laurita

2011-11-30T23:18:00.000-08:00

2 Peter 1

To become like the Lord and have charity is a process that starts with "giving all diligence."

Diligence is steady, consistent, earnest and energetic effort in doing the Lord's work. (I think that's in Preach my Gospel)

"Giving all diligence" is a beautiful phrase--it's more than simply being or having. It indicates a more generous and real desire to do the Lord's work.

Verse 8: For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren no unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Such a gracious promise, our mortal attempts to have these Christlike qualities will lead us to a fruitful knowledge of him. We will know of him because we will be like Him.

Grammie's 80th Birthday

2011-04-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

I know I've used this picture before. But it's the only one I have on my computer right now.

There is no Grammie cuter than this.

She turned 80 years old on March 27th, and our family flew down to Cali to celebrate with her. There was a family party, of course, with food (the main attraction), the dice game, and presents. She got a Bose stereo and an iPod dock as a group gift. She also got some cds, clothes (she has a friend whose daughter is Jennifer Anniston's personal shopper...I know!), and I can't remember what else. It was fun to be there with her and see just how many people love and appreciate her. It was also nice to spend time with my mom's side of the family.

Sister Brown was there and she told us the reason she loves Ellie so much. Grammie was a nurse and very often throughout her life has found herself taking care of friends and family when they were sick. She even came to take care of me when I had my back surgery. Anyway, Brother Brown was in the hospital and Grammie had come to sit with him a while, and give the family a little time to rest. He was doing fine, but after a while she got the impression to check his blood pressure (there was no apparent reason to check it, he looked fine). It was dangerously low. She got on the phone and called the doctor, and he said he'd be there as soon as he could. Grammie replied "No, you need to get here now." And he did, and Brother Brown survived because of her quick reaction to the promptings of the Spirit and her insistence that the doctor come immediately. She is a neat lady.

My mom and her two sisters wrote a song that we all sang to her. Alex accompanied us on the guitar. We were very grateful for that. Lol. Here are the lyrics:

Ellie’s 80^th Birthday Song

(To the tune of “How to Save a Life” by The Fray)

Step One, gets out of bed by 6 o’clock.

Throws on her clothes, heads to the park.

Does her bends and stretches, no time to lose.

Has to hurry home to take a snooze.

Wakes up again, there’s lots to do.

Pay bills, do wash, and clean up too.

Looks at her watch, it’s almost noon.

Heads out to grab a Golden Spoon.

Where’d I leave my keys, I don’t recall.

Are they in my room or down this hall?

Been in my purse all along.

Who’d have thought to look where they belong?

Going home, gets lost – Oh what a mess.

She’s very grateful for that GPS.

Tries to solve the Jumble on her own.

Has to call Patricia on the phone.

She cannot ignore her family tree.

Gets to work on genealogy.

Time to run an errand for a friend.

Then a church meeting she’ll attend.

Where’d I leave my keys, I don’t recall.

Are they in my room or down this hall?

Been in my purse all along.

Who’d have thought to look where they belong?

As night begins to fall there’s more to do.

Has to brush her teeth and floss them too.

Takes about an hour for this chore.

Dental care ranks high for Eleanor.

Lays down to rest her weary head.

Little Grammie in a king‐sized bed.

We all love you ‐‐‐‐ that’s for sure

Happy birthday, love you, Ellie Muir!

After the party, we went and visited my Uncle Johnny. He's in his 90s and his health is declining. He lives in a skilled nursing facility that is run by nuns ("you know about these things?!") and it was a bit of a shock to see him in such a frail and agitated state. But these things happen, the dying experience is rarely graceful and never easy. It was good for me to see him, I said my goodbyes as I do not know that I will see him again. I told him to say hi to my grampa Muir (his brother), who I extra-missed that weekend.

On Sunday we were able to attend sacrament meeting with Grammie. It was fast and testimony meeting, and she got up and expressed her gratitude for our family and then bore her testimony of the gospel and the Savior. She said what a strength we are to her, as her other two daughters aren't active in the church at this time. I thought how strange it was for her to be thanking us! She is so strong and faithful. She is a pioneer woman! She single-handedly brought the gospel into our lives, and we can never thank her enough for that. I am grateful for the testimony that she bore that day and for the example she is every day!

Thanks for having a birthday, Grammie! Let's do it again when you turn 90! :)

Why you gotta act like you know when you don't know

2011-04-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

Conversation today:

(G is my internship boss and he called me to find out how many people I'd gotten to commit to come to workshop on Wednesday morning)

g: Hi, Laura. Have you been able to get a best-guess count for Wednesday's workshop?

me: Yes, so far I've gotten 8 solid yeses from those I've talked to.

g: Great, did you email people as well?

me: Yep, and as those continue to trickle in I'll keep you updated.

g: Okay, have you spoken with Hilary about possible overlap between your two lists?

me: I don't know who Hilary is, so no. I can call her and find out though if you want.

g: Well I need to give Brad an estimate of how many people will be coming. Hilary has 13 and you have 8 but will any of those people be on both lists?

me: Well I just contacted those who filled out the BYU conference evaluations. Who did she contact?

g: I don't know, Legacy's clients I assume.

me thinking: ummmm...then why would there be any overlap if we're calling two completely separate lists? And what is Legacy?

me out loud: Okay...

g: I just don't want to tell him there will be so many people if your lists are the same.

me thinking: what is going on?

me out loud: well I can call Hilary and we can compare lists.

g: okay, that would be good.

me: how can I contact her?

g: just call Legacy and ask for her.

me: I don't know what Legacy is.

g: oh, let me text you the number.

me: great sounds good!

g: Yeah then just let me know if there is any repeats between the two lists.

I GET THE POINT!

And no, there were no repeats.

Thinking about This girl today.

2011-03-29T20:42:00.001-07:00

She sends the most incredible Tuesday emails. Full of her charming personality and enthusiasm for serving the Lord's children. I love love LOVE when she uses "OH MYLANTA" or "buggin!" in her emails, because I know it is her. I look forward to reading them each week. She is happy and alive and vibrant and working hard. Why is it then, that reading things like this kinda sorta a little bit bothers me. (She is referring to a conference she had with Elder and Sister Pearson from the 70.)

Oh boy did he lay it on thick! Basically we were all rebuked for being crummy missionaries and not living up to our potential. It was a hard thing for me to hear (the wicked take the truth to be hard), but it was beneficial to my growth as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We were taught about how doubt often overcomes our faith (Faith - Disbelief = Net Faith). Faith is a gift from God. Just like any blessing from God, Faith is predicated upon our obedience. He talked about our focus. We get what we consistently focus on. "If you keep doing what you're doing you'll keep getting what you're getting." He said he feared that effective personal prayer was a big problem in this mission. It's has been one of my struggles too... of course that was my own fault. I left the conference completely exhausted, but SO ready to progress and change. I was not taking my discipleship seriously enough. I was content with the way things were going, I was not progressing, and I was not consecrating my whole self. I was also not willing to do whatever it takes to share the gospel. I wish you all could have been there so you could understand what I am talkiing about. It was amazing! Sister Pearson was incredible, I want to be like her! She's fiesty!!! For her talk, she yelled into the microphone as if she were a basketball coach, "If you are happy, NOTIFY YOUR FACE!!!! This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of GOOD NEWS!!!" I guess that is a good metaphore for the conference. I felt like we were all in the locker room at half time. We had not been playing at our full capacity, and so the coach was pleading for us to do better. Only.... Elder and Sister Pearson spoke by the power of the Holy Ghost. Anyway, it was really intense and wonderful. And now I am really working on changing!

What bothers me is not what message Elder Pearson is trying to convey. Missionaries always need to be refocused so they work harder and better. They need to be guided and counseled and advised by inspired leaders. What I do not like is that she felt like she was being told she was a crummy missionary. How she felt she was wicked because they "take the truth to be hard." How she felt she wasn't taking her discipleship seriously enough. Ugh. You are not a crummy missionary Alyssa! I know that because of the kind of person that you are. You are beautiful, hard-working, empathetic, kind, sincere, compassionate, patient, funny, and good sister with a powerful testimony of the gospel. And I know without any doubt that those characteristics also define you as a missionary.

Now, before I continue may I say that I am completely comfortable with the fact that we need to and should feel guilt on a regular basis. It helps us change. I also believe that we all can and should do more each day to be better disciples of the Lord Jesus, and I believe that is what Elder Pearson was trying to say.

I had terrible "numbers" on my mission. I taught 6 people who were baptized. That's averages to one every three months. My second mission president, Presidente Spitale encouraged us and promised us that it was possible to have at least one baptism per traslado. We were very strongly encouraged to make that our goal. Entonces, at conferences or other meetings I would inevitably go through exactly what my sister is talking about here, feeling guilty that I wasn't witnessing more baptisms. I felt that wasn't "exactly obedient" and that's why I wasn't as successful as others. There were missionaries who reached and even surpassed what Pte. Spitale recommended. He praised them and they taught us workshops about how to improve our success with investigators. They were admired and revered for being such excelente misioneros. Upon further acquaintance, however, I found some of them to be less than admirable. One such elder I never actually met, but came into 3 different areas just after he left them, and therefore had the responsibility of supporting and continuing to teach his converts. He left a trail of adoring young women, who were constantly asking us for information about him. One chica would give us risque love letters that the sin verguenza wouldn't even seal (and obviously my compa and I were sin verguenzas too and read every word of them. lol). Not one of these converts ever attended church again after this particular elder left the area. Is this how we define a successful missionary?

And that long side not leads me to my point.

But I don't appreciate this missionary mentality-- that success is defined by the number of people we baptize. Of course we need to get people to commit to baptism, but that's not allllll the work entails. I look back at my mission and I have NO regrets about the actual work I did. I worked HARD. Along with searching for people to bring into the gospel I went visiting teaching, I visited menos actives, I visited the elderly, I spent time with active members and their families, I talked to people about their lives, I listened, I took care of people when they were sick, I had FUN, I ate waaaaay too much dulce de leche, I noticed the sunsets, I was aware of my surroundings (I was in ARGENTINA after all!) and possibly most importantly I learned to love each of my companions. Some days we didn't leave the house, and yet the work of the Lord continued as we dealt with these various trials. I used to worry about the people who would never come to know the gospel because we weren't out knocking doors. That mentality is selfish at best. The Lord would never keep his children from knowing the truth because my companion was having a hard time and I needed to help her (or vice versa). His work is so much bigger and so much more than that.

Alyssa Rose, I hope that you are not being too hard on yourself, but maybe it's all part of the process. You are better than you think you are.

Mission Call

2009-12-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

So the day before Thanksgiving, 2005, I received my mission call. I had been checking the mail every day, even though I knew mission calls in Utah arrive on Wednesdays, but I was anxious and excited to know where I was going. So that Wednesday, I went out to look at the mail, and to my dismay my call was not there among the small pile of bills and ads. Highly disappointed, I left for work.

I was working an afternoon shift (from 2-10 pm) at Trinity Mission Health and Rehab of Provo, and it was a typical busy day, which helped keep my mind off the fact that I would have to wait another whole week to receive my call. At one point I checked my phone, and saw that I had several missed phone calls from family members and also some text messages. One text came from my sister, Alyssa, which said 'your mission call is here!' I, naturally, assumed this a joke and sent her a reply text saying 'haha very funny' (or something like that). Eventually, I figured out that this was NOT a joke, and knew that I wouldn't be able to wait until my shift was over to open it. After much effort and freaking out, I convinced my family to come down to southwest Provo to bring me my call and watch me open it. In the meantime, I announced to all my patients (who were also dear friends of mine) that my call had arrived and that my family was coming over right now to watch me open it. They were just as excited as I was, as they all had known for months that I was going.

When my family arrived, a small crowd gathered in the hallway, and I led us to an employee break room so that we wouldn't block the old-people traffic (it's already hard enough for some of them to get around without having to make their way through a maze of people!). My whole family was there, and also Alicia and Daresa Sneddon, and several fellow employees and patients. It was a really great experience, being among the people who I loved most, and spent most of my time with. I opened the envelope, and my eyes frantically searched for the place I would be serving. I saw Bahia Blanca Argentina Mission and was excited immediately! My mom served there, and I secretly really wanted to go to South or Central America. I made myself calm down, though, and read the whole letter out loud. I pronounced Bahia wrong (even though I had taken four years of spanish classes in high school...) and my little sister corrected me! (She was in a high school spanish class at the time....smarty pants)

I love the story of getting my mission call, it was one of the best moments of my life. Now my little sister Alyssa is expecting her call tomorrow (hopefully)! I can't believe that she's old enough to serve, but I am extremely excited for her. I know it will be one of the greatest moments of her life, and that she will love her mission as much as I did. Good luck tomorrow Alyssa!!

2008-10-15T18:49:00.001-07:00

My dad showed this to me. And it is hilarious. Enjoy.

"DAYLIGHT EXACERBATES WARNING:

You may have noticed that March of this ear was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century. All of the trees were fully leafed out and legions of bugs and snakes were crawling around during a time in Arkansas when, on a normal year, we might see a snowflake or two.

This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person. As you know, Daylight Saving Time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they?

Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps next time there should be serious studies performed before congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects."

Oh dear. God bless America.

Aloha!

2008-08-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I've spent the last five weeks in Oahu. My dad was on sabbatical and was conducting a research project on the rate of weathering on the island. I took advantage of the tropical setting, sunshine, and beaches in the backyard and had a blast. The days consisted of getting up when we felt like it, going on a hike, going to the beach and eating delicious Hawaiian food...can't complain about that!

At a macadamia nut plantation. Are you laughing at my nuts?

We ate so much pineapple that we may have actually become pineapples!

This is the drug tree, they're not barbecuing hot dogs under there!

A samoan chief making fire. Heck yeah.

My very cute Grammie.

Yeah that's me jumping off that rock. This is at Waimea beach on the north shore. It was one of my favorite beaches.

Before we went snorkeling at shark's cove, we also caught sight of some natural land wildlife. This man was showering in his skivvies, and he was not discreet about his business. The best part was that there was a group of 9 year olds witnessing the whole thing. Their teacher looked dumbfounded, like she didn't know whether to lead the kids elsewhere or teach them a life lesson.

My sister Alyssa and my dad being mad scientists.

There are gorgeous flowers EVERYWHERE!!

"How can this be???"

The backyard of our house...

and just beyond the backyard!! The beach!!

Girl's camp

2008-08-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

Since I have been living at home, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to girl's camp this summer with the young women. I was called to be the assistant camp cook, which was quite the task. Lucky for me, I was only the assistant--less responsibility and more goof-off time for me! It was quite an experience to be there as a leader, and it made me appreciate all the hard work that goes in to making activities like this successful. The best part of the whole thing was being there with my little sista Melly. She is so fun, and I just love her! Here are a few pictures...none of me, but that's okay.

Melers, Jord, and Mariah livin' it up on the lake.

Mels rockin' at the stake activity...I'm not quite sure what they were doing, but I think it had something to do with multi-tasking, preparing for motherhood or something (gag!)

My trip to Arg

2008-08-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

Um..If you know me at all, you know how obsessed and attached I am to Argentina. I love the people, the sky, the food (except cold-scrambled egg with maple syrup flan), the smells (yeah! the smells!), the sights, riding in the buses, and even the dust. So when Amber started talking about going back, I knew I couldn't miss out. In May, we made the long (and whiny) flight to Buenos Aires. Although the trip had its drawbacks, it really was the trip of a life time. And it definitely left me with ganas to go back again! I don't have all the pictures yet, but here are a few. I will blog more about the trip soon!!

This is the Bonventre family (a.k.a. the Crude family) from La Falda. They have five kids but only two were there. TEAR! In the mission, my companion and I taught all 7 of them, but had more success with their son Roberto and his friend Gustavo. Even if Ambi calls the the Crude family, I still love them with my whole heart and soul and have never been treated more kindly and more like family. We only saw them for a few minutes, but they shared with us a yummy lunch with the most delicious bread EVER! I need to go back and spend much more time with them.

These are the Nunez girls from Tandil. We went past their house to visit but they weren't home. On our way back, we found them in the street walking home! We had just enough time to snap a photo and squeal and cry at the sight of each other. As you can see from how bundled up we were-it was FREEZING cold there, so we let them continue on their way, again only getting to spend minutes with them :(

This is the Vallejos baby (can't remember the baby's name...oops). The baby came as a surprise to them, as their next oldest is already a teenager, but a family could not be more happy to have this little one in their home. I wanted to take him home with me though!

This is Melisa Wajchman, my 1st mission president's daughter. Probably the highlight of the trip was getting to spend a few days with this incredible family. Words can't even describe the spirit that emanates from their beings. I wish I could live with them forever!

I can't sleep

2008-04-29T00:13:00.000-07:00

I have to be to work at 6 AM. It is 1:14AM. That leaves me less than five hours....oh bother.

So as I am laying here trying to go to sleep, I realize that an old problem has reared its ugly head. It hasn't bothered me for quite a while, so it surprised me that I notice it again now. This is kind of a strange problem.

I have one hot foot and one cold one. When left exposed my left foot is hot and dry, and my right is cold and clammy. If I have socks on I don't notice the problem at all. This started happening in December 1999 when I back surgery for scoliosis. I guess the nerves just got all out of whack. Weird, right?

2008-04-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

I was going through some stuff and found my first journal. I was reading through it and found some huh-larious stuff in here. It was surprising to me how much reading this helped me identify some underlying "issues" that I have. I was surprised to find that they started so long ago. Apparently, I've been nuts for a long time. It's not all sad nor is it all about my psychoticness-there is some pretty funny stuff in here. AnywayS, here goes.

June 16, 1991 (This is the first entry that I ever wrote.)
now I'm six I'm in first grad almost in second grad three more days of school on wensday we have a festival all the classes are going to do a dance all the classes exsept room 5 and six case were doing mousersise I'm going to be one of the leaders to do mousersise we have to praktise alot tita is always good she is going to be a good mouskuteer case she gose the same way that i go she is going to be a good leader I wish ther were 5 leaders she is very good at mousersise

December 31, 1994 (we had been on a family road trip to the Grand Canyon)
I'm not trying to be mean but Alyssa (6) is still a big baby in the car to and from, Alyssa had flem in her throaght because she had a cough. My mom and dad told her she needed to cough it up and spit it out, but she was afraid she'd throw up. Besides that I had a real good trip

August 1, 1996 (this is so bipolar I cannot even believe it)
Today has not been great first of all my mom told me to go vacume and weedwack the backyard then she told me to help Bryan with the Hilton's lawn. Then later that night she told me to help him do another lawn well she asked me to and then Bryan came in and asked if I was going to help him. Well I was thinking about it she just came out and said yes she wants to. It wasn't the doing the lawn that bugged me it was that she just decided for me. then later that night I found out that there's a really good chance that we'll be moving. What's wrong with here? I like it here. Plus well have new neighbors, a new ward, and a new school and I'll have to make new friends. I mean I love my friends and will really miss them a lot. It would be nice to be closer to grandma and grandpa's but I still like it here. I can't wait to be 12. I'll be out of primary and I'll start young womens. Also I'll be able to babysit. I'm fat, I'm really fat. So I'm trying to get into shape. Well i guess thats my day. See ya.

March 13, 1997 (I was talking about how hard the move was for me)
(People who read this: DON'T YOU DARE read this until I am DEAD!!!!! Also for all I know you could be reading this in a room full of 20 year old HOT guys) Oh well. wow there's so much to write about. Why couldn't my dad get a job at UNLV? I would be so much happier there. I have a huge room but can't think of it as home. There are these twins Aaron and Chris who are Bryan's friends and Aaron is so cute. I don't know why but Chris is ugly (sorry if he's reading this) and they're identical twins! Go figure. This Saturday I'm going to see Marvins Room because Leonardo DiCaprio is in it. HE is my soulmate even though he's 22 and I'm 12. So maybe he isn't I can still dream, can't I?

June 14, 1997 (1997 was a hard and funny and well documented year for me)
Ya know what's freaky yesterday was Fri. the 13th. Also a black cat crossed my path yesterday. Then today I got a headache. Friday and today Bryan and I were at grandma and grandpa's house cleaning. It wasn't that fun but we each made 35 $.

July 23, 1997
Today we went to a rodeo, it was awful! They were taking these baby steers roping them around the neck. Then the cowboy got off his horse and threw the cow down on his side. I was mad! We all eat hamburger but this is more than just hamburger and steak. This is totally abusing them, and what did they ever do to us? I'm now a vegetarian.

September 5, 1997
It's Friday YIPEE! Well, tomorrow Bryan daddy and Dave Tedder are going to a football game. A BYU home game. I wand to go but I told mom I'd babysit for 5$ an hour. But also part of me wants the money. I'll probably end up babysitting. Either way I'll still wand to do the other thing.

Okay I could go on...so much funny stuff in here...on a later post I'll do some from my more recent journals.

April Fool's day

2008-04-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

So I work with this doctor who thinks he is great. And in fact, he is very ungreat. He bothers me, and pretty much everyone who works with him. He is the type who gives his loooong opinions no matter if they have been sought for or not, the type who thinks he is hysterical. But, he is in fact the board certified deliverer of babies, so I guess we tolerate him as it would be highly illegal for any of us to do it without him. I hate it when you need people you can't stand. grr. Today, in all of his self-perceived funniness, he decided to play some april fool's joke on the nursing staff at the hospital.

Joke number one: He told our floor manager that he had been discussing with one of the most notoriously bad OBs in the area, and that this bad doctor had expressed desires to practice with him and start bringing his patients to our hospital. As the horror filled this poor lady's face at the thought of having to deal with such a horrible doc he burst into laughter. All of us who were around just stared in unbelief.

Joke number two: Later in the day he called from his clinic and talked frantically about a pregnant patient of his who was due with triplets in 6 weeks who had gone into labor that he was going to send over. Now, the nurse who answered was probably the only one who would have bought this...because please....he does NOT make his own phone calls. Some poor girl making minimum wage does his dirty work. The nurse hung up and started frantically gathering up staff and equipment to prepare for this intense situation. Then about five minutes later we all convinced her to call back and ask him if it was a joke. He laughed even more hysterically that she had taken him seriously. What a butthead.

on NPR (I know, I'm a nerd) they were doing a cast about april fool's jokes people had done. They had an April Fool's day "expert" on to give us tips on great pranks to play. I only heard a smidgin of what he said....

Put post-it notes on the bottom of the laser mouses at work... then sit back and watch everyone get frustrated at technology....then duck as they toss staplers at you when they realize what you've done.

What good April Fool's day jokes have you seen? I need good ideas for next year!!

My mosquito story

2008-04-01T17:47:00.001-07:00

When I was in third grade I wrote a short story that has been crossing my mind as of late. So I decided to dig it out.... Hope you likeeee. Here it is, unedited, in all its third grade glory.

The Mosquito that Buzzes in Peoples' Ears
by a third grade Laura Nelson

One night I was fast asleep in my bed when a mosquito buzzed past my ear. I thought it was airplane flying through my bedroom! I went downstairs. I got a drink of water and went to the bathroom then I went back to bed. I fell asleep. The mosquito buzzed by my ear, again it was so loud I thought it was an airplane. I woke up again. I went to my mom's room I layed beside her. The mosquito buzzed by her ear. She thought it was an airplane going past her ear! Soon, the mosquito buzzed past everyone's ears. We were all awake. Then we decided to go for a drive and get ice cream cones. We didn't know it, but guess what? The mosquito got in the car too! The mosquito buzzed past my dad's ear (while he was driving) and he thought it was an airplane fly by the car. He got scared, and we got in an accident. Ice cream got all over the car but everyone was okay except the mosquito. He got smushed in one of the cookies in my cookies 'n cream ice cream cone.

What makes this story even better are the comments given by my teacher. She said "Great use of sequence and humor. I enjoyed your story-very imaginative." Do you think she was referring to the fact that I told this story as a play by play--I got a drink. I fell back asleep. I ended this blog...