Science & God

This whole world is science. Its kind of crazy to think about. Most everything can be traced back to scientific reasoning, but where did science come from? God. Science was created by God. Learning about science strengthens my testimony every time I learn something new. Its crazy. The earth and our bodies are so incredible and work in so many different ways. People study science for their entire lives and cannot comprehend how it all works together to produce what it does. That my friends, is not by chance and there has to be someone behind it all. I truly believe that someone is Heavenly Father.

Think of every way your genetics have impacted your life. What you look like, how your body reacts to things, how your life would be different if your genetic makeup was different.  Recently I was in my biology class and my biology teacher talked about how every single person is 1 of 70 trillion genetic possibilities. I don't know about you but I think that is crazy! If my body looked or acted different, my life could be completely different. (I am trying to stay away from the argument of Nurture vs. Nature... think strictly nature) I could be in a different place. If I were a few inches taller I could be off playing basketball in college, but that isn't for me. God knew that. Yes, there are a few other things that played into my decision but my height was a major reason. This is one of many ways my genetics have impacted my life. I have talked to some people who have had trials with their health and they said they wouldn't change it for a second because of the strength they have gained and knowledge they have received.

In reality it all comes down to the fact that God knows us. He knows us all individually and He knows what we need in this life. Our genetics were pre-determined. When He created us, He put so much thought and effort into crafting a body perfect for the lifestyle each person would live on earth. The human body alone shows how much love Heavenly Father has for us. The earth is so beautiful because of science. Think of all the beautiful sunrises and sunsets that are produced through science. There are so many amazing things God has created because He loves us.

I am so thankful to have a Heavenly Father that loves me so much that He gave me a body that can do so many amazing things. I am so thankful for a Heavenly Father that loves all of His children so much that He gave us a beautiful earth to enjoy. I am so thankful for my Heavenly Father.

Trials

Trials. We all have them. Big and small, they are there and they always will be. I honestly believe there is never a time in our lives when we are not going through something. Satan is always trying to get to us. Trying to get us to give up and give in to his evil ways. And guess what? It is up to us to to decide how we are going to handle them. Are we going to take it upon ourselves do it all on our own? Or are we going to use what has been given to us by our Father in Heaven? The atonement. This amazing gift can help us through literally EVERYTHING. Whether it is something small like being sad because you spilled punch on your white shirt or something huge like death or terminal illness. He is there for us. Jesus Christ chose to suffer for our sins so we would not have to. I seriously amazes me that anyone would do that. I cannot even comprehend the sadness and pain that He must have felt as He willingly went into the Garden of Gethsemane. I literally have no idea how He did it. I will be in debt to Him forever. As I apply the Atonement into my life I have learned my TRIALS DO NOT DEFINE ME. Yes, I have them and yes they can sometimes consume my feelings and emotions but they are not me. They can help shape who I am, but I am not my trials. I feel like we often get so caught up in our problems and trials that we let them run our lives. Yes, they are something that deserve our attention but they should not overtake us. As they overtake us, they push us closer to giving up. We cannot give up. Christ isn't give up in the garden, we cannot give up either. Heavenly Father does not give up on us so we cannot give up on USB either.  We can still be happy, thankful, and ourselves. As troubling as they can be, we should also be thankful for the trails we are given. Yes, they are awful and sometimes very painful but in the end, they build us to be stronger, and hopefully happier. I promise if we trust what in what God has planned for us and if we trust in the Atonement everythin will work perfectly.

"You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come."

-Elder Jeffery R. Holland-

To My Children Part 2

Hey kids. In the past year I've picked up on a few things in life. Keep in mind that right now I'm just 18 years old so I really don't know very much even though I may act like I know everything, because that's what all teenagers do. (; One thing I am starting to get a grasp on is opposition. When you are told: "there must be opposition in all things", IT IS TRUE. 2 Nephi 2:11 says "It must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so,... righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor miser, neither good nor bad". If something is good you must know the bad to appreciate it. If you know sadness you know happiness. Isn't that an interesting thought? If you did not know the feeling of sadness you could not truly comprehend the feeling of happiness and joy. Next time you are feeling sad, angry, depressed, or completely lost, please try to remember those are the feelings that give you the power to appreciate all the amazing and happy things in your life.

I have tried to do this when I am feeling down and it really helps me. It doesn't take away the negative feelings but it helped me find things to be thankful for. As I was doing this one day I had this overwhelming feeling that Christ knew exactly what I was feeling. This brought me so much joy because no matter how hard we try to describe a feeling to someone, they never know exactly what we are feeling or thinking, but Christ does. Once I had this epiphany, I grew closer to my Savior. My darkest times improve my relationship with Christ. When I feel sorrow I picture Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane feeling EXACTLY how I am feeling. He did this for me and for you. All those times when you feel like you are in a dark hole that you will never get out of, Christ has felt that too. Its crazy to think that someone would feel all of the sadness and pain you have felt, exactly how you are feeling it but He did it because He loves you. Please try to remember that as you are going through these hard times. Use them to bring you closer to Christ and use them as an opportunity to be thankful to your Heavenly Father because He knows what is best for you. I know you are not here yet but I love you so very much and cannot wait to meet you.

Here is a song that I love and I promise the lyrics can help you in your own life if you let them speak to you.... and yes it is from the cartoon, Joseph and the King of Dreams.

First day of College

I have officially started college. It isn't as horrible as I thought it would be.   On my first day I got to my first class super early abecasue I was paranoid that I was going to be late or not be able to find my class. I was sitting there by myself and a guy I had a classs with my senior year walked into my class.  We kind of new each other so he sat by me and we talked for a little. It was so comforting knowing that I somewhat knew someone in my class. We don't talk much but we sit by each other every day becasuse we both wanted familarity.  I went to my next class and sat alone and didn't talk to anyone which actually isn't the worse thing ever! I was on my way to biology and I see a freind who I played softball since I was eight all the way until my senior year of high school. We talked and we discovered that we were in the same biology class! I was so excited and relieved. This class is suppose to be my hardest class and it is so nice to have someone i know that I can go over all the material with. In between my biology and religion class I normally have institute but that didn't start until the second week, so I met up with one of my friends and we went to one of the buildings to hang out. We ran into one of my friends who I have known all my life. We talked with here when we figured out that we have institute and world religions together. It was so crazy but made me extremely happy and really calmed me down about school.

Rewind to the night before my first day of college. I was still feeling so nervous. I decided I needed to ask my Dad for a blessing. This was something that was really hard for me for some reason. Satan. Satan made me believe my Dad wouldn't want to give me a blessing. I am so thankful i got the courage to ask because it changed my whole perspective on school. At the end of that blessing I knew I could go to school and be perfectly fine. I felt so calm and I even felt a little excited. My nerves and anxiousness immediately when to tranquility and excitement. I know this was the Spirit of God telling me He loves me and He is watching over me. I am so thankful my Dad holds the preisthood and is willing to use it to help others. The preisthood is such a wonderful gift we all have accesss to. The preisthood is truly a gift from our Father in Heaven.

Anxious, nervous, nerves

I have never been so nervous for anything in my life. I think I would rather run a cross country race than go to school next week. (For those of you that know me, that is a big deal.) I can play in games in front of hundreds of people, I can run in races where I push myself to a new level physically but when it comes to going to college my mind just says no. Every time I think about school, the knot that is in my stomach grows. I don't know what it is. I'm not moving out. I'm not taking anything extremely hard. I don't know if it is the money or the thought of growing up, or maybe both. But I cannot seem to get myself to get over the nervousness.

I don't think I will get over it until I actually go to school and get in the swing of things. Everyone says "its just one step up from high school", but it feels like a million steps up from high school. I know I am a little scared to not know anyone. In reality, I think I'm more scared to not be known, if that makes any sense. Its not like anyone and everyone knew me in high school, but I did know a lot of people and I had a lot of friends. I never went to a class and had "no one" to sit by. I always had one or two people that I was friends with and I could talk to. That is not going to be the case at college.

I also have this fear of the unknown. I freak out when I go somewhere or do something and I don't know exactly what is going on. It was so easy at Murray because I always knew what was going on and if I didn't, I just had to text someone and ask. I don't know what is going to be happening at SLCC. I'm pretty sure this is what frightens me most. As I think about my future in college and just life in general the unknown is what scares me most. I am trying to change my mindset because I know that the unknown can also bring great surprises and adventures. So  here I am, literally arguing with myself about college.  I know it is going to be fine and I'm trying to be excited because I know it will bring great things into my life. Then I have this part of me that is telling my brain about how everything could go wrong, how I am going to get yelled at, walk into the wrong class, be told that my class section was cancelled and they forgot to let me know, or the worst thing that could happen, somehow they decide to charge me more money than what I'm already expecting. Yes, I know that most of these are very unlikely but I don't know how to get them out of my brain.

Right now I keep talking to my siblings that are in college and they are trying to calm me down.  I'm praying often to have The Spirit with me as I go to college. I know I have my Heavenly Father on my side and that is why I know everything will work out.

"The only real difference between anxiety and excitement was my willingness to let go of fear"- Barbra Brown Taylor

Stay tuned for my college adventures.

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.