Hello Collins

  pre talk puzzling With the omicron surge, Stake Conference was once again on youtube :) Post Saturday night session Stake Conference talk via zoom  and quick change into a hoodie :) Good Evening brothers and sisters. I’m so happy to be with you tonight. My name is Jennifer Collins and I live coastside with my family in the Half Moon Bay Ward.  We have moved back after 12 years of being gone from the area and the only downside is I wanted to see familiar faces in the crowd. So, I’m just going to have to imagine that part. As 2021 closed I kept feeling like it was a year that really didn’t feel like a year. I don’t know if that makes sense to you but for me, it was made up of a lot of highs and lows. More than any other January in my life, I really did reflect on what I learned as I wanted to build on these life lessons. There is no specific order of importance but these life lessons were the ones that stood out the most to me to be able to share with you tonight. Lesson #1 Embrace cha

March all summed up here. In a very low key way. Embracing turning 51.  When you turn the age you met your mother in law at...suddenly things get real. haha It's been a wild month of my own personal turmoil. I'm not even sure I should be writing this...it's late, I could royally say all the wrong things. But if this is supposed to show my life with its ups and downs, then what I say can't be wrong.  I'm just scared of letting it out.  First things first, I chopped the remaining pandemic off my hair. I just wanted it off me.  I had been patient through it all and then right as the mask mandates were about to lift I joked inside that now I was an anti masker.  I am so tired of everyone saying what's right and what's wrong but it's clear to me it was estimating guesswork all along. I'm glad to have them off. To see people again. And the way people smile at things.  Well, now I sound weird. :) I would rather potty train than teach another child to drive.

HAWAII !!!! 💗After all these years, we were able to make this happen💗 It is a strange thing to raise a family but never get to show your kids  where you grew up... especially if it is in Hawaii! I have had a strong desire to bring them to the place that brought me joy growing up and at times brought me pain. I will be honest...for years I did not want to go back.  I didn't want the memories to come back. Those memories seemed stressful to me once I started our family...and I couldn't seem to remember the good in those days.  Going back was therapeutic for me.  A chance to make new memories with my own kids.  Show them my favorite beaches and views.  Tell them funny stories! Remembering all the good times I had buried with the bad times.  It was time to excavate that part of my life:) It was worth the wait... I made new memories. With my favorite people. I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to make this trip! Shout out to Clay for getting to use his points and stay at m