Palm Sunday

"It is fitting that during the week from Palm Sunday to Easter morning we turn our thoughts to Jesus Christ, the source of light, life, and love. The multitudes in Jerusalem may have seen Him as a great king who would give them freedom from political oppression. But in reality He gave much more than that. He gave us His gospel, a pearl beyond price, the grand key of knowledge that, once understood and applied, unlocks a life of happiness, peace, and fulfillment."

--Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Way of the Disciple," Ensign May 2009, 75-78

I love Palm Sunday.  It begins one of the most sacred weeks in Christendom.  It reminds us of the great atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am grateful to be able to celebrate Palm Sunday each year and sing praises to the King of Kings as the people of Jerusalem did so many years ago.

In honor of the day, here are some photos from the Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem the semester that I was there.  It was an incredible sight to watch Christians of all different denominations gather together to celebrate the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem.

Dad buying "palm" fronds from the local kids. 

(He always was a sucker for cute kids selling stuff over there!)

)

 Look how big the palm fronds are!

Various Christians of all different sects and groups marching in the Processional

There were a LOT of people there-- you can see it filled up the whole street.  

The processional follows the way Christ would have walked, from the Mount of Olives to the Lion's Gate in the Old City on the Temple Mount.

This isn't a video I took, but it's a beautiful one of the Palm Sunday Processional in Jerusalem

A non-LDS, but pretty good depiction of Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

An LDS Bible video of the Triumphal Entry.

Happy Palm Sunday!!!

Back from Hiatus

After a week of partying it up with my sisters, Krista, Janel, and Danielle, I'm ready to delve back into my poetry notebook.  This is another of my favorite poems that I have written.

Ripples

A single stone
Dropped in the pool
Seems but a blip
In the deep and cool
Blue water
That stretches
far and wide
While this pebble
In a fist could hide
It shouldn't matter if it falls
into the water- it's so small
A tiny splash is all it makes
And yet one drop is all it takes
For when a rock
falls deep inside
A tranquil pond
It cannot hide
The ripples caused
by that small drop
Each ring spreads wider
With great ease
until it hits
the banks and trees
Yes, pebbles may seem awfully small
But really, they're not small at all

Black and White

This poem is another re-post.  It's the next one in my notebook, and it's one of my all-time favorites.  I probably spent more time on it than any other poem I've ever written.  I was inspired to write Black and White as I reflected on my mission and how it helped me to see things from others' viewpoints.  I finished it in Israel as I visited various churches and learned about different cultures and continued opening my eyes to the many beautiful cultures and belief systems throughout the world.


Black and White

I used to think
in black and white
A thing was wrong
or a thing was right

Why don't you think
the way I do?
What's right for me
is right for you.

But then one day,
twixt dusk and dawn
I saw the grey
come creeping on.

I stumbled--
There was naught to grasp
No absolute
for me to clasp

But on I pressed
through mists of dark
Not quite depressed
Yet not a lark

And as I toiled
throughout the day
A guiding hand
Showed me the way

And through the struggle
I gained strength
and hope sprang up
Until at length

A shaft of light
pierced through the gloom
And in my heart
I felt more room

The fog was broken
by the beams
of Daybreak’s
diamond dewy dreams

A thousand colors,
shades and hues
Of purple, orange
reds and blues

Danced across
the damask skies
Till teardrops glistened
On my eyes

The golden morning
sailed on
Yet in my mem'ry
It lives on

That day when first
I learned to see
The rainbow's
Multiplicity

And when I'm tempted
to give voice
to judgment
on another's choice

I feel the glory
of that day
And then I'm thankful
for the grey.

Forget Me Not

This week was the birthday of one of the sisters I visit teach.  I was trying to think of a simple gift idea when I picked up a Deseret Book catalog that had just come in the mail.  Deseret Book was using President Uchtdorf's October 2011 Relief Society General Broadcast talk, Forget Me Not to market little Forget Me Not starter flower pots.  The idea inspired me to do something similar for the sisters I visit teach.

I thought it was a fun, inexpensive idea.  The whole thing cost less than $3.  The paper is Elder Uchtdorf's talk.  Most importantly, I hope that it helped remind my friend of her infinite worth in God's eyes.  I hope it reminds all of you of how precious you are in God's sight, too.

He is Risen

Lost and Found

Yesterday I lost my cell phone. It was a very frustrating experience.

Normally I'm very careful about where I set my phone. I only ever put it 1) on top of my chest of drawers, or 2) in one of the 3 bags I take places. Because of this I usually know exactly where my cell phone is. In the last year since I acquired it, I have never lost it . . . until yesterday at approximately 8pm.

I noticed that my phone was gone when I arrived at ward prayer last night. During the summer we have ward prayer outside, next to the volleyball pit. I got to ward prayer just a few minutes before it started and reached in my purse to turn my phone to silent.

It wasn't there.

I cursed myself for forgetting my phone at my family's house and decided to go back after ward prayer to retrieve it. There was just one problem: It wasn't there. I called it at least five times, scoured my room, and checked both cars that I had driven. No phone.

At this point I was starting to feel a little panicked. My apartment complex just cut off our phone line about a week ago. How's that for rotten timing? I was now unable to contact friends or family, other than by email (assuming that my tempermental internet wouldn't disconnect unexpectedly in the middle of an email or instant message).

As I continued searching, the thought came that maybe I should pray to find my phone. I hesitated at first. Did I really need to pray about something so trivial? It was definitely inconvenient not to have it, but in the eternal scheme of things, wasn't a lost cell phone pretty insignificant? As I pondered, I felt a reassurance that it would be okay to pray for help. I decided to check my car one last time, and if the phone still wasn't there, I would pray.

As expected, the phone was not in my car. I came back inside and prayed for help. I explained that it wasn't a huge deal, but that it was very inconvenient not having my phone and that if possible, I would like to find it soon. Then I fell asleep.

This morning I was barely awake when my sister, Janel, showed up at my door. She had my phone in hand. Upon questioning her, I learned the details of how she had come in possesion of my phone:

Janel had received the email I had sent to my family, explaining that I had lost my phone and could only be contacted by email until it showed up. She decided to call it and see if anyone would answer. To her surprise, someone did. Apparently the phone had fallen on the ground near my apartment parking lot, and just as Janel called it, a girl happened to be walking by, heard the phone, and answered it. She arranged to give it to Janel and Janel brought it back to me.

Was it just a coincidence? Some people might think so, but I disagree. When I prayed last night, I knew that I would find my phone. Maybe if I had prayed sooner I would even have found it last night. Who knows?

Either way, I'm just grateful to have my phone back. The Lord does hear and answer prayers. Miracles happen every day.

Even in the form of a pink cell phone.

Goals

I used to hate the word goals. I think my antipathy for goals began at the tender age of twelve, when I was introduced to the Young Women's Personal Progress Program. Personal progress always seemed so tedious to me. I would put off my goals until the last week or two before New Beginnings (the recognition night for the acheivement of said goals). Mom would always discover that I hadn't started on the goals and would force me to sit down and immediately make plans to finish them in time. This always seemed like such a tedious process to me. Did I really care what the definition of integrity was? Did I really need to write in my journal examples of times I had shown faith in my life? Without exception, I would end up picking the shortest and easiest goals to complete--ones like telling your mom you love her or doing an anonymous good deed for someone (I could always find someone's bed to make and have that completed in five seconds.) As far as I was concerned, goals were just another checklist to mark off as fast as possible so Mom would stop nagging me. I remember thinking with great relish "I can't wait until I'm out of Young Women and I never have to set another goal again!"

Obviously I realized the fallacies of this logic fairly quickly. Even after Young Women I found that there were times I still needed to set goals. When I started college, Mom helped me set goals to be more social and talk to people in my classes and at church. Dad "encouraged" me to set goals to earn enough money to pay for my year at the dorms myself, and later to pay for my mission myself (an encouragement I admittedly didn't appreciate at the time, but afterward was grateful for it). Begrudgingly, I had to admit that goal-setting didn't end with the presentation of my Young Women Medallion.

In spite of my continued efforts to set goals, my true conversion to goal-setting didn't happen until I became a missionary. As part of the missionary rules, missionary companionships were required to set goals we wanted to acheive for the transfer, the week, and the day. In addition, we were encouraged to work on personal goals individually. At first I found this annoying, tedious, and time-consuming, but as I began setting and acheiving personal goals, I was surprised to find that I actually liked it.

In the missionary guide, Preach My Gospel, in the section under goal-setting, it says:
"Goals reflect the desires of our hearts and our vision of what we can accomplish. . ."
"The ultimate measure of success is not in acheiving goals alone, but in the service you render and the progress of others." Reading this gave me a fresh perspective on the purpose of goals. Contrary to my twelve-year-old impressions, goals are not a torture-device created by parents to make their teenage daughters miserable. Goals actually make me happier. I love the satisfaction of knowing that I have set a goal and actually made it. It gives me hope and makes me want to try better. As Preach My Gospel says, "through goals, our hopes are transformed into action."

Lately I have been feeling a little bit down-- just not as happy as I'd like to be. It seems like life has become a boring trudge down the same barren paths-- school, work, school, work, etc. So, after some reflection I decided that maybe what I need is some new goals to brighten my perspective and give me fresh hope. With that in mind I came up with 3 new goals for myself:

1. Go to bed by 11pm every night. (This one will be the hardest, but I really want to do it. As motivation, I've promised to reward myself with a new haircut if I can stick with it for a week.)
2. Read scriptures before nighttime. (I always read them right before bed, and I'm always too sleepy to get much out of them. Time for a change.)
3. Write in my journal every day.

Already I'm more excited just thinking about these goals (and not just because of the prospect of a cute new haircut). It will be fun to see how my live improves from these few simple steps. At any rate, I'm off to a good start-- I already acheived two of them (scripture study and journal writing) for today. Now if I can just make it into bed on time-- I can picture the new haircut already!

Highlights of this last General Conference

1. President Hinckley "knighting" President Eyring with his cane after he was called to the First Presidency.

2. Elder Wirthlin showing what it really means to teach by example as he continued his talk on love for at least 10 minutes after he started shaking badly.

3. Getting to see conference in Salt Lake for the first time.

4. Taking Trax for the first time

5. Watching Jacob alternate between tired, confused look and cheesy smile.

6. Finding out who would be the next apostle and member of the First Presidency.

7. Being with the family all day long!

8. Mom's heavenly chocolate cake.

9. Driving up into the canyon afterward to see the leaves and the view of the valley.

Looking back at this conference weekend, we were blessed with a lot of great moments. It's nice to have a conference weekend like that to put things in perspective. Sister Mary N. Cook said that we should strengthen our relationships with our brothers and sisters because they may become our best friends. I'm grateful to know that my best friends are within my family. "For I have no greater joy than to know that my [family] walk in truth." --1 John 1:4