Happy 4th of July/Finals!!!

What an enjoyable weekend! I had the opportunity to go home and spend a few days with the family! I turned 21 on Friday, and to celebrate I got to play games and watch a movie with the family! Best birthday ever!!! Saturday I went to Kalem Franco's funeral; it was truly touching! I didn't know him, but I'm friends with his older sister. You can tell that their family truly knows the plan of salvation.

So, I have been so insane for the past three weeks that I haven't updated this at all!! So, let me sum-up; The week after the 4th of July I got ready for the Patriots and Pioneers concert! In one-word, WOW! It was so powerful! The Collegiate Singer's sang a song called "Peace" by a BYU-Idaho Alumni, Aaron Pike. There was a slide-show that was put together with it and it made me cry every time I watched it! We (the Men's/Women's Choir, Collegiate Singer's, and the BYU-Idaho Symphony), got to perform with George Dyer. He's a tenor that has performed all over the world! It was a pleasure to work with such a talented man!

During our dress rehearsal, the young man that I was sitting next to, Evan Dunn, would get so ecstatic about him singing. Apparently he use to listen to him when he was little and absolutely idolized him. At the end of the dress rehearsal, I was so impressed and slightly bothered that I would get to give him a standing ovation the next evening. I leaned over to Evan and asked if he would stand with me; we were the only two who stood up! I felt a little foolish, I was hoping to start a trend . . . I guess that's hard to do when you are sitting on the back row, huh? Well, George pointed to the two of us and gave us "two thumbs-up"; that foolishness turned into flattery very quickly!

The following week I had a Benjamin Britten concert where we sang his cantata called "Saint Nicolas". I liked it a lot! It challenged my voice in so many ways and it was an honor to work with the BYU-Idaho University Orchestra and Choir as well as Brother David Peck. He got the music Monday and we performed Wednesday (the Brother who was going to perform hurt his voice and wasn't able to do it).

The day after that I had my last performance with the Collegiate Singers; I was heart-broken. I nearly started to cry when we sang our last number, it couldn't be over already! But, alas, it was! We sang at Porter Park; there was a fair or something like that going on. They had bales of hay put into the shape of a giant rectangle. They then put a tarp over them and inside and created a giant "pond". They then put live fish inside! Children would pay 5-6 tickets to go in for a few minutes and try to catch one of these fish! If they caught one, they would take it over to a man who would take it, beat it with a hammer to kill it, and then give it back to the child in an ice bag! Morbid? Just a little bit!

The last day of Collegiate I think was the coolest thing in the world! Testimonies were shared and we sang one last time together as a Collegiate. We sang "How Will They Know?" and I couldn't stop crying the entire time! It was so powerful to sing and bare my testimony with all of these amazing people that I had grown to love and care about so much! I will truly miss that family that I had!

Thursday I had my jury and I feel like I did incredibly well! I presented the Irish Folk Melody "Danny Boy" and was asked to sing "Che fiero costume". The second one started off a little shaky, but ended strong! I was excited about the entire thing! I'm praying that I passed!!!

I am now home, in Heber, and looking for a job, trying to socialize (which I never did in Rexburg), and just live life! It will be tough sometimes, but I think that this will be one of the greatest--and busiest--off-tracks in the history of my life!!! I can't wait!