Author for Intuition!

4 November - 10 November 2019

This was a great week! I found out such good news and have been busy doing productive things. Well, trying to! 

Monday

We had a combined FHE to celebrate the Day of the Dead. We had chips, salsa, and guac at the church and watched the movie Coco. It was so fun! On my way home, I felt prompted to stop by and say "hi" to Whitney. I didn't realize she had people over for FHE, but she was glad I stopped by because she had a picture to give me. She said in Sunday School they were asked to draw someone who is an amazing example to them, and she drew me! It made me feel so good and loved.

Tuesday

Work was super interesting. A small group of the actors are pulled aside that week and don't have lessons. Instead, we attend "boot camp." We played two truths and a lie to start off, and then talked about different things. The teacher had to leave early because she had class, so she left us with an activity to finish where we created a lesson plan, then swapped with the person next to us and taught them the lesson they had written. I was looking forward to it, but the girl I got paired up with made it one of the worst experiences I've had in a looonnnggg time. She got very defensive because I "already knew" everything she was trying to teach me and she felt frustrated. Then when it was time to switch and I was going to teach her, she closed off herself to me and was making it difficult. The Spirit was not there. After about three minutes of this, she finally broke her wall and opened up about why she was feeling that way and said it was intimidating that I knew so much and started preaching at me and getting super defensive and asking me intrusive questions. I had a lot I could have said to her, but I knew they would offend her, so it was emotionally exhausting to try to follow the Spirit to know what to say and how to react... for the next hour that we kept talking. She wouldn't let it go until she thought "it" was resolved. Ugh. So I was drained for the whole rest of the evening and hope I am never like that ever. And if I have been, I sincerely apologize. So sincerely.

The best thing also happened today! The giant research paper I wrote last semester got accepted into BYU's undergraduate psychology journal, Intuition! I'm going to be a published author! And it will look soooo good on my graduate school application! Wow, that makes me soooo excited!!!

Wednesday

Y'all. I made an appointment to meet with a guy who apparently cures food allergies. I heard about him from a couple in my mission. The guy lives in St. George, and a senior missionary couple I love just got back from their mission, and they live in St. George. I was able to plan a weekend trip to stay with them and visit the doctor's office. They live twelve minutes from the place! What a cool blessing! I hope everything works out so my stomach can stop hating me. 

Thursday

What a solid day. At work, we were given one to two hours to go to the new building at the MTC where they have giant murals throughout the building (twelve total) and find one that spoke to us. I saw this one of Moses parting the red sea and was immediately overcome with the Spirit. God truly does accomplish the impossible through us. We might feel insignificant--Moses vocally expressed his insecurities--and yet God uses imperfect people to accomplish miracles. So many of the murals spoke to me. I was able to contemplate my standing before God and feel that He knows I am trying and is proud of my efforts. That evening, I went with Miranda and a sister from the ward we minister to, Andrea, to eat fries at The Wall and then to a movie called The Price of Free. It was a very emotional movie about child slavery, but really cool to be informed about and inspired in knowing more ways to help others.

Friday

I need to quit my early morning job on Fridays. It's just so hard because I love my boss and the people there, and I wouldn't get to be part of their lives if I quit! I went to my 8am class and had a fun time painting a Moon Jelly (type of jellyfish). That class has made me so artsy. Plus my teacher told me I can come over to her place to take pictures for my project, since all my friends have flaked out on me! I went to a training for my TA job and worked on my essay for the rest of the night. Since I'm such a genius (read this with a sarcastic tone), I wrote 7.5 pages for my 4-5 page paper and then had to worry about condensing it.

Saturday

What a day! Y'all, I can see myself improving in trusting God. I woke up, ate breakfast, spent 1.5 hours on homework, then rushed to get ready to attend the temple. I needed to make the 11:20 session so I could make it to work at the MTC on time. I got into the session, but I was in the very back row and was worried it would take too long and I'd be late. I was stressing and not feeling the Spirit, but then decided to trust God. He's a God of miracles and has promised all things will work together for our good. I put aside my worries (eventually. It was still a struggle) and enjoyed the session. By the time I was done with the session, it was only 1:05, so I plenty of time to change and make it to work by 1:30! God is the best! And I love the temple. I heard a super cool story from my supervisor at work and asked her to be on my YouTube channel, to which she happily agreed! Yay!

Sunday

I had a great Sunday. The talks in sacrament meeting were awesome, and we had an emotional relief society lesson about weaknesses and challenges we are going through. It made me realize why I feel so lonely, and why so many people of my age group feel so lonely. I am missing love. I have been away from family so long that I forget what it is like to love someone so unconditionally and to feel that kind of love back. You love your friends, but you naturally have a higher and holier love for your family. Like, even when they bug you and hurt you and annoy you, you still love them. I don't feel loved deeply and cared about as much as I want or need, because my friends are busy with school too. They have other obligations and family members. It made me realize how excited I am to be with my family again and to one day have a family of my own. It also helped me not to feel so alone or like I was a bad person for not feeling loved or cared about. Family is so special. I wasn't able to post a video today for my YouTube channel because we ran out of time to film it, and the video that was filmed wasn't edited enough to be put up just yet. Stay tuned in because there are some amazing experiences that are going to be shared in the following months!

Love, 

Emily Burnham