My Forever Family

              ( We Can Live with God Again- Mormon Message) 


With any righteous decision a person makes there will always be opposition. Good things always come with some type of price involving faith, humility, and hard work.Satan does not want us to be happy and will do anything in his power to make you miserable. Misery loves company! With my mission drawing closer I have been able to experience a little of what this means. After my semester ended, I was able to go back home to finish my mission paperwork and wait for my mission call to arrive. During that time my grandpa was able to fly in and stay with us for a couple months. While he was here he was very dependent on my parents and I to help him with basic necessities. Because my parents were gone during the mornings and afternoon I would need to help out more then I did in the evenings. I'm embarrassed that I didn't have the best attitude at first. Of course there were other things I would rather do, but I didn't realize how important it was to serve, help, and love my grandpa. Although it was hard, working on my attitude became a constant every day job. As I slowly changed my attitude I realized how important it was that I was there because he really needed me. Over time, his health began to decline to the point where my parents decided he needed the 24 hour medical care of a nursing home. I was able to help him one last time and fly him back to his home where he could get the medical assistance from his healthcare specialists he needed. That was in July and a couple weeks ago my Grandpa Mel passed away. There are so many emotions that someone can experience with a passing and so many ways Satan will try to make you feel hopeless and helpless. I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to serve my grandpa and love him when a lot of his other family wouldn't. I'm grateful that he was there to share in my special moment when I opened my call and thankful for his support on my decision. This experience has only drawn me closer to my Heavenly Father and immediate family. I know I'll see him again. We all will see our loved ones again. This earth life is so short and I can't wait to spend part of my earth life serving a full time mission. I'm anxious for the opportunity to tell others of the love  our Heavenly Father and Savior has for them. I look forward to sacrificing my time with my eternal family so that those I teach can have forever families too!

                      (all of my siblings minus one of my brothers, parents, niece, nephew, and I)

I've learned that we all are going to experience hardships and struggles in life during our time on earth. I hope that we can all focus on others during those times instead of ourselves and reach out to those in need.



                    Supposing today were your last day on earth, the last mile of the journey you've trod; after all of your struggles, how much are you worth, how much can you take home to God? Don't count as possessions your silver and gold, tomorrow you leave these behind, and all that is yours to have and to hold is the service you've given mankind. - Anonymous 

Trailblazer: The Path Called Life

Here it is! My blog that I’ll have for the next 18 months! I can’t believe this is where life has taken me. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord. When I say I never thought this is where I’d be, it’s the honest truth! I am currently going to school at Brigham Young University-Idaho. My plan was to plow through school, get my degree, do humanitarian work abroad, come home, get my masters, get my dream job, and so on. So that’s what was happening, but something felt off. I was just starting my second year of college and my dream plan was missing something. I couldn’t figure out what it was. Without getting into details, the end of the semester was coming and I was faced with two decisions. A big old fork in the road of my life. To go on a mission or continue on the path that I was already on. So I prayed about which decision was best, and nothing happened. No answer. No promptings. No light bulb. SO frustrating! Then I realized that God isn’t there to tell us word for word what we should do with our life. He doesn’t give us a map and say here you go, this is the college you need to go to, what degree you need to get, what guy you need to marry, and look here’s an opening for your dream job! I wish that was how it worked! One HUGE reason why we are here on earth is so that we could have the opportunity to make decisions and choices. Life is full of em’ and Heavenly Father wants to leave it up to us. Of course he wants us to make righteous choices that will lead us back to Him, but he can’t force us.

           (Hiking a trail called "Little Gnarly", one that was full of many forks in the road. Kinda sounds familiar doesn't it?)

Here I am again, on my knees. This time instead of asking which option is best, I just settled with the attitude, “Well since you aren’t going to tell me I’ll just keep going on with school”. I continued with my semester, everything felt “okay” until I started organizing my schedule and looking into classes for the next semester. Once more it didn’t feel right, I was missing the mark. After evaluating everything that I’ve done and studied the thought of going on a mission in my mind, I approached my Father in Heaven with a much more humble attitude. Then I got my answer. In conclusion, there are multiple things I learned from this experience:

1        1. Heavenly Father loves us, that’s a fact.

2        2.   He is there to HELP you with your decision, but he isn't going to choose for you. Sometimes we have to learn that the hard way. No matter what choices you have in life there are always consequences that will lead towards Him or away from Him. Occasionally we slip up and that’s okay because our Savior has paid the ultimate price and has given us the gift of repentance. And remember if you don’t like your consequences change your actions!

3       3.  Last and most important is that His plan for our life is WAY better than our plan will ever be. He can see the beginning from the end, where we can only see what is in front of us.

 It’s our CHOICE to put trust in Him. And it’s the best choice you will ever make. Make sure you have a plan for your life, but just remember, life is full of choices and plans change. Be open to those changes and talk to your Father in Heaven. He’ll help you out! 

(Here is a video that I found that relates to my situation SO MUCH, but a video we can all relate to in whatever part of life we are in right now)

 As I said before, my prayers were answered and I made that decision. I’m going to the Dominican Republic, Santiago mission. I’ll report October, 22 2014 to the Dominican Republic MTC. This is the blog that my family will be posting my letters on. You are welcome to read them, and I would LOVE to hear from ya’ll!