It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single BYU co-ed on her way to possession of a BFA, must be in want of a husband.

Well, after lots of fasting and praying and pondering and phone calls to my mom, I am engaged! I am marrying Brandon Moon in the Salt Lake Temple on February 18th.

Brandon and I met in our FHE group during the summer term. We became friends and started hanging out more and more until he asked me on a date to fly kites with him at the park. (How cute is that?!) The next day he held my hand, and we've been inseparable ever since.


Brandon is amazing. He is calm and steady, which helps me so much when I start to get overwhelmed and stressed out. He understands the introverted, homebody side of me and encourages me to slow down and simplify my life. He is incredibly loving and takes such good care of me. He has a burning desire to serve the Lord, to raise a righteous family, and just to do what is right. He reminds me so much of my sweet father. He is reserved and quiet when you first meet him, but once you get him talking you discover his tender heart, his great sense of humor, his integrity and then you realize - he is a treasure. He loves me and honors me even though I am crazy and sometimes ridiculous. He always sees the best in me. His gifts fill my gaps, and he is the perfect match for me. I am the luckiest girl in the world. :] 


Remember how nervous I was to return to Provo in the summer? If I had not come back, I never would have met Brandon. 


I have learned so much from this experience already. It has not been an easy decision; my choice will hurt many good people (including a certain missionary in Ukraine). But as I have counseled with the Lord, I have come to know with every bone in my body and every fiber of my being that this is right. His sweet peace guides me, sustains me, and fills me with indescribable joy. From this experience, I have learned that everything will work out just how God wants it to. We just need to be willing to listen and act on the promptings He gives us. 


Thank you for your love and support throughout this journey. I look forward to sharing my many new adventures with you. If you want to know more about Brandon, you can blog-stalk him here. We will probably not be combining blogs because I want this one to tell my story - but rest assured that you will hear a lot about him and I will post lots of beautiful wedding pictures :]


Happy Holidays to you all!

PS- Brandon just wrote his own blogpost on the subject, and it's the sweetest thing I've ever read. If you need any more reasons to love him, read it!

Monday Links

Here are some fun links to look over while you try to survive the week before that much-anticipated break. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!


*This post is AMAZING and so full of hope. We can do hard things. 
*Great mustache template on a bridal website. Not sure why you'd need mustaches for a wedding, but I'm all over it!
*Went to see this over the weekend. Absolutely incredible. Brought me to tears. If you're in town anytime over the next 6 months, you better go. 
*This song is beautiful in both its musicality and lyrics,
*Elder Scott is so rad.
*I love this video about Christmas. Plus, my choir is singing the song they play in the background - and it's gorgeous. 
*These two articles from Segullah brought some tenderness to my morning. 
*This cheesecake recipe is so good!
*One more reason why I love BYU.
*Need a laugh? Start reading this blog.
*My little sister turns 18 today. Happy birthday, sweet girl! You are amazing and I am blessed to be your sister. I love you. 

Some things just never change.

Want to see what I've been obsessing over lately?

This piece. It brings me to tears every time.





Not everyone understands this dance and many argue that the American version is better, but I am in love with it. It reminds me of the sweet, amazing people in my life who have been there for me during hard times, who have been willing to overturn the tables and Ikea couches of their lives to be there when I just needed love, who were willing to put their arms around me and try to fix me even when they couldn't. Mostly, it reminds me of the miraculous mercy of my Savior who is the only one who can truly heal me.


For my final in my contemporary dance class we have to create our own composition. Guess what song I'm going to use? I'm excited to see what happens when I take elements from this beautiful performance and add my own style to it, plus the element of faith. I will keep you all posted :]


PS- Blogger pun not intended.

I just love this scripture.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

-Romans 8:35, 37-39

Buy one here: http://etsy.me/bzSwrV

No, never.

Image found here.

Do you ever forget about grace? I sure do. 


Somehow Monday snatches me up and takes me far, far away from the spiritual world of Sunday, takes me to a place that is crammed with tests and assignments and deadlines and pressures and the unspoken but undeniable fear that you will never be good enough. 


And there I stay. 


I frantically run around in circles like an animal in a cage, trying in vain to accomplish my list of tasks with a perfection that I can never attain. I keep searching for hope and joy and meaning, but can never find it there. And then the thoughts of doubt and the despair fill my mind. Why am I so busy? Why is life so hard? Why can't I accomplish the simple things I need to get done? Will I ever finally be able to do it on my own? But then I remember that God doesn't want me to do it alone. He wants us to come unto Him and ask for help - but in running the frenzied race of my life, I have forgotten. 


No, I'll never be able to do it on my own. I will always need Christ and His Atonement. 


I love this insight from Corrie Ten Boom and have tried to make it the motto of my life. 
During World War II, Corrie and her sister Betsie were imprisoned in a concentration camp in Germany. They decided to use this opportunity to lead Bible studies and share their testimonies of Christ. But even while engaged in God's work, Corrie found it hard to fight her instincts of self-preservation and soon lost the hope and joy that she had previously found in her service. 

"And so I struggled on with worship and teaching that had ceased to be real," Corrie wrote, "until one drizzly raw afternoon when just enough light came through the window the read by, I cam to Paul's account of his 'thorn in the flesh.' Three times, he said, he had begged God to take away his weakness, whatever it was. And each time God had said Rely on Me. At last Paul concluded -the words seemed to leap from the page- that his very weakness was something to give thanks for. Because now Paul knew that none of the wonders and miracles which followed his ministry could be due to his own virtues. It was all Christ's strength, never Paul's.

And there it was. 

The truth blazed like sunlight in the shadows of Barracks 28. The real sin I had been committing was not that of inching toward the center of a platoon because I was cold. The real sin lay in thinking that any power to help and transform came from me. Of course it was not my wholeness, but Christ's that made the difference."

Every time I read that passage, I weep. I'm not sure why this is such a struggle for me, why I forget Christ and His transforming wholeness day after day when I have pictures of Him taped up in every room of my apartment, but I do. Such is the challenge of our fast-paced, technological society. 


But the beauty is that I don't have to fight this battle on my own. I don't have to save myself. I have His arm of mercy to lean on, His Atonement to cleanse me of my sins, His heart full of love to heal me and His example to teach me how to become like Him. 


Yes, I may have forgotten grace, but grace has never forgotten me. 

Walter Rane, "One by One"

"For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, 

and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; 

for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." 

-2 Nephi 25:23

One of my favorite poems

Sometimes life is busy, taxing, and difficult. Especially in the middle of the semester, in the middle of my college career when it is starting to get really cold outside. 


And when that happens, I turn to this poem to help me find "the Will which says to them, 'Hold on!'"

image found here.

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you 

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

REALLY good news!

So a couple months ago I sent this post to the Ensign...and today I got a letter back from them saying that they want to publish it in the New Era! I'm not sure when, but it should be soon. What a blessing! :]

Know who you are.

Image found here.

"Those who drive steamrollers should know who they are," my choir director told us a month ago at the beginning of rehearsal. "But really, every one of us drives a steamroller. You may not have a powerful influence in my life, but what about your roommate's life, or your little brother's life, or your best friend's life? Remember that you drive a steamroller."

Some days, I fervently wish that I did not drive a steamroller. Sometimes I am afraid of my influence and of the consequences of my actions. Sometimes I feel that which ever direction I turn I am going to crumple someone's arm or leg or foot, and that whatever decision I make, I will always hurt or frustrate someone who has trusted me. Life is so painful and so messy that I go crazy wishing it could be another way.

But to ask God to give me a bicycle instead of a steamroller would be asking Him to make me something less than what He has designed me to be, and to ask for an easier life would be asking Him  to change His eternal plan of happiness.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf recently counseled us to "trust your Heavenly Father. Trust Him enough to follow His plan."   

All I can do is try my best and ask the Lord to help me embrace the role He has given me as a steamroller operator.

I know He will help me learn this in time, for His love does miraculous, beautiful, transforming things. 

 **********

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for." -Elder Claudio R.M. Costa