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 :)

Temples :)

One of my favorite Mormon Messages is about the temple celebration/dedication in El Salvador that happened Aug 21, 2011.  I watch it probably once or twice a week.  (It might help a little bit that it's in Spanish...)  But seriously, I love seeing the youth and watching them realize the marvelous blessings that come from the temple.  It is incredible to see their devotion to the Lord and how they have made the temple such a huge goal in their lives.

This makes me so incredibly grateful for the temples that are so close to me here in Utah.  On my mission, I was the furthest away that I have ever been from a temple in my life.  The record was 18 hours, when I served in Jaén (or 24 hours, if you count our P-Day trip to Kuelap).  Soon though, there will be a temple closer to my wonderful Peruvian Saints.  In 2008 President Monson announced that they would be building a temple in Trujillo, about 3 hours south of Chiclayo.  They broke ground for it while I was in Tumán over a year ago (Sept 15, 2011 to be exact.)  To my knowledge, they haven't officially started construction on it yet, but I hope they will soon.  It is going to be a beautiful place, just like every other temple.  Except this one will be in Trujillo :)

This is what the temple in Trujillo will look like one day.  I love it.  

A Gringa from a Small Utah Town with a Latino Culture Influence

For my multicultural education class, we have to create a diorama explaining ourselves culturally using 3 artifacts.  I just thought I would share these with you and let you know a little more about my life.

 My first artifact is a BYU Football Pez dispenser.  Some might think this is a slightly odd choice for something to represent me, but I feel that is can describe much of who I am.  BYU football has been a big part of my life.  I have lived in Utah County since I was born, and I grew up attending BYU football games.  I remember counting down until football season started each year and just being so excited to see my boys out on the playing field.  It truly is a thrilling experience to see your team play to the best of their abilities.

BYU football is also something that makes me think of family.  My grandparents are huge BYU fans as well, passing their love of BYU down to their children, and their children passing that love to me, my siblings, and my cousins.  My grandparents always bought season tickets to the games.  About a year and a half ago, my grandpa passed away.  His instructions to my grandma were to always buy season tickets as long as there was money available.  BYU football, for me, is a family experience.

Of course, BYU represents more than just football to me now.  After working hard in high school, I was accepted to BYU, the university where I had wanted to attend since elementary school.  This university has changed and shaped my life to make me who I am today.  Without BYU, I know I would be a totally different person.

 My second artifact is my name tag from my mission.  I was privileged to be able to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  As such, I spent 18 months serving in northern Perú, in the Chiclayo mission.  This experience changed my life.  It shaped my life by showing me how amazing people really are.  I learned more about myself as a person and as a member of the Church.  I got to meet wonderful people and some not-so wonderful people.  I learned from all of them about the beauty that life has to offer as well as the heartache and frustration that comes along when wrong choices are made.  I discovered a love for the Latino culture as a whole which is something that I treasure today.  Because of my mission, I know it will influence who I am as a teacher.  I have become much more aware of multicultural education.  I have a strong desire to help these kids who have to learn English as a second language succeed.  Learning another language is not easy.  It takes time, patience, and effort.  I understand to some effect what these children are going through.

My last artifact is my hymnbook from my mission.  This captures many different aspects of my own personal culture.  I love music.  I have been playing the piano since I was 5 years old.  When I was a young girl I pleaded with my mom to teach me how to play the piano.  Finally, when we were able to buy a piano, she began to give me lessons.  I loved playing the piano.  I did not always love to practice.  But eventually I was able to practice enough to the point where I could sit down and sight read almost any piece placed in front of me.  My love for music grew.  It was something very prominent in the lives of both of my parents.  I have been able to feel of the power that music can bring.  While I was on my mission, I had the chance to play the piano during Sacrament meeting in all of my areas where they would have otherwise had no one to play.  The Spirit can be brought in so strongly when a righteous song is played and heard.  I even helped to teach a little bit to some of the younger children there so that they could one day play the piano in their own wards. 

I also love this artifact because it is my Spanish hymnbook.  Spanish has become a part of my life.  I love the hymns in Spanish.  My favorite song is one that we actually don’t have in English.  It’s called Placentero Nos Es Trabajar, which, translated means “It is a Pleasure for us to work.”  It captures the joy that is felt when one truly is dedicated to the work of the Lord.  My hymnbook, if you notice, is also very worn out.  I used it so much in lessons and during church. It truly represents a part of who I am today.

Still Bleeding True Blue!

When I was packing to leave on my mission, it said to bring a t-shirt for gym clothes.  So I did.  I brought one.  It was a shirt I actually got for free 3 years ago.  I got it because I decided to donate blood.  It was the first and only time I have done it in my life.  But from that experience I got a shirt that has gone with me to all ends of the earth and back. 

 (And by ends of the earth I mean Peru!)  

Remember this shirt???

Well, here is a look back at some of my awesome P-Days with my awesome "I Bleed True Blue" shirt!

Starting from the beginning....

 I was in Monsefú for this pic! My trainer, Hna Lopez and I, got the same hats, for only 5 soles!  (That's like 2 bucks.  Score!)

 Notice how my shirt still is quite blue.  

And then watch how it fades over time...

I'm giving Hna Choto a piggyback ride after teaching our Latino companions how to play kick ball, which is an awesome American pastime, and now an awesome Peruvian missionary P-Day activity :)

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures with me and my shirt in my second area, La Cria. 

But I did wear it...I think.  Moving on...

Tumán!

So we had an awesome P-day as a zone where we went to see the place where they dug up what is called "El Señor de Sipan"  (Think Emperor's New Groove sort of dealio.)

Yes, that is an awkward picture of me.  

At the end of the museum place, they had a bunch of artifacts we could play with (they were probably replicas, but still cool).  

So I'm being cool and pretending to drink out of an ancient water bottle :)

After the museum, we got to walk around and actually see where they found the tombs of the Señor de Sipan.  And we ran across a tree that looked like a bridge.  So, what do 14 missionaries do when they come across something like that?  They take a picture on it. 

And then....they jump off it.

  I think it's a pretty epic picture of Eld Ruiz and Eld Karl.  Notice me, in the shirt, off watching the crazy elders jump off the tree :)

Of course, I waited around until everyone had jumped off or climbed down.  Then I gave my camera to my companion, Hna Machuca, and she some how ended up taking this epic picture of me.  I think it's amazing, with the sepia and the trees...it just looks awesome!

Afterwards, I took a picture of the awesome earrings that I bought there.

It was the first time I had worn dangly earrings since I started my mission. 

But don't worry, I didn't go tracting with them :)

And the shirt was just as awesome as ever.

Then, about a month and a half later,

 I found out I was being transferred out of Tumán.  

So, on my last P-Day in Tumán, of course I had to take some epic pictures...and yes, wear my shirt.

This is what the chapel looked like in Tumán.  It was a house that we met in.  I grew to love it.

I saw "grew" because the first couple of weeks I had a headache after church.

Why?

Just imagine listening to people speaking into a microphone while in a cement room with cement floors, walls and ceilings.  

Does that make anyone else's head hurt??

 But I really did grow to love it, and I cried when I found out I was leaving it.  

(P.S.-So Tumán is an actual ward...the reason they don't really have a chapel is that there is a huge sugar factory that owns pretty much all of Tumán and for some reason or another the Church can't buy land there yet.  They would have to rent it, but I'm pretty sure the Church doesn't want to build a chapel on rented land.  Or something like that.  So in the meantime, we have our "home chapel")

Back to my last P-Day...so I got transferred at the beginning of October, and my birthday is at the end of October.  But, I didn't want to not celebrate my birthday with people I knew and loved, so I made myself a cake and we celebrated my birthday!  

In true Peruvian style, 

I got a raw egg smashed on my head and my cake smashed in my face.  

It was okay though, because it was also Eld Ruiz's birthday, 

and I got to smash the egg on his head. SO FUN!!!

I only got a little bit of egg on my shirt!  

You shoulda seen the other guy though...his shirt was a mess!

After I got cleaned up, we went to go play volleyball at the church.  Yarek wanted to play, but he's 3.  And the rest of us...are older than 3.  So while it wasn't my turn to play, I played ball with him.  

I love this picture :)

I ended up being transferred to Guadalupe 

where my True Blue shirt invariably followed me.

One of our first P-Days was a trip to Pacasmayo, where I was truly introduced to the ocean for the first time in my life.  I loved it!

There was a pile of rocks, so of course my companion, Hna Westman, and I had to take Ariel pictures!

While this isn't a complete replica of an Ariel picture, I think it turned out super well!  I told Hna Westman she had to make sure I didn't look fat or weird at all....I think she did a spectacular job!

We tried to take a zone picture at a little cave at the beach...it kind of works, but you end up with some crazy pictures...

(and I think an elder or two is missing....)

Fast forward to another P-Day...

visiting another site similar to the Señor de Sipan in Guadalupe.

Again, I think some of the zone is missing...

Still rockin the shirt though!

Now to my last area...

Jaén!

My first P-Day there we went to visit a fun little recreational place.  

They had a lot of animals...

...like a monkey.  Who we named Teancum.

He really liked my water bottle.  

And it kind of freaked me out.  

So I know this isn't me.  But I thought this was an awesome picture.  And I don't think it was one that I had sent home.  Notice the monkey... 

Gotta love it!

Later that day, we found a goose boat.  Also awesome.  

Now just compare the color of our shirts.  Both are BYU shirts. 

 Yet they are different colors...

Shows you what 18 months in the Peru will do to your clothes!

I had some pretty rock awesome days with my shirt.  

And the memories were just too precious...

so unlike a lot of my other missionary clothing, 

I brought my shirt home with me.  

Today, Sept 8, 2012...BYU game against Weber State. 

Still sportin the shirt!  I had to! 

After the game, I got a picture with my dad, whom I love.  He is great.  

And my little sister Emily, whom I also love.

And my "I Bleed True Blue" BYU shirt.  Which will stay with me for a while, bringing back memories and making new ones for years to come.

Back to School

Here I am.  I'm back at BYU!  The Fall 2012 semester started yesterday, and MAN there were a lot of people scrambling around!  My life has been forever changed by the fact that I decided to serve a mission.  And I'm feeling the effects of said choice.

I'm taking a bunch of elementary education classes.  Don't ask me which ones, I don't really know. All I know is that I have to take them to graduate, and I know I have to be in this room at this time.  Because my classes are more or less in the major, they are smaller.  And generally full of sophomore/junior girls.  As we get to know each other, they figure out that I graduated high school in 2007.

Yes.  I did in fact start my freshman year at BYU 

5 YEARS AGO.  

BUT.... 

I served a mission.  So it's okay :)  Gotta love the look they give me before I throw in the mission part.  At least I can do that here at BYU.  I think that might be a little harder to explain if I were to attend a different university outside of Utah.  It's fun though.  I hear them talking all the time about the classes that I took to get into the program...and yes, I took those like 3 and 4 years ago.  Although today, I did realize that this is my last time ever starting a fall semester with classes on BYU campus before I get my undergrad.  This time next year, I will be getting my classroom ready.  Can you say AWESOME?!?!?

But of course, that also means I'm going to be super busy.  Heck, right now I'm taking 18 credits.  And I've done a mission, which means I'm totally a pro at planning now :)

Overall, I'm in for a great semester/year.  It'll be crazy, but hey-I've lived in a foreign country for 18 months.  I can do this.

And for the record, I love being able to raise my hand when the professors ask who the returned missionaries are.  It's the best.

Dare to Stand Alone

Oh my word!  This week has been so incredibly full of the Spirit!  I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for the chance that I had to be a youth counselor for our stake's youth conference this year.

So, rewind to about 2 days after I got back from my mission.  Some of my best friends, Jennifer, Rachael, and Ammon all came and kidnapped me to go practice a song for some youth conference kick off fireside.  They explained how the stake wanted to create an EFY experience for this year's youth conference, up to the point where they even had the counselors from the YSA group.  They asked if I would be around for the 12-14 of July.  I knew I had school going on, but it sounded so awesome, and I wanted to do it!  I knew it would be worth it.


So, two months and a bunch of meetings later, here I was!  At youth conference!  Bright and early Wednesday morning, I was up, heading to the church to prepare for the 12 or so girls that I was going to be in charge of over the next three days.  I was sporting an awesome red t-shirt, with our theme on the front and a cool word collage on the back.

(*Disclaimer:  This isn't the back of my shirt.  If I am right, I think it's the back of Rachael's shirt, but since all of the shirts look the same, you get the picture.  Literally :)

My group was group #1 and our color was dark pink, so I held up the little sign that I made for them to come and find me, and they slowly trickled in.  As soon as I had all 12 of my girls, we ate a little breakfast, and then played a couple of games.

Me and my girls started off playing a little Ninja!  I love it :)

We had a little devotional about choices and making youth conference a good experience.  I loved testifying of the truths of the Gospel to my girls. I was able to really strengthen my own testimony as I did so.  Then we headed inside to kick off youth conference with everyone!

The theme was Dare to Stand Alone based off of President Monson's talk from the Oct 2011 Priesthood session.

This was the poster that was created and hung up in all of the different buildings.

 We started off by watching the Mormon Message that was recently put out using his talk.

Watch it!  It's great!

Then all of the youth counselor girls sang "Dare to Do Right" from the Primary book.  Over the past week, I have learned to absolutely LOVE this song!  I had never really listened to the second verse before, but once I paid attention to the words, it gave me chills!  Here are the words:

Dare to do right! Dare to be true!

You have a work that no other can do;

Do it so bravely, so kindly, so well,

Angels will hasten the story to tell.

Dare, dare, dare to do right;

Dare, dare dare to be true,

Dare to be true,

Dare to be true.

Dare to do right! Dare to be true! 

Other men's failures can never save you.

Stand by your conscience, your honor, your faith;

Stand like a hero and battle till death!

Dare, dare, dare to do right;
Dare, dare dare to be true,
Dare to be true,
Dare to be true.


After listening to the Jenny Phillips version, we decided to adapt that to how we wanted to sing it.  It wasn't exactly the same, but it was similar (if you click on the link, it takes you to a bunch of clips from her Primary CD for this year, so just listen for a little bit and soon you'll hear Dare to do Right.)  I loved playing the piano while my beautiful sisters sang.

Rachael, Tosha, Shay, Shelly, Serena, and Jennifer.

I think that the song and the movie really helped to set the tone for Youth Conference.  I was able to feel the Spirit so strongly during all of this, testifying to me that what we were singing and watching was true.  

One of the amazing things about EFY is all of the amazing speakers that come, and our youth conference was no different.  We had the privilege of listening to many different speakers and learning so much from them and from their experiences.  Our first guest speaker was Meg Johnson.

Isn't she beautiful?!

She was paralyzed about 8 years ago after falling off a cliff in St. George.  And now she's a motivational speaker, which is great!  She was so funny and cute!  She talked about the theme of our youth conference, "Dare to Stand Alone," and pointed out that it was pretty interesting that they asked someone who couldn't stand if she wanted do (and I'm sure she does) to come and speak about standing alone.  

She told us about her experience and how she became paralyzed, but she also told us about some moments in her life when she had to stand alone.  One thing she mentioned that I really liked was that the most important commandment is the one that you are having the hardest time keeping.  Whoa!  Throw that into perspective!  (I believe she was quoting someone...I just can't remember who...)  It really was great.  She was funny and brought the Spirit into our youth conference. I remember looking down the row at my 12 girls and seeing them watch her and listen to her, and write stuff down in their journals!  (At least, I hope they were taking notes and not playing tic-tac-toe!)  I think they were able to feel of her sincerity and testimony.  It was the best way I can think of to start off our youth conference.

*Other Disclaimer:  Almost all of these pictures were taken by our Youth Conference photographer, Sister Gee.  Just wanted to give credit where it is due :)