Pink shirts and campfire songs and bugs. Oh, my!

I just got back from spending a wonderful week with the young women of the Chicago, IL Stake. It all started on Tuesday of last week and I returned on Saturday. It was great! I felt so happy to be surrounded by such lovely girls and the wonderful Spirit of God. I am not by any chance afraid of camping. Sure, some insects could be creepy but we all survived. I was in charge of the Jr. Leaders and my partner in crime was a charismatic woman name Zandra. It was a blast! We were in charge of making sure that our group had the spirit to make the girls RISE and SHINE. Which they did by the way. We camped on a site that is three hours in a half from Chicago and we were surrounded by trees and insects. The whole experience was magical. It really helped me to strengthen my testimony; even as a leader. The theme for this year was A New Attitude of Gratitude. I definitely grew from this experience along with the Young Women. They are strong and bold girls who are willing to sacrifice their comfortable homes to go out and learn more about the Gospel. I have to acknowledge that the camp director, Sister Canon, did and excellent job. I know the girls really enjoyed themselves. We ate some good food that isn't normally tradition while camping, and we did some crafty activities. It was beyond expectations.

I left my husband all by himself during that week and he survived as well. My little brother Eli asked him if he was afraid of living by himself. I thought that was funny because David worked hard to stay busy during the evenings after work so that my absence wouldn't be too much. We are finally together and I really did miss him while I was away. Remember, we are still newlyweds. He received me early afternoon on Saturday with a big grin on his face. I was a bit embarrassed because while he looked clean and fresh, I looked sordid and exhausted. Being back home is wonderful too and now i'm keeping busy by packing and cleaning the apartment because we move on Wednesday the 20th. David has been working really hard to find us an apartment out in Provo. If anybody sees anything please contact us.

We are feeling blue to be living our hometown but it should be nice to see our good friends in Utah. I'm crossing my fingers that we find a place in the Provo 1st ward boundary.