Heavenly Father Knows ALL of His Children

So this last week has been crazy.

Steroids, detours, and moving to the 5th floor when the elevator doesn't work well are NOT fun.

This week was stake conference and I was thinking about all of the things lying ahead. Life has a lot of big decisions coming up in the next few years and I want to be where I need to be at the right time. I was kind of bummed about having stake conference instead of a normal ward meeting where I could start to make friends in the ward. However, I decided to pray and get the most out of stake conference.

I was kind of disappointed with the messages. It felt like a testimony meeting and I was prepared for some really good talks. However, there were a few things that stood out to me. The first was that Elder Nash called a girl out of the audience to share her testimony. It was just a simple testimony, but what she talked about was how Heavenly Father really knows each one of us and is completely aware of our situation. It was just a quick answer to my prayer. The next thing that stood out to me was to take advantage of the opportunities to serve others because even though missionary work doesn't seem applicable to college life in a Mormon town, he said that a lot more people than you realize are struggling and they need you.

I didn't think much of it at the time, but Katie and I had the idea to plan our own FHE because nothing has been organized by the ward yet. So we went to a random apartment in our ward. We weren't even going to knock, but my earring hit the door and someone opened it. Well we stayed for a while and made friends. We were getting to know everyone and I asked Cameron if he had served a mission. He said he hadn't and wasn't sure about it when I asked if he were planning on it (AKA, I don't want to go, but I can't just say that to someone who has served a mission). He's a really odd kid, but we became closer friends with him. I don't know if this is maybe the missionary work that we are supposed to do, but just being an influence in his life could change his and many others.

I know that Heavenly Father loves me and knows where I am in life. I also know that He loves all of His children and that I can help be apart of that so that someone else will be the one to help me when I am in need.

Sprint at the end

Well I don't have much this week, but I'm pretty awesome because I beat the Muir's record for a mini game in Mario party 3 in the horse races. I got 42" 59'. So yeah that's my exciting thing of the week. The strategy is to go slow at the beginning so you save your energy and then sprint the last little bit. So inspirational though: slow and steady until you are at the end and then you spring home/heaven. Since we are kind of at the end, that is what we are doing by spreading the gospel. We are hurrying to get everyone ready for the finish line.

Treasure

Who doesn't love running their fingers in a bucket of polished stones? I even remember Danny just loving Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland because he just loved the treasure. We used to play Peter Pan and Captain Hook day after day in search of "treasure". Cassie, and I think a couple others, even have their own treasure boxes. TREASURE. We just love treasure. It's what everyone wants. Treasure is what we all desire and search for.

Many years ago, I was told in my Patriarchal Blessing where to find my treasure. "Now to your union there will be born both sons and daughters and these will be the special treasure of your life". From that very first moment when I held Jamie in my arms, I knew there was no greater treasure. All of you have been treasure worth more than rubies and gold. But with everything in life, when you truly love something if you keep it to yourself, it really has no value. It's in sharing what you truly love, sharing what you treasure that gives it value. I am very proud of all of you. Because of my Patriarchal Blessing mentions "sons and daughters born" I include my son-in-laws and my daughter-in-law. I hope you all know how much I love you. 

Thank you for doing this blog and sharing your thoughts. You are my TREASURE - rare, priceless, valued, cherished. (And it is pretty "Fricken WOW"!)

xo Mommy

A New Chapter

So this past week I have just traveled to Idaho, and I love it!!! I was pretty nervous at first but its been amazing. Everywhere you go people say, "Hello", and introduce themselves. I'm grateful that when I walk up all 5 flights of stairs there is a window you can see the temple from. I like the stairs more at night because you get to see the temple all lit up.

So far, things have been good. I like my roommates, I like the apartments generally. I say generally because it isn't really homey, it's a little nice to feel at home but our room looks amazing.

I hope everyone has great weeks and I hope this video works!!

Becoming an Angel

   

    Life is getting back into a routine- still finding people to keep in touch with. So many times I have looked at my life and thought that I didn't have that many friends. Mom and I are kinda different which has its positives and negatives. I have realized that even though I don't really have best friends, no core group to hang with every week- I have friends that truly want to see me and they have missed me too.

    Thoughts I have had this week have come from our Stake Conference this week. The saturday session was all about Hastening the Work and I have thought a lot about that and what I can do. What is my role now? It isn't my role anymore to spend 24/7 knocking doors and inviting others unto Christ; but it is my job 24/7 to be a disciple of Christ. It is my role to be an example of Him all the time by the way I live. I have promised my life to building the kingdom of God. There isn't just one type of builder- I dont have to be a seminary teacher or a doctor of religion to do that- I can build His kingdom by being a physician or doctor or whatever I choose. Elder Nelson talked about how we believe in angels and he said that some are ones we don't see but some are our neighbors, friends, or random strangers. I thought to myself I want to be an angel. I remembered when a recent convert thanked me for being an angel to her family. She didn't realize that she was an angel to me too. 

   I walked to school today and tried to just smile at people, but more faces were turned to the ground. Why? Dont they realize that they are missing the miracles and angels around them. This week I talked to one of my converts because it was his year mark of being baptized. Raymond is now 12 and is the only member of his family- he now walks to church by himself because the missionaries don't go over as often. As I talked to him I asked him if he remembered me, "Yes, your were my favorite sister." He asked when I was coming back because he missed me. For a good while I was homesick for Hawaii. Then I remembered another story that a Sister told in stake conference. She works at the MTC as a teacher and one day the teachers were having a devotional and all shared how much they loved their missions and the spiritual experiences they had had their. When all the teachers had finished their head leader and told them that he was glad that they had all had wonderful missions but that those spiritual experiences should still be happening weekly. Why are you missing the moments and only turning to your mission for your spiritual moments? So yes this is hard because my heart is so torn to pieces. I am having a great time here at college, but a part of me is in Jerusalem, another at home with what used to be our family, and another in Hawaii. I learned on the mission that even though Im torn I can still love. The more fully I give Heavenly Father my heart the bigger my heart can grow. It hurts every time but it is so full at the same time. Right now He is requiring me to grow again and it is for my benefit. 

    There is a poly in my ward that I found out that doesn't have the best of friends and doesnt always make the best decisions- well we had a bet going that I could beat him at SuperSmash so he came over to play. as we walked to my apartment he just said, "You are a really good person aren't you?" Um... I guess, what are the qualifications for being a really good person? He has been my angel because he reminds me of Hawaii and makes me feel at home with the happiness of polys. Maybe I can become an angel to him and others. 

38 weeks pregnant and waiting :)

So, I am 38 weeks pregnant as of Friday. It is normal for the baby to come within 2 weeks of the due date, so Friday began that time where George can come any day. The doctor however doesnt think he'll come til at least the 26th, so we'll see. We went to babies r' us and Target the other day and bought a ton of baby stuff with gift cards we got over the summer, so tomorrow I'm going to try to organize it all.

We also heard of two festivals that happened on Saturday and chose to go to the Scottish festival before heading to Babies 'R Us for our last big date before the baby comes. I had fun. :) We got to see part of a Highland games competition- we saw the hammer throw and a log throw? Whatever you call that one. And then we saw a sheepdog demonstration and some bagpipe bands. There were also tents for several different clans. Jon and I downloaded a family search app and tried to figure out clans that we are part of. On Grandpa Lang's side, through Jennie Adamson, we have 4 Scottish ancestors from 3-4 different clans. Anyways, it was cool and fun and we tried some of the food. Jon tried haggis (all I remember is it had liver in it...) and I stuck with a safer choice- a sausage roll.

Two news items! Jon got an email yesterday and might have another teaching job. This one isnt with a college, but it still pays more than the call center and it's 5 minutes from our place! So, if he gets enough hours there he may quit the call center. These teaching jobs pay more than the call center and look better on his resume for teaching in the future. This studio is one of 2 main studios in Bloomington and they find the students. :) Second thing is Jon has a new calling. He was released from being a ward missionary and is now in the nursery. :) I'm glad he enjoys little kids and is looking forward to his calling. There's 3 guys and I think 6 kids, so they're thinking of rotating, but I'm glad (especially since we're about to have our first) that Jon is excited to work with the small kids.

Getting Unexpected Surprises

Before anyone goes assuming any news coming from us, this is just a spiritual experience that I had this week. There were a few different times at church today that really stuck out to me and I could feel the Spirit very strongly. The one that I want to touch on is during elder's quorum today there were a few sustainings and setting aparts, and part of the blessing given in both cases was a reminder to both of the brethren that all of the church responsibilities they would be asked to perform would be secondary to being a husband to their respective wives. Although this should not surprise me, it did today in that it made me think of what my own priorities were and how I deal with different things that I feel that I have to get done. It was a nice reminder that I need to be mindful of Michelle firstly, and then I can concentrate on school/church and other things and I will receive the help that I need. A big part of the gospel is focused and centered around the family, and it is nice to get a reminder of what is most important in our journey, our family. We have such an awesome family, we do a fairly good job of realizing that, I just hope we can all remember that all the time. We're all in this together! just had to throw that in there haha