So I Can Remember This Moment On A Bad Day

Today I red-pointed an 11a.

I felt kind of bad-a even though that's really not that bad-a.

It is for me.

It was awesome.

Give A Little Love

I just randomly came across this today and wanted to share it.

It's funny because I don't feel like I really get marriage hungry or even baby hungry but when I see things like this is does make me hungry to raise children to become teenagers and then to become adults who think like this. 

Every opportunity we take to think of someone else adds something so valuable to the world! 

Mind Reading and Ninja Prizes

So a few especially awesome things happened in the past 24 hours.

I was at lunch with 2 awesome friends, Sydnee and Easton when Sydnee suddenly said "I have a surprise for you in my room!" So after some great conversation and catching up Sydnee and I went to her place and she gave me this!

 The crazy thing is that not two days ago I was at a red light and thought "those little fake pet things were awesome. I wish I could find one."

And then in a mind reading act like I think to think has something to do with Karma. My virtual pet was born. True, I've killed it twice already but... then it came back... so it's like nothing happened.

Like real life right?

So then, this morning, I'm sitting in my room studying and Caitlan, my best friend/ roommate texts me 

(from her room which is right next to mine, I can basically hear her texting me through the wall.)

Earlier, while she was out of the room I had put a check on her bed for utilities. 

Her text inquired as to whether or not I was a ninja (because of my stealth in putting the check on her bed when she was only gone for a few minutes).

I informed her that yes, I am indeed a ninja and have been waiting for someone to acknowledge this great attribute of mine. 

She then praised my achievement and informed me that she was currently duct taping her laundry rack if I would  like to join her.

I was studying at the time, which I told her but then she told me that the duct tape was zebra stripped. 

I wanted her to fully appreciate her choice in pattern and made sure to tell her that her laundry rack would truly be stable with the addition of the tape...

unless it was put in the middle of the serengeti.

Where it would surely be eaten by a lion. 

She then came into my room to inform me that no lion could possibly eat this duct tape. It would get stuck in it's teeth.

I then challenged her to create a small zebra that had the capability of standing.

Only moments later she came back with this:

Please admire it's ability to stand, the mane and general zebra pattern.

Grace and Mercy

So yesterday I was talking to a friend about the way people live their religion, important points that stick out to different people and how those points are expressed. He will remain unnamed because that’s what he would want but when he reads this I hope he sees how much his view changed mine. 

I’ll get a little personal here- after coming back from an 18 month mission for my church I felt a little lost… for quite a while. Not in what I believed or felt or thought, I knew those things but I didn’t know what to do about the fact that one moment my life was happening for others and their progress and the next moment it was happening for me and my own. 

For anyone who has ever served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you may be nodding your head saying “Yeah, not a great feeling”.

To keep my thoughts short I’ll just say that for some reason not having the medium of another person between me and God was hard. Instead of saying 

“I'm here to help this other person who wants to learn about God”

it became 

“I am here to learn about God” 

and as a human being, doing something for myself was less rewarding, less enticing and maybe even frightening. This past year consisted of a lot of strange decisions because of this and admittedly some mistakes and heartache. So yesterday, as I’m talking to this friend, he starts telling me about his favorite gospel topic- 

Mercy.

And I’m like “I already know about mercy.”

And he’s like “Let’s talk about it a little.”

And then my mind was blown.

He started to explain to me what Brad Wilcox explains in the video I attached at the bottom. The fact that things like mercy and grace are not earned. At first when my friend said this I thought 
"That can't be right. We're here to work our way back to God" 

and as it turns out Brother Wilcox spends 30 minutes pleading with me to see that that's wrong.

I've done some pretty dumb things in my life. And I think it's safe to say that I'm not alone in that. Deep down I always believed that if I work hard, someday I can be free of those unwise choices I've made and I can become the person I want to be and therefore become the kind of person that can comfortably live with God. 
I'm partially right. 

I can become the person I want to be and therefore become the kind of person that can comfortably live with God. 

Now, the part that I had wrong was the first part- if I work hard I can be free from my unwise choices. As my friend explained to me- I am free from those unwise choices. Jesus Christ made it possible for me to progress freely, without owing a debt for what I've done.

I thought that that was pretty beautiful and freeing but the next part is just as incredible and just as beautiful. You still must progress in order to be joined with God again after this life but you do it without the residual guilt of your past. If you make a mistake: recognize it, make it right and let it go. Then go on and become the kind of person that you want to be simply because you can and want to- not because you owe it to anyone. 

I think that before yesterday I didn't see the difference. I thought that repaying My Savior for my sins was a perfectly valiant way to go about life not realizing that Christ does not see me as a debtor, 

He sees me as His sister. 

At one point in our conversation my friend emphasized that someday when I stand before God to be judged there will once again be someone between me and God and it will be Christ proclaiming that He has paid the price for me, willingly and without hesitation and that His grace is sufficient.

Yesterday the verse in the Book of Mormon about how 

"Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2: 27)

came alive for me. We are here to have fun, explore, challenge ourselves and those around us freely, doing our best to stay aligned with God so that our joy can continue from this life to the next!

I immediately came home and listened to this talk and was really touched by the Spirit, logic, comparisons and pleadings for us to understand what 'grace' and 'mercy' really mean.

So Watch It and Enjoy!

"Things To Do" List

I keep thinking "I want to do that" when I see things and then I forget. 

Now I'll just put it on here and will always have the list!

1) Make this:

It's a Gir chalk bag for climbing! I don't see any for sale but someone made this one... and if they can do it... well it wouldn't hurt to try!

Concerts!

In my efforts to catch up on my blogging I have neglected to post about an Ed Sheeran concert I went to and then just recently went to a Passion Pit concert... so this post will be about concerts!

So first was Ed Sheeran at the beginning of February and it was awesome! 

Ed was such a fun performer. He's just little guy and was bouncing all over stage it was hilarious. 

He even snuck a little Macklemore in there and in the middle of one of his songs just stopped and was like "Got $20 in my pocket... this is [eff]ing awesome." 

He was a very passionate and entertaining performer, in my opinion.

A 15 minute crazy and riveting version of "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" really blew my mind.

Also of note, these guys opened for him and they were hilarious!

We did have a little debate about if they were saying 

"Down With the Crumpets", 

"Down With the Trumpets" 

"Down With the Strumpets"

or another one I can't remember... the accent was a little hard for us I guess but it is officially 

"Get Down With the Trumpets"

So personally I was very pleased with this concert! 

Not to mention the fact that Ben got me a ticket for my birthday 

(This was months before we started dating so he didn't even HAVE to, what a sweetheart!) 

and I love Ed Sheeran's music so it was pretty fantastic.

Then a little bit ago there was the Passion Pit concert! I have to admit after listening to Passion Pit for a while it all starts to sound the same to me but I thought "It's Passion Pit, they'll put on a good concert" and while it was fun, it wasn't my favorite concert ever. They just didn't really do anything different... didn't really have fun with it. Matt and Freakin' Kim had a good old time but Kim is completely outside her mind!

Seriously I don't know what her deal is but it was pretty obvious her brain has been fried. 

The smile on her face was a little unnatural and unwavering... but Matt was cool and I love his voice.

And then Passion Pit came on and just kind of did their thing. I mean it was good and there were flashing lights and bubble machines and stuff but after a while it was like 

"ok... I get that you can sing high... so if you're not gonna say anything funny I can just go home and listen to your cd... and blow some bubbles..." 

but for the most part it was a good show.

Next on the agenda is Alex Clare who I am expecting big things from! May 1st at The Depot!

One of My Favorite Things to Do...

...is to online book shop!

And sometimes I find some funny things!

I think I'll start keeping track:

When I was looking for "Confessions" by St. Augustine I found that the BYU library has it! I also found that they are equipped to supply the student body with Usher's confessions as well...

 And it's available!

When looking on Amazon.com for a tracking number these suggestions came up and I was interested to find that Buddha beat out God by half a star! Confucius sadly came in 3rd with 3 and a half stars :/

But setting the comparisons aside 

can I just point out that the Bible got 4 out of 5 stars?

That book has everything! 

Drama, Truth, Love, Deceit, Transformation, Realization!

What do you have to do to get 5 stars?

A Good Day

Here is the recipe for a good day:

1) Wake up at 6 and do your reading for your 8 o'clock class so you can fool the professor into thinking you're smart.

2) Successfully fool your professor into thinking you're smart.

3) Find out that the test that was scheduled for 8 o'clock Thursday has now been made a take-home test and isn't due until midnight on Thursday.

4) Hike the 'Y' at lunch with your cute and funny boyfriend and philosophize about what 'success' really means.

5) Go to your internship that has been overwhelming you and have the case worker that you're following around tell you you are doing a really great job and he wants you to stay on in the summer.

6) Go climb with one of your best friends that just moved to town and finish a 5.11a (even if you got stuck at one part).

7) Come home and find out an assignment you thought was due tomorrow at 5 isn't due until Friday at 5.

I had a good day today :) 

Life is Good

So I didn't get a lot of chances to climb in December or January but in the past 2 weeks my schedule has finally settled enough for me to come back!

I decided to give a 10d a try and got to the very top and had to take.

Really sad.

So I tried it again yesterday with the exact same result.

But today was a new day.

I picked up this sushi today to celebrate that I kicked that 10d right in the crotch!

I was very happy.