Galilee

I'm in Galilee for the next 10 days and thrilled to be here!  I will try and write a little bit about what I'm doing while we are here.  

Today, we went to nazareth and it was so beautiful!  St. Mary's and St. Joseph's was incredible!  It almost made me want to be catholic. ;)

We also went up to the cliffs by Galilee and it was beautiful.  Lizzy and I commented that it looked just like Pride and Prejudice.

Everything is very peaceful and totally beautiful.  I'm so grateful to learn here.  And by learn, I mean study the Bible like crazy!  I have a paper to write for tomorrow and a midterm tomorrow that I need to go and cram study for. :)

p.s. in case you were wondering, Jesse and I are getting married in exactly 46 days!  woot!

Are you Miss Leslie or Miss Universe?

Greetings!  Things have been super busy here in Jerusalem.  Sorry to not have kept any of you updated, but I am great and very safe.  Honestly, the city is beautiful.  Don't get me wrong, it is so dirty (aparently there are NO garbage cans in the city, and you just make trash piles along the sides of the roads and then once the pile is the size of the house, men come take it away...very strange to me) and covered in grafitti and there are a lot of overwhelming human smells mingled with that of dead animals.  But it also has the most beautiful buildings, religions, shops, food, and especially people.  Everyone is LOVING us mormons!  We can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone that will call out to us "Mormons!  Come into my shop!  We love Mormons!"  But at the same time, Whitney and I had our first run in with pick-pockets, but we outsmarted them and we were totally fine.  I love it here. :)

Things that happened today:

-Accidentatly wondered into a jewish elementary school durring recess and got hit by a soccor ball.
-Read 40 pages of articles...have about another 80 to go.
-Ate falafel at a stand that advertised "very good falafel."
-May or may not have been ripped off in the purchase of a really cool Jerusalem tile.  10 shekles?
-Accidentaly mistook a Jew for a Muslim...whoops
-Went to dome of the rock...so beautiful!
-Sported a very adorable fanny pack.
-Went to the church of the Holy Seplechure.
-Went to the wailing wall, late walked on the wailing wall.
-Was asked "Are you Miss Leslie or Miss Universe?"
-Visited Mary's tomb.
-Passed by the Garden of Gethsemene.
-Biked 8 miles.
-Figured out how to make a phone call with a phone card. 
-Took 2 showers...I seem to sweat a lot more here. It seems that my shoulders even sweat here.
-Had a marvelous time!

Peace and blessings

Feng Shui, mushrooms, love, and life

5 things:
1.  As many of you may know, I have always been very intrigued with energy.  I love learning about the energy patterns in our bodies and how movement, objects, and food affects it.  Fung shui has been a curiosity that I've been dying to learn more about.  Thanks to the good old Provo library, I've been reading up on it and am wanting to work on feng shuing my life, if you will.  My goal is to start in my dorm room and spread from there.  Hopefully I can report my progress in a few days. :)  Peace and blessings!
2.  5Also, I realized that I rarely talk about the most exciting thing that is occurring in my life and that is my relationship with Jesse.  What a sweetheart!  We have been trying to make some rather large life decisions and of course, I always end up super emotional and kindof crazy, and he is so patient and sweet.  I am the luckiest girl in the world!

Us right after his marathon last year :)

3.  The Salt Lake City mission is the greatest one in the whole world.  Maybe I'm biased, but if it wasn't for that, I would have never met this adorable little girl.  She is a refugee from Burma and her parents are tying to make a better life in America.  I'm so proud of them and how hard they are working.  If you could remember to keep the refugees in your prayers that would be great!  Jesse was working with this girls family 2 1/2 years ago and is still teaching them.  

  

4.  Stuffed Mushrooms???  Ok so I had never ever heard of these until my super cute new roommate Sarah introduced me yesterday.  AMAZING!!!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 20 fresh mushrooms, stems removed
• 1 pound sliced bacon, cut in half

• Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. In a medium bowl, mix together the green onions and cream cheese . Stuff mushroom caps with the cheese mixture. Wrap each mushroom with a half-slice of bacon, and secure with toothpicks. Place on a baking sheet.
  3. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bacon is cooked through.
  
  
  
  
  Thank you Allrecipes.com
   for all of your continual inspiration!
  
  
  5.  Sundays are the best day of the week.  For those of you who don't know, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Today we learned about personal revelation, and I am soooo grateful that God loves me enough that He allows me to pray to Him and that He listens to me and sends me answers and guidance to my life.  :)
     
  Love Carl Bloch btw.  I'm so sad that the exhibit is gone from BYU.  It was amazing and touched me every single time I went through.  Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley!!!!

Blessing

I'm so proud of Kennedy and Kyle.  They are so amazing to me.  They are so brave and full of faith.  They are moving up the wedding to April 29th and will be sealed for time and all eternity at 1:40 p.m. in the beautiful Salt Lake Temple.  We are so excited for them and can hardly wait to  celebrate their marriage!  If you would like to learn more about a Latter-day saint wedding and what it means to be sealed please click here.  

And then I found 5 dollars

Today was just a typical day at BYU.
Heard an Apostle of the Lord speak.
Had fantastic classes, including my 3 hour sewing class.
Got tickets for the World of Dance.
Worked on a project for my Residential Landscape Class.
Studied for my religion (Book of Mormon) class.

I should be singing hosannas for how fortunate I am.
But there are the little things throughout the day that make that harder.

I fell down the stairs in the Clyde Building and skinned my knees, shins, and arm.  Not only was that super embarrassing, but it hurt...a lot!
Boys were lame today.
I feel like all of my muscles have turned to fat.
Actually, I am pretty darn sure that they have morphed to fat.
I've been on campus since 9:00 and it is now 10:40.

In my Book of Mormon class, we are talking about Laman and Lemuel.  My Professor, Charles Swift, brought up the point that they generally, do what they are supposed to, but they complain about it and focus on the negative things in their lives.  Nephi on the other hand, writes about how blessed he is the the Lord is keeping them from getting sick because they can only eat raw meat.  I find Nephi's attitude incredible.  Why did he always do what he was commanded, even amidst his family hating on him and trying to kill him?  Why did he always remember to thank the Lord for the tiny little things (things that I wouldn't even categorize as blessings)?  Because he had a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and had enormous faith.  I am grateful for his example and will strive to do better.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Today was full of favorites:
Fast Sunday- I love hearing everyone bare their testimonies.  It is always a great spiritual experience, but highly entertaining at times.

Sunday Cat-Naps-  Lately by Sunday,  I am so exhausted from work and school that I will sleep for like 3 hours...

Charles Dickens-  He is an inspirational figure for me.  I love his brilliance, romantic writing style, and beautiful syntax.  The other day I bought one of his less-commonly known works that he wrote for his children.  It is called The Life of Our Lord.  Simply written, it is a summary of the life of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  A new favorite.

LOST- just dang good.

Anne of Green Gables-  the soundtrack brings back so many memories.  It takes me back to my families annual mid-summer night eve party where I learned to waltz.  It reminds me of being at my grandparents cabin late at night staring at the moon over the lake of shining waters. :)  It reminds me of my dad reading to me when I was little.  I love that music.

Skype- I may be like my grandpa Kent in being sortof anti-technology, almost to the point of it being a phobia, but I am grateful for the chance and opportunity to be able to stay in contact with close friends and loved ones.

Rain storms-  These always take me back to a time when my parents were out of town and my cute aunt chrissie stayed with me and kenn and there was a huge rain storm and we danced with towels on our heads.  I remember how the rain smelled and how the light looked through the aspens.  I cherish that experience.

Enya- I love this style of music.  It is so yoga, so artsy, and so calming.

Chocolate covered strawberries with ice cream- best thing ever!

BY-ME!

I feel so happy.  Like the novelty of being able to bear my testimony during class or share a comment that indicates the need for morals in society (without getting my grade docked) is so exciting to me!  I personally hope that novelty never wears off. :) 

this would be the "yay!  I'm at BYU face"

 My Marriage and Family Class is beautiful!  We are studying the Family: a proclamation to the world and I am blown out of my mind!  This document is so basic but states so many eternal principles so clearly and eloquently.  I am so blessed to have the knowledge that is written there.  Everyone should read it or take another look at it. 

 * Click here to read it *