Boulder Stake Conference

Saturday night and Sunday were stake conference and it was great. Ben and I sang in the Sunday morning session, so were assured soft seats and a good view. After the Sunday session we had some friends over for a big breakfast (during lunch time). It was fun to have people over and to eat good breakfast food. 

Here are some of my thoughts/notes from both sessions of Stake Conference:

-The Savior knew us before, he knows us not and he knows what we can/will become. That made me realize that all our trials and life experiences are given by someone who knows what is to come, that gives me  comfort and faith that things will turn out right. 

-Submit to the Lord and be like him, first you must learn the doctrine and THEN you can follow him.  This was interesting because in my mind to submit means to surrender (which can be positive but always makes me think of something negative) but other synonyms are to offer, put forward and propose. These words to me are more kind and gentle ways for us to give our will to Heavenly Father. I liked the idea of learning the doctrine before you can truly act. Often I think that I need to be more Christ-like but without reading the scriptures and listening to the counsel of the prophet, apostles and other church leaders I do not know how to center my life around Christ-like principles. 

- When Adam left the garden he began doing sacrifice. An angel came to him and asked why he was doing what he was doing and he said, "I known not but the Lord, God, commanded me." This idea says that sometimes obedience to a commandment comes before the knowledge/explanation. 

-The story of Shadrack, Mishak and Abendigo were told. They had announced that they would not eat and drink what the King gave them and they would be blessed for it. Then they announced "..But if not" they would still have faith. This is an interesting idea that even if the blessing does not immediately (or ever) follow the faith/obedience that we should still press forward. 

-To paraphrase Pre. Hinckley, "Pray as if it depends entirely on the Lord and act as if it depends entirely on you." 

- Shepherds lead, herders push- we are all shepherds in one way or another (parents, church leaders, missionaries, ect)

- A Patriarchal Blessing is a personal book of Eternal possibilities. 

-  Christ lived, died and rose for us! 'I have not seen or heard (nothing in our entire lifetime) anything as wonderful as the knowledge of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. 

-Mosiah 26:17 "..they are mine." This was powerful because the Lord is claiming us. Even when we mess up and feel inadequate the Lord still says, "..they are mine."

- Zion is a kingdom, not an individual; even if you have made necessary covenants you must then aide/teach 'the people'.

-We do not need to be perfect, that perfection comes from Him, we must just try. '... Ye shall obtain.." (I Believe in Christ- Hymn 134)

- Ponder, Plead, Persist (and then Thank!)

-When the test arrives the time for preparation is past. 

-Study the ordinances of the temple, they are the primary example of living the gospel to the fullest. Temple ordinances do not represent the progression to eternal life but they ARE the progression (assent) to eternal life. We should preach (think about) the temple inside and outside the temple.

-The church could not survive 24 hours without the power of revelation. 

-Take inventory of your life (in a new For the Strength ofYouth)

- People who climb Mt Everest must prepare and train for the journey. What do I need to do to prepared and train for the ascent to Mount Zion?

Tanaya's Baby Shower- She's about to POP

As mentioned in the previous post, my friends and I threw Tanaya a baby shower.  She is having a little boy at the end of April and is very excited.  

There wasn't enough belly room, so they told me to reach!

 It was fun to pull our creative juices and give her a fun shower. The theme of the shower was 'She's about to POP' (idea from Pinterest) so everything was focused on that theme. We decorated with plates on the walls to look like bubbles. 

We had two party games, that could be done while people chatted and if people just stopped by, we had bingo (with some uncomfortable rarely used pregnancy/delivery terms) and a date/weight guessing game (which we do not have a winner until she has him). 

We had a lot of 'POP' themed food. We had a pop of fruit, cake pops, poppyseed muffins, banana pops, gluten free rice crispy treats, soda pop and two flavors of popcorn. 

When she opened presents the person who gave the present had to give her some 'motherly advice' or tell her why they thought she would be a good mom. There were lots of ladies from our ward there and a lot of the young women (she is the 2nd Counselor in the YW's).  It was fun to chat and catch up with people and to spend this fun day with Tanaya. 

The Cake Pop Experiment

A couple of my friends and I decided to throw our friend, Tanaya, a baby shower. I was assigned to make some cake pops (cake balls on a stick). I thought it would be a ton of fun and should be easy (Erica made hundreds when Michael and Taylor got married) and not too time consuming. Boy was I wrong!

First you have to bake the cake, or in my case, cakes. Then you have to make frosting, or in my case, frostings. Then you put the cake and frosting in the kitchen aide and blend it all together, this created a cookie dough like texture.  Then you roll into balls (I made big balls for the actual pops and smaller ones for the cake balls) and put them in the freezer. 

As they are chilling/freezing you start melting chocolate. I tried this step four times before I was able to get it to work. I learned about seizing chocolate; this means that the chocolate gets to hot and it ruins the composition (gets grainy, hard, dry and won't melt).  Things I learned about seizing chocolate; chocolate will seize if it gets to hot or if it gets any water in it. I was trying to make a home made double boiler and failed because I was filling the lower pan too high (so it was spilling over the sides and getting some steam/moisture in the chocolate) and had it at too high a temperature (the water should not be boiling). I seized two batched of chocolate and then, heating it much slower (in a double boiler with a little water at about 3-4 on the oven setting) and it worked great. I tested some cake balls and they dipped beautifully but the chocolate never hardened. I then learned that this is because I used chocolate chips and making dipping chocolate out of real chocolate is hard. So the fourth time I did it (with the help of my mom) I used chocolate bark (fake waxy chocolate) and we micro waved it in increments of 15 sec. 

After you get the chocolate melted you begin dipping the balls. This is harder than I suspected because you have to dip it and get off extra chocolate but don't take off too much chocolate or you can see the dip marks (I dipped with a spoon and a fork and trying not to get fork lines was difficult).  This was also a little dirty (not too big of a problem because what woman does not like to be covered in chocolate, however the chocolate ended up getting everywhere- quite a mess).  Making the cake pops was difficult because they would slide off the sticks, once they hit the hot chocolate, and it was hard to keep the sticks clean.

Then you let the chocolate harden and do any beautification; sprinkles (which you actually had to do when it was wet) or frosting/white chocolate swirls/stripes.  So it was a lot more work than I thought and I have definitely learned some do's and dont's if I ever try it again.

In the end I made four flavors of cake balls; chocolate/chocolate, chocolate/mint, chocolate/maraschino cherry and white chocolate/raspberry.  I ended up having a lot extra but, good news, they freeze perfectly.  So I now have cake balls in my freezer, not super great for the waist line, but easy and convenient  if I ever need to take a treat to something.