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.