Back in Colorado

It's odd how quickly I can get back in the swing of things in my hometown. Not that I wasn't spiritual or anything, it's just a different atmosphere from Idaho and it seems like I have to work extra hard to stay my best self that is expressed in Idaho. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a student of BYU-Idaho. That school seems to bring the best out in me and I can tell. My testimony has grown so much and I never really thought that a school could do that. My teachers, friends, and family all helped me grow. The church is the same wherever we go and I think that is the best part. When I meet LDS people, I know that they have the same standards as me and I feel like I can be myself right away. I've only been home for 2 days now and I feel that I'm already being tested. Not in a bad way, but in a way to help me keep good habits. Knowing that I always need to be improving myself helps me along the way. I may never be perfect at scripture study. I may not always say my prayers everyday. But I know that my Heavenly Father still loves me and will help me along the way. I can only hope that the things I've learned in such a short amount of time will be recognized by others. I pray that I will have the courage to share my testimony more and feel proud of it. I love this gospel. I know I probably say that a lot, but why not say it all the time? It's completely true. It blesses me and comforts me everyday.

May you recognize the spirit and listen to it. Have a wonderful day!

I Need Thee Every Hour

(1) I need thee ev'ry hour, most gracious Lord,

No tender voice like thine, can peace afford.

I need thee, oh, I need thee; Ev'ry hour I need thee!

Oh, bless me now, my Savior; I come to thee!

(2) I need thee ev'ry hour, stay thou near by.

Temptations lose their pow'r When thou art nigh

I need thee, oh, I need thee; Ev'ry hour I need thee!

Oh, bless me now, my Savior; I come to thee!

(3)I need thee ev'ry hour, in joy or pain.

Come quickly and abide, Or life is vain.

I need thee, oh, I need thee; Ev'ry hour I need thee!

Oh, bless me now, my Savior; I come to thee!

(4)I need thee ev'ry hour, most holy One.

Oh, make me thine indeed, Thou blessed Son!

I need thee, oh, I need thee; Ev'ry hour I need thee!

Oh, bless me now, my Savior; I come to thee!

We sang this song in my Book of Mormon class the other day and I felt the spirit so strongly while singing it. I later pondered why the spirit spoke to me so strongly during this song rather than the rest of the class. I came to the conclusion that since finals are coming up, I need my Savior more than ever. I need His comfort and His love while I'm struggling through this time. I love this song more now that I have had before. I feel like it has more personal meaning to me now and I really love that! I hope that all of us recognize that everything we have comes from our Heavenly Father and our Savior and that it's okay to feel like we always need Him. Let us all think about this daily.

God Bless America

In the spirit of the holiday (I realized its passed now) I thought I'd share my thoughts on being blessed to live in America. We are sooo blessed to live where we do. We have houses, food, clothing, malls, cars, bikes, and so on. I could go on forever probably just saying what we have and how we're so blessed to have all these wonderful things. I thank my Heavenly Father as often as I can of how much he has blessed me with. He's blessed me with a wonderful family, the privilege to go to school to gain an education, wonderful friends, trials, mistakes, just everything and anything you could think of. Everything we have comes from Him and it's so awesome! I would be a horrible person if I never thanked my Heavenly Father for all of this. Just living in America is an amazing blessing. It was really fun to get together with my family for the 4th of July weekend last week. As I was just sitting at different times throughout the weekend I realized how much I love my family and the craziness that goes on. I cannot say enough how blessed we are to live in such a well developed country. When you think about Africa or the other countries that suffer, we have it all to them. We have food on our tables every night. We know where we're going to be sleeping every night. We have jobs that we know will support us. Just because we have these things, doesn't mean Heavenly Father doesn't love the people of the other countries. Just have faith in the Lord. Trust Him because he knows what he's doing. We're in good hands!

God Bless America and I hope you all had a wonderful weekend like I did :D

Organize Your Time

So I know that I said I would post everyday... but lets face it, there is no way a busy college girl can post on her blog everyday. Wanna know why? Well because I've been prioritizing my time! I had two tests this week to study for and I'm hoping it paid off. If not, oh well, I did my best. And that is that. I also have a draft of my research paper due online this week and I honestly don't know when I'll get that done... I could have been working on it now haha but I need to add relaxing in my busy schedule. Some weeks are busier than others but thats life no matter what. Work, play, and school. I think it's so important to manage and prioritize and organize your time smartly... or healthily? I don't know if I like those words but I think you get the gist of what I'm sayin lol. I think I would be a mess if I didn't make my lists of things to do or discipline myself to stay off facebook and the TV. I'm glad the Lord blessed me with the talent to prioritize my needs and wants. It's not easy for a lot of people to tell their friend they need to stop texting in order to have a successful study session or turn the TV off and what not. I am so so grateful for my Heavenly Father and I'm grateful that He knows what to throw at me when I need it to challenge myself but also be there along the way to help if I ask for it. This gospel is so amazing and I love every bit of it. I can't even imagine what life would be like without it!

Prioritize your life and have a wonderful, beautiful day!

Laughing

Today I realized how much I have laughed this semester compared to last. I've really enjoyed this semester with my wonderful roomies and their crazy personalities ;) We laugh all the time and I love it! I've laughed more with these girls than I have all year long.... Laughing is good. Smiling is good. Laughing and smiling are thehighlights of my day and I love it! I love having the feeling of happiness and joy. Whenever I'm happy I think of why and realize I'm blessed in so many ways and I owe it all to my Heavenly Father.

Here are some pictures of some good times and good laughs lately!

These pictures are of me and my roommates. Jamie Greenall, Marie Sheranian, and Samantha Bruns!! Love you girlies!!

Keep Smiling and Laughing!!

"You Harvest What You Plant"

Today at church we had Ward Conference. Our bishopric spoke along with our stake president. They all gave really good inspiring talks. All of those men were filled with the spirit and their words filled my heart with the spirit. I can tell that they love this gospel and that they love their ward and the people they serve. Our stake president is President Henry B. Eyring's son and he talked about farming and harvesting. He said that we harvest what we plant. He made the analogy that if we plant bad habits in our lives, like missing curfew or only going to sacrament meeting, we harvest that and that is what we become familiar with. I really like that. We harvest what we plant. Through prayer, obedience, friends and family, we can overcome our bad habits and work towards a more righteous life.

In sunday school we talked about having the gift of the Holy Ghost and the gift of Eternal Life. There were many uplifting insights given and I loved all the comments made. Someone asked why Christ had to leave in order for the Comforter to be with them. I remember talking to a friend about that during a missionary experience. He was telling me that we don't need prophets on the earth because we have the Holy Ghost to reveal to us the true things of our Heavenly Father and the reason why prophets were on the earth before in the Bible was because we didn't have the Holy Ghost and that is why they needed prophets to reveal the truthfulness of their teachings. Well in sunday school we learned that if Christ was on the earth today, we wouldn't need the Holy Ghost to testify and confirm his existence because we can physically see and know for sure he is there and real. The Holy Ghost is a testifier of Christ and since Christ isn't here, the Holy Ghost is what helps us believe for ourselves. So in order for the disciples to receive a testimony of the Holy Ghost they needed to experience it and that could only happen if Christ was gone. At least that's how I understood the lesson today. It was really cool to think about it more and relate it back to a previous missionary experience I had in high school.

In Relief Society we talked about receiving personal revelation. Our wonderful teacher turned off the light in the classroom and then turned the light quickly back on. She asked what we noticed when that happened and people answered with "it was surprising, distracting (from what we were to be thinking about), and sudden." Then she had us close our eyes and look up towards the light and slowly open our eyes. She asked us what we noticed when we "gradually" opened our eyes. People answered "it was expected and" ... something else that I cant remember :) But then she used this analogy in our personal revelation. We usually or normally get personal revelation or answers to our prayers gradually. We all know that our prayers are answered in His time, not ours. But sometimes, our revelation is like a light switch where it happens suddenly and sometimes we don't always realize it or sometimes we don't expect it. I thought that analogy was pretty cool.

I just thought that church today overall was really good. I felt the spirit and felt like I learned something I didn't know before or hadn't thought of. This gospel never ceases to surprise me and I love it. It's so awesome to be taught the same principles over and over and still learn something new!

You harvest what you plant. Make good habits and break bad ones. May your sunday be filled with joy and happiness :)

If you fail the first time...

try, try, again. Today started out to be really good. I woke up to hearing thunder but by noon the sun was out and it was perfect weather. About 12:15 I met up with some guys from my anatomy class to study for our lecture test. We studied from 12:45 to 6:00 and then I went to take my test then. Since my tests are taken in a testing center, I am able to see what score I got right when I leave the testing room. As I searched for my I-number I saw a failing score and pretty much broke down. I walked back home feeling completely defeated and tried holding back the tears as long as possible. I then broke down and just cried. I called my dad to let him know what had happened. He was very sympathetic to me but said how proud he was that I have actually put effort in my schooling. That made me feel better but I still felt that I was dumb and not capable or qualified to take this class. My dad then proceeded to give me advice and told me over and over that everything is going to be okay. He said that I could either learn from this experience and look at a way to grow and learn from my mistakes or I could say I'm a failure and give up. He reminded me that I am not the kind of person to give up.

Heavenly Father puts trials in front of us to help us learn and grow from our mistakes. My mistake was cramming right before the test instead of always studying every night. Now that I know what to do for the future I can only hope that I will be able to retain the things I need to in order to be prepared. I know I am not alone in this. I know that I can always pray for comfort. Even though I feel like a complete failure I know that that is not what people think of me as. I know my parents don't think I'm a loser who isn't smart. I know my Heavenly Father knows the potential I have and doesn't think I'm a total and complete failure. I know my parents and Heavenly Father love me and are proud of the righteous decisions that I have made throughout my life.

Failure isn't supposed to bring us down. It's supposed to help us learn and think about our futures. If everyone gave up after 1 failure then we wouldn't have a lot of the things we do now. It's a test and trial circumstance that we all go through and we only grow from them. I'm so grateful for the comfort this gospel gives me. If anything, I feel like I let myself down more than my parents or Heavenly Father. But I know that I will be okay in the end. This is nothing compared to everything else that happens in this world. I'm doin good :)

Remember that failure is okay. Keep doing your best!