More Sunday Goodness

After posting about how much I love Sundays, I checked facebook and noticied that there was a fireside at BYU that night for the Brasilian community. Elder Richard G Scott had been invited to speak to them. And, yes, he does speak Portuguese. Anyway, I called my brother who also served his mission in Brasil and asked if he wanted to go. I also invited another friend, who doesn't speak Portuguese but went hoping to get the chance to shake Elder Scott's hand. The fireside was to be held in a large auditorium on BYU campus and by the time we got there (and we were about half an hour early) the whole place was packed! All the seats were taken and the people standing were jammed in. They had also opened another auditorium where the meeting would be broadcast but all the seats were taken there as well. So we just started wandering around trying to decide whether to stay and fight for a seat or just go home. As we opened the door to leave the building, we found ourselves face to face with Elder Scott on his way in. He said hi and asked how we were doing and then went on in. We just stood there and stared after him. It was pretty funny to us, especially since we didn't even stay to hear him to speak.

Sunday!

I love Sundays! They are always so relaxing and peaceful. And today was such a beautiful, sunny, warm day. After church I came home, stuck a roast in my crock pot-I was planning on putting in before church so it would be done for lunch but that meant getting up too early-and put a sleeping bag outside on my lawn for a nice nap in the warm sunshine. I know that I have few days left to enjoy warm weather so I want to take advantage of it. Anyway, I am pretty much settled in up here in Sugarhouse now. My job is going well, although it is frustrating at times because there is so, so much to learn and I hate feeling helpless and needing to ask a million questions about everything. I bought a laptop last weekend, which means that I will probably be blogging a lot more just so I can use it. It is so much fun! And I have some pictures to post, but I need to figure out what is wrong with my camera first.

Ever had a day like this?

I love Calvin and Hobbes!!

Changes

Wow..I'm not very good at this blogging thing. I seem to have plenty of time for reading other people's blogs but just never enough time to write on my own. Maybe that is because writing on my own takes more creativity and brain power than just reading somebody elses. Anyway, many people have been nagging me for months to move back up north to be closer to them and I have finally decided to make the change. After working at Dixie Regional Medical Center for a year and a few months, I went in Tuesday and told my boss that I was quitting. Of course, he and everybody else have here has been trying to bribe me into staying somehow. We decided that I will stay until the end of September. I am starting to get excited for a new job, new roommates, and new adventures-expect for the part about moving to Salt Lake right before winter hits. But I am also very sad about leaving St George. I love it here. I love my hospital and my job and the weather and all my friends. I will miss them very much!



p.s. I was going to post about something I did last weekend but never got around to it. I finally went horse-back riding again! And I did it voluntarily, because I wanted to, which is a huge victory for me because I am pretty much deathly afraid of riding horses. :)

New Favorite Quote

"Heavenly Father is not too big to hear the smallest of prayers."

-www.maraadams.com

I have the spent the last few hours pouring over the details of the life of six-year-old Mara Adams. She is my friend's niece and was diagnosed last year with a very rare form of cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma or DPIG. There are only about 200 cases diagnosed per year and the median rate of survival is about 12 months with treatment consisting of chemotherapy and radiation. The disease is a result of a braim tumor that grows on the brain stem and prevents normal development of certain nerves and muscles. There are several other websites that highlight the lives of other children and their families and their fight against DPIG. It is amazing to me to read these stories and learn about the strength and faith of both parents and cancer victims, as well as all the good that other people in the world have done to help ease their suffering. I suppose it also makes me contemplate the role that I play professionally since many of the laboratory tests that I perform on a daily basis with dictate the course of treatment for many people. I hardly ever interact with patients so it is easy to forgot that each sample I run is from a real person. Learning about real people and their experiences in real life helps me to not become complacent in my job but rather to do my best each day so that I can have a positive influence on somebody somewhere.

Alma 32 Insights

I guess since today is Sunday I should post something gospel-related. So I will post an insight on Alma 32-you know, the chapter about planting the seed in our heart. But I cannot take credit for this insight because it was shared with me by a co-worked. He just walked up and said, "You know, in the scriptures when they talk about the gospel being a seed, it could be plural-seeds." Then he explained as follows:
He loves gardening. And mostly he plants things that he will harvest and use to make salsa. So he plants many different seeds-onions, tomatoes, different kinds of peppers, etc. that will become parts of the whole in a few months. But if he were to make salsa out of just tomatoes or just onions it would not be salsa. So, he reasoned, let's say the true gospel of Christ is like salsa-made up of many different kinds of vegetables, or doctrines. If all the doctrines aren't present, it cannot be the true gospel. Other churches may have some true doctrines; so they can make something out of that, but they can't make salsa because they do not have all truth, or all the ingredients.
I don't know if I explained that well enough to be understood by anybody other than myself but I thought it was pretty insightful. And I told him that he should bring chips and salsa to his sunday school class next week when he teaches the lesson on Alma 32. :)

Happy Fourth of July!

Okay, so it's true that the 4th of July is over, but that is what I am going to post about today. I drove up to Provo on Thursday night and stayed with my sister, Emily. We went and saw the movie "Emma Smith: My Story", which I highly recommend. I learned some new things about Emma's life and just enjoyed being able to watch a good movie without ever worrying about the content of it. There should definitely be more movies like that.

But the best part of my weekend was, of course, Friday! And that is because my little sister, Amy, got home from her mission. She flew in from Boston around 10:30 on Friday morning, so we all went to the airport dressed in typical freedom colors. I brought my camera so that I would have pictures to post, but the battery died before Amy even got off the plane. I guess I should have checked it beforehand. One of these times I think my family will be banned from picking people up at the airport because we always bring a big group and we always seem to get some annoyed looks and a little reprimanding from airport officials about not blocking doors and walkways. But, we always have fun. Besides, my family only has one more missionary to pick up so they can be patient with us through him. Anyway, it was fun to see her again! Then we went to my aunt's house and had a huge family BBQ and introduced Amy back into Babylon by teaching her to play Guitar Hero and other games on my cousin's wii. Later, we did fireworks at our house. Mostly we made fun of all the fireworks because for some reason they aren't quite as exciting as they used to be. All in all, it was a fun day and I am pretty much convinced that I have the greatest family in the world.