incredible

it's absolutely amazing to me how 2 people, who both have similar and strong faith in Christ, can understand so drastically different the exact same words. no wonder the dark ages and apostasy happened. i recently posted a link on facebook to Elder Holland's talk from October General Conference and a Christian friend of mine responded to it. we work in the same office building and have had interesting but minimal conversations about religion. he posted in response and shared a broadcast of a sermon on a biblical understanding of the trinity. out of interest and friendship I just sat and listened to the entire one hour sermon, looking up the scriptural references as it went along to try and truly understand their point of view and perspective. what was crazy though, was that every scripture they read, and every point they asserted, was that the trinity is 3 separate beings, but still one God. but then they claimed that Mormonisms view on all of it is that we believe in them as 3 separate Gods. If  you read carefully Elder Holland's talk, which was the link I shared, it's quite difficult to misunderstand or misconstrue what he says we believe about the Godhead.

like I said, it's no wonder the apostasy happened, and that people are still so lost in darkness. I just wish that people would be open minded enough, especially when you have a good relationship with someone, to be willing to discuss it all without being super defensive and critical. The pastor in the sermon I listened to was quite educated and made several valid points, referencing passages that I was not extremely familiar with, but that still asserted clearly that the Godhead is 3 distinct beings, but still one God. It was enlightening. Sad that my friend though would still disagree with me on all of it. All the attention that the Church is getting in the media right now too I feel has skewed his perception of us, in a negative way. Which makes me sad. He has so much faith in Christ, and is most certainly a Christian in belief and actions, but so blatantly unwilling to learn more of Christ if it's outside his preconceived notions or just because of what he's heard. Sad. It makes my heart hurt. It hurts the way it hurt so deeply every single day as a missionary. It hurts that way it hurts when I see my family or friends make poor decisions or doubt or struggle. Maybe that's charity? God's love for them right?

bold blossoms

check out the new floral design blog at:

boldblossoms.blogspot.com

and in case you haven't hopped on over yet, check out the site at:

boldblossoms.com

Thanks friends!

loved loved loved the insanity of this past weekend

a quick post, but if I don't do it now, Monday will come and then Friday will be gone before I know it, and I won't ever write about it. i have a feeling this might turn into a much more personal post than I planned 30 seconds ago, but it might just all spill out as I continue typing.

the rundown:
Thursday 12pm, leave for Utah.
Thursday 11:30pm, arrive in Orem.

Friday 8am, go to red mountain wholesaler. get new biz account set up. order flowers for emily & micah's wedding. Attempt to get Utah driver's license...get screwed by the DMV as always and waste 2 hours of my life.

Friday 12pm, drive to American Fork, pick up Zupas lunch for me and Mom. Go to Mom's middle school in Saratoga Springs, Utah and have the best mommie-daughter lunch date with her awkward fellow teachers. I really admire my Mom for finishing school and sticking through student teaching even though she doesn't want to be a full-time teacher. she's one of my greatest heroes.

Friday 4pm, leave with the family to the BYU game and tailgate party. hottest day ever. i was totally dehydrated the whole time I was in Utah, and I was literally retaining water. My fingers were super swollen and I felt bloated all weekend, and just kept drinking and drinking so much water.

Friday 6-8pm, feel terribly embarrassed for BYU's football team. What sport were they playing? I left at half time to walk to my mission reunion at the wilk.

Friday 8pm, attend mission reunion and feel super lame and awkward and old. nobody from my time was there, except the Watterson's of course, which is really why I wanted to go in the first place. I sure miss Nila Watterson in my regular life. I need to make it a habit of emailing and calling her much more regularly. My life is so much richer and so blessed because she, and her husband, are a part of it.

Friday 10pm, snuggle time with my siblings on the giant bed with a movie. perfection. bliss. love it. totally all fell asleep during the first half of the movie.

Saturday 10am, watch general conference.

Saturday 12pm, drive to AF for lunch with my bestie Laura. again, bliss. love her. miss her. love her. can't wait to live back in utah and be able to spend time with her. she is literally one of those people that we were instantaneously friends, and God put her directly in my life for so many reasons. what an incredible person and friend. i love her so much.

Saturday 2pm, watch general conference.

Saturday 4pm, try to sell my neighbors my wedding event floral services, unsuccessfully so far. i'll still snag it though, you just watch me. Complete Orem City biz license application and tax forms.

Saturday 5:30pm, fix Diane's computer and head to dinner with the girls...me, mom, diane and jacookie monster. eat ourselves silly at carabbas. amazingly delicious, but I totally should've thought about the fact that I had a date after priesthood session which would be involving food. shopping with the girls. attack at bath and body works, but smelt so good.

Saturday 8:30pm, almost chicken out and not even get in my car to drive to thanksgiving point for a date with a boy that I met online...yes...online. some lds dating website. uber awkward right? i guess desperate times call for desperate measures. we'd been talking everyday for 2 weeks. he lives in slc, so we decided since I was in town, we should meet. i went with little to no expectations, but was still uncommonly nervous, and I don't know why. i think i was nervous, because in talking for 2 weeks, I actually really liked this guy so far, and maybe I didn't want to blow it, or I didn't want to be disappointed or a million other things running through my head. but man am I so happy I went. that I didn't bail out on the opportunity. this guy is incredible and we had an amazing time. this deserves a complete post of it's own, which maybe will come soon, because I know that's all you really want is more details on this portion. patience my dears, patience. incredible. which makes me all the more nervous about the whole thing.

Sunday 1:30am, finally go to sleep.

Sunday 8:00am, snuggle and pillow talk time when Mom and Josh crawled into bed with me wanting to hear about my date. so awesome. i love love love love love love love my family so much. there just aren't words. Make yummy pancakes, bacon and hashbrowns for breakfast. yum.

Sunday 10am, watch general conference, try to stay awake. I shouldn't have been out so late with a great man last night. hehehehe.

Sunday 1:30pm, leave for California with my friend Lindsey. drive. drive. drive. and drive some more. longest day of driving ever. it felt like we drove for 3 days straight, when in reality, it was only like 10.5 hours.

Sunday 10:30pm, arrive home in San Clemente. Talk on the phone to the wonderful man mentioned earlier for 40 minutes.

Sunday 11:45pm, blogging about the crazy weekend when all i should be doing is going to bed.

Ok, so I actually ended up leaving out the juicy personal details. maybe I'm not ready to share it all yet. but it was an awesome whirlwind of a weekend. i'm beyond exhausted and going to sleep. more to come soon, hopefully.  :)

Goodnight.