"Cousin Sydni"

I've moved to Idaho!

I'm living with my aunt and uncle and their three sweet and super cute kids.

I get to play nanny a lot.

Here's why it's the best job ever:

i love sister diaz!

she got my package and i am really excited about it!

 

Today I bought a car!

Today I bought a car!

Did I mention that I paid for it? with real money? 

.. and that I paid for my own car insurance for the first time ever?

(..which is really expensive..)

....and now I am headed to the tire store to get this "new" car fixed up?

So far, I'm not totally loving this whole being a responsible adult things.

But.. what can you do...

1.25.14

.............

goodbye my dear des moines!

In two hours, I will be on a plane headed for Idaho.



Not going to lie, it's been a weird six weeks for me in Des Moines..

..but,
regardless..

I'm going to miss Iowa!

With some adventures in between, I have been here for six years. Six years! That's the longest I've ever been in one place in my entire life.



I have met some AMAZING PEOPLE,

Ecuador Archives: Tena [The Amazon Rain Forest]

[not the best pictures ever.. but they're all I have!]

[cerca Spring 2013]

 

1.22.15

have you heard??

In the late '90s, I spent many nights curling up on the couch, in fear and in awe, as I watched the X-Files with my dad at 10 pm while I was supposed to be sleeping.

To this day, the X-Files is still my favorite TV show.

...and today, I heard that IT IS [probably..maybe..] COMING BACK!!

.......

1.19.15

"..the Lord has called you to succeed."

[This is Part Two to my blog post "Failure".]

There is a quote I wrote on the first page of my Preach My Gospel.

It is a quote very dear to my heart.

Richard G. Scott spoke in the Mexico MTC the summer of 2014. I was not there, but many of my companions were. Elder Scott gave his talk. He sat down. Right before the close of the meeting, though, he stood up again.

He said he felt inspired to say:

"Remember, the Lord has called you to succeed, not to fail. Sometimes it may seem terribly hard, but He wants you to grow. He will not abandon you. He inspired your call. He knows who you are. He knows what you need. He knows what He wants you to become and this mission experience is an opportunity He has given you to discover things about yourself you never knew you had, strength beyond what you felt you had; and the capacity to love and serve which will sustain you the rest of your life. Remember, you have been called and He will fit the task to your capabilities. I testify in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

-Richard G. Scott

This quote got me through many hard days on my mission.

I always thought that if I came home early, it would haunt me. I thought it would be a permanent reminder that I failed.

I read it again today, for the first time since I've been home. I did not feel like I failed. In fact, it reaffirmed to me that I succeeded. I know that the Lord inspired my call as a missionary. He called me to succeed, knowing that I would serve a five month mission. He gave me this particular learning opportunity -- of depression, of a five month mission -- for me "to discover things about [my]self [I] never knew [I] had, strength beyond what [I] felt [I] had; and the capacity to love and serve which will sustain [me] the rest of [my] life."

"He will not abandon [me]. He inspired [my] call. He knows who [I am]. He knows what [I] need. He knows what He wants [me] to become.."

Our life on earth is a building block, a learning experience for eternity to come. I know that my Savior and our Heavenly Father love me dearly. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for my life that will teach me (sometimes the hard way) the things I need to know to be the best possible version of myself.

I am grateful for my mission experience. I learned things on my mission and coming home from my mission that I couldn't have learned any other way.

I am especially grateful that I have a loving Heavenly Father who is mindful of me, and the knowledge that He has called me to succeed.

D&C 6:36 [my mission scripture, the Lord speaking]: Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

Helaman 5:12: And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless woe, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Salk Lake City, UT

1.16.15

hiking the Hollywood sign (part three)

part one here
part two here

Winter Quarters Temple

John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

a real love story.

I like a good chick flick from time to time...

[okay.. I'm understating things here..

I love a good chick flick]

One of my favorite chick flicks is The Notebook.

Did you know it's completely made up?
The Notebook taught me that real love is passionate and pain comes with the territory. It taught me that real love sweeps you off your feet and you can never recover from  it.

......

I also adore Pride and Prejudice.

That's made up too!

Pride and Prejudice taught me that if I wait long enough a rich, attractive, socially awkward but ridiculously sweet Mr. Darcy will come into my life.

.......

..and, something more modern and less chick-flicky.. I love the Hunger Games as well!

...and guess what..

The Hunger Games taught me that even if you tell him to go away fifty million times, if he really loves you he will love you until you love him back.

........

I love a good chick flick, but sometimes I get really tired of fake "true love" stories.

From watching Cinderella find her Prince Charming in grade school to seeing the latest pop-culture movie as a twenty-one-year-old, I have been bombarded with what "real love" is really like.




The other day I read an article, written from a husband's perspective of his wife's struggle with mental illness.

It's called:

"My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward"
by Mark Lukach

"Giulia and I fell in love effortlessly, in our carefree teens. We’ve now loved each other desperately, through psychosis. At our wedding we promised this to each other: to love each other and stick together in good times and in bad. In hindsight, we also should have promised to love each other when life is normal. It’s those normal days, now transformed by crisis, that have strained our marriage most. I realize no mad map is going to keep Giulia out of the hospital, nor prevent us from fighting over her care. But the faith required to try to plan a life together feels good and grounding. I’m still willing to do almost anything to make Giulia smile."

Thank you, Mark and Guiliana Lukach, for telling a real love story.