What a week!

Hello everyone!

Wow, wow, wow!! Conference!! I don't even know where to start, but it was truly amazing!!  And tiring....haha.  We had to be on the square at 7:30 am and didn't go home until 10 pm and we had 25 minutes meal breaks.  I seriously loved all of it though!  The Spirit was so strong on the Square because of all of the people that had just been uplifted and edified and I think I was smiling from morning ‘til night!   

Before Conference! Had to take a pic with the pretty cherry blossoms :)

Cute story:

I was assigned to the Map desk in the North Visitor's Center and a father with 2 kids came up to me looking kind of frantic.  He asked if I had a bobby pin or a clip because his daughter's hair was going everywhere and his wife was in the Conference Center.  I looked at his daughter and her hair truly was everywhere...haha.  What's funny is that I had brought a hair band to the Square, which I usually never do, so I took that off from around my phone and fixed the little girl's hair into a cute ponytail and put her headband back on.  The dad said, "Wow, it looks so much better- thank you!!"  The poor, sweet dad :)  I loved being able to help out!

First day of Conference!

At Conference, it is mainly members, but what is amazing is that I was able to find 2 new investigators this weekend!  Here is the story about one of them.  My companion and I were walking on the Square when this lady came up to us and asked if we could explain to them a bit more about the Temple.  It was 3 girls and 1 guy and we gladly started sharing some history and gospel principles with them.   I found out that all of the girls were members and the guy wasn't and had just recently moved to Utah and they all met at the food court about 10 minutes before.  I asked the guy if he had seen the Christus statue before, and he hadn't, so we continued our conversation while walking over there.  It was so great because we talked about temples, prophets, Christ, and the Book of Mormon.  We were able to share our testimonies and so were the members.  He accepted a Book of Mormon and wanted to stay in touch!  I am looking forward to meeting and sharing more about the Gospel with him! Yay for a Conference miracle :)

Barbara Benac!!  I love to see people from Texas! 

Another cool thing happened this week, yesterday my companion and I came to the Square and went downstairs to put our food in the fridge.  As we were walking by the offices, we saw this lady sitting in a chair and I smiled at her, but she gave me a less than pleasant smile in return.  We continued to the kitchen and then on the way back by the offices, my companion said she needed to use the restroom before we went the Square.  So I set my stuff down and said hello again to the lady again.  She still wasn't very friendly, but I was determined to talk to her.  I asked her more questions, like where she was from, etc. and we started up a conversation.  She was from SLC and her cousin was preparing to serve a service mission in Africa.  She asked about Temple Square and I explained what we do, and then she revealed to me that she was a less-active member ever since she was a child because of some difficult things she went through.  We then started discussing the Gospel and we eventually got to the topic of what had happened when she was younger.  She had lost her brother and she had become angry and bitter towards God, and left the church.  I explained how I used to be confused as to why bad things happen to good people and then shared something that meant a lot to me when I was taking a class at BYU.  I told her that my professor said that God doesn't give us bad things...that bad things happen because of our environment, choices of others, and our own choices.  She looked at me with surprise and said "That all makes sense".  It had hurt her when people told her that losing her brother was a test and I mentioned that trials happen, but it is how we deal with it that is the test.  She just kept nodding and then I shared my testimony.  The Spirit was so strong and I was almost tearing up.  Then her cousin came over from her meeting or something and the lady stood up and told her cousin what I had told her.  After this, she then started crying and hugged me.  And she gave me her email so that we can stay in touch!  What an amazing experience!  I was super grateful that I decided to talk to her, even if she didn't seem too friendly in the beginning.  I'm grateful I was persistent and responded to the promptings of continue to talk to her.

Something funny too is that my companion told me afterwards that when she came out of the bathroom and saw me talking to the lady that she thought, "Oh my companion, always talking with people." haha.)  

At the Sunday afternoon session :)

Our view!

Some awesome things have happened at Conference and there are many more too that would take way too long to write about!  But I am so grateful for the chance we have to be uplifted and encouraged by our leaders!  They turn to Heavenly Father and prepare for months to know what to share with us during Conference weekend!  I was able to go to the Sunday afternoon session and things I had prayed about were mentioned in their talks!  I know that God watches over each of us and knows our hearts.  I know He has called a prophet in our modern day to help us and to guide us!  If you haven't watched Conference, go to lds.org and watch it! You won't regret it :)

Love you all!

Sister Asay