The Christmas Spirit

Brent and I got into the Christmas spirit this weekend by watching Elf last night, and then we watched a special Christmas program tonight.  We heard an amazing story about the spirit of Christmas.

It helped me to remember that Christmas doesn't always have to be complicated and stressful, full of worry about gifts that we can't afford and people we can't always please. It made me just think about once again, how grateful I am to simply be alive and about how much more important people are than possessions. Sometimes when you lose a friendship, trying to gain the world, the world rejects you and that person may be gone forever. So I guess if I had to dedicate this post to someone, it would be to all the people out there who have taught me to take it slow, to sit back and relax and enjoy the journey.

I just want to post the story here, for anyone who may be interested in reading it. It is truly amazing and speaks measures of the true spirit of Christmas.  I will just copy and paste his words, because my "retelling" would never truly do it justice, it is taken from a story or a book, I'm not sure written by Ray Jensen called "Drama at Gate 67"

"The Christmases we remember best generally have little to do with worldly goods, but a lot to do with families, with love and with compassion and caring...This thought provides hope for those of us who fear that the simple meaning of the holiday is diluted by commercialism, or by opposition from those with differing religious views, or just by getting so caught up in the pressures of the season that we lose that special spirit we could otherwise experience.For many people, 'overdoing it' is especially common at this time of the year. We take on too much for the time and energy we have. Perhaps we don't have enough money to spend for those things we feel we must purchase. Often our efforts at Christmastime result in feeling stressed out, wrung out and worn out during a time when instead we should feel the simple joys of commemorating the birth of the Babe in Bethlehem."

The story is as follows... "An incident that occurred in December 1970, when an ice storm caused thousands of travelers to become stranded in the airport in Atlanta, Ga., as flights were delayed for many hours, lessening the chances for them to get wherever they most wanted to be for Christmas -- 'most likely home.'
The midnight hour had tolled and passengers clustered around the ticket counters, conferring with ticket agents.When an occasional plane managed to break out, more travelers stayed behind than made it aboard. The words 'standby,' 'reservation confirmed,' and 'first class passenger' settled priorities and bespoke money, power, influence, foresight – or lack thereof. Gate 67 in Atlanta was a microcosm of the whole cavernous  airport. Except for a few passengers traveling in pairs, there was little conversation. A salesman stared into space, a young mother cradled an infant in her arms and a man in a finely tailored gray flannel suit seemed impervious to the collective suffering. A person observing this busy man might have identified him as an Ebenezer Scrooge.

Suddenly the relative silence was broken by a commotion. A young man in military uniform, no more than 19 years old, was in animated conversation with the desk agent. The boy held a low-priority ticket. He pleaded with the agent to help him get to New Orleans so that he could take the bus to the obscure Louisiana village he called home. The agent wearily told him the prospects were poor for the next 24 hours, maybe longer. The boy grew frantic. Immediately after Christmas his unit was to be sent to Vietnam – where at that time war was raging – and if he didn't make this flight, he might never again spend Christmas at home. The agent was clearly moved but could only offer sympathy and not hope.

Finally, the agent announced that the flight was ready for boarding. Travelers, who had been waiting hours, shuffled onto the plane until there were no more seats. The agent turned to the frantic soldier and shrugged.
Inexplicably the businessman had lingered behind. How he stepped forward. 'I have a confirmed ticket,' he quietly told the agent. 'I'd like to give my seat to this young man.' The agent stared incredulously; then he motioned to the soldier. Unable to speak, tears streaming down his face, the boy in olive drab shook hands with the man in the gray flannel suit, who simply murmured, 'Good luck. Have a fine Christmas. Good luck.'

No more than a few among the thousand witnessed this remarkable interchange, but for those who did, the sullenness, the frustration, the hostility, all dissolved into a glow. That act of love and kindness between strangers had brought the spirit of Christmas into their hearts." (Taken from Drama at Gate 67 by Ray Jenkins)

"The Savior gave freely to all, and His gifts were of value beyond measure. He blessed the sick, restored sight to the blind, made the deaf to hear and the halt and lame to walk. He gave cleanliness to the unclean. He restored breath to the lifeless. He gave hope to the despairing and bestowed light in the darkness.

"He gave His love, His service, and His life."

"What is the spirit we feel at Christmastime? It is His spirit – the spirit of Christ."

Rainbows

Since October I have seen about 3 different rainbows. I most likely won't see one again for a while since it is freezing here now. It was seventeen degrees last night, and next week it is supposed to get down to ten one night. I have decided that rainbows are pretty sweet and I like them a lot! They remind me that hope exists, that everyday is a new day and that people are, for the most part trying to make their mark for good on the world. They always appear when I need them the most as well.  It always helps, and reminds me that God is there and he loves me.

Stand for Something

Sometimes I think during Thanksgiving especially that some of us forget how blessed we are to live in America. I was just browsing through Standing for Something by Gordon B. Hinckley and I only read the introduction because it caught my attention, but it is so true. First he says that he has visited over 150 countries names them all in their glorious beauty and then says, "But as much as I love the peoples and places of the world, I return from each trip abroad with a peculiar love for my homeland."

He goes on to talk about the progress that has been made here, and about how blessed he is to have been born here. He was born in 1910 and the life expectancy was 50 years then, he lived to be 98 was it?  Then he says something that I don't think anyone will ever forget once they read it.

He said he was visiting Jerusalem with his wife before the war in 1967 when the city was still divided. He said they had a guide who was Arab and during our tour he took them to an elevation where they could see the other side of Jerusalem. With tears in his eyes, the man pointed to the home from which he had been thrown out of and said... "You belong to the greatest nation on the face of the earth. Yours is the only nation that has been victorious in war and never claimed any territory as a prize of conquest. Your people have given millions, even billions to the poor of the earth and never asked for anything in return. Rather even after coming off as conqueror, you have poured yet other billions to revive those who had been your enemies in bloody conflict."

President Hinckley then says in the book..."I had never thought of this significant perspective... Not only did we not seize Japan at the end of World War II but we provided the impetus that has led to their superiority in many business enterprises." He then talked about the grain we provided to India and how it spelled life to millions of hungry in that land, and the grain we gave to them amounted to everything grown that year from Colorado westward.

He ends the intro by saying "God bless America... for it is His Creation!"

Lemons

Hey Friends!
So, I am editing some stuff on my individual blog and I came up with this picture. It kinda makes me happy. Because I edited the whole thing, including writing the copy :)  I got a letter from Kevin (Elder Rothert) today. He seems to be having fun and doing well. Leave me a comment if you want to write or wish him happy birthday!
P.s. I thought this was funny.

Now Playing at a Utah Near You

So... this might be cheating a little bit, but today I'm going to drive by the MTC and be the crazy sister checking out every single missionaries face as I sit with my camera posed to take a picture, in case one of them is actually him.. Stalker, I know, but stalking is fun right, plus I've never done it in my life, so might as well get it out of my system on someone with whom it isn't completely creepy. So, I just took a huge break from this blog to write a frustration blog on my other blog, I feel slightly bad, but if I didn't get that stuff out somehow, it might turn into an ugly roommate confrontation, which I have done one too many times to either enjoy or benefit from. I have learned that it never works to confront a roommate, such as the one I currently occupy my apartment with.

The name of the post, does have a legit meaning though, no worries. I was going to tell you about the playing/fun stuff I have been doing. It is absolutely beautiful here this week. The temperature has been perfect,  for the most part, minus the few little, rain showers here and there.  The trees, fall colors, and mountains are also extra beautiful this week. I don't know if I am just more observant, because I have decided to take a step back and recognize the things that make this life great, or if they are just extra beautiful.

Actually, lets back up a little bit. Last week, Brent, Eric and I drove the Alpine Loop in the first snow, and Eric saw his first Utah moose. He was so excited and Brent and I finally have proof that there really are Moose in Utah! No one believed us, but now we have a picture.  The canyon was fantastic, the colors were spectacular and we had a lot of fun. We also found a little area called Cascade Springs hidden in the mountains. It is an area about a mile long with little cascading waterfalls with paths winding through them. Then later last week, Brent and I went on a double date with Angela and Daniel up the ski lift at the Sundance   ski resort. While we were on the ski lift, and at Cascade Springs in the canyon, I got two of my favorite pictures of Brent and myself. The first is from Cascade Springs and the second is on the ski lift.

Fast forward again to this week. Monday night, Josh, Angela, Eric, Kymberlee, (Ali's Cousin, that was slightly awkward) and then me and Brent, went to Cornbelly's Corn Maze in Alpine, Utah. About halfway through the maze, my tummy started killing me so Brent and I once again cheated our way out of the maze. Don't worry though, before we leave Utah we will make it through the legit way. By the time we made it out of the maze I realized that it was only because I took aspirin right before without eating. :( Boo. It was fun though, I got a picture of myself in Cinderella's carriage though which of course made it all worth it. Plus, I got to be a big horn sheep, even though Brent insists it was a billy goat, and I get to sit in a giant rocking chair, that fits about ... 8 people...ish.. Tuesday night, as everyone is already aware, Kevin flew in to prepare to leave for his mission on Wednesday morning/afternoon. I threw a surprise party for Kevin at Kiwanis park that night in which we roasted hot dogs and s'mores over a fire. There were about 20 people there, as demonstrated in the previous posts.  He seemed to have fun.  Wednesday, Casey, Kevin's roommate, went with us to run errands for Kevin and his mission.  Brent, Kevin, Casey and I all went to lunch at Chili's after that, went and took group and individual pictures at the temple, MTC and Rock Canyon, and then went and dropped him off at the MTC. I only shed a few tears, until later that day of course. :)

I feel like I'm rambling again, and I'm about out of things for this week. It has been a fun week, minus the roommate issues, and Kevin leaving. I also just want to say, we are praying for a family friend the Brown family. If anyone knows Michelle, Angela and Jessica Brown from Olney, IL and haven't heard, Jessica was killed in a car accident early this morning.  Our family is keeping them in our prayers, as well as Marisa Aguirre who is close to our family, and one of Jessica's best friends. We love you both, and wish the best for you and your family. God be with you till we meet again Jessica.

El MTC!!!!

Elder Kevin Andrew Rothert reported to the MTC 50 minutes ago, and is now officially a missionary for La Iglesia de Jesu Cristo de los Ultimos Dias. Other than the accents, I better get props for that, I wrote it all by myself. Anyways, I only cried a little, I am sure there are more tears to come in the future though. He looked very spiffy and he was definitely ready to go when the time came. We all wish him luck and send him with lots of love. He commanded Brent to take care of me, which was also very cute :) Watch for updates about his mission on http://whatiexhale.blogspot.com/ and for those of you with facebook, I will try to keep his pictures and goings on up-to-date! If you want to send or receive a letter from him, let us know, and we will try to get the word to him, but you know how busy he will be, so don't be too harsh if it takes him a little bit to reply. Here are some pictures from the day :) For more funny pictures go to his facebook, where I will be keeping them updated while he is gone, and please don't be too evil to me, I have to go through his application/event invitations. He will be back in October of 2011, so none of that until he gets back!! Thanks!

This is It

Today is going to be quite an emotional day. Today at 1:15 my favorite, and only brother leaves for the MTC and I have the nearly impossible task of dropping him off. It will be hard, but thats ok, life is hard right? I threw him a "surprise" not so surprise goodbye party last night, so that all of those Utah people who said, I can't come, I'm in Utah to his Indiana farewell would have no excuses... but... everyone has swine flu, so, they do have excuses. Oh well, what can you do, anyways, for mom and dad's sake, because I'm not smart enough this morning to figure out how to share a photo album from facebook with the rest of the world, even though I know there is a way... I am posting some pictures from last night's wild and crazy party (just kidding!) on here. And I will probably post again today with pictures from him outside the MTC with me crying helplessly, etc... SO look out for that. Go Elder Rothert, you'll do great!

Sin City

The reason for this post is because I have received my mission call to the Nevada Las Vegas West Mission. I will be speaking Spanish. I report to the Missionary Training Center on October 14th. I just thought I would share the experience with you. (Just FYI, this is the same post as on my blog...I reposted it here because it fit.)

First of all. Many of you know I have been waiting extremely anxiously to find out where I was going. The worst part was is that I gave them the wrong address! I didn't know when/where/how I would receive my call. Luckily my old room mate Kris was living at my old address still but it was maddening to not know what was going on. Not to mention that I was going home and I couldn't just go over to my old apartment to pick it up any more. So, I left Provo, I was in the 5th week since I turned in my papers and there were moments when I thought I would die if I didn't have my call within the next hour.

So, going home I was filled with a mixture of emotions. I just didn't know what the future held for me. On Sunday, that marked six weeks. I was feeling a bit discouraged. Would it ever come? Then on Monday we got home at around 8pm...what a long day. Then Tuesday. I was making hamburgers and I got a call from my bishop in Provo. As I began to open the phone I started trying to figure out what he would be calling about. Possibly that something had gone wrong with my papers? It never entered my mind that I was about to receive a mission call.

Bishop Potter told me that my stake president from Provo, President Ford, was also on the line. I just thought it was bad news. We went through the "How are you?" stuff and then they gave me the news. If I hadn't been on the phone I would have been yelling from excitement but since I was on the phone I decided all I could do was jump up and down in the living room. Dad was in the attic and mom was in the garden so no one knew yet. When dad came down from the attic and mom back inside I finished my conversation in my bedroom and when it was over ran into the middle of the house and announced it.

I'm pretty excited, to say the least. I can't wait til October 14th. It's going to be awesome. Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is something that I know is right and I just can't wait!

I looked up some stuff about Nevada on Wikipedia. No, not the best source, but hey. It works. I found out that they have pretty strict drug laws, which surprised me. Also, the are the most dangerous state and crime, murder, and such are highest in Nevada. Also, prostitution is legal, not in Las Vegas, but in other counties it is. It's going to be interesting to say the least. Not to mention gambling and their extremely lax Alcohol laws. But there are two temples in my mission, the Reno and Las Vegas temples. That's sweet. And many towns in Nevada were settled by Mormons and missionaries actually had a fort around what is now downtown Las Vegas. (this is all according to Wikipedia by the way.) I know I have my work cut out for me but I'm really excited.

Just Missing Conneticut

Well, I hit two out of the three states that start with C this month. First, I went and visited California with Brent's family for about a week. We spent the first weekend in Tahoe, and everyone got a kick out of the fact that I am terrified of bears.. so funny.. haha! RUDE! Then we just had random events the rest of the time I was there. One day we went gold panning, and rafted the Bear River, another day, we got together with our friend John who is in the coast guard and currently stationed in Sacramento, about 30 min from where the Dahlin's live. We also got to go to San Francisco, the town that never ceases to amaze me. We went to a Spanish Catholic Mission, the oldest building in the city, we drove down the main drag by Pier 39, we went to the Cable Car Museum, the Rose garden, and Japanese Tea Garden, and the Asian art museum. I'm sure I'm missing a stop or two as well. Then, I helped Brent drive back to Utah, I'm not sure how much help I was though, I love sleeping on car rides.. :) I was home for about 3 days, then I drove Kevin (more like Kevin drove me) to Colorado to meet with Mom and Dad so they could take him home for about a month until he leaves on his mission. He got his call by the way.. I'll let him post on here all about that, if you haven't already heard from Facebook, or some other random source. Anyways, we spent the weekend together, most of which I was sick boo! I developed a fever, so I was feeling pretty gross the whole weekend, but it was great to spend some time with the family. It was a good month. I posted a few pictures of each event.

The Keyboard is Mightier than My Public Speaking

All right. So This post is about a couple of things I have written in the past week. First of all, I am going home in a week and because I am going on a mission once I get there (and once I get my call) I was asked to bear my testimony at church in in Provo. Since I knew about it ahead of time I wrote it out. Now, you understand the title of this post. I posted it on my other blog whatiexhale.blogspot.com. Also, I have finished the book I have been writing: The Key to Perfection. I guess, finished isn't the right word, it still has a lot of work but I have written it from chapter 1 to the end so I'm going to say that I finished it. This is my fourth book now, though I haven't tried to publish them so it's a bit note worthy, I hope that after my mission, this story might be the first one I publish. Cross my fingers on that one. Any way, I posted an excerpt from chapter one on the same blog.

Something else I have been doing is trying to fit in as many visits to the temple as possible before I go home since I have better access to temples here in Provo. I also realized I had taken no pictures of the Provo temple, here are a few:

My Day Off!

Temple Square Fun. Enough said.

Oh What Do You Do In The Summer Time.

Hey, everyone, Kevin here. I thought it was about time to give a summer update. Here are some of the events that have taken place but not all...I have been lacking on my picture taking. Also I put an update on my mission plans and explained some of what has been going on concerning those plans on a facebook "note" and on my blog "What I Exhale."

Here is a link to my blog. Here is a link to the facebook note.

Now, on to my summer!This was taken at a ward activity. It was night in the movies. I was Ron Stoppable from the Kim Possible Movie. I'm next to "the Rrunnaway Bride" My room mate Trevor and his girlfriend Sarah went as Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley. They are both really cool. The ninja is my room mate AJ. Hermiony Granger all the way on the left is Anna Nichols, she also a really good friend of mine. (We are Harry Potter and Kelly Clarckson buddies.) Above is a picture of me, my old room mate Casey Stoddard, and our good friend Jen Palladino (who just recently got engaged). We are at a wedding reception of our friends Vashti and Steve Porter. Jen was there all the way from CT!

Now, this is an awesome group. These are the cholas! On the top is Kelsey Mortensen on the left and Lauren Hungate on the right. On the bottom row (left to right) is Kaitlyn Mortensen, Natasha Singh, and Nikki LeFever (who is leaving for her mission on Wed! (the 15th). We are all really excited that she is going to Poland) This picture was taken at a Kelly Clarckson concert. Anna Nichols (Hermione in the earlier picture) and Kelly Uhariot were also there...but I think this picture was taken before we saw them. It was a blast!

In this picture I am attacking Shannon Wilde with her laptop (this is staged by the way). She was here for a week and a half visiting. She used to live in the ward but she left for the summer before going to Prague.

Kris Swinson, my old room mate and current room mate (aka my short room mate, aka the dwarf, etc.), Lauren, Shannon and I all went to Diego's a Mexican restauraunt. It was fun and you don't get too many pictures of Kris so I thought this one was important. I also got to drive his car for about 10 seconds. It was crazy. Because Kris is a dwarf he has extensions on the peddals and his seat has a HUGE extra cussion on it to boost him forward. I could barely drive it becuase I was so scrunched. It was pretty awesome.

Also, with my calling in the sunday school presidency I have had the opportunity to teach a couple of times and I wanted to share a video I used for class one week. Here it is:

Manti, The "Jungle", Stadium of Fire, and the Alpine Loop

This is a multi-event update all rolled into on awesome blog post. Just kidding, don't get to excited it probably won't be all that exciting. Brent and I went to the Manti pageant again this year, we went up a little early and went through the Manti La Sal National Forest, which was beautiful. It is amazing how many different landscapes one state can be home to. That was fun, we were joined before the pageant by Brent's brother Eric, his girlfriend Ali, and her friend visiting from Texas, whose name escapes me right now :( Yikes. Anyways... the pageant was good at always and there was quite an interesting protester crowd including the "Jews for Jesus" who told us they had the same beliefs as us, but we were wrong.. yeah.. figure that one out...Anyways, it was a great presentation as usual, and Elder Perry said the opening prayer. For those of you out there who don't know who that is, he is one of our twelve apostles, like in Christ's day and the pageant is about how the Book of Mormon came about and the restoration of our church, and Christ's appearance in the Americas. As for those of you who do know all of that stuff already,it is a fantastic pageant and you should all check it out sometime if you get the chance. Second, the "jungle". Brent's family came to visit this past week on their way back from Yellowstone and Eric insisted he show us this place him and Ali found that they call... the "jungle." I suppose it is because it looks a little bit like the television show LOST, which is obviously a jungle, and it was raining and misty on the first day they came. I will say it is more swampy and wet than the majority of Utah and Utah valley, but still didn't meet the "jungles" of Indiana in my opinion. The mosquitos however thoroughly enjoyed me being there so I had to wear a hoodie in the middle of summer so they couldn't devour my flesh. Third, for the fourth, work was so slow they let me get off early, and I went with two of my roommates to see the fireworks put on by the Stadium of Fire/Freedom Festival at the BYU football stadium. I would have to say I was expecting a little more, but they were pretty good. I got some pretty sweet pictures anyway. It started sprinkling a little during them, and that morning during the most ridiculously crowded parade I've ever sat through it did pour, also adding new meaning to the phrase "It's raining on our parade." The parade was about 2 hours long, complete with giant floating Madeline, Paddington Bear, and a giant Eagle, about 12 high school marching bands, Hawaiian/Tongan Hula dancers and their own Polynesian band, and 3, yes THREE, Bagpipe bands. I didn't even know there were three in the United states... but..alas, they are all in the Utah Valley I guess. Anyways, people were lined up 24 HOURS in advance to mark their spot for the parade which happened to be going by on the main street that I live on, so there were piles of people sitting outside of our complex all night, kind of amusing. Anyways, enough rambling.Pictures included yadda yadda... Oh P.s. I have included some pictures (at the end) of Alpine Loop, which goes through the Provo canyon/Sundance, which is fantastic. There are trees with carvings from the 40s I'm sure from BYU students, and some really cool waterfalls, etc. The day we went it was raining and absolutely stunning. Also you should be able to either single or double click the pictures to see larger versions of them. Not sure which so just mess around with it... :)