Regional Laurels Conference-

Yesterday I was so lucky to go to our regional laurel conference, Patterns for Life. It's always fun to be with the amazing girls that are my age, but it was especially amazing to be there and to learn about all these qualities that are going to help me and bless me as I move on to the next chapter in my life. I am a junior in high school and I'm preparing to apply for all sorts of colleges and just take on the best chapter! We learned about applying for scholarships, how to handle financial situations, self-defense ( which was very fun, but slightly scary because I'm not the mean "fighter" we had to be to defend ourselves in that class), how to prepare quick healthy meals, and simple things you can so to make your clothes modest. It was really awesome to learn these skills because, even now, it's great to be able to "take care" of yourself and be more independent. In my life, my mom and I have different standards and we think little differently just because she's not religious or anything and I have to make some of my own rules as far as who I can be around, what I can wear, what I can say, what I do on Sundays, ect. So I am pretty independent and being able to learn these skills really helped me to be able to know how to take care of myself. We also had an amazing speaker! She talked about choices and accountability. I'm at a stage in my life where I'm going to have to be prepared for some BIG changes and choices! She gave this awesome analogy with chocolates and I'm going to try and explain it to my best of my ability. First, she had eight volunteers come stand at the front of the room, I was one of the eight. Next we had to choose from a box of chocolates (The Valentine's chocolates that come in the heart shaped containers) and on the count of three the eight girls ate the chocolate they chose. Some of the girls had a "sour" look on there face. The speaker asked them why, they replied with things like, " well, my chocolate wasn't very good." Some even ran to the garbage to spit theirs out. She said to them, "why don't you like that chocolate, isn't it the one you chose?"  We all said, "yeah, but I didn't know it was going to be strawberry filled." Then she had another box of chocolates to choose from but these ones were labelled either "Hershey's" or "Crunch" or things like that.. We chose from the box of chocolates and again ate our chocolates on the count of three and there were no "sour" faces. We were all satisfied. She continued to ask the girls that made a face at there first chocolate why they didn't do it again and they all said that they knew what the chocolate was going to taste like. There were no surprises. Heavenly Father has prepared a plan for us. A plan of happiness. We are lucky enough to be able to pray to our Heavenly Father and ask him for guidance through out hardships and big choices. We are like the labelled chocolates. We know what is going to bring us happiness unlike the people not of our faith. They seem to have more questions on what's going to happen after death and what will happen if they do this or do that. They are the confused unlabeled chocolates. The ones that you sometimes don't know what they are going to taste like. I have a strong testimony of these things. Heavenly Father loves us so much and he cares about our happiness. He wants you to know what you are getting into and he will answer your questions through The Spirit, but you have to turn to him ad rely on Christ. He knows what's best for you. Ask him. He loves you and he sent the prophets and all the leaders of the church to guide you. We are the chosen generation! Let's act like it! I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.