast at the hotel in their restaurant Saturday morning, checked out, put our luggage in our cars and then went over for the Saturday event. It was so great to be there with my mom and my bestie and my cousin and her friends. After our long day my mom and I ran to walmart and then drove home. Larry left earlier in the day to go to Logandale and watch football with Don and the boys, Mom and Larry stayed the night with Ashley and Brad and then came to our house for a few more days.
A few key points from St. George were
1. We need to choose to show up. Virginia Pierce
2. We can choose to believe that we have a choice. Virginia Pierce
3. Suffering is mandatory. Misery is optional. John Byetheway
4. Stop telling God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big your God is! John Byetheway
5. Let it go! Chris Williams
6. Perspective, patience and perspective. Chris Williams
7. Misperception causes relationships to suffer-even relationships with Heavenly Father. Emily Watts
8. We need to speak to our children's spirits. Emily Watts
9. Where there is no vision the people perish Proverbs 29:18 John HIlton
10. If you want something to last you treat it differently. F. Burton Howard
11. We have made covenants to speak up for truth. Merrilee Boyack
12. Reaching requires us to look up. Emily Freeman
Then a few weeks later my super amazing husband worked it out so I could go to TOFW again in Salt Lake. I really wanted to go again because there were completely different presenters and one of them was Sheri Dew. When I grow up I want to be just like her! My friend Serena and I flew into SLC on a super rainy day in Vegas and landed in SLC to sunshine! My mom and sister, Suzanna, picked us up from the airport and we headed over to our hotel up at Jordan Landing. We stayed in a really nice new Hampton Inn. After we checked in (they were nice enough to let us check in early) we did a little shopping at the huge shopping center right by our hotel (see my new boots!), went to Kneaders for a warm and yummy dinner and headed to the Maverick Center for our evening event. It was super cold so Serena and I were very glad we brought our warm heavy coats and gloves. The evening presenters were A.W.E.S.O.M.E!! Sheri Dew shared her testimony about things that she KNOWS. One thing in particular that resonated with me was how she took a quote from Elder Holland's October 2012 talk entitled 'The First and Great Commandment". His quote says “Then Peter, why are you here? Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world." That is a lifechanging quote if there ever was one! I shared it a few weeks later at a combined Relief Society lesson that we had about visiting teaching. That quote can be applied to anything though and that's why I loved it! She also said "God would not send weak women He couldn't count on!" How awesome is that!
After Sister Dew, a couple named Terril and Fiona Givens spoke. They were very theological and kind of hard to follow but you knew that they were very smart and knew what they were talking about. One quote from them was that our lives were "meant to be educative not punitive". I really need to remember that one!
Sheri Dew was the host with an interview with Ann Romney. That woman is class epitomized. She was graceful and engaging and honest and candid and it was fantastic! One of the very last questions was about politics and how they handled it when they didn't win the election. Ann's answer was amazing. She talked about how because they had been in many callings in the church just like anyone else, you could go from Relief Society president to nursery leader because responsibilities change and revolve. That is how they felt about the election-that their term of service was over in that respect and they would move on to other areas of service. She said that they didn't lose that night, America lost that night-which is the absolute truth. One quote from her was that none of us will avoid swimming in deep waters. The musical presenters for the evening were a group called Hudson Lights. They were not my favorite and I don't think too many people liked them that much either. They were too bluesy/jazzy for my taste. It was kind of sad at the end when they had their last song that most of the crowd was leaving. It was not that way the next day when Hilary Weeks was the musical presenter. Practically everyone stayed in their seats for her until the very end!
After that we spent 30 minutes in the parking lot trying to get out and not be rude to the billion other LDS women trying to do the same thing! We went to Walmart to get some food items to donate to the service project the next day and then went to In and Out Burger. At our hotel we headed to our rooms to "sleep" but that didn't happen. Serena and I talked until about 1:45 and then about 2:30 Suzanna came over to join us so we stayed up talking until about 5:45. We talked about music and stuff so it was pretty fun. I stared feeling yucky with a cold during the night so I loaded up on all the Doterra oils and beadlets that I have in my handy dandy keychain clip and Serena was nice enough to go downstairs and get me some Dayquil caps from the front desk store. We fell asleep for about 45 minutes until 6:30 when we had to get up to get to the Mav Center. The Hampton had a hot breakfast in the morning so that was very nice. We got to Mav Center about 8. It was open seating for the section you purchased so we wanted to get decent seats. On Saturday we got to hear from Mary Ellen Edmunds, who is hoot, and spoke on changing our minds-thinking on purpose. We cannot become what we are not thinking about. Hilary Weeks sang songs and was just as sweet and personable as could be. She spoke about being hopeful and speaking encouragingly about ourselves. S. Michael Wilcox spoke on increasing the intensity and power of our prayers. When we pour out to God in our prayers, He can pour in the things that we need. The Lord does not give us future tense promises before past tense faith. We made an awesome decision to not get food at the venue because we didn't know what it was so about 10:30 we called Costa Vida which was right next door and put in an order for lunch. That was a super idea because we just walked in past the 200 ladies in line outside and went to the pick up counter for our all ready food! We took it back over the the Mav Center and ate in our seats. We took a few minutes to have a quick cat nap propped up on each other's backs but that didn't last too long. I was feeling worse and worse the longer the day was plus we were exhausted! After lunch, Jennifer Brinkerhoff Platt invited us to "live intentionally". "As we come to understand the power of agency we are empowered". Laurel Christensen Day spoke on overcoming fears. I really need to apply her message! If I don't pray and try and keep myself out of it I can get into this whole mindset that we all have to stay in the house and sit on the couch so nothing happens to anybody! It is not a happy way to live! Faith is stronger than fear! There was also a cute gal who sang a number of Broadway songs but gave them spiritual applications. 'Think of Me from Phantom" and 'For Good" from Wicked. She was amazingly talented! It was along day but a good one. I had a hard time staying awake some of the time-not because it was boring but because we were existing on 1 hour and 45 minutes of sleep!
Me and my sissy-and my new boots!
Had to get the boots again!
Me and Serena! That night we were so tired and I was feeling so crappy that I called Don to see if he could change our flight to the next day and then we went to my mom's to go to bed! Serena and I both fell asleep on the way home! We were in bed by 7:30 and slept until 8:00! I had some help from Nyquil though! Calley and my mom took us to the airport Sunday morning and it was a very uncrowded airport and flight until we got to Vegas! We ate an early morning lunch at Wendy's in the terminal before we left and got home into Vegas by 12:00. It was a fabulous weekend and I am so glad that my mom and my sister are on the TOFW bandwagon!
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