YSAs looking for ECs in AR

So last weekend we had an 11 stake young single adults conference at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. I will proceed to tell of the heights and plights of the weekend.

Friday:
I took Friday off and spent the morning getting the house ready to be left alone, and the rest of the day preparing every needful thing for the trip. Around 4:30, my friend Dallas showed up to carpool and we were on our way (after stocking a cooler with caffeine free Diet Coke!)

After taking a windy path through podunk Oklahoma and getting caught in traffic just outside Springdale, we finally made it to our hotel in time to change quickly and get to the Sheri Dew fireside ten minutes late.

Following the fireside was a dance. Luckily, I was feeling extra cute with my curly hair. Danced some. Met some folks. Got back to the hotel late, but had plenty of time to get in our pajamas and make a Taco Bell run.

Saturday:
Saturday morning we had to be dressed, cute, and down at the University by 8:30 for all the opening what not. Sheri Dew then spoke again to all of us (but much was repeated from the night before.) The most enlightening part of that meeting was when a YSA asked how they should decide on a career and the stake president suggested that your career is not what defines you. I liked hearing that.

After the morning fireside we went to a workshop, lunch, then another workshop. The first workshop we chose was entitled "The Woes and Wows of Dating." I must say I was more woed than wowed. Not that it was bad... just very disjoint and not actually applicable to dating. oh well. Lunch was wonderful, of course (aside from the perfectly good cookie I dropped on the gym floor. I may have eaten it anyway. Don't judge.) The next workshop was about Unity and was actually pretty good!

We had three hours of freetime which we spent playing volleyball with "new friends." Lots of fun. Met some more people. Then our branch met back in the gym to "decorate" for the dance that night. The gym was HUGE and nearly impossible to decorate with our cliche theme -- Luau. I think we pulled it off nicely, though.

Then dinner. Then getting cute again. Then another fireside (which was wonderful). Then another dance! This dance was much better ventilated than the first, and much better attended. Met some more people.

Of course we stopped at Wendy's on the way back to the hotel.

Sunday:
Sunday morning we had a testimony sacrament meeting at a fancy hotel in Fayetteville. What we didn't know is that the testimonies would be by invitation. Naturally I was one of the 15 out of 600 that was chosen to share my testimony in front of EVERYONE. (I'm not good at sharing feelings, and I'm REALLY not good at speaking publicly. Naturally it was horrifying.) I felt a little embarrassed, but I suppose it went just fine. I was proud of myself to getting up at all.

After that meeting we had two more fantastic speakers, then were given sack lunches for the drive home. Since our stake has no YSA representatives, Dallas and I were asked to attend a meeting afterward with the reps from all 11 stakes. Hopefully we'll be able to have more joint activities in the future.

GREAT weekend (even though it produced a boring blog.) Learned a lot and met lots of folks. (Plenty of new Facebook friends...even if I didn't meet the love of my life! :o) )