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If I grew up (not literally... i know that will never happen) to be anything like either one of these two incredible people, I would be one of the most incredible people I know.

Me and Chan Chan at the David Concert

An edit for the beatufiul aubrey

And this is what we did on our first date hahahahahaha

I don't really know how I took this, but my camera did it haha. this is what my room would look like with pink walls! :D ps what am I to do with that GIANT pic of myself from miss murray? bleh!

Some of the Sigma Boys!

Sigma and Zeta Exchange! (ya Mike is in Sigma - what a funny story we have... he's President next year!)

Need someone to sing the anthem? no worries Stacey, Cass, and Emma will! haha Emma has never even sang in front of people before! We actually weren't too shabby! was pleasantly surprised

I love my dance team! (well this is one of them - I love them all but... you get the point haha!)

love love


hahaha
I'm ALMOST as cool as michon... sometimes

super cute right? :D

zeta!



I'm sorry if this isn't appropriate, but this picture is way too funny!

My poor attempt at trying to be as amazing as nate... pretty dang cool shirt through.

Basically... I love my friends... and I love pictures. So pictures of my friends = choice!

God is the Gardener

So here is a talk that I first heard through one of my great friends and inspirations, Elder Nate Ruben. Since then I heard it on ldsvoices.com and decided it's definitely in my top 10 favorites and I wanted to share it :D

Hugh B. Brown (1883-1975), First Presidency

You sometimes wonder whether the Lord really knows what He ought to do with you. You sometimes wonder if you know better than He does about what you ought to do and ought to become. I am wondering if I may tell you a story. It has to do with an incident in my life when God showed me that He knew best.

I was living up in Canada. I had purchased a farm. It was run-down. I went out one morning and saw a currant bush. It had grown up over six feet high. It was going all to wood. There were no blossoms and no currants. I was raised on a fruit farm in Salt Lake before we went to Canada, and I knew what ought to happen to that currant bush. So I got some pruning shears and clipped it back until there was nothing left but stumps. It was just coming daylight, and I thought I saw on top of each of these little stumps what appeared to be a tear, and I thought the currant bush was crying. I was kind of simpleminded (and I haven’t entirely gotten over it), and I looked at it and smiled and said, “What are you crying about?” You know, I thought I heard that currant bush say this:

“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as big as the shade tree and the fruit tree that are inside the fence, and now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me because I didn’t make what I should have made. How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”

That’s what I thought I heard the currant bush say, and I thought it so much that I answered. I said, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down. Thank you, Mr. Gardener.’ ”

Years passed, and I found myself in England. I was in command of a cavalry unit in the Canadian Army. I held the rank of field officer in the British Canadian Army. I was proud of my position. And there was an opportunity for me to become a general. I had taken all the examinations. I had the seniority. The one man between me and the office of general in the British Army became a casualty, and I received a telegram from London. It said: “Be in my office tomorrow morning at 10:00,” signed by General Turner.

I went up to London. I walked smartly into the office of the general, and I saluted him smartly, and he gave me the same kind of a salute a senior officer usually gives—a sort of “Get out of the way, worm!” He said, “Sit down, Brown.” Then he said, “I’m sorry I cannot make the appointment. You are entitled to it. You have passed all the examinations. You have the seniority. You’ve been a good officer, but I can’t make the appointment. You are to return to Canada and become a training officer and a transport officer.” That for which I had been hoping and praying for 10 years suddenly slipped out of my fingers.

Then he went into the other room to answer the telephone, and on his desk, I saw my personal history sheet. Right across the bottom of it was written, “THIS MAN IS A MORMON.” We were not very well liked in those days. When I saw that, I knew why I had not been appointed. He came back and said, “That’s all, Brown.” I saluted him again, but not quite as smartly, and went out.

I got on the train and started back to my town, 120 miles away, with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. And every click of the wheels on the rails seemed to say, “You are a failure.” When I got to my tent, I was so bitter that I threw my cap on the cot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, “How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?” I was as bitter as gall.

And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, “I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do.” The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness and my bitterness. While kneeling there I heard a song being sung in an adjoining tent. A number of Mormon boys met regularly every Tuesday night. I usually met with them. We would sit on the floor and have Mutual. As I was kneeling there, praying for forgiveness, I heard their singing:

“But if, by a still, small voice he calls
To paths that I do not know,
I’ll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in thine:
I’ll go where you want me to go.”
(Hymns, no. 270)

I arose from my knees a humble man. And now, almost 50 years later, I look up to Him and say, “Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.” I see now that it was wise that I should not become a general at that time, because if I had I would have been senior officer of all western Canada, with a lifelong, handsome salary, a place to live, and a pension, but I would have raised my six daughters and two sons in army barracks. They would no doubt have married out of the Church, and I think I would not have amounted to anything. I haven’t amounted to very much as it is, but I have done better than I would have done if the Lord had let me go the way I wanted to go.

Many of you are going to have very difficult experiences: disappointment, heartbreak, bereavement, defeat. You are going to be tested and tried. I just want you to know that if you don’t get what you think you ought to get, remember, God is the gardener here. He knows what He wants you to be. Submit yourselves to His will. Be worthy of His blessings, and you will get His blessings.

Hugh B. Brown, “The Currant Bush,” New Era, Apr. 2001, 12
See also his talk: "God is the Gardener"

Mere Christianity

So I am reading Mere Christianity right now by my favorite author CS Lewis and I wanted to share some quotes/thoughts on the reading and write some other good quotes I've heard recently. They're kinda mixed in cuz usually I just text them to myself so I dunno which is which haha :D
Enjoy!

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning then to go forward does not get you any nearer, If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that cease the man who turns back the soonest is the most progressive man. We have all seen this in arithmetic. When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start again, the faster i shall get on. There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake. a And I think if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistake. we are on the wrong road. And if that is so, we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on. 28-29

Progress is not only changing, but changing for the better

When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more and if they are your enemies then you are under orders to pray for them. that is one of the rules common in the house.

If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do not have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain ant least some hint of the truth.

But, of course, being a Christian does not mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic- there is only one right answ2er to a sum, and all other answers are wrong; but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others.

There is no sense in asking the multiplication table to let you off when you do syour sums wrong, You are bound to get the wrong answer. And it is no use either saying that if there is a God of that sort - an impersonal absolute goodness - then you do not like Him and are not going to bother about Him. For the trouble is that one part of you is on His side and really agrees with his disapproval of human greed and trickery and exploitation. You may want Him to make an exception in your own case, to let you off this one time; but you know at the bottom that unless the power behind the world really and unalterably detest that sort of behavior, then He cannot be good.

On the other hand, we know that if there does not exist na absolute goodness it must hate most of what we do,. this is the terrible fix we are in. If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. BUt if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow. We cannot do without it, and we cannot do with it.

Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger - according to the way you react to it. and we have reacted the wrong way.

Selfishness has never been admired.

You can think of all actions as keys on the piano. all are right or wrong at one time or another.

You cannot be more right or wrong than another unless there is a true Right and Wrong.

In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth - only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.

Your religion is not the only good one. There are truths in all of them. Find them.

(speaking of death) The pain you feel now was once balanced by someone's joy when that baby was born.

He had all the attributes of a man, but seemed to be something greater.

Life is what happens to us when we are making other plans

Goodness is always itself. Badness is only spoiled goodness; that is why the devil is the fallen angel.

In fact, it needs a good man to repent. and here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repend: only a godo person can repend perfectly. The worlse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectlky would be a perfect person - and he woudl not need it.

To what will you look for if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?

Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts. (So I gotta add myself, are you a muscle or an appendix? haha)

God is going to invade, all right... It will be too then to choose your side. There is no use saying you chose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not.
Now today, this moment, is our chance to chose the right side,. God is holding back to give us that chance, It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.

A Conscience is like a moral machine - if you don't use it properly it will break.

The human race is like an orchestra - there are two ways of erring. One is when human individuals drift apart from one another. The other is when things go wrong inside the individual.

We are to have a child's heart, but a grown ups head.

People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.

There is no ending that is not also a beginning.

Happy makes the world go around.

The best thing to do behind someone's back is pat it.

If your heart can perceive it and your mind can believe it, then your hands can achieve it.

Don't dream your life, life your dreams.

The Platinum Rule : treat others as they should be treated as sons and daughters of God.

Good people know about good and evil. Bad people don't know a whole lot about either.

You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you ar sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.

A real desire to believe all the good you can of others and to make others and comfortable as you can will solve the most problems

When people break the rule of propriety current in their own time and place, if they do so in order to excite lust in themselves or other, then they are offending against chastitty. But if they break it through ignorance or carelessness they are guilty only of bad manners. When, as often happens, they break it defiantly in order to shock or embarrass others, they are not necessarily being unchaste, but they are being uncharitable: for it is uncharitable to take pleasure in making other people uncomfortable.

Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again.

A cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither.

• These are from a book I had to read in school about a Native American boy.

The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know.

It's not weather you win or lose, it's how you play the game.

The quality of aman's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.

"I suppose it hasd something to do with confidence. I mean, I'd always been the lowest Indian on the reservation totem pole - I wasn't expected to be good so I wasn't. But in Rearden, my coach adn the otehr players wanted me to be good. They needed me to be good. They expected me to be good. and so aI became good
I wanted to live up to expecations.
I guess that's what it comes down to.
The power of expectations.
As they expected mroe of me, I expected more of myself, and it just grew and grew until I was scoring twelve points a game - AS A FRESHMAN. It was crazy"

• Other random good quotes

He doesn't just cleanse us, He changes us.

Know, be, DO!

It's not self confidence - but confidence in God.

Sometimes the best things in life are so simple, but they're the hardest to understand.

What do we do with our testimony if we can't share it with others?

• Conference

Discipleship is a journey, not a spectator sport.

This is a race of endurance.

It's worth it!

His warmth is as the sunshine at midday :D

Making Christ the center of our life is what will make us victorious

Be optimistic.

The future is as bright as our faith.

You can't be a lifesaver if you look like all the other swimmers on the beach.

We are all entitled to our crown - we are princess and princesses of a Heavenly King :D

Our lives depend upon the decisions that we make - our decisions determine our destiny.

A successful person is someone who can kneel down at night say Lord, this is what I did today, I did my best. Help me do better tomorrow.

We are literally saviors when we do missionary work.

• More quotes from institute and such

Don't worry about who you are or who you're with - Do the Lord's work. -Stolen from Mike's notebook haha

Nothing trumps the spirity.

Jesus was an outward turner. He turned to others when he was in trouble.

When you dig a pit for your neighbor, you usually fall in

A man with a weakness is a man you can make money from. A man with a weakness is a man Satan can make sin.

The more evil a people become, the more they associate cowardace with bravery.

Heavenly Father only does things for our good.

You must be willing to act on the revelation you recieve, otherwise don't ask for it.

Welp... there's a lot of stuff I may elaborate on later. But I'm way sick of doing this even though it makes me happy and stuff.. I'm just sick of sitting here.

Love you all!

Everything happens for a reason

So
Recently some things have happened
that I never woulda seen coming
I still can't believe it's all real
I am so blessed
I love life

Oh ya, ladies and gentlemen, this is Mike

Songs of the moment

Child of Light
Mindy Gledhill

Do you ever wonder who you are?
Do you ever wonder as you stare into the stars?
Where you began and how you got this far,from home.
Have you ever walked along the shore?
Have you ever seen the water dancing back and forth?
Did you look inside to see if there was more, to life.

Chorus
Well, there's a dream taking wing.
There's a voice that wants to sing.
Even in the deepest, darkest night.
The torch is raised to the sky, there are hands that hold it high.
You were born to keep it burning bright.
You were made to fly.
You were meant to shine.
Child of light.

You will never ever stand alone.
You were never called to bare the burdens on your own.
Where there is fear, love will take control, and lead you on.


There's a dream taking wing.
There's a voice that wants to sing.
Even in the deepest darkest night.
The torch is raised to the sky, and there are hands that hold it high.
You were born to keep it burning bright.
You were made to fly.
You were meant to shine.
Child of light.

So this song came on on my way down to try outs, and I've always loved this entire CD, but it just made me feel so peaceful. I knew that whatever was supposed to happen would happen and I'm just so relieved with everything that did! He knows what he's doing!


Never Saw Blue
Hayley Westinraw

Today we took a walk up the street
And picked a flower and climbed the hill
Above the lake

And secret thoughts were said aloud
We watched the faces in the clouds
Until the clouds had blown away

And were we ever somewhere else
You know, it's hard to say

And I never saw blue like that before
Across the sky
Around the world
You've given me all you have and more
And no one else has ever shown me how
To see the world the way I see it now
Oh, I, I never saw blue like that

I can't believe a month ago
I was alone, I didn't know you
I hadn't seen or heard you're name
And even now, I'm so amazed
It's like a dream, It's like a rainbow, it's like the rain

And somethings are the way they are
And words just can't explain

Cause I never saw blue like that before
Across the sky
Around the world
You've given me all you have and more
And no one else has ever shown me how
To see the world the way I see it now
Oh, I, I never saw blue like that before

And it feels like now,
And it feels always,
And it feels like coming home

I never saw blue like that before
Across the sky
Around the world
You've given me all you have and more
And no one else has ever shown me how
To see the world the way I see it now
Oh, I, I never saw blue like that before

Oh, I, I never saw blue like that

This song is gorgeous. I want to dance to it!