Sister Beck Comes to BYU-Idaho

Today I had the opportunity to hear from Sister Beck, RS General President, for nearly 4 hours! She spoke at the new BYU-Idaho Center to the Relief Society sisters in the southeast Idaho area. She also did a training meeting for the Relief Society Presidents and Secretaries.

I just love how bold she is. She tells it like it is. Like, she talked about the fact that many sisters have issues and excuses when it comes to visiting teaching. But, she said something to the effect of "The Lord doesn't care about our issues. I'm hear to tell you on his behalf to get over it." She definitely has the authority to do that!

Speaking of visiting teaching, I guess I didn't think about the fact that she has a visiting teahcer. Her visiting teacher contacts her weekly. A few weeks ago her visiting teacher called her to see if she could do anything to help her. She could hear that Sister Beck had a cold. So, she brought some soup and rolls over and starched and ironed Brother Beck's shirts. Sister Beck was going out of town soon, so her visiting teacher said something like, "I know I didn't give you the message, but can we count this?" Sister Beck said, "Of course! Dear, I WROTE the message!" Too funny.

Most of both meetings were question and answer sessions, which was neat. I was impressed with how well she knows the scriptures. A question would be asked and she seemed to know right where the answer could be found in the scriptures. It also seemed like most of the answers always involved getting on your knees and asking the Lord.

Here are some quotes/thoughts from the meetings which stuck out to me:

*"We don't have to be worried, we just have to be faithful."
*"We can't do everything, but we can do something."
*"It's as we work in the Lord's work that we become sanctified."
*"You have to have the words in you to have them come out of you." (in reference to teaching the gospel)
*When the problems are bigger than we can handle, the solutions come from heaven.
*Having families is not a life-style choice. It is a gospel choice.
*We should crave family relationships.
*We want it to be easy. We want perfect, easy children. But, the Lord is sending us his toughest, strongest Spirits. They need strong leadership.
*The Lord owns our gifts.
*Don't underestimate the light that comes from someone who has a new, fresh testimony of the Gospel.
*We prepare for the Lord's coming by making and keeping covenants. Our examples should exude strength.

As you can imagine, the meetings were incredible! I'm glad I got to be part of it.

Pictures From My Phone

I was looking at some of the pictures I've taken with my phone over the past months and years and thought it'd be fun to post some. Here they are- very random!




This is the Spori building on campus, where the Communication department is housed.

This was actually taken in Lehi, on one of the cool pathways near my parents' house.

This was taken in Chandler, AZ in Feb. 09 when I visited Traci and fam in AZ.

"Not hiring" signs are typical in Rexburg. I liked this one though, because it was right under the "now hiring" sign.

The moon looked really cool.

A typo found in the recently remodeled student center on campus.

A really random book I saw at DI. P.S. I love how it says hus-band. Great design.

A typo I saw in the BYU-I Bookstore.


A shirt I saw in West Yellowstone last year. While I'm not sure I completely agree with it, I found it to be hilarious!

I Love Being an Aunt, Part 2

Tonight I got a phone call from my niece. The first thing she said was, "I talked to you on the calculator!" I was pretty sure I heard her correctly, but was like, "huh?!" Turns out, she was at my parents' house, picked up a calculator and pretended it was a phone. Apparently we had a great conversation with eachother. She even mentioned something about Idaho. I guess everyone decided she should talk to me for real, so they called me on the real phone. Ha ha. That totally made my night. I have the cutest nieces and nephews on the planet.

Sweet Little Baby

The other night Morgan and I got to meet our friend's new little baby. He's 3 weeks old and so precious!

P.S. So all of us met in our Comm.111 class two years ago. (We are all communication majors). Lisa did fast grad- attending school year round- and just graduated in December. Two weeks later she had a baby!

Life Is Good.

I am feeling really good about life tonight for some reason. Well, there are many reasons. Last Saturday we had a Stake Women's Conference. It was exactly what I needed. There were several workshops I attended where I heard things I needed to hear. I came away from the conference feeling good about life. (Also, right before the conference I took at test for my PR class and got a 97%!!!) Church was good on Sunday, and things have been pretty good this week so far. I've had some stressful times this semester, but it really hasn't been too bad- especially compared to last semester and every other semester I've been up here. I just feel so blessed to have such a nice semester. I still know I'm where I'm supposed to be. I don't know what my life would be like if I were doing the internship right now, but I definitely don't have any regrets about not taking it.

We're almost to mid-terms already. It's nearly hard to believe. That means I have 1.5semesters left. Graduating from college has been a huge goal of mine. I feel like I've worked hard to get to this point. There were so many times when I wondered if graduation would ever come- especially as I started at BYU-Idaho 2years ago. But, amazingly, life does move on!

I signed up for housing tonight for next semester. I am moving to a different complex(just down the street), which is a change I'm really looking forward to. I will only be living with 3 other people- 2 of which I know.

I've been asked to write an article for the Scroll, the campus newspaper and will be doing that in the coming week or two. While I am a bit overwhelmed by it, I am excited for the chance to be published and stretch myself a little.

I have so many things to be grateful for. Life is good. I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts. :)

The Frozen Tundra

Mother nature has been fairly nice to those of us in Rexburg... until now. I have now officially experienced winter here. I can deal with the mounds of snow, but when it's downright bitter cold, that's when it gets really rough. When I walked to class this morning it was -21 degrees, -34 with the windchill. BRRRR! (Of course, I had to wear a skirt today because I was giving a presentation in one of my classes.)When it's that cold, it really hurts to breathe!!! Nearby public schools were closed because it was so cold. I hear they never cancel classes at BYU-I, unfortunately.

I dried my hair before leaving for class, but within a minute or two of being outside it turned white, I guess due to the moisture still in it. My eyelashes froze as well.

It got pretty cold in Chicagoland, even in the negatives, but I don't think it ever got quite this cold while I was there. Speaking of Chicagoland... they are having the worst blizzard they've had since 1967. Hope everyone there is surviving ok.

I'm so glad this is my first and last winter in Rexburg! I am definitely a warm-climate kind of girl! Why people decide to settle down here is beyond me. (Even yesterday one of my teachers came in and said, "Today is one of those days when I wonder why I live in Rexburg." Ha ha)

P.S. Today was groundhog's day, wasn't it? Somehow I don't think spring is coming anytime soon...