Grad School Begins!

It's official.  I have decided I've lost my ability to be a good blogger anymore.  :)  Ah well.  Sorry for my absence from the blogging world.  I really can't promise it'll be any better, especially with grad school starting up, but hey, we'll see what I can do.  :)

This is just a quick blog post to say I survived my first day of grad school!  Hooray!  It turns out that yesterday (the nightmarish day when I had to officially move into my apartment) was more stressful than today was.  Go figure.  Maybe that was God's way of giving me a blessing in disguise: He made the day before grad school extra stressful so grad school wouldn't seem quite so stressful.  Seems kind of like kicking my foot to make me forget that my cut finger hurts, but hey, I guess I won't complain.  :)

This summer semester of grad school is like packing an entire semester into a single month.  It's going to be a wild ride.  But I'm sure it's going to be good, and I'm already learning a lot.  I'm excited!  :)

Sabbath Happiness

This morning was a beautiful start to my Sabbath day.  My dear friend Jill and I went to the Tabernacle to watch "Music and the Spoken Word" live.  It was an awesome experience!  I loved seeing the behind-the-scenes work that happens before and after the broadcast goes on the air.  And the broadcast itself was beautiful!  The songs were amazing, and it was so much better to watch the broadcast live than to see it on TV.  Watching the orchestra made me miss playing in an orchestra so much!  Someday...  :)

Afterward we had a delightful time walking around Temple Square and looking at the beautiful flowers and enjoying the sunshine.  As we were walking back to our car, a man pulled over and said, "Hey sisters!  Can you help me out?"  He needed help knowing where he could park.  We helped him, and he was very grateful.  But we both laughed that he had mistaken us for sister missionaries!  :)  Neither of us were going to complain about that.  :)

I just love Temple Square!!!

Easter: A Season for Gratitude

Jesus, Savior, Friend

by Arielle Myers (January 22, 2012)

A humble plea, a bitter cup

Unspeakable agony;

Great drops of blood shed for the world

In the garden Gethsemane.

A crown of thorns, a purple robe,

A cross upon a tree;

Nails pierced His hands, a spear pierced His side

On a hill called Calvary.

He suffered all our sins and pains

And fell on bended knee.

He was the only one who could—

This man from Galilee

He died upon the cross because

He, only, had the key

To break the bands of death and hell

And thereby make us free.

I didn’t meet Christ on this earth;

The cross I did not see.

And yet I know that what He did

Was done for you and me.

And though I don’t deserve this gift,

I’m trying prayerfully

To be the worthy servant that

I know I ought to be.

Oh Jesus Christ, my Lord, my God,

I’m grateful unto Thee

For all that Thou has done for us,

For what You’ve done for me.

Please help me do all that I can

To serve Thee faithfully.

Thou art my best and truest Friend;

I’m coming unto Thee.

I wrote that poem two years ago during the passing of the sacrament in an average Sacrament Meeting in the ward I was in at the time.  These words and this message have been on my mind a lot over the past few days as I've been thinking about the approach of one of my favorite holidays: Easter.  On this beautiful spring morning, my thoughts have turned to the Savior and the incredible sacrifice He made for each of us.  How grateful I am that He suffered for our sins and pains, died on the cross, and rose again so that we all have the chance to return and live with our Heavenly Father again.  His love for us is beyond my comprehension, but I know that it is real and available to all of us.  His Atonement is what makes it possible for us to become like Him.  I know that He loves us all and is there for each and every one of us.  I love Him with all of my heart!

None Were With Him - Elder Holland

Couldn't Be Prouder

In two days I will celebrate the two-year anniversary of receiving my endowment in the temple.  In a crazy twist of fate (or divine intervention, something like that), I was able to spend this beautiful spring day in the temple, reliving the experience of my own live endowment session.  This time, I got to see it through the eyes of an escort.  This morning my sister went through the temple to receive her own endowment, and I got to be a second escort and be right there with her.  It was a beautiful and sacred experience.  I'm so thankful for the decisions my sister has made to get her to this point, and I'm grateful for the decisions that I've made that have kept me worthy to be able to support her in this.  I couldn't be prouder of my amazing and beautiful sister!  :)

I love Spring!!!

The past few days I have just been reveling in the joy of spring!  I love this beautiful weather!  There are flowers everywhere, the sky is beautiful, the sun is shining, the air is fresh and clean, and whenever I step outside, I can hardly contain my joy!  It's such a beautiful time to be alive!

Updates

So I guess I still haven't gotten into the habit of being a consistent blogger again.  Most of the time that I have anything happen that's worth posting, I either forget that I have a blog where I could post it, or I'm just too tired to even lift a finger.  :)  So here's what's been going on in my life of late:

- On March 29th I went to the General Women's Meeting with my mom, and it was so wonderful!  I especially loved the parts where they talked about what a wonderful influence a mother has on her children.  I would definitely have to say my mother has had an incredible influence on me.  I love her so much!

- On April 6th, the anniversary of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and also of the organization of His true Church on the earth, I got to attend the Sunday morning session of General Conference with my friend Jill, and it was amazing!  I always love being there in person and feeling the Spirit that is so strong in the conference center.

- I also loved being with my family for the other sessions of General Conference.  I'd spent the last three General Conferences in Texas, the first time in my life that I'd watched the sessions away from home.  I was so happy to be back with my family again.  :)

...and that's about it.  :)  Still working at the daycare, still just doing my thing, still tired.  :)  But loving life!  It's so wonderful!  Hopefully I'll be able to blog about it more often.  :)

How Great Thou Art

Today I got to play my cello for a musical number in my family's ward.  I played "How Great Thou Art," which was my preferred musical number whenever I was asked to play on my mission.  It went really well, and I got a lot of compliments.  I love being able to play my cello and feel the Spirit through music.  It was a delightful opportunity!

Hastening the Work

This morning I got up before the crack of dawn to go to the temple with my younger brother and sister.  It was the first time I had done baptisms for the dead in over a year and a half.  It was fun to take a trip down memory lane, doing something that I used to do every week all through high school and college.

But the best part of the process was the fact that, this time, we took our own family names with us!  For years we had never been able to find any family members in our family history lines that needed work done.  Nearly all of my ancestors were among the early pioneers of the Church, so there are so many members of the Church in my family that all of the work available to be done in my immediate family lines had already been done long ago.  My mother has worked many painstaking hours on our family history lines and only ever managed to shake out one or two names still to be done.

Then the Church came out with the new family history program, Puzzila, to accompany familysearch.org.  In Puzzila, you can branch out your family tree to include not only your direct grandparents, great-grandparents, and so forth, but also the siblings and other descendants of said ancestors, people who are distantly related to you, but not in your direct line.  Thanks to this new program, we have already succeeded in finding fifteen "cousins," and we took all of their names to the temple this morning to be baptized and confirmed in their behalf.  It was really cool to know that these people were receiving these saving ordinances because of work we have done to help them.

I'm grateful for these continued advances in technology and understanding that are allowing us to participate more and more in the hastening of the Lord's great work.  What a wonderful time to be alive!

Hooray for Less Pain!

So a week and a half ago, I was rear-ended while I was driving home from my grandmother's house.  It was a very mild accident, and no one was seriously hurt, for which I am very grateful.  But I suffered a great deal of whiplash, and my back and neck were in a lot of pain after that.  I could barely tolerate sitting in church for three hours the next day.  Thank heaven for chiropractors!

Since the person who hit me was at fault in the accident, her insurance is paying for my chiropractic visits, which is good because I've already had seven chiropractic visits since the accident.  But they are WORTH IT!  Oh man, I love chiropractics!  My back and neck still aren't totally back to normal, but they are so much better than they were, and I am so happy!  So yeah, hooray for less pain!  :)

I Love to See the Temple

Yesterday we had a lesson about the temple in Relief Society.  So for the opening song we sang the Primary song "I Love to See the Temple."  I have always loved that song.  However, the lyrics are targeted more toward children who are preparing to enter the temple, so they don't apply quite as well to adults who have already entered the temple.  So as I was listening to the lesson, I started thinking of lyrics that would apply more to how I feel about the temple now.  Here's the result.  Hope you like it.  :)

I love to see the temple,

So beautiful and bright.
There, I can feel the Spirit;
I'm filled with warmth and light.
For the temple is the house of God,
A place of sweet refreshing.
I've prepared myself for many years,
To have this sacred blessing.

I love to see the temple.
I go inside oft times
To covenant with my Father
In promises sublime.
I am grateful for this holy place,
A refuge like no other.
As I faithful stay, one day I'll reach
My home with Heav'nly Father.

Return of the Rel!

Hello everyone!

Well, here I am, back from my mission, with so many new experiences and so much new knowledge and appreciation for my life and the world around me.  I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get back into the blogging sphere, because life after the mission is pretty hectic, as any returned missionary will attest.  But in the past few days, I've had a lingering desire to start up again, so I guess it's time.  I don't know how many people will want to read it, but I guess if no one does, at least I can pretend I'm cool by having my own blog and all that.  :)  So I guess this is a post to say...I'm back!  :)