Playing the Waiting Game

Phoenix treated me well today. I felt right at home in TX with all the heat! Everyone else has been dying, but I'm pretty used to it after this crazy summer we've had. This morning started with the breakfast buffet which was surprisingly good! Of course, it was not Parador Desayuno Buffet (Spanish hotel), but it had fruit, waffles, bacon, sausage, potatoes.... the works. Definitely a good start. Then all 51 of us gathered in a conference room and had some announcements and played some get-to-know-you-games. I was actually really surprised and impressed with everyone- usually the minute these games come up, everyone groans and pleads not to play them, but everyone here was excited and involved! We ended up playing for about 2 hours, and I know I definitely learned most people's names! This group of students just keeps impressing me every day that I'm with them, and I'm so thankful that I get to be in their company. After games and such, I just relaxed and tried to repack my bag aka recreating a miracle. Later in the afternoon, a group got together to go to the temple. The Mesa Temple is so beautiful! It is one that doesn't have a spire, but the architecture is beautiful. It has a really old pioneer feel to it, and the inside is lovely. It was really nice to go with a small group and just get away from all the craziness. After all the stress of travel and trying to organize flights, I was finally able to just feel calm and peace as I was inside the temple then walking around the grounds. They have a great Visitor's Center as well, which we utilized greatly since some of our group took longer. There was a great presentation of all the apostles sharing their testimonies of Christ, and we just sat and watched those for a while. I was just really happy to be there at the temple! It was a great evening. Right after the temple, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was delicious. We were all starving cause most of us had only had breakfast before. Tonight we also found out all of the travel plans... we are going to get out of here haha eventually. We've ben split up into about 11 travel groups that will depart over the next three days. I will be leaving on Friday, so one more day in the hotel. We'll see what tomorrow brings! (hopefully no flight changes...)

Some of the girls in front of the Christus

Me and Cortney in front of the temple