Palmyra, New York

I didn't have to work on Monday so I decided to take a trip up to Palmyra, New York to see the church sites.  What an amazing day trip.  It took me a while to get up there because it was raining and my GPS took me through all sorts of tiny, random towns.  I finally arrived at noon and it was still raining at that point.  I drove past the Hill Cumorah, the Palmyra Temple, and started at the Joseph Smith Farm.  I was greeted by a lovely missionary, Sister Trang.  She showed me around the log cabin where the Smith Family originally lived and where the Angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith and told him where to go at the Hill Cumorah to find the gold plates.  It was really cool to be in the room where it happened.  Then we walked down to the frame house and we realized that we were EFY counselors together at SLC week 2 last year.  Crazy small world.  She then showed me the frame house and we continued to discuss EFY.  Then she allowed me to walk into the Sacred Grove by myself.  Since I had my phone with me, I decided to play the Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD dedicated to the prophet Joseph Smith softly.  I started off with Joseph Smith's First Prayer, the On A Golden Springtime, and then This Is My Beloved Son.  As I walked it was still raining a little, but not down pouring.  It was a peaceful rain and the rain drops looked absolutely beautiful on the leaves and trees.  I could feel the Spirit so strongly as I wandered.  I could imagine Joseph Smith praying and pictures Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appearing.  I stopped to pray for a moment.  Then I began to make my way back out, listening to Joseph, A Nashville Tribute songs The Prayer and The Rising.  I stopped halfway through to the end and decided to read Joseph Smith History.  It was so beautiful.  I realized as I read about the visit from the Angel Moroni, that it had occurred 190 years ago, to the week, almost to the day, I was there.  It was a tender mercy.  Seeing these sites was an amazing experience, especially as I had had an opportunity to study Joseph Smith and the process to bring forth the Book of Mormon all summer at EFY.

I then decided to stop by the Palmyra Temple and the Grandin Bookstore. The Palmyra Temple is small but beautiful with stain glass windows of the sacred grove and a view of the sacred grove.  I also was able to attend the temple dedication of this temple so it was really cool to see it in person. On the way to the bookstore I saw the four churches on the corner that caused Joseph so much confusion.  The bookstore was really cool as well.  It was cool to see how much work went into the printing of the Book of Mormon.  The Sister Missionary who took me on the tour there happened to have dated the son of one of my favorite Child Life Professors at Utah.  Again it was a super small world.  After I went to the Hill Cumorah which was also a really cool experience.

Guys, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is so so true.  It's amazing.  And I love it.

Dear Internet

For the first time in the past three weeks I have consistent access to the internet.  Hooray! Because of this lack of internet access I have not kept my blog caught up. Mentally I have written about a million and one blog posts.  So dear little blog, let me catch you up.

I now live in a different state and a different time zone and a different world than the last time I wrote.  The state is Pennsylvania, the time zone Eastern, and the world Beautiful. After this move and my past month in Virginia and my little trips back east over my lifetime, I'm convinced that there is an east coast girl that has been waiting to come out. And here she is!

I will post a few pictures on this post and I will post more later.  Right now I should be working on homework that is due tomorrow. :)

This is me and my street!

Dad and I stopped at Winter Quarters on the way out here.

Winter Quarters Temple

Danville Courthouse

More pictures and posts to come soon!

Rapunzel and I

One of the great things about EFY is that it gave me cause to look at myself in a different light.  I wanted to let my kids know why I'm jaundice, but I wanted a fun and positive way to explain it.  So I thought of something brilliant.  I would tell my kids that my skin glows like Rapunzel's hair in Tangled.  It worked for them, for my fellow counselors, and even for me.  The past four weeks when I've told people they've been like "It's so true, you glow."  It's so much better to be told that you glow rather than looking at yourself like an ugly neon light.  And as we discussed the theme Arise and Shine and how these kids can get the glow of the Spirit by living the gospel I realized that "glowing" is a good thing.  I'm glad to "glow".

Forget Me Not

At the most recent General Relief Society meeting there was a talk given by Dieter F. Uchtdorf about the forget-me-not flower. It was a beautiful talk, if you'd like to watch it you can find it at lds.org.  It was the perfect talk for me because moving up to this big city, attending a big university, which has a big institute, and being part of a big ward I've been feeling a little bit like the little forget-me-not; small and insignificant. 

I've been trying to look at this experience positively though.  It's a chance for me to overcome my shyness.  And it's not like I'm the only one who has ever felt like I am just one of the ninety and nine and I'm sure that there are other people at my school in a similar situation who are feeling just as lonely as me.  This is a chance for me to reach out to them.  This talk helped me feel better about that.

Besides forget-me-not's are pretty.  What would the world be like without forget-me-not's?

I think I've found a new favorite flower.  What ever happens, just don't forget to remember me.

I Love The 20's, 30's, 40's, and 50's.

Sometimes I wish that I could just go through time just at the age of 20.  It really is a perfect age.  You're still young but not so young that no one takes you seriously or you have serious restrictions in your freedoms.  Your old enough to be responsible but young enough that you can get away with one or two irresponsible things every once in a while.  Your young enough to fall in love but old enough to not have to deal with the commitment.  And of course your young and as pretty as your ever gonna be and you can still play around with fashions.  Your young enough to have your whole life ahead of you but old enough to have lived a little.  I just think that twenty is a great age.  And I wish that I could go back in time and be 20 years old in different decades.  These next four decades are my absolute favorites that I wish I could go back in time and visit.

The Roaring Twenties:

Oh to be a flapper!  I love 20's jazz music, I mean really, you can't get any better than Louis Armstrong!  And the 20's fashion was beautiful!  And it helps that the men dressed up nice too! From Prohabition to the new slang (the 20's were the bees knees!) the 20's were an unforgettable decade that I would love to experience.

The 1930's:

Big bands, swing dancing, and the fashion.  They may have been in the middle of the Great Depression, but that didn't mean that people didn't dress up back then.  And can you beat Benny Goodman, Count Bassie, Tommy Dorsey, or any of the other big band leaders?  I submit that you cannot!

The 1940s:
Frank Sinatra.

Need I say more?

Granted WWII was also a very trying time for our country, but the thing about trying times is that they make us better people.  They also had super cute clothes in the 1940s and again, the men were gentlemen, which rocks my socks!

The 1950s:

I love the 50s because they uniquely bring together the innocence of a generation that has gone through an econmic depression and then a war and are now ready to start life fresh and anew with the rebelliousness of rock 'n' roll.  Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry were rockin' around the clock.  You can't beat the innocence of I Love Lucy and Leave It To Beaver.  I love the poodle skirts and 50's dresses.  So beautiful.

My favorite part of all four decades is that the men were actually men back then.  They weren't afraid of commitment, they did silly little things like take the girls on dates, they dressed up, and they were gentlemen.  Men of today should take a page out of their predecessors book.  Just saying.

It's Springtime!

It's the most wonderful weather of the year! The sun shines, the breeze blows softly, the birds sing, the flowers bloom, the grass turns green, the shade of a big tree feels like heaven. 

I love Spring.  It makes me happy.

The problem is that as soon as that wonderful weather hits and it gets so close to finals and summertime that I can almost taste it, my motivation disappears into thin air.  Homework?  Who wants to do homework?  I'd rather sit outside and read.  Or take a nap in the shade.  Or go on a walk.  Or do anything else other than homework (or cleaning or work). Homework?  What homework?  Yet I'm not able to fully enjoy the beauty around me because there is this nagging little thought in the back of my mind (you should be doing homework. No I shouldn't!  Shut up!) What can I say, I've got spring fever and I can feel summer coming on just around the corner.  My mind is everywhere except on what I should be doing right now.  I'm hoping to find some motivation soon.

The Gift

I have always been told that one of the greatest gifts I have been given is my body.  Sometimes its been hard for me to believe when I look at my broken body and all of the issues it's caused me.  But today in my parenting class I saw this adorable video and I found this cute blog and this other inspirational blog.  And then I went to Relief Society and we talked in on of our "classes" about how special our bodies are no matter what.  So I realized that I need to stop concentrating on my yellow skin and eyes, my less then perfect teeth, my lackluster hair, the few extra pounds I need to lose and how often I have been sick and how often I might get sick in the future.  My body really is amazing, if I had been born a hundred or even fifty years earlier than I was I wouldn't be alive.  In many ways I shouldn't be alive.  But I am and I need to take more time to appreciate my body for how amazing it is.  And I really feel like it was created and made extremely...unique...just for me and God's plan for me.  So I should stop wishing to look different, to look "normal", and just be happy the way that I am and appreciate the beauty that comes from within me from the good choices I make.

Change

I guess I don't straighten my hair and wear jewelry and dress super nice very often, because my roommates were in shock Saturday afternoon when they saw me.  All of them asked me where I was going.  I'm not going anywhere, just chilling at home cleaning and working on homework.  But it's kinda fun to dress up sometimes, especially for no reason.

It's interesting how things can change in just a week.

My whole outlook has changed and my perspective on life has changed.

Change is a good thing, most of the time at least.  I didn't used to think it was a good thing, but it is because it is what makes a stronger, better people.  If nothing changed, if we as people don't change, then there we'll never progress to bigger and better things.  So I'm embracing the changes that are happening in my life and the woman that I am becoming.