"I have led thee in right paths"

This week I had somewhat of a tender mercy. I was walking out of the MTC with one of my couples, the Metcalfes, when we ran into my friend Mary, now known as Sister Teichert. Mary and I had a Polynesian dance class together over winter semester, and we also participated in the New Zealand section of the Lu'au together. Mary also knows the Metcalfes because they're from the same city in Montana, where Brother Metcalfe was actually her teacher. Small world! Anyways, so we were just chatting and I was asking her how the MTC is going (three weeks in!), etc. I remember getting a text from her a few months ago announcing her mission call, and I just thought it was so awesome because I hadn't even known that she was thinking about going. I mentioned this to her, and she responded with something along the lines of, "Well I was thinking about going on a mission when I met you and Laurel (my BF who was in our dance class and the Lu'au with us too), and I just thought, 'they are so great: I want to be like that.'" Now, I'm not repeating this to say how great someone thinks I am, but I was just so touched that I had influenced her to serve a mission. I love knowing that in some little tiny way, I was instrumental in helping her make that ever-so-important decision. And now the people in Rome get to have this amazing sister come and teach them.

This experience really took me back... to about 3 years ago. It was 2008, and I was thinking about going on a mission. Or rather, the Spirit was making me think about going on a mission; but I wasn't sure. It was at this same time that I had a phonetics class with two returned sister missionaries: Rebecca and Amanda. Rebecca and I become friends right away, and I remember many a conversation with her about how her mission had changed her life for the better and how wonderful it had been. That semester passed, and going into Spring term, I was happy to find out that Amanda and I were in the same French class. We spent a lot of time together that Spring, attempting to speak in French together, watching French movies, eating crepes, etc., and again, I remember many a conversation with her about how much her mission changed her life and was just the best thing. I also remember the talks that she suggested I read that really helped me make up my mind about going.

Fast forward three years, and here I am: a returned missionary. It was definitely the best decision that I have ever made, and I am so grateful for everything I learned, all the wonderful people I now know and love, and for the way that experience has set the tone for the rest of my life. I'm especially grateful for the way the Lord goes about to accomplish His purposes, especially when it comes to guiding our lives. I know He does, and I am so grateful for that because I know that His plans are infinitely better than my own. I'm grateful that he put those two wonderful girls in my path to make it so much better than I ever could have imagined.

And I'm grateful that I maybe was that girl for someone else.

Laurel (or rather, Soeur Cummins at the time) and I in New Caledonia:

Mary (Sorella Teichert), her sister Celinda, me and Laurel at the Lu'au:

I was so happy and excited to find out that my old friend Rebecca was coming on the study abroad to Senegal with me over the Spring. Here we are in Senegal, filthy, with Rebecca and her wonderful husband, Andrew. (Can I just say how cute they are? Rebecca learned French because he served his mission in France, and he learned Spanish because she served her mission in Chile. Love it!)

Yes, I stole this picture off of her facebook, but here is Amanda and her husband in front of the Hawaii temple (where she served her mission).

Hooray for sister missionaries!

"And from thence, whosoever I will shall go forth among all nations, and it shall be told them what they shall do; for I have a great work laid up in store, for Israel shall be saved, and I will lead them whithersoever I will, and no power shall stay my hand." -d&c 38:33

"I have led thee in right paths" -Proverbs 4:11

"And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." - Isaiah 58:11 (although I didn't really appreciate being made fat in New Cal, I'll take it in exchange for the wonderful mission I had :) )

This also reiterated something that President Uchtdorf talked about during the Relief Society Broadcast:

Love it.

Running on empty.

Sometimes I like to see how far below the line I can go (thanks for the inspiration, Kramer).

I learned this week that it's maybe not the best idea.

I'll be honest, these were my first thoughts:

LORELAI: Oh. Oh, wow.
RORY: What?
LORELAI: I... we're out of gas?
RORY: We're out of...gas.
[Lorelai tries to start the Jeep.]
RORY: Hmm.
LORELAI: I've never run out of gas before.
RORY: Me neither.
LORELAI: Well, here we are.
RORY: Out of gas.
LORELAI: Well, I guess I should ca-- I don't have my cell phone.
RORY: I left mine in my room. Okay. It’s okay. No, it’s fine. We'll just have to get gas somehow. We can do this.
LORELAI: There’s a gas station up ahead, where route 68 goes through Naugatuck.
RORY: Okay. So...we're walking?
LORELAI: Oh, we're walking.
[They both chuckle and exit the Jeep.]
LORELAI: Well, it’s a beautiful day.
RORY: Yes, it is.
LORELAI: It’s weird that it can be so beautiful.
RORY: Yeah. How far is Naugatuck from here?
LORELAI: I don't know exactly.
RORY: I guess it’s walking distance.
LORELAI: [Chuckles] I hope it’s walking distance.

Luckily, the nearest gas station was only about a ten minute walk, and then some guys had pity on me walking back with my little gas can and gave me a ride.

Then when that didn't work, they went into their secret maintenance-guys' building and got me some gas and filled up my tank with a bit more. They waited while I tried to start my car again and made sure it would stay running.

To top it off, one of them asked if I had money for gas, like he honest-to-goodness would've given me a twenty if I'd've said no.

How freaking nice.

So, I've made the decision to not let my tank go below half empty, I apologized to Madame Thompson for coming to class late, and a very special thanks goes out to Kenny and Frank.

You guys are great :)

Rise & Shout

Most of you should know how much I care about football

(on a scale of one to ten...?),

but I sure do love BYU,

regardless of any associated activities.

Here's how Provo has started off this festive morning:

It feels like Fall! Funny how I always think my favorite season is Summer,

until Fall comes. :)

Yeah, seriously.

Do you think this tactic will work?:

Tomorrow, I'm going on a blind date. Thanks (or not, I guess; we'll see) to Megan for finding me pathetic enough to go to great lengths to set this up. This will be the first first date that I'll have gone on in 4 1/2 years. So, I guess you can call me nervous, since I really have nothing to offer anyone of the opposite sex. What are the odds that I'm going to resort to the "if you were an animal..."-type questions? I hope not.

I'm so good at dating.

Nuskin Party: Lagoon!

A big thanks to Nuskin this week for taking us all to Lagoon! There's just something special about that place, right? So much fun, even though my screaming abilities are not what they used to be. The original plan was to try and find a date to go with me, but you should all know how well that would work out for me, so Megan was the lucky back-up (even though I planned on going with her all along, so she wasn't really the back-up).

Here's some highlights:

Our first ride: The Screamer. I figured we ought to get on there while our screaming muscles were still good to go.

Megan got a little bit gypped on her hand stamp. When the guy did it, she made this little sad noise, and I accidentally let out a little snort of laughter; I couldn't help it, it was just so funny. The guy felt bad though, I think, because he did an extra good job on my hand stamp.

The Sky Ride: scariest ride there.

She wanted to see some Asians...

Guess what she won? That's right--she's a winner.

Ironically, we didn't go on the Colossus, because they wouldn't let us take our bags and we didn't want to leave them for that long. Oh well.

The Music Express. I'm not sure why, but we were completely hysterical on this ride. It was at this point that we found out how funny it was to take pictures while on the ride, but I don't know if that's what made it so funny. Either way, I like that ride.

Here's Megan on WICKED.

On the swings. Yes, we were on the double-swing.

Tidal Wave. Kind of lame...

My new favorite ride: Tilt-a-Whirl. Who knew it was so much fun? We went on it what, three times?

Have I said how much I love my job? And Lagoon? Well, I do. :)

Moving.

So, I moved. I'd been having a feeling for a few months now that I should, so I did. I moved from a house to an apartment, and though I felt good about moving out, I still don't know how I feel about moving in. This place just kind of fell into my hands and for a really good price. I've been thinking about the pros and cons.

PROS:

-Nicer living space. The old house where I was living was really old and kind of dirty (what do you expect from a 60 year old house?). I like that I can walk around in bare feet again. Yay for carpet!

-AC. Did I learn nothing in Senegal? Like, how wonderful it is to live in America and have air conditioning-- something I've been sorely missing this whole summer.

-Closer to one job.

-A new ward; new people

CONS:

-No longer living with my bestie.

-Smaller room.

-Farther from campus.

-New roommates to get used to.

-The TV in the living room being RIGHT on the other side of my bed so that I can hear what's on perfectly from my room.

Anyways. Those are my thoughts on that. I'll keep you updated on the new place.

If only we'd have had a smart phone....

How I spent my summer vacation... number 3. Well, to start off with, I spent a good amount of time here:

Getting my car fixed, so that we could actually drive it on our vacation. Boy was that a lot of fun, and so cheap. I love paying for things :)

So we got into Portland around what, 2 AM? Something like that. So needless to say, we were pretty tired in the morning. Nevertheless, we got up and going the next day, and made the quick little drive over to the coast. That's right people, the Pacific Ocean; something that Gavin had a hard time believing in at first. We made him a believer.

It was an awfully windy day, and the water was pretty much freezing. Just goes to show, maybe the ocean isn't all it's cracked up to be. A life lesson, Gav?

This is how I felt about being cold.

So, enough of the beach. We headed inland a few hundred yards to this little restaurant where they serve the best tuna fish sandwiches on earth. For those of you who know me, you know how much I love tuna fish sandwiches, so maybe it's a good thing that I don't live near here, otherwise I'd waste away all my money coming every day.

We shopped around a little bit...

... and went to the best candy store ever. Bruce's. Haha, aptly named, with pink and white stripes everywhere. We got mini jawbreakers and reminisced about the good ol' days at the Peppermint Place.

Up north a bit, and we found ourselves in Astoria. I heard somewhere that they are long overdue for a huge earthquake that's going to put them all underwater, so luckily we got to go before this happened.

We rode the trolley up and down the riverfront...

... and of course, saw all of the movie memorabilia-- Starting with the Goonies house.

And the school from Kindergarten Cop. Who knew Astoria was the place to film movies?

The view from the top of the Astoria Column. Was it worth the climb that made my calves all shaky for the following two days? I haven't decided...

Day 3 of our trip found us in Portland. I like Portland, I guess. The roads are very small and there are lots of one-way streets everywhere, and for a lot of time, we felt like everything was miniaturized to accommodate the pedestrians, but overall, I think it's a pretty cool town.

Getting sick of Portland Saturday Market? This was before she bought her cute new bag.

And we ended the morning with a chocolate-filled elephant ear. Mmmm....

Said au revoir to Portland, and headed up north once again to see Seattle. That was a bust, so we just had pie instead. Chocolate Cream Supreme. Mmmm.... This pie is at a place called Sheri's in Tacoma. I have been thinking of this pie for four years and how great it was. I remember going on at least two bad dates just for this pie, and boy oh boy was it worth it.

Day 4: Sunday. We went to my old branch, the Bridgeport Branch. I was going to say, to say hello to all of my old friends, but let's be honest, I never made any friends in the 6 months I lived here. Oh well. I did get to say hi to my old Branch President though, who was there visiting. So that was fun. We sat by our cousins, who are now old enough to be attending the single's ward.... weird. We spent the rest of the day exploring Tacoma.

We looked at this picture afterward and I was like, finally, Gavin, a good picture... nooo... look at your hand!! So... almost a good picture :)

On the bridge of glass. They just love blown glass in the northwest... why is that? Not that it's not cool or anything, it just seems like they are getting a little bit carried away.

Megan thought these were trash bags :) Constant entertainment.

Day 5: SEATTLE. We decided to give it another try. Thanks to all who suggested that we get a City Pass, but no thanks to our jobs that we had to get back home to, forcing us to do everything included with the pass in one day. Hopefully Megan had a good birthday, despite all the power-walking. Oh, and we brought our cousin Leavitt along, which was a fun time since we don't see each other very often.

We started off the day at the Aquarium. Who knew that fish could be so fun?

Next, we took an hour-long cruise tour of the harbor. That was also a lot of fun, and we got nachos, which made it even better.

Sorry Gav, but in all fairness, you could have let me know that I was completely blocking you.

Went up to Pike Place Market for a little bit, just to look around. And, of course, take a picture with the pig.

Next stop was the zoo! Gavin loves penguins, and it just happened to be the first thing we saw upon arrival.

She's really a monkey.

Gavin also wanted to see the red panda, which was totally worth the extra time we took to run over there because it was dang cute.

Oh, and huzzah for the great ice cream that they have at the zoo. I know that the other three didn't appreciate the "flavor bursts" as much as I did, but that's okay.

Here's us at the top of the space needle! It was my first time going up, and if you know Seattle at all, you can see that we lucked out by going there on a perfectly blue-skied day.

Here's where the fatigue hit....

Outside of the Experience Music Project, where Gavin decided that he likes music. Haha.

Our host at Hard Rock Cafe. That's what you get when you give your camera to strangers, kids.

And one more time to the top of the space needle. This is our, "we're almost dead" face. Scary, huh?

Overall, I'd say our vacation was a success. Please refer here for a list of more hilarity that went on.