TOFW & Girls - Long Beach - Nov 3rd

I don't know about you but until about a year ago I had no idea what "Time Out For Women" was. Here is the link to Deseret Book so you learn more about it. http://deseretbook.com/time-out/schedule. We have the privilege to live in the same ward as one of the presenters and back in Sept I had the opportunity to attend a "Time Out For Women & Girls" event in Logan, UT - with a couple ladies and their daughters from our ward as well as my sister. It was great to have my sister there; she learned a great deal and enjoyed the experience. The day starts out at 9am and ends at 3pm, with remarks by the presenters and musical performances in between.

It was such a great experience! At the Women & Girls events, the presenters tailor their remarks to the young women and since I had just been called as YW president, I internalized everything they shared. Although I don't have a daughter, I still learned a lot of things that I could apply in my own life. I came away feeling uplifted and with a renewed desire to be a better wife, daughter, friend and leader for the YW in which I serve. Another highlight was seeing Hilary perform in person, she is amazing!

Ok.. so now I get to the "Long Beach" part of the story. I know you were wondering....why is she talking about Logan when the title is different?! Alright, maybe you didn't care. Anyway, a couple months ago I asked Hilary if she ever wanted a buddy to accompany her on one of these trips. She agreed, so I went online to see what events were coming up and which presenters would be at each event. In reviewing the list, I found that Sister Ardeth Kapp was going to be speaking in Long Beach and Dallas. I was a young beehive when the YW theme and 7 values were introduced, while Sister Kapp was serving as the YW General President. I will never forget the impact those values and theme had in my life. I also had the opportunity to meet Sister Kapp at a Regional YW camp in Nashville, TN when I was 14yrs old and had my picture taken with her. Needless to say, I was excited meet her again! After looking at the dates for each, I decided the Long Beach event would work best with my schedule. (Bad hair day or something, not loving the pic.. can I blame jet lag? :) )

I know that was a loooong intro to this weekend but I felt the background helped to make the story. We left on Friday afternoon and returned home late Saturday night. It was a quick trip but sooo worth it! We had Friday night open to do some tourist stuff, so after checking in to the hotel and unpacking, we headed off to the Long Beach pier which was about a mile away. We were able to see the ocean and even saw a large freight ship, which seemed massive from where we were standing.









Next, we needed food! As we looked around we saw popular restaurants from here in Utah, Outback, Chili's, California Pizza Kitchen, PF Chang's and the list goes on... we were hoping to find an original California restaurant or at least one we don't get to frequent back home. While trying to decide where we should go, we both mentioned a restaurant called Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.. and how fun the atmosphere was there. Wouldn't it be fun if we saw that restaurant down at the pier?! Since we didn't see anything that wasn't a chain (at least nothing that looked good) we decided on Outback. (They have an amazing dessert called the thunder from down under, you should try it sometime.) After dinner we decided to take the bus back to the hotel, the bus had to drive us in the opposite direction we had taken to get to the pier. As we drove by the many restaurants we had seen, lo and behold.. we drive right past a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company! We couldn't believe we were within 50 feet of seeing it but missed it all together. How disappointing!!

The next day was the Time Out Event.. what a blessing to be surrounded by several hundred other women and girls that believe exactly as I do! The event was fabulous! There were 2 different presenters from the Logan event Michael Wilcox and Ardeth Kapp, the others were the same, yet the messages touched me in a different way this time. It is amazing how the spirit helps you pick up on the things you need at that moment and then next time you hear it, you learn something entirely different. It was such a neat experience talking with Sister Kapp and the other presenters during the lunch break and on our way home. (The other presenters were Hilary Weeks, Abe Mills, Jenny Jordan Frogley, & John Hilton III - all amazing!)

I also told my friend Jenn from San Diego about the event and she drove up to Long Beach to attend. She is the YW president in her ward and brought 9 young women and 2 other leaders. (She was actually called that same week to be the 1st counselor in the Stake YW presidency, good luck Jenn!). It was sooo good to see you!

I was also able to meet a friend of Hilary's from other events like this, she is darling and I am glad I got to know her during the event.

I am grateful to Hilary for being willing to share her time with me, which allowed me to have this experience. She is such a fun, talented, and giving person and I am grateful to call her my friend! I look forward to having more adventures!