temple polas

I'm a lover of lists. 

Especially of the bucket variety. 

Among one of my more ambitious goals is to visit EVERY temple in the world. My dream is to one day have in my home a HUGE almost wall-length map of the world and stick little instax temple photos on them. 

A temple is a sacred house of worship. It is a holy place where members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints go to perform sacred ordinances and make sacred promises with Heavenly Father. No matter where in the world I go, once I step through the temple doors, I always feel at home.

I only started this tradition (by accident) on my mission! These are by no means all the temples I've visited, just the ones I've remembered to snap a picture at. 

To see all the temples in the world/my progress click here. 

 

 

*Maybe this is strange, but I kind of like the imperfection in these photos. It's kind of endearing.

Día de los Reyes Magos

This semester! I had the sad realization yesterday that this week was only the first week of school. I'm in a kind of catch-22 position because while the week felt the length of eternity, I'm also slightly grateful since I may be counting down the months till my time in Provo expires. :(

January 6th marked 'Día de Los Reyes Magos'—a Mexican holiday that commemorates the visit of the wiseman to the baby Jesus. In Mexico, families traditionally eat a 'Rosca de Reyes' or the bread above. Inside of the bread are hidden figurines of the baby Jesus, and tradition says if you find one you're responsible for hosting a party on February 2nd complete with tamales. 

I invited friends over to join in the Mexican festivities. We each took turns cutting the bread with pounding hearts waiting to see if in fact we had been so lucky(?) to have Jesus in our piece!

^^Kyra found baby Jesus #1, fitting since she had wanted to find him!

^^Michael served his mission in Mexico and REALLY wanted to find baby Jesus, but alas...

^^Kendra kind of walked in on the celebration, found Baby Jesus, and had no idea what to do with him.

^^Last baby Jesus of the night: Señor Jolley.

^^Russell spent most of the night trying to redeem his Mexican identity by trying to prove that he could spin this wooden top.

^^Ironically, in a game of apples to Apples, I picked up the Cesar Chavez card and T.Betti drew 'Custer's Last Stand." 

& then a series of selfies happened...

♥ these people!!!

my calling in life

I've started 2016 with questions floating in my head...

What am I going to do this summer?

Where will I be?

Who will I evolve into this year?

What does Heavenly Father want me to get out of this year?

I'm still attempting to develop answers to those questions. I don't feel stress towards the answer-developing process, but I do feel a bit like a floater. I'm just floating until something really captivates me. Maybe floater isn't the right word? Floater makes it sound as though I'm just twiddling my thumbs over here and waiting for something to happen to me. Maybe a better picture is that I'm walking up the stairs of the Hogwarts castle and waiting to see what floor they lead me to? 

Here I am a JD/MPA student just wanting to put her skills to work, but not quite sure where she needs to put them. Last semester (If there's one thing I regret about fall semester 2015, it's that I didn't blog enough about the start of MPA experience!) in my OB (organizational behavior) we journey into the world of callings. I was forced to sit and really ask myself those questions that I had sort of been avoiding. 

Do I have passion?

Where do I feel the greatest sense of purpose?

Is there any place that I feel drawn to?

From these questions came the birth of my 'calling map'—a journey of self-reflection into who my present self think she should become in the future. (why am I talking about myself in the third person?!?) I have always felt like a jane of all trades, master of none. Maybe that's why I decided to spend a total of 8 yrs at BYU get 3 degrees and 3 minors. Quien sabe? 

Like I said, no stress

more like 'what's next? 2016 what do you have planned for me?'

For the first time, I have no plan & it's kind of exciting!!!! I'm a lover of planners (I'm the nerd who asked for one for Christmas this year). While in the past I might have hyperventilated about the situation, I feel such a calm sensation of a warm glow of peace that everything will work out. I'll eventually get to that floor in the Hogwarts castle where I'm intended to go. 

Just feeling really #blessed over here.

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p.s. these scanned papers below are my attempt to figure out just what I'm supposed to do in life.