A lesson from the Olympics

I have herd many things on confidence lately. Apparently it is very important and can make all the difference in the level of success you have. However, I have never seen it in such outright performance as I did while watching a snowboarding event in the Olympics. It was the one where they go down a half pipe and do all sorts of tricks. For those of you who don't know they get two runs and then their best run is there score. This guy was the last to go. No one had beaten his score so he already knew that he had the gold. He already knew that he was good enough. However he still had one run left so off he went. He decided to do one of the most difficult tricks on this run. It is important to have good speed going into this trick so you will go up high enough and therefore have enough time to pull off the trick. He didn't have allot of speed/momentum going into it because of the previous trick he had just done (so the announcer said) however he still pulled off the trick. I'm pretty sure that the snowboarder knew that he was not going into the trick well but he decided to do it anyway. Why because he had the confidence that it would be ok. He already knew that he had won gold and that he has great capabilities. You know what happened, he pulled of the trick and improved his score by like two points. Hows that for the importance of confidence.

A I wrote that I thought this. We are just like that in life. We have two runs. The first was the in the preexistence and we won gold. Now we are on our second run. Yes, there are times that it looks like the odds are against when we go into things or it may seem that we didn't quite do so well in preparation for our next attempt in life. But we already know the out come. We already know that if we do our best we will win gold again because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Therefore we can go forward with confidence.

Loved

The last few days have been sort of crummy. Actually January was sort of a bu....um, that's a bad word to my Australian family...... Well just say it wasn't full of sunshine. Just some frustrating things. This week was much better though. It is because of the little things. For example,

My sister posted a funny picture of my nephew on her blog. It made me laugh.

While cleaning I came across a list of talents I posses that I had started that my TX Dad finished. I had written it so I would work on developing those talents but because he added to it it made me feel appreciated as a person and like I have something to offer.

I got a fun package from my Mom.

My AZ Dad sent me beautiful flowers

My parents in TX bought chickens. I know I'm not there now but knowing that they will be there when I get home makes me happy because I use to be a farm girl and in all honesty I miss it.

I was accepted as an EFY counselor. My cousin Kort says she is going to live vicariously through me. She is getting married so she can't be a counselor this year. I give her regular updates.

Yesterday I watched a ladies kids for her so she could go out. Her day had been crummy (sick kids, 5 hours at the doctors office.) but she said it was better because I was here now. She also said that I was going to be a great mom. Any compliment with the word mom in it is my favorite.

I got to talk to my mom on the phone today. She told me a funny story about my nephew who sure loves his dad.

As I walked home from work today it was snowing so I decided to eat the snowflakes. A guy in his fifties crossed the street to come say hi to me. He that I was the coolest person ever for eating snowflakes. We were walking the same way so he talked to me for a bit. He is from TX too. Since he is from Texas it is not abnormal to talk to a complete stranger as Texans are very friendly people. Before he left to go his way he told me that I have a special light and that Utah doesn't know it yet but they are lucky to have me.

Now THAT made my day. It was 't just that the guy took the time to cross the street to come say hi or that he ave me some really good complements. It is that Heavenly Father prompted him to give me those compliments. I needed them and I needed them then and that guy was in tune enough to listen. It was a tender mercy. All of those things are tender mercies that Heavenly Father set up for me. It is so nice of him and lets me know that he really does love me.