Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! It was so good to be with my family for the holidays, but I still think about the mission around this time of year (ok, so everyday...but especially now)! It is part of me...and I even started listening to Christmas music in October...it is the Filipino in me! It's not my fault...;) As long as there is a "ber" at the end of the month it is leagal to listen to Christmas music and decorate...yes, it is true! So sue me!

We made pizza, I ate it, Jen smiled, and Haley picked her nose...each doing what we do best! We all know that I love food!

Got PJ's (I am trying to convince my mom to start that tradition!) Check out how everyone has a matching buddy...except for the kids. Jen and I decided that we better get married if we want someone else to match with! Then on Christmas morning...

We shoveled LOTS of snow, and...

we got to watch Easton open his presents with all the magic of Santa Claus involved! SO FUN! Then, FINALLY...

We were able to talk to my baby brother, Kyle, on his mission! He is serving in the Kentucky Lousiville Mission! It was such a great Christmas...I can't wait for next year when we will all be back together! What a wonderful time of year! May the new year bring much happiness and joy to everyone!

I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!

Well, my dad's 50th birthday is coming up and so we are all going to Disneyland! This will be the first long distance trip that I have been with the whole fam...including the kids. I am so excited to see Easton on all of the rides, and Haley has been there with kids and strollers before so she knows how to work the system with that! Boo ya! Here is how my parents told us on Christmas morning...


Oh, and that is the adorable apron that Jen gave me! Thanks fam!

Well, what can you say? Change is inevitable! This past semester has been a blessing when it comes to roommates (and much more...) but really, they were all amazing and I am so grateful that I had the chance to live with them. Things are changing for this semester, but I am hoping that all is well in the roommate department. We are going to miss Debbie and Elise but I will sure be glad to have them back in the summer. Crystal is now graduated and we will miss her, but we are excited to see what her new beginnings bring her! Love you all, girls!

Digital Scrapbooking

So I do believe that this could become a new hobby. I have been home from school for a week now and here are some things that have been keeping me occupied...let me know what you think. It's addicting!

Nindota ang templo oi!

Is this not a gergeous picture of the Provo Temple? This is one of my favorite temples because I received my own endowments there and I went there every week during my stay at the MTC. Lots of memories inside of this holy edifice! So Jen and I went to the temple in Saturday. We were going to do initiatories since they are quicker and we had to budget our time. Well, we got there and the wait was an hour...for initiatories! Insane! But I am really glad that we ended up doing a session. When we took our seats in the chapel Jen leaned over and asked if I had ever done a session in Cebuano. I replied saying that I had never had the chance, I looked in to it at Rexburg but they did not offer Cebuano. She told me that Provo did and that I should get a headset. That made me really excited but people were proceeding to the endowment room at that point so I figured that I would just have to come back. Lucky enough we didn't make it to that session, so I hurried up and talked to a temple worker requesting that I get headphones for Cebuano. I was so excited! It almost made me cry and made my desire even greater to return soon to the Philippines. One the movie started and I heard the different voices I started recognizing some of them! The voice of Elohim was the Stake President in my 2nd area. All of the stake conferences I went to (along with General Conferences) on the mission I was in the same area and stake! Then the voice of Jehova was the voice of a member from my last area. He is a pioneer member there in Cebu and we worked to reactivate his daughter. What a neat experience to listen to the Temple Session in Bisaya and remember the blessings which I recieved from the misison! SO COOL!

I don't even know where to start...

Well, I am back...for a minute. Life has been incredibly busy for me these past few weeks and I don't even want to imagine how life will get when it is all real life. But this is as real life as it gets for me at this point folks! Let's see...mom left, jen came and I got a full-tuition scholarship for next semester. That about sums it up. The whole thing with the scholarship is why my life has become mad! It has created a monster in which I don't regret, however, life continues on with regualer duties and then I pick something else up...what did I do? Now, let me explain...I am involved on campus with a program called "student-led instruction." BYU-Idaho is a special place for many things and one of them is the opportunities in which it creates for students to be leaders. So I am facilitating a general studies course this semester and it has been very rewarding. In October they started requesting for applications for those who would like to be in a leadership position over this. There is a Director and 2 Coordinators with one Faculty Advisor over it all. So I applied and prefered to get the coordinator position, a lot less stress and more low key. I was in a one-on-one meeting with the director for this semester and when we were done he asked if he could talk to me for a minute. I didn't see why not since we had been talking for the past 20 or so minutes. It would be natural for him to continue on, right? Anyhow, he then proceeded to tell me that they (they being the advisor, director, and coordinator) had decided the positions for next semester's leaders. I was preparing myself for the worst. Then, the storm broke! (Name that movie....) He asked me if I would accept the position of Director, a pit dropped to my stomach and I am sure that I gave him a very stunned face. He said that he wished I could've seen my own eyes...whatever that means! So I decided to take the position and in return will be recieving a scholarship. So I have quit my job for next semester (and will pick it back up in the summer) so that I can focus on being a director. The first week that I was director we interviewed about 16 people to be facilitators for next semester, chose 12, started training and are now well on our way to next semester. That week created for VERY long days, I was on campus for an average of 13-14 hours a day between work, school, tests, and interviews! Can you say crazy? However, the program is growing in tremendous ways and I feel blessed to be a part of it at such a great University! The Lord really has blessed me and obviously wants me to get through school. I am glad to be doing it at BYU-Idaho. Now, a post wouldn't be a post without some pictures! So here you go! Oh and a shout out to my friend Terry who just got her mission call to the Los Angeles California Spanish Speaking Mission. She is going to rock the world with her testimony! You go girl!

Ok, so this is just a picture of random people...from my ward now and people that used to be in the ward and roomies! YAY! Love them all! What great people!

Teresa and I. I just really like this picture and Teresa is one of the best roomies EVER!!! Luv ya girl!

An Elect Lady

Well, this weekend was Mother's weekend for BYU-Idaho and it was absolutley awesome! My wonderful mother came and hung out with my roomies and I. We were busy the whole time and therfore she took a VERY long nap on Sunday, I guess we wore her out! But some of the highlights of the weekend were the Alumni Dinner, mom got to see an advisor of hers when she was here at Rick's College. Saturday we had seminars, a luncheon, Comic Frenzy (it is a BYU-I version of who's line is it anyway...so hilarious!) dinner with the girls and last but not least Natalie Macmaster. I told ya, we were busy, but it was so worth it! Natalie is a fiddler from Canada and it was amazing...she dances as she fiddles, truly a work of art! It was so fun to watch her and feel of her energy. She likest to perform in Rexburg because she loves that we say a prayer before we start the show and she loves being around people that "are so high on life!" Truly, there is something about Mormons that people notice...what a great feeling! Then on Sunday we went to my ward and listened to my beautiful roommate sing in sacrament meeting, Consider the Lilies. She is going to be an Opera star and for sure needs to be in the MoTab! GO ELISE! Every Sunday night we have a "sweet swap" and lots of people come over bearing sweets and we mingle and flirt and have fun! What a great time to be here at BYU-Idaho! Mom got to meet lots of my friends and she wooed them for me by her baking skills...she made "better than...well, Landon knows what I am talking about. But it was GOOD! Thanks for a great weekend mom! Oh and to top it all off, she did the dishes for me before she left this morning...what more could you ask for? She truly is an elect lady and I hope that I can become the woman she is! I LOVE YOU MOM!!