I Love to See the Temple

On Tuesday morning, Emily and I went to the temple together. It was a beautiful morning and I was so excited when she called me to go with her. I love the walk up to the temple and it brought back so many memories. I've missed it the past 4 months. It was crazy walking by the MTC and realizing how many friends I have that spent their time there and are already out in the mission field. I especially loved walking up to the temple. It is absolutely gorgeous up there. I had forgotten what all the pretty flowers look like since there were none during the winter and majority of the time that I attended the temple. It reminded me of all the relaxing Sundays I spent reading my scriptures or writing in my journal up there and the fun walks I took with different friends last summer. It truly was the best way to start my time here at BYU. I am so grateful for a beautiful temple right up the street and that I have the opportunity to go whenever I please. I recognized so many of the temple worker's faces and enjoyed every second that I was there. The temple is such a wonderful place to be!

RA Training

Seriously, such a fun week! I loved every minute of it even though I was exhausted, sore, and a little bit beat up. We started on Monday morning at 8 am and I had just arrived in Provo 3 short hours earlier at 5. It was quite an adventure to say the least. In fact, I think "adventure" was my favorite word of the week. We did some things around campus which included going to get my social security card since I forgot it at home :/ After learning some basic things all day we had FHE at the base of Provo Canyon which was a lot of fun!

Tuesday we headed up to Salt Lake and had classes at the BYU Salt Lake Center, had lunch at the Gateway Mall, played some games and had dinner at a park, and then finishing the night by hiking Ensign Peak and having a little devotional.

Throughout the week, we traveled in huge 12 passenger vans with our associate groups. 2 Hall Advisors, 5 girl RAs and 5 boy RAs. We had a BLAST! We felt like we had known each other our entire lives and became instant friends. We jammed in the car to Call Me Maybe, NSYNC, and Backstreet Boys as well as played fun games and laughed a lot! We definitely lucked out with such a great group.

Wednesday we went to the CLAS ropes course which was so much fun. I've been to ropes courses before and it's always a good experience. We learned about cooperation and teamwork and also tried new things. It was fun to cheer for people and watch them face their fears and overcome them! We had the rest of the day off which was kind of nice to have a little break!

Thursday we headed up to Spring Haven which is a BYU owned mansion. It is gorgeous! I wish I lived up there. We spent the whole day up there and learned about emergencies, and programming, and CS meetings, and even had a little heated conversation about dating while being an RA haha! I started to get a cold and let me tell you, it is not fun when you can't breathe! Almost impossible to sleep!

Friday was a pretty relaxed day as well with just a little bit of training. That night, the girls that I work with all got together and we worked on our decorations for our halls! It was a lot of fun to talk and get to know each other better!

Saturday I had the opportunity to go up to Salt Lake for my cousin Abby's baptism. She is adorable! It was fun to spend some time with family. I then went to watch a movie with my new friends Emily and Alli!

Sunday I went to church which was only 1 hour and then unpacked some more.

Monday we did 2 hours of training and then I hung out with Emily! We also went RA FHE where we had a lesson and played some games. There is such a great group of RAs this year. A lot of strong leaders and fun people to be around. The freshman are so lucky to have such amazing people to look up to and get help from!

Wednesday was the big check-in day and also the day that my family came! Since then, I've just been busy working and getting stuff done with my family. We have done lots of shopping, eating good food, going up to Salt Lake, jumping at Lowe's Extreme Air Sports, watching a movie together, enjoying being at the cabin, and I'm looking forward to more fun this next week!

I can't believe school starts tomorrow and I can't wait to meet all of my girls and to get to know them! It seems crazy how fast time is flying, but I'm having so much fun! It is definitely going to be a great year.

Back Already?

I've been incredibly busy but just wanted to write a little about what has been going on. The past few weeks have been a blur, but basically I had the production of "Reel Music", finished up at work, went camping in Ephrata (Oasis camping is in-TENTS!!), had a job interview, drove down to Utah on Sunday, and have been at RA training all week! It has been a blast and I am so grateful for this opportunity. I am super excited for this upcoming school year and can't believe summer flew by so fast. Although it's been a little hectic and crazy, I'm slowing figuring things out and just taking it one step at a time, while trying to get enough sleep and avoid getting sick!

BYU scheduling is driving me crazy. Why does it have to be so complicated? And why must I go through the same thing two or three times a year for the next three years? NOT FUN! It's just hard when you don't have much wiggle room. Definitely one of the downfalls of having your life planned out to every last detail haha!