Today's reading...Rejoice in the Lord

I have been reading a chapter everyday in the Book of Mormon for 4 weeks now. It has really changed everything. I have always been a regular scripture studier/reader, but have lost the consistency that I like. Once I took the challenge from my Bishop to be "consistent" and read one chapter everyday, it has been really fulfilling and I've been learning a lot from them.  Combined with my institute class, I have been able to understand war, Israel, Judah, the lost 10 tribes, the Jews and so much more. It is ironic that I'm at the prophecies of Isaiah and he is talking about the second coming and the return of the lost tribes and that the Jews will get Jerusalem back.  When you understand it, it makes so much more sense and is really a testament of the truth of the Book of Mormon and much more. I particularly liked the scriptures today that I read.  They brought peace to my heart.  That the Lord really is in control and that our job is to have him be the head of our lives and all will work out. When the destruction comes (as it has been coming a lot lately) if we are obedient His wrath will not be upon us, but will save us from harm, if we follow Him and have been following His servants the prophets.

I particularly liked these words today that I read in 2 Nephi 22:

1 ^aAnd in that day thou shalt say: O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedest me.

2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will ^atrust, and not be afraid; for the Lord ^bJehovah is my ^cstrength and my ^dsong; he also has become my salvation.

3 Therefore, with joy shall ye draw ^awater out of the wells of salvation.

4 And in that day shall ye say: ^aPraise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.

5 ^aSing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things; this is known in all the earth.

6 ^aCry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

In verse 1, I am constantly amazed at how many times the Lord turns away His anger when we haven't done our part or what's right and it takes us a long time to recognize His hand or to accept His will, atonement etc.  He is always wanting us to come unto Him and be saved in Him, but won't ever make us do anything. He only allows us the choice to do it and then we do and we believe what verse 2 says, that God is our Salvation and so we trust in Him and we aren't afraid of our fears, becuase Christ is the strength we find when we are just too weak on our own. We sing a song of redeeming love, because we have found hope in Christ and in doing so He can become our Salvation. He already paid the price for sin, but it doesn't give us any comfort unless we accept it.

I have always struggled to understand the Isaiah chapters, but this is the first time that I understand it and that I crave to read my consistent one (or more) chapter (s) a day.  I have enjoyed it and feel the Spirit in the morning, when I put it first and do what's right from the get go in my day. It gives me the confidence I need to know that I'm doing something to be better and put forth effort to do as my Bishop has asked me to and it feels good to be obedient. Obedience is the highest law of the heavens as I learned from my ever faithful mission president.

  "I, the Lord, am ^abound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no ^bpromise." Doctrine and Covenants 82:10

I for sure want His promises!  I'm trying to be obedient so I will get all that He has to offer.  And man, does He offer a lot! I love it! I love the Lord. I love the gospel and feel so blessed to know what I know.

  "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."

James 1:5-6

Dating...oh, the joy!

December 2, 2011

So today was a really busy, funny day. I had a friend who I wanted to set up with this guy…things worked out kind of, but on the flip side I also had a date so that it would be a double date.  Around 5:45ish I realized that I better get hopping because I had curlers in my hair and spaghetti just getting done on the stove, but didn’t want it to sit for too long because then it turns all soggy etc…Well, I took the spaghetti off the stove and realized that I couldn’t find a strainer big enough for it and have burnt myself way too many times using the lid as the way to block water from coming out…so I used the only strainer I could find which was  a little larger than my fist (very effective!!) and in the process all of the spaghetti went into the strainer and straight down into the disposal…awesome I thought as I burned my hand trying to salvage some of it!!!  Just then the doorbell rang!  It was my date! I looked at the time and as I cleared out the disposal, I remembered that I had possibly told him the wrong time. We had jumped back and forth so many times between setting up the date for 6, 6:30 and 7 that I didn’t really couldn’t remember what the official time was! Turned out I told 2 people 6 and one 6:30pm.   Oops!  So there I am burnt hand, no spaghetti and curlers in my hair, make-up not yet on!!!  I run to the door hoping it was the other girl and not my date. So I go to the front door (too short to see through the peep hole) I jump up and look through the circle window. Right as I jumped up he turned around just in time to see me.  He totally laughed (nice first impression) and I opened the door a crack and said, “Hang on.  Give me five minutes.” He said, “I can come back later if you want.”  I said, “No.  It’s okay.  Just give me 5 minutes.”  I ran upstairs and started ripping out my curlers and realized that I hadn’t had the curlers in long enough which was resulting in my hair not turning out cute at all…I made a quick decision right then and there, “If this guy is going to like me, he’s going to have to like me with or without curlers and realize that life happens and there’s no spaghetti and his date did use curlers to get her hair curly and doesn’t wake up with make –up on!” And so I walked downstairs with 90% of the curlers in and by then of course the other date was there, because I had told both guys the wrong time and not the girl.  Oops!  So when I answered the door I said, “I’m sorry, but welcome to a moment in real life curlers and all! And the spaghetti all just went down the drain!” I proceeded to tell them what had happened and that I was sorry and that this is kind of the real me and how life just happens sometime (I’ll have to insert my date about the car battery that happened about 2 months ago, later...I inserted it below).  They both laughed, accepted it and after my date found out that curlers are not obsolete, we moved on with our night and had a very nice time eating spaghetti (I made some more noodles) and burnt garlic bread (gotta watch those broilers while putting on your make-up!) and playing pictionary.  I learned a few new terms that I didn’t know, like some guy who burnt Rome (I guess I didn’t learn it very well) but the other girl who is very intelligent, learned from me who Jacques Cousteau is!  It was a fulfilling night and let’s just suffice it to say that he wasn’t too scared off because he asked for a second date last week.  I figure if you’re going to date and get to know people, you might as well really get to know them.

Sometime in October...

I had a date planned for bowling on a Thursday at 7pm. I walked out to my car after work at 6.  I had left my lights on one too many times (the little beeping noise doesn't work in my car, so sometimes I don't remember to turn off my lights).  My battery was completely dead. Not just dead, but dead dead.  So I called my friend who was on her way home.  She came by, but since the battery was completely dead, it was worthless!  I told her to go home as her baby was needing to be fed and I would figure it out.  I called my date (it was now about 6:45pm, 15 min til my date was to be at my house!) who rides a motorcycle, so of course he couldn't answer the phone while riding!  I left him a message.  In the meantime a really nice guy was on his way home from work and he stopped to help out.  We got the battery out and then my date arrived on his motorcycle. We had to bring the battery to the nearest auto parts store and get it tested.  There I was on the motorcycle with the battery on my lap, holding onto it so that it wouldn't fall as we rode on redwood road.  It was pretty funny and my date was way chill.  So, I bought a new battery, we returned and installed it. By then it was like 8:30pm.  He still wanted to go bowling, but I just wanted to eat something and wash my hands!  We ended up getting Betos and ice cream, eating at home and watching Friends and then talked for like 2 hours.  It was really a great date.  He was totally chill and it was great because, sometimes (as previously mentioned) real life happens.  That is what I mentioned to him as I was riding on the back of his motorcycle saying, "Thank you for doing this."  He said it was fine.  I said that it was kind of fun to have a "real life" experience on a date, cause this is what real life is all about.  He was happy to help.   Below is the picture of the guy at the auto parts store testing my old battery.

Those kinds of real dates are fun!  It's hard to date these days...so many miscommunications, misunderstood or unknown expectations...I just try to play it safe by being real and hope it's enough...I guess some day it will stick and we'll see what happens!  Here's to dating (well, not really) and here's the link to a great talk on why we date. http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-225-4,00.html  Because there's an end reason to why we do it.

 Said President Harold B. Lee: "Pure womanhood plus priesthood means exaltation. But womanhood without priesthood, or priesthood without pure womanhood doesn't spell exaltation." 

Working on getting to that exaltation part...speaking of which, I was in doing sealing last Saturday in the Temple.  I haven't ever felt the Spirit like that while doing sealings.  It was so sweet to feel and understand more than I ever have, covenants that are made in sacred temples.  I was amazed and have looked toward marriage with a different perspective than I have before.  Amazing how words change things, hearts and feelings, yet represent something so much deeper.

The Help...

Thoughts on life today...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Help

So I have just spent the last 45 min (I was only allotting myself 20 min, but went over because it's a hard book to put down) reading "The Help". I'm not too far into it, but have gotten far enough, that the secret meeting to help write the manuscript have begun between Aibileen and Skeeter.  The whole time my body has been tense, because they are doing it in secret...in secret from what I keep asking myself? From people who think that blacks are inferior to whites.  I have been amazed and sick because of the way that the people judge and treat one another. It is amazing to me that even in today's society we judge and criticize on a regular basis (myself included). I recently took on a challenge to not be critical for a solid 24 hour period. I have done this before and it has taken me up to 7 days to be able to complete the task. I got the idea from John Lund in some of his marriage seminars.

Well, the other day in my hardest PE class full of 9th graders who often don't agree that the activity I have planned is "fun" enough for them. I have no idea some days how to please them, which results in me getting frustrated with them. Well, I told myself and a few of my students my new goal!  I had to start my stop watch over about 5 times in that period alone and multiple times since. It has been a week and one of my students asked how it was going...I said, "It's not! I can't do it right now. I think I'm too stressed.  Too much going on to not be critical." When I said those words, I thought to myself, "What is wrong with me that I can't have self-control when I'm stressed to not be critical for a full 24 hour period?  I must really have something wrong with me." And then of course the natural woman that I am brushed it off and justified it saying, "I am too stressed!  I'll do it at the new year or something."  Well, it's been about 10 hours since that comment was made by my student and my response given and it has bugged me all day that I had to make an excuse as to why I can't be uncritical for a 24 hour period.  So I'm starting again right now, timer is set and I'm determining, that even among one of the most stressful weeks in the year, that I can go 24 hours, at some point without being critical.

Which brings me back to The Help...what a great book.  What a great way to say, "There is a problem." without saying, "You are all jerks and look at yourselves...." but by going about it in a different way. I think that is why I like to read it. Not only is it so fun to read and well written, it is just a different way of saying the thing we are all thinking or not thinking, but should be thinking, and reminding us of what is important...Human life!

I have been thinking a lot about life lately and have wondered why we have the trials that we do. I was engaged about 2 years ago and went through the most pain I have ever gone through and in that experince I learned what the reason is that we must all experience pain in one way or another; because we are here to grow.  I have talked with different people, from different times in my life this week who have reminded me that we all have our problems. We all suffer in our own way and if we weren't going through the thing we are currently going through, then we would be growing and learning by going through something else, because we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and wants us to be fulfilling our purpose here on the Earth which is to grow. I was just reading in 2 Ne 3 and 4 and all the father's blessings that Lehi gives his sons before he dies and he tells them to do what is right, follow their younger brother and they would be blessed.

Laman and Lemuel in the very next chapter rebel and completely are cut off from their brother Nephi.  They will go on to have their trials.  Christ suffered for their sins as He suffered for Nephi's and mine and yours, but the difference is that Nephi too will go his way and have trials.  His trials won't be the same as Laman and Lemuel's because he will need to grow in the way the Lord provides for him to grow, because he is following the Lord.  Both parties have trials, but both parties have different trials, because they both are choosing to live differently.  Nephi's trials will in turn help him grow and learn what the Lord wants him to and after he learns the next thing, the trial will have been useful and be taken away...until Laman and Lemuel come to themselves, their trials will continue to hurt them, because in a way they are self inflicted, because it is true that "wickedness never was happiness" and so they can't be happy and learn from their "trial" as long as they are continuing to live in the unhealthy lifestyle that is not conducive to happiness...so what have I learned?  That when we are faced with a trial, it is better to just learn the thing you are supposed to so you can learn, grow and move on from the pain quicker...but the fun and ironic part (but the part we're here for: to grow) is that yet another trial will come, because if we aren't progressing and growing, we are digressing...so in the end, no matter what there will be trials, but the difference between Laman and Lemuel trials and Nephi's is that though Nephi will continue to have trials until he goes the way of all the Earth, he will continue to learn and grow, rather than be stagnant and digress, because when you put your trust in the Lord, He protects you, blesses you and helps you grow into who you are supposed to become; a child of God, meek, submissive, lowly and you will be happier though sore trials come upon you, because you trusted in the Lord.  In the end the Savior is our "Help".

Life...

Sometimes life is so fun that you just get to wake up, explore a city, town or country and then come home and write about it.  Other times it's like that, but you're up to ears in things to do like plan Christmas parties, wrap 300 sets of napkins, knives, forks and spoons with a ribbon (thanks Jodee for your help), deliver 210 invitations, meet with the Bishop, get a new calling, do something about life while planning and preparing for your pre-observation interview with your director while kids are coming up to your desk asking if their Christmas card they just made for the homeless and battered women's shelter is good enough and the printer is "offline" and doesn't print your lesson plan and so you go half prepared with your 5 syllabi for all the classes you teach, to your meeting that doesn't go so well, because you're an overemotional wreck all of the time and end up not really talking about things you needed to, but things that have been bugging you, but shouldn't...man I don't get it!  But Then you go get some essential oils and become a DoTerra representative, put on some Oregano, On-Guard and Digestzen after taking a nice shower, have time to read before bed and realize that in a way, you're back to where you were 6 months ago, happy as can be to be alive and have so much to live for...I love my life!  It's up. It's hard and it's what you make of it!  It's all about attitude...I'm working on it and I realize today that the Lord has given me so many things to help me learn and grow that how could I possibly be sad or ungrateful for any day I'm on this Earth, when I know why I'm here, who I am and where I came from and how to get back home.  This holiday Christmas season, I'd like to thank my mom and all my family for loving me, the people I work with for putting up with me, and live my life to the fullest while I learn to live and learn to love when it hurts!  That's why I'm here. It's good to know and it's good to do with so many people who know why we are here and so many who don't, because we are all here to help each other make it back safely. Thanks for loving me enough to help me learn and grow in the process of my mistakes and development.  It's hard, but we aren't here to be perfect, just to grow and become more than we were while we were becoming our today self and working on our tomorrow self.  Thanks for sharing life and love. It's why we're here even though it hurts sometimes. 

Photo contest!

I need your help. I am submitting photos to a photo contest. I just found out about it tonight and the submissions are due by noon tomorrow. The rules are: Photos should capture the cultural essence of a global academic experience in the categories of portraits, landscapes, architecture.
So please comment and let me know which ones (I can choose 2) you like the best. Thanks so much.

Dreams can come true!!!

It's unreal, but my dream to swim with a dolphin has finally come true!!! How cool is that?  Thanks to  my brother and sister in law who gifted this to me as their going away present! It was so great!  I am not going to lie, I cried after I swam with the dolphin, because it was so unreal and I have looked forward to it for so long! I loved it. I only wish it were longer and that I could have really just swam for a really long time and played with him, but that's okay...I'm grateful for what I got.  A dream to never be forgotten for forever! When you want something bad enough. in some way, shape or form it comes true!

My favorite part!!! Oh man! That was a real smile! I didn't even realize pictures were getting taken. That was pure joy and happiness. I can't even believe that I got to do that! Life is good, let's not ever forget the good things and memories!