Pittsburgh

Ame, Tracey, Tiffany and me
The whole group, I am over on the right side somewhere.
Ame, Tiffany, Brother and Sister Beck, me, and Tracey

I was in Pittsburgh September 19-21st for a YSA conference and I finally got the pictures I wanted from Tracey so I can finally blog about it! The weekend was amazing- the spirit was really strong and I met a lot of really nice people. On Friday night, we heard from Brother Gay, an area seventy. He and his wife had just returned from being mission president in Ghana and his talk was really neat. On Saturday of that weekend, Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President, spoke to the YSA in the morning, which was really wonderful. They enjoyed our luau afterwards, too (they roasted a whole pig!). Later that day we broke from the conference to go to the two Relief Society meetings she was having in the Cranberry chapel (half an hour away) so we basically spent the day with the Becks. They are wonderful people and also very cute and funny together. It was neat to spend time with them and we had fun chatting and joking around with Brother Beck. They were sweet to pose for a picture. It was a really great day.

During the three meetings that day, Sister Beck basically answered people's questions. With the YSA, she talked about the three things that hold us back from having our own families: 1) a lack of faith, 2) a decrease in social skills and 3) the lack of moral strength.

She also talked about how we can't wait around for conditions to be perfect "for our life to begin"....this IS our life! That is a good reminder to me. I have a tendency to put off my happiness because one thing or another hasn't happened. She also encouraged us as ysa to use our time to serve others. She reminded the sisters that we were not promised a perfect life, but an experience to help us learn and grow. Everyone's experience is different. Experiences are for our good, we don't understand all that God has in plan for us.

Many of the things she talked about in the Relief Society meetings helped me in my role as YW President, and I was thankful to hear them.

I also watched the Relief Society broadcast last Saturday and it was great to hear from our leaders. I especially liked President Uchtdorf's talk about creativity and compassion. I identified a lot with what he said about creativity.