My Sunday.

I am so grateful for the weekends. The opportunity that they bring with them to re-coop from the previous week. This past week in particular has been crazy. Work was really busy for some reason. Dave was super busy with 3 different exams he was studying for... meaning literally working from 7 am- midnight. It was strange for me because I feel so busy during the day but so lonely and bored at night. I definitely need to find some new hobbies. I did join the local book club in my ward. That should be fun and a good way to get to know other women. 

We went to the UF football game yesterday. Those games are so much fun to go to. Yet so hot and humid and loud. We really did have fun but it was a long afternoon. We went to a friends house later that night to watch the byu vs utah game. I don't really want to talk about the outcome... but we didn't get to bed until 2:30 because of it. Leo woke us up at 6:30 this morning. SIX THIRTY! That equals 4 hours of sleep. Good thing we love him. 

He would not go back to sleep. I woke up and tried to pretend to be awake and pet him while I was trying to fall back asleep at the same time. I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to make it to 9 am church. I was beat. Then I realized. No, I need to go. Just make it to sacrament. Well... as of recently I am a ward missionary. So I get to sit in on the Gospel Principles class and I really love it. So that was the perk to stay the 2nd hour once I had already made it to sacrament (even though I felt like a zombie and the building AC was broken). Relief Society was 3rd hour and really my only chance during the week to get to be around other women of all ages. The lesson was beautiful, it was about a talk from conference by Boyd K. Packer. It was about not letting other distractions take place of all the really good things in life. I loved it. 

Don't forget that after church I had a meeting with all the ward missionaries. Man, by this time I was beat. However, being new to my calling and having no idea what it even entails, I stayed. I truly am excited to be a ward missionary and make more time to bring others to the gospel. I know it is true with all my heart. 

Finally at 1 pm, I thought about going home to nap. Nope. I had scheduled visiting teaching with one of the new women I visit teach. (I was gone all Summer and left my companion alone to teach so I really was excited to get back into it). I went to visit this AMAZING women. Usually visiting teaching lasts about 15-30 minutes. We were there for almost 2 hours. Amazing thing was, I wasn't even tired. She is an incredible woman. A convert to the church about a year and a half ago. She is from Cuba and of course fed us lunch while we were there. She truly taught me more than I taught her today. She is an amazing example and I am so excited to get to know her better. 

I came home afterward to finally take my nap. (Of course Leo was awake and ready to play) I finally laid my head down and I couldn't stop thinking about what my Sunday would have been like if I didn't go to church today. What if I had slept in? Missed the sacrament. Missed the amazing lesson in Gospel Principals about eternal families. Missed the lesson in Relief Society about staying focused on the things that mean the most. And what if I missed the opportunity to meet Merecedes today. 

Let's just say this weekend wasn't really an opportunity to re-coop. It was exhausting. However, I feel so blessed. And I am so grateful for the spirit giving me a kick in the rear this morning and telling me to get to church. I truly love this gospel with all my heart. I am so thankful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

Who she was.

I personally think Sister Elaine S Dalton is one of the most amazing women. 

I enjoy her talks, I always want to do a woman first pump after! :)

Her talk was beautiful this past weekend. 

She talked a lot about being a daughter of God

and knowing that because of this, you are not alone. 

I am so grateful to know I am a Daughter of an Almighty God, 

who loves each and every one of us. 

You really should listen to this talk. 

Whether you are a mother, single, married, a teenager or a grandmother...

It is great advice for women of all ages. 

Do not be afraid to ask for help.

Every time Elder Holland speaks in conference, I get so excited. 

I love all the apostles but I just really love to hear him speak. 

His talk during this conference was amazing. 

It was all about faith and believing. 

I am really good at getting discouraged because I am so impatient. 

He taught me a good lesson in staying true to the integrity of my faith 

because that is how miracles can happen. 

Another thing I struggle with is trying to do everything on my own. 

I rarely share my burden's with other and I always try to keep it in. 

Warning: this is not ever the best idea. 

I loved the quote above from his talk.

I need to remember that it is okay to ask for help. 

That is what our Savior is for. 

I highly recommend you watch this talk. 

It is only 14 minutes too! :)

A Quality Marriage.

Can we just press repeat and live the weekend all over again? 

I always tell Dave that my favorite moment of the whole week is Friday at 5 pm. 

Don't get me wrong, I love my job but I love spending time with Dave the most!

This weekend was no exception. 

We had a fabulous date night at our favorite Gainesville Restaurant, Chuy's. 

We went to the local Art's Festival Saturday and got the best Mother's Day gifts!

And.. 

it was General Conference weekend!

Seriously every time the last session ends, I am so sad. I just want it to keep going!

In honor of one of my favorite weekends in the year, 

I am dedicating the blog this week to my favorite snippets of conference. 

Because boy, I sure did love it!

This was one of the BEST talks on marriage I have ever heard. 

You can watch it here. 

I am so grateful for the gift of marriage.

This talk gave me a renewed determination to serve my husband.

And to put him first always. 

Because

'A quality marriage is OUR gift to Him.'

He is not here, but is risen. {inspired}

Happy Easter everyone!

Here is what I am inspired by today...

He is Risen. 

You can learn more here. 

Inspired by two years

Missionary service is incredible. 

I cannot even imagine what it would be like to dedicate two years of my life like they do. 

No music. No media entertainment. No dating. No seeing family. 

All you do is strengthen your testimony and preach the gospel to those around you. 

I truly think missionaries are amazing. 

The stud in the picture above is my husband when he was a missionary. 

I am so grateful for his service as a missionary and the way it has shaped his life. 

I have had many cousins go on missions. 

I dated guys before they went on missions. 

I missed my brother like crazy while he was on his mission. 

I have written a lot of missionaries. 

I have been to a lot of missionary farewells and homecomings. 

I feed the missionaries dinner when I can. 

I love missionaries. 

I am grateful for the way they inspire me to be better. 

To be more dedicated and devoted to sharing the gospel with those around me. 

Have you ever met any missionaries?

Have you known anyone who has served a mission?

Inspired by Core Values

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I know what you are thinking when you see this photo... no, this post is not about politics. Seeing as I am an Alumni now, I get the Brigham Young University magazine in the mail a few times a year. I normally don't take the time to look through it because it just isn't my first choice. However, someone I think very strongly of was on the cover of the most recent issue. His name is Mitt Romney. You may remember this post where I told you how I am related to this fine gentlemen. No, we have never met. Yes, I was a little disappointed when he lost the election. Yes, I still believe he is an incredible man.

Obviously, when I saw this man on the front cover I had to look in the magazine to see what the article was all about. It was titled 'Forty Years On.' Mitt Romney graduated from BYU with his bachelor's degree in 1971. The article is actually from a speech he gave to students at the University a few years ago. It talks a lot about how he got to be so successful and about his life journey.

He talks about a time where the firm he had founded seemed to be coming apart. Everyone wanted to go in different directions and he was struggling to find a balance between his goals of faith and the money he was making. His team met with a consultant-psychologist who shared with him something very profound. This is where I am going to quote the article for you...

     'He said that if we lived our lives in conflict with our core values, we would experience stress, ill health, and deep regret. How, we asked, could we know what our core values were? He proceeded to ask us to think of the five or six people we most admired and respected, people currently living or who had ever lived. . . Then he asked us to write down next to each of those names the five or six attributes we thought of when we thought of that person. The attributes that we had then listed most frequently, he explained, represented our core values.' 

The five people Mitt chose were the Savior, Joseph Smith, his father, mother and his wife. The five attributes that were listed most frequently were all similar: love, family, service and devotion. This is what he says next about living with these core values in his life...

      'Now, some twenty years later, I have discovered something else about these core values, about living with integrity, about these fundamental measures of successful living; with these at our center, chance does not come into play in determining our success or failure. The ability to live with integrity with the core of our values of love, family, service, and devotion is entirely up to us. Fundamentally, this is the business of successful living.'

These words really hit me. If I want to be successful, all I need to do is stay focused on my core values. Normally I wouldn't quote an article with this much depth on my blog but I truly found this inspiring. I hope this is something that you will take time to think about... 

What are your core values?

If you want to read the full article, click here. 

Wedding Series: Wedding!

Love is one of my favorite things. 

I enjoy reading stories about love. 

I enjoy listening to songs about love. 

I enjoy watching people fall in love. 

But most of all I enjoy talking about our love story. 

In honor of LOVE month, I want to post more about our wedding. 

I started posting about our wedding in December for our anniversary. 

You can read more about the proposal and look at our engagement photos 

but this post is dedicated to our actual wedding. 

We were married for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake City Latter-Day Saint Temple. 

It was one of the happiest days of my life. 

We were surrounded by so many people who love and care about us

and I have never felt so much LOVE at one point in my life. 

I was so giddy and happy all day long. 

It truly was the best day of my life. 

I hope you enjoy a few of my favorite pictures. 

Compliments to Duston Todd Photography

Don't forget to go check out my guest post over at  The Meaningful Pursuit today.

I am so excited to be apart of the 14 days of love....

nineteen.

I know. two posts in one day. this is a BIG DEAL though. 

Remember when I had the two missionaries over for dinner?

Well, two weeks ago, the church changed the missionary age. 

{it was a craze in the blogger world... huge deal!}

Women can now go at 19, instead of 21

Men can go at 18, instead of 19. 

wasn't my husband such a cute missionary??

 well, 

I was just reading on KSL news and listen to this...

{this is a response, to a tweet, from the church- given last night} 

"As Church leaders had anticipated when the change was announced, the number of individuals who have begun the missionary application process has increased significantly. Typically approximately 700 new applications are started each week. The last two weeks that number has increased to approximately 4,000 per week. Slightly more than half of the applicants are women."

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THIS IS SO COOL! 

What an exciting time we are living in. 

I am so grateful for this change. 

We are truly going to see miracles!

You are beautiful.

I always get excited to hear the talks given during the Priesthood session of conference. 

It is a meeting especially for all the men in the church who hold the Priesthood

which is most men over age 12. 

One thing I love about all the general authorities is the way they treat women. 

I love the way they talk of their mothers, wives, daughters, grand daughters etc. 

Naturally, I loved this quote from our beloved prophet. ..

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You can read, watch or listen to this talk here.

Love is Loyalty

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Every time Elder Holland gets up to speak, Dave and I get way excited. 

He just has this way of being so spiritually stern. 

Instead of highlighting parts of his talk... 

I really just want you to go watch it. 

It was incredible!

watch or listen to it here

start LIVING now

General conference is the best. 

For today I thought I would
share bits and pieces of 

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's

 talk from the Saturday morning session.


He started off talking about a list of regrets from people that were in their last moments of life in the hospital. Here are a few of the things people said:

*People wished they had spent more time with the people they love -- they missed developing a deep connection with those who meant the most to them.
     
*People felt like that had failed to become the person they felt they could and should have been-- they didn't live up to their full potential.

*People wished they had let themselves be happier --so often we get caught up in the illusion that there is something just beyond our reach that will bring us happiness.
   

I loved this talk.  Such a great message- start living the way you would want to live

 if you were in your last moments of life. 

Spend time with the people you love.

Live up to your full potential- become the person God planned for you to be. 

Let yourself be happy. 

(if you click on President Uchtdorf's name at the top of the post then you can watch the full talk)

   via / via 

I know it. I live it. I love it.

This weekend was absolutely fabulous. Now that I finally am working again, I am so much more grateful for the time off on the weekend!

Friday night I was missing my sweet Father's birthday celebration so we went out to Five Guys in his honor. We don't do burgers and fries very often but man it was delicious.

Saturday we went to the Gator game. I can't remember the last time I lost my voice at a football game! It was incredible! We beat LSU 14-6 and it was a close game! I think I have finally become a true gator. -We also had 20th row tickets so that made it extra fun!

The rest of the weekend was spent watching General Conference. It was so amazing. All of the talks were beautiful and the spirit was so strong! I decided I would dedicate this week to a recap of a few of my favorite thoughts from conference. So be sure to check back each day for an uplifting thought. I hope you enjoy!

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This is probably one of the most popular quotes from this weekend's conference. Sister Ann Dibb is in the Young Women General Presidency. She talked about running into a teenage girl at the grocery store who was wearing a shirt that said 'I am mormon, are you?' She was so impressed with the young woman's confidence and boldness that she thought for a while about what she would want her shirt to say.  The image above is what she thought of-- I am a Mormon- I know it. I live it. I love it.  She went on to speak of each part of this saying and why she would choose it to represent her.  It was a powerful and inspiring message.  It made me have a desire to let everyone know that I, too, am a mormon-- I know it, I live it and I love it. 

You can watch her AMAZING talk here.  

I promise you will feel so much love and peace as you hear her words. 

Plus, it is only like 10 minutes? Why not watch it? 

:)

A quote for Sunday.

I love Sundays. 

I could go on and on about how it is the best day of the week. 

Instead, I thought I would share with you my favorite quote from 

the incredible General Relief Society Meeting last night. 

"He has not forgotten you. 

Whatever sin, or weakness, or pain, or struggle or trial you are going through he knows and understands those very moments, He loves you and He will carry you through those moments."

Happy Sunday.

Let love guide

source

Thanks for all your love yesterday. My first day as a nanny went really well and I am excited to be with the kids tomorrow, so it really must be good.  I was scrolling through some of my favorite quotes for today's post. Aren't powerful quotes just the best thing ever? I honestly love reading something that inspires me.

I am in a world of new. Yes, I have been in Gainesville for almost two months now but it still feels brand new. Every where I go, every one I see, and everything I do is new. Change is hard for me. I am one of those people that enjoys new experiences but I always like to go home at the end of them. After two months of being here, I think I have finally realized I am not going home. Florida is my home.

I know what you are thinking. How does this quote even go along with what I am saying? Well. . with every new thing I am doing it is easy to be discouraged, frustrated, angry, etc. However, if I let this quote seep into my soul... 'most of all let love guide your life' ... it seems to me everything just begins to fall into place. The more people I meet, the more love I strive to give to them. The more things my sweet hubby needs me to do because he is so busy, the more love I strive to give to him. The more unfamiliarity's I face, the more I strive to embrace and love change.  The more I am away from my family, the more I am filled with love and gratitude for all they do for me.

I am not saying it is easy. But. I truly believe if you LET LOVE GUIDE your life it will be so much easier. And. You will be sincerely happy.

Happy Tuesday :)

Fear Not.

Fear not.  This is a concept that takes a lot of Faith to learn. Fear not. God is with you. He will strengthen you. Help you. Uphold you with His righteous right hand.  I truly believe this.  I feel so blessed to have a loving Heavenly Father who knows more than me about my future and constantly corrects me when I try to take other paths.  I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who strengthens me when I am weak. A Heavenly Father who helps me when I try to do things on my own but always fail without Him. I am so grateful for His infinite love. I am grateful to know that no matter how many mistakes I make, He is always there with welcoming arms. I am truly blessed. 

Happy Sunday. 

We will be teaching our new primary class.

four and five year olds. 

Our lesson is on Choosing the Right :)