Church, Christmas Time, The Next Two Days

Church was excellent today. Sacrament meeting was excellent as usual, but my shoulder is still tired. You see--I had to hold the microphone for THREE baby blessings in a row, and it was pretty tiring. I was shaking by the end of the third blessing. Pretty intense.

Brother Payne gave an excellent lesson on charity in priesthood today. I enjoyed it as usual. I am truly blessed to have leaders like Brother Payne. He's an excellent example to me. He has taught me many times that things can be hard, but those hard things are always possible to get through if we have the Lord on our side. You can tell that our leaders in the Priest Quorom really care about all of us, and they are doing an excellent job of teaching us what we need to know for the mission field. *loves my leaders*

After church, we all met in Bishop's office to see Timmy be ordained to the office of a priest. I once again had the chance to help ordain my little brother--I had the same experience with Logan a few months ago--and it was a great experience like last time. The Priesthood is powerful.

I am really excited for Timmy to be in Priest Quorom. This will be the first time that Timmy and I are in the same Quorom. We never have been before, because I always move up before he moves up. Haha. If that makes sense. ;) I guess that's just what happens when you are two years apart.

After ordaining Timmy, Bishop talked to my Dad about mission papers and what not. I'm going to be put into the mission computer on May 6, so I can start filling out papers after that. Bishop actually suggested that we call and make the doctors and dentist appointments tomorrow. It was pretty sweet to think that I only have about six months until then. I'm starting to get pretty anxious, and even a little worried/scared. But that's just how I've always been. I know that I will do fine out on the field if I am prepared and if I continue to follow the Spirit's promptings. The six months are going to fly by--I know they will--and Satan is going to be working especially hard to tempt me to make a wrong choice. I've already made my choice, though--I'm serving a mission and I'm not going to let anything stop me from doing so.

I am starting to gear up for the Christmas season. We are starting some Christmas movies tonight, so that we can have them all watched by Thanksgiving--when we start watching Home Alone and Home Alone 2. I am burning some Christmas CD's to have in my car and for the trips up to Utah. I am pretty excited for my last Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family. It's not that I'm excited to leave my family or anything. It's just exciting to know that this is the final chapter of the first part of my life. I am really looking forward to parts two and three--my mission and then raising a family of my own. Knowing that this is my last Christmas with my family before my mission just makes me realizes how close parts two and three are. :)

We have school tomorrow, but we don't have school Tuesday. So I--the rebel that I am--am not going to school tomorrow, because I think it's dumb to give us Tuesday off, but not Monday. Rather, I am going to go to IHOP and then I'm going bowling. It'll be sweet. I work at GameStop from 1 to 5 PM tomorrow, and that'll be interesting as usual.

Tuesday will be fun. I get to go vote with my Dad, and then I am going to go donate blood at 1:30 PM. It'll be interesting to see how much my cholesterol level has gone up since I last donated. HAHA. I've gained so much weight...I am now 190.5 lbs. Wow....That's sad. Earlier this year I was probably 160 lbs. I plan to start running and doing core workouts starting tomorrow. I also plan to stop eating fast food 5+ a week. I need to eat healthier. ;)