New favorite scripture...

Life can get crazy. I know mine is. And when it does, it is easy to let the important things slide. I have not been very good at my scripture study the last few months, but have been trying extra hard to make it a priority every single day this week. It is amazing the immediate impact it has on my life. I know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and that it will lead us back to our Heavenly Father. In my study this week I have found a new favorite (I have lots of favorites, but this is my current favorite) passage of scripture. It is found in Alma, chapter 37, verses 35-47.

35 O, remember, my son, and ^alearn ^bwisdom in thy ^cyouth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God.

36 Yea, and ^acry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy ^bdoings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy ^cthoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

37 ^aCounsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for ^bgood; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the ^cmorning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

38 And now, my son, I have somewhat to say concerning the thing which our fathers call a ball, or director—or our fathers called it ^aLiahona, which is, being interpreted, a compass; and the Lord prepared it.

39 And behold, there cannot any man work after the manner of so curious a workmanship. And behold, it was prepared to show unto our fathers the course which they should travel in the wilderness.

40 And it did work for them according to their ^afaith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day.

41 Nevertheless, because those miracles were worked by ^asmall means it did show unto them marvelous works. They were ^bslothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey;

42 Therefore, they tarried in the wilderness, or did ^anot travel a direct course, and were afflicted with hunger and thirst, because of their transgressions.

43 And now, my son, I would that ye should understand that these things are not without a ^ashadow; for as our fathers were slothful to give heed to this compass (now these things were temporal) they did not prosper; even so it is with things which are spiritual.

44 For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the ^aword of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.

45 And now I say, is there not a ^atype in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.

46 O my son, do not let us be ^aslothful because of the ^beasiness of the ^cway; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would ^dlook they might ^elive; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever.

47 And now, my son, see that ye take ^acare of these sacred things, yea, see that ye ^blook to God and live. Go unto this people and declare the word, and be sober. My son, farewell.

I just wanted to share what has touched my heart this week and hope that we all can learn to follow the Lord and be lead to the things we each are to do in our lives.

Busy-ness

The last couple days have been insanely busy! It amazes me sometime how days can fill up with so much stuff. It has all been wonderful stuff though, so I can't complain. I will post about a couple things individually in the next couple days, but the one thing I wanted to share right now is something that happened today.

We had Stake Conference and it was a big deal today. I have a Stake calling, so I knew about a lot of the changes that would be made today, but the way it has impacted me is not something I was expecting. The gist of the changes was that they took my ward and split a portion of it off to make and entirely new ward and took another chunk and put it in a different ward. Even though I knew what was coming, I was so sad today to look around and know that I wouldn't see a lot of these people as much anymore. It is a really good thing (my ward was about 300 people and is now down to 140) and will be much more manageable, but I am going to miss those who aren't there anymore. Even though we all live relatively close to one another it means I have to make more of an effort to see them regularly and that we will have to be friends outside of church. :)

The first counselor in my Stake is President Wilson (he happens to also have been my stake president when I was a kid in California...small world!). His talk in Stake Conference today really struck me and I just want to share a thought from it. He talked about how we should thank the Lord for every experience that we have. Every single one. Good or bad. Hard or happy. There is something to be learned in each and every experience that we are given and we should be kneeling to thank the Lord for them.

It hit me really hard that I don't thank the Lord for all the experiences He gives me. A lot of times I am ornery about changes, but they are given me to teach me and help me become better. This is something I am really going to work on and hope to better understand and appreciate the experiences I am given.

Wonderful Weekend!

Wasn't this weekend amazing?!? I absolutely love General Conference weekend and when it falls on the same weekend as Easter, it's even better!! It is always so incredible how prayers are answered, testimonies are strengthened and souls are edified as we listen to the words of the Lord through His servants on the earth today. Conference was wonderful!

Besides being General Conference and Easter yesterday, it also happened to be my baby brother's 22nd birthday! He's getting so old! (which of course, just makes me feel older ;) I literally remember the day that he was born and going to visit my mom in the hospital. Also, because I was the only child in school at the time, I got a whole week of just me and baby Kyle while the other kids went to Utah with my grandparents. He was so stinking cute and had tons of dark hair and big blue eyes. He has become such a great man and I am so proud of him. He served an honorable mission and is going to school to become a chef. He is so kind and considerate of those around him and he has a pretty cute girlfriend too. I don't just look up to Ky because he is so much taller than me, but because of the man he has become in the last few years. Thanks for being such a great example to me and to all those you come in contact with Ky! Love you bro!!

Guate! Guate! Guate!

In between conference sessions today there was a special on humanitarian work in Guatemala. I watched it and got a little teary eyed because I miss those people and that incredibly beautiful country. They showed some people in a mountain village and I couldn't help but think of the amazing people that I love in my Guatemalan mountain village - Patzicia. It has been 7 years since Michelle and I left for Guatemala and it amazes me how much I still miss it. I really need to find a way to get back there soon!

This picture is of 5 sisters who lived down the street from us. They were in our ward and their dad was the handy-man at the school. Their family also owned the tienda (store) in our neighborhood where we would go every day to get eggs, bread and mentas! A couple of years ago, their mom Rosa passed away, leaving Pedro to raise his 5 daughters. I think of this family a lot and how good they were to us. Hopefully soon I will be able to return to Patzi and see how these amazing girls have grown!

I would also love to see what has happened to these kids. They also lived in our neighborhood and would come over to our house all the time wanting to color and play games and get stickers. Their mom was our laundry lady and tried so hard to provide for her family. A funny story...one time the littlest boy (in the very back) was sitting on Michelle's lap and he totally peed on her. Their mom used to always ask us how much it would cost for her to bring her family to the United States. It made me so sad. But they were such sweet kids and I hope that they have been able to get an education and help make a better life for themselves.

Day 2

Wow, 2 days in a row, must be some kind of record. ;)

Can I just say how done I am with this week. It has been such a crazy couple weeks (more so than usual) and I am so ready for a nice relaxing weekend. I have a huge to do list and hope to be able to accomplish it, as well as get some much needed sleep!

Here is a little taste of my to-do list...

1) Laundry!!!!! It is coming out my ears! Seriously, I don't know if I have ever had so much laundry to do. I probably have 5 loads to do. Now I know this isn't much to you moms, but to a single person, that is a ton!

2) Clean my bedroom in general. Remember the bomb? Yeah, it needs to be cleared out. I thought about posting a picture, but that is just too embarrassing. You'll just have to take my word for it. Or talk to my sister who saw it the other night. Not pretty.

3) Listen to general conference. (I guess this really should be #1...but #3 will be accomplished while doing #1 so it evens out...)

4) Write a research paper. Gratefully most of the research part is done, but the putting together of the information is not. I have to put this high on the list to that I don't procrastinate it too much...

5) Finalize all the music for Stake Conference next weekend, hold a rehearsal for the Stake Choir and another rehearsal for the special musical numbers.

6) Math homework. Lots of math homework. Oh and study for the test that is on Tuesday.

7) Spend time with the fam. Definitely another thing that should be higher on the list...

8) Register for my ward blind date. Yes, this is just one of the many exciting things that come out of being in a singles ward. I'm not so sure how I feel about this blind date activity, it is semi-e-harmony.com-esque and that makes me a little nervous. Basically we all put in the 7 people of the opposite sex that we would like to get to know better and some of our interests and a computer system matches us up. Now do you understand my nervousness???

9) Stay awake during all sessions of conference and enjoy Easter.

10) Clean my bathroom. I'm sure that will help me stay awake.

etc., etc., etc...

You get the point. Let's hope that a blessing of listening to or watching all sessions of conference will be the ability to get all of these things done!

I'm alive...

So it is 11:55 p.m. but I have decided to make an April goal of blogging every day, just to throw the universe off. :)

This collage is just a little snippet of my crazy life right now. Between working full-time (still at the court), going to school full-time, have a really intense church calling and trying to have a social life I don't have much time for anything really exciting, but hopefully this goal will help me to notice the small things in life and enjoy them more!

Wish me luck!!