My grandparent's mission.

My grandparents (on my Dad's side) started a mission in Guadalajara last February. For those people reading who aren't LDS, when someone goes on a mission, it means that they go to somewhere in the world and preach about our church.
Guadalajara has a beautiful temple, and that's where they are serving their mission, doing temple work. Guadalajara also happens to be the temple our stake is assigned to go. I think it's sort of strange that my grandparents are closer while they are on a mission than they where at home. But, I like the idea of having them be remotely closer.
My grandparents are really happy to serve the Lord. You can tell by just looking at them. This mission has really changed their lives.
One of the things I think is neat about them being there while we are doing baptisms for the dead, is that they help around. They get to know my friends and also I get to spend more time with them.
I love my grandparents very much. They are a great impact on my life and I hope their mission also is an impact on theirs.
Thanks for reading,
Em

A good-bye gift

I haven't been able to post anything for a long time. It's been close to a month or more (I'm going with more).
So, last time I said something about that I'm going to start school on-line for 8th grade, because my classmates weren't exactly the best people in the world. I was already enrolled for the next year at the same school, but my parents pulled me out. The principal was in shock that we wanted to leave (it makes their school look good that American people go to their school). She pulled me into her office and asked me if there was a problem. I would have loved to tell her everything, but I was afraid that if I said something, the people that were being mean to me would make it worse or ignore me completely. After a lot of considering the matter, I finally told her everything about it.
Her plan was to pull each kid, one by one, into her office and see what she could do. It was a couple of weeks before school got out, so that if worse came to worse, it would only last a little while.
I waited and waited for the day to come, (I was terrified of what would happen). I prayed, I fasted, my family prayed for me, but I was still uneasy. My principal never came. Finally, I completely forgot about it, thinking that she had more important things to do, other than deal with the 7th graders.
The very last day of school, on the last period, she pulled all of the girls into her office, (we had a small class, so we were only 5 girls). She asked them why they were so cruel to me during the school year. I held my breath. No answer, only shrugs. She asked them to grade the way they treated me in the last several months, from a scale of 5 to 10 (5 being the worst, 10 being the best). They all gave a 5! I was so surprised, I could have fallen out of the chair.
When school was done, 2 of my 4 classmates apologized (one of them didn't go that day and the other always refused to talk to me).
I was so relieved to have that off my shoulders, and that Heavenly Father answered my prayers. I know he always listens, if our prayers are sincere.
Em

When I look around me...

When I look around me and everything I see- the sky, trees, birds--my loving mother -it's hard to suppress the love that fills my heart. I am so filled with gratitude for God, even my loving, eternal Father in Heaven, and that He has sent me here on Earth for a reason and a purpose- a divine purpose -to spread His true and everlasting Gospel to all of His beloved children. He has given me so much knowledge of the Truth- the truth of all of it. Every single question- and I exaggerate not -has been answered by His Holy Spirit, who dwells in me even now. And I know with out a doubt, and I could never deny, that all things shall be known unto me by the Spirit, as long as I am righteous. I am so happy. It is incredible- all of it. To know that I am loved so much- to an infinite and eternal degree -by my Heavenly Father, that He has entrusted the knowledge of His gospel to me. And I want every single person to have what I have. Because He loves them just as much. I want this more than anything I could ever want. I want my future husband to be a worthy priesthood holder and I want to live with him for eternity as his wife; I want our children to live with this same blessing, and for eternity. I want it so much for every human being God has ever created. That is what joy is. Joy is the knowledge that what you know is both true and eternally gracious and joyful and sharing that with everyone who exists. Because spirits are eternal, and so is this gospel of Jesus Christ. Even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And I am grateful.


Whenever I hear the song of a bird,
Or look at the blue, blue sky,
Whenever I feel the rain on my face,
Or the wind as it rushes by,
Whenever I touch a velvet rose,
Or walk by our lilac tree,
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world,
Heavenly Father created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see,
The colors of butterfly wings.
He gave me my ears that I might hear,
The magical sounds of things.
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart,
I thank Him reverently,
For all His creations of which I'm a part,
Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me. ♥

Homeschooling

In this last year of school, I have been having a lot of problems with my classmates. A week or so ago, my mom said she couldn't see bear to see me like this any longer, and that, staring next year, she was going to home school me.
Originally, I was going to start homeschooling me in the 9th grade, because I want to do college in the U.S, and if I do High School down here in Mexico, it will cost 3 or 4 times the tuition to get in.
At first, I wasn't too excited about the idea of doing this. I love everything about the school I'm in: my teachers, the way they work, the only thing ruining this was the way my classmates treat me. In the end, I decided it wasn't worth having them put me through the things they say and do to me.
My parents decided on an LDS Internet course from Utah. I love everything about it, especially the fact that I can get up another 2 hours later! =)
This reminds me, I only have next Monday and Tuesday as a 7th grader and as a student at a Mexican private school. The school principal was really sad that I was leaving, my parents had already signed me up for 8th grade, but she is really sweet about it and respected the decision.
I can't wait for August to come!
Thanks for reading.
Em

My plans for this Summer

I feel kind of bummed out because all my cousins and family up in the U.S have been out of school for a while, but in Mexico we are still in school. :( But, for this summer me and my family have plans for this summer vacation,... once it come.
At the end of June, we are going to drive up to visit my grandparents. All the way up, it's about...over 24 hours. So we drive up until New Mexico and stay the night and visit family for a few days. Then we drive up to Utah where my grandparents live. All my mom's brothers and sisters go and stay there.
We go up for one of my favorite holidays: the 4th of July! In the town where my grandparents live they have a parade, games and fireworks and a bunch of other fun stuff. A week later, we have a family reunion and get together for a few days to go camping.
Me and my family also get groceries and other stuff that we can't get here in Mexico, like Peanut Butter. Sometimes we'll go to an amusement park or something fun like that.
It's really fun to go up and visit my family in the Summer. It's quite interesting to see people I haven't seen in a while and how much they have changed. My friends always ask me to bring back pictures, so that they can see my family and the different places (they really like it when I bring back pictures of snow when we go up for Christmas, we don't get snow here).
I can't wait until we go up! There's only like a week-and-a-half left until then!
Em
P.S: I like comments....and appreciate them

Scared about an assignment

Wow. It's been a while since my last post. Well, I've had a pretty crazy month. Once I got back into school, after 3 weeks of not having any, they lengthened the school year in Mexico until mid-July!! And I thought getting out at the end of June was bad...oh well.
I've also had a lot of homework since we got back. Between all my homework, there is one that will always stand out in my memories.
In Geography, a week back, we were talking about culture and religion. It may sound kind of weird at first, but if you think about it, culture in a country can vary, depending on religion. Our teacher asked us to bring a presentation on a religion. One kid got Judaism, another got the Roman Catholic Church, and one even got protestants. I bet you can guess what I got. =) I was assigned the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the one where I am a member.
You can't imagine how nervous I was about it. I have problems at school already because I'm from the U.S and because I... umm...stand out of the crowd. I was worried that when I started to explain about our principals, they would start to laugh at me. They already think it's strange we have a really long name to remember. My mom said that I should talk to my teacher express my concerns. That helped me calm down a little bit while I was doing it.
I got more and more nervous as Geography that day crept closer and closer. I had prayed and prayed the night before. During my lunch break I talked to my teacher and asked her to please help me in case things got out of hand. She told me that she would all she could to make my presentation go as smoothly as possible. I thanked her, but it was a tiny detail against a huge problem.
I was one of the last kids to explain the religion. Once it was my turn I put up a couple of poster boards and started to explain. I felt a wave of peace cross my mind. I started talking about Joseph Smith. That he had wondered which of all the churches were true. I explained the first vision and that he saw God and Jesus Christ and that they talked to him and told him that none of the churches were true, and they instructed him to reestablish the church that Jesus had when he was on Earth. To my surprise, everyone in my class were paying attention. I talked about the LDS pioneers as they traveled the country, from New York, until getting to what is now Utah.
I explained our beliefs. That we believe the 10 commandments, but that we have 13 Articles of Faith that explained it in more detail.
When I was done, I felt calm. Everyone had understood all that I said and I got an A.
I was happy to be able to explain to my class about my beliefs AND get a good grade for it.
Thanks for reading.
Em

Service ----> Happiness :D

Yesterday I had the opportunity with the all of the stake youth to go to World Vision as one of our big service projects we do every year. World Vision is a non-profit organization that supports countries in Africa and other 3rd-world countries. They first establish trust with a town or village (and the country, especially the leaders, etc. to get an okay to help) and then they set up camps, provide food, shelter, clothes, and medical help (which is where we come in). Then, when the village is entirely self-sufficient, they move on to the next one. World Vision gets tons of donations since it is recognized as an international organization; these donations, for example, come from big sports teams like the Red Sox, Nuggets, and New England Patriots etc. when they lose games (because the profit goes down and companies can't sell paraphernalia because of the fans' loss of interest in the team). Donations also come from the government when they find an illegal reproduction of something- like a couple of years ago when we re-packaged fake Nike's. And then there are also medical, shelter, food, and basic need donations that are sent via World Vision. SO, what we do when we visit is take crates of boxes (yesterday we had women's clothing), unpack the boxes, take all the plastic and tags off the clothing, repack the clothing in specially marked World Vision boxes, write the quantity and type of clothing article (with 10 digit codes), tape up the boxes, and put them in their respective stacks. It sounds like dull work, but I have had so much fun every time I've gone. We all chat and joke around and even try on some of the clothing just for fun. :) Though what I enjoy most of all, is being able to provide clothing and other needs, even indirectly, to poor and starving sons and daughters of God. It is so easy to do big things like this, that I wish we could do it more than once a year. Service is such a beneficial thing for both sides of the act; it makes me so happy! I try to look every day for little things that I can do, but I think I forget that they too can be powerful, just like World Vision. So I guess I'll close my little note with one of my all-time favorite scriptures. Mosiah 2:17 reads, "I say these things that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."
Have a fabulous week! :)

The Value of Failure

Where to begin... it seems that so many things are not going as well as I would like- and right as I am preparing to go to college and begin the rest of my life. It is a hard thing to learn from--failure. So much anger has entered my mind over the most trivial things, that I am ashamed. I have always disliked the phrase, "Life is not fair," and I have come to realize that it really is true. But along with that unfortunate affirmation I have learned with even greater conviction that though life on this earth may be unfair, the Lord is not unfair, and the gospel is not unfair. In fact, the Lord isn't "fair" either; He is merciful, and He always will be. Through disappointments and fallen wishes, when it seems like no one is there to be a comfort, I have learned that the Savior and our loving Heavenly Father are always there (along with my beautiful mother ♥). I take that for granted too often. The Lord will always, always, always do what is best for us, and building up that trust takes time, but with continual prayer and pleading with the Lord to understand His ways, we will always be comforted and receive His love and compassion in our lives. Thank heaven for that.