We always play BYU right before General Conference.

Most of this post is going to be a conference thought dump, but first let me tell you about my long, long, journey to Provo, of all places.

I was so excited for game day, like I always am. I got work off so we could all caravan down as soon as possible. We took two cars, and I was one of the lucky drivers. Little did I know my fate.

It took us two hours to get to Layton to drop off Abbie and trade her for my dear Lauren. Just waiting to get on the freeway in Brigham City was a huge mess. We felt like we'd been sitting in traffic FOREVER but it was just the beginning. Luckily, humans make things fun sometimes.

Alexa making friends with the other cars

The car full of boys in front of us happened to be very entertaining. They were hanging out of their car, jumping out to pick up random items from the side of the freeway (like a yellow sled), and eventually held a a notebook with one of their phone numbers written on it outside the window. Kim talked to them for about half an hour which helped dull our pain.

After grabbing some tacos from my house (thanks, Mom) and grabbing Lauren, we got back in the car hoping to get from Layton to Provo in two hours.

Try three.

Yep, hours-wise I basically drove to Las Vegas on Friday, but only made it to Provo. One of the most stressful drives of my life. But as we walked into the stadium and I could hear the Utah State fans and not BYU's? Well I was pretty pleased.

A Utah State flag in the BYU Stadium!

You all know that the game totally sucked, and not just because we lost. 3-6? Nothing happened. Ever. My dad (who had met us there and was sitting with Lauren) kept texting me things like, "Don't worry, Chuckie's saving all the magic for the end." But it wasn't meant to be. Pretty much what I walked away with was....I'm glad I don't go to BYU. We all knew that already, but it was a nice little confirmation. BYU fans are so boring. First of all, half of them are over the age of 60. But even the student section doesn't have any fun cheers, and even though their stadium is a lot bigger than ours, I swear they're half as loud. The peak of excitement at a BYU game is doing the wave. I am not exaggerating. So all you Aggies out there....you should still be proud! 

me, Kim, Neil

Alicia, Cody

It was just as crazy trying to get out of Provo as it was trying to get into it, so all you Provo people...if I told you I would try to see you before or after the game and then I didn't...I am truly sorry. It was just such a stupid day.

Once I got all my roommates off on their separate ways, my Dad took Lauren and me to In N Out, which helped, and we really did have some nice life talks on the loooong drive home. Longest day of my life!

The rest of the weekend was all about General Conference. I haven't been able to watch every session of conference for like...five years...so that was great!

Here are some thoughts.

Over the summer, all six of us sisters got to meet with Sister Dalton, the young women's General President in her office. She is one of the top 50 coolest people ever. We got to tell her all about our summer travels, and she kept saying, "You're going to change the world! I know it!"

Janie and Sister Dalton

 She also asked us, "What if girls could go on missions at 19? Do you think more of them would go?"

OF COURSE! I remember telling Sister Dalton that it would be so much easier for girls to leave at 19, and how so many of them want opportunities to serve and make a difference. She said, "I'm just dreaming.  That's just my dream for my young women."

Our girly family with Sister Dalton

 As soon as President Monson started talking about young men in other countries leaving on their missions at 18, I thought, "You did it, Sister Dalton!!"

I looked at my 5 sisters and thought about each of their unique gifts and abilities and was so excited at the thought of them getting to use those gifts as missionaries. Over the summer I was able to see that there are some things only sister missionaries can do. This is for real!

So for a few hours I was ridiculously happy about it.

But then, like everyone else, I started feeling overwhelmed. Wait...my sister is 19...all of my roommates are 19...AAAHHHH.

By the next day, I was ready to be done hearing about the mission thing. It was all anyone would talk about, and I was like, HELLO there are other talks going on! But it was because the stress was getting to me to the point where I was thinking, wait what if I'M supposed to go too?! Luckily my mom was there to say, "Stop. You're on the right path."

S let's talk about my other favorite conference moments.

When President Packer said the words, "Western Samoa" I immediately had tears happening. Just imagining all the people there who would be so happy to hear a prophet say the names of their own places.....it got to me.

This is Abbie on the boat ride between the island of Savaii and Upolu: the same trip President Packer was talking about, only ours was quite peaceful.

Abbie - Savaii

We landed in the harbor President Packer's boat was supposed to land in.

This is Apia Harbor, where President Packer's boat actually landed.

Apia Harbor

And this is Pesega, the place where President Packer was going to organize a stake. The place where we lived. A piece of my heart will always be there.

Pesega

 (You say it "Pay-SANG-uh" with the accent on the second syllable. If you wanted to know.)

My other favorite talk was President Eyering's. I am going to be graduating soon, and I have way too many ideas about where to go afterwards, but none of them really fit or make logical sense. That is scary. President Eyering talked about making decisions about where to go based on where it would be easiest to feel God's love and to be close to Him. That helped!

I loved spending a couple of days with my family, laughing a lot and celebrating my sweet Mom on her Birthday Eve!

I also loved coming home to these girls.

I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring!