The Moments That Define My Life

Life Goes On

2011-08-25T22:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been home from Haiti for about a month now. It is crazy how some things in life can seem like a dream. When I got home and knew that I was home in the United States for good I felt like I never really lived in Haiti. This makes me kind of sad, because it was such a great experience in my life. I just hope like many things although you leave the situation that the lessons learned will remain with me throughout my life. Its hard to put thought to paper about my Haiti experience over the last 6 months. I remember when I first entered Haiti I was in complete shock. I couldn't believe that people were living in these conditions. Everyone kept saying that i would get used to it, I thought how could anyone ever get used to this. I mean there are people everywhere living on the streets amongst the garbage, rubble, and fallen buildings. I was heartbroken every day for these people. I couldn't stop thinking about what I could do to help everyone there. I was seeing things that I couldn't have even thought up if i wanted to. Each day i saw something that would shock me....Well, after a few months I started to get a little bit more accustomed to the region, to the country, and the culture. However, I can honestly say that it never got easy to see such hardship and sadness. Every day I would see so many downtrodden people. On the flip side I was constantly amazed at how happy so many seemed. I thought about how would I live my life if I was from this country? I would like to think that I would try to remain positive and be a happy person. If you can't change your surroundings you have to change your attitude. That was one thing about the people I lived around, all the Americans, they chose to have a bad attitude and see only the bad in the country. I for one saw a lot of good. That is the wonderful opportunity that I had of actually living there instead of just going for a week or two. I got to really see the country and get to know the people. I got to go inside their homes and meet their familes.I got to see the "raw" side of their lives and how they live. First off I can say, yes they do not have a lot! Yes in Material things they are few, but their character and the people they are is like finding a rare diamond. The wonderful people I had the opportunity to meet have blessed my life so much. To see how someone can live in such humble conditions, but they know whats really important in life. Now, as I continue to finish this post I have been home for about 2.5 months. Its crazy. And its amazing how in that short amount of time how quickly you can forget those lessons of whats really important in life. Especially when you have been looking for work for 2.5 month and you cant find anything that "pays" enough. I think of all these people in Haiti who haven't worked for years and have families. I really don't understand how they survive. Because like I have a credit card I can live for awhile on that:) But they don't have that. It really baffles me. I'm not sure how they keep living, especially when they have families. Anyway, I am blessed and I'm grateful for all the help and support I have around me that even though I don't have a job or a lot of money right now I have a wonderful support around me who help me get through these tough times. I miss and love Haiti and I look forward to going back some day. I wrote a blog post for a friends of a friends blog....you can check it out here.....anecdotesofayiti.blogspot.com

My Last Sunday..I will miss the love of these sweet children

Some of the Boys from Church

In the Tap Tap

This little girl is just precious!

Good people, my friend who drove me to the airport and from church:)

Street Kids

2011-06-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days I have been reading some friends blogs, catching up on the happenings of their lives. There seemed to be a common theme among my friends with children. That is they feel so blessed to be a mother. They are so happy in the role they play as mother. It made me think about how blessed those wonderful little babies are to have someone who loves them, cares for them, kisses them, teaches them, and maybe even gets mad at them occassionaly. I never realized how much a tender kiss, or a warm hug, or a strict lesson in manners, or a bath for heavens sake could really mean until I came in contact with some of the sweetest children I have met in my lifetime, and I've known a lot of kids. Think of your children or children you know maybe a nephew or niece. How sad would it be if you could not afford to take care of your child? What point in your life would you have to be at to leave your child in the street? How painful would it be to leave your child and maybe even knowing they may not live or if they do they may live a horrible life but it would be better than being with you. What would you think your children would turn out like? It is hard for me to imagine or even think what that would be like.

One place I have visited often here in Haiti and one place I have loved immensly is a place where "The Street Kids" live. These children were literally found living on the street, some of them were dropped off at this facility, or some of them have just found this place through previous friends or something. There are about 70 kids living in a tiny house. The man who runs it is a former street kid. He is doing his best(he has some funding from a group within the U.S.) to teach these children a trade and provide a better life for them than begging on the streets. They at least get food here and a place to sleep that is relatively safe. These children (mostly boys) have not had an easy life. They have not had someone to constantly love on them, feed them, bathe them, kiss them, and give them their basic needs. Since a young age they have worked for their suck. They have pleaded for love and affection. They have begged for their living so they can keep living! Everytime I see a child on the street my heart breaks. They did not choose this life. It seems they are disregarded by everyone. Here they are in worn clothes and dirty/broken shoes going from car to car asking for money. Can you imagine your child doing that?? I can't and I dont' have children. Everytime a child comes to my car it breaks my heart. The worst part is I have been told I should not give money to them. (I do sometimes). Usually there is a whole group of them and if you give to one you have a huge risk of many coming and clawing at your car basically. And for what?? One dollar, maybe 50 cents? The kids we visit have a good place to live where they all take care of eachother and the former street kid treats them well. However, that is not the case for all of these boys. Some of them will get beaten if they do not provide money to their head person. It just consumes me with sadness when I think about all of it.

HOWEVER, I am BLESSED and GRATEFUL for what they have shown me. It would be so easy to be a hardened child or treat others unkindly. This is what you would assume would happen to a child who has grown up in such harsh conditions. But they are still Children. Just like every child they want love, they want affection, they want friends, and they love toys:) . However, they are not consumed by material things, they just want to eat some food and maybe have some clothes. I have been impressed each time I go to visit the street kids. I am overwhelmed with love and compassion, and it is not always me giving those feelings. I am learning from them. They LOVE me unconditionally. They do not care what I look like or that I can't understand them when they try to talk to me. They come up to me and embrace me and tell me they love me and that we are family. (They always call me sister). They are so gracious for the small things we may bring for them, or that we take the time to blow bubbles with them, or fingerpaint with them, or work on their writing with them. They are happy! They have the cutest smiles! They are still CHILDREN OF GOD no matter what kind of life they have been born into. And Heavenly Father loves each of them. I know this because I have felt that pure love come through me for them. I can't explain the love I have for these children. They make me smile. They bring joy into my life. They are an example of love, patience, and kindness. I am blessed for having known them. I will miss arriving in their court yard in the back of the truck, jumping out to be greeted by many little children with hugs and kisses and hellos. I am so thankful for these "Street Kids" They have changed my life!

Bony....A Former Street Kid...he is the sweetest!

Look at those Priceless Smiles

Its all Good!

A cutie

This little boy always wants his picture taken!

Look at those smiles!!

Loves!

Respect-That is what that thumb sign means!

I told him to make that pose!

This kid was cracking me up!

They were loving the Sungless Miss Carah gave them!

We went to a place called The Artisan Village...It was all Iron Works and you just walk from each little hut to the next...there were at least 20 if not more ..These men were working on Some

It looks Like Quite the Process and Hard Work

I guess they are training them young!

Even after 6 months, I have not gotten used to the Tent Cities

It's been really rainy Lately and I thought that Stream of clouds was Awesome!

Another Former Street Boy that I just love and Adore...He is soooo Sweet and Such a good Kid!

Little Boys carrying Jugs of Water down the Street!

Sweet Karah, the blonde took us to Eat at this Really Cute Chinese restauraunt

The Girls...Margareth, Karah-She is from New York City and is just teh Sweetest Kindest Person, we really bonded! Me and Rebecca-who is also just a great person!

It was a wonderful Saturday and Im so grateful for all the wonderful people I have come in contact with in Haiti!

Barahona, Dominican Republic

2011-05-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

Over the long Memorial Day weekend we decided to embark on a journey. Us along with three other families from the Embassy decided to travel to the Dominican Republic for an adventure and some fun. Well, it was both for sure. To get to the Haiti/DR border from Port Au Prince is like 1.5-2 hours depending on the traffic/road. Well, it had rained a considerable amount before we left on Saturday. So, we had heard that the road to the border is really bad and often floods. So, we had some of the mobile patrol go check it out, they cautioned us against going but we really wanted to go so we forged ahead. They weren't kidding sometimes it floods. In reality we probably shouldn't have gone through what we did, but all in all we made it and it was an adventure. So, the road is literally right by a lake with hardly any barriers. So, it floods a lot but especially in rainy season. Here is what we did on the way there.

See the road??or do you just mostly see water? Yeah Crazy Right and this was only the Beginning!

That Big Machine was trying to help but it really wasn't!

So, we arrived in Barahona, DR around 10 or 11 am, after 4 hours of driving. We were for sure ready to get out of the car and out to the beach! The area was beautiful. Actually the drive was just beautiful too. It was so interesting it was like once we got out of Port Au Prince aways it got more beautiful, but after we crossed the border there was drastic differences. The streets were cleaner. There were roads that were more driveable, and there were not as many people out on the streets. Granted it wasn't a big city but it was definitley more organized and had a nice feel to it. The DR is still a developing country, but it is still much farther along than Haiti. It was also just a beautiful country. It kind of made me sad to see how beautiful Haiti could be everywhere if they just kept it up! So, anyway the hotel was simple but nice. We spent a lot of time eating, swimming, and being at the beach. The beach was really rocky but still its the ocean and I just enjoy sitting by the water listening to the waves and also exploring. My friend Laura and I just walked around the little beach area and took pictures and it was beautiful. It definitley felt a little "Pirates of The Caribbean" to me. It was cool. Here are some pictures of the hotel/beach we were at.

The View from the Pool

The View of the Hotel's Beach

Me with the View!

I also got a massage for the first time here in the DR. It was wonderful although it was outside so people just walking by could see me. At one point there was like 5 guys and one of them stopped and talked with the maseuse.. Kind of Awkward for me! So, on Monday we left and apparently Monday is market day between Haiti and DR. So, there were a lot of people and the Market was really gross. I feel so bad that these people live this way. I mean there was just trash and gross water all around and people were walking in it and trading their food and goods in it. Just craziness!

Chickens anyone??

Truck loads of food/rice/and supplies!

This was right by where all the market was happening!

This is the border! We are in DR about to enter Haiti....it was Crazy!

A very full Tap Tap leaving the Market

Part of our Caravan, under water

And Again...it was much higher and more scary on the way home!

Well, that is that for our DR trip.

I have a few more pictures I wanted to post from other random times.

My friends Reina-she just got married and Derdy-he just got back from a mini mission and will soon leave for his full time mission-he is a good kid!

Ok this little girl is beautiful! One Sunday she came up to me and just started going through my purse. She found these earrings that she is wearing. I was planning on giving them to another little girl but I just gave them to her. Then, her sister (in the blue) was so sad that her sister got some and she didn't. I had one other pair so I gave it to her and they matched her perfectly. The whole sacrament meeting this little girl was going through my purse wanting the lip gloss and all the other fun stuff in there. So, I appeased her. It was so cute. The next sunday she came and sat with me the whole sacrament just loving on me. It was sooo cute!

I went to Stanley's cousin's wedding with him. It was very interesting. I was the only white person there of course. But, no one seemed to be bothered or care about that! It was a good time. It rained though and was very humid so my hair is a little crazy!!!

One of Stanley's cousins(He says he will only date a white girl! haha) and one of the cute little boys at the wedding! It was a good time.

Well, other than that it has been a good time in Haiti. I can't believe it but I only have two more weeks here before I head back home to embark on another adventure. I'm really glad to have this experience and can't wait to see what the next two weeks will hold for me!!

Accidents Happen

2011-05-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

So, one of the little kids I take care of always says Accidents Happen, in like it's ok that I did that because sometimes accidents just happen. You know kids they say some funny things. Well, today I used that very good motto...Hey Accidents Happen. So, today I was driving and was making a left hand turn outside of the Embassy. A car stopped for me so I could go. So, I preceded to turn out of the Embassy and slam the next thing I knew a motorcyclist was hitting into my car. It was scary. The guy was on the ground. He got up and was fine, but he caused a big ole dent in our car and a lot of damage. Funny in one of those weird twisted ways, that just on Monday our driver rear ended someone so our bumper was already slightly hanging off and this accident just unloosened and so it fell off. We just recently got this car back after it was destroyed from our first accident. Talk about some bad luck! So, after it happened all the guards from the embassy came running out. I was so glad it happened right there, because everyone was able to quickly come to our rescue. So, ultimatley it all got taken care of except we now have a broken car again and I feel horrible, even though it was not my fault. Apparently, the motorcyclist didn't have a license or insurance and it wasn't even his motorcycle so he got taken away by the police. Who knows what they do here in these situations.

On a different note, things have been well here, besides a lot of drama happening with my degree at ISU. I have been hanging out with a Haitian boy here which means I get to see a side of Haiti I wouldn't have otherwise seen. I have gotten to go to some restaurants and hang outs in the mountains that overlook Port Au Prince and its been awesome. I've also gotten to be amongst the Haitian people in their communities as I went to his house and his friends home. It has been quite an interesting experience. I am continually amazed to see how people live. It shows me that people can survive and be happy on a little to none income. So, hey my life isn't going exactly as I planned and yes I might be poorer than I hoped at this point. And no I haven't traveled the world. But, I have money to meet my needs. I have a home. I have my health. I have a family. I have peopel who love me and care for me. So, I have all the most important things and for that Im grateful.

This leads me to my next comments. My friend Stanley came with me last Saturday when we went to visit the Street Kids. I love them so much. They really just bring me so much happiness. They maul me like everytime and they just love on me and its awesome. This time one of my favorite little boys, he has 12 fingers. It was classic. One of the other little boys came over and started counting his fingers. He was like see he has 12...kinda like isn't that crazy. But, this sweet little boy was like yeah isn't that awesome. It didn't seem to phase him that he was a little different. He embraced his differences and was happy about them and even seemed to think yeah I'm awesome because I have two more fingers to do stuff with. So, I was just loving it....This is a picture with me and the boys and the little girl who was obsessed with me today for some reason!

Ok so that was one of the little kids. But there is this other little boy there that is just really cute. He has some severe disabilities. His legs are highly deformed. He walks like on his knees. Its kind of hard to explain his condition. Well when we were there I told Stevenson to come sit with me. So, he gladly did. With him he brought a string. So, I tried to show him Cat's Cradle. It wasn't until after i was done showing him that I realized his hands were also deformed. On his left hand he had all five fingers but some were short. On his right hand he had his thumb, but it was kind of short and then the rest of his hand was like a little nub. It broke my heart and I felt so bad. I was feeling so sorry for him and feeling so bad I showed him something he couldn't do. So, as I sat there watching this sweet little soul I was so touched. You know he just persisted and tried to do what I showed him. He never gave up and he tried other alternatives to ge the same result. So, I tried to show him some other cool things using the strings that he'd be more able to do. He was determined and he didn't give up. It was such a good example to me. He has been dealt tremendous trials. I mean he was living in the streets and now lives in this home with about 69 other street kids, he has severed disabilities, but he continues trying and pushing through. He is just as sweet as can be. So, Stevenson you are a Blessed Child of God and I know that sometimes the people of Haiti may forget you but God will never Forget you and one day you will be with him and you will recieve your reward! I love you little Stevenson.

Sranley was really touched by this experience with Stevenson. He got really emotional and afterwards i asked him if he had never seen the kids in his country in this condition. He said he had seen them on the streets but never like that. He said it just made him realize how blessed he is to have a strong body and to have the ability to provide for himself. It was interesting talking with him about it and Im glad he had that experience.

Here is some other pictures from our day with the steet kids.

Me and Stanley-Not really a great picture of Either of us!

My Bony..Love him soo much!

I love this picture..I think it just captures the sweetest expression!

These two wanted my undivided attention today! It was classic!

Attempted Piggy Back Ride

Love Getting pictures taken??? I think YES! Maybe a little obsessed!

Kind of Sad, but seriously Cute!

I love that he is making a little heart with his hands...he did that ll by himself.....Can you all tell yet that i love these kids???

Pure Bliss...Waterfalls and Beach

2011-04-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

Ok so for the longest time like maybe the last 4 years of my life I've had a dream. I have dreamt of being apart of villages and seeing the things and being apart of things you see in National Geographic of the cute little African Children. Something just stirs inside of me that craves that. Well, I feel so blessed to be in Haiti, because its not Africa like I always thought I would end up eventually, but its just as amazing and exceeds all my expectations. I could not be happier being here. i mean I truly feel such a love for these people. I love the little children in the streets. I love that when I drive by and wave it brings the biggest smile upon someones face. I am no one, but I made eye contact, smiled, and waved. For them that was big enough to make their faces light up! I love it!

Today was just a beyond fantastic day! Me and my 5 little awesome friends went on an awesome adventure! We left Port Au Prince at 8 in the morning. it was so nice to get out of the business and into a little more calm life. So, we decided we wanted to go explore this waterfall my friends had heard about. it was awesome! We drove about 14 miles through the mountains, which I have wanted to do since I got here. It looked so beautiful. I took pictures but it doesn't even show the beauty. I just can't capture it all! Plus I was going at a pretty fast speed. But it was awesome. It was fun to see the people living away from the craziness and living just a basic and simple life. They seemed happy to me. We drove past them all and they all get so excited. We drove through some awesome little villages and I was loving it, I would have been happy if thats all we did. But, then we drove up this little hill and stopped at where we were to find the waterfall. It was comical because there was a gate, which no one really stands at, but they saw me and Neil the two white people and went and stood by the gate. So, they tried to tell Margaret that because she was with white people it was $5 a person. She was in a fit and was like we are leaving, this is racist. So, anyway Patrick went to talk with them and we got away with 250 goudes, which is like 6 dollars. So, basically someone was trying to pull a big scam on us. Well, it was worth it because what we saw was amazing. We walked down these stairs and entered a tropical paradise. You know I really am developing in my motherly traits because i was just so happy to see my Haitian friends so happy and excited. They loved seeing the waterfall and loved swimming in it too! It was adorable. So, there was a little family down there. They insisted on helping me through the waterfall and climbing and what not. They must not know Im really a country girl and don't let my white skin fool ya. :) But it was cute they held my hand and led me through, making sure I didn't fall. Granted I was grateful for this since I almost did fall a few times. So, here are waterfall pictures...again, doesn't even capture the amazingness!!

We saw a lot of this...Kids and adults packing up things into the Mountains! He was waving to me:)

The Countryside..isn't it awesome?

On our way to the Waterfall

I loved this church, I thought it was really beautiful!

One of the Two awesome Waterfalls

The group minus me at the waterfall

Bony Enjoying the Waterfall

Loving Life and all the Beauties of Gods Creations

In the Waterfall

This father and son led me along so I wouldn't fall

After we left the waterfall, we started our journey back to the beach! Again, we traveled through the countryside and it was magnificent! I was loving every second of it. The best part was when we came over the mountain where you could look out and see the ocean! It was breathtaking

Neil with the ocean view

When we got to the beach it was beautiful. The resort we went to was nice and it had this AWESOME beach trampoline which we had the best time on. When we first got there we all jumped on and were jumping around and laughing hysterically. Everyone knew we were having fun. It felt good to laugh that hard. After we got off many other people went on, realizing how fun it was. Later in the day we were agian playing on it and pushing eachother off and trying to do tricks. So, this guy from India was swimming by and he would just laugh, and his laugh was so funny it made me laugh. He was so giddy. It was awesome. So, finally he decided he was going to be brave and join us. He got on and was laughing so hard and just jumping around, but terrified all at the same time. It was definitley a highlight of the day for me. I couldn't stop laughing with him. So fun! The water here is also very beautiful. It is sooo blue. Neil rented a little Kayak and so we went Kayaking in the ocean. The water was just amazing! I was loving every second. I put my hand or feet in and you can see it clear as day. We spent our time at the beach maxin and relaxing. I think my little Haitian friends enjoyed the little break and were glad to just have some fun! I was to, it was really nice to be out of the hustle and bustle. All in all it was just such a nice day full of adventure and good times and good friends! I couldn't be more grateful for how much Heavenly Father has blessed me to be here in this country and having the experiences Im having. It is truly such a joy and hopefully something that will remain with me as far as changing my whole perspective on life! Here are some more beach photos

Our favorite Toy

Cute Jimmy...this also shows the clearness of the water

Bony and Neil Jumping off hand in hand!

Enjoying our lunch together in the beautiful weather with beautiful surroundings

Bony and Neil..Neil said he was not flexing..I say yeah right:)

Me and Bony with the two India Guys trying to get our balance to take a picture!

Group Photo and Im the only one looking

Awesoem Group photo with all smiles!! LOve LOVe LOVe it!

Visits

2011-04-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

A week ago I got to go back to Virginia to do a few housekeeping things and visit friends and family. It was so great to see people and spend time with my aunt and her family. I miss VA. It was really cool to because we got to go see the Cherry Blossoms. Also, we did a few service projects together as a family and friends to help a few deserving people in Haiti so it was awesome! Here are some pics from that.

Me and Hannah with one of the beautiful cherry blossoms

Hannah Helping prepare Gift Bags!!

My sister came to visit me here in Haiti. She flys for free so she was able to just come for a quick weekend. It was really great to be able to share my experience with someone. I can show as many pictures as possible, but it just really doesn't do justice. I was able to deliver some things that some people in VA helped me put together and she was able to be apart of that. I love how even simple things here can bring happiness and smiles to the faces of these sweet children and people. Sometimes I look at this country and it overwhelms me. The tragedy, the trials, and pains of these people just consumes me and overwhelms me. One of the talks from Conference I thought was so great. President Eyring talked of how God has heard the prayers of those who have sought food, or clothes, or employment. He has heard them from the beginning of time. He has provided for his children and today that is why we have the church welfare program. Many have been blessed by this great and inspired program. For this, Im grateful. I am grateful for this wonderful gospel that encourages its members to serve and help others. I feel so blessed to be able to serve in some small way here. For surely it brings me the greatest blessings and the greatest happiness. These situations and these children are brining me such joy and such an appreciation for my blessed life. Here is some photos from my sisters visit. A short video will be shown later to show all the wonderful people who helped me get some things together for people here to see who they were able to help and make smile:)

My sister and I at this nice Restaurant that overlooked PauP

Cute little boy with his goody Bag

Handing out Goody Bags

So cute..Her hands are quite full and she was quite interested by it all

I love how they always want their photo taken!

Look at the boy on the rights face..he is so exccited about the bubbles

My sister was loving being here, it is pretty special!

I loved those popper things when I was a kid, and I still do!

I love this!! Bubbles even make older boys excited!

He loved the little nose spy glasses

Little STeve..He's cute

Em with the Glasses on

this little boy is sooo cute!

I love the back of the truck!

After much convincing I got Emily to join in and she loved it!

Us with two of my super awesome Haitian friends!!!

All Smiles

2011-03-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

So as I've said life in Haiti is not Easy..Here are some pictures from my travels on Saturday! This shows the reality of Port Au Prince!!

The view from one of the places I went today..Pretty great eh? It made me Smile

Nothing Ceases to Amaze me or Suprise me here...This makes me Smile:)

I am grateful for the dumps in America so our rivers don't look like this!

A Tap Tap and a lot of People!

Again so grateful our rivers don't look like this!

A Market!

A Haitian church

The traffic does not always make me smile!

So, we went to Lesley's orphange on Saturday. This made me very excited! It was the first place I ever went with Rebecca and just absolutley fell in love with a few of the kids here. Undo was not himself today which was one of the kids. He along with a bunch of other kids were sick with the chickenpox. Poor kids with no relief. He was not a happy camper but he just came and sat with me and cuddled with me. So, hopefully I offered the poor kid some sort of comfort! Today was cool too because Marilyn came along. She is an older lady who was here on a visit. She was very kind and it was fun to see her excitement and expressions. It reminded me of myself when I first arrived. Also, I have a new American friend which is exciting. He is a 27 year old returned missionary. He is living with Rebecca for an undetermined amount of time. He speaks Kreyole because he spoke it on his mission. So, it was fun to have him to talk with and have him actually understand me and my life. Kind of refreshing!! Anyway, here are some pictures/video from Saturday.....Soooo Cute...If these kids don't bring smiles to your faces then I don't know what will:)

All the kids surrounded us that makes me smile!

Undo-One of my favorite little children..he was sick so Im suprised he's smiling:)

Cute Wesley..Another one I just fell in love with..isn't he precious?

Some of the kids showing off their new cars and toys Marilyn brought

I love Patrick, he is one of Rebecca's "Kids" I couldn't love him more!!

The Kids with Marilyn and her loving every minute of it!

Little Junior..he was being Shy I guess!

This was actually quite comical because they were loving playing with Marilyn's arms!!

Wesley Love..can't get enough!

More Wesley Love!!

Goofing Around!!

Some Undo Love!

Adorable...

They sang me a song..it was adorable! I don't think I could smile more!!

Serge on the Brain

2011-03-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

So, there is this super adorable family.......The Serge Family

I can not get them off my mind. All week I have just been thinking about them. They are so sweet and so kind and they don't have much. They are the same people I spoke of in Humility and their humble abode. Yet, they are so happy. This sweet family is very close to my heart. The rainy season is beginning soon so it has been raining at night. This makes me think of them and how they are in their little cement home with no real protection from the rain. So, I just imagine this little family all together enduring the rain literally but also just the storms of life. You know they might not have a lot of material possessions but in so many ways i think they might be better off. They know whats really important. I just love them all they are sooo cute! on Sunday I continually was hugging on the little boy on the right. After Sacrament meeting each child came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I was endearing and i just love love this little family!

The Serge Kids and The Dad!!

Me and the Serge Kids after Church

On a different note....here are some other photos from church and On the way home, since we sat in traffic for 2 hours:)

This little girl has sat by me the past two weeks at Church, she is 13 and just sweet

I know its a fail with my reflection but i wanted to show the local shoe store

And here is the local Cell phone Store....Anyone need me to pick them up a tele?

I go to church in Petion-Ville

Humility

2011-02-27T17:07:00.000-08:00

What is humility? Humility I believe is one of the noblest characteristics. As in all noble characteristics there is one who is our perfect example, that is Jesus Christ. Today in Sunday School although I don't understand anything at church I can still read the scriptures and be apart of it that way. The lesson was about the Sermon on the Mount and the Beattitudes. In Matthew 5:3 it says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kindgdom of of heaven." I can again say blessed are those who are humble in spirit. I have seen first true and blessed humility today. Before I share this experience I want to share a few excerpts from an apostle of Gods talk in General Conference. Elder Uchtdorf gave a fantastic talk in priesthood about Pride. Some of my favorite lines are as follows: "When we see the world around us through the lens of the pure love of Christ, we begin to understand humility. We don't discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman." Then he quotes one of my favorite talks of all time which was given by Ezra Taft Benson about pride where he states," god will have a humble people. Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble...Let us choose to be humble. We can do it, I know we can." Ok, so all this talk about humility is on my mind today because of two reasons. First of all, I have been the recipient of true christ like love. As I go to church each Sunday and don't speak the language it is without fail that someone will try to speak with me in English to try and make me feel welcome. I have felt so welcomed and loved by these people. The last two weeks I have had little girls come sit by me and with their eyes wide open examine me and want to be with me. I like to give them hugs and show my love for them even though I can't communicate with them. But I feel so humbled by being here because I am associating with and speaking with some of the most humble people I have ever met. They don't have much, in fact you wouldn't believe how much they DON'T have. But despite the difficulties of getting to church they are there. They serve the Lord and they do it with a positive attitude from what I can see. They are passionate about being disciples of Jesus Christ and although their life is not easy they are doing their best to follow and live a life like our Savior Jesus Christ. So, they are teaching me much about humility!! So, secondly I was humbled beyond belief today. There is this super sweet man named Serge. He comes to the English Class on Thursdays. So, through this we have learned about him. Let me share this mans story with you. He has a beautiful family with four kids and a beautiful wife. His kids are seriously the cutest things ever. Melissa is the other mormon American here that I teach English with and that takes me to church. So, she has been giving this sweet little family a ride to church the past two weeks. Serge does not have a job. He has not had one for many years. It is very hard to come by in the country. So, Melissa has devised a plan to make chicken coops for him so he can raise chickens and have some sort of income. I wanted to get in on the action and help to. So, today after church we drove to their home to see the land of where we could build the chicken coops. Let me try and give you a walk through of my experience. Here is this sweet man and his family. We drove up a small trail and arrived at a gate. He opened the gate and there was a small modest home. It was not his home it was the owner of the land, who he had purchased his property for 4,000 dollars. Let me remind you of the pay they recieve here. $300 a month is very good. So, just think how long it took to make that money. Then, loans here have like a 36% interest rate so you just build using money you have. So, if you don't have enough money than you just don't finish. This is what happened to his family. So, we walked down a little dirt path and down some cement stairs underneath what looked like a cement slab. As we walked down some makeshift cement stairs there was sheet drawn across an opening. He opened the sheet and said come into my home. As we arrived he said a prayer and the spirit was in that home. There were pictures of Christ taped onto the wall and I could tell this family loved the lord. When we walked in there was the lviving room with a table and some books. Then to the left was a bedroom for the kids. I was just glad to see beds, there were two for the four children. Then in another concrete room there was a bed for him and his wife. He then took us to the kitchen. It was a concrete room with just some pots. Then there was an empty room that he said one day will have stairs to the next level and will be another bedroom. It was an oh so humble abode. I felt so blessed and then some. I can't believe how simply they live and yet they are just so sweet and love the Lord and serve him and want to help others. I hope that we can help his family find a way to make an income. He truly deserves it, all he is trying to do is provide for his family. As we were around and just together I just kept hugging the boys. They were so cute and I just wanted to take them into my arms over and over again and I just wanted to tell them how loved they are. So, today was a good day. I am blessed, you are blessed and we should all strive to live a little more humbly in our own lives. In all things we should strive to live a life where we love the Lord and trust in him despite our circumstances for that is where true love and true happiness is found!

LOVE!

2011-02-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

I love Haiti! Well, I love the opportunity of being here in Haiti! Yesterday was all about LOVE! I love my Saturdays. I love Rebecca and the person she is and the work she does. I love her 4 "children" Boney, Margaret, Patrick, and Jimmy. They are sooo sweet and such wonderful people. I love good people who come here and want to help and Love. Yesterday we started our day by going to an orphanage ran by a Haitian woman. It was a special needs orphanage. She did a very good job running the place. It really got me thinking these poor children who are orphans are sad enough but add in a mental or physical disability and I really wonder what hope these kids really have. I pray God will watch over all of them. We brought some toys along with us that actually the family I live with donated. They LOVED the toys. It was amazing how much these toys were loved and played with and it was donated all from one small family!! It was great playing with them and loving on them!! I love loving these kids.

Mikah..he was so cute! There seems to always be a few kids you just Connect with!

A little princess!!

So cute and so Grateful for the toys!

I love Boney, I think he liked the toys too:)

He was adorable! He had a physical disability-he is so darling!

He was a good little swinger!

After this orphanage we headed over to the store. On our way we drove past a bunch of guys on the corner. I looked around and they were all looking at me. I was in the back of the truck. Two guys were making kissy faces at me. The others were just saying things to me. Jimmy said they are crazy guys in Haiti always love the American girls. As we were turning the corner one of them came up and said Darling we Love you. I said Thank you. Merci. I was glad to be driving away though. Yes, sometimes me small town Abby from Idaho feel like a celebrity in this place. After the store we went to the airport to pick up a past volunteer named King...He was a great guy and it was fun meeting him. His family came here over the summer and are coming again in March. They live in New York City. After we picked him up we headed over to the street kids again. I love going there. They probably don't get much loving from anywhere because many people probably don't know about them!! We did fingerpainting with them, it was so funny. they really did not know what to do I don't think. When we showed them they were still a little apprehensive. but once they got into it they were loving it. I think Patrick was loving it to as he started a paint war, when he got paint on Rebecca and I's face. We then attacked him and got him with paint. It was fun! I also played a little basketball with Boney and the kids. Then, I drew some pictures with some of them and many of them drew for me. It was fun because this time the older kids kinda broke down their walls and would come up to me too. Im sure they don't get as much attention usually. I tried to give them attention. One of the boys had some music playing and I knew the song and started singing and dancing and he was lovng it. So, then one of them got a keyboard out that someone must of given them and started playing and I would sing. It was so fun! I just love these kids. They bring me great joy!!

So innovative using her leg to to draw!!

I LOVE these boys!

Yep..I love them too!

King with the boys....you also get a nice bum shop!!

After we went to the Street Kids we went to the nutrition center again with the little babies. This place is so hard for me. I held a baby today whose ltitle feet were all puffed up along with their belly because of malnutrition and then I could feel his little bones. He was so frail. As I looked into his eyes I felt the deepest love for him. He just clung onto me and and wanted me to hold him and love on him. I felt pure love for him. I for sure had some tears come to my eyes especially as we were leaving. I went to put him back in his crib and he started crying and saying something. Margaret said he is telling you not to leave him. It broke my heart. Rebecca said about the little boy she was holding. "Its hard enough that they are starving, but can you imagine starving alone." These precious spirits. I pray for them. I am so grateful to have these experiences and to feel a little bit of God's love for his children. for I know that God loves these precious little children. He would take all of them into his hands and love on them and bless them if he were here. He can't right now so he has sent his other children to love and comfort them!! Im glad for a time I get to be a little part of this all and how greatly my life is being blessed by it. I love love!!!

I love little kids!! So today at church I sat by this little girl meme. She was 6. She was mesmerized by my. She kept trying to talk to me in Kreyol because I asked her a few questions in Kreyol she thought I spoke fluently. She kept telling me that she wanted to introudce me to her mother. She kept examining me and my skin and my hair. She couldn't get enough of me. I couldn't get enough of her either. She after church introduced me to her mother. It was cute! After church I was talking with Stanley. He is the Sunday School Teacher. He seems like a great teacher. He came to me and said I want you to understand my lessons. I said me too. He was like you need to learn kreyol. I said Im trying but its hard. Poor guy I just sit in his clas and read the scriptures and probably look bored. I do wish I could understand since he really does seem like a great and passionate teacher!! I am really loving getting to know and associate with these members. I love the church and I love these wonderful people!!

My new friend MEME

A Loaded Post..READ ON if youd like!

2011-02-18T17:12:00.000-08:00

First things first! I was thinking of someone really amazing yesterday! My Uncle David. He is such a good man. He passed away 4 years ago yesterday. He left an amazing legacy and he has a beautiful family here whom has treated me so well and whom I absolutley adore. I had the great experience of spending a lot of time with my wonderful uncle the summer before he passed away. He taught me a lot of great things by his example and I had a lot of many wonderful spiritual experiences that will live with me throughout my life. Thank you Carraway family for your example of faith, charity, and love. I will forever love my uncle David and I will forever hold him as a man of honor in my life! I love him like my own father!

My Aunt and her 4 Beautiful Children

My Uncle Dave's Grave..He's not there hes in a much better place!

Ok so I sit in a car for four hours everyday....So basically I have a lot of time to sit and think about whats going on around me and about life! Its good but I think my brain is on overload sometimes!! So here is my most recent thoughts and experiences.

On wednesday we went to the grocery store. So, in the states this may be an hour endeavor at the most. Well, here its a completley different story. We left around 4 and got home around 7. This is not really the problem. The problem is the drive up there and the things we have to see and experience. So, on the way the first thing I saw was a little girl probably like 7 and a dog. The little girl looked terrified of the dog. So, she grabbed a rock, and cautiously walked past the dog ready to throw the rock if need be. So, the poor little girl Im sure had been attacked before. Then, we saw a strange thing. We saw a boy roll a tire across the street and put it in the back of a police truck. Apparently they are efficient here why waste time going to the tire store, why when your in traffic you can just whistle a young boy down and he will throw it in yoru truck for ya. The saddest part was the officer gave him money but by the look at the young mans face it wasn't enough. But, what could he do it was a police officer that gave it to him. It was painful looking at him and his look of disappointment. Then, as we were saying this is to much to handle a little boy came begging at our window. He kept using his hands to show us I need money for food (using his hands this is the message he sent). So, after we said no it didn't work. He stayed by our window for literally like 5 minutes just over and over asking for money. it was soo sad! I would give money, but I've done that before and its unsafe. After I did several other young boys surrounded our car asking for money. So, it was heartbreaking. We were like geez who knew going to the grocery store could be so painful! On the way home we somehow got talking about childbirth which got me thingking about childbirth here. Wow, not only is it all natural but its probably very very unsanitary! I then asked A the question....do you think peopel here are happy? I mean they don't know any different than their lifes, but still its gotta be hard. She said I don't know how anyone could have happiness in this life and environment. I don't know its an interesting concept.

This brings me to Thursday. I went to The English class again. It was great! I love associating with the people of Haiti and of the church. There were 4 people there and I loved talking with them and getting to know them! It really is a bright spot in my week. We had to take 2 of them home because it was literally DOWNPOURING!! So, as we were traveling in the car I took the opportunity to ask one them my question from the night before. I asked him....are you happy? I asked this not just randomly but he was just talking about how hard life was. So, I just said even though life is hard you are happy right?? I mean you have a family and the gospel. He said something along these lines. He basically said yes but no. He said it is hard realizing that you can't achieve your dreams and you can't procide for your family. This got me thinking about how lucky we are again. Except this is in a way i never really thought about. Do you know how lucky we are to DREAM?? Who would've thought this was such a blessing. I realized when he said that, that its true in Haiti many can not probably achieve their dreams of being a certain career or having nice things, its just not really possible here. Some peoples dreams of providing for their family is really not even attainable, seeing how 80 to 90 % of the population is in poverty and can not find work. So, think about that....we are so lucky to be able to dream and have goals that are attainable!

Then there was today. As I was driving in the car I was noticing all the trash in street. See it rained last night and and that meant trash was everywhere. I noticed one extremley large pile of trash however. As I looked at it I then looked and saw a few men just sitting there doing nothing. I see a lot of that! It got me thinking. Why don't all these people who aren't working or doing anything come together and help their country by cleaning it up. They could make it a more enjoyable place to be, but they don't! They just sit in the mess. I can't judge them. I don't know their life! However, it makes me wonder..would you just accept it because thats the way life is? Or would you get up and do something about it? Its hard to know what we would do since we weren't raised in this environment. I would like to think I would. Ok and my last thought for today was this. Am i becoming numb to things?? AFter living here for 6 weeks I have just come to accept everything thing I see as normalicy! As we were driving home we witnessed a car accident. In the states I would of stopped and made sure everyone was ok. I wouldve been a witness for the police on whos fault it was. But here I just wanted to get out as soon as possible. I also saw not one was hurt so I found myself saying of course there was an accident I'm suprised I haven't seen more. It suprised me how I reacted to it. I hope im not becoming to numb.

Anway, that is it for now! Im going out to do some more service tomorrow! I love it! Such a bright spot in my week!!

Vacation Disney

2011-02-15T08:53:00.000-08:00

Well I like Haiti but it's good to get back to the United States. It was a much needed break. It was actually pretty crazy being back in the states. Everything seemed so commercialized. It really made me realize how far behind Haiti is. I mean there were probably more buildings in a square mile in Florida than there is in 20 miles of distance in Port AU Prince. So last week for abotu 4 days we went to Orlando Florida to do the Disney thing with the kids. It was fun for them. I remember going to Disney when I was 10ish or so. It was so fun for me at that age. I remember being so excited to see all the characters. I think the kids enjoyed the characters . It was much better to go in February than when we went as a family. It was the middle of the summer with crowds of people and hot and humid. So, I'd recommend this time of year but bring your rain jacket. We were all freezing because it was like 50-60 degreees. We were used to the 90 degree weather. So, needless to say I spent some money on buying warm clothes. We also got to go shopping which I normally hate but I think when you don't have something and then you have it again your so much more grateful. It was so nice to go to a Target and know that I could safely buy whatever I wanted. Like I've said many many times, we are so blessed in the States. We also got to see Seaworld which I had never been to. I loved all the shows. I thought it was amazing what those animals could do. However, my favorite part of our whole trip was my brief visit with my wonderful cousin Ryan and his wife Laura and their three kids. They live about an hour outside of Orlando and they were kind enough to drive down and visit me. We spent about 4 hours together and it was wonderful to talk to them. I hadn't seen them for like 4 or more years. It was also great to talk about the gospel. I never realized how much it was apart of me and how it dictates so much in my life. I have missed my time chatting with Mary and my mom about things of a spiritual nature. So, It was nice to talk to Ryan and Laura on that level. It was just fun to see them too. Amazingly after all our vacation was over and done I was ready to get back to Haiti. You know I have discovered and have known previous to this you can be happy anywhere and you can make home anywhere. I'm again so grateful for this opportunity to be here and have this experience and I'm grateful for my short vacation to the states.

The cool Dolphin show!

One of the Ugliest Fattest Sea Creatures I've ever seen!

Me and Cute Laura...She is so tiny and cute and looks just like I met her 12 years ago!

The whole Fam and Me...they are so cute!

Me and the Boys

Gratitude!

2011-02-05T17:11:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day. I went with Rebecca again. It was very good. We went different places today. We went to a downtown area where there were A LOT of people. We had to go down a road that to be honest scared me a little bit. I was on edge just a little. Rebecca said don't worry its ok. So, I relaxed a little. We ended up going to a medical clinic. It is a clinic ran by nuns here. So, the road was so crazy we just had to get out and walk to the gate. So, I walked hand in hand with one of the Haitian boys. They are so sweet and just protected me. As I walked into the clinic I walked into the wound center. Rebecca said the first thing I want you to do is go comfort that man. Just hold his hand and tell him to be still and its going to be ok. There were 2 American woman working on him. So, I went and held his hand. He was screaming and was in so much pain he had some sort of infection and they were draining it. So, I was holding his hand and telling him it was ok. Then I realized I wasnt feeling so well. I think I was so overwhelmed with his pain that I must have locked my knees or I forgot to breathe or something because I started getting very light headed. I was like Ill be fine Ill be fine. But then I started getting blurred vision. I started feeling sick to my stomach. So, I told Rebecca I'm sorry but I need to sit down. So, I sat down and my light headedness went away and I drank some water and started to feel bettter. After that I went into a room where there was a lot of medications and some nuns. I was told to just stand by the table and they would tell me what they needed. So, basically it was a line of parents and children coming in. The nuns would talk with them and find out what was the matter and then would give them medications. I would count them out and hand them to them. I don't cry to much but today really hit me. As I sat and watched all these mothers, fathers, and children come in. I could see they weren't well. I could see the hard life they have lived. It didn't seem like reality. I don't understand how this could be the condition of so many. I couldn't cry because I had to stay strong but my eyes definitley welled up. I thought about how blessed we are to have health care and to have such easy access to it. not only do they not have access to healthcare but they are so much more prone to diseases. So many of the children were malnourished. It just made me sad. It was an englightening experience and these are the moments that I can see are really changing my perspective. I was overwhelmed but grateful I could be there and be some help. When we left I decided to ride in the back of the truck. It was great, it felt so good. We drove back to Rebeccas and had some lunch. At the clinic we met a lady who works here but is from North Dakota. She came with us. There was also 3 other American woman who were from Minnesota that were helping. They didn't eat lunch with us however. So, it was interesting because we got to talk and discuss Haiti. I sorta live in a bubble. Thats why I love these past two Saturdays and really being apart of it. I drive down some of the same roads that I did today. However, It was like I was seeing things differently today. As I looked from the back of the pick up truck its like I had new eyes and I was seeing things for what they really were. As we talked and discussed the culture and the Haitian life I don't completley understand it all, I don't think I ever will. I can tell you though as I looked around and as I see the Haitian people I know it's a hard life and I know I'm extremley blessed. Its really hard to process it all. I can't figure out how life could get this way. I hope that Haiti can figure a way to help themselves. It's also crazy how expensive everything is here. So, you would think third world country everything must be so cheap. Well the American lady, Mary, who came with us was talking about her search for a place to live. Well, she was getting quotes for $2000 for an apartment and above. She currently lives in a Hotel/apartment and its $1800 a month for nothing really. Its not even an adequate apartment. No wonder 80% of the people are malnourished and starving. Most Haitians live on less than $100 a month. But if rent is that expensive you do the math. Food is no better. On the street a bushel of bananas and some oranges will cost about $25. Its absolutley crazy. It makes no sense. Anyway after we dropped Mary off we went over to another place it was a nutrition center. So, basically mothers bring in their babies to be fed and taken care of because they can't. Most of these babies are very malnourished and very tiny. For example one baby Rebecca was holding. She asked me how old I thought he was. I said 6 or 7 months. He was 2 years old. Its very very sad. So, we held them and fed them. I couldn't help but think how sad. Here are these precious little babies and children of God and they can do nothing for themselves. They are living in this sad sad situation. Thankfully there are these good people who are trying to help. We saw another one on the way out it must of only weighed like 2-5 lbs. It was just sad. They are so frail but at the same time they are kids. They are just normal kids. They want to play and be loved. I don't know this whole day I've just been really trying to process it all. It's like I've seen Haiti and I've known its not a totally easy place to be, but today like I said I saw it differently and it affected me more than I can really put into words. The things I saw today I think will be etched into my brain forever. How lucky we are to have been born in the United States, to be educated, to have medical care, to have families who love us and support us, and to have a roof over our heads. I just feel so blessed and so lucky. I know God watches over all his children and I just hope that one day these precious little children will be blessed on high. Keep them in your prayers and please always be grateful for all the many many things we are all blessed with. I just read Pres. Monsons talk from conference The Divine Gift of Gratitude. You should read it. You can find it here THE DIVINE GIFT OF GRATITUDE However, if you don't have time to read that. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from it.A greek Philosopher Epictetus said, "He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has." Pres monson says: "Do material possession make us happy and grateful? Perhaps momentarily. However, these things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we recieve from those around us. Unfortunatley, these are some of the things we allow ourselves to take for gratned. The English author Aldous Huxley wrote. 'Most human beings have an infinite capactiy for taking things for granted.'" So, I feel. I feel I have taken so much for granted and shame on me. I may not drive the nicest car or have the fancy clothes or house. But, I have a wonderful life full of happiness, good friends, love, and family. I am blessed, as we all are. As I came home today from these various places and sat down to a nice big meal and a nice hot shower I realized just how lucky I really am. I hope we can all think a lot more about how blessed we are instead of what we may be lacking because remember there are people in the world who lack much much more than you or I will ever imagine lacking. Anyway, I've rambled long enough. I guess the whole point is I'm Grateful and I want you all to Know that WE are ALL very BLESSED!!

A Very Blessed Day!

2011-01-29T17:41:00.000-08:00

Well my day started by heading over to a woman's house I had never met but had just heard about through several people who had been here on mission trips. She was very nice and I got to run around Haiti with her today. She has lived here since 2002. She has started up this foundation and is just doing wonderful things here. She has three Haitian kids living with her right now and they came along with us. They have to. Then also my friend from church came as well. So, I have been told over and over from my family they think it's crazy when American's ride in the back of trucks here. I've always agreed because it does seem crazy. Well today I got the whole experience. I rode in the back of a truck. It was freeing actually. I then heaven forbid went out amongst the people to a market. It was crazy. I didn't feel nervous but that could of been because I had my friend Frigens right by my side the whole time leading me around. It was sad to me, because at one point he did say to me. "This is the reality of my country." I thought yes yes it is, people everywhere and we are standing on garbage with big trucks right by where we are buying food. We were buying food for one of the orphanages we were going to go to. It was great to get out but it's definitley not something that is recommended for doing often. As Rebecca said, "This is where trust in God comes in, I am doing his work so I figure he will protect me." I believe that. She is doing so many good things and so I do think God must be protecting her as he was protecting me today. I didn't feel in danger.

Margaret buying the Vegetables

Me and the Boys in the Back of the Truck. They were sooo sweet!

I was standing amongst all of this. Crazy eh?

From the Market we headed to what Rebecca called the Street Kids home. It is basically probably like 40-45 kids who don't have a place to be. They were literally on the street. So, one of the older street boys runs the house and they all just help eachother out. It was so humblingto be there. I walked in and all the children just came up to all of us. They were so happy to see us and just to be with us. Many came up and hugged me. One little boy asked me to give him a kiss. Other tiny kids just held their hands up to be held. So, I did all of it. I loved being amongst them. We also brought with us food and activities. We brought some books to practice their writing and some math worksheets and some crayons and paper for the younger kids. It was so rewarding just being there. I feel so much more blessed to have been there than they were blessed for me being there. Of course every single little kid wanted their picture taken and of course I appeased them. I won't post all of them. I don't remember hardly any of their names either. But, I met so many. Im sure as I go back I will remember more.

From the Moment I arrived he wanted me to take a photo of him!

She kept grabbing my leg so i would hold her

I held him for a long time. He was very cute!

He was just so Cute!

They were showing me their good writing skills!

Showing off their Awesome Writing and Coloring Skills!

Hard at work!

I only wish we could get so excited over being educated and practicing our letters! Oh their simple joys!

After the streets kids visit, we headed over to another orphanage. It was more out of the busyness. We delivered some food and some goody bags for the kids. Ok so in these little bags were like a granola bar, a pad of paper, a crayon, a sucker, and a blow toy from like new years and a little plastic watch. I've never seen kids so excited! It was adorable. They all wanted me to help them put their watches on or what not. I then found the cutest boys and they just crowded me and had me draw things and they especially loved when I would write their names. I also sang some songs with them. There were two boys who stole my heart. One was Wesley and the other was Uno. At one point Wesley said are you my sister? I said of course I am. Then Uno he was just funny, he kept teasing me and he would dance and sing with me. It was adorable.As I looked deep into his eyes I knew him. I knew he was a loved child of God and I was so happy to spend some time with him and feel of his love and of his sweetness.

The one to the left of me is Wesley, he was just sweet. Then uno is to the right of me with his personality just shining through!

Me and Wesley-Seriously what a sweetie!

These boys and I just had the greatest time!

My friend Frigens with some of the girls.

Some of the Girls showing off their goody Bags!

This little boy was so cute too, I can't remember his name though!

Overall, today was such a good experience and Im so glad I was able to go. As we were done and driving home I was asked how I liked it. I said I loved it. Rebecca said I can be as involved as Id like. She even said I could teach a little class if I want. I told her I would love to. So, I will think on that. I also told her it was hard for me to see all these precious little children without families and living in such harsh conditions. She agreed but she made a good point. She said but its also good because they are so happy and it's true. I didn't see any kids who weren't smiling and that didn't seem happy. I guess its all perspective. I always knew I took a lot for granted, but being here has just made me realize even more so how much I have taken for granted in my life and still do everyday. However, I'm so grateful for the experience of being here and being humbled! I'm grateful for the love and the hugs of these adorable little children of God who in their humble circumstances still love and care for others. What a lesson I can learn from them.

These Kids Have Got Moves!

2011-01-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

Today when I went to pick up the little boy from school the school was having a party or a pep rally or something. They had music playing and the kids were all out dancing and playing. It was the cutest thing ever. These kids were really good dancers too. Im seriously obsessed with these two little boys. I've seen them before and they are just absolutley so cute.

Last night I also went to a girl named Melissas house. She is a member of the church and she has started teaching an English class in her home on Wed. and Thurs. So I went to her house last night. It was such a neat experience. She had three students. Two were in their 30s and one was in her 60s. I love the Haitian people. they are so humble, at least the ones I have met so far. I was impressed with their English skills as well. So, I think this will also be a good experience for me. It's just like teaching 1st grade. You have to go step by step and teach basic English skills. So, its good practice for me. She invited me to help every Wednesday and Thursday. Im very excited. I also get to go tomorrow on an orphanage food delivery with a lady here. Im excited to go and see all that.

The one on the Left is my favorite! He is so stinkin Cute! Everytime I see him I just smile! I don't even know the kid but he is so cute! Then the one on the right was just dancing away and is just so cute!

I'm Calling ALL to Help My CAUSE!!

2011-01-25T12:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, So together we can make a big difference in the lives of others. I just truly believe that I'm here so that I can be a link to help many people have the opportunity to help others. I want to start something here in Haiti. I'm not sure yet. But I will need your help. I will need your wards help. I am thinking initially maybe just collecting clothes or food for the members here in Haiti. I met a new friend in church on Sunday, his name is Frigens. He has been emailing me. I told him to tell me everything about Haiti and about his life. Well, here is what he wrote to me. It broke my heart.

Yes, I studied computer science office and yes I'm in a disguised unemployment to not say that I work, in this country even when someone is very good in a profession he or she need someone high-grade to help him found a good job and as you're my sister I do not have to hide to tell you that the salary they give me is not even enough to pay the taxi during the month but when you're young and that 'we have big dreams when we should seek out to realize our dream even at least a 50% passing, let me say why I told you that I live with my former parents. Before my birth my father is dead so I did not know and since that time my mother lives a life very unhappy and she never had the chance to marry, the father of my first half-brother was leaves, she gives birth to my little sister and my third brother and their father died in the end she gave birth to my last little brother his father was abandonee since before his birth and three months after the birth of my last little brother, my mother died in March 2009 since when I become father for I am the eldest of the family but the only chance we have is that my grandparents are owners and we lived with them since before the birth of my last little brother and January 2010 my last little brother died a week after the earthquake we are not earthquake knocks thanks the lord but his death is for me the biggest chock of my life because I loved him so much and I wanted to adopt it as my son but he died of high fever because we slept in a garden to avoid the aftershocks of the earthquake so the fact of becoming a father for my sister and my brothers I must unravel to help with school and I could go and I know that God loves us he does not leave us alone and it was not for the things would be much worse and I am sorry to tell you about this things Now I don´t used to explains these kinds of things to which that is pushing me but my heart asking me to explain these things to you so I did and I ask you to help me pray that God gives me a another job where I can help my family because they count on my help and I love them so much more I have to prepare my life to have a family too. I do not understand very well when you quest wonder is an average day for me. The Haitian people are not bad people but the social problems, especially economic policies make them angry because all the leaders only benefit the people and they do nothing for the people they only look after their interests staff that reflects the people in a very funny they have become selfish and wicked youth have nothing to do even if they are academic, political leaders use them to settle their affairs and policy as they accepted their accept cause the life is hard for them, short ... as you can see there are currently a very serious political problem for, the eyes of people begin open they do not want to put anyone in power. Regarding culture, it is true that we have our own culture, but we serve over foreign culture, and you can see especially in the way we dress, talk. Haitians do not like being mistreated, they do not like being despised, they are jealous. in the good side they are really welcoming and very curious, they are amenable to help, they are very brave they very good quality but the problem I have over the site makes them very weird.

Ok People he is 26 years old. He is taking sole responsibility for his siblings. Did I mention he speaks 4 languages. He taught himself English and Spanish and he also speaks French and Creole. I think I need to locate some wealthy people to sponsor a few of these smart smart young kids and allow them to live their dream. I want to try and sponsor, with the help of rich people, to come to school at BYU in America. I was told by one Haitian, our driver, who is also a member of the church, that if he has a sponsor for school he can get a student visa. I just feel like by providing this for some, we would be providing for more than that because they will be sending support to their families and they will be achieving their dreams. So, what can we do? If any one has suggestions of something we could unite and do. Please let me know! Together we can make a better life for others. Because we have been so blessed we should bless the lives of those who are in such need.

Feels Like Home

2011-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Finally! I made it to church today and it was a beautiful experience! I was a little nervous going in, I don't speak their language and I felt ignorant, like here I am in their country and I want them to speak in English. Well fortunatley I went with another girl and she speaks French. The services were in Creole but they mostly all speak French and they read in French and sing the hymns in French. So, she can communicate with them. So, she introduced me to the Relief Society President. I made her apologize for me for not knowing the language. She was like maybe you will learn. I said I hope so. I really do hope to learn some French or Creole. It seems Creole would be more beneficial to me here, but French is more widely used. Anyway, Relief Society was great. I couldn't understand a single thing, but I could feel the spirit and I could feel of her love and passion for the gospel and it made me excited. Then, I was taken to the Singles Sunday school class where there were about 20 of them. It was good though because two of the boys spoke to me in English and one sat by me and translated for me. I mean not everything but enough so that I could know what was being talked about. I was so grateful to him, an answer to my prayers. He just kinda took the initiative. I am sure he will become a very good friend to me. I will be friends with anyone who will speak English to me and be kind to me. It was exciting to see the excitement and the level of love by body movements in my Sunday School teacher. He seemed very enthusiastic about the Subject of Christ's birth and I'm sure if I understood I would have been very impressed by his teaching. The class was laughing and commenting, while I sat in the corner just amazed and probably looked like a deer in headlights. Oh, so church started at 7 am and the generator was not on. The city power here is so wishy washy. It just turns on and off all the time. So, the city power wasn't on and then the generator wasn't working. So, we sat in the dark. But the windows brought in light so it was all good. But, it kicked on during Sunday School which meant fans. I was so happy because of course I was so hot. Well, the girls were cold, so they turned it off. I was like your kidding me right? How could they not be hot? I guess they are just used to it. Ok, so after sunday school we went to Sacrament. It was good, the music was beautiful. They have a piano but they don't use it. So, they just sang acapela the whole time and it was fine. It sounded great. I also had a super cute kid sitting in front of me so I just smiled at him the whole time. Then, I got to talk to my new friend Frigens afterwards and they have institute on Saturday I will try to attend even though I won't understand. Then, I think I might ask him to give me lessons in Creole and I will pay him. I need to do something. Overall, it was just such a beautiful time and I thoroughly enjoyed being there. I loved the spirit I felt and I loved being among these wonderful saints. The gospel is so true and I could see it reflected in them. I felt right at home and I was glad to finally be home. I found peace in knowing that these people although we came from different countries and backgrounds understood me, even maybe moreso than the family I live with. They understand our divine destiny and who we really are and that we are truly brothers and sisters. they know of the example of our savior and that he loved and we must love to. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and that the true gospel and his true character and his mission is known to us in these latter days. I hope that I can become involved and I know I will have many great experiences ahead for me.

"I know that he lovethe his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things" 1 Nephi 11:17
Christ is Charity and I am grateful for the Christlike Love shown towards me today!

Exhausting

2011-01-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

Ok so I thought traffic was bad in DC, but oh my goodness it doesnt compare to the traffic here. Plus the traffic here makes absolutley no sense. I don't understand where all the people are going or coming from. I don't get how money or jobs work here. The other thing thats exhausting is that there is no traffic laws. I mean litterally I was in the worst traffic I have ever been in. We were late picking up the youngn from school. Even at that we were passing lines of trafffic and driving on the sidewalks. It's crazy right? I was gripping on for my life the whole time. Ok, so we left around 1 and we got home around 5. Keep in mind this is like at the most a 20 mile journey. This is going through dirt roads and tons of people. It was a little scary yesterday because there were just people everywhere and cars locked us in. I just kept thinking to myself what if something happened right now. What if someone came and wanted money and got upset at me and broke my window or something. I could do absolutley nothing about it. Thankfully I have a Haitian man driving me around. The sad thing is I was just thinking I could drive around and then craziness like yesterday told me No Way! For example they shut down one side of the road. At one point of our travel we have to make a U turn to get on the street we need. Well the police would not let us make that turn so we had to go a long way around. Another reason I could never drive here. If something like that happened to me and I was by myself see ya later. I'd be so lost and well things like that happen quite often enough here. Ok, so then we decided to go another way home to try and avoid traffic and it was even more horrific. So it took 2 hours about to get home. On the way home the little man had to use the bathroom. I thought about just letting him go in his pants but that seemed cruel. So, I asked the driver to pull over. Of course he pulled over into a super sketch place. So me and this little white children run into like a cement store to go to the bathroom. It was horrible. I've never seen something so terrible in my life. You know super sketchy bathrooms in America wouldn't compare to this. So, even the little boy was like this is yucky Abby. I was like I know I know just hurry and lets get out of here. So, we hurried, said Merci and ran. Ok, so thats it for my ranting and raving about the traffic. But it was really frustrating to me mostly because I just feel so bad that these people don't even know how different their lives could be with a little guidance. It also overwhelms me because I want to give and help but I feel so helpless I don't even speak their language. I don't even know where to begin to think to help. So, I feel a bit sad about that. Otherwise some cute little things that happened are of course the continued waves and smiles at random kids or adults. I literally feel like a celebrity here. Im still not getting used to little kids begging at my window. It breaks my heart everytime. At school the other day I was walking around with the little girl while we were waiting for the little man. These little Haitian kids came up to us, well surrounded us and looked at us, examined us. Then the balsiest one of the group said "You and your baby are white, and we are brown." I was like yep you are right. But guess what we are all the same or something like that. Then, as I was dropping off the other day an older little girl maybe like 7 or 8 came up to me and randomly gave me a hug. It was sweet. Im reading this book right now about human trafficking in Cambodia and one lady who escaped and now helps other girls escape the brothels and harsh treatment. It made me sad because Im sure similair things happen here. I am glad I know that all the wrongs will be righted and all those who have suffered will be compensated. I am truly blessed and I am truly humbled to be here. It's definitley far from my previous life but honestly I don't miss it much, I just feel so lucky to be here and experience and see all this even though it is difficult to see at times. I hope each of you will realize how blessed we all are just to live where we live and to know what we know and mostly how lucky we are to be educated individuals.

The Weekend

2011-01-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

The Weekend was great. On Friday I again got to get out and it was a good time. So, since I’m white everyone here stares at me. As we were driving through crowds of people many people look at me so I just smile. Sometimes I get a wave, today I got a thumbs up. The greatest is when I see little kids and I catch their eye. As I dropped of one of the kids at preschool today all the little Haitian kids were like you look pretty and they were so intrigued by me. It was very sweet. As we were driving through the craziness I made eye contact with one little boy and I smiled and waved at him. He got the biggest smile on his face and then kept looking back at me as he walked away. Then, I saw a little baby girl in a mommas arms. The mom saw me looking and smiling at them so she grabbed the little girl and told her to smile and wave at me. The baby did and it was so cute. On Friday I also realized it’s finally hitting me where I am. I got emotional for the first time and realized this is real. This is really how people live. I saw this younger girl who had lost a leg and it just broke my heart. I wondered if it could have been helped or prevented if she were living in America and had better medical care. We are so blessed. I was thinking to about the traffic here and trying to parallel it to life. As I did so I thought about the commandments of God. Many people would say that they are restrictive and we aren’t allowed to do things. However, as I’ve always known the commandments of God are strictly a safety net for us. As I sat in the traffic and craziness of the driving in Haiti I thought about how there are so many laws and rules in America with driving and how grateful I really am for them, since they protect us. I feel like every day we are risking our lives driving in this place. The driver was even asking me about laws in America. He was like wow we are a far way off from America, Haitians just do whatever they want. Later on Friday we made the trek to the grocery store which is only about 6 miles away but can take up to an hour to get there. So, it’s quite the process. Over the weekend we again went to the beach this time with better luck and we stayed the night. It was weird how scared I felt sleeping there since I’m used to having a large fence around the house with a security guard. However, I made it through the night and didn’t get eaten by the lizard. When I arrived I saw a lizard crawling around my room. We caught it so I felt at ease. However right before going to bed I saw another one crawling on the wall. So, needless to say I woke up at least every hour to check for lizards on me. The beach was beautiful and I loved being there. As we were there on Saturday Ann and I were sitting and talking about marriage because there was a Haitian Bridal party taking pictures. Well, about 5 of these guys came over to us and tried talking to us. I think they just wanted to practice their English. But one of them came up to me and was like Hello, I’m happy to see you. It was so awkward since they all just stood around us staring at us. So, I just started laughing. One of them was like why are you laughing. I was like I laugh at everything I can’t help it. So, I felt bad but it was just funny. Ann was like there you go Abby you can marry him. So, all in all it was another great weekend in Haiti and a relatively safe one;) These are pictures from driving on Friday.

The Crazy Traffic

Lots of People in the Streets

More traffic and that car in front of us is a taxi, I wouldn't wanna ride in that thing!

The road

Along the Road next to a tent village

A tent City

More Haiti traffic, a steady stream of cars.

Rubble is everywhere in this place

The cracks I believe are from the earthquake

A local selling clothes on the street

Kaliko Beach

I just loved seeing this for some reason

Is this seriously the same Country I was in Yesterday?

Missionary Opportunity

2011-01-13T15:42:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day. The kids were great and I rode with a great driver today when I went to the school to get one of the kids. The driver was very nice and spoke English well. He asked me if I spoke French I of course don't. So, he said he could help me. So, he started giving me little lessons. Things like how to say hello and how to respond when someone asks how are you. He was also telling me more about the Tap Taps, because I was wondering how do they really know where each one is going because it's crazy. He is taking me tomorrow and will try to get pictures of the traffic and the Tap Taps. I asked him about the day of mourning yesterday and if he had lost anyone. He told me how he lost his 7 year old niece. He said a wall fell on her. It is very sad. We drove by a tent city so I asked him about them. He asked if I had visited one and I said I hadn't. He was like you should I told him yeah I'd love to but I can't really just go by myself I kinda stand out ya know. He lived in one for a while he said but now he has a home with a tin roof. He was so grateful for that. He showed me a picture of his little 1.5 year old son Cliff. He was cute I was happy for him that he had somewhere to live with his family. He also lives with his sister who's daughter was lost in the Earthquake. As we talked about all different things I told him I was mostly exctied to get to church and thought it would help me pick up the language a bit. So, naturally he asked me which church I went to. I told him. I asked him and he goes to a protestant church. He said that he had heard of the "Mormons" before and would like to go sometime. I told him when I found out where one was then I would let him know. He said if he liked it he would stay. I thought that was a good idea naturally:) I explained to him about the Book of Mormon and how I had ran into a young man the other day with the Livre De Mormon. He was just very nice and it was so great to talk to him about Haiti and how humble the people are and how it was so nice for me to be here to really appreciate what we have in America. I said we have so much of everything there. He agreed, haha. It was interesting I am reading "The Miracle of Forgiveness" right now and Brigham Young was quoted to say "this people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty, and all manner of persecution and be true. But my greatest fewar is that they cannot stand wealth. Latter Day Saints who turn their full attention to money making soon become cold in their feelings toward the ordinaces of the house of God." This has such a more profound meaning to me. We in the United States think we are so much better off than the impoverished of the world. But, are we really? I wonder how much more humble and God loving we would be if we had a little less in our lives. I wonder how much more we would appreciate the small little things. I wonder how much more we would desire to serve our fellowmen instead of always thinking selfishly of ourselves. It's just a thought I had when I read that quote. I hope that I take away from this experience that material possessions are not important in the whole scheme of things and maybe I'd be a lot better off if I lived a little more humbly. Hard to do, but a good thing to learn and hopefully apply. So, anyway it was a good day with a reflection of how difficult these peoples lives may be but I how they will be praised and honored if they are good people in the heavens after this small period of time on Earth.

One Year Anniversary of the Earthquake

2011-01-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

Today marks the one year since the earthquake. So, today was a national holiday for the Haitain people. They call it a day of mourning. It is pretty crazy the damage that was done by this earthquake. On the road we travel everyday to the embassy and back there is a large building that recieved substantial damage. As I was driving in the car the other day I also saw many structures that had been ruined from the earthquake. However, as I've read some articles from the states about this place they are super dramatic from what I can tell. Yes, the people here have been through a lot and yes there is much poverty and yes its unbelievable. However, the media dramatizes everything. Today seemed like a fairly normal day but I am not intimitley involved with any of the Haitains who were directly affected by the Earthquake. I will ask our driver sometime soon about how it affected his family. It is hard not speaking the language because the other day I was in a car with a very nice driver and I was with him for like 3 hours and we couldn't speak. I tried to speak to him in English but he spoke very little. So, needless to say I don't speak French or Kreole so I was no help to him either. I need to figure out how I can really start learning the language. Anyone have any suggestions or know of some relatively cheap language program out there? Anyway, I am still getting adjusted and havent made all the contacts I need to really get involved. The one lady who I have had contact with is in the States and I don't know when shell be back. Hopefully soon. Anyway, life in Haiti is still going well for me. We spent a few hours at the pool today and had a BBQ at a neighbors house with many of the other Americans here. Well thats it for today hopefully Ill have more adventures and more excitment for you all in the next few days;)

Hit by a Haitian Police

2011-01-09T09:48:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday was an interesting day to say the least. I woke up at 5:30 am to go running with Ann. It felt good to run outside since it's been awhile and I absolutley love it. So that was good, and we got home and got ready to head to the beach. We have to leave pretty early because the nicer beach was apparently a 2 or so long drive. We drove through some crazy busy traffic and street market areas for about 45 mins to an hour. Then, something amazing happened the congestion cleared a bit. We got out on a road that we could go faster than 25-30 mph. However, this also seemed to show the poverty even more. We passed by many tent villages and we saw many people working hard. I saw a lot more kids today and it melted my heart. I saw many many naked boys and girls. I think just like any kid maybe they just liked to be naked. It did break my heart however when I saw little boys and girls just working so hard and a lot of times by themselves. I often saw them without parents or others around them. It really fascinates me this life does. I kept thinking about how accutley aware God is of all these people despite all their sufferings and trials. I am lead to be very humbled as I have never experienced hardship as these people have. However, most of the tap taps or just things written on the street say Merci Jesus. Thank you Jesus. I am grateful for their faithful examples to me. I can't wait to get to church and associate with them. So, we kept driving we had to make a pit stop for the little girl to go potty. It was interesting not like a normal gas station. I stood guard of the car while Ann ran to the side of the building with Aubree. We continued driving and quite honestly minus all the poverty everywhere along with the garbage this is a beautiful country. We could see the ocean for much of our drive on one side and the other side is mountains with beautiful palm trees and banana trees. If they could get this area somewhat more tourist available it would really do them some good. So, it was just me and the mom and kids. The husband had to work today. So, we got all the way to the entrance of the beach hotel we were going to. As we were stopped, we had our blinker on, and we were getting ready to turn left, as we began to do so all of the sudden we were being smashed into. A Haitain police car rammed into the side of our car. I was in shock of what just happened and I should have been terrified. However, God really blessed me to be calm and try to figure out the situation. Ann was crying rightfully so and we hurried and called her husband, mind you we were 2 hours away from the Embassy. Very quickly we started to be surrounded by Haitains coming realllly out of no where. No one offered to help they all just started surrounding our car. We don't speak the language so we couldn't tell anyone what just happened or ask what we should do. So, in her training Ann was told if there is ever an accident to hurry and get away. So, we did that. We got out of the car into the crowd of people. We gathered our belongings and we locked the car and left it. We went to where the security guard of the hotel was and luckily someone who spoke English came up to us. He said we should get away and go to the beach because otherwise people would start asking for money and would probably start getting angry. So, we did just that. The car could not move and we were left with no other option. The nice men who spoke English gave us a lift down the road to the beach Entrance. So, mind you we just left complete povery and a crowd of people. As I entered this "resort" i was amazed. It looked like something you'd see in a magazine for a tropical paradise. it was beautiful the ocean was so pretty and we walked in to a pool and beach cabannas all along the beach. We went and got settled and tried to enjoy the beach while we waited for everyone who could help us arrive.

Our Umbrella

The Indigo Club Beach

At the beach it was beautiful. I saw many little Haitian kids playing in the pool and on the beach. I also saw some little "white" children playing with them. I was curious. Well later in the day some of those Haitian kids came over and wanted to play with us. They spoke English. The two that really talked to me were Ellen and Isaac. They were very cute. They told me they were orphans. They were so intrigued by us, just as much as I was intrigued by them. They played for a little while and it was so cute because they copied everything Brady was doing. They were like sponges. When we were about to leave the little children from the orphonage were like bye Abby. I don't know why but it just melted my heart. They were so cute. I can't wait to get into and orphange. I really got to start learning French so I can be able to communicate with them better. Anyway, we made it home safely and the car is ruined but fortunatley I wasn't driving. If an American here is driving and isn't associated with the Embassy they could be taken to jail. So, as Americans come here they really need to be careful and take precautions. All in all it was an interesting day and Im so glad God watched over us. He is truly apart of our lives and is mindful of each of his children whatever part of the world they may be in.

Did we just hit a motocyclist?

2011-01-07T17:56:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness today we actually hit a person actually probably a few. Oh and we backed up into a motorcyclist. As I am sitting reflecting on my experience today I just want to laugh. Its so unreal. So, this morning we left around 6:30 or 6:50 to take Brady the 3 year old I nanny to his preschool to check it out for Monday. We got there around 8 and apparently the traffic will be worse on Monday because school starts. Really though the school is not that far, its just the traffic and people that make it take so long. We drove through many tent villages and much poverty. Today was by far the worst I've seen this week. I just look out the window the whole time examining people and their living conditions and just trying to figure out, what is going on in their head, what are they feeling? Well my heart truly goes out to the people. We did see some super cute kids on the way all done up with their hair and cute clothes on ready for school. I don't really know where they go to school, but Im interested to find out. I would love to visit a school and maybe help out or something. Well, as we drove around I took some pictures today but honestly they do not do this place justice, it especially doesn't show the driving conditions and how scary they are. So, to give a little more detail for today as we drove along our driver was gettigng so close to other cars and people it was scary..well we were a little nervous the whole time. Many times Ann in the front seat would brace herself. Well, we turned down one road and some of the UN people were paving a road so we had to turn around. Then, we went down another one and people had made a market in the middle of the road. So, basically our driver decided he would back up instead of turn around and well he ran right into a motorcyclist. It was the scariest thing yet because some guys started banging on the car and were like hey man what are you doing, except in Creole or French, but the idea was expressed. Apparently if you hit someone and your not honking then thats bad, but if you are honking and you hit someone its their own fault. Well, nothing happened we just kept driving and that was that. No one was hurt or anything but its just a funny way, In America I would of jumped out of my car to make sure everyone was ok, but not here. So, we finally made it to the school. It is an American run school and it was pretty nice. It looks like any other preschool you'd see in the states, besides the gates and men with guns blocking the gates. Other than that completley normal, oh yeah and the fact that right before you enter is dirt roads with tent homes and shacks aligning it. I really admire the family I work for. They are so bold and brave and are really giving Brady a good opportunity. Granted its all up in the air, but Brady seems very excited to be out with other Haitain kids his age. He likes the interaction with other kids and what kid doesn't. So, it will all be up in the air. All in all this is quite the experience and I'm loving it.
Here are the pictures I took today out the car window:) Hence the Reflection.

A political sign, the Election results are being announced soon! More Riots are Expected

A house is nestled back there.

Just on the Side of the Street

Just more of Haiti Regular Sites

A pile of Rubble on the side of the road

Garbage just on teh side of the road close to markets and everything!

A local Market

People on their way

Anyone need a shirt, because you can find one on the streets of Haiti

You Can Eat Out in Haiti

2011-01-06T18:26:00.000-08:00

Suprisingly to many including myself you can go out to eat in Haiti. Tonight me, Ann, and a young lady named Marsha went out to eat. We drove about an hour to go to the restauraunt which I guess is really only about 15 minutes away but the traffic is horrific because there are no laws and there are always people walking right in front of you too. I mean it's crazy i always feel like we are gonna hit someone or something. Ann said that we know eventually we will run into someone or something its bound to happen with this driving. You just kind of go on faith that someone will stop for you or hope no one will run out in front of you where you will harm them. So, I was really excited to be able to take some pictures tonight but sadly I didn't take any. I feel pretty guilty taking pictures of people in poverty so I can show the world. I mean I feel like I will offend them, because I feel like I would be annoyed by some rich white girl taking pictures of me in my poverty. However, there was much to be seen tonight. We went to a part of the area I had not been to yet. It was up farther in the mountains. We saw much of the same just in larger magnitudes of poverty and sadness. I saw one man just laying on the street, feet filthy, just looked kinda sickly. My heart broke just knowing he has nothing, and no one can help him. Like we see homeless people in America but I at least feel there is an amount of hope for them. There condition is like paradise compared to some of these people. The streets here are filled with garbage and it runs along right side the markets. It's no wonder people are getting sick all the time right? We Americans really can't fathom how people could even be ok with living that way. We are so blessed beyond measure its incredible. I stilll am having the hardest time wrapping my heart/mind around it all. For example tonight we went to a really nice restaurant, it was beautiful and you'd think we were on a tropical dream trip not right in the middle of poverty. We sat and ate our food in a candelight porch setting, it was beautiful. Then, we walk out to our car and we are literally across the street from a tent city. Yes a whole block of people living in tents, that is their life, that is their home. I hope to get some more pictures at some point but I just can't even begin to explain what this place really looks like. I hope that out of this experience I at least carry with me the unimportance of material possessions and just having the love of family and friends. Plus despite that I know that even if I had a horrible job that paid next to nothing I'd still have more than 95% of the population of Haiti. Anyway, I hope those of you who read this don't get sick of my ranting and raving about the atmosphere and experience of Haiti. This is kinda my live journal since I'm a much better typer than writer.

Is this Real Life?

2011-01-06T03:36:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to wrap my mind around where I actually am right now. I am in one of the poorest countries in the world. It is so decieving though. I was sitting on our porch last night and as I looked out I just saw beautiful mountains and the houses on the mountains looked nice from afar. However, when we drive out of our neighborhood everytime I'm reminded of where I am. The instant you drive out of my neighborhood you are crowded with people, people who have nothing. I'm very interested to know what the people are doing. Some seem like they really have important things they are working on, some are just hanging out trying to sell their crops or drinks, and some are trying to build bikes or something else out of old tires that were just basically lying in the streets. I have noticed though, I haven't seen to many that look depressed or to sad to go on. They seem to get up and go to work. It's crazy to see the buildings destroyed by the earthquake. It seems like where I am actually could have been quite a nice place to be before the Earthquake. I can't quite think of how people make it here. I don't know how money functions or works in this area. How do people survive? Its been very interesting for me to see all this, but for some reason it has still not struck me as real. I still feel like I am living a dream or I'm just watching a sad movie. I want to get out and work with the people, all the Haitains I've met so far are very kind people. Granted they work for the Embassy so they have to treat us pretty well, it's part of their job. However, I do get a good sense from these people. I can't wait to get out and work among them. I'm still trying to work out the details of finding places to volunteer and a place to go to church. Our driver is a member of the church and has been for 11 years. He was a misionary in Haiti. However, the area he goes to church is an area we are not allowed to go, so I can't go with him. There is a younger American girl who goes to church around here but she is going on a cruise soon so she will be gone the next two Sundays. I want to get to church soon though so I can really get a sense of the people here and what their lives are like and what me as a young 25 year old girl can do for them.

The Local "taxis" These are called Tap Taps and it's amazing how many people get in them. I often think some are gonna fall out. I was taking these pics from my car, and felt kind of bad taking pictures of the people as I drive by.

This is the area right outside our neighborhood, it's kind of hard to really get the gist of it, but as you see there are so many people out and about on the streets.

And this my friends is the nicest building in all of Haiti, or at least seems that way so far. This is the Embassy for the United States of America. See that pool? Thats where most of my time will be spent I assume. I feel pretty guilty living the lap of luxury when just outside of the Embassy gates there are starving or very poor people all around.

Day One Haiti

2011-01-03T16:59:00.000-08:00

I spent two days on an airplane and in airports to get here, but I finally made it. It was a very easy and smooth flight and arrival. As I came down the escalator off the plane The Lasons and a Haitain American Embassy Worker greeted me. I got in a car and the man took my passport and papers and went through immigration for me and picked up my bags for me. We then got in another car where it was just me and the family I'm going to be with for the next 6 months. As we exited the airport I can't really explain what I saw. I saw people everywhere. People begging for money or working. I saw extreme poverty like i have never seen. It all seems unreal. I can't believe how the people here live and my heart really goes out to them. On our drive to the house and Embassy we had several people begging at our cars including a little child. It really broke my heart. I feel so blessed already and so humbled by this experience and seeing these things. I hope to be able to do some good here and help some people. Its pretty overwhelming to see the need they have here. I am interested to go back out tomorrow and see more. I live in a nice home with water and food. The family Im going to be working with are very nice and very accomodating. I am looking forward to seeing what lies ahead for me here. It will be an experience of a lifetime for sure!

I'm going to Haiti

2010-12-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true I'm going to one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere that has had disaster after disaster. Its a very exciting journey that I'm about to embark upon. Many have asked what I'm going to do there. Instead of typing this over and over I thought I'd put it here and refer everyone here who cared. So here's the story. In September I saw a posting on the lds singles email listserv that said Nanny wanted in Haiti. It was an advertisement for a family who was moving there to work on the U.S. embassy compound. They both work for the U.S. embassy. He is something dealing with protection and she is a nurse. So, I have my safety and my health covered right there which is most peoples concerns with me going there. I'm also going to be living in a place with Americans on the compound and I will have safe water and food. Granted I will still have to be very careful and there are still a lot of precautions I will and have already had to take. I will work Monday through Friday for them. I will be then able to go and do humanitarian service on Saturdays and go to church on Sundays. I'm nervous a little bit, but mostly excited. Ever since I have been asked and been thinking about doing this everything has fallen into place so amazingly. I just feel like Heavenly Father is truly guiding me there for one reason or another. I will have so many amazing opportunities to help others and really forget about myself, which I feel at this time in my life is really important. I have been pretty self involved for the past while. It's time I got on another mission which is basically what Ill be doing. I leave in January and will return in July in time to figure out the next step in my life of finding a real job with benefits. I am very excited for this adventure and I hope that all of you will keep me posted in your life and write me occasionally:) I would love to hear from you all. I will also be updating my blog more regularly and be posting pictures of the conditions down there. I know its going to be shocking and really life changing. I can't wait! Love you all!

Relationships and Marriage

2010-08-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

I got to go home last week for a week, and it was so great! I loved being at home in Idaho enjoying the beautiful weather and surroundings. The reason I went home was because the first Price Child got married. My oldest sister married Alex Gregoire from France. He is a great man and they seem very happy together. It was a busy week with something going on every day. We also had Alex's whole family staying with us, so it was quite the adventure. As we tried to communicate with the Gregoires from France we learned that communication and love does not always have to be strictly verbal. Although we couldn't express everything to one another we could feel of their goodness as we hope they could of our family. We felt happy that Emily will have good In laws and a good foundation in her life. During the ceremony it rained. It rained pretty much every night I was there, which is so weird for Idaho. But despite the rain, it was still beautiful and see these two finally join in marriage, it has been like 5 years of dating. Anyway, I was glad that I could be there to support my sister at her and Alex's special day. Here are some pics from the evening!

This is my Cousin Scott at the Luau

Here's my Favorite!

My brothers Joe and Tanner

Alex's Brother Pierre

My Favorite!!

Moms, Casey, Grandma, Andy, and Danny

The Wedding Party

The Ceremony

The Cute Flower Girls and Adorable Ringbearer

Kissing After Cake

Me and Addy the Flower Girl

Alex's Older Brother and his Wife! So Cute!

I when I got home started reading a book I have previously read, but really enjoyed and felt I needed a refresher it is called teh Relationships Seasons by Matthew Richardson. I just feel it has a lot of valuable things to say. Also, in Institute on Tuesday we talked about Eternal Marriages and then last night in Institute we discussed teh 6 Bs and developing good qualities and talked a little bit about what we want in our spouses. It has got me thinking. I have thought a lot about the foundation I want in a relationship and the qualities, attributes, and traits I want in a spouse. Everyone at Emily's wedding kept telling Alex remember this only happens once! I want to marry someone that I know will be loyal and true to me. I look at couples and I can't even imagine myself in that position, but yet I desire it so much. I desire to be a wife and mother. But, I know that all in due time those things will come, and I should spend this time developing my own talents and traits that contribute to a happy home life now and in my own family. One of my biggest desires to marry someone who makes me always want to be a better person. I want to develop and make sure I'm a person that makes others want to be better.

President Gordon B. Hinckley said this: "Choose a companion you can always honor, you can always respect, one who will complement you in your own life, one to whom you can give your entire heart, your entire love, your entire allegiance, your entire loyalty."

I hope and pray this will be Emily and Alex's life together and I hope that I can find someone who I love with my whole heart and vice versa and someone who I complement and they complement me!

So Inspiring..This Woman makes me want to be better!

2010-06-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

So, I love love love Mormon Messages. I am always so anxious for the new one to come out. I always feel so uplifted and edified by them. Well, one came out about a month ago that just really made me feel so sad for her, but so uplifted by her positivity and testimony. She has been through incredibly hard things but she has managed to make the most out of her life. She has spent time sharing her life with others even though its probably so difficult. I recently was lead to her blog address and I'm so glad. I had been wanting to read it. Her blog address is http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/ it's incredible. I have also tried to have the video on here so you can all view it. It really is so good and I hope it can inspire you and help you appreciate every special moment we are given here on Earth despite our trials and hardships.

My-New-Life

Bucket List Club

2010-06-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

So, here is the skinny on my new life. I got connected with the funnest person, named Ceri Allsop. She served in the Minnesota Mission with me, but we were never companions. Because we had this connection she has been kind enough to be my friend. Let me tell you what, she is a blast. I am laughing all the time when I'm with her. She took me to the beach with them, invited me to the Soiree party, and just invites me to do awesome stuff like trapeze and hip hop classes. I am yet to make it to the hip hop class and we are planning on next Monday for Trapeze. It should be awesome. I'm very excited. Well, last night she invited me to come to the Bucket List Club meeting. So, I went and I'm glad I did. It was me, her, and a guy named Will. We sat in Will's room literally making our Bucket List's and sharing them. It was actually quite entertaining. Will and Ceri already had most of theirs done. So, they read theirs off one by one and it was hilarious. I loved every second of it. I continued to make mine. So, here is my bucket list I excluded some things that are kinda personal. But for the most part here it is in no particular order.

Go Skydiving
Learn to Krump
Work in an orphanage in Africa
Go to Australia
Learn how to surf
Run the Boston Marathon
Do an Iron man Triathlon
Coach track or Cross Country
Go to Paris-See Alex's home (my brother in law)
Get Married
Go on a week long four wheeling/backpacking trip in the mountains
Birth 4 or so Children
Shoot a deer
See a Bear and shoot it
Learn to play the drums
Learn to play Guitar
Get a Master's Degree
Write a Song
Adopt an African Child
Ride an Elephant
Overcome Fear of Commitment
Be kind to Everyone
Jump the Wake on a Wake board
Learn from the Scriptures everyday
Play a Good Prank-like Punkd style
Myth bust Kraft House in Pocatello
Learn to Cook
Read More
Go to Portugal
Learn to Sail
Go Parasailing
Go deep sea fishing
Read Jesus the Christ
Be more outgoing
Go to Hawaii
Own a Boat
Go to a Yankees Vs. Red Sox game
Get Laser Eye Surgery
Learn how to cut hair
Meet the Prophet
Photography skills
Be more creative
Start my own organizing company
Learn to Box
Ride my road bike over the Colorado Mountain passes
Go to a Jewish Synagogue
Go to a Masonic temple
Go to a Mosque
Read the Koran
Give away 3-5 pass a long cards a month
Attend temple 2x a month
Be my own personal best
Go to Jerusalem
Go on a mission with my husband
Do family history
Find my life's passion
Learn to play golf well
Go kayaking
Take up a marital art-Karate or Kung Fu
Learn conversational French
Learn how to Rhumba
Learn how to belly dance
Go scuba diving
Go paragliding
Ride in a hot air balloon
Go on a helicopter ride above Mt. Everest since I know Ill never climb it
Heliski
Go on a Cross Country Motorcycle trip
Ride a mechanical bull
Race a sports car
Heave a Guinness World Record
Visit Machupicchu
Attend the la tomatino in Spain-a huge food fight
Visit Coney Island Boardwalk
Go to Mecca
Learn to perform magic tricks
Learn to juggle
Take a painting class
Make stained glass windows
Learn how to sew
Finish my mission scrapbook
Take a scrap booking class
Go on a Humanitarian aid trip
Discover my life's purpose
Kick negative habits
Get my Real Estate License
Volunteer at a homeless shelter
Help build a Habitat for Humanity home
Have a Garden (I gotta learn how to Garden first)
Design my own home
Drive a Lamborghini(I don't want to own one, I just want to drive one)
Be respected by Co-Workers
Eventually be a College Professor
Save money for my children's missions and college
Write a book about my life experiences and what I've learned for my children
See a Koala Bear
Ride a Camel
Milk a Cow
Go on a Safari
Run with the Bulls
Don't make excuses
Have no Regrets
Heal my past
Learn to live in the Now
Go to a psychic
Be debt Free
Go Trapezing
Actually do stuff on this list!

That Concludes my Bucket List for now!! I'm sure more will come to me, but first I better get going on all these things!!

I am 25....What an Accomplishment:)

2010-06-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

This is Me the Sunday before my 25 Birthday..can you see the wrinkles? ;)

I say what an accomplishment, because I've managed to make it to the age of 25 in the Mormon Singles World. My sister Emily used to always tell me Ill probably get married when I'm 19. Well, i definitely surpassed that age. So, for my 25th birthday I just wanted to remind myself of all the really awesome things I've done. I have been so blessed and I think it's important for me to document, because I already have forgotten so many things. This is for me to help me be grateful, not for me to sound prideful or something. So, here is my list of things I've done in my single years that were amazing and I really am grateful for the opportunities. If I were to get married anytime after this point I'd really feel fulfilled and have no regrets!

I lived in Stanley, Idaho in the Sawtooth Mountain Range close to Redfish Lake the summer between my Junior and Senior year. I loved my time there. I learned a lot about myself and what I want in my life. I also met some pretty sketchy but great people. I also had the cool opportunity for FHE go on a plane ride through the Sawtooth Mountain Range. It was AWESOME. It was so beautiful and the lake and the mountains were just to Magnificent for words.
The summer after I graduated I got to live with my Aunt and Uncle in Virginia. I got to hang out and go with them places. That year we travelled across the country. We got to see a lot of really cool places especially church history sites. We followed the Mormon Trail on our way to our Family Reunion. The family reunion was great and my whole family went to the temple to do some work. It was awesome I got to be baptized for some family members. It was a great experience. Wow, that seems like a long time ago! We got to stay in this BEAUTIFUL lodge in Jackson Hole completed with a Spa and Beautiful Waterfall Fountains. We also got to go boating a ton at Lake Anna and on the Potomac to see all the sites of D.C. We got to go rock climbing, running through the Forrest and all sorts of other great and exciting things. It was a great summer. I believe we also went to Mississippi that summer. We did so much it's really hard to recall everything.
My first year of College was a blast. I lived with 11 other girls and we had a good time. I remember being so nervous to meet my roommates and get to know them .However, it turned out to be such a great experience. We did a lot of fun things stayed up all hours of the night every night. We made some fun trips to Salt Lake to go dancing and also Boise. I went to a Good Charlotte Concert with a bunch of people from my ward. My ward was pretty much awesome. BTW, previously I had been to two Backstreet Boys Concerts, live couldn't have been much better than that!
After my first year of College I didn't get to be as adventurous. I stayed in Pocatello and worked and lived with the family. For some reason this summer is pretty blurry. I must not have done anything to exciting. I did train all summer however to complete my goal of running a marathon. In September of 2004 I ran my first half marathon in Pocatello and my first Full marathon in St. George Utah. It was awesome. Right before this I met some awesome people namely Mikkel and Chelsey. These two girls became my good friends and still are to this day. We did a lot of fun things together, mostly watch basketball games. I also met one of my other really good friends to this day, Sarah Smith. Sarah and I loved to just hang out and no matter what we did whether it was clubhouse dances at the apartments or driving around telling jokes we had the greatest time together. This was a good year for me and I made some great friends whom I just love and adore.
Summer of 05 was Classic! I decided I really just needed to get out and experience life and go to a new place. So, I started looking on the Internet at resort places and ultimately decided and got a job in Lake Powell. Bullfrog, UT. So, I packed up my car and by myself at the age of 20 left Idaho and went to live in Bullfrog UT for the summer. I was terrified at first, but I knew this was the right move for me. I had an INCREDIBLE SUMMER!! Oh my goodness It was a crazy one for sure, but so good. I loved meeting people here, I also learned a lot about myself this summer. I met some really great people from all over the country and all over the world. I was one of the only Mormons out of a whole bunch of young kids. Its crazy to look back now and see how Heavenly Father helped mold me into becoming a future missionary. This experience definitely played a huge part in me being prepared for that. I got many opportunities to share the gospel and I gained some good friends I wish I still had contact with. I also got to be at LAKE POWELL I mean seriously how could I not be happy. Every night was a party and every day off was time at the Lake. It was so glorious and I just really can't explain the amount of Joy and the amount of fun I had here. It really was a great great experience that I'm glad I went through with and that Heavenly Father helped me do.
The next year I lived again with a previous roommate and we had a good time. We met some new guy friends and we lived in a sweet apartment with a pool and game rooms and they were new so not a lot of people lived there. I had a lot of fun meeting new people and hanging out with them and doing random things like going on hikes and what not. At the end of my time at this apartment is when I really decided to go on a mission. I had met some great people who were good examples and encouraged me to serve a mission. I had many blessings and cool experiences that helped me see that I was supposed to serve a mission. I never thought I would, but fortunately God knew better. So, I moved to Virginia again for the summer
This time the summer in Virginia was quite a different experience. It was still great but it was more humbling and more spiritual. It was the best preparation I could of had for my mission and for life. I got to spend three months spending time with Uncle who was very sick from a brain tumor and my aunt who is such a faithful woman. I spent time in serving my uncle and seeing countless amounts of people serve my aunt and uncle. My uncle was like a father to me and I love him very much. I spent many hours with him at the hospital and at appointments and going to work or on walks. My aunt and I's favorite story of my time there is as follows: My uncle although he was sick and could hardly walk was a fighter. He hated that he couldn't be his active self doing rock climbing, mountain climbing, running, swimming, biking, and whatever else. So, one of his pleasures was having someone take him on a walk. The lane they live on was awesome and every house put out a bench for my uncle to sit on to rest when we'd go on these walks. So, one time I was with him and he got tired and wanted to sit down. At this house it was not a bench but rather two wooden chairs. Well, my sweet uncle sat down and guess what? He fell right in. The chair broke and he was stuck in this chair. I tried to pull him out but I couldnt' do it on my own. So, I ran home laughing and crying at the same time. I walked into the door and my aunt was like what is going on..I was laughing so hard I couldn't tell her anything except I need your help lets go. So we hoped in the car and drove up to where he was we both just sat there laughing and crying at my sweet uncle. We did eventually help him out:) It was those moments where we just had to laugh or it would be to hard. I watched my aunt do incredible things and I learned so much this summer about faith and love. I felt the spirit constantly and was a part of some pretty amazing things. I love my aunt and Uncle very much. My uncle Dave is greatly missed but I know he is in a a good place. I can't wait until we can all be reunited with him.
This experience in Virginia really helped me be prepared for my mission. I left for my mission to Minneapolis Minnesota on Sept 13th 2006. I officially became a representative of my Savior Jesus Christ. I was nervous and excited all at the same time. It was definitely some hard times, but overall my mission was such an amazing experience. I learned so much in a year and half about the gospel, and life, and people than I could have ever hoped or dreamed of. I met so many amazing people and I learned so much from them. I loved sharing the gospel with others. I have never felt the burning of the spirit so strong as when I could testify to the world of the gospel. If I could do it all over I would. I love this gospel and I love all the people I came in contact with and my mission prepared me to be a better wife and mother in the future. It helped me to just be a better person overall. Now, I still struggle with being that same person I was on my mission someone I feel I loved a lot more than myself now. But, I'm working on being that person again, it's really hard though.
Anyway, I again went to VA after my mission. I worked in a Law office and I played and saw the sites and went to the Ocean and went to the Lake.I went to Mississippi.I went to New York City and have gone to Broadway shows. I had a great time. It was a little difficult at times, missing David since it was just a short time after. I also never had the closure while I was on my mission. It wasn't until coming here that I could have it. I know that he's in a good place. But, It was a good summer and helped me get adjusted to real life before I had to consume my life with school and work after a mission.
The next two years up and to this point have been a lot of school and work and a lot of time invested in Social and other endeavors. For the last year I served on Institute Council of Religion. It was great. I got to meet a lot of people and help plan and participate in all the great activities of the church. I also met my institute Bro. Laga who has been a huge blessing in my life. I am so grateful for his counsel and guidance in the last few years. He has truly been a huge huge example and great friend. His family has been great and welcomed me into their lives and their home as family. I have been horseback riding, and boating and swimming. I got to make lots of fun and short trips to Salt Lake and Boise and Lake Powell with my friend Brittany.I also in 2009 went to California to see my friend Ammon where I also met a new friend who is great Robert Holgate. I got to go to Mission Reunions and conference every time since then. Lake Powell of 2009 was such an amazing and fun trip! Oh it fulfilled my need for the water and for Lake Powell it was my first time back since working there and I absolutely love it. So we wake boarded and cliff jumped and all the good things associated with Powell. In the summer of 09 I also camped a ton, went swimming a ton, and had a great summer with my friends. In september of 2009 I ran my second full marathon. It felt great to accomplish another marathon and I felt pretty good. During the summer of 09 we had a another family reunion, we have one about every two years. they are always so great! My uncle had just gotten home from his mission in Portugal. I love my family. Some of us did a triathlon to honor and remember my uncle DAvid. He loved doing stuff like that. I think I won too which helped my bragging rights. haha I have done so many fun things with friends and family it's unbelievable.
In my lifetime I have seen and been through approximately 44 of the 50 states. I have visited and seen all the church history sites, some more than once. I have had many times with family camping and playing in the mountains or lakes. I have four wheeled and had many adventures there. I have travelled by myself and been on my own. I have been to Washington D.C. more times than I can count. I got to go to the temple with Kim Lowe and her husband Zak which was an INCREDIBLE experience. I have just had more and more experiences that I could ever list and I have many more on the way.

Overall, I have had a great 25 years. A whole quarter of Century and it has been filled with mostly bliss, a little heartache, and hard times. However, I know that God loves me and I know I have a family that loves me and that alone makes me one of the luckiest people on the Earth. I am indeed grateful for all I have and turning 25 isn't so scary when I've been as blessed as I have. I can't wait to see what the next 25 years of life bring, hopefully some babies:)

Duck Beach..Singles Event of the Season

2010-06-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

Unfortunaltey I didn't take many pictures while at the beautiful beach, I was to busy maxing and relaxing! It was soo nice to have a vacation. I left home and came straight here to begin working. Although work is a vacation all in itself because I don't do much, going on a real vacation was really nice. So, the best/worst part of this Memorial Day weekend trip is that it was a huge Singles Event. Its not an officially organized thing, but singles from all over join together in North Carolina. Its pretty awesome. There were some boys down from Minnesota, people from Utah, Cali, New York, but mostly the D.C. area. It was really fun and I had a great time and met some really great people which I was really grateful for. Im looking forward to spending time with the people I met and just having a good time. I just had so much fun at the beach and boogie boarding and relaxing and playing volleyball. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

City Girl...I'm not sure!

2010-05-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I arrived to the East Coast, WAshington D.C. that is on Sunday. It has been a crazy time! So, I got all settled in on Sunday and it was nice. It was especially nice because I left Utah that morning with a JAcket, Cardigan, and shirt on. By the time I got to D.C. I took off my coat and cardigan and just had my t-shirt on and I was still hott! It felt good though, but the humidity is always a hard one for me. Ok, so Monday I wanted to get started with work and get into the swing of things. So, since I worked at my office for a whole summer before I figured I'd easily be able to find my way. I got on the metro and rode two stops thinking I knew what I was doing. Well, I was wrong. I got off two stops too early and I didn't realize it at the time. So, I spent about half an hour before I called work for some help. I had a bit of a pride issue. Well, they told me the address and I was like ok I can do this I can get there. Well, I ended up walking for another hour before I found a security guard and asked directions. They said I was really far away. So, I foudn the metro again. Turns out I had walked backwards to the stop I had already passed on the Metro. So, I finally made it to my correct stop got off and knew right where to go. The thing was from all the walking around in my high heels my feet hurt like crazy and I had huge blisters on the sides of my feet where they had been rubbing. So, I had to go to Payless and buy me some flip flops. It was definitley an eventful morning. So, I got to work and they just laughed at me. I just spent a few hours there and came home and got to work out and be with my aunt and the kids. We went to the mall ate some chipotle and found my little cousin a prom dress. It was a good time. So, the next day it was back to work. This time I had a little better luck except the bus took forever because of road construction, so I was 45 minutes later than I planned on. However, I slept the whole time so it wasnt bad. My aunt and I have been working out like crazy the past few days. My whole body hurts, that p90x is a killer, but I love working out and feeling like I'm accomplishing something. Anyway, then today on the metro it was SOO packed there were people all around me and touching me. I had to hold on above me and so my already sore arms became even sorer from the back and forth motions, but Ill take whatever additional exercise I can get! For the packed metro alone I would say makes me not a huge City Girl. I don't like being jam packed. I also do not like that you have to pay for EVERYTHING! Parking $4.50 a day Metro: $5 a day. It really adds up. Yes, i'm making a lot more, but geez..they drain you. However, I do love the fact that there are people all around me. I love to look at them and analyze them and their lives. I make conclusions about how their life is, it's fun. I was thinking how exciting it is for me, because in Pocatello I go somewhere I'm bound to know someone. Here, I don't know a soul when I walk down the street. I thought about how neat and crazy that is. However, I feel bad for the people who do this day in and day out. I think it could start to get a little lonely. Anyway, I am loving life out here as always, sometimes I don't feel adequate or City enough to be here, but I love this experience. I just feel so blessed to have a job and to have the opportunities I do. I mean I walked off the metro and here was a normal looking family man holding a sign that said "I need a Job" Could we see anymore echoes of the Great Depression? Anyway, life is crazy, but overall amazing. I am just really blessed to have the family and friends that I do.

My Life

2010-04-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

So, I have really been horrible at keeping this blog updated. However, its a good thing because that means I'm not wasting a lot of time messing around instead I'm actually doing my homework and assignments like I'm suppose to:) YAY for me! This semester has been super busy, way busier than I could of expected. Its been good to be busy but it sucks because I hardly get to exercise and I really need it! However, now that its getting warmer and staying lighter longer I can exercise outside, which is my favorite!! I love my bike and my running shoes about this time of year. I went on my first ride last weekend and it was AMAZING! Something about warm weather, listening to tunes and riding my bike that makes me happier than words can describe. So my life as of yet has contained big tests that I have to pass in order to student teach which ultimatley means before I graduate! So, Good news I passed the Praxis II which I was super worried about. I took it without studying. So, I was so relieved and soo happy when I discovered I passed. Ok, so last week I took three tests which I have to pass 2 of the 3 before I can student teach. So, hopefully I will I won't find out until later in May. Ok, so with student teaching I'm headed back East on May 2nd. I'm really excited. I'm hoping to student teach out there but I have not heard anything from anyone so I don't know what's happening!! I'm sure it will all work out how it's suppose to though..right??? At least that's what I always hear! Ok so that's school...almost over for this semester...one summer class...and then...STUDENT TEACHING!
Ok...Church. So, I recently was released from my calling of 1.5 years of Relief Society 1st counselor. This was sad for me because I love these girls and I just enjoyed teaching and learning from them. However, a week after I was released I got called as Assistant Ward Mission Leader. So,I of course was happy to do that. Although I only get to have this calling for a little while I'm glad for the opportunity. I of course love missionary work and I have been slacking a lot. So, this calling is a good reminder to me of how I need to improve. You know just the little things of talking to people and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. This will come in handy when I go back East and have to make new friends. I'm super excited and hopefully I can find a good singles ward to attend. Also, of course I loved conference and I was able to go to both the sessions on Saturday. I loved sitting there and feeling the spirit. As the prophet and apostles sat there before conference started I just felt an overwhelming feeling of love! I think it's so amazing, this church! I'm so happy that I have been able to be raised in the gospel and continue to learn each and every day! I have a lot of things I got reminded of during conference. This list includes things I am doing well and things I could improve on. So, I'm grateful for those gentle reminders. I feel so blessed!
Family and Friends-So life is busy in the Price/Harding clan. In March Tara and Jared got married. It was a beautiful wedding and I'm very happy for the two of them. They make a beautiful and great couple! I'm excited for their future! Also, Emily and Alex will be getting married in July! It will be great! They are working on finding a place to live in Vegas since Alex got a chef position there! I really love my family and feel so blessed to have such a great and big one. We will officially have 16 members in our immediate family! It's awesome I love it. Now they just need to start having kids so I can have some nieces and more nephews. As far as friends, I will be sad to leave Pocatello and will miss a lot of great people here, but I'm excited for the next 8 or so months that lie ahead for me! It should be great!
Overall, Life is good and I'm very happy! I will be much happier once school is officially over! I will probably be better at keeping my blog updated too once school is over and I'm at work all day with nothing to do that's the only time I get on this!
So, that's it....since I'm a picture lady Ill post pictures later!! Love you all!

The Truth about being Honest

2010-02-11T21:17:00.000-08:00

In this moment right now I'm so stressed and have much to do but i thought it appropriate to update my blog:) Right now I'm doing a pre-internship in a fourth grade class and I absolutley love it. Its so hillarious to hear some of the things that they say. Sometimes they just look at you and are dead serious and say some of the funniest things. One morning we were going around asking if you could trade places with anyone who would it be and why....well this little boy raised his hands and said Brad Pitt cause then all the ladies would love me! It took everything I had to not bust a gut laughing. I really appreciate their honesty and candid humor. I often times am known for being painfully honest. Sometimes I would feel bad about this, but I'm learning more and more that the most important thing is to almost be honest and forthright. Obviously, use tact but being truthful and honest are very important to me. I expect people to know that when I speak to them they can expect nothing but the truth. Anyway, just some random thoughts..Here are some recent pictures. We went on a much needed Utah trip last weekend just for the day. We went to a basketball game and went dancing. It was good! We also recently had Elder Richard G. Scott come and us three girls got to welcome him in. Then, we had an Institute Valentines Dance!

A New Year..A New Me??

2010-02-04T12:31:00.000-08:00

Alright...So I must say that the beginning of this year has been quite interesting for me. I haven't felt quite like myself. There have been some events that have helped contribute to this, but ultimatley I realized some things about myself. I don't say this to be negative in any way...I think its just time to face the facts in my life. I'm 24 and almost done with school ( I will be 25 by then..SCARY!!) But I'm realizing I have to grow up real soon. That is so scary. I mean I'm not immature or anything but im getting to a point in my life where I don't have to go on in college where I could get a real job...with this comes real responsibility and real life. I don't know how ready I am for all of that! So...that is one aspect. For those of you who know me..know that I'm a pretty social person. Well, lately I have not felt very motivated to be super outgoing and social which is sooo strange for me...whats up with that? Is this just a stage you go through when you get to be my age and unmarried? I need help and advice from all of you! What do you think I should do with my life?? I of course would love to be married, but right now that is just not the plan for me and I don't want to dwell on it..I want to live life to the fullest. So, one thing I realized is that I hold onto a lot of things such as pain and hurt from my past....that is one thing I'm trying to work on so I allow people into my life more easily. Its funny because I have a lot of trust issues from events in my life and yet everytime I try to overcome this someone else comes in and breaks my trust I had with them...its like this vicious cycle and I don't know how to trust people more. On the other hand I have great people who have always stood by my side and have always fought for me and I treat them not so well. What am I trying to gain? Why do I treat those who treat me the best sometimes the worst? Is this a common human character flaw? Well, these are some of the things that come with adulthood you start examining who is really most important in your life and what is most important. Who is most important to me?? I would say my family. I have the best mom in the world! She loves unconditionally and is a constant support for me. I have awesome siblings and step family members. I feel blessed to have all of them in my life. I have an awesome Aunt Mary who is a constant love and support to me too! I have a great grandmother who I got my personality from....always speaks the truth but you know they love you! I have great extended family and cousins! I also have great friends...Chelsey and Mikkel they've been constant friends to me for the last 5 or so years even when I was immature and oversensitive at times. I have family friends who have been there through thick and thin like the Toros, the luncefords, they Meyers. Then, I have Brittney who has been so great to me..I have friends from high school like Katie, Shauna, and Dana who are still cheering me on this race of life..Thank you! I have wonderful friends and people from my Second home of Minnesota who are cheering me on as well, including my additional sisters who were my companions and sisters in the mission field. These are some of my dearest and truest friends! I have my current ward family and people in Virginia who are sooo awesome! As I'm writing this I'm just soooo blessed and feel soo grateful and this makes me reflect and think hey life isn't so scary with all these great people to share it with. Thank you all for being apart of my life and making life always worth it! I value your love and friendship and any great suggestions or advice for life you have for me its always appreciated!! Anyway, I just started typing and this is what came out, it may not make sense but its just what is coming out of my little reflective heart right now. I guess my trust issues are not so big and the few people who have caused me to be mistrusting are really in small comparison to all the people who I trust, love, adore, respect, and admire! Thank you all for your examples and the wonderful lives you have lived! You are all a beacon of light in my lives. I love you!

Here are some recent things I got to do....My sweet Friend Chelsey was here from Germany and we got to hang out..it was such a blast! We had a girls night and it was soo fun! Here are some Pics to show you the fun times we had!

At the Game

Adorable Colty...At the Game!

Hanging Out!

Playing the Funnest Game on the Wii...Just Dance

Eating at Chillis

Girl's Night Out!!

Reflection

2010-01-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

Well I feel like 2009 was a great year but I'm ready and excited for a new year, especially cause the year of 2010 means I graduate from College! It will be a huge accomplishment especially considering the many many times I've considered quitting. However,I keep pushing through and hopefully I will survive this semester and student teaching. I'm excited to move onto a new part of my life. I know there are many exciting times and adventures ahead of me that I can't wait to pursue. Two of my sisters are getting married this year too so that is a pretty exciting time! As for me, I'm taking a break from the dating world but if a chance presents itself I won't deny it! These are the picture highlights of my year!

Doing the Triathlon in Memory of My Uncle David

Shooting Guns with the cousins

My amazing Extended Family...I'm so Blessed

Jazz Game..so Fun! they Actually won too

My sister Morgan got to come home for christmas

Beautiful Temple Square Lights

the Forgotten Carols

My amazing Three Weeks with Mary and Family

Cleaning up the Flood in Inkom

Opening day Fishing with the Fam

Our many Camping Excursions

My amazing girlfriends before chelsey left for Germany

My Mission Reunion

Completing my Second Marathon

Spring Break in California With Hillarious People

Conference with some of my favorite Peeps

Lake Powell... Pure Bliss!!

Overall, I know I'm extremley blessed to have all that I do and to have the great family and friends i do who support and love me in all that i do! I could not be more Grateful!

Catch Up! Family Reunion, Lake Powell, and Life:)

2009-09-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

So I have been such a Slacker with my Blog! So now I am playing catch up! I will go in order of occurence!

I will start with My Family Reunion in August:
It was such a great time to be with my family. They are awesome and all have such amazing qualities that I learn from and just love being around. We are also just crazy fun and just love being together especially since we don't get to see eachother as much as we would like. So, Friday we kicked it off with Golfing in the morning and those who didn't golf just socialized! Then we had a big get together on Firday night with everyone with Ice Cream and Socializing and each family telling what they are up to. It was so fun to see everyone and catch up with some of my cousins I have not seen forever! Then, after that some of us cumulated at my house for an amazingly fun time of Karaoke (Sing Star) I have never seen people get into it so much. We all started dancing at one point and just had the greatest time of it It was so fun to see all my family together just laughing and having a good time. I just really love my family and am so blessed to have so many! So, Saturday we started it off with some of us competing in a Triathlon. My aunt Mary, My Cousin Kim and My cousin Scott and my brother Andy all participated. We did it in memory of my Uncle David who passed away about two years ago. He was a major athlete and competitor in things like that. It was cool and way fun. My cousin Scott is an athlete but hadn't even trained at all and did it and he actually did well. But, despite his desires to beat me, he didn't! Which I was glad;) Then, we had a huge lunch and picnic with everyone at Ross Park. It was really hot but good to just hang out and chat and play with all the great grandchildren. Then, Saturday night we had a big tribute to my awesome Grandma! She is such an incredible lady. Her and my grandpa have created an amazing legacy and some amazing people(I think they are all great) have come from them! Their Children are incredible! I love all my aunts and uncles. They are each so unique but so great and just good people. Then of course I love all my cousins and their spouses and children. My grandma has made each of her 36 grandchildren a beautiful quilt and so at this reunion she had quilts/afghans for her 50+ great grandchildren. It was so cute how excited they would all get! It was just such a good time and I loved being with them. On Sunday we went to church with my grandma and then everyone started heading back home! It went by so quick but it really was just such a good time! If any of my family members I love ya and wish we could see eachother more often!

Ok, So now on to Lake Powell which was in September:
I have a friend in Arizona named Robert Holgate and he loves Lake Powell and well I love Lake Powell since I worked there for a summer. There is truly something magical and beautiful there like no other lake I have ever been. It could just be the good memories associated with it. Anyway, we correlated a trip together at Lake Powell in Arizona. He invited a bunch of his friends and I invited Brittany and my two cousins. We actually invited a bunch of people but they all flaked on us! But it was so fun we met up with his friends before he got there and went out on the boat. We wakeboarded and it was beautiful. I was so exstatic I was really quite out of control but it was sooo fun! They had a whole camp set up and we had cots where we just slept under the stars! Oh...I'm so happy just thinking about it. So, we had a good Friday night and then Early Saturday we woke up to soak it all in. Some people went on the boat right at dawn. Me and Brittany went on a swim to try and find some cliffs to jump off. We found some very small ones! It was fun then we just played around hit the volleyball around as we dove into the water. Our spot was just awesome. Then, we went out on the boat for a few hours and everyone wakeboarded. It was fun to be with my cute cousins and go swimming and watch them wake board. So, at around 1 or 2 Robert and some of his crew had to head back. They only live 2 hours or so away. However, his friends with the boat stuck around so we hung out with them. It was great because we got to go wakeboarding again and I got to practice jumping the wake. I'm getting a little better, but quite obvioulsy have a ways to go! Then, we went and jumped off a cliff. It was so funny because Brittany had never done it so she was terrified! It took her about twenty minutes but she finally did it! It was classic and so fun to watch her I was proud that she did it! Then, we went out to eat and play some more! IT was so nice and relaxing just what I needed and wanted. It did my heart good! We left Sunday morning and headed to Provo where we hung out with my good friend Jordan and went to a fireside and FHE at BYU. Wow, what an experience! Lets just say a lot of people scare me! haha especially at BYU!

Then two weeks later we headed back to Utah for Conference. We went to my mission reunion and it was fun but I missed my peeps who werent there! Then, we went to conference. It was so great and I learned a lot from the apostles and Prophets. One funny thing is in order to get tickets we sang along the street in a choir to protest against the protestors. It was cool! Anyway, we also met up with Preston and Logan who were our new found friends from ARizona from our Lake Powell Trip. It was way fun and a very good weekend for the most part.

Me and Britt on our awesome and Beautiful Fall Four Wheel Ride!

Alright, since then I've just been living the life of school and work and social life. I stay very busy with all of that plus some other responsibilities I have right now. However, I am very happy and things are going well for me right now! I am so grateful to Heavenly Father who is so aware of me and really cares for me and my well being. I'm so blessed to have the knowledge, family, and friends that I do! Well that is the end of my catch up for now! I hope you are all doing well in your individual lives! Love ya All!!

You might also enjoy this video from our Karaoke Night at the Institute!

So Blessed!!

2009-09-08T20:55:00.001-07:00

Well I started school last week and it has been ok. I just feel so blessed though because in the economy it would seem very tough to find a job. Well, my second day and pretty much my first job i dropped my resume at I got. I got the ideal campus job where I can work 18 hours a week but am done by 5 every day and they work with my school schedule! I also have another opportunity to watch this adorable little girl for like 5 hours on Mondays. So i feel very lucky and blessed. Also, the first week we had an open social for the Institute and I got talking to some cool guys from Ghana. So, that Sunday one of the guys named Kwami came to Sacrament with me and he really enjoyed it. Then I had the missionaries over for dinner with Kwami and they were able to share a message about the book of mormon and give him one. Also, I met this kid who served his mission in Ghana so he spoke their language and was able to come. It was so cool! I am so grateful to have missionary experiences!!!

On Saturday I was able to complete my second marathon. It was so crazy! I ran the Pocatello Marathon and it went pretty well, but I probably could have done better if I would have trained a little better! I am excited for running more in the future and hopefully getting faster! I am hoping to run a half marathon with my friend Brittany in November! I just can't believe how our bodies are engineered and how lucky i am to have health and the ability to do such a thing. Yes, I'm sore but there are so many people who are unable to participate or enjoy such activities.

Lastly, on Labor day i was able to go to Bear Lake with my dear friend Jordan Johnson and his sister Kim and her family. It was so nice to be able to hang out with my friends and enjoy the water. Jordan and Kim rented Wave Runners and we had a blast! I realized just how lucky i am to have such good people in my life. I mean I truly know and have the opportunity to hang out with some pretty amazing people and I'm so grateful for that!! All in all I would just say that I'm Blessed!!

My three Week amazing vacation!

2009-08-24T15:04:00.001-07:00

So, I just returned from my three week vacation which was great! I loved it so much! For the first week we went to Park City and we got to run and ride bikes and be tourists. We went to the Olympic Park which was fun and we also went down to the provo Canyon which was beautiful. We floated the provo river with the Rowes it was sooo fun! But very Cold!!! One of my cousins Keri and her family came up and went to lunch with us and then over to the Alpine Slide and coaster. It was so cute her adorable little daughter Whitley rode with me and she was just so cute and being like whoo hoo this is so fun and it was! Then my family came up and went went shopping and did some other fun stuff! So, Park City was great! We started our Journey back to Virginia. On Sunday we drove to Colorado and visited one of my aunts friends whose second homes in located in the mountains next to this beautiful lake!! We had a little car trouble in Indiana so we ended up staying the night there. But we eventually made it back to Virginia and we got to play and relax and i also pressure washed and stains my aunts deck. We got to go the the beach for a few days and stay in this awesome home located right on the beach..you know the my aunt has a friend who knows a guy who knows the girl who owns the house type of deals. it was so nice and relaxing and just what i needed. I got to just sit and read and tan it was so wonderful! I was gonna try to surf but the waves were not big enough and i didn't get in the water to much because there were jelly fish that kept stinging everyone. So on my last day in Virginia Carson my little cousin convinced me to drop in on his half pipe on a Skateboard. It was a bad idea and i injured myself quite badly! But, it was entertaining for sure.

Summer Adventures

2009-07-24T16:40:00.001-07:00

Summer Surely has been quite the adventure for me so far. I have not been very good at keeping my blog up to date however. So, Here it goes. I have had a lot of fun and also some fun visitors. Two boys who served in my mission came through Pocatello for their family reunion and we got to play for the day and the weekend. I never served around them but met Robert in California when we were visiting a mutual friend. We got to go four wheeling and then later in the week just hang out. It was great having them.

My friends threw me an awesome Surprise Birthday Party that was so fun!

I went to Bear Lake with My good Friend Kristy and her family the weekend of the fourth of July. We Jet Skied, got sunburned, swam, and played games. It was so fun..oh yeah I also got thrown off the back of the four wheeler right into a mud pile that smelled like Cow.

Then a week Later my friend Robert Holgate came back to work and he got to come to Bear Lake with me and friends for a ward activity. We woke up at 5 am after going to bed around 3 so we could go wakeboarding on the smooth water. It was so worth it and so fun. Robert could do some pretty impressive tricks including a backflip on the wake board. WE were tired after our long trip. Then, him and I jumped back in the car and went to Salt Lake to go to the sister I trained on the mission homecoming. It was such a good weekend.

My Girlfriends and I also had a girls night. My Friend Chelsey is moving to Germany for her husband to play basketball. I'm happy for her but we will miss her and her adorable son Colton. My other friend Lisa was pregnant and just recently had her baby...congrats Lisa!! I also have our shirts advertised that we put together to represent the cougars!

I also recently quit my job and decided to head back East to Virginia for a few weeks. I would not be able to work at my job in the fall anyway. So, I figured I may as well go visit some of my great friends back East. It should be great and I'm excited. I am also running a triathlon next weekend for our family reunion and then I have been training for a marathon in September..Its been hot but so good and I'm feeling pretty good about where my life is. I'm so blessed in all that I have. I feel really good about quitting my job suprisingly, considering the economy but I feel that God will provide for me. Life is Great...Quote for this post "Life is not Measured by the Breaths we take but the Moments that Take our Breath Away" I am constantly having moments that take my breath away and I'm grateful for that!

Did you Say Cougars?

2009-06-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

This Summer's theme kicked off with our first camping trip up Blackrock Canyon when the boys we were with started claiming themselves as the Eagles for being Eagle Scouts. They thought they were so cool. So. Needless to say Us girls developed our own name of the Cougars. So, now we are officially the cougars and the Eagles. It makes it fun. So, last weekend we went on another camping excursion. I am yet to get those pictures! However, we went up near Lava and we sat in the natural Hot Pools in the River and had a blast. Then, the next day we floated the river. It was a little brutal. We thought we would be tough and go down the waterfalls people usually bypass. Well, my first time down I got stuck in a hole and got kicked out of my tube and drug underneath the current along the rocks. Needless to say I was not very smart and did it again and once again got hurt. So, I quit doing that part and put in where everyone else did. Much better that way! It was a blast though and we are having so much fun just hanging out and fourwheeling a lot! Tomorrow is my birthday so my family and I celebrated today. My friends Kristy and Mikkel came over and we went on a four wheeling ride in the mud. It was fun but I almost tipped once and Mikkel and Kristy got the four wheeler stuck. It was a little scary, but we made it out alive. I also went fishing with my family over Memorial Day weekend. It was fun and I caught my first fish ever. This was only like my second time going so that was really exciting!

With My 24th Birthday coming i have done a lot of Life Reflection and thinking about the wonderful life I have been blessed with. I am truly so blessed to have all that I do. I have a wonderful family, wonderful friends, and the gospel in my life. I have all the most important things and I'm so grateful for that!

Finally Summer!!

2009-05-22T23:23:00.000-07:00

So, I have never been more relieved to be done with a semester of school! It was long and kept me super busy! So, now it is time for the fun to begin! I was disappointed that I would not be going on any big excursions like I usually do in the summers. Instead I am staying in Pocatello for the first time in like 6 summers! It should be good and we have already kicked it off to a good start with a little camping trip. We just drove the four wheelers up a mountain close and had a great time just chatting and spending time together. I have hillarious and fun friends. Here are some pics from that and some of the crazy five year olds I work with all summer!

Jon Schmidt Beautiful Song

2009-04-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

I went to his concert tonight and it was great and so I just wanted to share one of the songs he played cause I thought it was really pretty!

A Much Needed Update

2009-04-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

Well, this past semester has been crazy with school and I have been super overwhelmed taking 18 credits. These last four weeks are going to be crazy with lots of assignments due. Fortunatley during my Spring Break I got to go on a much needed break to California. I have a really close mission friend who lives in Rialto California which is pretty close to LA. So, his family was gracious enough to let me stay at his house. They treated me so well. When I got there we decided to go hiking since it was such nice weather! Oh, it felt so good all I wanted to do was sit outside!! But that was way fun and then later that night we went to a dance. All the boys I were with were such good dancers. Then, Saturday we went to Huntington Beach which was way fun even though it wasn't that warm that day. I was determined to go swimming even though the water was freezing. So, i did and we even boogie boarded for awhile. We also just sat around ate food, played catch, and then later that night we got invited to a singles Tongan ward bonfire on the beach. That was fun! Then, sunday we just got to chill which is so fun because these Samaon boys are super funny and keep me entertained the whole time. We also visited the LA temple. It was beautiful and i have never seen it, It was huge!! So, that was a good time! Then, Monday and Tuesday we just hung out and had a good time at Ammon's school and hanging out. On Monday I also got to see the Hawkins family who I met in Virgnia and they now live in Cali! They are amazing and incredible people who i really love. It was way fun to see them and they also fed me and four of my friends dinner!! One of my friends Michelle was also in Cali so she met up with us for a little bit which was fun! Overall, the trip was just so much fun and I didn't want to ever leave and come back to real life! Thanks to the Matavao family and friends for the good times!

I also got to go to Salt Lake for my mission reunion and conference! I was so good to see my mission president again and hang out with my Cali friends who were up for conference! I also got to go to the second session of conference on Saturday which was way good! I love conference and it was so good to be there with all the members of the church!!

"Even As I Am"

2009-02-23T19:48:00.000-08:00

Today In My institute Class we were discussing 1 Corinthians Ch. 13. It was amazing and profoundly influenced me today. It also made me miss being a missionary who was more focused on spiritual things rather than lame wordly things. Alright, So Paul tells us that Charity is kind, envieth not, seeketh not her own, hopeth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things, it never faileth, and it is the greatest attribute. But, what does all this mean? What is Charity? How can we obtain it? So, as our class was discussing this there were a few things that really stuck out to me. Charity is Christ. Ok, what does that mean? It means that Christ never Fails us..IT means that Christ is Kind and Does not seek his own. So, how do we obtain that? Well, we seek it, we follow his example. Not that we will ever be Christ, but we can develop his qualities with his help. Then, we talked about being selfless..my institute teacher whom I love and is amazing and has been a huge blessing in my life..raised the question to me..was I a more charitable person on my mission than I am now? I of course said yes way more...he said why? My response is well as a missionary everyday you are focusing on good things you are focusing and teaching the gospel everyday..you are selfless..your whole purpose is to serve and love others and bring them what makes you happiest. I Miss that immensley..Now, in my life I feel so consumed by everything going on in life and all that I need to accomplish. I feel very selfish and I know that is not what God would want me to do. I have struggled with being charitable my whole life. why? Well, I know that I'm a pretty judgemental person..do you think that God looks upon us like I look at other people? No he doesnt. God Loves all people and I want to feel the same. I know that all people are inherently good. So, I should desire to love and serve all people despite our differences. Anwway, there were some good quotes I wish I had to share with you..maybe I will get them and post them. One thing that stood out to me the most was Charity is not something we do it is what we are. So, we should all strive to be more like our Savior Jesus Christ and develop his qualities and attributes. As we do this we will be happier. As we focus on the savior more and keep our priorities everything else in life will fall into place. IF we focus on becoming like the savior we will naturally be better people! I love that God allows us to change and improve ourselves. I love that we have the spirit to help us and prick us at different times in our lives to make appropriate changes. God is Great and I love him and I love the Gospel!

Confessions of A 23 YR Old College Student

2009-02-16T21:14:00.001-08:00

Alright..I know you guys are all just dying to read about my life..so here it goes. I have been horrible latley about updating this sucker! So, obviously a lot has happenend to me since Christmas. A new semester has started and I am finally taking classes for my program in my fourth year. Its kinda ridiculous. I am keeping very busy with working and taking 18 credits and playing volleyball tuesday nights, basketball wednesday nights, a social life and church responsibilities on top of that. Sometimes, I just feel a little overwhelmed over it all. considering how I am a very social person it is very difficult to stay very motivated to do my homework instead of going out with friends. This past week was one of those crappy sucky weeks where I just wanted to quit life. I had many moments of asking myself if I really wanted to be a teacher and asking myself if I could really handle it all. I got on email from my summer job saying they didn't need me. Then, as I was trying to figure out the rest of my schooling i got a rude awakening that i needed to take summer school! Yuck! I am so anti summer school. I really need my summer breaks to be able to make it through school so now I will be going without any real break. Plus, Ill be staying in Pocatello which means I won't be able to make very much money! AAAhhhh....sat down and talked with my mom and step dad and they tried to be instrumental in helping me but I realized I'm pretty stubborn and everything they said I would just shut down. I just wanted to quit school and they were being logical imagine that. Then, Lately i have been facing some realizations of some of my personality traits that really need to change. I want people to know how much of a nice person I am but sometimes things come out really wrong out of my mouth so people think i'm rude. I also realized with boys and relationships I put up walls that prohibit me from being able to let people close to me. So, overall I'm just frustrated with my life. I am coming up on my year mark home from the mission and I feel like I really haven't accomplished much in that year. How can I motivate myself to be better in school? How can I change some things I need to? I have been having some good ah ha moments in Institute and church so that is good! But, anyway enough of all that nonsense. I am having a lot of fun too and that is part of the problem but I hope you are all doing well!! Its all about Balance! The following pictures are of me snowshoeing, one is at a hockey game, one is from a basketball game, and one is of the mohawk I did on my nephew!

The Boy in My Life:)

2009-01-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

Ha I know I fooled you guys but the boy in my life is not what you are thinking. Yes yes, I am still single and looking so if any of you know anyone who you think is a good fit for me that is great;) So, anyway I had a great Christmas seeing how it was my first one back from my mission and the first I've got to spend with my family for two years it was great. 9 of the 10 kids were around but my favorite part was spending time with my adorable and cute nephew Landon who is now 1.5 years old. I really love him and he brings so much joy into our family seeing how he is the only one he is quite spoiled but its great! I also had a great New Years with my friends dancing the night away. I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and start working on those New Years Resolutions!! Lots of Love to you all!

Remembering The True Meaning Of Christmas!

2008-12-23T20:37:00.000-08:00

My Friend Gave me a Link to a Great Christmas Video that is really beautiful! I hope you guys Can all take a Look at it. It is missionaries from all over the world in Salt Lake City. Its very good to explain the true meaning of Christmas!! I love this time of year and the spirit that is felt I hope you can all remember why we celebrate christmas! I hope you all have a Wonderful and Merry Christmas I love you all! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxKas2Mcjg4
A Great Day..Kim and Zak Got Sealed in Salt Lake City Temple!

Me and wonderful Kim while Looking at the Beautiful Lights

Me and Kim Again

The Sister Missionaries and Kim at the Joseph Smith building

Why My Life is Amazing!

2008-12-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

So the day after Thanksgiving I got to head back to Washington D.C., one of the loves of my life! It was amazing to be back and see people I haven't seen for a few months and to see my aunt and kids. What happened is Kim Lowe who I taught on my mission and her husband recently moved to Pennsylvania from Minnesota. Kim's year mark of baptism was Dec. 1st which made her eligible to go to the temple. So, me and Christen one of my mission companions that taught Kim as well went out to be with them during their first time at the temple. It was amazing and then we got to spend some good quality time with them afterwards at Red Lobster. They are great and I love them tons! It also worked out that my aunt needed me to babysit while she went on business so I got my flight paid for. She is such an amazing person and aunt! While Christen was here we also saw some of the sights:) The Washington Monument
Just outside the temple after Kim went through the temple!

Me and the beautiful DC temple with all the lights

At the Natural History Museum

All of us after the temple session

Me and Christen

Me freezing in front of the capitol building

So that was a small summary of my recent excursion to Washington D.C.!

Baby Shower, Bridal Shower, and Single Life

2008-11-09T19:28:00.000-08:00

I kissed her man! (Not Really)

The Aftermath of the Wrestling..Mikkel often needs her helmet on..Safety First!

Mikkel Wrestling her Sister!

We are Gangsta!!

Bonfire Fun with My G love girls!

How well do you know your Fiancee?? Isn't she precious?

Me and My Beautiful, kind, and amazing Friend Sarah Mae!

At Texas Roadhouse with Sarah Mae!!

At Perkins For Chesley's Baby Shower! She is the 2nd on the left..isn't she cute!

Saturday was a very interesting day for me! I had two first: A baby shower and a bridal shower. Everyone I tell that to is like how is that possible. I guess it's because a lot of my friends got married while i was on my mission and before I probably just avoided it at all costs!! But, for both showers it was people I cared about very much so I wanted to be there to support them. Chelsey has been a great friend to me since I was a sophmore in college! She was always is a ton of fun and always makes me laugh. She is also super cute pregnant. She looks so good and is only a month away from her due date. It was a good time to be with her. Then, later that day i went to a bridal shower for my very beautiful and fun friend Sarah Mae! I absolutley love her! She is so great and seems really happy. Im not gonna lie It was an interesting dynamnic not really knowing any one there and me and my friend Cassie were the only single ones amongst the group. It made me both realize I don't think I'm ready to be married but it also made me desire to be married. Kinda hard to explain I guess there are just so many positives of both. But, right now I'm just living the life loving being single! We have a lot of good times being single and just having fun. I wouldn't change any of the experiences I've had thus far in my life. So, i know that God's plan is right for me and right now i'm just trusting that in God's timing it will all work out! Thanks to all my amazing friends who I love dearly! They are awesome people and i learn so much from them all Pregnant, married, engaged or single:)

Halloween

2008-11-02T23:05:00.000-08:00

My 80's Do
Me and My friend Cassie Styled up

Our Group date with some of the Vampires from the Haunted House! There Makeup was great!

Ok so this year was a way fun Halloween. On wednesday three of my friends and I went on a group date and went to a Haunted House. I was such a pansy. I'm not a big fan of freaking myself out! But, they did a great job and scared us all! It was way fun and very entertaining! Then, my car decided we should scare our other friends since they were about 20 minutes behind us. So, we went into their apartment and attempted to scare our other two friends. Needless to say I just ended up laughing but the other two got em good. However, these two friends of mine are pretty good at getting people back so they keep telling me to watch my back and that payback is in action so i'm a little worried! Then, Halloween night was ok my friend Cassie and I dressed up as 80's girls. We went to the institute dance and just had fun being ridiculous. So, overall it was a fun and good Halloween! Just remember to WATCH YOUR BACKS:)

A Day With The Johnsons

2008-10-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

Over the Weekend I had the chance to spend some good quality time with my good friends, the Johnsons, from Virginia. I have got to hang out with them off and on through the years. They are great people and a lot of fun. Jo Jo, Pookie, and I got to spend a lot of time together, almost everyday during the summer, so i have missed them. It was a lot of fun to spend the day with them in Rexuburg watching Justin and his amazing skills with Football and just messing around. We had lunch and went to a movie and it was a great time! I love them and grateful to have them. When Justin would introduce us to his friends he would say these are my brothers, my sister in law and Abby-i don't know what to call you! We determined he should just call me his sister. They have been so kind to me and been great friends! Thanks I love you guys!

The Johnson Crew! Jordan, Justin, Jeff, and Chelsie
Me and Jo Jo
He caught me by suprise but I am tough!
A normal Picture!
The serious football game at BYUI
Justin-Number one
Me and Brooke Payne from Virginia-she is a cute girl
Me and the Star...he's so hott right now!