Be Careful What You Wish For

Recently I've noticed that I get distracted from doing homework too much. I'll start chatting with one of my friends on Facebook, or I'll get distracted pinning things on pinterest, or I'll start watching an episode of a tv show on Hulu, so basically my computer distracted me a lot. I knew that I needed to focus more on my homework and studying because I didn't get the best grades last semester. They weren't awful, but I knew that I could do better. So I decided to pray that I would be able to be more focused on my work and be able to do everything that I needed to do. Well, now I know why the phrase "be careful what you wish for" or in this case, pray for, is so true. On Friday my computer broke. I have no idea why, but it would not turn on at all. I was pretty upset by this, because computers are very necessary for everything that needs to be done in college. I check what my homework is online, I submit assignments online, I check on my grades online. Now my computer was broken, so that meant I'd have to walk all the way to the library to do the things I needed to do. I tried a few things to see if my computer would start working, but no luck.

On Saturday my computer was still broken, and most of my friends were off doing fun stuff while I was in my room. This is normally when I would find some tv show or spend a while on pinterest looking up recipes for yummy food, but my computer was broken, so I couldn't do that. I ended up cleaning my room, which I would need to do anyways because I had a cleaning check that night, and I did a lot of homework. I read half of the Iliad for my Civilizations class, I organized my notes for my classes and went over what I had learned, I read quite a bit from the Book of Mormon and caught up on that reading that I was supposed to be doing, and I got a lot of work done! Then, on Saturday night as I was lying in bed, I was still kind of upset that my computer was broken. Then I had the thought, "You did pray to have less distractions. Mostly all of your distractions were on the computer. Look at how much you got done today without your computer there to distract you."

So I guess it was kind of a good thing that my computer broke....maybe... I did indeed get a lot done, and I don't have as many distractions. It is a little obnoxious to walk to the library to use a computer, but I guess this was an answer to my prayer to be able to focus and have less distractions.

Missionaries! Yay!

So many people got their mission calls today! As I was scrolling through my facebook newsfeed, it made me really happy to see all these mission calls to exciting places! Today, just for Helaman Halls, there were 56 mission calls received! I know there were more than that for all the other freshman housing places like Heritage and Wyview. It makes me so happy to see all these students my age willingly giving up 18-24 months of their life to preach the gospel all around the world. To other people it seems crazy that so many teenagers in their prime years of life would willingly do this, but this just helps show me that this church is true, and these teenagers all feel the love of their Heavenly Father and want to share that with everybody. I'm so excited to be able to serve a mission very soon! I can't wait to get started on my mission papers when I get home from BYU

New Semester

I just finished the first week of winter semester and so far it's been pretty great! My mornings are mostly free which is good because I can sleep in a little bit, and then do my homework in the mornings when I can focus the best. I was hoping to perhaps get a job in the mornings, but unfortunately that hasn't worked out yet. My classes this semester are much more reading-heavy than my classes last semester, but it should be perfectly manageable if I focus on doing my work and staying ahead of things. I also got a new roommate this semester, and she's great!

Other updates so far:
It is very cold. It is also very icy. This means that walking to classes is very slippery. It doesn't really help that snow has been falling for the past 3 days and just gets compressed into thick, slick ice by the many people walking on it.
My jazz dance class is killing my legs. I haven't stretched this much since cheerleading, but hopefully that means I'll get my flexibility back!
There was a pretty great party last night with awesome bounce houses/obstacle courses and an awesome dance!

This semester should be pretty good

Winter Break

Going home for winter break was great! I got to spend a lot of time with my family, and see some friends that I hadn't been able to see for a while. It was also very relaxing because it's the first break I've had that was actually a break, without any homework or projects that needed to be done.

Here are some highlights from break:
1. Taking silly pictures in the car with my sister

2. Seeing this advertisement in the mall. I don't know why it made me laugh so much, but I laughed a lot when I saw it

3. Getting my IB diploma

4. Visiting South Lakes and seeing some of my high school teachers
5. Going to some museums in DC and seeing the festival of lights at the DC temple
6. Seeing friends I hadn't seen in a while
7. Having a shower that has decent water pressure and temperature control