Psalm 37:3-5

photo by my cousin, Brandon Willis

"Trust in the LORD, and do good;

so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Delight thyself also in the LORD;

and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Commit thy way unto the LORD;

trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."

The Hardest Part of College...

...is motivating yourself when you really don't want to do anything.

The Most Precious Gift

photo taken by Aura at Heidi's wedding

This beautiful little girl just turned eight on Friday. Such a special, happy time in life! Her big brother is coming home from his mission soon, and she's excited that he will be there to baptize her. Sadly, her big sister will not be able to be there. Growing up has its drawbacks.

She's our little princess, and she knows it. She's our Missy. She's even my namesake. ("Marianne" is an anagram of "AnnMarie" -- my parents thought it was funny. Also, at the time they thought she was going to be the last child, so having the last child's name as an anagram of the first child's name seemed very fitting somehow. Little did they know Nathan was on the way. At least they didn't try to name him Nehpets after my brother Stephen like they threatened.) How grateful I am for my family! I wouldn't trade any one of my brothers or sisters for more money or a bigger house or anything else. I feel richly blessed that Heavenly Father would entrust seven precious souls to my responsibility. How grateful I am for the binding power of our parents' sealing in the holy temple.

A Few Things I Learned This Weekend

1. NEVER, and I mean NEVER, travel without your cell phone fully-charged. Do not assume that you can charge it somewhere along the way, because inevitably it will die a horrible and permanent death right when you actually really need to call someone and you won't be able to find an electrical outlet.

2. Just in case the above does in fact transpire, you should have on your person a written list of phone numbers you might need. This way, even if your phone does die and you can't get to your contact list, you will be able to borrow someone else's or use a pay phone.

3. There really are good people in this world, people that are willing to go out of their way to help you, even if they don't know you from Adam.

4. Then there are really amazing people, friends who will go out of their way and be majorly inconvenienced and still greet you with a smile and a hug.

5. The prayers of parents have powerful effect.

6. In the midst of concentrating on all the horrible things in life, we lose sight of the many, many wonderful and beautiful things about life! This world is not always a veil of tears.

7. Check and then recheck, then re-recheck your plans.

8. Enjoy your life, but go to bed on time. The world is a much happier place when you're rested.

"Friends are the sunshine of life"

Today is a good day. I love windy fall days, when the sun is clear and bright but not hot, and the trees dance in the wind like maidens with long, rustling scarves. I love the little nip and chill in the air, the brisk smell that comes with the cooling weather and signals the end of long, hot, humid summer. I love it when I finish class before 2:30 and I have the rest of the afternoon and evening open. I love the feeling of finally turning in a paper and knowing that it's not hanging over your head anymore. Today is good for all of those reasons.

But today is a great day because today I got an email from one of my investigators back in Korea. She's actually written me several times, the most faithful of anyone there, missionary, member, or investigator. She was actually a referral from another one of our investigators. At first I wasn't very optimistic about her ever progressing, but as we continued to meet with her we discovered that she wanted very much to be a good wife and mother. She has two absolutely adorable little girls who are about age seven and eight now. All three of them were so sweet, and so sad when I left Korea. It's always a real joy to hear from her. Now, I've just got to get her meeting with the missionaries again...

Throwing a Pot As Opposed to a Fit

Here are a few shots of one of my latest pots from my class. My efforts at pot-throwing (and by this I mean the creative kind of throwing, not the destructive kind of throwing; the difference being that your mom is less angry about you doing the first kind in the house than the second) are improving, I think. This bowl is about the tenth thing I've thrown on the wheel, and I can already see my progress in getting the clay centered better, as well as forming a more centered hole. Centering is the process by which you move the clay from where you slapped it down on the wheel, uneven and lumpy, to the exact center of the wheel. The object of centering is to achieve uniformity in the clay, thus producing a uniformly round pot. It looks so easy when someone experienced does it, but this is the fourth week of my class and there are some who still struggle with it.

Similarly, opening the hole in the exact center of the clay is important, too. If you haven't, you will still have an off-center pot, despite the careful centering of the clay you did just previously.

There's a lot of fascinating physics involved in throwing on the wheel. Really, this kind of pottery is all about physics -- it relies on properties of physics to create beautiful works of art. In that way it is different from painting and drawing or even other kinds of pottery. I don't understand the specifics, but I really enjoy using the principles to create pots. I'm not sure what this one is, truthfully, but I figure my mom and dad will be happy with whatever I give them, right?

Maybe next time I'll shoot a play-by-play of the creation of a pot.