come listen to a prophet's voice

This past weekend I had the always wonderful opportunity to listen to and attend the 185th Semi-Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I saw and heard our beloved prophet and apostles give their powerful messages over the pulpit. Social media flooded with quotes from every single talk, the hashtag #ldsconf was trending worldwide, and thousands of members paid homage to Mecca aka Temple Square to gather and watch conference together. As hard as it is to narrow down everything that I learned from conference and which of the talks I heard were my favorite, the topic that is still on my mind is one that actually came from a blog post I stumbled upon at the conclusion of the weekend. Greg Trimble's post entitled: "President Monson...I Wish I Could Have Come and Held You Up" caught my attention. My exact thoughts were written so eloquently, you might as well just go and read it HERE. 

One of the talks that had a similar and equally powerful message was by Elder David A. Bednar, who explained why "indeed it is wonderful to have older men of such spiritual maturity and judgement serving in the senior leadership positions of the restored church of Jesus Christ." Over the years, there has been a lot of criticism concerning the leaders of our church, and how it seems to be run by 'old men.' Elder Bednar makes so many valid points about this, and you can hear all of them HERE.

What I'm getting at with this article and this talk is that these men have been called of God. We need to remember that there is a reason they are seated on the stand, and as faithful members of the church, we should love them, sustain them, and pray for them. What made me the saddest after reading that article and listening to Elder Bednar's talk was thinking about all the people who openly criticize these leaders, whether it be through social media, or attending conference and opposing these kind and gentle old men in person as they raise their hands in opposition. People need to realize what it actually means to be a general authority of the church. Not that I have any experience, but there is nothing glamorous about it. They travel the world for most of the year and live in hotel rooms more than their actual home. They leave their wives and families to visit with members, leaders, and missionaries from around the world, all of which look to them for spiritual guidance and knowledge. Once you are called as an apostle, you are dedicating the remainder of your life to serving the church.

President Thomas S. Monson was called as an apostle at the age of 36. That means that for over 50 years, he has been in a leadership position of a global church with over 15 million members. I think we all could see how much this calling has aged him and worn him out as our hearts broke watching him struggle just to speak on the podium this past weekend. Can you even imagine the burdens he faces on a regular day? Just consider what he has gone through in the recent past: his beloved wife Frances died leaving him a widow, he's had to call upon new apostles as three of his dear friends passed away in a matter of months, he stands back and watches the deteriorating morals of society effecting the members of the church, and on top of that, as president of the church, millions are looking to him for comfort and to lift their spirits, when I think sometimes he needs it most of all.

I have a testimony of a living prophet in our church. I believe that Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today, and God speaks through him, and through his counselors and apostles to address the world with His message. D&C 1:38 states "Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."  These amazing men are called of God because they have the maturity, years of experience, and spiritual knowledge that only someone of their age posseses. As much backlash our church gets for having these men in leadership positions, I know they are the best men for the job. I look forward to hearing them speak every six months, and I am grateful for the sacrifices that they and their families make for the well-being of the members around the world.

I know this wasn't like anything that I normally post on here, but I definitely do not share my testimony as much as I should, and I am trying to improve on that! I just want someone (out of the five of you readers) to know that I do love this Gospel and it is the biggest blessing in my life. I honestly do not know where I would be without it, or without the counsel, love, and support I receive from my church leaders and teachers. The church is true! Go watch all of conference HERE!

"Faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other" 
-Thomas S. Monson

april showers bring (summer weddings)

This past weekend was simply the happiest. Not only did General Conference fall on Easter weekend this year and Drew's parents were in town for it, but a few of my best girlfriends threw me the prettiest bridal shower on Saturday! Since all sessions of General Conference consisted of me sitting on a couch/bed in my pajamas and we didn't have our normal church service, meaning no matching dresses with Ynna and my mom (which we do every Easter Sunday...insert crying emoji here), I decided to document the most glamorous of the three events: my beautiful shower!

Let's first talk about those PAPER FLOWERS. My friends know all too well about my love for crafty photo backdrops at parties, and I am still so enamored whenever I look at pictures of this one. People are still talking about them (probably). I essentially want this same thing at my reception, hope they don't mind. Abby, the queen of flowers, picked up my favorite colored flowers to display around the room and they were just the prettiest! (Sorry that for the duration of this post I won't use any other word as much as prettiest, but it's the truth).

80% of the room was pink and orange and I was 100% okay with it. Special thank you to the Miller's for opening up their beautiful home to us and hosting my shower.

My future mother & sisters-in-law: Katrina, Katie, and Sarah

All of my guests took a picture of themselves and wrote/illustrated how we first met each other. I just love these two! Emilee is going to be my roommate this summer and I am stoked. My last roommate before my eternal roommate hahaha WUT. I always have so much fun with this girl and I'm looking forward to the boba dates and Sodalicious runs that will surely ensue when we live together. She also introduced me to sweet Lauren, who I had known of for awhile (IDPs & Twitter bring the ppl together) but we decided to take our cyber friendship to the next level this semester and I am so thankful for it! Now we're practically dating considering how often we have movie dates and post-date drop-off chats (she is my boyfriend) with each other. So thankful for both of your friendships and your attendance at my shower!

I wore each of these outfits when something significant happened in mine and Drew's relationship. First date/first kiss, the proposal, first met, and first concert shown from L to R. Say what you will, but this is me we're talking about so of course the first concert we attended together is on the same level as the day he proposed. The game was that everyone had to guess which outfit went with which occasion, and then I told the story about each. Even though most of my friends already heard these stories (or were even present for them), it was still so fun to retell them and think about how much has happened in a year. For instance, exactly one year ago from the date of my shower was when Drew asked me out on our first date for the following weekend! Awww

Let the flower wall photoshoot begin

 Love my Kaity baby for coming down from Idaho for the weekend to celebrate with me <3

 Sup we're engaged. August is gonna be cray. (I promise we're wearing our rings, we just opted for ones where you can't even tell)

OK this is by far THE PRETTIEST card I have ever received. My classy friend Maddy made this and I will probably frame it in our house, hope she doesn't mind. She is so thoughtful and even painted those flowers in the same exact colors my wedding bouquet will be! I showed her maybe one picture of a bouquet I liked over a month ago. Hire her now for all your calligraphy needs. I know I am!

T is for TEKULVE

And finally, a picture of me surrounded by my angel friends/hosts. They went above and beyond to give me the prettiest, most Alyanna-esque shower there ever was. I cannot thank them enough for pulling this off in the midst of this crazy end-of-semester period, just so I could have all my friends together before the summer of weddings/missions/study abroads/internships takes over and everyone leaves me here in Provo. Sorry that everything has to be as difficult as possible. I am #srslysoblessed to have these girls by my side throughout this college experience and all the monumental decisions and events that go with it. Thank you for adopting me into your Wyview clique that fateful freshman year and being my roommates, confidantes, and go-to girls when I need anything! They will undoubtedly roll their eyes at the sappiness of this, but I just love ya!

One more big thank you to all the ladies who attended my shower and made me feel so very loved! I truly appreciated your presence and your presents ;) This whole weekend I felt loved, not only from my sweet friends, but especially from listening to the messages at General Conference from our wonderful prophet and church leaders. I feel my Savior's love for me everyday, but this past Easter weekend was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how truly grateful I am to have the knowledge of the Gospel in my life. Because He lives, I get to marry my sweetheart for time and all eternity and we can be with our families forever. I love this Church and know that the talks shared with us were truly inspired. You can listen to/watch all of the sessions from this weekend HERE.

xoxo,

 -the soon-to-be Mrs. T 

(promise that won't be my new sign-off or anything--you can kill me first--it just seemed fitting for this post. Speaking of which...4 months from today y'all! Eeeeeek!)

my favorite weekend

Last weekend, Oct. 5th-6th 2013, was the 183rd Semi-Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Conference weekends are my favorite weekends of the year. They are our chance to listen to the words of the prophet and leaders of our church who received divine revelation from our Heavenly Father for the world to hear. Attending school at BYU means I am only a hop and a skip away from Salt Lake City, where conference is held and broadcast throughout the world, in hundreds of different languages. This meant I was fortunate enough to attend the Saturday morning session live with my dear friend Yuki. We did this exact same thing last fall, and I would like to make it a tradition for us. I feel like I need to be in slc for SOME part of conference weekend, just because I love the atmosphere and temple square is just so beautiful. Neither of us had tickets, but just like last year we worked one of the street corners by the conference center (and by worked I mean stood there smiling at people throwing deuces, signaling we needed two tickets) and managed to score bomb seats because Mormons are so nice and always have extra tickets to hand out. 

This session was in fact my favorite session of the entire weekend. Our beloved prophet Thomas S. Monson announced that we now have over 15 million members in the world, as well as over 80,000 full-time missionaries! It warms my heart to see the spreading of the gospel and the eagerness of young missionaries to serve all over the world, especially since I now know a fair amount from my freshman year. My favorite talk was by Dieter F. Uchtdorf and you can listen to it here. He talked about all of the wonderful reasons as to why people join the church, as well as why some sadly leave it. My favorite quote by him, and in fact from the whole weekend was "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." It was such a powerful message and made me feel so happy about my knowledge of this gospel and strengthened my desire to be a better missionary to those around me. Hopefully this blog post helps! :) 

Yuki and I hitched a ride to slc with Abby and her cousin, and after conference we all drove back to Provo in time to stop by the farmer's market to grab Jeano's Pizza and fresh fruit. This is a Saturday morning tradition for me and I am SO sad that the farmer's market will only be open for another two weeks :( what will I do on Saturday mornings?! Sleep. I watched the next three sessions in the comfort of my own apartment. Sunday was the best because we lounged around all day to watch conference together and made quiche and fruit salad for brunch, a tradition established by the four of us roommates last conference in April. 

We live in a technological world, and during conference weekend it is so great to see how easily the messages of these great leaders can be shared with everyone! For instance, the twitter world and other social media sites were blown up by quotes from each speaker (I contributed a fair share of those) and can all be found searching hashtags like #ldsconf. Here are a few of my other favorites from the weekend, some of which I couldn't help tweeting myself:

"Though we may feel we are a broken vessel, we must remember that broken vessel is in the hands of our maker" -Jeffrey R. Holland

"Man's law cannot make moral, what God has declared immoral" -Dallin H. Oaks

"God is perfect and His doctrine is pure. But He works through us-His imperfect children-and imperfect people make mistakes" -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

After conference weekend I am always so filled with the spirit and the love I have for this church grows even more. The key is to keep those feelings after conference ends, and to make it a goal to apply what I learned in my daily life. I am so grateful to attend BYU where I can discuss these messages in class with professors, as well as with my peers and neighbors. You can listen to conference in its entirety here. The fact that we get to listen and read these words again gives us no excuse to let the spirit of conference diminish over the next six months. Can't wait until April!

"Above all, never lose faith in your Father in heaven, who loves you more than you can even comprehend" -Jeffrey R. Holland