CALLED TO SERVE

Dear Sister Sugihara,

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Japan Sapporo Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, April 24, 2012. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Japanese language.

I'm so incredibly excited and humbled to be embarking on this new adventure. Teaching the people of Sapporo about Jesus Christ will be a wonderful experience. I'm grateful for this opportunity to grow spiritually and do what Heavenly Father would like me to do. If you want to know more about what I will be doing, this has some pretty great information :)

big news + a new chapter in life

I have decided to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It will be 18 months of teaching and sharing with people what our church believes. I submitted my application/mission papers a few days ago and now I'm just waiting to find out where I will be going!

This was no small decision and took months of contemplating and praying. If you remember this post, that's the weekend everything changed. That's when the age requirements changed (for girls, the age requirement changed from 21 to 19) and all of my nicely laid plans for internships went out the window. But even after the announcement, I still wasn't quite ready. It took me a little more time to finally choose and commit to this life changing decision.

I love my life here at BYU but I'm putting it on hold for a while. This semester I really got into my major and fell in love with it all over again. I've made incredible friends and become more established in my job. But as sad as I'll be leaving all of this, there's something bigger out there for me. "Paying it forward" or "giving back" doesn't adequately express it, but that's kind of how I feel. I've been so blessed and have so much to be grateful for, this is my way of expressing it; 18 months is so short in the grand scheme of life. (I know that serving a mission is not meant for everyone so I'm grateful that there are other ways to show gratitude and help people locally).

I'm so incredibly excited for this new chapter in life. I find out where I'm going either next week or the week after and I'm getting more and more anxious! I have a particular country I want to go to but I'll be happy going anywhere. I haven't decided what to do with my blog while I'm gone but until then, thanks for reading :)

this one's for you weekend

i have a rockin' draft from friday about how i spent the week talking to professors and going to info meetings, and how i finally figured out what i wanted to do for the next two years. then on saturday this announcement was made and all my plans became maybes. nothing has been decided yet but i've got a lot to think about.

the rest of my weekend was spent watching this and looking like this.

 i didn't get my homework done and i ate enough to make up for my twenty mile run. but it was a thought-provoking weekend and i learned a lot about what kind of person i need and want to become.

this week is gonna be about big girl decisions, midterms, and trying to wear something other than the flannel i've been wearing every single day too much.

cheers.

ps. on the bright side, i'm a grandma in a skit/test and i get to talk about my favorite cat. it's basically practice for my future.



weekend

conference. homemade meals. a real house with stairs and carpet. pounds of peanut m&ms, swedish fish, goldfish. sunshine. parks. homework. pilates. journal writing. game night. meeting amazing people. movies.

it was wonderful.

For the moment

Well nothing has been too exciting as of late but I figured I might as well blog my stream of thoughts.


I'm still working for mi madre in the "office" and that takes up most of my day when I'm at home. Right now I'm working at Pike Place Market twice a week and that's been really fun---tiring but worth it. Dance is going as well as it can be for this time of year. Stress levels are high in the studio and people are usually tired and cranky but with less than a month left before the show, it's going well. As much as I've tried to stay somewhat busy, I still have a lot of time to think. I've had a lot going through my head the past couple weeks. One especially has been missions. Half of my FHE brothers are in the MTC already and two from last semester are out serving. Some of my other guy friends leave soon as well. Every Wednesday I wonder who from my BYU ward is going into the MTC and I get excited for them. As well as feel a little left behind. Then I think about how in the fall, most of the guys in my ward will be return missionaries. They were once another freshman girl's FHE brothers or friends. It's an interesting cycle and it will be interesting to see what happens when the boys my age return home from their missions.
I guess overall I've been thinking about progression. There have been so many engagements, weddings, babies (planned or unplanned..) the past while and I know many will soon be coming. Just to clarify, this isn't about how I'm anxious to get married. I've thought about it a lot (it's kind of hard not to going to BYU) but I'm not seeking it out. However, if the right guy comes knocking...

But anyways. Today in church we had a lesson on how we can prepare for marriage and although it was the usual lesson, I kind of got something different out of it today. For me, it was a lesson on preparation and personal development. There is still a lot I need to prepare for and before I start working full time, I have some time to do that. I haven't decided on what I want to do yet but I need to do something. Whether that is read some church books, learn how to knit (seriously considering this one...), or basically just improve myself, which I know won't happen overnight or in a month...but it's a goal.
Another thing that I've been thinking about is my personal style. I follow The Daybook and I've kind of become obsessed. I've spent hours on her blog reading, studying her outfits, analyzing, etc.

Slightly unhealthy.

But anyways. Another one of my goals this summer is to redo my wardrobe. Not completely but to add some basic pieces and branch out. I'm kind of tired of mainstream and being matchy-matchy. Which is huge for me since I've been matching my converse to the color of the shirt I wear that day for years. This has slowly been coming one since I got roommates and saw what they wore. I saw some things that I would've never picked or worn myself but I liked it. So I'm going to work my little tushie off this summer, earn money, and thrift shop like it's nobody's business. 

I think that's about it. I'm excited to earn money and to become a thrifty little shopper :} I happen to mention this to Jillian today and we've actually been thinking the same thing. And I went to goodwill with Jessica the other day and it was quite successful. So I've got some thrifty little shopping buddies yay!

Oh and

I wore patriotic colors UNintentionally to church today...

                                  Happy 
Memorial

Day weekend 

everyone!