The Best Advice

Sister Kuroki read me a part of a letter from a friend who was struggling with her companion and asked me 'what advice should I tell her?' I related some personal experience and advice of how I'd gotten through a similar problem in the past.
Sister Kuroki looked at me funny and said "No... You know what the best advice is?..."
 "What?"
...."Suck it up!"
I don't know who taught her that english...but as it turns out- this is some pretty good advice.

Life is busy. Probably no matter what situation you're in.
Work, school, church callings, friends, family, cooking/eating, sleeping, cleaning, a bunch of little to-do tasks....
 I've got this desire to prioritize my religion and do things like read scriptures and pray daily and go to the temple weekly. The temple was the hard one. The temple schedule didn't really fit with my- do homework until done and then do other things (aka probably not done til 10 at night) schedule. (Plus being in class and work during the day). But the temple closes at like 8. So I was at a debating with myself (my shoulder angel and devil trying to convince me) about if I was just taking too many credits and should drop some to have time for the temple, (or if I should keep it and continue to just not have time to go at all).
Shoulder Devil: hah! even if you did that do you really think you'd make time for going to the temple then if it's not a priority in your life now?
Shoulder Angel: he has a point.

So I decided to take the "suck it up" advice. (just do it. forget yourself and go to work...it's all the same :) ) I worked extra hard the first couple days of the week and got ahead giving myself time to go to the temple mid-week. (This may have also included not doing things that weren't that important.) I did have the time I just needed to have a bit of slightly uncomfortable amount of work on the other days to make sure the important things got done.
I've been doing that for over a month now.

If you want something that God also wants you to do, and you put your mind to it, it can happen. Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to (put up with people, a workload, a scary task...)- but that's where that gem of advice comes in. :)

Five things I learned, knew, and became on my mission that I don't want to give up.

To not be ashamed to be GOOD.
Coming from Utah, being a mormon, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been called goody-two-shoes or molly mormon or made fun of for being "innocent". Well I did- for lots of reasons: not drinking, not wanting to listen to inappropriate songs, for my language (aka not swearing and not feeling comfortable with dirty talk). And it used to bother me that I couldn't fit in.
I changed my mind and decided it's actually cooler to be pure and to be good. Why do we need to be rebellious or bad or break the rules to be considered cool? It's harder to keep them, to stay strong....but I'd rather be on that side.

To not live life just so others can see you live it.
Do you know what I mean? With all the social media and pictures I sometimes feel like life becomes a production instead of a life. Are we doing things because we want to? Or are we doing them to post about them? Just food for thought having been separated from the social media world for a year and a half.

To remember that more often than not Satan tempts us through convenience.
I once had a great district leader on my mission. He told us as missionaries Satan knew he couldn't get us to fall by tempting us to break the word of wisdom or anything big like that. But he did know that little rules missionaries have like waking up at 6:30, leaving the house right after study and lunch...there are all these little rules that are inconvenient and easy to break without feeling like it's a big deal. But that was just perfect for Satan. He doesn't need us to break some great law and get sent home from our missions- he just needed to keep us in the house for 30 min. more (because imagine what we could do in those 30 min!), or start our day off slow, etc.
Poison by degrees.  Know what I'm sayin? (Alma 47:9-19)
SO. Connection to the real world. At first Satan does not need us to just leave the church or break some great commandment. Maybe he just wants to catch us on the little inconvenient things.  If he could get us to just not read our scriptures, or to go to sleep without praying, to skip out on church every once and a while when it's not easy to go....そんなかんじ

To remember that the atonement is for everyone.
I mean everyone. The sinners AND the perfectly good people who just struggle. I think it's easier to understand how the Atonement of Christ can help a sinner- anyone who's messed up and wants to turn around- to change and find forgiveness, they can through Him.
 But I don't usually feel like a sinner who needs to change my life around. So is it still for me? YES! I'm here to tell you yes it is. I just want to say that on the nights I felt so discouraged or hopeless, the nights when I was just tired and frustrated, when I was angry that things weren't the way they should be, when I had regrets or felt like I definitely was messing up or not doing/being enough, I could pray to God and ask for that peace that comes through the atonement and it came. It comes when you need it and when you ask for it. It does come, and it is unmistakably from the power of the atonement.
Christ wants us to move forward. Not to focus on negative emotions or the past.

To remember that it's enough.
My dad has this saying he's said to me a couple times in my life when I was stuck. It goes something like "Just do what you can and I'll make up the rest" or "Do your best and I'll make sure it works out."
I like to believe God wants us to know that too.
My mission was great and I saw many miracles and I'm sure lives were changed. I do think it was  successful. But there were many times where I was doing my best but not seeing any results and so my perfectionist side jumped out and said why aren't you doing more? (More than was possible.) Which made me feel I wasn't nor could ever do or be enough. But doing more than is possible is not what was required, trying your best was required and if you're doing that- don't worry. No need to feel down. Try your best, but lighten up.

I had to add the fall-ish feeling pictures. Doesn't it feel like it's becoming fall already?

Follow me on my Mission - Fukuoka Japan Mission

http://sisterbaird.blogspot.com/

Mission Blog

sisterbaird.blogspot.com

In two days I begin my adventures as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. For the next year and a half my parents will be posting my letters home on a new blog listed above. It has my addresses written on the side and if you'd like you can follow it by email. 

Anna and I going to Institute mission prep class- HIGHLY recommend it for preparing missionaries. 

Buttons and Burlap- wreath

Mom and daughter crafts- and dad. Dad figured out how to turn this tutorial and this tutorial into an actual flower and then quickly ran away realizing he was actually good and making crafty flowers. And then me and my mom perfected it and turned it into a valentines day wreath- so yes, we homemade all those flowers. And my mom is slowly gathering a collection of wreaths.
Whalah.

How to make a big flower arrangement in a vase

Ever since I started noticing gigantic flower arrangements placed casually in the house of Emily on Gilmore Girls I began to get a little jealous that someone could have fresh arrangements that big in their house like it was no big deal (yes, I know the show is fictional...). Or of the florist that got hired to place them in her house every week-every show really.

notice the flower arrangement by the door- they are all over her house and they are always different- trust me, I notice!

So I finally got my wish of making an arrangement that big  for stake conference this weekend. And it was everything I ever imagined. Super fun and super satisfying. And I was going to have a more creative title for this post- but upon searching for advice on how to make said arrangement I found it rather difficult- so I'm adding mine to the internet knowledge base....the process of making two arrangements for a church foyer.

1. Make a plan of the idea in your head so when you go to get your flowers you sound like you know what you're doing

really rough draft- what can I say- I'm an artist.

2. Shop around for flowers and make sure to get plenty of greens. I got mine at the corporate Flower Patch where they let me buy them in bunches for a discount- even though I do not have a business license.

3. Clear tape (from Hobby Lobby) a grid onto the top of the vase (Thai Pan) for structure support.

 3. Greens first to make the base of the arrangement- aka the backdrop.
PS- be sure to have a little water in there and be cutting all the stems diagonally before you place them...

- Salal to make the vase line not seem like a border of 'flowers can only go above this point'.

-Myrtle to mark how tall you want the arrangement to be in each direction

-And leather-leaf fern to fill in spaces

 4. Then you add the line flowers (the tallest) which for me was gladiolus and snap dragons...

4. Form flowers (aka the main attraction- whatever is biggest, has the best shape, is the focal point) near the bottom and center

 5. Mass flowers- daisies and carnations- to fill in the spaces that still need color...

-A lot of my mass flowers ended up in the back, because although the arrangement is mostly viewed from one side, it still needs to look good for the few people sitting behind it.

 6. Add a filler flower- solidago aster- to tie it all together. The filler should be placed everywhere- top, bottom, middle...

-And rearrange anything out of place.

Oh how I loved that finished feeling and being surrounded by all the cut off greens all over the floor. Sometimes it's fun to make a huge mess in the process- makes the whole thing feel more artsy. 

They look a lot smaller when placed in the foyer than they did in my house...

Escaping the checklist

Kindof felt like my birthday when my old roommate Cara came down for the day. Unrelated friends + doing activities that are not part of the day to day routine of checking things off the never-ending list = not common. I got to go around sandy/draper and showoff all the things that I love about it. Going around the all the little things that make me love the town I live in- and doing it with a hilarious person none the less. 

First we went to the park on top of the hill that overlooks the whole valley and played in the deep snow like children. 

Cara- if you see this, I'm sorry that these are not the most flattering pictures ever. :)

And got stuck in the snow...

Then sang embarrassingly loud in the whisper dome. 

Then got hot chocolate (I'm convinced that 7-11 has the best tasting hot chocolate ever) and walked around ikea. 

And the winner of the throwpillow you would least likely want staring at you while you get ready for bed goes to...

Amish lady?

And then bought dinner (if gelato and muffins and donuts can count as dinner?) and ate it in the upstairs of a grocery store. 

Doesn't that sound like the perfect day? It is to me.