Well It Has Been Awhile

So things are defiantly changing, seeing that I haven't blogged in a couple months that shouldn't be too surprising. :)
First of all my older sister Erin has received her mission call to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 18 months. She will go about doing good and serving God for this time leaving me and the rest of my family for people of another country she will learn to love. If you want to know where she is going you will have to ask her. She leaves January 22 and it will be quite a change considering she has been my roommate and is my bffl. What I will do with out her, I don't know, but she is pretty exemplary sacrificing 18 months of her life for her #1.
Since I haven't been so current with this blog, I'll just have to fill in all the gaps I never have posted, like I have been working at the Missionary Training Center  (MTC) in the cafeteria for the last six months. Its been fun. The best part of the job is defiantly seeing hundreds of missionaries, like my sister will be,  regularly. Provo is weird in the way it has two MTCs with thousands of missionaries in them, but I am closer to the missionaries in Georgia serving in my ward (congregation). Anywho working in the cafeteria has been real and we get fed for FREE every shift, but today I put in my two week notice because I got another job that pays more and Erin will be reporting to the other MTC in Provo. I'll probably follow her there.
OK lets just be honest, the end of the semester is stinkin 1 month away!! That will be the best change ever!! And it also means CHRISTMAS! which I am super duper excited for. I love everything about it and do not care about the whole listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, so I have already started.
Alrighty so I figure if you are taking precious time to read this you must want to be enlighten by some kind of story about me and my oh so exciting life (btw I do have a great life). So today me and my roomie Monica wen to the gym and came home and decided to be all healthy and make some tilapia. It was super easy just put some parmesan on the fish and stuck in the oven which was on broil. We were sittin there just having a good ole time cutting up the tomatoes and lemon to put on the fish and Monica was like "it smells like hair" (you know like when you burn your hair straightening it). I thought "better check the oven." So I did ANNNNDDD the parmesan surrounding the fish caught on fire. I blew it out like the fire on  birthday candles. Thankfully the fish was not effected by the flames. We then proceeded to eat the fish with pesto and lemon and it was super healthy and tasty and we felt great.
Well thanks for reading my blog and hope everyone has a great week with lots of peace and blessings.

This is what we made, but ours didn't really look like that!

Me and my roomies.

Young Woman No More :)

Today I put on my young woman medallion while I was getting ready for church, thinking this is my last day of being 17 EVER! Tomorrow is my birthday and I will turn the big 18, becoming an official adult and finally being able to donate blood here at BYU. 

What I really want to write about today is my gratitude towards the program my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has for young women called simply Young Women's. By participating in weekly activities during middle school and high school I have grown and changed. Technically I have been out of the program since I have left the house to come to college, but the things I learned within it still play an active part in my life. Young Women's emphases values and morals like integrity, good works, individual worth, and knowledge. A young woman is encouraged to act upon the values she learned by completing experiences using a program called Personal Progress. One experience I had with Personal Progress involved starting a journal. I had never particularly been consistent with it. butI made a goal to write regularly. Since then I have kept a daily journal for a couple years now. Writing in my journal has been a way for me to reflect upon the miracles God has worked in my life that day and remember the blessings he has given me. 

During my time in Young Women's I made an effort to learn how to cook, sew, crochet, and paint. Now that I am in college I am so grateful for the wonderful women who taught me these things. It would be much harder now to learn how to learn all those skills as I am busy with school, work, and church. 

The most important thing I learned in Young Women's was who I am. By interacting with other girls my age and being in a wholesome environment I came to know I am a daughter of God, who loves me and I love Him. Going through my teenage years with this reassurance provided me with the confidence I needed to do the right thing. Part of gaining this confidence also came form building others up through service and kindness. When you treat the people around you like the son or daughter of God they are your confidence increases. Learning that little truth was one of the biggest impacts Young Women's had on my life. 

I am grateful for all the leaders who have shown their compassion and love towards the rising generation and for all the sacrifices they have made to help us know whose we are. Most importantly I want to let everyone know that there in a God in heaven who does love His children, so much that He sent His son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice. It was not fair that the only perfect person to walk the earth was arrested on superfluous charges and crucified to satisfy a mob.Yet it was done for us, through pure love. I cannot think of a greater gift a loving God could give His children. 

Young Women's Medallions (you receive once you complete Personal Progress) 

Biking with my girls for a Tuesday night activity

My Sisters and I at Young Women's Camp for girls ages 12-18

 

The fabulous girls from my town at this camp

Me and one of the many wonderful Young Women's leaders I have grown to love

Messing around with one of the leaders at a Tuesday night activity (she had no clue we were taking pictures haha)

My Mormon Moments: God is All Loving and All Knowing!

Here is this week's Book of Mormon thought for you guys!
2 Nephi 31 verses 9 and 10 reads “And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, he having set the example before them.  And he said unto the children of men: Follow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?” As I thought about these verses, all the people who have ever sacrificed for the gospel came to my mind. I think it is so tender that Jesus Christ, our Savior wants us to become better. I have wondered how I can be more like Him and sometimes I tend to complicate things, but as Nephi describes it is just as simple as keeping the commandments. Knowing that keeping the commandments and sacrificing does bring forth the blessings of heaven, I see that living the gospel is not a burden but a tremendous blessing. I am grateful for the peace and love that my Heavenly Father has for me and all His children, and that He was willing to give up His Only Begotten Son to be the perfect example for me.

I love this picture!

My Mormon Moments: Handling Our Wilderness

     Alright so I have already survived 2 weeks of BYU life! This post is going to be more of my moments with the Book of Mormon (another testament of Jesus Christ). It is truly a powerful book that has helped me throughout my life, and even recently as I have experienced so much change over the past weeks.
     In class we are moving through the book quickly and mid terms are rapidly approaching, because summer term is so short. As I may have mentioned before I am studying about Nephi and his family who were originally from Jerusalem (600 BC), but were asked to leave the comfort of their homes by the Lord. They traveled in the wilderness for 8 years and experienced all kinds of hardship as you could imagine. Nephi experienced many trials within those years in the desert including: being threatened by his brothers to kill him on multiple occasions, building a huge ship, becoming a new father, experiencing constant opposition from his brothers, having to fix his broken bow while his whole family was starving, and on top of that his father dies. Those are just a few of the recorded events and I think just being in the wilderness and not knowing where we are going for 8 years would be more then I could handle. Clearly Nephi was am amazing man who had a bunch of faith. He knows why he has been able to carry on. He explains, "My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness" (2 Nephi 4:20).  Something about this verse spoke to me. Here I am having just left my home (of course it is nothing in compared to Nephi) and am experiencing the most change I have ever had to deal with in my life. It can be confusing taking it all in at once, but just like Nephi I have felt God's support and love as I have left my friends, family, ward (congregation), and sweet sister missionaries in Georgia. I have felt His spirit comfort me and I know He loves me and surely has a plan for me, even though I may not know exactly what it is right now. I am so grateful I could feel peace as I read this passage and know to keep trekin', because He knows me.

Nephi and his wife comforting him during a troublesome time.

My Mormon Moments With the Book of Mormon: Nephi's Leading by Following

      Alright so as I have mentioned before I am taking Book of Mormon at Brigham Young University. It is a required class to graduate for my friends who didn't know! Even if it wasn't I'd still want to take it just saying. As a part of our weekly assignments we as a class have been asked to share what we learned with friends or family, so I thought I'd make a blog post of it this week and we will see how it goes. I will post links and try my best to explain what is going on for my friends who are not familiar with the book.
      In 1 Nephi 4:34 Nephi, an ancient North American Prophet, faithfully admonishes, “Surely the Lord hath commanded us to do this thing; and shall we not be diligent in keeping the commandments of the Lord.” Within the last four chapters Nephi has told his murmurous brothers (Nephi has two older brothers who were complaining about going back to get their records from a leader in their town after Nephi's family had fled the city in hopes of escaping from it to save their father's life) this same thing like 2 other times (the older brothers never wanted to do anything outside their comfort zone and Nephi was the only one to man up). It amazes me how persistent Nephi was in being a leader despite opposition from his family, even his older brothers who should have been examples for him. He does  not give into their petty complainants because he sees the bigger picture and knows the Lord will help him accomplish hard things. What a leader! It is just like in our day God has asked us to keep his commandments, and it takes faith a diligence to stay with it. It also reminds me of a program I was listening to and I think it was one of the apostles talking about the mission age change (the age for mormon missionaries was changed in October so girls could serve at 19 and boys at 18, which is intense considering these young adults give up family and media to serve the Lord for 18 to 24 months) and pretty much what he said was “the new announcement is something tremendous to ask of youth at even a younger age, but the Lord has given the commandment and we as church leaders expect them to rise up and we know they can do it.” I love the expectation our Heavenly Father gives us and the unfailing love and faith he has for us! He knows we as his little children can do hard things especially with Him there to help us. This is a comfort to me knowing as long as I am keeping the commandments and trying hard to draw closer to God, he will take care of me as I am away from home, young, and clueless. Nephi still leaves me in awe because he was all the above and didn't have his family support him and obviously had way more faith.

Nephi and his older brothers (Nephi is the one who looks like a leader)

Hello College!

      It is Monday and also the first day of classes at Brigham Young University for summer term. Somehow I have found myself here at this university. I don't know where to start, but I guess I'll start out explaining how I came to go to summer school. When I was accepted to BYU I was just admitted to Fall semester, but after thinking about it I decided it would be better for me to get out here earlier to establish myself with a job and take some "easy" classes before like 4,000 other freshmen show up and this campus explodes with chaos. All I did was email BYU and they quickly accepted me. That is how I got here.

     The last couple days though have been busy and filled with many firsts: my first apartment, classes, job training, and student ID. 

Honestly my thoughts and feelings about this tremendous change right now are:

1. I LOVE the mountains in Utah paired with non humid weather and the perfect temperature are ideal for walking around. 

2. Living on my own is pretty sweet, but I still love my home and town where I was raised and am super grateful for the spectacular childhood I have had, so in that sense I will always miss those memories and friends.

3. Going to church without air conditioning for three hours and then staying for another 2 hour meeting makes you feel sick and hungry.

4. I LOVE that I am enrolled in two religion classes. One is for The Book of Mormon  and the other is a survey of world religions. It is so wonderful to learn about these things that mean so much to me on a whole new level.

5. BYU is huge and it is crazy to think how many people do so many diverse things here.

6. I live right next to some of the new missionary housing and it was so cool yesterday to watch missionaries come home from the broadcast yesterday (for those who don't know the church broadcasted a seminar yesterday all about missionary work from the Marriott Center at BYU).

7. I miss Dad unclogging the shower (our shower doesn't drain well and I am actually going to have to put forth effort to call maintence because I cannot figure it out!)

     I also want to give a shout out to my friend Colby for kindly reminding me to just keep blogging, because I seriously lack confidence in writing and that made my day.

     Ok, one other story about today. My last class of the day was Zumba, so after spending all day on campus I got to this class. I thought that I had Zumba-ed before so it would be a nice little fun class. Yeah no. I was whipped by the end of it and problem wasn't even doing it right. Afterwards I was so tired and thirsty and had to walk like 30 mins to get home. I got semi lost on the way home and that was no fun. By the time I reached my apartment I wanted water and water and food. I thought the apartment would be open and it wasn't, so I took my backpack off in search of the keys and thankfully someone opened the door for me. AHHHHHH  it felt soooo soooooo good to be home. 

     Tomorrow I go to my first day of work serving food at the missionary training center. It will be an early morning, like by early 4 am. WHAT!? I know, but at least I'll have the rest of the day to read and rest. 

    

BYU baby! 

My sweet sister Abbee took this. I think it is on BYU campus  like within the last couple weeks.

Senior Festivities

   

Me certificate for graduating seminary. 

 This month has been crazy and gone by so fast. Back in the beginning of May I was finishing up Calculus at Clayton State University and concerned about my finals. I ended up doing well in the class and getting a higher grade then expected, so that was a blessing!
     This past week I experienced my last day of high school and for me personally that was...ahhhhh relieving. In my high school we do something called a senior drum out on our last day. Pretty much all us seniors dress up in Sunday best and have our final walk through the halls of the school. At the front of our little parade is the drum line and the beat of the drum can be heard throughout the whole school. I loved hearing the drum fade in and out as we walked past our school's corridors. All the underclassmen line up in the hall and we give our final hugs and goodbyes.  I don't know how much I will miss it until later, but as for right now I am not missing it (sleeping in is really nice).
     Thursday was also my last day of seminary. I'll miss that. Being able to participate in a continual sacrifice of time everyday was exhausting at times, but one of the best and most worthwhile parts of my day.
     Which brings me to seminary graduation. Out of all the fun stuff going on, I was not expecting to be this satisfied and happy for graduating seminary. I will definitely miss it. It is weird to think I never have to go to seminary then high school again. The other part of this whole seminary graduation thing is I was asked to speak for it. When I got the call I got the vibe that there would be like 4 or 5 youth speakers. I got there and it was me and one other youth speaker on the program. I started feeling nervous, like all the bishops (leaders of the congregations around the Atlanta area) and most the seminary students and their families were there. The chapel was full. I started to pray for comfort. I delivered my thoughts about seminary and the impact it had on my life and was definitely calmed down. It was a good experience. I am thankful I could be apart of that and the God heard and answered my prayer.
     As for this week I will be graduating high school and on Saturday my family and I will be off to the beach! I am so excited for that before I hit the books at BYU for Summer semester and get a job!

"The Future is as Bright as Your Faith"

I don't know everything, but keep reading. :)

So it has been a while but a couple things have been on my mind as I have thought what I should shared with whoever reads this. 

The first is what I have learned from dual enrollment, that is taking my college classes at a local campus while enrolled in high school. I have taken pretty much freshmen courses.  The actual studying and stuff I did would seem sufficient to me to get an A in the course, but by the end of the semester, quite a few times I was stuck at an 89 and that was cutting it pretty close for me. The problem is if I do get an 89 at the college it shows up as an 85 on my high school transcript, but if I get a 90 (an A) I receive a 95 at high school. These past times I have been in this spot my mom has always told me just try your best and the Lord will do the rest. sure enough I would study and pray harder and it would end up great. That is exactly what faith can do. In James 2:17 faith is described as dead without works. I am grateful I could have such an experience to prepare me for real college and to learn to rely on the Lord in a small way. As my Calculus 1501 final is coming up, I am just keeping that in mind. It also applies to just about anything else in life, like finding housing for Fall or becoming better at loving someone. This is supposed to go with that picture above that President Tomas S. Monson said. 

The second is the the events that occurred in Boston. My heart goes out to all those effected by that tragedy. It has been wonderful though to see so many people's true colors show in a horrific time like this. I am glad that even in times of distress and gloom people were quick to do good. I guess the quote above goes perfectly with that too. 

The last I want to share is how thankful I am for Sundays. I love going to church and being at a place where I can feel closer to my Heavenly Father. Today was just great, because of church. I have loved the time I was in Sunday School with the Come Follow Me Program and was sad to leave it, because I was ask to attend to the Teaching: No Greater Call class. As I am transitioning from my nice little home life to what will be my on my own life I am just keeping in mind this video. My church puts them out and I know I am so biased, but seriously they are done so well. The messages are just wonderful! 

You'll have to watch it to know what I am talking about now.

The thought  "I am the master gardner" keeps going through my mind. It is so wonderful to know God knows me and how I can become better.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and if you want to watch more GREAT videos you can click here. Thank you for reading!

HOLY SNAP...

     Some times insane things just happen, today I witnessed two. The first I was washing dishes rocking out to music, when I saw a burst of flame out the window. Its lasted for about two seconds then stopped. I kept on washing and then I heard a HUGE BOOM. I saw lighting like hit the ground!!! It was CRAZY.

      Now its pouring rain. I am glad because we need it to wash away all the pollen! :)

     The other one was quite a sight. Alright so I stayed after school today to help decorate for this breakfast National Honor Society is putting on for the teachers at our school and we were in the cafeteria hanging out, having a good time decorating. There was also this group of like 10 or so kids just doing whatever; it was way past school being out and it looked like they were at school because they had nothing else todo. My back was facing them, but all the sudden I heard some kind of tension in the air, so I turned around. I saw this girl going mad at this guy like twice her size. Woah! she was angry, and I had no clue what set her off to unleash the beast. There were some blows exchanged, but nothing too serious. Finally the guy just stopped fighting back and walked away. I just stared because I was in awe/shock. In all my years in high school I have never seen a fight until today.

     

Our decorating!

Springtime Blessings

Springtime in Georgia is so gorgeous. One of the best ways I have enjoyed it was going on a bike ride with my mom Friday. We are training to do the B.R.A.G. (bike ride around Georgia), which is a week long event where you ride about 300 miles. There are so many trees and they blooms so many different colors. Some of the trees here already have their leaves and I am like how did I miss that? The down side is the pollen. It is like someone puked yellow chalk dust everywhere! :) Then there is the allergies  I don't know how I have never had them, but I am not complaining.  I am grateful I don't have allergies and for the beautiful place I live. Thank you for reading.

Your Smile Awaits You

Its video time! Smiling and laughing are one of my favorites. I love uplifting entertainment that can bring a smile to your face! Although I will not be kissing anytime soon, (because with four girls my clever parents made a deal with us that if we waited until 18 to kiss, they would pay us two thousand dollars), but a couple days ago I found this video and it just made me smile, so I hope you will too. :)

Thanks for reading again!

Back to School

     Alright, here I go again! :) For the last week my high school has been on Spring Break and today we went back to school. I started my day driving to the church with my mom and sister to go to seminary. Seminary, a daily scripture study for LDS youth in high school, in Georgia starts at 6:55 am. Each year we study a different book of scripture. This year is the New Testament. There are about 40 kids that go to my high school who wake up every school day to attend. I have found as I attend seminary even when it may be hard to wake up my day goes by smoother and I am more likely to accomplish things. Today in this class we discussed 1 Timothy 5 and 6, about how money can be a distraction. I liked what verse 7 of chapter 6 said that "For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out." I just thought to myself, "Almost all success is based off of money and what kind of job you have, but none of it matters when we move on from this life. Why are we so blinded by it. I do it too, but clearly we can't leave with that. Shouldn't it be obvious there must be something more?" OK. So that was the start of my day. 
      Going back to high school today was crazy! I am anticipating moving on, but I still want to enjoy it. In AP Psychology we learned about personality disorders. The Ap test is coming up soon and our class is so behind. I am grateful though the teacher delivers the lectures in a captivating way that relate to us students, so every time I got to class it is so interesting. 
     My mom made homemade applesauce which was super good, so when I got home that is what I had. Life is good. 
     Thanks for reading. Have a fantastic day!

Fresh and New Start

      I have no clue what I am doing right now quite honestly. I am not that great at writing, so I'll just write like I would speak in honesty. I have kept a daily journal for the last couple years, but now I feel like I need to express some of my daily experiences more publicly. The thought came into my mind briefly while watching LDS General Conference, a semi annual event where millions of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints watch leaders speak about various topics. The event lasts over a weekend and so many inspiring things are said. Anywho, one of the apostles spoke about blogging. Its a first for me but we'll see how it goes.
     I am Caree. a high school senior. I have attended dual enrollment classes at a local college since my junior year. I have played piano for over a decade and could be way better if I would have listened to my parents and practiced all those years. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also known as the LDS church or mormon church. I love being a member because the religion encompasses every aspect of my life or at least I try. I have three sisters and as a family we throughly enjoy traveling. I am not kidding we travel alot. I enjoy creating stuff and it turning out well. I enjoy exercising with my mom. I was recently accepted to Brigham Young University in Provo, UT and cannot wait to get out there with my older sister. I am in anatomy at high school and love it, although I cannot see my self going in to the medical field right now. Based off of that statement it should be easy to believe I have no idea what I want to major in, I'll just see where God takes me with my life.
       Today was amazing. I was at church for a funeral, baptism, and general conference. It was incredible to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ penetrates our lives from funerals to the topic of blogging.
    All these ideas of what to say are scurrying about in my mind. hmmm. I am grateful I could have my spirits lifted this weekend as I listened and pondered upon the words of some incredible men and women.
    If anyone has questions about mormons they can go to this link http://mormon.org.  Thanks for reading and have a fantastic day!