And thats a wrap...

Update 5/1/11 : Today we had the first stake conference of the Holladay YSA Stake.  I now know that my ward is the Winmill YSA Ward with Dwight Day as the bishop.  Its official!  Let's hope its just as good as the H3O was! :)


Well my friends, the words were spoken and I am officially part of a new ward.  I don't know the name of the ward yet, but I do know I am no longer a member of the Holladay 30th YSA Ward.  In fact, the 30th ward ceased to exist as of 19 hours ago.

Last night, I attended a big YSA Reorganization meeting held at the Conference Center downtown.  Elder M. Russell Ballard presided over the meeting and great words were spoken by leaders of our church.

The reorganization is as follows:
All university wards = disbanded
All YSA wards in conventional stakes = removed
12 New YSA Stakes = created
121 New YSA wards = created

Boundaries for the new wards will overlap with conventional family stakes for ease of transition, but will be part of a greater stake consisting of 10-12 YSA wards each. 

While I'm not yet sure to which ward I belong, I did learn that I will be part of the new Salt Lake Holladay YSA Stake, which will have 11 wards of about 150-200 members each.  This coming Sunday we will meet as a stake.  We will sustain our new stake leaders and will learn of our new ward boundaries and leadership.

The Bretheren shared many good things with us last night.  Elder Balland reminded us of our 9th Article of Faith which says,

We believe all that God has revealed,

all that He does now reveal,

and we believe that He will yet reveal

many great and important things

pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

We are part of that third line... "and we believe that He will yet reveal"...  This change comes not as a 'good idea' someone just had, but as direct revelation given to us through the Lord's prophet, Thomas S. Monson.  We are experiencing a great change that for some will be difficult, for others it couldn't have come soon enough.  I'm somewhere in the middle.  I enjoy meeting new people and making new friends, plus the idea of having a new calling is always good.  But, I made a lot of really good friends in the 30th ward. I hope to keep in touch with many of them.

Elder Ballard left us with a challenge.  Part the of the reasoning behind this change is to help this age group to avoid getting lost.  His challenge to us is to find someone in our boundaries that we can fellowship into/back into the church before the end of the year.  While marrige is an obvious topic of discussion when it comes to my age group, I am extremely impressed by the concern for the spiritual well-being of each indivudual, married or not.

But don't worry.  He did push marriage too. :)

Change

I'm anticipating a HUGE disruption in my social life. 

For those of you not in Salt Lake City (even more specifically the single's scene in Salt Lake City) you probably have not heard of the change that is coming.  Oh but I have.  In fact, it affects me directly.

There has been talk for the last year or so of disbanding all the university wards and making those members go back to their respective geographical single's ward.  But this is even bigger.  They will be completely upheaving the scene here!  You can read a little more in this article.

So how does this affect me?

I've been attending the Hollday 30th Ward for the past 3+ years.  I love it.  I know everyone.  All my friends are here.  The bishopric is fantastic.  This is where I served as Relief Society President for more than 2 years.  I am very involved in everything.  It feels like my home.  And the icing on the cake here is that the building is down the street from my parents' home so its an easy shot to Sunday dinners, a short walk even.  But I technically don't live in the boundaries anymore and haven't for the majority of my time in the ward. 

Come May something, I will be kindly sent on my way to a new ward.  It will probably end up a good thing and will force me to break out and make new friends again, but things were just getting good again in the H30!  I've made so many more new friends the last couple months and I'm loving it!  I know what is going on in the ward and people know me.  They often come to me to find out what's happening.  They know about my mom's cancer and fasted for her in 2008 when she was rediagnosed.  I know of their trials and we're all there for each other.  We support each other.  We trust each other.  We have become each other's family.

I'm sad to leave this ward soon.  I know the Church only does things that make sense, and after having been in a leadership position for 2 years I can fully appreciate these efforts.  They will make a difference.  I just wish I wasn't affected by it. 

 It will be a very bittersweet May.

Marshmallow Madness

A couple weeks ago, my friend and I decided to hijack FHE and do something way out of the ordinary.  Hijack may be the wrong word because we totally had permission, but neither one of us is on the committee so it was a little unusual.   Anyway, we played a little game we like to call...

Marshmallow Madness

2 people per team

21 teams

4 bags of mini mallows

2 point & 3 point lines

brackets

trophies

It was awesome!  Watch here to see the fun!

Special thanks to my friend, Robert, who works for KSL.com and likes to make cool videos. :)

Fall Ride

Last year, after our bishopric changed, I found myself riding through Dimple Dell on the back of a beautiful horse!  My bishop has several horses and felt like it would be the best way to get to know my presidency... He was right.  Well, the last year has been full of fun and exciting things, including two of my presidency members getting married.  This, of course, resulted in two new members!

Now it is fall again, and Bishop has a few more presidency members to know better.  Oh how I love the perks to my calling!  Again, we took his horses to Dimple Dell and rode through the beautifully changing leaves.  There is nothing that compares to the excitement I feel when I can just ride.

Unfortunately, not all my presidency was able to make it.  Mandy's right foot has been in a cast since August following a bad wakeboarding accident and Annie got called into some last minute meetings for her job.  But for those of us that went, we had a wonderful time!

(L to R): Elizabeth, Shelisa, me, Bishop's wife

Wake Surfing

This past weekend I was in Bear Lake with friends and my ward.  It was a lot of fun and I got a great tan!  

Originally, I was planning to make chocolate raspberry homemade ice cream for the party as my new thing for the week.  I tried to make it, but unfortunately it was an utter failure!  Pretty sure I did it wrong because it never set up. I guess I could use the attempt as my new thing for the week, but I wanted to do something successfully.

So, when given the opportunity to wake surf, it took it.  This is on my list of new things I want to do and I just couldn't pass it up.  See documentation below. :)

As you can see, there are NO boots to stabilize me on the board.  It was pretty choppy so it took a lot to get myself up.  

The rope is only about 10 feet out from the boat.  Other than these two things, getting up is just like wake boarding... only it takes a lot more energy!

1...2...3... attempts.  Not up yet.

Almost there...

And I'm up!!!  

The water was super choppy, enough so that I couldn't stay up very well.  I was up for about 1 minute, which is not nearly long enough to be able to drop the rope and really surf the wake.  Next time I get a chance, I'm doing it again!

Fee Free National Park Weekend

This last weekend, I went my ward, Holladay 30th down to Moab.  Unbeknown to us until we were headed south, it was Fee Free National Park Weekend!  We were going to hike for free in Arches National Park!  What a great surprise!

Our group got down to Moab on Friday night and setup camp at the Moab KOA.  We had dutch oven dinner, and the night air was warm and inviting.  We all stayed up talking and just enjoying ourselves.  But when we went to bed, since many of us did not take tents, we were able to look at the thousand of stars in the night sky.  I haven't seen so many stars at once in a very long time.  So beautiful!

The next morning our group got up and split into two.  About 15 who decided to go bike Slick Rock, and another 15 who decided to hike through the park.  I went with the hikers.  We hiked Delicate Arch first, and then Double-O Arch.  It was hot and dry, but I loved every minute of being out there!

The arch looked exactly like my license plate...only with people all around!

Lucio, Me, Sarah P at Delicate Arch

Beautiful Ride

About a month ago, we got a new bishopric in our singles ward. It didn't take long for Bishop Swenson to hear that I hadn't ridden a horse in a very long time, but that I loved it. So what awesome thing did he do? He invited me and my RS Presidency out for a ride! He only keeps 4 horses in the valley so my first counselor get left out of this ride, but she'll be on the next one because Bishop wants to go again! It was a fabulous afternoon!

I love being on the majestic horses. There is just a peace that comes from riding through the mountains on such a grand animal that you can't feel anywhere else!

It was so much fun to race the horses!

Back to the Basics

A couple weeks ago, our relief society hosted a small retreat to Midway to celebrate the birthday of relief society. I must say, we have some amazing women in our ward who planned the best retreat ever!

(Liz, sorry I stole your work off the ward blog. Thanks!)

We started out with a great dinner and some games, then we all sat down for some spiritual time. Preface: as my presidency and I prepared for 2009, we all felt inspired that the sisters in our ward need to better understand the basics of relief society. So, as we worked with the Enrichment Committee, we planned the retreat around the 6 purposes of relief society as outline in the RS Handbook. The girls were all very receptive and the spirit was very strong.

Over the last several months, the most prominent lesson I have learned is that the Lord has designed his church just the way it should be. There are many things that we think will help improve the camaraderie or the attendance, when in reality all that's needed are the basic which are outline for us. I have been impressed with how much has changed as our relief society has eliminated the unnecessary fluff and added musical moments or training meetings. It may not always sound the most appealing, but somehow it just works! I look forward to the continued changes that we will see, but even more for the lessons I am learning. I can see myself being sculpted by the Master's hands. I am grateful He trusts me enough to care for 76 of his beautiful sisters. I pray that I will not let Him down!

As I said to my mom when I was called 6 months ago, "The Lord prepares you for your callings, but they will still stretch you and you'll have to grow."

It's Official

So finally, after 3 weeks of secret relief society meetings, I can finally announce that I have a new calling... Relief Society President!

I was given the calling 3 weeks ago, but because of General Conference, and our ward conference, they decided to wait to call my counselors and secretary, and to sustain us. Well, today it became official, making it okay for me to share the exciting/daunting/almost overwhelming news with you all.

I think the very hardest thing for me to do during those 3 weeks, was keep it quiet. I had so many thoughts going through my head, but I had to keep it quiet, continue in my previous calling, all while secretly learning the ropes of my new calling. It was quite a task.

I asked the Bishop to let me know when my counselors were called so I could contact them, and I cannot explain the relief I felt when I got off the phone with my Bishop Thursday night. To know these girls were excited to work with my and ready to be by my side lightened the heaviness felt by my secretiveness. Then today after we were sustained and set apart, that same heaviness was nearly gone. Having these girls with me is so important to the success of my calling.

The organization of this church is amazing to me. Never at any point do the leaders of any and all different auxiliaries have to feel alone. The Lord intends to run His church with organization and the best way to do that is to have presidencies, bishoprics, and groups of leaders. Being in this position helps me to understand just how important it is to have others there to support you. I truly believe all things have a purpose.

As I begin to work with the sisters in my ward, I know I will more fully understand the purpose of Relief Society. I am excited for this challenge, fully knowing it will be just that, but the simplest of blessings make it so worth it. So, bring on the challenge!

Most Amazing FHEs

My singles ward has some of the greatest FHE activities ever! Check out some of my pics from the most recent Monday... rock climbing!

Getting ready

The ascent

The amazing view from Pete's Rock at sunset

This is my friend, Mandy. She scaled the larger wall. It was high enough that by the time she was repelling, it was dark. She's a pretty tough chick!

Me

In Relief Society, we pass around the "Friendship Basket." Every week someone has to fill the basket with stuff that represents them in some way. Then at the end of RS, that person gets up, talks about the items and why they picked them, and then we draw names to see who gets the goodies in the basket and ultimately will fill it with stuff about themselves for the next week. Today I got to talk about me!

Disclaimer: I had a busy week and kind of forgot about it until last night at 10:30pm, so the only place that was still open to buy the stuff was Walmart. It is mostly food, but let's be honest, I love food so it doesn't matter!

• Water Balloons - every summer for a family reunion, we play water balloon volleyball and I love it. Plus, summer is my all-time favorite season!
• Pens & White Out - I always write in pen which means I almost always need white out.
• Hershey's Chocolate Bar - I come from a long long line of recovering chocoholics
• Skittles - I used to get my 3 o'clock sugar rush at work with a handful of skittles, but now I'm supposed be doing this Biggest Loser challenge with some girls at work, so no more. Tear
• 3 Muskateers MINT - love it!
• Extra Polar Ice gum and Stride Spearmint gum - I only chew Extra, but a friend convinced me to try Stride. I found it made my jaw sore because it gets too hard when I chew it. So I put in my favorite gum, and also the Stride since I had an extra package.
• Almond Extract & Recipe - my family has a favorite recipe for Chestenhache, a Swedish almond cake. It's super easy to make and very delicious. I put a bottle of the almond extract in the basket since its the most unique ingredient. I even made some Chestenhache this morning so the girl who got my basket could taste it fresh!
• Olay daily moisturizing sun screen - my favorite for summer and can act as the daily moisturizer on your face. It's just perfect!

So that was me in a nutshell. There is definitely more to me, but not that I could find at Walmart late last night. Oh well, it was fun to think about!

Rookie Golfer

I golfed for the very first time last Saturday!

Don't laugh, I know I look like I'm going to whack the center out of the ball, but thats just due to lack of instruction. It reminds me of Billy Madison. Thankfully, my friends weren't too far from my skill level. Kiley was playing her first game too, Brayden is still fairly new, but much more experience than Kiley and me, and poor James had to teach us all during the whole afternoon!

I think we may have had more fun laughing at our inabilities than actually swinging our clubs. One comical moment was on hole 7. Kiley had been telling us about her greatest fear since hole 1 - that she would be hit in the head by a golf ball. Surprisingly at hole 7, she was sitting in the cart safely awaiting her turn, and sure enough she was hit in the hip by a ball that strayed from the neighboring fairway! The other golfers yelled "fore", but we were chatting and didn't hear it... I guess that fear has been conquered! Haha!

I would like to thank my friend Jason for taking me to the driving range a couple times last summer. Because of his patience last year, I hit a 64 on a 9-hole game. Not amazing, but good enough that James had a hard time believing it was my first game. I think I'll have to keep it up. See you on the golf course!