I love to see the temple.

I had the wonderful opportunity to go through the temple for the first time this Saturday!! I went to St. Louis where my Aunt J lives. My grandparents were also able to come from Texas.  It was such a neat experience.  I felt such peace and a presence of the spirit.  I know what it means to really escape from the world inside!  I am so thankful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.  It brings me blessings and happiness every single day!

Life is good at the temple!

Another great week!

Well it was another great week here in Provo! I'm so blessed to get to go to school and do such fun things all the time!

 On Thursday I went skiing with some friends!  Auburn is Canadian, and I am proud to say that I did a pretty good job keeping up with them!  We went on blacks almost the whole time and I only wiped out once.. hehe

 This baby came in the mail! I can barely even read the first verse, let alone pronounce it correctly.  It blows my mind that I'll be able to read this whole thing in a year from now!  I also went to Flags and Stuff in Provo and bought myself a couple of Philippine flags. Yay!

Cady, Erica and I went to see Vocal Point on Friday!  They were SO GOOD!  This is Parker, one of the singers.  Turns out he's actually an RA in Helaman, and I saw him after the concert in my lobby! 

On Saturday I went with these awesome girls to Color Me Mine!  We threw a surprise birthday party for Jessica.  It really was a surprise because her birthday isn't until May.  But since we won't be here we did it on Saturday!  

Life is good cause its always a party in Provo!

God knows me.

Today I taught Relief Society, and it was just such a great lesson for me to learn, I had to blog about it! Destiny and I based our lesson off of a devotional recently given called "Nevertheless I went forth" by Anthony Perkins.  I'm at a time in my life when I am making SO many decisions.  What to major in, where to live, whether or not to serve a mission, before I know it marriage.  And sometimes it's hard to know whether or not you're making the decisions Heavenly Father wants you to. We talked about how God isn't going to lay out every decision we need to make for us.  He isn't going to give us every step of our journey.  He expects us to act in faith and take a step into the dark before He leads us with His light.  Elder Scott said, "When you are living righteously and acting with trust, God will not let you proceed too far without a warning impression if you have made the wrong decision."

I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me that is better than any plan I could possibly devise for myself.  I remember one Saturday on the way home from a temple trip, I was talking to one of my youth leaders, David Foutz.  We were talking about my plans for college and my future.  He told me that if Heavenly Father let him decide what his life would be like, he wouldn't be nearly as happy as he would be now because he has let Heavenly Father help guide him in the choices he was supposed to make.  He said that Heavenly Father knows me better than I know myself and has a plan that will make me happier than I could ever imagine.

Well, I learned for myself this week that he was so right.  Before I got my mission call, I was sure that I would be going Spanish speaking.  Both of my parents served Spanish speaking, latin america missions, and I had taken 4 years of Spanish.  I thought that out of everywhere in the world, that is where I would be the happiest.  I was sure that if that letter didn't read somewhere like Mexico or Guatemala or Honduras, I just would not love my call as much as I could have.  Well, it turns out Heavenly Father knows me better.  That letter read the Philippines, Manila mission.  I cannot tell you how much joy and peace and happiness and excitement and love for Filipino people I already feel.  Every time I talk about the Philippines I feel the spirit so strongly and I just feel so happy!  I KNOW that I am supposed to go the Philippines.  I am so grateful that Heavenly Father didn't give me what I THOUGHT I wanted, but what He knew was best for me and would make me the most happy.

Just as I know that I'm supposed to go to the Philippines, I know that I was put at BYU in my ward in my hall for a reason.  God knew that we were all supposed to be together and that we would become great friends and learn from each other.  This picture is from this weekend.  A group of my friends went to see Comedy Sportz, it was hilarious!  It was a comedy club that was completely clean and so funny.  Then afterwords we went to Sammy's for pie shakes.  I am just so thankful for the group of friends I made this year.  Nobody in this picture knew each other before coming to BYU, and know I can't imagine what life would be like without them.

God knows us, and He loves us so much.  Even though sometimes it seems like we don't get answers to prayers, He is always there guiding us.  He has a hand in my life, and I know it because I see it everyday.  

Life is good when I have faith in God's plan for me.

I'm going to the Philippines!

Dear Sister Lockwood: 

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  You are assigned to labor in the Philippines Manila mission.  It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months. You should report to the Philippines Missionary Training Center on Friday, July 18, 2014.  You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Tagalog language.

Well, its official!! I am serving a mission in the PHILIPPINES! I cannot even believe it. I'm going to wake up in the morning tomorrow and wonder if I dreamt this whole thing up. All I can say is that I am so humbled, excited, terrified, and blessed.  I love my Heavenly Father so much, and I know that this call came from Him.  I was so shocked when I read the letter, but now I am getting more excited by the second.  I had no idea where the Philippines even was, and I pronounced "Tagalog" as "Tagalong" like the girl scout cookie…hahaha.  But now that I've figured out that the Philippines is off the coast of Asia, and Tagalog is similar to the Spanish language, I'm feeling a little better.  I already feel like I LOVE the people.  Seriously just looking at pictures and hearing about the culture makes me so excited to meet with the people of the Philippines.  There's going to be lots of crazy adventures and new experiences, that's for sure.

I know that God lives and that He loves me and every single person walking this planet.  He has a plan for each of us. I know that it is His plan for me to go to the Philippines and bring people unto His son, Jesus Christ.  I feel so humbled and grateful to be able to represent my Savior as I go across the world to teach His gospel!  

LIFE IS SO GOOD BECAUSE I'M GOING ON A MISSION TO THE PHILIPPINES!

I hope they call me on a mission!

My mission papers are officially in! I met with the stake president tonight, and he let me press the send button to send them off to the Salt Lake Mission office!  I cannot wait to find out where the Lord has called me to serve!  I've known for a few years now that I wanted to go on a mission, it's just so crazy to me that the time is actually here.  There are so many reasons why I want to go, but the most important reason is because I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. I want to show them that I love them with all my heart.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's restored church, and it has brought me so much joy and happiness.  I want to go out and bring other people the same blessings and happiness that I have!  

Life is good when I'm waiting for my mission call!