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