Letters from Heaven

 

Sometimes you just need days like today to remind you that the world is okay and that pieces of it are rather magnificent. Yup. That about sums up my day.

We were sitting in second period today when we received word that school would get out at 11:15 thanks to broken water pipes. WAHOO! 

There are beautiful things happening people.

And before I get into my post I have a few birthday shutouts, because apparently the next few days are popular days for awesome people to be born.

so...

S/O to Makena who is turning 19 TODAY! I am so happy I was able to meet you last year at EFY! You are one of the funnest people I have ever met and you were a fantastic roommate. Thank you for your strong testimony and for being so fun! I miss you bunches and I hope you had the grandest day ever! 

S/O to Adam who is turning 18 on Sunday! You are seriously one of the very coolest people I know. You are a fantastic Seminary council president and I am so happy I am able to serve on council with you. You are such a great example to me and the rest of the school. I hope you know that people look up to you. Thank you for your testimony and for being my friend. I hope you have the greatest birthday ever!

S/O to Raegan who is turning 17 on Monday! I love you so much Raeg! I couldn't have asked for a better friend to fly to New York with me! New York with you was seriously one of the very best weeks of my life and I will never forget it! You always brighten the room with your happy outlook on life. Thank you for being such a great friend to me for all these years. I love you so much girl! Have the happiest of birthdays!

  

Since I can't think of an efficient transition from birthdays to what I wanted to post about I will just jump right into it.

I've been busy. And by busy I mean I have such a long list of things to do that I probably shouldn't be blogging right now. I have three callings, all of which have provided me with many many great things to do, I am teaching a leadership training lesson to the seminary class presidents next week, and next Sunday I am speaking at stake conference. I also teach 9 tumbling classes (which I love!) which also require intensive lesson planning outside of work. And all of that in addition to school and homework have provided me with quite the "to do" list, and while I absolutely LOVE everything I am doing and wouldn't change it for anything, I was feeling a little overwhelmed.

I was sitting in my seminary class the other day when we came upon a verse of scripture that hit me really hard. It was exactly what I needed in that moment. So I replaced the name written in it to say "Whitney".

"Behold, verily, verily, I say unto my servant Whitney, 

I have looked upon thee and thy works. 

I have heard thy prayers, and prepared thee for a greater work. 

Thou art blessed, for thou shalt do great things."

-Doctrine & Covenants 35:3-4

The part that hit me the very most was phrase "I have heard thy prayers."

I see it like this:

I am sitting here on earth writing "letters" (aka saying prayers) to God about the things that are happening in my life. And I am then tossing them towards the ceiling in hopes that they somehow make it to heaven. However, sometimes It seems that these letters just hit the ceiling and fall back down. Because obviously paper can't fly through ceilings. 

However, the contrary is actually true. Not only do your prayers make it past your ceiling, but they actually make it the God's office. It would be efficient for God to have a secretary read all the letters and respond to them, but instead I believe he has his heavenly secretaries deliver the letters right to his office and he reads each one individually, and he responds to each one individually.

He reads your letters.

My most resent letter to him was that I was stressed with everything to do and I didn't feel that I was good enough to get it all done with the kind of quality that he expects. So he sent me a letter back to let me know that he has looked at the work I have done, and he has read my letter. He reassured me by letting me know that I was prepared for all the things I am doing, and he also let me know that I will do great things.

I'm grateful for letters sent from Heaven.




feel my sunlight



p.s. I just want to live on a cute farm with lots of trees and have a horse named Starlight and listen to country music and wear cowboy boots and go to hoedowns and marry a cute cowboy like in the movies.   #WhitneyThoughts

18th birthday, Ogden Temple, exciting stuff

It's Saturday, it's raining, music is turned up, and it's beautiful. It's defiantly a blog day.

The last 10 days have been exquisite.

Remember when I wrote this post? Well this post was actually a paper I wrote for AP English. I got that paper back a few days ago with a splendid comment written at the end of it. I can't tell you how happy I was to read this note from my fantastic teacher!



Since reading that I've begun to notice just how much impact a few words can have on a person. I failed the AP test last year. As you can imagine I began to doubt my writing abilities. I wrote blog posts less frequently and left too many blog posts as drafts. But this single comment has restored my confidence as a writer. I may not ever have millions of readers, but one person appreciated my writing and took the time to tell me so.

Don't ever stop doing something you love just because someone told you you weren't good at it, and don't ever hold back a compliment. It could change someones life.

And on another exciting note...

I TURNED 18!! I got a lovely little 55mm 1.8 lens and I couldn't be more excited about it.  Thanks to everybody who made my birthday special! I spent my lunch with some of my very favorite people at an awesome seminary activity taking stalker pictures of students (I'm the historian for seminary council).

After school I went to the gym for an hour to coach some of my favorite kids on the planet. They never cease to make me laugh. I love my job. And after work I went to Robintino's with the family and ate some splendid food. And the best part of my birthday is the most exciting part hasn't even happened yet.... COUGH ZIP LINING COUGH...

17 did me good, but I am so excited for what 18 will bring!

A few days after my birthday I got the opportunity of a lifetime to participate in the Ogden Temple Cultural Celebration. It was an INCREDIBLE experience and I'm so glad I got to participate!





The day after the celebration I was able to attend a broadcast of the temple dedication at my local stake center. It was such an awesome meeting and I can't wait to attend the Ogden temple!


Life is splendid and I can't wait to see what the future will bring.

Here's to senior year







feel my sunlight




p.s. Since I'm 18 I can now open my Etsy shop!!! Stay tuned for more info

Sweet 16! Never been kissed & proud of it!



can anyone guess what today was???

 

 

 

 

anyone???

 

 

 

 

Today was my

BIRTHDAY!!!!

 

...and not just any birthday...

 

TODAY WAS MY

 

SWEET 16!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

YAY!

 



Since you are all dying to know, here is a rundown of my day. Starting with my alarm. Today was latestart so I had the luxury of having school start an hour later than usual! So I slept in, then my mom made stuffed french toast. (two pieces of french toast, with creme cheese, and rasberries inbetween!) It was delicious! Then Carina came and picked me up for school and there was a giant present sitting in my seat. Here was the process of opening it.

 

 

 

Card....

So it was a process to open, and it took me almost the whole ride to school. Inside was a cute scarf (that just so happened to match my outfit that I was whereing EXACTLY! tourquoise, pink, and green! haha stalker!), sweetish fish, and iTunes money! Thanks so much Carina! Love you!

So 1st period- Biology... Its great... we talked about dead things/ living things and pretty much made this once living birthday girl dead with bordom. But I talked with my friends, and they made it all better.

 

2nd period- Guitar! I enjoy this class. Nobody knew it was my birthday, except the cute kid who sits next to me, because I told him... yup that's pretty much how guitar went...

3rd period! My favorite class! Can you guess what it is??? That's right! SEMINARY! Ah I just love seminary. My friend Hannah is in that class and exposed my date of birth to the teacher. The class sang and my teacher said happy birthday to me about 64 times. (okay maybe not quite that many.)

LUNCH!!!

The best part of the day! See, my friends and I eat lunch every day in the park at our bench. I eat on the ground in the nice green grass and it's just perfect. My friends sang happy birthday to me, and my dear friend Katie brought me home made peanut butter bars!!!!! They where super duper delicious! THANKS SO MUCH KATIE!!! Love you!

 

4th period- Honors World Civ. So you know that class where I have to write in cursive, in pen? ya, that's this class... But since yesterday was constitution day we where in the autatorium (which by the way just got brand new comfy seats this summer!) listening to a lawer talking about law. It wasn't too bad and I learned a lot.

 

After school I came home and had an hour before work. I spent the time replying to facebook post.

 

At work my kids where just perfect angels! They where so good today! It was fantastic! Ah! I just love my kids when they behave! So stinkin cute I can't even get over it!

So after work I came home and opened presents from my family. Here is what I got.

Kellogs Tour of Gymnasics Championships!!! ROW 18!!!

a desk! I finially don't have to do homework on the floor anymore! YAY

These cute boxes full of clothes, and makeup!


I also got a darling lime green chair to go with my desk (it isn't in my room yet, so I didn't take a picture.

• From Skyler I got a peace sign lanyard for when I get a car someday (haha)
• From Danielle I got candy, and some darling earings.
• and From Miki I got a super cute neclace to match the earings Danielle got me.
• from my cousins/aunt & unkle I got a super cute purse

after I opened presents we headed to Robintinos for dinner. It was yummy! After dinner we went back to my house to eat cheescake. My aunt and cousins came over, then later the Daniels (also my cousins in a way) came over. Lauren and I talked, and talked, and I still have more to tell her. My young womens president came to bring me a cute necklace that the laurels made for young womens today, and to wish me happy birthday.

 

 My grandpa called to wish me happy birthday, along with my unkle Kenny. 

 

Now it is late, and I am sitting on the laptop on my new desk writing this lovely post. Pondering what music I should buy with my iTunes money, why I don't feel any older, and basically life in general. I have one thing that would have made my birthday greater. I am actually quite bummed about, even though I know I shouldn't be. It involves two people who I love quite dearly not posting on my facebook wall. I know silly right? But these where the two people I was most looking forward to reading. One is one of my best friends, and one is a past EFY counselor. I know silly right? But seceretly every time I get a facebook notification, I hope its one of these two people. And low and behold, nothing. But that's okay because 61 other people have posted on my facebook wall thus far. Not to mention on my moms picture, or instagram. So I know that I am loved.

 

Tomorrow my best friend Carina and I are going to lunch! YAY! :)

 

So there is the story of my 16th birthday. Never been kissed and proud of it! No date planned (*wink, wink*), and I feel exactly the same as I did yesterday.

 

 

Feel my Sunlight