probably one of my deeper blog posts

I learned a very important lesson today as I was pondering over something that upset me a lot. Basically, to make a long story short, a guy from my ward told me that the reason I never went on dates was because I was not social enough and I did not hang out with other people enough. Naturally, this was upsetting to me because I don't enjoy being super social most of the time and what he saw as not enough effort on my part was me putting in a lot of effort to be around and to hang out with people.

It got me thinking about how we are all different and how there will always be people that will not understand our feelings, our motives, and the things we do. Even if we have a lot of things in common with a person, they will never be able to understand everything about us. I think this may be one of the hardest challenges of this life... learning to serve people and to help them in the ways they need when we may not even understand why they feel a certain way or do certain things. We may judge them and try to blame the things we dislike about them on the actions they take, but we will never truly understand how they think and how this changes their actions.

So that's my goal this next week. to stop judging people so much and to give them the benefit of the doubt. that they really are trying their hardest to be the best they can be in life. because I know sometimes I am trying my hardest, and to others it may not seem too impressive.

I'm grateful for hard lessons sometimes. and for realizing that even though there will never be anyone on this earth who completely understands my every motive and interest and desire and struggle, that I have a Heavenly Father who knows all of that and yet still loves me infinitely and cheers me on. what a glorious blessing.

hooray for the weekend!

Weekends are the best thing that ever happened to me. I always want to jump for joy that I have made it through another week! This weekend is going to be great... a zombie race, a delicious lunch at Tucano's and some Halloween partying! and hopefully some studying for my two midterms somewhere in there!

some highlights of the last two weeks:

*hanging out with the lovely Sharon
*murder mystery party
*signing up for the last classes I will ever take at BYU (getting super weirded out)
*celebrating my 20 pounds of weight loss with a new pair of jeans! (that might change after Tucano's!)
*a lovely ward temple trip

Here's to a great weekend! This semester has been so stressful and crazy, but I am grateful that taking the time to count my blessings every day, to enjoy the little things, and to ask for help when I need it has helped me to remain happy. 

weight loss

My effort the last couple weeks was only so so. After a few weeks of eating what I wanted and not really caring, I decided it was time to get serious again. the last two days have been full of healthy food! Now to keep it up!

Current Weight: 147.8 pounds

Thank goodness for my cycling class to help keep me in shape and to help me see results!

life...

yesterday was quite a crazy day.

the worst part of it all being that I spent a fair amount of money getting my iPod fixed and seconds later it fell. to the ground. shattered again.

there were a few other things that were just a little crazy. mainly dealing with some changes in my life. like the fact that one of my best friends just left on a mission. I am so happy for her. but seriously, she was one of my best friends. the one I could call about everything, especially when I was stressed or having a bad day. and writing a letter and waiting for one just isn't the same.

and then another one of my friends said she might be getting married soon. what? I already had one of my good friends get married. I am NOT ready for this to happen all over again.

I've learned in my individual development class that it is okay to be sad. as long as it's not every day. and overall, I am happy. I have learned that part of being happy is allowing myself to feel these emotions, to recognize them and allow them to happen and to take time doing things that make me happy.

Thanks to a hangout session with a long lost friend, some pumpkin smash Jamba Juice, the nice people that gave me a discount to fix my iPod the second time, reminiscing with some high school friends, and prayer, life is going to be good.

General Conference

I loved every minute of it. There were lots of small questions and ways I wanted to improve that I got some good answers to. I am so grateful for this church and for the opportunities to hear from the prophet and general authorities.

One of my favorite things to do is pay attention to what topics are touched on more than once. I feel like those are pretty important things that I should be focusing on. The ones I noticed were: \

*conversion is a process
*we need to become as a little child (I think this was in at least 4 talks)
*the home should be the primary place of religious instruction, not the church
*analogies using the apostles after Christ's death. we need to show we love Him through our loyalty and we need to stay with the Savior.

A couple other good quotes (one from conference and one not):

"Don't wait until you are about to die to truly learn how to live." -Uchtdorf

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” -Winston  Churchill