Beautiful Endings

I think Heavenly Father knew I needed beautiful weather today. Today I had my last Book of Mormon AND human development class. My two most favorite classes. Over. It could have been really depressing, but thanks to the perfect weather being in a bad mood was out of the question.

Brother Johnson finished the year with yet another amazing lesson. And to make it even better, Mark actually came to class! He hasn't been in a couple months, so I was super happy he showed up. It seemed like today was all about being a good parent. And not just in class. But that's where it started. Brother Johnson talked a lot about the innocence of children and how as parents it will be our responsibility to teach them. About everything. But especially repentance. We also talked about gifts of the Spirit. It was good to be reminded of the gifts I have and the gifts I want to develop. The other topic we talked a lot about in Book of Mormon class today was charity. We talked about how to obtain charity: pray with all the energy of your heart. I know from experience that praying to love someone works. I'm going to miss that class, and I look forward to taking New Testament with Brother Johnson next fall.

Human development class was so good today. Goodness I'm going to miss that class a lotttt. Professor Walker is amazing. Hopefully I can take more of her courses in the future. Today we finished up our lecture on parenting and then reviewed for the final. Before we ended class Professor Walker shared several bits of wisdom. She shared the tale of Abu Kassem's slippers. It's all about owning your past. She told us that no matter what our past was like, we have agency to overcome nature and nurture. She gave the example of Limhi in the scriptures being righteous when his father (King Noah) had been oh so wicked. Another bit of wisdom I loved was a quote from a child psychologist. He said kids need someone to have an "irrational emotional attachment" to them. Or in other words someone needs to "be crazy about that kid." I am so excited for the future! I already love my future family so much!!!!

After class, I headed to the temple. Since it was so warm and sunny, I decided to get some ice cream on the way. It really doesn't get much better than that - walking to the temple in perfect weather while eating an ice cream cone. I seriously could not have been happier. I even took the longer way to the temple.

The temple was more crowded than usual, but I was glad for the excuse to stay in the Lord's house for a little longer than usual. I needed that today. I had time to read a lovely article in the Ensign about following the prophet's counsel and some scripture we had talked about in Book of Mormon class that I wanted to know more about. Plus I had time just to think and pray. I guess I've had a lot of things on my mind and it was good to take a time out and focus on those things that are most important.

I decided to take a walk after the temple. It was just too beautiful outside to go straight home. I called Mom and talked to her as I was walking. She reminded me that I get to share a closet (and its contents) with Livia this summer :) Yay for finally having a sister I can share clothes/shoes with! At one point in the conversation Mom really scared me. She did that thing I do, where I start telling a story just expecting people to know what I'm thinking or the other part of the story without saying it. She kept talking about how she and Aunt Tonia were talking about how I didn't "live up to my potential". I didn't know what to say! But then I realized she was talking about how they thought I was going to be tall and I ended up being short. Hahahahaha, maybe I should've drank my milk growing up.

Tonight's dinner was full of interesting conversation. Oh dear. Silly Carine made a big deal about finding out old news. Once some people left and it was just me, Megan, Thomas, and Matt we ended up talking about anatomy (since Thomas had his anatomy book with him). It started out with the digestive system, but eventually we started talking about babies. See, I told you today's theme was parenting.

Anyway, Caroline wants me to go listen to a song she wrote. Then I guess I should work on the website. But I'll probably end up watching more of the Emma Smith movie...