Last weekend, while Dave was in China, I got to be with some of my other favorite people in Utah.
These guys:
(Can you tell how excited we were about those leaves??)
These guys:
This mother/daughter group:
And let’s go back to the leaves…can we just check out the state of gorgeous Fall leaves in Utah right now??
I need hundreds of those star-eyed emojis to do it all justice.
The reason I went up there?
The Restore Conference
The Restore Conference is put on each year by Faith Matters. And I LOVE Faith Matters. It’s an organization that works as a catalyst to promote faith and to look at and delve into big questions. The Faith Matters podcasts are so, so good and speak to me in such a beautiful way. This podcast by Jared Halverson is a really great one to start with. On the Faith Matters website there is so much information about all the good they are doing. Check it out and see if it resonates with you as much as it does with me.
My goal is to come back here and tell you what that conference FELT like. I want to articulate the things I learned that meant the most to me. Things that worked their way into my heart. But for today I’m just talking about what that gathering LOOKED like. Because it was filled with some of my favorite people.
The first night Abby and Ada joined us and we met up with my two sisters (not sure where Saren was for this picture) and my brother Noah and his wife Kristi.
Max was busy that night with his special date for an alumni BYU volleyball dinner/game:
We went and talk, talk, talked at Charity’s (who couldn’t make it for the conference this year) about life and all we are learning in it.
Got to hang with these three lovely ladies (as well as my siblings) at the conference the next day.
The conference was held at UVU where Charlie Kirk passed away recently which was very sobering.
There was much respect and honor given in the talks. I loved especially Arthur Brooks who talked about how “as Christians we believe we should never waste our suffering. How will we restore the face of the nation? It all comes down to loving our enemies.”
He talked about how moral courage isn’t standing up to those with whom you disagree. It’s standing up to those with whom you do agree to defend those who you don’t.”
“No one has ever been persuaded with insults. The only thing that can work is love.”
Ok but really, I’m waiting to share more of the messages.
For today I’ll share our drive from the conference up to see the glorious Utah Fall foliage:
Yikes it was pretty. We did some “forrest bathing” here:
Which means we explored down into those trees and laid down on the ground and truly felt nature. Yes we’re a little bit nature crazy.
A little Thai food joined by my brother Eli who wasn’t able to make it to the conference either.
Rock Canyon
This might be my favorite canyon ever. I love to explore it with my siblings every time I can when I’m in Provo.
Look at those rock formations!
Incredible.
Abby came to the conference with me that morning, and Max in the afternoon and it’s just so happy to be together. We ran into more people we love and many I didn’t get photos of.
I drove away feeling so very grateful for all the goodness of people.
People who have the talent to gather and people who have the talent to listen and work to learn and open hearts and work to be better. I hope I can be among them on this journey of life, looking for all the light and goodness.
General Conference
One way to do this that I’m SO excited for this weekend is General Conference.
For those not of our faith, our dearly beloved prophet, President Nelson, passed away last Saturday. He was incredibly 101 years old. He will be so missed! He has shared so many incredible words of wisdom over all his years as our prophet and my goal is to listen to every one of his talks starting with the most recent and go backwards.
Conference will be so interesting to listen to and learn from this weekend as we adjust to new leadership and listen to so many inspiring words. Praying for our new leadership, what a huge mantle of responsibility that is!
Hi Shawnee! Great post! It seems like you folks are spending so much time in Utah these days. And now with many of your kids, grandkids, parents and siblings up there, would you and Dave ever consider moving up there to be closer to everyone? Just curious! Though you do have such a beautiful home in Arizona, I could see why you’d never want to leave it!
No plans to move to Utah, we love the desert too much! At least for now. I would be kind of surprised if our kids stayed in Utah and settled there, so we’ll see where they all end up!
xoxo
I am finally getting to see a little bit of Utah! I have always wanted to see it. My husband and I were at Shiprock today, where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet in the four corners. Tomorrow we start some sightseeing in Utah, although we won’t make it as far as Provo, which saddens me after all the pretty pictures I have seen here. But I am happy to be able to see parts of this beautiful state. Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures. The ones above where you were lying down amongst the trees are gorgeous!
Oh I’m so glad you’re coming to our neck of the woods, and hope you see so much beauty!
XOXO
Soooo much beauty!! We have been to several of the national parks, including Arches and Bryce, which were our two favorites. The drive from Capitol Reef to Bryce was gorgeous with all of the beautiful aspen trees (I think that’s what they are…the ones with the beautiful yellow leaves.) When the sun hits them, they look absolutely incredible! We are in the Lake Powell area for a couple of days, then on to meet up with friends in Williams, a quick trip to the Grand Canyon, and then we head home. Just a constant appreciation for the Lord’s great handiwork!
Thanks for sharing all this beauty of the earth, thoughts, and especially those beautiful people!