Gratitude

It's amazing how much we can learn from a person. This past week I had the opportunity to go to Portland, where I served my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was able to visit with those that I served and helped come closer to Christ as I was there and after. It was incredible.

The people we work with and surround ourselves with are amazing. My boyfriend's family is also in Portland so we were able to spend the holiday with them. What a great experience it was being there in my mission with some of the people I love.

My gratitude is overflowing after this trip as I have seen and been reminded of the many blessings I have in my life. There is one family in particular that I want to talk about.

This family is wonderful. They've been through many hard struggles in their lives but love the gospel. My companion and I taught them two-and-a-half years ago and the wife was baptized! She overcame her addiction of smoking, started coming to church more, and eventually received a calling after she was baptized. Incredible progress for her! Her husband still struggled with his addiction to smoking and, eventually, she began smoking again. She once again struggled with the same things that had held her back from being baptized before. Soon, the missionaries lost contact.

As I returned to visit Portland, I felt prompted to drop by their house. I had no idea that missionaries were not visiting them anymore but I found out that nobody had been able to get into their house to even say hi. As I knocked on the door, their son answered. He's in his twenties and I had begun teaching him as well when I was there. A moment of excitement and relief overcame me when the door opened.

I was able to talk with their son and with the husband for awhile and found out then that missionaries had not come to visit. These two wonderful people I taught had their CTR rings and were still pushing for the success they wanted: baptism and activity in the Church. Although they are still far from that goal, they are working on it and I am grateful that I had the prompting to stop by. Because of that, I was able to get them reconnected with the missionaries and help them remember the feelings they once had when they met with them.

My gratitude is full and is still filling up because of the miracles and experiences I had just over this past week in Portland.

"The Spirit of gratitude brings true joy and great happiness." -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Veteran's Day

Having two very close men to me has brought me closer to the love and importance of Veteran's Day. This holiday is a day to remember those men and women who have fought for our country. Many of these men and women have families at home. As they fought and defended our country, they prayed and hoped every day that they would return safely.

My father is one of these men. After serving a tour in Iraq for 15 months, he returned home. About a year later, he was deployed again to Iraq for another 15 months. This was hard for my family but knowing the importance of it and how grateful I am of his return has brought peace and joy to my heart.

Yesterday, Paris was attacked. Many were killed and many others were taken hostage. This devastating act in Paris is another thought that has crossed my mind. I am so grateful for those willing to undergo these hard trials and acts. I have a few friends from France and although they are here in the States, their friends and families are there in France, going through this hard time in their home country.

This act has united our world together just as 9/11 did years ago. #prayforparis is flooding social media, profile pictures have been changed to the French flag, and indeed, today, we are all French just as the world was all Americans many years ago when 9/11/ occurred.

I am so blessed to have my family together and although many families aren't, I know they will be. The lesson this week is that I need to show my patriotism more. Patriotism is taken for granted and is not shown much in our nation as much as it once did.

We, as a people, must gather together and unite to show the love of our nation and our world. We never know what will happen.

Just as I stood as a little girl waiting for my dad to return home for over two years, we must wait patiently and do all we can to support and show our love and patriotism while we can.

Murder Mystery

You can't judge a book by it's cover. Ain't that the truth?

I don't know if anyone else heard about the BYU Murder Mystery Dinner shows but I had the opportunity to attend tonight. All of the events, clues, happenings, and people led me to one idea, yet again: networking.

Our world depends on networking. At this event, we were given a character to act as with clues and hints to lead to the killer. These clues meant nothing if we didn't talk to the others in the room. We were able to go around and ask other characters who they knew and what they knew about them. It was interesting and gave a greater appreciation for networking and the importance of it.

Another aspect learned from this dinner is we never know the play-by-plays of life. We sat together as dates not knowing what to expect for sure but knew there was an end result: someone was the killer and we had to figure out who.

Just as in this dinner, we're given all the tools we need to reach our end goal, but now we need to put them into action.

I am not always the best at applying what I learn but this one is essential as it involves everyone in my life and how my life is currently and in the future.

Murder Mystery Dinner has helped me see in action WHY I need to network, WHY I am involved in various activities, WHO I need to talk to, and WHAT the result is.

This was a good learning environment to see for myself, while in character, how I can change where I'm at currently.

I've actually been doing pretty good with my goals posted on my blogs so here goes another one:

I'm going to make a plan of things I want to work on for the next year. So, grab a calendar and start making monthly goals! Yes, I can change them as I go if I feel needed but this will be a good start for me to get a move-on with my life.

Who's up for the challenge?

Shalae

Remote Meeting

I love working as part of Grammonites! We as a team are working effectively and are scheduling times to accomplish tasks. Our presentation on Comcast is going well and we are working to meet deadlines.

This week, we met on Google Hangouts to discuss our findings, research, and any updates for our presentation. We found that we need to be communicating more often with each other as it will stand as a reminder for our group to work hard and effectively so we can meet our deadlines.

We did not experience any technological difficulties which made for a great, short meeting. Meeting online worked out well for us as we did not have to have a specified place that worked for all of us. We were able to meet wherever we were at a designated time, quickly discuss and go over the agenda, and accomplish the tasks without any other distractions.

Go team Grammonites!

Online Interview

Mock interviews are hard. It's not something you just walk into with no problem and feel super accomplished afterwards. I was able to learn a lot about what to work on for upcoming interviews with job positions.

I am applying for a Resident Assistant position for BYU On-Campus Housing. With the mock interviews we participated in during class as well as the online interview, I was able to learn that this job has a lot of details. I was an RA almost three years ago, my freshman year, but now looking at the job again, I see that there is much more and I cannot walk into the interview and think that since I had the job in the past, all is well.

I was able to learn from those who don't know the position very well that I need to stay positive and energetic but use the experience I've had to my advantage. I need to show the application that was involved as I worked as an RA my freshman year.

These interviews helped me greatly see what I need to work on and how to better prepare myself and calm my nerves to participate in interviews whenever they may arise.

Costume Identity

Oh, Halloween!

What a time of the year. It's a time where everyone is able to dress up and be someone they're not. What does this do for us? It creates an image of confidence in someone we are for a day and then it disappears. Why is that confidence there for a short time? Or a lasting time in others? What is it about Halloween that allows us to become something else and feel good about that?

This week, I dressed up as a Ravenclaw from Harry Potter. I guess you could say it was pretty magical! Haha.

Something I've learned about Halloween and activities this week is that we are all able to help each other out and be the people each other needs. We are here for each other and no matter what our identity may be, we have something to give. Nobody looks the same whether we dress up similarly or not, but we have so much to offer.

This Halloween and the rest of this year, I want to work on being the person someone may need. I may feel like my identity isn't hidden but to someone else, I am a new person with a hidden identity and I have much to offer.

This Halloween, remember that. Your costume identity is not who you are but it is fun and allows for a good time. Remember that aside from your costume, you have much to give to those around you.

This helps us in every day lives as we are able to connect more with those around us and be a beacon of light to our peers.

I Will Survive

This song could not be more applicable than right now!

On Thursday alone, I had six midterms. Is that even possible?!

But I survived and and am able to feel such relief from knowing how blessed I am to be in school and be studying at such a great university.

I've taken for granted the chance I have to be studying at Brigham Young University and to get such a great education. I want to strive to be more diligent with my classes to take advantage of the time I have here.

Something I want to begin doing is using more of the campus resources. I am striving to search for an internship and with the career connections trip I went on last week, I am more motivated to use the resources we have at BYU.

I had the opportunity to go and get my resume reviewed last week on campus and that helped me a ton! I learned a lot about making my resume stand out and because I worked on my resume more, I was able to get more connections with my new and improved resume. (It's still not great, don't get me wrong.) Haha but I feel so grateful to go to a university where they care about ME as an individual and not just the money I bring.

So know that YES, YOU WILL SURVIVE! Life is grand and we are blessed.

Use the resources on campus! Here's a link to the career and counseling website for BYU. It's great. Please use it!

https://ccc.byu.edu/

Shalae