Waiting at the Bus Stop

This is what I see when I wait for the bus each morning:

And this

(These pictures, of course, don't do the mountains and leaves justice.)

How could you not be happy when you see this beautiful sight? I love Autumn and the colorful leaves. It makes standing outside at 7:45 am waiting for a bus pretty good. A good way to start the morning out if you ask me.

Where Have You Been?

Tonight I went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. As I walked in one of the temple workers came over to me with a big smile on his face and said, "How are you Sister? Where have you been? We've missed you."

I'd forgotten I used to come every Tuesday night, but this brother remembered. He remembered me and noticed that I'd been missing. In the business of this semester I got distracted and haven't attended the temple as often as I should have. But it was a silly thing to do. Life has been crazy and I need the perspective the temple provides - just like my favorite quote about the temple says.

"At the temple the dust of distraction seems to settle out, the fog and the haze seem to lift, and we can ‘see’ things that we were not able to see before and find a way through our troubles that we had not previously known.”

—President Boyd K. Packer

I was touched that this temple worker remembered me out of all the people that come and go in the temple. And I was touched by his words. It made me think about how sad it would be to have the Lord say to us, "Where have you been?" What a good reminder it was that the Lord is aware of each of us and wants us to stay by Him. But of course if we do stray (which we all do in some way or another), the Lord will greet us with a smile saying, "I have missed you," and welcome us back with open arms.

I love the temple and am so grateful to live so close to so many temples. What a privilege.

Goodbye Fall Break

This past week I was on fall break and it was glorious. I felt so free. I slept more than six hours at night and only went to the U twice the whole week.

On Tuesday I took a bus to Provo and spent two nights there playing and masquerading as a BYU student once more. I went to a few classes with friends and even studied a little in the library. I was surprised how excited I was to study there. Who'd have thought studying in the good ol' Harold B. Lee would be something I'd look forward to doing over my fall break? Guess it shows absence does make the heart grow fonder. I suppose it was so great because I spent so much time there when I was at BYU and so it's equated with happy memories.

One of the classes I went to was BYU Singers with a friend. It was so lovely to go hear a choir sing, and a really good choir at that. I've really missed having music in my life. This is one of the few times in my life when I'm not in any choir or taking voice lessons. The choirs in my life seem to be disappearing. The Jenny Phillip's Fireside Choir I'm in doesn't perform July - December and I was unable to do Institute Singers again because of class conflicts. I'm seriously craving music. Just listening to it and teaching voice are not enough. I gave up my dreamof being a music major, but I cannot give up music completely. I think it's time I found a way to make music a greater part of my life. It just might be a good way to balance out costume design.