Ward Camp Out

I am super excited this weekend our ward is doing a camp out!!! Adam and I have been wanting to go camping for a while now and we are super excited to go. We will take lots of pictures and try to remember all of the funny stories

okay so we went on a camp out! oh my word it was so much fun. Our ward threw together a camp out up at our bishop's family's cabin. (but we didn't sleep in the cabin) We ate BBQ pulled pork sandwiches that were amazing and enjoyed brownies and an array of salads brought by different families in the ward. That night we got to enjoy smores, this crazy game kind of like horse shoes, and playing catch phrase in a huge circle and being entertained by babies and children noises.
After we were all stuffed and ready to catch some Zzz's we went inside the shop and had a spiritual thought and then the families who didn't want to stay the night (because of prego bellies or babies already born)left. The rest of us got to enjoy watching Madagascar 2.

actually Adam and I were really tired so we decided to go to bed...but... there was a HUGE thunder storm and it started to rain. So all the families pulled their tents into the garage so they wouldn't get soaked. So Adam and I joined the party and watched the rest of Madagascar 2. By the time the movie finished it had stopped raining and we were able to go to sleep. We woke up early in the morning though to a wet tent and sleeping bag. The water seeped through the tent and was now on the inside. We got pretty cold but at least we can cuddle and get each other warm again. you couldn't do that at girls camp or scout camp. WOHO for married life! haha. That morning we got up and ate breakfast with some of the other families in the ward and had interesting conversations ranging from Lord of the Rings to doughnuts. What a fun time. I loved getting to know all the couples in a ward a little better and hanging out with them outside of church. Such a fun time!


I hope you all had great weekends! what did you do for the weekend? do you have any fun plans for the 4th of July?

The Audition

So today I auditioned for a RFinity commercial. It is a new technology they developed here in Idaho where you can use a chip in your phone to pay for everything-it replaces your credit card, debit card and my student account. cool huh!? Talk about nerve racking. I was pretty nervous because i don't do much acting but i thought...if i could be an extra in the background that would be cool, i mean i do have pretty fun facial expressions and that is what they are looking for.
so i actually get the nerve to finally audition and then all my nerves were gone...well most of them. but i felt pretty comfortable. I am somewhat wishing i can get the part because it sounds way fun and really funny. if i don't i won't be heart broken or anything.
but here is the major conflict. they are filming the commercial tomorrow and i am babysitting tomorrow until 3ish. so i hope they liked me enough to go around my schedule. anyways. that was my random step out of my comfort zone thing i did today. WOO HOO!

Elder Holland! Fantastic talk about coming unto christ!

 I had to write this for my religion class and i always like to save it somewhere for back up so i thought why not post it as a blog. hope you like it!

                Elder Holland gave an excellent talk about coming unto Christ and how that can impact your life. Whoever we are and wherever we are in our lives it is critical that we follow Christ because he will give us the way to return to our father in heaven. Elder Holland said “first and foremost of which is a personal spiritual relationship with deity, including the Savior, whose kingdom this is.” If we understand the savior then we will understand the type of life we need to be living in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

“I don't know what things may be troubling you personally tonight,” said elder Holland. “but, even knowing how terrific you are and how faithfully you are living, I would be surprised if someone somewhere weren't troubled by a transgression or the temptation of transgression. To you, wherever you may be, I say, Come unto him and lay down your burden. Let him lift the load. Let him give peace to your soul. Nothing in this world is more burdensome than sin. It is the heaviest cross men and women ever bear. And while I believe you to be the greatest generation of young adults ever to live in this Church, nevertheless the world around you is an increasingly hostile and sinful place. Occasionally that splashes onto us, and perhaps, in the case of a few of you, it may be nearly drowning you.”

Lay Down Your Burden, Is the first step of coming unto Christ. So many of us are in this world carrying our own burdens and wondering, how much longer will we suffer? It is up to us to lay our cares, troubles and trials at the feet of the lord and he will lift us and make our burden light again. “All he asks is that you walk away from the darkness and come into the light, his light, with meekness and lowliness of heart.” One of my favorite quotes from this talk is this. “For anyone out there seeking the courage to repent and change, I remind you that the Church is not a monastery for the isolation of perfect people. It is more like a hospital provided for those who wish to get well.”

Peace to Our Souls, is the second step of coming unto Christ. Elder Holland put it this way, “Just because God is God, just because Christ is Christ, they cannot do other than care for us and bless us and help us if we will but come unto them, approaching their throne of grace in meekness and lowliness of heart. They can't help but bless us. They have to. It is their nature.” Because of God’s nature he wants to bless us, we should have peace for the things that are out of our control. Heavenly Father will comfort us and give us strength at times we need it most.

Heal One Another is in my opinion the biggest and hardest step to accomplish. The reason it is so hard sometimes is because we are asked to serve, and love all man not just the ones that are nice to us. Elder Holland put it this way, “one thing I would now ask from you tonight--healing, healing for others, healing for those you love and, yes, perhaps especially for those you don't. The people around us need a lot of help, and I think the Lord expects us to join in that effort.” I have heard many times that the lord blesses his children not through angels but through those who are already on the earth. If we do our best to be open and serve those who are around us we can bless other people’s lives. If we are humble and come unto Christ we are better able to become tools in his hands to help our fellow brothers and sisters here on the earth.

Christ Watches over Us. We can take comfort in the fact that we are always being watched over and cared for by our father in heaven and by Christ, and he always bacons us to come unto him. Through Christ we can have our burdens lightened and we can return to our father in heaven.  Though we may not think so sometimes we constantly need Christ in our lives to help us and guide us and through his glorious atonement we are able to repent and change our ways.

R mountain!

Adam and I put together a hike to R mountain It was SOOO MUCH FUN! we invited as many people as we could and encouraged those people to invite friends. We ended up with a pretty good turn out.
While hiking I realized how out of shape i was. We went up the side that is short but really steep so I had to take quite a few breaks on the way up and by the time we got to the top my legs were burning. We got to the top and ate our lunches. My brother (chase) and his fiance (Jenny) and some of my brother's roommates/people he knew decided to go repelling just down from where the rest of us were (John, Leeann, Jordan, Heather, Adam and I). we camped out and ate lunch. We talked threw lots of rocks to see who's got the furthest and took lots of pictures. Leeann collected all the different flowers we came across and we all didn't get injured. YAY! here are some fun pictures from the trip!

Pretty view from the top!
and Funny sign we saw
John and Leann's new house--and a scary robber

Chase and Jenny


Jordan Adam and John throwing rocks to see who gets the furthest. really cute!

Jordan and Heather




and Repelling!

Plant killers?

So we got some strawberries a few months ago when it started warming up in Rexburg. I think it was in march... It was a warm sunny day when we decided to plant them. We decided to plant them and put the pot outside. BIG mistake. It snowed! so unfortunately all of our strawberry plants died!

So our second atempt at being "Green" we got a tomato plant from the farmer's market, but forgot to plant it for about a week. So it started to die. We planted it in a Topsy Turvy and hung it on our front porch and so far it is still HANGING in there. haha. I think it is getting some color back and looks like we might have some tomatoes.

So it is good that we can repent of our bad planting skills. We decided to get some new strawberry plants (3) and some lavender (good for medicine and is used in Adam's favorite spice Herbs de povonce) and we got some Hot banana peppers, which we hung upside down too. We were going to redeem ourselves from being plant killers. So we planted them the next day and got some pots for a really good deal at the family dollar. We planted them and have been watering them often. and we are seeing progress... the banana peppers have a new blossom and the strawberries have some strawberries starting to grow and some new blossoms. and the lavender has a new flower starting to turn purple. YAY maybe we aren't plant killers after all!

Me with our dying(?) tomato and our banana peppers! on our front porch

Adam with our strawberries and lavender on our back porch

our lavender! it smells sooo GOOD!

Kristen week!

Well this week has been a fun adventure!
Adam and I have had a pretty crazy week but it has been really fun!
This last weekend we went to the temple which is always really refreshing and fun. We work in the laundry area at the temple every other Friday.
Kristen
This semester I got a calling of being a Choir president. I really like the calling because i get to help motivate people to come to choir and have excuses to make treats for people who do come. I also have the calling of Relief society directory specialist. It is always fun to finally get the directory finished and then 5 new girls move into our ward. But it is a fun calling because it helps me to get to know the girls faster.
I had a test this week for Anatomy and Physiology. Our teacher said it was the hardest exam that we would take all semester. So there have been some long hours put into studying and going to a tutor really helped me to make sure i understood everything. We are also studying muscles in my A&P lab class and we just started studying the muscles with cadavers. Interesting. The chemical the bodies are preserved in make my eyes and throat burn and when we have the test on the muscles we will be tested using the cadavers.
I babysit for a family that lives behind us. They have a little boy that is (i think) almost 2. He is really cute and super smart and most of the time is pretty helpful but this last time babysitting him you could tell he was getting into his terrible 2's. He is super smart! He can unload the dishwasher and put everything in the right places, change the load of laundry from the washer to dryer and put it in the right setting and then load all the dirty clothes into the washer. THIS IS A 2 year old! But yesterday when i was babysitting him he ate breakfast and wanted a snack. it was almost lunch time so i didn't want him to not be hungry for lunch. So i said "no" and he flipped out and started crying. I let him cry for a few min seeing if he would stop and it didn't so i gave him a few animal crackers. once he finished those he wanted more so again i said "no" and he started crying again. I tried to distract him with other things to see if he would stop. like i tried to get him to play with his blocks or drink some juice (which he loves) but he kept crying. If this were my kid i would probably let him cry it out but he was crying for a while so i finally gave in and gave him some apple which is at least healthy. does anyone have any suggestions on what to do in situations like this?! i am open to any!
The relief society had a fun activity this week. we got to bring a couple wedding pictures and talk about how we met our husbands, tell engagement stories and anything else that was funny. It was really fun getting to know some of the girls in our ward that much more. I loved the stories that some of the girls told! so funny!
This week in general went really well though i really enjoyed watching a movie with Adam! We got Alice in Wonderland from netflix and it is pretty good. I thought it was a fun twist on the classic alice story! We decided that it wouldn't be a movie we would buy but it was worth watching.