:D:D:D

After BEFY I saw this picture in one of the rooms my friends and I were in.

It's called "Add to your faith virtue" by Walter Rane. I stood there for several minutes making up a story about the girl in the picture. What I came up with was that the girl has her divine light on a candlestick and is learning as much as she can from the scriptures so that she can reach her eternal goal, to get back to the light of her Father in Heaven. Although the way is rough and long she is willing to go through it just to get back to her heavenly home.

Here are a few other pictures that I like.

The BEFY

Oh mi palabra. Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Best of Especially for Youth. I have been to them in the past, but this one was something I needed to hear. The three speakers were Jack Marshall, Ron Bartholomew and Scott Anderson. They were all really good but Brother Anderson's talk was the one I needed to hear. It was so cool because when he got up to speak he told us that about 30 minutes before it was his turn to speak he had a strong impression to change the topic of his talk, so he did. Even though he said that he changed it for one person, I believe there were many people, myself included, that needed to hear what he had to say. The closing hymn is one of my favorites. The Spirit of God. It was beautiful how the spirit was so strong with this group of valiant youth ready for their missions ahead of them sing this wonderful hymn. I looked behind me to see a group of my friends stand up, and I followed their example immediately. They were several rows back and Emmalyn and I, earlier ditched by Peter and Adam ( I think there was a reason they were not seated by us...I don't know why though....maybe we wouldn't have had the same personal revelation if they were there. Its possible that they feel the same way.), in the front row stood up. By the second verse we, as the youth of the latter day saints, sang our testimonies of God and his love for us to all the world. It was so powerful. When the song was over and the prayer said almost everyone besides my group of friends raced to the gym for the dance. My friends and I slowly walked out of the chapel feeling changed. ( At least that was my feeling.....and it seemed the same for everyone else.) I went and checked my bag into the back check place..... then joined my friends once again. I wanted to go sing hymns so we went and found a room with a piano and sang. The rest of the time we spent talking outside and then inside, playing Ninja Destruction and then going in for an occasional slow song. It was really weird. I usually LOVE dances. I love to dance and sing along with most of the songs....but this time I just didn't feel like it. Most of my friends felt the same way. I think the spirit was so strong that we didn't fell like going into the gym with the extremely loud music. ( Another strange thing. The music was uncommonly loud. It usually isn't that loud. I don't know.... Its just interesting....)

We sang our song today in church. It went well. After we sang I went to the Oregon Trail ward to hear David Benson's farewell. WOW. The spirit just kept getting stronger and stronger. Funnily enough the closing hymn was The Spirit of God and we were sitting in the FRONT row......again. lol It was pretty funny. We stayed for the rest of the Oregon Trail ward. Kept getting all this amazing personal revelation! It was awesome. :D

McKenna :D

Let our voices ring....

This next Sunday, a few good friends, Emmalyn and I are singing an arrangement of Abide with Me A Cappella in sacrament. Sunday night was our first practice. We didn't get a whole lot of time because my friend Adam had Encore practice (Encore = Youth Choir) and my friends Annie and her brother Greg kept goofing off, so we didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped we would....but thats the way life goes sometimes. I hope the practice's on Friday and Saturday go MUCH better. It is SSSOOO fun having friends who sing! Especially male voices. So cool. :D:D

! I'm pretty excited for Saturday because I am going to The Best of EFY! I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Great speakers, friends and a dance at the end! *WOOT,WOOT*

Catch ya later!

McKenna ;D

:D

I guess I should actually update my posts shouldn't I. :D

Here are a few things I/ my family have been up to:

1.The Pyramid Project class is going very well. I had a presentation on Archimedes last week as an example of what everyone else's' should be like. That was nerve wrecking, but everyone I talked to said I did great. (But then again....do I trust them? or are they lying to me?......) I'm just glad it is over. :D:D

2.We harvested our little pumpkin patch. My Mom was really happy because we got some seriously big pumpkins and we didn't have to pay! SCORE! I have a wonderfully tall and perfectly shaped pumpkin. Life is good in the pumpkin department.

3. A few weeks ago my siblings and myself, not including Samuel and James, auditioned for a Metro Performing Arts Academy that is just starting. The director, Noah Scott, came up from Corona, California where he had started a few other academies. We all got in which was pretty cool, so now it is just rehearsals for the two shows he is putting together. One of the shows is a Christmas one, and the other is a Broadway review with numbers from the 20's all the way up to the 2000's. I'm very excited!! Emmalyn and I went and had a voice lesson with Mr. Noah so he could hear our voices. He had us sing "Some things are meant to be" from Little Women. ( I saw the musical about 2 years ago and I LOVED it! I was SO pleased when he told us that he wanted us to sing it for him!) He gave us a few tricks of the trade, talked to us about musical theatre as a career and some experiences he has had and then we sang the song several times. I was pretty sad when we had to abruptly leave because we were late for writing class. He said we would set up another time for a lesson. :D While we were in the car he talked to our voice lesson teacher for about 5-10 minutes then she came to the car and left. As you probably guessed we asked what they had been talking about, and she told us that Noah had really liked our voices and thought that we were really talented. ( PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS AS BRAGGING. ) Noah, who doesn't like sopranos unless they are really, really good, absolutely LOVED my voice. I was very happy. I was really nervous that I would be just another soprano that made him want to throw-up, but I didn't. Happy day!! I was picked to sing "Somewhere over the rainbow" in the show. Pretty cool. :D

(WOW.....that was a long one. lol)

Ciao!!

McKenna

P.S I keep trying to think of a really cool costume for Halloween...but I haven't thought of anything yet. If anyone has suggestions I'm all ears. :D:D

Adam Boyce's SURPRISE Birthday party

Yesterday was a lovely one. Emmalyn and a few of my other friends and I played several games while we waited for Pyramid Project later that afternoon. After Pyramid Project I babysat my siblings at my Grandma Tracy's while my parents went out to dinner with her to officially celebrate her birthday which was on Wednesday. As soon as the y got back I jumped into the car so that I wouldn't be to late to Adam's party. I didn't get there late because Adam wasn't there yet. When we were told that Adam was going to be there any minute, we all piled into the Boyce's living room and turned all of the lights off. We all waited in the dark as Sister Boyce informed us that Brother Boyce would come inside first and then Adam. We saw the car pull up, so any whispered conversations that were going on ceased immediately as we waited to bombard Adam with one word. Surprise. A few moments later Brother Boyce hurried into the house and shut the door behind him telling us that Adam was coming. Suddenly the door burst open with two figures in the doorway being ambushed a wave of noise. However, as soon as the word surprise left my mouth I realized that it wasn't Adam and Aliza that stood in the doorway, it was Aliza and Scott, Adam's older brother. As soon as I had put the pieces together, hundreds of packing peanuts were being poured all over our heads by Adam who had been upstairs the WHOLE time! Once everyone realized this, they laughed and laughed. :D The best 'Surprise' party I have ever been to. lol :D We played a bunch of fun games and had the opportunity to get to know some of Adam's friends from Tigard. It was so fun, I'm glad I went. :D At the end of the party, when people started leaving, we started to sing a bunch of Hymns. We sounded great! I love it when we get together and sing. I had to leave during the song "The Spirit of God". What a wonderful end to a excellent party.

:D