Best Weekend! Part 2

Saturday - T.O.F.W. :
Saturday started with my alarm clock going off at six thirty a.m.! My own fault because I needed to shower in the morning - otherwise my hair just never works! So I took my shower - so grateful for shampoo and conditioner that mom let me use! I got dressed and went into the room and peeked out of the curtains - no sun rise, too clouded over :( But I bet OK has nothing on KS sunrises! Sarah woke up about that time and we finished getting our stuff packed away. We left the hotel about 7am and went to Whataburger for breakfast! Now, I know that sounds crazy, but they are open 24hr/day and they DO have a breakfast menu - granted that didn't stop me from ordering a double cheeseburger for breakfast! hehe! It was super tasty! So after breakfast we made a quick run to a Circle K for conference snacks and Wal-Mart for feminine items that Sarah needed. We got to the convention center and made it to our seats that Alaina had saved for us (what an angel! - lol, Her sister Angel was there too - and her mother in law!) just Five minutes before everything started!!
It opened with Music by Hillary Weeks. She has some of the most gorgeous tear-invoking music I have ever heard! It was gorgeous! (As was she!) The first speaker was Mariama Kallon, a sister from Sierra Leone, and oh my gosh - she blew me away! She was fantastic! Inspiration and pure gratitude embodied on earth. She told us of her childhood and how she put herself through school digging pens and pencils out of trashcans and collection scraps of paper for a notebook. She told us of when she and her sister were held captive by some rebel forces and they were all lined up about to have their arms and legs chopped off. Her sister was fifth in line and she was tenth. She prayed to the Lord, she had faith and knew that there was something he could do to help save her and some of these women. Their soldiers came and saved the two women in front of her and the five after her. Her sister's legs and arms were cut off and she was sent to a village where the amputees were cared for where she died. She served a mission in Temple Square and had no family to write her and never got any packages, but the loving sister missionaries around her wrote to their mothers about her and soon she was receiving packages from all their mothers! She was so grateful! A story was told by her mission president in video form. He says "One day I was walking across Temple Square and I saw Sister Kallon running towards the South Gate and I asked her what she was doing, and she said 'I am going to meet a black man!' and then she just kept on going. What I didn't know was that just before I saw her there, she had gone into the coat closet and poured out her soul to the Lord, asking him to send to her a black man, someone from West Africa like her, whom she rarely saw on Temple Square, one whom she could teach the gospel too. She told the Lord where she was going and then got up and ran there! I assumed when she told me that she had had an appointment with a man there, but no, she simply went. I asked her how long she had waited and she said about five minutes - and then, there was a man from Ghana, a country not far from her own. And she taught him the Gospel." (Forgive my horrible retelling, it is definitely not direct quote.) She related the scriptures so well to our lives and told us how very grateful she was for so many things, including bosoms- because you can carry a great many things in them! (That had us laughing SO Hard!) She was fantastic! So inspirational!
After Mariama was done spreaking Hillary took the stage again and told us stories and sang songs - it was wonderful! She told us how she had read once that we once think 300 negative thoughts a day, 300! She wanted to know if it was true and went and bought a clicker and started clicking away for all those negative thoughts. One day, she was so depressed, and she asked herself, "Could this be because of the clicker?" Was it because she was thinking only and focusing only on those negative things - so she switched it up, she started clicking for all the things she was grateful for! It was wonderful! (They even sold the clickers at the TOFW Store! I didn't buy one, but they sold out!) There were so many other wonderful stories she told and I wish I could remember them all! Her music though, so fun and original and also so spiritual and uplifting!
Next was the Mother/Daughter team of Linda Eyre and Shawni Pothier. Both amazing women who spoke on finding Holiness in Motherhood. Shawni take the most amazing photos! I feel bad, but I do not remember specific stories that they told, but I do know that they were marvelous.
After they spoke, the sole male presenter spoke, S. Michael Wilcox. He spoke about his late wife (who apparently my parents knew) and he talked about how we can be related to a navigator's compass - that tool you use to draw straight lines and circles that kind of is like two pencils stuck together on a pivot. We need to fix our one point firmly in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then allow ourselves to reach out and find joy, light, knowledge, and truths in so many other things, other religions included. It was a wonderful talk and he spoke of his wife and my heart just broke for him. It was great though, to hear him and learn from him.
After that was lunch! We walked over to Abuelos and had lunch with Alaina, Angel, and their mother (how I wish I remembered her name!) Sarah is so mischievous! She poured two, not One, but TWO, sugar packets into mom's Sprite while she wasn't paying attention! The funny things about it was that mom had ordered her Sprite with lemons to cut the sweetness! When mom drank it she mad the most funny face ever. And the waiter had seen Sarah do it and brought mom another Sprite and mom had no idea why he was bringing her another one when she had barely touched the first one! It was so stinking funny!
We were a little late getting back from lunch, but got there in time to hear Hillary sing another song before the next presenter spoke, who was Wendy Ulrich. Her presentation I took notes on. It was about how to be happy!
1. Stop worrying about your weaknesses - focus on your strengths. Find a new and creative way to use your strengths.
2. Don't try to be motivated to exercise. Motivation follows action! She told us a story she read in a Running magazine while sitting in her chiropractor's office - because it was the only thing to read! The man in the article said that he sometimes felt there were little gremlins in his head that discouraged him from exercising, so he had to trick them in order to be able to go running. He'd get home from work around 5:30 and would put on his running clothes - not because he was going running, but because they were comfortable - and the gremlins were okay with this. Then he would walk to the front door - not to go running, but to see what the weather was like outdoors. Then he would walk to the end of the driveway, just to see what the neighbors were doing - and by that time he said - well, since I'm out here, I might as well go running! And then he went! She told us to just start small and build.
3. Stop trying to find friends; instead spend that time developing the skills of Friendship. Have one meaningful conversation a day!
4. Don't try to be Happy. Try to Feel Grateful. Write down 3 good things that happened in the day and why they happened - which will lead to more things you are grateful for!
5. Celebrate Failure! Failure means we are taking the necessary risks to grow, stretch, serve.
6. Don't bother to get therapy, just get happy! Don't get help with your problems, just help others with theirs.
7. Don't Endure to the End. Life is not be endured, it is to be enjoyed! Brainstorm five tiny pleasures to be enjoyed this week. Savor Everyday Delights!
I loved her talk!
The last presenter, before Hillary sang her closing song, was Mary Ellen Edmunds- and man, that woman has such a spirit to her! She reminds me a lot of mom. She us this great story to get her talk going. (Again excuse my paraphrasing.) This big family was on vacation - normally they went to the grocery store and just had picnic lunches, but today they all went to a restaurant and splurged a little. The waitress was going around taking everyone's orders and soon asked a little boy, about six or seven, what he wanted to eat. The little boy looked at his mother who was not paying full attention, and was so confused, because normally people just ordered for him. Finally he said "I want a hot dog." By this time the mother had turned her attention to him and started telling the waitress what she wanted to order for the boy. The waitress never turned to face the mother but instead asked the boy "And what do you want on your hot dog?" The mother was in stunned silence and the boy rattled off all the condiments he wanted "Ketchup, mustard, onions, pickles..." The waitress then took the last couple of orders and went off to the kitchen. The boy looked around for a minute and in pure bewilderment said "She must think I'm real!" --- It was so cute! Her point was to tell us though that WE ARE REAL! We are real to our Heavenly Father and he is so aware of us! She really was fantastic to listen to and she said so many other wonderful things I wish I could remember them all. She did however, along with another presenter call Satan "What's his no-face" and a "No-body"! He he!
That was the end of T.O.F.W. I am so pleased that I was able to experience this with the women I was around and hear such wonderful, inspiring, uplifting words! I pray I can keep this spirit with me!