Things I am Thankful For... not necessarily in the order I am most thanful

1) My Saviour and all that He has done for me - particularly the Atonement
2) The restoration of the gospel
3) Ryan, my fantastic husband
4) My parents - they are the best parents anyone could hope for
5) My sisters - I loved growing up in an all girl home and I loved having a big family and I still love having a big family
6) My fantastic brothers-in-law - I think each one of them is perfect for my sister they married and I am so grateful to have them in my family
7) All 20 of my nieces and nephews and the 3 more ont he way - I LOVE being and aunt and I have so much fun playing and hanging out with them, they're the best!
8) My grandparents - I feel very blessed that not only did I get to know all of my grandparents and so I still get to have them as part of my life even though they are no longer living, but that they were wonderful grandparents.
9) My extended family - I was lucky that both my parents grew up in Las Vegas so the majority of my extended family was all around me. Holidays were always exciting and filled with relatives and even though I do not have a ton of cousins (only 11 total) I love them all and am glad I know them and have them and my aunts and uncles too and all my cousins kids.
10) My husbands family - I am super blessed in this department. They are so good to me and I really like them. They are some of our favorite people to spend our time with and I am grateful that we have been able to live close to them the past 5+ years so I could get to know them well.
8) My friends - I have always been blessed with great friends and I am so lucky and I love you all and am grateful.
11) My education - I loved school and even though I have forgotten more than I remember, I am grateful for what I do remember and for the good teachers I have had along the way.
12) Missionaries - I am grateful for the entire missionary program. I am grateful for the missionaries who serve now, I am grateful for the opportuinity I had to serve a mission, and I am grateful for the missionaries who taught my grandparents.
13) Freedom - How blessed I am to live in this great country and for all the freedoms I enjoy here.
14) My house - I have never been homeless or even worried that I would be, I'm very blessed.
15) Two working, low gas milage cars - they aren't fancy, but they get the job done and I love that.
16) Always having enough to eat and never worrying about being hungry
17) Clean water
18) Modern-day medicine
19) The holiday season
20) The leaders of The Church
21) Temples
22) The Priesthood
23) Eternal Families
24) All of my favorite things (I will do a post about what they are some other time)
25) My body - I am grateful for the health and functions of it.
26) This incredibly beautiful world and the chances I have had to travel and see parts of it
27) Hugh Riley - He is one of the most giving and selfless people I have ever met (the only other person I can think that I know personally that is as giving is my mom). He taught Ryan and me to scuba dive not only for free, but at a cost to himself. And he has done this for literally thousands. He is a fantastic example.
28) Service opportunities
29) Ryan's and my great jobs - very lucky, especially in such rough economic times.
30) Mylife - I have lead a very blessed life, I know this, I love my life and I am very grateful for it!

Building Zion

One of the covenants (or promises) I have made as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is that I would consecrate (or dedeicate) my time, talents, and everything the Lord has and will bless me with to the building up of the Kingdom of God on the earth and the establishment of Zion. Building Zion is a principle taught in the scriptures, and it is also a principle my parents started teaching in my home I think before I was born because I always remember them teaching us about it. How exactly to consecrate everything the Lord has blessed me with to build Zion has always been a bit of a mystery to me and something I have been pondering for several years now. I have heard some people say we are not asked to live consecration yet, but will be asked to live it later. I do not believe that. If that were the case, I don't think I would have already promised to live it, but I have. Sometimes I get fairly stressed about not knowing how to live this law or feeling like I am living it completely enough.

Every six months in our church our leaders speak to the members of the church as a whole - we call it General Conference. I look forward to it every time. I feel inspired to be better and uplifted. This past conference I especially enjoy. I have been reading the talks from this past conference since then so I can learn even more from them and apply the teachings into my life. Well, one of the talks I especially enjoyed was by Elder Todd Christofferson, Come to Zion. I thought it was expeically instructive on what we need to do now to build Zion. In it he shared 3 things that need to happen for Zion to be built: 1) we need be unified in our families, church families, and communities in heart and mind, 2) we need to be individually and collectively holy, 3) we need to care for the poor effectively enough that we eliminate poverty.

I don't think that anyone of those tasks will be easy, but they are possible and necessary if we want the Saviour to come again. And I am grateful to have them laid out so clearly so I can start forming my game plans. I still have a lot of questions on how to succeed in completing each step, especially the last one, but I am grateful for some clarity on this question that has plagued me for so long.

Michaelanne Cathleen Laurent

My oldest niece, Michaelanne (we call her Mike) turned 18 today. To me that is just crazy! I remember the day she was born. It was 2 days after Thanksgiving and my whole family was in Provo, UT. We had gone to a BYU football game the day before but her parents and my mom didn't come (for obvious reasons). Then she came super early in the morning. I remember going to see her for the first time in the hospital (I was 11) and thinking it was so weird that she was my sister's daughter, that it just didn't seem real - more like they had just borrowed a baby. She was so beautiful though. She started out with kind of strawberry blonde hair (now she is just blonde). Whenever her parents would come visit us in Las Vegas we never wanted them to take Mike back with them to Provo. We loved being aunts and we loved her. When she was about 4 or 5 she looked almost exactly like I did when I was that age. I even showed her a picture of myself when I was that age and asked her who it was and she said it was her, and I was so proud. And I am still so proud. I can't imagine a better niece than Mike. Not only is she beautiful, but she is smart, and intelligent, and hard working, and talented, and dedicated, and a great daugther, sister, cousin, grand-daughter, friend, and niece and I just love her so much!

Michaelanne, Maggi (my youngest sister) and Me on the 4th of July

Emotional Day

Several days ago I had an emotional day. The kind I have because I am female and my hormones occasionally change and it fools with my emotions. Generally when I talk to other females about being emotional we discuss how frustrating it is, to cry so easily and to get depressed and how embarassing it can be and how it makes our husbands feel bad and on and on and how it is just not fair that we are female and have to put up with all of this on top with the other not so joyous things of being female. But on this emotional day I realized that not only did I get sad and frustrated easier, but I also got happy and uplifted and grateful and excited and loving and other positive feeling easier and more deeply as well. So I figured, yes, we women have to deal with emotional roller coaster and feel negative emotions more easily - but I think we get the positive emotions more easily and poigniantly as well. So here is a shout out for being female and emotional.

Burdens...that even you cannot feel them

Ryan and I have now been trying to have kids for ovver two years. From some of the wording of my patriarchal blessing I have always felt like the timing of when I would have children wouldn't be what I wanted. So I wasn't surprised when about a year had gone by and we hadn't been able to have children. However, since then as we have worked with doctors to try to have children, there have been times when I got pretty discouraged. But I would say that for about the past six months or so I have been pretty happy and really enjoying my life. I have a great husband and we have a lot of fun together. My life has always been blessed. I am not sure when children will come to us, but that is okay, because I am happy. My plan was to have kids either a little before or right when I finished graduate school. Things obviously aren't going according to my plan. I hate it when things don't go according to my plan and I don't know what Heavenly Father's plan is, which is hard on me. But as I was sitting in church today partaking of the sacrament I was just completely overwhelmed with gratitude that even though my plan is not working out, I am still happy. That when my sisters and friends call me and tell me they are pregnant, I am truly happy for them and not jealous. That I can go to baby showers and it's not hard on me, I can just have fun and rejoice for my friend who is about to have a sweet baby. That I could go to my sister's ultrasound and just be so excited to experience that with her. I know that the ache of wanting to have children is still with me, that I still really yearn for them and if I could get pregnant today I would, because once in awhile something will happen and I will have glimpses of the pain that is there. But most of the time I am just happy and hopeful. So I was thinking about this today and how grateful I am that during this waiting period I don't have to wait in pain, and I thought of a scripture. It is in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 24:14-15:

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

I think that is what the Lord has done for me; eased my burdens so that I will not feel them during this time, and so I will witness that he does visit us during our afflictions, because of his great love for us. And I am so grateful.