One of my favorite things about going to school is just getting to leave the house. Please don't take that to mean that I need to get away from my family. That's not what I mean. I do, however, crave new relationships, even just new acquaintances. I've spent the last eight years with my only outside social group being church friends and they really are more like family. Of course those are very dear friendships, but I don't meet many new people often. David gets to go away every day and meet new people. Sometimes he meets people he likes and sometimes he meets people he'd rather not have to meet, but he interacts with hundreds of them every single day and it makes me a little jealous. ;)

In the 12 weeks I've been in school I have meet all kinds of cool people. My biology teacher was amazing. Not only was he SO obviously brilliant, he had done tons of cool scientific research for cancer, food companies, and he even wrote bills for his town in Texas. He had such cool stories to share. My friend Thuy was a genius and SO fun to spend every day of summer school with. Now that I'm at VVC I have an awesome chemistry professor with and accent that entrances me. (I LOVE accents too. I should also mention that I do not have the hots for him, I just hang on his every word because they sound so pretty.) I sit in front of two guys that are former military and the one that looks EXACTLY like Hugh Laurie also happens to be chemical engineer. (Handy to have around in a chem class no?) My lab partner is a beautiful, brilliant and SUPER kind woman! I really enjoy working with her. I genuinely love people. I love getting know them and really dig it when I think I have somebody pegged and then they surprise me.

Let me tell you a little about my new friend Marco. He has been trying to start up a study group and it just hasn't been coming together so when we got out early tonight, I suggested we all gather in the commons and go to it. A few of us stayed, but after about fifteen minutes it was just Marco and I. I have to say that my first impressions of him were that he liked getting lots of girls phone numbers and that he was maybe a little shallow. Tonight I learned how wrong I was. He really does just need help with his homework, and he is a very genuinely kind person. Before we started our study session everybody was getting to know each other a little and it got brought up that I was Mormon. After everyone had left and Marco and I were doing our homework, he asked me how Mormons were different than Christians. :) Of course I explained that we ARE Christian but our church IS a little different that most Christian fellowships. The first thing I thought of to mention was that we believe in modern day revelation and I explained a little about that. Then he asked how we know what scriptures are true and I explained that we know because of that revelation. He got this huge genuinely happy grin on his face and my first thought was "no way he is actually buying this," because usually this is where they start arguing or laughing at you. I asked him why he was smiling. "Are you laughing at me, " I asked. He said, "no I'm just enjoying learning about this." I continued with some of the differences, major and minor as we worked on our problems and he kept smiling and asking really good questions. When David showed up to take me to my car (it's scary going out to my car at night and he happened to be driving by so I waited for my handsome escort) Marco said that he hoped to finish our conversation (which consisted of me talking and him smiling) next time.

Okay testimony time.

If you're reading this you've probably heard about what a pain it was to get into this class. I started with that monster of man for a professor, then spent two weeks attending four different sections of the same class in hopes of adding one of them. I knew I would get in. I just knew it. And no matter how stressful it was not getting, I kept going because I just knew I would get in. I was added to this section, then tried for the hybrid my sister my was in and got a spot...then lost it because I wishy washy about which one a really wanted.

This is where I want to mention that I don't think this has nothing to do with ME and everything to do with Heavenly Father knowing his children and helping us help one another. Little things like this happen every day and I feel so blessed to have been able to share a little about the Gospel with somebody who really wanted to hear it.

That said, I know exactly why I got this particular section now.

You know, I had a terrible day today. For the first time this semester, I felt hugely overwhelmed. Today I had to accept that I can't do some of the social things that I would like to and that I might be disappointing people as a result. I'm not able to do all of the things that Aaron would have liked to do for his birthday. It's a disaster trying to plan any day for my family. We are passing kids off to each other constantly and David has to take them to work on nights when our responsibilities overlap. In spite of those things, I've still felt strongly that I'm doing what I should be and I'm where I'm supposed to be. I normally juggle the days pretty well, but I lost it today. I went to school wiping tears of frustration from my eyes, but I left wiping away different tears.

My experience tonight taught/reminded me of two important things: First, Heavenly Father knows what we can handle. I know that He knew that I needed peace tonight and He gave it to me through my neat conversation with Marco. Second, we shouldn't be afraid of sharing what we believe. Sure, some people get scared off, but some are just dying to know what's true. I don't know that Marco will want to join the church, but I do know that he heard something he had been wanting to hear tonight.