TOFW - Blogged by JME

I had the most wonderful experience last weekend as I was able to participate in being at Time Out For Women. It is an event especially for women that is centered around gospel principles. It helps women feel their worth and grow spiritually. This year the message for TOFW was Infinite Hope. We enjoyed wonderful speakers and so many talented women. We learned that it is okay to get your hopes up and learned and heard encouraging messages through music and experiences of other women.

Friday night we heard from was Jenny Oaks Baker. She played the violin and gave us goosebumps when she did "Come Thou Fount." It was so awe inspiring to watch her play that complex instrument and to feel the spirit so strongly from her beautiful music.

John Bytheway also spoke to us that night. He was so funny but at the same time brought with him such a special message. We listened to him talk about a man who was a rock climber and one day he was belaying with a friend. Belaying is when you climb a little ways and then anchor yourself in the rock. Then your partner climbs up above you and anchors himself in the rock. That goes on until you get where you are going. That way, if someone falls, they are anchored by their friend. He said that this particular man had belayed past his friend and lost his footing and fell. He fell past his friend and stopped only 10 feet from the ground. His friend had anchored in well and held so tightly that it saved the man's life. He then asked, "How do you respond to someone who just saved your life?" Jokingly he said, "Uh, thanks. How about I buy you a slurpee later?" Then seriously he compared it to our relationship with the Savior and said, "You always remember him."

We then had a wonderful treat of listening to Cheiko Okazaki. She was the first counselor in the General Relief Society from 1990-1997. She is about 84 years old. Her message was about the treasures that we all have in our lives and how our greatest treasure is our testimony of Jesus Christ.



The conference continued Saturday and we were able to listen to Mercy River perform throughout the day. They were fun and entertaining and harmonized together as they sang about hope and our relationship with our Heavenly Father.



One thing I was disappointed in this year was that my favorite music artist was not in the program. Hilary Weeks has been my favorite for years and performed last year for TOFW. Her stories of trials she has been through and her songs are so uplifting and inspiring. Her music has helped me get through some tough times. She is really funny also, and had written some theme songs to go with things in our every day life that we as women deal with. She shared these songs with us last year. One was about the laundry. The lyrics went to the tune of 'Climb Every Mountain' from the Sound of Music. It went:

'Climb every mountain, wash every load.
If you're alive and breathing, then you've got clothes to fold.
Sort all the colors, wash some on hot,
All my whites are pink now, because of one red sock."

Another song went to the tune of R Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly' and was a theme song for what mother's feel like after spending the day with their crying kids. It went:

'I believe I can fly, and I will if you continue to cry.
I've listened to you whine all day, gonna start the minivan and drive away,
Cause my ears are getting sore. You see me running through that open door,
And when your daddy gets home, tell him not to call my cell phone . . .
Unless . . . he's made you dinner . . . and the dishes have been done,
and you've been tucked into bed with pajamas and a pull-up on
Otherwise I run errands all night long. Or at least I will try.'

Here are some of the more spiritual songs that I absolutely love:





Last year when Hilary Weeks was there, I went up and had my picture taken with her. She also signed my ticket and said that we were friends, so I always talk about how Hilary Weeks and I are friends.


Well, back to this year and being disappointed because she was not on the program, as we were sitting waiting for Saturday's event to start, one of my friends pointed down on the first row (we were on the 4th row because my mom was really cool and got there early to save our seats - Thanks, mom!) and said, "Isn't that Hilary Weeks?" I was so excited to see that it was and had the opportunity to go talk to her during a break and get more pictures with her. I reminded her how she had declared that we were friends last time I saw her and told her how I let everyone know that "Hil and I are friends." She laughed and let me know when her birthday and told me to put her on my list since we are friends now.



This is a group picture of Hilary and the group I went to TOFW with. L to R: Lisa, Me, Hilary, Mom, and Ter.



We had many wonderful speakers on Saturday including Amanda Dickson (she has a morning show on KSL radio) and Emily Freeman. One of the most touching speakers we were privelidged to listen to, however, was a woman named Mariama Kallon. This woman was amazing. She was raidsed in war-torn Sierra Leone. She saw many things as a young girl that might fill a person with fear and hatred. She watched the violent murders of her parents and watched as her brother was dragged away by the rebels. She later learned that he had died because he refused to join the rebel's and so they cut of his arms. She then went with her sister to a village that they thought would be safe. When they awoke one morning, they found the rebels had surrounded their little hut that all the women shared. After raping the women and cutting off some of their arms and legs, including the arms and legs of Mariama's sister, they were chased off by the army. Mariama's sister and the other wounded were taken by the army and that was the last time Mariama saw her sister. She learned later that her sister had died.



She was introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ and found hope in God and peace in a knowledge of eternal families. She was given a humanitarian kit by the Church, which became a treasured symbol of hope that she used to bless the lives of many other women who were fleeing from their homes. She shared her toothpaste from the kit with 20 women and they all shared the same bar of soap.

She eventually was called on a mission to the SLC Temple Square Mission, and wept in gratitude to the Lord as she visited the place where her humanitarian kit was made. Listening to her speak of her hope and faith was such an amazing experience. There was not a dry eye in the building.

It was so enjoyable and so worth going to. I would recommend this to any woman out there, regardless of their religion. It is very uplifting and helps you feel so much closer to the Lord. You also feel so close to the other women speaking to you and receive strength from their experiences.