Camp Goodness

The first week of camp is over and I have nine more left for this summer. This week, we had adult campers with all sorts of disabilities. In specific, I had one camper with spina bifida and was confined to a wheelchair. I had another camper who had mental retardation and was a joy to work with. This week, I took my campers horseback riding, canoeing, fishing (and we caught a few!), on the high ropes course as well as nature and field games. It was tons of fun but a lot of hard work. Saturday, which is normally our day off, we were required to work from 8am to 5pm. Later that night, I worked in Provo so it was a busy "day off" for me. Camp starts all over again tomorrow with teenagers with cognitive disabilities. Off to work I go! (Pictures will soon come)

Eternal Families are the Best

I have a family here on Earth.

They are so good to me.

I want to share my life with them through all eternity.
Families can be together forever through Heavenly Father's plan.

I always want to be with my whole family, and the Lord has shown me how I can. The Lord has shown me how I can.

Here are some highlights of my visit to Wisconsin.
Playing with my niece
Visiting the Mall of America Aquarium
Making Scandinavian cookies with my Grandma
Visiting family!
And now here is what I am up to in the good old state of Utah.

The day has arrived...

Sadly, the day has arrived where I had to buy jeans. Now, that is not the sad part. The sad part is that I had to buy jeans that were EXTRA SHORT! Yep... I think I am shrinking. Stores need to learn that it lowers my self-esteem when I have to buy short jeans but then to buy EXTRA SHORT (and they are still a few inches long) just damages me completely. It was a sad day in my life.

Long time comin'

Well, due to technology issues (my power cord blew up) as well as midterms and school, I have failed with blogging lately. As I was reading the other night about Moses dividing the Red Sea, I kept thinking about miracles. God performed so many miracles in the Old Testament including the burning bush, saving Daniel in the lion's den and protecting Joseph from the law. I was pondering all of these events in the Old Testament and realized it is the same God today as it was in the times of the Old Testament. If there is a God that could save the slaves out of Egypt, rescue Moses from the river and allow a barren woman, Sarah, to deliver a son in her old age, then there is a God today that can perform miracles today. I have witnessed miracles and truly know they continue to happen just as they did in the Bible. Miracles come in all sizes: small, large, quiet and loud (such as a baby crying in the night). I am grateful to know that our God is powerful and truly a God of Miracles.

Now, aside from my thoughts of the Old Testament, I have been up to a lot in my life lately. School is done in about a month now and then I come home for three weeks in May. Anatomy is finishing up thank goodness! I am looking to next semester's classes as I have NO lab classes! Some friends from church and I went hiking in the snow about a week ago, which was quite fun and adventurous. I will post pictures later...

A day late...

I've been thinking a lot about faith lately and the importance of it on my life. I am so thankful I had the faith to ask questions when investigating the Church. I am grateful that I have the faith now to ask the Lord questions that enter my mind and the knowledge and understanding I have that answers will come. This week in Genesis, I read about what happens when someone is weak in faith.
"And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainting, for he believed them not.
And they told him all the words of Jospeh, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived." (Gen. 45:26-27)
Jacob/Israel didn't believe the words his sons spoke to him but the moment he saw Joseph's wagon, his spirit "was revived." I think it is amazing that many people (including myself) won't believe something until they actually see it. But with so many things in this world, we have to rely on God. I never saw the First Vision take place but I know, through faith, that is it true. I don't need to see it. I am grateful that I don't need to see everything in order to believe it is true.

How Do You Spend Your Day?

Brigham Young once said, “Life is best enjoyed when time periods are evenly divided between labor, sleep, and recreation…all people should spend one-third of their time in recreation which is rebuilding, voluntary activity, never idleness.”

He further explained that having 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work and 8 hours of recreation each day makes your life have meaning. As I've been reading the Old Testament, I think a lot about how the people filled their days. For them, there was no texting, calling, emailing or blogging. This past week, I decided to look at my time and how I utilized it to see if I fit what President Brigham Young urged us to do. Here are the results:

Sleep: 37% I slept for about 62 hours of my week. How can I do that and still feel exhausted today? That is nearly three days out of seven!
Church: 8%
Getting Ready: 4%
Eating: 7%
Class: 9% It seems like so much more than that.
Study: 16%
Socializing: 8% I even had a bunch of people over last night and it still is quite sad.
TV watching: 3%
Work: 5%
Service: 3%
I then placed those things in three categories: Sleep, Work/School and Recreation and added up percentages. According to President Young, they should all be even around 33%. Here are my results
Sleep 37%
Work/School 33%
Recreation 30%
I am closer than I thought I would be. I just need to increase my recreation time, which should be easy to do as I am recreation major!

Blessings of Being Prepared

Continuing on with the Old Testament this week, I read about the whole situation with Joseph and his brothers. Joseph is cast off into prison and there he interprets dreams. Eventually he is able to interpret the Pharaoh's dream about the seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Because Joseph could prophesy of this, it allowed the people to gather and store food during the plentiful years so when the famine came, they were able to survive. Not everyone listened and followed this. Ironically, the many brothers of Joseph who wanted to slay him needed food during the famine and their father, Jacob tells them to collect food from their own brother in Egypt.
Now, the prophets and leaders of our Church today tell us to be prepared for emergencies and even more stress food storage. I think the story of Joseph stands as a testimony of how important those principles are. We have been told to store food and be prepared for emergencies just like Joseph was told through the dreams of Pharoah. Because Joseph prepared not only himself but the nation, he and others were blessed.

Aside from reading the Old Testament, this week was filled with memorizing all 489 terms for my anatomy midterm tomorrow (yep I counted them). So if you ever have a question about which muscles insert on the intertubercular groove in your humerus, you can ask me!