Released...and fun day today

It's been a few days since I posted, so I thought I should update on what has been going on. This weekend was pretty emotional. We had our Primary Program yesterday, and right before the program, our Presidency was released. We knew it was coming, but it was bittersweet. Thankfully the program went great, and I was so proud of our little kids. I've worked with them for 2 1/2 years, so I've watched them grow up, and have loved getting to know their little personalities. They did so well, and made me teary eyed. My favorite was the last song, "Called to Serve," where we had them wave flags from various countries. They were so excited, and watching all those little kids with flags made me cry--thinking that in not too many years, many of these little ones will be serving missions.

After the program, we had them watch a little picture video that my secretary Malia made, and gave them popcorn, then took pictures of them with their flags, and pictures of our Presidency.

It was a nice way to go out, but I will sure miss this calling. I have loved it so much, and have especially loved working with my Presidency. Thanks to them for all they did to help me.

Today was great! Karla came up to visit me at work with the kids, and we had a great time. I took them down to the COB cafeteria to eat lunch, and they were so good. They helped carry the trays, and were really quiet while they ate. I forgot to get a picture of them there. Then they came up to my office to see where I worked, and got to meet some of my co-workers. Here they are at my desk:

Then I showed them that from the office down the hall, you can see the temple through the window (you can just barely see it in this picture, because of the lighting, but it is very visible in real life). Dannan must have heard us talking about it, because while I was turned the other way, she ran into the office and said, "Temple!" Thankfully no one was in the office at the time. I thought that was darling.

After we visited my office, we walked around the garden area in front of the Church Office Building, and took pictures in front of the temple. The boys and Dannan really liked the little river that runs through there.

We walked over to Temple Square, and the gate to the temple was open, so I told them they could go touch the temple, and talked to them about how sacred it is, and told them about how much sacrifice it took to build it. Then we got some pictures on the steps, and walked around Temple Square a little bit longer, until I had to get back to work. It was so fun to have them come up and visit me, and I loved being at Temple Square with them. I loved going when I was young, so it was fun to share it with my niece and nephews. Thanks for bringing them up, Karla!

One other thing--if you want an inspiring story, check out this link, which I got from the blog I talked about in my last post (I have a link to her blog on the right--C jane enjoy it). This is a news story that was written about her sister and brother in law who were in the plane crash. It sure made me cry! There is also a video next to the story that is very inspiring as well: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/10/26/20081026sisters1026a1.html

Okay, that's enough for now. I'll post again soon.

Good Quote

I found this quote on a blog I'm following (cjanerun.com), which is written by the lady whose sister and brother in law were in a plane crash and were horribly burned. She writes so honestly about how hard it is for the whole family, but also has so much hope, and writes so often about how much Heavenly Father is helping them through this trying time. I loved this quote that was on there today:

Hope is the anticipation that the outcome will be good.

Worry is the anticipation that the outcome will be bad.

Faith is the anticipation that whatever the outcome, it will be for our good.

I know that sometimes life can seem very hard, and we live in challenging and trying times. But I also know that if we choose to have faith, that Heavenly Father will help us through whatever comes in our life, and that all things will work together for our good.

A walk through Memory Grove...and Witchapalooza!!

Today was another great day, so my faithful blog readers (all 3 of you) will have to endure more pictures.

During lunchtime today my coworker Donna and I walked again. This time we walked up to Memory Grove, and were going to go to City Creek Canyon, but decided to take a little path up the mountain--it was REALLY steep, with a bunch of switchbacks, and we kept saying we were going to turn back, but finally made it to the top, and saw some beautiful views, especially with the fall colors in Memory Grove. Here are some pictures (descriptions are underneath the pictures):


This is a little park through the middle of the road that leads into Memory Grove.


This is a little pathway in Memory Grove.



Aren't the colors on this tree just amazing?

Off to the right, as you are walking through Memory Grove, is this bell and little Roman looking buildings.

And lo and behold, to the left is Memorial House, where my parents had their wedding reception. I saw it the first time we walked up this way--I never knew where it was. I just had to snap a picture. I love you Mom and Dad! Let's have your 50th here for old times sake!

Here's where we crossed a little bridge, looking back through Memory Grove. You can just see the Church Office Building way in the distance.

Here's the view from the first switchback as we started walking up the mountain (and boy, were my legs burning!!) You can see Memorial House down below the State Capital.

And another switchback--we're getting higher!

And we finally made it to the top. I am going to be sore tomorrow!

Okay, I know this is a long post. But just a few more pictures. Tonight our Primary Presidency went up to Gardner Village for one last hurrah before we get released this Sunday (I hope no one in my ward is reading this, but if so, I guess they would have found out in a few days anyway). I love these women--they have done so much to help support me, and have always taken on whatever is needed. We had so much fun tonight--we went to Witchapalooza, and it ended up being a musical with lots of audience interaction . We sure had fun. I'll end with more pictures.

(Table picture, left to right: me, Tara, Malia, and Bri)

And to those of you who got me into blogging, you're in trouble--because it is now 11:00, and I should have been in bed an hour ago. What can I say? I'm hooked!

Fun weekend

Karla told me yesterday that I don't post often enough, so I thought I'd write about what I did this last weekend. My parents had a weed pulling party at their house on Saturday. I wasn't able to go to most of it, but went at the end and had fun playing with the kids. Here are some pictures. The boys didn't get dirty working--they were actually playing with chalk in the water from spraying off the pavement. But it sure looks like they did lots of dirty work!

Then Jan and I decided to take a couple of the kids to our house for the afternoon. We watched our 31st birthday video that Dave, Dan and Emilee made for us, and they loved the dancing part. Here are some pictures of them rocking out. You gotta love Jan's "stop in the name of love" dance move!








Ad and Stace came and picked up Josh and Bri to take them to their Grandma's house. On the way to take Jenni home, we stopped with Dan and Em at their newly finished Rental Center/Dance studio, and did some more dancing. It looks so great, and it was fun to dance together. Dan and Em were tearing up the floor, as usual! I got to dance with little Matthew, and he LOVED it. I would have put a picture of me in, but I wasn't looking my best that night. :)

Then on Sunday, after practicing the Primary Program in Sharing Time with my Primary kids (they did great, and are really excited for the program next week) I went to Mom and Dad's house to have dinner with Seth and Karla. Stace and the kids came up, and Mom hid the mailbox, which they love. She puts candy in a little mailbox, has the kids close their eyes while she hides it, and then leads them by the hands to find it. Logan found it this time, and handed out the candy to everyone. It was so cute.

All in all it was a great weekend--and I got to see lots of my little kiddies. I love that my family all lives so close. Oh, and today is my oldest neice Holly's 10th birthday! I can't believe it was 10 years ago that she was born! She is growing into such a good girl, and I know she'll love Young Women's in two years.

I'll write more again soon!

What a great day at work!

Today was such a great day at work. We had a retirement reception at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for one of the men in our office who is retiring to be a Temple President in Spain. When I got over there for the reception, Elder Richard G. Scott was there, along with quite a few of the other Seventy. I was standing close to Elder Scott, and talking to his secretary, who I've met a few times. I was going to shake Elder Scott's hand, but decided I didn't want to bother him. I wish I had now--his secretary offered to introduce me. But he had quite a few people talking to him. It was nice to be so close to him though--I was standing right next to him for a few minutes.

They they had a short program where Brother Moore and his wife spoke about their feelings about leaving the Church Office Building and their feelings about being a Temple President and matron. Then Elder Scott made some comments, and the spirit was so strong! He blessed them with great joy in their calling, and peace for their family, among other things. We were just in a room in the JSMB, not too big, and it was so wonderful to be so close to a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and to hear him speak so personally and with so much love.

We started getting food, and then I looked over and saw that President Uchtdorf had come. I couldn't believe he was there. I decided that I just had to shake his hand--I love him so much! I set my plate down right in the midst of getting food, and walked over (he was pretty close to the table). He had just gotten done talking to someone, and I said something like, "I'm sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to thank you for your inspired talks. They are so wonderful." He said thank you, shook my hand, and smiled at me. It was so amazing to be able to greet a member of the First Presidency. What a blessing!

After the reception my friend Donna and I went walking--we often go walking during lunch, usually in the streets around Temple Square. But I had my camera today, so I asked her if we could walk through Temple Square. It was a beautiful fall day and got some pictures. We also walked around the Conference Center. I've never seen the back, and it was so beautiful! I'll end my post with these pictures from our walk. I have the best job!!!










By the way, I love this last picture of the sun shining from above the back of the Conference Center. It makes me think of how God pours His light out to us from our leaders during Conference!

God is Faithful...

I have been thinking tonight that I should do another post, and as I was thinking about what to blog about, I felt like I should tell my job story. Warning--it is really long. But I have been so blessed in the last few months--really for the last 15 years, that I felt like I should share my story to tesify how much our Heavenly Father loves each one of us, and how much He wants to bless us. So, here goes.

When I graduated from BYU 15 years ago, I knew I was supposed to work at BYU. I ended up looking for 9 months, and did temporary work on the side while I waited. Still no job. Finally, after a lot of prayers and waiting, and through some little miracles, I got a call to interview for a job in the Registration Office, and was hired two days later. I ended up working in that job for 14 years, and I loved it. I worked for 4 1/2 years in the Registration Office, then moved up to the Registrar's Office to be the Administrative Assistant to the Registrar for 7 1/2 years, and then for the last 2 years was the Discontinuance Counselor, helping students who needed to leave BYU. I made so many good friends, and had been there for so long that it was like my second home.

I loved all of my different responsibilites there, but I especially loved being Discontinuance Counselor. I had my own office, and was able to do so much to help students. I knew I was making a difference, and loved to help lift the burdens from the students who came into my office. My favorite thing to hear was for someone to tell me, "I was so worried when I came in to talk to you, but I feel so much better now." Here is a picture of me in my office in October of 2007:



I remember thinking one day after I'd been in Discontinuance for awhile that even if I never got married, I was so happy in my job that this was a job I could stay in until I retired. But Heavenly Father had other plans for me. In October of 2007, a year ago, we were having a family blessing for my little sister who had been sick for a long time. She got an amazing blessing, and I was so happy for her. But after her blessing, I started feeling the strongest feeling that I should get a blessing too. I wondered why, because I was so happy in my life--my calling was going well, I loved my job, and was happier than I'd been in a long time. But I knew I needed to. So I did, and found out later that this blessing would change my life. I was told some amazing things in that blessing, including that it was time for me to make a change in my life. I have to admit that I thought I was going to get married soon, and was so grateful. My Dad told me after he gave me the blessing that he felt strongly like I would be leaving BYU, but I thought that was because I was going to get married.

A month later, my Dad called me and told me he'd had the strongest impression again that I needed to tell BYU I was leaving now. I was pretty floored, and said, "Well, I'll have to get the same answer.." After much pondering, anguish, and praying, I got my answer at the temple. I knew that this was what Heavenly Father wanted me to do. The next day I told the Registrar and Assistant Registrar that I would be leaving BYU in May. Because of the way my job was, I knew I had to get through winter semester and have a lot of time to train someone. They were completely surprised, and asked me where I was going. I told them I didn't know, but that I knew God had somewhere else in store for me. In January I told the rest of the office, and got the same reaction. They all knew how much I loved my job, and wondered what I would do. I told them the same thing--that I wasn't sure, but I knew that this was what Heavenly Father wanted me to do, and that He would help me to find another place.

Even though I trusted that things would work out, it was really hard to leave. With my time as a student, I had been at BYU for 18 years, and I still loved it as much as ever. I wondered how I could leave my students that I loved serving in Discontinaunce, and worried about who would get my job. Well, things worked out, as they always do, and a great person was hired to take over my job, and I had plenty of time to train her. But as my time grew short, my heart started aching to think of leaving my beloved BYU. My last few days there I took a bunch of pictures. I'll put a few of them in:





On my last day, all of my friends in my office were so good to me, and threw a big party to say goodbye. That last day was really hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be. Heavenly Father really helped me. Then Dan, Emilee and Jan threw me a party when I got home that night, with all kinds of funny things about my years at BYU, and a game and song. Most of my family came to support me (wearing BYU shirts), and my nieces and nephews gave me hugs to help ease the pain. I have the best family, and felt really blessed, even though I was so sad to leave.



I took a few months off to spend time with my family and decide what to do. I got to spend time with my sisters and sister in laws during the day, which I'd never been able to do before, and I got to spend time with each of my nieces and nephews, doing fun things and just hanging out with them. I do miss that, and I'm glad I had some time to get spend so much time with my family. Here are some pictures of what I got to do:














But finally around mid July I decided I'd better get serious about looking for a job. I'd been thinking of the Church Office Building, but just felt so much opposition to working up there. I think now it's because it was going to be such a good thing for me. I just felt Satan working overtime on me, discouraging me, making me feel like I wouldn't be able to find anything, making me feel that I would hate the drive, hate being so far away, etc. I didn't want to find another job--I just wanted to get married and have a family.

However, I kept feeling like I should look there, and so I finally filled out an application. Then through another series of small miracles, I was able to find out about a great job opening there. I applied for it, feeling like there was really no chance that I would get it. I applied for another position in the same office as well.

To make a way too long post a little shorter...after one month, six interviews, and lots of waiting and praying, I got the call on a Friday. They wanted to offer me the job, and wanted to see if I could start the next Monday. I was so amazed! In fact, I'd had my interview with my future boss that Friday morning, but by 3:00 I hadn't heard anything, so I decided to go to a movie. I got the call on my cell phone at 4:55 in the movie theater of all places. I had to watch the rest of the movie in shock, and wondering if I could really do the job. But, as always, God has blessed and helped me to do it. And now I can say again, even after only two months...

I love my job!

I could never have imagined that I would get a job like this, or that I would love it so much. It was hard the first week or two, when I didn't know anyone, but it has quickly become such a blessing in my life. I work for a great man, and love it. He is so nice, and so kind to me. I am loving my responsibilities--helping him with his travel, working on special projects, just doing anything he needs. And I am loving being in such a spiritual environment, and have gotten to meet some of the General Authorities. Everyone in our office is so nice as well, and all the time people walk by and say hi to me by name. I've been riding the bus, and don't mind it at all. I was able to get a laptop and get so much done to and from work. And every day when I walk to and from my office, this is what I see:



Every day when I write in my journal about my job, I talk about how grateful I am that I have a job that I love again. I still pray to get married, and hope I don't have to wait much longer. But if I do still have to wait, even a few more years, I know that I will be okay, and I'll still get to keep working in this wonderful job. And I also know that, if God is asking me to continue to wait, it is only because he has someone wonderful in store for me.

As I've thought over the last year and all of the changes I've had, I've thought of a story that President Monson told in April 2008. He told a story of a boy who was an accomplished violinist, and had been accepted to play in a territorial orchestra. But then he was asked to serve a mission, and the only way he could pay for it was to sell his violin. Years later, he wrote in his journal, “The greatest decision I ever made in my life was to give up something I dearly loved to the God I loved even more. He has never forgotten me for it.”

That statement echoes my testimony. It felt like such a sacrifice to leave BYU, and it was very hard to say goodbye to all my friends and wonder where to go and how to find another job. But now, even though I miss my friends at BYU and will always have fond memories of my time there, it doesn't feel like a sacrifice at all, because God has led me to such a better place for me.

I know that whenever we do what the Lord has asked of us, even if it is very hard, we can never put him in our debt, because He will just pour out more blessings on us in return. If you are feeling discouraged, please trust that, as President Uchtdorf said last Saturday, "If only we could glimpse for a moment what the Lord has in store for us, not only in the next life, but in this one as well, our hope would be unshakable."

God is faithful.

A Great Quote

Two posts in one night! I'm really getting off to a good start! One of my favorite talks from this Conference was by President Uchtdorf about hope. I've come to love President Uchtdorf since he was called as an Apostle, and especially since he was called to the First Presidency. Jan and I watched he and his wife during Conference. They were so cute together. At one point during the rest hymn, he looked over and caught her eye and they both smiled at each other. He has such an earnest way of speaking, and I love it when he smiles as he talks. His message really resonated with me.

This quote is not from this Conference, but after seeing him in Conference yesterday, I remembered a really good talk that he gave in BYU Women's Conference in 2005 right after he was called as an Apostle. The whole talk is amazing, but these were some of my favorite quotes:

“I share these very personal experiences with you today, hoping to impress upon you that wherever you live, whatever circumstances you live in, whatever your background or challenges might be, the gospel light has the power and purpose to bring blessings into your life and into the lives of those placed in your path. The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to bring blessings to our Heavenly Father's children. You are planted in your country, your community, your family to facilitate these blessings. I urge you to bloom where you are planted!

“My dear sisters--grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and friends--please never underestimate the power of your influence for good, especially in the lives of our most precious children and youth!

“By living up to this mission, in whatever life circumstance you find yourself--as a wife and mother, as a single mother, as a divorced woman, as a widowed or a single woman--the Lord our God has responsibilities and blessings in store for each of you individually, far beyond your imagination.” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Women’s Conference 2005)