Update: I'm alive....

I'm still alive! Promise!!

Life for me is crazy. Busy, but good. The semester is winding down. Lots of papers due...eesh. But I'm surviving! I have never appreciated a holiday break as much as I did this Thanksgiving break. I so needed it! I stayed here and made Thanksgiving dinner for some friends. It was fun. :) My calling (activities co-chair) is keeping me pretty busy. We are having a huge multi-stake Christmas party in a few weeks and it's been busy planning it, but I'm doing decorations with good friend, Stephanie, so it's been fun too. :) Nothing else to report. That is pretty much what my life consists of right now: School, Christmas party, eat, sleep (some), and some play...Repeat. Looking forward to Christmas break! :) I am hoping to go home, but it's so expensive...Hopefully I'll make a final decision in the next few days.

Hope all is well!

Busy but good...

Things here are really good, just super busy. School is kind of insane right now and it's just beginning. So, I am a little nervous about the rest of the semester, but we'll plunge on ahead. I'm really loving the fact that I have the same people in my classes! I'm starting to make some friends and it's nice that the classroom isn't 150 people large so that I can't remember anyone's faces, let alone names.

I started my Graduate Assistantship in the Financial Aid office today. I only work about 2 and a half hours a day. It goes by REALLY fast! Crazy! I think it's going to be perfect for me this semester because I will learn new things, have an opportunity to work face-to-face with students (eventually), but not be overly stressed with learning everything about financial aid. :)

Church is rad. I got a calling the first day I was here (mind you, my records weren't even here yet!). I am the Activities Co-chair. Apparently they need hard-working folks. I'm happy to oblige, though. It's a great ward. They are so welcoming and I think I have nearly everyone's names down (all 60 of them...). :) I also decided that I want to work in the temple again. I'm looking forward to it. At least I already know the scripts and don't need to learn a lot of new information there.

The housing situation is not really what I expected. Since the house I was supposed to move into wasn't ready, I moved into the apartment above the landlord. It's really cute and charming like the other house, but I'm by myself, which I didn't think would be a good idea because I'm a people person. However, I find that I'm really loving it. It gives me the downtime I need from being around people, and it is nice to have a study area and don't have to worry about others interrupting me. The landlord and his family are nice. He has a 3 year old boy who is cute. Reminds me of my cute kids in Utah that I miss terribly (Madeleine and Benjamin...*sniff*).

I live really close to campus too! Only a 7 minute walk! And that's with my retarded foot! (Yes, my foot still hurts, a lot....I'm hoping the doctor is right and that 6 weeks it will be better. If not, I may begin using words I hear people around here say....not pretty...). Right now the weather is beautiful, so the 7 minutes are quite nice. I'm sure in a few more weeks/months the 7 minutes will feel like 30 and I will be hating every minute of it, but hopefully it'll pass quickly. It'll still be better than driving 5 minutes, looking for a parking spot for 10 minutes, and having to walk 7 minutes across campus anyway. :)

Grad School: The Journey (literally)

The drive was really long. My foot was not so helpful. I was only able to drive 3 hours the first day and then my foot was killing me the rest of the day. It was really hard for mom as she kept getting sleepy and I couldn’t help her really. I was tired myself as my foot was hurting to bad that I just wanted to sleep it off. It was a rough trip. We stayed with my aunt in Littleton, Colorado. I got a blessing that night from my cousins because I really needed to help mom drive. It was an incredible blessing. I was promised that I would be able to not feel the pain as I pray and listen to my body to know when I can go and when I need to stop. It was amazing.

Hooray for the Priesthood! Yesterday was a really good day. I drove half the day (which was good because it was the longest trek, 11 hours, yuck!). It didn't really hurt! We stayed in Des Moines with friend and BYU co-worker, Pat Ware’s Auntie. It was lovely. She felt like family and apparently she felt the same about us. We had a lovely visit to wind-down from the day. I was able to drive a bit today, but not much, which was okay because mom was able to stay awake more. We had the extra adrenaline rush to get me here by 4:30 so I could get to my orientation. We got here at 4:40. Pretty good considering there was construction some of the way and we came from Iowa! It's doing a number on me tonight, though. I'm tired. It's tired. I hope I can keep going this week...and next...*sigh*

After my orientation, we went to get into the apartment (which wasn’t ready a week ago and the landlord said I could stay in the apartment above their house). Well, I called him today and told him we were here and he said that they were expecting me tomorrow (apparently that’s what my email said, which could very well be true…). He said they’d have it ready for us by about 11 tonight and asked that we find something to do for 4 hours. Ugh. So, tired and hungry, we went to eat and decide what to do. I took mom to Applebees and used my gift cards I got for Christmas, which was nice. We decided that we really needed a good rest tonight. So, we decided to just rent a motel for the night.

Apparently I’m not the only student who’s housing is not quite available yet. All hotels and motels are booked. There was one room left in the motel we went to, and it was the “suite” with the Jacuzzi and king-size bed. Sounds great doesn’t? NOT! I got in the Jacuzzi and after a while noticed little flakes in the water. Gross. I don’t know if it was hard water or someone else’s body flakes (bleh!), but I got out and took a shower. So much for relaxing there. Half the lights aren’t working, one of the wall fixtures isn’t working, the room smells musty and we can’t figure out if it’s stale smoke or stale/humid air, the bed isn’t super comfortable….so much for getting a good night’s sleep. Although, I do have to admit that it has been nice to relax for a few hours and unwind. Apparently we needed it from such a long trip.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I need to go to campus and get my books, my ID card, parking pass, etc. Then tomorrow afternoon the moving pod will be delivered and some boys from the Church will be here to help us unload it. *sigh* I pray we’ll be able to get it all done.

Take my yoke upon you...

Mathew 11:28-30

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

This scripture has so many deeper messages. Let’s break it down:

1)     Come unto me. Requires action. Requires us to be humble and to live our lives in accordance with His will and teachings so that we are worthy of His Spirit.

2)     All ye that labour. The first line sets it up for all people who are working/laboring in the Lord’s Kingdom or simply life, to the best of our ability, doing what we can to keep His commandments and do His will.

3)     And are heavy laden. This is the same group of people as group 2, but more specifically those people who are having a hard time dealing with the stresses of laboring. Those who are tired of working, which happens to all of us because we are human. We just need to take a step back and remember the Lord so that…

4)     [He] will give you rest. This also requires a little action on our part. He will give us rest, but we have to allow it and accept it. It goes back to #1, we have to come unto Him. Not just pray and seek Him, but give Him our labours and burdens. Offer them up to Him. Allow the enabling and strengthening power of the atonement to work in us.

5)     Take my yoke upon you. A yoke is equally set so that two oxen have an equal share of the load. Carrying the Lord’s burden implies that we will give Him our load. Basically we will switch places, if you will. We will carry His and He will carry ours.

6)     And learn of me. As we learn of the Lord, we will learn how to be like Him. We will gain a greater relationship with Him. It will be easier for us to give Him our burdens/yoke. We will also learn how He served and how we must serve (see #9).

7)     For I am meek and lowly in heart. As we learn of Him, we will learn how to be meek and lowly in heart. These are gifts that will help us and are essential for us to serve His children. To forget ourselves and go to work.

8)     And ye shall find rest in me. Again, he tells us the previous facts as how-to’s to find rest. By being meek and lowly of heart (broken heart and contrite spirit), we become more like Heavenly Father, we turn to Him more, we rely on Him more fully and forget ourselves, we have a greater perspective of His plan and it will help us to accept the rest we so desperately want and that He is so willing to give us.

9)     For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Basically, as we do His work, serve His children, focus on the needs and desires of others, our own burden’s will not be felt. We will not realize they are there. (see Mosiah 24:15) The Lord will help us in whatever it is we are struggling with and we will be stronger to withstand the temptations of Satan and our own weaknesses.

The Hand of the Lord

The last few months have been very interesting for me. I really wanted to move to Seattle, but the Lord told me multiple times that it is not right for me now. So, I looked forward to a job opening at work and then things were moved around and it appeared that the counseling position I was looking for (and really wanted since I started working there) was filled. The Lord really humbled me the week I found all this out and I realized that He has a greater plan than I do and apparently everything I have been planning is not in His plan. Then, a few days after I came to this realization, there were two counselor positions opened. I didn't know if the Lord wanted to humble me to teach me to trust Him more, but the counselor position is still in His plan, or if the Lord was preparing me to not get the job.

In addition, my car is really old and I was planning on getting a car with the increase in pay if I were to get the counselor job. Well, last week, I went to get a trip-check on my car before going up to Idaho and he found that my timing belt was next to dead and the distributor should be replaced. He said he thought just the coil could be replaced just fine (only $75) instead of the whole thing ($300). So, I had him just do the coil. In the process of getting all these fixed on my car, I realized it was worth it to put money in my car because I could sell it now for probably $2000 still with its mileage, etc. I decided I didn't need to get a car if I were to get the job. On the same hand, I also realized it could very well be the Lord's way of preparing me to not get this job because I won't need it to get a car.

Well, I was right. I didn't get the job. It was amazing how the Lord prepared me though. I am so grateful for that. I am grateful for the small tender mercies.

It's not over. I went to Idaho to pick up my mom from visiting my grandparents and 20 miles from home my car completely died again. It was funny because I was just thinking that I wish my mom could meet Maddie and Benjamin (my pseudo niece and nephew). Well, I think the Lord has a sense of humor. My car died two exits from their house. I am so blessed with good friends. They had an extra car they didn't need and were able to loan it to me until my car was fixed. Oh, the rest of the distributor died, so I should have paid the $300 initially. Oh well.

In the process of all of this, I was talking to a friend and he was talking about his graduate program. I have not had a desire to get my graduate degree at this point, but for some reason, the desire is slowly beginning to grow. I have thought about what I wanted to do my senior year in college and am looking into these programs. The Lord has confirmed that these thoughts and desires are directed from Him and so I am going for it. We'll see where it leads me. I am grateful for His hand in my life and the way He just makes it all work out. Even though I don't know where He is leading me exactly, He always comes through and I see where He is sending me eventually.