Act 4

A new phase of life calls for a new blog: Act 4. I guess that makes even the embers have eyes act 2 and Las entrañables misericordias del Señor act 3.

Mission Blog

Updated weekly by my mother dearest:
http://entranablesmisericordias.blogspot.com

How I spent my last day alone

• Walked around the house in my underwear all morning. (Because most companions won't let you do that.)
  
• Listened to my gothic playlist.
• Finally recycled the Seventeen collection that had been sitting in my closet for years.
  
• Spent three hours getting dressed.
  
• Had my picture taken by a (male) long-haired Medieval enthusiast who reminded me of my Utah cousins.
• Signed a release for one of the portraits.
• Heard my mother in my head, "But I can't see your pretty eyes in that picture!"
• Drove an hour roundtrip back to the photo studio because I had left my journal.
• Joined up with my family.
  

Perspective

On Saturday it was snaining pretty hard as we drove up, so the temple didn't look quite so perfectly situated. They probably took this picture on one of the two annual nice-weather days allotted to Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Yesterday at church we learned about LDS Family Services. The presentation really put things into perspective, for I had been feeling sorry for myself because I developed another opportunistic skin infection in another bizarro place (not private, just weird). LDS Family Services is great, I'm sure, but I couldn't help feeling inexplicably lucky for not needing to go there. I thought, how come I don't have to worry about depression, abuse, adoption, addiction, same-sex attraction, or premarital pregnancy? What made me so special? And how come I could go to the temple on Saturday when so many people can't? What did I do to deserve being this happy? Then our closing hymn was "Count Your Many Blessings". I feel like saying, "Okay, God, I get it—we didn't need the song. And, thanks. I couldn't have done it without You; actually, I didn't do anything at all—You did."

Latest news

Someone from the MTC called yesterday—I'm going to be in intermediate Spanish! She did not say whether that meant I can leave earlier.
It's been snowing here for hours. We haven't had snow like this (1) all this winter, and (2) in late March since 1951.

Five Things People May Not Know about Me—unashamèd plagarism of Christa's idea that she stole from someone else

1. I truly believe that one day I really will instant-win $10,000 from a box of frozen waffles.
2. I may be the only woman in America who is happy with her body because if I weren't, I'd have to exercise or go on a diet or something.
3. I love to share my ice cream with my cat. In fact, I'm doing it right now.
   
4. I have daydreamed about England and the States going to war so that I could claim asylum in the UK and never have to go back.
   
5. I sometimes have really deep thoughts about salvation and the meaning of God's omniscience and stuff, but I rarely even write them here. When I brought up one of them in my talk on Sunday—that I used to feel guilty for the blood Christ spilled for me when I was sick or had done something wrong because even when I recovered or repented I still couldn't put it back—my mom was really shocked.

How'd you like that watching each and every bite go into your mouth?