Twenty Reasons Why Gen Conf Is The Best

Hahaha how about that clickbait.. I should be Answers.com or something
Sorry if you came here looking for actual reasons, I'll understand if you leave.

I've been a mormon my whole life, and twice a year I watch General Conference on the tele. Despite always living no longer than a 15 hour drive to Salt Lake, I had never actually gone to General Conference. So when Steph (who has gone twice before and has only been a member for like three years) asked if I wanted to go to conference this year I was pretty ecstatic and hopped onto the opportunity. She got six tickets from our Bishop for Saturday morning session, and after some rearranging we finally got a solid group to join us at conference: Steph, me, Zach, Rory, Caroline & Abby (a girl in my ward). Out of the whole group Steph was the only one that had been before, so we were a bunch of newbies about to embark on a super totes awesome fun time adventure. 

Thursday March 31

I got out of class at 4 and got a text from Zach that we needed to rearrange some plans. We were originally planning on driving through the night all the way to Highland (where we were staying with Zach's cousin). Multiple people were concerned about us driving through the night, so we decided it would be best to book a hotel in Vegas, and I love Vegas so I really couldn't complain.

So once we got the new plans figured out Steph and I picked up the Tucson crowd (that's everyone except for Zach) and we started our journey to Mesa to meet Zach and switch cars. We decided that it would be best to eat while we were in Mesa, so once we got Zach's van all packed up we went to In-N-Out, and then of course Bahama Bucks for dessert. 

After eating we started on the road to Las Vegas. Zachary, being the stubborn person that he is, drove the whole way to Vegas quite safely. We arrived at El Cortez (the hotel we were staying at in downtown Las Vegas) at 1:30. We parked, checked in, tried to navigate elevators, and got settled in our rooms for a long nigh't sleep (in a freezing cold room, might I add, because none of us turned down the AC).

Friday April 1

HA! Just kidding. Sleep is for the weak. We checked out of the hotel room at 5:30 (but really a little bit later) and started on the road up to Utah! Everyone slept on the start of the drive except for Zach (who was driving) and me (who had to make sure Zach stayed awake).

When we crossed over into Utah we started playing a game where you get 1 point for pointing out a mormon church, 5 points for pointing out a temple, and then a bonus point if you can name the temple. (For the non-mormons out there reading this, there's a church building every 500 feet in the cities/towns of Utah, and tons of temples once you get into the Valley, so it is actually a fun game).

We stopped in St George to get some breakfast at McDonald's and we discovered these cool order-for-yourself kiosks there, so that was fun. After breakfast, we got some gas and then continued on the road. 

Zach drove for a good majority of the second leg of the trip, but he did eventually let me replace him when we stopped for gas. (Also, side note: at one of the gas stations we found Mountain Dew Black Label and it is delicious). And since I didn't sleep at all on the drive, I didn't last very long before I switched out with Steph who took on the final leg and got us into the valley. 

Our first stop was dropping Caroline off at BYU so she could surprise her boyfriend (someone filmed it, it was really cute). Then we made our way up to Highland to get settled into the house we were staying at. Most of us just rolled out of bed in Vegas so we took some time to get ready for the day when we got to the house.

After everyone was ready we headed up to Draper so Rory could visit his mission president. While he was visiting, the rest of us went to the Draper temple, hung out there, and then looked at these MASSIVE houses that are right next to the temple... seriously millionaire houses!

Once Rory was done meeting with his mission president we went to American Fork to eat lunch... but it was really more of an early dinner. We decided to go to Chili's where Abby got hit on by our waiter and he gave us lots of chips & salsa because of it.

After lunch/dinner we went to go check out the new Provo City Center Temple. There were THREE brides while we were there exploring, super cute. It's a really cool temple, it doesn't look like all the other cookie cutter ones in Utah. And the underground garage is really cool, and the fun gazebo thing.

After exploring the temple we went back to the house to relax for a little bit and to do some homework. Then we decided to go get some ice cream at Sub Zero. Except all the sub zeros we were willing to drive to were either out of liquid nitrogen or were evicted... so we ended up at Smart Cookie in American Fork where everyone got ice cream sandwiches and I got a sherbet cone.

Saturday April 2

We left Highland at 7:30 to make our way up to Salt Lake City for the conference session. Traffic downtown trying to get into our designated parking garage was a real life nightmare... no one knows how to drive! But we did eventually make it into the garage and then got to the conference center, where Caroline and Spencer met up with us.

To all the #momos out there... you know how it's hard to stay awake during the morning sessions, and you just end up passing out on the couch? I wish I could say it's totally different when you are in the conference center, but when they dim those lights it is just so hard to keep your eyes open. I fought really hard to not fall asleep during the talks, but there were a few minutes where I gave in.  But regardless of my inability to stay awake during my first time going to conference, it was such a neat experience. Just being in the conference center was amazing and seeing the prophet, the apostles and all the other general conferences was so neat. 

I was once told that when the prophet walked in, you could hear a pin drop in the room... well everyone does get really quiet (except for Rory who starts talking to an old mission friend right when the prophet walks in) except you can't hear a pin drop over all the camera shutters. I think that would be the coolest job, to be a photographer at conference #goals.

After conference we went to go eat lunch at City Creek (which is really a nightmare because it is across the street from the Conference Center, so all the momos get lunch there). We settled on eating at Pizza Studio, which probably had the shortest line out of them all.

After lunch Caroline and Spencer went to go and try to get tickets for the afternoon session (which they did successfully) and the rest of us went to go explore Temple Square. We ran into Ali and Bryce at the temple #TucsonTakesOverSLC, so we talked to them for a little bit before exploring some more and taking some pictures.

For those of you in third ward, you might recall the time Steph said she didn't have the priesthood... yet. Well this is her getting it hahaha.

After some exploration we decided to go check out Deseret Book. This Deseret Book is so freaking huge, it's quite impressive. When we walked in we started to mozy our way through the store and who do we see?! Freaking Alex Boyé! Only in Utah... We caught him right at the end of his meet and greet and even waited an extra ten minutes so we could get a picture with him. He is such a great fellow, he just radiates happiness.

While in Deseret Book Zach and I found a Book of Mormon in the native language that the people speak in his mission (Papiamento). Zach was technically called Spanish speaking but most of the Spanish speaking missionaries in the Trinidad mission have spoken Papiamento and English throughout their mission, so he will be super trilingual when he gets back.

Once we were done in Deseret Book we decided that we can't be in SLC and not go to East High. Four years ago I visited the school with Sadie when we were touring Utah schools, but we just quickly took a picture in the front and then left. This time we did some snooping. All the doors were locked so we couldn't get inside, but we looked through all the windows and found the infamous cafeteria. It was pretty cool. And of course, we took the classic jumping picture in front of the school.

Also, let's just take a moment to recognize how great Abby's snapchats are... I will never stop laughing at this

After snooping around we made our way back to Highland to relax for a little bit.

Eventually Abby's sisters came to pick her up so she could party with them, then the remainder (Steph, Rory, Zach and I) went to go pick up my cousin Mary-Margaret who goes to BYU. I figured we couldn't be in her neck of the woods without hanging out with her, she's the bomb.

Rory's mission president recommended a Brazilian restaurant in South Jordan so we decided to go there for dinner. Rory's friend Jordan Stufflebeam (or Tim as his first name is and as Rory calls him) who used to be in our ward a million years ago, also joined us for dinner. 

Being the picky eater that I am, I was pretty skeptical to go eat Brazilian food, but it ended up being really good! I got a chicken skewer and some rick and some beans and some french fries (of course). Rory also got a huge bottle of Guarana and shared it with the rest of us. 

At dinner, Mary-Margaret informed us that there is indeed an open and running and not evicted filled with liquid nitrogen Sub Zero in Provo! So we decided to go there for dessert. Rory went a little bit crazy at Sub Zero and got some of the most obscure weird flavors mixed together. One was: cotton candy, bubblegum and huckleberry. The other was: peach, licorice and vanilla. They were really weird but kind of good and eatable. The first one he named "The Rory" and the second one is named "Tucson Water."

Mary-Margaret also introduced me to a couple amazing BYU Instagram accounts, one that showed how awful BYU girls are when they try to turn down guys, and the other is BYU pda..... OH BYU....

Eventually it was time for the night to end and we parted ways with Mary-Margaret and Jordan, and made our way back to Highland to get as much sleep as we could.

Sunday April 3

Rory, Steph, Zach and I left Highland at 7:30 am to go pick up Abby and Caroline along the way in Provo. Then we started our long journey back home to Arizona. Zach finally gave in and let other people drive on the trip.

Zach drove all the way to Cedar City, where we took a pit stop at SUU so I could get some pics at the Centurium (which is quite difficult to find on a map).

This is from when Sadie and I stopped here in 2012

And this is from when I came in 2013 for Tay Tay and Natalie's wedding

Then Steph drove from Cedar City to Las Vegas, where we took a lunch break at Cane's (because seriously how could you not).

Then Caroline took over and drove us to Kingman. On this leg I actually got to sleep for a little bit because Steph took over the job of keeping the driver awake.

Then Zach took back over and took us from Kingman all the way to Mesa.

We went to Zach's house to switch back to Steph's car, and said hello to the lovely Waltons.

Then we took a super quick pit stop to my house because Avery had been dying to see me.

Then Steph took over for the final leg back to Tucson.

Lots and lots and lots of time in the car, but it was lots of fun and we made it home safely! 

#GooooTigers