Blessed Beyond Measure: Friend Edition

One of the service prompts for the Light the World initiative this year was to post on social media about an influential friend or friends. I'm not on social media very often, but it occurred to me recently that I could post here!

I wouldn't be able to pick just one friend to highlight. I am blessed to have many good friends, several of whom I've known since childhood. I intend to name a few (and hopefully I can keep it to just a few, or this post would go on forever!). :)

I'm grateful for Kiera, who's been one of my best friends since kindergarten. She was and continues to be a powerful spiritual influence on my life -- in addition to being a whole lot of fun! Kiera's example and observations were so influential in helping me start to recognize the voice of the Spirit. I'm grateful for her spiritual sensitivity and also for her bottomless well of forgiveness in the times I wasn't the greatest friend.

I'm grateful for Summer, who became a good friend the first year Kiera and I weren't in the same school class. We became a trio, and I so appreciate her kindness and love.

I'm grateful for Sara, K.T., and Mikayla, who are still some of my best friends! Elementary school wouldn't have been the same without them. I love their creativity, kindness, and genuine goodness. All three of them are the kind of people who just want to do the right thing, and the world is better for it.

I'm grateful for Andrea, Ana, Ashley, Lauren, Mandy, Bree, Jenny, Belle, Aubrey, Joe, Ryan, Connor, and all my other high school friends! We may not be in contact as often as we used to be, but they truly made my high school years happy ones, and I'm better for it. I'm also grateful for Kiera's sister Whitney, who I became much closer to during and after high school (once I started growing out of the "I'm older than you so we can't hang out" phase).

Thank goodness for Jill, Mara, Holly, Lynette, Kelly, Sketti, Ary, and Katelyn. Again, we're not in contact as often as we used to be, but they were the best roommates I could have asked for!

Jennifer deserves her own paragraph. Before Jennifer moved into our apartment, I was surviving on cereal, bagels, croutons, and rice. We bonded over food and Korean dramas and never looked back. To this day, she is my "best California friend"! One of the happiest days of my life was attending her wedding to a great, worthy man. She is such a caring, intelligent, thoughtful person and I'm blessed to know her.

I also have many friends whom I met outside of school. Mission friends, the Draper family in California, Francie, Provo Temple baptistry friends and the Yarwood family in Utah are some examples. I connected with the Drapers through music. I connected with Michelle through food and Primary teaching. I love both their families so much.

There are many other people who have touched my life, and I hope to make many more friends as the journey continues. Friends help make life grand. Especially when you're as lucky in your friendships as I am. I wish everyone could have even just one true friend.

What's in a farewell talk?

This talk was given in church Sunday, July 20.

I appreciate all the people who've come today to support Graig and I as we speak right before we leave on our missions to Honduras and El Salvador. It's a little scary to think Graig and I will be in another country in a few days - we fly to the Mexico MTC on Tuesday. But God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of faith, and if any of you are afraid of something in your future, I invite you to trust God to catch you as we each take our leaps of faith into the unknown.

I've wanted to serve a mission my whole life. I wanted it so much I sometimes questioned my true motivation for starting my papers. What if I was going for myself, for the chance to see new places and experience a new culture? I didn't want the foundation of my mission to be built on something as shaky as myself. I wanted to be built on Christ, so that when the winds of adversity come - and I've been assured they will - I wouldn't be tossed to and fro, but I would be able to stand strong and tall. As tall as I ever get, anyway.

I prayed to have the right motivation for going - which in my mind, means I'm going because I love the Lord and all His people. I prayed to know that my own motivations were unselfish. I was still struggling with this on the day I got my mission call. It took three weeks for me to get that letter, and let me tell you, it was the longest three weeks of my life. I didn't know this at the time, but my mom had been praying hard too. She asked the Lord to just confirm to me that wherever I was called was where God needed me to serve.

Both our prayers were definitely answered. When I read the words of my call: "Dear Sister Henrie, ... you are assigned to labor in the El Salvador San Salvador East Mission," the thought came to me: Duh, of course you'd be called to El Salvador. I guess that was my own spirit talking to me; I think I knew before I came to Earth that I would serve a mission in El Salvador.

The Holy Spirit connected with me too. Usually, the way I feel the Spirit is by feeling as if my whole body is electrified (Heavenly Father knows subtlety is lost on me), but this was more intense than I'd felt it before. A warmth exploded in my chest. I didn't come down from cloud nine for weeks after opening my call, and my BYU roommates will testify of that.

Because of this experience and many others, I know God answers prayers. I hope He'll answer another one today and guide me through the Spirit to say what somebody may need to hear.

The Spirit is an essential part of any missionary work, and when Bishop Faddis invited me to speak I asked if I could talk about personal revelation. He said, "Could you talk a little about preparing for a mission, too?"

The two actually go hand in hand, because in order to touch people's hearts and teach effectively, you need God to guide you by the Spirit - and you need to love them.

How do you feel the Spirit?
So, first up - how do you feel the Spirit? It talks to everyone differently, in the way each individual can best understand. I've already explained a little about how I know I'm feeling the Spirit when all the hairs on my arms stand up and I feel warmth course through my whole body. But sometimes it communicates with me in another way, too; the Spirit gives me clarity of thought, where my mind stays calm in potentially dangerous situations and somehow I know what to do. This has kept me out of serious trouble with my mother lots of different times in my childhood. Kiera could tell you - she was there for most of them, and I know she felt the same clarity of thought.

One time this happened was when I was babysitting my three siblings at home. We used to have this decorative box, about the size of a box of tissues, with candles in it. The box was full of pretty leaves and twigs and the candles were scented. Well, we had the candles going and I guess they'd burned pretty low because suddenly the leaves in the box caught fire!

It should have been a paralyzing situation because I wasn't very old, maybe 13, and I'm afraid of fire, but I wasn't paralyzed, and neither was my brother Graig. He immediately went to the sink and got a cup of water. I talked him out of dumping it on the fire right there because I had a thought that we should take it outside first. I didn't question the thought because it just felt natural, and so I got a pair of oven mitts and took the box outside to the back porch.

With the box safely on the porch, I backed up a safe distance and let Graig pour the water on it. But it didn't go out, it exploded!

I realized something I couldn't have known before - that this was a grease fire. You can't extinguish a grease fire with water, and if Graig had tried while it was still sitting on our kitchen table, we probably would have caught the table on fire. I was sure glad I had listened to the thought that told me to take the box outside!

How can I learn to recognize the Spirit?
It's taken me pretty much my whole life to learn how to recognize when the Spirit is speaking to me, and I think that's the case with most other people as well. It isn't always easy to discern your own thoughts from heavenly communication, but one thing that really helped me was by really trying to pay attention during church meetings. It's sometimes harder to feel the Spirit during the week with school and work distracting you, but it's fun to practice on Sundays when the only distraction is my own failure to concentrate on what's being said.

As I paid closer attention, I started to learn some things: the Spirit never fails to testify of truth, and because true doctrine is taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was able to receive a personal witness of truth from the Holy Spirit during many lessons. The Spirit also suggested lots of changes I could make in my life to help myself feel closer to the Savior, or taught me more about a topic in an illuminating "lightbulb moment." Sometimes those teachings were unrelated to what was being said and were instead more about doctrinal questions I'd been thinking about.

How can I feel the Spirit more?
I was talking to my dad about how someone can feel the Spirit, and he said that having the pure love of Christ helps you to feel the Spirit. If you don't think you feel the Spirit, perform a service for someone. When you serve, the Spirit will tell you how much God loves that person. You will feel the Spirit more in your life.

"If you don't know how to be a missionary, but you have the pure love of Christ, you'll be fine," my dad said. "Pure love is loving people without reservation, despite what they may have done to you."

I know Graig and I will be okay on our missions because of the love we have learned in our family. Graig and I have also enjoyed all the opportunities we've had in the past to share our music with you, and we really appreciate all the service you've done for us - especially in the past couple months as we've been preparing to serve our missions.

Another tip for helping yourself know what the Spirit feels like is to ask God if He's there and if He loves you. The answer will always be YES! Listen for it. Feel for it.

Preparing to serve a mission
When my stake president interviewed me before submitting my missionary application, he asked me to prepare by beginning to act like a missionary right then. I thought to myself, I don't have a companion. I can't knock on doors all day. I'm go to school full time. I have a job. How can I act like a missionary right now?

But as I thought about it, I had a lightbulb moment where the task suddenly seemed simple. What do missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do? They look for opportunities to serve others and for opportunities to share gospel teachings. I started to do the same thing, and I was amazed at how many missionary opportunities I had right here in Utah, the Mormon capital of the world. All of you can do the same thing: look for opportunities to serve or share every day. You don't need a formal mission call to act like a missionary!

New year, new semester, new start

Everything feels new today: it's the big 2013 (meaning the world didn't end last month), a new start, and my last semester of school. Graduation with my bachelor's degree in journalism looms on the horizon, just four months away. Crazy, right?

I also got a new phone and an almost new alto saxophone this morning while running errands with my mom! I feel like I've accomplished a lot today already, and I am so excited to get home after work and play my sax!!! I'm far more excited about the saxophone than I am about the phone, although it's a pretty spiffy phone.

I love the beginning of each new year because it's easy to think of it as a fresh start. A clean slate. Opportunities and tragedies may both be in store, and I'm excited to see where life takes me.

We have yet to replace Ary in the apartment. Hopefully Ary will be able to sell her contract soon, because it's zero fun to have to pay rent to a place you don't live in anymore. On the upside, Sketti, Jennifer and I talked to her on Sunday, and she's doing great in Germany! She'll be working there for a year, which means I probably won't see her for three-ish years (after my mission).

Speaking of my mission, I'm almost ready to turn in my application to be a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sister missionaries in our church typically serve wherever they're called for 18 months (the men are typically out for 24 months). My brother Graig will probably leave on his own mission about the same time I do.

Service from roommates

 I took these first two pictures the same day it snowed. I came home to find Sara had stacked everything from our kitchen in the living room so she could strip and wax the floor single-handedly! She is wonderful. :)

Later on this same night, the power went out for several hours. We celebrated by playing games and watching movies by flashlight.

Ary, Sketti, Sara and Jennifer gave me these flowers when I came home from my University Chorale concert they couldn't attend. They gave Katelyn some too. I super appreciate their thoughtfulness. The flowers are now in a makeshift vase on the table.

Ary raps about world peace- raw version

CREDITS
Videographer: Katelyn
Rapper: Ary
Singing the beginning of the Circle of Life: Sketti and I

Wonderful roommates... and "the new Party Rock" song

I sit here in a familiar living room- the same apartment as the one I stayed in last year- but three of the faces here were unknown until Jen and I returned from our trip to Cali the evening before classes started.

Their names: Sketti, Katelyn and Ary.

Sketti is very athletic. She's taking a lot of student activity classes this semester, is on the BYU women's rugby team and co-chairs the sports committee for our LDS ward. She's super fun and always game to fill needs around our apartment as she sees them. (She's especially diligent about loading the dishwasher. So far, I think it's almost always been her who's started it when it gets full.)

Katelyn is very kind. So far this semester, she and Sketti (they're buddies who met in Helaman Halls last year- kinda like how Jen and I are buddies who met in January of this year) have made us cookies and a couple signs with compliments for each roommate that they put up in the kitchen and on our bedroom doors. She helped me study for a jazz quiz and is tutoring Sketti in physical science. She was called to be our family home evening group "mom" and takes it very seriously. In terms of personality, she and I are pretty much as opposite as you can get: she's boy crazy, loves dressing up, doing hair and painting fingernails. Jen and I have gotten her to like City Hunter, so that's good. I'm excited for her. :)

Ary was the odd one out. The one who moved in without knowing ANYONE beforehand. Basically, she. Is. Awesome! Sara is her roommate, which I think she enjoys very much. Ary is majoring in German teaching, and since Sara loves German, they had some common ground to build on. Ary is not a shy person. She's the type that draws in everyone around her, with her wide smile and inclusive attitude. The-life-of-the-party sort of person. She's also a killer dancer.

This post is about how lucky I got with roommates this semester. Again!

These were waiting on the kitchen table when I woke up this morning. The note isn't signed, but I suspect Katelyn was behind this wonderful surprise. (I should add that we all agreed if we leave something on the table, that means it's fair game for anyone to eat.) The note says:

"My Dearest Roomies, I just wanted to tell you guys how much I love and appreciate you. It has been so great getting to know you guys over the last month. All of you are so incredibly talented and I have already learned so much from you! You guys are definitely very blessed individuals and are such strong examples of Christ and His gospel. You all astound every day with all the things you guys can pull off on a daily basis. I hope you guys understand how wonderful you are and please never forget it! You guys have shown me what it means to truly be considerate, how to really love your neighbor, how to laugh your way through life (I suspect this one may be directly inspired by me), that you can have a life and still do well in school, the importance of having a personal testimony and a firm faith in Christ, and how to be such a great example of service and pure unique talent. I really want each of you to know how much I really love you and how much I care about you! Please know how much I want to help you in any way possible and that I will be there for you no matter what! I hope that you have such a super fantastic day and that everything goes well for you. You really are talented and amazing! With love."

Yup, it has Katelyn written all over it. She's great. :)

Jennifer drew this picture to depict an idiotic YouTube video that went viral in about two days- it set a record for shortest time a YouTube video has scored a million views. It's a Korean pop song called "Gangnam Style" (pronounced gahng-nahm). I first saw it last Friday at my Book Club meeting, where I heard it described as "the new Party Rock" (you know it, the song that goes "everyday I'm shufflin', shufflin', shufflin'") because of how fast it became popular. It features a Korean man, probably in his thirties, dancing hilariously in a bunch of random places. If you look it up, be warned- there's a fair bit of suggestive dancing mixed in with the silliness.

Anyway, Jen only had to show Ary the video once for Ary to get the guy's moves down pat. I told you she's a killer dancer.