Sundays always fill my heart and mind with about 12 million Gospel subjects that I want to talk about.
Today I have a lot on my mind, but the main thing that can summarize it is probably that my Father is Heaven loves me. He loves you. He loves all of His children. And because of that...and because He KNOWS me....truly knows me....He knows exactly how to humble me.
Some days I'm struck with humility more than others and today has been a humbling day for me. Not in a bad way....by no means has it been a bad humbling, but more of a necessary and heart warming humbling.
The past couple of months whenever I've felt the spirit I have started to cry. I don't know if that's because I'm getting older and can recognize it more, or what, but it's been really overwhelmingly good to feel the spirit so much in my life.
Unlike some people, I actually like crying, so having that as an emotional response to feeling the spirit has been healthy for me, I think.
The temple has been on my mind a lot today.
People should talk about the temple more. They really should! I just....love talking about it! Honestly, I hope to never talk about it in a boastful way. I think the fact that sometimes it can be construed as boastful is why people shy away from talking about it. I have a lot of friends that tell me... "I just never find time to go." or "I need to get my recommend renewed." or "I can't ever find people to go with." So consequently I think a lot of people find guilt in talking about the temple regularly because they are guilty of not going like they think they should, possibly.
Anyways, my dad....the inspired man that he is....gave me a temple book for Christmas! (so like 6 months ago) I love it. It has all the temples up through Draper (so there have been about....5 or 6 or so dedicated since then?) and it has a little page about each of them. It talks about different things that are unique about each temple.
It also has the temple districts written out so for example Madrid Spain's Temple has a temple district that is comprised of 1 stake in France, 6 stakes and 4 districts in Portugal, 9 stakes and 9 districts in Spain and 3 districts in Cape Verde.
It's so interesting and neat to me to read about these temples and see who goes to what temple! Temple work is so important all around the world.
I know I say this every time I post, but I love the temple. My love for it grows more everyday, I think.
A member of the Bishopbric's wife said today at church that we can "keep hope alive by going to the Temple". I know that's true. Hope is so much brighter with the temple in the picture.
I'm so grateful for all of the examples I have at church. The people in my ward are amazing! They all have such strong testimonies and all of their insights just.....well, make me cry from the great spirit that they bring to church.
My bishop is a great man and I think he's always concerned about the members of the ward because we are all at a stage in life where we are making lots of decisions and times are hard, so he worries about us.
Today during our combined Relief Society and Priesthood lesson he said a couple of things that I knew were from the Lord that humbled me.
He said...."God's plan is meant for us to be found, not for us to get lost." I think so many times people get lost trying to find their way....(I know I do all the time!), but that's not what God wants! To our Father in Heaven, the plan is laid out pretty clear and can be clear to us if we have faith, keep the commandments, and ask Him for help. For many people, myself included, it's hard to be that patient. So that little quote humbled me...as they say in the scriptures...."sufficiently".
My bishop also said..."Hard times might come because you're looking for an answer that you want and not what He wants." Man, that's true too. *humbled* I have such a great life, but I make it hard for myself because I over think things. I over plan things. I over look things. I over do things....
That also goes back to faith and just trusting in His plan. And it's not that I don't trust God. I do.... a lot actually, but sometimes my trust needs a boost.
I always feel like I'm being reconverted to the Gospel. My faith is always being renewed, which is good! That's how it should be. We are here to be tested and tried and hopefully learn things and smile along the way.
Happiness is in the journey, not the destination.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Say what?
Good news!!
The brownies from my brother's wedding are almost gone!!!
Bad news.....
The reason why they are almost gone is because I've eaten a large quantity of them.
Wa-hoops!
Why am I eating at 11:00 at night, you may ask? (you're thinking....I had no idea you were eating in the first place, ha ha) The answer is because I haven't eaten since noon and my body started to tell me that eating is necessary for living.
So, I opened the fridge, cause my mom told me there was a sub sandwich thing in there, and when I looked inside I saw this HUGE like two foot by 6 inch sub and I started laughing. I'm not really sure why I laughed so hard......maybe I'm tired??? Maybe I'm suffering from post choir stress syndrome.
It must be the second one.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
*takes bite of brownie*
Oh blog....what do I do?
*takes bite of sandwich*
Ha ha ha, okie....so as I've probably mentioned this before...there is this boy. Boy....man? What is he? He's too old to be a boy, I suppose. I can't talk about too many specifics cause what if he ever read this!?!? Oh man! Or what if one of our friends from choir read this and was like...."Dude, I think she's typing about you...." That's embarrassing. Ugh....that's really embarrassing.
So no specifics.
The point I wanted to get across in this is.....talking to boys is hard!
k, so not really. I'm really good at talking to guys that I have no interest in.
I wanted to make that my Facebook status, but then I realized that all of my guy friends on Facebook would read that and be like...."Dang....that's harsh...she's never even stuttered around me! That must mean I have nothing to offer at all!" (Since I'm SO positive that all guys would think precisely that....ha ha ha ha)
It's true, man. Whenever I talk to guys that I don't want to date I'm like..."Oh yeah, blah blah, and then the etc. and btw how's your dog? La la blah....girls? Blah blah boys....whatever whatever subject." .......but whenever I talk to guy-who-is-not-being-specified I'm like...."Ohhhh....well......and.......dots". I'm a real linguist.
I dunno....he probably thinks I'm a brilliant linguist. I'm honestly not horrible at talking to him......I just find it hard to remember to think straight when I am talking to him.
Twitterpatted.
I do believe that's what that is called.
Ugh, monkeys.
Monkeys is my curse word. (this blog is no longer G rated)
On the plus side, this sandwich is really good. Aaaaaand maybe if I go to bed now I'll be rested enough to go to the temple in the morning. I hope. *crosses fingers*
P.S. I have amazing friends! It's strange cause a lot of my really close friends are actually a year younger than me. That doesn't make me immature.......that makes THEM EXTREMELY mature! Ha ha ha! I went over to my friend Kaylee's house last night and, boy, I just love those girls! Kaylee, Blaire, and Kayla. It's so vain of me, but they just let me talk and talk and talk about myself and it's just....wonderful. I really should buy them a trip to Disneyworld or something, but I'm not that rich.
Anyways, I love my friends. They push me to be better every day even though they don't really know it.
P.P.S. Alma 37:47......that's one of my theme scriptures for life. Even though the whole verse itself doesn't make a whole lot of sense out of context.....the I love the part that says "Look to God, and live."
That's so important to remember. Even though I'm all giddy and freaking out about this awesome guy from choir.....everything is in God's hands. 'Look to God, and live' is the best advice I could probably ever give anybody.
Heavenly Father truly does know us and knows what is best for us. As long as we trust in Him everything in our plan will go accordingly.
The brownies from my brother's wedding are almost gone!!!
Bad news.....
The reason why they are almost gone is because I've eaten a large quantity of them.
Wa-hoops!
Why am I eating at 11:00 at night, you may ask? (you're thinking....I had no idea you were eating in the first place, ha ha) The answer is because I haven't eaten since noon and my body started to tell me that eating is necessary for living.
So, I opened the fridge, cause my mom told me there was a sub sandwich thing in there, and when I looked inside I saw this HUGE like two foot by 6 inch sub and I started laughing. I'm not really sure why I laughed so hard......maybe I'm tired??? Maybe I'm suffering from post choir stress syndrome.
It must be the second one.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
*takes bite of brownie*
Oh blog....what do I do?
*takes bite of sandwich*
Ha ha ha, okie....so as I've probably mentioned this before...there is this boy. Boy....man? What is he? He's too old to be a boy, I suppose. I can't talk about too many specifics cause what if he ever read this!?!? Oh man! Or what if one of our friends from choir read this and was like...."Dude, I think she's typing about you...." That's embarrassing. Ugh....that's really embarrassing.
So no specifics.
The point I wanted to get across in this is.....talking to boys is hard!
k, so not really. I'm really good at talking to guys that I have no interest in.
I wanted to make that my Facebook status, but then I realized that all of my guy friends on Facebook would read that and be like...."Dang....that's harsh...she's never even stuttered around me! That must mean I have nothing to offer at all!" (Since I'm SO positive that all guys would think precisely that....ha ha ha ha)
It's true, man. Whenever I talk to guys that I don't want to date I'm like..."Oh yeah, blah blah, and then the etc. and btw how's your dog? La la blah....girls? Blah blah boys....whatever whatever subject." .......but whenever I talk to guy-who-is-not-being-specified I'm like...."Ohhhh....well......and.......dots". I'm a real linguist.
I dunno....he probably thinks I'm a brilliant linguist. I'm honestly not horrible at talking to him......I just find it hard to remember to think straight when I am talking to him.
Twitterpatted.
I do believe that's what that is called.
Ugh, monkeys.
Monkeys is my curse word. (this blog is no longer G rated)
On the plus side, this sandwich is really good. Aaaaaand maybe if I go to bed now I'll be rested enough to go to the temple in the morning. I hope. *crosses fingers*
P.S. I have amazing friends! It's strange cause a lot of my really close friends are actually a year younger than me. That doesn't make me immature.......that makes THEM EXTREMELY mature! Ha ha ha! I went over to my friend Kaylee's house last night and, boy, I just love those girls! Kaylee, Blaire, and Kayla. It's so vain of me, but they just let me talk and talk and talk about myself and it's just....wonderful. I really should buy them a trip to Disneyworld or something, but I'm not that rich.
Anyways, I love my friends. They push me to be better every day even though they don't really know it.
P.P.S. Alma 37:47......that's one of my theme scriptures for life. Even though the whole verse itself doesn't make a whole lot of sense out of context.....the I love the part that says "Look to God, and live."
That's so important to remember. Even though I'm all giddy and freaking out about this awesome guy from choir.....everything is in God's hands. 'Look to God, and live' is the best advice I could probably ever give anybody.
Heavenly Father truly does know us and knows what is best for us. As long as we trust in Him everything in our plan will go accordingly.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Cats
Cats have such an easy life. I have three kittens at my house and they are like....the prince and princesses of our whole universe. They are spoiled to the tee, man. I actually have two of them sitting on my bed with me as we speak (or....as I type) and they are just....adorable. But, boy, do they have it easy!
Now, before you think my family is a crazy cat family....let me explain. We adopted Frodo from the sad little animal place by Dinosaur Park and we were content with only having one kitten. (they are all older cats....but I still call them kittens)
Then....Dave came into the picture. Dave is my step-dad/mother's husband/my good buddy and he brought with him two little girl kittens. So for the past almost two years we have had three insanely personable cats running around our house.
Both they and my dog (don't worry, we only have ONE dog) are CRAZY people animals. We'll be watching TV or just sitting in the living room or eating dinner or just...doing ANYTHING and all four animals will have to be there with us. They always have to be sitting on someone's lap and MUST be in on the action of the house at all times.
(so if you're ever lonely, just come over to my house.....the kittens will ease your loneliness, ha ha)
Anyways, the reason I'm talking about cats really has nothing to do with my cats! I mentioned that cats have it really easy....cause well, they do! They eat, meow, sleep, purr, get petted, sleep, drink, sleep, get petted, sleep, whine, get petted, meow, sleep...............
Not a lot changes.
Well, right now I kind of feel like a cat. Ha ha ha ha! (I'm so deep and metaphorical....people should pay me for these writings *cough*)
Not a lot is changing right now. I'm SO happy with life! I'm at a pretty good stage in school right now, the school district is my best friend cause they find it easy to just hand me four jobs when I didn't even do anything, I have wonderful best friends (who SO faithfully read my blog....creepers....) that support me when I'm cool, uncool, happy, sad, mad, glad, whatever.
The past 6 months or so have been hard for my family, but we have made it through it, stayed strong, but it'll be interesting to see what happens in the future. The future does look bright so that's always a plus.
I dunno......just so many things are going good in my life and life altering changes are far and few between as of late.
Which leads me to believe that things might change for me in the next while. Who knows....maybe not *shrugs*, but it always seems like when you're getting comfortable with something things change.
I know the reason for that though. The reason is God wants to teach us something. Right now I'm just mowing lawns part of the week, teaching art on the other days, and going to institute or ward activities every night. It's a good life!
I'm not saying Heavenly Father recognizes that I'm loving life and wants to DESTROY it! I'm saying that I have seen a pattern in my life that when I get comfortable with life.....it always changes. Not necessarily in a BAD way, just in....a way.
We'll see what happens. I may or may not be a cat for much longer.
Today in Relief Society we talked about mothers and we read the talk by M. Russell Ballard from last Conference about Mothers and Daughters. Loved it! It was really neat to see all the girls in my ward talk about their mothers and the wonderful influence they have been on them.
I got to talk about my mom for a little bit, but I can never really fully ever talk about my mom and all of the awesome things she has done for me. My mom is my best friend. And you know when you are in a relationship with a friend whom you call your best friend there is usually the smart friend and the friend that usually needs more help than the smart friend.
Well......I'm NOT the smart friend when it comes to my relationship with my mom. Ha ha ha! I'm probably not when it comes to my relationship with Sarah either. (Sarah.....she knows how strange I am. The End.)
My mom is so smart! She has helped me so much in my life. Literally everyday she has helped me with something. I hope my kid's think I'm as cool as her when I'm their mom. If not....I guess we'll be hanging out at Grandma's house a lot when I have babies.
I was thinking a lot about my mom yesterday as my brother got married. It must be hard seeing your oldest child get married. It was kind of hard for me to see him off getting married cause even though he's two years older than me.....I'm definitely the most parental child in my family. (they would all be laughing at me if any of my family were reading this right now.....ha ha ha ha ha)
It's hard to explain, I guess. I'm not REALLY like a parent, but since my parents are divorced and all that jazz, I've had to take on some parental roles over the past couple of years. I'll never be as influential as my mom has been for me or either of my siblings though.
Mothers are amazing! Especially mine. Everyone always says that they have the best mom.....and well....they are right. Everyone does have the BEST mom. For themselves. Fragment sentence.
I firmly believe that all of us were sent to the mothers that we were for a reason. The moms that we are given were designed that way for a purpose and for that.....everyone really does have the best mom!
I know that my mom is the best for me and I'll always be grateful to my Father in Heaven for sending me to her. :)
My mom has always helped me through changes in my life....so I know if I stop being a cat soon my mom will be right there experiencing my non-cat like life with me and will do so cheerfully!
Now, before you think my family is a crazy cat family....let me explain. We adopted Frodo from the sad little animal place by Dinosaur Park and we were content with only having one kitten. (they are all older cats....but I still call them kittens)
Then....Dave came into the picture. Dave is my step-dad/mother's husband/my good buddy and he brought with him two little girl kittens. So for the past almost two years we have had three insanely personable cats running around our house.
Both they and my dog (don't worry, we only have ONE dog) are CRAZY people animals. We'll be watching TV or just sitting in the living room or eating dinner or just...doing ANYTHING and all four animals will have to be there with us. They always have to be sitting on someone's lap and MUST be in on the action of the house at all times.
(so if you're ever lonely, just come over to my house.....the kittens will ease your loneliness, ha ha)
Anyways, the reason I'm talking about cats really has nothing to do with my cats! I mentioned that cats have it really easy....cause well, they do! They eat, meow, sleep, purr, get petted, sleep, drink, sleep, get petted, sleep, whine, get petted, meow, sleep...............
Not a lot changes.
Well, right now I kind of feel like a cat. Ha ha ha ha! (I'm so deep and metaphorical....people should pay me for these writings *cough*)
Not a lot is changing right now. I'm SO happy with life! I'm at a pretty good stage in school right now, the school district is my best friend cause they find it easy to just hand me four jobs when I didn't even do anything, I have wonderful best friends (who SO faithfully read my blog....creepers....) that support me when I'm cool, uncool, happy, sad, mad, glad, whatever.
The past 6 months or so have been hard for my family, but we have made it through it, stayed strong, but it'll be interesting to see what happens in the future. The future does look bright so that's always a plus.
I dunno......just so many things are going good in my life and life altering changes are far and few between as of late.
Which leads me to believe that things might change for me in the next while. Who knows....maybe not *shrugs*, but it always seems like when you're getting comfortable with something things change.
I know the reason for that though. The reason is God wants to teach us something. Right now I'm just mowing lawns part of the week, teaching art on the other days, and going to institute or ward activities every night. It's a good life!
I'm not saying Heavenly Father recognizes that I'm loving life and wants to DESTROY it! I'm saying that I have seen a pattern in my life that when I get comfortable with life.....it always changes. Not necessarily in a BAD way, just in....a way.
We'll see what happens. I may or may not be a cat for much longer.
Today in Relief Society we talked about mothers and we read the talk by M. Russell Ballard from last Conference about Mothers and Daughters. Loved it! It was really neat to see all the girls in my ward talk about their mothers and the wonderful influence they have been on them.
I got to talk about my mom for a little bit, but I can never really fully ever talk about my mom and all of the awesome things she has done for me. My mom is my best friend. And you know when you are in a relationship with a friend whom you call your best friend there is usually the smart friend and the friend that usually needs more help than the smart friend.
Well......I'm NOT the smart friend when it comes to my relationship with my mom. Ha ha ha! I'm probably not when it comes to my relationship with Sarah either. (Sarah.....she knows how strange I am. The End.)
My mom is so smart! She has helped me so much in my life. Literally everyday she has helped me with something. I hope my kid's think I'm as cool as her when I'm their mom. If not....I guess we'll be hanging out at Grandma's house a lot when I have babies.
I was thinking a lot about my mom yesterday as my brother got married. It must be hard seeing your oldest child get married. It was kind of hard for me to see him off getting married cause even though he's two years older than me.....I'm definitely the most parental child in my family. (they would all be laughing at me if any of my family were reading this right now.....ha ha ha ha ha)
It's hard to explain, I guess. I'm not REALLY like a parent, but since my parents are divorced and all that jazz, I've had to take on some parental roles over the past couple of years. I'll never be as influential as my mom has been for me or either of my siblings though.
Mothers are amazing! Especially mine. Everyone always says that they have the best mom.....and well....they are right. Everyone does have the BEST mom. For themselves. Fragment sentence.
I firmly believe that all of us were sent to the mothers that we were for a reason. The moms that we are given were designed that way for a purpose and for that.....everyone really does have the best mom!
I know that my mom is the best for me and I'll always be grateful to my Father in Heaven for sending me to her. :)
My mom has always helped me through changes in my life....so I know if I stop being a cat soon my mom will be right there experiencing my non-cat like life with me and will do so cheerfully!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Pure
I love feeling clean. Especially after a really long day of not feeling clean. Ha ha ha ha.
I worked all day (8 hours) at Northridge and guess what I did?? I edged! Edging is SO rewarding because you can see dramatic results most of the time. Mowing on the riding lawn mowers isn't as rewarding because it's just trimming the grass, and usually it's only getting clipped like.....2 inches. Weed eating isn't very rewarding either (unless you're doing a fence line) because by the time you weed eat something you don't remember what it looked like before you did it when it was all gross and gnarly.
Thus.....edging is the most rewarding and my favorite. (I realized today that I've edged Northridge the past 3 weeks in a row....I MUST love it??)
I edged around the school, like a 1/5 of the football field (the amazing girls on my crew did most of that), and the entire softball field. My friend Maddie and I were very frustrated with the softball field because the fences are.....strange....over there, so it made it harder, however that made it all the more victorious when we were done! Ha ha ha!
What I'm trying to get at with all of this is...manual labor makes you gross. No, not YOU, that's just a bad habit writers get into...saying "you" generally means the populus of the subject being written on.... ie. manual labor. Manual labor makes ME gross.
From that full day I had to go clean the school (the school, aka the elementary school I teach at) for an hour....right after that I went and worked out for an hour.....RIGHT after that I had to like....sponge down and go to my sister's Lite Team induction and precisely after that I went to the temple.
From the dirt to the sweat to the more sweat to the getting wet at the temple, being clean after a shower has never felt better.
As always I learned something awesome at the temple today! Ha ha! Don't you just love that I tell you about the temple all the time?? Well, you probably do love it cause you continue to read my blog....if you didn't love it....well....you wouldn't...be reading this. :)
I learned that I need to be more grateful.
People frustrate me. I have co-workers that frustrate me and I usually spend parts of my day wondering why people have to be the way they are and it just gets to me and festers.
I'm a huge people watcher and I'm really into.......just knowing about people! I love knowing why people act the way that they do and all of that boring psychology stuff. So when people do things either rude or unnecessary or just strange in general it festers and stays with me for awhile.
I usually don't let people know about it because it's honestly not that big of a deal and goes away after I find a new person to focus my curiousity on, ha ha, but still....
So as I was thinking about this today in the temple and thinking about why people are so maddening sometimes.......I got this peaceful kind of nudge from the spirit that I needed to be a more grateful person.
People are only maddening because I make them so in my eyes.
If there is one thing I always learn from the temple that is that Heavenly Father loves all of His children. It's like what an institute teacher down at SUU said one time at a fireside...."That person you don't like, God loves." (Brother Rowe)
Because of this....I had a humbling spirit tell me that I needed to get over myself and be more grateful.
Gratitude will always cure an negative feeling that comes your way! I know that for sure. I have so much to be grateful for too.
All of the things I'm MOST grateful for are pretty obvious like my Savior, the temple, my mom and the rest of the family I guess (ha ha), the restored Gospel, the Book of Mormon, institute, righteous friends, opportunities to serve, work, grow. I have SO much to be thankful for.
I'll always be eternally grateful for the year that I was down in Cedar. I went to the St. George Temple every Thursday while I was down there and I got to know all of the sweet temple workers that worked there from 10-2 on Thursdays!
I'm probably going to cry when I talk about this....because they really mean a lot to me. Since I went in the middle of the day there weren't a lot of other people there besides the temple workers so I really grew to know and love them.
They were always SO happy when I walked through the door and they all knew me as Sister Hunter and always remembered me. I felt so loved by them and ulimately by my Savior that year that I went down there.
Those temple workers always gave me really unnecessary compliments too. There was a sweet sister that always gave me my jumpsuit that would tell me every week how wonderful and righteous I was. She always told me how much she looked up to me because I came every week and I just.......ah....I miss them. They made me stronger and more willing to go to the temple.
The priesthood that would confirm me every week was always the same and they all became like grandpas to me, just like the sweet ladies that were like my grandmas. The men would always sit there and read to me where the people I was doing the work for were from and when they lived. They made temple work come alive for me and helped me really grasp and appreciate what I was doing.
I love all of them. They were the main thing I regretted the most leaving down there. I miss it and them a lot.
Tonight when I went to Ogden to do baptisms there was a really sweet lady who was helping the girls in the locker room and it was such a repeating testimony to me that no matter where you are and no matter who you are....if you're doing the Lord's work then you'll be blessed with a sweet spirit.
So even though I miss my grandparents at the St. George Temple a lot.... I do know that there are amazing people wherever you go and whatever temple is closest.
In conclusion, going along with the title of my blog..............I really want to go to the Washington D.C. Temple. Yes, the work is the same wherever you (you or I) go, but I just love the actual structure of the D.C. Temple itself.
I want to go........
I worked all day (8 hours) at Northridge and guess what I did?? I edged! Edging is SO rewarding because you can see dramatic results most of the time. Mowing on the riding lawn mowers isn't as rewarding because it's just trimming the grass, and usually it's only getting clipped like.....2 inches. Weed eating isn't very rewarding either (unless you're doing a fence line) because by the time you weed eat something you don't remember what it looked like before you did it when it was all gross and gnarly.
Thus.....edging is the most rewarding and my favorite. (I realized today that I've edged Northridge the past 3 weeks in a row....I MUST love it??)
I edged around the school, like a 1/5 of the football field (the amazing girls on my crew did most of that), and the entire softball field. My friend Maddie and I were very frustrated with the softball field because the fences are.....strange....over there, so it made it harder, however that made it all the more victorious when we were done! Ha ha ha!
What I'm trying to get at with all of this is...manual labor makes you gross. No, not YOU, that's just a bad habit writers get into...saying "you" generally means the populus of the subject being written on.... ie. manual labor. Manual labor makes ME gross.
From that full day I had to go clean the school (the school, aka the elementary school I teach at) for an hour....right after that I went and worked out for an hour.....RIGHT after that I had to like....sponge down and go to my sister's Lite Team induction and precisely after that I went to the temple.
From the dirt to the sweat to the more sweat to the getting wet at the temple, being clean after a shower has never felt better.
As always I learned something awesome at the temple today! Ha ha! Don't you just love that I tell you about the temple all the time?? Well, you probably do love it cause you continue to read my blog....if you didn't love it....well....you wouldn't...be reading this. :)
I learned that I need to be more grateful.
People frustrate me. I have co-workers that frustrate me and I usually spend parts of my day wondering why people have to be the way they are and it just gets to me and festers.
I'm a huge people watcher and I'm really into.......just knowing about people! I love knowing why people act the way that they do and all of that boring psychology stuff. So when people do things either rude or unnecessary or just strange in general it festers and stays with me for awhile.
I usually don't let people know about it because it's honestly not that big of a deal and goes away after I find a new person to focus my curiousity on, ha ha, but still....
So as I was thinking about this today in the temple and thinking about why people are so maddening sometimes.......I got this peaceful kind of nudge from the spirit that I needed to be a more grateful person.
People are only maddening because I make them so in my eyes.
If there is one thing I always learn from the temple that is that Heavenly Father loves all of His children. It's like what an institute teacher down at SUU said one time at a fireside...."That person you don't like, God loves." (Brother Rowe)
Because of this....I had a humbling spirit tell me that I needed to get over myself and be more grateful.
Gratitude will always cure an negative feeling that comes your way! I know that for sure. I have so much to be grateful for too.
All of the things I'm MOST grateful for are pretty obvious like my Savior, the temple, my mom and the rest of the family I guess (ha ha), the restored Gospel, the Book of Mormon, institute, righteous friends, opportunities to serve, work, grow. I have SO much to be thankful for.
I'll always be eternally grateful for the year that I was down in Cedar. I went to the St. George Temple every Thursday while I was down there and I got to know all of the sweet temple workers that worked there from 10-2 on Thursdays!
I'm probably going to cry when I talk about this....because they really mean a lot to me. Since I went in the middle of the day there weren't a lot of other people there besides the temple workers so I really grew to know and love them.
They were always SO happy when I walked through the door and they all knew me as Sister Hunter and always remembered me. I felt so loved by them and ulimately by my Savior that year that I went down there.
Those temple workers always gave me really unnecessary compliments too. There was a sweet sister that always gave me my jumpsuit that would tell me every week how wonderful and righteous I was. She always told me how much she looked up to me because I came every week and I just.......ah....I miss them. They made me stronger and more willing to go to the temple.
The priesthood that would confirm me every week was always the same and they all became like grandpas to me, just like the sweet ladies that were like my grandmas. The men would always sit there and read to me where the people I was doing the work for were from and when they lived. They made temple work come alive for me and helped me really grasp and appreciate what I was doing.
I love all of them. They were the main thing I regretted the most leaving down there. I miss it and them a lot.
Tonight when I went to Ogden to do baptisms there was a really sweet lady who was helping the girls in the locker room and it was such a repeating testimony to me that no matter where you are and no matter who you are....if you're doing the Lord's work then you'll be blessed with a sweet spirit.
So even though I miss my grandparents at the St. George Temple a lot.... I do know that there are amazing people wherever you go and whatever temple is closest.
In conclusion, going along with the title of my blog..............I really want to go to the Washington D.C. Temple. Yes, the work is the same wherever you (you or I) go, but I just love the actual structure of the D.C. Temple itself.
I want to go........
Monday, May 17, 2010
Maybe if I was taller....
This informacion (as we say en Espanol) is mostly for my future posterity that I'm writing this for..... I'm 5'2" and I'm pretty much never going to grow anymore. Just in case the title of this post made you curious.
However, that's not my problem. My problem is that so many people think I'm still in high school! *sigh* Why??
Even when I'm around little high school girls, older women STILL think I blend in and think I'm....one of them! Wha-hut?!!?
And it's strange because every time this happens and I complain to *insert name of family member or friend* they always say "oh, well, you'll be grateful to hear that when you're older."
What?!!?
No, I won't be! Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Who EVER wants to be mistaken for a high schooler? Who EVER......EVER....psh.....
Wow. Ha ha ha. I would love to be mistaken for a gorgeous young adult around the age of 22 or 23 for the rest of my life. That'd be dandy, but nope.... I'm not that lucky.
Plus, it's so awkward when ladies at work ask me if I'm still in high school. Um.....what? A. I'm here teaching 1st-3rd graders art....during the school day. During. Duuuuring it. B. The school district doesn't hire people under the age of 18. C. I honestly don't look that young. I STARE at my face everyday in the mirror....I'm not acne ridden and high schoolish.
No, I'm not bitter. This is not a post of malice.
Ok, maybe it kind of is.
It's also awkward when ladies/people ask you what grade you're in and you have to say...."Uh....oh....well, I go to Weber and I'm half way to my bachelors. Uh......."
Nuff said.
Maybe I need to learn to....do my make-up differently? Maybe I need new clothes??
I've actually been holding out on buying new clothes cause I'm going to the gym like mad and eating healthy so hopefully in a couple of months I'll be at a good point in life where I can be like....shopping spree! But....for now...no new clothes.
I don't THINK it's my hair. So many girls my age and older are growing their hair out cause it's the style now-a-days. Maybe older ladies think that looks immature.
Maybe I won't look like I'm in my 20's till I have 3 babies and I chop my hair off all mother-like.
Heaven forbid.
In the end, I know all of the people who have mistaken me for a junior in high school would be mortified if they knew I was saying things like this. Ha ha ha. That's why I'm glad they won't read this.
It all just makes me self conscious though. It makes me feel like if I really do look way young that guys aren't going to ask me out. Not that they do.....that might be the reason why they don't......awwww.... :(
Ha ha ha ha! My lovely friend and I talk about dating or the lack thereof a lot, and since we are on the lack thereof side we kind of talk about parallels with dating and spirituality.
One thing that we have talked about that I know to be true is I think the fact that I don't date a lot is just God's way of saving me from a lot of heart ache. If I did date a lot and got my hopes up too much that would just be.....miserable, I think.
I truly know that my Father in Heaven has a plan for me and whether or not I date a lot, a little, or not at all right now....well, that's in my plan.
I also know that all of the people that have been calling me a high schooler lately have done that because it was in the plan of my life to make me frustrated and re-evaluate myself. Ha ha. It's funny how God gives us strange little tests.
Apparently, I'm failing this one! :)
However, that's not my problem. My problem is that so many people think I'm still in high school! *sigh* Why??
Even when I'm around little high school girls, older women STILL think I blend in and think I'm....one of them! Wha-hut?!!?
And it's strange because every time this happens and I complain to *insert name of family member or friend* they always say "oh, well, you'll be grateful to hear that when you're older."
What?!!?
No, I won't be! Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Who EVER wants to be mistaken for a high schooler? Who EVER......EVER....psh.....
Wow. Ha ha ha. I would love to be mistaken for a gorgeous young adult around the age of 22 or 23 for the rest of my life. That'd be dandy, but nope.... I'm not that lucky.
Plus, it's so awkward when ladies at work ask me if I'm still in high school. Um.....what? A. I'm here teaching 1st-3rd graders art....during the school day. During. Duuuuring it. B. The school district doesn't hire people under the age of 18. C. I honestly don't look that young. I STARE at my face everyday in the mirror....I'm not acne ridden and high schoolish.
No, I'm not bitter. This is not a post of malice.
Ok, maybe it kind of is.
It's also awkward when ladies/people ask you what grade you're in and you have to say...."Uh....oh....well, I go to Weber and I'm half way to my bachelors. Uh......."
Nuff said.
Maybe I need to learn to....do my make-up differently? Maybe I need new clothes??
I've actually been holding out on buying new clothes cause I'm going to the gym like mad and eating healthy so hopefully in a couple of months I'll be at a good point in life where I can be like....shopping spree! But....for now...no new clothes.
I don't THINK it's my hair. So many girls my age and older are growing their hair out cause it's the style now-a-days. Maybe older ladies think that looks immature.
Maybe I won't look like I'm in my 20's till I have 3 babies and I chop my hair off all mother-like.
Heaven forbid.
In the end, I know all of the people who have mistaken me for a junior in high school would be mortified if they knew I was saying things like this. Ha ha ha. That's why I'm glad they won't read this.
It all just makes me self conscious though. It makes me feel like if I really do look way young that guys aren't going to ask me out. Not that they do.....that might be the reason why they don't......awwww.... :(
Ha ha ha ha! My lovely friend and I talk about dating or the lack thereof a lot, and since we are on the lack thereof side we kind of talk about parallels with dating and spirituality.
One thing that we have talked about that I know to be true is I think the fact that I don't date a lot is just God's way of saving me from a lot of heart ache. If I did date a lot and got my hopes up too much that would just be.....miserable, I think.
I truly know that my Father in Heaven has a plan for me and whether or not I date a lot, a little, or not at all right now....well, that's in my plan.
I also know that all of the people that have been calling me a high schooler lately have done that because it was in the plan of my life to make me frustrated and re-evaluate myself. Ha ha. It's funny how God gives us strange little tests.
Apparently, I'm failing this one! :)
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Voy al Templo! Arriba!
My foot is asleep.
I'm sure you wanted to know that.
Ha ha! I just got done mowing the lawn and it took me like....20 minutes! *flexes muscle* Oh yes. Profesh, I be. Ha ha ha ha. I'm kind of bummed that our weed wacker isn't working though. There are so many gloriously ugly weeds out there and need to be taken down! However, our weed wacker isn't as nice as the ones at work and kind of actually makes my legs bleed.....which in turn makes me wear long pants....which in turn turn makes summer less enjoyable.
Anyways, I went to the temple today with my sista and it was kind of sad cause we got there and Chels was like...."Oh crap....I forgot my recommend." So we sat there and were like.....well we could go home and come back, but that would take like an hour, so she was nice enough to wait in the waiting room for me while I went and did baptisms.
While I was there today I decided something. The temple gets better every single time I go. You can honestly never reach a spiritual peak and just idle there. Spirituality grows and grows forever! And boy, I still have lots of growing to do, but it's cool to recognize such things.
It was really cute....ha ha ha ha....there was a group of young-ish maybe like 20-23 year old girls there with their one guy friend and they just kind of let me join their group. I'm so used to going alone (that sounds ominious) that I get stuck with people I don't know more often than not. The people you meet at the temple are seriously the sweetest ever.
When we were in the room doing confirmations the first girl went up to get confirmed and the temple worker who was recording said to her..."Alright, so when they [meaning the priesthood holders] say 'amen' you say it too. And then you smile, k?" Ha ha ha ha ha! It made ME smile so much that he said that! I seriously had a permanant smile after that. Ha ha ha!!
A lot of the time proxies don't say amen after the priesthood holders do so I thought that was cute that he told her to. But it was even more cute that he said to smile. Ha ha ha ha!
I just know that if the people that we were doing the work for were actually THERE to do it for themselves they would be smiling ear to ear. Can you imagine that? People that have found the truth on the other side and have been waiting a long time for it? They would definitely be smiling. I'm going to smile for them everytime I go now.
Love temple workers. So inspired!
The main guy in charge of the baptistry recognized me from last week apparently (and I felt bad that I didn't remember him) so he kept coming over and being like "Sister Hunter blah blah..." "Sister Hunter will you do this name for me?" "Sister Hunter etc. etc." Ha ha ha! Why are temple workers so nice? I just love them.
But he had me do a family name baptism that someone forgot to do, I guess. Just one name. It makes me wonder if I knew her in the pre-existence or something. ;) Ha ha ha, maybe not.
It brings me so much joy doing temple work! I have an awesome missionary friend (who comes home in less than two months! Crazy!) and he helped me realize that doing temple work is like doing missionary work. It's bringing God's children back to Him. I just love that. I love my Savior and I know He loves all of us.
Going to the temple is SO important.
On a different note....but still kind of spiritual note....I guess....I got this quote in an email today and I was like...."I gotta post this!"
Although I've never had a problem with chastity and what not, it's still an amazing insight. I think too often people only like to read and find comfort in spiritual things that pertain directly to THEM. Like if I did have a problem with this sin it might HELP me overcome it....but I think too often people don't realize that being versed all things spiritual just makes you a better person overall. Even if you don't have a problem with said sin. Anyways, here is it! Sister Dalton is one of my heroes. Seriously!
-Elaine S. Dalton
Pondering....
I feel like the next year or so is going to bring lots of changes. Lots of huge changes.
Hmmm.....I can feel it in the water. (ha ha)
I'm going to the temple in the morning so I need to go to sleep. I haven't been this week yet and I'm feeling the wear and tear of the world.
The main thing that has been on my mind lately though is the fact that faith is so important. Really with faith anything is possible and we are able to reach our full potential.
I love Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father. I have so many blessings just from having faith.
Bring on the change!
Hmmm.....I can feel it in the water. (ha ha)
I'm going to the temple in the morning so I need to go to sleep. I haven't been this week yet and I'm feeling the wear and tear of the world.
The main thing that has been on my mind lately though is the fact that faith is so important. Really with faith anything is possible and we are able to reach our full potential.
I love Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father. I have so many blessings just from having faith.
Bring on the change!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Scriptures are good for the soul
1 Nephi 17: 3
And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.
I can not express how true that scripture is!
I know that as we are sojourning through the "wilderness" that we call life things can be hard sometimes (more than only sometimes for most people), and keeping the commandments will always bring eternal blessings.
I might blog more about this later because it's late, but my friend and I have often talked about the concept that some people only think they need to be churchy on Sundays. There are actually quite a few people in our ward that believe in that concept and find it strange that my friend and I are so...."churchy".
Well, I'm just gonna say what my friend and I always say....honestly....you can NEVER be TOO churchy! :)
Good heavens, people, Christ is the center of the universe....or should be the center of OUR universe. (I'm into CAPS today for some reason, ha ha)
Christ created all that we have, and all that we are, and all that is good and wonderful in this world and for that reason.....you can never be too churchy. :)
"Choose ye this day whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."
I'm constantly trying to be a better person which is one of the main reasons I love that scripture at the top so much, is because it gives me strength to know that if I'm trying and doing my best I will receive the needed help to accomplish all that I need to do.
Like I've said before with the temple....I NEED the temple in my life to make me a better person. I need church to be a better person.......so me saying all of that stuff about being "churchy"....well, I guess I am that way because I need to be a better person!
One day at a time, right?
And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.
I can not express how true that scripture is!
I know that as we are sojourning through the "wilderness" that we call life things can be hard sometimes (more than only sometimes for most people), and keeping the commandments will always bring eternal blessings.
I might blog more about this later because it's late, but my friend and I have often talked about the concept that some people only think they need to be churchy on Sundays. There are actually quite a few people in our ward that believe in that concept and find it strange that my friend and I are so...."churchy".
Well, I'm just gonna say what my friend and I always say....honestly....you can NEVER be TOO churchy! :)
Good heavens, people, Christ is the center of the universe....or should be the center of OUR universe. (I'm into CAPS today for some reason, ha ha)
Christ created all that we have, and all that we are, and all that is good and wonderful in this world and for that reason.....you can never be too churchy. :)
"Choose ye this day whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."
I'm constantly trying to be a better person which is one of the main reasons I love that scripture at the top so much, is because it gives me strength to know that if I'm trying and doing my best I will receive the needed help to accomplish all that I need to do.
Like I've said before with the temple....I NEED the temple in my life to make me a better person. I need church to be a better person.......so me saying all of that stuff about being "churchy"....well, I guess I am that way because I need to be a better person!
One day at a time, right?
Friday, May 7, 2010
Growth
I've kind of been pushing myself to the limit lately. Does that sound dangerous?? Ooooooo....
I've been forcing myself to go to the gym everyday. I've also slowly been increasing the intensity of my work out everyday and it's been hard.
Some people are born athletic. Some people were put in a dance class since the age of 2....danced danced danced and by the time they were in the 8th grade their ballet teacher told them that they were too "careful" and "delicate" of a dancer.
.......I'm the second option. Ha ha ha ha ha.
My ballet teacher really did tell me that. That takes TRUE talent to be TOO delicate for ballet, I'll tell you what. Ha ha ha ha.....but really....I was always too short for ballet....it was a love/hate relationship....woulda never worked out.
Anyways, what I'm trying to say is I've always been too delicate. So lately since I've been trying to be tough *grrrr*...well, it's been tough! Working out is hard business when you've been "delicate" your whole life and never really taken it seriously.
People are so interesting when it comes to body imagine. I've never thought I was ugly. And truly, I honestly don't think I've ever been fat to the point where I would have to be down on myself all the time. In fact, I've been rather skinny for the majority of my life.
But things change when you eat healthy and work out all the time.
One of the big things that changes is how much attention you get from guys. Vain, huh? Guys are SO vain! I've been losing some weight lately because of this.....self inflicted pressure to make myself "tough" and guys have been noticing me more.
Why is that??
My face didn't change. My personality didn't change.
It's kind of no wonder that so many girls are so concerned about their appearance and are always wanting to change things to be more appealing. I've never really understood that till recently. And although I understand it better now.....I wish I didn't have to understand it. It's sad that there is so much pressure to be perfect, body wise. I hate it.
So I guess physically I've been testing myself and having growth from that experience.
I've been growing in other ways too.
I've been growing in patience, I think. I hope.
There is this guy........that I don't know what to do with...........dots.........
I would like to date him.......which may or may not be totally unrealistic.....and which also might be totally out of the question....and which totally might be jumping the gun.....and and and....
So because there are many things that it might be.....I'm growing in patience is see what is going to happen. As I've said before, most of my past experiences with guys have been scenarios consisting of me telling a guy that I like him and then we date each other. Generally the guy had already been liking me....I just had to be the one to make that initial...."hey, date me..." step.
*sigh* I don't want to do that with this guy though. I feel like that's just designing the situation to fail. I guess I just need to follow the spirit and see what happens....
I've also been growing in patience concerning things regarding school. At this point I'm just going to get my associates and that'll be splendid. I know if I have faith and give it some more time then the semester of truth, aka knowing where I should transfer/not transfer/mission, will all make sense.
Patience is hard......but kind of like going to the gym.....you have to force yourself sometimes to have it or do it in the end....it'll probably get you a husband.
(what a beautiful and horribly cheesy analogy)
I've been forcing myself to go to the gym everyday. I've also slowly been increasing the intensity of my work out everyday and it's been hard.
Some people are born athletic. Some people were put in a dance class since the age of 2....danced danced danced and by the time they were in the 8th grade their ballet teacher told them that they were too "careful" and "delicate" of a dancer.
.......I'm the second option. Ha ha ha ha ha.
My ballet teacher really did tell me that. That takes TRUE talent to be TOO delicate for ballet, I'll tell you what. Ha ha ha ha.....but really....I was always too short for ballet....it was a love/hate relationship....woulda never worked out.
Anyways, what I'm trying to say is I've always been too delicate. So lately since I've been trying to be tough *grrrr*...well, it's been tough! Working out is hard business when you've been "delicate" your whole life and never really taken it seriously.
People are so interesting when it comes to body imagine. I've never thought I was ugly. And truly, I honestly don't think I've ever been fat to the point where I would have to be down on myself all the time. In fact, I've been rather skinny for the majority of my life.
But things change when you eat healthy and work out all the time.
One of the big things that changes is how much attention you get from guys. Vain, huh? Guys are SO vain! I've been losing some weight lately because of this.....self inflicted pressure to make myself "tough" and guys have been noticing me more.
Why is that??
My face didn't change. My personality didn't change.
It's kind of no wonder that so many girls are so concerned about their appearance and are always wanting to change things to be more appealing. I've never really understood that till recently. And although I understand it better now.....I wish I didn't have to understand it. It's sad that there is so much pressure to be perfect, body wise. I hate it.
So I guess physically I've been testing myself and having growth from that experience.
I've been growing in other ways too.
I've been growing in patience, I think. I hope.
There is this guy........that I don't know what to do with...........dots.........
I would like to date him.......which may or may not be totally unrealistic.....and which also might be totally out of the question....and which totally might be jumping the gun.....and and and....
So because there are many things that it might be.....I'm growing in patience is see what is going to happen. As I've said before, most of my past experiences with guys have been scenarios consisting of me telling a guy that I like him and then we date each other. Generally the guy had already been liking me....I just had to be the one to make that initial...."hey, date me..." step.
*sigh* I don't want to do that with this guy though. I feel like that's just designing the situation to fail. I guess I just need to follow the spirit and see what happens....
I've also been growing in patience concerning things regarding school. At this point I'm just going to get my associates and that'll be splendid. I know if I have faith and give it some more time then the semester of truth, aka knowing where I should transfer/not transfer/mission, will all make sense.
Patience is hard......but kind of like going to the gym.....you have to force yourself sometimes to have it or do it in the end....it'll probably get you a husband.
(what a beautiful and horribly cheesy analogy)
Sunday, May 2, 2010
The Blessings of Heaven
I feel like I only ever blog about spiritual stuff or guy/boy/men problem stuff.
Wellllll, good news!!!
This post won't be any different.
I know you were hoping I'd say that!
I've had such an awesome day! I was able to go sing down at the Conference Center with a young single adult choir from a bunch of our cute singles wards in Layton and Kaysville for our Regional Conference.
President Eyring, Sister Beck, Elder Hales, and Elder Rasband all spoke.
They were all amazing talks too....all full of wonderful things that I needed to hear.
I'm fairly certain it was Elder Rasband that came down to SUU and spoke one time at a fireside for us. He talked about the temple (which is ironic because today he talked about the temple also) and it kind of changed my life to be quite honest. You know those talks that kinda shake up your world and make you sit back and re-examine your testimony and stuff? Well, Elder Rasband always does that with me and the temple apparently!
When I was down at SUU I would go to St. George (sniffle....) and I was kind of being high and mighty at the time because well...I went to the temple every week and I kept thinking to myself...."good heck there are so many good members of the Church that have their priorities wrong because they never go to the temple etc. etc. etc." I was being completely vain and had the wrong attitude.
THEN, that fireside with Elder Rasband happened and he spoke about the temple with such sincerity and hope and reverence. He spoke in a way that motivated us to go more often and yet to just do the best we could. It really humbled me to be honest.
Temple attendance is a personal decision. I definitely learned that that day.
Today when he spoke about the temple it was awesome too! If you read my post from yesterday (was it yesterday?) I mentioned that I want to go to the temple more often....hopefully twice a week...and guess what Elder Rasband said today? (ha ha ha ha) He said that we should "double our efforts in going to the temple". I was kinda like......whoa....that's ironic!
Rather than calling it ironic, I look at it as a clear sign that it's a righteous goal to have and I should actually do it now instead of just being like..."uh, well maybe....if I like...stop sleeping in or something..."
God sends us signs just at the right times in life. Such a beautiful thing.
When I told my family on the way home that I wanted to "double my efforts" they were like...."I don't think he was talking about YOU, Amber."...(ha ha ha)...cause they know how often I go....but I honestly felt the spirit so much in the meeting and especially as he spoke about being more dedicated and going.
I might not always make it twice a week, but I can try at least, right? As long as the temple is on the mind...the actual physicality of being there is only a bonus.
Now, on a completely unrelated subject.......
When is my husband going to tell me that he should be my husband? Like seriously.......
Ha ha ha ha ha ha. This whole planning the future thing is horrific when you don't know concrete things like who you're going to marry and when.
Don't get me wrong....I'm 20 and if I don't get married till I'm 27, that's totally cool...and actually probably really cool cause it means I can be into my career and maybe have gone to India at that point!
But.......things just change so much and sometimes really fast. For all I know I could get married next year to someone that I haven't met yet! You just don't know.
The reason why I want to know when this whole marriage thing is going to happen is because of school. I'm hoping to go on a mission, but then....school.
I want to go into speech pathology....however....I'm gonna go to Utah State if that happens. What if my husband is at Weber? Or not Utah State? Or....AHHHH!
It's all in the plan, Amber. Things always work out.......*deep breaths*
Maybe I should triple my efforts in temple attendance.....it's very apparent that I need all the guidance I can get.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...time for bed.
Wellllll, good news!!!
This post won't be any different.
I know you were hoping I'd say that!
I've had such an awesome day! I was able to go sing down at the Conference Center with a young single adult choir from a bunch of our cute singles wards in Layton and Kaysville for our Regional Conference.
President Eyring, Sister Beck, Elder Hales, and Elder Rasband all spoke.
They were all amazing talks too....all full of wonderful things that I needed to hear.
I'm fairly certain it was Elder Rasband that came down to SUU and spoke one time at a fireside for us. He talked about the temple (which is ironic because today he talked about the temple also) and it kind of changed my life to be quite honest. You know those talks that kinda shake up your world and make you sit back and re-examine your testimony and stuff? Well, Elder Rasband always does that with me and the temple apparently!
When I was down at SUU I would go to St. George (sniffle....) and I was kind of being high and mighty at the time because well...I went to the temple every week and I kept thinking to myself...."good heck there are so many good members of the Church that have their priorities wrong because they never go to the temple etc. etc. etc." I was being completely vain and had the wrong attitude.
THEN, that fireside with Elder Rasband happened and he spoke about the temple with such sincerity and hope and reverence. He spoke in a way that motivated us to go more often and yet to just do the best we could. It really humbled me to be honest.
Temple attendance is a personal decision. I definitely learned that that day.
Today when he spoke about the temple it was awesome too! If you read my post from yesterday (was it yesterday?) I mentioned that I want to go to the temple more often....hopefully twice a week...and guess what Elder Rasband said today? (ha ha ha ha) He said that we should "double our efforts in going to the temple". I was kinda like......whoa....that's ironic!
Rather than calling it ironic, I look at it as a clear sign that it's a righteous goal to have and I should actually do it now instead of just being like..."uh, well maybe....if I like...stop sleeping in or something..."
God sends us signs just at the right times in life. Such a beautiful thing.
When I told my family on the way home that I wanted to "double my efforts" they were like...."I don't think he was talking about YOU, Amber."...(ha ha ha)...cause they know how often I go....but I honestly felt the spirit so much in the meeting and especially as he spoke about being more dedicated and going.
I might not always make it twice a week, but I can try at least, right? As long as the temple is on the mind...the actual physicality of being there is only a bonus.
Now, on a completely unrelated subject.......
When is my husband going to tell me that he should be my husband? Like seriously.......
Ha ha ha ha ha ha. This whole planning the future thing is horrific when you don't know concrete things like who you're going to marry and when.
Don't get me wrong....I'm 20 and if I don't get married till I'm 27, that's totally cool...and actually probably really cool cause it means I can be into my career and maybe have gone to India at that point!
But.......things just change so much and sometimes really fast. For all I know I could get married next year to someone that I haven't met yet! You just don't know.
The reason why I want to know when this whole marriage thing is going to happen is because of school. I'm hoping to go on a mission, but then....school.
I want to go into speech pathology....however....I'm gonna go to Utah State if that happens. What if my husband is at Weber? Or not Utah State? Or....AHHHH!
It's all in the plan, Amber. Things always work out.......*deep breaths*
Maybe I should triple my efforts in temple attendance.....it's very apparent that I need all the guidance I can get.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...time for bed.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Asia
Why do I always write on my blog late at night?
It's late at night and I can't sleep....missing you just runs too deep!
Or.....it's a quarter after one...I'm a little drunk and I need you nooooow. I said I wouldn't call, but I've lost all control and I need you noooow!
Or.....tonight I need your sweet caress....hold me in the darkness!
There are so many songs about night time and love and missing people. And although I don't know why, people relate to it all so beautifully. :D Ha ha ha ha
Anyways, this post isn't about night time saddness or love (well, jk it's kind of about love) or like.....missing people. I just thought I'd hash out some lyrics to open this post that has nothing to do with....late at night.
HOWEVER, (CAPS have POWER) it does have to do with Asia! Oh sssssssNAP! You woulda never guessed cause the title didn't give it away, huh?
Asia.
Specifically India.
I love India. Ever since I can remember I've wanted to go to India. You always ask people where they would want to go if they could travel the world and they are always like "OMG, Europe! Italy! Oh man! I have the strongest desire to go to Italy!" (yeah, you and everyone else, m'dear)
However, I've always wanted to go to India. As trivial as this sounds....I've done lots of studying on India over my lifetime because I've had to do things like country reports beginning in 6th grade all the way up through this last semester in school where I gave a powerpoint on India. Granted....I haven't learned as much as I would hope to... the bits that I HAVE learned have made me fascinated with the culture and I would just love to go there to learn more. To be immersed IN the culture really gives the full effect, obviously. I love learning about places that are very different from other places I've been to before.
My mom's uncle (so I guess my Great Uncle) went to India with the Peace Corps. for about three years. I've always wanted to do something like that too. Just go and serve!
About a year ago I was really looking into going abroad and volunteering for a couple of months. I was actually like emailing and calling companies that would take me places and seeing if it was possible. Some of the places I got in contact with would have taken me to places like Uganda or Costa Rica or Peru which all would have been AMAZING! However.....my dream place to go will always be India.
I didn't really give up on the whole volunteering abroad thing....I just decided it was going to have to happen in a couple of years and/or in many years down the road, because I need to get through school....blah blah...save money...all of those lame reasons.
Also, it's kind of maddening because I have a friend who is on his mission in India right now and his little brother who is really good friends with my sister (wow this sentence is getting confusing) told her that only native sister missionaries get to serve in India. :( Sad, huh? That probably would have been my dream mission......
Ha! I am willing to go wherever I am supposed to though. But for the sake of my vain sanity, India would be a dream come true to serve there or at least visit....I guess.
When my family went to Hong Kong after picking up my brother from Indonesia we went to the temple there which was amazing! Like....beyond amazing, actually. My sister and I were able to be baptized in Chinese which was like.....WOW! Fastest language I've ever heard! It was really neat. *7 seconds of gibberish* Amen. *7 seconds of gibberish* Amen. Ha ha ha!
It was a huge testimony builder to know that the Church is the same and the priesthood is the same all around the world. And, boy, does God love all of His children around the world too. He really does.
China has such a long long long long history. It has been around so much longer than places that members of the Church do genealogy and temple work for regularly. Because of that a lot of the names we did at the Hong Kong Temple went WAY farther back in history than the ones you normally get from like England etc. at the Ogden Temple, ha ha.
It makes me emotional thinking about the people I do temple work for. Heavenly Father truly does love all of us. He loves sinners, He loves the strong, the weak....He loves people that lived back when the Great Wall of China was being built and the people that helped build it....He loves people that will be born tomorrow or next week. Everybody!
You can say.....well, duh, He's God...of course He loves everybody! But when you really think about it....that's amazing that He loves and know each of us personally.
The temple always gives me a sense of how much love God really does have for me personally too. It gives me a greater eternal perspective.
While we were at the Hong Kong Temple there was a precious family from India there! (oh man, I want to go to India!) My mom and brother were told by a temple worker that they had gotten sealed a couple of days before and had just been doing sessions for a couple of days. There were the parents and about four kids, I think.
Oh man.....that made me cry. There are some temples in east Asia like in the Philipines, Japan, and Korea, but as far as western Asia..............Hong Kong is the closest. That was probably going to be that family's only time to ever go to the temple. Like....in their WHOLE life! Do you even realize how much that makes me cry?? (ha...I sound hostile)
I can't live without the temple!
We almost have 15 temples in Utah. *sigh* We are SO blessed. So richly blessed. A lot of people, myself included, take the temple for granted and it makes me sad. :(
I was going to go twice this week, but then my tiredness overcame me this morning so I only ended up going on Thursday. I really need to get there twice a week during the summer though. I have faith I can do it next week!! I hope! Ha ha!
I want to spread the good word of the Lord somewhere in the world. Even if I end up just going to Arizona or Nevada or something.....I just want to go somewhere and give selfless service. The main reason for that is because I know I'm NOT selfless. It's hard to be selfless.....that's why only God or people extremely close to God can achieve that quality.
President Monson is pretty selfless. I love that man. I hope to be called on a mission. Whether it be to Singapore or Las Vegas, it'll be beautiful.
"Face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and triumph with humility."
-President Thomas S. Monson
See what I mean? Selfless. I love my Prophet.
We thank Thee oh God for a Prophet to guide us in these latter days. We thank Thee for sending the Gospel to lighten our minds with it's rays. We thank thee for every blessing, bestowed by Thy bountiest hand, we feel it a pleasure to serve Thee and love to obey Thy command.
It's late at night and I can't sleep....missing you just runs too deep!
Or.....it's a quarter after one...I'm a little drunk and I need you nooooow. I said I wouldn't call, but I've lost all control and I need you noooow!
Or.....tonight I need your sweet caress....hold me in the darkness!
There are so many songs about night time and love and missing people. And although I don't know why, people relate to it all so beautifully. :D Ha ha ha ha
Anyways, this post isn't about night time saddness or love (well, jk it's kind of about love) or like.....missing people. I just thought I'd hash out some lyrics to open this post that has nothing to do with....late at night.
HOWEVER, (CAPS have POWER) it does have to do with Asia! Oh sssssssNAP! You woulda never guessed cause the title didn't give it away, huh?
Asia.
Specifically India.
I love India. Ever since I can remember I've wanted to go to India. You always ask people where they would want to go if they could travel the world and they are always like "OMG, Europe! Italy! Oh man! I have the strongest desire to go to Italy!" (yeah, you and everyone else, m'dear)
However, I've always wanted to go to India. As trivial as this sounds....I've done lots of studying on India over my lifetime because I've had to do things like country reports beginning in 6th grade all the way up through this last semester in school where I gave a powerpoint on India. Granted....I haven't learned as much as I would hope to... the bits that I HAVE learned have made me fascinated with the culture and I would just love to go there to learn more. To be immersed IN the culture really gives the full effect, obviously. I love learning about places that are very different from other places I've been to before.
My mom's uncle (so I guess my Great Uncle) went to India with the Peace Corps. for about three years. I've always wanted to do something like that too. Just go and serve!
About a year ago I was really looking into going abroad and volunteering for a couple of months. I was actually like emailing and calling companies that would take me places and seeing if it was possible. Some of the places I got in contact with would have taken me to places like Uganda or Costa Rica or Peru which all would have been AMAZING! However.....my dream place to go will always be India.
I didn't really give up on the whole volunteering abroad thing....I just decided it was going to have to happen in a couple of years and/or in many years down the road, because I need to get through school....blah blah...save money...all of those lame reasons.
Also, it's kind of maddening because I have a friend who is on his mission in India right now and his little brother who is really good friends with my sister (wow this sentence is getting confusing) told her that only native sister missionaries get to serve in India. :( Sad, huh? That probably would have been my dream mission......
Ha! I am willing to go wherever I am supposed to though. But for the sake of my vain sanity, India would be a dream come true to serve there or at least visit....I guess.
When my family went to Hong Kong after picking up my brother from Indonesia we went to the temple there which was amazing! Like....beyond amazing, actually. My sister and I were able to be baptized in Chinese which was like.....WOW! Fastest language I've ever heard! It was really neat. *7 seconds of gibberish* Amen. *7 seconds of gibberish* Amen. Ha ha ha!
It was a huge testimony builder to know that the Church is the same and the priesthood is the same all around the world. And, boy, does God love all of His children around the world too. He really does.
China has such a long long long long history. It has been around so much longer than places that members of the Church do genealogy and temple work for regularly. Because of that a lot of the names we did at the Hong Kong Temple went WAY farther back in history than the ones you normally get from like England etc. at the Ogden Temple, ha ha.
It makes me emotional thinking about the people I do temple work for. Heavenly Father truly does love all of us. He loves sinners, He loves the strong, the weak....He loves people that lived back when the Great Wall of China was being built and the people that helped build it....He loves people that will be born tomorrow or next week. Everybody!
You can say.....well, duh, He's God...of course He loves everybody! But when you really think about it....that's amazing that He loves and know each of us personally.
The temple always gives me a sense of how much love God really does have for me personally too. It gives me a greater eternal perspective.
While we were at the Hong Kong Temple there was a precious family from India there! (oh man, I want to go to India!) My mom and brother were told by a temple worker that they had gotten sealed a couple of days before and had just been doing sessions for a couple of days. There were the parents and about four kids, I think.
Oh man.....that made me cry. There are some temples in east Asia like in the Philipines, Japan, and Korea, but as far as western Asia..............Hong Kong is the closest. That was probably going to be that family's only time to ever go to the temple. Like....in their WHOLE life! Do you even realize how much that makes me cry?? (ha...I sound hostile)
I can't live without the temple!
We almost have 15 temples in Utah. *sigh* We are SO blessed. So richly blessed. A lot of people, myself included, take the temple for granted and it makes me sad. :(
I was going to go twice this week, but then my tiredness overcame me this morning so I only ended up going on Thursday. I really need to get there twice a week during the summer though. I have faith I can do it next week!! I hope! Ha ha!
I want to spread the good word of the Lord somewhere in the world. Even if I end up just going to Arizona or Nevada or something.....I just want to go somewhere and give selfless service. The main reason for that is because I know I'm NOT selfless. It's hard to be selfless.....that's why only God or people extremely close to God can achieve that quality.
President Monson is pretty selfless. I love that man. I hope to be called on a mission. Whether it be to Singapore or Las Vegas, it'll be beautiful.
"Face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and triumph with humility."
-President Thomas S. Monson
See what I mean? Selfless. I love my Prophet.
We thank Thee oh God for a Prophet to guide us in these latter days. We thank Thee for sending the Gospel to lighten our minds with it's rays. We thank thee for every blessing, bestowed by Thy bountiest hand, we feel it a pleasure to serve Thee and love to obey Thy command.
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