BYU Women's Conference

I don't even know, at this point, how to sum-up my Women's Conference experience. Hind-sight, it was a really neat experience. Prior to the Conference itself, I was pretty stressed out! Particularly in the final week before. I kept thinking to myself, "This is NOT worth-it!" The biggest problem was trying to find time to prepare. Fortunately, because any quiet, private time is EXTREMELY limited (like maybe an hour or two a week!), I started way early to work on my talk. I was also AMAZED by the inspiring thoughts and comments I received from other mothers when I asked them about my topic: teaching children to pray. Their contributions totally made the difference and were so helpful to me in my OWN effort to make prayer more meaningful in my kids' lives.

When the day of the Conference arrived it was a really awesome experience. My friend Cami Kapp came with me and was great for moral support. I got to go to an early morning prayer meeting before the Conference started. Does it sound silly to say I felt star struck by church leaders? But I did. I guess because some of these women are my heroes. There were at least 100 people in the meeting (if not more) but it was so weird to look around and see people like Sheri Dew and Wendy Watson Nelson, the Batemans, Mary Ellen Edmund, Sister Julie Beck and her counselors, YW pres Elaine Dalton and her counselors, Primary Pres Cheryl Lant and her counselors - and everyone was just huddled in there, mingling together! One of the weirdest feelings: What was I doing there?!?!? Sandy Rogers, who is a VP at BYU and in charge of Women's Conf (and a great member of our last ward) welcomed everyone and spoke. Then Sister Beck spoke. They were both awesome! After that we sang "Guide Us Oh, Thou Great Jehovah" a'cappella and it was GORGEOUS! All four parts going. I kept thinking, this is what heaven will be like. :)

After that we went to listen to Sheri Dew. Not only did we get to sit on the floor (there were extra seats so Cami sat with me), but we also got to work our way through the maze of stairs in the underbelly of the Marriott Center to get there. It felt so cool to be kind of 'behind the scenes'. I was amazed at how many women were already there! I think the Marriott Center was already half full 15 minutes before the first session even started. Sheri Dew was incredible as always.

We then went to hear a session titled "That role that is so uniquely yours" about mothering young children. It was awesome! The speakers were SO good. I plan to type up my notes, if anyone wants a copy. They voiced some things that had been on my mind and it was good confirmation for me. They also gave me a deeper perspective on the service aspect of mothering that was very humbling.

After that session I met my mom who treated me to lunch in the good old Cougareat. (Except it's not the good old Cougareat of yesteryear. It's now the even-better, new Cougareat.) We had a good time talking and she did a good job of helping me to relax and take my mind of my talk.

Then it was my turn. I spoke in one of the Conference Rooms upstairs in the Wilkinson Center. I got there about 45 min before my session started so I could go to the bathroom and find a quiet place to review my talk once more and we were shocked to find there was already a line to get into my session. I was even more shocked when the room for 600 people filled-up! It was amazing to feel the weight of having to speak to all of these people, but a couple things put it in perspective. First of all, it's not like I had to speak in the Marriott Center. Whew! Also, I didn't know most of these people, so if they didn't like the talk, they couldn't egg my house. But at the same time they paid to come to this Conference (and found babysitters, traveled from far away, etc.) and I didn't want them to feel like it was a waste of their time. That said, the women who come to Women's Conference are some of the nicest, most encouraging women ever. I figured most of them were rooting for me, or at least very empathetic.

I felt SO grateful for those I knew who made the effort to come listen to and support me: Michael and his sister Meredith, my mom and sisters (many thanks again to Laura's husband Bret for driving Jenni's baby around for an hour so she could come), my Grandma Udall, a couple of my mom's friends, my friends Cami, Bobbie, and Trina. (Trina even drove all the way down from Boise!)

Most of the Women's Conference sessions consist of two speakers. I spoke with a woman from Salt Lake named Jane Curtis. She is a Stake RS president of a student stake at the U. She's also served with her husband as mission presidents in Italy. So she obviously spoke from a different perspective and depth than me. But I think our thoughts meshed well. She was a neat lady and it was so nice to meet her and work with her!

The thing I was most scared of was out of control emotions throughout the talk. I prayed a lot about this and managed to hold them together through most of it, though not as well as I would have liked. Afterwards the relief was overwhelming! It felt so good to be done and I felt so grateful for the help and support the Lord and MANY others had given me!

I look so dumb in these pictures. I felt so sweaty and flushed when I was done!!!