Oh there's no place like home for the holidays

Merry Christmas!

With the holidays being here I feel like my creative blog juices are also on vacation. But I wanted to wish my blog followers a very Merry Christmas (all two of you).

I honestly feel that Christmas day is very anti-climatic. I enjoy the Christmas buildup more than Christmas Day. So in my family Christmas Eve is actually a bigger deal than Christmas Day. We have a big dinner and then we perform a nativity play. This involves wearing crazy costumes, crying babies, Christmas carols, crying kids, and, of course, the story of the birth of the Savior. We then gorge ourselves on treats afterwards. Hooray for eggnog.

Here are a few highlights:

Stephen and I take 1...beautiful and smiley


And here we are again...take 2...GQ baby

Julie singing with John B

Joseph was a cow...for 5 minutes...


Adam was the Angel Gabriel and carried little angels with him (Bethany and Lizzy)

Davey, the Shepherd's tag along


And then there's babies smothering the baby Jesus, aka Anna.


Oh I love my family! Merry Christmas everyone!

You may never know your influence but sometimes you will

On my mission I remember feeling discouraged a lot of the time because I simply wanted to know if I influenced people for the better. I felt like I put forth so much effort everyday in trying to help people come unto Christ that I often wondered if anyone besides myself was benefiting from all of this. Looking back I kind of chuckle because...Daaa...of course I influenced people!! I was a missionary for crying out loud! However, I never received a ton of thanks for my 1.5 years service. And I didn't need to and I still don't need to. I felt that thanks primarily from the Lord and that has been enough for me to feel satisfied with my mission in Toronto.

This semester has been great for so many different reasons. I feel like I've grown in many ways. I came into it telling myself that I was going to put myself out there and make the best of my new situation. I wasn't going to change myself for anyone nor was I going to let other people affect me. I was just Susie, like it or not. I'm not saying this to boast or anything, but I think a lot of people liked me. I am surprised how much good we can do by just being who we are, living the commandments, and being aware of others. I have been happily surprised that so many people are "kicking and screaming" that I am moving to D.C. in a few weeks. I am definitely flattered. I just never thought that me being in Condo Row for three months would have that much effect on anyone. I kind of thought I'd be one of those phantom church goers...you know renew my covenants, fulfill my calling, but not be overly involved.

Somehow I got found out. And I can honestly say that I will miss this place I now call home.

So going back to my mission. I often did not know my influence but this semester I have. It has been a huge blessing to know that in any situation we're in, we can make a difference to someone. We can be an influence. We can be their answer to prayer. Heaven knows many of my prayers have been answered this semester and many have influenced me for the better.

I am grateful to feel so enriched by others and I am glad that I could be there for them when they needed it and vice-versa.

Sometimes we know our influence and sometimes we don't. But regardless, we just have to keep going forward in our life. Who knows who's life we will touch next?

Sometimes you have to use the mean voice

This week and last Friday I have been at Provo High teaching ESL students. I am doing this to fulfill my practicum requirement for my ESL minor. It has been a great experience! I have finally been able to put into practice all of the methods and theories that I have learned. I am also learning just how taxing teaching is. I realize that as good as I may be at teaching, if students don't want to be there, then there's not a ton you can do (Diane, I'm sure you're nodding your head vigorously right now!).

I've been teaching my ESL students how to write a letter. Not too difficult right? Most of them already know the basic steps. I thought this would be a good activity because then they can make a Christmas card for their parents or a friend. Better than doing a worksheet, right? Well, today was difficult. Yesterday I did the same lesson and the kids behaved and did their work. However, today was a day to pull out the mean voice.

I don't consider myself a mean person at all, but today I was. These kids fooled around and I had to be very mean to them. Finally they did their work, although half-heartedly. I usually try to joke around and have fun with the students but not today. Today I was mean. mean. mean. mean.

And it felt good.

Temple work brings great blessings to our lives.

Today was my last day working at the Provo Temple. Since May I have been working at the temple; getting up every Saturday morning at 5:40am. It has been a terrific experience to serve although I know I have complained about the early morning hours a few times.

Since I've worked there I wouldn't say that my life has all of a sudden worked out for me or has even fell into place. Sometimes when we think of sacrificing our time for the Lord we think that we will reap these huge blessings. We do reap blessings, just not in the way that we think.

In January I spoke to my Stake President about attending the temple (this was before I was a temple worker). I told him that when I attended more often than not I didn't feel like I was getting anything out of the session. I felt even empty at times. Prayers that I pleaded weren't being answered and no amazing revelation was being revealed to me. He told me to remember to focus on others while attending, not myself. If I went to the temple expecting revelation every time, then I was missing out on the opportunity to put my life on hold and serve someone else.


I have taken that counsel to heart as a temple worker. Because the shift is so early in the morning I am often tired. My thoughts do drift and my prayers are not always fervent. However, as I've sacrificed that time to the Lord, I have seen many blessings in my life. These are not big ones, but these are blessings that I have noticed in my life since May:

• I have a stronger testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
• I understand the ordinances better and how they ultimately bring us closer to Christ.
• I have a renewed understanding of what it means to follow the prophet and to attend the temple often.
• I have been more fully protected by the adversary and the ways of the world.
• My eternal perspective is greater.
• I have more faith in the Lord's plan for me. I still fret but deep down I feel innate peace.
  
• I react better to change and I am more willing to change myself.
• I am more compassionate.
• I have a greater capacity to put off the "natural man."
• I think more often of the covenants in the temple. The words come to my mind during the week when I am struggling or when I am formulating gospel connections.
• I think more often of others. Every week I think about people in my life (family, friends, acquaintances) who are struggling in life and need an extra prayer.
• I have a greater desire to live the commandments.
• I have made friends and have strengthened friendships with those friends that I see as I work my shift.
• I have greater insights of the gospel and can relate the gospel to my temporal life.
• I want, more than anything, to live in the Celestial Kingdom with my spouse, children, parents, brothers and sisters, in-laws, and the list goes on to all of my other family members. I want to be worthy of the Lord's presence.

I am so grateful that I have been able to work at the temple. It has been a huge blessing for me to serve and to think of others. I know that temple work is the Lord's work. I will miss being a temple worker.

We are the CHAMPIONS, my friends

So I have been on many intramural teams over my BYU career. Freshman year I think I was even on a wallyball team...don't even ask me what that is. Most of the teams I've been on have mostly been soccer and basketball. These teams have not been good...usually we've lost almost every game. This semester one of my friends from my old ward asked me to be on a coed intramural basketball team. I reluctantly agreed, thinking that I could at least get some exercise.

So even though I only went to 1.5 games of the entire season, I happened to go to the game that counted; the championship. One of the girls on our team played for Dixie State College so with her making the majority of the points and me chipping in my own 5 points, we won the game. (A lot of others participated too, I shouldn't really take any credit for our win).

And after five years of BYU I have the most coveted t-shirt of all.

The BYU Intramural Championship T-shirt.

I know people who would do anything to have this shirt. I know people who have busted their intramural butts trying to acquire this rare commodity. And now I have it and they don't.

Haha.

I'm looking forward to being "wife-zoned"

So in my college years, I have noticed a pattern with boys. To put it simply, I am often "friend-zoned." My friend, Marci Wright taught me this term this summer. It means that guys use various ways to ensure that I am a friend, not an interest.

Here are a few examples (real life by the way):

A guy in my ward is talking to me and he asks me if I know a certain girl. I say I do, but not very well. He then asks if I will get to know her better so that I can find out whether or not she has a boyfriend. Yep, friend-zoned.

A friend that I work with in the temple texts me and asks me if I can ask a sister temple worker if she has a boyfriend. Although he doesn't know her name, he is confident that I can still find a way to get to know her and ask her about her personal life with only one Saturday left to work at the temple. Friend-zoned.

A friend spends a whole evening in my company and tells me how amazing this other girl is and how no other girl will compare. Shall I say friend zoned??

My home teacher tells me how awesome I am and tells me that I will one day make a quality wife...to another man. Definitely friend zoned.

I hope those examples are clear to all of you. Can I just say that I am excited for the day that a guy will come up to me and say, "Wow, you're the most wonderful woman I have ever met and I want to date you." Yah, that will be blissful.

Oh even better when they ask me to be their wife because they want no other.

Lets just say that I'm looking forward to being wife-zoned.

Nostalgic

Well with my last week of class coming up, I am becoming very nostalgic. When finals end on December 18th, that will be it for me. Yes, I have student teaching in DC where I will still be a BYU student but no longer will I be on BYU campus taking classes.

It's so funny because as I walk on campus now, I take it in. I look at the mountains and revel over their beauty. I see the library as not so much of a prison, but as a place to learn and a place to run into a million of my friends. I bask in the cheerful atmosphere of the ISP office (that's one of the places that I work). I walk past memorable spots on campus: the HFAC, the family statue, the JFSB, the MARB, and all of the other buildings where I have had class over the last five years.

I see the fresh RM's pounding the backs of their long-lost trainer who they greet in the middle of a crowded pathway.

I see the medieval club members (also known as the Quills and Swords) donning their dresses, tights, and wooden swords while singing to some mandolin.

I see signs and advertisements for the forums, devotionals, preference, and all the free activities on campus.

I see boys flirting with girls--a little too noisily--in the periodicals of the library.

I see old roommates, home teachers, acquaintances from class, mission peeps and friends on campus.

I see students flooding to BYU football games in their "true blue" apparel.

I see students carrying scriptures while talking about the latest General Conference and its amazingness.

I see freshman playing fugitive on campus; annoying all of the upper class-man.

I see change in myself over the last five years of my BYU experience.

And all these memories wash over me.

Although the changes are necessary and good for more reasons than one, I can't help but be a little nostalgic.

I will miss you, BYU.