"Sister Celia Cruz Ayala of the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission decided to give the Book of Mormon to a friend. She wrapped it in attractive paper and set out to deliver her present.

On the way she was attacked by a bandit who stole her purse and with it the wrapped copy of the Book of Mormon. A few days later she received this letter:

'Mrs. Cruz:

Forgive me, forgive me. You will never know how sorry I am for attacking you. But because of it, my life has changed and will continue to change. That book [the Book of Mormon] has helped me in my life. The dream of that man of God has shaken me. … I am returning your five pesos for I can’t spend them. I want you to know that you seemed to have a radiance about you. That light seemed to stop me [from harming you, so] I ran away instead.

I want you to know that you will see me again, but when you do, you won’t recognize me, for I will be your brother. … Here, where I live, I have to find the Lord and go to the church you belong to.

The message you wrote in that book brought tears to my eyes. Since Wednesday night I have not been able to stop reading it. I have prayed and asked God to forgive me, [and] I ask you to forgive me. … I thought your wrapped gift was something I could sell. [Instead,] it has made me want to make my life over. Forgive me, forgive me, I beg you.

Your absent friend.'

Such is the conversion power of the Book of Mormon."

James E. Faust (Conference Report, Apr. 1996, 58)

Jane Austen Journal

I have a delightful Jane Austen journal that I had forgotten about! So when I found it this week I was excited. Before I get to my official point, in it there is a quote at the beginning of the journal.

"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery."

Jane Austen

I absolutely love this quote! When we write in our journals we should talk of good things! That way we can be strengthen and renewed in virtues when we go back to reading them again. I know that at church we are often reminded of the journal keeping we should be taking part in. I know that as I went through my past journals I have been reminded of past moments where I was given strength or kindness. Being reminded of this helps me to continue onward and remember what I had already learned and felt.

Now I am going to share with you just a fun little journal entry I stumbled upon. (It makes me laugh, I am not sure if others will find it as amusing as I do. But I also very much agree with it!)

Background info: I was reading the Hunger Games series at the time I wrote this.

January 4, 2011

I have been reading a lot over the last few days. I have concluded that the only serious relationships in high school should be the ones you read about, even then they are high maintenance!

-Em 

Book relationships are high maintenance and they often get me quite worked up!

Well, JOURNAL! And blog. Blogging, in my opinion, is a form of journaling! A fun one at that too.

So go write about the amazing experience you had at church, or the new changes in your town, or the funny quote that little kid said.

Thank you for letting me lecture you on journaling!
Go be a Nephi,

Emma

P.s. You will want to know about what was happening in your life right now when you are older. I know it.

Spelling: 6

One of the Best Days

I had one of the best days I have had for a while today. c:

Penny and I got to do some baptisms for the dead at the Logan Temple.

 

It was so fun and I had such a great feeling afterwards! I am so glad she asked me to come, because it is just what I needed. Thanks, Penny! :) I can’t wait to go to the temple every week with Emma. I feel like it will provide so much strength, which I have a feeling I will really need… ;)

After our temple trip and a sweet donut, I went to drop off my tile for the temple celebration! It’s going to be part of a ‘mosaic’ much like this one:

Afterwards I went to visit one of my favorite ladies in the ward. She is so sweet, and I am so going to miss seeing her! She is older (I am not going to ask her how old she is) and lives alone. Her nephew comes though and helps her. Not to mention our awesome ward people! Visiting and home teachers are such blessings. Anyway, back to our visit. It was really great. We’re not as awkward around each other anymore and I helped her with some things she usually wouldn’t have asked me to help her with. We talked for about an hour. She showed me some of her old sacrament trays from the tabernacle in town here, which were basically like beautiful glass plates. It had a detachable metal handle on it too. It looked really delicate. She also had a big glass pitcher they used. She then showed me a hymn book from 1889. It was given to her from her grandmother when she left on her mission (1946). It was so cool to see these things and imagine the ones who originally owned or used them.

That’s all for today! Off to work in an hour.

Love,

M

Never Alone

Today I said my hardest goodbye.
Could it have been nearly ten years?
Ten years ago, I went with my mom, timidly following her, as we went to meet a new girl in the ward. With treats in one hand and hope in the other I was excited and scared to see who the new person would be. I'm not sure why I was nervous, actually I wasn't nervous. I was anxious. I had been praying for a best friend with all the might a little nine year old could muster.
And my Heavenly Father granted me one. Better than any I could have ever find myself.
Me and Teyler have been sisters from the day we meet. You know those special friendships were you expect nothing but receive everything just through the support you give each other? That is the friendship we have. And it has been priceless all these years.
Tomorrow Teyler heads off for a new adventure in Washington. Tonight I got to stop by and wish her luck on her travels (though she doesn't need luck... She has so much inside of her that she is bound to go far and do the most amazing things).
This is the hardest goodbye.
-Emma
Ps Mariah. I miss seminary too.

Seminary!

I didn’t think I would miss high school. And I don’t. But I sort of miss my memories there. I ran into Brother (Jim) (do I still call him brother? hahha) Peterson. He is and will always be my favorite seminary teacher.

Seminary has been a large part of my life for the past four years. I have a strong testimony that it is exactly. what the youth need. It was exactly. what I needed. I think this is one of the main reasons I want to be a seminary teacher. I  love the gospel. I love the youth. I love teaching the gospel and I love teaching it to the youth. c:

One of my favorite parts of trek was sitting with my ‘sisters’ and talking quietly and then giggling every two minutes (our ‘bros’ on the other side of our tarp kept telling us to ‘shut up’ and ‘go to bed already’). We had some awkward question time, and then somehow we started talking about the gospel and seminary and seeing people for who they really are. One girl told us she was worried she would get a bad seminary class with those kids who didn’t want to be there and the loud ones. The others agreed. All I could think of was how each one of my seminary classes was meant to be. Each one. Each teacher I had. Each person in each class is supposed to be there, and I told them that. I got to bare my testimony that seminary was going to be what they made it, and that they were meant to be in the class they are in.

Anywho. I can’t wait, and I hope it happens for me. If not, well, that’s okay.

I can’t wait until the future! I am loving the present too, but there are so many things to look forward to.

Sorry if you don’t like talking about Seminary. Oh, wait, not that sorry. ;D

Love,

M

Little Talks

I AM HOME! HOME I AM! :D
And may I say, the temple is absolutely stunning! Really, one of the things that always made me homesick was missing out on special temple events. Really it made me very disheartened, thankfully my roommate Collette helped me countless times to remind me I was where I needed to be.

I love my temple.

Love it.

Well, I cannot even begin to say how amazing it feels to be home! Except my parents are on a weird diet, so all the glorious homemade food I was looking forward to turns out to be nothing but fresh fruit and veggies. whoo.......... (said with lack of enthusiasm.)

I cannot believe I have survived me first term! <-- Said with an Irish accent, because people tell me I have one... haha.

Which is odd...

 I never really loved/liked Irish accents...

Earholes? Pandora just told me that I would like my music in my earholes...

Good. Commercial ended and John Mayer is on! Woot! Thank you JM for saving me.

Oh and also along the lines of weird sayings:
I was watching a recording of SYTYCD and the big headline for the news that night was "What is this man who is dressed as a goat?"
Hmm....
I don't even know what to say about this.
Maybe I can say: "What has this nation come to? Where a man cannot dress in a goat costume with out having his motives questioned! If the founding fathers heard about this!"
Just joking. I think I am sun delusional.
Ya know, when you were in the direct sun all day, trying to make up for the summer you never got, and then you just feel over sun-inated.

Well, with that, I think I should end.
Emma-Bird!
Spelling.... ewww... this is going to be bad...
opps! Not to bad! I just can't spell deliopuisdfouspg.... that one word. That I don't want to look up to see how to actually spell.

Art

So, I don’t know what to blog about so I am going to show you some art that inspires me.

  Let’s start with the lovely Alphonse Mucha! He is my favorite artist. I have to tell you how in love I am with the romanticism in each of his art nouveau pieces. The borders that surround most pieces, the flowers, the flowing hair, the long shape. Yeah, and I am a fan of the way he creates his words.

Next we have Gabriel Moreno, whose work astounds me! :) Just look at those hands. The lines he uses and swirls of pattern within an everyday person is amazing. Yup. He is perty cool.

This one is supposed to be Lot’s wife, I believe. The artist is Same Weber. I don’t exactly know why I like this one so much. The effects on it are done by sprinkling salt and not yet dry paint. As the salt crystals spread out into the water, so does the paint. I’ve been wanting to try this out, but I haven’t yet.

 

Well, I need to get ready for work. I will blog about my life later.

Love,

Mariah

Go Easy On Me

<3 john="john" mayer="mayer" p="p">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfQWE2TAx00

"Go easy on me
for the night has been long,
I'm not quite as strong as you see me.
I came here alone
and I leave on my own,
the next stop is home so go easy on me."
Dedicated to my week of finals. Go easy on me! ;)

Imma coming home this week! See you in three days.

Annie

Mariah posted!!!!!!!!!!! And an amazing post too!!!!!! Yippie day!
Now for Laura.
Emma

Say

I don't feel like doing anything. And people want me want to do things...
Id rather listen to chill music and clean the mess of a room I have.
Emma
What a productive post.

Happenings of a Recent Nature!

Welp, I am blogging from my phone today! Always fun! :)

So, I leave for school on August 22nd, and boy am I excited! I am getting a bit more nervous as the date approaches and I think about it more. Ah, it is quite wracking to my nerves. ...

BUT!! Emma and I will be in the same building and floor! That is exciting! :) We are going to have a lot of fun. I bet she will be an immense help, too.

I wasn't going to stay in Helaman Halls because it is so stinking expensive, but recently everything has been pointing that way. It is amazing how the Lord works His will out even if I don't know about it or don't think that it is His will. If that makes sense. Nothing was going "right" with the housing and I was getting so anxious about it. The other buildings were full! I kept praying for help but when I didn't get what I wanted and thought best, I just thought Heavenly Father wanted to teach me patience and how to rely on Him. Come to find out He wanted me to see He had a different and better plan. He's cool. I said in the Girl's Camp testimony meeting that He is my best friend. It's true. I love my Heavenly Father and Mother and Brother. :)

I have been drawing a lot lately. It is really cool how much drawing has become a part of my life. I'm trying to get better at drawing the human figure, not just the head. :) haha Although sometimes I just have to go back to my favorite thing to draw!! At the end of this post are some of my recent drawings.

Girls Camp was this week! It was fun, and sad in a way. Pretty much cried throughout testimony meeting like a baby, but I couldn't help it. And I have felt the spirit so strongly ever since! I am so grateful. I couldn't help thinking Jenny E should have been there, though. :( :)

So throughout Girl's Camp we had a recently returned missionary (think two weeks or so) come as our Priesthood leader. The girls were flirting with him like crazy! It was absurd. But funny. I found it quite amusing. I am just not like that. I don't really flirt. :) I more like to seduce people with my lovely awkwardness. ;D Anywho, before testimony meeting we young people (aka no leaders) were sitting at the fire. I was minding my own beeswax, drawing the mountains, when one of the new Beehives said "Wouldn't Mariah and Recently Returned Missionary make a cute couple?" Well, it passed around and not one person was being quiet. He was sitting with us too! Embarrassing! He told me not to listen to them and I said I was trying not to. It's funny looking back--oh, wait, still not too funny. Haha just kidding.

Well, that is all for today!

Love,
Mariah.

Amsterdam

It is August. August! Already. And Summer term ends next week.

I have to confess. I am absolutely grateful I took summer term. Yes it was hard, yes it was fun, and yes it has helped me in so many ways. I feel like I am more prepared to handle anything that comes my way. I have learned about people, being a student, and improving myself. I know areas I need to improve and focus more.

Well, more than anything, I miss my Brigham City temple. I hear about all the fun happenings going on concerning the temple and it makes me homesick! Next week I will be there and I am going to have fun seeing my temple!!! :D

See you real soon!
Emma Rose Phipps

I JUST GOT THE BEST TEXT FROM MARIAH!!!! SHE WILL BE STAYING IN THE SAME BUILDING AS ME!!!! ICOULDNTBEMOREHAPPY!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D