sweet sundaes

This week has been sweet and I have to say Sundays {or sundaes} are the sweetest. This week is the week in preparation for conference weekend. For those of you who don't know much about conference weekend, prepare for an explosion of awesomeness from the Mormons. I personally can't wait. I mean, a chance to watch church on TV in your pajamas while you eat food? Not to mention the fact that we get to listen to the prophets of God and learn what God wants us to know and do in our lives. Pretty cool right?

So pretty much conference=happiness. Yup that just about sums everything up! I could end with that, but I do have a few things I want to share.

For starters, I invite you all {regardless of weather you are a "relief society" person or not} to listen to this talk given yesterday by President Monson during the General Relief Society Meeting. It was a great talk.

 One thing that stuck out to me in this talk was when he said

          "although [our challenges]   

are different to each,         

       they are common to all." 

I liked this because it made me remember that everyone on earth is fighting a hard fight. And I think that if we can remember that everyone is fighting a hard fight we would do better to treat people in a way that will help them fight that fight, rather than bring them down. We are all on the same team and we would do well to remember that we are only each others team mates, not each others opponents, and that if we fight together the game will be so much easier to win.

A second quote from President Thomas S. Monson that stuck out to me was when he said.

"The words of truth and inspiration,     

   found in our four standard works, 

are prized possessions to me."      

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I almost always carry my journal around with me. It's something I learned from my dad who always has his notebook out ready to take notes in whatever church meeting he may be in. For me you may not see it, but I always have it with me in my backpack, purse, or gym bag. I carry it with me everywhere because you never know when you are going to hear an amazing quote, or receive an answer to a prayers. For me having this journal with me allows me to record these gems of truth so I don't forget them. The things in this journal are "words of truth and inspiration" that help aid in my understanding of the standard works and they are "prized possessions to me." This journal is also where all of my ideas for blog posts come from and I never write without it open in front of me. (I just realized that I only have 10 pages left....ah guess its time to buy a new journal!)

Flipping through my scribblings from Church today I am reminded of something said during our 5th Sunday combined lesson taught by the bishopric. Our bishop said,

       "as soon as you take the patience to       

       observe individual stars,              

               you will begin to                 

    observe constellations."          

The same concepts is true with scripture study. As we begin to have patience to understand what individual verses are saying, we will begin to see the big picture and realize how these versus apply to us. It is only then that we begin to receive revaluation for ourselves. It is only then that we are able to taste just how sweet the gospel is.

I love this gospel and I know just how much sweetness it has brought to me and my life. I hope you all take the opportunity to stick your tong out and taste it for yourself.



feel my sunlight



p.s. This week for Young Womens we filled our bishops office with creepy dolls and funny sayings. He loved it. My ward is so awesome.

       

Temple Tuesday

{picture via Pinterest}

I'm calling it quits on the whole #blogtember thing. It was fun while it lasted but I have other things to write about and reviews on products aren't it.

Today is a Tuesday. It’s only the second day into the week with more than half the week to go. It’s a little bit on the slow side, but on the other hand it was #TempleTuesday today! And when a "Tuesday" is paired with the word "temple" It automatically becomes the sweetest day in existence. Plus I get to wear a dress to school and people don’t ask questions. (That’s a lie. They do as questions. I just see these questions as missionary opportunities and that’s always fun.)

The other splendid events from my Tuesday include discovering the fact that Super Novas would be awesome material for a new Taylor Swift album. I can just picture it “We broke up like a super nova breaks up by nuclear fusion.” And then the album cover could be that hipster galaxy whatnot with cats coming out of it. You know, because she likes cats. I’m calling her right now to let her know.

I also enjoyed receiving a message from one of my lovely EFY counselors that she was accepted to work the EFY express session that I am attending next month. I know this doesn’t sound that exciting to the average public, but all the EFY goers know that being reunited with your counselor is a really big deal. It also helps that I think Michelle is on the list of “coolest people ever.” I have been making excited squealing noises all over my house. I simply can’t wait.

Now back to Temple Tuesday. Here is a video of some faithful followers of Christ and their joy in the Temple. The sacrifices some people make to attend the temple make me realize how very blessed I am to have so many temples so close to me. This is why I feel a need to go regularly. I want to give the same effort and commitment as those who have to travel a long journey to make it to the temple. Because of the convenience of attending my efforts don't come from giving up money or traveling long journeys, but rather come from attending often. I want to show my father my commitment towards him. I want to do his work.

Feel my Sunlight



p.s. My notebook is almost full. and I love it.

I hope you enjoy Holland

Dear blog, I'm sorry I've neglected you the last couple of days. I wish I had some great extravagant excuse like I was riding Elephants in India or something, but the reality is I was lazy and that's that.

I just finished a long, well procrastinated assignment that took much longer than any single assignment ever should. So naturally I am rewarding myself with blogging. At midnight.

It has been a good Sunday. It has been an awakening day, or at the very least it has shaken me out the trance I have been in the last couple of days. Not that I was doing anything wrong, but I feel like the last couple of days I have been hypnotized by the things of the world. I think this is a regular occurrence for all of us and sometimes it is good to be reminded to snap out of it, because it feels so much better on the outside.

There was an awesome talk given by a sister in my ward today that really hit me. She talked a little bit about finding joy in adversity and she told a story that her friend sent to her that I loved and imediatly knew I had to share it with you. I am retelling from memory and hope I can tell it as well as she did.

{picture via. Google. view original image here.}

You have dreamed of traveling to Italy for your entire life and you have finally planned your trip. You board the plane and you can feel the excitement among the passengers who, just like you, are so excited to land in Italy. When your plane lands you hear a voice come on over the intercom "Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Holland." Holland?! Holland?! You where supposed to land in Italy. You have dreamed your whole life of going to Italy and now you are stuck in Holland. How terrible! Now, there are two ways you could approach this, you could either walk off the plane and soon find the true beauty of Holland and enjoy your experience, because after all, Holland is an incredibly beautiful place, or you could spend the rest of your life wishing your plane had landed in Italy and spend the rest of your life moping about the fact that you are not where you had planned to end up.

I think this is what we often do in our lives. Sometimes we have the perfect idea of what is supposed to happen, and when that doesn't workout we don't realize that maybe we were put somewhere for a reason and sometimes we don't realize that where God puts us is much better than the place we dreamed of.

I hope you enjoy Holland.

I think too often we get caught up in how perfect our lives are not, and we forget too often how much our lives are actually worth. This same sister that spoke in my ward today said

        "you may not be seen as

          perfect  

 by the rest of the world,          

         but you are seen as 

     perfect by him."          

Remember who you are and remember that you are perfect in the eyes of your creator. He knows whats best for you even better than you do. That is why he creates the maps for your life, not you. Follow his map and don't ever stray from the path he has drawn because if you follow his path he will lead you to the "X that marks the spot" and he will lead you to eternal life.

I know that if we strive to follow him we will one day return to live with him and I write these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Feel my Sunlight

p.s. Happy comments are the greatest. They bring me lots of joy.

seventeen in an island mood

 

This blogtember thing is hard. I feel like some of these posts aren't me and don't fit my blog. Todays prompt is to write a short story about a dinner part or something of that sorts. I don't feel like doing it and yesterday blogtember was skipped because, well, it was my birthday and you know how that goes.

Yesterday was the mark of the start of my year seventeen! Crazy stuff. I feel old. It was a good day. I have great friends and family that made yesterday fun. And let me tell you, my family's happy birthday song is prime. (actually, we try to sound like dying animals when we sing happy birthday. Its kinda fun.) I got this Ukulele from my family that I just adore. I mean, its yellow, and covered in pineapples. I also got a cake made out of money. I know.


I don't have much to write about today. Just that I really want to do HEFY this summer and am praying it works out.

Maybe it's the Ukulele, maybe its the possibility of going to Tonga or Fiji that is putting me in this island mood. I've never even been to an island. Now I want to watch Soul Surfer. Will somebody please teach me to surf?

Feel my Sunlight



p.s. Tomorrow is FRIDAY and I am really happy about that.

Blogtember day 11

I am seriously having issues being consistent with these blogtember posts. This is hard stuff man. Today's topic is a memory that I would love to relive.

I have a few. One very exciting moment in my life was the very first time I qualified for nationals. This was significant to me because I had already failed at qualifying once at State Championships that year and my last chance was at Regional Championships. Regional Championships is about 7 states and it is so hard to hit a qualifying score at these meets. I wanted this more than I had ever wanted anything in my life and I thought I had already missed that chance. I remember walking away from the podium after I had received my silver medal, yet still didn't know my actual score. I walked over to my coach where he told me that I had qualified by two tenths of a point. It was all kinds of awesome to my fourteen-year-old self. You know those moments in sports movies where the athlete that doesn't have as much tallent works really really hard and ends up scoring the winning point or making the winning touchdown? This was one of those moments and I was on cloud nine.

Another memory I could relive a thousand times was the time I met my childhood idols thanks to a random incredibly amazing stranger that had no idea she was making my dreams come true. Or maybe the time I gained a testimony for myself that changed my life. Or even this morning when I was doing baptisms for the dead and was baptized by none other than John Schmidt....from the Piano Guys. Ya I know, pretty cool right?! The blessings of waking up at 5 a.m.

{These are The Piano Guys. John Schmidt is the red head.}

There are many many more, from EFY's to National Championships, to JR high theatre performances. I don't have the time to share them all so scroll through the archives of this blog and you will find a bucket load.

I love looking back on my life and realizing just how amazing it has been and it makes me look forward to how much greatness is to come. I can't wait.

{www.itsalwaysautumn.com}

Feel my Sunlight

p.s. I turn 17 in T-2 hours. Just sayin'. 

blogtember day nine

 

 

blogtember day 9: A self portrait.

 

So here you have it! This is what I look like most of the time. Rocking the warmups and forever incorperating tumbling into my life. Pretty cool I know. I forgot to blog yesterday so if you really want to know how social media has changed me let me know, otherwise, I am skipping day 8.

 

So my blogger friends people in the blogger world that I don't actually know, yet spend a lot of my time pouring over their blogs investing in every detail of their lives are adding an "update on your life" to their self portrait posts. I figured I'd do the same.

 

Right now I am in CE digital media. {I'm pretty sure this class was made for me. Blogging, and Phogoshop AND I get colledge credit for it? Yes please!} Today is the homeocoming game and I am so excited. I am loving school and at the moment have the best grades I have had since 7th grade. I am still tumbling and work as a tumbling coach, which means I end up at the gym just about every day and I love it.

 

I recently started attending mission prep and the fact that I can even say that is freaking me out a little. I miss the things of the past, but the future is exciting. Although I have moments when I long for the days spent reciting Shakespeare, or the late nights at the gym with team mates, I am happy where I am now, and am excited about where I'm going.

 

That's basically my life right now. And I love it.

 

 

 

 

facebook

twitter

bloglovin

 

feel my sunlight

 

 

 

p.s. It's Friday the thriteent today. Not as fun as Tuesday the seventeenth, but still fun. #Psych!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Blogtember: day 7~online shops

Blogtember: day 7--Share links to your favorite online shops, preferably with a few photos of your favorite items in each shop.

As far as online shopping goes I usually just buy everything on Amazon.com. With Amazon Prime It's almost easier and faster to order it online than to go to the store and buy it. We have bought everything from those little socks you wear with flats, to makeup, to books.

I also love love love the swimsuits at Limericki.com! They are adorable and always modest. Here are some of my favorites that are up on the sight now.

My last site is a site that I have never actually bought anything from, but it is the home to the ukulele that I am asking for for my birthday next Wednesday. I mean, who doesn't want a yellow ukulele with pineapples on it?

That's about it. Sorry my images are being all funky today. I don't have the patience to fix them. I know, bad blogger. Since this post had no spirtualness in it whatsoever, I will add this video at the end. Enjoy!

feel my sunlight



p.s. Seriously, how do you professional bloggers get your images to cooperate with you?
p.s.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAWN!!! 25!!!

Blogtember day 6: life flips

Blogtember day 6: Describe a distinct moment when your life took a turn.

I have had several distinct times where my life decided to do backflips. For example, the time I walked into a tumbling class for the first time was a pretty big one. I mean, for the first time I wasn't terrible at a sport! {Okay, I know that is hard to believe but when I was in 1st grade my P.E. teacher told my mom she didn't know how to get me to do anything. I would just sit there at pick grass. And when I was in my early and only two years of playing soccer I ran away from the ball. My parents had to start bribing me with chocolate. Every time I touched the ball=one piece of chocolate. My record was 7 pieces of chocolate. I've always been super athletic I know.} For the first time nobody was slamming into me because they wanted that round sphere so bad and for once my lack in vertical altitude was an advantage. I was also flexible and that was good. I guess this this had a pretty big impact on my life. I mean, I am pretty much in the gym every day of my life. It is also my job so that's kinda fun.

I have had a few other turns in my life like the time I found out for myself the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. This one is huge. . .I'll save it for another post. Or the time that I decided I liked country music. Thank you Scotty McCreery. Or the time I clicked post for the first time in my life on this cute blog here. Or the time two years I spent becoming a theatre geek. Becoming a theatre geek also came with brainwashing me into forgetting I was shy, and to thinking I liked things like being social, and speaking in church. What the heck?

Other big things were things like my first date hahaha just kidding! That hasn't actually happened yet. I must have too much awesome for boys to handle or something, at least, that's what I keep telling myself. And might I add, I turn 17 next Wednesday on the 18th. Just putting that out there.

This announcement was a huge turn in events for both my life, and changed the lives of just about everyone in the church.

Called to serve my friends. Called to serve.




Feel my Sunlight




p.s. Temple Tuesdays are the best!

Blogtember day 5~ a semi-lame post

So for day 5 we are supposed to take this personality test. So I took it and here are my results.

Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test™

Your Type

ESFJ

Extravert(22%)  Sensing(1%)  Feeling(38%)  Judging(1%)

• You have slight preference of Extraversion over Introversion (22%)
• You have marginal or no preference of Sensing over Intuition (1%)
• You have moderate preference of Feeling over Thinking (38%)
• You have marginal or no preference of Judging over Perceiving (1%)

So there you have it! I really want to do a big post where I actually explain my thoughts on this test and talk about other stuff, but it's simply too late and It is temple Tuesday tomorrow which means I must wake up SUPER early. I am also so sore due to our deadly, killer, awefull awesome swimming mermaid exercises that all I want to do is go to bed. So enjoy this Mormon Message and I promise a better post tomorrow.

 

Feel my Sunlight

p.s. I am so excited for temple Tuesday tomorrow. I can not even stand it!

Blogtember day 4

I love people a whole lot. They bring me so much joy. I also like music, and limes, and parties, and my level 4 students, and food, and best friends, and happy. I like happy.

So for today's blogtember post we are to tell a story about a time we were very afraid.

I don't have a lot of normal fears like heights or public speaking, but I do have fears that not many people can say they have ever had.

My greatest fears are always mental blocks. I get mental blocks at tumbling all the time and I know it is my greatest weakness as a tumbler. Mental blocks are when you get fear of doing a skill you can do just fine for no particular reason. When you get mental blocks it's as if you know you can do the skill but for some reason you just can't get your body to do it. They are no fun because you get frustrated, your coach gets mad, and overcoming them requires you to overcome the fear. It's brought tears to my life more than anything else ever has.

I get them all the time and have had them at least once on almost every skill I have ever learned. I remember one of the worst was when I was suddenly afraid of tumbling into the foam pit. I remember my awesome coach Lance, my amazing team mate Shawn, and my wonderful dad staying at the gym with me until late at night after everyone had left to try to help me get over this fear. I remember several times where they told me I couldn't go home until I had tumbled into the pit. We stayed at the gym until 11:00 several times and I remember a few times when I would just sit at the end of the floor and cry I was so scared. It took a lot of work and love and support from Lance, Shawn, and my dad, but I eventually overcame this fear and I could never be more thankful for them for helping me overcome that.

That's about it for my biggest fear. Here is an awesome Mormon message that has brought me so much peace in times of fear.







Feel my Sunlight




p.s. seriously, I love life right now.

dancin'

{Picture via Google. Click HERE to go to original source}

It's a Michael Bublé and bloglovin kind of night and I'm am totally diggin it.

I thought I'd sneak a regular blog post in here inbetween all this awesome #blogtember madness.

I heard a quote, or better yet a song lyric, from the sweet sound of Michael Bublé's song "Hollywood" a few minutes ago and the blog ideas started to roll.

"I don't want to take you dancin, 
when you're dancin with the world."
              -Michael Bublé

I feel like this could be applied to just about everything we could get involved with. We could take the obvious route like "don't date those who are more focused on what's in the world than what's in heaven." or apply it to things like media, "don't view media that reeks of a worldly scent *cough. cough. Miley Cyrus. cough.* I also think this could go a little deeper. "what are you dancing with that is causing you to dance with the world?"

Since none of us are perfect we all have weak spots in our lives. These spots are seen as targets to Satan and will be attacked if we don't stop dancing with them. Whether it be music, or swearing, or modesty, or something else it will be held against us during times of temptation and trial if we aren't careful. Satan is cunning and sly and will do everything in his power to attack you and the things of the world are his weapons.

"the devil has sought to lay a cunning plan, 

that he may destroy his [God's] work." 

           -D&C 10:12

Like I said a second ago {or however long ago you read it.} Satan has a plan and his plan is to destroy you, and to destroy the work of God and he will do everything in his power to do it. The things of the world are his greatest tactics. This is a scary thought considering the fact that we all live in the world, but hop over the column and read verse 5... 

"Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work." 

           -D&C 10:5

Even though Satan's power is strong, the power of God is much stronger. If we pray to him he will help us and we will not fail.

In the Book of Mormon Nephi gave his brothers a pep-talk before going to get the plates. This is what he said...

"4) let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands? {or anything we might face in our world today.} 

5) Therefore let us go up; let us be strong like unto Moses." 

                -1 Nephi 4:1-2

God is stronger than any trial that we might face, and if we turn to him we will be made strong. Let us have faith to be in the world, but not of the world. And to learn to dance with the things of God, and not with the things of the world.

One last thing. Does anyone have $3,800 laying around that they aren't going to use that they want to give to me so I can travel Europe with my school this summer and maybe take a picture in Paris like the one above? (holy run on sentence.) PLEASE!!! 



Feel my Sunlight




p.s. If you read all of this I love you.

blogtember day 3: the best advice

{This picture has nothing to do with this post. I just think these girls are all super cute and I love them a whole lot.}

Hello followers! (I feel like that is something some evil tyrant would say. I hope you don't see me as that. ha) Today marks day 3 of Blogtember and I am pretty happy about today's topic.

Thursday, September 5: Pass on some useful advice or information you learned and always remembered.

My top answer by far would be "an apple a day keeps the docter away. " {but if the docter is cute, ditch the fruit.} or maybe something about never running because I own scisors. {I'm pretty good at that one.} There are so many options I just can't decide.

But as far as real advice goes I will always remember what my grandma says about being short. She always says that being short doesn't matter because you're legs are long enough for your to reach the ground. #Reidswag

Another piece of advice that has stuck out to me recently is this quote by President Hinckley. Someone I met at EFY posted it on facebook and since I apparantly didn't pay enough attention the first time I saw it my mom shared it with me yesterday.

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he’s been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just ordinary people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. . . .Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

                       -President Gordon B. Hinckley

I think this is a good perspective to have because we live in a world where we live fake pinterest lives ever wishing we were our pins. We spend our lives looking at how extrodanary our days are not that we think they aren't special. If we remember that our days our average, and everyone around us are having days that are average we will start to realize that average is extrodanary and that we should be thankful for them. I believe that a person, and not their circumstances decide how happy they are going to be. Some of the happiest people I know are the people who live the hardest lives. I want to be like that and today I'm going to decide to be happy.

With that, here is another quote from EFY that I love.

"don't look to your neighbor to see if you have as much as them, look to your neighbor to see if they have enough."

I think the best way to become happy is to forget yourself. I don't know about you, but I think I want to be happy today.

Feel my Sunlight

p.s. Follow me on Bloglovin!

blogtember day 2 (because starting with 1 is overrated.)

One word. Redundant. That's what I feel about my day today.

So remember that whole Blogtember thing I was supposed to start yesterday? Ya I promise I didn't forget about it. I simply had this fantastic idea that since the prompt was "where are you from" I would upload all these photos of me from my childhood. I spent a long long time going through old pictures, even longer trying to take good pictures of them (with my iPod, so you can all imagine how great they turned out, and even longer trying to figure out how to get them all from my iPod to my blog. (My blog app wouldn't let me upload that many, and apparantly you can't copy and paste from the "synched with phone" feature on facebook.) I tried and tried and eventually got so frustrated I turned off the computer and went to bed, therefor, no blog post.

But the rules did say there are no rules, so I am now making up the rule that I get to miss the first day. (Atleast it's not something too important like the first day of school right?) So here is day 2.

Wednesday, September 4: If you could take three months off from your current life and do anything in the world, what would you do?

If I could take three months off from my current life (I am going to add here that money is limitless in this situation, and also that it is summer. Because EFY happens in the summer.) I would probably spend a portion of it attending sessions of EFY and the other portion of it in other countries volunteering at orphanages around the world. That's about it.

 Now, because this isn't actually true, I now have to go get ready for work. I promise to give you a better post tomorrow. I feel like this one is slacking a little, but I'm out of time. I love you all! Go read your scriptures!



Feel my Sunlight



p.s. I really enjoy sign language. #ASLlife
 

BFF photo shoot

Just a few from our photo sesh today. More to come at www.whitneysuephotography.blogspot.com!

Brown Sugar confidance

Whew! Twice in two days! I'm on a roll! (or trying to play catchup for the whole week I missed. Which ever you prefer.)


So I just decided I am going to do Blogtember. I think it will be fun. Only, I think I'll skip the whole 'coffee thing' since you know, I'm Mormon, and we kinda don't do that. (Maybe I'll make myself some hot chocolate or something.)

Right now I'm sitting at the sunny yellow computer desk (Just for your information, it's more fun to blog when the desk you are sitting at is yellow. It just is. I kinda love yellow right now and I hope you all go buy yellow desks because they are just that great.) So I'm sitting at the yellow desk and realizing just how truly blessed I am. I have great friends, a great family, and am loving life right now. How much better can it get? Also, this greatness is playing in the background--------> click here! or here! or here! or here! or even here! (seriously, what happened to this greatness? I mean, their new stuff is so not virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy. And that stinks because this stuff is prime. #Jobrolife #Jonas)

I just got back to a 16th birthday party for one of my best friends named Marissa. I love you Marissa! Happy Birthday! You rock my socks!

So this post is going to be short because it's midnight and my bed is calling me. But I just wanted to share this awesome video with you, because I think it's great.





 I don't know how many of you know this about me, but when I was little I was the SHYEST person on the face of the planet. Like, people would ask me what my name was and I would just stare at the ground and not answer. I know this is hard to believe because it's almost the opposite of who I am now, but I just remember being so shy and hating it.

I've come a long way since then, and my confidence didn't start to come until I began to realize who I was. In the words of Sister Dalton, I began to know who I was, and whose I was. And that made all the difference.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to girls camp. On Thursday night at girls camp we had planned to have this awesome spiritual night with this awesome motivational speaker. Unfortunately, our speaker had a flat tire on the way up and had to cancel due to the fact that there was no way he would be able to get there.

As soon as I heard the news I had the feeling that that meant I was supposed to teach, and that I was supposed to teach brown sugar. (I will explain what that is in a second) I went to my friend Reagan and told her about the situation and asked her if she would teach it with me. (She went to EFY with me and new Brown Sugar.) She agreed and we started to freak out.

We had an impromptu meeting with the YCLs, Bishop, and Young Women's Leaders about what we should do. I volunteered and my heart pounded. As I started to volunteer I remember thinking "what the heck are you doing? You are supposed to be shy." But the funny thing was, there was no shyness, just excitement.

A few minutes before we were supposed to teach we walked outside to have a peptalk and to say a prayer since we had had no preparation on this whatsoever.

We walked in and sat down just in time for the opening song. "How firm a foundation" I remember singing the words of the third verse and having them hit me hard.

 Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by my righteous, upheld by my righteous,

Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

I was going to be just fine. We stood up in front of two whole wards and we taught and everything went perfect. It was awesome to know that even though we hadn't had time to prepare, we were prepared to teach when the time came.

This experience helped strengthen my testimony that God will make weak things strong.

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

                              -Ether 12:27 #humblebees! 

Now I said I would tell you about brown sugar, so here it is. This was a method of scripture reading that we learned at EFY so here it is.

Brown Sugar

So imagine your mom puts a big bowl of plain oatmeal in front of you. How would react? (eh...ewww!) Now what do you do to make the oatmeal taste better? (BROWN SUGAR!) Now say your mom pours lots of brown sugar over your oatmeal, now how would you react? (YUM!!)

The Scriptures are sometimes like oatmeal. If you are just reading they can be a little bland, but if you add brown sugar, they become sweet.

How to add Brown Sugar to your scripture study.

1. Say a prayer that the Holy Ghost will be with you.

2. Read the verse.

3. Pick a word or phrase that sticks out to you.

4. clarify the message.

5. How does that relate to you?

6. What is a measurable goal that can help you apply it to your life?

I am obsessed with brown sugar and I challenge all of you to try it. It has brought me so much more knowledge and love for the scriptures and It is awesome. I have a testimony of brown sugar. I also have a testimony of the scriptures. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.



Feel my Sunlight



p.s. life is so great. How can you not love it?
p.s.s. eh, so the whole "I'll keep this short" thing didn't work out, but you know, YOLO!
p.s.s. please enjoy this picture of me buckling milk into the car. #theyseemerollintheybucklemeintothecar #clickitorspillit #nousetocryovermilkthatcantspill