HAPPENINGS THIS WEEK.

This past Sunday was so awesome! Busy but awesome. I went to a couple hours of my singles ward in the morning and then I came to Safford and went to church with the coolest people on the planet. And during that sacrament meeting, those cool people's Dad got ordained a bishop. Such a neat experience. Guys we really do have one of the best Dads in the world. I don't know if any of you noticed it, but when dad got called to be a counselor, it changed our family so much for the better. It changed Dad too. I know that callings can always change people for the better, but only if you open your heart to it and really try. That's what Dad did. Watching him grow from that was one of the best experiences of my life. I can't even comprehend how much more everyone is going to grow from Dad having this new calling as Bishop. I'm not going to be home so I guess it'll be harder for me to see the effects, but after a few of my friends found out that Dad was Bishop, I was able to hear about a bunch of cool things. A lot of people said that you can feel the ward's prayers around you all the time. Like there is an extra strength that you can feel in your home.

After I was finished with everything at home, I went to that missionary fireside they were having at the Safford Stake Center. It was overflowing with people! Tri-Stake meetings are usually like that I know, but it was still cool to see that so many people wanted to be there. I think I use the word cool too much. Anyways, the chapel was all full except for the first two rows. It really bugs me how people never sit in the front. So that's where I sat haha. I think Jeff and Bryan felt bad for me so they moved a couple minutes before the meeting started and came and sat by me. There were two converts who spoke in the meeting. One of them was Shani Fite's dad. Shani is a girl I met while going to SHS. She is a great girl and sometimes she would express her feelings to me about her dad not being a member. I hadn't heard anything yet, so I was so surprised when her Dad stood up and said that he had gotten baptized just a couple months ago! For a newbie to the church, he sure knew how to give a talk. He did very well. After he spoke, Blaine Taylor got up and shared his experiences about being converted in high school and then going on a mission just a year later. How scary would that be!? Not knowing anything about the Book of Mormon or the gospel but just going out there! Blaine is a friend that I met at a barbecue Davis took me to the other day. He is such a strong spirit and it's obvious that the church has really changed the way he lives his life. I talked to him a little bit after the fireside about his family. He's just a really neat spirit.

After the fireside I went to Elise's house for family prayer. There was only like 15 of us. But that's pretty good for our first try I think! After family prayer we went to our Elders Quorum President, Chase McCormies, house for pop n shakes. Pop n shakes is something that Chase does once in a while on Sunday nights. You just go eat popcorn and have milkshakes and then play games or just dance or other fun stuff. Sometimes I feel kind of weird about playing just dance on Sunday though, so a lot of times I leave early. I met a ton of people that night though. I seriously think I've met like 40 new people within the past week that I absolutely adore. Sometimes when I run into one of them again it's funny because neither of us remember what the others name is so we just have to laugh and introduce ourselves again.

EA started. It's alright. I just don't have a lot of motivation to go to school right now haha. I had my audition for A Capella last night and I didn't make it in. Not gonna lie this is gonna be a rough 24 hours. Lately I have been wondering whether I need to give up music or not. No matter how hard I try I can't be a classical singer and do good things for choirs like EA needs. But I still have such a strong desire to perform and share music. Why would I have this desire so badly if I can't do anything with it? It's quite frustrating. So before my audition I was thinking all this over and wondering what my feelings were going to be if I didn't make it in. I had a lot of time to wait so I pulled out my scriptures and started reading. It was open to D&C 8. I don't know why because I don't remember reading there in my studies. Maybe there was something in there I needed for church. Anyways I opened it up and started reading verse 8. "Therefore doubt not, for it is the gift of God, and you shall hold it in your hands, and do marvelous works; and no power shall be able to take it away out of your hands, for it is the work of God."

I'm still not 100% sure what that personally means for me, but it was still comforting. If God wants me to use music as a gift and do marvelous works then I can, and I will eventually. And no power (not even Dr. Bishop) ( haha) (joking) can take it out of my hands. 

So those are just some things that have been happening this week. I'd gotten to busy to write the past few days, but there wasn't a lot to tell so here it is! I have to go get ready for devotional. I'll write more later! Thanks for reading!

MORMON STUFF.

The temple has been looking so so so beautiful lately. I mean it always looks pretty but even more so lately. The bushes on the side of the temple are finally growing in and they are a beautiful green.

I tried to get a good picture but it wasn't so great haha. Guess you guys will have to come see it for yourself sometime :)

Yesterday I had an appointment with the missionaries. I thought that it was just a normal appointment where they were going to talk to me about being a member missionary. But when I got to the institute where our appointment was, Bo was there. I mentioned Bo in a previous post. He is our friend that is investigating the gospel. I guess the missionaries forgot to mention that I was just there to sit in on Bo's lesson haha. It was actually super cool. I noticed that the missionaries asked questions more than they talked to him. Sometimes the best way to tech people is just to listen. People know the answers to things like whether God is real or whether he is listening, but it's hard for them to realize it until they have peace and people to point them in the right direction. Everything that Bo said was really insightful. I only spoke once when the  missionaries asked me to share how the Holy Ghost has helped me to know that the gospel is true. That's a really sensitive subject for me so I had to try really hard to keep my voice calm and my eyes dry haha. I think I pulled it off though. I just don't know if what I said was helpful to Bo or not. Usually my problem isn't saying enough, but saying too much. Once I realized that the missionaries were maybe going to ask me to talk I said a little prayer and asked Heavenly Father if he would help me to not say anything that wasn't needed. I don't know if I was helpful or if Bo is any closer to accepting the gospel, but the Spirit was definitely there.

That night we played games with a few of the same people that we played the drinking game with. It was fun but I left at like 10 haha. Then Lela and I went to do the paper route with Rachel, Katie, and Jessica. I got to talk to Rachel a lot about going a mission and I really liked that. It was fun but I was sooooo tired! When we got back to Jessica's house to sleep I was completely gone within 2 seconds. I get to see you guys tonight :)

NEW FRIENDS!

Thursday was pretty normal in the day time. It's been nice to kind of take this week to relax and try to lose this cold I have had. But I am just SO excited that all the new kids are finally starting to move in and get ready for school next week, because that means new friends! Me and Elise decided that every Thursday we are going to try to have a game night, and open it up to anyone who wants to come. Last night was our first attempt at it, and it was a HUGE success! Easily the funnest time I have ever had at EA so far! I met a lot of new people. The first thing we played was a mormon drinking game.

Haha let me explain. When we play drinking games, we pick a movie that everyone knows or has seen before. The movie we picked was The Princess Bride. Then you pick a few words/names that are said a lot in the movie. We picked Buttercup, Westley, Hummperdinck, and 'True Love.' Then everyone gets their little plastic shot glasses (I feel like a sinner for explaining this) and picks the drinks they want to use. I just used orange juice and water, but most other people drank Gatorade or soda. Every time one of the selected words is said in the movie you have to take a shot. If you have to get up to use the bathroom or you miss a shot, then you are out of the game. It may not sound very fun or hard but OH MY WORD IT WAS SO DIFFICULT. I thought I would be out after like 20 shots, but I surprised myself and made it through the whole movie! Lela was tallying all the shots because she was too sick to play, and at the end of the movie she said their had been 92 shots throughout the movie. Do you remember the part in the movie where they go to Miracle Max and his wife comes out and yells "HUMPERDINK! Humperdink Humperdink Humperdink" and then just keeps saying it over and over? Everyone was DYING at that part! But laughing just made it harder to keep all the water in haha. I know this probably sounds so stupid but it was so fun.

We played so more games after that, and I think everyone really enjoyed their selves. School starts in 3 days and I am so excited to make even more friends!

CASSIE'S BIRTHDAY

Wednesday was Cassie's birthday! Her boyfriend Jared surprised her by hanging up a banner by her parking spot that said Happy Birthday in really big letters. Then he got her flowers, chocolate, and wrote her a really sweet card. She let me read the card and in it he calls her 'Ohema' which means Queen in African. He went on his mission somewhere in South Africa. Isn't that so sweet?? I hope they get married. He is a really great guy and really great to Cassie.

At 9:00 that morning I had to go to EA Orientation. It was hot and boring. Go EAC.

When I got home I was soooo tired so I took a nap and then waited around for Cassie to leave with her parents to dinner so that we could start getting her surprise party together. After she left we cleaned the family room and the kitchen. Then when she came in we yelled surprise and sang happy birthday while she blew out candles. It was pretty basic stuff.

Cassie edited this kind of ghetto so Moriah's arm looks black. Hahaha

 I stayed long enough to get the party rolling and turn some music on, then I went to Elise's house and went to sleep. Elise came home at about midnight. I woke up when she came in and then stayed up to talk to her for a long time. She is a really great friend and I'm so glad that I met her. I talk to Elise about pretty much everything!

You see that guy on the very right side of the picture? That's our friend Bo. he has been taking the missionary discussions and they set a baptism date as a goal, which means that he hasn't officially agreed to get baptized, but that's how long they are going to wait to see if he wants to or not. He is a really funny guy. Kind of strange, but we adore him. He was friends with the girls that lived here before us, and he always jokes that he comes with this house as a package deal. Sometimes he comes to sacrament meeting with us and he seems to like it. We have the best missionaries in the world serving here right now, and if anyone can get Bo to be baptized I know it will be those two.

Pretty boring post. But it was a pretty boring day! Now there are two 20 year olds in our house. During the party I was thinking about how I'm not going to be here for my 20th birthday, and that actually makes me pretty happy! I can't wait to go!

TEMPLE TUESDAY

I love Temple Tuesday! This morning I went at 9:30 to do baptisms. All the brethren were in a session so I had to wait for a little while until they could get to the baptistry. I didn't mind though because Sis. McCrae was working and she is one of my favorite people in the whole world! So me and her just talked for like 20 or 30 minutes while I waited. Her daughters went on missions so sometimes she shares stories with me about how her daughters liked their missions. President Cox (Is that how you spell his name?) had some family  names he needed done so I got to do those. I love it when the people you are baptizing for have the same last names, because then you know that you are baptizing a family. And picturing a family finally getting to be together after waiting so long is awesome. Especially when you get to be a part of it. Sometimes before I baptize I ask them to let me see the cards so I can look at the date of death on them. Then I can see how long they have been waiting. It's really cool to do that, but sometimes kind of sad. Like the people that had to wait 200 years or more to get their ordinances done?? SO crazy! I'm just glad they don't have to wait any longer once I'm done!

After I got home from the temple most of the girls were still in bed. So I lied in my room and talked to Jessica about her wedding for a while. She is pretty stressed about it, but then whenever Sean calls her on the phone she gets so happy, and they are just so in love that it doesn't even matter how stressful the wedding is haha. After I lied around for a while and acted lazy I decided I better get up and do something with myself. So I went back to the temple and studied Preach My Gospel for a while. I tried to memorize the first vision. It's not that bad but I always get the "brightness of the sun" and "brightness and glory defy all description" parts mixed up. In mission prep they challenged us to see if we can relate the first vision for over 60 seconds and that is SUPER HARD. Seriously so hard. The most I can get it to is like 45 seconds haha. But it's important to go slow and pause a lot because the first vision is a lot for people to take in!

After the temple I went to Lela's house to help her move her room back upstairs. Leslie moved in with them so it kind of moved the room arrangements around. I was only there for a couple hours then I came home to get ready for a date that I had with a guy named Cody Elmer. We went bowling.. yay. My favorite thing haha. I actually have a really funny story to tell about that when I see you guys. We doubled with Devin Brown and a nice girl named Lavita. The date was short, I got home at 10, 10:30ish. After the date a lot of our friends went to Elise's house and played the FUNNEST game, I have to show it to you guys when I come for the sleepover. Then after that we went to Denny's because it was like 2 in the morning so technically it was Cassie's birthday already. So it was a really long eventful night. After I got home from Denny's, it seemed like an eternity since I gone to the temple that same morning. But I live so close so I can go back every day if I want to! I LOVE living next to the temple, and I love that we have a temple so close to us!

THIS ONE'S A DOOZY.

So before I talk about my Monday, I have to talk about Sunday.
And before that, here is a picture Jeff, Lela, and I took together at Chris's reception:

It's one of those pictures that you hate of yourself, but you love it because the people you love are in it.

Yesterday was a weird Sunday because usually when I go to church I sit by all my friends, but most of them are still gone to Mesa! So lucky for me, Katie came to visit me and I really enjoyed having her at church :) I was going to have her take a picture with me but I forgot. About 2 minutes before sacrament meeting started, one of the counselors came up to me and asked if I would lead the music. So I can cross that off my life to do list, conducted the music in sacrament meeting! Haha it was kind of scary though. As soon as I got up there I think I forgot how to move my arms. Aaannd I hadn't shaved my legs so luckily the wall of the stand came up high enough to cover my knees. After we got home from church, Katie helped me with a couple things on my laptop, then I made myself a quesadilla and tried to nap but it didn't work. Then, mission prep was at 6:00.

Going on a mission is going to be a lot harder than I thought. Every time I go to mission prep, I always leave worried about something that I need to work on or do. And I guess that's a good thing... but still. it's kind of scary. I know I keep saying I wish I could just leave on my mission tomorrow, but I think it's a good thing I still have quite a while to prepare. Cause I have a lot to do!

DAD: If you could call me about passport papers, that would be awesome! I want to get those turned in as soon as possible.

After mission prep, Jeffy came over and helped me make dinner.

The pasta was just out of a box and the chicken was pretty simple, but it was still a lot better than the PB and J sandwiches I've been eating haha. Not that those are bad! Anyways, for desert Jeff brought me a cupcake from Chris's wedding and we ate that together. Then we danced to Michael Buble in the kitchen until we were afraid people would walk in and think we were strange.

After I ate dinner, everyone started coming over to the house and they turned on a movie. It wasn't a Sunday movie so I didn't really want to watch it, but I didn't want to sit in my room alone either. So I think that just put me in a bad mood.GIRLS: Always keep the Sabbath day holy. It is always worth it to put off other things that will satisfy you momentarily so that you can keep your thoughts and actions focused on the Savior. Mom and Dad have a done a pretty good job teaching us how to do that, but you don't appreciate it until you don't have anyone enforcing it anymore. One girl commented that in her house they were allowed to do whatever they wanted after 6 o clock on Sunday, and then it didn't matter anymore. How sad!

Man I hope my roommates never find this blog.

So after a while I kind of got sick of everyone so I went in my room and talked to Lela on the phone for about 40 minutes. Then I thought I was going to go to bed but... I found out State Fair was on YouTube... yeah that was a bad idea. I didn't go to bed till like 3 AM. MOM I KNOW I KNOW I'LL STOP DOING THAT. But really though I forgot how good of movie State Fair is. And at the same time it's not good at all! Kind of one of those happy sad movies.

My roommate Jessica and her fiance Sean got their engagement pictures taken and WOWZA I have some attractive friends. These are the only two we've seen so far but I bet the other ones are even better.

RIGHT??!?

Monday morning was pretty chill. Went to work for a couple hours and then went to Walmart with Cassie and Morgan,who is all moved in. I was singing songs from State Fair the entire day. That movie has some great music! "Oh I know, All I owe, I owe I-OH-AY!" That's good song writing right there. So fun to sing! Songwriting is so interesting to me, I wish I knew more about it/had more time to work on it. I love hearing a song and dissecting it into what parts make it catchy and what they did to make it more expressive. ANYWAYS. After we got home from Walmart I watched a movie on Netflix called How to Marry A Millionaire. It wasn't my favorite of all time but it was still good. The ending was really cute.

Monday night Cassie and her boyfriend Jared Wright took a lot of us out to Red Knolls where we hiked up to the top, and hit gold balls off the top of the cliff. What made it cool was that they brought a bunch of glow sticks and broke them open, then coated the golf balls in them. When we hit the golf balls off, it looked so cool! The glow in the dark stuff would kind of trail behind the ball, so they looked like shooting stars! It was really fun but the climb up was really scary. I am terribly afraid of heights. After we got home from that, me and Davis went to wash his brother's truck together because it got super muddy from taking it out to red knolls. 

This post was a doozy. I'm coming home this saturday to have a sleepover with you guys! I think. At least that's what mom says. That'll be fun! Can't wait to see you!

MARRIAGES ARE BEAUTIFUL THINGS.

Tonight I went to the last two hours of a dance party/reception held for Jeff's brother Chris and Anica Curtis (now a Norton!!). I had to go late because of work but OH MY GOODNESS it was just SO much fun! I love going places where not too many people know you so you can just have fun and not worry about looking like a fool. Which I probably do most of the time but oh well. Jeff was a crazy dancing man so I mostly just stayed by him the whole time. And Anica looked absolutely gorgeous. I think they are seriously the best looking couple I have ever seen. Like if Chris or Anica got any more beautiful they would just be unreal. Even though it was super fun, on the drive home my heart kind of hurt a little bit because I want to get married so bad haha. I mean not like I HAVE TO GET MARRIED RIGHT NOW EVERY SINGLE BOY THAT I SEE I HAVE TO DATE SO THAT I CAN GET MARRIED IN THE NEXT 36 HOURS no. But Anica and Chris were just so in love and they looked so happy and I just can't wait till I meet my eternal companion! Wow I need to stop ranting about that couple. But really they are awesome.

So so so tired.

Today was my last day at Casa and it felt so good to leave there knowing I didn't have to go back. I'm in a phase where I just hate going to work. Which isn't good but I'm just glad I have lot's of motivation to keep me going! And I know that going to the temple and reading the scriptures will help we get the motivation I need to make it through school and work. Mission mission MISSION! AGH! I just can not wait to go. 

Morgan moved all of her stuff in today, but then left again because her friend is getting baptized in Mesa tomorrow. So she'll be back in the afternoon and then all 6 girls will officially be at our house! Exciting! Next time one of my friends goes to Mesa I need to go with them so I can go to an apple store and get my camera fixed. THEN you guys can see pictures of all the people that I'm meeting! 

Katie, Erin, and Camilla, thank you SO SO SO much for coming to eat with me today at work. It really does brighten my day so much and makes the work load seem a lot lighter when I get to see people that I know and love! I know it didn't seem like it because I just kept rambling but I really like to hear about what you guys are doing and how everything is going in your everyday lives.

I don't know why, but I super like having this blog. Even if none of you ever read it I will most likely keep writing in it anyways haha. I've always liked to write, but sometimes I just don't have the energy to write everything down in my journal. Lately I just save my journal for spiritual stuff.

Man oh man, I can't wait for one of you guys to get married. We are going to have a blast. But if one of you get's married while I'm on my mission I will be so sad. Just kidding you can go ahead, but you better have a rad dance party. I'll send you a playlist from wherever I am at the time.

But really though someone get married. I don't care who it is. Jacy don't go on a mission and as soon as you turn 18 start dating R.M.s and then get married and have children.

I need to stop.

It's the Sabbath and I better get to bed. I've got church in 9 hours! I love all of you so much. Someone give Reed and Merrill a kiss for me. Night!

TAKE A VOTE

I went to work at Kainoas today and they didn't need me, so I came home and started working on my latest project called My Bedroom Wall. Quite a while ago I found a quote about lighthouses that I really liked, but the picture that it was put with isn't that pretty. So I found my top favorite pictures of lighthouses, and I want you guys to tell me which one is your favorite and that's the one I'll put on my wall. The quote that goes with it is "Lighthouses don't run all over an island looking for boats to save, they just stand there shining."v

#1

#2

 #3

#4

Tell me which one you like the best! Thanks!

AYYOOO I GOT A PHONE

Well, I mean, I've had a phone. But now it has service on it. Hooray! You can all call and text me at 928-322-0239. Fun stuff! Now I just need to get my camera fixed. And my speaker. And my lock button. But I am SO excited that I can call you guys now! And feel free to call me whenever you want!

In case none of you knew, the house that I'm living in right now is a little run down. Me and the girls have been trying really hard to get it back in shape and so far it's going good. BUUUT no one seems to care about the outside of it. Which to me is one of the nastiest parts. So a couple days ago my good friend Bryan Smith came to help me clean up a little bit. We worked for an hour or so before I had to get ready for work but it barely made a dent. I was going to take a picture of me and Bryan working but I forgot. Then today I borrowed his rake from him again and cleaned up a little bit more. I think all my roommates think I'm crazy because I'm voluntarily pulling weeds and raking up pine needles haha. It just looked so gross though so I had to do it. Oh and I had to go to Walmart and buy my own gloves because my hands were starting to HURT!

Even though Lela is still living in Solomon without her parents there, she spends a lot of time over here. Sometimes she'll just sleep here 1 or 2 or 3 nights in a row and then go home to get more clothes and come back haha. It's just nice for her because she works at EA every morning at 10. I don't know why I just told you guys that. But there ya go.

ALSO ON THE SUBJECT OF MY BRACES: I went to the orthodontist today and Dr. Lines looked at my mouth and said "Alright so are you ready for me to take them out?" And he was being dead serious, no joking around this time. But I started to freak out a little because I've had a gap between my two front teeth for the past couple weeks and I said, "Aren't we going to close that gap before we take them off?" I should have just kept my big mouth shut and my teeth would have closed in a couple days after having my braces off. So now I have a sup[er hurtful chain on my top teeth and a couple more weeks with braces. He tried to make it three weeks but I was like uh no. no no. haha so just a little bit longer!

QUESTIONS FOR MOMMA:
- How do I go about turning my passport papers in now?
- I had another question but I forgot.

I saw a picture of Jacy playing Uno with her friends during Cocke's class and it made me miss high school a little bit. Seriously this sounds so cliche Erin and Jacy, but enjoy high school as much as you can because it does go by so fast. I sat around and complained for most of my last year and now I can't remember doing that many cool things during it. Just a tip: Don't wait around or look for people to make things interesting, BE that person! Have game nights with your friends, be happy, do spontaneous things at school, and be that person that every one always looks at and says "man I just love that girl because she is always so positive and fun!"

All of my friends and roommates just went to Mesa for a fun weekend so now I'm sitting here alone with Cassie and we are both getting ready for work. I work at Kainoas from 5:30 till slow if anyone wants to come.. hint hint. Seriously though I want you guys to try Kainoas, I think you might like it. I have to finish getting ready now, but I'll talk to you soon! (On my phone!) (!!) -Whit

MI FAMILIA!

Hello! I know that I only moved across town so it's kind of lame for me to make this blog, but hey I wanted to feel special too. Plus I'm not sure how my phone situation is going to work out so I thought for now this would be a good way of showing you all the things that I'm doing. PLUS I've always liked to write and ramble so this is a good place to get that all out.

Everything is going great so far! My room is super small but I don't really mind it. Yet. Haha we'll see how the semester goes. I've already learned a lot about myself though, like how I'm a little more of a clean freak then I originally thought I was. Momma you are teaching us well! As soon as I sit for longer than a minute I start thinking of all the things that I need to be cleaning. Our house is a little bit run down but me and the girls are trying really hard to fix it up. We painted the kitchen and part of the bathroom so it already feels a lot better. 

Another thing that I've learned already is that I'm more of an introvert than I thought. It's weird how I always thought the opposite. Most of the time when a ton of people start coming over, I just go in my room and close the door because I don't feel the need to meet any of them haha. I don't know if that's bad or not!

I don't own a camera and the camera on my iPod is broken so I don't really have a good way to show you pictures, but I'm working on it! A few minutes ago I discovered the little webcam attached to this laptop and I took my first ever selfie on it.

Ta Da!

And that reminds me JACY I STOLE YOUR SHIRT ON ACCIDENT. If you want it back just tell me. 

KATIE: Those instant oatmeal packages were a really good suggestion, I eat a lot of them! It's better than a poptart or cereal but easier than cooking my own hot cereal haha. I'm the laziest lazy of them all.

I went on another date with that Davis Kempton kid last night and it was good. He's 24 though so that's kind of weird for me. He's a really funny guy. He goes to BYU Provo and is leaving in a couple weeks so we are just hanging out and having fun. He took me to a barbecue his friends were having and they cooked me really yummy steak. We ate it with potatoes, corn, and watermelon so it was the real deal. And probably the best thing I've eaten all week! Once again I don't have a camera, so I can't take very good pictures but you can see Davis a little bit in this one:

I wish I had more to say and share right now but I'm not as good of a blogger as Katie is. Is it weird that I'm actually excited for Katie to start school again so we can all read her hilarious posts once more? I love them! Nothing else to say except I'm just excited for school to start so things can start rolling. I want to go on my  mission. And I wan't to get my braces off. I have an appointment with Dr. Lines tomorrow but I don't think it's going to happen, I've acquired quite the gap between my two front teeth. YAY.

The more I write the more I think of things I want to tell you all, but I think this is enough for one post. I love you guys and I can't wait to hear about how school is going! -Whit