"I Am Strong... I Can Do Hard Things!!"

My two young women, Riana and Sariah, were able to participate in an amazing event in August.  It was a Virtue Conference for girls ages 12-18 and their leaders. 

For our Stake, the Stake who was hosting this event, it began Friday night, with meeting Sister Elaine S. Dalton, former General Young Women's President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  (She was released in April, while we were in the Conference Center.  Riana was so sad and may have even started to cry.  They normally just serve for like 3-5 years and then someone else is called.)  So you can imagine how excited Riana was when our ward young women had the chance to meet Sister Dalton.  She is truly one of Riana's heros and someone she really looks up to.  All of the girls enjoyed meeting her.  They said that Sister Dalton was really sweet!

Later that evening, the young men of our Stake and the youth of one other Stake joined together for a fireside with Sis. Dalton and Sis. Diana (Hasler) Hoelscher.  Sariah really connected with Sis. Hoelscher's words.  They rang in her head and helped Sariah make a good decision that very night.  Our mission president's wife, Sis. Weaver also spoke.  I heard that it was a great fireside!

The next morning began bright and early with a Run for Virtue!  The girls were able to participate with girls from 9 Stakes from the area!!  (I think it was around 10,000 girls and leaders!)  In fact, Riana received a text from her cousin Paige (in the pink headband) at 6 am that morning telling  Riana that Ali (in the other purple shirt) and her would be coming down for the Virtue Conference that day.  (This picture is the only one my sister-in-law had.  I sure love these silly girls.  The girl in yellow is their friend.)

Our Stake was the last to run.  From what I heard, our girls did great and I was very proud of both of them for trying their best!  I love the cute water bottles they were given!!

 

I absolutely adore every single one of these girls and their leaders!  My girls are so blessed to associate with each and every one of them!!  They feed off of each other's positive attitudes and just build each other up.  I especially love that when I asked them about the Virtue Conference, they all said things like, "It was absolutely amazing!", "It was the best weekend of my life!", "I loved every minute!!", etc.

 

Here is our Stake.  I love that the Stake Presidency were all there!  They are so cute!  I also love how Riana and Sariah, and our ward girls, and our stake girls tended to put themselves in the front of pictures and to hear the talks and such.  They were very involved and I think felt more comfortable because they were the host Stake.  It made it just that much more special for them.

I love this picture!!  What an incredible sight to see!  All of these amazing young women standing for virtue!!  That day, the girls attended workshops and visited booths that taught them how to overcome adversity and how to get through tough things in their lives.  The day was to teach them they are strong and can do anything!!  Those were mixed with some fun booths and fun ideas on ways to get out and serve others.



3 Be-You-tiful Barbie dolls!!

Silly Amanda took a few selfies with Riana's phone and also committed a few photo bombs... LOL!!

Riana and Sariah's cousin, Kaatlin, was also at the conference with them.  So fun!

I love Sister Hoelscher's facial expressions!!  I saved most of these pictures offline and someone captured her fun facial expressions in this pictures when she was talking to her daughter, Ali, who turned 12 that day.  She is her only daughter and came along on this special trip with her Mom.

There was also a modesty fashion show that Brooke and Christian had the opportunity to participate in.  They both looked gorgeous, as always!!  :)

Riana and Sariah (and their friend, Autumn) chose (with a little bit of a push from me) to be a part of the Virtue Choir (which was led by my friend, Rachel.)  My friend, Wendy, sent me a short clip of them singing, right away, and it totally made me cry!  "I will live it.  I will show He (God) can trust me.  By what I wear and what I do, I will stand by what I know is true.  I will live it!"  I could feel the Spirit so strong and it just made me so happy that they were able to participate in this choir... and the whole event!!

On Sunday, our ward was priviledged to continue the spiritual weekend by having Sister Hoelscher come to our ward young womens to speak to us.  I finally got to go!  Sister (Hasler) Hoelscher was a missionary in this ward almost 20 years ago and I loved her!!  She was an inspiration to me!  I used to go on splits with her and also she taught a couple of my friends.  She was just on fire with a love for the Lord and for the gospel and it was absolutely contagious!!  It made me want to go on a mission!!  It is just so awesome to me that she is now inspiring my girls as well!!

Her talk was incredible, as always!!  It was so completely awesome to see her again!!  I just love her!!   And what was really incredible also was that our friends, Michelle, Naomi, and Melanie used to live in her ward in Texas and last year, when she spoke in our ward the day after the Virtue Run, Michelle was visiting for the first time and they saw each other and were so completely surprised!!  It was super crazy!!  Anyway, we were so lucky to have her speak to us and I was so glad I was able to be a part of it, since I wasn't able to be there for the Virtue Conference (since I'm not a Young Women leader anymore.)  Afterwards I was able to get a picture of Diana and I, with our daughters (minus 1 of my girls who we couldn't find at the time.)

It was a super incredible weekend for Riana and Sariah!!  They were blessed to be a part of such an amazing event!  I am so thankful to all the leaders who made it happen!!!