And There She Was...

And there she was, standing there so perfectly...

  Just thought I'd introduce you to my beautiful best friend... : )

'Till I See You Again

She came and went just like the beautiful leaves of fall

 one day here the next day gone 

And just when, you think she'd be running' out of hope

 she'd get back up and try again 

And one day I know that we will meet here again

 saying whoa, saying whoa

 And though the distance may seem like its a big tragedy

 I'm singing whoa- I'm singing whoa! 

   And though you haven't been here for long I'll miss you when you are gone

You should know, you should know

That God has a plan for you, through these lens we cannot view the big picture of it all

And your strength in life help me see the path to my own reality

Where I must- and must not go

And though our time in life's limited, one day we'll be glad we did

 The things that brought us 

safely home

To Have His Name Written On Our Hearts

   Today I was asked the question, " What is the meaning of life?" Deep eh? Not many people today truly understand it. Become rich, fall in love, be successful, get a good education, etc.  I mean don't get me wrong, these things are great! Amazing, even!  But those are bonuses. Life is not about how much money you have, the degree you got, what career you pursued... Life is a test, and how you live it determines your fate. Where you'll go after this life, who you'll be with. Now I don't know about you, but I'd love to live in Heaven with my Heavenly Father, Christ my Savior, and my eternal family. I'm trying to live in a way so that I can do that.  How about you?

 My wonderful Young Womens leader said to us, "Many people now a days, get tattoos permanently marked onto themselves. I'd like you to have, permanently imprinted on your hearts, Christ's name. How would that affect you?" We didn't get to answer in class, but I know that all day, everyday, wherever we are, we carry around with us the name of God and Jesus Christ. Don't you want to live in a way to honor it?  When we put Christ's name upon ourselves, it means we put him first. We seek what he wants up to seek and not what the world makes us think we want.

Mosiah 5: 8-9 states: 

8 And under this head ye are made free, and there is no other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives.

 9 And it shall come to pass that whosoever doeth this shall be found at the right hand of God, for he shall know the name by which he is called; for he shall be called by the name of Christ. 

I know that by living and sharing the pure love of Christ, we can bring joy and happiness to other and bring them the truth of the gospel.

 "I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,

Over mountain or plain or sea;

I'll say what you want me to say, dear Lord;

I'll be what you want me to be."

Who Says We Can't Pretend?

So after spending the day playing dress up and impersonating a Disney character's day, I've found a new found respect for Rapunzel's imaginary life.

7 AM, the usual morning lineup:
Start on the chores and sweep 'til the floor's all clean
Polish and wax, do laundry, and mop and shine up
Sweep again, and by then it's like 7:15.

And so I'll read a book
Or maybe two or three
I'll add a few new paintings to my gallery
I'll play guitar and knit
And cook and basically
Just wonder when will my life begin?

Then after lunch it's puzzles and darts and baking
Paper mache, a bit of ballet and chess
Pottery and ventriloquy, candle making
Then I'll stretch, maybe sketch, take a climb,
Sew a dress!

And I'll reread the books
If I have time to spare
I'll paint the walls some more,
I'm sure there's room somewhere.
And then I'll brush and brush,
and brush and brush my hair
Stuck in the same place I've always been.

And I'll keep wonderin' and wonderin'
And wonderin' and wonderin'
When will my life begin?

Yep. Every single one. We actually didn't finish... But the moral of this story is... YOU'RE NEVER TO OLD TO PLAY DRESS UP!!!!  : )

 Oh and... My best friend's beautiful y'all.

The Future Awaits

    So today was the beginning to something great. The start of something new. ( as the high school musical song pops into your head) Something I've longed for for quite some time- but never fully experienced... Until today. What's that you ask??    MISSIONARY WORK. Yes, the real thing!!! Now mind you, I've done lots of missionary work at other times in my life, but not with real investigators and the sisters with those black name tags by my side! It was an amazing experience, and even though I don't fully know the people I visited yet- (yes, I hope to return!) I could feel my love for those people growing with every minute I was with them.

 Sister Tilley (left) Sister Houke (right)

We were even matching!! (It wasn't planned!)

    Before we left, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Doors slamming in my face didn't sound to appealing... but I soon learned the tracting wasn't usually the best approach. thank goodness- no doors slammed sounds good to me!! (but of course I would totally be up for it if we had gone!) Today was the Fourth of July, so it was quite a big harder to catch some of the people we wanted to. First- we went to visit a single mom of seven. I didn't see them all but she did had the most adorable little boy, I just wanted to pinch his cheeks and spin him around! He was so cute!  She ended up rescheduling- not sure whether it was due to her lack of desire to meet with us or if she had something planned, but we ended up going to visit a very old lady named Audrey. She was actually asleep when we arrived so we talked to Rosemary, one of her helpers. We talked to Rosemary about the restoration packet that the sisters had given her last time they'd seen her, and then we started to get into the restoration of our church and about Joseph Smith. It was such a neat experience because I got to view the gospel from the perspective of someone who had never heard it before. So full of questions and searching for the truth. We shared with her Amos 8: 11- 12 that reads:

     

     11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

    I could see how she kept piecing things together as we explained more and more, and she was genuinely  interested in what we had to say and wanted to learn more! She was also interested about the prophet and the Book of Mormon we even got to give her a one and she said she would read it! It makes me so happy to see the work of the lord spreading so much around the world, because I know everyone needs to hear it in order to return to live with our loving father in heaven. I then offered a prayer to show her the structure how our prayers are said. Before leaving we visited with Jenny, the old lady's daughter, and Jenny's daughter who is 17. They were both very nice. Oh! And their cat weighed 25 POUNDS!!! like WHAAT, that's more that triple my kitty's size! I guess you experience something new everyday... haha. After that we visited Audrey in a small care home. The ladies there were so sweet, and some of them had memory loss or were deaf, but i didn't get to know all of them. Well actually, when we got there, there was a guitar just sitting out, and it just so happened to have a capo! and was in tune! and wasn't broken, unlike my guitar . SO... of course with my luck and the fact that I'd sang to the missionaries not even a week earlier, I was asked to sing! The spirit just kind of took over and I wasn't nervous. Not one bit. I sang the song I wrote for Andrea and at first I just sand the first verse and chorus, but then Audrey asked me to sing more, so I finished the song! I got lots of compliments from the whole nursing home, they were all so sweet. After that, almost two and a half hours had passed and It was time for us to go back. :(  We came back to my house and had hot dogs, corn on the cob, watermelon, and more! YUM.   It was a great day, and we even got to go up to the Pawlings with the Sisters and Lily! And and the Sister's showed me this AMAZING CD! it was lds music... but COUNTRY. I KNOW. AMAZING. I'm suuuper excited , they gave it to me to download!

Jack became a lapdog during the fireworks...LOL.

      As a closing message, the Sisters shared this video with us. Missionary work is not just about the number of baptisms (although that's great!) but really- its about the people you serve and come to love.