Friday, May 15, 2009

And the grand total is.....













Well, I am in the process of packing and moving out today so I really don't have time to elaborate, but.... this morning while organizing all of my things I pulled out my shoes to make sure I had 2 of each shoe. Yes, I have a lot of shoes but until today I didn't realize how many. I counted them and how many specifically? 105 pairs! I know that's ridiculous! I find that completely disgusting. Where did they all come from? As one disclaimer, several of them are Whit's that she left with me while she's on her mission. Some of the shoes are absolutely hideous and left over from things like my high school winter formal. All I have to say though is that I am slightly ashamed and will be cleaning out my closet today for sure (although I will not be touching my collection of All-Stars or my Pumas)! The End.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

And we lived after the manner of happiness....


One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Nephi 5:27 "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness." Happiness has been a topic on my mind a lot recently. I am at one of those times in my life when everything is just super crazy. I am graduating from college, looking for a job, and need to basically decide where I want to go and what I want to do with my life for the next little bit. School has been stressful, life has been busy, and several other circumstances in my life that have presented a plethora of new experiences. Every week I receive a inspiring letter from my sister Whitney telling me of all her wonderful experiences as a missionary in Italy. It would be a lie to say that I am not envious of her and that I don't long to be doing what she is doing right now. I cannot express in words how much I loved my time as a missionary. It really was such an important time in my life. I did have a wonderful epiphany though last night while sitting in the adult session of Stake Conference. I realized that regardless of what's going on in our lives, we have just an endless capacity within ourselves for happiness. Regardless of all the craziness in my life, and even though I no longer have the wonderful daily joy of being a full time missionary, I realized that I am just as happy now, if not happier, than any past time in my life. There is no reason why we can't be a little happier each day than we were the day before. It is just such an amazing concept to me and I love it. I know that as long as I am doing my best from day to day I can continually increase in knowledge, understanding, and most importantly happiness! I am truly happy. There is a lot of uncertainly in my future but that's okay. I really do feel inside what this little baby is expressing on his precious face. I am living after the manner of happiness and I also know that even greater happiness is yet to come!