Unselfish Service

I love this!

Check out the talk by Dallin H. Oaks here.

Elder Vawdrey

I think this says it all:

Mis-sion-ary: (noun) someone who leaves their family for a short time, so that others may be with their families for Eternity.

My question is, is it possible to miss someone before they're even gone?

 This cool kid enters the MTC tomorrow! Times flies. That's all I have
to say. As happy as I am for him, I'm going to miss my best friend. 

I'm going to miss staying up late talking about everything. 

I'll miss driving in Gus together & singing at the top of our lungs.

I'll miss laughing together about absolutely nothing.

I'll miss having weekly game nights & making CCC's on Sundays.

I'll miss hearing him sing "I throw my hands up in the air sometimes..."

I'll miss seeing him practice his "swing"  and silly dance moves.

And I'll probably even miss hearing him blow his nose every morning. haha

I'm so proud of him for choosing to serve a mission though! I realize that these tears would be a lot different if he wasn't going on a mission.

I'm so proud of you Bri! I'm excited that you have "grown a foot or two" and are worthy and willing to serve the Lord for 2 years.
I'm coming right behind ya :)

I love you!

-Rittni

Uncharted rhymes with farted

Song of the day:

Uncharted--Sara Bareilles

I'm not completely sure what she's talking about haha but I like the sound of it!

Mewage

Everyone and their dog is getting married right now. My fridge can testify of it. Trust me, it’s plastered with wedding announcements. So I figured it's time for a public shout out to all of you: :)

Johna & Mike

Stephanie & Austin

Kristine & Tyler

Ali & Eric

Sarah & Mason

Sam & Shawn

Steph & Austin

Mark & Cadence

Kelsi & Stephen

Haley & Nate
Emily & Troy

Mallory & Dalton

Louise & Kevin

Katrina & Tanner

Aubri & Nathaniel

Kristen & Shawn
Jenae & Peter

Libby & Andy

Lindsay & Paul

Lydia & McKay

Christie & Scott

CONGRATULATIONS!

I am very happy for you guys to start your new life together :) 

(Note: Did I prove my point yet? Let me repeat, "everyone and their dog!" The love bug is in the air!)

Called to Serve

Oh hey! Remember how I got my mission call like two and a half weeks ago?! Yeah…sorry it took me so ridiculously long to post this. My computer was being eaten by a virus. :( Grr. Luckily it didn’t have to be completely wiped clean. Soo I'm back!

 In case you haven’t already heard…I’m going to  

Bahía Blanca ARGENTINA!

  Here's the run-down: Bahía Blanca means white bay. 

And from the looks of it, it's probably absolutely beautiful!

  

 

My mission itself is located in the south-west part of Buenos Aires, and it extends into La Pampa as well. It sits right along the Atlantic Ocean which means it'll get pretty humid! I am SO excited. I am absolutely thrilled that I get to go foreign. I'm excited to experience new culture, language, food, people, everything! Several of my friends served there also so it's been really fun to hear all about it from them. I don't leave till August 17th, so hopefully those three months go by fast!!
 
The great thing is that my brother and I will both be serving a mission at the same time! (My poor mom) We're both going Spanish speaking so we're excited to be able to write back and forth.

 And! For those of you who wished you could have been there, this is a video of when I opened my call :)

Sent

My mission call has been sent! Feel free to start freaking out with me now.

Still Waiting

As some of you already heard, my mission call didn't come this week so it will probably come on Wednesday--which just means more waiting. Trust me, it's been extremely hard to focus lately. The post office gives you the option though to go pick it up in the morning if you would rather do that than wait for the mail to come. Umm...yes thank you, I'll be there at 6am sharp on Wednesday to put an end to this waiting. I'll let you know the details soon! :)

 

But until then, I have had several requests to make a list of where people think I will be called, what language I will speak, and when I will enter the MTC. Let me know what your predictions are (you get two guesses) and I'll be thinking of a really awesome prize for the person who gets the closest. :)

Note: I would love to go foreign, and I would love to leave sooner rather than later, but you have to keep in mind that this is ALL in the Lord's timing. I know that wherever I get called it will be what is best!

Anticipation

For those of you who haven’t heard yet...

I’M GOING ON A MISSION! 

It feels nearly impossible to try & express and put into words all of the thoughts in my head. When it comes down to it I'm over the top excited, anxious, ansty, and...everything in between. Ya, I think you get the picture. I do at least one happy dance every day. I can't wait to get my call and see where the Lord wants me to serve. My papers went in last Tuesday, which means there is a slight  chance (a really really slight actually) that I could get my call tomorrow. Now don't get your panties in a bunch! There's no sense in getting your hopes up, but I'm still hoping. Hoping hard :)

It's neat to look back at the past couple months of my life to see how far I've come and how much I have grown. I never really had planned on serving a mission when I turned 21 because I always thought I would be married. In fact, I was quite defiant in not serving a mission for awhile just because it felt like such an escape from the trials in my life at that point. I would be going for the wrong reasons. 

Well, time change me. I guess I had what you could call a change of heart because I realized the reasons why I want to serve a mission. Because of the gospel I know the purpose of this life, and the rest of the world doesn't. That's not fair. I want to go for the people. I want to give them what makes me so happy. I want to give them that glow I have that makes others wonder how I can always be smiling. I want to share the truth. I want to teach them how to be worthy of the Spirit at all times and in all things and in all places. I want to help them become worthy to be baptized as a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I want to take them to the temple. I want to teach them about the miraculous healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I want to teach them about the importance of eternal families. And most importantly, I want to teach them of the love of their Savior and their Heavenly Father.

The Biebster

I'm not gonna say that I'm a fan of Justin Bieber, because that's a lie. His performing skills are quite awful, but this song isn't too bad! Maybe it's just because I like Rascal Flatts :)

Change Anything

I don't know whether or not you are familiar with VitalSmarts, (the company I work for) but it was founded by several authors: Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler. Over the years they have become three-time New York Times bestselling authors for their books: Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. Pretty dang cool. They are now releasing a new book! It’s called  

Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success

So why is this a big deal & what is it even about? 

Well...here's a quick summary:

"Change Anything reveals a proven, scientific process to successfully take on any challenge in our lives-challenges like saving money, changing bad work habits, quitting smoking, increasing productivity, or losing weight. But here's the secret: willpower is not the answer. With a clearer understanding of the real forces that shape our actions, we can make better decisions, change our outlook, and replace bad habits with good."

"Individuals who have the power to change their behavior are individuals with power. Master the skills taught in this book and reach a new level of personal influence." 

-Stephen R. Covey, author, The 7 Habits of Effective People & The Leader in Me

 It releases tomorrow. You should totally buy it.

(Side note: I hate telling people what to buy, but if I make a blog post about it I get a free sweatshirt) :)