The Happiest Place on Earth

No, I didn't just go to Disneyland. This happened forever ago and this post was written forever ago!

Last February a few weeks before President's day the family at home was planning on going to Disneyland, and that was pretty much the best thing I could have heard. 1. I love Disneyland 2. I had just gotten back from serving in LA so I was pumped about the idea of possibly being able to visit members! It wasn't going to be that plausible for the clan here in Provo to leave for the weekend, but just days before Natalie and I decided to throw all caution to the wind and go! We drove to Las Vegas Thursday night and woke up early Friday morning to meet them at the park. The little sisters, Gabrielle and Marie, had no clue we were going to meet them there so that just made the anticipation of going to Disneyland even bigger. When we got to the hotel and started walking to the park we began conspiring with Mom for how we were going to surprise them. Here was the game plan we came up with:

Step 1 Little sisters wait in line to take a picture with Mickey
Step 2 Older sisters wait in line a little further back and try not get seen by them(we thought for sure they had seen us)

Step 3 Little sisters take a picture with Mickey
Step 4 Older sisters photobomb the picture then hide
Step 5 Mom show little sisters picture and point out what is in the background;)
Step 6 SURPRISE!!!

I dubbed the rest of the next two days my second childhood. I am happy to report that I still find just as much joy from running to Indiana Jones first thing in the morning as when I was 10. 

The second highlight of the week was spending Sunday racing from Hollywood to Bell Gardens to Artesia trying to fit as much into the day as possible. I was so excited to see everyone, but I wasn't quite prepared for the experience I had. What took me by surprise was the overwhelming feeling of love when I saw the members and when they saw me. It's not like I stopped loving them when I came home, but it was just different. I couldn't see or hug them every week. When I came back I was slammed with love for those people that I worked so hard for and I had no clue how much feeling their love for me would impact me. I was craving that enormous amount of love so much! I mean really do you actually have 100+ people at college running up to hug you and say hi every week? Odds are that you don't, unless you are the friendliest person in the world. 

There are so many more people that I love that have influenced my life in LA, but it would probably be a little obnoxious to post the millions of pictures that we took with people that weekend. I am so incredibly grateful that I was able to stop by and say hi to everyone on such short notice. It's October now which means I should be due for another visit!

"Learning is inherently risky"

I have now been home for a little over a year. When I first came home it was hard, it was really hard. Yes, I missed the mission but I knew it was time to come home and I was at peace with that...for the most part. I missed the schedule and the people a lot. The hard part was figuring out real life again. It seemed so bizarre that "real life" something that I had first hand experience of for 20 years seemed so hard to get a grasp on after a short 18 months of impactful experiences. I made mistakes, failed at times (from my perspective), and cried. Even though this year wasn't all roses and chocolates like I may have thought it would be I learned so much about myself.
Kevin J. Worthen, the president of BYU, gave the inaugural speech soon after school had started and it became some very valuable advice as I embarked in my first school year back(my junior year, so I should've been a pro right?! sooo wrong). What I took away was that we are all going to fail. There are different types of failures, but there is no avoiding it! What matters is what we do after we fail. Do we learn? Do we accept it? Do we change? Is our resolve still there to change even if we make the same mistake over and over again. The only way I can possibly imagine finding joy in life amid all of these failures is understanding that God still loves us, this life is for learning and growing, and our Savior can and will help us. Grace is the enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts.
This is a part of President Worthen's speech that I really like, but you can read it here.

".... failing is a critical component of our eternal progress—our quest for perfection. And because of the Atonement we can—if we respond to failures in the right way—be blessed with a new kind of learning that allows our failures to become part of the perfecting process. 
....Too often we ask the wrong question when we fail. We ask, “Am I good enough?” But the real question is, “Is God good enough?” Is He as good as He says He is? Can He really deliver on His promise that “all things” will “work together for [our] good”30 if we will trust Him and strive to do the best we can and keep going whenever we fall short?" 

Isn't that advice just so perfect? That was exactly what my fresh post-mission, drowning little self needed, and I will probably read this more throughout the years.

Ok, just a little more rambling.

One of my favorite parts of my major is that I can make a gospel connection almost daily to what I am learning. The other day in one of my classes my teacher said, "learning is inherently risky" and how true is that!? For some reason that phrase struck a chord with me that day and I really liked it so I thought I would put it in here so I don't forget it:)