Updates!

So I don't have much time before my next class (such is my life).  But I decided I should give an update or two on my life...

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Okay, so there really isn't much to be updated.  I'm still in school, doing lots of homework, and (my favorite part!) visiting classrooms.  I decided that being in the teacher education program here at BYU is kind of like being in the MTC.  You learn about what you are going to be doing and how you have to do it.  (And yes, there is the good amount of spirituality mixed in with our classes, which is really nice.  I like being able to talk about relying on the Spirit to discern the needs of my students, because honestly, we've gotta do it.)  Then will come the day when they stick us out in the classroom.  I'll have some idea of what I'm supposed to do.  Sometimes what I'm supposed to do is how things are really done.  Sometimes, it's crazier than that.

I do really have the best major though.  As exhausting as it is I wouldn't change it for anything.  (Except, maybe a family of my own...but that's still a long ways away.)

Now it's back to the books....

A Heart Overflowing

Well, General Conference has started, and the past 2 hours have changed my life.  Specifically, the announcement of 2 new temples-one in Tuscan Arizona, and one in

Arequipa, PERÚ!!!

Although I served my mission in Chiclayo, which is up north, I developed such a love for the Peruvian people.  I am so incredibly grateful that the Lord saw it fit to put yet another temple in my beautiful country of Perú.  I still am anxiously waiting for the construction of the Trujillo temple, and I know it will be such a blessing to my friends living in Chiclayo and Piura.  Likewise, the temple in Arequipa will be such a blessing to missionaries and other members that have to travel so far to attend the Lima temple.  

BUT...that's not all.

President Monson just announced that the minimum missionary age has been lowered.  Elders can now leave at 18, and sisters can leave at 19!!!  Which means, my sister, who turns 19 in March, could very easily leave on a mission next summer (if, in fact, that turns out to be the course she decides to take with her life).  I do know that she will be thinking about it.  This is going to provide so many wonderful opportunities for so many people.  My mission changed my life.  It shaped how I think, how I love, how I learn.  I will be forever grateful for the chance that I had to serve a mission, and would love it if my sister also got that experience, if that is in God's plan for her.  And just think...in maybe two years, we could have another picture like this...

Except Laura would have the name tag, and the look of 2 days without sleep :)