So tomorrow I’ll be posting my whole huge 2012 post about all the memories and things. So today I just wanted to give a short shout out to my best friend in the whole world. He gave his farewell talk today. And he did awesome! He is going to be one amazing missionary. I’m happy I got to spend my last Sunday of 2012 with him and his family and all our friends. Saying goodbye is going to be hard, but after hearing how much he loves the Gospel and how much he wants to share it, I couldn’t be more happy for him to go. I can’t think of a single thing I would rather have him do for the next two years. Love ya Randy, you’re going to be the best missionary in the universe.

I should mention these are NOT from the farewell…they’re from the Eagle Court of Honor that happened later that night. I wasn’t thinking straight after the farewell (imagine that!) and didn’t get pictures. BUT yay for Randy! Also…nice photobomb Sam!

Up until last night, it had been nearly six months since I’ve had Chinese food. Thankfully my extended family had a post-Christmas gathering where buckets of Chinese food were involved. I used chopsticks and ate more chow mien and almond chicken than is sensible. And got to spend lots of time playing games with and reading to my cousins, whilst also conversing with the adults. Something about Chinese food brings people together. Maybe it’s the pulling food out of the same carton, maybe it’s the fortune cookies, or the really spicy curry. Whatever it is, I approve.

I haven’t blogged for almost a week (a travesty for me) and now there are so many things to talk about I don’t even know where to start! I have had a wonderful time being home for the holiday break, spending a lot of time with my mom while my sisters were at school and my dad was at work, and then spending time as a whole family too. I have been able to spend some time with Randy which is always wonderful, and his fun family too! There has been lots of shopping, a temple trip, a great date, seeing friends, and plenty of present wrapping. Then came Christmas Eve where I got to see all my extended family for dinner, after a delicious brunch with all my immediate family. And Randy did an excellent job with my present; two beautiful watches that I’ve been wanting, a cute puzzle, and a card that made me cry. Christmas held my dad reading a story that made us cry, singing a song, opening lots of presents, spending time with family, and a great dinner to finish it off.

I have been procrastinating writing, since there is so much to tell. So I guess I’ll just start at the beginning and slowly trudge through this post, and hopefully you’ll stick around to read the whole thing.

I have finished finals and have come back home! It is a wonderful feeling to be done. After finals were over I played and went to City Creek and to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. It was spectacular and my first weekend of being finals free was amazing. It was sad to leave my friends, some of which are leaving on missions and I might not see again. We had a party weekend saying goodbye, and it was perfect.

I have had a relaxing few days at home while my sisters are at school. I got to go shopping with my mom and go see the Hobbit with my family and Randy. And then today I went to Randy’s mom’s school. It made my heart hurt. They are the most wonderful little kids I’ve ever seen. They live in really rough situations, and are still so great. I feel bad because they don’t have the family life or the education that they deserve. It made me want to do something for them. We sang songs and passed out candy, but I want to have an impact on these kids and kids like them. My ideas of how to help kids like them are still in the works, but I just hope others are aware that yes, there are kids all over the world in hard situations. But there are too many kids in our own backyard that are on the edge of having a great life, or being on the streets like their parents.

One final thought:

Took my third final yesterday (yes it was the first day of finals week. See my earlier post for an explanation.)

One to go.

I am sad to be leaving all my friends, my cute FHE family who is disbanding next semester, my ward, my roomies. All of it. But I am very excited to be going home.

Last night at FHE we had a testimony meeting which was SO amazing. We have the best FHE brothers and our family is golden.

I’m not really sure what else to say. I’m not going to do my long drawn out post about this amazing semester until I’m actually leaving, and shouldn’t be studying!

I guess the main point of this post is that life is good, I love my mom and dad and my sisters and brother, I love the family I’ve made here, I love and miss my friends and family and I’m really excited to see them. This week is hard, but I have never felt more love and support from people, and I’ve never wanted to help and support others more than I do this week. Happy Finals week!! Also, I think I’ve decided that college is “the best of times, the worst of times….” and so on. Something my mom said about finals really stuck out to me. She said “finals are finite, you aren’t. They end, you don’t.” Thanks mom, you’re the best!

Happy week to you all!

So finals week is coming up. Tomorrow. Now technically speaking I’ve already taken two “finals” which were really just the last exam for those classes. Still stressful in their own way however. But now it’s Book of Mormon tomorrow and Biology whenever I can make myself actually go take it.

Today was wonderful and sad. We had our last ward prayer with our ward and I cried as Brett Brown and Devin my home teacher played the guitar and sang. Three of the six guys who I have come to regard as brothers (even though technically they’re Allison, Sarah and Lauren’s brothers…) bore their testimonies and made us all cry again. It’s hard to realize that I’m not only losing my absolute best friend, but also half of the other guy friends who I spend a lot of my time with. Good thing none of the girls are leaving (YET).

Anywho enough wallowing in self-pity.

Here’s my cute family. Our Christmas card picture is the bottom one. They are delightful. Have a wonderful finals week!!! Or if you’re in high school…a wonderful not finals week.

Today I had a beautiful moment. Well I had several of them.

One time on the Office Pam and Jim are about to get married and Pam tells Jim that they need to take mental pictures to remember everything. Ever since I saw that, I have been taking mental pictures so I will remember things. These mental pictures don’t just capture what everyone is wearing or what we’re doing, they capture my feeling. Which is better than a regular camera if you ask me. So today we (meaning Rachel, Sarah, Alli, Lauren, Randy, Gabe, Cade, Michael and me) were all crammed in the van, having successfully kidnapped Sarah and taken her to breakfast for her birthday. Music was playing and we were singing, driving up to the Y trail head to just look over the city for a minute before we holed ourselves up to study. And I looked around for a second. And took that mental picture. The mental picture of Cade making fun of how we sing, and Alli laughing so hard she was crying, and Rachel laying on Sarah because she was so tired, and Randy just laughing and driving as carefully as possible. Can I just say I love my friends, and this semester at BYU has been full of mental picture moments, moments where I capture one incredible feeling. The feeling of happiness.

Today we went to the temple. It was so wonderful. I took a test that I only feel so-so about (if I get an A- in that class I might cry) and Rachel had a bad day, so on the way to Book of Mormon we said it was a very good thing we were heading to the temple that afternoon. BOM was amazing as always, we all started tearing up a bit at the end even though we have Brother G again next semester. And then we went to the temple where the nice old man at the recommend desk asked us how we were doing, if we were doing good, to which Rach responded “yes” and then the man proceeded to explain how he knew we were doing good, but he wanted to know how we were. That threw Al for a loop. But she was having a bad day anyway so it’s understandable. It seemed like a funny conversation, and you readers probably have no idea what I’m rambling about anyway, but the point is that he said he knew we were doing good…as in we were doing good things and being good. And it made me want to make sure he was right. That I WAS doing good things. For others and for myself. So thank you sir, for reminding me that even though I’m busy and stressed, I can still be doing good.

On another note, after hearing we weren’t having the best day, Randy stopped by with some Starbucks hot chocolate for all of us. He’s a keeper 🙂

I am wearing red nail polish today. There have been seven moments today when I felt like that container of red nail polish. I wanted to spill out and stain the carpet and yell and scream and let the redness outside of the glass container. But I didn’t. I just looked at the red on my fingers and let that be enough. That’s enough polish outside the container for today.