If I didn't have the Gospel in my life..

I'm happy that I have the Gospel in my life. Today started out great and slowly got to the "If I didn't have the Gospel in my life, then I would be ______ today." Thankfully there is only 15 mins. until this day is over and tomorrow brings another bundle of hopefully nothing but... JOY.

I'm not complaining. I'm just curious how many people actually read this blog and how many people actually understand or relate to what I am saying.

Activity for the blog:
Fill in the blank with something... examples:
Living in Italy and buying the entire world a Coke (I know that one is out there, it's been that kind of day!)
Watching Movies all day long
Skydiving
... other CRAZY things.

Sometimes

You have those days where you just need something to LIFT you up. A pick me up, in other words! :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYhDhiojBPA&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6pODq8_FxE&feature=related

Thoughts from the Dogs... Literally! :)

If they could talk...



see more dog and puppy pictures



see more dog and puppy pictures



see more dog and puppy pictures



see more dog and puppy pictures


see more dog and puppy pictures


see more dog and puppy pictures


see more dog and puppy pictures

The Power of Forgiveness

"If we can find forgiveness in our hearts for those who have caused us hurt and injury, we will rise to a higher level of self-esteem and well-being." -James E. Faust, "The Healing Power of Forgiveness," Ensign, May 2007, 67-69.









~"The Hardest things today will be better in the next day!" -Henry B. Erying

~Joshua 24:15

Coming Face-to-Face with Reality

Sometimes I doubt myself, call it being a part of the human-race. However it my mind it's just another everyday thing that I come face-to-face with. “No big deal!” Right!?!?! I tend to doubt my abilities, my courage, my strength, and most of all, my ability to show compassion to others. I don't want to continue to be someone who just passes everyone else by and acts like nothing has happened within my world to change and transform me into the person I am today. No, I am determined to be different! In an excellent way. How do I go about this? I am determined to live my life for Christ, because I know that He is the only one who can truly take all my junk out of my hands and out of my control and take everything and mold it like clay into whatever He wants. Then the question I should be asking myself is, Why do we continue to doubt things within our lives?



I want to help one of my friends, not just in some selfish way of becoming a Mormon. Or finally finding the truth. Especially since I have just found the truth myself. I wanted to help her find something to Believe in. Something so Big, and so Powerful, Loving and Beautiful that nothing could possibly be better.

Someone once explained the Savior's love to me, as being greater than anything else that you could possibly think of that you could possibly gain on this Earth. Better and Greater than Sugar, Exericse, Alcohol, Tobacco, or Anything else even imageable.

My question to anyone out there reading this is... How do you go about explaining that to someone? This is what I'm trying to learn and aquire. And Man... it's frustrating trying to figure this stuff out in your own head. Let me tell you! Ugh!
Praying and Reading the Scriptures. That's the only answer to this question, that I can possibly think of. Heavenly Father will lead me on the correct path. He promises that he will. (Proverbs 3:5)

The E.F.Y. Experience, from a Kentuckian's Point of View

I couldn't get a place in the Bowling Green, Ky E.F.Y (Especially for Youth) so I did my research like a good little teenager and I decided that I would find the cheapest flight from three destinations. The choices were: BYU-Hawaii, California, or UNLV- Las Vegas. The cheapest flight was Vegas. So I hoped on the plane. After being late, being forced to pay for an extra bag, running through the airport like a crazy person, and sitting next to a man on the plane who happened to have 1/3 of himself in the aile and somehow or another was sitting 1/2 way on me.

I kept thinking this day or trip has to be good. Or heck my patience wouldn't have been tested so badly earlier that day. There was nothing that was going to get in my way of getting to UNLV and having a great time. Learning about the Savior and most of all learning how to dress modestly. But we'll get to that in a moment.

I was the only Kentuckian. One of the five Easterns to shoe up to E.F.Y. in Vegas. The others were from Northern Ohio, and Two guys who happened to be in my group were from Alexandria, Lousiana. One guy who I never got to meet was from Florida. So I heard. haha! My group's name was "Shafts in the Whirlwind" As you can see in the pictures, we had a GRAND 'old time. For sure... even with the Kentucky Girl. Mine you everyone out West thought that my UK Wildcats Dress was representing the High School Musicial Wildcats. (Thankfully, NOT!)

One of the funniest expereince Ever... (one of the pictures shows you what I'm talking about) We were not allowed to hold hands or anything, mainly because they were afarid we would be exposed to the Swine Flu. So a couple of my friends and I decided we were rebel against their CRAZY ways... so they did this Hand Sanizater thing everywhere we went. SO..... Everytime we would give each other a High 5 or a Hand Shake and they recieve the Hand Sanizater. It was the best thing Ever! :) lol!

Ahhhh....The Modest issues. Skirts and Shorts had to be @ least to the knee, I didn't have a problem on the other days it was the Sunday Dress day I had the most problems with. I ended up using a friend's skirt underneath my skirt to prevent the issue form continuing. The dances were great, the people were amazing and most of all... Being MODEST is the Hottest!!!

Take care, aksredsox.

Two Guys in White Shirts.

Back in October 2008, I started pursuing the LDS Church. I had a friend at School, who I knew was a member of the LDS Church. We would have conversations about it during our Arts & Humanities Class. Even got yelled at a few times for talking so much, mainly just me though. I kept asking the typical weird offensive Anti-Mormon questions.

Eventually I started to notice that there wasn't anything I could do to compete with him because he didn't want to be antagonistic, he just wanted to help me understand. In no way, shape, or form would he argue with me. Every time I tried to get him to argue he refused.

Because even though I was a Nondenominational Christian at the time I knew what I thought was a lot, about the LDS Church... I came to realize later, that in reality I knew absolutely nothing! My friend had suggested that I get unto the http://www.lds.org website so I did and for some reason I requested a Book Of Mormon. It wasn't even a big deal to me at that time. I thought they would send it to me in the mail or something like that, since the form had asked for my address.

About two weeks later, (I think I can't exactly remember) two guys in White shirts (Elders, I later found out!) were riding bikes, I was taking out the trash to the side of the curb and they gave me my first Book Of Mormon, I had requested earlier.


It took about oh gosh, about 6 MONTHS to get to this point in my life. Nothing can possibly match the feelings that you feel when you experience being washed clean and knowing that there is nothing that can possibly come between you and your Heavenly Father. NOTHING! Without a shadow of a doubt I truly believe that to be true. I know that God, Heavenly Father sent Joseph Smith to the earth to prepare the Book of Mormon and get us the gifts of the Restored Gospel.

Just One Life to Live

"Everyone wants to be happy. Nobody wants to be in pain.
But you can't have a rainbow without any rain."

I am just recently started running again, but I've always been a distance runner. Pushing myself to go that extra lap, knowing that I had enough perseverance to continue. I held onto my faith in God through everything I've gone through within my life. Forcing myself to remember that God is the only one who truly has control of my life. The first divorce between my biological mom and my dad occurred when I was three years old. The custody battles for me between my parents went on for seven years. The courts decided to bring me from the state from Ohio to Kentucky and place me into foster care for two years. My mom was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder during the trials and my dad started recovery of his alcoholic. In the end, my dad ended up receiving custody of me, and was instructed by the courts to continue attending AA meetings and find a job to support the family.

My Dad got remarried to my step mom when I was nine years old. As a result of my dad's alcoholism, they were divorced by the time I was ten years old. My dad started living on his retirement and his rental properties. I started letting my dad's drinking revolve around my Life. I didn't understand that his problem was a disease. He wanted to stop, but couldn't do it by himself. I felt as if I had no other choice but to deal with the issues of my dad's alcoholism myself. I needed to take care of myself, by succeeding and overcoming the pain of my dad's disease. I hated my life, God felt so distant and I was wondering if He was truly there. Why else would God allow all of these situations happen to me? Someone shared a verse that spoke to me. (Romans 5:3-4 “We can rejoice too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us--- they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of Salvation.”)

My dad's alcoholism hit it's prime when I needed my dad the most, from the time I was twelve until I was sixteen, I prayed for God to do whatever it took to get my dad some help with this disease that he was suffering from. The relationship between my dad and I had never been an excellent one, and the issues I was facing while trying to deal with his alcoholism and his on- and- off again girlfriends was starting to get worse. Over the course of a few years my neighbors Steve and Tracy took me to Southland. They have always had foreign exchange students who I went to school with. Steve and Tracy knew about my dad's disease and had mentioned plenty of times that if I ever needed anything to let them know. Our friendship was pretty close. Tracy was like a mom to me, and Steve was like the dad that I wanted my dad to be.

During Christmas Break of 2007 I went to Cincinnati to visit with my Aunt and Uncle. I ended up catching the flu from one of my baby cousins. I ended up going home January 2nd, 2008. I was still sick with the flu and dad took care of me to the best of his abilities, considering his disease.
The evening of January 3rd, 2008 I felt a lot better, however my dad was drinking way to much. He and I got into an argument with my dad over money issues. I couldn't do anything to financially help my dad even though I wanted to help him in every aspect. This disease was controlling his life and it was controlling how money was used in the house. Explaining to someone who is irrational, your reasoning behind anything is impossible when they are under the influence of something. I ended up with a black eye and loss of hearing in my left ear for three weeks.

By the grace of God we ending up having a snow day the day when we were suppose to go back to school from Christmas Break. I woke up about five hours before my dad, went to the basement and called my Aunt and Uncle in Cincinnati and I told them about the fight that Dad and I had. They said they would try to help me out but they explained to me that I needed to stay in Lexington. I explained to them how scared I was, but they truly couldn't do anything from hundred miles away. I kept thinking about people who could help me, I thought about my best friend who lives on Bluegrass Christian Camp, Stephanie. I called Stephanie and I told her what happened she invited me to her house for the weekend. I ended up going to her house for the weekend, I was suppose to go home on Sunday after church. However my Dad started drinking again and so my Aunt & Uncle drove down from Cincinnati and picked me up. The idea of going to live with my sister in Colorado was available, therefore Stephanie and I were freaking out. Having your best friend live twenty-eight miles away is enough, to be in another state was the unthinkable.

I missed two days of school, while staying in Cincinnati for the second weekend in a row. On the second day in Cincinnati we were trying to figure out what I was going to do, where I would go to school, where I was going to live. I expressed my feelings about wanting to continue attending Tates Creek since we were going into the second semester of my sophomore year. In the end I lived with Steve and Tracy, the neighbors that took me to Southland. My dad knew I was moving in with them at this point, and I asked my dad to drop specific things off, through Steve and Tracy. Within the course of about three weeks we were planning on having an intervention for my dad. After about two week of living at Steve and Tracy's house I was informed that my beagle had cancer and was only expected to live for six more weeks. The next day I went and visited Dixie (my beagle) and visited with my Dad as well. Dixie passed away on January 14th, 2009. She brought my dad and I together for a purpose that was meaning full even to this day. God allows everything to happen for a reason,

A week later the intervention took place sometime in Feb. 2008 my family was there and after the intervention my dad went into rehab in Hattiesburg, Mississippi for alcoholism for three months. March 2008 I entered the Ala-teen program, which is based off of the rules of Ala-Non and AA. I also got involved in youth group activities with Southland, including their “Life Hurts, God Heals” program.

I'm a living example that God only allows things in our lives to happen, to make us stronger for His kingdom. God may seem distant at times, but keep in mind that He is always right there right beside you, or watching over you. Whichever way you look at it, He's with you. Everyday is a new day.