I Believe in Miracles

You remember the 2003 version of Peter Pan when Tinkerbell is dying and people around the world begin to chant "I do believe in fairies, I do. I do."? Yeah. That's me. I love that part. Let your childhood self free and believe. After all, the Bible teaches us that unless we "be converted, and become as little children, [we] shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Now, many people who read of my miracles will say, "No. That's a coincidence, not a miracle" To you I say, "Curly hair don't care." I ignore your attempts to destroy my love of miracles and belief that they still exist today.

On Wednesday night (3/27) I was finishing up my golf class and went to return the empty bucket. The owner of the driving range asked me how I was doing. I told him I didn't think I was improving. He asked if I owned some golf clubs to practice my swing on. I told him how I didn't want to buy anything expensive, and I was having a hard time finding cheap girls clubs. He suggested only buying one club to practice on, and I said something about feeling like a loser only buying one club. Then he said "one moment" and went to find a girl's golf club. He gave it to me; I said I would bring it back next week, and he said "no. keep it." It was so nice. My heart melted. I thanked him and went on my merry way. I love kind people. Time to pay it forward. #miracleofkindnessandgenerosity

Thursday I had a long day in a very important meeting in our downtown office with Addy. I had to get there early, so I was expecting lots of traffic, except there wasn't. However, there *was* time for me to hit up a starbucks to get a hot chocolate (it was a little chilly). There was a cute guy in behind me who asked "isn't that a christmas drink" to which I responded "you should have the spirit of christmas with you year-round." #wittyme After my long day in meetings, I went home to finish last minute packing and have some dinner before heading to the airport.

I was going through security, putting my stuff on the conveyor belt, when the guy behind me says something along the lines of "are you following/stalking me?" As someone with residual stalker-like tendencies, this is always a valid question ;) I turned around to say something super sassy, but turned to see the smiling face of someone I actually know! I was kinda stunned. What are the odds? It turns out we were both heading to PHX for the weekend, and we were on the same flight. Well, you know how when you meet someone you kinda form this idea about who they are and what they're like? I've realized a few weeks ago that my ideas about him have about a 40% accuracy rating, which I thoroughly enjoy. He once again surprised me by suggesting we change our seats to the emergency row together. As explained in my previous post, say yes, unless you want the fun to end. I did not. It turns out you have to pay money to change assigned seats to the emergency row, so instead we got assigned regular seats together. Now you may say, that's just what friends do when they see each other, but you see, until this point, I thought he only talked to me in group social events to be nice. It had never crossed my mind he might actually *want* to get to know me. Once again, I was surprised, because for *some* reason he wanted to sit next to me on an airplane for a 3 hour flight. We talked over food, and we talked during the plane ride. He continuously surprised me as our conversation flowed, and I loved it. Was the 4 hour conversation the beginning of a beautiful friendship, or was he just being a nice/polite person? Well...only time will tell. More than likely, whatever the outcome, it will probably surprise me. #miracleoffriendshipwhenleastexpected

Note the confetti in my hair and on the floor :)

Speaking of beautiful friendships, I was picked up at the airport by the lovely miss erica, who suddenly had a lot of errands to run and wanted to endanger my life by texting and driving after picking me up. Of course, I stayed in a state of ignorant bliss. We finally got to her place, and she encouraged me to go put my stuff in her room. As I was putting my jacket on the chair at her desk, I screamed as someone smashed cascarones on my head and confetti fell everywhere. I turned to see the guilty culprilt who gave me a mini heart attack only to shout with joy and laugh as I saw Ben. Surprise! I wasn't expecting to see him till later in the weekend. Great surprise, because I was expecting anything and seeing Ben always makes me happy. I was covered in confetti, but I could only laugh and try to ignore the OCD feeling of having to clean the up the confetti off the floor immediately. Quidditch practice ran late, so Erica had to stall by running her funny errands, and was texting Ben to make the surprise work. So really she risked my life for the good cause of bringing me joy. Ben, Erica and I ended up chatting for a while. Eventually Erica brought in a lot of pillows and we made a mini lounge on the floor. We were all sitting into a comfy zone which led to all of us falling asleep as we were talking. Finally, around 3pm, we somehow woke up and Ben staggered out the door, and magically made it back to his place unharmed. #miracleofsurprisesandjoy

Friday morning started a wee bit sluggish as we were functioning on a few hours of sleep. Erica had to get to work, and I had to get to Stine's to hang out with her a lil' Lia. We bid Erica farewell to work and Jordan (Stine's husband) farewell to school for his Calculus quiz (even though it's Good Friday). Stine, Lia, and I went on a walk. I felt so domestic pushing Lia in her stroller, with Stine walking the dog. We went to the park, where all the kids loved the dog and we loved swinging with Lia. The rest of the morning was us talking about everything  possible and me soaking in Lia-time. She's unbelievably adorable. Erica got off work early, and Jordan finished his test so we were able to get together for a little bit longer, till Jordan and Stine had a sealing to go to. Erica and I met up with Matt to have papusas at the papusaria we love. We accidentally told Matt the papusas were smaller than they were, so he wasn't hungry for Bahama Bucks after lunch. Oops. But really, I feel horrible because no one should ever miss an opportunity to eat at Bahama Bucks. The shame. But we had a great time! Matt is one of the handful of friends I still have from freshman year! (because they turned out to be terrible people or got married so single people no longer exist to them). He's awesome, and he served his mission in Germany, so he loves it as much as i do :) We hung out at Bahama Bucks, as Erica had to go back to work and eventually Stine and Jordan joined us. Then I said my goodbyes to Matt, and went over to Jordan's family's house to dye Easter eggs!

Now, I've known Jordan and Stine for a while. I also am friends with one of Jordan's older brother's, Marshall. Last time I saw Marshall was when Stine and I had a girls night and went to see him in Much Ado About Nothing. It was great, and he was so happy to see me. Call me vain, but I was expecting the same reaction. I saw him playing on the floor with one of his neices, and when he just looked up at me and casaully said "hey", I was a little disappointed. As I was looking around the room, *REAL* Marshall popped into my sight and gave me a hug and an enthusiastic welcome. I had seen Marshall's twin on the ground, and I only met him briefly once before. Sneaky twins. It was a lot of fun. I got to dye eggs with the kids and help pass out gifts after the Easter egg hunt. That's right. i'm not sure if it's just this family or all white people, but they their easter eggs have the name of presents inside them, and they get to collect their presents after the hunt. say what?!?! Gifts for doing an easter egg hunt? #whitepeople When i grew up, you hunted those eggs for ammunition so you can smash them on each other's heads! #mexicanpride We got root beer floats, yum. And while I was outside watching people play on the trampoline, like a ninja, Doug appeared out of no where on the trampoline. I was super impressed. Didn't see him coming. Doug is so funny, and he's their backyard neighbor. #hadnoidea

Then it was girl time. But first we needed our fake booze for the BYOB art class we were going to. I've been wanting to go to one of these for MONTHS! So I booked it up for us this weekend. The hardest part was finding a store near by. Of course there are tons of liquor stores...but we needed a Wal-Mart to get some Martinelli's. That was a little more difficult to get to.When we got there, I was surprised by the lack on instruction at the art class, but also surprised that my painting didn't turn out terrible.

We went in, chose from about 50 pictures which one we wanted to paint. We were given the colors and set free! After the base coat, you have to go blow dry the painting dry and then use chalk to draw what you are going to paint next. They said if you didn't finish in time you can come back some other time. Problem is, I'm not coming back anytime soon. Luckily, I finished. Our inner artist shown through our painting. We are awesome! Then we went for the next best part about girls night...cake. Erica promised me a cake when I came, and she did not disappoint. We went back for her to make the homemade icing, only to discover she was out of powdered sugar! What did I do? called ben to bring us some. duh. However, erica hates accepting help from others, so we ended up going over to Stine's where she has powdered sugar and ben had to wait an extra day to get cake. The cake was wonderfully delicious. And we had more Lia time, because Lia would not fall asleep! Poor little Lia.

Saturday morning was beautiful. I went to the temple with Stine & Erica for the first time. We've never made it all together before. It was great. Much needed peace and revelation happened.

After the temple, Erica and I went and hopped into our swimsuits and laid out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. #sogood It was cloudy, but nice and warm. No sunburns for us. Sadly, Erica forgot some headphones, so she had to listen to the frat boys at the pool. #realtragedy Then we went to go get groceries because Erica was cooking us dinner! Except Stine cancelled on us. Sad. I really wanted her to finally meet Ben. We got back and Erica started cooking, and she sent me to bed because i was crazypants. I slept until right before Ben showed up. I was only incoherent for a bit after waking up luckily. We had a GREAT dinner with cake for dessert and a wonderful time talking and feeling judged by the imaginary hypothetical guest at our table as we tried to mesh different groups of friends. #dontmixfriendgroups Ben and Erica taught me the Wobble in an impromptu dance party. And we finally left to go to meet up with Stine & Jordan at the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant. Parking was terrible, so Ben dropped us off on a corner as he went to find parking. We managed to find Stine in the crowd and sit down in time for the BEST PART OF EASTER! His resurrection. Spoiler Alert: Jesus lives! It was great, and I love the Easter Pageant. We wandered off and Ben found us in front on the temple, waiting. Then two of my friend groups finally intermingled! It was quite entertaining. I'm such a good friend-matchmaker! We all went to Dairy Queen and had a marvelous time. After Stine & Jordan left, Ben said "I like that you have mean friends". lol. me and my friends tease each other quite often. Ben, Erica, & I stayed out a bit later and we shared our inner most thoughts and feelings and Ben dropped us off at Erica's. Erica and I stayed up until we started falling asleep, which wasn't much longer after being dropped off.

Sunday morning was quite pleasant  We went to 9am church at the Institute (my fav place on ASU campus) and it was a great service. I love how everyone is so musically gifted. The Spirit was there, and the message about the Atonement and of our living Savior was a powerful one. I really enjoyed it. Then it was time to hop on the plane back home to Texas. I read Clockwork Prince the whole plane ride back. I feel like book 2 is where Cassandra Clare really differentiates this trilogy her previous trilogy and the story becomes better (I acknowledge that there are now more than 3 in that series, but it irks me that she made it a trilogy and changed her mind a year later and wrote more). The plane ride was longer than anticipated, due to bad weather. I was tired and hungry as the shuttle driver taking me back to my car thought I was a teacher and then a secretary. Really? Would you like to stereotype me based on my sex some more? Men. When I got home, I had a nice surprise! Grandpa was there!!!!!!!!!!! Dear world, my grandpa is dabomb.com. We had a lot of fun and it was awesome. Especially when my mom, dad, and grandpa started trying to one-up each other on childhood stories. #grandpawon It was a great Easter weekend.

ps. As a book update. I stayed up super late Monday night to finish book 3, Clockwork Princess. LOVED IT! I cried the entire epilogue, although I am not sure why. It was perfect. I think I was crying from happiness of the perfection of the ending. I dont think I could have thought of something that wrapped everything up so nicely. And I wasn't expecting it. (I love surprises, but only when I don't know there is going to be a surprise, because my imagination always thinks of something cooler than the surprise) If only Mockingjay had that perfect of an ending, but that's beside the point.

pps. I really wanted to post the picture of ben and erica when we all fell asleep on Friday night, but decided not to because I dont want anyone to see it and for erica to feel more of the wrath of ben's fan club #understandable #prettypeopleproblems

I Feel Infinite

Get ready. This is three weeks worth of life updates.

Tues (10/9) night. I was going to sleep after a long day of working and updating my blog. As I was dosing off to sleep...there is a knock on my door. I remember Sage saying how kids used to knock on Jon's door to annoy him. So I didn't open the door. Instead, I got my phone and was at the ready to call 911. Mainly because i'm on the bottom floor and i was scared they would try to break in. I said a prayer for safety and peace so i could get back to sleep. I woke up to a text from Lindsay saying that Sage slept over (on a worknight) and to come over cuz she was making cinnamon rolls. So I went over super confused to find out...it wasn't kids knocking on my door last night...it was sage. Her car broke down and a cop gave her a ride over to our apartment complex. Sadly, Lindsay burnt the cinnamon rolls #supergross #superfunny It was a very long 11-hour day at work. the good thing was, when I went home, Cody brought me some homemade apple pie! She's sooo nice!

Thursday (10/11) there was a vendor who came over to take us all to lunch for our vendor meeting. We went to eat at a "Texan" restaurant and i got some yummy sweet potato fries. Guess what they came with? MARSHMALLOW CREAM DIP!!!!!!!!!! #noway #dreamcomtrue It was amazing. I was very happy and ate a lot. I was also impressed with how knowledgeable I am. My SNL savvy-ness made me cool too as we chatted about the SNL take on the debates. Later in the day, we decided it was a good idea for Lindsay to throw snow peas at me over the cubicle wall so she didn't have to get up and walk them to me. Please realize...we do not have neighboring cubicles. There is a cube between us. lol. It was soooo funny, especially cuz the first time, it didnt make it into my cube. good thing the person in that cube was not there. lol.

New Life Goal: Make Family History COOL.

At the Gateway to the West

Friday (10/12), Sage, Lindsay, and I hopped in the car to start our epic drive to St. Louis. before we started our drive, Sage and I decided on a safe word for when we get super obnoxious to lindsay. Sage and I feed off each other's energy...so when one of us gets ridiculous...the other quickly follows and it escalates. lol. So for lindsay's sanity, we chose...Yogi Bear. And only had to use it twice the whole weekend. At one point...lindsay turned up the music so loud that sage and I couldnt be heard over the music. #ohwhatfunwehave :) We made good time to St. Louis thanks to Lindsay's driving. We went to a cute little place where it served cheese and pretzels...lindsay's fav german food. so we ate that. our food came but sage didnt eat....she said the food had too many colors. i've never heard of something like that before. we pulled out the we're-not-leaving-this-table-until-you-take-a-bite card. it was soooo funny. like a kid being scolded. She even made me take a bite of her food first to tell her it wasn't bad. So we were finally able to leave and go see The Perks of Being a Wallflower...something I've been wanting to see for WEEKS! and finally we are near a place with a cinema to see it #victory Of course we missed the previews....because we have bad luck like that. But the movie was AMAZING! I was skeptical when it began because all the scenes from the tailers were in the first part of the movie...so i didnt know if it got any better than that...but it did. It was heart-wrenchingly beautiful. I cried. And also received a firmer testimony of God's love for children, like Elder Oaks talked about during General Conference. We finished the drive to Sage's house and Sage's mom has rice crispy treats and homemade chocolate chip cookies waiting for us when we arrive.#goodsurprise

Botanical Gardens

Saturday (10/13) Sage's mom made a HUGE brunch for us. There were homemade hashbrowns, chocolate chip pancakes and juice! I was sooo stuffed afterwards. plus i found out we share the same birthday. #birthdayfriendsforever Lindsay and I took off into St. Louis to do some sightseeing while Sage spent time with her family. We went to the Gateway Arch and it was cool. I felt like i was going up in an alien spaceship going to the top. It was cool. The museum in there was super cool too. Then we went to the botanical gardens. it was beautiful. and the sun came out for us too. We ate sushi for dinner and it was really good. We saw the Old Cathedral and it was gorgeous. There was mass going on, so we were discouraged from taking pictures but we went in for a few moments. Wonderful. It was a long day of sightseeing and we were so tired because it was chilly and the getting dark. Our phones were slowly dying so we decided to get back to sage's with batter power. We made it back and were so tired that we just turned on the tv and watched Step it. The first one was terrible. the second one was pretty legit. I recounted to Lindsay about my times dancing in The Streets and how I had to inspire a crowd in a club to let me and my crew dance even though we were different :)

Sunday (10/14) morning, Sage's mom made another huge breakfast and stuffed me up soooo full. It was a lazy day and it was nice. we spend the day in st. louis before our drive home to Sedalia. It was a really fun weekend meeting Sage's AWESOME family and hanging out in a home again.

Monday (10/15) - Friday (19)  was my kaizen event that i was hosting. So for a week, I'm in charge of a team to implement the inventory management kanban system that i've been working on the past 6-7 weeks. it was soooo stressful. It was a week full of being at work from about 7am-6pm or later to get stuff done. Half my team was in and out. I was sooooo busy that i didnt have time to really talk to my family or text anyone. I also realized I'm not made to do manual labor full time. but it was fun to be in the factory getting dirty and working hard. but i was soooooo tired. By friday I was about to die. Friday, Lindsay took off to Chicago and Sage and I made our own epic plans. We decided to go see Pitch Perfect. I had to wait for one of the guys to return the company car so i could have it for the weekend. Around 6:30, I called him to remind him to hurry back. He told me that he returned the car, but forgot to return the car keys. #genius so I had no time between getting off work and the movie to eat...so i made a judgment call with the help of sage for what to get for dinner....decision: hot chocolate and yummy starbucks sweet bread. #thisiswhyimgainingweight When I got to the cinema...there was a line. Seriously. It was out to the middle of the parking lot. I asked the people ahead of me if that was normal. it was not. Sage found me when i was almost at the front. haha. so we went in....missing the previews and probably the first few minutes of the movie. BEST MOVIE EVER. I almost peed my pants laughing the whole time #iatemytwininthewomb #crushedit #ihaveafatheart The movie was so good we were on a movie high all night long. we got back to my apartment and danced in the parking lot as sage blasted It's Time by Imagine Dragons. It was a beautiful expression of joy :) Then we kept being giggly all night and went out to get ice cream and snacks from fast food places....
Me: mcdonalds makes shakes? are they good?
Sage: yeah. i had one in high school

:/

...and watched The Mindy Project. We also made some new goals that will forever change our lives :) Can I just say....Pitch Perfect is Hot Rod kind of funny. So if you like Hot Rod...i think you'll like Pitch Perfect.

Saturday (10/20) I woke up a little later than I wanted and i went to Wal-Mart because I decided I needed a new color of lipstick to spunk up my morning. I went dark this time. I drove up to Independence and thought that all the church history sites where really close by....false. so I road tripped it further north to see some sights. I enjoyed the brisk autumn air and beautiful scenery of some land the church owns. I loved seeing the cornerstones for the Far West Temple that has never been build and the American flag flying proudly on the grounds. I got a snack at the little store there because i had no time to stop and eat (i was on a strict schedule). I was able to visit Liberty Jail and reflect one my favourite revelations from a modern day prophet. The prophet Joseph Smith (please note: Mormons do not worship Joseph Smith) received it after being falsely imprisoned for months in a cold gross prison...he received this comfort from our Saviour, Jesus Christ:

And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? 

I was then able to attend the Saturday night session of stake conference in Warrensburg, which was nice. 

Sunday (20/21). I went to the Sunday session of Stake Conference, which was really great. My favourite part what when one of the speakers spoke about how we need to re-evaluate our lives. I dont know what he said specifically that made me pause, but I loved it. I saw my Institute teacher (aka Bible Study teacher), and she invited me to have dinner with her family after church. So I went over and tried my best to not be awkward. It was cool because her husband is the brother of my family's home teacher from when I was growing up. It was a lot of fun and everyone was soooo nice. It was nice to have a homecooked dinner. I went home because I was so exhausted, but I decided to go over to Sage's later that night to say hi and finally see her place. #badidea after hanging out for a bit, I wanted to get home in time for a tv show so I left and the street was not well lit, so I felt for my keys, pressed the unlock button and hopped in the car. I put the key in the ignition and was a little confused when the engine wasnt starting. I decided to pull the key out and do it again....only to realize the key wasn't coming out. Sage came out to help try and get the key out (it turns out it was not the actual key but a decorative key I got in mexico where they take an old key and engrave your name into it. So we got some soap and pliers to pull the key out....and it broke the key off in the ignition. I called a locksmith and he was with us from about 2.5 hours trying stuff only to realize that the key is really in there. ugh. i was trying not to cry and trying to convince myself  i could not get fired for this, even though my brain was not very convinced. I sent an email to my boss to call me in the morning, and texted lindsay to tell her she needed to pick me up in the morning. Sage had to drive me home.

Monday morning I got to work and went to talk to my not-really-boss-but-the-guy-who-looks-after-us-best, Mike. He laughed at my story, which made me feel better. But I felt so bad that I avoided the lady who is the keeper of the keys. By the end of the day I found out that the whole office knew...and the factory knew. Everyone was convinced that Sage and I were high or that I was super drunk because getting the wrong key stuck in the ignition is so dumb that you had to be under the influence of something to do something so stupid. I felt horrible, embarrassed and like and idiot. So I went to the store and bought stuff to make cupcakes. I promised the guys a few weeks ago I would make them cupcakes, so i made them, and everyone else in the office cupcakes to ease my troubled mind and heart...and to hopefully earn some goodwill. So the week was long and hard. I had a huge presentation on Tuesday about my project so far and I felt like I will not be remembered for my awesome work on this project, but will forever be the girl who broke the car. I was depressing and discouraging.

Tuesday (10/23) night I got a late night text from Lindsay asking if I was awake....I was totally watching alias on netflix :) Her neighbors were being loud, like always and she was pretty sure that the boyfriend was beating the girl, so she called the landlord to complain. Moments later they came knocking on her door (and she actually openned the door) and yelled at her. Then they went upstairs and called the cops on her, lying and saying she came upstairs to yell at them. Because they sound crazy, Alex (her bf) and I were in agreement that she needed to get out of there, so she came over and slept over. I drove over to her building because it was cold and dark to pick her up only to have her creepy upstairs neighbor blatantly creepily watch us through the window. #creeperalert

Thursday (10/25) Lindsay and I matched today. As in, we had on red-orange tops that were the exact same color and black skinny jeans. We had to train some people on the Kanban system, so when we put on our matching steal toed sneakers....it was too much. LOL. lindsay was freaking out and everyone thought we were so cute. hahaha i had a nice long chat with my dad, something time has not allowed me in a while. Lindsay called and asked me to help her move, because she got a new apartment because of the scary neighbors. So we moved her. Then it was tv night and sage came over and we had some social time. #goodtimes

After work on Friday (10/26), I took our new Ford Escape and drove to Nauvoo. I asked Lindsay to ask permission to use the car, because i'm pretty sure they'll never let me touch it again, and she agreed. #goodfriend I checked into my hotel and was glad i didnt rely on the GPS on my phone because there were some areas on the drive where I had no data connection. Luckily, I printed out directions earlier, but forgot how difficult this archaic way of following directions could be ;) I went to see the Nauvoo temple. I almost hit some guys dressed in all black on a not lit street, and was scared they would kill me as revenge. (yes....i have an overactive imagination that makes me freak out more than normal people). The temple was GORGEOUS and was the first time I ever saw it. After the Saints left Nauvoo to head west to Utah, mobs destroyed the temple and someone burned it down. It has been recently that the church reconstructed the temple as it once was. There is nothing like staring up at the temple to calm my troubled heart and soul after a stressful week. I love the temple! So I went back to my hotel afterwards and read a book, because we are too plugged into the internet some days.

I remember loving this statue of a family when I was a little girl,
and i still think it's wonderful. Families can be together forever :)

Saturday (10/27). I got a late start because i stayed up too late finishing my book. So I had a waffle for breakfast at the hotel, checked out and left to go straight to the visitor's center. However, Google believes the Visitor's Center is on the other side of the Mississippi River than it is. So i went to a different town, and there is no bridge in the town to cross...so I had to drive another 40 minutes, and go over a toll bridge to get to Nauvoo. I should have just gone the way I went last night, but Google said this way was faster. #cruelfate. I took pictures of the temple during the daytime. I went on a horse drawn carriage ride tour of the historic town and it was soo nice. they had quilts for you to use because it was cold and the winds off the Mississippi River are very cold.  I went to the little bakery  and they had little gingerbread cookies for you to have. #yum I toured some of the buildings, but didnt have nearly enough time. I remember coming here when I was little, and it was summer so we walked all around. But this time it was sooo cold. I had on my earmuffs, scarf, winter coat, and boots. #supercold

After seeing some buildings I went to visit Carthage Jail. For yall not in the know with LDS Church History, Carthage Jail is where the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother were killed by a mob while, once again being falsely charged, waiting their trial. It was an experience and one of the ladies there was so kind and shared such a powerful testimony of the divinity of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the calling that Joseph Smith had to restore Christ's church onto the earth. I then drove back to Nauvoo, even though the sightseeing places were closed, you could still drive around the town. What I really wanted to do was to take myself back to imagine what it would be like to have to leave this beautiful town. LDS History Lesson: For early church members, leaving their homes was not new. They had left Ohio because it was not safe for them. There was an extermination act signed by Missouri's Governor Boggs forcing church members to leave their homes in the dead of winter from their homes in Missouri, and they were allowed a swampy marshland in Illinois to start a life again. Church members drained the area and named it Nauvoo and started a town where they were able to live in peace for some years. Then, once again, due to mobs, they left their homes. I walked the new Trail of Hope with leads you from the town to the Mississippi River, where they would have had to cross to start their journey westward to find a new home. It was cold, but I tried to imagine what it would be like to leave your home and all your possessions because you could not take them with you. As you walk away, the beautiful Nauvoo temple, which was built with so much love and faith, fades into the distance. It was a moving experience I will never forget as I made it to the banks of the river and looked westward, as they once did, with faith that God will always direct our lives and our paths. With these thoughts on my mind, I made my journey back to Sedalia and felt spiritually prepared for Sunday.

Sunday (10/28) was great. I woke up early and wrote down some thoughts for my talk in church. I was excited because I was asked to talk about my mission. Talk about my mission? BEST TOPIC EVER! My dad and lil sister both commented on how I dont even need to write anything down because I could talk forever about my mission #truestory but I felt impressed to write some thoughts down so I would not ramble. I was the second talk, and I went over on my time limit, but really, i was so happy and loved every minute of it. Then in Relief Society, they forgot to ask someone to give the lesson, so I volunteered. We had a Q&A about being a missionary, and more specifically, a sister missionary. It was AMAZING! I loved it. I felt wonderful and fell more in love with my life. It's amazing how well our Father in Heaven knows our hearts and what we need. I felt so blessed for the opportunity to share something I love so much with others. #bestsundayever

Note: I will be an auntie at 10am (central time) on Friday. #icantwait