real people

Be prepared for something so confusing but personal.  And a ton of sentences that start with "and."  And no gramatical correctness at all.

Today I was talking to a student about his freshman year.  Honestly, I was being kind of typical about it. Asking the classic questions.

Tell me about your first year, I said. How do you think you've changed?

Changed?

Yeah, you've grown up a little in the past 8 months.  What have you learned?

Well...

We talked about it and he gave some really insightful answers.
He realized -

Hey, I have grown up a little bit.  I've been doing something noteworthy with my time. Cool!

That's the best part of my job.
And it made me start to think.

Remember when I started this job?  I went to a week of training and then they threw to the crowd. And  all I had were a bunch of pictures of students with faces. I tried to memorize them all ahead of time but I couldn't do it.

And then we had New Student Orientation.
And I thought - oh my goodness these names have faces.  They're real people. Here we go.

And then I sit down to talk with them and I totally fall in love.

Because they're all trying so hard and have such huge aspirations to get perfect  GPAs.

And as the semester progresses they're freaking out because that test was a lot harder than high school and that 8 page paper seems so daunting.

And then we meet at the end and we say - you did it. We did it.

I've learned a little bit about love.
Because I can reach out and people can reject me.  I have so much to offer them but only they can take it.

Some of them say, "I don't need you.  I've got this on my own."

And at first it hurts, because, hey, you don't realize how much of my time I spend thinking about you and ways to help you.

So I've learned a little bit about love.  A lot about myself.  And a lot more than I'm saying here.  But if anything, I've learned that
relationships with people make life rewarding. (At least for me.)

so this is my best friend Kamree
and even though I don't like this pic of me
we are mentors together
we are in the Hub
she has taught me so much about relationships
about loving everyone
and about seeing the best in people

We're not just dealing with names on a page, or faces in a crowd.
We're interacting with real people.

And that my friends, makes life beautiful.

there is a season

To everything there is a season

and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, 

and a time to die;

a time to plant,

and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill,

and a time to heal

a time to break down, 

and a time to build up;

A time to weep,

and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn,

 and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones,

and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace,

and a time to refrain from embracing

A time to get, 

and a time to lose;

a time to keep,

and a time to cast away

A time to rend

and a time to sew

A time to keep silence

and a time to speak;

A time to love,

 and a time to hate;

A time of war,

 and a time of peace.

There's a time to write a philosophy paper.

There's a time to go on a mission.

There's a time to someday get married.

But, to everything, there is a season, and a time and every purpose under heaven.

So I'll just have faith in His timing.

(39 days till I go to the MTC!)

But right now I'm gonna find joy in life and get ready and excited for the future but soak up these last 5.5 weeks with music and snow and sunshine and friends and laughing and crying and dancing love and yogurtland and the Roll Up and ice cream and American food and facebook and twitter and instagram. And having a really, really, really good time. 

And shopping for mission clothes.

And loving life :) 

it's all about relationships

If you want to find yourself, you need to lose yourself in the lives of other people.
- My Philosophy professor

Relationships with other people are more important than being right.
- My boss at work, Fred. 

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
- Mother Teresa

Being angry with someone decreases your quality of life, ya know? 
- My friend Taylor (and he probably doesn't even remember when he said that to me, but I won't forget it because I always try to remember it when someone is annoying me :) )

When the Lord requires that we forgive all men, that includes forgiving ourselves. Sometimes, of all the people in the world, the one who is the hardest to forgive—as well as perhaps the one who is most in need of our forgiveness—is the person looking back at us in the mirror.
- Dieter F Uchtdorf

I LOVE YOU!
- Karina, who always tells us that she loves us, and so I try to say it more too.


It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tired into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.
- Martin Luther King

And that, my friends, it what makes life worth living.  Loving others.  Serving them.  Understanding them.  Empathizing with them. Forgiving them.

And I'm telling you - when you're having a bad day, think about the people you love and why you love them.  Connect with them and then show them that you love them.  Say I love you every once in a while.  Do an act of service.  Give a hug.  Write a nice note. You know,  it's all about relationships.

As I have loved you, love one another.

- Jesus.

A harlot

Wanna read a good story that you probably don't read all that often?  Read Hosea.
Here it is in a wrap.

Hosea is a prophet.
He is commanded to marry Gomer.
Gomer is a harlot.
They have children.  Their names respectively mean: "sow or gather  spread, scatter," "no mercy," and "not my people."
Gomer says - I will return to my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
Say what?  Your lovers will give you bread? And water?  Bread - symbolic of the Bread of Life? of Jesus Christ?  Your lovers can give you that?
Gomer breaks her covenant and goes to her former lovers. Can I just say how when I read this - it hurt. I was legitimately so angry with Gomer.  Hosea married you when you were a harlot.  And you leave him for your former lovers who you think can give you bread?
But Hosea doesn't give up on her.
Hosea lets her go for a season.
Then he goes after her.
He "allures" her into the wilderness and "speaks comfortably" to her.
He cleans her up.
"And I will give her her vineyards from thence, ad the valley of Achor for a door of hope, and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

At first I thought Hosea was crazy.  How could he let her come back?
And then, as my New Testament teacher so tenderly pointed out, I realized....

This is my story.  This is an object lesson for the Savior and me. Sometimes, I go to other places for my flax and wool.  It can be hard.  I learn from my trials.  But Christ comes back for me and he forgives me.

I know that I'm not perfect, that I sometimes get wrapped up in things that I shouldn't get wrapped up in. I forget Him. But, I want so desperately to follow my Savior.  He comes back for me.  He is waiting for me, with open arms. He is my Savior.  I am nothing without Him.  And He loves me.

Following Him is more than just believing in Him and then going and doing whatever I want.  Gomer just went back to her lovers, and yeah, she messed up and came back.

But what does coming back consist of? (click on the link...)

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
Repentance
Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins
Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost
Enduring to the end living a continuous Christian lifestyle.

I am so grateful for my Savior.
(I can't wait to share His gospel for 18 months!)