Sunshine & Smiles

The past few weeks have been particularly good for me. Things have run more smoothly, I’ve been much more smiley and happier, and I’ve begun to notice all of God’s little tender mercies. :)

A little over a week ago I was given a calling that I believe is the cause to all of these happenings. I am so terribly excited about my calling and I can’t wait until it’s announced so that I can finally stop keeping it a secret (I’m so bad at keeping secrets so this has been a bit difficult for me! Haha).

But because of the “extremety” (can’t think of a better word...) of my new calling, I’ve felt like I’ve needed to work on SO many things in order to be prepared for this calling. During my interview he asked when I had been to the temple last. I had to think about it... that’s how long ago it was! Three months ago was the last time I went! So what did I do? I went to the temple and I’m starting to go every Thursday with my gals!

I usually read a few verses of my scriptures at night and then I lie down, say a quick two second prayer and BAM! I’m out cold! Which is awful, and I hate to admit that. But every night for the past week I’ve read about 2 chapters (ten minutes) and read a page each day from the “Stand a Little Taller” book written by President Hinckley. It’s helped SO tremendously.

This week I’ve had so many tests I’ve just been swamped because it’s the end of the term and if I don’t get good grades... I’m toast! haha, so I’ve been praying particularly hard that I’d be able to do good on my tests. I studied and felt SO good about them. Wanna know the outcome? :) B-, B-, A-!!! :) Best test scores yet!

I’ve also been worried a little about my lack of confidence. Generally, I’m a very outgoing girl who is ALWAYS myself and not afraid to show it. But when I’m around people that I don’t know... I always act “different”. More shy? Should I say? So I’ve been praying that I’d be able to gain confidence and be able to befriend people I normally wouldn’t and get out of my little bubble. And the other day in seminary, I got the opportunity to do that!

My seminary class is just normally a “chatty” class. And we are REALLY disrespectful to what our teacher is saying. He spends hours over our lessons and reading scriptures and praying so that we will be able to learn what we need to and invite the spirit into our lives. But my class takes this great treat for granted. Not once have I ever felt the spirit in my class, because we’re always talking, and my teacher is waiting for us to hush it! The other day it was mine and my “buddy’s” turn to give the devotional. For devotional we teach from the For Strength of Youth Pamphlet (which I might add is WONDERFUL!). I talked to my friend and told him I felt like we should talk about education and it’s importance and focus on education in the church and the advantages of seminary. So we did! I read from the pamphlet, he read from his scriptures and said some really awesome things! But I still felt like I needed to add something about our disrespect towards our teacher. Mustering up what courage I had, I asked the class if we could try to invite the spirit today and try out hardest to keep the comments to ourselves until after class. Then I said “thank you” and sat down with my heart beating like CARAZY! I honestly thought my class was going to beat me up after school. Luckily, they didn’t! :) haha. But I was so glad that I had the courage to that! And you know what?! My teacher only had to stop once during the lesson to ask some students to be quiet. I was so grateful that God helped me know what to say and that I actually said it!

Now that I’ve been focussing my life more on the gospel, scriptures, and the Savior... life has turned out to be pretty amazing! Yeah, there are still hard times and tough things we have to go through, but I know that if we put our trust in the Lord and use the help he’s willing to give us, that we can do incredible things and the things we though were big, won’t be so bad anymore! I LOVE this gospel so much and I’m so excited that I’ve begun to notice these changes in my life!

Thanks for reading! :D

A little EXTRA news:

Today was my last day at Del Taco (I work there)! Part of me is sad mostly because I loved working with everyone there... even though I could understand NOTHING they said... other than the fact I was LOCO, which means crazy! :) haha

I got my marching band uniform... this officially means it’s starting! One of my besties from school is Secretary with me this year! Ah! :) I’m so excited! I can’t wait to get started on our show! But we have to go through parade season and band camp... ehhhhh. :) This is going to be a GREAT senior year!!! :)

I got a job... at Taco Time. Yay! Huzzah! haha :) Good news: They’re not open Sundays!!!

Core testing is starting which means school is almost over! I’ve never been more excited in my entire life! :) haha

State Solo and Ensemble is tomorrow and I’m performing with the Flute Choir. I’m so glad we made it to state this year!

Thanks for visiting!!!! :)

General Conference 2012 (part one: quotes I LOVED)

I decided to post a few of my favorite quotes from Conference a few weeks ago. This conference was SO good and I loved listening to every word and cherishing each thing I’ve learned. I love being able to listen to General Conference knowing that these wonderful speakers have spent a lot of their time praying and writing and pondering over their talks. These talks were written for us specifically and I think it’s important we take the time to listen to them, re-read them, ponder them, and figure out how they’ll help us in our lives

(Some of the quotes I liked were cut off so you can’t read the whole thing, I’ll try to figure out how to fix this problem! Sorry!)

This was from the Young Women’s Broadcast but I loved it so much I just had to put it on here!And this is my FAVORITE quote! I LOVE it SO much! There is so much power behind these few words. It brings hope in the lives of those who read it. I love that no matter how much we’ve sinned, how far off the path we are, how much damage we thing we’ve caused, we can ALWAYS make it back to live with our Heavenly Father. And He is always waiting with open arms for us. He loves us and wants nothing more than our happiness. I love this gospel and I’m so very grateful for all the knowledge we have from it.