This weekend I went boating. And I got super sunburned. So saturday night me and my roomates (who also went) watched a movie and rubbed apple cider vinegar on our burns (which works so so well, fyi). I learned that trick at youth conference one year with Ethan Winther.
Yesterday the second counselor gave a talk in sacrement meeting about service and 2 acts of service given to him in his life that had a deep impact on him. He invited us to think in our own lives of a couple times that stand out of when there was a great service given to us.
The first one I thought of was running my first 1/2 marathon in Moab. It was proably one of the most physically dificult things I had done in my life up to that point and I remember the last 2 miles, I was kind of just done. It was harder than I thought. I even started to cry, not out of pain, but I think just being overwhelmed. And dad told me to keep running because if we walked we would get stiff and cramp up, and jogging down the road, he put his arm around me for like a full minute, kind of pushing me along, comforting me (and I am sure if was an awkward way to run for him), as we kept running. He knew if I just finished, I would have a great sense of accomplishment. And so he kept me jogging down the road till the very end. And now I love running. Now I know I can do hard things, and overwhelming things. A lot of that comes from that first half marathon in Moab, Utah, and dad's act of service.
Another one I thought of was my first night at byu. I had just run ragnar, and I was exhausted. Then I packed up all my earthly possetions and went down to BYU. I had missed the new student orientation, I had missed the check in time for my apartment. And I was lost. The gps of my car hadn't worked, and the gps on my phone hadn't worked. Parking was hard to find where you wouldnt get towed, but when I finally found a place to pull over, I just sat there. Realizing that here I was, I had just moved out for the first time in my life and now I was in a city I didn't know, and I didnt have anywhere to spend the night. My friend Olivia Esplin was waiting for me at a freshman party at the wilk, but I didnt even know in what direction campus was. How was I supposed to find the "wilk". So I sat there. Realizing that I had two options. I could just sleep in my car for the night. OR I could give up and go home, lasting about 2 hours in the adult world and being moved out before running back home scared. No, there had to be another option. So I took out my phone and callled the only person whos number I had that lived in Provo at the moment. Trent. And Trent helped me get to the elms (i actually was just a block away), and then he and summer and joelle and I think Twood or maybe Jake walked me up to the wilk and dropped me off at the wilk, and told me when I was done, to text him and they would come pick me up and walk me home, so I didnt get lost. And then that night, Summer let me stay in her apartment. And that night I said a prayer of thanks, and decided that I could do it. I could be an adult. And that I had friends. I wasn't alone in this strange new world of college.
Anyway, those were two that I thought of. Service counts. Service changes lives. So keep being a missionary!
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