Longish, but oh so good!

Here's a little story from devotional yesterday. Elder Kieth R. Edwards from the Second Quorum of the Seventy spoke. He was sharp, witty and very thought provoking.

"Some time ago I was interviewing a young missionary who had been in the field for about 3 months. He indicated that he wanted to go home. As I made inquiry he explained that things had really gone sour for him. The first challenge was adjusting to the funny food he was having to eat. I asked if that was the only reason why he wanted to go home. He explained that that indignity was followed by jet lag and a cold.

I then asked, "Is there anything else?" He said that his companion didn't think the way he did and was hard to get along with and hard to understand.

My response again was, "Is there anything else?" He answered that he was miffed that his language skills didn't come faster and that it was hard to understand the people.

Finally he shared the "coup de grace" -- he got a "Dear John" from his girl friend back home.

I asked him, "Which of these problems that you have had was a surprise to God?" He seemed startled and asked me what I meant.

I said, "Do you believe in an omniscient (all-knowing) God?"

He stammered for a second and replied, "yes."

Then I asked, "So if you believe in an omniscient - all-knowing - God, did He know that you were going to have all of these problems before you came into the mission field?"

He answered, "well, I guess so." I then said something that really caught him off guard. I said, "He must really hate you!"

After he got over the shock, he smiled and said, "No. Father in Heaven loves me."

I then asked him the question that he was now waiting for: "If God knew that you were going to have all this torment before you came into the mission field, and if He doesn't hate you, why would He allow all these things happen to you?"

Again, he smiled and suggested, "maybe I'm supposed to learn something."

His challenge was that he wanted the lesson without paying the price. He wanted faith, but did not want to act or persist or endure. Faith is an "action word."

Click here to read the rest. (Or you can watch it--way more powerful that way.)
Only 11 more days until General Conference!

Here is something I think is funny...

Last week I went to campus to meet Li for devotional. (One of the perks of being unemployable.) I found this cool spot in the parking lot and thought to myself, "That looks like it was made for mopeds." I promptly parked.



After devotional I got to thinking and told Li that maybe I wasn't supposed to park where I did. He asked where I parked and I told him it was between two handicapped spots. He agreed that I shouldn't park there. But I was still confused and asked what the spot in the middle with the cool diagonal lines was for.

He laughed and informed me that it is for the people with handicaps to get out of their cars. Hmmm. What didn't I think of that?

Does anyone out there in the blogosphere want to hire me?
I'm really good at lots of things and people usually like me.

Just letting you know that I'm available.

Tonight's the night

Guess what comes back tonight.....

(the answer was HEROES.)

But if you missed it you can still get caught up here.

Happy fall to you too.

We don't really have seasons here in Laie. But I guess the weather wanted to mix things up a bit so we could pretend it was fall here too. We got rain dumped on us this morning!

Which is only really unfortunate because Li's moped decided it wanted to hang out at the temple for a bit and refused to start when he came out Saturday afternoon. We smooshed onto my moped to go to campus this morning (in the pouring rain) only to discover that she was out of gas.

Doesn't life just make you giggle?

And the best part of my day is that I am currently filling out a job application to work at BYUH food services.

(this is my mad face)

Edited to inform you that: Food services won't even take me!

And now the moment you've all been waiting for....

WE GOT MOPEDS!!!

We love them so much. We no longer spend hours waiting for the bus. We can make plans with friends and be at their house in 10 minutes instead of an hour and a half. We don't have to hitchhike to church anymore. Life is great, all because of our new wheels!!

(P.S. I totally did not mean to drag that out so long but Li wouldn't let me post it until I had a good picture.)

Oh boy.

We have some big news coming soon. Really big.
(PS Li's not pregnant and neither am I.)

Reincarnation

I think we shouldn't have killed the roach. I'm pretty sure he came back to haunt me in the form of a mouse. Suffice it to say lunchtime found me standing on a chair reaching for my phone to call Li. Only to hear that he wouldn't be home for 3 hours and I was on my own.

Just me and the roach-turned mouse.

Ugh.

an additon to our family

This is who came to Family Home Evening tonight....


Jen

Li

and this little guy.

Actually he was GINORMOUS.

Happy Sunday Morning

These words...

Because you are so valuable, some of your trials may be severe. You need never be discouraged or afraid. The way through difficulties has always been prepared for you, and you will find it if you exercise faith.

are true.

For more go here.

I shouldn't complain about waiting for the bus...

I realize that not everyone has such an amazing view while they wait for the bus.
Still I can't wait until we get mopeds!

ChaChaCha

If you haven't heard of ChaCha yet check them out here. Or just text a question to 242242. And yes, I did apply to be a guide. So yes, after I pass my tests, I will be one the people answering all the questions.

Although I think it would be funnier if I just got the message in my inbox inviting me to be a ChaCha guide and I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about!

This little message in my inbox made my day....

Congratulations! You are invited to become a ChaCha Guide!

Sissy pants

All summer long I BEGGED Li to lift weights with me this semester. He was not very receptive to my pleadings. Then he found out he had to take fitness for living and the other day he informed me that he was going the gym in the morning. I wasn't invited. Que raiva! (funny that my anger just expressed itself in Portuguese!) Turns out he was kidding. And as you can see from this video, this is no laughing matter!!

Okay on second thought it's actually quite funny how pathetically weak I am.
(Li would like me to add that this was not where we went to workout.)

Miracle #2

My dad doesn't smile in pictures.

But on our last day in Utah Li made Kalua Pig.

Still haven't found what I'm looking for.

This one time Li lost his sock. Then he pinned the other one on the wall and offered a million dollars to whoever found its missing partner.


I'm still looking for that lost sock.

Huuuhh.....Li just informed me that I already found the sock. I guess I'm still looking for my one million dollars.

aloha 'oe

We miss you guys!!

yep.

So our summer didn't turn out anything like we planned. But it was glorious. Here are a few highlights...

Li got to see his mommy. And his dad. And all of his brothers and sisters.
(who are scattered all over the usa.)

I got my hair chopped!

We went to Jackson Hole.

And Yellowstone.

And we wakeboarded.


Plus we also went to San Diego, hiked the Narrows, partied in Provo and lots more fun things. Somehow we managed to not take very many pictures this summer. Ooops!

Now we are back in paradise and I must say it is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. There are almost 4 miles between us and campus. 4 miles that involve a big hill, scrounging for change for a bus, generally a long wait for the bus, the actual bus ride and then another 1/2 mile walk to actually get there. Hopefully we can remedy this situation quickly!

But things are actually going really well. We've been able to spend lots of time with friends, we like our new house and our new neighbors. And we are having fun laughing at some silly adventures together.

help?

Is anyone out there in Hawaii and able to pick us up from the airport Monday morning?

on the road...

On our way from Florida to Utah we saw lots of funny things. Like this place called South of the Border. Words can't explain. These pictures really can't either, but take a look at them and then let your imagination go wild. And then next time you are between North and South Carolina and you see the billboards, stop. You won't regret it!!



If for nothing else, at least go for the free golf.

long strange trip

No, we didn't start out our little adventure across the USA with a UHAUL...

Especially because this is all we had to fill it up!

No, we picked up this little addition to our adventure when our car broke down near Silverthorne, CO and we needed a way to get it back home.

Li drove this whole mess for 10 hours straight, he even reversed...I was seriously impressed!
We got to Hurricane at 2am and left at 7am to go with Brett to the MTC.

WHAT A SUMMER.

NEWS FLASH!!!

Monday at 10 we found out that Li's office was being closed for the summer and we had to be out of our condo by 2. So we did what anyone would do in the circumstances...packed up as quick as we could and spent the day at Disney!

Tuesday morning I quit my job and we drove ALL day and ALL night to get to Philadelphia. We are staying with Li's brother Jason "on the way" to Utah for the rest of the summer.

What a summer!!

20 is my new favorite number

Lately I've been uberlazy and out of shape but I couldn't bring myself to start working out. I finally decided to do something aerobic for 20 minutes....walk, jog, play with the ripstick, dance, whatever. It's been awesome. 20 minutes is usually enough to break a sweat, get some happy endorphins going and make me want to do 20 minutes again the next day.

It worked so well I decided to apply the same 20 minute rule to my nonexistent scripture study program. No pressure to write things down, look up cross references or do anything that requires thinking too hard....just open up the book for 20 minutes. Again, awesome. The hardest part is getting them open, once I cross that bridge I usually want to search something deeper, write something down, or even read longer. But if not, that's cool too.

And then the kicker...Li and I have had many discussions about how to keep the house clean without one of us just doing all the work. Last night we agreed on, you guessed it, 20 minutes a day. So far so good!

3 cheers for 20 minute jumpstarts!!

visitor of the day

I love google analytics.

Thanks to Lex for putting Ljubljana on my map.
You made my day.

contest winners

CONGRATULATIONS to

lex
brad campbell
&
aj


also honorable mention to
Emmie (orange + barrel)
&
brynne, aaron and cade

for correctly identifying my location in this contest.

Send me your address and I'll send you something real nice.