a hallelujah christmas

christmas music is my favorite.

i'm one of the those people who looks forward to

the day after thanksgiving to crank up the christmas tunes

and sing along for the next month to all of my favorites.

there are so many wonderful, fun ones to sing, 

but my favorite christmas songs are those sung about

CHRIST.

for this is His season after all.

this season has been a special one for me, 

mostly because i know that next year,

i will be among friends, not family for christmas.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put out this wonderful video

about the first gift of christmas and issued a challenge to all the world,

to discover the gift, embrace the gift, and then to share the gift in the coming year.

then a few weeks ago, one of my friends shared this on facebook, 

this song has been sung by many an artist, but never before like this.

cloverton does an amazing job of refocusing the lyrics on the christmas season

and it was actually released two years ago.

but, this song is amazing, and i challenge you to just listen to the lyrics.

and then, the piano guys went out and did this:

the guinness world record for largest live nativity.

the arrangement is phenomenal

(what else would you expect from the piano guys, peter hollen, and david archuleta)

and again, the lyrics are enough to give me the chills.

this song is about forty years old, and has been redone by many artists,

but there is something about a country christmas song that always does me in.

mary, did you know? focuses on Mary, and begs so many beautiful questions.

what made the baby cry focuses more on the members of the nativity,

and what was going on their heads.

this christmas season, hug your families close.

let them know how much you love them, not by how much you spend on them,

but by how much time you spend with them.

let them know you love them by saying "i love you" and truly meaning.

be an example, and #sharethegift

He is risen, He lives, and He wants us to return to live with Him.

holiness to the lord.

friday was the day.

i posted these words on instagram and they are totally true

I love to see the temple, I'm going there today to feel the Holy Spirit, to listen and to pray. 

For the temple is a House of God, a place of love and beauty. 

I've prepared myself while I was young; this is my sacred duty.

ever since i was in primary, i have sung the song "I Love to See the Temple"

and sung about going inside some day.

up until last year, i always thought that it would so that i could be married in the temple

a few short weeks after.

but as i read my patriarchal blessing again, and began to understand that the Lord

wanted me to serve a mission, i have known that i would be going through the temple

so that a few weeks later, i could go and do what the Lord had commanded me to do:

serve the people.

friday was the day that i had spent years dreaming about.

what did the rest of the temple look like?

i had been inside of the atlanta temple before, during an open house,

and i remember being taken aback by the simple beauty there was to behold there.

what i didn't understand, is how much more beautiful it is after it had been dedicated.

sitting in the center of the temple, with people who love and support you, 

and with people you hardly know, yet share a common reason for being there,

is such an amazing feeling. 

there was another family there, taking their son through the temple

so that he would be prepared to serve as well.

he reports to the mexico city mtc a few weeks after i report to the provo one,

but the joy was there on his face that i felt in my heart.

there are many wonderful things that i can't discuss with you about the temple,

but the beauty still exists. the covenants i made there are special to me, 

and i don't want anyone to ever jeopardize that for me, or for themselves.

i know understand why the mission of the missionaries is to get investigators to the temple.

there are so many beautiful things that simply solidify the testimony that you have already.

if you can, go. prepare yourself, understand the proper reason for going.

and get yourself to the temple. 

"I urge all who have not yet received these greatest of all blessings within the walls of the temple to do whatever may be necessary to qualify to receive them."

-James E. Faust-

the thanksgiving feast

this year is a special year mostly because i have to go to bed early. no, not because i did something bad, i'm not five. but because the population of k-town needs me at work at one am tomorrow. and so I sit here patiently waiting for the thanksgiving feast to work it's magic and put me to sleep until midnight. yeah, not overly thrilled about it. 

but i digress and so i write my "thankful for" list:

1. the gospel of Jesus Christ. it's literally the best thing that has happened in my life. 

2. my family, whom without i would be a very unfounded individual. 

3. the people of my village, who have supported me and offered advice in this, one of the most important times in my life, so far. 

4. the people of Nicaragua, who apparently need me, and need me now. i am counting the days until i meet you! (41 days, in case anyone was wondering.)

5. my roommates, who have become some of my best friends. 

6. old friends, who show up at random times in your life and are still excited to hang out and talk and offer you rides to work at 1am in the morning. 

7. a tankless water heater, that allows me to take a shower after seven people, run the dishwasher and the washer, and still have hot water for the whole shower.

8. clean, running water and electricity. i would look homeless without you. 

9. the garabage man who takes away my trash, and deals with it, so i don't have to. 

10. music, the language of the angels. if i didn't have music, i would feel empty and like something was missing. there are so many beautiful things to be said through music, and some beautifully tragic things as well. 

i hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving, and for my sake, stay home this weekend.

the square dancer.

an update on my goal keeping.

1. not doing so hot. 

i went to utah to visit some family last weekend and it totally got me off. 

i spent sunday and monday in utah and i didn't read. 

terrible excuse, but i got off and i haven't gotten back on, yet. 

that's on the to-do list for today.

2. i really need to talk with him and 

i found my opportunity: this weekend we are going camping as a crew, 

and i think i can get a captive audience on the ride up to the campsite.

3. i have accepted it. he is getting married. 

in other news: BAMBI is engaged! Team Danny has won! 

4. i need to write one of my missionaries back 

because she was nice enough to write me!

 i missed the boat on my guam missionary (literally and figuratively), 

but i can message him now, so no need to waste a stamp.

5. getting better... but i could still use some improvement. and some = a lot still.

i took one of those online surveys yesterday because i was killing time before work 

(admittedly, i should have been packing or reading my scriptures or Preach My Gospel).

this one was titled "what type of dancer are you?" and

apparently i fit the profile of a square dancer.

i thought it rather fitting.

i love country music

i spent about five hours each week for two semesters dancing to country music.

these are the reasons they thought i fit the profile:
You are old-fashioned and you plan to stay that way.
Your values are old school and you make no apologies for it.
The music of today makes you shake your head
and wonder what the world has come to.

yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

stake talent show

today we had an awesome talent show at my church. like so much fun. my sister sang while her best friend accompianed the song "the call" by regina spikter/ar. its a really good song. its the credit song for "the chronicles of narnia: prince caspian" if you were wondering. then a lot of friends sang or played instruments, and there were others who did both! it was really cool to see all the talent in my stake.

then we had a mom of one of the youth that is going on the youth conference trek teach us the virgina reel. SOOO much fun we all got into it and after a few times through you get the hang of it. and its really nice because you have the same partner through the whole dance, which makes it that much easier to catch onto. watch the steps on youtube if you dont know what im talking about.

then we had brother alred give us a beautiful spiritual thought about bringing the heavy burden home. they showed us the wonderful story of the willie-martin handcart companies and the call for help that President Young announced during a cold October General Conference many years ago. the video clip ends with the account of three 18 year old boys who single-handedly helped most of the company across a river in Colorado during the frigid November month. those three boys later passed on because of the effects of that relief effort but President Hinkley stated that that act alone assured them an eternal life in the celestial kingdom. what a beautiful honor. that story makes me cry everytime because it shows the great sacrifices that the early Saints made to follow the commandments of modern day prophets. what an amazing example to those of us living now who got through some rather different but similar trials. i believe that we were placed on this earth to go through our own trials and learn from them as well as others.

an amazing experience will forever be with me. a grade school friend texted me right before the final session of General Conference at the beginning of this month and told me that she had been baptized and her mom had become active again in the church. it made me soo happy to know that the missionaries had made such an impact on my life through her and it was soo great to hear from her again. i got to see her today and it was soo awesome. she is such a nice girl and i have so many fonds memories of her. ;)

valentines day 2011

my last year of a lonely valentines day before I can start dating. can I say hallelujah?! not that I don’t love taking part of “singles awareness day” and everything, but its still a little heart wrenching when the only way you can celebrate the most romantic holiday of the year, is by passing around pieces of cardstock with cheesy sayings on it and a sucker.

I am happy for those around me who have a happy love life. I just cant wait for mine to kick off here in FIVE months!! yipee!!!!!

this year the chorus did singing valentines again. and I swear it’s the funniest thing ever. a group of about 12 singers comes in, hands you a rose and then proceeds to serenade you in the name sake of your bf/gf. its pretty hilarious, but that’s from the on lookers side. haha maybe next year I will be the one receiving it… who knows?  a lot can happen in 12 months. ahahaha just kidding :)

freezing and getting into the christmas spirit

well seeing how we are drawing ever closer to Christmas, our gas decided to leak, making the house a chilly 66 degrees making it very difficult to stay warm. our gas guy has still to come by and turn the gas back on after the heating and air guys came and fixed it. so we are compromising until the heat comes back on by wrapping up in warm jammies and fantastically warm blankets.

of course i would rather be comfortable in the clothes i have on without a blanket, but the blanket and the cold makes it easier to get into the Christmas spirit. thanks so much to Grooveshark, i can access all the Christmas carols and songs i want to, all by a couple of clicks. of course all this scene needs is some hot chocolate and we would have a perfect Christmas image, but unfortunately, im too lazy to make myself some. hahahaha  i would of course love to be snuggled up to a special someone, but he knows who he is, so i wont mention names. ;)

merry christmas to all, and i hope you all have the best one yet in just 8 days!! yipee!!

guitar

ok so my expectations in my husband just got a little longer, because of one of these:



and this song:

by this guy:

yep!

i went to one of my friend's birthday party on friday night. one of the guests gave her the gift of a his playing skills. he played several songs including "free falling", "i lie by you", and "bubbly toes". uuh, soo amazing. hes really good and has good rhythm and a good voice and hes all around really good. with the song "i lie by you", we forced another guest to go and sing it with him, because she is one of the best singers in the bearden high school chorus. :) and o my goodness. that duet was soo gorgeous. the party was buckets of fun and i learned alot about random people. :) (always nice at a party) lol