#aggieblue

Well I did it! I attended my first big college thing!  I went to this amazing leadership conference called Aggie Blue!  It was so much fun.  Not only did I get to meet some amazing people but I learned some amazing things as well.
Here is some of my favorite things I learned...
~"We are all given talents and abilities and 24 hours in a day.  It is up to us to use them" -Tyler Tolson
~we each have our own personal "brand" or how people see us.  Personal branding leads to relationships, trust, mutual success, and follower loyalty
~"Power is always at play in relationships" -Matthew L. Sanders
~"The people closest to you are the ones you can hurt the most.  BE CAREFUL!" -Sanders
~Best way to increase power (influence) is one on one
~the question if I am the 2/10 who enjoy what I am doing
~the four principles to succeed are Preparation Investment Persistence and Execution
~"Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of odds against them" -Robert Jawik
~"if you are not moving forward you are moving backwards" -Chinese Saying
~expectations are what we live up to, those who see things different defy expectations and create their own expectations and change the world!


Here are some of the lovely people I met the last two days

Trent and his girls

Hanging out during service

some of my group

We weeded for service, like, a lot of weeds

Christian who claims he isn't very good at the piano and then goes up there and whips out some amazing piece I could only dream of playing

the ENTIRE group

He was really good at blowing up balloons

our attempt and making a tower at balloons (well the beginning of our attempt)

Over all I loved my two days at Aggie Blue! I had so much fun and learned so much! Oh and I got a twitter! Follow me! @MKasteler

one final word of advice from Aggie Blue...

Whatever you do from here on out, change the world

A New Chapter

In case you didn't notice I just recently changed a lot about my blog, the design and title!  There is a reason for this.  Today I moved out.  For 12 years I have lived in the same house, but now I am no longer living there.  I am going to college at Utah State University and I am hoping to study nursing.  This is a new chapter in my life so I felt it fitting to change my blog a little bit as well.

The new name of my blog is "light to shine"  I chose this as my new blog title because I think that we all have so much to offer the world.  We each have our own light and it is our job to shine!  That is my new goal! I, just like all of you, have amazing potential.  Now is the perfect time to realize my potential and become the woman I aspire to become.  Now is my time to let my light shine.  That is the reason behind my new blog title.

Not only am I blogging about the changes to my blog but I also wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who helped me get to this point.  Not too long ago I didn't believe in my individual light.  However, thanks to some very wonderful people I began to realize that light, the light in all of us.  I first off want to thank my friends who have been there for me for the last few years and have dealt with all my moments of self discovery and also my moments of doubt.  I would also like to extend my gratitude towards those who have been introduced into my life recently, believe it or not you still made a huge difference in my life.  This past year has been the hardest year of my life, but at the same time it was one of the best years of my life.  Through great trial comes great blessings.  Thank you all who have been such great friends, you helped contribute to the many blessings I have received.

Now is the moment that I have been dreading the most about this post.  In my mind, and on the screen, I have written this many times.  Now is the time that I say goodbye to you all.  The future lies ahead of us and I am so excited to see what it brings.  If my future and yours end up not colliding this is my goodbye to you.  I am so lucky to have known each of you in my life.  I do hope that years down the road we can reconnect and talk just like old times.  But if that day never comes, know that I love you all! Words cannot express the amount of respect and love I have for each of you, thank you for letting me get to know and associate with you.

Now is the time to turn the page in my life, a new chapter is beginning, one full of amazing opportunities here at Utah State.  I am running to meet it....

My favorite things

So I am moving out on Saturday, I will be living with 5 girls I have never met before.... I was thinking, well they don't know anything about me! Well, and some of you might not either... So I decided that (despite a previous post of little known facts about me) I would do a post of my favorite things!

diet coke
Criminal Minds
The Mentalist
spell check
salads
cooking
baking
taking pictures
country music
buying, well anything!
sewing
shoes
boys
playing piano
day dreaming
reading
washing my car
playing with little kids
going to the temple
hanging out with good friends
Taylor Swift!

Speaking of which! Check out her new song!

uh bunch of gurls in the woods

Well! I went to Girls Camp! And it was quite the experience to say the least!

so here's the low down, picture style!

So started out early Monday morning finding out that this lovely young lad would be accompanying us as one of our priesthood leaders for the night. Just the idea that he is old enough to do that made me feel too old for camp (after all I am 18 now;) )

After hours of pouring rain we finally started to dry out! This is just the start of the fun and we were looking forward to a marvelous week.

yet again drying out after the rain... with plastic ponchos in the pockets of our totally awesome iBelieve sweatshirts!

this is all the LITES (YCL) getting ready to greet the incoming wards Tuesday morning 

This is us again.... probably the only picture with all the LITES in it

we decided to have a little fun with the masks.... between Kellie's glasses and "over botoxed" face, to Elizabeth's mustache and then my overalls and "buck teeth" we had some good times playing some "harmless" practical jokes on some of the unsuspecting wards ;)

Then I got sick.... like really sick.... the cute leaders decided to wash my hair after I had thrown up like 20 times... this was no small task considering we had no warm water.... so the boiled some for me.  And yes this picture was taken at like midnight

Overall camp was great! I am so happy that Kellie asked me to come with the Stake.  I did end up going home Tuesday night since I was so sick.  But I really did learn a lot the few days I was up at camp and had many amazing experiences. That is why my testimony grew so much.  I was also so blessed to be able to return to camp Thursday night for testimony night.  I am so blessed to have a testimony of the gospel.  We did this thing at camp called an "iBelieve Declaration" here's mine:

I believe in believing.  I believe that believing is the first step to knowing.  It took me a long time to get past my first believes into my first knows.  When I finally decided to stop relying on other peoples testimonies to get me through life it was then that I prayed to know for my self.  And I got an answer! I know that the church is true! I know that we have prophets on the earth today who help guide us and protect us.  I know the receive inspiration from God.  I know that our Heavenly Father loves us.  I know that Christ suffered for us on the Cross.  I know WITHOUT A DOUBT that families are forever.  I know that Joseph Smith restored the gospel to the earth and that the Book of Mormon was translated by the power of God.  I know that the Bible is also a work of God.  I know that I am a daughter of a God who loves me and understands my worth.  I know that He will also answer my prayers.  I know that the tender mercies of the Lord are all around me.  I know who I am and where I am going. I know without a doubt that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church!