Smiles :)

Come from CHRISTMAS!!!! 

I love our tree!

And making gingerbread houses!

 

Homemade potato soup on a snowy day! 

And making homemade Yaki-soba in honor of Sister Cami Fish! 

Hanging with new friends! 

Hanging with old friends!

Going to my first UNLV basketball game!! 

Hanging with Sam! 

Hanging with Eli! 

Hanging with my family!

This smile!!!! 

Facetime! 

Dressing like a hippie!

The temple! 

Monday, Monday

Yesterday wasn't the best day...haha. Even though my day didn't go that well I had some tender mercies that really helped to change my mood. One of these tender mercies came as I was doing my scripture study in Mormon. I came across two verses that made me smile. They spoke to me! I had to just shake my head and laugh because it was obvious to me that God was aware of me and loves me. Pretty cool! I know he wanted me to learn a few things, and to remember a few things. Here are the verses: 

 14 And then cometh the judgment of the Holy One upon them; and then cometh the time that he that is filthy shall be filthy still; and he that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still.

 15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

I learned a few things from these verses. I learned that I need to learn to be happy now, and to be better at finding those little nougats of happiness in my day even when things are not going that great. Happiness is found in the here and now, not at some future time or at some future date. 

I was also reminded that with God all things are possible. He is as described by Elder Uchdorf in his talk "Forget Me Not" (which I highly recommend reading) as, "the most majestic, powerful, and glorious Being in the universe! ...the King of infinite space and everlasting time!". He IS a God of miracles! All things are possible WITH him. It is possible for him to help me through even the little worries and challenges and upsets of my life. It is possible to reach your hopes and dreams. He wants to show us those miracles and blessings in our lives and give us all the good things that any loving father would want to give his children. 

I am thankful for the tender mercies my Heavenly Father blesses me with each and every day and for his patience and love. :) I am truly blessed. 

-Carli 

Truth!

Like this Mormon bishop that I met on my study abroad to the UK, I too believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. It brings me peace and happiness. It brings my closer to my Savior. It helps me to be a better person and maintain perspective. It helps me get through this test of life.

I love this message. It is so powerful!!

Imperfection

I was reading the mission blog of one of my awesome friends in Thailand and she shared something she had learned from a fellow missionary that made me smile. I think it is just too great to not share. She  said:

"It was very much about knowing that we are earthen vessels, 

made to crack and not be perfect. In this life, we won't be perfect.

 But through our cracks, the light within us can shine through to 

be seen. Those who try to cover up what they see as imperfections, 

using paint or whatever other means to hide, aren't letting themselves 

bask in the wonderous opportunity to be molded by the master potter.

So with this, let us all be real with ourselves and with God. Sometimes

 people are afraid of perfect people because they feel they will not be 

understood. Where-as, someone who has been weathered by the storms

 of life, will be a warm beacon of light across the rocky shore: that there's 

hope and peace to be found, because someone else has risen through it before." 

I absolutely love this! Imperfection gives us opportunities to humble ourselves and turn our will over to our Heavenly Father. I know letting people see our imperfections can be scary and we sometimes try so hard to hide them, but our imperfections make us who we are! We should not hide our imperfections and pretend they do not exist, but own our imperfections and use them to our advantage, looking at them as opportunities to overcome, become more, and share that light that is within us to those around us. 

Faith Is the Answer

One day when I was wandering through the Brimhall Building at BYU looking for a study spot, I came  across a quote that has become one of my favorites:

                            "If you avoid difficult things, great things will avoid you."

                                                     -George H. Brimhall

Haha...doesn't it sound a little Spiderman/Marvel-esque? But really! This is a great quote. I am not someone that does not ever avoid difficult things. I actually do avoid difficult things a lot more than I would care to admit. Sometimes I avoid something difficult because it seems too hard and too out of my comfort zone, or because I over-think it, or simply because I find it scary. Life can be scary. I hate that I sometimes let this fear of scary things overcome my faith. Looking back on my life thus far and its experiences, I have seen the most growth and joy come when I put my trust in God and accept his will. When I make the choice to do the hard things, and to do my best at the hard things. When I have a thought and I act on it. Great things come when I get out of my comfort zone, become vulnerable, take a step/leap of faith, and hope for the best. I know this is what God would have me do. How can he teach me and help me to become MORE if I never am willing to do MORE? 

Often times I think this fear comes hand in hand with discouragement. Sometimes we may feel that we are doing our best and yet we see no progress or change. When really, of course there is progress and change. It may be small, but it is there! Satan would tell us that we are incapable and inadequate. God would tell us that we are more than capable and of great worth! He sees our potential. But how can we reach this potential? How can we overcome discouragement and fear? While reading a talk by Elder David E. Sorensen of the Seventy entitled, "Faith Is the Answer" I came across another great quote: 

"I have learned faith and obedience are the answers to our concerns, cares, and suffering. The key is to remember that faith and obedience are still the answers—even when things go wrong, perhaps especially when things go wrong."

Faith is the answer. Faith in our Savior, and faith in his atonement. Faith that he will help us overcome even though we are imperfect, faith that he will make up the difference, faith that he accepts our best, and faith that he has a plan for us. This talk also reminded me of this scripture: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” -2 Corinthians 5:7. If I relied on my sight to help get me through hard times and take me where I needed to go, I would probably be in a symbolic ditch somewhere. Haha! But with Christ, and with faith, I can be a part of GREAT things. :) 

Thoughts...

“God is eagerly waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.” –Elder Holland

Don’t you just love this quote? I do. It is so true! The Lord sees our potential. He knows what we can become! We just need to believe. This quote helps me to remember to keep the faith, to trust in God, to have hope. I love the scriptures, and I love the gospel. I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to go to church each week and be uplifted. Speaking of the scriptures, I have been reading them every day! After being challenged to read my scriptures every day for a week by some awesome home teachers, I have challenged myself to continue that goal. And you know what? It has been great! I have seen specific blessings come into my days as a result of this. I have seen more tender mercies and have felt the influence of the Spirit more in my day. No joke I have seen more specific examples of the Lord speaking to ME. It is so specific and personal. Awesome. It has strengthened my testimony in my loving Heavenly Father. Another blessing that I think has come from my scripture study is in regards to time. I can’t tell you how many times this week I looked at the clock after working on things and expecting it to be many hours later than it actually was, but it wasn’t. I have had more TIME! Who doesn’t want more of that? I have also had the desire to spend my time doing BETTER things like reading my journal, writing in my journal, listening to talks, talking with friends and family, and writing letters.

I happened upon a blog this week and began reading through some posts and I was really inspired by the experiences and testimony this person expressed. It was exactly what I needed. It inspired me to look at my experiences as a way to become more like Christ, and to see what I can learn and become from them.

Someone really close to me had a really horrible horrible week. Not fun! My heart has ached for this person because I know how they must be feeling. I have been thinking about this all week and I have had a lot of questions run through my mind. How could this happen? Why did this happen? It just doesn’t seem fair. It is pretty cool how the Lord works. He knew that I was feeling uneasy and needed some comfort. The testimony I found helped to answer some of these questions and bring the comfort that I needed, and comfort that I could share with my loved one. I was reminded of these scriptures. “Whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day,” for, “I have been supported under trails and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me” (Alma 36:3,27)."  Even though the experience of my friend may seem unfair, I know it is for a wise purpose and that, ““all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good” (D&C 122:7). I know the Lord is using this experience to help them BECOME more like him. I know that if we put our faith in God, he will support us in our trials and in our afflictions. 

One of my favorite scripture stories is found in Mosiah 24. It is about Alma and his people. Read it! It is wonderful. One of my favorite scriptures from this story is, “And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me;and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage. And I will ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me heareafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.” What a promise!!! And what happened after this promise? “the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light;yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.” Not only were they able to bear these burdens of persecution with ease, but they were able to be cheerful through it all. I know this life is not always easy, but it isn’t suppose to be! If we turn our lives towards God and believe, especially in the hard times, we can find comfort and strength. We can learn from the experience and become more like him. I have a testimony in my Savior. I know that he does not want us to just DO things, but to BECOME something, and our experiences (good and bad) can help us to do this. What a comfort to know that he will be us every step of the way. 

 "I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be 
in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up" 
D&C 84:88

Spring Break in Denver!

Denver in Pictures! 

I arrived safely to Denver! Woo! 

Story time at the library! 

Candy Land with Kaden! 

Fun in the sun! 

Aw. Love these boys! 

Playing in the back yard! 

Silly pics! 

Racing Dylan! 

Facetime with Uncle Brad! 

Heading to the Denver Temple after conference.

Boys in front of the Denver Temple! 

Dylan picked his mom a flower...from the temple flower bed. Ooops! haha...SUPER sweet though! 

Shopping at Walmart.

Cute Dylan! 

Skills. 

On the way to the airport! 

BYE BOYS!

I will miss them. SUCH a fun trip! 

Snow Patrol!

On Saturday Cami and I went to our first ever real Vegas concert. Cami had a coworker that was trying to sell some Snow Patrol tickets so she bought them as an early birthday present for me! She is the best. We absolutely loved it! It was awesome venue (at the Cosmopolitan pool), it had a great view, we were surrounded by tons of British people with British accents (which made me feel right at home), and it wasn't very crowded... so we were able to get pretty close to the stage! :) All the singers sounded AWESOME. They were so so great live. I was really impressed. We came away liking them more than we did before. It was great!

Wooo! Ready to go! 

Eiffel Tower in the background.  We had a great view. :) 

Snow Patrol! 

Haha. We loved it! All smiles. :)

At the end of the concert we hoped we would get an encore. And we did! The band played one song and right when it seemed like they were done.. and that they would not be playing the song my sister and I had been waiting for....they did! "Just Say Yes" was the last song they played and it was AWESOME. We were so happy!

Thanks again Cami!!!! 

....

BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Isn't this picture soooo awful? bhahahahahaha. I just love my new Mac. My family and I crack up over the pictures we can get from it.

Like this one...

Cone head Carli 

Alien Cami...or Tim Burton Character Cami...haha. 

And Elvish Cami...haha 

Creepy! But funny...

Postgrad fun!

So...I graduated!

Woohoo! 

All of my family came down...which was awesome! I loved loved loved having everyone there. While it feels really great to be graduated I am a bit sad to leave BYU. It has been good to me the past five years...haha. I just love BYU!

But life is great! And kinda crazy since graduation. Right after graduation I moved home all of my stuff in good ol' Fishes and then headed off to San Diego with my sister and brother-in-law. I was so excited they asked me to come. Sooo fun! We stayed in this awesome cabin at a KOA in San Diego...and we were so close to all of the good stuff. I am now bff with my nephew Eli. I just love that kid. Here are some fun pictures of our trip!  

Eli hanging out at the playground!

San Diego! 

This old but classy/gorgeous hotel...Hotel Del Coronado. Beautiful! 

Eli at the Hotel Del beach. This kid is going to be a swimmer. He LOVES the water! 

Isn't this just gorgeous? 

Hotel Del. 

We visited Old San Diego and saw a lot of cool stuff!

Uh...a cool tree. haha 

An awesome old Victorian home! 

                           

My tour guides. :) 

                                    

Ships in the harbor. 

Eli eating lunch. :)

We also visited this awesome cove where we were so lucky to get a parking spot. We walked around the beach, saw some old people playing bingo, saw and smelled seals (they stunk bad even from way far away. barf. haha. ), took pictures, got stared at by people that thought Eli was the cutest thing they had ever seen, soaked in the sun, heard tons of other languages, splashed around in the water, and just relaxed. It was such a gorgeous day!

I love the ocean. 

Casey and Eli. 

Birds of Paradise 

Hotel Del Beach 

Me in front of Hotel Del 

AND...I learned how to rip-stick. It is basically a much cooler, but harder version of skateboarding. Haha. I loved it! Super fun. 

I just loved hanging out with Casey and Eli. We had this awesome swing on the porch so we could just chill and talk...or battle on Fruit Ninja...or laugh. And we got to go to Ruby's for Casey's Birthday dinner...where we had the nicest waiter ever. Seriously though. I LOVE Ruby's. It is a tradition to eat there whenever we go to California. And Eli just cracks me up. He is seriously THE happiest baby ever. He just laughs and talks and smiles. :) Oh...Casey and Jayson also introduced me to this awesome show called "The Middle". I loved watching and laughing with them...or just watching the show as they laughed. I really did think it was funny! Thank you Casey and Jayson and Eli for letting me hang with you guys! I had a blast! 

After San Diego I left BACK up to Provo the day after we got home in order to interview for jobs. I am officially sick of driving in a car...haha. It feels great to be home. :)