LDS Temples

All around the world are beautiful Mormon (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or LDS)temples. Each is unique and beautiful in it's own way yet they all are built for the same reason and serve for the same purposes.



(My family in 1997, during the open house of the Saint Louis Missouri Temple)
Before each temple is dedicated, an open house is held for the public and those not of our faith to come inside.

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(The girls in my family in 2002, during the Nauvoo Illinois Temple open house).


(My family in 2010 in front of the Salt Lake City Utah Temple).



This spring my family will once again be able to go to another open house for another temple. The Kansas City Temple (pictured above) will be open to the public April 7-21. Though it is free, there are limited tickets. If you are interested you can reserve your ticket at https://templeopenhouse.lds.org/ This is truly an amazing experience and I highly encourage you to try to attend.

If you have questions or want to know more about Mormon temples, feel free to visit http://www.lds.org/church/temples

Things are rolling along

This semester seems to be flying by (sorry for slacking on the blogging), I am almost halfway done with this winter semester. So far it has been just as, if not more, enjoyable as all the rest. So I am just going to keep rolling with it.

I am planning on staying in Utah for the summer, but hopefully I will be able to make it home for a week or two. My ideal plan would be to stay with my grandparents and work as in intern at Deseret Book. I am not sure how that is going to turn out we will just have to see.

Inky

Yes, that is ink on my hand, but no, I didn't write hard enough for it to explode in my hand. I just happened to write a little without realizing that it had exploded in my bag. Then, because I didn't want to get distracted by leaving this little section of the library, I tried to clean it off with hand sanitizer. Just because this might happen to you, let me just forewarn you that this doesn't work. And ink gets EVERYWHERE! Not only was it all over my hands but there were smears all over my papers, on other pens, and my headphones. Because of the last one I ended up with some ink in my ears. Not to mention the ink smeared on my face. What an adventure, a nice distraction from my paper. I can't help but wonder what the guy at the checkout counter was thinking when I kept coming back for hand sanitizer, each time with a little more ink smeared on my face.

I am getting so close to the end of the semester (only 3 early morning finals, one take home final, and one/two papers left) which means lots of studying and writing. I am not sure if I have ever spent so much time in a library in my whole life. There have been a few days that I leave 28 (my apartment) at 7:30 and don't get back to 28 until midnight. Today (a Saturday!) I left at 8:45 and am not quite sure when I will be getting back, maybe 10 or 11? But honestly I don't mind. It's not like I have had more to do (ok maybe I do), I just found that I get a whole lot more done while I am tucked away in a quiet place in the library.

(countdown til the end of the semester & the end of finals til April)

I decided to start a countdown at work with a ridiculously long title. I guess I should have taken a more recent picture because there are less than 10 days left!

Christmas is just around the corner...

Kid History - Episode 7 (Christmas) - by BoredShortsTV

I am not sure how popular Kid History is, but I thought I would share. "Christmas is a magical time of joy and wonder...Like you wonder when you are gonna get to open presents." This has so much truth to the thoughts that kids have I just love it!

Final Stretch

Hopefully this is really all that I have up until finals...but there always seems to be something that I forget to write down. I am literally stretching myself! I am running on three hours of sleep for the second day in a row. Hopefully I can get a few things done at the library today so that I can get to bed at a decent time and really enjoy my Sabbath tomorrow. Tomorrow at 6pm Mountain standard time(Utah time)is the Christmas Devotional given by the First Presidency (President Thomas S. Monson, Henry B. Eyring, and Dieter F. Uchtdorf). My roommates and I are planning on going up to Salt Lake to Temple square to look at the lights and watch it. I cannot wait! Hopefully the weather doesn't try to stop those plans.

Time Out

(Cindy Pennington, Natalie Pennington, Sheri Dew, Karee Brown, Hannah Rackham, Emily Baer, Breanne Anderson)

Life is busy! Life as a college student, life as a friend, life as a daughter. Though some of my roles are not quite as pressing at this point in my life, I still need to take some time out and to be still. Time Out for Women, is one of these such opportunities. This year the theme was "Choose to Become: Discover your possibilities." This amazing weekend of learning, music and fun is put on by Deseret Book. For those of you who do not know about Deseret Book, it is a LDS (Latter-day Saint) owned and operated book company that I hope to someday write for. This weekend I was able to hear a few really inspiring talks about happiness, beauty, love, friendship and more. All of the lessons that I learned were things I really want to apply to my life and am going to share within the next few weeks.

What Mom should know

( I just love the trees in the background!!)

I am now almost finished with my first semester of my sophomore year, it's hard to be believe how fast it has flown by. I normally talk to my mom at least twice a day (depending on the day, but sometimes more). But I was thinking that it would be nice to share with all of you who I don't talk with quite as much, a little about what I have been up to.

10. Don't worry!!! I don't have a boyfriend...not that that is really bothering me, that's just one of those things that Mom (and Dad) would be concerned about, right?


(Mike Davis, who took me to this beautiful scene. We went rode four-wheelers, hiked, rode paddle boats, skipped rocks, and had a picnic. He let me drive a couple of times and I have to say it was kind of scary at first, but he thought I was pretty good.)

9. I have been keeping really busy with 16 credits and 20 hours of work. I am enjoying my new job as an assistant accountant. It has been nice to switch to an indoor job right as it was getting cold. I really enjoy the people that I work with and sitting in front of a computer hasn't been too bad. I am learning so much about how to run different programs (call me a nerd) and I actually like it.

8. I am not so sure about my major... I really enjoy writing, but not so sure I like literature.


(Halloween party...Yeah I am with Lady Gaga!)

7. I am wanting to write books or even be an editor. I am planning on interviewing the CEO of prestigious company called Deseret Book to see if I would like to work in that field.



6. I am keeping my grades up for the most part.

5. I am trying to not stay up too late. OK so maybe I am not trying too hard because I am planning on staying here in the second floor of the library til midnight.


(Thank you Hannah and Natalie!!)

4. I have wonderful friends who are looking after me. Two of which surprised me on my birthday with a sign and breakfast! Later my roommates throw me a "surprise" birthday party. They are so great! I am trying pretty hard to keep branching out and making new friends.



3. I am currently serving on the Compassionate Service Committee at church. This isn't as time consuming as my last calling as second counselor in the Relief Society, but it is what I make of it. For those of you who aren't quite as familiar with the Relief Society (I really didn't know much about the Compassionate Service Committee myself) I work with a group of four other girls to plan different activities for the girls in my ward. I have been put in charge of the different challenges each week. This week the challenge was to write a missionary, of which I need to do myself. We are also designing a system of "Tattle telling" that if someone knows of a need of a girl we are going to anonymously leave a note. So if there is a girl who is sick (but wouldn't tell anyone) her roommate would leave a note telling us and we would arrange for someone to take her soup or something.

2. I have had so many homesick moments and am looking forward to Christmas break. It is hard to think that the kids are growing up without me. And I often feel left out because I keep hearing about all the fun things that you are doing without me. BUT I like it! So don't stop.

1. I am going to Arizona for Thanksgiving!!! Why? A boy! Well I do have family there, in fact, that aunt is my only connection to this boy, well young man, she is setting me up. I don't know much about him... not even his name, but I know he is tall, blonde, and smart. He will be heading off to dental school in the Spring. I guess we will just have to see how it goes. I will have three or four days to go on dates and get to know him, not to mention Thanksgiving dinner which my aunt has so conveniently set up for me. (She is so nice!)

Mom and Dad, I hope that you are proud of me. Proud of what I have done and where I am right now. I am trying my best! I love you!