Saturday, August 31, 2013

Mama, I'm a big girl now!

I said goodbye to these girls! It was pretty hard.


I am officially a full-time college student! Somebody pinch me. This whole thing still doesn't feel real. I'm attending Utah State University and seriously loving every second of it. I've been up here for about two weeks and the party hasn't stopped yet. Every night there is something going on. From an 80's dance to high stakes bingo, there is just always somewhere to be and new people to meet. My classes have been going easy on me for the first little bit and I'm hoping they don't get too impossible by the end. I have 5 of the cutest roommates in the world! Over the past two weeks these girls have quickly become my best friends. We are constantly teasing each other, freakin' out because someone (mostly Kenzie) got a letter from a missionary, or just laughing until we cry. I feel so blessed to have gotten roommates that I am able to connect with so easily.

 I can already see my classes getting harder and harder which kinda scares me to death but I just cannot wait to be framiliar with everything. I still get lost on campus and I still cannot remember anyone's names but slowly I know this place is going to feel more and more like my second home.

Now let's talk about the ward. Oh boy! There are 84 girls and 8 boys. Yes. I said 8. At first I looked at this situation and said "This is three hours of relief society where are the boys at!" then I changed my thinking and started saying "Man, that MTC must be full of so many guys!" It's so cool to see such a big difference. One of the Bishop's councilors mentions that he thinks I would be a good Sunday school teacher and told me to expect a phone call in the next little bit. This scared me to death but not I'm actually flattered by that comment. Hopefully that calling will help prepare me for my own mission while helping me meet more people in my ward!

Here are the pictures from my first week of school!




 
These are the "First Day of School" pictures! Rachel made us all pose before we were allowed to go to class.
 

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

A life long Humanitarian

Vietnam. I cannot stop talking about that amazing country. I spent the last two weeks of July learning so much about Vietnam, service, love, and myself. We flew out there and I was instantly learning new things about how other people live and how grateful I need to be.
The first thing I was taught to be grateful for is driving laws. Let's get one thing straight. I love driving. I love being able to get in my car and just go. Not in this town! Vietnam has one driving rule. Don't get hit. That's it. That's all you focus on. Those roads are every man for himself. There are so many motor bikes zooming every direction in intersections. Cars go into head on traffic to change lanes. Horns are used non-stop. If you aren't using your horn it must be broken! (I'm not exaggerating at all) I could go on and on about how scary those streets are. You cannot even imagine crossing the street! Yes. I was screaming!
While in the main city we went to a war museum. It's crazy how much my history books left out. I never realized how I was clearly being taught one side of the story. That museum really proved how horrible everyone was to each other.
Our team did a number of projects but my favorite by far was working in either of the schools. Being around kids that have so little was the most humbling thing I've ever experienced. The people were so loving and giving towards us. A number of times when I exited the bus I found girls waiting for me ready to fill my hair with flowers and hold my hands as we hiked the 10 minute walk up to the old school. Their favorite thing in the world is nail polish. By the end of the trip I think everyone in the group had at least 6 layers of nail polish on both fingers and toes.



Walking through the town at night never got old. Everyone sits outside of their houses and just enjoys the night. Some are selling stuff and some are just hanging out. Within a couple of days of being there all the people were saying Hello to us. It felt like a daily parade. I loved it! Kids would sometimes follow us but mostly we just smiled and said Hello. I'm not sure if they were laughing at us or with us but it put a smile on every face!
I'll never forget going to the house construction. The day that I was assigned to house construction was one of the rainy days. We had just finished dancing in the rain when we headed over to the house site. By the time we got there the workers had gone home so instead two men gave us a tour of the small community. About 50 families live around the salt farms. At one point the woman let us help them scoop up salt and put it into bags. This is way harder than I had every expected. How did these skinny woman lift up such heavy bags! At one point they asked me to put one of the bags on the scale. Joanna and I struggled to lift it a foot onto the scale. It weighed 100 pounds. Shoot, those things were heavy!
The stories are endless. From swimming in the ocean during a huge rain storm to playing soccer with grown adults who actually know what they are doing. I loved being in Asia and just being part of something great. I am so ready to spend so much more time traveling the world and being a life long humanitarian.

Here are just a few of my favorite moments of the trip aside from the pictures above: