Failing Forward

 Imagine someone is trying to walk down a long and narrow road. Everytime they attempt to take a step forward they fall to their hands and knees. Since they are falling, they are failng. Since they are falling to their hand and knees they are falling forward and making progress. Isn't that weird to think about? They could be falling with every step, but as long as they keep falling forward, getting up, and falling forward again they are making progress.

Isn't this like life? The first thing I thought of when I thought aobut this was, this is how I should be when trying to be like Christ. I may fail but I need to be failing in the right direction. Progress is essential in this life and this is the way that I often find myself progressing. It is slow and painful and it doesn't feel like I am making progress but after many fails and falls, I look back and realize that I have come further than I ever thought I would.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that this is prevelant in every aspect of my life. Being a better employee, a better friend, a better sister, a better servant of the Lord, and a better daughter. I am constantly trying to become a better daughter to my parents here on this earth, and to my Heavenly parents. I know its hard to be my parent, but I wake up every morning with the intent to become a better person so I can make all of my parent's job a little bit easier. Do I succeed? I'm sure trying. Its a process that takes a long time and it includes lots of failing. Thankfully, my Heavenly Father is helping me fall in the right direction.

A key part to this whole thing is getting back up. Falling forward is great but as soon as we choose to stay on the ground, that halts our progression. I will admit, occasionally I will stay on that hard ground longer than I should but so far in my life I have gotten up every time and tried to stay on my feet a little bit longer than I did the last time. Everytime I have chosen to get up, I was not by myself. I know Jesus Christ was with me, extending his hand to help me get up, or sometimes He had to pick me up and place me on my feet in the right direction.

I am so thankful to those that have been with me while I fail. Many of the people in my life have been angels sent from my Father in heaven to pick me up and navigate me back on track.

The question I've been asked a lot lately  is "What are you up to? What are you planning to do with your life?" Right now my answer is, I'm just going to try and fail forward.

Trek 2k16 Featuring "The Donner Party"

Ten years ago or two treks ago for my stake, my two oldest brothers came back from trek. I remember sitting in our family room and they came back filthy. Then they began to inform me that they were starved and then given a piece of bread and some broth. This scared me more than anything. This made me not want to go on trek. Why would I want to go starve myself? No, don't sign me up for that. The next trek my stake went on, my parents, brother, and sister all went on. The came back with amazing reviews. They said the food was great and they all had a great time. They all loved their trek families. I was so so excited to get assigned a family, and my trek family was wonderful. I was assigned to great parents, Elvis and Stretch. (Those were the names they chose to be called on trek). They took great care of me and the rest of my family and treated us just like their own kids. We decided to call ourselves "The Donner Party".  If anyone commented on our name we would respond with "Would you like to join us for dinner?", "there is always room for one more", and "you look divine tonight". It was really great and super humorous because we are funny people.

(Thanks Desirae for the all the awesome pictures!)

My awesome trek ma and I

Tug of War gets pretty intense

When it was my turn to go on trek, I was really excited. I knew we would be fed well because the church got rid of the starving thing and my parents were in charge of the food. They had my back, it was great. was pumped to go because physical labor is kind of my thing. I like moving heavy objects, sweat, work out, and feel the spirit. Trek is somewhere that you get to do all of those things. Well I was in for quite a treat. I struggled with the physical part of trek more than I thought I would. It really humbled me. I have no idea how the pioneers did it. Constantly wearing down their bodies, pushing handcarts, and then getting up the next morning just to do it again. That seems a little crazy to me. Like I said, this part of trek really humbled me.

Something else that really got me thinking was, WE HAD NO IDEA WHEN WERE GOING TO STOP. The missionaries and some leaders knew what was going on but I couldn't keep track of how far we had gone or how long we had been going. I never knew how much further we had and that drove me absolutely crazy. If I could have known when we were going to stop, I could have paced myself better and not constantly wondered when we were going to be done and eat dinner. As I was complaining to myself on the first day about this, I realized that the pioneers didn't know where they were going, when they were going to stop, or how much longer they were going to be traveling. Despite the fact that they had no clue when they would get to stop and settle in, they kept going because they KNEW it was right. Their faith was incredible. We walked around six miles a day and that was plenty for me. I have no idea how they walked, pulled, and pushed for miles and miles with no actual destination in mind. Every time I think about this I get a little bit more amazed. I seriously cannot wrap my mind around the trials my pioneer ancestors had to endure to make it to Utah. I am so thankful they had the faith and courage to follow the spirit and establish Salt Lake City. I will be forever thankful for the opportunity to go on trek and get a tiny glimpse of what the early saints had to go through just to worship what they wanted to without being tormented. I hope to have faith and a testimony as strong as the pioneers did. Thinking about the pioneers and their travels ansewres so many questions in my mind about this gospel. It must be true if people were willing to do what the pioneers did just because they wanted to live the gospel. It must be true. It is true.

Yes this is my shoe and I can do hard things. Yes I did need to think about this a few times on trek.