Cauayan > Hawaiian

I'm wrong again about the pronunciation of my mission. It actually rhymes with Hawaiian.

Everything is going to be okay. Aim high. Work hard. Watch the rest of the story unfold.

Temple

The temple is the tops. I am so grateful for nearby temples and the opportunity we have to go and experience the wonderful spirit and blessings that come. I hope everyone can one day experience the wonderful blessings of the temple, because to me, it feels like going home.

Mission

I'm going to the Philippines Cauayan Mission speaking Tagalog. It's a lot like Spanish so those two years in high school will pay off, finally. I found out a guy in my new singles ward went to my mission and he was nice enough to help me accurately pronounce my mission, which is great since I said it twice in my mission prep class and someone called me out because I said it different each time. WHOOPS.

Joseph said it is pronounced like this:
Cow-a-yawn with the emphasis on the Cow.
Good luck.

Also, I get to wear flip flops on p-days or rainy days. Nylons only sometimes. What a great, great thing.

Mission

Well, the mission is in the works. There were some scuffles along the way with the medical forms, but as far as I know everything was fixed and the papers are in. They could have even been read today by the Brethren. I never really thought I'd go. People would ask, "Oh, hey, you serving a mission?" and three months ago I would have said no. But I guess that isn't the case and I'm starting to learn the Lord's methods. I think the Lord sends out those sisters that most need to learn something useful for their lives and they can just help people out along the way. I wonder what my lessons are going to be.

My guesses:
1) Learn to live with great/ not so compatible girls
2) Sharing the gospel isn't as scary as I think it is
3) Open your mouth
4) Nineteen year old boys really are more mature than I think they are... or not :)
5) Find more faith in Christ.

Lessons and Learning

I was chatting about life with my dear mom today and she taught me an important lesson about the way the world works. Do what you want, good things follow. Seriously? I can actually choose to be who I want to be and do what I want to do and good things happen? What an idea. I know most of you probably established this train of thought on the day of birth (why some of us miss the boat is unclear to me), but some of us are a little slower in our development. Fortunately for me, 21 is still a ripe young age right?

Now, the real challenge. Deciding what you actually want. What do I want? Wow. What a question. I've spent most of my life riding on the coat tails of my best friends who decided what we did and I loved every minute of it. Now that they're off and married starting their own wonderful lives I get to ask the question to myself. Interesting. Well, since I'll be serving a mission with some time to kill until the call comes and I'm on my way, I'm going to make a list of what I would like to do in the meantime.

1) Blog
2) Landscape my parent's yard
3) Read 1776
4) Volunteer coach either volleyball or XC @ Maple Mountain High School
5) Write my grandmother's history from her perspective (luckily she lives less than 2 miles away).

I'd like to thank Megan Welton for the facebook post that inspired this new desire for goal setting. I've never been an overly passionate person with a good sense of my own likes and dislikes. Fortunately for me, there are those who lead their lives in such a way that I can follow their example until I reach greater heights myself. Megan's post is as follows

"People say that you shouldn't get your hopes up. I say tosh to that. All of my hopes are so far up that it will be nothing short of a spectacular let down if things don't work out, but I've survived spectacular let downs in the past, with the help of my friends Ben and Jerry. I'm just the type of girl who goes all in, no matter what. It's a better way to live, if you ask me. Try it some time."

I've never really tried it. I guess now is a great time to start.