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Quote

"The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts--what we have done. It is an acknowledgement of the final effect of our acts and thoughts-- what we have become." - Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Friday, November 7, 2008

Short

Although you might think so, I'm not going to write about how short I am. Even thought that's what the title indicates.
I called it "Short" because this post is going to be short.
You guys need to vote! Vote for who is the prettiest in the world! We all need to know. Ya.
Also, I had a math test today, and I think I totally died. But I don't feel quite too bad cuz "Fred" and Taylor and Blayke and Brady and Lauren Frary and Chris and a bunch of other people did too. Lol. I know it's mean, but it makes me feel better. So ya. And "Fred" helped me with my math homework. Aaah! I believe that I am obssessed. Lol.
Anyway, that's it! Love you all!
-Rachel

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Hey guys!

So today, I was in math, and I was sitting on the counters in Mr. Cluff's room so that I could sit by Lauren and Taylor. Anyway, we were sitting there talking (not surprising) and all of a sudden, all these boys were hanging out by where we were. Lol and the best part was that "Fred" (read the post called "Jealous Me") was one of the boys. I told Taylor after class that I was obviously the reason that they had come over. (I was jk when I said it. I'm not that selfish.) Pretty much the whole time that I was sitting there, Taylor was trying to make me go sit closer to him, and of course I didn't. I'm not going to be that obvious. Jk. Anyway, I have Seminary with him tomorrow. Yay! I see him everyday pretty much. Lol. I like to refer to it as the highlight of my day.
I have a Modern History test tomorrow I think and I have a quiz in English. :( Not fun.
I put TONS more songs on again today. I now have 97 songs on there. I think that's fun.


I made this at Strauss' today when I was babysitting. It was on one of those light-up things with the colored peg things. I think it's wicked!
Anyway, I'm going to go get ready for bed. Night people!
-Rachel
PS. Jeff Johnson left for Brazil yesterday. So good luck to him on his mission!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

RESULTS OF THE POLL!!

The question asked was "Who is your favorite singer?"
TAYLOR SWIFT was the winner!
No one else was even voted for! So congrats Taylor!A little about Taylor Swift
Birthdate: December !3th
Color: White
Food: Cheesecake
Season: Summer
Hobbies: Driving FAST! and writing songs

Jealous Me

Hey what's up you guys? I put some new songs on. Lol. I hope you like them! You might think that some of them are weird but I like them.
Anyway, yesterday in math, the guy I like borrowed my pen. It's so stupid that I'm so happy about that, but I feel all special! And then today, he wrote my name up on the board. I volunteered to lead the music, and he was the one passing out assignments today. So ya! I think I'm kind of stupid though because there's this in my math class, we'll call her Jenny, and for the sake of the story we'll call the guy I like. . . Fred. Ok? So anyway, Jenny is one of those people that you look at and you think, "If I could be like you, every guy in this room would be digging me." She's nice and funny and skinny as a twig, and beautiful eyes, and NO BRACES, and her make-up and hair is always perfect, and she wears really trendy clothes, and I could go on and on. Anyway, Fred (LOL. He doesn't look like a Fred.) and a lot of the other freshman boys are always talking to her and they kind of flirt with her. Being the jealous meanie that I am, I sit there pretending not to care, when really I want to shove her in one of the lockers by Mr. Cluff's room (I'd probably put her in Taylor's cuz her's is right there) so that Fred will pay attention to me for more than 5 seconds. Anyway, there you go. I'm not trying to be mean about Jenny, I'm just telling how it is. Ya, so during seminary today, Fred payed attention to me for about 20 seconds! Yay! Thanks Fred! Jk.
Enough of that nonsense. May I just say that I love the show "Saturday Night Live." The only time I've ever seen it is during the election this last month. It is one of the most hilarious shows ever. They make fun of the candidates and stuff. It's pretty entertaining to watch the actors that are on there, try to act out the candidates. Will Farell was on there the other day, and he was George Bush. He was hilarious! They were acting out the endorsement of John McCain. And this one actor who's being Sarah Palin, she is so funny! Anyway, if you get the chance, you should watch it on nbc.com.
Right now I'm listening to Disturbia, and now it's going to be stuck in my head forever! Lauren and I were watching the music video today, and I was almost hyperventilating cuz that thing is so creepy! Lauren said it's supposed to be like a Halloweeny type song and I understand why. Although, it is a good song.
You've probably noticed the song "Don't Cha" by The cat Dolls. I know what you're thinking: "She is really weird if she put that on there!" Well, actually, I was introduced to that song at s Camp. Funnily enough, it was one of our cheers. And it was one of the most amazing cheers ever! Jk.
I also put on one of my favorite songs of all time. It's called "Song in My Head" by Julianne Hough. In the song, she's at a party, and she sees this guy sitting on the back of a truck. He's listening to the music that's playing, and swaying back and forth. In the chorus she says, "I don't know who sings it, I keep searching the radio, I just wanna hear it, so I can watch that video I got in my head of a blue-eyed boy, dancing in the bed of a two-tone ford. Oh is it love? I just can't say, but I've had that song in my head all day." Isn't that cute? I LOVE THAT SONG!!
I put on a song called "I heart ?" by Taylor Swift. It's a good song too. Anyway, my point is that I really did put on good songs.
Hmmm. . . what else to say. . . Oh ya!
My favorite movie star right now is Robert Downey Junior. He's on Iron Man!

And my favorite singer right now is Toby Keith. My favorite songs of his are, Go With Her, Love Me If You Can, and Wanna Talk About Me.
Anyway, there you go. I have to go do homework. :( Ttyl! :)
-Rachel

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Charity

Today I was reading a book called "Yearbook". (I've mentioned it before. It's a wonderful book that I recommend to all.) In it, a named Michaela and she says:

"I don't think parents understand how lonely it is to be a teenager. We can't embrace and cling to our parents for comfort; we've out grown that. We've outgrown it from them but still need it from someone. We are looking for someone to fill that void."

The first thing I thought was, "She's so right! No one ever understands us teenagers!"
My next thought was, "She's also right that we can't cling to our parents. That's like what a 4 year old would do."
Then I thought, "Then who can I cling to? There must be someone out there (other than a boy) who I can cling to. Or that understands me and cares for me enough to let me put all of my problems on their shoulders."
Looking back, I can't believe the answer didn't pop into my head at once. Instead it came during young womens today. We were talking about what it means to be dependable. Sister Winward talked about how being dependable means someone who is trust-worthy, responsible, hard working, honest, punctual, someone you can count on, and someone who is steadfast. The next thing she said totally answered my question. She said "Christlike." Hopefully no one noticed, but I sat there staring at her in disbelief. I could not believe that this hadn't been my first thought.
So now, I'm going to give you a little cyber-lecture about God's love.

First, I want to define charity. In the Bible Dictionary it says:

"Charity. The highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection; the pure love of Christ. It is never used to denote alms or deeds or benevolence."

Isn't that so cool? It didn't just say, the love of Christ, it said the pure love of Christ. I think that's so amazing.

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it in the last day, it shall be well with him."
-Moroni 7:47

Charity, this pure love of Christ, lasts forever! This is surely something we can't possibly be something we have within us right? Wrong!!! Joseph B. Wirthlin once said:

"Charity, or love, is the greatest principle in existence. If we can lend a helping hand to the oppressed, if we can aid those who are despondent and in sorrow, if we can uplift and ameliorate the condition of mankind, it is our mission to do it, it is an essential part of our religion to do it."

We all have the ability to purely love all those around us. We can show our charity towards others through service. Believe it or not, having charity within our hearts is a commandment. In 2 Nephi 26:30 it says:

". . . wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they were nothing. Wherefore, if they should have a charity they would not suffer the laborer in Zion to perish."

We need to show charity towards everyone else. But we also recieve it in return. Bonnie D. Parkin said:

"Charity is also the Lord's love for us, shown through His acts of service, patience, compassion, and understanding."

We can know of God's love for us by noticing the blessings in our everyday lives. Now how do we take that love from the Savior, and turn it into something that we can express to others? Marvin J. Ashton once said:

"Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself."

So expressing charity doesn't mean that we decide, "Today I'm going to show charity, but tomorrow I won't." We need to make it part of who we are.
As we seek to distribute our charity to those around us, we need to make sure that we are truly showing charity. A little "checklist" that we can use to ponder our actions is found in Moroni 7:45:

"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

So in other words; if it's truly charity that we have, we are kind, and we don't envy other people, we are not prideful, we think pure thoughts, we don't feel happy when we do or see unchristlike things, we bear all trials, and we believe in and hope for all things.
Charity isn't like an emotion really, even thought it is. I think it's more like a personality that everyone has the ability to have. It's a lot like faith. As you saw in our scripture "checklist", a lot of the things on there are things that are often used to describe faith. I thought that was pretty cool.
Ok I think I'm getting a bit off-topic. My whole point was that Jesus Christ understands us. He will always be there to be our crying shoulder, and He takes our sins and problems upon Him. We can always turn to Him in our times of trial and confusion.
My other point was that He shows us His pure love, so we need to make sure that we're doing our best to show others our pure love for them. We can do this through service, and when we do service, we are really serving the Lord. So that's how we can show God our pure love for Him.
I just want to finish by sharing an experience.
A couple weeks ago at mutual, Lauren said that her E.F.Y counselor had encouraged them all to get down on their knees and ask Heavenly Father if He truly loves them. I thought this was a great idea. So that night, I got down on my knees and said," Heavenly Father, I need to know for myself. Do you love me?" After that I sat on my bed and waited and waited for an answer. I was sure I would feel the spirit telling me, "Yes, I do love you." But that didn't happen. Instead, I had the feeling that I should look in the Topical Guide under "God, love of." So I did. I skimmed through, and one scripture caught my eye. So I turned to it and that scripture was, Jeremiah 31:3:

"The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."

I would just like to let all of you know that I have a sure testimony of this gospel. I know for certain that he loves all of us. He doesn't just feel affection for us. He loves us with a pure love, charity. He also knows each one of us and that he will never abandon us. He'll always be there when we need Him. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

This lecture kind of turned into a testimony I guess. Thanks for letting me go on and on. For the last testimony meetings, I've kind of been wanting to get up, but I'm too much of a chicken. So maybe this will count. I bore my testimony to the like 6 people that read my blog. hopefully it influences you guys as much as it would in a testimony meeting. Lol. Anyway, thanks again for reading my blog. I Love you all!
Love- Rachel