Thoughts on a new semester

At the beginning of a new semester here is what's going through my head...

Well I officially survived my first week of school although getting up at 5:30 am everyday is still not fun but I am at least a little accustomed to it. I usually wear about 4 layers to school, since riding a bike at 6pm gets a little cold, including 2 pairs of gloves and a beanie and don't put my make-up on until I get to work usually. :) With my new sleep patterns, I go to bed at 10pm or thereabouts which is pretty early for college, and then I have been having really weird and not fun dreams. Some of them are actually kind of disturbing, like people I love dying or having really traumatic things happen to them. If anyone has any routines or ideas of things I can do before I go to bed to hopefully help me have better dreams let me know. But besides that life is great. I am taking 2 chemistry classes and 2 physics classes and microbio! I know, call me crazy but my consolation is graduation in 3 months. I CAN DO HARD THINGS! My fun class is family finance. I am not sure what that says about me or maybe that stuff is in my genes but either way I am really enjoying it. I am gearing up for Wallyball, Innertube Water Polo, and Basketball. No soccer I guess because my team is all gone. SAD! I guess thats what happens when you are still at BYU 7 years after you started. Ha ha.

I still miss Jerusalem daily and the friends that I have their but I am trying not to look back longingly either, for "the past is to be learned from but not lived in" (Elder Holland, Remember Lots Wife, Jan 2009). I have a few New Years Resolutions and if I tell them to all of my faithful blog readers than maybe I will remember them too. In 2010 I am going to have a positive attitude about life and the events that happen to me and the people around me. So my year-long goal is to be a positive person. Then every month I am going to work on one attribute of Christ, starting this month with Charity. It has been fun to work on charity and study it. I love the Savior for His example of how to live a happy life. If you want to be happy all you have to do is follow to Savior and serve others as He would do. Then I have other smaller goals like workout 3 times a week and play the piano for at least 2 hours a week. It is good to be back in Provo and have an organized schedule that I get to choose although I do wish that I had an Akhmed sometimes because cooking gets a little rough. I am grateful to be back in Provo because I have a best friend here that loves me and I love her too. Life is good.

My testimony of the gospel is very simple and I want to share it here. I know that the Savior lives(present tense) not because I saw sites and places that were a part of His life. I know that He lives because I feel Him. The only way to come to know God is through revelation (Mosiah 4:9), which takes work on our part. But I know that as we come unto Him, He will encircle us in the arms of His love. I have felt that in my life so many times. Just when I thought and felt that it was time to give up, I felt of His strengthening embrace. I love the Lord and testify that He lives NOW and hears us NOW. Jerusalem was an important part of His ministry but so is the life that I live according to His teachings! I seal my testimony in His Holy name, even Jesus Christ, Amen.