First on the list of highlights happened on September 12th, sometime in the afternoon. My good friend Lydia and I went on an adventure to Buy-Low (kinda like publix but less awesome) to acquire some limes to try making these smoothies that she found a recipe for. It turned out the smoothie was basically lime juice, vanilla ice cream, and ice, and for those who are huge fans of lime you could also put half a lime in the bottom of the cup. They were actually quite tasty, and that's all for that highlight.
Next on the ever-increasing list is stake conference, which happened that weekend (September 15th and 16th). It started out with the adult session at 2pm on Saturday, which was down at the UVU institute building, and was pretty awesome! The highlight from that was definitely my stake president calling his wife up to the podium to speak with him while they talked to us about marriage. It was kind of entertaining, because I had never seen a church speaker call someone from the audience to join them at the podium so it was certainly an experience. Of course, I also have some spiritually centered notes on what was said, but I don't really feel like posting those up here... If you want them email me? Anyway, later that night I of course had work (since it was a saturday) until midnight. I only bring that up because stake priesthood was at 7am on Sunday morning. Yes. 7AM. Like earlier than I usually wake up 7AM. So I got up at that insane time (5:30am) after going to bed shortly after midnight and it was TOTALLY WORTH IT! From the notes I have, the feelings I remember, and the fact that I was able to get to regional conference early enough to get a boss seat, it was way worth getting up that early. Later that day (not really... pretty much right after it) there was a regional conference for all of Utah Valley. It was totally incredible, as the concluding (kind of like a keynote) speaker was Elder Dallin H. Oaks (of the 12) who I got to be IN THE SAME ROOM AS. It totally blew my mind. I had never considered being within 200 feet of an apostle, let alone being able to hear him speak! So regional conference was totally awesome, there were a couple great speakers in addition to Elder Oaks, which made it even better! Topics that were spoken about included temples, family history, who we are (children of God), integrity, optimism, founding ourselves upon Christ, missionary work (even in an area where the majority of people are members), marriage, being single in a regular ward, the direction finders (liahonas) we have, the basic principles of the gospel (article of faith #4), and even planning! Elder Oaks made a comment to the effect of "I cannot remember a conference where it was so inspired, varied, and important." My favorite part of the conference was definitely when Elder Oaks made an analogy relating being single in a conventional ward to a new member of a stargazing club. He pointed out that single members lack a spouse, much like new members of the club lack jackets - and so life is uncomfortable and awkward for the person who can't relate to the things being discussed and you end up a bit cold.
The next highlight, interesting enough, was later that day at the Wyview Office Desk Attendant Potluck we had. I was able to make dessert which ended up being a cake (which I foolishly didn't take a picture of) that had different sections of different kinds. It included plain vanilla, marble, funfetti, and funfetti marble. Anyway, my incredible co-workers made awesome stuff as well including Chicken Black Bean Salsa, Sitcky Rice, Some kind of fancy crockpot thing that you put on rice and tasted delicious, corn, orange salad, and some regular green salad. It was a super fun thing to be able to go to, and it ended up that not much cake was eaten because of the volume of other delicious food that was there to be had.
The next semi-highlight was forum on Tuesday. It wasn't a devotional, mainly because the topic wasn't spiritual at all, but it was still incredibly awesome and informative. The speaker was a judge on the circuit for D.C. and he discussed "The Hard Work of Understanding the Constitution" which I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on how difficult it was to really get what the constitution says. But, he made me realize it was even harder than my old Young Men's President (who was totally awesome) had beat into my skull.
The next highlight spanned a couple days, and was the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Career Fair. A couple days before the fair I went to get my volunteer's vest, but they weren't available yet. So, I asked the person organizing it if I would be able to help her at all in preparation for it, and I ended up being allowed to move boxes of gifts for recruiters for her. This was a super awesome chance I got, and I only got it because I took the initiative (and I still believe I was prompted by the spirit to ask) I got the chance to volunteer a ton of hours for the career fair, including the 3.5 I spent moving boxes the day before the actual fair. The day of the fair I was able to volunteer for a grand total of about 7 hours spanning random time intervals (interspersed with classes) from 7am until about 4pm. It was super awesome to be able to see all those companies out there, and it really opened my eyes to how many options there were for people that excel in their major regardless of what it is.
Anyway, the next highlight came a little while later on the 21st of September. It was my first date of fall semester, and it was pretty awesome. The Tuesday before, I had asked one of my co-worker's roommates out as part of a challenge given to me by on the RAs. So, I baked her some cookies (sugar cookies to be precise) and walked over to her apartment and asked her. Anyway, then came Friday and I decided to bake a pizza for our date. I must admit... it was pretty tasty, and I actually took a picture of it! After we ate a bit, we walked up to the Planetarium on campus for the planetarium show. It was pretty sweet, and reminded me of how much I enjoy looking at the stars and trying to figure out how on earth they came up with those constellations. After the show, we walked back to my apartment and ate a delicious giant cookie/brownie thing (also have a picture of that). That was pretty much the end of the date... or at least it was for all y'all.
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'Til I finish the next post,
Jordan Nielson
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