The Joy of a Snowflake

Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year, but as the season came I felt as though pieces of myself were missing. In the search to find those pieces again… I noticed miracles happening all around me, some were small and seemingly insignificant, but they mattered and others were grand and beautiful.

The magic of Christmas is truly shown all around, all we have to do is look for it. I have been blessed with so many things this christmas season, but today I was blessed with snowflakes…

Yes, I understand that these tiny little particles of dirt and frozen water can lead to icy roads and ruined shoes. But there is something so magical when you are able to slow the pace of the holiday season, and take a closer look at one single snowflake… They exist! They aren't just flurries falling from the sky, they truly are snowflakes with perfectly cut edges, and every single one is different and beautiful in its own way. 

It made me think of each one of us, and how we were created in the image of our father in heaven. Each one of us is different and beautiful in our own way.

 Some are small, and some are tall, some are round and some don't feel like they have been found. Some spread joy, and some try to find it. Some are so busy that they don't take a moment to look closely at others. Some do take those precious moments to slow down and really look upon others in a different way. Maybe if we all got our noses out of the ground and actually looked up, we would find that there is a whole world waiting for us. Maybe we would find that what we have been looking for is already around us. 

It just made me think of how slowing down and really looking at these tiny snowflakes made me feel like our father in heaven, our creator is making all of us and shaping all of us in different, and beautiful ways… and making these perfect Snowflakes for us to enjoy.

I felt like a kid again, I was yelling in to my parents house saying "They are real! Snowflakes are real!" they all of course laughed. I have always known that snow flakes were real… haha , but it was so cool to see them up close and actually being able to see there shapes… The Spirit of Christmas is real. 

Life is funny sometimes

Whether you are 19 or 46; Many of us are at that age, where the decisions we make can change the course of where our lives are going. 

Sometimes I miss the days where all you would worry about was to make sure your mom got your favorite cereal/snack at the grocery store, or making sure you get home from school in time to watch your favorite show, or even when our biggest worries were making sure you had enough "good markers" that weren't dried up...

 Now I'm sure there are many of us, who still have a favorite show to make it home too, or favorite cereal we want... But those aren't our only worries any more. Some have lost a loved one, some are living paycheck to paycheck, some are dealing with crippling health issues, and others may be searching for a friend, a companion,  or a better life. 

There this word that people use called "growing up", but I call it "living". It's this amazing thing that throws you through loops and makes you smile bigger and cry harder than you ever have. You know, it's kind of a beautiful thing when something happens so out of left field, that almost breaks your heart; and all you can do is laugh. Those moment when you are so caught off guard and have no idea how to react, that you just laugh. After so much anguish, and heart ache, the light starts to appear.

There is a quote that says " The darkest hour is just before the dawn breaks." That quote has helped me through many things in my life, it has helped me to hang on a little longer, to have faith a little brighter. I will tell you, the light comes, it always comes. Sometimes it comes soon an sometimes it comes late. Always know that in order for us to grow and become who we were meant to become, we must know sorrow to know happiness. It is by this that we will be able to appreciate the good, because we will have known the bad. 

Life is interesting to me, it seems that just when we think we figured things out, we get thrown a curveball. So, we improvise. We find happiness in unexpected places. We find ourselves understanding what matters the most. Life is funny that way. Sometimes it just has a way of making sure we wind up exactly where we belong... I like to call it The Lords plan. 

Sometimes the Best time is Now...

I have had a little Dove Chocolate wrapper in my car for about 2 years, that says "sometimes the best time is now."  Today as I was driving it got me thinking about life and how so many of us are always waiting... We are all waiting for the storm to pass, waiting for the right time, waiting to be happy when we graduate, make millions, get married, have babies, be retired... So many of us spend our lives waiting to be happy, when it is now that we must act. If you want to start your own business, do it!! If you love someone you tell them, you don't waste any of those moments. Those moments that could be gone in an instant. Those moments that just might change your life. If you want to change your life, do it! Because a year from now you will wish you did something today! 

Life can be scary, it is scary... But it is the most amazing ride we will ever have. Our Heavenly Father has given us life, a life that we should not waste. Sometimes in the mist of getting things done, and trying to take day by day; life happens. 

If it scares you, do it! If you want it with all your heart, go after it. You will be guided in all that you do, if you do it with a sincere heart... 

3rd Nephi 27:29

"Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh, receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened."

I'm not saying if you ask you will win the lottery. But by praying to our Father in heaven for guidance and answers, you will receive them in The Lords own time and own way. Answers aren't always what we want them to be, but when the Lords will is lined up with ours there is no greater feeling of happiness. Now those times when the answer we hoped for is the answer that is right; those are the sweet and special moments that touch our hearts and strengthen our testimonies.

This life is a beautiful one, now go out there and live it, I mean Really live and love. 

A Sunday Thought

"True love requires action. We can speak of love all day long—we can write notes or poems that proclaim it, sing songs that praise it, and preach sermons that encourage it—but until we manifest that love in action, our words are nothing but “sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”

Christ did not just speak about love; He showed it each day of His life. He did not remove Himself from the crowd. Being amidst the people, Jesus reached out to the one. He rescued the lost. He didn’t just teach a class about reaching out in love and then delegate the actual work to others. He not only taught but also showed us how to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.” 

Love is what inspired our Heavenly Father to create our spirits; it is what led our Savior to the Garden of Gethsemane to make Himself a ransom for our sins. Love is the grand motive of the plan of salvation; it is the source of happiness, the ever-renewing spring of healing, the precious fountain of hope.

As we extend our hands and hearts toward others in Christlike love, something wonderful happens to us. Our own spirits become healed, more refined, and stronger. We become happier, more peaceful, and more receptive to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit."

Love for others, Love for something, or Love for someone; Love is what drives us to become better than we are, it's what helps us become who we are meant to become. 

- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

Bitter Sweet Goodbye: Farewell to a Mission

I should've been getting ready to leave tomorrow, I should've been packing right now... I should of had two suitcases full of things for my mission... I should've gotten my missionary haircut, and had my ugly Missionary shoes... But I didn't get the haircut, I'm not packing, and I don't own those ugly shoes... 

I wonder why we cling to our expectations in life, like the way a balloon clings to static electricity; because the expected is just what keeps us steady. Standing still, comforted, its a path that won't change, it's a path we had planned on.  Still, the expected is just the beginning, the expected is what prepares us... The unexpected is what changes our lives... 

On April 6th of this year, I knew I needed to prepare for a mission.

On April 26th I sent my papers in.

On May 18th my mission call came in the mail the day before my Triathlon

On May 24th- I opened my call, and was called to Little Rock, Arkansas.

On June 15th- Something Changed... My Mission wasn't feeling right... But I kept moving forward. 

On July 3rd, I had the Opportunity to go through the Draper Temple. I will be forever Grateful for that amazing experience. 

On July 12th, I went to the Dallas Temple with my grandmother, and as I entered those sacred walls I knew I wasn't supposed to go on a mission. I knew there was something else in store... Something amazing. 

Through this entire process I have grown more in the past 3 months, than I have in almost 23 years. 

I had lived In Saint George, Utah for about 5 years... I had a great job, great friends and family, and I had a plan; But then came in the Lords plan. I know I wouldn't of moved up to Northern Salt Lake if it wasn't for my mission, but as I have lived up here, I know this is where I am supposed to be. 

There is no question that is has been a hard process, but no matter how hard the process is of letting go of my mission I know that what I am doing is right. Sometimes The Lord calms the storm, sometimes The Lord calms his child, and sometimes he lets his child swim; to help his child grow and become what his child was meant to become. 

The Will of God Video

"This is how the real world goes, first you spend your life dreaming about how great things are gonna be one day. Then that one day finally arrives, and its thrilling, and scary, and its everything and nothing like you thought it would be. you thank Father in Heaven for the amazing new things he's doing; the new adventure, and the way he put all the pieces in place, and you pray that you will be able to handle it, like you thought you could.

This is how life goes, one minute its bright and hopeful, and then next, something seemly and unexplainable happens, but the Lord is there. One day you think you have it all figured out, and then you realize that there was something even better, because the Lord is there. One day follows the next; good times and bad times, time where your dreams are on hold, and times where they come true, times where you feel alone, and times where you feel love over whelming, times where you make sacrifices, and times where you are overwhelmed by blessings; because you're obedient and the Lord is there, he takes all these times,  and he works at you, he works through you... give it all to him, this is his time and I promise all will be well."

A woman once said that often she would watch her daughter and husband go out on saturday bike rides, and she would stay in the office and work, because she wanted a nice house, and a nice garden with no beetles. But as she got older her husband passed away, and she did have a nice house, an empty house, and she did have a nice garden, but it had beetles.. She often said that she wished she could get back those saturdays. She wished she hadn't taken forgranted the thing that truly mattered the most... Family... Sometimes we get so caught up in our own lives, so caught up in our "dreams" that we forget we are living them, and they have come true, but our noses are so stuck to the ground, that we never look up to see that we have had everything we could ever of dreamed of having right in front of us. Sometimes in the midst of uncertainty we forget to look up, we forget to look up and finally see that what we have been looking for, has been right in front of us all along.

Someday everything will make perfect sense. so for now, I will laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, and remember that everything happens for a reason. Here is to the unknown of life; I'm taking it by the reigns and I'm going to enjoy this ride. :) 

Have a Little Faith

I'm sitting here at work on the couch  listening to the Forgotten Carols with my headphones in, while the girls watch a movie. I can't help but have this over whelming desire to tell you how I feel about my Savior Jesus Christ and my Father in Heaven.

I don't know if you have ever heard the song "I was not his father, he was mine" but it is an amazing song that talks about what it was like to be the Saviors earthly father.

I am so overwhelmingly grateful to be apart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I am so eternally grateful to have grown up in such a wonderful family and for having such wonderful examples in my life.
I'm sure every person reading this has gone through their own set of trials and hard times that they thought they would never get through, the times when it seemed like all hope was lost. For me, because of this gospel and because of everything my Savior Jesus Christ did for me I have been able to always see the light at the end of the tunnel, I have always been able to know that all will be okay. As I look back on my life, I can't help but be so humbly grateful for every single thing in my life; the good and the bad. I would not be who I am today if it wasn't for every single one of my trials and blessings, I wouldn't have been able to have helped the people I did, and I wouldn't have been able to become closer to my Heavenly Father, if I hadn't gone through my own personal trials. I know that in these last days, there are a lot of reasons to give up and to stop believing when you think all hope is lost, or when the static of the world or the adversary is so strong that you don't know which way is up or down. But I write this to tell you, keep pushing forward, even if your belief or faith is so small... keep pushing forward. When you face decisions in your life and are not sure which one is right, move forward with faith and trust that the lord will guide you. Because he will!


We will face times in our lives when we have two roads in front of us, and sometimes we have to just keep moving forward in both directions, and let the lord guide us, but we must first be willing to do his will, not matter what it may be.

I asked for an Angel, and I got Two...

This past weekend when I was on my way home from Salt Lake; I was driving on I-15 and I started hearing this weird noise coming from the front end of my car, then I felt a huge bump and a constant screeching. It was a true blessing that it all happened right as I was passing an exit, because I just veered off the exit ramp and was able to safely pull off. I pulled off to what seemed like the middle of no where. I immediately got out of my car and went to the right side of my car to see what was wrong; underneath the front end of my car had literally ripped off from the crazy high winds, and bent back underneath my right front tire.

I knew I needed to go call someone for help, and as I went back to my car... I locked my self out of my car.. with it still running and my phone inside... Now this was not a good combo for 1. a girl 2. lack of sleep due to a race that morning 3. already a bad day.  I'm sure most people would of immediately started looking for cars and people to help, but my first instinct was to pray. I started praying out loud asking that my door would be unlocked, that some how the lord would unlock my car, I said that same prayer in different ways probably 10 times, and each time I walked around my car and tried to open every single door.  I then asked that if it was possible for an angel to come and help me, after a while I of course started tearing up, every car that passed and didn't even acknowledge me would bring me more and more to a breaking point.

After about 30 minutes of trying to get someone to stop and help, I put my arms on top of my car and closed my eyes and rested my head on my arms. I opened my eyes back up to a mans voice saying "do you need help?" I looked up and there were two men in a truck... a towing truck. They happened to own a towing company, and were on there way to Filmore, and offered to help me for free. We got my car all hooked up to take it to there shop, and started on our way to Filmore. While we were on our way to their shop Scott the driver said that he was planning on leaving about 30 minutes prior to when he left, because someone need his help, but felt the need to wait a little longer... he then said "I think I was inspired to wait a little longer so that we could help you."

Most people might think that it was coincidence that these two men Scott and Joe came to help me, and most people might wonder why God wouldn't just open my door, wouldn't it be easier to do so, than to have someone else do the work... Well I say to them, as I was in a panic and praying that the Lord would open my door, and that he would send an angel to help me. I realized that The Lord always answers our prayers no matter what, but he always answers them in a way that we wouldn't expect, or in a way that we want. The lord answered my prayer that day... But instead of sending an Angel, He sent me two Angels.


He always answers, but not always in the way that we would expect.