An extravaganza, indeed

The preparations for our preparedness extravaganza paid off! We had a great turnout for the event Tuesday night. I was amazed at how many people actually came out for a preparedness fair. . . just the name sounds uncool but it was actually a lot of fun, thanks to everyone who helped.

Every person that had an assignment came through. Getting started was the biggest challenge. It took a while to get the food out and people seated. But once we got going, it went beautifully. Despite being made from food storage, our potluck dinner/cook-off was delicious. And, in answer to prayer, the "Prepared Chef" embroidered apron I ordered finally arrived on Tuesday, just in time to be first prize in our competition.

After dinner, we set the group free to peruse the different stations. We also had an amazing preparedness jeopardy game in the gym for those who wanted to play. Spencer loved grinding wheat, kneading bread and making butter at the food storage station and the penny toss into tithing, savings, and spending bins the best (financial preparedness). Rachel thought the fires outside were awesome (cooking without power) and going into a big rig and talking into the CB to a guy in our ward was so cool (emergency communications.) I especially appreciated the opportunity to pack 72-hour food kits for all the kids in our family. But I can't pick a favorite station because everyone came prepared with a game or activity for the kids and important info for the adults. I will have an outline of the entire activity on my preparedness website sometime in the near future so you can check it out if you're interested.

Now I'm in Utah and I'll post more about my trip later. I have pictures but I don't know how to operate my mom's computer to post them so that will have to wait. I'm here to attend my perfect (or nearly perfect) baby sister's BYU graduation. She is the valedictorian of her class and her college, so I'm very proud of her. When you think of the caliber of students that attend BYU, that is quite an extraordinary accomplishment. Emily is naturally smart but she works tirelessly to achieve everything she does. I love her and I'm so glad she's my sister.

I just realized that it was about 13 years ago that I went to my own BYU graduation. Attending the commencement exercises yesterday made me feel nostalgic and miss my college days. I loved my time at BYU and I'm grateful for the opportunities I had to learn and grow during those four years. Elder Bednar gave the commencement speech. It was a great talk about "learning to love learning," kind of a tongue twister, but the point was that we are here on this earth to learn and at BYU we should have developed the love of learning and the desire to continue to learn and serve. He said, "When should we cease to learn? NEVER." It was a great reminder that we shouldn't stagnate; instead, we should seek continually for more spiritual and temporal knowledge.

Today is Emily's actual college graduation so I'm looking forward to more exciting times on BYU campus. My parents must be so thrilled. All six of their children have now graduated from BYU, and four have gone on to complete their master's degrees. When I mentioned it to my Mom, she said she was even more happy that all six of her children were married in the temple. She has a good point. I know that what we have accomplished is in large part due to our parents' guidance and love. I truly was "born of goodly parents" who emphasized the importance and value of education and taught us the gospel in our home. I could go on and on but I need to get myself ready for the day. I'll write more later!

Oh, I forgot one last awesome thing that happened yesterday. . . First, I got to hear an apostle speak at the graduation, then I was only a few feet away from Sister Dalton (gen. YW pres.) and Sister Beck (gen. RS pres.) On to the best thing of all. ..we went to Magleby's for dinner and guess who was at the table next to us? Elder L. Tom Perry! I got to shake his hand and speak with him for a minute. It was quite a wonderful experience. He and his cute wife were there to celebrate their grandaughter's graduation from BYU as well. Another experience that could happen only in Utah!