Windy Times

Let me just say, I am so grateful to have the friends I have. There are some amazing people in my life and they bless me greatly! 

Last weekend a group of friends headed to Bear Lake for the long weekend. Saturday night, well Sunday morning, I was headed to bed at about 12:00. I opened the door to the tent and realized something was wrong. The wind was so strong the tent was caving in. My students would call it a concave shape... There were three people already asleep in the tent and I was worrying about what to do. I went outside and grabbed the tent pole and pulled it back into place so the tent looked normal but that was a VERY temporary solution. It was while I was standing there thinking that another friend came by and he came to the rescue! He started trying to figure out new sleeping situations. He got people up and out of their tents and eventually he organized efforts to get all of our stuff out of the tent so we could transport it to a new location (Yep, he even found us a new location). We got our tent moved and got all resettled. The wind was no longer a big problem and the tent ended up okay!

Us after our midnight move...

I stayed awake thinking of how lucky we were to have such a great friend there who was willing to step in and help improve our situation. That is what a friend does. That is why we need friends. We all need a support system that will help us when things get rough. When those winds bear down on us we need people who will help us come out okay. That is one of the things I love most about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We have people to care for us, to minister to us, and to help us through those difficult times!

Other than the tent mishap and a few minor problems we had a fantastic getaway weekend!!!! I couldn't stop taking pictures of the lake... It was gorgeous!

One Inch Short

     This weekend I got to go to Aspen Lakes for a stake campout. At the site there was a team building area where there were different obstacles to get through. There was no direction for the actual obstacles so we made up our own rules and had fun playing around.

   
     One of the obstacles had some logs that were spaced out and some boards that would go in between them. The goal was to move from the log at the start to the log at the end without touching the ground (at least I made that my goal). There were five logs and four boards. As I was trying to get from one end to the other I noticed that one of the boards didn't fit. It was the last board that needed to be placed before I could get to the end. It was maybe an inch too short to fit in the distance so I wasted no time and decided to try something else. I picked up the next closest board and tried to fit it in the space but it was too long. I ended up measuring the boards with my feet to find one that would be smaller but not too small. I found it and moved it to the end and crossed to my finish line.

     As I was thinking about the experience my roommates were helping each other walk across the boards. Balancing was hard so they were lending each other shoulder support. As they were talking Janessa mentioned how it was like the Savior. He is always there to guide us and to help us keep our balance even when things are a little offsetting. I loved this thought and decided to continue my own analogy. Yes the Lord is always there but sometimes we need to shift the pieces to make things work. There was no way the short log was going to help me across. It was there as a distraction and focusing on making it work would have been pointless. Instead, I needed to recognize there was another way and adapt my plan.

     This is similar to our lives and our circumstances. Sometimes we focus on an idea that sounds good at the time and try to manipulate things until we find something that works when really we need to take a step back and look around at other options. I know this is not always the case but this is the beauty of prayer and revelation. We are ALWAYS able to turn to the Lord and we will always find guidance through Him. We may need to readjust but if we are focused we will make it to the end!

Goodbye Provo!

I'm sitting here procrastinating packing for my new move. It's happening, I am leaving Provo! I'm excited for this new adventure but had fun in my years here and after seeing a friends farewell to Provo I decided I wanted to do something similar and spend some time looking through old pictures of the years I spent in Provo... Here goes!

Wonderful roommates

Playing with friends

CES Firesides

Front row seats for President Uchtdorf

Dancing

Monday Movie Nights

Football games

...with the occasional proposal

Country Swing Dancing

Volleyball games Galore

Lu'aus

Temple Trips

Vacations

Some fun hairstyles, including my first attempt at bangs!

And of course some serious studying leading to graduation!