Called to Serve

I decided over the Summer that I wanted to serve a mission when I turned 21, which would be the next Summer. When the announcement was made for the age change, my plans didn't change much other than I could leave a little sooner after the Winter semester ended. I worked on getting all of my papers in over Christmas break and then I had my paper submitted on January 20th. I received word that my call had been assigned on January 25th, so I was expecting for it to come on the 30th. Greg and Liss came down to Provo with this awesome cake that looked like a missionary tag on Wednesday night. Unfortunately my call didn't come, but we still enjoyed the cake. 

I obviously loved it.

I hoped that my call would maybe come on Thursday and my hopes were dashed yet again. At that point I decided to stop having any expectations that the call would come. Turns out that when I came home from school on Friday around 3, I looked in the mailbox and saw this:

My call had come!! I called my mom and told her that it was here and that I would call back the family after I had opened it. I ran upstairs into my room (I was home alone) and I opened my call. I read it out loud standing next to my bed. This is what it said:

Dear Sister Livingston:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of LAtter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Korea Daejeon Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

I was so shocked when I read the word Korea that I simultaneously started crying and laughing at the same time. I never would have guess that I would go to Korea. The Lord knows what He's doing though, and I trust that this will be an incredible experience for me. I'm excited to teach the people in Korea the gospel of Jesus Christ. I leave on May 29th to go into the MTC.

I then spent the next few hours calling people and telling people where I had been called. My family was excited and it was a blessing that I got to skype Jessie right after I got my call. I'm feeling so blessed and excited to have this opportunity to serve and I can't wait to see what lies ahead. 

Happy half birthday to me!

Today I turned 20.5 years old. Crazy. My family is the BEST and they sent me a lovely package to celebrate the day, including my favorite Wegmans donuts. I was so excited to receive it. It literally made my day. 

Thanks fam! I love you!!

Temple Trip

This past Saturday I had the lovely opportunity to participate in a Ward Temple Trip that I had helped to plan. It was wonderful. We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, which is absolutely gorgeous inside. I got to participate in baptisms for the dead, which was great. I love going to the temple. Then afterward we had salad, chili and rolls at the Bishop's house. It was a wonerful event.

We had an awesome turnout. It was fun getting to go to a different temple with my fellow ward members.

a still mind is divine.

I was re-reading through my journal that I kept in Spain and I stumbled upon this quote that my friend told me. I hadn't remember her telling me this quote and I was so glad that I had written it down because I love it. I had to write it up in InDesign real quick to make a little sign to remember. 

"A still mind is divine." How awesome is that?! I want to have a still mind. I know that that is possible through our Savior Jesus Christ. Having a still mind truly is divine because it comes from the knowledge that Christ atoned for my sins and afflictions. He is there with me through all things and can help me to have peace and a still mind. I'm starting to feel stressed with everything in school and life and I can feel my mind start to wander and get busy, but I just need to remember that a still mind is divine. Trusting and having faith in Christ is what will bring me that still mind and I'll be able to be more productive and happy through obeying His commandments and remembering Him always. 

Running

I've started running more this semester and I've discovered that I can actually enjoy running! This is a new thing for me. I ran track in high school but pretty much hated it and ever since then have bad memories of running. For some reason, maybe because I started listening to Harry Potter on my ipod while I run or maybe because I am super chill about it and don't have super high expectations for myself that I am able to run more than I have before. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up. But for now I can just say that I'm grateful I have a healthy body that allows me to run.

Life Lately...

Life since I've been home through pictures from my phone.

Happy Easter

I know that my Redeemer lives

What comfort this sweet sentence gives

He lives, He lives who once was dead

He lives, my everliving Head

He lives to bless me with His love

He lives to plead for me above

He lives my hungry soul to feed

He lives to bless in time of need

He lives my kind, wise heavenly friend

He lives and loves me to the end

He lives and while He lives I'll sing

He lives my Prophet, Priest and King

He lives and grants me daily breath

He lives and I shall conquer death

He lives my mansion to prepare

He lives to bring me safely there

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives, 

"I know that my Redeemer lives"

Watch this video about Christ's amazing life and atonement.

Woohoo!

The Student Art Show is in the HFAC from April 2nd-20th so go check it out to see some awesome work!

Hey Guess What?!

You're looking at the newest Arts and Crafts Counselor at Aspen Grove for the Summer :)

Life is so great right now :)

Do you want to know why life is so great right now? Here's the story: So we all went to dinner tonight as a group with our director and his wife, Los Alba. We went to a Kebab place, which made the night great to start with because I love the kebabs here. So after we've all ordered our food, we were all just chatting about life when our professor stood up and started talking to us. He asked us how we would feel about taking an extra trip because we have some extra money from the program that we need to use up. We all nodded our heads and I was thinking that we would go to another city in Spain. Then he said how about a trip out of the country? Then I was thinking Portugal because it's super close and similar to Spain. Then he said, well I have your tickets here to fly to PARIS for the weekend!!!!! We all started screaming and going crazy because we could not believe what we were hearing!!!! So now we're going to Paris on our last weekend of the program for two nights! I'm still in shock and I just felt like skipping down the street while we walked back home (which Lexy and I may have done a little bit).

But seriously I am feeling so blessed and happy right now. What a once in a lifetime experience I am having...this is amazing!

I'll be seeing you in a few weeks Eiffel Tower!

P.S. Tomorrow marks that I only have one more month left in Span (slash Paris). Time flies when you are having fun!

19

I'm 19 years old now. We celebrated by eating cake with edible gold shavings on it...richly delicious :)

Can't wait to see what this new year and age brings!

Harry Potter! Harry Potter!

My friends and I went to the midnight showing (12:15, but close enough) of the final installment of the Harry Potter series. It rocked. Linds and I dressed up in our Gryffindor rugbys (that were really from our hs field hockey team) But our pictures may now be hanging up in the movie theater because we were so festive...nbd :)

we like to refer to ourselves as Fred and George...Wingadrium Leviosa!!

We had such a fun time hanging out for a couple hours before the movie started.

We pretended to be wizards and have wands :)

SO EXCITED FOR HP7.2!!!! Alissa and I were the biggest fans out of our group and we could seriously not wait ever since we went to part one together. 

Thanks HP for entertaining me for so long! I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the books..."what's comin' will come and we'll meet it when it does."

haircut!

It's nothing super drastic, but I can welcome Summer now with less length :)