Lately...

The past month has been filled with friends and fun! Mostly, Jon and I spend our day at work and then come home to meet up with friends, the missionaries, go to a church event, or have a date night.

One of the highlights was bowling with our friends Pier, Nicole, and Pa. Once again, my utter lack of bowling skills was displayed. I'm resigned to the fact that I'm just not cut out for the sport.

Pa and me:

Nicole and Pier:

This past week, Jon and I also got in the Thanksgiving mood by making a gratitude turkey. Jon was a good sport and cut out the feathers while I made the body. It turned out pretty good!

Yesterday morning the two of us went on a hike. It was short, but super steep! Like, no switched backs...just 1500 feet up in a mile. Holy. Cow. Of course, once we got to the top we discovered that there was another way up that did have switchbacks and which is gentler, so we went down that way. I kinda' liked going up the crazy way, though! It was a great leg workout!

The mountain we climbed (more like a hill):

The two of us at the top with the sunrise shining through:

What other amazing/fun things have been going on? So many, I'm sure I'll forget some. But among the huge list...

-I met my mom in Centralia on Friday and the two of us went shopping, got a bite to eat, and just talked
-Our friend, Pa, got baptized!
-Today we have another friend getting baptized
-I got salted caramel frozen yogurt at my favorite place
-I visited with Laura, my sister-in-law, and her cute kids--Brooklyn and Evan--on Veteran's Day, a day off of school
-Also on Veteran's Day, I met up with Araceli--a girl Jon baptized on his mission--and the two of us had lunch

It's easy to count your blessings when they pour upon you unrestrained. I'm sure that with this week being Thanksgiving, many more are bound to come!

Dinner with Holly, Alix, and Jules

This past week I was blessed with the opportunity to reunite with some old friends! Being back in Washington, I've kept thinking that I needed to get together with Miss. Holly Engh--one of my best friends growing up--because I was pretty sure that she still lived in the state. So I texted her to set something up and it so happened that she was getting together with another one of my good childhood friends--Alix Child--the following week and they wanted me along! And so Tuesday evening came, I left school as soon as I could, drove down to Portland, and we had a wonderful evening eating wonderful food!

Most the conversation was just catching up on each others' lives. I loved how easy it was to talk, though. Even though it's been years, we picked it all up like it was only yesterday. I look forward for more happy reunions like this in the years to come!



(Oh--and lest I get in trouble for not mentioning--Jules, Holly's boyfriend, was there with us too!)

Prophets and Apostles

There were many messages given over the past two days at General Conference that touched my spirit and brought tears to my eyes. One that stands out is Elder Bednar's closing remarks. His remarks about the sacredness and reality of several of the belated apostles' calls resonated with me.

With the recent passing of three apostles and the potential calling of three new ones, I have spent time pondering the past few weeks about the mantle of "apostle" and all that it entails. As members of the church, we raise our hands several times each year to sustain these men as literal messengers from God. When we raise our hand, we testify that we believe they are God's servants and that we will do all we can to support and sustain them.

In that brief moment when we raise our hands, do we ever pause and think on the weight and responsibility that these apostles hold?

This summer, I started reading President Gordon B. Hinckley's biography, "Go Forward With Faith." Because it's such a big book, (but mostly because I haven't dedicated as much time to reading it as I should), I'm still in the middle of reading it. My thoughts so far?

Wow.

What a tireless, humble, hard-working, spiritual giant of a man Gordon B. Hinckley was.

In many ways, he was what one would consider an "ordinary" guy. Like many of us, there was a time in his life when he faced and overcame doubts about the church. Like many of us, he gave-up his dreams when he accepted the call to serve a mission instead of pursing an advanced degree in English. Like many of us, he woke-up at early-hours to begin his day, he worked nearly non-stop on improving his home. he lost his mother to cancer at an early age, and he had to learn how to balance the demands of home, work, and church service. In many ways (and from the book, I take it that his kids would readily agree), he is no different from you and me.


Perhaps, however, what makes President Hinckley different from you and me is his willingness to give absolutely everything to the Lord. As I've read his biography, I've come to realize that his call was not just a matter of being a good example and giving good talks and doing all the "apostle-y" things we see the brethren do. In addition to these already grueling and intimidating tasks, he gave-up sleep (sometimes going days without sleep), time with family, rest, vocational aspirations, talents, energy, heart, and will beyond anything I've yet been able to muster and manage. I would go into the details, but it would require a book to do his life justice, and Sister Dew has already written one. I have not met the man, nor will I ever in this life, but just by learning more about him, I have come to admire and love him dearly not just for being an apostle and prophet, but for being an incredible man.

Elder Bednar's talk caused me to reflect on my reading of President Hinckely's biography because I know something about Elder Bednar that he did not mention in his talk today. Several years ago, my stake had Elder Bednar visit for stake conference. Among his remarks, he mentioned that there was a time in his life when he determined he wanted to be more like the brethren that he admired and strove to follow. This desire began his road of reading every talk ever given and the biographies written about the three or four apostles which he most greatly admired, Gordon B. Hinckley being one of them. Like me, I'm sure that Elder Bednar came to more greatly love the brethren as he learned about their lives and the sacrifice it requires to hold the title of "apostle." I'm sure that his heightened awareness only added to his sense of inadequacy when he himself received the call to serve among them.

Today as Elder Bednar's voice rang with emotion, speaking of and declaring his love for President Faust, President Hinckley, Elder Wirthlin, President Packer, Elder Perry, and Elder Scott, I also felt strong emotions stir within my breast. I too love these men and feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude when I ponder upon all they've given to build the Kingdom of God. In addition to those feelings of love and gratitude, as Elder Bednar spoke I felt the Spirit burn within my bosom, testifying to me that not only were these good men who did good things, but that they literally were called by God and that the work they did literally was--and is--His work.

Amid the confusion I've witnessed at Conference these past two sessions as individuals have raised their hands in opposition to the sustaining of Latter-Day apostles and prophets like these, I declare that I know that the men whose names were read over the pulpit yesterday in Conference are called by God, and that I love, admire, respect, honor, and support them in all they do.

What a tremendous blessing it is to live in a day when God's word can be heard again on the earth through the mouth of His living apostles and prophets. We do not have to pay for it, earn it, or search for it. His word is found a click away on lds.org, a touch away on the LDS library app, or a month away in our mailboxes when the November issue of the Ensign comes out.

With these thoughts in mind, I commit to more diligently studying the words of this October Conference over the next few months. Though I cannot support the men who have been called as apostles by doing their work for them or by serving them face to face, I want my sustaining raise of hand to entail more than just a casual agreement to their divine calling. The best way I can think of doing that is by taking their words to heart and doing my best to be better because of them.

I love my Heavenly Father, and I love the living prophets and apostles. I believe that President Monson is God's servant on the earth today, along with all the men who serve with him. This is why I can sing:

I thank Thee, oh God, for the prophets

Who guide me in these latter-days! 

I thank Thee for sending the apostles

I promise I'll never betray!

I thank Thee for for all these men teach me

With their words I know I can withstand.

With desire to support and sustain them

I'll do more than just raise my right hand.

Our First Visit to Point Defiance Park

Jon FINALLY joined me in Tacoma on Saturday, September 5th! We quickly put the house together (hooray for furniture!) and got busy having fun! On Labor Day, the day before school started for me, we explored a tiny fraction of Point Defiance Park.

Holy cow!

That park is one of the prettiest places I've ever been! We saw the gardens and the cool Oriental Park and walked along the beach and then journeyed through the trees...it was like Disneyland for outdoor lovers like us! Being that we only saw the tinniest bit of the place, we hope to go back again soon for a hike or an early morning run!

It was awesome to have furniture again, but even more awesome to have my husband back!

Washington State Fair

One of the perks of being a teacher is that every once and a while, you get free stuff. This past September, one of those perks presented itself in the form of two tickets for free admission to the Washington State Fair.

"Wanna go?" I asked Jon.

Seeming pretty partial, he said: "Yes," and I was in the same boat he was. The thought of going to the fair never gets me excited, but it was free to get in and I figured we could just spend a couple of dollars on food, look at the animals, and call it a fun date night.

So one lovely Thursday night we went on over, handed the guy at the gate our tickets, and walked on in.

It surprised us. It was much more fun than either of us thought it would be! Jon especially suddenly changed from partial to super excited. We looked at the vendors (got my ring cleaned for free and learned about cooking without water), ate some greasy food, went on the Extreme Scream (one of those rides where they shoot you straight up and then drop you straight down--it was terrifying!), saw a one-man band, and looked at the animals.

Several hours later, we both walked out holding hands with smiles on our faces. It was an evening well spent. The only downside about it all is that now Jon's convinced that he wants to start a farm, and I don't know quite how to convince him out of the idea of owning a pair of goats.

The one-man band guy was pretty cool!

Jon when I told him I didn't think starting a farm was a good idea:

Jon eating a greasy burger right after we'd sat through an hour-long presentation about how America is dying because we don't eat healthy (the presenter was trying to sell kitchenware). The irony was great.

Elephant Ear!

The Extreme Scream! Yes--I screamed. A lot.

I love spending time with this guy!

Oneonta Falls Hike and Abby and Kate in Tacoma

In-between getting a new job and moving up to Tacoma and waiting for Jon to make the trip himself, I was blessed to spend a lot of time with family. Not wanting to be alone, I went to Vancouver almost as soon as I got to Tacoma and had fun there!

One highlight of time in Vancouver was hiking Oneonta Falls with the Nuffers for family night. Oneonta is like a mini Oregon version of Utah's The Narrows. It's only a fourth of a mile to the waterfall, but it was still very fun!

After having fun in Vancouver, I drug Abby and Kate up to Tacoma with me and we had fun for a few days! We watched movies, made pizza, got frozen yogurt, and went to the park.

We're all smiling in this picture...it's a miracle!

We had some fun with the Frisbee while at the park. We're horrible at both throwing and catching it, but we make pretty good Frisbee models!

Without a doubt, one of my favorite things about our move to Tacoma is having family so near!

How I Got My New Teaching Job

When I stayed at my Grandma's place on my way up to Washington I got a phone call from a high school in Washington where I had applied to work. They wanted an interview. At first, I hesitated. I hadn't really wanted to apply for the job because teaching high school seemed less appealing to me than teaching junior high. I figured that since I'd applied, though, and that I didn't have a job lined-up for me yet, that I should probably agree to come in. So I did. I happened to be arriving in Washington the night before the day they were interviewing, so it worked out perfectly.

Several weeks before all of this took place, I interviewed over Skype for a job teaching at a middle school in Washington. For some reason, when I set-up the interview for the job, I felt like I shouldn't accept it if the ended up offering it, which was strange because it was where I thought I wanted to be. In the end, the middle school told me that they weren't interested. Though I was disappointed, I simultaneously felt relief because I didn't have to stress over whether or not my bad feelings about the position were from the Holy Ghost because I shouldn't take the job, or from my own feelings of inadequacy and being afraid of doing something new.

The way I felt hanging up after setting-up my interview with the high school was the exact opposite. Even though I had been wondering moments before in the middle of the phone conversation if I should even agree to interview because I didn't really want to teach in a high school, the moment I hung-up the phone, I felt really good about the job.

Fast-forward a few days, and that good feeling I'd received enabled me to perform with confidence in my interview. Three days later, they called me back and offered me the job. I said, "Yes!"

It was a stressful summer, applying for many Washington teaching jobs and feeling like nothing was happening and that I would be doomed to a boring job at McDonald's upon arriving there, but the Lord had a plan for me. He knew I would love teaching where I'm now at because of the wonderful staff and the good kids. I didn't know that though, and so it was frustrating at times. Part of me wonders if He purposefully waited for this job to be posted until the very end of summer so that He could try my faith and patience to see if I would keep searching and trying and praying and hoping even when it felt like I should give-up.

It's wonderful now, on those days when teaching is hard, to remember that I'm where the Lord wants me. I feel like since He helped me get here, He'll also help me make it through. More than that--He'll help me be successful, learn, and come out on top. Things that go according to His plan always go better than things that go according to my plan. I'm grateful to know that the Lord has a plan for my life and I know that I'm the happiest when I seek to know what it is and to follow it.

My Visit with Grandma, Grandpa, and Janet

After graduation, I left Jon behind in Provo and started making my way up to Washington. Instead of going the whole way all at once, however, I decided to make a stop in Boise, Idaho for a few days to visit my grandparents and my Aunt Janet. Since Kate had been at graduation and was making the same journey, she was able to join us! Over the few days we spent there, we played cards, ate yummy food, crocheted, watched "Mom's Night Out," went on a walk, and made some crafts.

One of the highlights for me was having Grandpa help me make a birthday board out in his shop. I loved it because it saved me so much money (he has every tool imaginable in his shop), but even more because I have one more thing to help me think of my grandpa when I look at it.

I love time with family! The older I get, the more I realize that family's what it's all about. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father has blessed me with such an amazing family.

Our Surprise Goodbye Party

The past month has been full of blessings for Jon and I! As my last post said, in mid-August both he and I officially graduated from BYU. Marking that off our bucketlist created a chain of new and exciting things in our lives.

Last winter, with Jon's graduation in sight, he figured he might as well try applying for jobs to see if he could get anything. If he didn't, it was fine because I was planning on staying to teach at the school I was interning with at the time and Jon figured he would wait until December to graduate and get a business minor. After what felt like an unpromising phone interview, Jon was surprised when he got called back to schedule a skype interview with a trucking company. He did the interview, and once again we were surprised when they called to offer him a job! It wasn't what we had been planning on, but after talking and praying about it, we decided to accept the offer. This new job set us off to Tacoma, Washington!

And so the past few weeks have been filled with all the fun and craziness of relocating and beginning a life somewhere new. There's so much to say about what has happened throughout these weeks, so rather than posting about it all at once, I'm going to break the events into individual posts and post about them over the next few days.

First, to see us off some of our good friends held a surprise going away party! We had planned a date night with our very good friends, Rylin and Shayla, and they decided to surprise us by inviting many of our good friends to join them in saying goodbye. We spent the time by playing minute to win it games (I think Jon beat me at every one) and playing cards. They even all signed a huge poster for us! It felt so awesome to know that we were loved and would be missed by the friends we were leaving behind in Provo. I'm so grateful to each of them for their love and for being a part of our lives!

Jon and Jacob (Jon's roommate):

Jess (Jon's FHE sister and someone I used to visit teach) and Joseph (Jon's roommate):

What happens when Jacob gets your camera:

Jon beating me at a minute-to-win-it game:

Shayla trying to win a game (I'm pretty sure she did win this one):

Shayla (a friend from Campus Plaza) and I:

Rylin and Shayla (the couple we hung out with more than anyone else once we were married), Jon, and I:

Thanks again, everyone!

Graduation

Last week Jon and I walked in our graduation ceremonies. 

WHOO-WHO! We made it!

Actually, it's kinda' anti-climatic for me. The last time I took what I consider to be a "real" class at BYU was about a year-and-a-half ago; it's just taken me until now to get the diploma because I had to finish my internship. But after a full year of being on the other side of the desk, it was a little strange being the student again. Luckily, I didn't have to take any tests or write any papers. I was fortunate enough, however, to get to sit through several BYU devotional-esc speeches during the ceremonies. 

Listening to these speeches reminded me of all the other talks and speeches I listened to during my time at the Y. When I was in college it was always wonderful, amid the craziness of classes and working part-time and homework and life, to take some time to be reminded of the bigger picture by attending the weekly devotionals. 

President Worthen speaking at graduation. His speech was my favorite!

And that's what the speeches given at graduation did for me too! They reminded me that education is the means, not the end. The means to work hard. The means to create. The means to self-discover. The means to serve. The means to become more like our Heavenly Father. The means to happiness. 

Overall, the ceremonies were pretty good. Having worked for two-and-a-half years in an advisement center while at BYU, I've sat through my fair share of graduations because running them was part of my job! For that reason, I made sure that when Jon and I were choosing when to walk for graduation, that we chose August. It's about half as long as the April graduation and there's only so many times that you can hear "Pomp and Circumstance" before you go a bit senile. 

The guy totally said my name wrong, though. "Lindzzaa Maureen Self..." he read, and I almost did a double take at the guy. Who misreads "Lindsey"? And I made sure to write it in really nice letters. Five minutes later, another "Lindsey" walked across the stage, and he read her name right, so I'm sure it was just a stumble on words. 

My mom took pictures of the screen when Jon and I received our diploma cases (they send the real thing in the mail). It was cool because one of Jon's favorite professors, Dr. Eide, handed them to us!

The best part of the whole dealio, however, was the time with family. Both Jon's and my family came into town for the event. Thursday morning before the ceremony we hiked Battle Creek Falls in Layton with my family, and that evening both families went to Jon's aunt and uncle's place for dinner. Friday after our ceremony in the morning, we went with Jon's family to Chuck O' Rama for lunch, hung out with them for a bit, and then that evening both families' went to my aunt and uncle's place for dinner. Good thing we have aunts and uncles in town! 

Battle Creek Falls:

The dinner at my Aunt Martha's house:

Cousins Nick and Michael

The Self gang!

Kate with Jordan photobombing in the background

At Graduation:

Family is what it's all about, and I was glad I could share the day with them. I was especially glad that my mom was there. Even though the whole finishing college thing seemed a little out of place, when I hugged my mom all the memories I had of calling her and talking to her on that campus when I was stressed or lonely or happy or bored or upset and every other thing in between came back to me for a moment, and suddenly, it didn't feel like it was just me graduating any more. Instead, it almost felt like it was me and everyone who helped me make it--my mom in particular--that was graduating that day. And then as I looked heavenward and thought of all the divine help I'd received as well, my heart swell with gratitude. What a tender reminder that no accomplishment is every achieved alone.