At my graduation Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke about using the Internet to share the gospel. He mentioned how influential blogging can be. He encouraged us to not be shy about posting gospel related topics or stories and he also suggested commenting on other people’s blogs and striking up conversations about the Church. He told us to defend the Church if we ever see anything that isn’t accurate and to download videos etc. from Church websites. Overall, I felt like it was something every Church member should read not just those graduating from BYU-Idaho. It’s called “Making your Influence Felt”
I challenge myself and everyone else to talk more openly about the Church on their blogs and with friends and neighbors. Just as an example of how I am going to do better- as I was looking over my past blog entries I saw that when I posted wedding pictures I could have shared my thoughts on the Temple etc. I love the Church and I am so grateful for my membership in it. It brings peace to my crazy life and provides purpose to all that I do. I know who I am and I know that God is real and that He loves me and knows everything about me. He is interested in our lives and cares very much what happens to us. Yes, there are a lot of bad things in the world but there are also so many good- we just need to re focus our attention.
This past weekend my beautiful mom and I went to Thanksgiving Point to see the famous Tulip Festival. I had seen pictures of the festival from past years and it looked amazing. I was so excited to go. Everything, including the weather, seemed perfect. We got there, paid the 10 dollars each and walked out to view the fields of tulips. There was just one problem. There weren’t any tulips!!! The fields were green without a spec of color. The place was packed with people and I was blown away that each one of us paid ten dollars a piece to see tulips and there weren’t any. My mom and I decided to take advantage of the chance to walk and talk. I love my mom so much! She is so much fun to hang out with and so patient with me as I rattle on with my nonsense. I wish we could spend more time together. But alas, life is so busy and the 45 min drive seems soooo long.
The moral of this blog post is that Thanksgiving point is a money making liar. That didn’t seem harsh did it? I’m not quite sure why they didn’t move back the dates of the festival because the bulbs hadn’t opened yet or why they didn’t mention anything to the thousands of people who paid. To me it is false advertisement and I was way disappointed!
With all that said I did get to spend time with my mom and so it wasn’t all bad.
Finally with my growing knowledge of technology here are some of our out dated wedding day pictures.
Okay so I’m not quite sure how healthy this bread is but it doesn’t contain any oils and it only has three ingredients so it’s the best one I’ve found out there. Plus, it’s so simple to make you’ll love it!
Ingredients:
1 box spice cake mix (dry)
1 can Libby’s 100% pumpkin (the smaller size of the 2 sizes, similar to a regular Campbell’s soup size)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Directions:
Mix 3 ingredients together and place in a pan of your choice. (bread loaf, shallow pie dish etc.) Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. It may be longer for a bread loaf.
While I was on my mission a sister from the ward fed us dinner and I feel in love with it so much I asked her for the recipe. I made it again the other night and re discovered my passion. hahaha
Ingredients:
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 package Lipton (or other brand) onion soup mix
1 (8 ounce) jar/bottle French salad dressing
Chicken (enough to serve 4-6 people)
Directions:
Stir the cranberry sauce, onion soup mix, and French salad dressing together. Place the chicken in a pan. Cover the chicken with the sauce and bake for 1 hour in 350 degree oven. You can also add red potatoes (sliced into cubes) to the pan and cook them with the chicken. (I recommend it!)
It’s so easy! Enjoy!!!
I did it! I finally graduated from College with my Bachelors Degree. It is a great feeling to have time to relax, but it still feels like I’m just having a break and I’ll be back for more.
My parents and Ben were gracious enough to drive the four hours to watch me simply walk across a pulpit and shake a few hands. It was fun to see some of my classmates that had gone their separate ways for student teaching. I wish them all the best of luck and I’m a tiny bit jealous that they actually get to teach. (I’ll be staying home with Hallie.)
The commencement was perfect. President Clark spoke about letting the light of Christ shine through us where ever we may be and what ever we may be doing. Then Elder Ballard spoke about how Jesus Christ was the master teacher and that nothing will be more important than teaching others whatever profession we chose. He also mentioned the fact that we need to always be improving. He said that after conference the quorum of the twelve and the first presigdency got together and discussed what they all thought about conference. He said they saw room for improvement and discussed what needs to change.
Going to college was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I will never regret choosing Idaho or my Elementary Education major. Softball, church callings, roommates, crazy activities, service counsel-kid connection, devotionals and so much more made college an amazing experience for me. The Lord has led me every step of the way and I will miss the college scene.
So here’s to the next chapter of my life. Raising a family.
This was my companion Jill Evans’ wedding. We were companions in the MTC and in the mission field. We hit it off right away and haven’t stopped laughing ever since. I owe much of my mission sanity to her. She is one friend I defiantly can’t go without.
This was my companion Jill Evans’ wedding. We were companions in the MTC and in the mission field. We hit it off right away and haven’t stopped laughing ever since. I owe much of my mission sanity to her. She is one friend I defiantly can’t go without.
Thanks to an invite from Ben’s friends, Trent and Kara, and my parents flipping the bill, we took the last weekend in March and went down to Moab. It was a Blast! Ben and I went to Moab for part of our honeymoon and love it there. My parents rented a four door jeep and we took it wheelin’. The sights were breath taking and the obstacles in the jeep were fun. Moab is defiantly one of my favorite places to go and we hope to one day own an off road vehicle.
Benton, Brittany, Hallie and Kyle
