~ a week of service ~

     This week was so much fun!!! There were tons of activities and it was so nice to have less homework for a change.
     Monday night we played chair soccer with the elders for their p-day, sooo fun!!  it's been wonderful getting to know them better. Elder lowther is from south carolina and goes home in january, and elder matthews is from idaho, he's only been out for a few months. anyway they are so sweet and have the best ways of explaining things. They always come over at the perfect times, right when im really missing all my guys who are out on missions, and it makes me feel so much better to see what theyre doing and how much they grow. i hope my buddies are having just as much fun.
      The mid week days were pretty normal. I had a substitute in art, finished all my homework in time, same old same old. Thursday i finished my ten hour project for my communications class. my partner and i have been making bags for the head start in mt. pleasant. its a preschool thats almost entirely run on service and grants. we made about 200 drawstring bags and all of our service hours go towards getting more grants for the program. That same day there was a temple service project, we dig up the flowers and replant others every fall and spring. But as you see, i was a little busy so i didn't make it but i heard there was a huge turnout.
    One cool thing going on this week was the red thread movement fundraiser. if you haven't heard, the red thread movement is a student initiative that works with eternal threads to support girls who have or are trying to escape sex trafficking around the world. the bracelets we bought were made by a 12 year old girl in nepal who was rescued, one dollar goes to her and the other two go to freeing other girls and setting up more border units to prevent sex trafficking. it's been such a hit down here at snow that they ran out of bracelets after a few hours and are ordering more to sell! i would be happy to get some for anyone who wants to raise awareness and support the movement.
     Friday was definitely a happy day, i just woke up feeling wonderful!  I got to sleep in, and my only class was cut short because the heater was out of wack. We had an amazing friday forum with paul pace, a stake president from loa utah. First his wife spoke on standing in holy places, she told us that if we always are worthy  and keep the spirit with us then we will always be in a holy place. Pres Pace talked about faith and how we are all taught differently by example or reading the scriptures. He made a great parable about faith and the north star. Just as we are shown how to find the north star by those who are close to us, those same people show us how to believe in the gospel, but it wont do us any good unless we use the star to guide us through our adventures, or use faith to guide us through life because the difference between belief and faith is action. we cannot wait for miracles to develop our faith, we have to use our faith to create miracles.
   After friday forum i got to go to lunch with the pres. pace and his wife (every week some council members take the speaker out to lunch). We had a nice relaxing afternoon in the apartment  and that evening most of us went to a school concert. The orchestra and choirs performed brahm's requiem, it was gorgeous! Later we went to a haunted house up the canyon and screamed out heads off then finished up the night by staying up late with taylor and watching the patriot for a school project.
     On saturday i took my communications test, read a lot and had a guitar jam session with my roomies. that night we got the guys and played volleyball outside for a while, went on a walk to watch the shooting stars, then played ultimate spoons and drop the keys in the parking lot for a few hours. thats where the cop found us lol!! he had been watching us from the street for a while and was trying to figure out what we were doing. after he made sure we weren't fighting or anything he let us take pictures in the back of his car and with him! All in all, it was a fantastic weekend.
     This morning was church as usual. The elders sat with us today and all the talks were on peer pressure. After lunch mariah, bekah and i went to the rest home to visit and play games. Those old people are so sweet! there was one lady named afton who talked to us for about an hour. she's 98 years old! when we were talking she kept forgetting what she had already said so she told us about her grandkids and meeting her husband about 5 times, you could see her face light up every time she remembered something about them. so cute! Tonight its the guys turn to host dinner and games, but they wont tell us what they're making! They had better not steal our ideas!
      So to sum it all up, life is fabulous, college is fun, i love my room mates and am making tons of new friends and having great experiences. Can't wait for fall break and yellowstone with the fam next week!

Love you all,
     Annie