Keep Calm and do YOGA :)

It's been a little difficult this past first week at Snow... just since it gets a little lonely without the typical loudness and constant goings-on of my home in Bountiful. It was just hard not knowing many people and having to figure out what to do with myself and how to spend my time. I shared this with Elder Asher Gunsay.. a good buddy of mine, in a weekly email to him. He shared his own experience of what he's done when he feels homesick in Romania (which is probably much harder than just being 2 hours away here in Ephraim with all sorts of communication with my family). What he said really struck me, and I just thought it was worth sharing :)

"Don't worry about homesickness... it just means that you had a wonderful family that you loved, and knew that they loved you too. Though it is hard now, it will pass, and you will be stronger for it :)

I don't know if this will help, but I have faith that it will. I also feel homesickness most when I am alone with nothing to do. It may be in the middle of the night as my companion is asleep, or in the mall as I am surrounded by thousands of strangers. I imagine that I put all of the sadness, all of the discouragement, all of the anything into a little ball (imaginary ball :) ) and I imagine that I throw that ball straight up. I imagine the ball leaving the atmosphere, travelling through the miles of empty space, past galaxies and stars, until it arrives at one, and lands. It lands in the palms of Jesus Christ. It helps me to remember that no matter how far I feel from everyone and everything around me, there is someone who has held my own trials in His hands, and conquered them. I know that He did, and because He did, I can too. Maybe try it while doing yoga :)"

I wasn't even feeling homesick when I read this, but it made me feel tons better... what a perfect way to erase the homesickness and realize that I can get through this. This isn't even the hardest thing I've had to or will have to face, but even as I deal with this smallish trial of loneliness (which already has gotten much better :), it brings so much peace to realize that I can put those trials in Christ's hands. It's such a comfort to know that Christ understands all the aches and feelings of homesickness I feel. He knows every tear and every feeling of distress that I have. Because of this I can know that I can conquer these trials! :) For some crazy odd reason that I still don't totally understand, Heavenly Father wanted me to go to Snow instead of BYU. I'm living here and have gone to a week of classes and really like it here, but I still don't understand why I'm here. It's nice here, but every time I think of my other plans of BYU I think that it would have made so much more sense to be there. But for some reason I'm here and I think it's where I'm meant to be. For some reason I need to spend the next year 2 long hours from home in the middle of nowhere ;). But I'll just move forward with Asher's advice and face these trials with the knowledge that Christ has overcome them and so can I. And in the process I can do some yoga to make things even better... :)
I found this photo to make the post a little more exciting :)

Becoming a BADGER :) .... moving down to Snow College!

Well, I am officially living down in Ephraim and in two days I will be a full time student at Snow College.. Eegads! I moved down last Wednesday... and Sunday night I got dropped off all by my lonesome! (Plus Albanee who's living a few blocks away :). Yesterday we had our new student orientation all morning and afternoon... we had a great speaker and a workshop, free lunch and a tour! It's nice to finally know at least kind of where everything is... It felt so weird after orientation, though. We were given time to do whatever we needed to... bookstore, unpack, whatever. But we didn't really have much to do. Albanee and I sat for like four hours doing nothing, just amusing ourselves on our laptops and stuff. I was dying ;/. Finally I decided that I needed to do something with myself or I'd go CRAZY. I decided to make an elaborate meal that would take a few hours (we had a movie night at 9, but I just needed amusement until then). I decided to make Chicken Cordon Bleu... because to my spires I really had all of the basic ingredients I needed.... chicken, ham, Swiss cheese, herb de provence... even some bread crumbs! :) And it was one of the few things I actually knew how to make without a recipe... silly, but it's one thing I've made quite a few times :).
Albanee and I returned to my apartment and I got to work.... It wasn't long before I realized that I was actually lacking in quite a few things I needed... a meat pounder/hammer thing? What college student thinks to bring that? I didn't have plastic wrap, tooth picks, butter, or a strainer for the pasta I made to go with it. I realized I didn't have what I needed for the sauce I always make either.... I had already started thawing my chicken, so I had no choice but to go forward. I used a freezer bag to cover the chicken when I flattened it.. which actually turned out to work better than plastic wrap usually does... I might just adopt that technique forever! :) I used a can of tomatoes to roll my chicken flat, which worked well enough. Toothpicks ended up being unnecessary- my cordon bleu held its shape just fine. My roommate lent me some butter, and Albanee thought of using the pan lid to strain the noodles. My mom told me just to use cream of chicken soup for sauce... which I had forgotten even went into the sauce normally! The meal turned out just fine... despite all I realized I lacked. It wasn't quite as wonderful as the typical cordon bleu I make.. but for my first made college meal it was definitely good enough! Especially considering that I had hardly anything.... I REALLY need to buy some groceries soon.. :) And even if it would have tasted awful... at least it took up a few hours :)
I was able to skype Carter for a little while when I ate and cleaned up my dinner... which was wonderful :) Later I sat and talked to my roommate for a few hours... which was great! Since I came down Sunday night we hadn't had many chances to talk since it was always late or we were both gone. We ended up talking til about an hour after the movie started... so I figured I wasn't going afterall... but it was fine because it was good to get to know Daina later, plus I don't really love movies :). Today we had some more orientation, but there was just another speaker and then we talked a bit about starting college and advice. It was good to walk around campus a bit more and get a better feel for where things are. I feel farely ready for my first day of classes tomorrow, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see what more Snow has to offer when I start really experiencing it tomorrow :)