My Cup Runneth Over!

Just this last Sunday was very good and here is why.
In Relief Society we talked about that we shouldn't think less of ourselves, but that we should think less about ourselves and give service when we can. Also one of the girls mentioned about how sometimes it's our own selves that hold us back and that it's like Christ is standing at the door knocking and there isn't a door handle on his side and it is us on the other side that have the door handle and we have to let Christ in.
Then in Sunday school we went over two stories of Christ the first one was Jesus teaches in a synagogue in Nazareth and testifies that he is the Messiah of whom Isaiah prophesied. The people angrily reject him. Then the next story was the one about when Christ tells Peter James and John and the others to throw their nets on the other side of the boats and then he tells them that he can make them fishers of men. Then the teacher asked the class, how has our life been affected because of your decision to follow Jesus Christ? A few people in the class shared some really neat things; but sorry I can't remember what they said exactly; but I did share my thoughts and I said well when I was 18 I finally had my own testimony and that I had my own testimony because I wanted it, I had the desire to build it, and not because I was expected to have one, and now that I look back on my life I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life and he does answer me, like for example all my life since I have grown up in the church, I have always heard people including my family taking about when they get answers to prayers or when they feel the spirit so strong, that they get the burning in the bosom, now I didn't know what that was like for the longest time and it kind of bothered me a bit, but finally when I read the Work and Glory the first book and Joesph Smith is telling one of the characters in the book about the first vision; and as I was reading that I really did get that feeling like my bosom was burning; and I was so amazed and thankful that Heavenly Father answered my prayer even if it took a while, and also that He reconfirmed my testimony that he will always be there for me and answer my prayers. Also this is the first time I have finally been fully committed to school and for the first time I am a full time student and for the first time I really like school and because I am trying to do all that I can I am doing very well in school at least better than I ever expected to do. Then in Sacrament meeting the Stake President came and everyone that got up gave good testimonies and I got up because my heart was so full and it wouldn't feel right if I didn't get up and thank my Heavenly Father so I got up and bore my testimony and I said I know that Heavenly Father lives and I am so grateful for all that He has given me and I know that Christ lives and that he gave his life for us so that we can return to Him and be forgiven of our sins, and I am so grateful that Christ died for me; and I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and I know that it is true and that Joesph Smith translated it through the power of God and I know that President Monson is the prophet for our world at this time; I am grateful for my family and friends, and for everyone in the ward and their examples to me. I am grateful the gospel and I love it and I know that it is true.

Winter!

So Christmas Eve is what I am going to start out with I slept in which was so nice. Then I helped my mom make Christmas Eve dinner, it was kind of weird though and it didn't feel like Christmas Eve because there wasn't any snow on the ground and I don't know about you but for me I have to have snow on the ground for it to feel like Christmas is going to happen. Dinner was good most of my family was there except my younger sister and her husband because they were at his parents. But it was a really nice evening then we met up with my aunt and her family and went downtown to see the lights on Temple Square. The lights were very pretty this year even if there wasn't any snow on the ground. Then at 10:30pm I went with 4 other girls in the ward and went to Midnight Mass at St Marks, that was awesome and one of the most coolest things I have done. It was a very beautiful mass in a beautiful church. Christmas was very good and lots of fun, it was nice to be at home with just my family. All in all it was a fun Christmas. Then the day after Christmas it decides to snow in the valley, church was good numbers were few but it was nice and fun that way different but still good.
It also decided to snow on New Years Eve so it was even more of a winter wonderland.
I am still reading the Book of Mormon well better late then never, I need to be better about reading every night. School started last week and I already feel swamped, I really need to go to the temple asap. Institute starts this week so that will be good and it should help me feel better about school. 2010 went by a little too fast for my liking, and I was really bummed that we didn't get a white Christmas in the Salt Lake Valley. January 8th I had to drive home late at night from work in a bad snow storm it was really pretty though the valley covered in sparkly snow and just quiet stillness, ah it was very peaceful, even though it was a little scary driving home in it. Then it started snowing January 10th in the morning so I wasn't shocked to see an accident off on the side of the freeway as I was driving to school just before the 4500 South exit.
Oh my goodness the first week of school was absolutely crazy and I gave myself such a headache because I was so stressed out from a test that I took for my Medical Laboratory class. Then when I got to class the second week my instructor let me retake the test which was such a relief. But I still get a sick feeling before I have to take the tests in my Medical Laboratory class.
I had institute on Friday and I enjoyed the class, I learned a few things that I didn't know about the New Testament before. I really like the instructor. There are also a few really good looking guys in the class, and I am going to try to assert myself and get to know everyone in my institute class.
Church is good I missed out on gospel doctrine because I went to the Preach my Gospel class and it was good we did some role playing which was fun, but I still kind of missed gospel doctrine because we are studying the New Testament and I absolutely love the four gospels, in my opinion if you want to know more about Christ read the four gospels, it helped me to know and understand Christ better.
Along with the Book of Mormon I am reading a book called The Foundling by Georgette Heyer so far it's pretty good, I don't know if there are any risky parts in it yet but it doesn't seem like it, but I guess I won't know until I done with the book. Then I plan to read the Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. Then I think I might go and by the first book to the Hunger Games, that everyone keeps talking about and read those, and see if I like those books.
I didn't have work on Monday the 17th or school which was very nice and much needed! Work is boring I wish they would let me clean a different area for awhile. I need a little bit of a change at work. I need to go to the temple asap!

Winter Wonderland!

Well school has been taking over my life, but it hasn't been too bad, a little crazy at times. There has been a few times that I have wanted to through my Medical Assisting workbook out of a window because I couldn't find a answer in the book. Ha ha! As of right now I still have a 4.0 GPA which is awesome!

So besides school taking over my life, work is still evil but it pays the bills, and I am getting good work reviews so I can't complain too much. I enjoy every time I get to go to the temple and do temple work and it's also time for me to just sit in the chapel and talk things over with Heavenly Father and just enjoy the peace and calm of the temple. Ah I love it there is no better place for peace but the temple or unless you are lucky enough to live up in the mountains in the peace a stillness of the wilderness. I so want to get away from the city right now I so would love to go up in the mountains right now and go sledding, tubing, snowmobiling, snow shoeing ah that would be so epic. The mountains have so much snow on them right now it is very pretty. In the valley we have nothing which is sad, I don't think we will have a white Christmas.

Thanksgiving was good I helped my mom make half of the meal and the food was so good! It was nice to have a few days off from work and school and just be home and with family. In the valley we got dumped on with snow we go almost a foot in the Salt Lake and then a week later we got dumped on again and ended up with two feet in the valley. Then it got warm and it just rained and melted all the snow in the valley.

I am finally all done with Christmas shopping which is nice, I still want to do some Christmas baking before Christmas day. This year when my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas I had no idea really. For once I didn't really want anything, so I had to think about it for a few days.

But I do love the quiet stillness when it snows it's as if you are walking in the air when all the world is white and the snow is falling all around you. Sundays are still my favorite days. But this Sunday in Relief Society we went back to lesson 18 for some reason, it should have been lesson 24 about the Sabbath Day. Sunday school was good. Sacrament meeting was very good this Sunday.

I do plan to clean my room while I am on break from school, my room really needs it. I am off for two weeks from school. Happy Day and Christmas is almost here!

Golden Mist

Wow what a crazy past two months I have had. It has been a while since I have posted last. School is a lot of work, but for the first time in my life I actually like school which is so weird! Every Monday and Wednesday this past month I have got up around 6:30am. About the time I am driving to school the sun is rising. It is really pretty, because just before it peaks over the mountains the sky is a golden mist, and it makes it worth waking up at 6:30am.

School is good it's just a lot of homework and tests! But now I am done with two of my classes that I have, and on Monday I will have a new class. I done with all my tests and homework for my App 101 and Med 102 and I have A's in all of my classes so far. I hope I continue to get A's. This next four weeks I have just one class and it is on Monday and Wednesdays; it a Communication class, it seems like fun. Work is work, sometimes I hate it sometimes I don't. I did take Monday off from work and I went to my wards FHE it was fun we had a Halloween party it was good to see friends in the ward.

Of course it had to snow the week of Halloween; it even snowed in the valley and it was not fun cleaning it off the car and 8am it was freezing! I hope it doesn't snow again until Thanksgiving. It can snow all it wants in the mountains but in the valley I want it to stay away. I did miss institute this week I slept in. I do want to go to the temple this week. There is also a Halloween party on Saturday at friends house that I am going to, and then November will be here. It's like we had a short fall and then went straight to winter.

Monsoon Season!

So I started school and it's good I really like it. Though I wake up every day at like 6:30am and I don't go to bed until midnight or later which is usually not that good of a thing to do. But I live through it, I really like the pace that it is set at; I like having a class for 4 weeks and then switching to a new one for the next four weeks, I am a full time student and I work part time. So it's good it keeps me on my toes, and school is at times so intense that when I have free time I spend it doing homework. But it will be so worth it in the end.

Last Sunday it was really windy and rainy so we have this little field next to our drive way and there is this really big huge tree that is very old so when I got home from church there was this big branch that had come down and was laying across our driveway and our front yard. Thank goodness nothing got damaged but also our power went out Sunday at 4:40pm and didn't come back on until 7:20 am Monday morning. Monday I went to school and did my power point presentation, turned in English homework worked on my essay paper went to work came home and worked on my paper some more and finished up some other homework that was due. Tuesday turned in everything that was due then went to work and then went over to Sunny's and Allie's for a girl's night out party and watched When in Rome. Friday was my day off I went shopping and then I went to a party with some friends that I haven't seen in like 6 months and had a awesome time it was really good to see them. Then Saturday I ran errands and then came home and made chocolate chip cookies, then I went to a party at Erica's and Heidi's new place and that was fun.

So yesterday at church we were combined with the boys and Brother Akerlow gave the lesson it was on weaknesses and sin it was good. Sunday school was good and Sacrament meeting I got an answer to a question that had been going through my mind a lot lately. Then I went to the mingle and talked to a lot of people in the ward and then went home to eat dinner and celebrate my aunt's birthday and we went to temple square then went back to my aunt's house and had cake and ice cream, and we watched some home movies.

Also it has been either super hott or thunderstorms off and on and it has been muggy so it has been like a monsoon season in the Valley also because of it raining so much the mountains are still pretty green it is awesome. Today I woke up to a huge thunderstorm that was raging which was pretty cool. I went to institute today I am taking a class on the New Testament and so far it's awesome. Much to my surprise when I got out of class today I saw a few of my friends that are in my ward. So that was pretty awesome. For now it has stopped raining but it most likely will start up again soon.

Speachify!

So I spoke in church on the 22nd of August so I thought I would share it with ya'll

I was really surprised when Brother Akerlow asked me to speak because this is my first time ever speaking in this ward. Also I don't like to stand up in front of a bunch of people and talk because I get really nervous. I have read the Book of Mormon many times and the the Book of Mormon is the first book of scripture that I have read from cover to cover.

But this time around I began to wonder why is this book so important? The first thing I though of was president Hinckley's promise. So I thought well that is true but there has to be more to the Book of Mormon than just that. So I remembered that Elder Holland gave a talk in Conference on the Book of Mormon last October. So Elder Holland said, "Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times-including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair. That is the message with which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends, calling all to 'come unto Christ' and be perfected in him. That phrase -taken from Moroni's final lines of testimony, written 1,000 years after Lehi's vision-is a dying man's testimony of the only true way."

In addition the paragraph on the title page of the Book of Mormon says "And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that JESUS IS THE CHRIST, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations." But what I think sums it up best is when Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon into English through the gift and power of God. He said that it is: "the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." So why is this book so important? Well it came from God, it is a correct book, it is the keystone of our religion, and it is a way we can get nearer to God.

Another thing that really stuck out to me is the story of Lehi and his family fleeing out of Jerusalem and what Lehi did before they fled into the wilderness. Lehi is shown in a dream many amazing things from the Lord. And Lehi became so overjoyed that he went among the the people of Jerusalem and prophesied so Nephi writes in 1 Nephi 1: 18-20 he says, "Therefore, I would that ye should know, that after the Lord had shown so many marvelous things unto my father, Lehi, yea, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, behold he went forth among the people, and began to prophesy and to declare unto them concerning the things which he had both seen and heard. And it came to pass that the Jews did mock him because of the things which he testified of them; for he truly testified of their wickedness and their abominations: and he testified that the things which he saw and heard, and also the things which he read in the book, manifested plainly of the coming of a Messiah, and also the redemption of the world. And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out, and stoned, and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

So I began to wonder why would Lehi go and preach unto the people even though he probably knew that they would want to kill him if he went out and preached unto them? Well I came up with the answer that Lehi knew that the words of the Lord are worth dying for and that being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ is worth it, because we all know that this life is not the end, and that if we live worthy of the blessing to come, we can return home and live with our Father in Heaven and our Savior who is Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it does truely testify of Christ it is a wonderful and beautiful book that Joseph Smith translated with and through the power of God and I testify like Elder Holland says in his conference talk "No wicked man could write such a book as this, and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commandeed of God to do so." I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Kings and Queens!

So I realized that in my last post I didn't explain enough about the train ride; when I had thought that I did. Well so my ward had an overnight camping trip up in Midway and we all when on a train ride on the Heber Creeper. It was very cold because it rained the entire time but other than that it was fun.

So for the 4th of July I went with my family up to Sugar House Park and we watched the huge fireworks burst right over our heads it was gorgeous! Later on that week had a BBQ with some of the wardies for my birthday. I also celebrated with my family later on and it was a pretty good birthday! Played night games with friends in my ward another night then spent the rest of that night socializing.

I have come to realize that we are all kings and queens in charge of our own lives. We have to decide when to change and if we need to change. Sometimes we can't see the change and it takes a while to see it. Other times it takes someone else pointing out that we need to change. Change can be hard at times; and sometimes it just seems so hard that we don't want to do it. Yes it is so much easier to give up and not work for something that we want; and all just because it seems hard. Well for me I needed a change. But we have to take risks and have a little faith that everything will turn out alright. So I am starting school on August 2 at Stevens Henager College I will get my Associates Degree in 20 months in Medical Specialties.

School is going to take over my life for the next 20 months but it will be good even though I am a little freaked out about school and wondering if this will be all worth it and I am a little freaked out about wondering if I can do it! I really hope I can and I really want this to work out. Cause I don't want to be stuck at community college for another 10 years. So this is my only good option right now for school. I just hope that my life doesn't get anymore crazy that it will by August 2nd, I just really want to be able to handle school and get done with homework.

There are some really amazing people in my ward that are such good examples to me. They help me to want to be a better person. I have been thinking about the story of Hannah lately and how she would go to the temple everyday and tell the Lord her problems. Oh how I need to start going to the temple once a week again. I also need to start doing my Stake calling again and find out who is the the co-chair over everyone in my Stake calling. My Stake calling is the only one calling that I haven't been doing right now. So I need to get on it, and step it up.