Calm on the Water

Monday I was disappointed. It's ok. It happens.

But I decided that it's important for me to express my faith before the blessings come.

I mean - I want Heavenly Father to know (if He reads my blog... :)) that I trust Him now. Before a miracle happens.
Not just after I get the blessings.

I believe in miracles. They've happened in my life and in lives of others I know.

So today I made a list of miracles that I can readily bring to memory. I started with scriptural miracles - but quickly moved on to personal miracles and they've just kept coming to memory
all day long.

**Moses parted the Red Sea.
**Moses was found by Pharoh's daughter - of all the women by the river - and what a huge river!
**Crickets and Seagulls.
**Nephi. He built a boat. He shocked his brothers. The Lord made their raw meat sweet. He kept forgiving. Nephi is a miracle.
**Getting UT residency for tuition right in the nick of time.

**Finding $500 after my young woman Ali told me the story of our meeting 15 years ago on a plane when she was 5.
**Calling Carolyn to my presidency before I even had seen her and she was PERFECT.
**Getting a job at the Social Research Institute which paid a huge chunk of my tuition. I saw the flyer for it the day the application was due but I still got the job. Amazing Blessing.
**Becoming friends with the Disneyland Girls.

**Being at the intersection in the right moment to see my young woman need me.
**Being able to go to Europe with Catheryn.

**Meeting Anastasia in Germany.

**Aidan.

{That kid is a genius and I'm not kidding or exaggerating!!
He knows his opposites which we were practicing here while he played my favorite exercise game of up and down (which consists of him riding on my leg while I move his like 20 lb body up and down. I can go about 4 times before my leg dies.)}

**Finding my condo (on craigslist!) And it didn't sell before I bought it. MIRACLE.


**Being called as YW President on the very day I was going to change to the single's ward.

**Being inspired to do the project for Sister Beck.
**The project worked!
**Running into Sister Beck on Temple Square with all the YW.
**Colleen's family waited long enough to have her FUNeral that I could come during my fall break.
**Going to see Luella after Women's Conference 2006, even though she was already a pumpkin, and that was the last time I saw her. If I wouldn't have gone I wouldn't have seen her the whole time I lived in Salt Lake.
**Linda Johnson came to Temple Square. (Pictures soon to come!)
**Getting called to the BYU Women's Conference Planning Committee.
**The Turkeys. Connecting with them initially. Reconnecting with them recently. Totally worth more than $5000. (So glad Cora made it into the pic with us!)

**Working on the Thursday night shift at the Temple. It was perfect. Those were my people.
**Getting my job at Life Care at Home so I could move to Utah.
**Feeling inspired to move to Utah.
**My money that should've run out in January of 2008 has lasted until now (with a little left still).
**Getting my first job at ManorCare.
**Meeting Hilda.

**Making the connection from Hilda to Jan Conger.
**Getting to do Hilda's (and her family's) Temple Work - and the Burnham's were there for it all!
**Being in the Temple with Elder Scott.
**Getting to introduce Sister Kapp and her husband in Seattle at a conference. To the conference participants - not each other. ;)

**Sister Kapp sitting in front of ELJ and me at the concert two weeks ago.
**Visiting teaching assignment that let me be friends with Maria.

**Maria and I deciding not to move to that FANTASTIC apartment because we didn't know I'd be moving here. Then I moved here.
**Sitting by Elder Wirthlin on the plane on the way home from Ricks College.
**They found Catheryn and Steve.

**Seeing Dolly in the park. What a miracle.

**The Blue Notebook.
**The Antipas recipe.
**My mission president and his wife being here for dinner with ELJ, EJR and their husbands.

**Getting to be in the Solemn Assembly session for President Hinckley and President Monson.
**Picking the very right songs for Stake Conference May 2006. Wow.
**Being in the foyer of the Temple so I could see my friend Sister Chris when she visited Seattle.
**Being called to the Argentina Neuquen Mission.

**Totally embarrassing myself on the phone with President Monson - the miracle is I didn't lose my membership in the church after calling him a liar. Ask me sometime.
**Getting to be with President Hinckley in the Salt Lake Temple for a devotional.
**Being friends with ELJ. Of all the people she knows, I get to be one of her friends. (One that gets to sit at her kitchen counter a lot and eat ice cream and one that calls me when I have blind dates to see if I need rescuing and takes me with her to the symphony - oh how I love her.)

**Being friends with EJR. Of all the people she knows, I get to be one of her friends. (one that she shares jokes with and buys dresses for and watches The Golden Girls with and lets read her manuscripts and plays dominoes with even when it's hard - oh how I love her.)

**I was born! Into my family at the very time I needed to be born.

(Come on that is an awesome picture.)

**I was born into a family that embraces and lives the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!

**So many Luella miracles.

**Luella herself was a miracle.

**Thinking to call the American Cancer Society about the job posting and finding out about the other available job.
**Just deciding to send my resume to Caresource even though there were no job openings.
**Passing the Social Work Licensure Exam.

My dad always says, "The Lord loves a coincidence."

I think it's true because you can choose to see His hand in all things or not. He never forces. So I want to be a part of the righteous generation - not seeking a sign like the wicked generation - but seeing the signs of His Love everywhere.

I doubt not the Lord nor His goodness.
I've proved Him in days that are past.

So while waiting, I will not doubt. I will be patient. I will be hopeful and I will live my belief that if I have to wait until eternity for some blessings, the blessing of the Atonement is enough until then. More than enough. And the amazing thing is - that's not the only blessing He has given me. See above list for proof.

What miracles are you most grateful for?

Past, Present and the Promise of Future Blessings make me,
So Happy.

Pioneer Amy talked as she drove and drove and drove and drove...

Two years ago today I drove my U-Haul Wagon into the Valley.

Isn't it beautiful?
I talked so much on the way that I was WAY over my minutes
-- by 800 minutes!
Fortunately Verizon helped me out and changed my plan.
Phew!

We were so tired after unloading.
Then about a week later I had to move everything again because my apartment flooded.
So move #2.

Then I moved into my condo! Move #3.
That's it.
No more moving.

I Love my condo!
Except it really needs to be painted.
Sometime soon. Get ready everybody!

Those first few months here were so fun!
I went to Vegas,

Enjoyed BYU Football with Ryn, Steve and Wesley,


Enjoyed BBQ's with the Pyro-Pit and the Fam,

(who has the pics of the pyro-pit?)

(Lani had pics of the pyro-pit! Thanks!)

and had my first favorite dinner party ever!

Then -- there was a lot of death.

(not me)

There was more. Not So Happy.

But there were lots of other really happy things in
the last two years!

Aidan!


Seth and Katie got married!


Grad School!


Stacey's having a baby!


Disneyland!


Sister Beck!

So many miracles!

Young Women!

3 trips to Seattle!

(Isn't that an amazing pic? I took that!)

Like 1000 blind dates - maybe not really so happy!

Happy Birthday lunches!

And lots more.

Yesterday on Shutter Sisters there was a wonderful post about time passing.
She said that when we say, "This too shall pass" we always think of the bad things.

But the truth is - it all will pass.

The good times with friends, the happy moments with family,
the peaceful seasons with God --
it all passes.

Their question was- what are you doing to pass the time?
And how are you making sure you remember it before it passes?
Interesting isn't it?

These last two years haven't been entirely happy -
but I am so glad that I live in Utah now.
It's wonderful to be close to family and friends here.
I love living close to the Headquarters of the Church --
getting to go to Conference and special events like
President Hinckley's Funeral.
(He died too in the last two years.)

I love Utah.

I'm so grateful that Brigham Young brought the Saints out here and that they followed him!
Leaving Nauvoo couldn't have been easy.
But they did it.
And so did I.

And I really am So Happy.

"Amy, No Cry..."

Well -- it's official. I've been released from my calling. There's a new Young Women President.

It's a long story that I won't bore you with... but I've decided that it's the right thing for me to go to a single's ward again. So I will.

But before I do, I just must say that being the Young Women's President in my ward for this last year and almost a half has been the greatest blessing and happiness in my life.
(And sometimes a pain - for sure. But just sometimes.)

I have had the opportunity to become close with the best girls in the world. They are just fantastic and we have had so much fun. Some of my best memories with them:

#1 - Of course - meeting Sister Beck with them. Come on. Awesome.


#2 - Pool Parties. Helping Natalie learn to swim.
#3 - My Dad being here to set me apart.
#4 - Singing "I Walk By Faith" for Sister Jack when she came and spoke to us.


#5 - Riding Trax downtown to watch Young Women's Conference and finding those lost scriptures. (Anyone know how to turn something in to lost and found on Trax?)


#6- When Laceey told me she had saved up her birthday money from when she turned 14 to buy a skirt so she could come to church.
#7 - Movie nights and sleepovers.


#8 - Abelskeevers and General Conference.



#9 - Sydney's miracle of getting off work early enough to come to YW Conference. (And when the nice boy put his jacket on Sydney due to her wardrobe malfunction!)


#10 - Carolyn's miracle of making her goal for the month so she could get her vacation.
#11- Popsicles, junk food and other food that may be beyond the expiration date at my house. Christy Lee was the best at checking the dates.
#12 - Going to the Humanitarian Center with Lindsey and seeing the "Head Butt" boxers that were for sure headed to Africa.


#13 - The car dance. (danced to the tune of Cascada's "Everytime We Touch")

(this isn't it - just a fun dancing camp pic. They all have on Marjorie P. Hinckley wigs.)

#14 - "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him."
#15 - When I made the chalk scrape so loud on the chalkboard and we laughed so hard the other class moved so it would be more reverent at church.
#16 - When my Mom came and taught us how to decorate cakes.


#17 - Being in the right place at the right time.
#18 - Feeling the Spirit with them.
#19 - Camp. Vegetable master.

Youth Conference. Going over the wall in a boot. (Not that wall)

"Bands Up!" (I wore that band for like 6 weeks too! Sick!)
#20 - When I spotted Voldemort.
#21- Being in the Temple with Lindsey and Natalie. And then having hot chocolate at Starbucks.
#22 - The Fundraiser. "Flag meetings." Ha!
#23 - Going to anything they were participating in - especially musical concerts almost always with Carolyn.


#24 - Anything London.


#25 - Planting our Salsa Garden!


















#26- Going to the Temple with Lindsey for her birthday and going to eat after but she didn't like any of her food - she's so cute. So having ice cream instead.


#27 - Texting.
#28 - Being in the ER with Debbie after I hurt my foot and seeing those crAzy guys with their shirts off.
#29 - Sydney making up songs about everyone.
#30 - Seeing Les Miserable with Carolyn and the electricity went out for two hours! So fun. So stuffy!
#31 - Anytime I got to be with them, talk to them, text them, sing with them, pray with and for them, hug them, learn with and from them... They have been so good to me - letting me learn and forgiving all my mistakes. I love them so so so much.

I feel like I've decided to give 8 girls up for adoption.

So - I'm sad. But still... having the chance to strengthen my little corner of Heavenly Father's Fort and the memories of those girls will forever make me... So Happy.