18 Hours

Today, I am thankful for today, because today was a wonderful day.

I spent most of it with my friends Tyler and Michael. Let me give you a brief overview, because I have to be awake in 4 hours:
I woke up at 7:45 to eat breakfast with Tyler and Michael.
After breakfast, Michael and I went over to the IPF and watched Tyler's intramural soccer game - that was the first game they had won! We were the good luck charms.
At 10, I walked up to the American Heritage review with the intention of studying very hard today, which, you will find out later, did not happen.
Right after the review, I ran home and changed to play some Wally-ball with Michael and Tyler and other people from the ward, but that didn't last long.
We had lunch after that. Me, Tyler, and Michael.
Then, we parted ways to take naps.
At 4, we met up with Blarper (the twins), Danny, Stephen, and Russel to play some soccer, played for an hour and a half, then ate dinner together.
After dinner, Tyler, Michael and I watched an episode of The Walking Dead in the basement.
Right after that, the three of us went to swim some laps (for our Lazy Iron Man, of course).
And RIGHT after that, we met back up with some more friends and went disco roller skating, which was awesome. Except my ankles are severely swollen.
After roller skating, we went to IHOP, where I had some wonderful pumpkin pancakes.
I have to mention, each time we were in Landon's pick up truck, we listened to Macklemore, and it was a giant dance party every time.
We came home after that, but Tyler, Michael, and our friend Van came over to watch another episode of The Walking Dead (at 1AM, mind you), and we sat all snuggled up in our coats and blankets outside of the dorms.
Now, it's super duper late. And time for me to get some sleep.

Keepin' It Real

This blog post will be short. 

Today, I am so extremely grateful for my dear friend Tanner Edward Palmer. Just being his friend has helped me to grow so much as a person. He is full of love for the gospel, for people, and for his Father in Heaven - he really knows what is important in life. He's not perfect, but he has learned from his mistakes, and the way he lives his life just exemplifies the fact that he knows that he can be better. I love him, and I'm so thankful for the friendship that we have - all of the things we have learned from each other, and all of the ways that we have helped each other. My life is richer because I know him and his family, and I am incredibly thankful for that.

(NOTE: This picture is of me, my mom, the Lattins, and Elder Fuller, Elder Christensen, Elder Palmer and his family. Back when they were all missionaries, and when Elder Palmer was about to go home...crazy how time flies.)

Begin Again

(Pre-post message: The title of this entry is conveniently the name of one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs, off of her new album. Cool, huh?)

I love this time of year. Halloween is over, and now we are heading into Thanksgiving and Christmas, which is the most wonderful time of the year! I decided that I am going to blog every day about what I'm thankful for, specific to experiences or feelings I had that day. I'm excited for this. Please enjoy the monotonous details about my life.

Even though it's technically November 2nd (it's 2am) this post applies to November 1st.

In my Biology class today, my teacher (who is AWESOME by the way) was talking about the competition that innately exists between animals, including humans. All of a sudden he paused, looked up at all of us, and said "Shoot. I just felt the Spirit, so I need to share this with you guys." He went on to talk about how he personally believes that humans may be innately competitive and self-serving, but that God also created us with the intention that we would be selfless and charitable.

Not only am I thankful that he said that, because I agree with him, but I'm thankful that he can say that. I love going to school here at BYU, where I can feel the spirit in every single class because my teachers can talk about the church and the gospel. I feel so incredibly blessed that I can sit in Biology, American Heritage, or Book of Mormon and feel the spirit equally strongly in each class. The spirit lives here - it doesn't just hang out here, it lives here. That is the truth, let me tell you.

One more thing: During our Relief Society presidency meeting today, we were discussing what we wanted to teach about this coming Sunday. MJ, Karlie, and I each said that we had been thinking about teaching about Jesus Christ and the Atonement. It is no coincidence that we all had that feeling - for whatever reason, Heavenly Father wants us to talk about that with our girls this week, and He is trusting that we'll do a good job of it. Isn't that awesome? I love that that happened - the church is true.

AMEN, and AMEN.