But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love

I figured I should grace my blog with the presence of another post! Yay! I just have a little extra time because I guess the volleyball isn't practicing today. I had a really good weekend though for the most part. Friday night I met up with some sisters from my mission and had a fun time reminiscing about the Philippines and talking about all the things that we miss from there. It was so much fun! Then saturday I spent some time with the cheerleaders at a performance they had at the gymnastics meet. That was pretty cool too. Then I met up with a sister that I taught at the MTC who came home early because of sickness. We had a nice long talk it was awesome! She's doing really well and hopefully will get back out there soon! Sunday was good with church and I caught up a little with a friend too. I had a great visiting teaching appointment that just got me so excited for the scriptures and the gospel and serving more. This morning was the best though. I got to the training room and worked out for a bit then got stuff ready for practice. I sat down to read my e-mail and got the best email from 2 elders I taught in the MTC. Apparently they are companions again and are zone leaders. To make a long story short they told me that they found a sister that I taught and saw get baptized in my last area. I hadn't heard from her since I came home and I heard that her family had gone inactive. But she's been going to church for the past month and the elders have been helping her! I love it! I just started to cry because I can't think of 2 elders that I'd rather have helping someone I taught and love in the Philippines! It's such a small world and these 2 elders are not even serving in my mission! They even sent me pictures to prove that they know her and scanned pictures of some pictures she has of me in her photo album! I took the moment to kneel down in prayer and thank my Heavenly Father for watching over the people I love in the Philippines. I was astonished at the love that our Heavenly Father has for us and for everyone around us. I thanked Him for answering my many prayers on peoples' behalf and for reminding me that He truly does listen to my prayers! Yesterday visiting teaching I was testifying to the sister who was having a hard time that God does listen to and answer her prayers and sometimes He just requires a little bit of patience but that she will see that answer happen and will understand why she is having the experiences that she is having. While I was testifying and teaching and talking to her I was thinking to myself a little bit...I was thinking "Do I really believe this?" Because lately I've been terrible with my prayers and have started to lose a little bit of hope and patience. I kept telling myself that of course I believe it but I just needed a reminder. And of course this morning I sure got one! Wow! I just can't explain in words how I feel right now. I don't know if the young woman will continue and stay active or not but I sure do hope so but all I know is that it's by the small means that the Lord confounds the wise and that if we are faithful and diligent He will encircle us in His arms of love. The gospel is so amazing! Well I could keep talking forever about this. I just felt I should share this.

Apparently I've been overdue for a new post. My bad. It's been a busy past 6 months or so haha. I started working with the cheerleaders back in August and have really loved it. I've had enough to do to keep me busy but not too busy. I've learned a lot about working with others and helping others. I'll admit when I first started I was a little worried. I wasn't sure what to expect since after all they are all cheerleaders haha. But I just started out the season getting to know all of them and all of the cosmos and have done great ever since. I've truly learned to love them all and to seriously appreciate them for the hard work that they put into their sport. They really do do some amazing things! The bonus is that I got to go to all the home football games and I've been going to all the home women's and men's basketball games. Tomorrow night's game is going to be intense!! My testimony has been strengthened about the worth of the soul. I have felt so much the Lord's love for the cheerleaders in many ways. I could share numerous experiences about chats that I've had with them and things that I've learned. The point is that I've been having a great time so far and a good attitude truly does go a long way! We are traveling to CA for their nationals competition the end of February so i'm excited for that. We get to go to Disneyland too! :) The next week after that we will travel to the MWC tournament in Vegas. That'll be a lot of fun too. So yeah that's the update with work. I'm currently looking for jobs for this fall since I'm graduating soon. I've applied for 4 jobs so far but the job market isn't that great I guess. I'm hoping that more jobs open up. It's hard to find some jobs because a lot of times they don't get posted online so I might not hear about them.

School went well last semester. I did well in all my classes and worked like crazy on my thesis. I ended up writing my whole prospectus in a couple of months and proposed my thesis the end of november. So now I'm just waiting for the IRB to approve my research so I can get started! Apparently it can take a long time sometimes. So I can't do anything with my thesis right now which is really frustrating! We are shooting to get started in february sometime. I'm knocking on wood though because I really need to get it done by june so I can graduate by august and get a job! We'll see! This semester I only have 2 classes for my major since I'm done with all the other classes so I'm not too busy with school. I'm taking a weight lifting class and racquetball class so I've been filling up my free time with a lot of working out and such. The first week of school I had so much free time but I got an extra assignment to help out with the women's volleyball team since their athletic trainer is supposed to be busy with track this semester. So far I just show up to practice and don't do much. So it gets a little boring at times. But it gives me more to do with my time. They are in their off season so right now their workouts are really easy.

Well that's pretty much it! Can't think of anything else going on! It was a great Christmas break and for the first time in a really long time I absolutely did not want to leave Cali and start school again. Normally I'm ready for school but I seriously am tired of it now and so ready to be done and graduated and out of Provo and out in the real world! So life is good but I'm ready to move on to the next phase of my life. I'm just hoping I get my thesis stuff done soon! I'll try to add more as I remember things.