Running: One of the World's Strangest Sports

But seriously. You just... run? You just move your legs really fast and breathe really hard for a long time? It is the weirdest sport, but I really like it! I wouldn't quite say that I'm 'addicted' to running, but the feeling I get after I finish a run is awesome. I started running about a year ago, but got more serious about it in January (New Years resolutions, am I right?). My dad really got me started running, and my roommate India kept me motivated when all I wanted to do was wrap up in a blanket and eat cereal. 

Like this. 

Running has been really great, because I love feeling like I'm taking good care of my body. I'm so grateful I have a healthy body and I don't want to waste it! At all the races I've done, I've seen awesome old people who run circles around me, and it's my goal in life to be like that when I grow up. 

My first official 5K- The Zombie Chase

The Chasing Cupid 5K (freeeezing)

Leprechaun Lope 10K

Here I broke my tradition of running only on holidays and did a fundraiser 5K for Boston victims (p.s. thanks for letting me steal your insta pic, India!)

My dad and I achieved our goal of running a half marathon (though he's already run 2) on June 15 at the American Fork Canyon Half! It's probably the first time I've ever actually followed through on a New Year's resolution. I listened to the Harry Potter soundtracks the whole time, which made me feel equal parts motivated and magical. My mantra went something like: if Harry Potter can defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, I can run 13.1 miles. The race was pretty much all downhill which was nice for the first 7 or 8 miles, but miles 11-13 were pretty brutal. When you run uphill, it hurts while you're running uphill, but when you run downhill, it hurts for three days (as I always say). I don't know how much I'll get to run on my mission, but I'll definitely get back into it when I get back!       

Hawaii (That's Pretty Neat)

A few weeks ago, my family went on a 'last fling' vacation to Hawaii before I leave on my mission in a few weeks, and before my little brother leaves on his mission next year! It was so much fun. Usually my family is gogogogo! on vacations, but this one was pretty laid back, and it was really nice! It was great to see how much Heavenly Father loves us to create the beautiful earth we live on. We went to the beach, ate snow cones and shrimp, visited the Polynesian Cultural Center and Pearl Harbor, watched E.T. and just spent some quality time with each other! Here be some photos:

Hey! Save me a piece of that corn!

Whenever we were driving around the beautiful island, I thought about how if I owned Hawaii, I would put dinosaur statues/animatronics all over the place. I wouldn't make them too terrible obvious, just enough so people would double-take and say "Did you see that?!". Genius. 

 Wouldn't that be neat?
The neatest part of the trip was when my family went to the Laie temple and visitors center. The temple itself is so beautiful, it's ridiculous. My family attempted to take a picture in the blinding sun, and when some sister missionaries offered to take one for us, we found out there was a sister missionary from Manila in the visitors center at that very moment! 
Coincidence? I think not!
Her name is Sister Gamba and she was such a sweetheart! She gave me the inside scoop on Manila and told me she'd find me when she goes home in October. How neat is that? That's pretty neat. I love seeing these little miracles already happening in my life, and I haven't even gotten into the field yet! 

Me, Sister Gamba, and the Tagalog Book of Mormon!

All in all, it was a successful vacation, and I'm, so grateful for the time I got to spend with my family. Like I always say: "Being out in nature is about the neatest thing there is". (That's pretty neat)

I love to see the temple

This was an incredible day! It started out so rainy (which I love) and I listened to some real nice Clair de Lune on my way to class, where I paid absolutely no attention because I was so excited to go to the temple. My mom and I went out to lunch at Zupa's and by the time we got to the Draper temple, the clouds had cleared and it was a beautiful day. The whole experience was a whirlwind, but I loved it! The spirit was so strong the whole time, it was amazing. I loved having some of my family there, especially those who have already passed on. The temple is so neat, it's literally God's house, and it's so cool He invites us to come! I'm very grateful for the blessings of the temple, and to be able to live in Utah where you can be standing at the Draper temple and see 3 others in the valley! I've been to the Salt Lake, Jordan River, Draper (obviously), Bountiful, and Oquirrh Mountain temples so far. I'm hoping to make it to all the temples in Utah before I leave, but I don't have much time left and that's a pretty tall order! The point is, the temple is an amazing place, and everyone should go there in some capacity or another, it's worth it!

The Call

Right around September of last year I started thinking to myself, "Self, I think I should serve a mission", but then I thought to myself "Silly self, you can't go for another 2 years, don't worry about it right now, just see how the cards play out", but then my self wouldn't leave myself alone. 
You know what I'm saying?
In my journal I wrote about how I was thinking about serving a mission and how it would be easy to put it off and decide later, but I wanted to make a decision sooner rather than later, but I didn't know why. Well past self, if you'll just wait about 3 weeks you'll find out exactly why! You guessed it, the announcement came in the October conference and changed my life! I was watching conference alone in my apartment, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang my very favorite hymn, How Firm a Foundation, which made me really happy. When President Monson got up to welcome everyone to conference, I felt a peace and calm and thought "This man is a true prophet of God", and I will never ever forget how I felt when he announced the mission age change. I was bawling. It is still so surreal and amazing to me! I wanted to be one of those awesome sisters who got their Bishop's interview between the sessions of conference and were gone the next day, but I decided to take some time and make sure I wanted to go on a mission for the right reasons (not that they didn't, I just needed to make sure for myself). 
Once I decided through LOTS of prayer and temple going and fasting that it really truly was right for me to go, I felt it would be best to finish out the school year so I could finish my year-long mechanical engineering project and finish all of my math classes (p.s. PDE's is literally the worst class of all time). 
Finally the day came (Valentines Day to be exact!) when I got my call. I had some great friends and family there, and here's the video so you can see for yourself!

Manila Philippines. Speaking Tagalog (everyone knew how to pronounce Tagalog except me apparently). When I was contemplating my call I decided I wanted to get called somewhere I would have never expected, and that's definitely what happened! Nobody guessed it right, especially not me! I'm so excited for the adventure of living and serving somewhere sooooo different from anything I've known, and I'm still so incredibly grateful for the age change which gave me the opportunity to serve the Lord! 

From left to right: Meg Garfield, a beacon of light, called to serve in the Honduras Tegucigalpa mission; India Henson, my beautiful roommate, confidante, and best friend, called to serve in the Rome, Italy mission; Me; Carine Stearman,  my hilarious wonderful best friend, 'called' to do an internship in Ireland in a pediatric hospital! How neat are mah friends?!

Make the Days Count!

With a month left until I leave for my mission, I decided to start a blog! I spent a while trying to think of a title that would apply to a mission and life in general, so I can keep blogging after I get home. When "my missionary" (he's really the Lord's missionary, not mine, but I don't know what else to call him! I'll just call him by his name, Elder Natee) left to his mission in Barcelona, Spain, it was pretty difficult for the first little bit, but then I happened to stumble upon this picture on good old Pinterest:

It was exactly what I needed to read! Since that time, this phrase has sort of become mine and Elder Natee's motto. There are always things we are looking forward to, but it is so important to find joy in each day. President Uchtdorf talks about this often; this quote is from his talk "Of Regrets and Resolutions":

We shouldn’t wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available—all the time! Life is not meant to be appreciated only in retrospect. “This is the day which the Lord hath made … ,” the Psalmist wrote. “Rejoice and be glad in it.”⁶

So this blog is about how I try to make the days count, including my upcoming days in the Philippines Manila mission! I apologize for the many posts I'm going to write today, I have to get caught up to where I am right now. Here are some pictures of how I have been making the days count for about the last year!

This was where all my dreams came true. 

Blog, meet my best friend Carine Stearman. Check her out at carinestearman.blogspot.com.

I wanted to sneak this one of Elder Natee in (just to the right of the guy not in a suit, Edu) because he was soo excited about this baptism and he looks great!

This is Elder Natee's foot in Barcelona

I like making t-shirts, so I made these for us. Elder Natee is in Hufflepuff according to Pottermore, don't make fun of him too much :)

You may be thinking to yourself "That was just too many pictures" and I would say to you "Yes, that was a lot of pictures, but I'm not that sorry". So there's a little taste of who I am. You should also know I'm a mechanical engineering student at the University of Utah and I want to design roller coasters, toys, or prosthetics when I grow up; I like old school jazz music; I love flags and England; I dig snow cones, root beer floats, roasted marshmallows and really pretty much all food; Sherlock, Psych, Chuck, and Parks and Recreation are my favorite shows; Fantastic Mr. Fox and Midnight in Paris are my favorite movies; I absolutely hate it when people pronounce 'nuclear' as 'nukular'; and I'm a pretty big fan of reading. So that's me, and here we go!