An Open Letter to My "Robin Scherbatsky"

I always read these kind of things online, so I thought I would write one that many people could relate to. 

If you have never seen "How I Met Your Mother" then this letter won't make sense to you. You should also get on that and watch the series because it's amazing. 

Dear "Robin," 

I know that you believe we're never meant to be. And I totally respect that. I know that I'm the one you can always rely on to give you a listening ear, a hug, a smile, or just to assure you that someone cares for you. I know that when times get hard with your dating life, career, school, whatever it may be, that I am a foundation of rock to tell you that you can do it.

I also know that you've been through a lot. Your thoughts, fears, dreams, likes, dislikes, everything has been shared between the two of us. You've never judged me, and you've never left my side. 

We've had some times where we fall apart. We've had our ups and downs. We've dated and watched each other date other people. I've even told you that I love you multiple times. And yet you haven't run away which I'm so grateful for.

"Robin," this letter isn't to try and win you back. This isn't a way for me to try and make you feel guilt. This letter is for you to know that I've accepted who we are together and how at peace I am with it. This is a way to show you that I will always be there for you. No matter what the world throws at you, at me, or at us, we will get through it together. 

I know that we will never fall in love. It's been a hard journey for me to finally come to grips with that, but I really have accepted it in my heart. You found love and I found love, and it's amazing. 

Please know though that because I'll always be there for you, I will always love you as well. I will still steal a French blue horn for you, even a blue orchestra. I'll decorate our apartment in Christmas lights extravaganza to cheer you up. I'll miss you when you go to Russia, and I'll be the first to greet you when you come back. 

I will always be a phone call away. You have evolved to be one of my dearest closest friends. Never forget that. 

"Robin Sherbatsky" you are amazing. I will always love you. 

Love, 

"Ted Mosby"

Remembering to Keep Your Eyes on the Main Goal

Even if you aren't Mormon, I still recommend you read this. Though I use analogies with the temple, the lesson taught here is still relevant for anyone who's striving to reach a goal in life. 

Go ahead and look carefully at this picture:

Do you see the temple? Look again until you find it (it's there, I promise)

On Sunday, I really wanted to take a picture of the Jordan River temple because, well, it's beautiful. That day I thought, "Since it's Sunday it might be closed. But there's still a chance." I debated about going or not. I finally decided to check it out on that said day because I usually have work, Sunday is such a calm day, and I thought I'd just take the chance anyway. 

Surprise. It was closed.

It actually bummed me out that it was closed because I was really looking forward to a stroll on the temple grounds on the Sabbath day. But at least I now know that Sunday's are closed (as now do you. Go to Temple Square or the Provo temple instead).

I wasn't going to leave without any pictures, so I took some through the gate. Hoping to snag some sort of angle that I appreciated. I started thinking about how I love the temple and long to continue being worthy to enter into them. 

As I was about to go back home, it hit me.

Take a picture up close with the gate. Because that's how I kind of felt that day. 

Then the gears rolled some more and we have the picture we have at the top. 

Now let me explain everything this picture represents

Let's look at it this way -- the temple is the House of God, a peaceful place where we can worthily enter and be away from the world. Even the grounds are peaceful and bring the Spirit into your life. So let's have the temple represent our goal in life, whatever it may be. 

Next, the gate -- it seems self-explanatory that it would be what's blocking you from entering the temple, literally in this situation. You can't even get close to the temple if the grounds are locked up. Sunday is the Sabbath day and yet the grounds are locked. We'll call this the roadblocks of life. 

Lastly, the trees -- what great beauts in the picture, right? But what is it doing? It's blocking the temple. I could barely see it through all that beautiful green. It was still a really pretty sight to see and I love the shots you can get on the temple grounds because the grounds are always so gorgeous. We'll call the trees things we do in life. 

Kind of catching on here?

What I'm trying to say is: 

Do not lose sight of the goal you have in life, no matter what is in your way. 

Figuratively speaking, but in all seriousness, I never want to lose sight of the temple and the blessings that God gives me as I live the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love it and I live it. However, there are many times in life that I get caught up in things that aren't as important -- school, friends, work, life itself. They're all great things and bring joy and happiness to my life. But sometimes they can accidentally make me lose sight of want I want most in life -- eternal marriage and true joy. 

Sometimes (or a lot of times) life throws me curve balls to try and completely block my way to the temple -- life situations that are barriers. They may be temporary but realistically they are there. 

The trees weren't planted where they're planted to purposefully block the view of the temple. Though the trees are beautiful and add variety and happiness to the temple grounds, they aren't the main attraction, so to speak. The gate isn't always closing the temple grounds, they are only temporary, but they still are powerful enough to prevent one from entering in. 

Just like that, we as human beings can get mixed up in stresses of the world and lose focus of what really matters, and what goals we may have. We have to remember to prioritize and remember the good, better, and best. 

"As we consider various choices, we should remember that it is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better, and still others are best. Even though a particular choice is more costly, its far greater value may make it the best choice of all." -Elder Dallin H. Oaks

So whatever it is that you are striving for in life (that's right, you!), go for it! DO not lose sight of your prize. It can be easy to be distracted, but you can stay focused. I for one, am grateful that I was reminded of this lesson while practicing my talents, and that I can continue to live the gospel and try and become better everyday in all aspects. And I hope that you do the same!

The Final Countdown!!!

I had my farewell today; and I leave in 10 days. WHAT?!

How did this sneak up on me so fast?! I'm already down to 10 days?! I feel like there's so much to do still, and hardly any time now!! In 5 minutes, I'm going to be officially in the single digits. *_*

First off, I'm super stoked. Scared out of my mind, but excited to experience this. I've never been away from home in this kind of manner yet, so this is going to be quite the new adventure! My family has also always had the experiences of life through my older sister first, but she is married and so I'm the first (and last) missionary in our family! I don't like being the guinea pig (all the more reason why I'm glad my sister is the older one)!!!

I also had my farewell today (except, in one minute it'll be midnight, so technically yesterday). That was weird, in a good way. It just never seemed like the day I would be hosting a farewell would come. And yet here we are; it's come and gone. And I'm so glad it went the way it did. I think I gave a pretty good talk, but that's always up for judgment to the audience. Then we had lunch at our house and it was quite the success. So. Much. Food. And almost all of it was gone!! Apparently my dad counted how many people came and there were over 50! I feel so loved :')

I was really grateful for everyone that was there, and all the support and love they've given me all these years. I'm also really grateful for the friends that took the effort to come to my farewell, especially my friends who live in Provo. That's not a short drive, and so it was so good to see them, and it made me so happy. I've truly been blessed with such great friends who are strong in the Gospel and uplift me to be better. 

I'm grateful for the home ward and all the people who are in it. This ward is seriously so great. I'm going to miss the people here. It's funny, I've realized there are quite a bit of people in this ward who have known me since I was really little. Those people have been a wonderful blessing in my life as well. 

I'm so glad my talk is over though!! Won't have to worry about that for a while :) 

It's now the final wind down of life, as I now transition from normal person to a missionary of the Lord. 

I'll post back again soon (I hope)!! In the words of my sista, Party Rock. 

Changes a'comin'!

It's been quite a while, and I've been really bad at updating anything lately. Not that I have a lot of things to update, but I haven't been on top of things as I should be. There's so much to do before I leave for my mission! Where did all the time go?! Well, almost half of it was spent in Boston with my sister and her fam. But still. It's flying by too fast! I don't think I can handle this speed yet!

I leave for my mission in 13 days (well, 12 now since it's past midnight)

Can someone say "Cuh-razy"?! My last post was when I had 50 days! Now I have less than 2 weeks! Whaaaat?! (Imagine that being said in the minion voice from Despicable Me.)

I'm looking back since my 50-days mark and trying to think of all that's happened...nothing really. I'm done with school, finished finals, moved back home, went to Boston, and now I'm staring at my room that looks like a tornado went through it. Oops. :/ And I've got a talk to write for Sunday. I think all the things I have to do surpasses what I've done in the past while haha. 

But change is happening. And it's really weird how fast it's coming. I've got to either start a new blog or change this one for my mission, too. I have to clean out my room, say goodbye's (which are never easy), shop for things like an alarm clock and such, and actually pack! GUH. 

I guess I shouldn't be on my computer blogging then, right? Except now it's too late to do anything but go to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be much more productive than the past few days....

Getting Really Nervous for What I'm About To Do.....

And by "really nervous", I mean seriously super nervous. 
Maybe it's more anxious? It's times and emotions like these that I can never pinpoint what adjective I want to describe how I feel.

It's currently 1:16 and I should be sleeping. I've been lying in bed sleeping and (figuratively) dying in bed the past two days with what felt like every sickness imaginable (migraine, sore throat, no voice, upset stomach, etc.). So I should take advantage of the first day of recovery and go to bed early again, but I can't seem to do that right now when there's a ton of thoughts going through my head...

As I have mentioned before, I have been called to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the California Oakland/San Francisco Mission (aka the Bay Area woo!). I will also be serving in the Oakland Temple Visitors' Center. I leave in 55 days (woo!). It's crazy how fast time is going by, both in a good way and bad way. Good - I'll be leaving on my mission soon and I can't wait to be out there. Bad - finals are coming up...where did this semester go?!

Anyhow, tonight has been a night full of emotions for me, regarding the mission. It all began when I decided to begin watching the videos the Church tells you to watch, prior to entering the Missionary Training Center (MTC). The only things I've really heard about these videos are that they're pretty emotional and that it'll make you feel like you need to step up your game by like 10,000%. I've only watched the first one so far but oh dear...talk about emotion. It truly is full of the spirit; reckon, it's a little cheesy, but the power within in on preparing and planning is so strong. My first thought after watching that video was, "Am I going to be ready for these kind of situations?" I know the mission is going to be hard, but....just watching the first video of these sets has already made me realize just how much harder it's going to be when I'm actually out there.
The second thought I had with that video was being able to feel promptings from the Spirit while teaching investigators. The missionaries in the video were so good at teaching! I really hope that I'll know just what to say and help bring others to the Gospel. Even more nerve-wracking, right?

Then the night got more interesting, and it's really ironic how this night played out.
So I love the show "The Big Bang Theory". I love being able to understand all the physics and math jokes; nerds rule! So after I finished the missionary video and pondered for a bit, I decided that I should do my hair and then go to bed (as I usually do). I also decided that watching an episode or two of "The Big Bang Theory" while doing my hair was a good idea. This is where the first interesting part of the night comes in: Sheldon's mother comes into town for the weekend, who is a huge Christian religious woman. She revolves everything around God and her church. Anyway, in the episode, Sheldon's mother and his friends are at a church and she suggests they all take a turn praying to God. She goes, then Penny, then Leonard, Howard reluctantly follows (he's Jewish), and Raj then finally goes (who's Hindu). The way they pray was so ....casual. And kind of disrespectful. I know they're doing it for humor and all, but still....I didn't appreciate it. I wish shows and movies would keep religion out; humor can be found in other ways. I just wanted to jump into the show and say, "Hey, let me teach how to really pray and tell you about my faith". 

Last part of this interesting night. Afterwards, I check good ol' Facebook.....where all the drama and movements happen (but don't really affect anything). So long story short, apparently there's a new website run by some members in the Church, calling for women to hold the Priesthood. It's like when those people tried to get women to wear pants to church. Seriously people? I'm not going to get into this issue specifically right now because that'll be a whole different post, held for tomorrow. I saw this through a post from a local news facebook page and so the comments following the post were about this issue. Of course, some people were then bashing on our religion and questioning things, etc.
This got me thinking even more....am I really ready to be a missionary? Me, a girl only 20 years of age, going to one of the most liberal areas of the country. A girl who has been called to one of the most dangerous places in the nation as well. A girl who is still learning about the Gospel herself and still growing her testimony. 

Am I ready to face these people in person, rather than through words on the Internet? Am I going to be ready to have the patience to try and teach them the true Gospel and have them be open-minded and have a soft heart? Am I ready to go through a lot of angry people, as I serve in such a liberal area? Will there be people willing to hear our message and be inviting? Am I just bracing myself for 18 months full of doors slammed in my face? 

I don't know why the Lord has called me to serve in the Oakland/San Francisco mission, but I do know that that's where He wants me. I don't know for what exact purpose I'm being called there, but I do know that what I'm preparing myself to do is the right thing. I may not feel ready now, I may not feel ready the night before I report for my mission, but I know that the Lord will guide me each day to do what I need to do for Him. 

With this super crazy world that's full of contradictions, arguments, hatred, and drama, preaching the Gospel is going to be ever so much harder. But to preach the Gospel to that world in 55 days is what I'm going to do. With all my heart and might, I will put all that I have into serving my Lord to bring others just that same happiness and joy I have experienced through His wonderful Plan of Salvation.

I hope that I will be able to answer questions people throw at men. To anyone who may come across this and read it - please, if you have questions, assumptions, rumors, or anything about our church, please ask the missionaries or the members to make sure you know the truth. 
My prayer is to be able to do the Lord's work as best as I can when I report to the MTC. Alone I am nothing; with the rest of the missionaries, I am something. My prayer is for people to be open-minded. 

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am a normal person, just like anyone else. And this is the life of me. 

What I Love To Do

Well hey there, blogger. It's been quite a while, hasn't it? I feel like I've depraved you, and here I am to feed you with a little update on my life.

First the picture...

I had a really great experience just this past Friday. Being part of BYU's hip hop club, I was able to perform for a program called Project Youth. Let me first tell you what that is. 
Project Youth is a program that BYU holds every year. A few hundred 6th graders from different elementary schools come and spend their morning on campus, doing a variety of things and activities. They then have lunch and then move to the DeJong Hall for a performance by different clubs and organizations from BYU. The point of Project Youth is to encourage these kids to stick with school and be excited about it. And to study hard now so that they can make it to college because it's fun! The fun motivation partially comes from the performance that they get. 

So, with that being explained, not only did I get to perform for them, but I knew a couple people involved with Project Youth so I got to talk with some of the 6th graders and just have some fun with them during their lunch break. It was so much fun!! They're all so full of energy....

And we felt it when we danced! I wish all our performances were for elementary school kids. They really give you their energy and give you so much more power to do better for them. And they're the best audience! They cheer whenever anything happens, they sing with the song and they're so loud (in a good way)!  BYU Hip Hop gets to be a part of this performance every year and it's always the favorite performance. Even though we don't do much, we still are part of a wonderful program that encourages these kids to stay in school. We show them that life isn't full of stress and pessimism, but that it's fun and exciting as well. And to be able to do that through dance....it's a wonderful thing. 

I love what I do and I'm so happy I get to use it for good! Everyday I keep finding things I'm so blessed with and thanking my Heavenly Father for what he's given me.

The Pep Talk!

Words can't even describe how cute this is. This is from soulpancake (co-founded by Rainn Wilson, fun little fact) and it's one of the most true things ever. 

We are all on the same team! It's so true! What will our Space Jam be? I hope mine will be great; I don't even have a clue on what it will be, but I'm excited for it. 
This has been a hit in Provo lately, and I've watched it multiple times. This kid is adorable. 

Watch it. Feel good about life. Smile! You won't regret playing this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o

Called to Serve!!!!

What better way to start to blogging new year than to announce something that's super important in my life, and something that will bless me with the best experience ever!!!!

I have been called to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! I have been called to serve in the California Oakland/San Francisco English speaking mission! As well as preaching the Gospel to the people of California, I will also be serving in the Oakland Temple Visitors' Center. I report to the Provo MTC on May 29, and I can't wait!!

The picture shows my mission area!!! As you can see, it's right along the bay area pretty much. Super awesome. I've never been to this area of California, so it's going to be a new experience! I've also only heard good things about the area and the people. :)

I'm so so excited to serve a mission, and I can't wait to go out there and spread the Gospel! It has blessed me all my life in so many aspects, and I want others to have that same happiness and joy eternally. Heavenly Father loves me so much, and I want other people to know that He loves them just as much and wants them to return to Him. This truly is the one and only Gospel; this is Christ's church. 

If you have any questions about life, please, contact the LDS missionaries. They can help you. With an open mind and open heart, read the Book of Mormon and then pray to God, asking Him if what it contains is true. I promise you that you will gain an assurance that it is true doctrine. 

I love this church, and I hope that I will be a great missionary! I know these will be the best 18 months of my life. :) 

Happy New Years Everyone!! (Yes, I know I'm late)

My new years resolution is to blog more than 7 times this year; 2012 was really rough on the blog....

What Photoshop Can Do For You

I LOVE photoshop. Oh so so much. I love editing pictures; photography is a favorite hobby of mine! I love taking pictures of anything and then picking some of them to edit. It's a great way to pass some time and to realize how you can improve your photography skills.

This is what photoshop can do for a picture for you if you take the time... I didn't take near as much time as I wanted to to show you what it really could do for you, but I hope you see what I mean. 

Before (taken with my iPhone camera)

After (not as much editing as I wanted but still)

I know it's not much, but there are actually a ton of adjustment layers as well as a handful of filters. Let's not forget that I added some more "make up" to my face as well.

It's easy to hide your real self through pictures and the internet. It's easy to see a flaw in a picture of yourself and fix it instantly. It's easy to deceive the world by viewing it through a mask and going through each day like a masquerade. But you know what I think? DON'T DO IT!!! Just be yourself!! Beauty is only skin-deep and everyone is beautiful, no matter what society may say. There is no such thing as a norm.

This is why I don't like photographers who edit portraits so much that they look fake. Why are you going to get a portrait for something when it's not going to be your actual face? A few fix ups here and there, fine. But changing it completely that your face doesn't look real in them? No thanks. 

TGIF

It's Friday!!! Work 1-6 and then it's the weekend!! Not that I have the free time since I have homework and studying to do but hey, it's better than nothing. 
Aaaaaand that means that I'm finally going home for a weekend! It's been far too long since I've been at home. I need so much stuff from there. And I get to see my awesome parents, whom I haven't seen in the longest time. You would think your parents' schedule wouldn't be as busy as yours....

I'm in definite need of this weekend so you can say that I'm happy today. I wish I wasn't working so I could head home earlier but oh well. 

Random fact I learned today in my English language class: Apparently Dr. Seuss teaches you different allophones of phonemes through various minimal pairs through his simple texts. So you're learning phonemes and phones without even realizing it.
Sorry I never read any of your books, Dr. Seuss. Maybe I'll read one when I have my own kids. 
Awesome, eh?

Happy weekend everyone!!

New Year

It's that time of year again....school started!!

It's so crazy for me to think that I'm already a junior in college. Uh...hi time, where did you go?! I always thought I'd be sticking with my major from freshman year and well on track by this time of life buuuuut....ha. Nope. I've been indecisive about what to major in that I might be here in college forever. It's weird to think that my older sister was like the complete opposite of me and graduated early and such. But I guess this is just how I am; I love learning different things that I feel like if I bind myself to one thing I'll miss out on learning other stuff in other subjects. But we can't win them all, folks.

Anyway, life is good though. Since my last post (which was quite depressing; I apologize), I've gotten a job!! Words can't describe how grateful I am to have one, and to have the one I got. I work at BYU's Museum of Art store and it's awesome. My manager is way cool, the people I work with are nice, and when there aren't any customers I'm allowed to study. I feel so good whenever I'm on campus now and see a bunch of people looking at the job board and knowing I don't have to look there anymore. I'm really grateful for the life I have.

My semester is quite chill compared to most. Since I wasn't sure what I wanted to major in, I took some different classes and it's a good schedule. I'm currently thinking I want to major in English Language. I never thought I would consider journalism or writing in general as something I would want to do in the future. It was more of a "hobby" during high school. But looking back on those times, I really enjoyed it and I just love writing about anything and everything (I even have 3 blogs....don't judge me). So I think this is the place I'm supposed to be at. We shall see.

Anyway, to whomever that comes across my blog or reads it, I hope to do better on blogging my adventures and events of life as this school year continues. It should be quite an exciting one, I just can feel it. No one can change the way I want my story to be, except for me. This is the life of me.

PS I chose my title "Life of Me" because of the book "Life of Pi" and saw the trailer for the movie....oh my!! Look it up on IMDB people. That one looks like it's going to be good :)

The unemployment line

Been trying to find a job in Provo since the beginning of time and still haven't found anything. And I'm fairly confident that no one has applied as many times as I have so far. It's pretty frustrating to see others just get the first job they apply for like it's no big deal. I don't know what I'm missing, but I never realized how frustrating and disappointing it is to not get a job and continue being unemployed. Lots of people complain about work and wish they didn't have a job on Facebook; I'd be happy to take their job from them and earn that money instead. I just wish they didn't complain and realize how lucky they are to actually get a job. I see now how difficult the job force is and how hard it is to snatch a job. You just have to be lucky or have the connections to get something.


Being unemployed also makes me so grateful for my parents and for the financial support they give me. I would probably be bankrupt right now if they didn't help me, and I'd be living in a cardboard box if they didn't let me live at home in that situation.


But even though I'm glad they're there for me and help me out so much, I still wish I could at least be somewhat financially stable on my own. I see friends and loads of college students going through life like me; but they have at least one job and take care of themselves just fine. I need that experience and wish I could learn those things right now. But I've got a job on the unemployment line....


I don't know when my time will be, or when my luck will come around to get me a job, but I'm really hoping it's soon. Here's to hoping my 1000th time applying everywhere will at least bring me an interview.


Wish me luck

Swagga of a College Kid~

I just love dancing. It's such a fun thing and it's so stress relieving. Oh and it's a good workout! Any type of dancing is what I love. I've learned jazz dance, some contemporary, learning ballroom/social dancing, and hip hop. Hip hop is what I want to elaborate though. It's probably my favorite out of them all. It's fun to just bust a move and be able to use the moves you learn in a freestyle way. With that being said, I'm in BYU's hip hop club now. Boy is it the best thing ever. It's an hour and a half to just dance and have fun with other people. And most of the presidency are my friends, which helps me be in the in's on everything; it's pretty great haha. We have a couple of performances coming up and then our showcase at the end of March, so that should be interesting. Anyway, so a few weeks before last semester ended, some of us got together and we made a music video!! aka we just messed around on campus :P the bloopers end is great, Michael likes to mess around like that randomly. But I feel pretty cool for being part of this now! I wish I had started last year, but I'm glad I'm in it now. 


Anyway, check this out (Link is right below)! This is the final product of our music video. It's pretty random, but we had a lot of fun doing this and we all love to dance. We've got the swagga of a college kid. It's in our blood.


BYU Hip Hop - Party Rock Anthem MV

Part of Growing Up!

My head hurts. A lot. I think it's from stress, indigestion, and being tired today. Classes and studying. Cooking. Cleaning. Driving. So much happening! But as I've been sitting here, enjoying my cream soda and realizing that I really shouldn't be drinking this right now, I've been taking the time to reflect on life, and how I've changed from even a year ago from now. 


Let me first start off with talking about today. So for my nutrition class, we were supposed to cook a nutritious meal and share it with people to get their opinion. Since Katie and I are in that class, we decided to team it up and we invited some of our guy friends over to try it. So we went to Smith's to get the ingredients and figured it all out like responsible adults. Then I had to go back and get ginger. Then we started cooking. So much to do!! It was so stressful to try and get it done on time. Luckily the guys just watched some football for about 5 minutes. Anyway, what we had decided to cook was homemade sweet and sour chicken stir fry with rice. I think it went pretty well! They enjoyed it a lot. Then cleaning up afterwards just took ages. But we finally finished. Before all this I did have classes and studying. Who knew cooking a meal would be so hard and tiring? it made me realize how much my mom must go through to cook meals for us. I'm even more grateful than before for my mom to spend so much time and concern on cooking for us. I really do have thee best mother ever. 


Now, looking back at about a year ago from now. It was freshmen year and life was ok! Living off campus is so much nicer, that is for sure. Anyway, back then, it felt like I didn't have to worry about anything in life and it was all a breeze. Halloween was coming up and my roommates and friends and I were trying to figure how we were going to stop by all the different parties and dances going on. Our concern back then was what we wanted to dress up as, too. We did study and worried over our classes, but it just wasn't the same as it is this year. My sister was in Provo, too, and she was always trying to spend time with me when I was supposedly busy. RM's looked scary to me, and pre-mi's were wonderful people to befriend.
Looking at life now, all I can think about is my classes and my grades. Halloween is coming up and we're not really putting much thought into it. Dressing up really isn't a priority right now, with studying for tests and all is so much more important. Food is stressful because you always have to cook and worry about it financially as well (miss the meal plan). I wish I had a job to worry about right now so that I could have that income as well. Staying up until 2 in the morning is definitely not an option anymore, especially when 10:00 rolls around and you get tired. RM's really aren't scary and I've enjoyed making these new friends. My sister isn't here, but all the way across the country, and I can't spend time with her like I should've. I regret not spending time with her, and I really wish she was here with me. Life is just one big stress ball.


Some people hate the stress, they want everything handed to them on a plate. But you know, this may sound silly, but all this really is just part of growing up. Life is supposed to be full of all this stress because that's what makes life satisfactory in the end because you pulled through. I hope I just can make it through all this; life is just too good. I'm blessed with the best family ever,  my sister as my best friend, great education, wonderful friends, and all the rest of the blessings that my Heavenly Father has given me. Don't complain about life, just pulling through is what life really is about; because by pulling through, we become stronger and mature.


This truly is the life of me.

....and I am a Mormon

This past weekend, our church had the wonderful opportunity to listen to our prophet and general authorities speak about different Gospel matters. It was our 181st semiannual conference, and I just loved every single moment of it!


The first thing I want to mention from General Conference that I thought was very interesting was how we call ourselves. Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained that the word "Mormons" is acceptable only when it is referring to just the members of the church. We shouldn't call our church the "Mormon church". We are the Church of the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! The name of our church explains what we believe in a general easy sense. He said that we lose the confusion when we use the full name of the church. 
This brings up a wonderful website that our church has created. It's www.mormon.org and it allows members of our church to create their own profile and explain about why they're part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I think it's a great way for anyone investigating our church to see what it's about in the words of other people. I highly suggest anyone to go there and read some. It shows all the people who have testimonies of the truthfulness of this Gospel! 


I also really liked Elder Tad R. Callister's talk about the Book of Mormon and how it has no middle ground. I agree with Elder Callister and tell you all that this book is so true. It truly claims the word of God in every verse and every page. It acts as a support to the Bible and what it teaches. Together they bring us to one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. You haven't studied our religion until you've studied the Book of Mormon! As you read, study, and ponder this book, I promise you that the Spirit of the Holy Ghost will come upon you; you will feel a peace inside you and you will feel closer to God. I know through studying and praying about the Book of Mormon that it contains true doctrine and is the word of God. 
I also invite anyone to read the talks from our General Conference via the internet (you can find them on lds.org) or purchasing the November 2011 Ensign, which will come out closer to the end of October. You will come to find that the words the general authorities teach are divine inspirations from God!! 


All in all, I do know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church. Through trials and tribulations in my life, and through prayer, I have come closer to Christ and I have felt His hand bless my life in ways that I know no one else could do. He has blessed me with such a wonderful family, excellent education, and the best of friends that uplift me. Joseph Smith was a true prophet who restored this church on this Earth. Without a doubt this wonderful Gospel must be spread throughout the world so that others may feel the happiness and joy it brings to one's life. Come unto Christ. I promise you that this Gospel will bless you in so many ways. I know that God lives. He loves us, and wants the best of us. I'm proud to be a Mormon; I'm proud to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I invite you all to come unto Christ and feel His love surround you! You will be blessed! 

Sleep~

I had to blog or do something to stay awake for now...
I must be getting old or something....it's currently around 22:10 and I'm super super tired already. How did I do it last year? Be able to stay up until like....2:30 in the morning and be fine the day day? Where did all that energy I had last year go? This year, I'm just in the library studying or at home...studying. I occasionally go out and do stuff so I stay active and awake; so I should have energy to not feel this tired at this time of night should I? 
I feel like I'm deprived of sleep, even though I've actually been getting plenty of sleep. It's not over-sleeping though, because I'm getting the recommended hours of sleep for my age.
Hmm......thoughts? Or should I just expect the "Welcome to college when you're not a freshman" statement? 
On a happier note, however, I'm definitely enjoying my classes. It's not too hard of schedule for this semester. 

Oh how I wish I was sleeping right now...

The End of Summer Solstice!

Wow!! Can you believe that summer is over and the fall equinox is just around the corner? Crazy crazy! But I'm really excited for fall, I just love sweater weather! 

This past....week-ish has been pretty lay back because I was sick for most of it. What started out as just a cough turned out to be a typical cold. Luckily I have the most amazing parents ever who brought me medicine and brought me back to full health so quickly (or else I would've been sniffling for about a month)! Because of this sickness, I didn't go to the library. I'm not a fan of those people who come to the library and sniffle their noses like there's no tomorrow. That being said, since I didn't want to be that person to everyone else, I studied at home. There really is something about the library and helps you focus....or maybe lack of? I am blogging right now instead....


Anyway, so it's been around a month since I moved down to Provo. Time flies by so fast! I've been enjoying it a lot. There's definitely a different feel of college when you're not a freshman :) And I've really liked it! 
I've gotten to know many people, especially in my ward and Korean class. We made some friends within our ward and they invited us over last week to watch a movie with them. If you ever come across The Sasquatch Gang....watch it. It's ridiculous how funny it is....at least we all thought so. It's one of those movies that it's so dumb that you laugh. But not dumb like Napoleon Dynamite (sorry, I couldn't last 10 minutes watching it).
So these friends of ours...well i'd say more acquaintances for now. But anyhow, they're pretty cool! 3 of the 4 are from Utah (like, 15 minutes away from home ha). There's actually a ton of Utahns in my ward this year....kind of strange. 
My Korean class has lots of guys in it because they're all return missionaries who served in Korea. They're pretty cool, and some of them are quite interesting; in a good way though, it's funny and that's a great characteristic.


And sadly....oh so so sadly.....the horrible game that BYU played this past weekend against our rivals, the Utes. Seriously, what was that? And you, Jake Heaps! Take your confidence level down a bit! And make some better calls when you're on the field yeah? You can run the ball sometimes buddy!! Ah!
You should've seen me during the game. I was yelling at our TV for most of it. But...I actually got over it about 10 seconds after the game ended. And what's even better is my roommate is a Utes fan. Why is she at BYU? We ask the same question ourselves :) 

Have a great week peeps. Carpe diem & noctem. 

No Pictures?

I've been in Provo for a while now...wow 2 weeks today!! And I've taken absolutely no pictures yet. For real. What is this? I took pictures like the third day I got here last year. Ah freshman year....had so much time for fun and all. Sophomore year, not as much. But I'm really liking meeting new people. I like this ward I'm in a lot! The people in this ward are very fun and nice. I feel comfortable around them all. And I got my calling as sacrament pianist. What up. I was so happy to get that calling. Now I just need a piano with me. :/ Good thing Mel has a keyboard. I guess I could be like those brave people who play in the Wilk but.....I'd rather pass. 


I miss my piano back at home :( Oh one of the woes of college and having to move away from home. 


Also, I wish I had more people to talk in Korean with. It'd be nice practice but, alas, it ain't happening. Oh well, I guess having Korean in the morning everyday is good enough. However, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I need to book up the RB stairs to get to Korean. There are over 80 stairs let me tell you. And usually I end up having about....6 minutes to get up those stairs and to the basement of the JFSB. At least it's the JFSB...if it was any further I'd probably keel over by the time I got to my class ha!


Point being, I need to start taking pictures! Good thing I have this weekend to spend with Katie and whoever else wants to join us.


Speaking of Katie, we found out some guy who lives THREE blocks away from us was using her wifi, changed the name of it, hacked on it without her password, changed her password, and messed around with it so that it wasn't working for us yesterday. He came to our door and told us what was up and everything. Not gonna lie, we were mad and freaked out that some hacker geek did that; props to him to be able to do it, but still!! Luckily we reset it and fixed it so we could use it again after he left. He came to try and fix it for us but only made it worse.


Well, I think that's all now. peace and blessings everyone. 

Catching up for the summer~

Summer is already come and gone.  Can you believe it? Where has time gone? It feels like a month and a half ago that winter semester got over. What have I done with summer? It was supposed to be a productive one, more productive than what it was at least. I kept busy but not as much as I was hoping for:

--First off, I wanted to get a summer job somewhere while I was home. The minute I moved back to Ogden (and before that) I filled out applications to what felt like every place hiring in the Ogden-to-Riverdale area. I got lucky and got a couple interviews; but every time I told them I don't work Sundays and I was only here for the summer their vibes changed and....nothing ever got back to me. It sucked because I wanted to work hard and save that money for when school started again but...alas, it just didn't work out. Luckily, father loves me and let me work at his office every so often which was nice.

--Second, living in Utah means lots of farewells! I knew at least one going on almost every week this summer, and I went to most of them, too. Just from the boys I know, I definitely know the Gospel is being preached throughout all the world and it's awesome! From all my guys friends I know, it's crazy to think of how many places I know a missionary: Hungary, England, AZ, VA, Brazil, Uruguay, CA(tons got called here), Mexico(same here), Hong Kong, Germany, MS, TN, Albania, Nicaragua, MD, MN, South Africa, Chile, Dominican Republic, Croatia, Korea!, MO, Italia, FL, Japan, CO, UT!, Russia, Peru, NC, SC, Singapore, KY, Czech Republic, and that's all I can think of for now. And some of those have multiple people I know! Isn't that crazy but cool?! To think they're all out there preaching the Gospel right now! I'm proud of my friends...going back on track, so after the semester was over, the summer was full of farewells and it was nice to see friends and familiar faces almost every week and to talk to them over the summer.

--Third, after realizing that I wouldn't be able to get a job for the summer, I really wanted to plan a road trip somewhere. One idea was Arizona, but planning never even happened and so it died out.

--Fourth, I probably should've studied a lot over the summer... :/ woops. I think that sums it all up.

--Fifth, I got a membership to the Club to exercise and do Zumba (which I LOVE!) at the end of June. It was nice going to the gym and being super active again! I was hoping to shave some lbs. off but I don't think it happened...I think I'm slowly getting there though! Here's to hoping I'll have time to hit the gym back in Provo...

--Sixth, I hung out with my friends a lot!! I love them a lot. For the first part of summer, we'd hang out almost every day and called it "party part __" and I think we got to like....15? Literally. It was awesome. But then that died out and hanging out with the girls just happened a lot (our guy friends are all gone remember). Off The Wall (OTW) was the best!!! Gave me something to do on Friday nights. That comedy improv is hilarious, and I love the guys who play in it. It's pretty cool that through OTW I know them and they know me. :D

--Seventh, the fam and I went to Maui!!! The best, loved it. 'nuff said.

--Eighth, of all this, the things I did the most were play the piano and read. A lot. It was great. I'm going to miss it all back in Provo.

I think that's all. Only a week until school starts now. :/ Don't know if I'm ready, I still have to get ready to move! Hope everyone else had a lovely summer, I definitely enjoyed mine.

Peace and love peeps. That's the life of me.

HARRY POTTER!!!!

Um...so...Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Amazing. Loved it. I cried, yeah, so what? I started crying when it showed Fred, Lupin, and Tonks dead. So sad! And then I was teary-eyed the rest of the movie and the I felt like something died inside of me when it was all over. Because....it is. This has been 10 years  of my life! My childhood, more than half my life up to this point(almost half though)! You honestly can't blame me for being sad, when I've grown up with this magical story since I was in first grade and when it first came out.

I had the privilege to see the movie at 7 PM, so 5 hours before midnight premiere. Hurray for connections! Anyway, it was so awesome to do so, and I sorta dressed up. Enough so that I was comfortable, and people could tell I was dressed up for Harry Potter anyway. I was so super stoked, it was embarrassing. But that's ok, I was only concerned about Harry. 

So the movie. Oh man oh man. It was great. Perfect balance of action, darkness, humor, and romance. The action scenes were really great, especially when Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix duke it out! Another awesome part I liked was in the Room of Requirement when Malfoy and his gangs come inside the fire comes around and all! Also...Neville!! dang! Matthew Lewis did SUCH an excellent job portraying Neville. I say he's a true hero to this all because if the sword never appeared to him and he didn't kill Nagini, then Harry would be done for. I'm a fan. Go Neville! The epilogue was slightly funny since it was all the same actors, but dressed to look like they're 36. And Ron and Hermione's kiss?! the first thing that actually popped in my head (while everyone else was cheering) was, "Katy's probably going to be super jealous of Emma right here" ha. It was awesome to see all the characters back at Hogwarts during the epic battle, even Percy was there! The only one not there though was Oliver Wood! What the heck, why didn't he come?! He's supposed to....

I kinda wish they had mentioned that Harry's invisibility cloak was the one from the Deathly Hallows...that's kinda important seeing as it's the  title of the book, eh? So there's that, for all you non-readers. Also, I think it would've been way cool if they had explained how Voldemort got all the items he used as horcruxes, especially since he used the founders of Hogwarts' items. But I guess the movie would've been too long. So you non-readers will have to figure that out on your own...like by reading the book. Also, I really wish the epilogue showed more main characters, like Neville and Luna, or George and what happened to him. And what occupations the all acquired would've been awesome. A few more minor details missing here and there that only avid fans would've appreciated (me included) because they know Harry Potter too well, but other than that this movie was excellent! I need to go see it again sometime soon!! If this movie doesn't win box office of the year(or whatever the prize is called), I'm going to be angry and it'll be a shocker.

And so, the worldwide phenomenon has come to a close. I'm hoping JK Rowling will think of another book just as good as Harry's, if not better. It's bittersweet, but it was great!!
Harry Potter forever!!!! <3 <3 <3