1 morning temple session with Jared Friday

+ 1 YW overnight Book of Mormon read-a-thon Friday night

+ 2 sessions of General Conference on Saturday

+ 2 sessions of General Conference on Sunday

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= one seriously awesome, spiritually-packed weekend

I'm sure there's a more appropriate and slightly more delicate word than "awesome" to use when describing spiritual matters but I can't help it. This last weekend really was incredible. I'm not sure if I could have crammed in anything else to make it better, aside from maybe a personal meet-n-greet with President Monson himself. To top it off, my sister was in town (which makes it a holiday in itself).

I didn't bring a camera to the read-a-thon since I didn't think it would be appropriate but I wish I could have captured in some way just how amazing it was. We had all the young women come Friday night and leave their cell phones at home, which is a mini-miracle in itself. There were lots of things that made it so great; one of which was the endless supply of food (all brought in by other wonderful people so none of the leaders had to worry about prep or clean-up). There were special personal scripture reading kits for everyone involved, new scriptures to mark as we read, and I even had my first taste of sparkling Voss water straight from Norway (think I'll stick to my cheap Costco version, tasted the same to me.) The table covered with pure chocolate delights and the platter of See's chocolates didn't hurt either. It really was a unique experience-we read scriptures sprawled on soft couches with blankets, read scriptures around a fire under the stars eating s'mores, and read scriptures in the quiet morning hours while the Bishopric prepared breakfast. In between, we had visits from Lehi and Sariah, the mothers of the Stripling Warriors, and even overheard some conversations by those in attendance of King Benjamin's sermon. Our young women are wonderful, so are the leaders I get to work with, and I feel very blessed to have been able to strengthen my own testimony during that experience. Man, I love the Book of Mormon!

Since the weekend was full of counsel from both ancient prophets as well as those living today, I thought it only appropriate to share this little video. Avery and Austin have both learned the names of the First Presidency and all 12 Apostles and were thrilled to see them speaking on tv this weekend. Avery first learned the song when she was around Austin's age so yesterday when he wanted to sing it to me, I thought I should document the moment.

So as little bit of background, I've make up 2 different songs to use to teach the kids. The first is sung to "Happy Birthday" and the 2nd is a diluted version of a song I once learned called "I am a Pizza." Both songs originated on the spot one afternoon many moons ago so don't judge the randomness of the words. It was the best I could do on the fly. :o)

And since you may not be as fluent in speaking "Austin" as we are here, here's a translation of what he's saying:

President Monson is the Prophet

President Eyring is number one,

President Uchtdorf is number two,

that's the First Presidency.

President Packer, you like crackers

Elder Perry is so tall

Elder Nelson is a doctor,

Elder Oaks, has no hair,

M. Russel Ballard,

and Elder Scott.

Oh....Austin knows the apostles (I know the apostles)

Mommy knows the apostles (I know the apostles)

We know the apostles (we know the apostles)

and here they are....

Elder Hales has big eyes,

Elder Holland has dark hair,

Elder Bednar looks [like Corbin] (Avery's version)/[so young] (Austin's version)

Elder Cook, reads a book!

Elder Christofferson

and Elder Anderson

and that makes twelve!