Out of Place...

Have you ever felt just out of place, like you just don't belong somewhere. I honestly hate it! I've felt that way so many times in my life. What I've come to conclude though is that it's one of Satan's greatest tools against me. He'll make me feel so out of place, that I just recede into a hole and just not bother with trying to feel like I belong. Well tonight was one of those nights. Just out of the blue I didn't feel like I belonged anywhere. I was talking to one of my best friends and he told me something. At the moment what he told me made me feel like he was really my friend, some one I could trust, some one who cared for me. But what he said reminded me of a book. Daughter of a King, was the book. It's one of my favorite books. I love it, and I haven't read it forever. So I finally took it out and read it.
For those of you that haven't read it I'll give you the low down on it. The book is about a little girl-Katie-she is told by her parents that she is a daughter of a King, and that the King loved her dearly. Although the King lived far away in the Crystal Palace, the time would come that Katie would be able to make it back to Him. As Katie grows up she is teased by the village kids, and told that she isn't a Princess, but Katie finds a friend that believes that they are both Princesses. One day Katie and the other village kids steal a pie from a widow in their village. Katie breaks down a tells her parents what the did. She then makes a pie for the widow and takes it to her and tells the widow what they had done. The widow forgives her and has Katie eat the pie with the widow and her grandson-Michael. Katie and Michael grow to know each other and talk about the Crystal Palace since Michael was taught that he was a Prince, they are later married. They both have to remind each other that they can make it to the Crystal Palace, they have to keep dragging each other there. In the end Katie and Michael stand in front of the gates and Katie says

"I'm afraid...What if I don't belong? All of my life I've wanted to come here. But what if the King doesn't know me, it has been so long, and I am so worn and dirty. I don't feel like the daughter of a King."
"He will know you, Katie." Michael took her hand in his.

After they go through the gates the King comes to Katie and says

"I have missed you so very much, Katie. You have always been my princess, and I love you." he hugged her close.

We can take so many things out of this book. But for this post I'm taking the most obvious thing out of it, and that is "I'm a Daughter of a King." Every Sunday I recite the Young Women's theme "We are Daughters of a Heavenly King who loves us and We love him." I'm a Daughter of God. That's where I belong, He loves me for who I am, and what's in my heart. He doesn't care what I look like, He just cares about what I believe and who I really truly am. He loves me for all my flaws and all my sins and all my faults. He loves me for me.
We are all sons and daughters of God. And He loves us each individually and knows each of us.
I am so grateful for Him, and for the love he gives us. He gave his life for us so that we could see him again. "When I asked Jesus how much he loved me; he said this much, and held out his arms and died for me"
To my dear friend who reminded me of this book. THANK YOU!! I owe you so much now, you reminded me of this book, and the book reminded me of who I am. Words can't express what I just experienced because you of what you said. Thank you!  

Thanksgiving!!!

It's Thanksgiving!! A fantastic holiday, but a semi-forgotten holiday. We all become excited for this holiday because of the food and great deals on things the next day. But we always forget the real meaning of Thanksgiving. We get all wrapped up in the food, the great deals, and even getting ready for Christmas. (Christmas is a month away, let's take one holiday at a time!) So what is the real meaning of Thanksgiving. I know it's hard, but think really really hard. HA, did you think of it? What's that I hear? That's right! Thanksgiving is about giving thanks for what we have! O my goodness! So what kind of things are you grateful for? Take out a piece of paper or something and try to write down 50 things you're grateful for, that aren't food or something you can eat. I believe you can do it because I'm going to do it right now. :)
Things I am grateful for...
1. My family. I love you guys!
2. All the things that my family does for me. I don't know how I could survive this world without them.
3. My friends. I thank you guys for all the laughs and smiles!
4. A nice warm house. (even if it's cold some days)
5. A bed that is comfortable.
6. A school where I can learn. (even though I hate it some days)
7. Music. Through all the ups and downs and when I feel like everyone has left Music has always been there.
8. Computers. We can share so many wonderful things through them, but why don't we do it more often.
9. My phone. A wonderful device that I can use to keep in contact with people where ever they are.
10. Cars. I don't think I could have been a pioneer and walked who knows how many miles
11. Clean running water and warm water.
12. Flowers. They always can brighten someones day.
13. Phone calls or text messages that are just dang sweet.
14. Laughter. Which is truly the best medicine.
15. Smiles. They can brighten any ones dark day.
16. Clothes.
17. Shoes.
18. Books!
19. TEMPLES!! Where families can be sealed for time and ALL ETERNITY!
20. President Monson and all his counselors.
21. My church leaders and all they do.
22. Pray.
23. They scriptures
24. My Patriarchal Blessing.
25. The Holy Ghost
26. Christs' Atonement
27. Oxygen
28. Trees.
29. Animals.
30. Let's just put nature!
31. Pictures. For all the memories that they can give us.
32. Agency
33. Little kids
34. A job.
35. Quotes
36. Daylight Savings time. (couldn't resist, it's for one of my friends)
37. The Sun
38. The Moon
39. The Stars
40. Paper that we can write on, print pictures on, and so much more.
41. Printers
42. iPods, iPad
43. Kind words
44. Planes.
45. Working Toliets
46. The opportunities I am blessed with.   
47. Service
48. Hospitals.
49. EFY!!!! (I learned some of the best things there. I even met one of my really close friends there.)
50. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I could probably go on and on and on and on. I could even got more in depth, but the bottom line is that there is so much in this world for us to be grateful for. Maybe we ought look at Thanksgiving as a time to remember all the wonderful things, and be grateful for this country. In fact we should everyday. But why get so excited for a Holiday that comes after Thanksgiving to the point that we kind of forget what Thanksgiving is really about. Let's take life slow and enjoy the little things. Lets not rush into things, lets always be thankful for all we have. We are so blessed, but we are never as thankful as we should be, and that includes me. So take like five or ten minutes out of your busy and write down at least 50 things that you are grateful for and share them. Post them on facebook, twitter, a blog. Tell them to a friend or a family member, and don't forget to tell all the people that you love, that you love them, and that you are grateful for them, and all that they do for you. 

Talents

Cultivate your talents! That's what I've always been told my whole life. Well I've never taken that too heart, like at all. I've always been fairly decent at playing the cello and piano, with sewing and creative things too. I've never really practiced the cello and piano, and I haven't really cultivated any of the other talents that I've been blessed with. Well I got my face slapped this past week, repetitively. We had a lesson in Seminary on the Parable of the Talents. That was the first slap. The second slap came a few days later in Young Women's. Our lesson was on our Talents. OUCH! I got my face slapped on both sides.
Then today I was with some of my friends in our schools midi-lab. One of my friends was singing for us, since she had to perform the next class period. She did such a good job, she has been blessed with a fantastic voice. I also started to notice that she has been blessed with a lot of other talents. But I was a bit jealous, she was really good at all of her talents. As I thought more and more about this, I must admit, I got even more jealous. Then the thought hit me. She cultivates her talents. She practices her singing and piano, she does other things like photography as much as she can. She takes every chance she gets to practice and cultivate her talents. Then another thought hit me as loud as a screaming voice. "You need to begin to expand your talents like her." That voice was 100% true.
I then made a decision to begin to develop my talents even more. I sat down today for the first time in years and I played the piano for over a half an hour!! I never even did that when I took lessons! Sitting down and playing old piano pieces felt wonderful. The more I played the better I got, just sitting down for that much time and I started to play better. My mind was boggled. Then I realized I was given a gift by God. It's the gift of music.
I've always loved music, and it's always been a big part of my life. It's helped me calm down when I need it. I've felt the spirit so much with music. I've broken down listening to a song because it's the song I needed at that point in time. In my Patriarchal Blessing it talks about my talents. It's a brief little paragraph, but it specifically talks about music. Yup another slap. I have neglected my God given gift, and I haven't developed it at all. I realized that if I practiced more I would be able to develop that talent. Just playing my cello every B day and for lesson wasn't enough. I wasn't using my gift very well. Same goes for piano, just playing for Seminary or for Church wasn't enough. How could I develop a talent that I hardly use?
So, I have this new determination to practice every day. I know it'll be hard, and I hope for the life of myself that I will be able to always have this determination. So wish me Luck!

"Life is like a piano...what you get out of it, depends on how you play it."

"Life is like a piano, the whit keys represent happiness and the black show sadness. But as you go through life's journey, remember that the black keys also create music."

"Cause anytime something bad happens to you music's the one place you can escape to and just let it go."

~August Rush

"Love is like playing the piano. first, you must play by the rules, then you must forget the rules, and play from your heart." 

Parables

So in my AP Literature class we were assigned to write a Parable. I literally sat there in class thinking How in the world am I suppose to write parable, what am I going to write it about! I had no idea. Well this last weekend rolled around, and I still had no idea, and it was due on Tuesday. Then Saturday rolled around, the day I had looked forward to all week. I had a date Saturday with my friend Chandler from EFY. We were going rock climbing. I was a little scared, since every time I've done rock climbing I've always chickened out and not gone very high. However I had fun, and I climbed a 32 foot wall three times, along with a few other things. I had a blast and I felt accomplished. As I was sitting in church the next day I started to relate this story to life. Then the idea popped into my head Use it as your parable! You had no idea how excited I was, I figured out what I was going to do! So here is my parable, I'm really proud of it and I think I did a good job. (PS This story is twisted from what really happened on my date. So this isn't that accurate, so to speak.)

Trusting my Belayer

Nicole looked at the wall that stood before her and took a deep breath. She checked her harness and the rope that was attached to, they both looked secure and ready to go. She then looked at Thomas, her belayer.              

“Are you ready?” He asked.

“I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” She looked up the wall, took another deep breath, and began to climb.

She had never done this before but as she began it seemed to her that it was fairly easy. Then all of a sudden she slipped. She quickly closed her eyes and waited to fall, but the rope caught her and she just hung there. She looked down at Thomas.

“I’ve got you, it’s okay!” He shouted.

She nodded, after a small rest she grabbed onto the rock hand hold and began to pull herself up again. As she climbed up higher it became harder. She slipped a few more times, but with Thomas belaying her, she didn’t fall.

Finally she reached the top. She took a little rest as she breathed a sigh of relief. Thomas had done his duty and kept her safe, and she had trusted in him, a good combination she decided.  

“I’m ready to come down!” She shouted. As she went down her face turned into a smile. She had just accomplished climbing a 32 foot wall! As she landed gently on the ground, Thomas took her in a big hug.

“I’m so proud of you, you did so well, and you kept going.” He said.

“I feel so accomplished. I can’t believe I had that in me.” Her smile grew even bigger as Thomas took her in another hug.

“You should feel very accomplished; you just accomplished something very hard.” He replied.

Halloween!!

Halloween, to me, is one of the oddest holidays out of the whole year. Mainly cause no one knows why we even have it, in fact I'm not even sure why we have it. But, hey, we can get candy and dress up in the costume of our choice.

This year for my costume I was Wendy, from Peter Pan. Thank you Meghann for making my 'night-gown.'

Just a small story as to how I became Wendy. Meghann, Sara, and I were all trying to figure out what to be for Halloween, when our friend Jed came and sat by us. Then Meghann just had this brilliant idea for his costume. Which was Peter Pan. Then she decided that she'd be Tinker-bell and then she dubbed me to be Wendy and Sara to Tiger Lily. So here were are, all dressed up in our garb. :)

 (Left to Right: Sara, Jed, Me, and Meghann.)

Then later that night Isabelle and Audrey came over. Isabelle was dressed as a Mermaid. Isn't she adorable?

 Then Audrey was Dora.

 Finally Audrey has started to talk, well bits and pieces, and she said Trick-or-Treat to me. It was so cute and she said it so well. :)