Temple Thoughts

As terrible as Tuesdays and Thursdays are, Fridays are certainly going to be incredible. Not only do I have just one class, but I also get to sleep in.

But the best part is that I have time to go to the temple.

Before I get into the spiritual part of my day, let me just mention a few things.

• I have the most incredible friends I could ever ask for.
• I really love watching people's reactions to my health story. It honestly (almost) makes everything worth it (or at least a little easier) just to see people's faces when I tell them the story. If you haven't heard it yet, you probably will someday. Plus, it motivates me to make more friends. Just so I can see their reactions when they (at some point) ask about my history.
• I need to impose a bedtime. Starting this week.
• The food at the Cannon Center has lost all novelty. It is no longer delicious at all. Well, sometimes they have something that's pretty good. Particularly chocolate milk. But not today.
• I really enjoy reading Alma in the Book of Mormon. Yes, it's a little long. But there is so much amazing stuff in there!!
• I need to get some more piano music. I need something to practice, more songs to learn. Not just the same church and Disney and Jon Schmidt songs I've been playing for years. I am currently working on "Root Beer Rag" by Billy Joel. 
• This also means I need to improve my appreciation for classical piano music. *deep sigh*
• I miss family prayer time with my family.
• I love talking to the girls in my hall all the time (Hattie and Haley mostly...)

Brooke, Angela, Amy, Derrick, and I headed over to the Provo Temple in the late afternoon. We discovered that to be the busiest time of day when there were no disabled parking spots available. But because it was so busy in the baptistry, I was able to be at the temple for three hours. Which seems to be an extremely long time at first glance, but coming back I realized there really wasn't anything I would rather have spent that time doing than simply being at the temple. I spent my time reading the Book of Mormon and pondering on things that had happened.

That morning I received an email from my mom's old college friend, Kelley, asking me to come speak to her young women in about a month. I am so honored to have been asked to share my testimony with these incredible youth. There is so much I want to share, and I am hoping that over the next few weeks I'll be led to know what these particular girls need to hear. I am so excited for the opportunity, but a bit nervous. So that's been on my mind for a good portion of the day.

I love the temple. I feel close to my Heavenly Father and Christ when I am there. I love the spirit that is there. It is a beautiful place to think, learn, and grow. I love having the chance to attend often and with my dear friends. I come out feeling happiness and joy I rarely feel outside of the temple. It is an incredible gift to be able to attend the temple here at BYU, and I will be taking advantage of it far more often. 

In my reading I came across this verse that beautifully sums up my feelings today: Alma 26:11.

Life is good. And I can't wait to see what adventures this weekend holds.

Thursday Recap

I am convinced. Tuesday and Thursday are going to be the roughest days of the week. It's a good thing I absolutely love these classes and subjects or I would be completely unmotivated to wake up in the mornings. And it helps that I have a friend in both early-morning classes.

Note to self: be in bed before 11 on Monday and Wednesday nights.

Here's essentially how my day went (and how most of my Thursdays will look):

• up and out of bed at 6:40 am. which is way too early considering the time I went to bed last name which will remain untold.
• breakfast and driving up to campus with Hattie
• grab my free copy of the New York Times from a nearby building for my government class (apparently they're all gone by 9 am)
• government and politics from 8:00 to 9:15 am. way too early to be discussing politics, but the professor is awesome and it actually helps wake me up
• geography from 9:30 to 10:45 am. I have my friends Francis and Sydney to keep me awake during class, but it's around that time I begin to doze off
• so after class I headed back down to the dorms for a nap. 
• then worked on homework and ate lunch
• and went to spanish at 1:00 where I seriously am having problems staying alert on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• back for another short nap, work on some homework, and talk with my friends before...
• Personal Finance from 3:30 to 4:45. Why did I take all these 75 minute classes? but this class seriously blows my mind every time I go. Just all the cool things you learn about investments, 401(k), saving money, etc. 
• dinner with girls in the hall
• then back for TWO full hours of Book of Mormon reading before
• ward prayer!!

So that was basically my schedule for the day. But what happened in between all that?

I watched the sunrise. And it made waking up early completely worth every minute of lost sleep. Snow capped mountains with tints of orange and pink on them... it doesn't get much better than that.

I got a package. A surprise package from my mom and sister for my birthday! They made the cutest Shutterfly book for me about my life this past year. I love it so much! So many fun memories of 2011 (which will be in a soon-to-be posted post).

I discovered this little blog via my friend Hailey. It is wonderful. I couldn't help but think of my own dad and just how incredible he is! I am so lucky to have him. My future husband's got a lot to live up to.

I played a little game I like to call "epic mancala." Essentially it's a euphemism I like to use to make refilling my weekly med container seem a little less like a mundane chore. 

My mom's old college friend emailed me today to ask if I would speak to her ward's young women in about a month. I feel so honored and blessed to be given the privilege to not only share my story and testimony, but perhaps even help a few struggling youth along the way.

I am getting a little better at reaching outside my comfort zone to talk to people. I made some new friends at ward prayer today with two of the guys who just moved into our ward. Ben is actually in my government class (yes that early-morning one), and Derrick (Derek?) will be coming to the temple with our group tomorrow. Got to love meeting new people here, especially those Mormon boys.

I love the fact that the temple is a two minute drive away. And that I can go every week to do baptisms without having to wait for a scheduled youth trip. It is probably one of the greatest blessings of being here at BYU.

It was confirmed to me (yet again) tonight that I am in the greatest ward I could have possibly ended up in here at school. We're all best friends, and we aren't afraid to be ourselves with each other. After ward prayer, most of us ended up hanging out in the lobby for a few hours and had a sing-a-long! Where else does anything like that happen? 

All in all it's been a great day. Well, I guess it's now Friday morning. I should probably go to bed. Thank goodness for class not being until 1:00 on Friday afternoon... I love college.

Life is good.

Just FYI - this makes two days in a row that I've posted! wow. now if that can just carry on....

Return to Blogging

I have not been great at blogging this past month or so. Actually, I haven't been very good at it just in general. I have not been consistent, and I find that I don't ever get through my posts.

Seriously. I have seven unpublished posts that are most of the way done. I could probably post them now and you wouldn't mind. But I would mind, so they sit, incomplete and unavailable to the blog world.

I think my problem is that my posts tend to be too long. There's just so much I want to share! So anyways, one of my New Years resolutions (which have yet to be posted...) is to become a more consistent blogger, as well as a bit more brief in my comments. My roommate, Angela, started a blog to use more as a journal and to post everyday about the happenings in life. Considering the fact that I am not great at journaling either, I figure this would be a great resolution to adopt.

So, here's to doing a blog post every day. 

A short(ish) one. One that tells about what I learned and the exciting events of the day. I shan't bore you with the mundane details of my life. In keeping with this resolution, I redesigned the blog to (hopefully) inspire me a bit more to post more often.

Please note: the older posts that are currently sitting in my blogger account will be posted at a later date. I have some things to add to them, and they will be posted bit by bit when I have some free time. And since I don't really have time to talk about the first week of school right now, that will also be a later blog post. Look forward to those.

Let's get started.

Today was actually rather uneventful. I slept in and worked on homework most of the day. Wasn't feeling great, so I didn't end up making it to my one class today that didn't even start until one.

But I was productive at home.
Government and politics reading: done.
Geography chapter: done.
Spanish paper: done.
Book of Mormon reading: done.

And it's not even midnight.

Some things I learned over the course of the day:

I have discovered that making my bed every day actually does help in making me want to be productive instead of take a nap.

I also discovered that during visiting hours, there is an imaginary boundary that lies right before the bathroom. I have yet to see any guys cross that line. A few do, but it is a rather rare occurrence. Usually for home teaching. But it was still a fun night, and I love to see those who do brave crossing the line.

I am excited that I will be in bed before midnight (because that is what I will be doing right after I finish this) as I have to be awake by six tomorrow morning for my wonderful 8:00 am government class.

I love the fact that I can see my nerdy friends (namely, Hattie) every day. They help me feel not quite so nerdy... sort of.

I am also coming to the realization that it is never a good idea to procrastinate when you have two weeks to read the entire second half of the Book of Mormon. Fourteen days seemed like a long time to read 250 pages. The deadline is now 6 days away and I still have two hundred pages to read.

I also very much dislike the fact that I do not have Book of Mormon for two whole weeks. It is honestly my favorite class - I always wish it would last a little while longer and I could attend every day. It's incredible: the things you learn, the insights you gain from others, the time you spend studying with friends, the Spirit that you feel throughout the entire semester. I am so excited for January 23rd when I can go back to my favorite class again.

I love the fact that when I wake up, I will see the sunrise over the snow-capped mountains.

And life will be wonderful.

The Most Incredible Weeks

WARNING: long post ahead. I've been meaning to blog about this for a while, but now you just get my two amazing weeks instead of one.
Just so you know I have only 39 days until I go home. Which means there are only 43 days until Christmas. And there are only 10 days left before Thanksgiving break. And I really need a break.
These past two weeks have probably been the most crazy, random, social, exciting, busy weeks of my experience here at BYU so far. Seriously.
Saturday night (October 29) I went to my aunt and uncle's house in Sandy to spend the night, go to church with them, and be with some family. Plus I got to shower in an actual shower and sleep in a bed that I could flop onto without having to climb up five feet. That was wonderful. And then I got to go to a family ward and it was wonderful to hear little babies and small children throughout the meeting. I do love my ward, it's just pretty silent during sacrament meeting. So that was fun!
Sunday night was a Hyde family Halloween event - all the kids came dressed up, we bobbed for apples, ate donuts off strings, decorated cookies, ate pumpkin bars, and "practiced" trick-or-treating. I loved spending time with family, though it was a little strange to not have my immediate family with me there... it'll take some getting used to.

My baby cousin Jackson!! Isn't he adorable?!

And my other awesome cousins in their Halloween costumes :) 

Monday was Halloween. Probably my least favorite holiday ever. But no worries - I ended up in the ER. Woke up that morning feeling sick, got sick (puked, threw up, whichever term you prefer) multiple times. I finally decided I was dehydrated - I could feel the delirium setting in and I couldn't force myself to drink anything. So I called my friend to come give me a blessing (can I just say that I love having Priesthood holders I can call pretty much anytime to have them come give me a blessing? it's seriously the best thing ever). My mom called my aunt to come pick me up, and off to the ER I went where I proceeded to spend my day watching Nickelodeon Halloween episodes and trying to sleep. See, my IV was being positional so I had to hold the tube in place with one hand and obviously couldn't move the other, making my book absolutely useless and when I fell asleep, I'd let go of the tube and the IV wouldn't work. Fun times.
I'd just like to point out that I survived TWO WHOLE MONTHS before having an ER visit. Just saying that's pretty impressive for me.
Anyways, it took six tries to get an IV started (actually pretty good for the first time at a hospital) and my aunt left to go to my cousin's Halloween party at school so I just laid there for about six hours getting fluids. Not too bad considering I usually have to stay overnight. Some of the people from my FHE group came to pick me up. Seriously MADE MY DAY to see their faces coming into the room when they got there! And I went to the Cannon Center and had some soup. And lemonade. And water. And more lemonade. Staying hydrated is very important. And then that night I stayed up late to snag my classes at midnight! Got everything I wanted and I am SO excited for next semester!
Tuesday was HAPPY NOVEMBER 1ST which means I can start playing Christmas music and no one is allowed to get mad at me! hehe I really do love my Christmas songs though.
I love BYU Devotionals. And so far in my two and a half months at BYU, I've heard from three Apostles and.... yep. President Monson!! He came to speak to us that Tuesday! I was soooo glad they didn't keep me overnight at the ER. President Monson spoke about the importance of being an example to those around us. I was kind of entertained by the fact that he quoted Mufasa in his talk. It was AWESOME!
I didn't go to classes that day - kind of just stayed home, slept, and worked on homework. Then one of my friends in the ward wanted to watch a movie for his birthday. So a bunch of us went up to the JKB and watched one of the greatest movies ever made: The Lion King. 
Seriously, only at BYU will a bunch of college kids get super excited about watching that movie. And then proceed to sing along to every single song. And get really excited at the part that the prophet quoted that morning. Yep that's BYU for you.
The next day involved a lot of homework, a lot of sleep, and a lot of late-night piano playing with friends in the ward :)
Thursday was probably one of the craziest days of my life. I had to go make up a psychology exam that I missed on Friday, finished around 5. Ran out the door to pick up my awesome cousins Christopher and Clark to come eat at the Cannon with me. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet and they're teenage boys starting into basketball season. Needless to say, they enjoyed it. Then ran back to Stover to watch my friend Newel open his mission call (which is one of the greatest parts about being a freshman at BYU) - Olangapo Philippines Tagalog speaking! After congratulating him and saying hi to some friends, went to pick up a friend in my leadership class and then dropped my cousins off at their home before heading to Target. Where we purchased the items for our leadership project the day and looked at Christmas lights (YAY!!! Christmas!!!!).
When I finally got back from Target and dropping him off, some friends from my FHE group and the ward came out so we could go run to visit my friend Andy who had had elbow surgery that day. He was a little out of it, but it was good to see him and make sure he was feeling all right. On the way back, we passed a Little Caesars, and our craving for some food besides the Cannon led us all to go to In-N-Out Burger. Good times! On the way out one of the guys asked about the disabled sticker (always a fun story to tell and even more fun to watch people's reactions). When we did finally get back a bunch of us hung out in the lobby, playing pool and messing around on the piano.
Friday (insert song here) was another crazy day. Went to the Provo Temple early that morning (I really love the fact that I don't have to wait for a scheduled temple trip to go) and took a nap. Then picked up my leadership group for our project.
And I'll end there for now...this is turning out to be way too long for one post.

Count Downs

It's that time of year to start my count downs!!! YAY!


7 days to decide what classes to take next semester
7 days until I can play Christmas music
31 days until Thanksgiving
33 days until my four-year heart anniversary
54 days until "official" end of finals
58 days until I go back home
62 days until CHRISTMAS!
72 days until winter semester

1 day until I need to take my psychology, physical science, and Book of Mormon tests. joy. I wish these other days came first...


Parents Weekend was this past weekend. It was kind of hard to see all the students with their parents visiting. So instead I went to the canyon with some friends. And watched a movie with some friends. And played games with friends. I'm glad I have so many incredible friends here.


So here are some incredible pictures from the trip up to Canyon Glen Park:

Trying to remember to stay positive and happy this upcoming week with several tests, lots of projects due, and attempting to recruit volunteers for my advertising committee. So much to do, so little time. A quote to help this week:

"When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place, or drop out of our lives." President Ezra Taft Benson

Here's to a great upcoming week! Remember to smile!

Oh, and make sure to watch Vocal Point's performance this past week on "The Sing Off" - it was incredible!!

Positivity

My good friend posted this on Facebook the other day as a little optimism boost for our upcoming week of tests...

Wouldn't it be great if we could all have this attitude every day? Especially on a Monday morning...or any morning for that matter. But especially Monday. And Wednesday, the hump day.

As my cousin always says, Remember to SMILE!!!!

Mountains

There's just something about those gigantic landforms sticking up out of the earth. They're incredible, majestic, beautiful, and at this time of year they are on FIRE! I LOVE IT!!!

Saturday was my canyon day. After an early-morning blood draw, I drove up into Provo Canyon and stopped at Canyon Glen Park. Stood on the bridge for a few minutes and just listened. And remembered when I used to do this with my family when we still lived in West Jordan. I have really missed this time of year in the mountains!!!! It's so picturesque, and just taking the time to sit (well, stand) still, listen to the rushing water and the sound of the wind through the trees and the rustle of the crisp leaves on the ground...it truly is an incredible experience. You feel so close to nature and more fully appreciate the beauty and grandeur of this world that we live in.

Later (waaay later) we had a birthday bonfire for one of my friends at the same place. Which was so much fun!!!! I love my BYU ward (see picture below) :) The canyon looked different in the dark - you couldn't see the fiery leaves and the tree-covered mountains - but the rush of the water was still there and standing on that bridge you could see the stars. I mean REALLY see the stars. I haven't seen stars that bright in forever!! It was kind of fun to find those constellations that I learned about in astronomy last semester (which reminds me, I should dig out those notes and review). I love looking up into the night sky, at all the mysteries it holds. Once again, you feel the wonder of this world and overwhelming gratitude for such a beautiful place.

The mountains are really a special place. You can remove yourself from the world, take time to slow down and listen, and feel near to the Spirit. I know there are hundreds of analogies with mountains, but they really are true. I love the Lonestar song (I'm a country music geek) "Mountains." The chorus says, "The good Lord gave us mountains so we could learn how to climb." It's SO true. And once you get to the top and see the view...wow. Everything it took to get there is completely worth it.

I'm going again. Very soon. I'm going to crunch through leaves and throw rocks in the river like I'm six again. I love every minute of it.

PS I will be taking pictures of the colorful mountains tomorrow. Simply didn't have time today but wanted to share this for sure!!