Testimony

Well today was fast and testimony meeting and I wanted to get up and bear my testimony, but my body wouldn't let me. I get extremely nervous getting up in front of people so it is a rare occasion for me to actually get up there and do it. I basically have to be completely bursting with the spirit to make my self stand up. I know once I get myself standing I will move, but that standing part, it kills me. So today I thought I could at least say the things I wanted to say on here. I don't think many people read this, but that's okay. I think it's good to get things out one way or another and hopefully one day I will become more brave. Most fast and testimony meetings I bare my testimony in my head of all the things I would say if I were to get up.So these were my thoughts I had today and bits of what I know to be true.

I lost my keys a few weeks ago and I wasn't too worried about it at first. We have a few spare keys and so I figured my set would just turn up eventually. Well spring break passes and I let even another week go by before I begin to wonder where my keys went. I assumed by cleaning and doing laundry I would find them, but I didn't. So last week I decided it was time to start really looking for them and it was kind of stressing me out. I looked everywhere normal and weird - in jacket pockets, pants, cupboards, the fridge, etc. I couldn't find them. I know it shouldn't have been that big of deal, but I really wanted to find them. Finally I had the thought to say a prayer. I asked for help to find my keys . I stopped stressing about it and knew that in due time I would find them. Yesterday I decided to clean our bedroom a little bit more and hoped the keys would turn up in there somewhere. I kept thinking they had to be in my jackets or pants, but they weren't. I got the thought to look in our shoes, because they are underneath the clothes hanging in our closest...but before that I decided to look through some of Matt's clothes just in case. I moved a pair of his Church pants and I heard a jingle. I reached into its pocket and found my keys! I was super excited to have found them and woke Matt up from his nap and told him he was the one who lost my keys. ha ha I kind of gloated because he always thinks I'm the one who loses everything, which is true a lot of the time, but not this time. Anyhow, maybe not the best thing to have done right after I found them, but I soon said a prayer of thanks because I knew I was helped to know where to look. I know this is a simple thing and practically everyone has had this same type of experience happen to them, but it felt good to know that my Father in Heaven was still helping me out and even with such a small of a thing. It just reminded me that I am his child and he is there for me at all times and in all things. I know that our Heavenly Father listens to our prayers and he truly does answer them in his time. I knew I probably wouldn't find my keys the day I prayed, but I did know I would find them eventually. I am grateful for the power of prayer.

Some other thoughts I had were brought on by General Conference and my family's Jesus Dinner. During this time of the year I think about where I am at and what I'm doing and what I should be doing better. Each year in April I think of a gift I want to give to my Savior - something I am going to work on through out the year (we do this at our dinner and write the gifts down on a piece of paper and seal them in an envelope) . I didn't do all that well with my last years gift. I wasn't too happy with myself to tell you the truth. I feel as if I've been in a bit of  rut. I haven't been doing anything necessarily bad, but I haven't been doing all that I should. So I guess I decided it was time for change and luckily both Conference and this dinner happened on the same day. I don't have a specific talk that stands out, a lot of them were amazing and helpful, but just the whole idea of General Conference helps me want to change. A scripture did come to mind that I think encompasses all the conference talks and all that I should be doing. In all reality it is quite simple what we need to do, but since we aren't perfect it's hard. The scripture I am thinking of basically says that Jesus went about doing good (not quite sure of the of the actual reference). I feel like that's what everything is all about. That is what I should be doing as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I should be going about doing good. There isn't time for me to sit back and not do bad things or in other words do nothing. I belong to a Church that does good things. I should be reading my scriptures, praying more often, serving all those around me, being a missionary, going to the temple, and everything else that is good. So I guess that is my knew motto for the year: Go about doing good. Or  Be Good - Do Good.

I know that this Church is true - other wise I am not sure that I would care to be good or to keep trying or want to change. I know that my Savior lives and loves me. He is my friend and I want to be like Him. I know I am a daughter of God and I am important and I have a purpose. At times it's hard to know what my purpose is, but I think if I go about doing good I will figure it out. I know that the Holy Ghost can guide us daily if we allow Him in our lives and in our hearts. I know that our Prophet, Pres. Thomas S. Monson is truly our prophet at this time and he is lead by our Father in Heaven. I know the Book of Mormon is true and can help us through our trials and gives us answers to our questions.

I know that I am happy when I do good things. I know that I am not when I don't.

Spring BREAK!

We ventured on yet another Southern Utah trip for Spring break. I love Utah because there is always somewhere more to explore and even in the same places. We went back to Capital Reef and then we went to The Maze (which is a part of Canyonlands). Our first day we drove out to Capital Reef went on a leisurely hike and then camped in a actual campground (Yay for Bathrooms!). It was a little chilly that first day and night so it was nice that we could make a fire. 

Day 1- Capital reef

It was a little windy and my ears got cold.

Victory! 

 I liked scrambling up rocks and pretending I was a rock climber. 

Pretty moon - we were a little bummed it was a full moon because you can't see the stars as well.

Turkey. Matt gobbled at it and it gobbled back and showed us all his feathers. 

Day2 - We head to the Maze. We didn't quite know what we were getting into, but it was an adventure as always. 

Sleep Hair

Hats cover sleep hair. :)

We ate at this little joint called Blondies twice on this trip in a little place called Hanksville. It was Awesome! 

To get to the Maze we had to drive on a dirt road. This was a pit stop along the way. SAND! I pretended I was at the beach. 

We had to drive 80 miles to get to where we were going on a pretty gnarly road. Good thing we have a 4 Runner that is a tank. It took us around 5 hours to drive those 80 miles! 

The top of our destination. This is the Maze! There are just tons of canyons going everywhere. The canyons all look practically the same with layers of red and white rock so you could definitely get lost... hence the name The Maze. 

The hike down into the Maze was something else. You think the rangers would have told us a little bit more about it. We were backpacking so we had our huge packs on and well lets just say there were a lot of places that we had to lower our packs down with ropes and such. It was a little bit scary to tell you the truth. It would have been super fun without our packs because I love hikes were you have to scramble down and up stuff and go through little slots, but with our packs it was a different story. If you ever do this hike I would recommend camping up top and then doing a day hike. Anyhow, we made it down and eventually back up. 

Once we made it down into the canyons we hiked in a few miles and made camp. This is us in our tent making dinner under the rainfly. Still a little cold, but not too bad. Our cooking warmed up our tent. 

Day 3 - Exploring Canyons (Overload of Pictures)

The spring which gave us water to live. We had to put iodine tablets in our water to make it safe. This was the first time we filter water this way. It wasn't the best. It tasted weird, but I guess it was clean. 

Turtle Rock. 

I sat on him. 

Matt got himself and Indiana Jones hat. 

This tree was pretty sweet it was all twisted up in itself and still growing. 

Shards of rocks that would be used to make arrow heads. We kept finding pieces of it, but never the actually arrow head. 

This is what they call the Harvest Scene. I call it kind of creepy. It was especially creepy because it was so quiet down in the canyons. 

Looks like this guy is summoning a spirit. 

You can't see it very well, but these ones have weird centipede legs and it looks like they threw their baby. 

Weird tower looking things with what looked like people jumping off.... but who knows? 

This was where we camped.

Can you see me? It doesn't look steep in this picture, but it was. 

Day 4- Time to head out and up.

 I was a little nervous to climb out of the canyon, but it was actually a lot easier going up. 

Once we made it back up we celebrated with good tasting water and Sun chips - my favorite. 

Then we had to drive 5 hours back to get out...which wasn't all that fun. Luckily we did get out, because once out we realized something was wrong with our car. It's good now, but oh man it could have been horrible if we would have had problems driving on that dirt road.