the sunshine!

What is it about the sunshine? The warmth sinking into your skin,

 putting your face to the sky closing your eyes knowing when you open them the sun is still going to be there,

 the way you run for the shade and secretly sneak you feet into the sun,

 the need to lay in it for hours,

 the way it looks when it rises in the morning and the way it sets at night.

 Not much compares to it.

All I know is that when I am in its rays I don't want to leave, my body is uplifted my spirits are brightened and I am one very happy soul:)

My Idol

Doris Day is My onscreen idol. 

Always put together, 

  

 Wonderfully beautiful

works with the devastatingly handsome..... 

 I watch any movie she is in and I have a instant case of wardrobe envy!

Can I please one day be as entirely fabulous as this just for a day!? 

Please and thank you 

-Hayley

May I please?

May I please see more of this?

and do a little more of this?

lots and lots of this?

see lots more of them?

and do lots more of this?

and cook some of this?

just saying that would make me a very happy person:)

- a very concerned and hopeful
hayley

Adventures of a College Student: I find it interesting...

Lately, I feel as though all I ever start out my sentences is by saying " I find it interesting...." and then continue with the conversational topic I happen to be on. But today, " I was walking on  campus thinking of all the many places I have memories here. I found my self on autopilot a place where I have very fond memories. Not all are ones I can say I particularly enjoyed, but they are ones who brought my great happiness and learning, well now that I am looking back upon them. Funny how that works huh?

that when you are moment that is about to change life as you know it, we never recognize that them. For me, I don't even think about what I learned from most situations until the whole ordeal is over, and I have that quick two seconds to breathe and think before the next one starts. In this case with this memory its been 9 months. odd how it worked it out, but I am glad I have sat in this room writing down my thoughts and learning from the simple two weeks I spent here, 8 hours a day with 48 other students, 4 teachers 3 wives and lots and lots of power points. Teachers jumping around on the stage students teaching other students, name quizzes, Martin Luther, Roma Italia, Magnum Bars, Gelato, Eiffel Tower, Wittenberg, Salzburg, Prague, churches, art, music, and culture. Life lessons of what never to do ever again, Me and Mrs. Jones Behavior. the list could go on and on and whether or not it could is not the point the point is that  I find interesting in the way I learn of people places and things, and how long it takes me to connect the dots. Did you learn anything today? Did it bring a sweet smile to your face, prick tears in your eyes, and warm your heart? These memories did that for me:)

-Hayley

Adventures of a College Student: the Adventures continue:)

So in the last 3 days there has been more people visiting my blog then the months of January and February combined. I am going to go ahead and guess (anyone is welcome to tell me) someone sent out an email with a link to a post of something... ?

Todays Adventure of a College Student
The importance of the chapels of our lives.

We are traveling back through Europe again. Is everyone okay with that?

When in Rome, the great city, I had a charming discussion with one of the Lovely ladies on the tour. While walking through out city that day, I had seen some absolutely amazing things,
the roman colosseum

this great building, built to withstand time and represent a people forever.

The amazing ruin of this great building only signifies what as a human race we are capable of. The history exudes from every rock, each corner and crevasse , each tour guide in their own special way teaching you of the events and people which took place. 

the Roman Forum, 

this barely covers the great expanse of history that is located in this spot here. There are 20 more decades of history under what you are viewing here. Amazing right?

Now you wondering where I am going with this right? I am not leading you on a tour I am trying to help you understand my train of thought this day. 

We walked through the city with this amazing amount of history crammed into our heads, a growing love for this new wonderful place and pieces of time, and of course rumbling stomachs so we grabbed lunch at a locale grocer, during this short sweet time, I began a thought process that would forever change the way I view chapels anywhere in the world. After we had finished eating and began the walk to the next church, (forgive me I can not remember the name of it) I was thinking to myself, the purpose of the things I was seeing that day, Entertainment, public functions, city rulings, and general living. Once I had stepped into this church I immediately looked up ( I have a thing with ceilings) here is what I saw, 

pretty awesome huh? Well, the next thing I noticed in one of the atriums (side chapel) was child. A small 7 year old, kneeling on a bench that was a half a foot to tall for him. To put his elbows on the top  his little arms are stretched over his head to reach and with his little head bowed in reverent prayer, I began to understand the purposes of these buildings. Luckily, for us members of the church our worship services are rarely interrupted by tourists, camera flashes and immensely loud tour guides speaking in multiple languages. But for this sweet child his church is a national museum, open to all, at anytime of the day. He can barely worship in the normal fashion because of his bite site figure and then if he dares to open his little eyes there is art, gold gilded ceilings, marble statues, marble floors, tourists taking pictures, people complaining, pushing each other to get to the thing that is most important in this  museum that this child uses to worship his Lord. 

this right here...

Joannes Lawerntivs Bernini, the great architect was buried here, and evidently I am not excused from the loud nosiy tourists I wanted my picture but felt ashmed at my behavior in front of this child who was worshiping our heavenly father. Can you imagine taking the sacrament in a place like this?

 me either! Where is all of this heading?

Lets tie everything together. We go to a chapel every week in a church building most likely painted LDS casmere, with simple cushion benches, very few pieces of artwork, and no famous buried architect. The Sacrament is passed in a reverent manner, from boys in white shirts,  who its a good possibly you might not even know their name, you have no idea who built the church, if it was Bernini or Wasatch Residential builders you honestly don't care, all that matters is that you get to partake of the saving ordinance and are forgiven of your sins so that someday soon you can attend the temple. You like that little boy are not interested in the greatness of the building, the year of the marble, or who carved the statue but have the chance to go to place that allows you the comfort of worshiping in a way that diverts from distraction. 

Our Chapels are designed to bring you closer to your heavenly father with out the distraction. To feel safe , enclosed and comforted each week by the quite sweet spirit you feel when you attend your meetings. So this week, when you go to church, be ever so grateful for its design and invisibility in your life to be the place where you meet to learn, partake of the sacrament and receive the chance to go to the temple. 

this is a temple I helped celebrate :) 

Be grateful for the simplicity and the invisibility of the chapels you attend. and say a little prayer for my little roman friend , that someday his will find the gospel, and escape from all the tourists:) like myself. 

-Hayley

hey you!!

Okay everyone,

I need you to all do me a favor, I am trying to figure out whether or not to take my blog private or not so I want to know how many people actually follow my blog. So if you could comment or mark a reaction that would be great! thank you!!!!

Adventures of a College Student: In Repair

So for everyone out there who actually reads these silly posts, I just want to thank you. This has kinda of turned into an outlet for my thoughts and pictures. 

For my Adventures of a College Student

here is the next lesson.

I have currently titled my life "In Repair"

When I was traveling in Europe last fall, I  was in a constant state pondering the greatness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and how it seems in my life when I seem unsteady in the course of my life, the progress doesn't feel like progress, the happiness is the fleeting momentary madness it seems to always be; the Gospel is the never failing source of Joy Comfort and peace I am searching for. While riding on the bus traveling somewhere in between Liverpool and Preston I saw this construction sign,

and if you cant read my picture which is a little blurry with the infamous English rain here is another image off of google. 

 I read this sign and knew that it had been placed there in that spot on the English highway just for me. All of the thoughts of self doubt, the uneasy feeling I had in the pit of my stomach, the waves of emotions seemed to calm all in one glorious feeling. Tears began to fall from my eyes, my chest burned and I felt ashamed with my own actions, the gospel and the religions I had been study for the past months, all of  the museums, the hundreds and hundreds pieces of art, the architecture built to with stand time and people, the cultures that shaped the world all that I had seen and I had never connected the dots as simple as this sign. That right there is what the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Infinite Atonement offers us every time we return to it. Simple but always true. I learned one of the greatest lesson of my life that day. Jesus Christ offers us" Free Recovery ( if we/ I) Await Rescue." You would think that I could remember always to  have that soft sweet spiritual burning reminder in my heart as I returned home to the states and back to my life, which was anxiously waiting me to continue. But I am merely human. I had forgotten so selfishly what it is others have come and done before me, for me. 

My success and joy in my life comes from choosing to follow our Savior. My "success" can only be truly measured and amount to anything if I simply follow him. So why then it is so hard? Good question. I think the pain the heartache, the bottomless loneliness comes from our our desire to control and run our own lives to make our own decisions to feel the need to be the running power of our lives. I know this first hand. I love control of my situation. It has gotten me nowhere and fast. 

So today I am humbling myself and laying down my great and ridiculous imaginary control and power and starting from the ground up. With the basics, I chose to do as the young rugby professional in Australia has done just a few days ago, I chose to say" This is who I am, and what I want to do."

I want to live the Gospel. I want to have my Decision's dictate my eternal nature to those around me, to tell the world by my actions I am a daughter of God who loves me and I love him and I will try my best knowing that when I fail to succeed there is an unconditional "Free Rescue and I just have to Await Recovery." It seems simple to say those words and believe them. I promise to stick to them. I have begun a list of the small and simple things I see in my life that God had placed there for me, and the almost invisible its so small list of things I am doing for him. I am "In Repair" and plan on updating you all soon on the progress. I wish you all the best happiness today and this week. Chose who you will serve, chose how you measure your own success. Chose to Follow him. 

-Hayley