Miracles Happen!

I have been financially stressed hardcore! So this past Sunday I decided that's what I needed to fast for. I had a car payment due in three days, and absolutely no way to pay it. I was also running out of food...which is not exactly a happy situation to be in. So Sunday I fasted, went to church, prayed for help pretty much continuously all day long, and read my scriptures.... a lot! So the next morning I wake up and there is a message on my phone from my mom telling me that my Old Farm deposit check had come that day. And guess what? It was the exact amount of my car payment and groceries for the week! Oh blessed day!
So that night I was thinking about my financial situation some more. Even if I found a job soon I still wouldn't have enough time to work, get a few paychecks, and save for my next car payment. And how in the heck was I going to pay for groceries next week??? I got completely stressed and worried all over again. So the next morning I went into the kitchen to get some breakfast, and sitting on the counter there was a letter for me from JC Penney Portrait Studio. I open it up and inside there is my last paycheck. Except it was about 200 dollars more than I was expecting to get! This paycheck can not only make my July car payment, but buy me groceries for the rest of June as well!
And as if that were not enough, I also received an e-mail the same day telling me that my request for financial aid for school had been accepted! I get to go back to school! Woo Hoo!
Moral of the story, PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED AND THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!! Amen. =D

I thought life was hard....

I thought my life was hard. I just lost my job. I may not be able to go back to school because I cannot afford it. My family is going through some very difficult trials. I just got "dumped" for lack of a better word. My friends are facing some of the hardest challenges of their lives. And for some reason, I thought I had it pretty bad.


I don't know what bad is.



I received an e-mail from my best friend from high school who is currently serving a mission in Washington D.C. He told me about a woman that he has been teaching. Her name is Helen and she just came to the United States from Africa. Helen was the oldest of seven children. When she was a little girl it was her job to go out begging for food on the streets. Sometimes her family were so hungry they would eat their own feces just to have something to put into their mouths. A few of her siblings as well as her father died from malnutrition and starvation. When Helen was nine years old her mother sold her into slavery so that she could keep her other children alive. Helen was then sold from family to family for the next ten years of her life. The families would give her an enormous amount of work to do, and if she didn't finish them efficiently enough, or get them done within the day, she was beaten or whipped, sometimes bringing her inches near death. Finally when she was 19 years old she ran away to an embassy and stowed away onto a ship that was headed for the United States. When she arrived she had no money, no food, no clothing, nothing. She had completely lost hope. ..... and then she ran into the missionaries.

Helen is now baptized, has a home with a member in her ward, and has a family within that ward. The church is helping her to get an education so that she can work and support herself. I almost can't even believe this story to be true. It's something you hear about in movies. I know that their must be thousands of stories, just like Helen's however. Sometimes I think that if I don't get a job, or finish school, or marry prince charming it's going to be the end of the world. I have been praying nonstop for life to get better. And then this e-mail comes from my friend. It wasn't exactly the answer that I wanted, but it was the answer that I got. I don't need to have a perfect life. I just need to be humble enough to be grateful for the things I do have.

So here it is. My Grateful List:
I am grateful for. . . . .
1. My Mom
2. My Dad
3. Cassie
4. Jessica
5. Zach
6. My Grandparents
7. My Aunts and Uncles
8. My Cousins
9. Jason
10. Kelsey
11. Lorissa
12 TaLisha
13. Amanda
14. Shalese
15. Breanna
16. Betsy
17. Ryan
18. Jack
19. Alejandra
20. Amber
21. Tyler
22. Fruit Heights 4'th Ward and everyone in it!
23. The gospel, and EVERYTHING to do with it!
Just to name a few.... There are just so many more!



I may not have everything going for me right now, but I sure do have a heck of a lot of people to back me up!!!


My friend Amber framed this quote for me, and it has quickly become one of my favorites:

I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make a life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a person humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, . . . . we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
-GOETHE-