wrapped up.

i've been promising these pictures for a while.  my last 2 months have been dominated by this exciting assignment from my church: a service project.  on february 9, we made darling toys for children in iraq.  every ward in the byu 12 stake was assigned to do such a project, and i was lucky enough to get to report on my ward's.

the 50th ward got in touch with Sister Gunther, a sister from american fork who has devoted her whole life to providing opportunities to serve.  she specializes in such trinkets--my committee and i chose yarn boxes, beaded geckos, and fun-foam shapes--and taught us how to make them, so we could teach the rest of the ward for our big night.  she is an amazing lady. 

the evening was a success. you never know how many people are going to turn up. (sometimes you end up with a huge pile of cookies/projects/handouts, with about 5 people in attendance)  the service project went great.  it was a hard week, and difficult to put together, but during the project, i was able to sit back on watch as many hands made light work.  quick + busy fingers accompanied happy hearts, good friendships, and genuine goodness. 

i want to tell each girl that the woman each of us want to become, and the daughter we know the Lord wants us to become is a woman of service.  becoming her requires service.  

when president hinckley passed away, i felt an overwhelming urge, as i'm sure many of you did, to 'be a little better.' in my case, i needed to be a lot better. i wanted to make president hinckley proud. i wanted to make my heavenly father proud.  this quote hit me like a ton of bricks.  i felt that i had already wasted so much time, and now i needed to march up to the doors of church headquarters and say 'hey, i'm here til i'm 97! put me to work.' for some reason, the church doesn't work like that. 

so often we hear that college is a selfish time, it is a time for us to focus on ourselves.  and as the nagging enrichment leader that i am, i hear more often than not, 'i have too much homework' 'i have a test tomorrow.' 3 truths: 01. we all have homework. we all have tests tomorrow. 02. you will always have homework.  you will always have a test tomorrow. 03. the amount of homework piled on your desk does not change the need for your service.  does not lessen the suffering in the world.  (let me step down from my soapbox.)

"don't say you don't have enough time.  you have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to helen keller, michelangelo, mother teresa, leonardo davinci, thomas jefferson, and albert einstein." 

- h. jackson brown. 

it was said at president hinckley's funeral that his visit to the church office after his mission to report some problems in the european mission was meant to last 15 minutes.  it lasted over 60 years. a calling or assignment from your  bishop, or an evening put together by your enrichment leader, may only last 2 hours, or a semester.  but i know that i want my heart to be ready for heavenly father to say, 'this might last a little longer than you thought.'