The Present....

For Family Home Evening Monday night we had a potluck dinner. I was put in charge of the drinks…because well you all know how I cook..haha. anyway about 3:30 Hermana G. calls and she´s like “Em, I need your help! I have to go to the dentist can you come over and make my casserole, and then baby sit it?” well I arrived and she nervously left the kitchen under mine and Gabi´s hands. Well as you can see from my beautifully documented photos…I cooked! And after that I washed dishes!!!! (and I was happy about it), and as a side note…I didn´t gag! I also included pics of our FHE group, Herm G., the Ottosens, Josh and Melanie and Owen, and the Wards. (which I found out sister Wards real name is Lori Ann…how neat it that?) Josh is here as a doctor, he goes out to the remote villages to help, dragging Melanie and four month old Owen along. He´s on a fullbright scholarship, which pays for them to be here.
The other day I was chatting with Cynthia online through Gmail. She´s so cute and I miss the crap out of her but her new quote is: “Yesterday is History, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that´s why they call it the present…” I decided that was a good quote to use to start off my Happy New Year Blog. Although i´ll have plenty to write regarding however it is we celebrate the new year I decided to write this one in the mean time…
This time of the year often brings moments of reflection as we think about all that´s happened in the past year. We often reflect to New Years resolutions, accomplishments, trials and triumphs, family events, life changing decisions etc. etc. I hope as we sit here this New Years we look back with a smile, we see success and we see ourselves as better people than we were last January.
My year of 2008 sure brought a round of decisions, that as I look back I know they shaped the person I am today. Each month brought huge events and I look back and I think phew…glad 08´s over with, let´s bring on 09! I think back to March of this year, and I remember saying to my mom, Gol I just wish this year was done and over with, and now as I sit here heading into 2009, I can´t believe 08 is over!
We each make decisions each day that determine how our tomorrows will turn out, and not only do our decisions affect our lives, but they affect all those around us. And of course because we´re all blessed with agency other people´s decisions in return affect our lives. But it´s how we choose to react to the comings and goings of each day that determine who we are. And as I sit here writing this, I ask myself the question…how is the Emily of 2008, different from the Emily of 2007, and who do I want the Emily of 2009 to be?

The world is changing all around me, constantly. The 2007 Emily said goodbye in 08 to the familiar life of HighSchool, she hung up her cheer skirt, and flipped her tassel at graduation, had a rude awakening to the world of sin, felt peace in the power of repentance, watched friends get married and have babies, fell in love, and embraced her dreams.
It´s weird, sometimes we make decisions to follow our dreams, and they lead us places we expected to be more glamorous and easy-so at times we think “Hey I got jipped! This isn´t how it was supposed to be!” but when is life ever? I hope in December of 2009 I look back at this experience and I know that even though it wasn´t at all what I expected, it was exactly what I signed up for…an adventure, and the experience of a life time.
Speaking of adventures…so the people here always say the busses are a safe way of transportation, because they always go the same route….they will never change directions in the middle of the route. So yesterday Gabi and I were taking a bus to the missionaries house, we paid our 25 cents and we getting settled in when we realized that the bus was taking a mysterious wrong turn…we thought for a minute we´d gotten on the wrong bus, until every one else started freaking out at the bus driver…he just simply kept on a turning…and Gabi and I were like…what in the heck is going on? So we got off the bus, and went to catch another one…well we were a little nervous because now we know…the buses do just change directions when they want to…
Before I came here I fell in love with the card game Golf. (nine innings) I would play with Kendell and claim it was just a game of luck, he´d shake his head, try really hard to put on a thick western drawl and then he´d say “nope Em, ya gotta know when hold ´em and ya gotta know when to fold ´em.” That´s also a lesson i´ve had to learn here. Each day is like a round of Golf you start out with your cards, and you could hope really bad you´ll get lucky and just have a good day, or you can get up, realize you got dealt crappy cards but you can play them, make the best of them, and learn to upgrade. As the new year comes and goes I hope I learn to upgrade a little more, I learn to let go of the bad times, and learn to hold on to the good ones. As far as more new year´s resolutions go…well I hope to know the scriptures more. I read them, but I’d like to know them…be able to flip to references off the top of my head, account stories by knowing where they are found in the Book of Mormon, and be able to not stutter over my stories. I´d also like to once, before I leave here…be able to bear my testimony in Spanish at Fast and Testimony meeting. Also I refuse to surrender my size five pants.

Each day truly is a gift…a present. I hope we all remember to remember “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that´s why they call it the present.” Hold on to your gifts, don´t wish them away. Remember, “ live in the moment, but plan for the future”. I wish all of you a prosperous new year! Celebrate it safely, here New Years is bigger than Christmas. They all wear costumes, and dress up as clowns. Whole entire streets are blocked off for dancing and partying…men dressed as women will pull you out of your cars and demand you dance with them, and won´t let you go until you pay them…at midnight large statues are burned of world rulers they don´t particularly like…etc.etc. in other words…I am terrified to celebrate new years here…wish me luck! Haha
I love you all! It´s been great to hear from you all at Christmas time. Enjoy the snow for me, and Happy New Year!
Love,
Em