"The Lord commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and...they shall learn in their own experience who He is." Albert Schweitzer
These past several months I have been reflecting on the difficulties that life's challenges bring us. Mostly because I am surrounded by many tough things as I watch co-workers who I have worked beside lose their jobs because the company can not afford to keep everyone there, and the knowledge that this very thing could happen to me. As I listened to the rumors that go flying around and the fears that my co-workers express I again am so grateful for a Prophet and Apostles who receive revelation from our Savior Jesus Christ for our times right now! They constantly remind me in who I can trust. They remind me of the hope that I am able to have and realize that I will not be left alone. These quotes below and above are some that have brought, hope and peace into my life amongst turmoil and possible strife.
"One of the challenges of this mortal experience is to not allow the stresses and strains of life to get the better of us - to endure the varied seasons of life while remaining positive, even optimistic."
"In our search to obtain relief from the stresses of life, may we earnestly seek ways to simplify our lives. May we comply with the inspired counsel and direction the Lord has given us in the great plan of happiness. May we be worthy to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost and follow the guidance of the Spirit as we navigate this mortal journey. May we prepare ourselves to accomplish the ultimate purpose of this mortal test-to return and live with our Heavenly Father" ~ Elder Tom Perry - Apostle of Jesus Christ
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
This is My Year!
At the beginning of 2008 amongst all the different activities where we talked about New Years resolutions and goals for the new year, I remember as I pondered what sort of things I wanted to do this year I had the feeling "This is MY Year!" That very phrase penetrated my thoughts and heart . I will let you draw your own conclusions as to what hopeful ideas sprang to my mind from that phrase. ;) This year has come to a close and, I will be honest, the hopeful idea that came I am nowhere near accomplishing the idea that shall not be named :) Sorry feeling a Harry Potter moment!
At the close of this year I have been reflecting on this past year and the awesome thing is that, this has been MY year! I feel like I have had one of the greatest years!
It all started off with an awesome room mate who helped to make this year exciting, fun, and full of so many learning and growing experiences. Elizabeth you rock!
I was able to date an awesome guy for a few months, I have been able to serve the Lord in callings that have strengthened my testimony and love for others! I was challenged to read Jesus the Christ and I felt like I had many life and faith changing experiences as I read from those pages and my testimony of the Savior grew even more!
We had gone 13 miles by this point, hence the finger adding a 1.
At the end of June I was able to travel back to the beautiful state of Oregon where I served my mission! :D I went for a framily, yes I spelled that correctly, wedding and then traveled around the state for a few days. While there I went to the beach and Crater Lake National Park.
This picture is for my fro, Jason, from my framily!
Crater Lake
Oregon Sunrise
Do you see that step compared to her knee?
The end of this year was packed with some great lessons through experience such as the Lord can do anything even if it seems impossible and having hope and being optimistic in uncertain times!
I love what Elder Rasband said in his Conference address in April 2008. He said, "As experiences accumulate in our lives, they add strength and support to each other. Just as the building blocks of our homes support the rest of the structure, so too do our personal life experiences become building blocks for our testimonies and add to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."
That is what this year has been for me. Through all of my experiences I have felt how it has prepared me for whatever is to come in this coming year. It has been the end of a season and beginning of a new.
Bring on 2009!
At the close of this year I have been reflecting on this past year and the awesome thing is that, this has been MY year! I feel like I have had one of the greatest years!
It all started off with an awesome room mate who helped to make this year exciting, fun, and full of so many learning and growing experiences. Elizabeth you rock!
I was able to date an awesome guy for a few months, I have been able to serve the Lord in callings that have strengthened my testimony and love for others! I was challenged to read Jesus the Christ and I felt like I had many life and faith changing experiences as I read from those pages and my testimony of the Savior grew even more!This summer ROCKED!!!! I was able to travel to 3 National Parks around the country! First stop was the Grand Canyon in June. Elizabeth (my roomie) picked me up from the airport in Arizona and we drove down to the North Ridge of the Grand Canyon. What an experience!! Great Bonding time and even got to meet fellow travelers of the trail. There is some sort of bond that is felt as you are hiking a canyon and you come across a stranger. You know that you are both on a journey that will be physically challenging but well worth it! It is like you become automatic friends as you cross each others paths along the way. There was one group that we found was doing the same hike as us. Which was 16 miles round trip. Down to the river and back to the top of the ridge in one day! We went down the South Kaibab Trail and came up the Bright Angel Trail. 
We had gone 13 miles by this point, hence the finger adding a 1.At the end of June I was able to travel back to the beautiful state of Oregon where I served my mission! :D I went for a framily, yes I spelled that correctly, wedding and then traveled around the state for a few days. While there I went to the beach and Crater Lake National Park.Starfish
This picture is for my fro, Jason, from my framily!
I love Waves
Crater LakeOregon Sunrise
Do you see that step compared to her knee?The end of this year was packed with some great lessons through experience such as the Lord can do anything even if it seems impossible and having hope and being optimistic in uncertain times!I love what Elder Rasband said in his Conference address in April 2008. He said, "As experiences accumulate in our lives, they add strength and support to each other. Just as the building blocks of our homes support the rest of the structure, so too do our personal life experiences become building blocks for our testimonies and add to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."
That is what this year has been for me. Through all of my experiences I have felt how it has prepared me for whatever is to come in this coming year. It has been the end of a season and beginning of a new.
Bring on 2009!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Life just doesn't get better!
It seems that everyone, well almost everyone is blogging about their Thanksgiving week. I must say I had a great one! I had the whole week off from work and I only had classes on Monday and Tuesday. YAY!
Wednesday I went to the temple in San Antonio, then that evening traveled the whole 45 minutes home and spent the next several days with my family! What good times we had.
This was our first Thanksgiving with my new Sister-in-law and she fits right into the family. We give her hard times but that is a sign of love. :) I can't forget the Turkey Bowl. I showed up thinking that I might sit on the sidelines with my little brother who had a cast because he had previously broken his arm playing football. But there were not that many people that showed up to play so I joined the team with my little brother and can I say my brothers rock the field. Seth and Benjamin. I would say that I did, well that really would be a lie. But I still had a good time. Even my little brother who is 11 and in a cast scored the last winning touchdown of our last game. And these guys didn't go easy on him, pushing him down even, I felt my big sister protection coming out a little wanting to punch the guy out but I resisted and rather threatened instead. :)
That night we watched the Texas and A&M game. I was the only one yelling and screaming as my little sister lying right next to me was sleeping through it. It was a fun game to watch as A&M was wiped clean off the field. Later I found out that two of my good friends had been online watching the game together and I wished I had joined in with them to comment on what was happening in the game.
Friday was my sisters birthday! The big 15. Oh my, I have come to realize that it is on my brothers and sisters birthdays when I feel like I actually age. So my sister knowing this little bit of knowledge kept on taunting me with the fact that she was going to be 15. I wanted to treat her like a princess on her birthday so we got all dressed up in Formal dresses and went to the movies to see Twilight. That is the movie she had wanted to see. Neither of us have actually read the books. The movie wasn't brilliant and at the same time it wasn't terrible. It just was. We showed up to the movie theater both of us feeling a little embarrassed, though I was trying my hardest not to show it. :) I told the guy we wanted to see Twilight and he said, "It's a good movie but you didn't have to get all dressed up for it." If I want to get dressed up on a random day don't I have the right!!!! I let him know it was my sisters birthday and I wanted her to feel special. He said ah, and I am sure talked about those crazy girls with his co workers who were all dressed up going to the movie theater. To bad I wasn't in Austin. I could have just said I was doing my part to Keep Austin Weird! Unfortunately Bastrop, TX does not have that same slogan. Darn it!
Saturday night was awesome. I got together with a bunch of girls and one guy and we watched the OU vs. Oklamhoma State game. We spent a lot of our time debating who we should actually cheer for, knowing that we did not want to cheer for either. I finally decided to cheer for good plays. We decided we wanted OU to win but only by a few points 3-4 would have been grand. It was like that until about the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter when all of a sudden Oklahoma State left the field and OU decided to take advantage. They played a good game up until that point. But it was still a good time, laughing and realizing how funny it was that here we were a bunch of girls watching football and wondering why only one guy was there? Does that seem right. You would think Football and girls would bring in the guys? :) Let me tell you that one guy is one of the smartest guys I know. Plus it was great food!
One of my friends is absolutely hilarious, she takes regular life and tells a story about it and she has you laughing like crazy. I think she would make a great stand up comedian.
Stand up comedy:
Have you ever been to a Football game with girls?
ShaRay: Kari and Wilber are enjoying married... Stop him, Stop him!!!
Carina: Yeah!... What about Kari and Wilber?
Carina: Are Marquel and Braden dating? Whoooooooo!
Tarsha: TOUCHDOWN!!!!! They seem to spend a lot of time together?
Elisa: 2 point conversion YAH! They have been on at least 6 dates!
Marcus: What did I get myself into?
;)
So my week in a nutshell Football, Food, Family, and Friends! I don't know if a week can get much better than that?
Wednesday I went to the temple in San Antonio, then that evening traveled the whole 45 minutes home and spent the next several days with my family! What good times we had.
This was our first Thanksgiving with my new Sister-in-law and she fits right into the family. We give her hard times but that is a sign of love. :) I can't forget the Turkey Bowl. I showed up thinking that I might sit on the sidelines with my little brother who had a cast because he had previously broken his arm playing football. But there were not that many people that showed up to play so I joined the team with my little brother and can I say my brothers rock the field. Seth and Benjamin. I would say that I did, well that really would be a lie. But I still had a good time. Even my little brother who is 11 and in a cast scored the last winning touchdown of our last game. And these guys didn't go easy on him, pushing him down even, I felt my big sister protection coming out a little wanting to punch the guy out but I resisted and rather threatened instead. :)
That night we watched the Texas and A&M game. I was the only one yelling and screaming as my little sister lying right next to me was sleeping through it. It was a fun game to watch as A&M was wiped clean off the field. Later I found out that two of my good friends had been online watching the game together and I wished I had joined in with them to comment on what was happening in the game.
Friday was my sisters birthday! The big 15. Oh my, I have come to realize that it is on my brothers and sisters birthdays when I feel like I actually age. So my sister knowing this little bit of knowledge kept on taunting me with the fact that she was going to be 15. I wanted to treat her like a princess on her birthday so we got all dressed up in Formal dresses and went to the movies to see Twilight. That is the movie she had wanted to see. Neither of us have actually read the books. The movie wasn't brilliant and at the same time it wasn't terrible. It just was. We showed up to the movie theater both of us feeling a little embarrassed, though I was trying my hardest not to show it. :) I told the guy we wanted to see Twilight and he said, "It's a good movie but you didn't have to get all dressed up for it." If I want to get dressed up on a random day don't I have the right!!!! I let him know it was my sisters birthday and I wanted her to feel special. He said ah, and I am sure talked about those crazy girls with his co workers who were all dressed up going to the movie theater. To bad I wasn't in Austin. I could have just said I was doing my part to Keep Austin Weird! Unfortunately Bastrop, TX does not have that same slogan. Darn it!
Saturday night was awesome. I got together with a bunch of girls and one guy and we watched the OU vs. Oklamhoma State game. We spent a lot of our time debating who we should actually cheer for, knowing that we did not want to cheer for either. I finally decided to cheer for good plays. We decided we wanted OU to win but only by a few points 3-4 would have been grand. It was like that until about the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter when all of a sudden Oklahoma State left the field and OU decided to take advantage. They played a good game up until that point. But it was still a good time, laughing and realizing how funny it was that here we were a bunch of girls watching football and wondering why only one guy was there? Does that seem right. You would think Football and girls would bring in the guys? :) Let me tell you that one guy is one of the smartest guys I know. Plus it was great food!
One of my friends is absolutely hilarious, she takes regular life and tells a story about it and she has you laughing like crazy. I think she would make a great stand up comedian.
Stand up comedy:
Have you ever been to a Football game with girls?
ShaRay: Kari and Wilber are enjoying married... Stop him, Stop him!!!
Carina: Yeah!... What about Kari and Wilber?
Carina: Are Marquel and Braden dating? Whoooooooo!
Tarsha: TOUCHDOWN!!!!! They seem to spend a lot of time together?
Elisa: 2 point conversion YAH! They have been on at least 6 dates!
Marcus: What did I get myself into?
;)
So my week in a nutshell Football, Food, Family, and Friends! I don't know if a week can get much better than that?
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