Basketball... the Celestial Sport :)

Why didn't I play basketball all through high-school?  Weird.
I love it.
I've met a bunch of people through basketball, and it's sort of saving my life right now.  I'm super happy about that...








I've played a lot of games this weekend, one called FAUNA... haha, very interesting game...
Then we played another game where we had to pretend to be a certain animal... I was a jelly fish...a unicorn...and a butterfly... haha...

Anyways, fun stuff...This week was AWESOME!  It went so fast, though! 

O.k. besides this, I gave a talk today in church and here is a bit from that (taken from President Uchtdorf's talk "You Can Do It Now") :

“(We) experience feelings of guilt, depression, and failure. We might pretend these feelings don’t bother us, but they do. We can feel so burdened by our failures and shortcomings that we begin to think we will never be able to succeed. We might even assume that because we have fallen before, falling is our destiny.”

“I have watched men filled with potential and grace disengage from the challenging work of building the kingdom of God because they had failed a time or two. These were men of promise who could have been exceptional priesthood holders and servants of God. But because they stumbled and became discouraged, they withdrew from their priesthood commitments and pursued other but less worthy endeavors. And thus, they go on, living only a shadow of the life they could have led, never rising to the potential that is their birthright.”

Me: Let’s rise to our potential!  I really liked what my Relief Society president in this ward said, our first Sunday here.  She asked us, ‘what would you do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?’ I’m sure that each of us has failed, and probably this past week, failed to be Christ-like in some way.  But I know that God expects us to be constantly improving and not withdrawing or giving up in the face of trial or temptation or sin.

In light of this, I am going to try harder this week to find someone to love and to serve.  I'm going to do, there is no try! :)  

What else do I have to share...lets rummage around and find something interesting!:

 The guy in the wheel chair is my friend Russel :) His roommates and I went to Idaho Falls and he found this gear in the D.I. :) haha...

 This is my roommate giving back scratches to two men at the same time...well there, Alayna :)

 This was an old jukebox we found at a thrift store too... no we didn't buy it, but it was pretty sweet-sauce!

 These guys still are my favorite, of all the guys I've met :) James, Luke, and Hyrum!  This picture kills me every time.  Hahahah!

 I'm eating, I promise.  Even pancakes and eggs with meat and cheese, SOOooo good.  Breakfast, a part of this complete college life :)

 The awesome fiddler player...

 And the awesome banjo player (my roommate)...

Beautiful BYU-Idaho campus!

One more, these are my beautiful roommates :)

Demons - Imagine Dragons (Boyce Avenue feat. Jennel Garcia cover) on iTu...

Humbled

I think this is my new project!  I get to learn how to not murmur.  Ooh I'm such a sinner!  This talk is AMAZING.  Love it!

At the Feet of an Apostle

      I don't think I got teary-eyed just because of the content of this video, but more because of the fact that it dawned on me - Amber, you're learning at the feet of an Apostle of God.  Whoa.  What an amazing thing it is to live in these days and times when we can learn from apostles of God and know what they know because they share it with us and because God let us invent the internet and color video and record sound. 
     What great examples they are to us, sharing their knowledge and building a relationship with us.  That even though I don't know Elder Bednar, I know he loves me.  And each of us.  He's an Apostle.  It's seriously the coolest thing that has happened to me all day!  Haha, I think I'm repeating myself... but it's just so awesome!  This morning I learned from an Apostle of God in my own living room... who would have thunk...

Tender Mercies

This has been an awesome week.  It was really hard.  But it was really awesome.

I've met so many new and amazing people this week, made new friends and learned from them.  I'm grateful for the examples that those around me set and raise the bar for me to become better!  I'm also really grateful to be at a university where you can feel the Spirit every day.  Whoa.  It's pretty inspiring, I'll tell you that much!  I'm really, really lucky to be here.

Suddenly, I don't know what to write.  I have been playing the guitar more, got to play basketball a couple times and even wally-ball.  I ran in the snow and early mornings this week, felt like a champ, but probably am not.  I am predicting that my math class will take the most time out of my semester, even though it's just a 2 credit class.  I'm predicting that my favorite class will be my religion class - Family Foundations, it's a class on preparing so that our future families are happy and existing according to The Family, A Proclamation to the World.

Something inspiring that happened to me this week was when I saw one student helping another student with her personal problems.  He just sat and talked to her, probably for an hour and a half.  I actually didn't even see them, I was around the corner, but it was so nice of him to listen.  Sometimes that's all that people need, an ear to listen.

Something I found funny this week was while I was in the BYU-Idaho Bookstore, there were these planners... they are called RM planners - and they look just like the ones you had on your mission.  I was SUPER tempted to buy one.  I took a picture with my phone just because :)

 Another fun thing was this note I found when I came home from school one of those first days... feels like sooooo long ago already!

My friend the squirrel

My bed - I'm on top :)

I've set a goal to have a Christlike Attribute that I work on each week.  Last week my Christlike Attribute was HOPE.  I even found a way to make a text banner on my smartphone with the word 'HOPE' in large letters to remind me to think of Hope this week.  I think that perhaps 'listening' would be a good Christlike Attribute for this upcoming week.  I'd like to study to see when the Savior set the example of listening in the scriptures.  

I love Sundays!  I love family!  I love salad!  I am learning to love homework, quizzes, and group projects again!  Haha...

Well, that's all I can think of for now.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is TRUE! :)
Smile!
Love,
Amber

Rexburg Says 'Hello!'

Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived in Poland for a year and a half.  She got used to buying food for two people, in zloty, not in dollars... She got used to the prices, the language, and the people.  Then she moved to Rexburg, Idaho.  She forgot how much bread cost!  She forgot how to say lots of normal English words that she hadn’t used in over a year... and she had tons of new/old junk that she wasn’t sure if she needed anymore, or wanted, but she brought it anyways.

This last few days has definitely been an adventure!  I loved driving up to Idaho with Shon Henderson - what an awesome man I have for a cousin!  And then I got to hang out with Tasha and Tom yesterday, I love them too! :) Yay for family!  Joe and Holly even let me come over and hang out and use their drier and eat their food.  I'm spoiled.

So  I have one roommate from England and that is making me more happy than you can even understand.  I have a companion...ooops I mean roommate... from EUROPE!  YES!  I also met a guy named Igor today from the Ukraine and I just wanted to hang out with him all day.  I only talked to him for 20 seconds in the end.

Two of my roommates –oooh I almost typed ‘companions’ again – are already friends and have lived together before.  They are fun and loud and... nice at least.  Relief Society today was AWESOME.  Our relief society president is the bomb.  She’s down to earth – and an RM!!!  Served with Steven Pelham in California!  Cool.  Connections.   

I ended up staying to talk to the Relief Society president, Natalie, and her roommates, who are all really cool.  Fun.  I am going to try to play basketball with one of them this week.  Some of these students have to pay their way through school, and I mean, I’ve worked, but I definitely have help.  Kudos to all of those people.  I really need to work more!

Speaking of which, I guess this week I'll kind of search for a job.  Wish me luck! :)

Today I really loved learning in the Book of Mormon and thinking about Jeremiah.  He says something in his prophecies about how in the later days the gathering of Israel will make the exodus of Moses from Egypt look puny.  Haha, cool.  What a GREAT work, a MARVELLOUS work!  I met some converts today and was able to help answer some of their questions and be a friend.  That was a tender mercy for me.  I need someone to help every day!  Praying for opportunities!

Well, the church is true, signing off till next time,

Love,

Amber

Transitions...Key Changes

It's been an eventful year, 2013, I miss you, but I'm excited to see what 2014 has to bring!  I don't know if transitions are easy for anyone, for me they never have been...but this one coming up this week is big for me.  I haven't attended college for two years.  It's going to be hard, beautiful, taxing, awesome, and well, I'm excited...and nervous.  But as I was thinking about transitions, I thought about how much I love a key change in a beautiful song.  It just makes the song so much better.  I need to look at transitions in my life and think of them as key-changes.  I can do this, because God is there for me and I can trust him "sto procent" - 100 %!

Besides that, there have been a lot of fun things I've been able to do these past two months being home from the Mission.  I am grateful for a loving family who has absolutely spoiled me!  God is seriously the best!  I love Him!

Top 10 things I've done since being home:
1. Attend my first real-live sealing in a temple of God!  (Shelby & Derek Myler)
2. Go to the temple with my parents and former mission friends/ Temple Square with Sarah Hinton
3. Visit my Aunt Rishi in West Virginia
4. Road Trip to Texas with my family to build a Ropes Course
5. Play Basketball and try on dresses with my Mom
6. Play Chess with my Dad and eat Ice Cream
7. Talk to Gregg on the phone and Skype Nathan - my favorite missionaries!
8. Go running alone...while the sun is setting...in my hometown
9. Old Roommate Reunion
10. Hold Tasha's Baby

I'm sure there are some things I'm missing... but here are some pictures :) enjoy!