Surpriseee!!

So once upon a time... Or Tuesday... I woke up and saw that I had a missed call from my mom. I called her back and we were just kinda talking for a while and the doorbell rings. I say to my mom "Ughhh. Somebody's at my door and I don't want to answer it." My mom says "Well why not?" I'm like "I just woke up. I don't have makeup on and my hair's a mess and I probably smell bad. I'm just going to let them think nobody's home." But these people just keep ringing the doorbell and knocking so I go and stand right outside of my door, just looking at it, and still on the phone with my mom. I wasn't saying anything and my mom goes "KAITLIN!" But I didn't just hear it on the phone, I heard it outside too... I opened the door and my mom, Braden, and Derek were standing outside my apartment!

We had so much fun. It made me so happy. So they stayed Tuesday and Wednesday night and left today. Wednesday night we stayed in Brigham City. It was awesome :) I love my family. So much.

Conference.

Was incredible.

My stake was chosen out of a few stakes in Utah to sing outside of the conference center, right next to the protesters. Bishop announced that we were going a few weeks ago, and said there was probably only enough room for 10 of us from the ward to go. My roommate and I went running up to him right after Sacrament meeting and said "We want to go!!"
So we went.
We left bright and early Sunday morning, and at about 11:45 we lined the sidewalks and sang hymns as people walked through.
We sang till 1:45, people. That is two glorious hours of singing the hymns of God in the freezing cold rain/wind/snow/sleet/hail.
It was probably the best experience I've had this school year. There were so many people that passed through us, some mouthing the words and some full out singing the words. There were people who would stop and tell us "Thank you for singing!" And we'd just smile back. Some people would stand at the end of our lines and record us, or just sit and listen. We had one lady actually stand in the middle of us and have her friend take a picture as we were singing. In general, people just seemed downright happy :)
As far as protesters go though, they weren't too bad. It was pretty cold. There was ONE guy though...
So this guy is standing on the corner, holding a giant cross that says "Jesus Saves" (which is funny, cause that's what most of the songs we were singing were about..) in one hand and a flag with the Star of David on it (?) in the other. He comes up to us right as we're about to start a song and goes "THE SPIRIT OF GOD! LET'S HEAR IT!" And we weren't really sure what to do so we just started the song we were going to sing. He went over to our leaders and talked to them for a little, and after we were done our leader told us to sing the Spirit of God. THIS GUY SINGS THE WHOLE SONG WITH US! Then, after we're done, he goes "Man, I just love you Mormons! You're just so great!" Which made me feel pretty good, but also kind of confused me. I liked him though. He probably made my day.

Afterwards, we got to go to the Sunday Afternoon session. It was incredible. The spirit in that building is so great, and I absolutely love the feeling of dedicated members gathering together on their own accord to hear the words of the Lord's servants.

I love this smile. So much hope and comfort is contained in that man.

All of the other sessions were just as incredible.
I literally had to fight back tears during the Saturday sessions.
I just felt so happy to be listening to general conference.

On another note...
31 more days till the end of the semester!!
I.
Am so excited.
youhavenoidea.