Smell the Flowers

Two posts in one month! Wow I'm getting better at this! :)

A few weeks ago, on our usual scooter drive up to the temple, I noticed that there were a lot of flowers on the temple grounds. This was the first really cold day of the season and I noticed how warm I felt just by seeing the simplistic beauty of these flowers. We did our stuff in the temple and a few hours I found myself going the opposite direction down that sidewalk and still amazed at how warm I felt as I thought about the flowers. I don't know what it was--it could have been the memories of looking at the huge hibiscus outside my bedroom window at home, or the memories of summer, or even the peace of knowing that I am doing what our Heavenly Father wants me to be doing. No matter the cause, I literally felt warm.

And I had the strongest desire to smell them flowers. So I stopped and smelled one of the flowers. As soon as I did, a wave of emotions and memories came flooding into my mind. I remembered pretty much every experience I have had that involves flowers. I remembered my grandma and how much she loves plating and watching flowers grow. I remembered going to school dances and having to but the corsage. I remember going to a flower garden this summer with my siblings and their families. Overall, it reminded me how much the Lord loves me. He has given me all of those things in my life because He loves me. And the crazy thing is that they all came back to my memory from something so small.

General Conference

I love General Conference! It is definitely my favorite weekend of the year! The only down side is that it only happens twice a year. This year, I enjoyed Conference a lot more than I have in the past. I don't know why that is, but I learned a lot more this time than I think I ever have before! There are a lot of things that I know contributed to my enjoyment  of Conference including

• I was much more prepared to listen to the Saturday morning session than usual. aka my dad didn't wake me up ten minutes before it started and I wander up the stairs and start eating breakfast as the first talk was being given. This time I was up a good three and a half hours before it started! And I was in a much better position to listen and learn.
• I actually wanted to learn. I wanted to find and hear things that would make me more prepared to teach this gospel and spread the joy that it brings (and I definitely did learn some awesome things!)
• My mom suggested that I write down three questions before Conference started and during the talks to look for the answers. That definitely helped me to stay focused on all of the talks! :)
• Just the fact of being a missionary I think was a big help.
• And I came up with a pretty good system of taking notes. People make fun of me for my many pens that I have, but  they all came in handy for Conference!

The Art of the Defect

I have the opportunity to serve my mission with some very unique people. We have all overcome the trials we have faced and decided to serve the Lord. I myself have Muscular Dystrophy. My form of Muscular Dystrophy is called Charcot-Marie-Tooth, named after the three main scientists who "discovered" it. It is an inherited trait. I got it from my dad and I have another sister who also has it. The three of us enjoy sharing stories about how we stub our toes and don't feel it for a good 10 seconds later, or fun accidents that we have. We have some good laughs about some of the things that we do!

Because of my disability, I have had a few surgeries in my short life. The first one occurred when I was a junior in high school and the most recent was this past May. Due to my disability, and with no help from being in casts for 6 weeks, I kind of became an outcast in the eyes of the large majority of people I went to high school with. There were a few that were really good friends, but they seemed to be the exception, not the rule. In this time of trial in my life, I often ate lunch alone and found solace and comfort in my music.


I came to love Jack Johnson because his music was so comforting. Whenever I was having a bad day, whenever I was feeling bad for myself, I could listen to Jack and immediately a wave of peace and calming would settle over me and I knew that everything would be alright. In high school, one of his songs inspired me. It is called "People Watching". As I ate lunch, I would go to the second floor of my school which had a perfect view of the cafeteria. As I ate, I would watch my peers--watch how they treated each other, watch how they really acted, and discovered what kinds of people they really were. Throughout these weeks of watching, I longed to be there with them. I longed to be accepted for who I was and for them to be able to discover who I really am. Unfortunately, that never happened while I was in high school. But then college happened.

Why the background?

    Hello! As my profile says, I am a missionary and this is my missionary blog! On this blog, I will share my own experiences of how I have come to know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's true church and how that knowledge has benefited my life. I also hope to share the experiences of those who also come to this knowledge. This is my first blog ever, so you may have to bear with me for a while until I get the hang of things.

    I have only been out for about six weeks now, so I still don't know entirely what is going on. I have already had some amazing experiences and I have also had some huge struggles and disappointments. In the end though the good has outweighed the bad thus far. Hopefully it remains that way for the next two years!

    One cool thing that I love about being a missionary is that I wear a name tag that has my name along with that of Jesus Christ. It is an amazing thing to literally be a representative of Him. It can be hard at times to remember that I am currently sharing Christ's name, but the fact that I am always dressed up helps me remember that fact. Remembering that I am His servant helps me to remember Him more in my life. It truly is a spectacular responsibility to be called to help God's children remember Him and remember who they really are.

    As I was setting this blog up, I had a hard time picking a picture for the background. There are so many beautiful pictures that I would love to set as my background, but something caught my eye about this one. Partially it was the fact that there is such a green overtone to it and green is one of my favorite colors (the other one is orange if you couldn't tell by the totally matching color scheme I created!). But part of it was also the meaning it has to me.