Book Exchange & AZ YSA Conference

 28 October - 24 November 2024

Me, mom, and dad spent Halloween night at Val and Porter's place. They fed us dinner and then we sat in their driveway to deliver Halloween candy to the passersby. I did not dress up (but I'd dressed up at a FHE Halloween thing, so I counted that as good enough for the year). Val and Porter were dressed up as Costco workers and handed out "free samples" of candy. People had a hoot over their costumes.

Saturday November 9th was a super fun day because we had Hanna and her husband Andy over for lunch, and we made homemade smoked pizzas. Hanna brought over some Korean dishes for us to try, which was super fun, and they both enjoyed their pizzas. That evening, I attended the leadership meeting of stake conference, then had a dinner afterwards with some YSA, then left for a book exchange party that I'd been invited to. I did not have much expectation, because I didn't really know what it was or who would be there, but I wanted to continue to network and make more friends, so I went. And I was blown away. It definitely exceeded my expectations. I am not sure exactly how many were there, but probably 30! (Oh wait, I just counted in the picture below... about 25!) We exchanged book baskets and I met tons of cool people and got to network. It was awesome! Oh yeah, plus I won the raffle for the grand prize, which was a ticket to the Desert Affair in February!

I took home author Emily Maxwell's book basket, which had her book "First Class Romance" and chocolate treats.

Sunday, November 10th, the Wrights had us all over for dinner as a thank you for our service on the committee. It was the first time meeting a lot of them in person, and it was a fun night filled with laughter and friendship. There was a lot of food and allergy-friendly options for me!

This past month was precious because prayers that I've had for over a year were answered, and it came at the YSA Conference, which I'd been helping plan for the last 15 or so months (and which had often been a source of my stress). The first weekend of this month, I spent around 6 hours issuing refunds on conference tickets because they decided to lower the cost of the ticket. And ordering the last few things for the conference that I was in charge of. Our numbers were half of what we were expecting, but we were just so glad that we had a decent turnout because the number who had registered was looking pretty sad, even a week away from the conference! I had to quit stressing and pray to turn it all over to the Lord. And the conference turned out well! We had some incredible speakers and presenters, and the food was delicious. I was run pretty ragged and and was exhausted by the end of the weekend, but I also had a sense of peace, happiness, and joy! My favorite speaker was Hank Smith. I really needed to hear his message about joy. I'd taken a positive psychology back at BYU, and while none of the information he gave was really new info, it was a fabulous reminder at a critical time in my life where I have not been feeling happy, secure, or as hopeful lately. It was just the reset I needed. I also needed to hear some of the things Elder Anderson spoke on, especially in regards to media, because one of the questions I've had for over a year was "what am I even doing with my YouTube channel and social media presence?!!" It's been frustrating to continue doing something that I feel no direction in, I've just felt prompted to keep going at it and trying, but never satisfied or confident with how I'm doing it. I also really enjoyed Bob Carroll, co-founder of the mutual dating app, and Alisa Goodwin Snell's presentations on dating. There were lots of good takeaways, and honestly Bob's was so validating and helpful. He spoke about the different zones leading up to romance: stranger, acquaintance, friend, then romance. And how when you JUST meet someone, you are acquaintances NOT friends, so you shouldn't spend a lot of time with them until they make it to the friend zone (aka first dates should not be super long and you shouldn't feel the need to spend a ton of time talking, because would you do that with the other acquaintances in your life? No.) And then in the friend zone, he said not to make it awkward by pushing the romance when you're friends. And to not make it awkward when you're a stranger (before you've introduced yourself, don't stare! Or stalk/follow around. It's creepy! And he was so spot on). As he said all of these things, I could easily picture these things happening in my past... and even the day of the conference! I was like, "Some of these guys really need to hear this!!!" because throughout the day there was a dude who would stare at me a lot and follow me around, and it was just very uncomfortable. Just make your move, introduce yourself, and become an acquaintance! Then see if it'll move towards friends. But I digress. So anyway, that was cool! 

I loved coming together with my whole team and working together throughout the weekend! What a great group! It was definitely a bitter sweet ending to the conference because I will miss rubbing shoulders with all of them, even though I am also relieved to have it all finished!

McKenna performed Friday night! She's incredible and I was glad I was able to grab a picture with her and talk for a second.

They had so many gluten-free options for the food trucks (but I will say that my stomach still really hurt... I woke up at 3am with pain. My guess was from the oil, as my mom said that food trucks tend to string along their oil and it gets old and rancid). But, look how happy I was before I ate it and was in pain! ;)

Ran into lots of cousins throughout the event! Jenae, Cassidy, Cordelia, and Kaleb! Here's Jenae:

Hank Smith, y'all! Hehehehehe.

My friends!!!!!! These two are incredibly hard workers, organized, and were huge blessings and contributors to the conference's success!

Also, Sunday night was so helpful because after the conference devotional, I went over the Val and Porter's house and got to talk with them. They'd invited the whole family over for dinner, but I just caught the tail end of people leaving, but then I got a bit of time to play with Gracelyn, and after they left, I was able to talk to them and ended up crying and sharing my concerns and struggles, and I received love, support, and some good counsel and advice. 

This pic was from earlier in the month (mom has been babysitting Gracelyn a lot while Aaron works) but I just thought it was fitting to place it here under the other pic of her. She is so smiley and happy! (When she wants to be... lol... which is the majority of the time). 

Tuesday, November 19th, I attended the monthly Night Scrawlers writing group, which is always fun. I really look forward to gathering with my fellow writing ladies. We talked about using Excel to keep track of character details and also quantum physics/the healing properties of crystals. So, you just never know what they're going to talk about. Keeps you on your toes!

On Friday the 22nd, I attended a "dinner with the dean," so the Dean of BYU's College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences was down for the BYU game this weekend and emailed a ton of Alumni if they wanted to gather for dinner, and I secured my spot because... free dinner! We went to Barrio Queen (Mexican food) and I got to network and meet lots of people. One of the BYU students, Annie, talked a lot to me and made me feel SO good! She was so curious and took an interest in my life and all the things I'm doing and kept building me up, so that was nice!

Then the next evening, I went with my parent's to Cassidy's endowment at the Phoenix Temple, then we went out to eat at Garcias (more Mexican food). It was great to socialize and my family members built me up so much. They were impressed by my business cards and asked about my work and made me feel loved.

In other news, I got all my certificates displayed in my office at work. I'm all set up there and am slowly building up a clientele. I've been working on my Korean book series and got my second one published, the Hangul writing practice book! Really proud of that! Plus, I've been using my own copy of one to study, and you know it's awesome when you actually really like it and find it useful!

Much love,

Emily Burnham

New Job, New Beginning!

10/27/2024

Life sure has been busy these past few months (but then again, when is it ever not? I just did not prioritize writing in my blog...). Let me just hit on some highlights from the past 3 months!

September 20-21, I attended the annual ANWA Conference (American Night Writer's Association) and it was a good time! I was able to spend time with some of the authors from my monthly writer's group meeting as well as meet new people. Allie Condie was our keynote speaker and we had some other well-known authors attend and give workshops. Plus, I won a free book! Always a plus :). They did well accommodating for food allergies, which I always really appreciate. Friday night was the gala, and the theme was intergalactic, so we had people dressed up as characters from all kinds of shows. I went with Eleven from Stranger Things because I figured I could reuse it as my Halloween costume, lol. 

I also resigned from CLEAR Counseling after receiving a new job opportunity with Restored Counseling & Wellness Center, which I am very excited about. The owners are incredible, friendly, and talented. I am going to learn so much with them and be able to get EFT Certified! The onboarding process was a little overwhelming, as was juggling three sites for a month as I transitioned away from the one (had to give 30 days notice, so I couldn't stop right away) and started onboarding at the other place (I pretty much started the week I got hired!). Three emails & three calendars to juggle (since I am still keeping my site at AZ Connection Counseling), plus lots of new things to learn. But I've made it through!

My New Office Space

My New Headshots for Restored Counseling

In other big news, our stake split up into 18 to 25 year-old YSA wards and 26 to 35 year-old YSA wards. Basically, eveyone over 26 within the stake boundaries got put into one HUGE ward, and the other wards got a bit changed around to make them a good size. Some wards got split or combined into other wards. This Sunday was my first time in the new ward, now called the Innovation Ward, and it was so crowded! We had chairs lining all the sides of the RS room and chairs in the hallway that some sisters had to sit on! It was crazy!! It also kind of made it difficult to meet people, but I'm hopeful that with my new calling as FHE co-chair, I will be able to meet lots of cool people. During my setting apart blessing, two things really struck me. The first was the reminder that God knows me better than anyone else, including myself. The thought that followed after I heard that was something along the lines of God knowing my potential for good and knowing how amazing I am better than I do and having so much love for me. I think I am often my harshest critic and can limit myself or put myself down or think I can't do certain things, and it was humbling to remember that One who knows me even better than myself is calling me to do these things and has a perfect plan for me, better than I can imagine or prepare for myself. The second thing that stood out was him saying that through my calling, I will have the opportunity to meet lots of people and make good friends, which I felt like the Lord was saying, "See, I gave you this calling to answer your prayer to make some really good friends." Because I will admit that when I first got this calling, I was like, "Bleh, been there, done that. Kinda sick of FHE, to be honest..." So again, the Lord humbling me in such a loving way. 

I've also been working on making my Korean journals/books/logs. I have two up for print on Amazon now! One is a drama log to track and review Korean Dramas (or dramas from other countries) and the other is a Hangul Writing Practice book (for practing your Korean). I have two more that I plan to create, one is a K-Pop Artist/Group Tracker and the other is a Korean Word Search book. Then after these are created, I will move on to something else, though I don't know what. But probably therapy related workbooks... well, and I have my actual novels to be working on. I love that I joined my writing club just for the community and friendship, but they are all so diligent in their writing so it is inspiring me to want to get back to it (and also overwhelming at times since I can't always devote as much time or I sometimes feel inadequate). 

Here are some other photos I found in my phone of the last three months of things that are worth breifly mentioning!

Lucy came down from Provo between semesters and I planned to make sushi with them. I had learned from my cooking class so I wanted to teach them. They enjoyed it and the sushi turned out even better than they expected, so go me!

Boquet making activity with stake YSA RS. Note to future husband, I really like flowers! They make me smile and brighten the place :)

When Lu was down on break, she was on a cleaning spree for the first few days (I guess because she missed her custodial job so much, lol) and Gracelyn saw her and pulled a towel out of the drawer to help her! So cute!)

I invited Hanna to get Korean food with me and my mom and sisters, then we went to explore H-Mart. We had a blast together!

I decided to try and post more on my therapy social media account, so these are pics of my hair and outfits, since I decided to pick up a side job of being a model ;) lol. Figuring out social media presence is hard :(

Grandma's 80th Birday Celebration! There was a minute-to-win-it game with chopsticks moving marshmallows into a bowl, and I WON! Go ME! Hehe.

Went to hear Sister Johnson (Val's mission president's wife who is now currently the Relief Society General President) speak to the YSA. Val snuck in wither her husband so she could say hi afterward! We ran into our cousins there as well! P.S. You gotta love church lighting... haha

A sister missionary is going home this week. Sister Lee from South Korea! I was invited to go to her farewell party and made her these AZ pins as souvenirs, plus I gave her a copy of my drama log book. She seemed very pleased and touched.

I carved this at a YSA activity. They are two bats, if you couldn't tell.

My Eleven costume makes a reappearance at a FHE activity! Grabbed a super blurry selfie with the Keadles. They are so cute and I'll sure miss seeing them around the ward (now that I'm moved to the Innovation Ward). 

Went to my family ward's fall festival and got to spend some quality time with my cute lil neice, Gracelyn. She LOVES jumping and bouncing, plus popping bubbles. She is speaking more and more and remains absolutely ADORABLE!

Sis Lee and me, selfie from the going away party. They had musical numbers and food. It felt like home over there and I got to meet many wonderful people!

Much love,

Emily Burnham

Utah YSA Conference

15 July - 6 August 2024

This past weekend, I attended the Utah YSA Conference in Salt Lake City. I flew up on Thursday evening, stayed at Lucy's apartment in Provo, then traveled up with her for the conference over the weekend. It was absolutely exhausting, but also so worth it! We made incredible memories together, heard and saw incredible things, and received lots of inspiration. It was also the most exhausted I've felt in a while, which is to be expected. The first night, arrived at the airport around midnight, then when I got to Lucy's apartment in Heritage Halls, I had to sleep on the couch in the living room, which was not very comfortable. By the time I fell asleep, it was after 2am. We had to wake up at 6am to get ready and go to the front runner. Fortunately, God placed people in our path to help us out. There was a guy on the train who was also attending the conference and was very familiar with public transportation, so he was very helpful. The Salt Palace is HUGE and there were around 10 thousand YSA in attendance. It was so easy to feel overwhelmed and experience instant FOMO, because there was no way you'd be able to do everything that was available over the course of the two days. Lucy and I got to be part of breaking two world records, the biggest speed dating event and the most contributions to a birthday card. They had a HUGE card for President Nelson's 100th birthday next month, and people could submit something online, then when we went to sign it, we would add 5 other people's messages as well. What was difficult about the conference was that I wasn't at my best physically because of lack of sleep, not having food for breakfast or lunch the second day, etc, so it started to wear down on me, but God would place miracles or people in our path. Even when things didn't turn out the way I wanted, like I missed a class I wanted to go to or we missed the front runner on the way home (more about that later), something good or cool always came from it. We were able to help someone that needed it or have an inspired conversation or meet a cool person. After the first day, we got to attend the concert that night. Rachel Platten (most known for "Fight Song") did a fabulous job performing. She talked about her own mental health journey, and I could really tell that she put her heart and soul into singing and that her songs were very meaningful to her. They were very touching and I may have cried at least 3 times. They also had these LED wristbands that were programmed to light up (we couldn't control them) and it was so cool because they would light up in synchrony to different rhythms and in that moment I definitely felt connected to everyone, part of something bigger. It was SO INCREDIBLE to experience. I also got to meet up with Whitney and see her for a bit, which always feels incredible. I love her! So grateful for eternal friendships. Well, after Rachel performed, we heard from Emma Nissan and then Ben Rector, but we didn't really know any of Ben Rector's songs, and we realized if we left about 20 min early from the concert, then we'd be able to catch the front runner and make it home an hour earlier than getting out of the concert a bit after 10pm and having to wait an hour for the front runner and getting back around midnight. Well, the trax that took us to the front runner was running late and was cutting it too close. We had a minute to get from the trax to the front runner, according to the app. But the trax got stuck at the LONGEST RED LIGHT OF MY LIFE and we missed the front runner by 30 seconds!! We were running down the stairs right to it as it started pulling away. So we had to sit there for an hour anyway to wait for the next one, and so we missed the end of the concert for nothing! I was SO mad, and SO TIRED. But Lucy got to see some old work friends and talk with them, and then a girl Lucy knew was worried about how to get home because the bus wasn't running that late in the evening, so we were able to give her a ride back to campus. So it worked out, but again, I was soooo tired and didn't get much sleep before we had to do it all over again. I was grateful I got to spend more time with Whitney on Saturday. Though I didn't really meet any new friends or guys, I took home some messages that uplifted and inspired me. From listening to Emily Belle Freeman, I wrote down that when life presents you with two good choices, choose the harder right. Life will take you to extraordinary places if you do that. She also pointed out how the restoration was brought about by YSA aged people! Even though we are young, we can make an impactful difference. Sharon Eubank spoke about not needing to wait to be generous, that the efforts we put in now are enough. And how the smiles we exchange through service is so much more meaningful than the money we make through work. People filled out an anonymous survey about what they were most concerned about, and the mental health of the youth of the church was the #1 thing, and what struck me was that out of the thousands of people there, I'm one of the few who can actually do something about that, so I really want to find a way to serve in the community or in schools and help kids improve their mental and emotional health. Acts of service are acts of faith, because you don't always know why you are doing them or the impact they will have, but you proceed anyway. I also attended a break out class and learned all about paradox, how everything is a paradox. We love our family AND they drive us crazy. We have hard things happen to us that we don't like AND we love how we become better from them. Etc. I was also reminded that in all of my work, I need to remember to give the credit back to God. That is how I will stay humble and fly even higher. I also had an insight about how Satan does not and never will have a body, so he literally cannot understand bodily pains and sufferings. He cannot validate or empathize or have compassion, but just tempts and laughs when we fall, never really understanding why it's so easy to fall at times in these mortal bodies. And I think too that it is because he does not have a body and cannot feel what we feel that his biggest tactic is for us to not feel or experience our emotions or physical sensations, to numb out and disassociate.

So those are the highlights from the conference, and now I will go back earlier in time and share some other highlights from July along with the photos below: 

Meeting up with Whitney at the concert! Can you see the love?!!! Love this friend of mine!!

Okay these pictures are from earlier in the month, with more pics from the conference at the end, so stay tuned!

We made sushi in the cooking class the church puts on. It was super fun and turned out cute. I'm excited to make some with my family when Lucy comes down from school on break. I want to teach them what I learned (hopefully I will still remember)!

Feed My Starving Children for FHE! My feet really hurt by the end of the night and the next day from all the standing. I sealed bags of food all night.

Okay, do you see how spoiled and pampered and adored this little thing is? It's no wonder she LOVES coming over to see Memaw and Papa and she will even try to say bye to her mom when they stop by just for a few mintues, basically trying to kick her mom out and say, "Kay, leave now so I can stay here!" Haha, she is so cute!

Mom and I took a day to get the free T-Mobile merch then stopped by Trader Joes to pick up some Korean food for lunch!

We took this pic to send to Hanna and she was like, "Those are my favorite foods! I need to go buy some too!"

I went to Candytopia with Sawyer from my ward and got to explore different candy sculptures and things. The best part was the marshmallow pit, but I didn't get any pictures of that because I was busy jumping around in a giant pit of foam marshmallows, throwing them at other little kids and playing with them. It was so fun to put a smile on their faces and play with them. 

Flight to Provo!

Got to see Kathrine Jensen!

Lucy signing Pres  Nelson's bday card!

The highlight of Lucy's life. She sassed Mallory hard core -_-

This was the size of the bday card!!

On our walk to lunch, we passed by the temple in Salt Lake City, which is under construction.

View of the interior of the building. It's hard to see just how many people are in the back area of the photo.

Me and Lucy walking to church on Sunday. Don't we look so tired?

Got to see Gracelyn first thing when I got home from UT. She's SO cute! 

And this was mom driving me home from the airport!

Much love, 

Emily Burnham