My first Time Out for Women

Yesterday my friend Elissa texted me and asked if I wanted to go to Time Out for Women with her in Denver.  She had an extra ticket, and boy am I glad she asked me!  It was SO nice to take a day (that otherwise would have been spent at home by myself since Neal had to work) and literally go have a time out.  A time out from social media, my work email, the house not being clean, and worrying about daily life.  It was so nice to get to know my new friend Elissa better, too!  So many wonderful presentations were given, and Mercy River (my new favorite thing to listen to) did all of the music.

TOFW started at 9 am.  We walked into the room (which was 4 ballrooms put together) and I could just FEEL the strength, power, and faith of the women sitting in that room already.  I'll admit, I even began to cry when I looked out over the crowd at all of the women sitting there with one goal in mind: to somehow come closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

We sat down in the fourth row from the front (I know, right?!?) and the day began with a wonderful song from Mercy River.  As I would come to find out throughout the day's events, these women are REAL women, which is part of why I loved them so much.  They are wives and mothers who truly write their songs based on their daily lives and testimonies of the Savior.  I loved hearing their stories, and especially loved hearing the songs that they "re-did" (like "Bye, Bye, Bye" about bed time...HILARIOUS!).

Then the presentations started.  They were as follows: Chris Williams, Sarah Wells and Kate Jones, Anthony Sweat, Julie De Azevedo Hanks, and Laurel Christensen.  Each presenter was so wonderful, and each had something that the Spirit spoke to me about.  In fact, they were all so wonderful that it would probably take over an hour for me to post everything I loved about each of them.  I really have been asking Heavenly Father what things I could be better at lately, and each of these presentations helped me realize an area of my life that needed to be worked on.  The even better part?  I feel empowered and hopeful rather than down and depressed about these things!  I really truly feel like I can and will do them!

One things I do want to post about is something that Julie De Azevedo Hanks, an LDS therapist, challenged us to do.  She talked about how we, as women, need to develop our most authentic selves.  Her equation for this was as follows: Heavenly Father's will + my unique gifts and experiences = my most authentic self.  She also pointed out that it is really hard for us to give ourselves and our will to Heavenly Father if WE don't even have ourselves.  One of the things she said we could do to help with this process is to celebrate the good in ourselves.  She said that many people believe the myth that acknowledging our own strengths is prideful.  The truth is that owning our strengths is humility because we are acknowledging the talents and blessings that God has given us.  Then she challenged us to make a list of 10 strengths AND 10 weaknesses.  She challenged us to go public with them, and truly own them.  So, here it goes.

10 Strengths
1. I have a strong desire to do the things my Heavenly Father has asked me to do through my priesthood leaders.
2. I forgive others easily.
3. I have a beautiful voice that I love using to bring the Spirit into peoples lives.
4. I do really well with small children.  I am able to calm them and help them learn more easily than a lot of people.
5. I find loving other people very easy.  I often find myself thinking about why they make the decisions that they do, and trying to act as Christ would (except for Weakness #1 below).
6. I don't struggle with the temptation to listen to music that offends the Spirit.  I love listening to my "church" playlist any day of the week.
7. I love public speaking, and I think I'm pretty good at it.
8. I can kill, dress, butcher, and grill my own meat.
9. I can get dressed up and act like a lady (as Neal puts it, I can actually look like a girl) but when it's time to get down and dirty to work on cars or go hunting, I am strong and able.
10. I do really well at my job, and always put my best effort into it!

10 Weaknesses
1. I get offended VERY easily when someone seemingly attacks my religion or my family.
2. I am not the best cook.  If we aren't eating grilled meat, we are probably eating 1 of about 5 things.
3. I have a tendency to put my feelings before Neal's when we are arguing.
4. I don't do well inviting people to learn about the Gospel.  I don't mind answering peoples questions, but I won't bring up the subject (probably as a result of #1).
5. I procrastinate.  A lot.  I tend to sit and do things like watch mindless TV rather than things that really should get done.
6. I always say I'm going to do something, and then I either don't do it, or I start the project but don't finish it.
7. I'm really over cautious.
8. I am impatient.  I am ALWAYS trying to hurry my life forward instead of just enjoying the present.
9. I tend to talk a lot about myself and not ask many questions about others (I'm already working on this one...I almost had a friendship ruined because of it).
10. I am not good at doing my visiting teaching...I always think about it and then put it off (see #5).

There.  TA DA!  That was actually harder than I thought it would be.  Now I challenge you to do the same.  It actually feels kind of good!

Hopes for the future

I'm watching a show on BYUtv called "Army of Faith: Inside the MTC."  It makes me think of all of the hopes and dreams I have for my children; all of the excitement I have built up inside of me.  There are many times in primary that I have looked back at the children sitting behind me and seen their testimonies shining through their eyes, and I think to myself, "This is our future...these are right children who are future righteous young men and women who will go on to be missionaries, wives, husbands, and parents," and I start to cry because I feel the joy and hope that comes from that.  I cannot wait until I get to see this light in my own children.  I cannot wait until I get to teach my children about the Gospel and help them begin building their testimonies and learning to love their Lord and Savior.

Our "interesting" day

Saturday was a rather interesting day for us.  It started off going to be at about 1230 am (yes, from Friday night...).  My sister was driving in from Utah and I wanted to see her before we went to bed.  It probably wasn't the SMARTEST idea since Neal and I had to get up at 4:30 am, but I didn't care.  We stayed at my parents house so we didn't have to get up any earlier than that.  We slept on the floor, and well, lets just say neither one of us got very much sleep.

We got up at 4:30 am to go dove hunting about an hour and a half away from my parents house.  We were so tired that neither Neal nor I woke up when my alarm went off at 4:15.  My dad actually had to come wake us up.  We dragged our butts out of bed though and were on our way by about 4:40.  We got all settled in at our spot and waited for the birds to fly in.  We shot like poo the entire day.  Neal was able to shoot his first bird (and therefore his first animal...yay!!!!) and we were very excited about it.

We left hunting at about 10 am because Neal and I were supposed to be at a wedding in Winter Park by 3 pm.  After we had showered and gotten ready at my parents house we started on our way up.  After about 20 minutes in the car I PASSED out.  I was so grateful that Neal was able to sleep a little bit on the way home from hunting...between my allergies and my lack of sleep there was NO way I was going to be able to drive.  Neal woke me up at about Colorado Mills to tell me he just saw a sign saying it would take an HOUR to get to Idaho Springs, and then at least another hour to get to Winter Park.  We looked at the time and realized there was no way we would make it for the ceremony, and that if we did make it for the reception, we would be cutting time uncomfortably close.  Neal had to be to work at 7, and we realized that with how bad traffic was, there was a probability we would not make it back in time.  After discussing it, we decided to invite our friends over for dinner sometime soon and celebrate with them then.

The 2nd best part of the day (next to Neal shooting his first bird) was going home, sitting down on the couch, and passing out until Neal had to leave for work.

I am quickly realizing the importance of sleep...the entire day that day my reaction time was SO slow, and I couldn't have made a decision to save my life.  I think it was Heavenly Father's way of reminding me how important it is to get the sleep I need while working such a high risk/stressful job.  Its something that I hopefully will be able to remember at all times!!!