A Recap


A long time ago I wrote a post about the way my life had changed in a short period of time. I talked about how six months previously I had faced a trial that scared me a lot, but that I conquered it. I mentioned how before that trial I faced something else a few months previously and managed to take care of it and learn a lot in the process. It was cool to chart my growth.


 Well, dear blogging world, I took a two year hiatus. I missed blogging and writing a lot. Seriously, writing is just good for the soul, even if no one reads what you put down on paper. So, here I am, ready for a little recap of life and what I've learned. Unfortunately, there just isn't time (and I don't have the energy) to tell you about all of my adventures in the last two years. I would, however, like to tell you a little about what I've learned. I hope you enjoy it:


 On September 7, 2011, I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT. It was a weird day to say the very, very least. Little did I understand at that point in time that I was walking into the most challenging, yet profoundly impacting two years of my life. I left that training center on November 7 to fly to Kentucky, where I interacted with some of the craziest, sweetest, humblest, and coolest people on Earth. (To any former missionary readings this, I know you think your mission was the best in the world, but I have news for you: mine was better.)


 It was in Kentucky that I learned that continually trying to do all that you can for the benefit of others, while exhausting and occasionally fruitless to the eye, is so fulfilling. It's a joy that sinks deep into your soul, and there's nothing material or earthly that can even begin to provide a similar experience.


 I think the most important thing that occurred for me personally while I was in Kentucky was that my knowledge and understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ deepened dramatically. A lot of that happened out of personal need -- I needed His help more than I had ever cared to admit in my entire life. But as I was willing to submit to the will of higher powers and do what the scriptures, prophets, and my leaders had told me, I watched God shape me into a new person, and I watched as I was made whole and my imperfections smoothed and corrected because of what Jesus had chosen to do so many years before, both on this physical earth, but also in the life before this one. The sensation of divine assistance, comfort, and guidance is almost like a high. I kind of hate relating it like that, but it's true -- you want more and more of it because of how amazing it feels to be lifted and helped like that.


 Fast forward to August 24, 2013. I boarded a plane at 6:15 a.m. in Louisville, KY to come home to my family and friends. "Mission: accomplished," so to speak. And the trials haven't stopped. But I see even more clearly than before that God is so aware of the minutae of our lives. As I have faced these tribulations, even with relatively little pleading on my part, I feel reassurance. It comes as a fleeting thought and I feel guidance in a decision. It comes as a quote I heard in Sunday School. It comes in the unending support of my best friend. Over and over again I feel these things, and they make me happy.


 So here I am -- imperfect as ever, but whole. And for a long time after I came home from my mission I focused a lot on the idea "to live." I thought about what it meant to live, and I know what that's like. A OneRepublic song lyric goes like this: "And with every broken bone, I swear I lived." I love that. I love it because I know what he means, and I know how to make like fulfilling and meaningful, and how to overcome the hard things placed before us, and I couldn't be more grateful that in the people that I surround myself with, and in the special things that God puts in my path I am living.


 I don't know where this post was meant to go, I just love writing. But I wanted to put down how happy I am tonight, not for lack of trials, but for the continual aid the Lord sees fit to give me, and the overwhelming joy that I experience as I try to do my best and keep my act together.


 Doctrine and Covenants 63:33-34 tell us about how God requires a willing heart, and that those that seek after doing what's right will "eat the good of the land of Zion." That's the formula, my friends. Do good. Be good. Love God. The rest will work itself out with time.

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