A note on my stance

I want you to know that this scares me, more than most things that I have ever done. My heart is pounding as I write these words. I fear that I could hurt others feelings, damage relationships, and even lose friendships because of my own opinion. But I have a very strong feeling that what I believe and know to be true, needs to be said. I pray that the spirit will direct me in the words I am going to share with you.

Please know that this is my testimony. If it wasn't my testimony it would be ok for you to argue. You can disagree, but I ask that you please be respectful of my own testimony. It is not my intent to argue or go into political issues. I love and respect everyone and this is just so I can make my stance clear, not to bash on others opinions. We are all very different, and are entitled to our own choices and opinions, so I ask you to respect mine and respect others as well.

You probably knew what was coming. Yes. I am going to talk about same-sex attraction and gay marriage.

My stance on the issue is exactly the same as what my church believes. This is because like I have said so many times before I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on this earth today. I sustain fully, without question, President Monson as prophet, seer, and revelator of our church, and his counselors, as well as the quorum of the twelve apostles as leaders of our church.

I know that our Heavenly Father speaks through our prophet President Thomas S. Monson. What our prophet says, is exactly what Heavenly Father wants us to know.

D&C 1:38 says- 
 38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my^aword shall not pass away, but shall all be ^bfulfilled, whether by mine own ^cvoice or by the ^dvoice of my ^eservants, it is the ^fsame.

Through that I take everything that our prophet says to heart. I believe every word that comes out of his mouth to counsel us is from our Father in Heaven. The counsel he gives us is the counsel that Heavenly Father is giving us. That should not be taken lightly. 

The LDS church has come out with a website called- mormonsandgays.org 
This website explains everything and more about how our church stands on the topic of same sex attraction. I believe and agree with everything that is put on this website.

In the header of the home page it says- 
"The experience of same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people. The attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is. Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them. With love and understanding, the Church reaches out to all God’s children, including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters."

That last sentence brings tears to my eyes, "including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters". OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 
It makes my heart ache when I see fellow members of our church say unkind things to our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. In the website our church leaders clearly state that we love them just as much as any other person. 

It also states that our church does believe that the feelings of same sex attraction are real. "The attraction itself is NOT a sin" but just like any other of the feelings we have, we should not act on it. Just like if someone had the desire to smoke, it is not a "sin" until it is acted upon. 

Now to get down to the real issue that has been making me squirm in my seat every time I log onto facebook. 

Here is another statement from the website- 
"The Church’s approach to this issue stands apart from society in many ways. And that’s alright. Reasonable people can and do differ. From a public relations perspective it would be easier for the Church to simply accept homosexual behavior. That we cannot
do, for God’s law is not ours to change. There is no change in the Church’s position of what is morally right. But what is changing — and what needs to change — is to help Church members respond sensitively and thoughtfully when they encounter same-sex attraction in their own families, among other Church members, or elsewhere."

From A Proclamation to the Family written by our brethren- 
"THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity."

Anyone who has studied the plan of salvation or have been through the temple know that marriage IS ordained of god, and the ONLY way for it to work is between a man and a women. That's how the plan has always been, and that is how it will always stay. 

Our church is NOT trying to force our views on anyone else. People have asked us what our view is on the topic, and we have come out in a mature respectful manner and said that what we believe, is what we have always believed. 

This is my only issue-
I have seen countess friends and family post things that are either for, or against the topic of gay rights or marriage. We need to love one another and accept, like I've already said, that we are all different and that we can, and will, have different opinions. Please be sensitive to others and I ask if you are a member of the LDS church that you be especially careful about what you say to others who do not have the same views. You are the face, and sometimes can be the voice of our church to your non-member friends. I ask that you pray and ask your Father in Heaven if you are unsure about what you should believe. He will NEVER steer you wrong. 

I know that my friends and family who ARE members of the church may not have the same views as our prophets or myself. But I want you to know that I still love you and respect your opinion. If you need help finding what our prophets have said, I encourage you to look at the countless straightforward things the church has put out. I warn you, only things that the church has approved of (lds.org, church magazines like the Ensign, New Era, LDSLiving or mormonsandgays.org like I have said).

I love you all and I hope you know that this is truly out of love and respect to everyone and that I felt like I needed to take a clear stance on the subject. :) 

My worst fear?

This might sound completely pathetic and selfish, but my worst fear right now is getting into a car crash on the way to the MTC.
Even just writing this I sound completely stupid.
But really. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry and go into a state of depression. So I'm going to make this quick. If I died, that would be ok... then I could just serve a mission in heaven. If I didn't die, and was even a little bit injured my mission would have to be pushed back.
Pushed back.
I do not think my poor heart could handle that. I know that sounds completely selfish, but I just want to serve a mission so badly, and it is literally so close I can taste it (I'm not kidding).

To go along with that I will not and CANNOT let any of these things happen-
Serious Diseases or any sickness really
Food Poisoning
Robbery
Car Problems
Weird things that develop like teeth issues or I dunno... skin issues...

I can't think of anymore.

Really ANYTHING that will keep me off my mission. I need to be extremely careful... I think I might just have to lock myself up in my room for 7 days until I know the coast is clear...

This is seriously the most frightening thing in the world to me right now.

Why I am who I am... I have proof.

Sometimes your parents tell you they are your parents.

Sometimes they show you your birth certificate or photos.

But sometimes, you just have plain proof.

This is why I am who I am... you will never doubt again that my parents made me after these... 

I'm pretty sure that I have taken a picture exactly like this before. 

I probably have one like this of me somewhere too... 

This is my ALL time favorite picture of my dad! My mom wouldn't let me hang it up :(

The matching one... at least there isn't one of them together... I wonder if they ever thought that their children would find these... lesson learned... burn the pictures you are questioning.  

Yepppp. That's me. I knew I took after my dad. 

This one is just a beauty! Matching stripped shirts they wore on their honey moon! 

This one shows that she is my creeper sister... seriously... this came right out of a horror movie!

Oh man. She's insane... 

That's our family for ya.... 

This was just a good year!

Here we are again, just as our brilliant selves. 

Ash is my older sister right? We look really happy... 

Here again. I would totally do something like this. My parents did make me (tear)

Here is me in my glory, and Ash in hers. 

Yep. That's my dad. He would have been the best grandpa ever ;) but I'm sure he is right now in heaven :)

My cousins caught it too! I think I have ADD... look at me in the back looking at or through that thing... 

Here is my creeper sister Ashley. 

Yes. This is just awesome.  

Hhahahahahaah I just love Katelyn's face! They look like mini grumpy grandmas

Oh man. This is my favorite picture of Kate and Karl. Seriously! Just stare at it for 10 seconds! Katelyn is NOT crying by the way. That's just a funny face she made. 

Here I am again... 

This is exactly how my wedding will be. I haven't seen like this one in a while... you know, where they ACTUALLY shove it in each other's faces. It's pure magic. And totally my mom and dad to do that. 

This is just... wrong...... hahaha

On the back of this picture is says they were sitting on ice and that's why their faces were like this. Hahaha they would. 

Here is me. Again. I got some weird genes people. 

Here is my dad in his glory :) 

My Farewell

I put this story on my other blog, and if you want to hear anything about my mission you can follow it, or... something. I tried for hours to get it so you could get the posts by email, but I failed. Sorry about that.
Click here to see the story! (boring btw)

A little more about... me

Peanut m&m's are NOT worth the calories. Even if it is chocolate.
I prefer all the blinds and the windows to be open. Because I like the smell of... air... outside.
If I was rich, I would have a house that was basically just windows. Even glass floors...
I hate it when people touch my butt. A lot. If someone slaps my butt I just want to punch them in the face. My mom knows that. She takes advantage of it, but she also pays for it.
I do not like pictures of myself. Unless I am making an abnormal hidious face. The uglier, the better! As you probably already knew...
I tend to over exaggerate... (tend is actually an under-exaguration)
If I could listen to one band for the rest of my life, hands down it would be Rascal Flatts. Album? Feels Like Today.
I punch really hard. Sometimes like a man.
I have strong muscles, and huge arms (thanks mom) it basically looks like I work out a lot. But they aren't worth anything. I am not strong at all.
I think I have weird shaped ears, earphones will not stay in, and if they do, they hurt me!
Sometimes I wish you could just listen to the conversation on the phone like you can go through texts. If someone invents that, they will be my hero. Or, if someone already has, I would like to be informed.
I do not like the new iTunes. At. All.
If I could pick one person to be on a desert island with me for the rest of my life, I'd probably be my mom, Ash, Karl, and Kate. Yeah. I can't pick one. They all make me laugh and I'm glad I'm stuck with them forever :)
I'd rather be a little bit sunburned all the time then my normal pasty white. I got mistaken for tan in a weird lighting the other day. It was a proud moment.
I wish everyone in the world kept a blog. It's pretty much my favorite thing.
I'm obsessed with quotes. I am planning on having a whole wall covered in quotes when I get a house.
I blow off steam or stress by playing the piano. Oddly, I didn't even figure this out on my own. My mom told me and I was like  oh yeah, I do.
I like to lay on the floor... I don't like comfy bed, I feel like I'm suffocating or something... I decided that when I get married and I'm poor, we'll just sleep on the floor... hope he's ok with it...
I could watch the same movie over and over again. I had a friend inform me that I would have seen as many movies as him in my life (which is a lot) if I didn't watch the same movie over and over again.
I can make the craziest faces probably in the world.
Sunday nights make me go crazy for some super odd reason.
I cannot play the piano while people are singing. It completely throws me off! I have no idea why... but I'm working on it.
I have to change the background on my phone every once in a while or I get bored.
I pretty much always have music playing. Either I'm singing it in my head, out loud, or it's playing in the car or the computer.
I hate the dentist.
I talk to much.
I have no clothing style. I copy what other people do, and usually fail at it. For fear of being put on What not to Wear, I counsel myself to not wear sweatshirts and sweats every day. It sometimes works.
I am super flaky. I don't mean, dandruff, I flake on people quite often. It's something I'm working on.
I don't do laundry until it is absolutely necessary.
Country is the only way to go.

2013 Cruise!

*this is a pretty boring post. It really is just for a journal entry*

Our cruise was pretty much amazing. There are lots of comparisons to make with our other cruise, but I'll get to that a little bit later. 

We decided to go on this cruise when my Grandma Ruth had said she'd always wanted to go on a cruise, but it was too late now. If you know my mom, you would know that she takes that as a challenge. So, for our last vacation before we all move on with our lives, we decided to take my Grandma on a short 4 day cruise from Long Beach California, to Catalina Island, and then to Ensanada Mexico. 

Saturday was pretty difficult. We wanted to actually go on our cruise the week before we did. Everything was perfect about that week, except, Karly had to take the ACT on Tuesday. Or it literally would have been thee perfect week.

Why it WAS NOT the perfect week? 

1. We were going to miss Bachelor FINALE (sad that this comes in as number one)

2. It was college spring break so all my friends were coming down. 

3. My mom had the humanitarian thing on Saturday so we couldn't leave till late Saturday or early Sunday. 

4. We had our family "pi" party. 

5. There was a mission farewell in our ward I wanted to go to. 

6. Ashley got invited to play in the all-star game that week. 

7. The girls had their girls camp kick off. 

Crazy. I know. And guess what? The week before, nothing. Nothing was going on. 

But that's ok :) we still got out there and had a ton of fun! 

We left Saturday afternoon like I said from our house. I didn't want to miss church at all on Sunday, so I told my mom we had to do something that would make it so we would be able to still go. 

As we left our house finally after everything was done (we already were leaving a lot later than we planned because my mom had to re-pack the car and we forgot about our formal dresses), we realized that we had forgot something... Ash's book for her homework. Yeah. We went back for it when we were almost to A.F. (even though she didn't touch it the whole time haha). But it was good because we had forgotten some other things too (which is to be expected with our family). Not quite good enough though- after we picked up my Grandma we made it to Provo and my mom realized that we had forgotten our passports. We were trying to think of ways to have someone send them to us or something because that would put an extra hour on our trip. But we just ended up going back to get them. 

FINALLY we were off. The drive was long, and not too bad. It was a little harder with my grandma though, one more person, so someone had to sit in the very back with all the stuff. And, she's a little old so we had to take quite a few bathroom breaks. 

We stayed with my mom's cousin Carey. They were so nice to us as always and we had a ton of fun at their church and playing games and eating yummy food on Sunday. 

We left Monday morning for the beach. On our way all of us were dancing to "Party in the U.S.A" of course, because we were in Cali. Ash did this weird dance move and right as she was doing it this truck with 2 boys that looked about my age (and quite attractive) just busted a gut laughing at her. Then, of course, we all started peeing our pants with laughter. She said- "I've never been so embarrassed in my life!" Then to make things even more awkward and funny they drove by the other side of our car and started doing the same dance move. We laughed pretty hard haha. 

We went to the beach, but it was way too cold to get all the way in the water. So we just splashed a little bit and messed around. 

We got on our cruise and just ate and hung out for a while. 

The next day we arrived in Catalina. It was so pretty! If only it just had the blue water that the Caribbean did, then it would have been perfect. Everyone there just drives golf carts around because the streets aren't that big, and neither is the island. So we decided that we would rent one to see the island. I think this was my Grandmas' favorite part. She talked about it for a while after that. The island was beautiful and we were able to see it all in a really fun way. We also looked around the shops and spent a while in Del Sol. It still wasn't warm all day, but for about 2 hours, the full sunshine was out, so we laid on the beach for a while.

The rest of the night we relaxed on the boat, eating, reading, and laying out. 

The next day was Ensanada. On our last cruise we went to Cozumel Mexico, but we didn't get to see any of it because we did an excursion with dolphins. So this time we decided we would experience it all. We took an hour long bus ride to the blow hole. It was pretty cool. But I'm not sure if it was worth 27$ a person and an hour bus ride. But we had fun! Then we walked down "the street" with all the sellers... It was a good thing we learned how to say no in Jamaica, these people were exactly the same. Except they have the best tacos and churos you can even imagine. Before we did all of this, we walked around the streets shopping and things. We found a puppet that we loved for only 3$. We named him Monte (mon-tee). He's actually really creepy. Then when we were at the blow hole we found one that was a grandpa that we couldn't pass up. After the blow hole we got back on the boat and couldn't stop thinking about our puppets. We wanted more. So- we decided that we would get back off the ship to get 3 more. It was going to be hard though because we didn't have much time before our dinner time (8:15) so we had to run a little bit and hurry. I do not advise this. Although it was totally worth it to find our precious puppets, 5 girls in the streets of a sketchy part of Mexico in the night? Not a good idea. But we got them! We played with them the rest of the night. 

The next day was a sea day. We didn't have much to do so we read a lot, took some naps, hung out eating and going to shows. We even made a music video. It will be coming soon, don't get too excited. That was a super fun day because my sisters and I stayed up till 1:00am making this cray cray video. The next day was the worst. We had to wake up early and get off. Checking my grandmas wheelchair back in, was a nightmare. It literally took 25minutes. We could have gone through the line to get out at least 4 times. We were getting so frustrated. We have no idea why it took so long. But it made me want to punch somebody. The rest of getting off was to be expected from our last cruise. But the beginning was horrible. We drove home that night because Karly had to be back for prom. 

All in all, it was super fun! Quick and simple. That's what we needed it to be for my grandma though. 

What we didn't like about Carnival:

The food wasn't even half as good as Norwegian's. 

The boat was a lot older, and more confusing to get around. I still didn't have it down by the time we got off. On Norwegian's I could find my way around like a pro the second day. 

The boat wasn't designed as well, that's why it was so hard to get around. 

There wasn't as much to do. There was always multiple things going on on Norwegian, but there didn't seem to be as many things to pick from on Carnival. 

The hot tub was never open. That probably has to do with the millions of college students on board, but still... it stunk. We were always in it on our last one. 

The pool was way too cold. Hardly anyone ever got in. 

My mom spend hours trying to check in online but we could never do it. So we had to input all our information when we got there, which took a long time. 

My mom also said she hated their website. 

The dinning room didn't have as many choices, and the deserts were not good. I couldn't stop eating deserts on Norwegian, I took one bite of something and didn't want the rest. 

We could feel the boat moving, all the time. We only felt it one night on Norwegian, and that night was the same as every day on Carnival. I'm still recovering from it, and I don't get motion sick. 

Getting off the boat didn't seem as organized, but it wasn't too bad. 

We liked the many different choices of fancy restaurants that we could go to anytime after 4. 

There was 24 hour pizza and ice-cream. But really- it wasn't 24 hours. The machine broke a few times because there was only 2 of them. Norwegian had like 4. Plus, you had to order your pizza and then they made it. That's nice, but sometimes you just want to grab some. Norwegian just had the best food ever is all. 24 hour, DELICIOUS cookies as well. Good news right there. 

The good things:

It was a short fun cruise. 

They still had fun entertainment. 

We liked the arranged seating because we got to know the family on our table really well. We also liked having our same waiter. But like I said, we kind of liked the freedom of choosing different restaurants and being able to go when we want. It really is a win-win on that one. Unless you include the food... that's a different story. But I already discussed that. 

But really- for what it was and what we were expecting, it was great! Not complaining here... well... I just did. But you know! We are so glad we went on it and that we got to share that experience with my grandma! 

Sorry their aren't many pictures, blogger isn't too good at uploading them. So I just chose some. You can look on my Facebook if you are friends with me :) 

We get to watch Bachelor!!!!!!!!

The waiter dropped bread in my grandmas drink. He was so embarrassed and we just laughed.