I'm finally at BYU!!!!!

Hey friends!

Today (June 23rd...I don't know why the post is dated the 21st!) was my first day of class at BYU, a day I have been dreaming of for a long, long time! I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father helped me endure to the end and FINALLY make it here. I miss my family (and all of you!) bunches, but I am very happy to be here.

I checked into housing on Friday afternoon and met all my wonderful roommates that I have been emailing for months, and they are just as great as I thought they were! Rachel is from Switzerland, Joslyn from Alpine, Kirsten from New Mexico, and Laura the RA from Illinois. Unpacking was crazy and exhausting, and I finally got everything organized just today! I definitely packed WAY too much. haha That night we went to an orientation dance where we learned folk dances from England, Denmark, South Africa, the midwest, and Romania. It was really fun, but very exhausting! Those people are very flexible!!!

Saturday Rachel, Brian, and I explored the campus and took care of business like textbooks, ID cards, groceries, etc. We got to go to our first devotional and meet many more new people. That night, we went to a rollerskating rink in Orem, which was really fun! I'm very new, but I improved much quicker than I thought I would. Poor Rachel got horrible bruises all over her body from all of her falls, but she is a tough sport and doesn't complain.

Sunday we went to church, the 118th ward! I love our bishopric and the sisters in the ward. Everyone is so friendly and sweet, and eager to participate in class discussions. I am learning so much from my ward family. In the afternoon we organized our kitchen, made cookies and invited boys over to eat them, and went for a walk around campus to find our class buildings. Ward prayer was another uplifting activity, and then Brian gave Rachel and I blessings. It was amazing to see my best friend who I have seen grow up these last two years exercise the Holy Priesthood. He has been preparing all his life to be worthy of it, and now he has the blessing of serving with the priesthood. It brought all three of us closer together, and I feel that Rachel and Brian will be some of my closet friends during my BYU experience. After the blessing, we went to the infamous tunnel singing, which I will attempt to post a little video of. The Spirit was so strong, and I'm so grateful to go to a school where I can join in worship with my fellow students at any time of day.

My classes today were great! Well, I only had one, the Living Prophets, with my roommate Joslyn. It is sooo cool! We are going to learn all about our first presidency and quorum of the 12. We have such a diverse class and it was really neat to hear everyone's comments as we talked about the need for prophets today, what we love about President Monson, and how conference addresses have blessed our lives. I look forward to my other 3 classes tomorrow and the many more adventures that will follow this week!

I love you all and pray for you in your endeavors back home. Please pray for me in mine. I will do my best to share the blessings of my education with you as I follow BYU's motto and "Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve."

Tasha