Things that terrify me!

* I started writing this blog post almost a year ago, and I have decided to finish to celebrate it being an entire year since I left for Switzerland. Crazy! Where does time go?


Hey so lately I have been doing things that scare me!!!! I wrote a whole blog post why, if you want to read it you can click here. Any who one of the things that really made me want to throw up every time I thought about it was leaving the United States and experiencing somewhere else. I had always always always always wanted to do this but I was to scared to even try. Well I finally did it! It began almost a two years ago when my friend mentioned a study  abroad program to me. It sounded cool but I didn't think I would ever actually go but then I started doing things that scared me and I thought Hey why not? So without letting myself think about it too much I applied for the study abroad program and paid the application fee...which was a couple hundred dollars....and non-refundable. Lets just say I felt pretty sick after I paid that fee. It seemed like a huge gamble to me especially if I didn't even get into the program but it was too late to get it back so life went on. Then I got into the program and I had to pay a lot more money....yep...talk about major anxiety.BUT it was so worth it! It really never felt like I was actually going to leave for the trip and suddenly it was there and then I was in Switzerland!!! Cow bells ringing in my ears, gigantic bees and some pretty spectacular views. I don't think I could ever write it all down, everything that I experienced and learned. It was amazing. It is funny how sometimes you have to go so faraway to realize things about yourself that really you knew all along but you just didn't see.  Since I could never ever tell you everything about my Swiss trip I think a few stories would be fun to write down.

The Jules Verne Restaurant! How cool!

Gimmelwald

Lake Geneva

It is never a good idea to slide into a door.

The moment the airplane landed in Geneva it was a totally different world. It wasn't a very big airport. I waited behind everyone to get money out of the ATM machine and when it came out it was weird to see how colorful it was. It wasn't long before we were on a train heading to Aigle ( which I am probably still pronouncing wrong.) I was so tired from the plane ride that I felt like I could drop anywhere and fall asleep but as soon as that train came out of the tunnel my face was glued to the window. We passed big estates right along Lake Geneva, town after town after town we went through, I couldn't even tell you all of their names. The one thing that surprised me was the Graffiti, it was mostly closer to the train stations and it was odd to me that they would graffiti English words like SALAD on a building. I couldn't help but laugh wondering if there was some sort of gang in Switzerland called Salad. Probably not but hey it kept me awake.

Lots of times I couldn't speak with people because they didn't know much English and I didn't know ANY French, or German, or Italian other than hello and thank you. So when I would go into shops to buy food lots of times I would just point. One Day I went to this pastry shop in Soloturn. I just used my pointing method but I should have looked more carefully at what the shop attendant actually put inside the bag. I went back outside and sat on a bench just outside the city with a friend. The birds there are so annoying! They sit there and stare at you inching closer and closer until finally you share some of your bread with them because you feel so bad for eating in front of them. Well my friend hated them! She would glare and stomp at them until they would finally go away. I was laughing at this when I reached into my pastry bag and instead of finding what I had thought would be there it was something else. It turned out to be a delicious mistake, and that pastry became my favorite one of the entire trip.

The delicious pastry I still have no name for

Also in Soloturn we visited a hermitage. It was one of the most peaceful places I have ever visited. It was like this little piece of wilderness tucked into a city. It was fun to imagine what is was like hundreds of years ago to be a hermit, who know if it was even around hundreds of years ago.

This was next to the Hermitage Chapel

One of my favorite tours that we went through, was the Cailler Chocolate Factory. It really felt as if we were going on a Disneyland ride that told us all about the history of chocolate. It was amazing! That best part was at the end, the very last room is filled with chocolate and the best part is you get to try all of it! Talk about a chocolate lover's dream come true. 

CHOCOLATE!

The hands down best part of Switzerland though was all of the amazing people I met! 

Motes and Beams

I love going to church! It's an amazing place where you can feel of the Saviors love and learn about the gospel. It's a wonderful place to be, but sometimes I wish people were more real. Let's just all admit it right here and right now, we put on this grand show to make people believe that everything is alright. We don't want to be judged or considered weak or have people think we are crazy.

But then it gets worse because we go to church and it seems like everyone else around us is perfectly okay. And then you start to feel like a complete failure again! See, most human beings have this problem with vulnerability. We don't want others to know how vulnerable we are, but being vulnerable isn't a bad thing.

I didn't learn that until I started bawling in front of one-hundred people. There was literally about one hundred people watching me sob. And my nose kept running and I didn't have enough tissues. It was not fun and after I had finally stopped crying, which took the better part of an hour, everyone kept coming up to me and giving me hugs. If you want hugs just start crying in front of a bunch of Mormons and they will magically appear ;).  But after this happened I was so ashamed of myself. I wished I could take back that moment but I couldn't. I was so afraid of what people would think of me. I was so afraid that they would all stop talking to me. See how Satan puts those little lies into your head. He wants us to be miserable and keep everything inside, and let people think that you are perfectly fine when you're not.

I learned a very important lesson that day, God doesn't want us to go through things alone, if he did there would only be one human living on the earth at a time. We are meant to help each other.

So back to that horrible time when I couldn't stop crying, it turned out exactly opposite of what I thought would happen. People didn't stop talking to me because I was a big crybaby, instead they just loved me for me. And that helped a TON! Because lets face it we all want to be accepted.

I have heard it said that Church isn't for the healthy it is for the sick. We all make mistakes, we all struggle, and sometimes we have a hard time having the faith that we need.

We all have motes and beams in our eyes (Matthew 7:3), but that doesn't mean we can't help each other.