Contemplating Pride

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about pride, especially self righteousness.

Growing up in the Church was something I always wanted when I was a kid. I was always trying to get my family to come to Church, but they never really budged. My mom always felt like the people at church would judge her. She smelled like cigarette smoke, and she tried sitting by people and they would make faces or make comments. Even if they didn't make comments to her directly, they would say something in their lesson that she immediately imagined was directed towards her. So, she just stopped going. And hence, we didn't go either, not by personal choice.

Now, I am not saying that my mom was in the right. I am guessing that a lot of her experiences were because of a guilty conscience. But the lesson still remains for the rest of us--are we looking around at the people around us and getting confidence in ourselves because we don't have the same sin that they have? Are we measuring our own righteousness against the righteousness of others? Where does our confidence come from? It really goes both ways--whether you are from the "bottom" looking up or from the "top" looking down.

I think I have been thinking a lot about this lately because I have seen it in myself, and I really don't like it, so I hope anyone reading this doesn't think I am judging everyone else around me. I hope and pray that I can figure this one out and that the Lord will help me to overcome this!

Midnight Escapades

So because of extreme boredom, combined with the tediousness of the daily routine, me and my roommates decided to take a late night adventure walk.

We went to Jamba Juice, then decided that it was just not enough to satiate our thirst for something different. After Shantel's fabulous parking abilities, we exited the car and made our way to BYU campus to take some pictures. We got there just in time to see the EFY groups going back to their dorms from the Tuesday night dance. I wanted to yell the cheer, but refrained, since I am not very loud and they were far enough to not hear me. lol.

We ran into an old friend, Jill Schuler, and took a picture! And thus the night began. We walked to each statue on campus (accept for the one by the Meiser, that is way too far away) and took pictures with each one. When we got back to Brigham Square, we saw some 15ish year old kids bolting for it. lol. Little did they know we caught them on CAMERA!!! Oh, gotta love EFY. I bet their counselor was freaking out.

We had a lot of fun though, by the time we were delerious enough to be doing stupid things. I guess the whole trip was prettymuch all ridiculous....lol.......










Ah! Giant Indian on Campus! Yeah, ok so this one was..interesting. We had a hard time getting the camera pointed in the right place so this is the best you will get.




Shantel calls this our "jail" shot.....we try to make Kleresa into a bad girl sometimes, but....she has a hard time. :) Actually I think she turned out really cute for this one, good job roomie.
OK guys, look "Uber Excited"....Kleresa had trouble with this one. lol. hahaha I hate to see what she looks like when she really IS excited about something.

Long days, no dating. lol.

You know, I get my own self in trouble when it comes to dating. I wonder why I never--hardly ever--date. Well, being that I have been around a little while in the dating world, my wants in a companion have become quite focused. Hence, I slough off many potential candidates because they just don't fit right. Ugh.

Then I get down on myself and wonder why I am having to wait for so long. Days draw out forever, I'm like...is there ANYONE out there I can connect with? Anyone else on my same wavelength? Helooooooooo out there????

Sigh.....maybe I should stop being so picky. lol. But come on, where do you draw the line?

EFY Flu....interesting....there you have it.

So, I was wondering why this sickness is taking so long to get over. So I checked in with some of the girls that had brothers who got sick at EFY, and also the girl, and she told me that her brother got tested, and it was in fact Influenza A. I researched the symptoms and I was like...DUH! No wonder I have been so sick. LOL. So, since I have no insurance, I just called BYU Health Center and talked to a nurse and told her I caught the bug going around at EFY and that I knew someone, and that he said he got diagnosed with Influenza A, and that my symptoms matched....and she confirmed that Influenza A was in fact going around at EFY. She said they dont really have medicine to fix it, just that I needed to get some rest, drink plenty of water, don't exercise (dang...oh well, not much energy anyways)....I also asked her if it was swine flu, and she said that Influenza A and Swine Flu are the same thing. hahaha....So anyways, to those of you concerned about Swine Flu, just know that it isn't any different than the regular flu--it only has the worst effects on those who already have underlying health conditions. Here is an article about it:

Flu symptoms raise concerns at BYU summer camps

Reported by: Brent Hunsaker Last Update: 1:04 am

Print Story | Share this Story

PROVO, Utah County (ABC 4 News) – Each week during the summer, two to three thousand kids descend on the Brigham Young University campus. They attend a variety of youth camps. The most popular camp is called “Especially for Youth” – EFY. During the first week of June, several EFY participants and their counselors came down with flu symptoms. Sarah Christensen was a counselor during that week. “All these kids started dropping like flies!” she said. Sarah did not get sick, but one of her girls did. Another counselor and even some of the participants claim the number of sick easily exceeded 100. But the official tally was five counselors and five students sent home early. “We are taking a very aggressive stand,” said BYU spokesperson Carrie Jenkins. Here are some of the steps being taken: Organizers are communicating with all teens who are scheduled for camps for the remainder of the summer. They’re being told, “If you’re sick, don’t come.” And if they can’t come to camp because of illness, Jenkins said they will be rescheduled or given a refund. Also, between sessions crews are taking extra care to clean and sanitize the dorm rooms. And during orientation, the kids are told to “minimize” touching. Hand handshakes, hand holding and hugging are discouraged. Sarah observed, “They’re very wise in what they’re doing. They’re making sure that infected counselors aren’t going to continue and that they stop the flu in the session that we were at.” Lance Madigan, a spokesman for the Utah County Health Department agrees with Sarah’s assessment – the precautions are appropriate. “It’s the flu,” said Madigan. “You want to take regular precautions. But we don’t necessarily want people hiding in their homes.”

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Back from EFY!!!

EFY was so fun. SO FUN. SO EXHAUSTING!!! lol. Talk about constant worry, constant schedule, stressing out, and reaching out!

I dont even know where to begin. I had 14 girls, they were great girls. Couldn't have gotten better ones. One of the biggest challenges I found was being their friend and also their counselor. I had to do a skirt check once and skip morning scripture study to find this girl a modest skirt, and I think she hated me after that, but I was only doing what was best for her and keeping EFY a placed where the Spirit could be.

One of my favorite outcomes was that two of my girls that were really struggling expressed to me afterwards that they had found the answers they were looking for. I can't tell you how that brought tears to my eyes after all my trying to express my heart and my testimony to them in hopes that they would feel the Spirit and make forward strides in their lives towards the Savior. I loved hearing their testimonies during testimony meeting. I loved watching all the girls interact with the young men of our group, and hearing them express how they were now determined to find a worthy priesthood holder who could take them to the temple. Each girl felt the same way. I will attribute that to my co counselor, Nate, who was able to befriend his guys and get them to respect him and do things right by treating the ladies like ladies. Yay for good guys!!

Now I am physically and emotionally exhausted. I actually came down with a really yucky bug. I don't know what it is but I am coughing and my head is totally stuffed, I just want to sleep all the time. Thankfully no nausea. That could mean swine flu. LOL. Actually, we had an epidemic at EFY. They had to send 20 counselors home and I think about 200 kids. It spread like wildfire! Talk about mass chaos for the health counselors!! Yuck!! I just hope mine doesnt turn into Influenza, like one kid got diagnosed with! Supposedly that is the beginning of swine flu. Ew!! They thought it was swine flu, thankfully they are pretty sure it wasn't. Haha wouldn't that be kind of funny? 2400 kids quarantined for swine flu due to EFY.