The City Beautiful

I was able to go and visit the place I served my LDS mission for 18 months during 2009-2010. That wonderful place is Nauvoo, Illinois! In all honesty, it is very out of the way and it would be hard to find it if you were not looking for it. But! The place holds significant value in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and, as I was able to remember this past week, my life! I cannot even begin to describe to you how much peace I felt on this trip! I think I will save that for another post when I show all my pictures 🙂 For the time being, here is a video that we took while we were there for my mama! My wonderful friend Shannon came on the trip with me from Arizona and we met up with our friend Adam who lives out that way and is going to dental school. I really could not have been with two happier or more enjoyable people! I am just so blessed! Anyway- here is the video 🙂

patience my love.

I was talking to my mama tonight on the phone as she was on her way to Utah to help Hann with wedding stuff. Spoiler Alert: Hann is engaged. Not sure if she will ever blog about it. We can dream…

Anyways- mom had mentioned that how in my life it seems that I do a great job of trying to plan things, and then usually some kind of curveball is thrown in there and I end up going with a plan last minute.

Examples:

Mission- that was not planned and quite unexpected but as soon as I knew I should go, I just went.

TFA- what the? I never ever EVER EVER wanted to be a teacher. I just applied and they skipped me through all these interviews and I got the job.

College- I was accepted to Stanford, which was where I had been determined to go since I was 5 and Whitney Ovard told me it was the best school in the world.  I (begrudgingly and against my will and encouraged by my mama) sent in my BYU application one of the last days it was available and was accepted the next day and ended up there in the fall! I can’t even imagine how life would be had that plan not changed.

What I’m trying to say is, God has a way of allowing me to do a lot of groundwork for a lot of different options and then all the sudden one path becomes the right one and I just have to take that one.

Admittedly, it was a characteristic that I somewhat resented for awhile. But, now I am beginning to see it as the blessing it truly is! My Father in Heaven is allowing me to develop patience in specific ways that are most meaningful to me. One of those ways may be revealing His will in a very “last-minute” sort of way, almost mocking my own tendency towards procrastination 🙂 The reason I have been thinking about the concept of patience so much lately is because I feel that I have reached a similar junction to so many prior life experiences. I honestly do not know what I am going to be doing in the next year, or really even next month. I know I am trying my best to listen and follow the guidance God gives me, and I know that just as in times before He will hear and answer my prayers and continue to turn my life into something more beautiful than I could ever imagine. But! Sometimes that guidance just does not come when I think it should or when I want it to! 🙂

I usually listen to church talks on the way to work in the mornings. One of my most recent favorites is a talk given by Elder Neal A. Maxwell at a BYU devotional in 1979 entitled, “Patience.” It is so beautifully delivered in the uniquely wonderful way Elder Maxwell had with words.

One of my favorite quotes is, “Patience is a willingness, in a sense, to watch the unfolding purposes of God with a sense of wonder and awe, rather than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstance. Put another way, too much anxious opening of the oven door and the cake falls instead of rising. So it is with us. If we are always selfishly taking our temperature to see if we are happy, we will not be.”

I know that so often I want to be the one to change my own set of circumstances without realizing that God is requiring my patience. As I look back on this INSANE first year of teaching, had I taken a “temperature check” at any given interval, I most likely would have told you my life was crazy and I was stressed and particularly at the beginning of the year I was NOT happy. But when I stop to look back at the year in its entirety, and with the passage of time begin to understand the lessons God needed me to learn, all I can do is smile and the only feelings I have are those of contentment and joy and peace. I know that inner peace comes from consistent effort to be the person I am aiming to become and trying my best to have patience in the meantime 🙂

Ok- lots of rambling. Here are two favorite pictures from the past week!

Favorite quote of all time: “Free on the wind!!!!! Imma eat that grass!!!”
Maybe you had to see him saying it? He was being Big Billy Goat Gruff in our Reader’s Theatre 🙂

We literally showed up to our meeting as twins. Brown girls unite! Even down to our toe nail polish was matching. And neither of us curled our hair, which is odd. And Gabi wore high heels and I wore flats so we were the same height even! I sure do love her- enough that we now have twin telepathy powers when we are getting ready 🙂

the cutest babies in the land… and when we almost killed grandma

During my Spring Break, the fam all went to Idaho Falls to visit family and most importantly for Hann to receive her endowments in the Idaho Falls temple. It really was just the best 5 days of my life in recent memory. I got to spend approximately 24 hours in Provo in which I was able to see lots of good friends and go up to dinn at Park City where Hann works. Then it was road trip up to IF with the Hannstar. We were able to see lots of extended family in addition to our immediate family. I was even able to meet my cutest baby loves for the first time!!!!!! I love my family so much and cherish the time we get to spend together because that time is getting to be more and more rare as we get older (and more beautiful). To the pictures!!!!!!!

Warning: lots of pictures. Lots.

SOOOOO good to see this girl. love her too much.

these guys…

wuv… truuuuu wuv

just yep

so cute doe

baby and baby

my best girls

after their glamour day at the spa 🙂

they loved him a little bit

typical

gram with her GREAT-grand baby!!!!

this kid. i die.

just pure, baby-holding heaven.

if you have made it to this point, congrats. as a reward, videos of the family playing dance central.

Grams kept calling for help, and we wouldn’t let her tap out. Mean grandkids.

Also- if you have ever wondered where we inherited our uncanny natural knack for rhythm from, I provide the following evidence.