Happy Fall Y'all

I love fall. I love feeling the crispness in the air and seeing the leaves change colors, and eating soup for dinner and cuddling up. It’s such a fleeting time of year, and I’m amazed that it is already October. I know I always say this, but time is moving too fast! Tyler and I have been married for nine months already. I still feel like we just barely met. (In many people’s minds, we did). With General Conference coming up, I’m feeling a lot of excitement. Watching General Conference with my parents and siblings is probably my favorite “holiday.” For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved it.

Last year after General Conference

I used to look forward to General Conference just because it meant wearing pajamas on a Sunday. Hooray! That’s still a benefit, but it’s come to mean so much more to me. To me, conference means family. It’s a time when we are all home. We are all (mostly) focused. We sing songs and discuss the gospel, and we eat amazing food. I feel so connected to them when we watch General Conference together. Last year, I invited Tyler to watch with my family. My mom joked that it must be serious if I was willing to bring him to General Conference. Tyler and I actually went on a walk at my grandparents’ house, and he told me that he wanted to marry me. It just adds to the specialness of the weekend for me.

Bean bag beards are all the rage

It’s not just the family bonding that I love about General Conference. I also love that it’s a time that I get to listen to God’s prophets here on Earth. As usual, I have questions that I will be pondering as I listen. I know that I will feel the Spirit and be inspired. I always am. It’s been a kind of erratic little while for church attendance lately due to the Ogden Temple dedication and an area conference we had. We usually teach the four year olds, and it is such an amazing experience. Some weeks, I feel like I’m lucky if they all are still in one piece when they go back to their parents, and other weeks I feel like I have the best calling in the world because they are the sweetest little kids. As of this week, we will have only taught one lesson in four weeks. It’s been a little bit of a nice break. I love teaching them, but sometimes I miss the adult conversation from Relief Society, and I’m a lot more worn out after primary than any other church meeting I’ve ever been to. I’ve already grown so much since I became a primary teacher. I’m so excited to keep learning with these cute kiddos!

This week has been an interesting one to lead up to General Conference for several reasons. For one, I got sick on Friday, so I’m not at the top of my game physically. I was dreading this week of school knowing that I wasn’t feeling very well, and I’ve been super tired and not sleeping super well. I miraculously wrote a paper on Saturday, and I was feeling like I would survive this week one day at a time. Then blessings abounded. I have had the lightest week of homework since the semester started. I feel so humbled and so blessed. It’s truly a tender mercy to know that I don’t have to stress about loads of homework on top of feeling kind of crummy and preparing for General Conference. Call it what you want; I call it a blessing. Happy Fall Y’all.