So, the girl's night was a success! We had a lot of fun. Only 3 girls came but.. I think after my long recovery that's probably all I could have handled (we stayed up tooo late. Haha.) While two of them showed up and we were waiting for the other we just hung out and ate pizza and the bomb.com texas chili! that me and Jonathan made the other day. It's soooooo divine! Seriously. Even my siblings in Alaska who hate chili liked this kind. And so did the friends down here. And my dad who makes really good chili loves it too. ANYWAYS. :)
So we devoured that sucker. And the girls were very talkative and giggly. We talked, made my dirt cake that I made for munch and mingle in Fairbanks with the pudding, crushed oreo cookies, and gummy worms..and then had a "Spiritual hour" where we talked about the gospel and personal progress. I think the girls learned a lot. I taught them about prayer and about specific things that they can pray for, and just to make it sincere and thoughtful and realize that they are talking to Heavenly Father, and that he listens and cares. And then in personal progress I helped one of the girls get signed off on an experience as well as teaching them all about divine qualities of mothers and how strengthening the principle of faith in God can help them teach their future children the other gospel principles, like forgiveness, repentance, reading the scriptures, developing a personal relationship with God and Christ through consistent prayer and other things. And I was also helping them relate the stories of the book of Mormon and helped connect from Alma all the way to the 2,000 young warriers, and how their mothers taught the young sons of Helaman, that if they did not doubt God, He would deliver them. It was pretty cool cause although they were WAY giggly, and at times I thought they weren't paying attention at all, at the end the one girl said she actually learned a lot. So I felt pretty good. That's basically all I wanted. To teach them something, and be a good example. They're all really good girls (12/13 yo) with budding testimonies. I believe they have divine potential to be really honorable ladies.
But oh! Guess what! Tonight I get to puppysit for one of the girl's from young women. Just for a day. I'm really excited. I always tell Jonathan I want a puppy. And a baby. Haha.. working on that one. I really want my own family already ahha.. I guess a puppy will work for a day I suuuppoose.
Good news! We found out our local library lets us borrow movies for free. So we borrowed a bunch of PG movies haha. So that's pretty nice on our budget. Anyways.. random thought I guess. We had actually thought about giving PG-13 movies a second chance..and just using good judgement about movies.. but then we watched Batman Begins and the Dark Knight.. and I realized and asked Jonathan where we drew the line with PG13 movies.. like, the kind I like to watch lol.. cough.. Lord of the Rings. So it both kind of opened our eyes that if we give in to some, we are more likely to give in to all. And to get rid of any temptation we went back to only watching PG movies.. cause those are cleaner.
It's weird cause it's such a little thing, but at times can seem like such a big sacrifice.. especially the movies you love to see. But.. the thing that I always remember is King Lamoni's father.. who tells Heavenly Father.. that he would give all his sins away to know (Thee) him (Alma 22:18). And I know that his situation was a little bit more serious.. and that these are just movies.. but I am willing to do what it takes to get closer to God. And I know the more I sacrifice just the little things, the easier it will be to sacrifice greater things. Like Elder Bruce R. McConkie said, "Sacrifice.. is the crowning test of the gospel" and I believe it.
Anyways, just food for thought. PS. I love 3Nephi. I think when I finish the Book of Mormon I'm going to study 3Nephi a few more times and just drink in the words of Christ. It is, after all, the best part of the whole book. :)
Well, I love and miss you all! Happy Monday.
Anna Hernandez <3
Monday, October 18, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
No Snow? Not fair!
Man, do I suck at blogging. Buuuut I guess that's what happens when you aren't able to get on the internet for weeks at a time. Right now I'm at the public library and was applying for jobs. Yeup.. still on the hunt.
A lot of good things have been happening lately. That baptism? Remember that? Well, I gave the very nervous prayer in spanish for it. I was actually really pleased with myself. And since then people have been asking me to offer the prayer.. so I do it with the most spanish I know.. haha.. But I feel that the Lord has blessed me in that aspect to actually be able to speak (and now I'm not as nervous) the language..at least a little bit.
We were able to get a new car! So that has been a major blessing. A friend in church was selling it for a price, but he offered to lower it a lot because he realizes our situation. It's a standard, has no AC or CD player. But I'm glad to call it ours. :) Jonathan's finally getting really good at it and he never stalls.
And this week, since I'm in the young women's, I decided to put on a girl's night slumber party for the Kemah branch girls so we can get to know each other better and work on our personal progress together because next month is Young women's in Excellence, and I really want them to succeed. I'm really learning to love these girls and I want them to recognize their divine nature and their potential and worth as daughters of our Heavenly Father. .. Mostly, I just want them to grow up to be really good people, to others, and in the gospel. And that comes from having a good example around you. So I'm trying to encourage them the best I can. It's funny cause when I was their age I didn't really care about young women's that much, but now I see the importance of it and I kinda wish I wasn't so er... stupid. lol Or ignorant, either one.
I've even started over on my personal progress (which, for people not of my faith is a program for young girls 12-18 that helps them build character and develop talents and strengths as daughters of God to become later good wives, mothers, and women. They do little experiences every so often and then a 10 hour project in each of the categories which help to build and strengthen their testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ) - GASP..
And for my 10 hour Faith project I decided to memorize ... The Living Christ. And I actually did it! I feel so good doing that. I thought it was going to be really hard.. but I've learned that it was much easier to memorize than I thought. It's cool to see what happens to you when you push and challenge yourself. You come out on top. :)
Anyways, my time is up, but I just wanted to let anyone who reads this know that I love them and miss them (those in Alaska and elsewhere) and wish you all the best. I'm soo jealous that you all get snow up there! This heat is killing me! It was cool for a baby bit, but today it was just so hot! No bueno! Thank you for your prayers and constant thoughts.
PS: I LOVED GENERAL CONFERENCE.. of course, who doesn't? I loved Elder Holland's, Elder Eyrings, Pres. Monson's, Pres. Packer's... and.. a lot of others.. What I really loved from President Monson's was,
"To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch Heaven.." And I know I need to be more grateful. So .. :) I'm working on it. Adios!
Anna
A lot of good things have been happening lately. That baptism? Remember that? Well, I gave the very nervous prayer in spanish for it. I was actually really pleased with myself. And since then people have been asking me to offer the prayer.. so I do it with the most spanish I know.. haha.. But I feel that the Lord has blessed me in that aspect to actually be able to speak (and now I'm not as nervous) the language..at least a little bit.
We were able to get a new car! So that has been a major blessing. A friend in church was selling it for a price, but he offered to lower it a lot because he realizes our situation. It's a standard, has no AC or CD player. But I'm glad to call it ours. :) Jonathan's finally getting really good at it and he never stalls.
And this week, since I'm in the young women's, I decided to put on a girl's night slumber party for the Kemah branch girls so we can get to know each other better and work on our personal progress together because next month is Young women's in Excellence, and I really want them to succeed. I'm really learning to love these girls and I want them to recognize their divine nature and their potential and worth as daughters of our Heavenly Father. .. Mostly, I just want them to grow up to be really good people, to others, and in the gospel. And that comes from having a good example around you. So I'm trying to encourage them the best I can. It's funny cause when I was their age I didn't really care about young women's that much, but now I see the importance of it and I kinda wish I wasn't so er... stupid. lol Or ignorant, either one.
I've even started over on my personal progress (which, for people not of my faith is a program for young girls 12-18 that helps them build character and develop talents and strengths as daughters of God to become later good wives, mothers, and women. They do little experiences every so often and then a 10 hour project in each of the categories which help to build and strengthen their testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ) - GASP..
And for my 10 hour Faith project I decided to memorize ... The Living Christ. And I actually did it! I feel so good doing that. I thought it was going to be really hard.. but I've learned that it was much easier to memorize than I thought. It's cool to see what happens to you when you push and challenge yourself. You come out on top. :)
Anyways, my time is up, but I just wanted to let anyone who reads this know that I love them and miss them (those in Alaska and elsewhere) and wish you all the best. I'm soo jealous that you all get snow up there! This heat is killing me! It was cool for a baby bit, but today it was just so hot! No bueno! Thank you for your prayers and constant thoughts.
PS: I LOVED GENERAL CONFERENCE.. of course, who doesn't? I loved Elder Holland's, Elder Eyrings, Pres. Monson's, Pres. Packer's... and.. a lot of others.. What I really loved from President Monson's was,
"To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch Heaven.." And I know I need to be more grateful. So .. :) I'm working on it. Adios!
Anna
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