My mom's visit to Kentuckiana, part 2

So on Friday, we drove to Nashville, Tennessee to go to Deseret Book's Time Out for Women. It was fabulous and I'd highly recommend going. I'm definitely going to go again in the future. Let me tell you all  about it. But first, let me show you the pic of my mom and I we took at TOFW!

I took pictures of all the speakers, but I took the pictures of the projection screen. I could see them from where I was sitting, but I'm short, and taking a pic of the person on the stage would've resulted in a big hair shot of whoever was in front of me.

The first speaker was Mary Ellen Edmunds, but I didn't get a picture of her. I know, I'm lame!

We were then serenaded by Dallyn Vail Bayles, and dang gina does he have an amazing voice. He's growing out his beard so he can be in a production of the New Testament. He played Hyrum in one of the church's Joseph Smith movies. He just got back from a 14 month stint on Broadway with Phantom of the Opera.

We then heard from Kris Belcher. Wow, is she amazing. She had retinal cancer and had to have her eye and all the tissue around it removed. She wears a prosthetic eye on one side and has her real eye (that doesn't work) on the other. That's why she looks the way she looks. After hearing her speak, though, you forget the way she looks and she has the sweetest spirit. She's hilarious and very inspiring.

The next day, we heard from Hillary Weeks. If you've never heard her sing, you are seriously missing out. She has a beautiful voice and is an amazing songwriter. And she's wicked funny.

Next we heard from Mariama Kallon. She is from Sierra Leone. That is a seriously war torn country and she watched her family members die in front of her as was raped by the rebels as she tried to just grow up. She joined the church and eventually served a mission on Temple Square. She was just so lovely.

After her, we heard from John Hilton III. He's an author of several fabulous books, and I actually got to personally meet him after he spoke. He gave me some really great advice on writing (after all, I did major in English, so writing is kind of the deal for me) and was nice enough to take a picture with me. He gave some wonderful thoughts on how to learn to ask the Lord for help.

Then we heard from Macy Robinson. She does this singing/speaking thing and it was neat to hear her story. She was married for 7 years when her mom suddenly passed away and her husband asked for a divorce. How trying! She eventually remarried a man who had adult children and she now has two children of her own. So she's potty training, planning weddings, and getting ready to be a grandma all at the same time. She was a cute, cute girl.

Then we heard from Merrillee Boyack. She had a great talk about what we are trying to become and had some great examples from women from history and women she knew. She survived breast cancer and had a really inspiring story.

Lastly, we heard from Emily Freeman, who is another author. She was so cute and gave a great example of how to turn ourselves to the Lord using the story of Peter trying to walk on water with the Savior. She was just such a cute woman and you just felt like she really loved what she was doing.

It was seriously a fabulous conference and I'm so glad we went. Tune in for post 3, which will be smaller, to hear the rest of what happened on my mom's visit.