St. Louis Trip!

Last week I was able to visit my awesome family in St. Louis! Julianne and Keith and their 5 kids live there.  I stayed the week after I went through the temple.  Aunt J and I had lots of fun shopping and going to the temple! She took me to Nauvoo, too.  And seriously, I think that that might be the temple that I want to get married in. It is BEAUTIFUL!  I LOVED it!  Brooke also was baptized which was way exciting (:  Ever since Keith and Julianne adopted her, I have felt so much love for that little girl.  She is honestly one of my best friends and favorite people on this planet!  She is always giggling and giving me hugs and kisses.  I don't want her to grow up at all while I'm on my mission! 

Life is good in St. Louis!

General Conference

LDS General Conference was this weekend, and I was lucky enough to attend in person!  The choir, the talks, and being on temple square with thousands of people was such a great experience.  My favorite talk was definitely Elder Holland's.  I love that I can pray about a question and have it answered through the talks given by the prophet and his apostles.  I also ran into a Sister Missionary from the Philippines!! I was SO HAPPY to be able to talk to her! She got my e-mail address and said that she would try and write me soon (:

I am so thankful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I know that it is Christ's church and it is lead by Him.  I know that Thomas S. Monson is a real modern day prophet who is the mouthpiece for Christ.  I am so lucky to be able to live so close to Salt Lake City and have the opportunity to go to General Conference.  I hope I can take all that I learned this weekend and be a little better now! (:

Life is good at General Conference!

I have the greatest friends

I have the greatest friends in the entire world, hands down.  These past couple weeks I keep telling myself, "I love my life." Literally, out loud, all the time. I am just so happy!  And it's all because of the best friends I have made at BYU.  I feel so incredibly blessed to have gotten to know everyone that I have met this year.  Thinking about leaving in just 6 weeks makes me want to cry, so I'm trying to enjoy every second I have with these amazing people!

Monday night for FHE we went and played broom hockey! It was seriously a blast.  I came out with some pretty bruises, but some great memories with the ward.

Cady and I were with a group of people in the JKB playing games on Friday night.  We were looking just so stinkin hipster we had to take a pic. Then afterwords we went to get crepes at Roll Up at like 2 am. Ohio seriously needs to get one of these before I come home...

Friday afternoon Cady, Joshlin, and I walked to the temple!  It was a beautiful day and such a great way to remind me what's important in the middle of the week! 

Saturday night was a Mardi Gras dance!  A big group of us got dressed up and then played games outside in the fields around Helaman.

So, of course the weekend wouldn't be complete without a Midnight Monday Morning In-N-Out run! We went for Harrison's birthday.  Its funny how many Mormons around here go out at midnight on Sunday since it technically isn't the sabbath anymore.  Turns out me and Nate were just ahead of the game (; 

I love my ward so much.  This is my college version of a Sunday Family dinner <3

And this last picture is all the girls in my hall/relief society! I. LOVE. THESE. GIRLS. Literally, every single one of them is so amazing.  They are always making me smile and laugh.  I have learned and grown so much from my experiences with them.  

I just love my life right now.  Its full of great times with great people.

Life is so good with my friends.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from Provo!  Despite being single on BYU campus, I had a great valentine's day!  I went with a group of friends down to Salt Lake to see the Young Ambassadors.  They're BYU's show choir type of thing, and it was so good!  We ate at Blue Lemon before, and then walked over and saw the show.  The theme was love and I loved it (; Then after we stopped at Crown Burger.  Jessica had to go to the bathroom which was originally why we stopped, but then of course we decided to get ice cream!  Hahaha anyways, Kelsea is my absolutely crazy and hilarious friend, and she was doing this dance thing with her hips just being funny, and we look over and all of the mexican workers are staring at her and laughing and they started clapping!  (hence the picture of the men staring) But it was so funny.  Then we came home and made a heart shaped pizza!  It was so so yummy.  Then after that Cady, Erica, and I made a megabed in our room and had a sleepover.  We can seriously talk forever.. we stayed up until about 4 before we decided to go get some Del Taco.  The next day I slept until about 4 pm so that was good! 

I just feel so incredibly blessed with all of the friends I've made. I laugh and talk and learn more everyday than I ever had.  I am so grateful to be where I am, and I know that it's where I'm supposed to be.

Life is good on Valentine's day with awesome friends!

I love to see the temple

Before coming to BYU, I definitely had my stereotypes about people who were from Utah.  I always said that after college I would never live here again, but now that I'm here I'm realizing that it definitely has some perks...like the fact that about 10 temples are within about 45 minutes driving time.  This temple is in Provo and is even walking distance from campus!  This past week I decided that I really needed to go so I had Erica drop me off and then walked back home.  I love that I have the opportunity to enter the House of the Lord almost any time I want.  The spirit and peace that I feel when I'm there is truly amazing.

In other news, I am LOVING my new classes.  I don't even dread doing homework, and I'm actually doing all of the reading. I've kept up on my new years resolutions pretty well this week, so hopefully I can keep that up.  I also got called to be the Relief Society President of my ward today!  Even though I am super nervous, I'm so excited and feel so lucky to be able to get closer to all the girls in my hall (:

Life is good when I go to the temple!

Christmas at Temple Square!

Merry Christmas! So even after decorating our room, I still was pretty sad about not being home this month, but I'm actually loving being in Utah around this time of year.  Our ward went up together to go see the lights on temple square.  Temple Square is so beautiful any time of the year, but with every tree lit up and the snow and the nativity it is seriously amazing.  We got to hear a choir sing and the snow was so pretty. People come from all over to see the lights and hear the choirs sing, but I'm lucky enough to just live 45 minutes away!

Being in Utah really helps me remember the true meaning for the season.  I love going to a school where Christmas can be celebrated without having to worry about being politically correct. It is so cool to see thousands of people all come together and celebrate Christ's birth.  I am so thankful for my Savior and for His life.  I would be nothing without Him, and I hope that I can remember His birth and life as we celebrate Christmas this year.

Life is good at Temple Square at Christmas time!