My name is Victoria Smallwood. When I first learned of this opportunity from Natalie I was immediately interested and excited. I get to spend 2.5 days "off duty", I get to hang with Natalie, and I get to see beautiful houses of worship and meet people who want to try. They want to try to understand and love one another, which warms my soul. Natalie Hall is my good friend from high school with whom I share a passion for mutual understanding and worship. I am an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have been my whole life. My Father joined the church as a teenager and my Mom was a member since birth, with Pioneer ancestry. I was married and sealed to my husband in the Washington, DC Temple in 2001 and have visited throughout the years. Needless to say I am excited to see the changes and renovations there on our visit together. My family and I will be attending the open house in May as well.

I did the education thing a little backwards some would say. I graduated with an Associate's degree before getting married and moving to Idaho to attend BYU-Idaho. After a change in degree focus-and deciding to start a family- I paused my college education. Many years later, when my youngest was 2 years old, I decided to finish my Bachelor's degree and graduated from Old Dominion University in 2016. I live in Chesapeake, VA where I work full time in Foster Care & Adoptions for a local, non-profit agency. I work primarily with our agency's resource “foster” families to provide them support and maintain state standards and compliance. I also have a house full of children and pets to love on and care for, alongside my husband, Zac. I currently serve in our youth organization at church as an advisor, specifically with the young women who are 13- 15 years old. In that calling I help to teach Sunday lessons and work with the young women to prepare and teach weekly lessons. I have also served in the children's organization (called Primary) for many years prior to that as a teacher and as secretary.

Natalie shared this wonderful opportunity with me and I am grateful I can steal some time away to participate- and engage. When I first heard about a pilgrimage experience, I thought that sounded like something someone else would do. Not because it isn’t worth my time but because it TAKES time, intention, planning, and concentration- all of which require me to be still or are “still developing” talents. However, I have always felt the sure love and knowledge that Heavenly Father loves me and that Jesus is my Savior. I have always wanted to share that with others and even invited Natalie to youth girls’ camp and church on Sunday a couple of times. We talked about each other’s faith so naturally and freely that it closed some gaps and united us in a unique way, especially since we were teenagers who talked about that “stuff” at all. I’m truly looking forward to getting to know everyone during this brief time and developing a new and expanded understanding of myself, my faith, and how others worship and live their lives full of devotion.