Best.FHE.EVER!!!! :)

We had a flour fight for FHE yesterday. It was so much fun!! :) I love my ward. They are awesome.

People in the photo...(the girl on the left I actually don't know... this is awkward.), the  girl behind me is Sarah (she's serving a mission in Houston!), Michelle (she's one of my favorite people ever!), then Oliver (he's pretty fun.)

FAKE it until you BECOME it.

So one of my friends shared this on Facebook. I decided to watch it because there were positive comments on it. and oh. my. goodness. It was so worth the 20 minutes I spent watching it. I could hardly wait until the end of the video because I just knew this was something I needed to share. It is something I am going to watch again and again.  But seriously it puts a whole new perspective on life for me. It puts a whole new perspective on faking it until you make it.  Because no you don't want to just make it, you want to become it. Enjoy. :)

Will of God Mormon Message

I think this is a video that all of us need to watch.  I think it is a good reminder that sometimes when we are going through a trial/not having things go our way, Heavenly Father is pruning us because He knows what He wants us to be!!

What I thought this week would be

This is a picture of me at my last district meeting of my mission

Well most of you probably know but for those of you that I don't, I came home from my mission about 5 months ago. I came home about 10 days after my year mark. My "official" release date was supposed to be Feb 20, 2013.  So I thought this week would be full of being a newly returned missionary, chuck full of awkwardness, confusion, and happiness that only comes when returning from your mission.  But due to some things out of my control (things of which I am not going to go into particulars here), I was fasting and praying about coming home all of August and into September and  finally decided returning home was the best thing for me.  Don't get me wrong coming home early was an extremely difficult decision. I did NOT want to leave Pennsylvania early.  But I knew it was the right thing to do. At times I felt like it led to more trials, which frustrated me to no end. It has really taught me a lot about myself though and about my relationship with my Savior and Heavenly Father.  Also I have followed some more difficult promptings from the Spirit which lead me to move away from home.  But as I have followed the Spirit, I am AMAZED at what has happened in my life!!! I have been blessed in more ways than one. Tonight I got some exciting news and as I thought about it, suddenly every disappointment and frustration I had felt over the last few years was explained.  I could see how Heavenly Father had lead me to where I was supposed to be at this exact moment. I could see how I was never forgotten with things that I wanted to do, I just needed to wait on God's timetable. Also I could see why Heavenly Father had chosen to send me home 5 months early.  I wouldn't be where He needed me and done what He wanted me to do if I had stayed on my mission. Knowing I am where God wants me to be is the best blessing of all. So I am excited to see what happens next.

Happy Beautiful day

So let me start with a week ago. As a few of you know, I moved to Las Vegas a week ago. Woohoo! And I am trying to find a job.  Well I was really scared in my adventure that I wouldn't... But albeit I don't have one yet but today has made me very optimistic that I will be finding one soon!!
Back to my story so yesterday I filled out this very difficult application. There was a math part to it and it was HARD!  (I couldn't use a calculator) I left with my head hurting no joke. But I also left wanting to thank all my math teachers for forcing me to do math without a calculator my whole life.  So they called Thursday afternoon wanting me to come in for an interview on Friday.  I went in today and the interviewer said he was impressed with me because of all my volunteer experience on my resume.  He said he was also impressed because of how well I did on the math portion of the application and most people don't do that well. The rest of the interview went really well. Then he gave me the idea of looking on Craigslist for a job.  So I started doing that and I have another job interview lined up for Monday! And quite possibly another one next week. Woohoo!! Heavenly Father has been blessing me so much!!! Well that's my life for now folks. Hope you all are doing great!! :)

The Parable of the Bookshelf

So tonight I was assembling a bookshelf because I have a lot of books and one bookshelf is just simply not enough for me. (If you only knew anyway...)

So I got to this point and I thought I was almost done then I looked at it.

The wrong side of the wood is everywhere! Ughh it looks so bad!!

I don't know if you can see all the mistakes that I made. I was pretty frustrated cause I just wanted to be done and have it over with. (the directions were confusing) As I was reading the directions it was talking about the backing(to the left of the photo) being important to keeping the whole thing together and I thought "Yeah right. like this flimsy piece of nothing could keep the whole bookshelf together."  So I kept moving forward to finishing my bookshelf.  Then I got to thinking well this doesn't look it's best and I might be leaving this at home at some point and I don't think my parents would appreciate this kinda ugly looking thing in their house.  Then I started thinking about sin and how it kinda makes us kinda not so great looking spiritually. It taints us. And how sometimes we think well it doesn't look that bad. But to our Heavenly Father it is an eyesore because He can't look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.  So I started taking the bookshelf apart to fix it.  and it was NOT easy, it was frustrating and I just wanted wanted to be done cause I was hurting.  I had to be patient and not give up and just work on it and eventually I was able to fix it.  And that's how repentance is.  It's not easy and it often hurts a lot.  It takes time depending on what it is. But eventually after it all, we end up with what Heavenly Father wanted us to look like: clean and pure of sin. 
And also it is a lot easier and saves us time in the long run if we just spend a little bit of extra time studying the directions.  Same with keeping the commandments, it saves us time in the long run. 
So there you go. The parable of the bookshelf. Who knew that putting that together would give me all of that?

 

The finished project

December!

My friend Kim and I at the lights in downtown El Paso! It was fun to
go see them cause I'd never gone down before. :)

  So I was sitting at my computer today realizing it has been a while since I blogged and I decided I needed an update. Well December was an awesome month for me and an awesome way to end 2012. I got to see the rest of my family for the first time since getting home. Which was great!! I love them so much!! :) Also I have worn contacts too much and was causing my eyes problems so that is why I'm wearing glasses in all the pictures...

Going sledding for the 2nd time in my life!

Who can resist this adorable face?!

My good friend/old roommate Jaime got married in the Idaho Falls temple. It was so much fun to see her and our other roommate Sena.  Sena also served a mission so we both got to go to the sealing. Which was awesome! :)

  Look at this cute little girl! She didn't like the wig much. but I got her to wear it for this picture!

My niece Emma and I.  I surprised her when I took this picture. haha. :)

William and his crown

 Abbie and I. Abbie is always ready for a picture!

My nephews on their date with grandpa and grandma to buy presents.

Salt Lake Temple I got to go to my first live session ever. Pretty cool. I got
to ride the frontrunner up to Salt Lake from Lehi which was a pretty fun experience. :)

I couldn't resist getting this t-shirt for her!

 Well that was pretty much my month. It went by way too quickly!!