goodbye seniors

My first and only calling since moving to NY has been in the Young Women's and I have loved getting to know all of the wonderful girls and leaders in in our ward. This year we will be losing 3 of our seniors and I am so sad to see them go. Each girl will be moving on to college and I am so excited for them to start this exciting new chapter of their lives.

(Melissa, Denisse, Jenny)

When I first moved in Melissa was a recent convert to the church and was so shy. She is now one of the funniest, bubbliest girls I know. She has lived in NYC her whole life and has decided to make the plunge and move to "Happy Valley" Provo, Utah to attend BYU. I am so excited for her. I know this decision wasn't any easy one and that she is nervous to go, but she has been so brave and I can't wait for her to be among so many wonderful saints and experience BYU.
She was able to visit Provo a few months ago and when I asked her what she thought she said all the open space made her nervous (now that's a true New Yorker). One of my favorite memories of Melissa was the first conference session I watched with her after being called to the YW's. We were all sitting around listening to the membership report and they had just given the number for the new members in the last year and Melissa turned and told me that she was one of them. She was so excited to share that with me and it instantly brought tears to my eyes. This number is always exciting to hear but it meant so much more when one of those numbers was sitting next to me.
Jenny is also a native New Yorker, and one of the smartest girls I know. She has honestly read more books then I can even count and if you ask her a question about anything she'll more than likely know the answer. She is so strong, she attends an all girls catholic school and has had to defend her religion on more than one occasion. This fall she will be starting at Fordham College with hopes to become a doctor and I know she will become whatever she puts her mind to.
Denisse, will be the first person in her family to graduate from high school and the first to attend college. She is such a strong, beautiful girl and everyone who knows her, loves her. She always comes to church with a big smile and a hug for everyone. She is known as the ward babysitter and there are going to be several sad mothers in our ward when she moves upstate this fall to attend Buffalo College. I know she is scared to move away from the city that she has known her whole life and like Melissa, a little apprehensive of living in a much smaller city, but she knows what she wants, she's worked so hard to get it, and nothing is going stop her.
Last Saturday, we had a party to honor our seniors and luckily all the seniors were able to make it. We ate pizza and battled it out on the guitar hero. Jenny killed us all with her mad guitar skills and was so good, that she didn't even have to stand up to win. I had so much fun spending one last activity with these girls.

(Jenny - winning while sitting)

(Denisse and Melissa batteling it out)

I know you always hear stories of women talking about the impact their leaders had on their lives when they were in young women's but I can truly say that these girls have shown me just what it takes to stand strong and be a daughter of god. They have faced more challenges then I could ever imagine and each has touched my life for the better. I am so grateful that I was able to be their leader. I'm so proud of them and all that they have accomplished and I am so happy to know that there are beautiful young women like these 3 girls out there representing our church.