Weddings, Youth Conference, and lots of "Happened's"

August started off with a bang. We got to drive to the Manti Temple on August 1st for the wedding of one of my favorite girls. I also got to do her hair...that may or may not have been a good decision on her part ;)

Isn't she so cute??

One of the ladies I work with in young women's has a family member that owns the donut shop in Manti, Millers Donuts.So of course, any excuse to go get food, we are definitely in! I also wanted to check out the place since this was one of the many stops on our Youth Conference trip. 

We then drove to Provo for dinner with the wedding party, and upon leaving the restaurant, I realize I don't have my purse...wallet, curling wand, nothing. I seriously left my bag at the donut shop. I have never (that I can recall) left my wallet in a public place. I must be doing something right in life though, because Millers Donuts just HAPPENED to find my bag, and just HAPPENED to put it in the lost and found, and when I called saying I just HAPPENED to be coming back in the next 2 days, it seemed nothing short of a miracle. And with even better luck, Jeff just HAPPENED to have my temple recommend in his pocket, so I would be able to get into the temple on our trip the next day. I also just HAPPENED to have my phone in my pocket.Talk about lucky. When I got back to find my bag, all of my things just HAPPENED to still be there. I'm grateful that the people in the shop were nice enough to turn my things in. If any these 'JUST HAPPENED' things hadn't HAPPENED, my weekend would have been miserable. Someone was looking out for me that day, and now the word HAPPENED is starting to look really weird.

So waking up bright and early the next morning, I set off to our ward youth conference. We did baptisms at the Payson and Manti Temples and got to go to the Castle Valley Pageant. We stayed at Huntington State Park for two nights and swam at the reservoir. We played night games (can't remember the last time I did that) and card games, played in the water, had mud fights, jumped off the docks, and had so much fun! I felt like a kid again...and probably acted a little too much like one too. 

We went and saw some cool southern Utah sites including this canyon (not sure what its called, I was too busy trying to keep the kids from getting too close to the edge or climbing down the canyon...my fear of heights is a little ridiculous) 

I asked one of the boys to take a picture of my other leader and I...this is what we got. A whole lotta face and no canyon haha

We went and saw the dinosaur footprint. Is it real? I don't know if I believe it or not, but here it is :)

Castle Valley Pioneer Activities: We all got to churn ice cream, make honey candy, milk cows, and get sized for our very own "diamond" nail rings. The Pageant was fun! It is definitely dated and pretty cheesy at times, but it had a great message and we had an awesome time!

When we got to the Manti Temple, the temple workers asked if I was going to do baptisms. I was so surprised.. I never get to do them, they don't ever even offer it to me since every opportunity goes to the youth. (Maybe I just look so young, they thought I was a teenager ;)) I had two girls opt out of participating at the last minute so I totally took advantage! I haven't done baptisms in like 10 years, and it was amazing!!! One of the girls we did baptisms for was born in the 1600's. The temple worker stopped us and pointed out that this girl had been waiting a long time for this day. SO NEAT! Pretty grateful for my calling!