Founder's Day Dinner

The Founder's Day Dinner was our first experience among all the "big names" in the Law School's history. I was pretty overwhelmed standing next to Elder Oaks and President Samuleson last night and realizing that these are the people we become associated with because we chose to attend BYU. The reception and dinner was at Little America in Salt Lake. The banquet hall was packed with students, alumni, founders, and professors.
I got to meet one of Bryan's professor's. While we were talking I found out that he was from Wisconsin-ironic! Well it gets better. I asked which part and he said, "I'm sure you've never heard of it. It's a very small town, Osseo." Never would I have guessed that one of Bry's professors came from our desolate side of Wisconsin, less than 30 minutes from where I grew up. After talking we realized that the family that helped convert him was the same father that blessed me as a baby. That was neat to have the connection.
It was so amazing to see how all these people had started their journey in Provo and had ended up all over the world, serving is so many different areas of law. It made me very excited to see where our journey will take us. But we wont get ahead of ourselves, we are only 5 days into that journey.
Elder Bruce C. Hafen, who played a vital role in founding the Law School 35 years ago, spoke to us. He gave a wonderful talk about the history of the school. He was very passionate about it which I loved! It made being here all the more meaningful. This schools founding really was a miracle; No one believed that a law school could be mixed with religion. I'm so thankful they were wrong and that the founders stuck it out and created this amazing school that has risen to the top tier to be ranked among schools that have been around for hundreds of years. Much of Elder Hafen's talk centered our the schools first dean, Rex Lee. The jokes this man told were hilarious. Here are a few of my favorites:
*Rex and Elder Hafen served in a stake presidency together. In one sacrament meeting Rex fell asleep, and Elder Hafen nudged him saying he was called on to give the closing prayer so he'd wake up. Rex says to Elder Hafen, "According to the first amendment we have the freedom to worship how we please. You worship your way, and I'll worship mine."
* A very frugal old man died. His wife called the newspaper to see how cheap she could do an obituary. The editor said, "It's your lucky day we are doing 2 for 1 word price. What would you like to say." The wife decided to stay true to the mans frugality, "Jim died today." "Okay mam now you can have three more words for free." Hmm...what else is there to say? "Jim died today. Toyota for sale."
Elder Hafen also made said another thing on a much more serious note that really touched me. He said that so many times lawyers are made to be bad people because they defend the guilty. Lawyers are also known as advocates. For each of us our biggest advocate is Jesus Christ the Savior; Aren't we glad that he is willing to be an advocate for the guilty?
The whole night was a great first experience. The food was delicious; Little America is beautiful; It was wonderful to meet so many people (even if I found that I've become far more shy since I married Bryan) and to be part of something so incredible.