Spring Break

This last week was my spring break.  I really didn't have much planned...I made a goal...to go to four temples in four days.  I normally try to go to the temple at least twice a month, but for whatever reasons, I have struggled to go once a month.  I wanted to use spring break as my chance to catch up and I figured it would be a great way to prepare for General Conference.  One of the great things about living in Utah is that is is possible to go to four different temples in four days.  I know, I am very spoiled, so I need to take advantage of this situation as much as I can.  Temples are closed on Mondays, so I started on Tuesday going to the Jordan River Temple.  In case you are unfamiliar with Jordan River, it was the second busiest temple in the world for many years...until TWO temples were built within it's temple district.  Because of this, it has sessions every starting every 20 minutes.  This is so nice, I never worry about what time it is or if I will make the session.  If I miss it then you only have to wait 20 minutes.

 Wednesday I decided to go to my favorite temple and one of the newest...Oquirrah Mountain.  When Oquirrah Mountain was built, South Jordan, Utah became the first city to have two temples.  They are only like five miles apart from each other, but I have a special spot in my heart of Oquirrah Mountain.  

Thursday was the day I went to Salt Lake.  Interesting fact, Salt Lake is the closest temple to my house...but I am not in that temple district.  I know I don't really have anything to really complain about, but it is just an interesting fact to me.  I have only been to Salt Lake a couple of times...I hate driving downtown, so I normally go to Jordan River.  But there is something special about the Salt Lake temple, just the history you feel while inside is amazing.  I love the modern temples, but Salt Lake will always be cool.

To finish off my week, on Friday I went to the Bountiful temple.  I wanted to get to temple this week that I had never been to...sadly it didn't happen, but I was happy to include Bountiful in my temple trip.  It is an extremely beautiful temple, and it has it's own parking garage!!!  How cool is that???  Sometime soon I will go to Manti and or Brigham City, it just wasn't in the cards for this week.

Fireworks

With yesterday being the 4th of July, I got to go see some fireworks.  I love the 4th of July, it is one of my favorite holidays...at least it is when you get to cook out, spend time with friends and family, and enjoy some amazing fireworks.  I love everything the day represents...freedom, independence, rights, honor, pride, etc.  I got to go watch the West Jordan fireworks with two friends and I was impressed with the quality of fireworks they had.  I got to see some really cool fireworks I have never seen before, like a smiley face and hearts.  And honestly I was just happy that they had fireworks with all the wildfires going on out here.

We had a really good view of the fireworks and as I was laying there watching them, I couldn't help but think about the universe.  Looking up at these huge amazing displays in the sky and I kept thinking about really how small I am.  My spot in this world is very small, but it also made me think about how could anyone think that this world was not made by a Heavenly Father.  I really do not understand how you can sit there and look and amazing sites and think this world just randomly came to be.  What is so interesting to me is, I have always loved fireworks and yet this is the first time the have effected me in such a profound way.  I can't wait for the 24th of July and see if I have the same experience or if I go back to just loving fireworks, like everyone else.

Indexing

I have been trying to find ways to keep me distracted on Sundays, besides taking a nap...about a month and a half ago I decided to try indexing. Indexing is when you look at different types of records (birth, death, passports, draft cards, etc) and type the names and dates. These are then uploaded to the church and are submitted as temple names. I have never really been interested in indexing, but with morning church that leaves me a long afternoon and evening to try and fill. It then became a goal of my ward and stake to index so many names a month and a year. So I try to do some indexing each Sunday. The problem is that I think every ward/stake is starting to really push indexing and the website can't handle everyone. I few weeks I have had it crash on me...oh well I will try to continue to find good ways to spend my Sunday afternoon.

The Social Butterfly

This week I did something crazy...I went to a ward activity!!! I will be honest I didn't want to go, but the idea of free food got me. I went and things started off kind of rocky, but after a while a friendly face came as well and we talked through dinner. After dinner they played random games, ping pong, dodge ball, basketball, pool...ok so I didn't play pool, but I enjoyed the rest of the games. I may not have found a new best friend or anything, but I left that evening feeling better about myself and the ward in general. I know I just need to give this ward a chance...it is just easier said than done. I am thinking of even going to Family Home Evening this week, I know crazy right.

Most Admired

Dec. 15-18 USA Today/Gallup conducted it's annual "Most Admired" people. The poll asks Americans, without any prompts of who they admire most both male and female. Through out the history of this poll, which started in 1946, political leaders have been the most admired people in the eyes of Americans, then religious, a
nd business leaders. For the most part the top 10 list stays similar each year, with the same people moving up or down, there are very few new comers to the poll. This year on the male side of the poll, there is a new comer....Thomas S. Monson.

I think this is very cool, Thomas S. Monson is a mad I admire, and it is nice to see that other people feel the same way. I understand that it is mostly likely only members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that came up with his name, but it is still awesome. The church has been in the news a lot recently and I'm proud that we are finally getting some good press.

Here is a link to the article about the poll if you are interested: http://www.gallup.com/poll/151790/Barack-Obama-Hillary-Clinton-Again-Top-Admired-List.aspx

Lost Soul

It has now been five months since I was forced to attend a new ward and I still hate it. I thought I had made two friends but both of them have stopped talking to me. I know it is mostly my fault, I don't introduce myself to people or really even talk to people. I had a friend that made church decent for a few weeks, but he has started to ignore me. Do you really wonder why I have a hard time opening up to people!! Recently every new "friend" that comes into my life disappears within a month. I am honestly considering going to a family ward or just being out of town as much as possible. I know church isn't about sitting with friends, but for me I'm miserable without someone to talk to. I used to love going to church every Sunday and I went to every activity, now I dread Sundays and I look for every excuse not to go to an activity. I've honestly never felt so unwelcome at church in my life, I literally hate everything about my ward. Church leaders said they created these new YSA wards/stakes to find the lost souls...well thank you. You took a very active young single adult who loved her ward and have turned her into one of those lost souls.

Sunday Eve

Well it is Saturday night, which means tomorrow is Sunday...I hope things at church go better. Friday we had a ward activity and I took two of my friends with me (Alexandra and Dave) so that way I had someone to talk to and they got free food. We came an hour late and then left early, it was that amazing. Pretty much my friends were counting down the time until we could leave. I kind of feel justified in the fact that they didn't like my ward either. Last week was by far the best week at church in this new ward, only because one person talked to me... I'm aiming high, but I hope two people talk to me tomorrow.

Sundays

To tell the truth Sundays have not been the best day of the week over the last two months. Two months ago they reorganized all the Young Single Adult wards in the Salt Lake Valley. I was not happy, I loved the ward I was in, I had great friends, I love the bishop, everything...then I got shipped off to a new ward. I said that I tried to have a good attitude about the new ward, but I never really did. Deep down I wanted to hate it, I want to be mad. Then I did, I guess I got exactly what I wanted. I spent two months absolutely miserable, I hated going to church I hated everything about my ward. Last week I even considered not going to that ward anymore, I didn't care what the leaders said. Then I figured I needed to give it some time, so today I went in with a new attitude and it was so much better. Do I have a new best friend? No. But at break the fast someone did talk to me, and more than the "Hi my name is ....." I am still frustrated, but maybe things are finally going to look up.

Imagine

At Institute tonight a great question was posed. What if tonight the Savior came to you and told you that your greatest trial/challenge was taken away from you...how would you act differently tomorrow? This would be amazing, you would walk around with your head held high and would feel amazing. The point was that we would have such a great day that people would want to know why and our happiness would rub off on others. We all face our own challenges that are tough and weigh us down every day, but it would be AWESOME if it could be taken away from me all at once. I know if I have faith and work each day I can still overcome my challenges, I still would like to live my day tomorrow as if all that was lifted off my shoulders.

Spring in Utah

Update: last Saturday it was 75 degrees when I went to General Conference, thanks Jensen's for my AWESOME seat. We were on the bottom floor right in the middle, I'm not going to get any better of seats unless we have some one in the family become an apostle. On the walk back to the car we saw Satan, and some guy drove by and called us "losers" it was fun. I love the protesters at conference. I then went down to my sister's and woke up to EIGHT inches of snow. WOW, where did that come from? Then it has pretty much rained/snowed all week this week. Spring kills me, one day it is BEAUTIFUL then it is followed by several really bad days of terrible weather. Awesome huh?

This last week was tough at school, we had to cancel one tennis match because it was raining/lightening/hailing...that means that next week I'm going to have four tennis matches. I don't know how I feel about that, but I guess that will help the season move along. Their is only two months left of school and I can't wait for summer to come. I have some fun stuff planned this summer and I can't wait for it to come.

New Year's: Look Not behind Thee

This is my goal...I know my Father in Heaven knows what is best for me, so I'm going to try to "Look not behind thee" but to move forward in my life. 2010 was an important year in my life, but I have faith that 2011 is going to be even better. I might not buy a house or a car like I did last year, but I feel like this is going to be a GREAT year for me. I just have to have faith that my father knows what he is doing.

Faith in Mankind Restored...for the moment at least

This is Homecoming week at the school I work at. I love my job, I love my school, and I would do anything to help my school out. The last two nights I have been in charge of making sure the talents at the Homecoming Pageant were school appropriate. For the most part I didn't have to do much, there was a moment tonight that was a little scary, but I think it was alright. Normally these pageants are just glorified popularity contests, but tonight the most popular students didn't win, I was in shock. For example the Homecoming King was a kid I have never seen before, never heard his name, he had a great talent, and beat the two most popular football players to win. These football players are good kids for the most part, they are more talk than action. I figured they would be a little disappointed to lose to someone that was no where close to as popular as they are. But as I was walking out the school, I heard a group of guys singing along with a ukulele (we have a pretty big Polynesian population in my school so this was not the unusual part) backstage. As I was passing the door I could hear some lyrics and realized I knew the song, it then took me a second, but I realized that it was one of my favorite religious songs "O Lord, my Redeemer." I couldn't see who all was in the room, but I assume that these two football players were part of it since they were the only Polynesian guys in the pageant. I felt a little guilty, here I was thinking that they were going to be mad they lost to someone "beneath" them and they were seeing a beautiful song about Christ. I need to take a step back and learn a lesson from my students and think of Christ more in my life.

"Oh Lord, my Redeemer, Thou hast done so much for me! Oh Lord, my Redeemer, All my love I give to Thee."

One Minute Sermon

Amen to that....

Updates from Haiti

The Institute I go to has a forum after classes on Wednesday nights, each week they get someone from church leadership to come and talk to us. This week we had Elder John K.Carmack, an Emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, who is the presently serving as Managing Director of the Perpetual Education Fund. Elder Carmack told us some amazing stories of the good the Perpetual Education Fund is doing, it has currently helped over 40,000 people in 42 countries. But he also gave an update from Haiti, so far they have 17 confirmed members of the church that did not survive the earthquake and every single one of the church buildings are still standing. Since these church buildings are some of the few that are still in decent condition they are serving as shelters to thousands of people. The church also has had tons of aid, food, clothes, doctors, you name it, on the ground in Haiti for several days already.

The Princess is Sleeping

I think this is one of the best commercials the church has made in awhile. It actually won some awards recently. I remember being little and having a very active imagination, anything was possible.

Animals

While in San Diego we were able to see some unique animals that you don't often get to see. Some of the highlights were seeing pandas and manatees.

The San Diego Zoo is one of two zoos in America that have Panda bears, the other being in D.C. It is unique to go see the pandas because you have to be really quite and there are no other animals anywhere close to them. One of the pandas was asleep, but the other one was eating away on some bamboo.

At Sea World they have manatees, I tried to get pictures of the real animals but the pictures wouldn't come out. Two out of the three had been injured by boats, but it was really cool to finally get to see these beautiful creatures in person.

Temple Square in the Spring

I honestly think that one of the most beautiful places in the world during the spring is Temple Square (when construction isn't all over the place like it is now). I don't know how they do it, but Temple Square always has some of the most beautiful flowers. These were in the flower beds along the side of the Tabernacle. I had a meeting in the Tabernacle Saturday morning and I decided to walk around and enjoy the beauty.

This was part of a large flower bed outside the North Visitors Center, they just make me smile.

I haven't gone up to see this statue in several years, as soon as you come into the room you can feel the spirit. I love the statue and the artwork of the sky, I think I could stare at the sky for hours and be happy. But in all it was a really great morning hanging out on Temple Square.

Easter Message