Winter vs. Spring

We all love winter, right? The smell of Christmas, making snow angels, and being freezing cold, etc. Right . .. but I love springtime even more! Rain, flowers, blossoms that fall from the wind in the trees, shorts, flipflops and pools. But this spring is different. For several reasons.

1. I'm not the only new person in the ward.
2. I'm not the only one that's not in classes.
3. I actually have a job.
4. I don't feel so bad being lazy all the time because other people are lazy, too.
5. I can actually go outside more often instead of being stuck inside all day.
6. I'm back to my normal post-mission self . .. I think, anyway.
7. I get to play .. .even more!

So you see, springtime is my favorite. This springtime . ..man, it's even better!Plus also, tulips are my favorite flower.

Reflections on the Resurrection

Easter is coming up. The other day I was thinking of a very nice lady I met on my mission named Rebeca. She was one of the very few Rebecas I met in Peru, and for that I felt something special for her. We found her when we visited her neighbors who were a part-member/less active family. Down their street somebody had died, and they had the viewing canopy in front of the house of the mourning family. We went back a few days later and visited that elderly sister. She was pretty old, and she just kept saying that she was so glad we came to visit her . ..that we had remembered her. I remember we sang the hymn "Christ the Lord is Risen Today," and by the end she had tears in her eyes. I don't really remember what else we said, and I know that the words which we said gave her a sense of hope for the resurrection.
I thought of her the other day during the Sacrament. How is she doing? We only ever visited her once. Obviously, I never got to see the full fruits of her accepting and fully believing the Gospel and eventually being baptized, but I hope that someday she will.
I love the Resurrection. President Monson stated the beautiful doctrine so simply and wonderfully in a recent Conference Address. Here's just a snippet of it. I am so grateful for the Resurrection. It's the most wonderful miracle of all, and it extends to each one of us. Without overcoming the physical death as such, it would be impossible to return to the presence of our Father in Heaven. So, to all those dear elderly widows named Rebeca, or even for the troubled sister in Chimbote whose father passed away, or for the cousin who struggles over the declining health of his parents, or whoever you may be. Know that He lives. And because He lives, we will live.

"Ye Must Pray Always and Not Faint"

Today I woke up, and I rolled out of bed on my knees to pray. As usual. What wasn't usual was that as I said my prayer, I felt rill light-headed. I don't even remember if I finished my prayer or not. I thought maybe I was gonna throw up, so I crawled on over to the bathroom to hover over the toilet. But I didn't throw up.


I fainted.

And I have no idea why.
Weird. Plus also, it's always a little scary when you come to.
But hey! At least I still pray always . . . .

A New View on Relationships . . .

"I asked them to tell me the things they most wanted. Some of the answers were commonplace enough. . . .Marjory White, aged ten, wanted to be a widow. Questioned why, she gravely said that if you weren't married people called you an old maid, and if you were your husband bossed you; but if you were a widow there'd be no danger of either. The most remarkable wish was Sally Bell's. She wanted a "honeymoon." I asked her if she knew what it was and she thought it was an extra nice kind of bicycle because her cousin in Montreal went on a honeymoon when he was married and he had always had the very latest in bicycles."
-wisdom from Avonlea's own, Anne Shirley and her students

A Very Happy Day

Today was a very happy day. For many reasons. I spent the majority of the day with my friend, Lisa Christensen. Oh boy, she makes me laugh. A lot. We went to a Nauvoo Mission Reunion together. We played in the band, and we made a whole bunch of old former senior missionaries rill happy. We laughed, mingled, ate, and overall just felt way too happy and excited to see all of our wonderful older friends again. Like the Blackintons, Hylands, Westwoods, Clarks, Moffits, Ebmeyers, Wards, Cranneys, Maxfields, Randalls, Sis. Stratford, Sis. Mills, the Dawsons, the Dukes, the Mitchells, and so many wonderful others. We ate, chatted, and relished the dear fond memories of old Nauvoo. It is so amazingly difficult to feel unhappy in that heavenly place, and as such, you feel happy all the time while you're there. Plus also, you have the added spirit of the pioneers, the added love of 50+ sets of adopted grandparents, and the added enjoyment of music and entertainment. It doesn't get much better than that. And remembering it . ..it's just as wonderful. It was a very very happy reunion. I imagine the Celestial Kingdom will feel just a bit like that.
Later today, I went to the Salt Lake temple with some of my young missionary friends. Another wonderful experience.
Even later, I went to my dear friend, Tara Hill's clarinet recital. She played some great pieces, and did a wonderful job. I was once again reminded how wholesomely wonderful my music friends really are.
Today was a very very happy day.

Sister Chronicles #4

In honor of my love for sisterhood, I'd like to present a very dear sister and friend of mine.
Maria Belen Chipana

She made me laugh every single day. We talked like parrots. We imitated some of our "special" investigators. We made faces to each other at meal times. We wrote to some missionaries in Mom's mission, and we sent them a really foul picture of us. We took care of each other when we were sick. Like when she had a fever. And when I threw up. You know that good feeling you get at baptisms? She would say, "It's like we're totally in love!!" And then every night when we went to bed, she told me to dream with my dream boy. . . .whoever he was! We'd wear matching goofy earrings. We made a gag gift for our district leader's birthday which included a painted t-shirt, a Jehovah's Witnesses' Bible study book, and a maxi pad. I'm pretty sure we laughed so hard that we wet our pants. We'd sing songs from The Sound of Music. There was a lady who passed our window at lunch every day, and we'd say her name out the window in a very creepy sort of way . .. YOLANDA!! Needless to say, we avoided the street corner where she sold pudding . . .haha.

But besides all the funny stuff, she worked hard. She was honest and direct with everyone we taught. She was a very diligent student of the Gospel. She was very realistic, but she also has tons of faith. She's obedient to what she puts her mind to, which is quite a lot. She was very self-confident and very loyal. She wrote me a nice note every week after we weren't companions because she promised she'd to it. We wrote so regularly in our journals and we worked on our Personal Progress. She always prayed for her mom, who to this day knows the Gospel is true but can't give up smoking. She's an excellent missionary; she's trained 4 new missionaries.


Why am I writing this blog post? 'Cause I miss that girl!! And she doesn't come home until June. Guess I gotta wait s'more . . .
p.s. I didn't find one normal picture of the two of us. But we laughed so hard together, these type of pictures became normal!

A Taste of the Wild

Sister Crews came out of the bathroom, and said, "Wow, I've just seen a taste of the wild in the bathroom. Check out the Moose Faucets!"

What?!

So we all went into the bathroom (which sounds funny in itself, knowing it's a one-person bathroom) and saw what she had seen.

Moose Faucets.