Some Random Thoughts:

I just finsihed watching a 5 minute slideshow with music....you really ought to check it out:
http://mabrystudios.typepad.com/reflections_of_christ/2008/03/reflections-sli.html

It is about Christ and some great real-to-life pictures of Him and His life....with a great song to back it up. A wonderful thing to help you feel the Spirit...Go on and let His spirit touch you!

I didn't mention that I WENT TO GENERAL CONFERENCE last weekend in Utah with my mom. I decided last minute to go and join her as we did some volunteer work with Guest Services there at the Conference Center. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!

I had not been there in 6 years (since I was fresh off of the mission), and now that I no longer live in UT (which has been 8 years), I really can appreciate the beauty of UT and the blessings that the church provides to us as members.

My mom works for the church, as the head bilingual secretary/project manager of the Employment dept...needless to say, she has connections. So, we were able to work at the translation table handing out headsets to those who needed translations.

Within my first few minutes of seeing all of these wonderful people coming from around the world; Brasil, France, Africa, Germany, Russia, Czeck, Navajo, Aruba, Argentina, Philipines, etc my heart was FULL and I almost cried. To think of not only the sacrifice that they had made to get to conference, but also that it would be provided in their own native tongue! It really softened my heart to think about how large this church really is and how much God does love each of us....in all different cultures and languages. My heart was overflowing with gratitude to have the gospel in my life, to know that He loves me and everyone else.

We were able to sit in the conference center among the other 22K people, and my eyes were wet as we sang hymns together and gave respect to our dear prophet Monson.

I really do love Utah. I love what it represents, I love to see the "army" of Mormons come together and I love how beautiful the landscape of it is (although I was such a baby with the 20 degree weather! I was so cold...my blood has thinned since I have lived there). But, I am also so grateful to live out in the "mission field" where conference has that much more meaning to me, and to be able to recognize how much I truly love and treasure our gospel amidst a world of other non-believers.

I am grateful to have spent a few hours with my dear mother as well and to see her socialize and interact with so many people...she truly does reach out to others and was giving non stop hugs and kisses to every Hispanic that we saw! She was quite popular:) Every time I see her, now that I am a grown woman and mother, I can only respect and value her that much more and for her efforts in raising 4 kids all alone. I love you mother.

As one last thought...I pulled off a LARGE COMMUNITY YOUNG WOMEN GARAGE SALE today! With Girls Camp sneaking up on us (I am the director of our ward this year), we through a garage sale to raise money for the girls. What a lot of work! It wasn't as bad as I had imagined b/c I had some wonderful ladies help me out, who seem to do it every year.

Here in El Paso, garage sales are NUTS. People come to buy from you and wipe you clean of all the "junk." They then go and re-sale it at the fleet markets down town or cross over to Mexico and re-sale it there. I wouldn't have bought anything myself personally, but I sure was grateful for the ward members who donated their random items; 1940's hairdryer, broken lamps, brown stained pillows, washed out linens, old computer monitors, lawn chairs and even a Nordictrack! We were busy bees late Friday night "clustering" the categories, and then were there this morning from 6:30am-1pm....overall, we made $800! Yahoo! My sweet boys were running around in the bed spreads (hopefully not getting any lice or bed mites!), and jumping into the piles of clothing. The highlight of their day were the free donuts (maybe my highlight too!)

I am looking forward to camp this year, and hoping to even make it on the big 4th year hike. The preparations are slow, and I am a bit overwhelmed with the task, but I look forward to the secret sister gifts, the campfires with lots of kleenex for our testimony meetings, the braided hair, and the cheesy songs:)

Jared took Wesley out tonight for a "daddy date." Of course they went to go see a movie since they both LOVE movies. We will rotate who goes out with dad every Saturday. I went in to DirectBuy where we had some dinner together, dropped off Wes and I came home with Austin where we read books and he ate some oranges. Why is it that children behave so much better when they have that special one on one time? I love it! Lots of hugs, kisses and sweet smiles.