who would've thought!

Isn't life so very interesting? Yes, yes it is! Do you ever wonder where your life will take you? Or sometimes do you even think you know exactly how your life is going to go and then wham suddenly your headed down a different direction? Well Let me tell you, I have been surprised multiple times on which direction my life has gone. However, all these different paths have been quite excellent paths.

A few different directions my life has taken is:

• going to USU when up until my senior year of high school I was always going to stay at home and go to college at Weber State
• Planning on going straight through college, no stops, getting my degree as quickly as possible and then suddenly find myself taking the semester off to go teach English in Russia

The last major life's different direction is the latest and greatest decision to once again put off my schooling to go on an LDS full-time mission. This decision is still in progress. My mission papers are complete. All I need to do is have a few interviews and then exercise my patience while I await my call to see where I will be for the next 18 months. Craziness! I always thought when I was younger I would never go on a mission because I was sure I'd be married before i had the chance. I also though that if the opportunity did come I wouldn't because I'd be too scared or it just wasn't "right" for me. But the amazing thing about the gospel is we get to trust in the Lord and he will assist us in anything we choose to do.

I'm soo excited about my decision to go on a mission. I know I won't regret it!

It's a reality

Many of you may have noticed, or maybe you have not, but the important fact is that I have been aware that I have not updated this blog, well... since I got back to America. One might think that it's because I've been lazy, busy or had nothing exciting to report, or a million different reasons, but in all reality many of those our slightly correct. But the main point is if the last post I wrote was while I was in Ukraine, it must mean that I am still there right? Actually no that's not what it means, it means that simply I have been living in denial. Denying the fact that I did return to America and I am not abroad anymore. But here's the thing why do I deny this fact when I love America just as much as I love Ukraine or Russia? Well it's because I can be in America most my life and I have been, but I have only had the opportunity to be in such amazing places with amazing people for such short times! But the fact is I love America too! So now that we all know I'm in America again, what has America presented with me so far?

1. Drinking fountains
2. toilets that flush decently
3. drinkable tap water
4. washers
5. dryers
6. family
7. friends
8. food

I'm sure there are multiple others but that's it for now, also obviously I had all these before I left America the first time but coming back I had a greater appreciation for these things and my appreciation increases daily!

Also with returning to America I was also presented with my good ol' job at Maceys back in Clearfield so I could earn some money for school, and then my job back at the Providence Maceys so that I could come back and work while in school. I was presented with an awesome apartment at Old Farm with incredible new roommates that I get to know this year, they pretty much rock! And last but not least classes at school, so that I can further my education and come that much closer to becoming an awesome elementary teacher in a few years! That's right life is amazing!

Now also this has nothing to do with this post but if any of you bloggers know how to change the font color in things such as the title, date, comments, and such that would be awesome to know! because the color doesn't really go with this background.

summer camp Ukranian style!

There I was approximately 3 weeks ago at the train station in Moscow, Russia, wondering what in the world I was thinking. Why in the heck was I leaving Russia, the place that I had come to love and adore soo much! I was leaving students I had grown to care for these students I had taught, my host family, and my cute nursery kids as well as many other Russians, and just everything about Moscow, Russia! This was my home! Now at that moment when I was stepping onto that train to go to Ukraine, I will admit I DID NOT want to go, I only wanted to do 1 of 2 things which was:

1) stay in Russia
2) Go back home to America

I did not want to walk into the unknown and unfamiliar place again, I wondered what had possessed me to think that I was wanting to stay abroad an extra 6 weeks a few months earlier when I had confirmed I would go.

It wasn't until I got here to Ukraine and started teaching the kids here at the summer camp, that I realized that I did want to be here in Ukraine! It has been soo much fun! While I miss Russia and I miss America I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. The Kids are soo fun! Plus how could one beat being able to teach kids english 4 hours a day by just playing with them, like making paper airplane contests or putting mentos in coke, then on top of that after teaching you can go canoeing with them or have chalk fights with them and even dance at disco night with them. You just get to play all day! And to top all of that You can have 7 really cool roommates and 2 other practical roommates that you can go and get ukrainian ice cream with every single day! It is really so much fun!

That is why I came to Ukraine, to play with children, it is a party and a half plus, I have the coolest home group with the coolest name ever! they're supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Seriously they are the best girls ever!!

Я люблю Украину!

A missionary experience to remember

So this past weekend I was able to have quite an awesome experience but to understand some background information is required.

So here I am in Russia and have been teaching english to children for the past four months at a really awesome school. At this school there are guards who alternate every 15 days. Well the guards that we started out with were our favorites because they were always so kind, friendly and willing to help us with anything we needed. But every time there 15 days were up we were sad because the other set of guards were not as friendly and actually made us feel really uncomfortable. Now the guards we liked (sergey, Kostya, and Oleg) had become our friends even though Gavin who served his mission here in Russia was the only one in our group who could really communicate with them. The guards knew zero english words and the rest of us knew minimal Russian, but still they were our friends and occassionally Gavin would translate for us. Well a few weeks ago our group was having family home evening, and while we were there we were just discussing the gospel and how it is meant to be shared but so often we let the fear get in the way of spreading the gospel and telling our friends about it. Then LaCretia (a girl in my group) mentioned how she had been feeling promptings to give the Book Of Mormon to our friendly guards. We all agreed that it was a good idea. They were off for their 15 days at the time, so we waited for them to come back and Gavin asked them if it would be okay if we gave them each a Book Of Mormon as a gift and they thought that was fine. So we then each wrote our testimonies and Gavin was nice enough to translate four testimonies into Russian. Then we wrote our testimonies in Russian in our own hand writing which was sort of hard, we wrote it 3 times once for each guard. Then just this weekend we had the books and our testimonies in each book and gave them each a Book Of Mormon. Friday was our last day teaching with them still here, so we gave the books to them then, as we were leaving they said we could come back on Saturday just to talk again, so we told them we would and bring them an American dessert. So we had planned all day to go back and see the guards one last time. However, at the last minute Meghan and Gavin had something come up and couldn't go. So the 3 other girls in our group and I took a cake to them and talked to them through the form of charades. Sergey, the oldest guard whom we consider to be our Russian dedushka (grandpa) grabbed the book and motioned how he read our testimonies and read pretty much all night, he showed us how he kept falling asleep but kept reading, it and showed us the place and in less than 24 hours he had almost finished the book. It was soo awesome to see that. The Book Of Mormon really is powerful! I was soo excited to be able to share that book with some new people. They really are such kind guards, and they were really grateful to us.

Happy Mother's day!!

It's so wonderful we have a day to celebrate our mothers! Because mom's do a lot for us! My mom has especially done a lot for me! I love her soo much! Here's a few of many things she has done for me

1. she's given me life!
2. When I was sick in the middle of the night she helped me feel better
3. she's given me food to eat
4. when I had hard times in school she was there to help solve my problems even if it meant fighting with my teachers to get a grade I deserved
5. For my 18th birthday I thought I shouldn't make a big deal out of it, she gave me a surprise party
6. when I failed my first semester of college, she loved me anyway and understood that I would try harder
7. when I've had car problems she was the first to help
8. She's always listened to me
9. in everything I've ever wanted to do she has supported me and helped me
10. when I was coming to Russia, and was nervous and stressed trying to get ready to come, she still helped even when I got angry

but not only has my mom done many things for me, she has also taught me a lot

1. she's been an example to me and taught me the gospel even from when I was born
2. she taught me the importance of service to others as she has always tried to serve our family and neighbors
3. she's taught me how to save money
4. she's taught me how to love unconditionally
5. she's taught me honesty
6. she's taught me to be faithful
7. she's taught me to be independent!

I love my mom soo much and I hope that when I have my own family and children that I can be as good of a mom as she has been to me throughout my life! I love you mom!

How to escape a locked apartment!

Ok so during my stay here in Russia I've had quite a few funny experiences, so I've decided that I'm going to write a best-selling book about it. Then when it's such a big hit and I'm practically begged to make it into a movie, I will direct and produce one of the best comedies of all time. So just a heads up you should be looking forward to reading the best comedy followed by watching the best comedy, called"How to escape a locked apartment" although I have to give credit to Tianna for the title! I'm just saying I'm pretty special to end up in all the circumstances I've been in! I'll give you a few experiences to be viewed in this video, metros, school guards and some tragic times being locked in an apartment, I mean if you want more details, You'll just have to buy the book when I publish it. Okay so maybe this wont really happen I'm just saying the media should write more movies about average daily life occurences, I'm sure I would laugh!

why do I want to be a teacher?

Well let me tell you why!
So as I'm over here in Russia teaching children it has definitely been a huge challenge and really difficult! And at times I feel like I am going to go home and change my major because I can't handle teaching. However, the longer I've been here the easier it has gotten to teach these wonderful children english. Today gave me a real laugh. here's what happened.

So I was teaching my kids their new spelling words today and one of them was coat. I asked them if they knew what coat was, they said no, so after I was able to properly explain what coat was, I always ask them to use these words in a sentence. So I ask them and then one of my boys, Daniel goes on about coats with the following story. First his sentence is a woman goes to the supermarket to buy a coat! I then said good job! But then he says that a man and woman go to the supermarket. A woman sees a coat she wants. She says I want that and then the man says no. Then the woman cries! So the man lets her buy the coat!

Haha I love my kids, it was just soo funny, and they are learning english, although I'm afraid they are learning the phrase "please sit down in your seat" more than anything but they are soo great! I love kids, and that right there is why I want to be a teacher, because kids make me smile!