YFE Palmyra New York

Ha ha So much for this blogging thing lol... I was so proud when i did three posts and now its been like two months and i haven't written ANYTHING. That's pretty pathetic if you ask me lol...So much has happened the past two months that I don't even know where to start. I guess a good place to start would be with my trip to New York. It was probably the most amazing experience of my life. There is so much I want to say and yet so much that I don't. I can't explain it. It was such an amazingly personal experience for me. I feel bad, I haven't even told my family very much about it. I was SOOOO unbelievably excited for this. I have learned more about myself in a few weeks than I have my entire life. Lets start from the beginning. We left on Saturday August 8. Andrea and I met at the Boise Airport and went through security and everything together. We flew to Salt Lake and I went to my dad's and she went to her grandma's house. It was a lot of fun for me to be able to spend a little bit of time with my brother and sister. I miss them SOOOO SOOO much sometimes. I wish we could have more time together. I flew out of Salt Lake on Monday morning at 6:30 in the morning. I flew to Chicago. Before I got off the plane the flight attendant went around telling everyone who had connecting flights where to go. We were flying into terminal A and he told me that I needed to go to terminal F for my next flight. It took me 40 minutes just to get acrossed the airport lol. That's partly because I stopped alot to look at things. I felt SO incredibly cool to be in Chicago. I took a MILLION pictures from the plane and from when I first stepped out into CHicago...Lame don't worry I know :). I also stopped at a cool little shop and bought myself a Chicago keychain...and i'm not gonna lie, its pretty legit...anyways I found my gate and I was looking on the board and I noticed that they had 2 flights going to Rochester but neither of them were my flight number or at the same time that my flight left...So I went up and asked the lady if I was at the right place and she looked at my ticket and was like Oh No not at all honey, your suppossed to be in a whole different building...So i panicked momentarily and I think she must have felt bad for me becasue she just said hold on one second and then turned as was like well I can get you on the plane that leaves in 10 minutes...are you ok with that...and so of course i was like OF COURSE i'm ok with that lol...funny story I kept eyeing this kid that was on my flight from Salt Lake wondering if he was going to YFE and when he got on the same plane as me going to Rochester I was pretty sure he was and i was right lol..His name was T.J. and he was an AMazing kid!!! Anyways so I ended up getting to New York 3 hours a head of schedule ! I was STOKED... I walked around for quite awhile because I wasn't sure who I was suppossed to find and then after I passed this girl like 5 times we awkwardly asked each other if we were going to YFE and of course it turns out we were !!! There were 4 of us. Londel, Katelyn, T.J., and Me. We all rode to the hotel together with one of the counselors Katie. Once we got to the hotel, We got our room keys and we met back in the big conference room. That's where I met my AWESOME counselor Brittany. SHe was way cool. We all just kinda chilled and talked and played games. Then we decided that we were hungry so we called and ordered food. Brittany and I shared a pineapple pizza...lol it was DELICIOUS!!! Then we played this AMAZING game called Ninja Destruction...I am definitly in love with this game...After that everyone started to show up ! I was SOOOOOOOO excited when my Andrea rose got there lol...It was tons of fun to start meeting everyone. My roommates were Andrea, and two girls from Utah named Candace and Heather. Crazy side note story, Andrea and Candace were really good friends when they were little and ANdrea lived in Utah. That night we all just kinda chilled and had pizza AGAIN for dinner except this pizza was really really yummy pizza lol. Then we hung out for awhile and T.J decided he would take my camera and take as many ridiculously random pictures that he could it was really funny..we had some awesome pictures after that lol..That was basically all we did that night. The next day me and andrea and a few other girls woke up early so we could go to the Sacred Grove. It is so gorgeous around that area. The sacred grove is like 1/4 mile away from the hotel..We passed the Palmyra temple on our way and that is another absolutly GORGEOUS sight. Its kinda up on a hill a little ways and when the sun hits it just right... I don't know that I've seen very many things that were more beautiful...(I sound REALLY REALLY old right now). It was crazy when we got to the sacred grove I had a deep deep spiritual feeling... WE didn't even notice that we were whispering. I can't even explain how it felt. Nor do I even want to try to much. As the time has gone it has become more and more significant to me, and I can only imagine what it must have been like for Joseph Smith. Later that day we went down to the Sacred Grove and took a tour of all the sites there. We broke up and went through by our groups and while my group was waiting we sat outside and sang the songs in our group. We set it as a goal to sing every song by the end of the trip. It was a great way to get the spirit with us. When we started our tour a Sister missionary kind of gave us a little bit of background on everything and then she took us to Joseph's families log cabin. I don't remember how much of it is original but I do know that it was over 50 % original. It was crazy to go upstairs in the room that Moroni visited Joseph Smith in. The cabin looked really really small on the outside, but I was surprised at how big it actually was. After we visited the log cabin we went up just a little bit farther and saw the house that Joseph and Alvin had helped build for their family. The fireplace there was something like 85 % original. This is also where Joseph hid his plates under the floor boards. AT this place we weren't allowed to go upstair because even though the houses were less than 100 yards apart, they were in different counties, and the counties had different fire codes. After that we went to a barn and got some cool pictures, then group two went to a bridge and got some cool group pictures. After that we had more time to go through the Sacred Grove...I spent most of the time walking around, just thinking. The thought came to me that while this was an amazing experience for me, I was so grateful to know that I didn't have to go all the way acrossed the United States to feel the spirit. The spirit is the spirit. It is or can be just as strong in Nampa , Idaho and it can be in the Sacred Grove in Palmyra New York. I knew that I didn't need a life altering experience there to know what I already knew. Once I walked for awhile I finally found a place to stop and read my scriptures for awhile. It felt good to just sit and read and not have any thing else on my mind. Its amazing how the spirit can clear your mind and give you peace when you need it. After the Sacred Grove we went and had lunch at the Picnic place by the church. After Lunch me, Katelynn, Andrea, and Todd decided to try to play frisbee with a cookie, then we decided to play baseball ( i don't remember if we used the smashed cookie or an apple) then someone got the crazy idea to go and roll down the hill so off we went to roll down the hill. It was SOOOOO much fun. Later that day during free time a few of us decided we wanted to try to walk to town but we only got about half way there before we decided to come back. But we did get some fun pictures. One of a small little dog that i'm pretty sure wanted to eat us and another of this yard with tons us little gnomes and stuff in it. Later that night we went to the Hill Cumorah. That was another really cool experience. FUn facts, the guy who built the Moroni monument up on top of the hill made him 10 ft 4 in.. does that ring a bell with any one?????? no ? No? NO? ok i'll tell .... ANy one remember a pretty important scripture in Moronie 10:4? pretty cool huh..anyways while we were at the monument we had a little devotional type thing and everyone got to share their favorite scripture...The one I shared was 2 Nephi 33:3. It says : But I Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that He will hear my prayer. ... I have always loved that scripture...but that night I saw it in a different light...It was another tender mercy from Heavenly Father...that was His way of telling me that He was hearing my prayers for my family. AFter we had our devotional they gave us about 1/2 hr to go walk around and kinda mingle with each other. I decided to kinda go off by myself and I found this really cool stair way that went down the hill that was lined with thick green tree's. It was a place where no one could see me and I could be alone. This was also one of the tender mercies that Heavenly Father gave me on this trip. For the first time in my life, I was ok with just sitting, with just being alone and being quiet and keeping my heart open to the things that Heavenly Father had to tell me. I have learned more than I ever thought possible. Its interesting though because I think that I have learned more looking back on the experiences that I had than actually at the time because there was SO much going on that it was hard to comprehend it all and take it all in. We went back to the hotel that night and had our group devotional. It was about the atonement. We were all in a small little artifact room but the spirit was AMAZING. We went WAY over our time limit but that was ok because we learned so much that night from each other. The next day was a REALLY REALLY busy day. That was the day we went into Palmyra village (I think thats what it was anyways) They have Palmyra City and Palmyra Village... Anyways the first place we went to that day was to visit the graves. It was a really cool cemetary. It reminded me of the Salt Lake CEmetary. We saw some really old graves. I wish I could remember who all we saw. I know we Alvin for sure, and also Lucy Harris. After the graves we went down and had lunch at a fun little park. ( i forgot to mention earlier that all of our food was catered by a yummy place) HA i was SOO tired. I went and layed down on the carosel thing and i actually fell asleep !!!! A few girls got some lovely pictures of me lol ! After the park we went to the Grandin Press where the Book of Mormon was first printed. It was really cool. I didn't realize what all went into actually making the book. There were some parts of the floor that were completely original.. There was also some ink marks on the floor that were completely original. After the tour we watched a JOseph smith movie which I'm sorry to say I fell asleep for :(. but only for like 10 minutes of it...not that i'm making excuses or anything but I was REALLY REALLY exhausted lol. Then we had free time. We all decided that we wanted to go to this cool ice cream place. I don't remember what its called though. Anyways we thought it was gonna be ALOT closer than it was but it definitly wasn't. At the place they were telling us all to get smalls and we were like ok...Ha the smalls were FOUR SCOOPS !!! it was the biggest small ice cream cone i've ever seen. Later that night we had a class in the sacred grove and then got to have some more personal time. After the sacred grove we went over to walk the Palmyra Temple grounds. It was Amazing but the bugs were DISGUSTING!!! my poor best new york friend Emily had bug bites absolutley EVERYWHERE!!!! After walking the temple grounds we went to the church that was right by there and had a talent show. It was ALOT of fun. There were some pretty amazing talents. THis kid Todd played a song he wrote himself. ANother kid did like ballroom dancing lift thingys. Me, Emily, Cerena, Melanie, and our counselor Brittany sang Walk Tall. It was really cool. Brittany was such an awesome example to all of us. She was so spiritual. A few girls were really nervous before so we went into the gym and practiced a little bit and then said a prayer. After the talent show we had more ice cream which i didn't eat becasue i was SO SICK of ice cream. Ha but we were in the gym and T.J. decided to tie up his hoodie like a basketball and we played 1 on 1. Well I was under the hoop and pump faked and he went for it but i didn't realize it and i went up and totally dropped him. lol ...IT WAS SOOOOO FUNNY !!!! That night we had another good devotional and then went to sleep pretty easily cause we were all REALLY tired. The next day was our last full day there. :( That was the day we got to do baptizms in the Palmyra temple. It was really cool. Again we seperated into groups so my group stayed outside while group 1 was in and we sang songs from our book. THe inside of the temple was really pretty. They had stain glass pictures of the first vision in the windows. There was a window that you could see the Sacred Grove out of. It really shocked me though because the workers were really loud. It kinda bothered me. I got confirmed for a Fizzle lol. The baptisimal font area is REALLY small. The water was REALLY warm too. That was kinda wierd and I had never worn socks into the font before. But it was still really cool. It was funny some of the girls forgot extra bra's so they all used my 'community' sports bra after i was done...AWKWARD lol... After the temple we went to Fayette to the Peter Whittmer Farm. That's where the church was organized and it was really cool to see it. We went on a tour there. The visitor's center is actually also a chapel that the people use. After the tour we had a question and answer thing and then headed back to Palmyra. It was funny all 15 of us in the van were OUT on the way back. We went straight to the Hill Cumorah VIsitors center. They actually have a Christus there too so we saw that. Then we watched the Joseph Smith movie, which was really cool. It felt alot more personal because I felt like I could relate to it more. After dinner that night we went to the sacred grove for testimony meeting. It was an amazing experience. There were alot of fire flies!!!! It was quite exciting actually. We had our last devotional that night and it was the best one! It went on for a really long time but we were all ok because there was just so much to talk about. After devotional that night, Brittany and I got to talk about school. She's one of the ambassadors at school and i just really wanted to talk to her about my doubts and fears of going to school. We talked until about 1:30 in the morning. It was amazing I was given so much peace after talking to her. The whole trip doubts had been coming HEAVILY to my mind about going to school at BYUI and she really helped me to seperate things out in my head. Before we went to bed that night she was like oh and by the way a few of us are going to the sacred grove at 6:30 in the morning if you want to come...I was like WAT!!! but I woke up to go and I am SOOO glad I did. I decided to take my patriarcle (SP?) blessing with me and read it.It was amazing the clarity that I had. I also opened my scriptures up to Mosiah 4. That is probably one of the best chapters in the Book of Mormon. I wrote in my scriptures that it had the secrets and keys for life. Anyways the scripture I found was in Mosiah 4:8 it says: "Believe in God, believe that He is is, and that He created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believethat he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehendeth" That scripture directly relates to the things that I was talking to Brittany about. Just another tender mercy from Heavenly Father. SO we got back to the hotel and packed up and headed out. There were like 7 of us I think that were on the same plane to Atlanta together but alot of other kids's gates were right by ours so we all got to hang out till our planes left. I think some people got quite annoyed because we were like standing in the middle of the airport taking pictures together. But who care's we were having fun. Since i've already wrote a TON i'll just sum up the rest of my trip like this..I left at 10 in the morning (techniqually 8 AM my time) and didn't get home till midnight ish ... enough said...lol..I am so grateful I got to go on this trip. I will look back on it for the rest of my life. I still have SO much to learn from it !!!

Breaking down

We all have our break down points and I think last night was definitly mine. I decided to get on the website for BYUI and check out EVERYTHING. I was reading about all the campus sports, which will be amazing, they have a competitive basketball league that you try out for, and you have uniforms, practices, and everything, so i'm pretty excited. And I can also be on the track team!!! So I can still to hurdles and shot and disc. AND play softball and volleyball. So there I was all excited, and then it sorta just hit and I totally lost it. I realized how scared I really am. I've moved back and forth between so many places in my life that you'd think that I'd be used to it and everything would be fine. But really I think its the total opposite, becasue I know how hard it is for me when I do have to move on to the next place. I can't imagine being all alone up there. I can't imagine not having everyone I have with me now. I've thought about all these things before, but its never hit me as hard as it did last night. Maybe this is just part of the process, kinda like going to the dentist, I'll get myself SO worked up before I actually get there, BUT when I get there I'll realize it was SOOO much better than I expected. That's what I'm planning on for right now. Oh and last night they had practice math placement tests on the website so I took it and I was surprised at what I could remember, but there was still alot that I knew I knew how to do I just couldn't remember how. SO I've decided that I'm gonna do like an online math program thing, because math is one class that I don't want to be struggling in. Especially if I'm planning on taking 18 credits. Gotta start trying to make things easy now.
OH AND
I'm excited for this weekend. I think me and my mom are going to go up to Garden city and just hang out for the day and then come back. We were going to go camping but then we realized that we didn't end up with all the camping stuff :(. But thats ok it will still be fun!

Things work out !!!!

I love how things just seem to work out even when you don't think they will. I have been stressing majorly about school and everything and yesterday I found out that I got a grant that will help me out with a pretty big portion of school ! With scholarships, grants, and my 2 jobs, I'm hoping to be able to cover my first year completely !!! I am so blessed !!! I really wasn't sure at first about my decision not to play basketball because basketball has been my LIFE for so long, but I have been given so many reassurances that this is the right decision for me. All the grants and scholarships I have recieved are only a few of those reassurances. Heavenly Father provides me with so much! I am so grateful that I have family that supported my decision even when I don't think ANY of them agreed with it at first. I have been blessed with such an amzing family. Ya its a little mixed up, but I have more love and support than I know what to do with sometimes. Not very many kids can say that about their family. And I'm pretty sure NO ONE has as good of relationships with their extended family as I do (Sorry not possible don't even try:) AND (I hate calling them extended cause it sounds like idk I just don't like the way it sounds) .... Going off on the family tangent again, I am so grateful for little brothers and sisters, and the big ones too. It makes me so MAD when I sit and listen to people talk about how they can't stand their brothers or sisters. There are days that I would give anything in the world to be with them. We have so much fun together! I can't even begin to explain the random things we do. Maybe thats just cause i'm there and I'm kinda a random person....I hope that everyone appreciates everyday they get with their brothers and sisters and family, cause there will be a day that you won't have them and you'll realize how much you love and miss them, and you'll regret the days you wasted when you were together. I guess that fits right along with my new "theme" of life lol... Just live it Love it and BE HAPPY. Never waste one second. I don't want to look back at my life in 10 or 20 years and regret times when i missed out on something cause I was worried about the next big thing.
Moving on......
I really like this blogging thing, I SUCK at keeping a journal and so this is sorta a good way to keep it, and its so much easier to explain yourself through writing. I've kinda been on the computer of a long time today already to I should probably go do something productive!!!

Just be Happy

So i'm brand new to this whole blogging thing. Don't know why its taken me so long to jump on board but ya it has. Anyways I've been thinking alot lately about the future. I don't think I've ever been so scared and so excited at the same time !!! Its so crazy to look back and see how far we've come in life. It seems like I was just barely a little kid going to the park and swimming in the back yard everyday. It all has gone by so fast and it seems to just get faster. I spent so much time wanting to be big that I missed out on part of being little. I'm not gonna make that mistake anymore. I hate watching people who are never happy in the stage of life their in. So thats basically wat i'm gonna do from now on. Lifes never gonna be perfect so if thats what your waiting for your not going to be very happy. Theres so many things to love about life....I will provide you with a short list .....lol

101 Things to LOVE in life

1. Late nights with friends
2. Smell of rain in the mountains
3. Sunburns that turn into tans...(except for when they don't)
4. Baby ducks
5. Kickball with family
6. Family parties
7. looking at stars ( this the MOST AMAZING THING IN THE WORLD)
8. camping
9. playing basketball
10. long bus rides
11. Sweat pouring down your face
12. facebook
13. Fourth of July
14. Sleep overs
15. SNOW CONES!!!
16. COUSINS
17. Girls Camp
18. Sunny Days
19. Thunderstorms (especially if you go out driving in a really good one!)
20. swimming
21. Jumping into a nasty lake with your clothes on
22. Sand Volleyball
23. Pink nail polish
24. starting cabins on fire
25. Smores
26. Late night drives
27. Random trips
28. Summer softball games
29. Tball
30. Primary Programs
31. CHURCH
32. outside movies
33. Good refs
34. airplanes
35. Layovers (they give u time to just think you don't have anything else to do)
36. Make up (maybe i'm a little vain but i love my makeup)
37. Primary songs
38. Campfire testimony meetings
39. having nothing to do
40. Dollar movies
41. FHE
42. Late night Taco Bell runs
43. Ordering Pizza at 12:01 on Monday morning
44. Fugitive
45. TPing
46. Fireworks
47. Family traditions
48. Pulling taffy
49. SHOPPING
50. Taco Tuesday
51. $5 footlongs
52. Texting
53. Taking pictures
54. School
55. Snipe hunting
56. Family vacations
57. Guitar Hero
58. Dancing even if you can't
59. Reuniting with family
60. Singing in the shower
61. puppies
62. I pods
63. High school proms
64. Cell phones
65. Scholarships
66. Baby Blessings
67. Temple trips
68. Sand Castles
69. Disney Land
70. Quoting disney characters
71. Fresh cut grass
72. Wedding receptions
73. Seaworld
74. Hot showers
74. HOt tub nights with friends
75. ankle braces
76. understanding math
77. Visting farms (you can see all the cute baby animals)
78. Looking through scrap books
79. Hope chests
80. Soldiers coming home
81. Going to dinner with friends
82. Getting corn rows
83. Track practices
84. Team trips
85. Picking food from gardens
86. Helping the homeless
87. Jump ropes
88. Duck Duck goose :) (Don't even lie, you know that game makes u happy)
89. Ringer
90. Miracles
91. Christmas morning
92. Making tents with brothers and sisters
93. door bell ditching (and leaving cookies of course)
94. Heart Attacking
95. Talking to old friends
96. Late nights with Mom
97. CARS (man i almost forgot about them)
98. Sleeping in tents
99. Seeing new things
100. Hiking
101. Getting the chance to wake up every morning and find new things to LOVE !!!!

K so that last one was a little corny don't worry I know, but really there are so many things to love in life and so many times I catch myself so focused on the next big thing that i look past the small moments. But i'm gonna try to live each day and love it no matter what happens. Its a choice so I might as well be happy !!!!