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 :)