Thursday, September 28, 2017

My Los Angeles Trip - September 17th - September 23rd

Hey Everyone,

Many people have been asking all about my trip to Los Angeles that I took last week! So instead of having to tell people over and over again, I figured I would just write it down and share it with you all.

My flight took off at 5:50 am (EST) out of Greenville-Spartanburg Airport (Yes, it was early). And I landed out at LAX at 10:21 am (PST). I was overwhelmed by the size of LAX, cause I'm not exactly an avid plane traveler. But I eventually found my way to my rental car, hoped in it, and drove straight to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to see the Los Angeles Rams vs the Washington Redskins. I went more to see the stadium than the game, but neither of them were a disappointment. I had a blast!



After the game, I grabbed a quick bite for dinner and went straight to the hotel. The time change plus an early flight was catching up to me, after I realized I had been awake 20+ hours!

Monday morning, I got moving early to head to a taping of The Price Is Right. The process takes about 5 hours. And about 3 and a half hours is just waiting in a line, filling out paperwork, getting interviewed, etc. It was a neat experience, but it also wasn't that great. Once finally in the studio, it was very hard to hear anything going on. In Fact, a little price is right secret, you can't even hear them call your name to "COME ON DOWN" There is a guy on stage who holds up a giant poster to let you know you were called. My episode will air on October 10th, and I'll definitely be on TV, because the girl right in front of me got called!




















After the Price is Right, I went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. It was one of the neatest yet creepiest things I've ever been to. It blew me away the amount of detail and accuracy they put into each one of them. Then it was back to the hotel for another good night of sleep.






















Tuesday I spent the day on a tour bus going all around Los Angeles. We went to Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, The Grove, The Griffith Observatory to see the Hollywood Sign, and Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was so neat to get to see all the touristy spots of Los Angeles. But It was also really neat just driving around on the bus and having your tour guide tell you little factoids about the towns we were traveling through. I learned a lot about LA.

Santa Monica was my favorite place I visited!




















In-N-Out Burger lived up to the hype!












Sunset Drive!








Wednesday, I took the scenic route down the Pacific Coast Highway to Lake Forest, CA where the DYM100 Conference was taking place. This conference, hosted by Download Youth Ministry, had selected 100 youth pastors through an application process to attend this conference, and it was awesome. It was hosted at Saddleback church.



I learned a lot at the conference, way too much to talk about here in this blog. But to hit some highlights, I especially loved how one of the speakers talked about the importance of serving, and this is something I really look to implement here
with the BUMS. Kay Warren, wife of Rick Warren, who started Saddleback church, always was extremely powerful as she talked about dealing with grief, because they had a son who committed suicide around 4 years ago. It was extremely powerful.

But my favorite part of the conference was just getting to network with all the other amazing youth pastors who were there. It was such an awesome time to hear from their experiences and share and pray with each other. The refreshment and encouragement that I got from the conference was great, and I was so thankful for a week to get away and enjoy myself but also learn a lot!

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