There are many things that have helped me adjust. The biggest is the temple. I love the temple. Today marks my 2 years of going to the temple. All the changes, experiences, spiritual promptings that have happened these last 2 years - I can't even begin to say how grateful I am for everything that has happened in the last two years. Before the mission I tried to go to the temple often. On the mission, temple trips were limited, but I was so blessed to be able to go. After the mission, the temple is my sanctuary and my foundation of life. I try to go at least once a week. The song that says, "Sweet is the peace the gospel brings," It is SO true.
(Photo cred: Jon Adams)
I feel when I serve people, my life might get busier and crazier, but God also helps me organize it and He helps me get so much more done. I feel that has really been these past two weeks. Everything has been go-go-go, there hasn't barely been anytime to breathe, or sleep. My life feels full, I feel happy. I may be tired, but I feel joy. It isn't always the big gestures that make me feel the best either, sometimes the small ones have the biggest impact on me. One experience from this week is while commuting to Salt Lake daily after school, I usually take some snacks, and one day I had to stop by my house on my way from campus to Salt Lake and I had the thought, "grab some extra food." So I did and I took a different route to Salt Lake then I normally do (due to construction and rush-hour traffic), and as I got off the freeway there was a man holding a sign that said "Homeless and grateful" and I felt like he was starring straight at me. Then he started to walk toward my car, and I hadn't done anything at this point to signal him to come over. As he was walking I had another thought, "give him some food." It wasn't a gourmet meal, it was some snacks. It was what I had, and I thought about a segment of film from "Two Brothers," a documentary series, in one of the episodes, one of the brothers Luke is on a mission in Cambodia and he talks about how excited he was to eat this rice and he looks down after he gets his bowl of rice and sees a little boy who he didn't know when the last time he ate was, and the fact that Luke was able to know he would have a meal everyday, the boy didn't have that. I think anything helps. Sometimes I get stuck in the mindset, "I am already giving to help the poor and the needy," but then I usually get the thought following, "What more can you give?" Not all situations to help others are ones we see coming. But serving others brings joy to my life.
On the same subject, I am extremely grateful for the people in my life. I am grateful for the people I work with, whom help me finish my job so I can get to class just in time for it to start. I am grateful for my friends who reach out and help, who help last minute with a homework assignment, help me fix my computer from a distance, who see a need and reach out to help. I am grateful for family who brings me stuff at school when I forget it when I leave things at home, let me borrow their cars when mine isn't working properly, and so many other things. I am grateful for my brother who helps me with my homework this semester; He doesn't run away or tell me to leave when I go to his house late at night to finish assignments that are due very soon, He doesn't laugh at me when I am so stressed, tired and sleep deprived that I start to cry on his couch, Who has the patience to explain the same thing over and over until I remember that it is the next step and the happiness, relief, comedic timing of him saying something like, "It only took about 20 times" and knowing full well he would have explained it 20 more times and still had the same reaction.
I am so thankful for experiences that I have had to be where I am today. Not just physically, but emotionally, and spiritually. If any one would have tried to tell me 2 years ago, what I have been thinking about and experiencing this last month, I probably would have laughed, been super stubborn, and thought you were joking. I know, God knows what is going to make me the happiest, and when I trust Him and ask Him, and follow through on that advice is when am the happiest. Sometimes, He will be saying the same thing again and again and the experiences I have cause me to stop, listen, and realize, "Wait, that is actually what I want." It is humbling, but it also bring me happiness and joy, relieves stress and pressure. It helps me remember God is the biggest supporter for my personal happiness.
Romans 8:31 says, "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Another sweet experience from this week was while I was running from work to school. One of the other things am grateful for is covenants and being able to keep covenants. This semester there is this one time - between work and when my class starts where I could potentially choose to not keep covenants because of convenience and time efficiency. Keeping covenants brings blessings, so I rely on this. This week this prayer was answered to not have my ballet class start on time, but a few minutes late, (when I show up for this class highly effects my grade, so I need to be there before the first combination actually starts)... It was also Heavenly Father dotting some i's and crossing some t's. So when I arrive a girl in my class is telling her engagement story from the night before. I didn't expect that, but I was super grateful. Heavenly Father has a sense of Humor.
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