Change

My dear sisters, I have a simple faith. I believe that as you are faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, as you draw closer to Him in faith, hope, and charity, things will work together for your good. I believe that as you immerse yourselves in the work of our Father—as you create beauty and as you are compassionate to others—God will encircle you in the arms of His love. Discouragement, inadequacy, and weariness will give way to a life of meaning, grace, and fulfillment.

As spirit daughters of our Heavenly Father, happiness is your heritage.

You are choice daughters of our Heavenly Father, and through the things you create and by your compassionate service, you are a great power for good. You will make the world a better place. Lift up your chin; walk tall. God loves you. We love and admire you.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Happiness, Your Heritage,” Ensign, Nov 2008

My family and I recently moved to Vegas, to live with Glenn's mom. Thank goodness she is so wonderful otherwise this post might be about me learning patience and unconditional love (haha) but fortunately she has tried to make this as easy as possible on me. Still, it is a huge adjustment. I have moved four times in the past 4 years. Each time was an adjustment but it was always relatively fast to make friends when you live in Provo, Utah and most of your neighbors are around your age and situation. Vegas definitely doesn't afford that luxury. In fact, two nights ago we had 2 cop cars and 2 security guard vehicles at our neighbor's house...so it is a little different. : ) This is a small part of Vegas, but actually Vegas has some really great people and oddly enough 10% of the population are mormon, which is kind of amazing! I know that I am going to make really wonderful friends here, it is just not as fast. I really like Vegas I just can't wait to make friends to hang out with during the day. I know this will come as a shock to you all, but I love people. I love making friends. and I love keeping busy with service to others and planning activities to do things together. When you don't know anyone and you live in a place where really no one in your neighborhood stays home except for a few retired people, it makes all of that a little trickier. We have only been here for 2 1/2 weeks. I know I am impatient. I have a Relief Society activity this week(which I am seriously SO SO excited for!) and we have a ward party next week. I know I will meet friends soon, it is just hard to wait and makes the everyday, all day long, part of my life a little harder. I have been trying really hard to just trek through it and mostly it has been just fine, but it is taking some effort. Yesterday I decided that I needed to set some goals so that I was using this time to progress in other areas, for example, family history and extraction work, listening to  talks, plan more specific activities for Savvy and Judah, work some more on learning geography, carry pass along cards, finish losing the weight I need to, work on spiritual goals and so on...I felt like I needed to do things more with a purpose than just going through the motions of each day. And just as Pres. Uchtdorf said it will create a way to a life of meaning. I hope this doesn't sound more dramatic than I really feel. I know I am really blessed and I will have opportunities to meet lots of people soon. Until then, I will work on my goals and I know it will make my days less of something to live through and more of something to live for.