A week ago yesterday I drove one of my extremely good friends from the SLC airport to the MTC in Provo, Utah. I decided I would give her a letter as a send off, and she gave me a card with some money (which she didn't have to do). Today I received my very first letter from her. She is a such an example to me and has an amazing spirit that I can't even try to describe. She told me of how she came to the decision of why she should go on a mission, and when she told me I nearly became teary eyed. She will grow so much from this experience and I can see that she will help me grow too. Just from her letter today I could tell that. She told me last week that I am a big reason of why she decided to go on a mission. That makes me feel extremely good and that The Lord trusts me tons more than I often trust myself. It amazes me how much the Lord blesses each of us if we just listen and follow His example. People have asked me why I am so happy lately even though the world is crashing around me, and the true answer to that is because I can see my divine purpose. The Lord continues to bless me in ways I can even begin to comprehend and I just absolutely love it! Thanks to all the people in my life... especially my newest friend on a mission.
I have grown to absolutely love Sundays! Especially Fast Sundays... granted I used to dread them because I'd hear people get up and just tell long stories instead of actually bearing their testimonies... for those of you reading this and not in my religion the first of every month (unless we have General or Stake Conference) all around the world as Latter-Day Saints gather to worship we get up to bear what we call a testimony. We speak of those things in which we are grateful for or things we know to be true. Several times on here I have typed out my testimony, and I don't always get up on Fast Sunday to bear it. A friend of mine often does and I remember having a conversation with him about it a few weeks back, and I thought to myself I should get up next Fast & Testimony meeting and bear mine. Today I did just that! I got up and said that I felt like if I didn't get up I would be very ungrateful; which I believe to be extremely true. This past month has been one of the best thus far this year. I have learned so many grand and wonderful things! I have learned that I am in control of my own life and that the Lord is there with me every step of the way to guide me. A friend said to me during August that as long as we are doing what the Lord wants He is both pleased with us and He blesses us. I have found this to be extremely true. It is in those moments when we forget about Him that we become sad and desolate. He has already suffered this and all we have to do is turn to Him and He will help to comfort and guide us. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and the peace it brings to me. The lessons I learn each and every day in The Book of Mormon. I know how true that book is and all the accounts in it were written down for a purpose! I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven for all the different people He has placed into my life. My friends and family are so wonderful! Especially those friends I have met within the past month. They have been a shining example to me. I have always been told that I should seek out the righteous and I am most grateful that I have... sometimes the righteous can be found in the most unexpected people. It isn't always the ones that you might think of... sometimes it comes from those that you least expect it to. For example, I know several people that have been through so much heart ache in their lives and have been beaten down more than you could possibly imagine and yet now they are some of the strongest people I could ever know. Those moments when I feel absolutely fantastic and when I know that my Father in Heaven is always there for me are the best moments in the world! I can't imagine being any happier in life or it being any better than it is, but I know that as I stay righteous and as I work extremely hard to be faithful I will continue to be blessed beyond measure! :) Everyone should smile more because when you smile it brings even more happiness to you! :D
To my friends all over the world... If you don't know tons about me and my past here is your chance to learn something new. I am from Denham Springs, Louisiana... I was born and raised there. When I turned 18 years old I went off to college in Rexburg, Idaho. The day I started my first semester of college a Hurricane headed towards my Louisiana Home! I was both extremely distracted and constantly on the internet trying to find out what was going on. I went to classes, but my mind was not on my classes it was on what would happen to the state I grew up with and had a love that could never die for... Soon, the levees fell and the water rose and my home town became a place of refuge for those that had been stuck in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. I did not fully understand the effect as to what was going on until I went home for Christmas and flew into the New Orleans International Airport. An airport that as a kid I remember being extremely packed, and now it seemed barren. As the plane began to make it's decent I could clearly see the damage that had been done. Blue Roofs (my first thought: how interesting, but then it hit me.....) They weren't roofs they were tarps. As my family took me around to see the damage I saw cargo carriers on opposite sides of the levee then they should have been. I saw numbers and big X's on houses... only to learn that had meant the house had been checked and the numbers were the dead bodies found. I was not just in shock I was horrified. Soon, we got to a spot that we couldn't keep going... My dad had been working in New Orleans at the time and knew exactly where we could and could not go. That night when we finally got home we ended up stopping at a Walgreen's for a few things.. I saw a National Geographic that I decided I would look at... the pictures inside have never left my thoughts. Coffins with dead bodies right next to fresh dead bodies.. I wanted to cry and couldn't.
A few years later I read a book called Recovering Charles it is about a guy whose Father died in the aftermath of the Hurricane. Reading that book I could clearly see each and every image in my mind. I have a love for New Orleans that I cannot explain to an ordinary person.
I remember I went to the aquarium and the zoo after the hurricane and neither was the same as it had been... I want to now say to all of my friends in Louisiana as a new Tropical Storm that is expected to become a Hurricane before making landfall approaches not only you, but the entire gulf coast... my prayers are with you! I will always have a love for all ya'll down there! May GOD Bless you and keep you safe FOREVER!
just remember one thing... we have the greatest football team ever! WHO DAT!!!!!
If you don't want to hear/read my vague but totally awesome ramblings on why my life is so great then please don't go on, but if so... enjoy my late night thoughts! :)
So, there is reason as always behind my titles and this one has to do with the song from Tangled called "I See the Light". While listening to the first part of the song I realized that I can totally relate it to my relationship with My Heavenly Father... here is the part of which I am speaking: All those days watching in the windows All those years outside looking in All that time never even knowing Just how blind I've been Now I'm here blinking in the starlight Now I'm here suddenly I see Standing here it's all so clear I'm where I'm meant to be
And at last I see the light And it's like the fog has lifted And at last I see the light And it's like the sky is new And it's warm and real and bright And the world has somehow shifted All at once everything looks different Now that I see you
my thoughts are this... I have been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints my entire life, but only within the past few years have I become EXTREMELY converted to what I already knew to be true... I mean as the song says I have been going around in a sense blind to what was already around me. Now that I'm at this point in life I do finally see and it is as though the fog has been lifted. Life has a clear purpose... of course it will be rough along the way, but that's what makes it totally worth it. :) Within the past month I have been reconnected and connected with so many amazing and great people. I honestly couldn't ask for better people in my life right now. God doesn't just bless you in life... He REALLY blesses you... all you have to do is show Him that you are willing to listen and learn and hurt for even just a little while. My life is going to go in a direction I want it to go into... why because life is what you make from it! No one else decides your life... every day is full of choices and every day you can strive to become better and that is what my goal is now and will be forever! I love my life... I love my gospel... I love my Heavenly Father for everything He has done for me and is doing for me. :) Now enjoy this awesome song! :)
I have to admit... I have been fully converted to pinterest. I have been pinning like crazy and finding tons of recipes I want to do and put on my food blog and to top it off hair ideas and homemaking ideas! Yes, I am very addicted. I just can't stop pinning. I now see why everyone loves that site so much. you can find anything! It is like the best site in the world for a woman! I love it! Yes, this is short, but I just had to get that out there! :D
