the usual tennis update & a photoshoot

I should really call this blog something cheesy like "Tennis Begins With Love". or "Love Means Nothing in Tennis." or pretty much, "I Love To Play Tennis And When It's Not Tennis Season I'm Depressed Because I'm Not Playing Tennis And The Weather Is Too Cold (And I Occasionally Have Deep Thoughts And Go On Vacations)". but really, it seems like a good percentage of these posts are about tennis. and really, that's pretty much my life in the summer. but I love it.
I am doing the city league once again, and I have loved it. I have played 4 matches, and I have won 3 of them! the first 2 were played in Spanish Fork, and I won the first one, 5-1. they did a weird thing where it's first to 5 instead of an 8-game pro-set, or even just a single 6 game set. but at least i won. the second girl I was beating 4-0, but a lot of the games were really close, and we were both fighting hard. finally, I just got really tired, and she had this amazing comeback and was able to beat me 5-4. so, being the loser, this sucked. but I do admire her for being able to come back and win! I have always wanted to be able to do that. and we both played really well.
the next 2 were played at Lehi High School. This time, because there weren't a ton of girls on the Provo team, I had to play 2 girls from Lehi. we just played one set. the first girl was my age, and my coach was surprised at how quickly we finished. I won, 6-1. I was getting a lot of my shots in, and I wasn't trying to hit winners. I was just trying to keep the ball in play for as long as I possibly could, knowing she'd eventually get tired and hit into the net. which usually happened. as soon as I reported my score, my coach immediately sent me back out to play my second match. I said, "but I'll get tired!" and he said, "you're playing her sister. so it's like a normal 2 set match against the same person. you will either destroy the whole family, or they will get revenge!" well, this sister had watched the entire first match, and I thought she was either scared, or she had figured me out by watching me, and had a game plan. our first games ended in deuces (we went into 5 the first game), but I would always win the last point. then, later on into the match, I noticed that she would get tired, and I hit a lot of winners, and she would hit....well, out. I won, 6-0. so I guess I'm a family destroyer.

in addition to city league, I have a private coach. My old one, Mike, was wonderful, and we loved him. But this year, he was too busy to coach, so he referred us to Francis, the captain of the BYU Tennis team and the top player. At first, we were really sad because like I said earlier, we loved Mike and we would really miss him. Pretty much, we had no idea what to expect. But we loved Francis the minute we met him, and I have improved so much in just 3 weeks, more than I improved last season! First, he started by changing my serve. I already had a really consistent flat serve, and if I didn't make my first, I would almost always make my second. Well, now Francis wants me to leave behind that perfect flat serve, and develop a powerful, slice serve. At first, I wasn't too excited about that idea because my serve was already good. but a slice serve has so much more power, and you can do so much more with it. now, my slice serve forgets to "slice" about half the time, and ends up crashing into the net, going long, or I freak out and hit a perfect flat serve. Also, I still use a flat serve as my second serve in my matches. But every serve is better than the last, and it "slices" more each time! he has also worked with me on...everything, things that I would have never noticed before. but every day, I learn a new useful technique, and boy, has that helped! today, I had the amazing opportunity to attend his baptism and be the pianist! (I had no idea until about 5 minutes before it started, but I did great.) It was an amazing program, and all the talks were so good, and his testimony was amazing. (I've said that word like 3 times in the past sentence, but really. it was amazing.) I think it's so cool when someone comes to BYU as a nonmember, meets with the missionaries, and is able to get baptized!
(Also, he is from England. And he has an accent.)

well, that was the tennis update. here is something not related to tennis! my lovely friend Hannah has a great camera and offered to take my pictures. we took about 200, but my eyes were closed in 80% of them. we did have a lot of good ones! here are a few of my favs:

 that is not snow. that is cotton. and I am extremely allergic to that.

 

 I do not want anyone to see my eyeballs. OK?!

 

....and then, I told Hannah, "I'm really hungry!" and she said, "let's get ice cream and use it as a prop!"

temples, tours, elevators, and Elder Bednar

I could be really funny right now and say "this brings us to Part 5 of my trip to England!" but I cannot, as I have blogged the final stage already and have probably posted more than enough pictures. and England was 2 months ago. that's history, man. times have changed. and I have since done more adventurous and exciting things, such as....youth conference.

to be 100% honest with you all, the idea of youth conferences are not my favorite thing. but overall, they turn out to be a great experience. this was my 3rd youth conference, and they have all been completely different. the first one I went to at age 14 was of course, the once in a lifetime, potentially end of a lifetime experience of hiking mount Fuji in Japan. last years was the shooting range and the Manti temple pageant, oh and the ghetto bowling alley and kickball and horse poop. this years' youth conference will probably be known as the "time I......"
(I can't even give you a 1 sentence summary without giving it away. you're gonna have to read it. but this is amazing. one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life. and I've lived 16 great years. I've lived in Tokyo, I've gone to England, I've done some cool things. but this is up there on my top 10 experiences.)

we kicked the whole shindig off with a BBQ up in Provo Canyon on Thursday night. one of the leaders described it as a "giant family reunion". the whole stake was there. I live in Provo, Utah, land of the Mormons. my high school boundaries cover at least 10 different stakes. so, believe it or not, I have friends in not only different wards, but different stakes as well! I found it very interesting as I was explaining to my cousins in England that all my best friends are LDS, but they aren't all in the same ward as me! then they asked, "well, are they in your stake?" and I said, "my best friend is 2 stakes north of mine", and they thought it was absolutely crazy! well, this isn't Whitby, England. (see? I told you I would probably mention England at one point or another.) this is Provo, Utah.
and I hate to say it. but I don't even know half the people in my own stake. wards in Provo extend maybe about 4 blocks or so, maximum. my entire stake extends up to my grandma's house, which takes less than 5 minutes to drive to. it seems like such a small area compared to other stakes, and I don't even know half the people. so that was kind of weird. I remember complaining to my mom that I only had 3 friends in the entire stake (I was probably in a typical rebellious teenager pissy mood), but that was totally silly. I actually have quite a few friends, even though a lot of them are older than me. so, the canyon retreat was fun because I got to see a lot of my friends from other wards, and I even got to see my cousin Morgan, who happens to be in my grandma's ward! (and he is not related to my grandma, who is on my Mom's side. he is my grandpa Castle's sister's son, which is kinda complicated, making him a first cousin once removed. but still, it's a cousin.) we ate really good steak, played tons of games, and just had a great time. we returned to our own houses to pack for the next day, which was nice.

Alyssa, me, and Haley after doing baptisms at the Salt Lake Temple. phase 2 of the youth conference was doing baptisms for the dead. each ward in the stake was assigned a different temple in the Salt Lake valley (one ward was assigned to the far-away Provo temple, ha), and we were the lucky ones who got the Salt Lake temple! I have visited Temple Square many times, I have seen the temple from City Creek mall (perhaps my favorite place in all of Utah besides maybe Bear Lake), but I have never done baptisms there and I have always wanted to do that. what an amazing experience! the man at the front desk saw my name and immediately asked if I was related to Norm Castle. I said that he was my great uncle, my grandpa's brother. he asked my grandpa's name, and I said, "George Castle." he also knew my grandpa from Albuquerque! the dressing rooms were a lot more elaborate than the Provo temple, and much more elaborate than the Tokyo temple. (I'm not saying I don't love either of those temples; I do. but the Salt Lake temple was something else.) the baptismal font was beautiful. I had never seen anything like it. I had brought 3 family names with me, and actually got done pretty quickly with the baptisms and confirmations. much quicker than any visit to the Provo temple!

next, we went to the observation deck of some church office building and saw some really cool views of the temple and the capital building! we also toured the conference center, and ate lunch.

 the next phase was definitely the most memorable/spiritual experience for me. now, I knew that one of the 12 Apostles would speak to us. but I expected David A. Bednar to give us a great, but hard to sit through 2-hour talk. that's not even what happened.
the room in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building did not properly house all the youth of the stake, so Brother Roberts, one of the leaders in our ward, gathered 6 youth of our ward, including me, and invited us to sit on the stands with him, behind Elder Bednar. the only problems this posed: 1. I could not get up to pee without the whole stake watching me, 2. I could not see Elder Bednar's face, and 3. he could not see me. He started out the devotional by saying, "we talk too much in this church, and instead of talking at you, I want you to ask me questions." so, this wasn't even going to be a 2 hour talk; it would be a question-and-answer session. and I felt the strong impression to ask him a question. I mean, he was a general authority, and who knows if I would ever have the opportunity to ask a general authority a question again.
I raised my hand.
and he didn't see me.
but finally, a member of the stake presidency said, "behind you!" all the youth he previously called on were sitting in the audience, and someone would just pass a microphone to them. not me.
Elder Bednar said, "well, come on up here, by me!" I didn't know that he would CALL ME DOWN TO THE PULPIT. I thought I would just get a microphone handed to me. but no. so, I walk down to the pulpit, and I all of a sudden feel very nervous. Elder Bednar asks me my name, and I say, "Miriam Castle." and he looks right at me, and says, "well Miriam, it's nice to meet you." and he shook my hand.
HE SHOOK MY HAND.
David A. Bednar. An Apostle of the Lord. SHOOK MY HAND. and asked me my name. and answered my question.
wow.
I am still in shock of what happened. So, I went on to ask my question, which I probably shouldn't share on my blog because it was really personal and I wouldn't want the whole world reading it. but the response was just what I needed to hear. and I felt stronger than I ever have felt in my life, that this Church is true. Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet, and David A. Bednar is one of his Apostles. It was the most amazing meeting I have ever gone to.
some people think, "well if there wasn't a picture, it didn't happen." there were no pictures allowed at this meeting, but I promise that I am not making this up. I don't think I could ever imagine something like this in my head. it happened. It really did happen.
afterwards, we took a tour of Welfare Square, and then we went to our hotel. and to be honest, the Shilo Inn of downtown Salt Lake is not a place I would recommend staying in. major inconvenience number 1: the elevators. there were only 3 running elevators, and about 250 or so youth? maybe 300. but these elevators were the slowest things I have ever seen. it took about 10 minutes just to wait for an elevator and get up to our room. these elevators either skipped my floor, went all the way to the top, and went back down, or they would stop at every dang floor of the hotel. major inconvenience number 2: our continental breakfast was located in the bar. and it was literally served from a cart. and it wasn't even edible. major inconvenience number 3: i'll just stop here and skip to the next part.
the dance was pretty fun. I danced with actual boys. and there was actual dancing.
*Forrest Gump voice*: "and that's all I have to say about that.
Saturday was spent taking a tour of Temple Square. we had these really cute, foreign sister missionaries as our tour guides. they were also our tour guides at Welfare Square. they were really happy and shared their testimonies and it was great.
until we took the conference center tour. again.
by then, I was getting tired. tired of touring and walking around and being there with my stake. I wanted to go home and get some rest and see Justin, who had been gone at 5th Grade Camp all week and returned while I was gone. but no. we still had to do Ward Time, eat at Marley's, Provo Beach Resort, the end shindig, and the 3 hour testimony meeting on Sunday.
lunch was great, but I was tired. we headed back to Provo for PBR, but my leaders were so nice and drove me to my house first so I could drop off my suitcase and change into my swimsuit. Provo Beach Resort could've been better, if I didn't happen to almost kill myself riding the FlowRider, or the surf machine. I was on the boogie board for maybe 5 seconds. the strong "wave" knocked me off and shot me up to the top, with no boogie board. the board sailed in the other direction. I repeated this process about 10 more times, and bruised myself up pretty badly. GNARLY, DUUUUUUUUUDE. and I was so smart, I didn't even bring a change of clothes. so I just decided to call my mom and have her rescue me, because I had a really bad headache most of the day. I went home and showered and changed, and took a 2 hour nap. I finally woke up in time to go to the ending dinner. so, I didn't really miss out on too much.
then we had a wonderful 3 hour testimony meeting.

but really.
I MET DAVID A BEDNAR AND I SHOOK HIS HAND.
Guys. the church is true. it's 100% true. even if I may not do the best job of living all the principles, I know it is true. David A. Bednar said, "Living the gospel is easy. Not living the gospel is hard. It's hard to come back to it, once you have made certain choices that you think are easier than living the gospel."
and I know this is true. I've seen it happen. I've seen people make bad choices contrary to what we believe, and it really hurts to see them struggle.
guys. don't do stupid things. go to church. live the gospel. make good choices and you will find that it is much easier, than trying to repent of bad choices.
amen.