Busy Two Weeks

In case you haven't heard I started EFY as a counselor again. This year they even decided to pay me. That is a pleasant bonus. My first week started the last Monday of May. It was held in Montpelier Idaho. It was great. The spirit was strong and I enjoyed it. During this week I also go to stay with a host family. Im this family there were five young kids aging form 12 to 3 or 4. They were so so wonderful. I think they are one of the greatest families in the world. This is greatly due to the parents. Some things that stood out about them.

1. They are easy going and open.
2. They are kind and patient (this was greatly displayed when dealing with their kids at the breakfast table)
3. They are giving and they truly care.
They delight in the joys and successes of others and feel sorrow and concern for them as well.

I could go on but the goal is to keep this short so I will get some sleep tonight.
Anyways, I was so exhausted from EFY that I got sick and spent all Sunday morning throwing up. As a result EFY decided that it would be better to stay home this last week.

Lucky me because I ended up getting engaged this last week.

The wedding is set for July 20th. We are going to be married in the temple for time and all eternity. I will try to post more soon.

Good night.

Temple

Lucky me. I got to be in Arizona for this the Gila Valley Temple dedication. Since they opened the local chapels to the dedication yesterday I got to listen in. It was such a privilege.

What really drove it home for me was that night when I was doing genealogy work. My dad pulled out some family history stories. The one I read was the story of a lady who settled Australia. She was a true pioneer. She closes her history saying this.

"The arrival of the fortnightly mail always brought the longing for the home folks left behind....I had always looked forward to the time when we should come away from the bush, and letters to and from ones family would not be so vital, but that time has never come in my life, for though I have come down to more civilised country (she moved to Brisbane towards the end of her life) the old folk, alas, have passed on, and the young ones have their homes as far away as I was, an so it goes on. I am still away from it all, but I am still living at the beginning of things."

Because of temples like the Gila Valley, my ancestors get to have eternal families even though that was not available to them in there life. I am glad that and thankful that this lady will get to be with her family forever.

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.

Family Time

This week I have gotten to spend lots of time with my family.
Sunday was game day at Grandma and Grandpa's. We played the Great Dal-moody ( I don't think I spelled that right). Amber and I think that we ought to make hats for each position. Me and my cousin Katy decided to take down the boys. Actually Katy just wanted to beat her husband. I am pleased to say that the game did end with her and I on the thrones. Then we played Bullet. It just so happened that it ended up being boys against girls. Regrettably we lost. We had fun and laughed allot though. Laughter is one of the great things about being with my family.

Since I mentioned laughter I should tell you that I got my nephew, B to laugh. He has finally put it together that if you are being tickled you are supposed to laugh. His tickle spot is on his tummy. I love that when he laughs his mouth stretches as far as it can go so that his chubby cheeks are accented. Apart from this he likes to talk to me and enjoys being an airplane.

Life is great.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Hi Everyone. Isn't that picture by Norman Rockwell great.
I hope you had a wonderful Halloween. I did. In fact I even dressed up as a flapper and thanks to Grandma and Amber I had the proper accessories. I would post pictures but That would require a camera cord so I am currently lacking. I was told I was cute and authentic though.

Now that Halloween is over we can move onto Thanksgiving. Have you all seen the clip from church yet? If not you should click on the link.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

I just wanted to let you know of a few things that I am thankful for.

1. The privileged of having the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.
2. That I have a wonderful eternal family that brings joy into my
days.
3. That I get to live in Utah and be by allot of those family members
(Thanksgiving will be so fun).
4. That I have a job that meets my needs
5. That I get to further my education
6. That technology allows me to stay in touch with my family that
isn't close by.
7. That I temples are close by.
8. That I live in America.
9. That I have roommates and friends that take care of me and make
me laugh.
10. That Heavenly Father knows and has a plan for me that will give
me many more things to be thankful for.

Have a happy Thanksgiving. Feel free to share what your thankful for.

Amber wants updates so here you go.

I am loving my life. My roommate Eden is wonderful. She feeds me all the time. The only problem with that is that she doesn't eat when I cook even though I want her to.... Maybe what I'm making doesn't look good to her. I shall have to make things that are yummier more often and see how that goes.

I am truly a "starving student" in thought. If it wasn't for Grandma, Amber, Church Activities and Dates I would probably not eat at all. It just disgusts me when it come to food prices. However I have learned to eat whenever food is offered. I have also learned to be considerately less picky about what I eat. For example...

My apartment complex has many ants living in it. For the most part they are not as bad as when I first got there. However we do find them in our food from time to time. This morning I was eating cherios and sure enough there was a dead ant floating in them. I was half way through the bowl at this time so I almost ate them anyway. Then I thought to myself. "No, my dear, you are not desperate enough to eat bugs for protein." I then dumped the cherios down the sink. It hurt because it felt like I was dumping money down the sink.

Alas such is the life of a college student. At least if you're me.

p.s. This is not a cry for food. I intend to make it on my own as much as possible. If I get desperate enough I will go on more dates in an attempt to get more food.