I was called to help with a MidSingles conference in January that happened Aug. 5-7.  I've done conferences in the past, with my own committee, and we functioned quite well.  This was with a new committee, with members from across the valley, sponsored by the Presidency of the Seventy for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When I was called, there was a lot going on in my life, and it felt like an answer to prayers for something to keep m occupied while the guy that I was dating went through the process of "being legally and spiritually" free.  I knew he had a process of things he needed to come to terms with before he'd be ready to progress.  We'd talked about it, and this was going to help me get through that time period.  Little did I know that there was a whole other life going on that he had never shared with me, and 3 weeks later, he texted me to tell me he'd met someone online, and was "head over heels" for her.  Yep, he text me!  What a winner!

I've never been more broken in my life.  For five months, I was a disaster.  I felt worthless, ugly, unwanted, unloved, dumb, etc.  Work has been a trial that is kind of unbelievable and unnecessary. Every aspect of everything felt broken.  I couldn't see why anyone would want to know what I thought of anything.  I'd attend these conference meetings, and I knew how to do it, and I felt a little valued there.  I'd leave feeling that, from time to time, I was appreciated.

The meetings were long, and some were difficult.  I know that I didn't have the best attitude at some, because of my experience, and there were personality confilcts.  Right now I'd say that I grew to love those people, it was great to get to know some of these people so well.

This is a long introduction, but I needed to share it, so you'd know where I was coming from.  As a conference planner or any other activity planner, I've know that you need to keep the Spirit close to you, because the event could make a huge difference in someone's life.  That was my biggest trial this time around!  I was facing doubts I'd never had before.  I'd had feelings of peace and assurances and a blessing from my bishop that led me to believing things would work out, and when they didn't, I felt betrayed, so I distanced myself from the Lord.  I kept doing what I'm supposed to do, but I was broken...

I helped find speakers for this conference, and I had asked the ones I found to send me a title and synopsis of what they were going to teach.  Dallan Moody sent me his, and I immediately knew that his message was for me.  In the past, I'd thought to myself if only one person is touched by this activity, conference, devotional, etc. then that was enough.  I realized that I was the one person, at least for Dallan's workshop.

The conference was amazing!  We had people from all over the world!  As someone that has been a part of the MidSingles program for many years, even before I was one, I had tears in my eyes seeing how many were there.  Another wonderful aspect was that we were allowed to have an Apostle come speak to us!  It was such a blessing!  I don't know that all in attendance knew what a big deal it was, but it was huge!

We had Sister Elaine Dalton as our keynote speaker.  I was kind of star struck :)  She's a lady that I would love to be like when I grow up!  She walked up to me and my friend Chalese, and said she just needed to hug us.  It was so cute!  She spoke about following the prophet and to "not come down".  She was amazing!

We had eleven sessions going on at the same time for the next two hours, and I heard so many great things about all of the speakers.  I wish that I could've heard all of them.  I picked two of those to conduct in, and sitting in each class, I was completely aware that the Holy Ghost had led me to the correct classes for me.

We had three closing sessions going on simultaneously.  Any of the three would've been amazing, and I heard really good things about all of them.  I chose to conduct for Meg Johnson's session.  She's just the cutest lady with the best attitude.  -On a side note, I had just touched up my makeup before this session, and Meg leaned over, and said, "Um, Pyper, I'm going to help you just a little bit, somethings going on right here", and pointed at her eyebrow, which I quickly fixed before getting up in front of everyone. So funny!-  While Meg was speaking, I had this feeling that I was blessed to be a part of this.  This was the first time I'd ever been able to sit in the classes of any conference I've done.  

Saturday night was the activity I was in charge of.  There was a home game for Real, so I decided I'd partner with them to have that be one of the options for Saturday night.  I was thrilled to be able to combine two of my most favorite things, church and soccer :)  We had tailgating, the game and an after party at the AF Pavilion on the east side of the stadium.  I couldn't get just a section for the midsingles, because there are so many season ticket holders.  So, they were interspersed throughout seven sections.  I thought it was fun, because it was something new and different.  Utah doesn't have a lot of professional sports, and many of the MidSingles had not been to a game.  For the after party, we had one rule, you had to have your armband in order to get in.  With 20,000+ game attendees, there had to be a way to differentiate between conference attendees and those that wanted to come in for the live band.  It was a matter of security.  The Real staff were not members of the church, and we, as attendees, had the opportunity to be good examples or bad examples.  If people want to lie, and sneak in, that's up to them.  I had plenty of popsicles, it was just whether or not they would be honest.  There was the Real staff quietly observing the behavior of the attendees and seeing that there were plenty of people who claim to be "righteous" people, sneaking in, and one girl even said, "I don't care if this sends me to Hell, here's my armband," and passed it through the fence. Classy!  Every time I had posted anything about this event, it said that they needed to remember their armbands.  I don't know what else I could've done. Granted these people had not registered for the conference. That discussion with the Real staff was sad. They kept pointing people out that had lied, I knew they had, and I wasn't going to defend them. I just wished they'd thought about how their example weighed on other people. - The popsicles were a fiasco! I ordered 7000 to go for Saturday and Sunday night. Each time I added numbers to the amount I ordered, the pick up location  moved farther north. The guy originally told me he'd deliver them, saying he delivers anywhere on the Wasatch front, and then decided he wouldn't go outside of Davis County. Oh, well. It ended up being a lot of extra work, and a lot of awesome people stepped in to help. One guy on the committee, got yelled at picking them up, and then again at the stadium. It was all a misunderstanding at the stadium, but I felt so bad for the added stress. One of the guys at Real found some cans of beer outside of the stadium, and I took them and have them to the head of security as a peace offering. Never done that before! Our popsicle stresses were not over!-

Sunday night was our closing devotional. I was excited to get to sing with the choir, but ended up dealing with popsicles, and missed out on that experience. We were running around outside in 100 degree weather, and got into the chapel right around the time they asked us to be reverent, so that when Elder and Sister Oaks walked in the spirit would already be there. I don't know why I have ADHD hit every time I'm supposed to be quiet! I was dying of the heat, sweat was pouring off me, and I was so tired that my laughter was uncontrollable! I tried to be quiet about it, but I was getting dirty looks from some people. Haha!

I loved having the Oaks there! They were so hilarious! I loved seeing their interaction and seeing them more like everyone else. I decided I want to be just like Kristen Oaks when I grow up! There was part of what she said that was word for word what I had said to my mom about how I was feeling, and once again, I knew that the Lord knew me, who I am, and is aware of me. I'm so grateful for that reassurance!

I learned many things during this process, but the one thing I learned again was that my Heavenly Father and older brother, Jesus Christ, know me and love me. No matter what the outside world tells me, I matter to Them, and that is what matters. I will continue to serve and do all that They ask of me. I'm really grateful for the amazing people that I've had the privilege to meet through the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are so many wonderful people that I've been blessed to know- friends, other MidSingles, and really great speakers that I know have had their own trials and are such strong examples to me. I'm so grateful!