Hiking and Helping

November 11th-November 17th

This week we had BYD on Sunday, but instead of having it at Bishop's house like we usually do, followed by dinner and dessert.... (I was kind of upset that we broke tradition this time...) but his daughter Alexa came and talked to us about using our talents and relying on the Lord and such. And it was so good! She flew down from BYU pretty much solely to talk to us, so that was pretty neat. But what was even neater was that she didn't "write" her talk down, she just wrote down bullet points... I need to learn how to do that! Sheesh, I write good talks and essays, but when it comes to free whatever, I trail off and never stay on subject, usually.. so I really admired that! But when she was the only speaker, we ended about an hour early, and of course, Bishop asked ME to get up there and bear my testimony or say a few words... OF COURSE. Haha I guess that's what I get for being Laurel's President.. :P I also had to conduct, so they all saw a little too much Awkward Bentley for the night.. but that's just who I am! And I'm okay with that, being not all socially normal and whatnot.. it adds color to my personality! Right??... ;) So I walked up there, and I don't even know what I said to be honest... I think I rambled on about how I was stressed about college and my future, and how I didn't want my plans to change, so I avoided that part in my prayers, but that was the part that was what I really needed guidance on, and after I did and actually MADE a decision, things started to fall into place and my talents are helping to build my career and future and such... again, that's what I was trying to say, but I don't know if that's what actually came out.. however, I was more prepared than the rest of the youth because after me, Bishop kept calling up people three by three, and they all felt what I did, so I wasn't alone. But then of course Cal is called up last to finish off the testimonies, and he gives this amazing one about his stresses and struggles, and then he started to tear up... and oh my goodness he is perfect! Why didn't I cry?? Geez, I'm a heartless monster I guess. But I was starting to tear up because he was. I want to be just like him! Haha that's a little weird to say, but I really do look up to him for a lot of reasons.
That night I decided to ask my friend Ryan Cooper to Winter Formal! Seriously, a few days before me and Lauren just decided on a whim to ask some guy friends and have a good time because we deserve to go on dates more often, unfortunately we have to take charge though... :P So I went over to his house and put these polaroid pictures on his door that said when you put them together "Ryan would you please go to Winter Formal with me?" and on the back was a photo of me cut into strips that were taped on the back of the polaroids. I thought it was a pretty good idea! It took me FOREVER to find his house since it was dark outside.. and after taking a random road to avoid a car that had been following me, it happened to be his street! Haha weird, right? It's so fun doing stuff like this! Why don't I do it more often? .... oh wait. :P

The next day we had NO SCHOOL! Go Labor Day! Whoop whoop! I thought I was going to be stuck at home doing nothing of importance, until the Cluffs called and wanted to go hiking! Yeahyuh! Always can count on them to find something exciting to do. Pretty much any day we have off we go hiking, so I don't know why I wasn't expecting that. We went over to the actual entrance to the San Tans, I'd never been ther before. The hike wasn't hard or long at all, just a walk around a mountain pretty much. Sister Cluff and Kimi went back a couple hundred feet into the hike because Kimi got tired, so it was me and Cal and Kayla and Porter with about 7 little kids. We ran into a few horses, climbed up a mountain, ran down some hills.. just entertained ourselves while walking in the desert. I looooove hiking so much! I'm so glad that I have nearby access to great hiking and all sorts of outdoorsy type stuff out here in QC, unlike Mesa where you either had to drive forever to get to the mountains or you had to pay to go run around somewhere. :P Life's always better in QC. ;) Anyways, it was just magical. Later that night we went and saw BRAVE! Oh my goodness. I loooooove that movie! It was so good!! I've been wanting to see it for forever, and I finally did. It took place in Scotland, and even though it was all animated, it was still sooo gorgeous! I've always had an attachment to Scotland, and I'm even of Scottish heritage, which makes it that much more awesomer. I so wish I had a Scottish accent.. then I'd be super cool. I don't think I'd ever stop talking though, so maybe that's a good thing. But I caught myself accidentaly slipping in a few accented words here and there. Oh, and then we found an iPod in the parking lot and turned it into security, so if no one picks it up in the next week, it's ours apparently! When we got home, I found a fishbowl full of Swedish Fish and a fishing pole on my front doorstep... haha Ryan answered back! And within less than a day, too! He's good! ;) haha it said "Out of all the fish in the sea, I'm glad you chose me. Yes!" Good thing I love Swedish Fish! I might get sick of them after a while. But now I got a fish bowl! ;)

For mutual we had a birthday party and white elephant gift exchange, and I got a vinyl wall decal quote saying, "Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light." It's pretty deep. I put it on my mirror above my bed. It looks pretty schnazzy.
I babysat on Friday, and then I had Lauren come over and we had out first sleep over! Haha we didn't get to bed until TWO AM because SHE wouldn't let me go to sleep.. and we had to go set up Temple Lights at 6 the next morning...

So we get there and it's freeeeezing cold. And then I get the job of Quality Checking Specialist... I even got a folder with all sorts of lighting plans and stuff, I felt pretty official. ;) I went around checking all the lights and telling people (my family) what to do. It was pretty fun, I must say.
After the Temple, I went to go help out for Jette Davis' Benefit Fair. I bought a cool t-shirt with a t-rex holding a machine gun making cancer extinct. It's pretty sweet. I was in charge of the Pumpkin Bean Bag Toss... for three or four hours.. I eventually just had the same five kids come back and back over and over again... after a while making ME the target of the tossing/chucking. It felt good to be of service though! I didn't really get to talk with that many people, so that was kind of a bummer.. but oh well.
But I had a really good dream. :)