An Afternoon Stroll [in Washington, DC]

        

I felt much less remorse about selling my car when I saw this...

Random

Please excuse the random nature of this post. I need to "blog dump" all of my old pictures and posts that I never got around to before I start with DC posts.

1. Festival of Colors.

I went to Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork this year. I had never been and I felt kind of lame that I would travel the world to go to cultural events but I never made time to go to the ones a 20-minute drive away. So I decided to go. My sister Losaunne said she was going to be there too, so we could hang out.

The parking in Spanish Fork was out of control. Unfortunately, I didn't really know where I was going and was just following the line of cars or else I would have known where to park. As it was, I parked at a place I thought must be close.

It was close, if you think that 4 miles of walking is close. I don't mind walking. I really don't. But when you have to listen to the same people's conversation as you are tripping through mud and walking around the parked cars lining the road while traffic crawls in the opposite direction, it gets a little old. Especially if your sister who is at the Festival doesn't answer her phone (left it in the car so it wouldn't get colored), so you don't even know if she is still there. (btw, does anyone else hate listening to strangers' conversations while they are walking behind you for an extended period of time, or is that just me?)

Turns out she wasn't. By the time I got to the Festival, she had left. I just walked in, snapped a few pictures, and took the long trek back to my car. Lame, I know, but at least now I've been, right?

I just wonder how they get all the color off of the temple. Maybe they leave it in and let the elements take care of it?

In any case, welcome spring!


2. Happy Birthday.

My birthday this year was kind of crazy. I have trained myself not to expect much from birthdays because my expectations are always too high and thus never met. This birthday was no different. My coworker told me happy birthday, and of course I got 100+ facebook happy birthdays from people who otherwise would have had no idea that this day was the happy celebration of my birth (I love facebook for that). I had a rehearsal that night until 11 in Salt Lake, and when I got home I was ready to crash. I was surprised and delighted to see that my roommate had left me a rose and some chocolate on the table with a happy birthday card. This was one of the best birthday gifts I have ever received because it was unexpected--and given without expectation of reciprocity! It reminded me of Elder Eyring's BYU devotional on "Gifts of Love."

(Don't worry, Mom and Dad. The camera I got for my birthday/Christmas/graduation ranks up there with the best birthday gifts ever given. The picture of the cupcakes, given to me the next day by my mother, was taken with said camera.)


3. Roommate Photo Shoot.
A couple of months ago I looked outside my window. The sun made the lighting on our balcony a soft golden glow. I knew that pictures needed to be taken that very moment to capture the magnificent lighting. I solicited my roommate and neighbors.

Isn't the lighting just beautiful?


4. My Cute Nephew.
I have three cute nephews, actually. But I did a photo shoot of this one (actually several). Isn't he adorable? (Still waiting for the day when I can do a photo shoot of my first niece. Still waiting for her to be born, actually. I just missed her birth, and now I am in Washington, DC and she will be born in Utah. Lame.)

5. Udall Photo Shoot

I feel like I do a lot of photo shoots. One of my dearest friends, Shayla, and her family are back in Provo while her husband attends law school. Her kids are so cute (and funny) that I would practically pay her to babysit them! Although a photo shoot with kids is never a completely enjoyable experience for all parties involved, I love taking pictures of them. 

Max was ready to be done almost before we started. This is him, 8 minutes in, with his desperate "cheeeeese!" face.

Like I said, photo shoots are rarely fun for everyone involved...

6. Easter Egg Hunt.

And to finish off the batch, here are some pictures of two of my nephews gathering eggs on Easter.

Women's Chorus

Now that I am "kind of" graduated (pictures to come), I have started thinking about the things that I will definitely miss more than a little at the BYU. Women's Chorus hovers right at the top of that list.

I have been in Women's Chorus now for many years (I became a member the year after Sister Applonie, the director, became director) and I haven't gone a F/W semester at the Provo campus without being a part of this excellent choir. Back in 2006, I was even the Publicity Chair. It was a thrill (and completely exhausting!).

This girl, Megan, told me that she joined Women's Chorus because of me (we went to Jerusalem together).

Women's Chorus is a huge, huge time commitment. One hour of class M-F, added to several dress rehearsals and concerts a month, singing at devotional, and extra practice times all add up to being way more work than just a one-credit-hour class. However, even in my busiest semesters (19/20 credits and 2 jobs), I still did Women's Chorus because somehow, singing with 180 girls under one of the best directors I have ever known (Sister Applonie) makes me feel more human (and with 20 credits and 2 jobs, I need all the help I can get to be human!).

Several times a year Women's Chorus plans service projects and outreaches to the community. One year we painted a home for Habitat for Humanity.

As you can tell, I was thrilled (mostly because I had a chance to wear one of the ugliest shirts I have ever owned--leftovers from the Jerusalem Center in the 90's that I got for free!).

Clearly, Women's Chorus was a thrill. I mean, just look at that face. We were rehearsing for a concert that started in about 20 minutes and I just wanted the whole world to know, "There's a mess of moonlight, won't you share it with me?"

If I had to go back and do my undergraduate experience again, there are a lot of things I would do differently. However, one thing that would stay constant would be my involvement in Women's Chorus. I would gladly do all those years again, despite my busyness.

It was that awesome.

Favorite memories of Women's Chorus:

*One year we took Women's Chorus pictures on the back steps of the Maeser building. It was an incredibly hot day in April and, at 3:00 in the afternoon, the sun was baking those steps like cookies in a 350 degree oven. Unfortunately, we were on those steps wearing black dresses. Girls kept passing out, and someone would drag them over to the shade and fan them as the photographer kept taking pictures. I think somewhere between 5 and 10 girls passed out that day...

*We got to sing in April Conference in the Conference Center in 2006. It was awesome. I will never be the same after sitting in the choir seats at General Conference. I think President Uchtdorf even drove past us in one of those little golf carts the General Authorities use to get around after the session was over and we were in the tunnel.

*My folder partners have just been awesome. Really. Somehow I always got put with someone that laughed at my jokes and even had some of their own, which made class time a lot more pleasant (since I had to sit next to them every day for 8 months!).

*When President Hinckley dedicated the JFSB in 2006, guess who sang at the dedication? The combined choirs, including Women's Chorus.

*Recording sessions are long and sometimes miserable. Once we were recording on stage in the DeJong and right as we finished one of the songs, a girl in the front row passed out. She fell forward and cut her chin and they were afraid to move her, so someone held her head in their lap and waited for the BYU medical people to come while we kept recording. As we finished the next song, this guy came in and ran up to the stage. "That's my wife!" he said. I don't know why it was so funny, but the situation was just one of those crazy ones that you laugh about afterward.

*Sister Applonie was the best director (and mentor and friend) that I could ever have hoped for. Especially since I saw her every day for many years, I had a lot of time to learn things like balance, efficiency, and how to have high expectations without overwhelming yourself from her. If the conductor had been someone else, I might not have stuck with it for so many years. But seriously, she was all I could ever ask for in a conductor.

As you can tell, it has been quite a ride! Plus, we have our own chocolate. How much cooler can you get?

These Things Are Never Ok

I usually try to keep my blog material light and funny (thus hiding my true personality). However, this weekend I had an experience that quite upset me, actually, and thus the nature of this not-funny and not-light blog post. If you are the type that reads this blog just to laugh, skip this post and come back another day.

I want to address the issue of "these things are never ok: never say these things about or to your spouse in public." Now, I am not married, but I still know what type of comments could potentially signal "the beginning of the end." I have one tip for a happy marriage: never insult your spouse in public, even in jest, and never joke about leaving your spouse or finding another spouse. These, my friends, are comments that wreak havoc upon personal emotions and relationships.

What event could make me so passionately aware of this issue? I was riding in a car with some friends, including a married couple. I don't know the man very well (we are in a class together) and I had just met the wife. After hearing about some of my academic feats (I think it was somewhere between stating that I had 2 majors and 2 minors and I have TA'ed for 23 classes), the man turned to me and said, "Now Breanne, if things don't work out between my wife and I..." implying that things could work out between he and I. My anger and emergency systems immediately went on alert and, while trying to handle the situation as tactfully as possible, I suggested that it was already a little too late for that (and his wife stated, "But things have already worked out between us...it's a lot too late"). While the man was still laughing, thinking, I am sure, that it was a great joke, his wife said, "Why are we laughing about this? Am I supposed to think this is funny?" She was laughing also, but her words betrayed her possible hurt. I, on the other hand, was offended that I had been brought into and become the object of a discussion about the relationship of the man and his wife.

I didn't go off on a rant in the car. It is not my place to counsel individuals about their relationships and what they say in public. However, I think the mood in the car, while still laughing, made it clear that things like that were not ok to say (I did make some comment about how if it had been my husband that said that, "There would be h*** to pay tonight!"). Please, men, if you love your wives, don't ever insinuate that things won't work out between the two of you in public. And if you don't love your wife, don't say anything about her in public either. Things like these can become a hidden wedge that starts to tear marriages apart. Your wife is worth more than that. You are worth more than that. And  your current and future relationship is worth more than that.

I will finish this post with a story shared in the April 2011 General Conference by Richard G. Scott entitled "The Eternal Blessings of Marriage:"

"I remember one day I took some of those little round paper circles that form when you punch holes in paper, and I wrote on them the numbers 1 to 100. I turned each over and wrote her a message, one word on each circle. Then I scooped them up and put them in an envelope. I thought she would get a good laugh.


"When she passed away, I found in her private things how much she appreciated the simple messages that we shared with each other. I noted that she had carefully pasted every one of those circles on a piece of paper. She not only kept my notes to her, but she protected them with plastic coverings as if they were a valuable treasure. There is only one that she didn’t put with the others. It is still behind the glass in our kitchen clock. It reads, 'Jeanene, it is time to tell you I love you.' It remains there and reminds me of that exceptional daughter of Father in Heaven.

"As I have thought back over our life together, I realize how blessed we’ve been. We have not had arguments in our home or unkind words between us. Now I realize that blessing came because of her. It resulted from her willingness to give, to share, and to never think of herself. In our later life together, I tried to emulate her example. I suggest that as husband and wife you do the same in your home."

On Graduating with 246 Credits

Today in my English class the topic of how many credits I will graduate with came up. Don't ask how this topic just happened to come up--I am quite proud of my excessive amount of credits and bring it up at every opportunity.

Anyway, when I mentioned that I am about to graduate with 246 credits, the class was incredulous. Cries of "Don't they kick you out before that?" "How long ago did you start?!" and "Wow...wow" accompanied by a stunned look rang out across the classroom.

My teacher looked around at the class. "Can anyone beat that?" No answer. "Does anyone even have within 50 credits of that?" When no one answered again, I laughed out loud. "Yes, it's kind of a sensitive subject with me. I've been here a long time, ok?"

Five minutes later, my teacher said something and then added,  "How many credits do you have? two-hundred-ninety-something?" This way-out-of-proportion guess made my original number seem so much more reasonable.

But hey, I think it's still pretty impressive to be graduating with 246 credits...

General Conference Favorites

General Conference was this weekend. For those who don't know, General Conference is held twice a year and is a time when the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak to the members and everyone else throughout the world that would like to listen. The proceedings are available on radio, tv, and internet, and the live meeting is in Salt Lake City. 5 2-hour conference sessions are held over the two-day period, and General Conference is always highly anticipated by members of the church.

Anyway, I started thinking about a few conference talks that have highly impacted my life, both at the time they were given and for years afterward. I thought I would give you a short list of 10 of the talks that have most impacted my life (there are many more than 10, though!). I have only included those talks that I remember being given live...although many talks before my time have also greatly impacted me, that will have to be a post for another day. So, in order by the year they were given, the talks:

1. October 2003, Anne C. Pingree: "Seeing the Promises Afar Off"
This one most impressed me because of the story she told about the African women who walked 18 miles to get a temple recommend that they might not ever get to use. "As they walked with faith in every footstep along that sandy jungle trail in West Africa, those valiant Nigerian sisters could not have imagined that the walls of a holy temple of God would one day rise in their own nation. They could not have imagined that the inspired words of another prophet of God, President Gordon B. Hinckley, would bring the promised blessings they hoped for and had seen 'afar off.' They only knew that the Lord restored His gospel in these times, that a testimony of that gospel burned in their hearts, that faith lit their way in life. Then they acted on a prophet's counsel to be worthy and to carry a temple recommend."

2. April 2004, Dennis E. Simmons: "But If Not..."

This was during a difficult time in my life when I felt like promised blessings were not being fulfilled. "Our scriptures and our history are replete with accounts of God's great men and women who believed that He would deliver them, but if not, they demonstrated that they would trust and be true."

3. April 2004, Bruce C. Hafen: "The Atonement: All For All"
I read this talk maybe 100+ times. "Almost is especially enough when our own sacrifices somehow echo the Savior's sacrifice, however imperfect we are. We cannot really feel charity--Christ's love for others--without at least tasting His suffering for others, because the joy and the suffering are but two sides of a single reality. When we really are afflicted in the affliction s of other people, we may enter "the fellowship of his sufferings" enough to become joint-heirs with Him."

4. April 2005, David A. Bednar: "The Tender Mercies of the Lord"
This talk helped me to recognize and give voice to things I had already seen that the Lord had done for me. "A Loving Savior was sending me a most personal and timely message of comfort and reassurance through a hymn selected weeks previously. Some may count this experience as simply a nice coincidence, but I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often, the Lord's timing of His tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them."

5. April 2006, Jeffrey R. Holland: "Broken Things to Mend"
As might be apparent, I am a huge fan of Elder Holland's talks. I am slightly biased because he, too, was an English major at BYU, and his command of the English language is stellar. I have memorized many of his devotionals given at BYU over the years, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear many of those favorite devotional quotations used in this talk. I knew what he was going to say before he even said it, and that was very exciting. "My desire today is for all of us--not just thos we are 'poor in spirit' but all of us--to have more straightforward personal experience with the Savior's example. Sometimes we seek heaven too obliquely, focusing on programs or history or the experience of others. Those are important but not as important as personal experience, true discipleship, and the strength that comes from experiencing firsthand the majesty of His touch."

6. October 2006, Jeffrey R. Holland: "Prophets in the Land Again"
Wow. This talk was such a thrill. Just imagine! We proclaim to all the world that God speaks to prophets on the earth today. He has not forgotten His people, nor will He ever! "It is no trivial matter for this Church to declare to the world prophecy, seership, and revelation, but we do declare it. It is true light shining in a dark world, and it shines from these proceedings."

7. April 2007, Jeffrey R. Holland: "The Tongue of Angels"
I have always had a problem with being just a little too sarcastic. At this particular time in my life I was living in Jerusalem and not always realizing the effects of my verbal tongue lashings I gave to fellow students and teachers (even if I felt they deserved it!). Ever since this talk, I have tempered my tongue immensely. "So, brothers and sisters, in this long eternal quest to be more like our Savior, may we try to be 'perfect' men and women in at least this one way now--by offending not in word, or more positively put, by speaking with a new tongue, the tongue of angels. Our words, like our deeds, should be filled with faith and hope and charity, the three great Christian imperatives so desperately needed in the world today. With such words, spoken under the influence of the Spirit, tears can be dried, hearts can be healed, lives can be elevated, hope can return, confidence can prevail."

8. April 2007, James E. Faust: "The Healing Power of Forgiveness"
I was overwhelmed by the love and forgiveness of the Amish community. Would I respond in a similar manner to such a tragedy? I hope so. "When tragedy strikes, we should not respond by seeking personal revenge but rather let justice take its course and then let go. It is not easy to let go and empty our hearts of festering resentment. The Savior has offered to all of us a precious peace through His Atonement, but this can come only as we are willing to cast out negative feelings of anger, spite, or revenge."

9. April 2008, Thomas S. Monson: "Looking Back and Moving Forward"
This was given right before I went to Jordan for a semester. I put it on my ipod in Arabic and in English, and during the many sleepless nights I had there, I would lie in my bed listening to this talk, over and over. For some reason hearing President Monson's voice and his words about God's dealings with man throughout history did much to calm and heal my broken and aching heart. "Mortality is a period of testing, a time to prove ourselves worthy to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. In order to be tested, we must sometimes face challenges and difficulties. At times there appears to be no light at the tunnel's end--no dawn to break the night's darkness. We feel surrounded by the pain of broken hearts, the disappointment of shattered dreams, and the despair of vanished hopes. We join in uttering the biblical plea, 'Is there no balm in Gilead?' We are inclined to view our own personal misfortunes through the distorted prism of pessimism. We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. If you find yourself in such a situation, I plead with you to turn to our Heavenly Father in faith. He will lift you and guide you. He will not always take your afflictions from you, but He will comfort and lead you with love through whatever storm you face."

10. October 2008, Joseph B. Wirthlin: "Come What May and Love It"
This was a classic. I was on my mission. There are a lot of things on missions that are really difficult to love. Heat, humidity, cockroaches, riding bikes, constant rain or beating sun, companions, people who don't come to appointments, and other difficulties sometimes make you feel guilty because you don't love every second of the mission. I loved what he said: "How can we love days that are filled with sorrow? We can't--at least not in the moment. I don't think my mother was suggesting that we suppress discouragement or deny the reality of pain. I don't think she was suggesting that we smother unpleasant truths beneath a cloak of pretended happiness. But I do believe that the way we react to adversity can be a major factor in how happy and successful we can be in life."

And as a bonus: October 2008, Jeffrey R. Holland: "The Ministry of Angels"
I had been studying angels in the scriptures for several months. I desperately needed to know that as a missionary, I could do the work of angels. And then Elder Holland gave this talk. I felt like God was speaking directly to me. "Breanne, this talk is for you": "Usually such beings are not seen. Sometimes they are. But seen or unseen they are always near. Sometimes their assignments are very grand and  have significance for the whole world. Sometimes the messages are more private. Occasionally the angelic purpose is to warn. But most often it is to comfort, to provide some form of merciful attention, guidance in difficult times."

What are some of your favorite Conference talks through the years?