Dear Mindy

Dear Mindy of 2014,
Hey! It's me! Future you! What up? I know what's up. Haha.
Here you were a year ago. You went to Chelsey and Lynsie's house for a New Years party and you were a little apprehensive about the new year. For reals. You had fun and laughed. You wished you had more friends like that in your life. You ran around the street with a suitcase just hoping that you would travel this year. You went home that night and wondered about the new year.
Well! 2014 was amazing. I can hardly think back on it without feeling so grateful and so happy about everything.
First off, you travel. Don't even worry about that. Well, maybe your bank account should. Haha. It's an expensive hobby but your wanderlust is the driving force. You visit so many fun and new places. Your trip to New York is a dream. You see so many friends and have so much fun experiencing new places with new people. I can't wait for what 2015 holds in the travel department. Already 2 trips planned! :) it's the best.
You have an amazing experience reading the Book of Mormon this year. It changes your whole life! It helps you make huge changes for the better. God guides you.
You know I hate giving things away... Because part of the fun is not knowing and learning as you go.
But you do move. To a great place with best friends. You have more friends in your life and more fun times. You feel more like you. The temple becomes so important to you. Love very minute of it.
Work. It's tough to love at the beginning of the year. It's hard to want to keep showing up. But it gets better. You have amazing coworkers who become really good friends. You hang out with them outside of work! And your job becomes something you love and get involved with.
You get new family members this year! So exciting. You have the best times with them all. Love them. Christmas is amazing. The best one ever.
Well, that's all I'll tell you. Run more. Sleep less. Love more. Stress less.
Then eventually you'll get to where I am tonight. Sitting at the charge nurse desk at work at 1am. :)
Love,
Mindy of 2015

Talk

(This is a talk I gave in church this summer.)

I want to talk about how the Book of Mormon has changed my life.

More specifically, how the Book of Mormon has changed my life in the last 3 months.

I first read the Book of Mormon as a 9th grader. It was the Book of Mormon year in seminary and I was very diligent with my scripture reading. When I finished, I prayed to know if it was true or not. And I got this feeling that said, “You know it’s true Mindy. Why do you even have to ask?” I knew it was true. I’m so glad I got that confirmation at such a young age. It has helped guide and influence my life. It’s changed my life.

I’ve read the Book of Mormon a few more times. A couple before my mission, and then quite a few times on my mission. It was so simple to study the scriptures as a missionary. It was easy to apply it to my life and to my investigators. I fell in love with the stories and made goals to keep reading and studying when I got home. I would NOT be one of those missionaries who got “too busy” to study.

But then I got too busy to study. School, work, dating, friends, sleep. It all got in the way. I tried off and on to study my scriptures and set a time to do so. But I couldn’t wake up early; I was already getting up so early for school and work! And I couldn’t do it at night because I was so exhausted. I even tried to do it during my lunch break for a while, until my co-workers were so fun to talk to. Excuses and justifications made it okay. My scripture reading was sporatic for days, weeks, months, and then years.

And that’s where I was at 3 months ago. I sat there listening to General Conference and felt guilty for not reading my scriptures or making a plan to change.

Then I saw something online outlining a Book of Mormon reading schedules that would start April 7th to June 30th. I said, “Why not?” and started reading that day.

I made a few goals to go along with this challenge. #1 would be that I would stay on schedule. I knew that I would miss a few days here and there because I knew myself. But I told myself I would catch up so that by the end of the week I would always be right on target. And my #2 goal was to apply the scriptures to my life.

Like I said, it was simple to apply them to my life while I was a missionary. So I wanted to really try to apply it to my life now, as a single, working adult with really lame problems. At least I think they’re lame. But luckily, God loves me and he really helps me.

With that, I want to share a few experiences and scriptures that have greatly helped me these last 3 months.

First relates to the temple.

Mosiah 2:6 And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple,that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them;

I love this visual. The symbolism is so vivid how these people pitched their tents with their doors towards the temple. A temple centered people.

Temple attendance was one of my new year’s goals that I made this year. I want to go at least once a month this year. Of course, three months ago, when I started this reading and read this chapter, my recommend has expired because I had become too busy to make the appointments to renew it.

I made an appointment with my bishop for the sunday after our stake conference meeting. I mention stake conference because my roommate was working and it would have been really tempting to not go that day. But I’m so glad that I did.

The talks at stake conference were about family history work and temple work. It wasn’t hard to see just what the Lord needed me to learn that week. What really hit me though, was when the temple president for the JRTemple got up to speak and told us to ask our bishops about becoming a temple worker if we could.

I had NO IDEA you could ASK to do that! Before I even knew it, I asked the bishop at my interview if that could be something I could do. We filled out the paper work, and a few weeks later I was called. I get to start as a temple worker at the SLC temple in August. I’m so grateful and SO excited for this new calling in my life.

The next experience I want to share is about temporal things.

I first want to share this scripture.

"Mormon 5: 23  Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God? Know ye not that he hath all power, and at his great command the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll?"

It helps remind me that I am in the hands of god. I’ve always been so happy about that, because I feel like, if left on my own, I would make a lot of crazy choices and mistakes.

One more temporal thing I had on my mind was whether or not to move. It was one of the questions I had pondered about when listening to general conference. But I felt like I never got a really great answer. I continued to pray about it.

One day I talked about it with my roommate. Our contract would be up soon and I wanted to know what she thought. If we should extend the contract, try to find somewhere else to live, or become homeless. We talked it over and at the end of the conversation we had just deicded to stay put where we were. I felt okay about it.  

I thought of this scripture:

"Mosiah 2:41  And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

I knew that God always helps me know when I’ve made a wrong decision. And apparently I did make the wrong decision. Because that same night, not but 2 hours after our conversation, my friend Lynsie texted me and asked, “Are you by chance looking for a place to live?”

It was WAY too coincidental to ever think it was actually a coincidence. I know that God was answering my prayers. That week we talked about it, looked at the house, felt really good about it, and by friday were packing our house to move in just under 3 weeks. It all came together so fast. I’m so grateful the Lord blesses us. And I know he blessed us because I was reading my scriptures.

I think more than anything, reading my scriptures has helped me be more sensitive to the spirit.

3 Nephi 22:"13  And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children."

I find so much peace from the teachings of the Lord. The week I was reading in Nephi 9 about the plan of salvation was the week of Easter. And it really helped me have one of the best Easters of my life.

2Nephi 9:13- "O how great the plan of our God!"

This is what I wrote in my journal about Easter this year-

This last week, It was Easter. Each day this week in addition to reading the Book of Mormon, I tried to read a conference talk that would go along with each event in the Holy Week. Palm Sunday, the sacrament, the great atonement, the crucifixion, and resurrection.

Saturday night I was cancelled for work. It was an Easter Miracle. I was able to sleep that night and wake up at 7am and go on a walk. I listened to a talk by our Prophet, called "He is Risen." It was amazing. I sat and looked out over a park and just had this overwhelming feeling of love and peace and purpose. I am so grateful for the Atonement and for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who suffered for my sins so that I can return to live with my Heavenly Father. He loves me. He loves the world. He gave his life for me. And he broke the bands of death that bound everyone, to make it possible for us to live again. It truly is a miracle and something so amazing. I can hardly put in to words how I feel.

My heart was so full that Easter Sunday. I went to church and sang in the choir, songs of Christ and grattiude and praise. It was lovely to sing my testimony. I always love to. But it was extra special that day. I listened to the great words and pondered the love Christ has for everyone. I teared up in church. Doesn't happen often, but I did.

My heart was truly full. And I know it's because I have been reading my scriptures regularly. I know it.

It's such a blessing to have better understanding of the gospel.

I love this feeling. And I can't wait until I have read for 3 and 4 and 5 weeks and 6 months and a year and my life. That's what I want.

Because I became more sensitive to the spirit, I had a few experiences where I got to be a tool in God’s hand to help his children. I was in the right places at the right times.

"Mosiah 5:13  For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?"

Ether 4:11 But he that believeth these things which I have spoken, him will I visit with the manifestations of my Spirit, and he shall know and bear record. For because of my Spirit he shall know that these things are true; for it persuadeth men to do good.

1 Nephi 4:6- I was led by the spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.

This first experience is a little strange. But the more I’ve pondered it, the more I just KNOW that it was God’s will.

It’s a strange experience because it started out with me just being bored and home alone one Wednesday afternoon. I didn’t know what to do with myself because all my roomies were gone. I thought about my options and decided to go to seven peaks. That, in itself, is not strange. I love swimming and love water parks, mostly because I was a lifeguard all through high school and college and I like to be a creeper and watch the lifeguards and critique them. The weird thing was going by myself. It’s super weird to go to a water park by yourself. But I packed up, drove over, and before I knew it I was walking around all alone, just soaking in the sun.

I swam in a few of the pools and decided just to walk around a bit and scope out the kiddie areas so I knew where to bring my nephews when they came with me. I decided to take my awkwardness to a new level and actually get into the kiddie pool and just sit for a while. I felt weird. But it was fun. As I was exiting the pool, for some strange reason I really can’t explain, I turned to look back at one particular area of the swimming pool and there, with her eyes wide and head under water, was a little girl, clearly drowning.

Before I even knew it, I jumped over a wall, swam to her, and scooped her up in my arms. She coughed and cried and I found her dad, handed her over, and then walked out of the pool.

It was just too coincidental. I thought about that experience over and over again the next few days and it’s become a very special thing to me. I couldn’t stop thinking About how I was the one person that was at the right place at the right time with the right knowledge to save her. I don't know what would have happened had I not been there. I honestly don't know if another adult would have walked by. I don't know if the lifeguard would have seen her soon enough because she was at the other end of the pool in the water. But something told me to look back and I saw her.

From my journal:

I feel like I was an instrument in God's hands that day. From deciding to randomly go to a water park by myself for just an hour or two. From deciding to be weird and walk through the kiddie area by myself. To me looking back at the pool for some reason. It's all just so coincidental. I know and feel that it's not a coincidence.

I am so happy with my life lately. I feel closer to the spirit than I have been in a long time. I'm praying, I'm going to church, I'm going to the temple, I'm reading and loving reading my scriptures. I'm finding personal insights. If all this means that God knew that he could use me to save a life of one of his daughters, then I am honored. I'm so grateful that he trusted me enough to give me such an important task that day. Because the more I ponder on this experience, the more I realize that it couldn't be just a chance happening. It was meant to be.

Another experience of being at the right place at the right time happened just this week.

I thought a lot about our lesson we had in relief society about family history work that we had last sunday and decided on Tuesday morning to go to the temple. I planned to do initiatories. I took out my family names and tried to pick out which ones to do.

I’m not sure if any of you feel this immense pressure when picking which names to do when you go through the temple, but I always do. It’s like I’m picking and choosing who to save that day. Always makes me stressed out. So I decided to pick a few names that were sisters. I found a group of 4 sisters to do and got excited, but realized that all but one had been baptised. One sister was not yet a member! So I let that stress help me decide to do baptisms, confirmations, AND inititories that day.

I’m so glad I did. The spirit I felt was overwhelming. But while I was sitting at the font, ready to be baptized, the sister in front of me had a few names she was doing for someone in her ward, and they were in a weird symbolly language. I got really nosey and stood up to look at the cards, and sure enough, they were in Korean. And I speak Korean! So I helped them pronounce the names as they were doing the work for them. I felt like God was making sure that those Korean sisters were thought of and important. It was truly special.

Guys, the Book of Mormon changed my life these last 3 months. I was able to finish it this morning and just say a prayer of gratitude for just how applicable the teachings have been to my life now.

I truly know what Pres Hinkley said is true.

President Hinkley in 2005,

Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will [read the Book of Mormon], regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God.

I know that the Book of Mormon is truly for our day.

President Ezra Taft Benson declared in a general conference, “The Book of Mormon … was written for our day. The Nephites never had the book; neither did the Lamanites of ancient times. It was meant for us.”

President Hinckley said- “In its descriptions of the problems of today’s society, [the Book of Mormon] is as current as the morning newspaper, and much more definitive,”

Mormon 8:35 Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.

I don’t claim to be “cured” of all of my excuses to not read the scriptures. I am not perfect

at applying the lessons. But I’ve tried and I’ve seen amazing things.

It is my hope that we will all read the scriptures and try to find ways they can apply to our  lives today. Whether that life be in school, work, unemployment, sadness, happiness, singleness, darkness, or bright light. The Book of Mormon is for us.

hello?

I haven't posted since January 1st.

I probably should have kept up at this because it's going to be hard to do these last 9-10 months justice.

January sucked. What with work being crazy and them forcing me to work overtime. It was really depressing. And I got really burned out for the next couple months. I'm not looking forward to that time of year again. (SOON! UGH!)

In February I went to Disney World! I fell in love with the place and had the most fun I've ever had. We went to the beach, to Universal Studios, to Downtown Disney, to every park in Disney World. SO FUN. I want to go back every day.

March passed by without much out of the ordinary. I started to like work a little bit better again. And I started to be better friends with people at work too. I have some amazing co-workers.

April brought with it some personal changes. I started reading the Book of Mormon again. I mention this because it really impacted my life a lot more than I thought it would. I owe every good thing that's happened this year to my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Reading the Book of Mormon  again helped me draw closer to them and helped me change my life.

In May I welcomed these sun with open arms. I LOVE summer. I LIVE for the summer. My roommate and I also decided, rather quickly, to move from West Jordan to Cottonwood Heights. It was the best decision ever. We moved in with Chelsey and Lynsie to a house and I've loved every minute.

Ryan and Courtney got married in June! It was a really fun and awesome day. I'm happy Courtney is a part of our family. I couldn't ask for a better sister-in-law. So far the two that I have are AMAZING. So lucky. My brothers are crazy lucky too. I also went blonde in June. I was blonde for all of summer. That was fun. I took at trip to Manti with my ward and roommates. I started and ended as a temple worker at the Oquirrh Mountain temple. Then was set apart to start as a temple worker for the Salt Lake temple in August.

July was crazy busy. I went camping with my family one night, got sick for a week, had a family reunion, flew to New York with my mom and Annalie for 8 days, came back, worked a little, and then Cyann and Justin came in from New Mexico to visit us! LOTS of jammed packed days with lots of fun. New York was incredible. I just love my family out there. Hi-lights include Niagara falls, Hill Cummorah Pageant and the Sacred Grove, the finger lakes, hiking in the Adirondacks with Aunts and Uncle and cousins, and our day in Philadelphia. So much fun!

August started out busy as well. Working full time in the summer is a joke. It's SO hard to want to go to work when the sun is out and the world is beautiful! I went to Yellowstone with my ward. It was a blast. A lot of driving. But a blast. I started working at the temple! It's so incredible to spend 6 hours a week at the temple. I'm learning so much, even if it is SO difficult to wake up at 4am those days.

And now, September. It's the end of the month. Everyone went back to life and school and jobs. So life sort of slowed down a bit. I have a capstone student at work, so I get to have a student almost every shift from now until the end of October. It's teaching me patience, that's for sure. But she's great. Smarter than I was in school. I've been hiking a few times here and there. Don't see my family as much as the summer, but that's life.

So sorry it's been so long. These are the goings on. I really want to blog soon and write about my thoughts about my goings on. Like I sort of mentioned, my life has really changed this year and I am just in awe of how great these changes are and how they came to be.

But I guess stay tuned for those thoughts.

Dear Mindy

Dear Mindy of January 2013,

It's future Mindy again! Here to give you a little advice about your up coming year.

Let me just say, this year is awesome! Full of adventures and firsts and fun! 

Work towards those new years goals you have. Read over them and make them important.

Take heart: you get a new job! Your time at Heritage, thought fun and important, comes to an end! This new job comes very soon after the new year. Learn to love your job, love your co-workers, and love learning about everything.

Remember how you started running? You LOVE it. It's your new obsession. You love to run, love to race, and love to dream about reaching your goals. Run as much as you can. But, when your leg starts to hurt, REST. Rest it and let it heal before you really hurt it and break it and are unable to run for a few months. But that's just a suggestion.

Running does more for you than just running. It helps you realize you can reach goals and do things you never thought you could ever like. Like HIKING. You love hiking now! And you finally Hike to the very very top of Timp this year! Can you believe it?!? And can you even wait?

Go on trips and adventures. It won't be hard to convince you to take adventures to new places. Visit mom's family and get to know them better. They are fantastic people. Go to Katy's wedding. Have fun, take pictures, and remember not to stress about things you can't control. Like planes that are delayed, packing the car perfectly, or summer ending.

For some reason this year you are susceptible to getting depressed about summer ending. Don't be sad. Remember that change is not bad, that things have to keep moving forward, and summer always comes back around.

Get involved in your ward. Try to go as much as you can, especially in the summer. Try to go to activities, even if they sound lame. Learn people's names. Or else you'll end up in your ward in September, realizing you only know names of about 10 people and YOU'RE the one that feels new. Welcome new callings. Open yourself up to liking people. Read your scriptures.

Don't let your work schedule get you down. For the most part, it works out really well and to your advantage. Don't let other people take advantage of you because you won't say anything. Say something. But remember that work is just a job and it's not your life. Your life is a lot better. 

Anyway, your year is really quite great and adventurous. Live it up and love it! The end of this year is a great set up to having a fantastic 2014. I can't wait to live it!

Love,

Mindy of January 2014

oh hi

Wow.

I haven't blogged since July.

Part of that is because I had the most amazing and eventful summer ever. Seriously, guys. I don't think I could have imagined it going any better. I completed everything on my summer to do list. I have never done that before. So that was a huge deal for me. 

I guess I would have blogged about that but then autumn came.

I had a hard time welcoming autumn into my life. It was the end of my summer and I really mourned the loss of it. It was the end of having my family out of school, people to hang out with, warm weather to play in, sunsets at 9pm. Seriously, everyone. I'm drooling thinking about summer time. I miss it so much it hurts.

Autumn for me usually means a lot of change. It used to mean a new semester at school, moving, a new ward, new people to meet, and a new calling. I think subconsciously I was freaking out about having everything in my life change, even if it wasn't really going to happen. I was dreading it because life had been very happy. This is the first year since I graduated high school that I haven't moved and changed wards in the fall. So all this dreading change was really unnecessary. Everything stayed normal and I didn't need to freak out. 

So I'm sorry I freaked out a little bit. It was almost like I was waiting for something to drastically change and make my life a little bit harder. But it never came, and I'm so grateful.

*Although I did get a new calling. And everyone I liked moved out of our ward and a whole bunch of new people came. And next week we get a new bishopric. So I guess the change was delayed. But I'm still happy.

New York

I was so excited when I realized that I could go to New York this summer to visit my mom's side of the family. I was even more excited when my brother in law consented to let me steal Lauren and Kent to come with me for a weekend. My mom was planning to be there for two weeks, so we decided to join her for my cousin Amy's graduation party and my cousin Katy's bridal shower. 

I haven't been on a plane in four years. The last time was when I came back from Korea to the US. So I was so excited get to fly again. We left on Thursday morning and caught our flight. We first flew to Denver, then to Washington DC, then to our destination in Syracuse, NY. 

We looked up all the tips to traveling with an almost 2 year old and I think he did very well. He was entertained by the take off and landing. He sat with his momma very well. He loved when they passed out juice. And on our flight to DC, which was the longest flight, he slept for two hours. Victory!

Our second flight, to DC, ended up a little bit late and we had a half hour to run (almost literally) to the other side of the airport and make our next flight. We had a strolled for the little guy and had to take elevators, because apparently, who ever designed this airport decided it would be awesome to make all flights arrive on one side of the airport and depart on the opposite side, while making you go up and down repeatedly to get there. We literally went on like 8 elevators, and some how made it to the flight with maybe 5 minutes to spare. I'm glad our luggage made it too. By the time we got to Syracuse we were exhausted. 

My uncle David gave us a ride out to our grandma's house where we were staying. He's such a nice guy. We had fun hearing about his job, the country side, and how you would see and hit deer with your car all the time if you lived out that way.

Aunt Betty and Grandma

Grandma's House

We made it to grandma's and promptly got ready for bed. It was 12am their time and 10pm ours, but we were tired.

Little guy woke up every morning around 7. The sun likes to shine bright, even though it was only 5am our time. We woke up friday morning and ate breakfast Dunkin' Donuts style and got ready to go for the day. We visited my Grandpa Amos's grave. Then we decided to make the ride to the Sacred Grove and to Hill Cumorah, very special places to our church's history. We had been there before, but we were pretty young and didn't remember much, so we were excited to go again.

Lowy took a bite of everyone's donuts

We went to the visitor center for the Hill Cumorah and then drove up the hill to the monument and took a few pictures. It was so beautiful and green there. We drove down the road a little ways to the Sacred Grove and to the Farm House that Joseph Smith and his family lived at during the time of the first vision and him growing up. Such a humble house and a sweet feeling standing where the family had lived. We walked around with a missionary who told us about the history and then she left us to have time in the Grove to walk around and take in the beauty.

I recited the first vision for my family in Korean. I would have done it in English, but I know it better in Korean. :) It was great to be there knowing what I know about the church and how much God loves us. It was a special moment. We walked around and were happy. It was beautiful.

We went home that night and ate dinner at my Aunt Donna's house. My grandma, Great Aunt Betty, my Cousin Patrick and his wife and son, and Aunt Beth and Cousin Emily and her boyfriend joined us. It was fun seeing people I hadn't seen in 12 years! I can't believe it had been that long. Kent liked seeing their tractors and running down the hill. Their house is on a beautiful piece of land. It's so green. The whole town is just gorgeous. 

We usually went to sleep around 10 o'clock and got up at 7. Saturday morning we went to a farmer's market in town by Colgate College. It was really fun to walk around and see all the different booths and things for sale. We saw some Amish people. That was a first. It was interesting to me to notice the differences between a market in New York and a market in Utah. In Utah there would have been gaggles of children and strollers and a lot of very well dressed mom's toting a couple children each to the boutiques with baby onesies and hair bows and baby bracelets. In New York, there were only a handful of children, no baby bracelets or onesie shops, and a lot more different people. It was refreshing to be somewhere different. I think sometimes its just good to get outside of Utah and just experience a different group of people and town.

We played with Parker at a park for a little bit and then headed back to Grandma's and then hit the road to Aunt Phyllis's house. It was an hour and a half ride through little towns with pretty houses. We ended up counting how many cemeteries we passed. We passed 13 of them! Woah! Lots of dead people.

Amy's party was nice. She's gorgeous. We had fun talking and seeing family that we hadn't seen for 12 years. We ate some yummy food and had fun chasing Kent all over the yard and trying to convince him to stay in the back yard and not run out into the street. It was a hot day, so we got tired after the party. We left and headed back to Grandma's house.

Before going home we ate dinner at a restaurant called VJ's and got a couple pizzas and ate way too much. It was so good. We ended up eating it for the next few days too. 

Sunday morning we woke up and got ready to make the trip back to Phyllis's house to attend Katy's bridal shower. We got ready and decided to leave early because the house was getting hot. We Utahans are not used to any kind of humidity. We made it to the party and got to talk with our family again. I really enjoyed being with them. I wish we lived closer and I hope I can visit more often. The party was hot again, but we at good food again, played some fun games and watched Katy open her presents. Lauren chased Kent for the first half of the party and I chased him for the last half. That kid is so cute and so active. All over the place. 

We drove home after taking a bunch of pictures together and headed up to Donna and David's house for a bon fire. The fire was HUGE and it was so hot to sit anywhere near it. We ended up having to back up our chairs quite a bit away, but it was very nice sitting there watching the fire roar against the backdrop of the beautiful countryside. 

We went to sleep that night with fans on us and slept pretty well.

On Monday we packed up our stuff and got ready to go to the airport for our 12:30 flight. We stopped for some bagels and to see a few shops and then made it to the airport and checked our bags and waited for our flight. 

Our flight was delayed with no definite idea of when it would actually leave. The east coast was having thunderstorms all over and it was really frustrating waiting with a screaming child. Luckily he found some kids to entertain him and chase him all over, so that saved us. Finally, after 6 hours of waiting, we figured out that we could no longer make our connecting flight and would end up being stuck in Washington DC if we went out that night. So I opted to have us stay an extra day and leave on Tuesday instead. So we called Mom and she picked us up. We ate some dinner and returned to Grandma's house for the night.

Tuesday morning we tried again. We made it to the airport and found out our flight was delayed again, but it ended up only leaving a half hour late. We finally got into the plane and left New York, heading to Chicago. When we walked into the Chicago airport there were SO many seas of people. It was crazy. We ate at the Chili's restaurant at the airport and had a big lunch. Then We found a little kiddie play place that totally saved us, and Kent played for two hours. Our flight to SLC was changed quite a few times. At first just the terminal, then it kept getting pushed back an hour and another hour until it was 3 hours delayed and we had again spent 5 to 6 hours waiting around for this flight. When we got on that last play I could have clicked my heals, I was so excited to be done with traveling. Three hours later we were in SLC and were able to find our luggage from the day previously and head home!

It was a long trip back home, but the trip was great and we had such a good weekend. Little buddy did so well on the plane. And Lauren did well too. (Being pregnant and having a kid sit on her lap was  interesting at times.) 

I'm glad we're back. I'm glad Kent isn't going to scratch me with his razor toe nails anymore. But it was fun and I'm so glad to have seen everyone!

I have lots more pictures, but it's a pain putting them up. But rest assured, Aunt Beth, you're making the book this year! ;)

The Sacred Grove

On Friday, June 21st, I visited the Sacred Grove with my mom, my sister, and my nephew.

The first time I visited the Sacred Grove was when I was 14 years old. The same age that Joseph Smith was when he went into the grove to pray and saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. 

I've thought back on my experience quite a bit through the last 12 years. I had always wished that it had meant more to me. I remember walking around the trees and thinking, "Wow, God was here once." It was beautiful and so peaceful, and you can't help but whisper when you're walking around because you can just feel the sacredness of the spot. I didn't have any big spiritual experience, I didn't cry, I didn't sit and ponder life. It was a really good experience, don't get me wrong, but part of me always thought that I should have had a bigger spiritual experience. 

As I grew up and learned, my testimony of this church has formed and it's changed my life. So many life experiences have taught me that God loves everyone of us, Jesus Christ did live and died for us and lives again, the true church was restored on this earth through his prophet, Joseph Smith, and we continue to have prophets and apostles on this earth to lead us just as in Bible times. I know these things because of life and experiences I've had.

When I was a missionary in Korea I spent every day teaching these truths to people in a foreign language, trying so hard to convey my love for the gospel to God's children. I always thought that if I could revisit the Sacred Grove, this time I would feel everything I wanted to feel that first time and it would be the most amazing experience of my life.

So, on Friday, June 21st, as we pulled up to the Sacred Grove and walked into the trees, I thought for sure a spiritual awakening would fall on me like a ton of bricks and I would be so overcome with everything that maybe I'd cry or something. 

But as I walked through I felt the same feelings I felt when I was younger. "Wow, God was here once." The beauty and peace that was there was overwhelming. We whispered the entire time we were walking through. It was so quiet that we could hear the birds singing and the breeze blowing the leaves on the trees. There were pretty butterflies. It was like the whole grove knew that it was a sacred spot and even the trees were grateful that they were able to grow on that soil. 

We took pictures of "pillars of light." I even recited the "First Vision" in Korean for my family. I always wanted to do that since I memorized that in the MTC. We smiled as we watched youth groups studying their scriptures and writing in their journals. It was perfectly peaceful.

I didn't have that huge spiritual downpour of enlightenment that I thought would come. But it was just like the first time I read the Book of Mormon. When I got down on my knees and asked God if the book was true, before I could even listen for an answer I felt my answer. I felt, "You KNOW it's true Mindy. Why do you even need to ask?" 

So as I walked into the Grove and started to ask God for the affirmation of the truth of the First Vision, instead of the emotional spiritual experience I was looking for, I just felt it. I felt, "You KNOW it's true Mindy. You don't need anything more."

I didn't have a huge spiritual experience, but as I've learned throughout life, I didn't need a huge experience to solidify what I already knew to be true. Because I already know it! I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, that he helped bring the restored church to the earth. I've known this since before I was 14 and before I was a missionary and before I walked in the sacred grove a few days ago. I knew this all to be true. 

I think more than anything I just felt so grateful to know all of this. To really KNOW all of this and not just believe it or think it might be true. But to know and to live life with this knowledge and comfort of God's plan for me and for everyone. 

I'm so glad we were able to visit the Sacred Grove. If anything, it just helped me remember what I know because of Joseph Smith's first vision and how incredible it is that because of that one event, I am able to be with my family for eternity and once again live with God again.