Trials = Happiness

I had one of the best weeks of my life. Taking an 18 credit load your last semester of school isn't the brightest thing to do, I don't recommend it :) But I have learned, through prayer and sincere asking, that if I do all I can the Lord will take care of the rest. I have been so overwhelmed these last few days with the love of my Father in Heaven. He has blessed me tremendously and I cannot thank him enough.

Wednesday night, when I found out I did the wrong accounting assignment, I was really depressed and upset. Before I went to bed that night, I prayed and asked for comfort. I decided before I went to sleep that night, that I was going to wake up in the morning and be happy, no matter what. And that's exactly what I did. I got up early Thursday morning and went to the library to work on the correct accounting assignment that was due that day by 2:00 pm. While I was working on my assignment, I kept a prayer in my heart that I would receive help and be able to finish before the deadline. After spending about 2 hours on the assignment, my Professor, Brother Kimball, walked in the library. You almost NEVER see teachers in the library. He was with another student and a few minutes later, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see it was him standing behind me. He asked me what I was working on and when I told him it was his assignment he sat down with me and helped me for an entire hour. I was able to finish the assignment and turn it in by 2. Ironic?

I was on campus that day until 6:30 pm. It was a long day and I was tired and hungry. I came home and saw a piece of mail for me sitting on the kitchen table. I recognized it was my Dad's handwriting on the letter. My first thought was, 'Oh cool, Dad sent me $$$!!' I opened the envelope and pulled out a letter, which read:

"LINDSAY ALOHA, As part of the lesson in Priesthood today we were asked to write a letter to anyone we wanted and I thought of you..." Tears filled my eyes as I went on to read about how much my Dad loves me and how proud he is of me. It was the most perfect, sweet, loving letter I have received from my Father and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time. Ironic?

I felt like my prayers were answered and that the Savior let me know through other people how much I am loved and cared for. I wasn't sad anymore. I was amazed and truly appreciative for what happened to me all within 24 hours. I was instantly comforted. I don't think it's ironic that my teacher happened to walk in the library that morning or that I received a letter from my Dad on the exact day I needed it. I love the Lord.

Saturday was my roommate Katie's birthday. She turned 20! I made her a cake and Sumbel, Rachael, and I took Katie to see a movie that she really wanted to see. We saw "The Secret Life of Bees". I highly recommend it. Very touching story. Apparently there was a book written that Katie had read several years ago, so she wanted to see the movie since she had read the book. I didn't read the book and liked it. It has Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, and Alicia Keys in it. The main character is a young white girl, but I do not know her name. Go see it!
Katie's boyfriend, Bancha from Thailand, came over that night and made her a delicious dinner. He made so much food, he invited us to eat as well! Can you say YUM?! He is a really good cook and I surprisingly like Thai food. I had 2 servings, I felt selfish, but it was so good I wanted more.

20 candles for the birthday girl!

Today is Sunday and it was a good day. Bishop Ram asked me and a few other people who are graduating or leaving to bear our testimonies during sacrament meeting today. Our names were even in the program. I didn't know what I was going to say and then I remembered my Dad's letter. I bore testimony of the power of prayer and how grateful I am for the chance I had to attend BYU Hawaii. I don't bear my testimony often because I usually end up crying, and I did, but it was a good testimony. I mentioned how I have a count down until graduation, and now that it is so close, I don't want to leave.

Then I taught Gospel Doctrine today and bribed everyone with candy for participation. The trick? Don't tell them what the treat is ahead of time. I just said, 'You will be rewarded for your participation' and they laughed. My lesson was on the gathering of Israel and establishing Zion. So not really an easy topic to create a class discussion where people can share experiences. I handed out quotes that I had typed up and put pictures on the board and brought objects to class with me: a Book of Mormon, a picture of Joseph Smith, a picture of a man being baptized, a missionary name tag, and a picture of my family. I felt like I was teaching primary! Overall, the lesson went really well. There are 3 older couple missionaries in my ward and they all love me. That's typical when it comes to me. One of them, Sister Florence, wants to set me up with a guy from her ward back home in Idaho. Then her husband, Elder Florence, told me this "guy" was married before, but for only a month and then divorced. I wasn't too excited about the whole thing. When Elder Florence told her that he told me, she was not happy and looked at me and said, "He never commenced his marriage. They were only married for a month and his wife was bipolar and had mental issues." OOOOKKKAY! Gotta love the Florences. They really are cool people.

Anyway, I asked at the end of my lesson what our responsibility is as members of the Church in the gathering of Israel. Missionary work! I asked for experiences where someone shared the gospel with another and amazingly, 3 people told good stories. There was a little time left, so I shared my story about my friend Jenny. A girl I met in the 5th grade, who came to 8:00 church with my family, girl's camp, firesides, mutual, you name it, she was there. Finally, at the age of 19, ten years after meeting her, she asked to hear the missionary discussions. My Dad baptized her and confirmed her, and recently, she was sealed in the Arizona Temple and she asked my Dad to be a witness. I was crying and so were other people in the room. You could feel the Spirit, it was great.
After the lesson, many people came up to me and thanked me. I think mostly for the candy, but it seemed they enjoyed it and it made me happy. A girl from Sweden came up to me and said, "You gave me hope because I have a lot of friends back home that are not members and I want so badly for them to join the Church." I told her to not give up and to keep being their friend.

Then I went to an amazing fireside tonight and heard 2 wonderful speakers, Sherri Dew and Wendy Nelson (Elder Richard M. Nelson's wife). Sherri Dew is one powerful speaker. I'm really surprised she never married, she seems like such an awesome person. Sister Dew's talk was centered on having trust in the Lord and his prophets and keeping the spirit with you at all times. She addressed President Hinckley's talk given in the October 1998 General Conference Session where President Hinckley spoke at the pulpit the very things that are happening today with our economy. It was amazing how she correlated his talk with headlines in the most recent newspapers. It was almost as if President Hinckley was talking in those headlines. What did he say? "Stay out of debt because you cannot trust the economy." -President Hinckley. Amazing that 10 years ago, he told us something that is now happening today. The Lord cares about us and warns us of important things like this through his servants.

Sister Dew also talked about how she was on a plane in September of this year flying from New York to Salt Lake and about half way through the flight a man, two rows in front of her, stood up and collapsed. The man had no pulse and the flight attendants were asking for any nurses or doctors on board. Luckily, there were 3 nurses on board and they were able to save his life and insert an IV in him. Sister Dew said, "I didn't even know they had stuff like that on airplanes, did you?" We laughed. She said the plane stopped in St. Louis so the man could be rushed to a hospital. She said it was very hot in St. Louis, the air conditioning was not working well on the plane, the plane had ran out of food and drinks and they sat on the runway for hours before taking off. But she said, "There were about 150 people on board, and in an instance they were all genuinely concerned for this man and not ONE PERSON complained about the heat, no food or drinks, or the wait. It was amazing how every single person was concerned for a man they didn't even know. People had missed their connections in Salt Lake, I was missing a ton of meetings, and no one complained." I thought that was cool. She said a 4 1/2 hour flight turned into being an 8 1/2 hour flight and she could have flown from New York to England in that time frame :) She spoke for a good 45 minutes and had lots of neat stories and experiences, but one that she mentioned really touched me. She was talking about how women should dress appropriately and not wear anything too tight, revealing, too short, too anything! She said a good friend of hers is also really good friends with President Eyring and his wife. They went to a play and her friend noticed that President Eyring kept his eyes on his wife for most of the play. When the play was over, the friend mentioned to President Eyring that he didn't watch most of the play and President Eyring said, "There were people who were dressed inappropriately and I'd rather stare at my beautiful wife." Talk about someone who does not want to offend the spirit and have it with him at all times. In closing she said, "Those who walk too close to the line eventually cross it." Her talk was incredible.

Sister Nelson's talk was about not offending the spirit, "Not Even Once". She told a funny story about her and Elder Nelson, whom she married April 6, 2006. She said they went to Africa together earlier this year and went on a safari jungle tour where they saw real wild life, elephants and leopards, etc. She said as they came to a stop there was a leopard standing so close to their jeep, she could have reached out and patted it on the head. She said, "I was tempted to touch it and then I thought, that would be the first and last time I would ever be able to touch a leopard...the first, to touch it, and the second, my hand would be eaten." Then she said that Elder Nelson was really nervous at how close the leopard was to them and she said, " Elder Nelson was so scared and worried when the leopard was on MY SIDE of the jeep and I said to him, 'Honey, he's on my side, what are you so scared about?' " It was so cute the way she told the story and the congregation laughed! I really want to do a safari jungle tour in Africa! That would be so cool! She said the very next day, they were told one of their employees was attacked by a leopard and was killed. She said, "This is not some kind of ride like they have a Disneyland, this is real life people." She stated, "Tell yourself, not even once will I break the Word of Wisdom, not even once will I lie, cheat, or steal, not even once will I offend the spirit, not even once will I watch or continue reading something when I know it is inappropriate." Not even once.

Told you. I had the best week of my life.