Movie Scene

After work today I really just felt like sitting by the window to watch the rain while listening to a sad song. So I did. I put Vienna by Billy Joel on repeat and had a pity party. It felt like a scene from a movie. So of course I took a picture.

Things that make me sad lately...

I had a dream about my mission! Except that in it I had forgotten to tell my friends prior to going into the MTC where they could see me one last time. Since I couldn't use my phone it meant I didn't get to see them. Yikes. I was quite upset in my dream, and I woke up freaking out a little. This says one thing, I worry too much. However, maybe I will dream of other more likely problematic scenarios for my mission that I will be able to avoid because I am thinking (dreaming?) ahead. Not likely, and yes self that is a poor excuse for worrying.


Also, I've mentioned that I'll have to bike in California. Apparently my mission president doesn't believe girls should have cars if at all possible. So that's going to be fun. I have this horrible vision similar to a scene from Princess Diaries. In the movie Mia tries to go up this crazy hill in her old convertible and it is too much for her car. She ends up stalled on the side of the road, in the rain then says, while crying, "I am invisible, and I am wet." Well imagine that but me on a bike, unable to get up a hill, crying in the rain. Poor Laura. Let's just hope that doesn't happen.

This new group of friends in PA called me mom on Sunday! For real? I haven't baked anyone food the entire time I've been here. The one time I participate in making baked goods I only put it in the oven and started the timer. Someone checked the brownies and said they were done ten minutes early. I was surprised and said they had awhile left. She put up the "clean fork" to prove it. Well I guess it was clean, except for the chunk of brownie?!? I said that even though I was ten feet away I could see that it definitely was not clean. I didn't mind they were gooey brownies, I actually like gooey brownies better, but I called her out on her lying about the clean fork. It was stupid, but they called me mom. Then yesterday I used the phrase, "you are testing my patience!" Whatever, I already am a mini mom, just my friends/roommates are the kids.

Also mom-like, I now own a sewing machine! My mom bought it for me for $5 at a surplus sale. It's old so it is completely made of metal and built to last. Now I want to get my hands on it to sew my mission skirts!

Back to the regular scheduled posts filled with laughter and excitement.

Week Four

Are you tired of these weekly things? They're really long but if people read them I'll keep writing!

Sunday
I went to BtheF (break the fast), and it was about an hour away. There were some crazy hills on the way there and it was raining so it made for an interesting drive. We didn't even stay that long but the chicken was delicious and worth it.

Monday
I crunched lots of numbers today to see the money saved on my dressings. It saves a lot but I kind of want to do more with it to save more money.
I made a blue cheese concentrate today, it smelled really strong. In case you don't know, cheddar cheese is dyed orange. I had to add some dye to the velveeta type cheese on Friday. Well today I found some of the dye on the counter... whoops! Luckily it cleaned up pretty easily.
I finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo for the second time! It's definitely one of my favorite books, unabridged of course. It only took me three weeks. The last time I took close to three months. Crazy.

Tuesday
I made a cream cheese concentrate today and it was so thick it would not heat up. I spent all morning standing over it and then left to do other things, even then it took forever.
Institute was pretty fun we started going over talks from the last general conference. Afterwards we went to Texas Road House. So delicious. It was 9 at night so I just got some fries and of course a few rolls with cinnamon butter. We talked about missions which was awesome. It was me and five rm's (only one girl) which was an interesting ratio. It meant they all told me stories from their missions. I couldn't tell if they were trying to scare me or get excite me though... They started off telling me their horror stories and stated mine wouldn't be as bad as theirs, just different. That was... encouraging? There was some good advice in there though. The girl, Liz I think, said that if you are called you have the ability to get through it period. That means there is no need to worry or fear which is good advice for a worrier like me.

Wednesday
Talked about religion with a co-worker. It was such a good conversation. He made the comment that he wished other religions had missions like we do. He specifically wishes that for the guys it would be expected to go on a long term service mission just so more people in the world would have an understanding of their place in the world in relation to other people. It's all about service, it really is.
Beth and I went out to get ice cream again. This time we went to Wendy's and I got a frosty and fries. Love that place.

Thursday
My coworker who is leaving showed me how to use the salt analyzer. I got the salt concentrations for all of the samples from the week then took their pH. Exciting stuff. I made a really stinky blue cheese concentrate it was ridiculous how bad the room smelled.
I am packing for my next trip... New York!!! I'm taking a train tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to it!

Friday-Sunday
New York trip, separate post coming!

Post-Provo and Pre-Mission

Warning: This post may be a little scatter brained and it's a little lengthy.

This past semester I realized so many things. There are endless possibilities for life and so many things can be worked into the timeline of life. I think that some people get caught up in deciding between one thing or another that they don't realize everything can fit together and they can do it all. Also a lot of people just dream of the day when they are not in the situations they are in at the moment. Both of these ideas work against people. They don't do as much as they can and want to be elsewhere in their life.

To a small extent, I was in that place, but realizing some things, I was able to put my life in perspective. I can do much and I can have purpose in my current life so that I will be happy exactly where I am in life. The average life expectancy is 78 years old. Comparatively, a year and a half is a minuscule amount to fully give to the Lord. I'll be in California during my early twenties, some of the most exciting years of life, but does it really matter what I'll miss out on? It will be time well spent and will be exciting for its own reasons.

I have some amazing friends (you all know who you are, but just in case you don't, I have a few pictures). These friends really helped me with realizing all of this.

To quote Princess Diaries, "And then I realized how many stupid times a day I use the word 'I.' And probably all I ever do is think about myself. And how lame is that when there's like seven billion other people out there on the planet... But then I thought, if I cared about the other seven billion out there, instead of just me, that's probably a much better use of my time."

There are so many selfish things you can do with your time. Instead of thinking of yourself, you can think about the people around you and their needs. One of my friends, Anna, is an amazing example to me. She was one of the people who drove me places while my car was broken and is probably the most optimistic person I know. She always gives complements, telling people that they are rockstars and that she is lucky to know them. She drove one of our friends, Jordan, to take a test and then picked him up after and bought him a frosty! We laughed about how funny it was, he said, "I should be buying her the frosty for driving me around!" How much better of a friend can you have? From her I just see that if you are radiating as much happiness as she is, the only thing more you can do is share it.

Some of my other friends, specifically those who got off their own missions within the past year, have made me want to grow spiritually. When we went to Idaho as a group, Dustin and Nathan went to talk to one of their leaders who had gone inactive while they were away. They didn't even have to think two seconds about it, duty called and they stepped up. I've had conversations with Jordan, Dustin, and Nathan about missions and all that comes with it. They had such great experiences they wouldn't give up for anything. To hear them talk with reverence about the things they did and taught, made me want to have that as well.

In order to share and better myself, I am going on a mission. What better thing could I be doing than helping other people, by leading them to Christ while I grow spiritually? I don't think there is anything better. Looking back at the past few years, I'm sad I didn't realize this before. I always thought I would decide when the time came, but I realize the decision could have been made earlier. My freshman roommates almost all wanted to go, and everyone who wanted to is (minus one who is married). I am kicking myself because I could have gone along with them and decided the same from their awesome examples. However, my decision to go means a lot since I came to it on my own terms and I am grateful I did make that choice. I'm so glad I've had strong friends to influence me over the past few years. Everyone has made a world of difference to me.

Now if you're still reading, wow. That must mean you're either a really good friend or family and I am appreciative for both, so thank you. You guys are the best!

Mission Call

So I got my mission call... I'm going to Arcadia, California. I'll be speaking Spanish and I leave October 3rd. That means I have to brush up on my high school Spanish. Hopefully I'll go through and remember a lot of it before I go into the MTC (very optimistic).

I know some of my friends don't actually know what this means so I'll explain. I'm leaving in October for eighteen months to serve the Lord. I will first go to the MTC or Missionary Training Center. While I'm there I'll learn Spanish and I'll prepare to teach people about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS church). After gaining the necessary skills I will head off to California where I will be for the rest of my mission, about sixteen months. I'll come back in March of 2014. As part of the missionary lifestyle I will not be allowed to call friends or family. I will be permitted to write letters though, so I hope to get some from anyone reading this! I will be able to call or videochat with my parents on Christmas and Mother's day. I'm actually really excited because my birthday happens to be on the Sunday of Mother's day so that will be a really exciting present!

I'm very excited to go to California! I love warm weather and will definitely not miss the snow! I'm excited to serve and to see what is in store for me.

Here's the picture of my mission as per my family's request.

I'll just say if you have any questions you can go to http://www.lds.org or you can ask me yourself!

Some of the things I will be teaching include:

• The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ--After Christ died, his church became corrupt and the gospel was not correct anymore. The gospel was brought back through Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.
• The Plan of Salvation--The Plan of Happiness that God has for everyone as individuals and within families.
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ--Christ's gospel consists of faith in Christ, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost.
• The Commandments--The Ten Commandments and other important commands like tithing, fasting, following the prophet, etc.
• Laws and Ordinances--After baptism, the additional steps a person must take to gain eternal life. This includes things like going to the temple, doing missionary work and serving.

Hodge Podge

Caution: random post up ahead.

It's not entirely a secret but I haven't really told too many people. So here it goes, I'm going on a mission!! My call comes in hopefully one week. It will be interesting as to where I go. The other night I had a dream that I got sent to Washington DC and my start date was in June, the middle of my internship which was a sad mistake. In my dream, I was upset about being called to the east coast, I mean I live about 2 hours away and I've been there quite a few times. Although somewhere along the east coast could happen. Interestingly enough the next night I had another dream about my call. I got my call to Finland same as my friend Sarah but it was to another Finland mission (there isn't a second Finland mission). Then I just dreamed about the MTC. I am not sure what these two dreams mean, probably just that I worry too much.

I have avoided it for the better part of three years and it has come to the point where I can't postpone any longer. I have a skype.... I realized it's necessary so my family can videochat when I get my call so I am giving in. I assume that if you are reading this, you are one of the people I would give it to myself, but it's just easier this way. laurakjohnson100

In other news, I got a splinter from my piano bench. I don't know if that means that I'm a hard core pianist (not) or if I'm just a wimp.

On my birthday my sister slammed the car door on my leg. I now have a bruise, awesome. I guess it could have been my hand or finger which would have broken/fractured so it could be worse.

Our poor white van was broken into. Whoever those thieves were, well they're not smart. They didn't check to see if there was anything of value in there before breaking in and they didn't even take the radio! Seriously, they were not smart thieves. At least when Anna went looking through the van she found some stuff that we had lost in there including a pancake turner.

And I am at my internship! It's pretty exciting. I'll update at the end of the week when I have more to say.

I looked up the town I'm living at. As I was browsing I noticed the Susquehanna River is located near me and it passes through Three Mile Island. I recognized the name but didn't know from where. I realized that I learned about it this semester in physics when we talked about radiation. There was the largest nuclear waste accident in US history in the area by the island. So that's kind of cool.

Also, I named this Modge Podge??? I meant Hodge Podge... Crafting on the brain I guess. I really should get more sleep or something. Just forget about this if you didn't notice.