Communication is Key

This past week has been a load of drama, mostly revolving around me and my insecurities.  And stupidities. I was sure that a certain friend "hated" me, mainly meaning that something was seriously amiss. None of my other friends believed me, and told me otherwise. Usually I can let this sort of thing go, but I value that friendship very much and I could not move on until I knew what was wrong. Of course, the normal and smartest thing to do would be confront them and demand an explanation. I'm sure you can guess I did just the opposite. I didn't even try to bring it up. I slowly sunk into a self-pity depression, letting this person ignore me for what seemed like forever.

This silent war was getting to a point where even my friends sounded doubtful when they tried to fight my accusations. I really can't recall another time when I was sure that someone was angry with me, and I had no idea why! I had just about reached the point where I felt I would explode if they continued to ignore me. I missed talking to them. I missed them even acknowledging my existence. I missed them. I got home from school, and sat there, thinking of what to do. I finally settled on a prayer, with a pleading request that they would at least text me. I went downstairs, flopped on my bed, and lay there, pondering. *cue dramatic music*

I typed up a text message, but it didn't feel right. I shut my phone and set it aside. Not a minute later, my phone buzzed. Could it be? YES! It was a glorious text message from this person who'd been ignoring me! The message immediately sent my heart hammering. They wanted me to call them. I was seriously expecting a scolding for telling everyone that I thought they hated me and blah blah blah. Hesitantly, I dialed their number and literally held my breath. They picked up and started explaining... Turns out, they WERE ignoring me! It had all been a miscommunication problem, and I admit some of it was my fault.. But we made up and I haven't felt more at ease in what feels like a long time (turns out it was only like, three days).

The morale of this story is, if we had just talked about our rift we could've solved this problem a long time ago, but instead this dragged on way longer than it should've. Communication is key!

This also relates to Heavenly Father. How in the world are we supposed to get through this life, happily, if we don't tell Him what's going on? Christ suffered for our sins! Give your burdens to Him, and enjoy the most wonderful feeling in the world- peace.

Light Parade, Friends, and Service

The Christmas season just rocks. There's so much happiness, and peace, and nostalgia, and let's be honest, what other time of year can you wave to complete strangers with a real smile on your face? Just imagine, like, "Happy summer!" And the stranger smiles equally as merry as you wave in mutual happiness. No. It's just Christmas!

I got to take part in the Light Parade last night, and I had the best time ever! There's something about friends that just warms my heart. Especially when they're willing to be idiots along side me or just laugh at my jokes (even though sometimes they're just legitimately stupid). I love making people laugh. It is one of the most rewarding feelings for me.
Anyways, we sang Christmas hymns and some people gave us this look that just said, "Yes". I'm so happy that the true meaning of Christmas still reigns, even though it's not the "popular vote".

I'm just gonna take a paragraph and shout out to my awesome, hilarious, "better-than-yours" friends. My group of friends is a testimony to me that God does plan everything perfectly. I cannot imagine having a better group of people to spend my time with. We all strive to do what's right, none of us are afraid to do something that might look "stupid", and we all respect each other. I love my friends!! They are HUGE examples to me, and they probably don't even know it.

After the Light Parade, I had the opportunity to babysit. Earlier, I was really reluctant. I definitely wasn't in the mood to babysit right after that until midnight. Especially since my friends wanted to hang out. Amidst my selfish reasoning, a thought popped into my head, "Be the answer to someone else's prayer." I pondered on that thought, and finally decided to do it.
I'm so grateful that I was prompted to do that! Turns out, none of my friends could've hung out anyway, but aside from that, I'm certain I babysat one of the cutest children on Earth. For real, she is soo adorable. The mom told me she had been so stressed she was "going to kill someone" if she didn't get some release. I put the little girl to bed, and then had 3 hours to kill before she came home from her midnight hike.
After looking around, I decided that I would try to lessen her stress a little more (hopefully). If you know me, this is pretty miraculous. I rolled up my sleeves and did the dishes. The miracle in this is: I HATE doing dishes! Yet somehow I did it with a smile in my heart. I felt so peaceful and accomplished after I finished that. I hoped that it would help, if only a teeny bit. After that I did some minor cleaning (i.e. wiping the counter, picking up toys). By that time it was roughly 11 pm, so I stuck in my headphones and waited. I suppose I dozed because I woke up with the mom prodding my shoulder. I checked the clock: 12:20 am. She smiled and thanked me and I ran out the door before she could even think to pay me.
She hadn't needed to, anyways. My reward was service.
Mosiah 2:17 "...When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

Let the Season Begin...

After Thanksgiving dinner, (which was fantastic), my family and I all retreated back home. We used to have this tradition where we would put up all our Christmas decorations the same night. Apparently my family has died in spirit or gotten old or something because everyone started getting ready for bed. I don't think so! There's no way I was letting this night pass without getting that Chrismas tree up. Yes, I'm that kind of person.

I located all the decorations, which are in total 3x as much as all the other decorations put together. Of course they were out back in the shed, so I found a flashlight and marched outside to drag everything in. Well, to be honest some of those boxes are not exactly "light" in weight so there was a lot of heaving and weezing. Luckily, I'm so headstrong this task was achievable. Shout out to my wonderful family who let me do it all alone.

I tried to recruit everyone to help me with this, but only the ladies answered my plea for help. We turned on some Christmas jams and eventually got the job done! It took some persuading and there were a lot of "Lindsay this idea was stupid." comments, but hey! I got what I wanted. Christmas has begun!!!!!!!! 

Friends & Fall!

School really drags when you're waiting for that final bell to ring. I survived Math, and History for that matter. I had piano lessons after school, but that was actually pretty fun. Those lessons switch on and off. Some days, I'm thinking, "Wow this is great!". Other days, it's more along the lines of "Quitting piano doesn't sound so bad...". Of course I wouldn't, but hopefully you get the point. I don't think my teacher thought I could be challenged, but I wanted to prove I could, so I learned a harder song than she assigned to me. I played it for her and she was shocked! She said she was so happy that I am so committed. Hopefully now she'll challenge me.

I went to a game night at a friend's house. I love my friends! Everything we do is uplifting or just flat out fun! We started with a little war with the GIANT bean bag. It was people on either side trying to bury the opponent with it. Then someone came up with Murder in the Dark, and let me tell you, don't play that game with a full bladder. We were all screaming and laughing and even the boys were running around squealing. Eventually some us left and I slept over at a friends house!

I am so excited for Fall! I whipped out my boots and jackets a few days ago. It feels so good with the crisp air and being bundled up. We even went out for hot chocolate on a date. I love this feeling of nostalgia!! The leaves, Thanksgiving, cold weather, red & orange.... YAY!!!

Moving On, and Giving Back

When a woman gives birth to a child, she may experience postpartum depression. That's how I feel, except I "gave birth" to a play. 

Ok, so that was definitely a weird analogy, but I'm truly longing to go back even a week just to spend time with amazing people! Only true thespians know what this horrible sensation is. I have no idea what to do with my time now... There's so much of it! I could get a job, join debate, take time to actually do homework.... Pfft- who am I kidding? No I won't! 

I was reading the Ensign today in Chemistry, and I focused on Elder Klebingat's "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence". He talked about taking care of ourselves physically along with spiritually. That really struck me, because let's be honest- I don't give exercise the time of day! He spoke of feeling better about ourselves as we take care of our personal temples. So I exercised today! Holy cow it's been waaaaaaaaaay too long. I did an abs workout, and the whole time the guy on the video was nonchalantly talking as if this was a workout for toddler's. The thing I found funniest was, "The best thing about this workout, is that it works and it is fun!" Please. I beg to differ as I lay on the ground moaning in pain. But I did it! After that I decided a walk would be nice. As I walked, it literally made me sad to see all the trash on the side of the road and bingo! I had an idea. 

I've been praying for my eyes to be opened to service opportunities, and I have been struggling to seek amidst my horrible attention span, but who knew I would find inspiration and I took a walk?! Craziness. It's like getting rewarded for bettering myself. Well, thank you God! I've decided to do a 25 days of CHRISTmas, by giving back to Him! And what a better way to start then by cleaning up the earth. Hopefully, I will stick to this plan. I love serving, and it's a perfect way to show my love for Christ! 

Not to mention.... THANKSGIVING!!! 

First Off...

Congratulations! You found my blog. I'm not going to make this my go-to and talk about the mushy details of everything, but I'll give a vague update once in a while. Sadly, the most exciting stuff in my life happens in my head and cannot be spoken aloud ;).

We just finished the production of the play, Thoroughly Modern Millie. I had the opportunity of being Millie, the lead! It was a super awesome, super FANTASTIC part, and I swear Millie and I are one. It took a lot of dedication, or in other words, it became my life... But I have no regrets taking on that challenge and I have some good memories from it. Even better, all my best friends were a part of it with me!

Today after church, I attended Missionary Preparation, which I find extremely helpful and fulfilling. We learned about repentance. Every week we also try to teach "investigators" about the designated topic. I usually do pretty well, but today was rough! I struggle with words; I soak it all up in my head, but I can't quite get out what I'm thinking. Perhaps I'm wrong, because a friend once told me I'm a good storyteller, but I'm just not confident in that area.