Christmas

Sometimes it just hits you, what is really important.  You realize as you are surrounded by torn and crinkled wrapping paper that all that money spent on Christmas presents that even after all the hours spent meticulously wrapping box after box none of this means a thing. Sure, your family and friends love you but receiving and even giving are not the reason for the holiday. Even though major amounts of commercialism have managed to sneak into this most sacred holiday the reason is still the birth of our Savior. I am guilty of being swept casually into the wave of consumerism that ebbs and flows through the world this time of year and that fact I will never deny.  But something special happened this year.  I amongst the many gifts I was ever grateful to receive this year I got two wonderful gifts, or treasures. The first is a simple silver necklace in the shape of a tear drop upon which an artist carefully replicated my fathers handwriting, a simple send off at the end of a letter that is now immortalized for me to wear close to my heart. A treasure, not just a gift. Second was a painting I have been admiring since I returned home from Africa.  I am a lover of art and I find pictures of my Savior to be specifically compelling.  In this painting Christ is holding a small African child. Again, not just a gift but a treasure.

Even though Christmas is over I hope we all remember why we celebrate and we carry that spirit throughout the next year.

Merry Christmas.

3 Down Who Knows How Many More to Go

Meet Hank.

As of today Hank has gotten me through 3 finals weeks. He is covered in mascara stains, has a few holes and even a spot that was melted by a flat iron.
This week not only did Hank get me through all 4 of my tests he also got me through:
3 all nighters
2 nervous break downs
14 hours of crying
8 showers to get warm
32 hours in the library
10 rounds of ibuprofen
6 skipped meals
4 McDonald's runs and
lots of Diet Coke

All I can say is I am so glad this week and this semester is over.

Angels

Did you know that there are Angels everywhere? They are watching out for us, guiding us, and still loving us from the other side of the veil.
Genesis 25:8 says:
 8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good ^aold age, an old man, and full of years; and was ^bgathered to his people.
Abraham was "gathered to his people" or his family. 

"The spirits of the just are exalted to a greater and more glorious work... Enveloped in the flaming fire, they are not far from us, and know and understand our thoughts, feelings, and motions, and are often pained there with."

-Joseph Smith

The spirits of our loved ones past, present, and future, are with us, they walk beside us, they know our thoughts, our pains and our emotions.  They guide others to help us, they comfort us, they help direct us in paths of righteousness.

Over the past few years I have watched the hand of the Lord in my life, the life of my friends and family and I have come to the conclusion that our loved ones never really leave us.  They stay with us.  The veil is so so very thin. I have watched random acts of kindness that prove that we can be earthly angles to those around us.  We can be the hand by which our father or the spirits of our ancestors help others.

I am so blessed to have many angles looking out for me. My dad, my grandma, my aunt Jenni, and my friends Paige and Tiffany.

D&C 42

 45 Thou shalt ^alive together in ^blove, insomuch that thou shalt^cweep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those that have not ^dhope of a glorious resurrection.

 46 And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not^ataste of ^bdeath, for it shall be ^csweet unto them;