words are powerful. word.

this semester i am taking a living prophets class...

it is the greatest class that i have EVER taken...

we have been studying our dear prophet for the past two weeks...

goodness sakes i cry every class because the spirit is so strong...

these quotes are ones that he has used in talks and i have now adopted them as motivation in my life...

"stick to the task till it sticks to you;

beginners are many, but enders are few.

honor, power place and praise

will come, in time, to the one who stays.

stick to the task till it sticks to you;

bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it too;

for out of the bend and the sweat and the smile

will come life's victories, after awhile."

-author unknown

"it is easy to be pleasant,

when life flows by like a song,

but the man worth while is one who will smile,

when everything goes dead wrong.

for the test of the heart is trouble,

and it always comes with the years, 

and the smile that is worth the praises of earth

is the smile that shines through tears."

these are definitely quotes that i will be memorizing and taking with me wherever life takes me!

i am so grateful for a inspired prophet of the lord who finds so many ways to teach us to improve our life and continue pressing forward to the potential the Lord knows we have!

ramblings. because it has been a while.

after my last post life got craaaazy...or cray...whatever you are into saying these days.
the holidays came which brought lots of much needed family time, finals came between the holidays and then Grandpa passed away right after Chritsmas.

needless to say i was running around...more like driving to and from saint george...like a chicken with its head cut off.

i have lots to catch up on of course but this post is just a little something to keep me awake in accoutning. i don't think i slept very well last night because i can't keep my head up today.

the couple next to me keep making out. not kidding.
mr handsy cant keep his hands off mrs handsy and i now have an irritated twitch in my neck.
not sure how accounting brings those feelings out in people but to each his own i guess!

have i mentioned before that it is always negative below freeezzzzzing in this town?
yes, i know i have. but it is, and it is terrible so i will continue to say it!

however, i really love this town and am loving this semester so far!
seventeen credits at BYU is almost suicide but it keeps me busy and not worrying about things i can't control.....(like what if i get a mission call to somewhere that has lots of snakes....or is colder than provo.....kill me now.) (of course i am kidding about that....i know wherever i get called is where the Lord needs me!! And I will be happy about it....with lots of help through prayer if snakes are involved!)

tomorrow i am going to the circus with Emilee and Stephanie.
isn't it great when you make spectacular friends from your job??
i just adore my co workers.
the best part about it?
i am taking Brock's niece Brielle with us and you know what that means?
we now have a free ticket to act as excited as a two year old because we will have one with us!!
of course...we would have acted that way regardless but now people will maybe look at us less strange.

welp....i feel more awake now so back to paying attention in class i go!

xoxo

and so life changes..

the past few months have brought very hard decisions for me.
i have been horrified of the changes that i knew i had to make.

i am a planner.
not only do i own and faithfully look at a planner,
but my life is always planned out.
from one activity to the next, and even from one month to the next.
for the past two years of my life and even more in the past months...
i thought i had figured out a fool proof plan.

the only thing that i couldn't determine was me actually getting into byu.
welp, that happened so obviously i "knew" that my plan was perfect.
wrongo.
stupid me.

it is a peculiar thing when the answers to your prayers completely change the course of your life.
never have i had such powerful feelings of the spirit as i have in these past few months.
through the guidance of the spirit i have said goodbye to certain parts of what i thought was perfect.
let me tell you, i fought those goodbyes like nobody's business.
and then one day i let go of my pride and realized what was happening.

my father in heaven was trying to reveal to me a tiny part of his plan for my life and i was rejecting it.
i took a blind step of faith.
it was one of the hardest things i have ever done.
IT WAS THE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE.
and i was stubborn about it.

growing up and even until now it has always been easy to listen to promptings and go with them.
now i can say that i have a better understanding of having to accept a "no" when you really want a "yes"
let me be plain here, it stunk.

but, here comes the part as to why i am writing this.
along with said step of faith came another huge "alteration" to my plan.
an answer that i was not expecting.
an answer that i ran from for a month.
an answer that came from my father in heaven.

through many times on my knees praying for guidance i was prompted that i should serve a mission.
never in my life was serving a mission a part to my plan.
in fact, i told everyone i knew that i never would serve a mission.
but, never in my life have i had such a strong prompting.

now i am submitting my papers to serve a full-time mission.
and i could not be more excited to serve!
excited because i have come to know something very powerful.
i always knew that my heavenly father had a plan for me.
i have always known that he loves me unconditionally and wants the best for me.
but, what i didn't understand until now is that he loves me enough to guide me towards that plan.
even when i thought i had it all figured out by myself and didn't think "my plan" should change.
i don't think it is possible for me to be filled with more gratitude and humility than i have right now.

although it is still really hard and extremely scary to move forward and add in this new part of the "plan" i know that everything is and will continue to work out just how heavenly father wants it....even if i don't quite understand right now and know that i might not for a very long time. i am so lucky to have the people in my life that i do and the examples and support that they provide to me.

...and so...life changes.

speaks to the heart.

i love watching mormon messages on sundays and ran across this one today...

it made me cry. in a good way of course.

i am so grateful that we have a loving heavenly father that has a plan for us...even if those plans sometimes don't seem to be what we want at that exact moment. 

around these parts.

if you come to my apartment anytime in the next six months i will be dressed like this...

or this...drinking hot chocolate...

it snowed again today. actually, it snowed four times to be precise.

the clouds kept teasing; start, stop, start, stop....

it isn't sticking quite yet but it is still dreadful. 

thank goodness i am going home tomorrow. 

whoooo hoooo!!

my only fear is that when i come back to p town it will be even colder.

brrrrrfreeezing. 

how do you make it through these northern utah winters? i would love any tips!