My Eternal Family

Several of my classes this semester have begun with talking about The Family: A Proclamation to the World. When this declaration was released in 1995 it was given to every world leader because of its importance. I have read this one page document before but in the past couple days I have read over 20 pages on it and spend about 5 hours in class talking about it so far. In just one page it teaches us so many important truths and principles of the family. As I have been reading it brings to mind my family, my eternal family. I am so grateful for the choice my parents made to be married in the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity. I am grateful to be born in the covenant and if we all live worthy of the blessings and covenants we make we can live together again forever. I love my family and cannot imagine my life without each one of them. I am so glad I have the knowledge that we will be together again after this life. My professors have promised there is much more to come on this document and I am glad I am at an institution where I can learn about it. I hope all this learning will benefit my future family one day!

Wedding..Weddings..oh and Weddings!

When people say June is the month of weddings it may be true but August is not far behind! I have been to so many weddings and receptions this month even I am worn out from them, and I LOVE weddings. My best friend also got married this month and she was a beautiful bride. The day was perfect! Though I did get the responsibility of holding the baby while our old roommate went to the sealing. Unfortunately he didn't see the need to be reverent in the temple waiting room. As soon as he realized I was not mom he started screaming. Not just a little whimper but screams loud enough to let everyone know he had a very healthy set of lungs. Women who were also in the waiting room came over and asked if they could help and I gladly let them try. None of them were successful and so we held a screaming baby the whole time. It wasn't too bad though, as soon as mom came back everything was just fine again.

The luncheon was in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and we had a wonderful reunion of all of our freshman roommates together, and significant others if they applied.
My cute freshman roommate and her now Canadian husband!
My long time roommate and the first of us to get married with her goofy husband.
Me, someday I'll have someone to take wonderful pictures with!
The perfect couple! Congratulations! You both are wonderful and fit together perfectly! I could not imagine anyone other man better for my best friend!
We will forever be best friends!

Farewell Washington D.C.

All things must come to the end including the perfect summer. My last few days in Washington I didn't go to work. A lot of my time was spent packing. I spend my whole summer living out of three suit cases, which I think is pretty impressive. I had to pack them all efficiently so they were not overweight. One night we went to a Nats game which was really fun! I enjoy watching baseball a lot. Probably because you can watch it and still be social at the same time. Here we are at the game!

I finally packed everything just right and was out to spend one last night in the city. My friends had a fun good-bye party for me with some really good food!

This isn't everyone but a fun picture. I miss them all! Then we went to a candy store that had all kinds of old candies that are hard to find. We found out you get a discount if you have a military ID. So...we had one girl ID and one boy ID and so all of us got a discount! Except for one..one of my friends was standing behind me and asked if he could use "my" ID as well and I said, "You know we are practically family" The cashier took this as we were engaged and so the fun began. We confirmed that we were and I answered most of the wedding questions. Then she asked us how long we had been dating and luckily we were on the same wave length and both said a year and a half at exactly the same time! We were so giggly and happy and she thought it was because "we were so cute and in love" when it really was because we can only tell a lie for so long before we start laughing. That lady still thinks we are getting married in October and we're the cutest couple she's ever seen! It was pretty fun!
After that we talked about army bases and I had said I have never been to one and I brought my passport just in case I ever needed to get in to a place or prove I was a US citizen. Then we got talking about Church's fried chicken and how amazing it was. I am not particularly fond of fried chicken but my friends convinced me it was the best fried chicken they had ever had. So we decided we were going to beat the clock and go to Fort Belvoir so I could say I've been on an army base and to get this famous fried chicken. According to the GPS it said we would get there just a few minutes before they closed. We raced against the clock and made it on to the base and were there 4 minutes before closing. Just in time to find out they had already closed. Well I have worked fast food and I know if you stare at the employees though the drive through window they will come tell you they are closed. So there we sat. Soon enough they came to tell us they were closed but not before I could tell them that we just drove over an hour to get here and we had heard about how amazing their chicken was and we were moving the next day and this was our only chance to experience their chicken. This was enough to get the manager. I relayed the story again and...

Walah! We had our own FRESH Church's friend chicken! And....it was AMAZING! If friend chicken always tasted that good I would be hooked! Good think I don't live in the south where they are more Church's fried chicken else I might be twice the size I am now! It was a great night! Thanks to all my dear friends I made over the summer and making it such a great experience! I can't wait until we all meet again!

Wicked!

I since my freshman year my roommates got me hooked in the music from the musical Wicked. I love the music and listen to it often. If we were ever I the car together would find us blaring Defying Gravity and all of us singing at the top of our lungs. Since then I have always dreamed of going. It came to Boise earlier this summer but unfortunately I moved to D.C. before it came and I was never in a city big enough for it to be at for anymore than a one night visit. Lucky for me, I moved to Washington D.C. where they do have musicals often and this summer Wicked happened to be the main event at the Kennedy Center. I decided I was going to go but things came up and with tickets being expensive I could not find anyone who was not already going to go with me. I mentioned to a very good friend of mine, whom I met at work, I had wanted to go but just as a side note. The next day at work he came up and said he had looked up tickets and we wondered if I wanted to go that weekend. OF COURSE I DID!!! He was so kind to call it an early birthday present and treat me to a night at the theatre. All week I was so excited. The tickets came and he even let me open the package. I danced around the room and told him over and over again how excited I was to be going. He said he had never seen anyone so excited and if this was how excited I got he would buy me things more often. I think he just thought it was funny to watch me dance around the room to my own little tune.
The night finally came and I was so excited! I got all dressed up, he picked me up in his nice car, and I had wonderful company. The night could not have been more perfect! The Kennedy Center is a beautiful building and the theatre was incredible. The lighting was beautiful chandeliers and the stage was perfect for Wicked with a large dragon at the top of the stage. We took a really quick picture of the ceiling and we got an evil eye from one of the members.

We snapped a little picture of us really quickly before the lady came over and told us to put the camera away.

The play was so beautiful! It is a lovely story of good versus evil and sometimes things are not what they appear to be. It is the prequel to The Wizard of Oz, which I have not seen, but the only references to it were obvious enough I know what they were talking about. The cast was phenomenal. The set was amazing. The atmosphere of the whole night was magical. I could not possible ask for a better night for one of my dreams to come true!

As we were leaving we saw Les Miserables was coming in October. If only I was still in DC then you know where you could find me!

A Window to His Love

One of the best things that has come from moving to Washington D.C. it the amazing missionary experiences I have had since I have been here. In June I had a friend who was meeting with the missionaries and asked me to come to the discussions with him. I had never actually been a part of the missionaries teaching an investigator. I was pretty nervous but really excited. If you want to read about it click HERE.
Meeting with the missionaries and being a part of the discussion was really a great experience for me. It was nice to return to the simplest doctrine of our religion. We talked about the concept of God and how he is our loving heavenly father. This simple truth I have known all my life and have never doubted and it was a brand new concept for him. As we talked more about principles and the gospel the spirit testified to me the things I know are true and I know more than I realized. I have grown up in the church and I went to primary and Young Womens every Sunday and was taught at home but I have never been a great scriptorian. I would love to have scriptures memorized and remember the exact references to things. But I'm not there yet. It was a sweet comfort to me to be know I do know things about the gospel and I not only believe the doctrines of the gospel but I know them to be true. I know, I have prayed and received an answer. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church restored wholely and perfectly. Knowing this even in its simplicity makes life beautiful.
Being outside of Utah where even if you are not a member of the church you probably still know plenty about the church, there are plenty of people to share the gospel with. Here, there are opportunities to plant seeds and share the gospel everywhere! From people at work to people you meet on the metro to anywhere! I love sharing the gospel and am so grateful for the opportunities that are so ample they almost fall into your lap. My goal is to begin studying Preach My Gospel so I can be better prepared to be a missionary and share the gospel. I hope we all are a window to the Lord's love and utilize the opportunities to share the gospel that are presented to us.

Date Night in the PICU

Friday night is usually date night for most, or at least the night to take a break from work and socialize a little bit. Last Friday I had plans with with one of my coworkers. Right about the end of the day one of our patients was in the PICU. Things took a turn for the worse and both of us ended up staying with the family. The ICU is never the place you want to be and after a long night of ups and downs the patient finally passed away.

This was a new experience for me and one that I am sure will happen again. This was my first patient who I had spent time with and talked with who passed away. I have prepared myself for this and knew it was part of the job. Though sometimes it is hard not being able to talk about what's going on a work. This is where the Lord blessed my life with a little thing that meant so much to me.

After leaving work, my coworker and I went home and just sat on the couch and ate a little dinner. It was not what we had planned on doing that night or what we had expected to eat for dinner but it was just what I needed and what he needed too. It was nice to have someone around who understood what we were going through. He has had more experience with patients and how to deal with losing one. We talked about death and we talked about life and how grateful we are to have every precious breath we breathe. I am so grateful I had him that night to talk to and find comfort in. I know the Lord is aware of us and our need and He sends people to be in our lives at the moments we need it most.

I was lucky my date was with my coworker and there was no need to break plans with someone. Though, I do hope that is my last date in the PICU.

No More 'Some Day's

I have always tried to live my life in an attempt to never regret a moment. I try not to put off things for tomorrow, because tomorrow might not come. I guess when I work this close to death it always reminds you how quickly life can end. I am not afraid of death. The Lord has a plan for each of us and sometimes we don't realize the plan is shorter for some than others. Sometimes we think one is harder than the other but Heavenly Father really knows what is best for each one of His children and He has shaped our plans accordingly. I have complete faith in our Heavenly Father's plan and I am so grateful for the time I get to spend with the special spirits that do not require an extended stay on this earth. The spirit of a baby who is so freshly sent from heaven is unlike any other. To be with a wonderful spirit who will quickly return to Heavenly Father after only a short time here on this earth inspires me to be better, to be prepared to meet my maker for what ever day that might be. It might be tomorrow, it might be next year, it might be 50 years from now. But today is the day I am preparing to stand worthy before God and tell him I tried my very best to serve Him and to be a window to His love for those who know me.
I try to always let people know how I feel about them. Let them know when they inspire me with the little things they do each day. So many times I think about how grateful I am for the people in my life and think I'll tell them 'some day' when the time is right. The time is right now, tell people you love them and how much they mean to you. You never know when the things you say will be just what someone has been searching for. You never know if there will be a tomorrow. You never know if you will have just one more day.