Things I have learned since graduating College.

So I know I have been graduated from college for about half a second but hey there is still a lot that can learned in just a couple of months right?

#1 I can cook!

Yep that's right people this girl has discovered that she can cook. I guess I never really tried before (besides making cookies and brownies. I can make some pretty awesome sauce brownies). I mean what college student actually has time to cook a truly home cooked meal? A good meal back in college for me consisted of instant potatoes and gravy with some canned chicken and green peas. I know it sounds disgusting but it was actually pretty delicious for a starved college student.

Oh Enchiladas in a skillet how I love you! 

I can make bread sticks!! How cool is that? They even rival the famous Olive Garden bread sticks! Which is good for me because I LOVE those bread sticks! Though they don't look as pretty as Olive Garden's but still super delicious!

2. I miss school!

Wait....What? It has barely been two months and I am already missing going to classes. Now don't get me wrong I don't miss homework or tests or writing papers but I do miss learning all of those cool new things everyday! The great thing is just because I am not in school anymore doesn't mean I have to stop learning new things. You want to know something really really strange? For the past couple of weeks I have really wanted to go buy a book entitled mechanical engineering for dummies. Which is really weird for me because I have never been interested in engineering before or most sciencey (which I know is not a real word) things honestly. I just want to learn new things and build bridges and cool museum exhibits.

3. No one is failure at life!

Okay listen peeps as long as your living you aren't failing at life because you are living! Does that make sense??? I mean how can you fail at life if you are alive? People get so down on themselves because they aren't where they think they should be in life. I have been guilty of this. But really why get so down and depressed about where you are? That isn't going to change your circumstances one bit. There is always something good about your life no matter what stage you are in or where you  are.  And the cool thing is where you are right now in your life isn't always where you are going to be. Change is constant.  Each new day is a day to try something new and different.  Yep it can be scary but what would life be if we were never scared?

He is the Gift

Once upon a time on a cold wintry night the sky glittered with stars in the heavens in beautiful Cache valley. It was cold and the roads were icy but I could never turn down the opportunity to go Christmas Caroling. I love to sing! Tonight was a special mission, we had been given  a basket full of delicious treats by some kind soul to give to a family. This little family had just lost their Father but I had never met them. We ice skated through the parking lot as we tried to find their apartment. As we gathered around there door we spoke in hushed whispers and then KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Sooner then I would have expected the door swung open and we started singing. I can't remember the song we picked but soon the doorway was crowded with little children and their mother. The little kids stared at us like we had lost our minds. Why where we singing? There mom just smiled. When the song ended we gave them the basket. Then one of the carolers asked  the little girl " Hey what's your favorite Christmas song?"

She promptly replied "Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer." We all started singing it just from memory. It is one of those songs from childhood that you don't ever forget. The looks of the children were replaced with smiles as they started to sing with us. And for that brief moment a group of strangers felt love for each other. The love that always comes with the Christmas season.


Mormon.org put out this video. I love it! It talks about how the first gift of Christmas wasn't Frankincense or Gold, or Myrrh. It was LOVE. "For God so loved the world he gave his son"

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Cold sores of life

I get Cold sores. This is just a fact of life for me. It's in my genes as they say. Whenever I get super stressed or sometimes when I get a cold, a cold sore just happens to accompany it. I strongly dislike cold sores! They hurt, they make me feel yuki and not very pretty!

Once upon a time a couple of years ago back when I was a teenager I was sitting in a seminary class ( A religion class for high school students) and the seminary council members had made a little movie to get across a message. As the video started I just wanted to sink down lower and lower into my seat until I disappeared. The video went something like this.

Girl1: Oh wow where did you go to get that?

Girl 2: I went to Jared! (at this point the camera zoomed in on her face and you see she has a gigantic cold sore on her lip. Of course it was fake..but they made it look huge and disgusting probably more huge and disgusting then real cold sores ever look)

The video continued on and eventually they found Jared, who of course also had a gigantic disgusting fake cold sore on his lip.

At that moment I knew that they were trying to get a point across about staying true to your standards and values and morals but all I could think was "Do people really look at me and see THAT when I have a cold sore?"  It didn't make my self confidence any better especially when I did have a cold sore, I wanted to just put a bag over my head to hide that horrible ugly disgusting thing on my face that I couldn't get rid of quick enough.

But the fact is I can't ever get rid of them. I will get cold sores for the rest of my life, there is nothing I can really do about it.  And that's okay there are some things in life that we can't change! The thing is having a cold sore doesn't make me a different person. I am still me and that is what really matters.

All this thinking about cold sores got me thinking about the things that we can't see. The things that people struggle with silently, cold sores of the soul ( yuk even just saying that makes me cringe.) Each person has something that they are struggling with that is unseen. Sometimes these struggles take years to overcome and sometimes they can take a life time. But that doesn't make that person worth any less.
        " Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" Doctrine and Covenants 18:10

Every soul's worth is great in the sight of God! Every single person on this planet who has lived or every will live is loved dearly by him. He sees our cold sores of the soul, when no one else can.  We are loved even though we are imperfect! Isn't that amazing? And even better is that this is True, he loves us!


So this week remember that we are all struggling with our own personal "cold sores". Maybe this will help us be a little kinder... a little more understanding. We all have struggles, we are human.

The most amazing thing of all is that one day those "cold sores" that we have been struggling against our entire lives will be taken away, swallowed up in Christ, the son of God. One day when my time on this earth is done I won't have anymore cold sores! And that is all because Jesus Christ atoned for us,each and everyone of us! You, me, the guy that lives down the street, All of Us. Isn't that amazing! This is something to truly be Thankful for!

Family is Forever

There is a children's song that I was taught to sing when I was little called "Families can be together Forever". I loved to sing this song over and over out loud or just in my head. To be truthful it is still one of my favorite songs and I still sing it all the time. My favorite part of the song is the chorus.

            " Families can be together forever through Heavenly Father's plan. I always want

              to
be with my own family, and the Lord has shown me how I can. The Lord has 

             shown
me how I can."

Isn't that incredible and wonderful? I can be with my family forever, everyone can if they follow Heavenly Father's plan. As I grow older I love this song even more. When loved ones pass away it is still hard but I know that in the end I will see them again. Isn't it amazing how such a simple children's song can impact your entire life? I love my family :)

Just a rough stone

Sometimes I feel like a rough stone that Heavenly Father is trying to smooth out all the edges. Joseph Smith said something along these same lines. But isn't it true? Each and every day we live we have to choose what we believe, choose how we are going to act or react in every situation that day may bring about. Sometimes I don't realize I am consciously making these choices but other times I do. I am starting to realize the choices that we make each and every day have such a huge impact on the future, our future and other people's as well. 

Recently I was on an airplane. I bought the ticket for this ride months in advance with a friend. It was the first time either of us had done such a thing. I remember we double checked and triple checked to make sure that we had the same flight. We even had someone else check for us to make sure. After all of this checking how could we possibly have gotten it wrong? A month or so past and I was looking at my flight itinerary when I realized that I had the wrong day. How could this have happened? I called the airlines to see if I could switch flights....it was going to cost three hundred dollars to switch. So I started the process of switching flights. I was so afraid to fly alone that three hundred dollars didn't seem like that big of a deal to me. Isn't that crazy? I have always been so careful with money but all of my money rules seemed to fly out of the window at that moment. Right before I pressed confirm to pay the extra money I heard someone say clear as day "Stop and be still."

It was so odd and so sudden that I did. I have never felt the Holy Ghost so clearly in my life. I closed right out of all the tabs for the flight on my computer and just thought about what I was doing. I didn't need to waste three hundred dollars to switch flights. I knew that my friend and I had had the same flight when we bought the tickets but for some reason it was switched. I got down on my knees and prayed. Why? I got the overwhelming feeling that for some reason I needed to be on that flight. I didn't know why I still don't know why but for some reason I was supposed to be on that flight instead of the other one. It was scary knowing that I would be alone in a different country trying to figure out their airport. But I knew it was going to be okay. 

It's crazy how many different ways the Holy Ghost speaks. It doesn't always have to be so strong, sometimes it's just a small feeling. It all depends on if we choose to listen. Sometimes I wonder if the Holy Ghost ever gets tired of telling people things and them not listening. I think I would.

At the end of the day though I guess everyone has a choice to make. What do you choose to Believe?

The General Women's Broadcast

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Many people through out the world know us as Mormons, this is a nick name that has been given to us because we believe in the Book of Mormon as well as the Bible. Our Church believes in living Prophets and Apostles on the earth today. Every six months we have what is called General Conference. This is where the Prophets and Apostles speak to us and give us counsel and guidance for the world we live in. Everyone is welcome to attend or listen. It occurs the first week of October and the first week of April. I love this time of the year! I love listening to the Prophet and Apostles and other leaders in the Church, and every time I always can feel of the Saviors love for me! Along with this they have other meetings one of these meetings was the General Relief Society meeting ( The women's organization in our church). Usually this happens every September. Now they have changed it to where we meet together in the Fall and the Spring, and instead of just including the Relief Society Sisters, it includes all girls ages eight and up! Last night was the very first General Women's Meeting. It was amazing. Even if you are not a member of our church everyone is welcome to watch it, if you want to you can click on the link Here. When I first heard the announcement for this I was so excited. I loved getting to hear inspiration just for me every year and now we get to have it twice a year and we still get to have all of the amazing talk's that come out of General Conference as well! How amazing is that? I was also really excited because my niece would be able to go for her first time as well, isn't it amazing that they get to be included as well?

I was not disappointed. The meeting was truly amazing! They taught us about loving each other despite our differences. We need those differences to accomplish things. No matter your age you can serve others and do it with a smile. Love others for who they are! Stop creating barriers for yourself.  The biggest thing that I got from the meeting was to LOVE everyone, no matter their circumstances in life because we are all children of God even if sometimes we do not realize it!

Sometimes...

Sometimes I wonder to myself " What in heavens name are you doing with your life Ashley???" and then a scary thought comes to mind.....I don't know! Life is filled with so many things that are uncertain, So many variables, so many what if's, so many doors that close and windows that open, that sometimes I feel overwhelmed. When I was younger I thought for sure that I would have life all figured out by now. I have had many many many amazing plans for myself and all of them were good things to do but for one reason I would get a gnawing feeling in my gut and then I would down to pray and realize that I needed to be doing something else with my life. I once heard a quote that said " If you want to make God laugh, make plans."
Now I am all for planning and getting things done but I have realized that you can't make something called a detailed life plan, writing down how everything is going to work out, because it never does work out exactly the way you planned and most of the time that is for the best.

Somehow we are led down new paths that we never dreamed we would be on, seeing things we had never dreamed of seeing. A good analogy I heard once is that you are planning a vacation to California and when you  get off the plane your in Canada. You have read everything you ever could read about California and you know it as well as you could without experiencing it but you know nothing about Canada. This happens in our lives a lot. We plan for something and prepare as best as we can and then it turns out to be Canada and not California. It is not that Canada is not a beautiful or amazing place it is just that we were planning for California, but it turns out that God had different plans. I feel like I am constantly going through this cycle and some of you probably feel the same way too. But now that I am in Canada there is really only two choices I could make; mumble and grumble about how things didn't turn out right and be angry or look around for the good, which there will be plenty off, as long as I open my eyes.

Sometimes when I pray I realize I am just asking God to help me. Help me get an "A" in this class, help me get a better job, help me help me help me!!!!Even sometimes when I write in my journal I stop and think Wow Ashley, you are really self centered! Maybe you should think about others for a change. I am still not perfect at it but I do try now to think of others more even when I pray. Help me get an "A" in this class so I may be able to help others, help me to have more patience with my job so I am not such a pain for other people to be around, help me help others.  I once had an institute teacher tell us " Become the best at whatever you are going to become so you  can testify to others that he lives." he then looked at me "Become the best teacher you can become so that you can testify to other teachers that Jesus is the Christ."

I have thought about this a lot lately and I have decided Why should I wait to do this until I actually have a job in my career? Why can't I be the best student I can be to testify that he lives? Or the best friend to others that I can be to testify to them that he lives? Everyone can do this no matter where they are in their lives. No matter how dull and boring you think your job is or if you have absolutely no idea what you are doing with your life.

A couple of days ago I applied for graduation. After doing so I came home and promptly started freaking out! I have no idea what I am doing? I mean I think i know what I would like to do but is that really the best decision? Is that really what I want. What happens if I hate it? What happens if I was wrong? On and on the questions ran through my mind, I was so scared I could feel my heartbeat speed up. I laid down on my bed wrapping myself up tightly in a blanket and then hiding under it like a little kid. It didn't help. So I promplty go up and then started pacing around. I need to go to the Temple. I need to go to the Temple right now! So I started to walk to the Temple. All the while thinking of everything thing that I needed to decide upon, my heart going a million miles per hour. I had only gone  a couple of blocks when I ran into a friend. I always love seeing this friend, she is always so happy and cheerful and bright! But today I didn't want to talk to her, I didn't want her to know how badly I was freaking out but I couldn't avoid talking to her. As she chatted happily to me about life, I tried to hide my anxiety, and it worked really well. Soon without even realizing it I wasn't thinking about all of those scary thoughts flying through my head making me want to puke, I was just listening. We didn't talk for all that long and soon she was on her way. After she left I realized I wasn't scared anymore. I wasn't panicking. How could that be? Nothing extraordinary had happened. I felt perfectly fine and normal whereas minutes before I couldn't even think straight.

But that is the thing isn't it. God sends miracles in the smallest of ways, even if it is just a friendly face and a happy smile, but that is all it took. It is crazy to me that something so small basically banished all of my panic. Something normal.

We truly never know how are actions or the way we treat people will affect those around us. That is why it is so important to be kind.  I don't know how life will work out for me or for anyone else for that matter, but it doesn't matter because I know that God knows how it will all work out and as long as I trust in him everything will be ok!