Because He Lives

There's been a lot on my mind this week. There's been a lot on my mind in the past year.

While at Snow College, I had the awesome opportunity to be a part of the institute show choir, LD Singers. During one of the semesters my last year, we sang a song titled "Because He Lives" by Sally Deford. It's always been one of my favorites, but as Easter approaches this year, I find it's been on my mind a lot. (To the point of I may have had it on repeat for something like 30 minutes the other night...)

Because He lives, I can bear whatever burden may be mine

I am encircled in the arms of love divine because He lives
Because He lives, He will banish every shadow of my pain
Every sorrow will be swallowed up in Him
For in His hand is healing for the weary soul
This I know because He lives

Because He lives I will rejoice in Christ and glorify His name
And with the willing voice of gratitude proclaim:
My Savior lives!
Because He lives He will banish every shadow of my pain
Every sorrow will be swallowed up in Him
For in His hand is healing for the weary soul
This I know, because He lives.

(Full lyrics can be found here)

Also, this: 

WHATEVER burden. Work, family, social life, anything. It's all bearable. Because He lives.
EVERY bit of pain will be gone. EVERY sorrow can disappear. Because He lives. I've seen this in my own life in the past 12 months. It's work on my part to continually trust that He can do this for me. But He can. And He will. And He does. And He will do it for you, too.

Twists and Turns

Life always makes twists and turns, and no one is overlooked in this department. Your twists and turns are almost always going to be different from those around you. There may be those times when your life twists and turns right alongside someone else's. Eventually, though, with most people, you will twist or turn a slightly different direction and you will no longer be going right next to someone else, but you might still be able to see their road very clearly from where you are. The thing to remember is that at the very end of every person's road is the same thing. So even if you take different paths now, you'll end up in the same place eventually.

Thus is my life. I was really liking the twists and turns that were coming my way. And then, one day, the road that was going right alongside mine decided to take a different path. Of course there were (are) tears. And there's still a hope that that road will someday be right alongside mine again. But for now, I have to keep looking forward so that I don't miss the next big twist or turn on my own road. 

....Summer?

I just love teaching 5th grade! And surprisingly, I love having a class of all girls! I didn't think I would because girls can be so dramatic about everything. But it has been so much fun! We get to have GTT whenever I want (girl talk time) and it's so fun to hear all their stories.

My favorite part, though, is when they tell me what they think my love life should be like. For example, a couple days ago they told me I should just walk up to this guy and "accidentally" kiss him. Yeah, because kissing happens on accident! All I could do was laugh, and they just don't get it. And that also amuses me.

On Thursdays, I have a mix of 5th and 6th grade boys and girls for drama. Before Christmas, we did a reader's theater of A Christmas Carol, and when the ghost of Christmas past takes Scrooge back to Fezziwig's, he sees himself dancing with Belle. As one of my groups left my room that day, I overheard one of the boys say "How am I ever going to get married if I don't even know how to dance?!"

Seirously, 5th grade is my favorite. And my class is super great this year! I don't know what I'm going to do next year without all of these fantastic girls.

However, I am SO excited for summer! We made a chain on the 100th day of school to count down. I might be more excited about it than my girls are! We're down to only 3 1/2 months until I spend 3 weeks in Europe. Wahoo! And then in July, I'm going to Havasupai, down in the Grand Canyon, with a bunch of friends. And we're doing the American Fork 5K again. And there's frisbee. And sno-cones. And warmth. And staying up as late as I want without worrying about having to get up early the next morning. And....I think you get the point.

Life is wonderful. It's full of ups and downs. But there's always light at the end of the tunnel. Right now, the light I'm moving towards is summer break. Only 53 days to go!

A lesson in patience

Apparently I need to learn to be patient. I've spent the last couple of weeks being SUPER frustrated with life. Boys, work, everything. You know, the usual. I've spent plenty of time whining to my sister about it all. And, because of the type of person she is, she humors me and puts up with it. And even manages to make me smile and laugh when I'm 100% not in the mood to be happy. I don't know what I'd do without her. 

One of my best friends and I have also spent a lot of time talking on the phone lately about life. I love that we can whine to each other when needed, but also that we can really have deep discussions. I don't know what I'd do without her either. I can't even count the number of times I've felt better about certain situations after talking to her!

But what I've really needed the past two weeks, I found at church today. Patience. Sure, it's something I've thought of off and on through everything. I guess today I just needed a slap in the face with it. I hadn't said anything to anyone about all these things that have been stressing me out lately. (Except the two mentioned before. And Mom. And Dad.) As we walked into sacrament and each of us handed a program, I got the first slap. The word "patience" nice and big at the top of the front cover, followed by this quote from Neal A. Maxwell:

"Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best--better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His. We can grow in faith only if we are willing to wait patiently for God's purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives, on His timetable."

I immediately turned to find the person in charge of making the programs so that I could thank him. In the sixty (or less) seconds it took me to read that, he had given me exactly what I had not been looking for. Yet, exactly what I needed. Which took me back to a couple of things another friend of mine had said in her email this week. She's currently serving a mission in Dallas, Texas, and has been experiencing her own trials. Two things caught my attention in this week's letter:

"...it's in the moments of nearly giving up that God will deliver us."

"I know God lets us hit our breaking point so that we can strengthen our faith in Him. With Him, all things are possible!"

While I was grateful for those reminders about timetables, being patient, and remembering that God is always there with us, I was left wondering to myself why is this all coming up now? What am I supposed to take from this? Well, slap number two was coming. One thing I love about a singles ward is that it's quiet during the passing of the sacrament, and therefore I can actually hear myself think. I was reading David A. Bednar's talk from this past general conference and came across the following two statements:

"...but the blessing that comes to us through heavenly windows may be greater capacity to act and change our own circumstances rather than expecting our circumstances to be changed by someone or something else."

"...but the blessing that comes to us through heavenly windows may be greater capacity to change our own circumstances rather than expecting our circumstances to be changed by someone or something else."

I realize those are both basically the same thing. But the fact that he said it twice in only two paragraphs caught my attention. Especially as we got into the next part of the meeting. Two of the members of the bishopric spoke today. And when the second one got up and said he was speaking about patience, I sighed and said to my friend next to me (we'd been talking about it just before the meeting started) "Bring it." :) At this point, I realized this was the answer (or at least part of it) to my many prayers of the last couple weeks. At one point in the talk, the speaker said that patience is more than waiting for something to happen; you have to be willing to act. Which took me back to the previous two quotes.

So, in order to be truly patient, you must to be willing to wait. But you also have to be willing to act and not just sit around being lazy. One thing he said that I really loved was to stay with something and do all that you can, even when the desires of your heart are delayed. Cue slap number three. There's a lot of things I want out of life. But apparently I just have to be willing to wait a little longer.

Yes, it's going to be hard. Yes, I'm not going to get everything I want. And I'm definitely not going to get it when I want it. But as long as I continue to build my faith, and to trust in the Lord and His timing, my patience is also going to grow. And because my patience is going to become stronger, it will make it that much easier to wait for all the good things that I desire. It may not seem easy at times. Heck, it's not easy now! (Remember all the whining I mentioned at the beginning?) And those are the times when I (and everyone else) needs to remember that our Heavenly Father does not forsake us! He will always be there to shoulder the burden with us.

I do know that my Heavenly Father is always there, even though I forget sometimes. And I'm so grateful that He is. And that He's willing to find a way to remind me through all of my stubbornness. :)

Jaipur, Agra, & Delhi pt 2

Day 3 of our tour, we got up before the sun to get ready. We were at the Taj Mahal for sunrise! Unfortunately, it was super cloudy, so although I took a LOT of pictures, there's no super cool sun-peeking-out-behind-the-Taj shots. :( Which I was really hoping for. But it was still so AWESOME!! I was seriously in awe the whole time, and it's still a little surreal that I've actually been to the Taj Mahal and walked inside and all around it. How many people can say that?! (Okay, probably a lot, but not many that I know.)

We were there for about 2 or so hours. They have professional photographers to get your pictures done with. We did a big group shot, and then I decided it was worth it to have some of just me done. However, I have yet to scan those in and upload them to my computer. But, some sweet old man came up to me and asked if he could take my picture for me. So I handed him my camera, thinking he would just take one or two for me. No. He walked me to several different places and took probably 50 pictures. Which was cool. After a while, though, I had to get back with the group (we were off to the side of the Taj, and not very many people were around at all. A little bit of a red flag to me....). I met up with Kylie, and we went inside. you have to wear shoe covers, and by this point it was starting to rain a little. I was thinking it would be bigger, and have more to explore. But it was just a circular room. Which was still cool...don't get me wrong. After walking out, we met up with a few others from our group and took a bunch of other awesome pictures. (Pictures will never do the Taj justice btw!) And then the rain really started to come down!! It was pouring and made it really had to walk in flip flops! We found cover, and tried waiting it out, but then it was time to gather at the meeting place. So we headed back in the rain. By the time we got back up to the entrance to the grounds, we were all soaked. Once we had everyone, we headed back to the bus to go back and eat breakfast and check out of our hotel. On our way, we saw monkeys on the side of the road. Like, almost close enough to touch. Being so excited about this, and somewhat forgetting the warnings from Benson and Suniel about staying away from them, we were all taking pictures when they started to hiss at us! Who knew monkeys hiss? And then they ran across the road and we moved on.

After breakfast and some time to change/dry off from all the rain, we loaded up the bus and headed to the Red Fort (aka Agra Fort). It's not far from the Taj, and is where what's-his-name that built the Taj was put in prison by his son after his wife died and he tried to spend all the money to build another one. The fort was an awesome place to explore. The rain had gone by then, and it was hot and humid. And very bright. But there was so many rooms to explore! I probably could have stayed there all day. But I could've stayed at the Taj all day, too. 

This is the room he was imprisoned in. Yeah...not much of a prison.

After the fort, we loaded up and headed to Delhi, saying goodbye to Suniel. :( He was an awesome tour guide! Our last hotel wasn't as awesome as the first 2, but it was still pretty great. We got in late, but still went out for dinner and of course, we all had naan and butter chicken. :) I slept super well that night since we'd gotten up so early! And thankfully, we had a late start to our activities the next day. So I even got to sleep in. 

Our last day, we went into Old Delhi. Wow! Delhi itself is just so different from the rest of India! A lot more westernized. But Old Delhi was an experience in and of itself. We rode a rickshaw into the city, as the streets aren't wide enough for normal vehicles. Uh...most frightening ride of my life! Kylie and I were a little scared for our lives. And our driver got lost. But, we finally made it to the street with the spice market! The shop was like a long, narrow hallway. And it smelled interesting. A mix of all the spices and whatever else was in the area. I was able to get some butter chicken masala, though! Now I just have to figure out how to make it.....    The rickshaw ride back to where the bus was meeting us was....interesting. There was a major traffic jam as we were trying to get out. We even saw some lady arguing with another rickshaw driver, and she hit him with her umbrella. Yikes. Haha. We finally got to where we were going, though, and it was a little nice to get back on the bus. We went back into New Delhi, drove past Gandhi's grave, and some neat looking government buildings. Oh, and before we left the market, Benson took us up onto the roof of some place, and we got to look down into this mosque during prayer time. That was neat! After stopping for lunch, we went to this massive stone tower. It was pretty cool to see. There was also the beginnings of what was supposed to be a second, bigger tower. 

Afterwards, it was time to say goodbye to the first round of airport goers. Man, that was hard!! Turns out when you spend so much quality time with people doing service, you truly come to love them, and it's hard to part ways. After they left, the rest of us went to visit a few temples. We were in one during prayer time; and they were praying to some guy that had died in like, 1960 something. Weird. But it was cool to see it. And all the people were looking at us like we were intruding or something. Pictures aren't allowed inside (go figure), but there was one where our tour guide told us we could take a picture but not beyond a certain point. So we did. After that, we took round 2 to the airport, and then Kylie, Maddy, Aliza, and I got to hang out at Benson's place since we didn't have to be to the airport until midnight. It was so hard to leave! But, I managed to sleep most of the way to Germany, and from there to San Fran. Jet lag was super hard to get over. Took me like, 3 weeks. Ugh. Hopefully it's not that bad for my next international trip. 

I have a friend considering going to Rising Star for the Thanksgiving session next year. If she goes, I'm totally going with her. :)

*Also, shout to Abish Travels! They were AWESOME! If you ever get to go to India, I highly suggest touring with them! :)