new home

i've moved out!

come visit me in my new home!

this is my new address:

www.steeleyourheartt.tumblr.com

china, here i come.

i leave for china one week from today! i'm so excited for this adventure i'm about to take...for this new chapter in my life. what an amazing opportunity i have to teach english in weihei and experience the chinese culture. i can't believe how blessed i am! somedays i cannot wait to go and start my adventure but then somedays i'm extremely nervous. the unknown has always been very scary to me. my mom would say that i like to have "all my ducks in a row". in a week lots of things are going to be very unknown haha. i'm going to an unknown place with unknown people and an unknown schedule. i won't be able to pick up the phone and cry to my mom or text caleb when i miss him. it's going to be so hard but i know it will be worth it. eating gross food, sleeping on a box spring, being freezing cold, being very far away from home & family, saying goodbye to my missionary 2 weeks early, showering in cold water, doing laundry by hand, and everything else that comes along with living in an undeveloped country for 4 months will all be worth it. i get to have this amazing, life changing experience. not only do  i get to teach sweet little chinese kindergartners, but i get to travel all over china! when my group isn't teaching, we get to travel to where ever we want to go. i get to see the great wall of china and the terracotta warriors. i get to travel to beijing! i've always wanted to travel and see other parts of the world  and now i get to experience it. and eating the food i may learn to love is part of that experience. and so is sleeping on a piece of wood. and not getting to shower every single day. i'm sure it will be very hard at first but i know that after a few weeks, i'll get used to it. and i'm excited! and although i have very mixed feelings most days and although i know going to china for 4 months will be hard, i'm very excited and i know it will be a great experience...one i will never forget.


hopefully i can think of this when the hard times come while i'm in china.

elder dalton

this guy (^) got his mission call.

i couldn't be more excited for caleb! he's going to Reno, NV. & he's going to be an amazing missionary. the people of nevada are so lucky to have him! he's going to change a lot of peoples lives.

byu-idaho and such

wow. it's been a long time since i last wrote. i guess you just get caught up in life and sometimes forget about the little things in life like writing on a blog. going up to idaho for school was quite the adventure. i grew up a lot. living away from home was a good experience, but made me grateful for my mom's home cooked meals and the joy my little sisters bring me everyday. life was pretty depressing without them. but i did make some amazing friends. friends i will never forget. sometimes i even think i was sent to buy-idaho just to meet some of the people i did. i really loved byui. the campus is really beautiful and the people there are just good. it's just a great atmosphere to be in. living on my own i did learn that you are very responsible for yourself. silly i know, but it was really hard for me to get myself to go to class somedays. and to get up and go to church and devotional. you really have to have that self control and make yourself do the things you sometimes don't want to do and know that it's for your own good. i also learned that you can be in the most spiritual of places and not be feeling that spirit. if you're not going to church and reading your scriptures and saying your prayers, it doesn't matter that you're on a byu campus. you can't just expect that your testimony will stay strong if you aren't doing the things you should be. i missed church more than i should have and skipped devotional because i had "too much homework". i figured the scripture study i was doing in my book of mormon class was enough when it was not. i thought going to byu would help strength my testimony of the gospel because i would be surrounded by people who shared by standards. but that doesn't matter. you need to be doing the things that will strength your testimony no matter where you are. i can relate my experiences at byu to living in Utah. when i had friends that were all LDS, i wasn't doing the things i needed to be. i think when you aren't surrounded by the people who share your beliefs it's easier to remember how important the gospel is because you see other people everyday who live without it. when you live in a place where your with people who are the exact same as you, it's easy to forget what's really important. i've noticed living away from utah that my testimony is stronger because i have to choose to live the gospel because it's not all around me. i think when i go back to byui in the fall i will remember how important it is to take advantage of the opportunities i have going to school there and build my testimony. i actually learned a lot of life changing lessons away from home but i won't write about every single one...
some of my friends went to byu-idaho and didn't love it as much as i did. i really did love school at byui. the classes i took were so great. i took an amazing book of mormon class and had a really great professor. i had a nutrition class that was so interesting! my american foundations class was beyond beneficial and i learned so much more in that class than i probably ever did in a high school history class. and i made some great friends. some of my best friends! friends i will have for a long long time. i had amazing roommates. my experience at byui can't be expressed in a single blog post, but i will just say that i'm extremely blessed to have been able to attend buy-idaho.

i graduated from high school.

these are my best friends.

i can't believe i'm done with high school. at first, i was so glad it's all over. but when i sit and think about the fact that i'm done with high school forever, i feel like crying! my life is just beginning and the future really scares me. don't get me wrong i'm ready for the next chapter of my life but i wouldn't mind getting some more time to grow up. graduating was bittersweet. i'm glad my grandma and aunt were here when i graduated. i love them so much...and the rest of my family that has helped me through the rough high school years. you really have to cherish every moment of life because life goes by so fast.

seminary graduation

it feels good to say i graduated from seminary. 

i absolutely loved seminary & i'm so grateful for the opportunity i had to go to seminary everyday. my days wouldn't have been the same if i wouldn't have been able to go and feel the spirit every morning.

9 weeks until graduation.

i love..

1. my new coral nail polish painted on my toes
2. the music i just bought on iTunes.
3. the fact i'm pretty much done with my senior project and it's not even due for a month.
4. watching Netflix for hours.

what doesn't kill you makes you stronger

the month of february has been awful. completely terrible. i think i know that i have been more stressed out in school this month than i have ever been. in my whole high school career. i think i've been sick more then i ever have in my life. i even lost my voice. (but secretly that was kinda cool. i've always wanted to really loose my voice) i never get sick! maybe it's because i've been so stressed...or it could be allergies. i backed my car into another car and now i will never drive a stick shift again...or at least not for a very very long time. my bumper is ruined. my best friend decided he would tell me "it's time to take a break." college stresses me out so bad that i almost force myself not to think about it. i'm going to miss my family so much when i leave. i don't know how i'm going to survive without them. i haven't been eating very well either. i've so much candy this month it's not even funny.

i'm so looking forward to march. true, i want to graduate and be done with high school. but i need to remember to live in the moment and take advantage of those moments because they won't ever come again. it's crazy how fast time is flying. in 6 months my life is going to be so much different. i forget sometimes how truly blessed i am to have the family i do and the friends i have. i'm slowly learning take a step back when i'm overwhelmed & look at the big picture. even my hard month of february has made me grow. i have to smile and laugh and remind myself that everything happens for a reason.