JUNE.
- June is one of my FAVORITE MONTHS. So many marvelous things happen in June. I love it.
- I attended the Youth for Freedom Camp in Session 4. Two of my best friends and I were asked to lead and write a simulation for our entire session, and I must say, that just rocked my world. I was reunited with some of my dearest friends and I made even more incredible friendships. This camp has changed my life. Almost every day, I still reflect on certain things I learned and simulations I participated in during this camp.
- I was a Second-Year Youth Camp Leader and I had many responsibilities. Now, in years past I have had some hard experiences at Girls Camp. There has always been wonderful, beautiful moments where I've grown closer to my Savior, learned by the Spirit, and connected with certain friends. Yet, I have not always had a pleasant time due to being bullied by girls in both my year and the years above me. This time, however, I have much more power and authority than I've ever had at previous Girls Camps, and I am loving it. I was partnered with my darling friend Ashtyn and we were assigned to our OWN ward's 1st years, where we both had sisters attending. My gorgeous 12-year-old sister Isabelle was there for the first time while I was there for the last time. This was something that didn't happen by accident. The time I was able to lead all these girls, teach them the gospel, and simply become their friends was so very important to me. The BEST year I've ever had.
- Girls Camp Continued: I spoke. It was a performance/lecture of sorts, and I would introduce my point and speak on it and then play the piece that corresponded with my experience. The topic seemed to be truly perfect, for each They also BROUGHT A PIANO to Camp Heber just for me. I already got to play hymns and musical numbers on it all week during devotionals and meetings, but it was an even greater treat to be able to perform the music of the masters for these girls as I spoke to them about what I had learned over the years. I do feel like the adversary was doing all he could to try and thwart my talk. I brought my laptop where my (beautifully-designed) powerpoint presentation was. I was assured over and over that they had the proper attachments for this, yet when I got there, zero out of the seven or so cords that they had brought worked. My powerpoint presentation was totally out. I had no notes, for I associated each slide of the presentation with what I was going to say. The talk was memorized. That way, I could just use my SPECIAL CLICKER (which I was so excited about) to change the slides and walk around the stage (which was actually just a massive trailer) freely while I was speaking. They apologized profusely for the misunderstanding. Visual learning and design is so important to me, so it was a HUGE BUMMER that everyone wasn't going to see the presentation. It was easily solved, however, and I was just going to have to put my laptop in a place where I could see it and click the slides as I spoke. My mom and dad wanted so badly to come out the Heber and watch, but because of the twins they were unable to. My sweet friend Heidi, who was one of the camp directors, was planning to have them FaceTime while I spoke, but due to technical difficulties, it didn't work. Isabelle was then going to sit there and record the talk so they could watch it afterwards (and so I could have is for posterity, hehe), but due to even MORE technical difficulty, neither my iPhone nor Heidi's phone nor our iPad would record it. Goodness gracious. Doomed to fail, am I? THINK AGAIN, because this experience totally rocked. I felt inspired. I changed my talk as I felt prompted to and I bore a strong testimony. I was confident, I performed wonderfully, and I inspired people. I was doing what I was born to do, and this felt amazing.
- The twins were taken away from us, and they went to Mexico. Our entire family was heartbroken. I can hardly describe this feeling. I don't love to dwell on this.
- We decided that we were going to sell our beautiful Queen Creek house of 9 years and begin renting in Gilbert while we move onto the next stage in our lives, which will include building a house on a property in Gilbert. In order to even think about doing so, we will need the money from the sale of our home.
- We spent hours and days and weeks getting our house to the point of perfection so that it will be ready to show. #modelhomestatus #booyah
