Welp my district leaves tomorrow. Dang I'm going to miss them so much! This week hasn't been too bad. I didn't do so hot on my test but oh well. I know I studied hard for it. So I still feel good about it. This week I have a ton of homework and stuff to get done and I really need to work a lot on my literature review. I've been so slow with it! Ugh! Also I get a new district on wednesday! Thank goodness there are sisters! We'll see how things go. It's just always good to get a fresh start. My last district was super amazing though and so good at Tagalog that I don't know what I'm going to do. It's always tough because new districts tend to get compared to the previous one haha but it's okay. I'm excited and I'm gonna push them hard! And try not to fall off my chair their first day haha.....anyway here's a picture of my district that leaves tomorrow. Life is good! :)

A post finally

My bad for not posting. I didn't realize that my last post was almost 4 months ago. Life just keeps you busy I guess. For some reason I thought I posted not too long ago. Must've been somewhere else. Last semester is over and it ended fairly well. I do have to retake one of the classes next semester so that kinda sucks. But so is life. Christmas was fun being in San Diego and all with family. Especially when mom got on the DDR haha! But no it was really fun going to Disneyland. I really needed a vacation. I need another vacation already haha. So last semester turned out pretty well and my missionaries made some drastic changes and left the beginning of january. They were fun to teach. I'm teaching another district that is about to leave in about a week. Can't believe how quick time flies. They are a great district and work hard. I'll post a picture of my district that left a month or so ago. I'm really praying that the next district I get has sisters again because none of the other districts in the zone have sisters. If I don't get sisters then we will have like 50 elders. As much as I love the elders it's good to have sisters. School has been going okay this semester. It seems like I always have a test or homework or a quiz that I need to study for. I have 2 tests this week so I need to study hard. I think I have another one next week. I swear that one class has test after test after quiz. Wow! I'm trying to work on my thesis but my literature review has been very slow in making. I really need to crack down in it these next 2 weeks and just start writing. I've gotten a lot of the research done though. Not sure how to get it to be over 10 pages though wow. We'll see! Other than that nothing exciting is really going on. I have a friend who really wants to go back to the Philippines so I'm really considering taking a vacation this summer there. I've been trying to save up a lot of money for things. Work has been fairly hectic lately trying to help out the zone but I have really been feeling a lot of love for all the missionaries and teachers and honestly try my best everyday. Not everyday is good though. Welp I'm about to head off to eat dinner at Miriam and Jerry's so I'm excited for that! I'll try and update more next week on a couple experiences that I've had lately and my district that is about to leave and such. Life is good although a struggle sometimes! :)

Well things have been okay lately. Not much to report on. I'm actually doing pretty well in all my class except for one. Not sure how things will turn out in that class. I just keep praying for a miracle! I have a lot of writing to get done before Thanksgiving break and a group project to work on. Other than that though I don't have much to do before finals. I can't believe the semester is almost over! Oh and good news is that I found out I was supposed to get a tuition discount this semester so I went in and talked to them about it and they will give me one next semester! That will save me a lot of money! So I'm excited about that. My district right now is doing well. they are still trying to adjust but things will start to get better the next couple of weeks. They are all great missionaries. That's pretty much all I've got to report on! Sorry there is nothing more exciting going on in my life. Oh and it snowed for the first time yesterday. blah! I do not like the cold and am so not looking forward to the winter!

This past month has been crazy and busy. I was swamped with tests and a literature review so that consumed a lot of my time. Now I just have one more midterm tomorrow and I guess another one next week and just some more papers and presentations and then I'll be good for a while. I don't know I guess I just keep thinking I'll get a week off of school or something. But I'm going to get busy these next couple of days so I don't get behind like I did before. Anyway, things are going okay. School is going okay but I need to be doing better. The district that I have been teaching at the MTC just left last night. It was so tough to see them go. I miss them all so much. They worked hard and I literally saw miracles performed right before my eyes. It's just such an amazing experience to see and to be such a small part of the Lord's work. I'm grateful everyday that I can go to work and teach those missionaries. I don't get a break at all and will be getting a district tomorrow. So I've been busy trying to prepare for them to keep my mind off of the ones that just left. One elder however did have to stay behind. He had his tonsils removed last tuesday so he'll be here for another week until the doctor will clear him. He's a great elder and I've been trying to help him too. I know all the missionaries I taught will do amazing things. I just pray for their safety. Anyway, that's pretty much what has been going on as of late.
I have worked a little extra with covering a softball tournament at UVU and then last weekend working the high school volleyball state championships at UVU too. So I'm definitely due some money haha....it's interesting that now I can get paid for watching sports all day instead of as an undergrad where I never got paid and worked even harder. I'm excited for thanksgiving coming up so I can see family and get a couple of days off of school at least. Anyway, back to work. I gotta get prepared for a presentation and study for my midterm in the morning! I'm posting a picture of my district that just left. Wow, it's hard to believe that I'm now teaching my 10th district! Crazy!

Hmmm....what has happened the past couple of weeks? Well I guess quite a bit has happened. School has been really busy. I need to finish writing this literature review before tuesday. So far I'm not doing so well with it. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be haha. Anyway, things at work are going well. These past couple weeks have been pretty busy but good. I have been blessed to teach one of the best districts ever! They are all very diligent and just really amazing. They work hard and we've had some great, spiritual experiences together. Seriously I am so blessed to teach them and essentially to be taught by them!
Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to my mission reunion. That was a lot of fun. I mean I got to see a former companion and I also got to see my mission president and his wife which is essentially why I went to the reunion. So it was awesome! It was so good to see him and everyone else. What's sad is little did we know that while we were enjoying filipino food and each others' company the Philippines was just starting to get hit hard by a huge typhoon that I'm sure you all have heard about. It's really sad. My second area had some pretty bad flooding and mud slides but they are up in the mountains so the flooding went away. The mud however is still there and many houses of members have been destroyed. My last area was hit the worst. Because it borders the floodway from other rivers to Laguna Bay the flooding there was severe and the city is still mostly underwater. Some areas the water is about chest deep or higher still. It was so sad to hear about and I've seen many pictures that have just made me cry. What amazing people live in that city and country! I know they can get through this! I just wish I could help them. I had a great epiphany the other day about all this that I shared with my missionaries. Just like how I can't be there in the Philippines to save these people, my dear friends, our Heavenly Father cannot be here to save us. But it is through other people that the Lord works and it is through our prayers that others are able to be helped. But it has to be through other people like missionaries or others that the Lord answers our prayers of help for others. I know that the Lord has been answering my prayers. Especially since another big typhoon was headed straight to Manila but at the last minute changed it's course and headed more north perhaps saving the Manila area. Anyway, I know this gospel is true and I'm so grateful to be a member of this church. Conference has been so great so far too. Anyway, I'm going to post some pictures so you all can see how bad it really is over there. They need all the help they can get right now. Most the pictures I will post will be pictures of my last area, the one that was hit pretty bad. One of them is a picture of one of the Elders I taught a few times at the MTC who is serving in my mission. The others just show how high the flood water is still. Here is a link to a video that shows really just how bad it is. Watch it here!

It has been quite the busy past couple of weeks but I enjoyed all the posts. So life for me has just been busy with trying to keep up with my reading and school work, which I'm a little behind still and need to spend the rest of my friday doing that stuff. But yeah. Things have just been crazy with work and everything else! Last week one of my elders went home. He was the fourth in the zone to go home the past 6 weeks and another might be going home this week. So It was so tough because everything I taught and everything we did in class was pretty much directed at trying to help him to not go home! We tried! That's all I gotta say. But I really pray everyday that he'll come back. He has a strong testimony and can make a great missionary but has some family issues and depression issues possibly to work out. Anyway, so that was weighing on me for a while. Then on tuesday they added an elder to our district so that way the elder whose companion went home didn't have to be part of a trisome of elders. That was a pretty smooth move but hard since he came from a different district and is a little behind in Tagalog now since we already reviewed some things that he hasn't learned yet. Anyway, then that same day (all on my day off) my co-teacher got let go. So that whole night I spent trying to work out my shift with another teacher who was going to sub but already had shifts she needs to work and yada, yada. So this was crazy. Then the next day my missionaries were pretty sad because he was gone. So wow! Let's just say as the zone coordinator things are never calm. There is always something that I'm worrying about or trying to work out. We have so many missionaries too that they split our zone/branch in two so that way the branch president and stuff can keep track of the missionaries better. I thought this was going to make things easier, which it has in a way, but still not. I think I just take things too seriously I don't know. I even felt bad when I was meeting with my supervisor and he was telling me that he was talking to some other supervisors about me and they were telling him that I must be a great zone coordinator who really knows the teachers and missionaries well, etc. So this made me feel good but sad at the same time because my poor supervisor is already stressed out and feeling bad about the situation as did I, etc. Anyway so I finally got things worked out for the next week but it meant I had to work a 9 hour day (and had to interview 13 missionaries) yesterday at work to teach and gets things organized. But good news is starting next wednesday I'll be teaching with the co-teacher I was with this past spring/summer. He's not getting a new district for a few weeks so I requested he be my co teacher again because he's a great teacher and will take a load off which I really need. But yeah so we'll be teaching together for the rest of the semester! Yay! I'm really excited! He's awesome.
Anyway, so things are going well now and this thesis research stuff is kicking my butt. But I think once I get past this semester and make sure I can do whatever research thesis topic I'm going to do for sure then things will get better. So for right now I'm just trying to get enough sleep and trying to keep my head above water for when tests start coming along. For the most part I'm enjoying it all and my classes are okay. But yeah that's pretty much it. Sorry if none of this makes sense and thanks for putting up with me talking about my missionaries all the time. The district I have right now is awesome! But yeah my goal for this week is to get my reading done and figure out how I can get the air conditioning to work in my classroom at the MTC because it's always hot and stuffy and smells(not me, the elders) because there are 13 missionaries in a small room. Just last night the sisters were telling me the room smells. I said "yeah only at certain times like just now but then it goes away". They laughed. They think I'm funny and it's great. But I was serious. I think they got the hint that it's just the elders who are too shy to leave the room or claim it that makes it smell. Or maybe it's one of the sisters? hehe...But yeah I'm trying to be mature about it. I've never had this happen before. I don't know hopefully it goes away. But yeah life is great and I try to laugh and find something funny about everyday which I normally do! Come what may and love it! Oh and I'll post a picture of my district that left a few weeks ago.

Well I am now about to start my second week of graduate school! Yay! Well it's kinda exciting I guess. Well last week my district left. I was glad to seem them go because honestly they needed to go and there wasn't much else that we could do for them here at the MTC. I think for the most part they were prepared so I'm excited for them. Of course I do miss them though. But I have a new district of 13 and they are fantastic. They are diligent and hard working and hopefully they keep it up! I have 3 sisters in my district too which is an answer to my prayers! So last week was pretty busy getting this new group settled in and such. Pictures to come once my co-teacher e-mails them to me.
The first week of school went pretty well too. The first day was great then the second not so much and then things just kept getting piled on as to what I need to be doing. I have a lot of reading and assignments to get done so I need to be really productive today since I'm kinda behind with everything. But I finally realized that I need to use my planner and plan things out and since then things have gone much better. Plus I spoke to one of the professors who I want to work on my thesis with and I told him what my interests kind of were and he gave me agreat idea of what to do my research on. It was awesome! I want to get started right away because I don't want to procrastinate this thesis. I'm a terrible writer too and I know this will take a lot of time for me. But pretty much we want to get a pilot study going this semester and get my proposal pretty much done this semester so I can propose next semester then get started on the research spring/summer and fall. So if you know of anyone who lacks Range of Motion in any of the major joints please let me know! I could use the help! But yeah, I'm excited for that.
Other than that not too much has happened. BYU beat Oklahoma on saturday so that was pretty dang exciting! It was way cool and Provo went crazy! Such a huge win! Anyway, I'm actually excited for football this year seeing as we should have a great season! Welp not much else to write about. Life is busy but great!