Infinitely More

Something that's been interesting about posting on here is how many people read it that I actually know. I'm cool with sharing things with strangers, but when it comes to people I know? It's awkward. Then again, it's probably good - I say so much more on here than I would in person, which I think would be true about anyone whose thoughts you were reading rather than hearing... if that makes any sense.

The more people learn about the fact that I have a 'muscle disorder', the more they genuinely treat me differently. I wish I could show this quote by Jeffrey R. Holland to all of them - "We are infinitely more than our limitations and our afflictions." I am literally the exact same person I was a month ago. I like to think I grew a little more as a person (not heightwise, I totally wish though), but besides that, nothing's changed. Believe it or not, I've known my entire life that I have this muscle disorder. I didn't know so much what it meant, & I didn't have to deal with it as much, but it's always been a part of me. The fact that you now know about it doesn't change anything about me. And here's the thing about the changes I've had to make & how I feel day to day - it's not a big deal. It might sound like a big deal, but honestly, for me it is truly just living. It just feels like life & I'm living it! Kay?(;

Okay. That's really only one of the purposes of me writing this post, but I wanted to throw that out there!

The second & actual point of this is that we are all so much more than any aspect of our lives. You're so much more than the number of friends you have, your grades, what clubs you're in & whether or not you were asked to Prom. Your potential is limitless. Today doesn't define the rest of your life. Choose to treat today like the small part of eternity it is & you'll recognize how little the 'big' things really are. Don't let the dumb things define you.

It's funny reading through people's Twitter accounts & seeing how unhappy so many of them are. I get that it's just a snapshot of their lives, but holy cow - it feels like 98% complaining. And I get it. LIFE IS HARD. HIGH SCHOOL IS HARD. I'll be the first to say it. But it's such a small part of everything. Four years - basically three where I live - of your life that won't matter ten years from now. Things that seem so dramatic, & frustrating, & all important in the moment. You're more than those moments. Your life is more than the hard things today, next week & next year. Keep your perspective. I promise it makes all the difference.

-Savannah

God's Plan

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that God is right. Always. His plan is the very best because He can see it all - especially compared to our short-term views. It's so much easier to focus on what we want right now, & not see the long-term consequences of our decisions.

Basically what I'm rambling about is this - trust in God. Wherever you are in life right now, whether you're at the lowest of lows or life is pretty grand for you, turn yourself over to God. I promise His plan for you is better than anything you can envision or create for yourself, & He'll carry you through every step of it.

I've seen this a lot in my own life lately. Let's be honest, if I had it my way I would have kept going to full days of school, stayed in the school play, & ignored anything I was dealing with. Fortunately God intervened & I realized that what I was doing wasn't what I needed to be doing. So I took a big step & switched over to half days. Best decision EVER. And of course it was - it's what the spirit kept telling me to do. Has it been easy? In some ways, yes. Other ways not so much! I had to drop my theater class & I miss it so much more than I thought I would - I seriously ask my friends every day what they did in theater, haha! That's been frustrating to give up something that I genuinely love doing. Same thing with dropping out of the school play - frustrating.

But - when God closes a door, He opens a window(; In this case the window was a play at our community theater. This show doesn't involve any dancing, & with cutting back on school, I'm finally able to handle something like that. I tried out yesterday & I'm so excited to see how it goes. Whether I make it or not, I'm so grateful to God for directing me in a new path & giving me new opportunities, however small they may be. When we're obedient to His will, we'll find our peace!

God's plan may not be exactly what we want it to be. Maybe it's nothing like what we want it to be! And it doesn't come without its trials & sorrows. But I can promise you this - it's the best way. When you're struggling, turn to Him & ask Him what needs to change. Be patient. Trust in the Lord & His timing. Whether today, next week, or 3 years from now, it will all work out - in one way or another!

-Savannah

I Love Conference

As many of you probably know, the LDS church had general conference this last weekend. General conference lasts Saturday & Sunday, two weekends a year (April & October). Basically it's where members of the Latter-Day Saint church gather together to hear modern revelation from prophets and apostles of God. It's one of my favorite weekends of the entire year! It's always exactly what I need to hear, when I need to hear it. It's how I knew I wanted to get my patriarchal blessing two years ago, & it brought me so much peace last year when I was sick (especially President Uchtdorf's talk, 'Grateful in Any Circumstance'). This conference brought even more faith & answers. Here are a couple of the many amazing quotes from conference & what they meant to me!

This last month of starting school has been so hard on me. I'm a fan of high school for sure, but the walking & the stairs are murder on my legs. It's all caused this 'flare-up' of CMT (if you haven't read my 'Learned More Than Lost' post I highly recommend reading it first, so you're not totally confused(; ) that's lasted for the entire month and is still going strong. Basically it gives me really bad acid reflux by weakening my stomach muscles & causing a certain type of hernia (not the kind that needs surgery, honestly I'm not really sure how this all works!) that pushes up on my ribs & chest. It also weakens my hands and arms, so my fingers clench and my wrists hurt. I get seriously shaky so it feels like I'm on vibrate. Mostly though, it affects my legs. From my feet to my thighs, the pain ranges from electric to achy to 'how do I even walk right now'. I'm tired a lot of the time & in pain almost as often. Overcoming that mentally & getting up and going on with life when everything is screaming at me not to is incredibly hard! I for sure have good days & I have bad days, but it's learning to find a way to carry on & be happy through the rough ones. There were so many talks in conference about trials and being able to overcome them through Christ. This quote means worlds to me! He knows what each and every one of us is going through, and He is there through it all - if we're willing to turn to Him. Sometimes it feels like no one can really understand what having a disorder that affects your nerves is like, because it's not very visible. Unless you're wearing braces or a boot, no one can see what's wrong with you. Knowing that Christ understands & has been through everything we're going through is such a comforting thing!

So, with this CMT thing, I've been missing a ton of school & a lot of play practice. I really can't make it through a full day of school, I'm so tired & ready to be done by 4th hour, which has made me miss my 4th-6th hours wayyy more than I should be. The dancing at play practice was also really hard on me - one 2 hour play practice made me so sore, I missed 2 days of school. So, I've had to make a few decisions. One of those was to quit the play. I'm sad to be giving up something I love so much, but I know it's really the right thing to do. More than anything I feel peaceful about it, & I can't wait to see the finished show!

The other decision I made was to switch over to half days of school. This was a hard one. I dropped my first three hours, one of which was theater. That was a something I debated back and forth on for a long time! I LOVE that class. But. I fasted about it, prayed about it, & thought about it more than anything else, and I know this is what I need to do. I'll be taking all of my core classes online & going to school for the extra classes I can keep in the afternoon, like choir & seminary. I don't feel like this decision was out of my control, & I don't feel at all like I'm giving anything up by making it. I could've forced it & kept doing full days. I didn't want to. And I know that it's God's will that I be home part-time. Like the quote says - "The Lord will guide us to & through our next steps." This is my next step, & one I'm making with The Lord on my side. I'm so grateful to have that spiritual direction in my life - I don't know what I would do without it!! 

Something I haven't been doing as much as I should be is trusting in the Lord! I was reminded of that this last week when I fasted & prayed about switching to half days. One thing I still struggle with & haven't done is read my scriptures!! For seminary we're supposed to be somewhere in Genesis, annnd I'm in Moses 3... Whoops. Conference reminded me that I need to get in shape & pick up my scriptures! 

So, to sum up a beautiful conference with plenty of answers & words I needed to hear, I'll leave you with this quote from Koichi Aoyagi - "Put God first, regardless of the trials you face. Love God. Have faith in Christ, & entrust yourself to Him in all things." I promise your answers are in Christ. How lucky are we that we have modern revelation from God through our prophets & apostles?? Turn to Him, listen to His prophet's words, & you will find the peace you need!

-Savannah

Top Mutual Ideas

Last week my Mia Maid presidency met to plan our class activities for the rest of the year. My ward also has meetings at the beginning of the year to plan most of our activities, but no matter how hard you try some activities end up last minute! I've been going through Pinterest & I've found SO many fun ideas!! Some of them are last minute, some have been tried out by my own ward, & some are classics - but all of them are/look so great! Whether you have a planning meeting coming up or your plans fell through last minute, hopefully you find this list helpful!

#1 - Ice Blocking/Sledding
These are two of the greatest, most basic mutual activities out there. Some of my favorite memories come from sledding & ice blocking with the young men/women in my ward. If you haven't heard of ice blocking (where have you been??) basically you buy a block of ice from whatever grocery store you can find it, put a towel over it, sit on it and slide down a hill! I highly recommend doing this during the summer because the ice will melt faster, which makes it so much more fun - my ward went last week & we had so much fun! Sledding is pretty self explanatory, just throw in some cookies & hot chocolate and you're good to go!

#2 - SERVICE.
Service in any form is a good option! One of my favorites my ward has done was sewing bags for Days for Girls kits. We've also done babysitting nights during Relief Society activities (or during the Christmas season so parents can go Christmas shopping), gone caroling in nursing homes, and made meals and gifts for new families in our ward. We're also right by a temple & once we went and put post-it notes on car windows there, thanking them for their temple attendance. Look around you and find the things that need to be done in your ward! Rake leaves, heart attack your bishop, visit the elderly in your ward (you have no idea how much some of them appreciate this - key note is 'some', haha!). It's a good last minute activity and it's sure to make someone's day!

#3 - Photography
We haven't ever done anything like this but I think it sounds like so much fun! Take a camera or two and let the young women (or young men!) go take pictures. If you have a temple nearby that's definitely a good place to go! If you can, have a serious photographer come and teach them some tips on how to take better pictures. I don't know about you, but I love taking pictures & I would be more than happy to spend an hour doing it! Plus you could definitely apply the activity to Knowledge in Personal Progress.

#4 - Spa Night
Okay, this is definitely not one for the Young Men, but it's a classic all the same! You can definitely go full out and have different stations like painting nails, doing hair & really anything you can come up with, but one of my favorite last minute activities was when we made a brown sugar body scrub (like this one here!) & decorated the jars we put it in, then took a few to the girls who weren't there. It was fun, simple & easy!

#5 - Life Sized Games
These activities definitely take more prep, but they're so worth it & way fun! A couple months ago my ward played Angry Birds (someday I'll write a post about that & link it here) which I was in charge of, and I got a lot of my inspiration from THIS & THIS blog. It was a crazy chaotic activity but it was a lot of fun! We're also playing 'Hungry Hungry Hippos' in a week or two (like on this blog HERE) & I'll have to let you know how that goes too! I'm sure there are more ideas like these - they're fun, big & definitely memorable!

#6 - Shaving Cream
You would be amazed by the fun you can have with shaving cream! We had a 'pie war' once where we filled up pie tins with shaving cream, put on garbage bags and went to town attacking each other with them - we ate actual pie after, of course! (There was a purpose to us doing this, we had to earn the pies through personal progress) We've also played shaving cream Twister where we put shaving cream on each circle. Another way to play this would be to dye the shaving cream to match the color of dot it's on, or to play it with paint - that's how I would LOVE to do it, so if you do be sure to invite me (; Be willing to be a little out there & you can come up with fun and easy activities!

#7 - Baking
So simple. (What can I say, I like the basics!) Just get together & bake something! It applies to Knowledge because you're learning how to make it, or you can apply it to Good Works #2 (helping your family with meals for two weeks) & make a freezer meal or two. The Mia Maids in my ward will be making enchiladas in a month or two to fill that exact requirement! Another idea is to bake bread & donate it for sacrament meeting - just be sure to let the Young Men know that that's what you're doing! (;

#8 - Missionaries
Use a mutual activity to remember your ward's missionaries! Make them care packages, write them letters, send them pictures - let them know you're thinking about them! If you have any recently returned missionaries, have them come speak, or do something with the missionaries currently serving in your ward! So many ideas & options.

There are really so many ideas for mutual activities. Do what fits your ward, keep the spirit & have fun!

-Savannah