Sunday, October 26, 2014

Getting Ready for Halloween

Halloween is coming up, and we are just about ready for it! First, we made a whole bunch of milk jug ghosts. You just wash out a milk carton, draw a face on it, and then on Halloween, you cut a hole in the back and put a light in it. (We use strings of Christmas lights.) Here are some of our best creations:

"The Screamer"
"The Pumpkin"
"The Glamorous Cyclops"
"Casper"
"Vampire-Cat Lady Thing"
"Frankenstein"
"The Minion"
 
Those were mine. I'm pretty proud of them, but everyone else made some too. In fact, Ben made some nice ones, although, I did notice some distinct similarities between his and mine.. But that's okay, I'm glad my work is so inspiring. :)
 
Both of our "Screamers"
And our "Frankenstein"s. But Ben added a nice touch of nails in the sides.
Our "Pumpkins"
And the minions.
 
We had a lot of fun making those. But Halloween isn't just decorating. We needed costumes, too! My sister Leilani decided she was going to be Elsa from "Frozen". So, of course she managed to convince me to be Anna. Our Grandma was supposed to make our costumes, because she can make anything with some fabric and a sewing machine. But, unfortunately, she fell on a sidewalk while she was visiting some ladies from our ward. Anyway, she fractured her arm, and has a cast on each arm. She can't even brush her hair, let alone sew two gorgeous costumes for us! So, my mom has been making Leilani's Elsa costume, and I've been making my own costume. Leilani's is going along great, but I'm a little afraid for mine. I had to veer from the pattern because I didn't think the pattern was totally correct in the shaping of the vest. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. Fingers crossed.
 
 
 My full costume
 The kids
 Elsa and Anna
 
They turned out pretty well. 

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Youth Conference

So, we had Youth Conference last weekend, and it was SUPER fun! Leilani and I drove up there with Sister Melton, and Natasha and Marin. We got there and settled in. when they finally started, they gave us this AMAZING speaker, who flew in from Canada just for our Youth Conference. He was a magician who compared how a magician fools their audience to how Satan deceives us with his tricks. He showed us tricks and explained how they worked. (And then he continued to amaze us with even better tricks that he didn't explain.) His name was Richard Young. After that we all had dinner. They fed us Chinese food. we had sweet and sour pork, and noodles, and other Chinese foods. Finally, we had the dance. It was a "White Dance" so everyone was wearing at least some white, and it all looked really cool with the lighting and the decorations. The DJ was pretty good. Unfortunately, none of the boys were asking girls to dance, so the girls had to take charge and ask boys. It was really fun, though! After the dance, we all went home with our host families. Leilani, Marin, and I all stayed at the same house. The lady's name was Sister Harvey, and her daughter and one other girl from their ward stayed with us. Sister Harvey let us stay up, eat popcorn, drink soda, and watch Studio C. we had a lot of fun. In the morning, we all got ready and ate breakfast. (During breakfast someone asked if Leilani and I were sisters. They were surprised that Leilani was older. Apparently they thought I was the older one!?!) We all drove back to the church. We got to listen to a few nice talks, and then we got to hear from Brother Young again! This time he talked about dating. He gave another wonderful talk. We had lunch, and went to classes. Leilani and I went to a class called "It's Time To Get Real About Missionary Work". The speaker was really good, and he definitely had a sense of humor. He first played a rap version of "I  Hope They Call Me On A Mission", and then later told us something to the effect of "you don't want to be on the" as he then played a short clip of "Highway to Hell". He said, "we should be climbing the" as he played a part of "Stairway to Heaven". We had diner, and a closing speaker, and then we left. I t was a really fun youth conference. (Sorry for the lack of pictures, I didn't take a camera, and my mom wasn't there.)

 Our ward and 1st ward taking a selfie before Youth Conference
Brother Richard Young the magician
Brother Longmore, who taught our missionary class