You Matter to Him

I had the opportunity to teach the lesson this week in Relief Society. This was a new experience for me (I was subbing, it was a one time thing ;)  ) but it was a good experience for me. This week the lesson was based on a talk You Matter to Him by President Uchtdorf an amazing talk if you haven't read it you should! If you get bored or you want an esteem boost look it up. We had a great discussion concerning the points made in this talk and I wanted to share what I learned through the discussion today...

The first point I want to share is the idea of the paradox of man. The idea that "compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God" I think it is important to recognize the importance of perspective in our lives. I am not so great as I would like to be, I make mistakes, I sin, and there is always something I 'could have done better' but at the same time I am a Daughter of God. Christ performed the infinite atonement for my benefit. He cares about me and that makes me worth it!

According to President Uchtdorf, Satan recognizes the paradox of man and appeals to the extremes of the paradox. Some people he leads to feel prideful, "he tells them that they have transcended the ordinary and that because of ability, birthright, or social status, they are set apart...". Others he leads to feel as though they are insignificant or that they are of not worth. Through appealing to the extremes Satan is manipulating people and they are losing perspective. By recognizing that the paradox of man depends upon God's perspective we are able to recognize the importance of it.

"God knows that some of the greatest souls who have ever lived are those who will never appear in the chronicles of history. They are the blessed, humble souls who emulate the Savior's example and spend the days of their lives doing good". We don't need to be famous, and we don't need to seek for recognition; we only need to trust in God and live by being an example to others. Everything we do will have an effect on someone else! We must not ever get caught in the idea that we are worthless because in reality every second counts. We are always doing something that will effect someone else. Even if it is something as silly as buying a piece of gum every action taken will reach farther than yourself and it is important to keep that in mind and recognize that the way you spend your time, the activities you choose to participate in are effecting people other than yourself!


Okay so this video gets a little corny about halfway through but it is an amazing idea to help us keep perspective!

Did you know...

... that I am part Polynesian?? Truly I am! I know you would never guess it but I am a part Samoan and I believe (maybe too much) that I can dance like a Polynesian. That is why I have performed in BYU's Lu'au pretty consistently while I've been here at school.

For those of you that don't know about the BYU Lu'au here is a background... Every year BYU's Multicultural Student Service's office puts on a Lu'au. The Lu'au is based on volunteers (the choreographers, dancers, ushers, etc.) during the years that I have been at BYU I have volunteered as a dancer in the Lu'au and it is quite the time commitment. The Lu'au takes place at the end of March and practice starts at the beginning of January. The Lu'au has different sections that you can sign up for (Tahiti, Samoa, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, and Hawaii).

I have performed in Lu'au before but, this year I decided to do Tahiti and New Zealand sections. It was quite a time commitment starting in January I had practice from 6-8 (in the morning) every Friday for Tahiti, and practice from 10-12 every saturday for New Zealand. Despite the fact that it was a huge time commitment I really enjoyed participating in Lu'au this year. This was the first time that I have done New Zealand and it was exciting to learn the Poi Balls and to be able to learn some songs and have a chance to sing while performing.

I love performing and Lu'au is the only performing I have done at BYU so I always look forward to it!

New Zealand:

Did I mention I was the front row for the single poi dance?

Tahiti:

Thanks to my lovely cousin Jesi for these pictures!

Backstage:

Here is the Tahiti group that I performed with I'm sure we were all glad to get our Friday mornings back!

With Karmila and DeTiare!

And where would we be without a jumping picture!?

We Fiso's need to stick together! I convinced Steph to do Lu'au freshman year and then she was stuck! ;)

Melissa was helping backstage

Sadly DeTiare graduates this year! :( but it was fun to dance with her while we could!

Lexi joined in the fun this year too!

Last picture I promise but this one was inspired, though maybe not as much as we thought, by the other so we needed a comparison somewhere!

Finals

I am officially finished with Winter semester! I kinda failed the essay portion of Management (Well not totally but basically)... But thanks to Zach I went out with a bang for Ballroom!

Annnnnnd I got to be the first with all my final to do's checked off! =P

3.14

Happy Pi day all!!!!

In celebration I made pizza Pi(e), chocolate Pi(e), and Mini Pi(e)s. It was quite exciting and to finish off the day there was a dance lab! It is great knowing most of the steps that people are dancing!

Just for fun... Here is the Pi song:

Dancesport 2012

I did not compete in Dancesport this semester but I did go Saturday evening to watch and it was AMAZING!!!! I think my favorite event to watch is the cabaret and the final couples this year were all amazing. Here is the dance of the couple that won...

Issues of interest

This week, in the class I TA for (Multicultural Education) we talked about gender roles and the expectations that come when you are a certain gender. We watched this Youtube that I thought was hilarious! Truly, I love this lady's sarcasm!


We also had a really good discussion concerning gender roles and one girl brought up a conversation she had recently had with some guy in her ward. When he heard she was an Elementary Education student he said, "It's too bad teachers don't get paid more" which is exactly what we like to hear but then he finished his statement with, "because then more guys would do it." Ummmm really? What is that even supposed to mean?

Christmas Break

  Josh bought a Coke machine from a yard sale a while back and was storing it at the neighbors across the street. Well the neighbors were moving so Josh needed to move his machine elsewhere. The only problem was that the Coke machine was a bit heavy... So Josh called in reinforcements (Jason and a friend from the ward).

Joe decided he would watch from the comfort of grandma's living room and eat popcorn while enjoying the show... ;)

This is James he is Lisa's son and so cute! We were at the Fiso family Christmas party and he decided that he would have a conversation with the hat... I don't know what he got out of it but it was a pretty lively conversation!

We had Christmas at grandma's house which was different but still good. She let me set the table for Christmas Eve dinner and we got to use some of her nice china which was really exciting!

After dinner and a movie or two we decided it was time to open presents (Okay really Joe couldn't wait any longer to open his Christmas PJ's). So we opened presents and then went to sleep so that Santa could come. Santa came and Christmas was awesome... No, really. Most everyone came to grandma's for Christmas dinner and it was great fun!

*** Sidenote: while talking to my cousins my cousin Sam asked me if I told my college friends about them to which I responded, "not really, what do you want me to tell them?" he said he didn't really care but I should talk about them so here is me telling you what awesome cousins I have!!!! And of course how would you know how cute they are if there were no pictures!? (The pictures are a bit dated... whoops!)