I am trying so hard not to get caught up

Ok I know it has been forever and a day since I have written on here, BUT I have been intensely busy and I feel like this is the first time I have sat down without homework in front of me in weeks. Ummm where to start? All I have basically been doing is work work work, but I sneak in some sleep every now and then. I was feeling sick at the beginning of the week and missed some classes so I could rest up and recover. Monday night was pretty amazing.. I brought my friend Tara from work to the friendship dinner, we had planned on hanging out that night so I suggested some free food. Over dinner she was asking some questions about the church so I brought the missionaries over to help out since I am not the best with words. At one point I got up to go get dessert, came back to sit down and heard Tara and the elders making an appointment for her to take the first missionary lesson this sunday at my apartment! I am so excited that she wants to learn more about the church and from what I see she is way excited too! At work she is always saying she can't wait until sunday, and neither can I.
Had a Geography test on wednesday..oh boy.. I have no idea how bad I did but if I got below a C then I don't think I will be passing that class this semester, which is really freaking me out. I have straight A's in all my other classes, but for some reason the material in my geography class just makes zero sense to me.
Tuesday I had a hilarious experience in my "Improvisation with Youth" class. Our teacher told us to find our own space in the room and to stand as if we have a 50 pound tail. Then we are informed that the monster we have become can only make little kitten noises. Then we learn that we also have severe body lice. Imagine what 20 students looked like walking around the classroom playing that character. Our teacher posed questions to us such as, "what does your monster look like in love? How does you monster walk when it's sad? How does your monster sleep?" After this monster we were transformed into a monster that has a 50 pound beard, hands that cannot leave the ground, and litte wings that don't lift us very far off the ground but are continually flapping. Interesting class, let me tell ya.
Tomorrow is Halloween and can you just guess where I will be? Yep, you guessed it, working from 5pm to 2am. Ugh. At least there are a lot of fun people working tomorrow night so hopefully we can make it a fun time. I am going to bring in a bunch of cookies to cheer everyone up.
I am addicted to a new song. "'Cause I don't know how it gets better than this, you take my hand and drag me head first, fearless..." I want to be fearless. I admit that there are not many things I truly fear, like in a way that it would affect me, but I do wish I could take more risks and maybe put myself out on a limb more often. I am such a chicken and need to learn to be fearless, in my career/education choices, at my job, with boys ;), and most of all with myself. I know who I want to become but am always unwilling to take risk, or do anything that is out of character and that stops my progression, so my new mission is to be more fearless.

I'm Ready, So Don't Stop Me

This week has been amazing so far..

1. I have woken up and attended all of my classes, have not fallen asleep in any class and have even participated! I raised my hand, asked questions, made comments and am feeling great about my classes.

2.I went to the Buffalo Exchange and bought a dress and a pair for jeans for a total of around twenty bucks! wwwooooo hoooo cheap clothes!!!

3.Jam session on Monday with Bro. Hofeling, he taught me how to play "Hey Ya" in a higher key so that I could sing it in soprano. My roommates are probably sick of me playing that song but I just love it! Plus it one of the few I can actually sing and play at the same time.

4. The weather. Wow. Just being outside and feeling a cool breeze and being able to wear a light sweater makes me the happiest girl in the world.

5. On saturday my boss sat me down and had a heart to heart with me, started rocky, ended great. He started by saying that he thinks I have a ton of potential that I don't see within myself and that I need to be more confident, that In-N-Out would be lucky to have me for a manager but that I need to push myself to be my best. He also said that I don't have to rush into management since he knows I am seriously considering a mission next fall, hopefully I would be able to do management when I get home. So, the good news is that he wants to give me my next promotion by Nov. 11th, so I really need to push myself but I know my managers are supporting me and I feel much more confident.

6. I put money into my savings account this week!! After paying my tuition this semester without the aid of scholarships or loans I found myself struggling to get back on track financially. I had 16.00 in savings, was living paycheck to paycheck, had more comsumer debt than I felt comfortable with. I have officially paid off all of my debt, school is paid for, credit card is paid off, and I was able to put a couple hundred bucks in savings this month! It feels so great to be on the road again to being financially stable.

7. I love love love my THP 311: Improvisation with Youth class. Last week I was given "pixie dust" and was transformed into a bumble bee, while other students were spiders, butterflies, etc., all bugs that were found in the children's book we were using to create lesson plans to. As a bumble bee I had a fantastic time flying around the room and stinging the other bugs hahaha. The student in charge of facilitating the class that date had a blast with 4 bumble bees soaring around stinging the other bugs, her shouting "BE NICE, we are all friends here at this tea party! We need to play nice with each other!" Love love love that class.

8. I just feel amazing, unstoppable, free, invincible, focused, and overall just really have been enjoying this week, which is weird because I have been dragging my feet so much this semester, but I am finding my usual pep getting back into my step. YAY! I get to be myself again!!

Love love love,
Madison

A Picture can say 1,000 words

That is how I feel after tonight's fireside. Tonight I was fortunate enough to listen to Greg Olsen, the guy who painted most of the picture of Christ we see within the church, and loved hearing him speak on how close he grew to the Savior as he painted. He worked very hard at asking questions and trying to think of what Jesus was really like and some of the things he learned and spoke of were just so precious to me.



With this picture he described Christ teaching the child, mainly about our divine potential. A caterpillar could never know what beautiful things genetics had in store for it, that one day it would turn into a beautiful butterfly with wings to fly. So it is with us, that although it is impossible to see how divine and perfect we can and will be one day it is such a wonderful feeling to know that my Heavenly Father created me, knowing that one day this hunk of black coal could be refined into a beautiful diamond.





I think Greg Olsen does an amazing job at capturing the love that Jesus has for us and I can just feel my heart become so full of that love when I see these paintings.

Serving the Elders

Many times within the church we are counseled to serve others, and I often hear to aid our missionaries. Well, my roommates and I decided to take action in this area and serve the elders from university second ward since they live in our apartment complex. We served them alright..one big batch of mischief. Elder Irving and Hillyard and us have had a little joke going on for a couple weeks about how we were going to play pranks on each others cars/apartments, and since Elder Hillyard was transferred on wednesday we wanted to really show him we were grateful for his service. On tuesday night around midnight, Katie, Ashley and I took 4 rolls of cling wrap and had one heck of a time wrapping up the elders car. We put a sign on the car that said "good luck hillyard", then wrapped over it, and we baked them cookies as a peace offering. We pretty much had a blast doing this but I was disappointed that it only took them roughly 2 minutes to take all of the cling wrap off. The Elders thought it was funny and had a good time with it I think. Overall I would say our mission was a success.





I would like to close by saying that cling wrap serves no other purpose beyond the covering of cars and other objects for the sake of mischief. Otherwise, I hate cling wrap. It never sticks to what you want it to.

Find Joy in the Journey-NOW

I love General Conference. Even though it is at such an early hour and allows me to get about 4 hours of sleep after closing at work, I love the great messages from modern day apostles and prophets. Today I was very grateful to be able to watch general conference in Avondale with The Parks family, I really don't get to see them as often as I like and love when I get the opportunity to spend time with their family. I am exhausted right now, so I will just write a few of my favorite conference moments.

1. Elder L. Tom Perry- The importance of living a simplistic life. He stressed the importance of living within your income and the importance of saving. I was glad to hear this message because it seems like since school started money has been a bit tighter, but when it comes down to it I need to just stick more closely to my budget and not spend money on stupid things, like food when I am too lazy to make my lunch. He also brought up the importance of getting enough sleep, which is something I really need to work on, since 4-5 hours a night probably isn't enough.

2. Sister Allred- Missionary work. I like that she said that in order to be a good missionary you need to have a clear understanding that God loves ALL of His children. I think it is just so important that we do not judge others, even when it seems warranted. Even when someone seems to give us reasons to judge I think it is so important to remember that only the Savior can judge us.

3. Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin- Learn to Laugh. First of all I love the story he told about his daughter and the blind date, and second, I completely agree that if we can laugh at the little things that get us down instead of getting upset than we can be so much happier.

4. Elder Gerald Causse- Our Eyes are blind, you have to seek with your heart. The message of the gospel is simple, we should not complicate it and need to remember that knowledge comes from the spirit and through our hearts.

5. Elder Robert D. Hales- True disciples see the opportunity in persecution. Why do we fear pesecution? It gives us an opportunity to share this great message. Yes, it is hard at times, especially when some mock that which we hold so sacred, but we should try to see the missionary opportunities that come with those criticisms.

6. President Thomas S. Monson- In everything give thanks!