Lately I've been getting lots of spiritual highs. I go to an amazing institute class each Thursday. The class I picked this semester is "Great Woman of the Scriptures" taught by a really good instructor who I go way back with, way back that he was my Tee-Ball coach. It is hard to call him Bro. so and so. Each week I leave having learned so much. Institute can be hard at times because you sit there for 90 mins each class and sometimes I don't have the attention span to sit that long after teaching all day. This class is very insightful and I feel myself not looking at my watch to see if it 8:30 yet so that I can go home, I'm always engaged. Studying the scriptures is important but sometimes it can be boring and its stuff you've heard before. This class is taking a different spin and making it a lot more interesting. I love the spiritual high I am on when I leave each week.
The next spiritual high came from the Relief Society General Broadcast last night. It was so good and gave each of us women a little "you go girl" moment to lift us and say way to go for being a great woman. I think President Monson's talk was his best ever, so good, and twice today people quoted from it. He spoke about many things but mainly to be more charitable and so so judgmental. There are so many members of the church who are unkind and get complacent and look down on others who don't share the same beliefs as them. We need to be more understanding and accepting of all. We don't know everyones story and where they've been. All we can do is help them along their journey and to become the best that they can become. People our brought into our lives for a reason and us into theirs for the some reason as well.
I can't wait for conference this weekend and for the spiritual high I will get from listening to inspired leaders. I kind of hope they continue on with the theme with being more charitable because I feel its a thing members of the church need hear. Its hard to do missionary work if investigators come to church and don't feel welcome because they are different.
I will post pics from grandmas wedding later, I don't have them on my computer yet. It was great fun, they are so cute together and now its over!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Community
I am having a blast in my new schools this year. I am a much happier person and life is good! On monday at one of my schools they were having a constitution assembly I went to it to see what it was all about and because I felt I needed to be there since I should have been teaching but my class was there. Every Monday the whole school gathers around the flagpole courtyard and recite the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance. It is so cool to hear them say that. The Principal then shares who is having a birthday that week and any other announcements. At the assembly on Monday they did that and then the 5th graders recited the Preamble. Doing stuff like that creates a sense of community. Having that sense of community makes a huge difference in the way a child learns. The teachers care more and everyone wants to be there. I am really impressed by this sense of community, and love what that provides for the students. That is the end of my ramblings for today. Get ready for fun next week, my Grandma Riding is getting married on Saturday, so we are enjoying a roller coaster of emotions this week!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Quick Get away
This past Labor Day weekend I traveled to Utah with my parents to take my lovely sister and her husband their stuff they didn't have room to fit in their car.
One of the best parts of the weekend was being able to be reunited with Tiauna. She is kind of like an adopted sister. She was tiff's roommate in FL and the three of us became really close and did a lot together. I haven't seen her for a year since my last trip to UT. She came and stayed with Tiff for the weekend as well and we had a great time catching up and hanging out again.
There were some very funny experiences this weekend. Provo and the whole BYU experience are very interesting. It is like its own little world up there. We went to their BYU Married students ward on Sunday. I thought I have seen a lot in my days of singles wards and attending church at my lovely Sheraton Safari, but this is a whole new experience. During church Tiauna and I were the only ones who did not either had someones arm around us or holding hands. I'm glad she was there so that we could be alone together. I have never seen such a high concentration of young couples and either pregnant women and newborns. It was fun. It is a very good thing to have that kind of ward for all of the married students at the Y. Another thing that made me laugh very hard inside was during Relief Society. There are some really young , and I mean REALLY young girls in that ward. They had all of the new move ins introduce themselves. There were some who had been married like 2 weeks. My favorite was this blonde from Southern California. She is going to have a great time adjusting to life in Provo! I laughed the most at booked they passed around with all sorts of information, including who in the ward is expecting, when, boy or girl and the hospital they are delivering at. It was awesome.
Saturday was the first BYU football game of the season. Since Tiff and Jeff live up the hill from the stadium we passed by it a couple times before and during the game. It was hilarious to watch people arriving to the game. I saw a lady, who is not very skinny, wearing a BYU jersey, white shorts, REALLY high heels, tons of make-up and huge hoop earings. Really? Is that necessary? She was walking up to the stadium, and I'm sure she had to walk pretty far, how did she do it? Oh the college life in Provo!
We had fun seeing Jones family that lives up there. On the way home we stopped in Parowan to see my mother's friend. After taking that detour we got to drive up to Brian Head and Cedar Break. It was so gorgeous up there and made the trip a little more enjoyable to have something pretty to look at. When we got closer to home we hit really heavy traffic. It took us 2 hours to go 20 miles as we got closer into Phoenix. It was ridiculous. Traffic coming out of Payson has never been that bad. We will never go to Flagstaff or anywhere using I-17 on a 3 day weekend, it was awful. It is amazing how impatient, rude, and inconsiderate drivers are when there is lots of traffic. We all have to sit in it and you aren't any cooler or more important than the others driving. We finally made it home and I got to sleep in my bed. I got the honor of picking the air mattress that had a hole in it and got some interesting sleep while up there. It was a fun trip and how its good to be home. Life at BYU is very different and it own thing. Now its time to see what adventures await this week!
The newlyweds have a nice little basement apartment that they live in that is super close to BYU. For those of you familiar with the area they are kind of across the street from the Creamery on 9th. They are having a great time.
One of the best parts of the weekend was being able to be reunited with Tiauna. She is kind of like an adopted sister. She was tiff's roommate in FL and the three of us became really close and did a lot together. I haven't seen her for a year since my last trip to UT. She came and stayed with Tiff for the weekend as well and we had a great time catching up and hanging out again.
There were some very funny experiences this weekend. Provo and the whole BYU experience are very interesting. It is like its own little world up there. We went to their BYU Married students ward on Sunday. I thought I have seen a lot in my days of singles wards and attending church at my lovely Sheraton Safari, but this is a whole new experience. During church Tiauna and I were the only ones who did not either had someones arm around us or holding hands. I'm glad she was there so that we could be alone together. I have never seen such a high concentration of young couples and either pregnant women and newborns. It was fun. It is a very good thing to have that kind of ward for all of the married students at the Y. Another thing that made me laugh very hard inside was during Relief Society. There are some really young , and I mean REALLY young girls in that ward. They had all of the new move ins introduce themselves. There were some who had been married like 2 weeks. My favorite was this blonde from Southern California. She is going to have a great time adjusting to life in Provo! I laughed the most at booked they passed around with all sorts of information, including who in the ward is expecting, when, boy or girl and the hospital they are delivering at. It was awesome.
Saturday was the first BYU football game of the season. Since Tiff and Jeff live up the hill from the stadium we passed by it a couple times before and during the game. It was hilarious to watch people arriving to the game. I saw a lady, who is not very skinny, wearing a BYU jersey, white shorts, REALLY high heels, tons of make-up and huge hoop earings. Really? Is that necessary? She was walking up to the stadium, and I'm sure she had to walk pretty far, how did she do it? Oh the college life in Provo!
We had fun seeing Jones family that lives up there. On the way home we stopped in Parowan to see my mother's friend. After taking that detour we got to drive up to Brian Head and Cedar Break. It was so gorgeous up there and made the trip a little more enjoyable to have something pretty to look at. When we got closer to home we hit really heavy traffic. It took us 2 hours to go 20 miles as we got closer into Phoenix. It was ridiculous. Traffic coming out of Payson has never been that bad. We will never go to Flagstaff or anywhere using I-17 on a 3 day weekend, it was awful. It is amazing how impatient, rude, and inconsiderate drivers are when there is lots of traffic. We all have to sit in it and you aren't any cooler or more important than the others driving. We finally made it home and I got to sleep in my bed. I got the honor of picking the air mattress that had a hole in it and got some interesting sleep while up there. It was a fun trip and how its good to be home. Life at BYU is very different and it own thing. Now its time to see what adventures await this week!
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