Mission, Finals, Temple

Once again, such a long silence that I desperately need to fill... so much happening in such a short time!

First and foremost of all important news: I received my mission call a few weeks ago, and the result is that I will be spending 18 months serving in the Berlin mission, which now covers basically all of east Germany. It was a little hard to be excited about that at first - I had really wanted to learn another language. However, I am becoming more and more excited about the opportunity I will have to serve the German people who I already love. East Germany will be a new kind of experience for me... when I lived in Wuppertal we only made a few trips to the East - Leipzig, Dresden, Freiberg and Berlin. Since we focused on West Germany while we were living there, I will now be able to get a better feel for the whole country. My MTC (Missionary Training Center) entrance date is the 23rd of June, and since I already know the language I will spend only three weeks there, learning how I can best serve and reach out to the people.

After that extremely stressful week where I last wrote, things began to wind down quickly. In the last week of classes Bradford surprised me yet again with an amazing adventure. Blindfolding me, he threw me over his shoulder, sat me in his car and drove me to rock canyon park. When the blindfold came off I was sitting at a park bench at a table that could have been snipped out of the fairytale magazine that advertises "perfect romantic set-ups that make hearts melt." The complete darkness was illuminated by about 20 tea candles, with a larger candle in the center of the table. The table had all of the trappings you could wish for for a wintry picnic in the wilderness - dainty goblets filled with sparkling apple cider, flowers, with a fire in the grill just behind us. The meal included a small salad for starters, followed by grilled chicken and steak, the special Melluish campfire potatoes, rolls, topped off with some amazing s'mores. With a bucket of water from the Martin family across the street, we put out the fire and magicked everything from the table into the car :)...

Finals week was surprisingly low-key for me - I didn't have to go to the testing center once. In fact, I didn't have a single test-like comprehensive final!!!! The only rough spot was Saturday morning, where I had 4 papers due for my German lit class. Brad saved my life on this one, staying up all night to edit my 15 page research paper that involved comparing Harry Potter's ultimate sacrifice to another heroine's sacrifice in one of the books we read in class. Because finals week wasn't all that bad, Brad and I were able to spend lots of quality time together (we decided we'd never just hang out). That included making a couple of amazing gourmet pizzas to use up some leftover food and inviting everyone we could find to come and try some, packing some of our things, taking each other to campus to get finals done/run errands... the grand finale was crazy. Final cleaning checks were extremely stressful... I didn't realize that we would have final checks on our apartment the day before I had scheduled my final check... so Friday night Brad cleaned the front rooms and I desperately started packing the rest. I BARELY passed, and only because the RA was EXTREMELY nice, and trusted me that I would continue to clean and get things done after he left. The night wore on as I transported suitcases, boxes and bags to Brad's apartment, and then we packed up his car with both of our things. Around 4:30 am we put the bike on the back of his car, and around 5am I went through my apartment again, re-cleaning the bathtub, re-sweeping the floor, doing several final touch-ups and getting the last few things together. At 5:40 am I fell into bed, and at 6:20 got up to go to the temple with Brad, who didn't get to sleep at all. Miraculously we managed to make it right inbetween groups, so that it took only about an hour. The sun rose on our way out, and the day was golden. I was shocked when I looked at the car - in order to put the last few odds and ends in, you had to roll down one of the back windows, stuff it in quickly, then roll the window shut again. After Brad's final check we were on our way to my Grandmother's house in Sandy, and after quickly unloading the things I wanted to store, we were off to the airport. Wow, goodbyes were hard!

In the airplanes I was able to meet some wonderful people, such as a family from China - 2 parents with their adorable 18 month old son, and then a really nice stewardess at the Houston airport during my layover. Surprisingly enough slept only about an hour altogether on the plane, but when I got home I was completely out-cold on my beautifully soft bed :). I love the TLC of home, spending time with my family. This Saturday I went to the temple in Manhattan, NY to receive my first endowment. It was a marvelous experience, one I will never forget.

Well... that's the update for now. Hope you are all doing well!

Love,

Margaret

Miracles

So, this week was full of seemingly insurmountable challenges for me, especially in my academics. There were three huge projects due: ORCA and an English paper on Wednesday, then a 15 page research paper on Friday. I should have been stressed out of my mind, but wasn't. Everything went smoothly, even though it meant some dark rings under my eyes and a bit of general fatigue this week. I couldn't start my 15 page monster until Thurs. afternoon, the day before it was due. Last semester I would have dissolved in tears and just been a complete stressed out mess in general at the prospect of writing so much in such a short time, but the Lord really blessed me with peace. I skipped my French class on Thurs, then all of my classes Friday morning except dance, and got that paper done just as the clock struck 12 - the time it was due.

Wednesday night I was partially in charge of a Relief Society meeting. We had our RS coordinator come to talk to us about nutrition. Man, she seems to know everything, and I left feeling very motivated to turn over a new leaf and make sure I eat better. I came to the realization once again how important it is to have a healthy body, because you can be so much more effective when you really take care of it. One of the principles our coordinator stressed was the importance of exercise - something that I know I don't make enough of a priority of...

Friday Brad took me to see the BYU production of "As You Like It" - a play that I've really wanted to see ever since I listened to the tape recording about a year ago. My reaction was similar to most of the other times I've watched Shakespeare - that Shakespeare was a genius - and I loved every minute of it. They even had a few little kids involved that were absolutely adorable on stage - reminded me of the days when I used to preform myself... *sigh* :).

Saturday was awesome, although I didn't get as much homework done as I would have liked. I was at the temple at 6am, and stayed for 3 hours after I had done baptisms to write in my journal. I really learned a lot of important things - life lessons, more about myself, etc. The day was absolutely beautiful, so when I got back Brad and I went for a long walk in the canyon. Somehow he persuaded me to go to the gym with him afterward, so I donned some sweatpants and a t-shirt and prepared to fail miserably at everything, motivated partially by the RS meeting from earlier in the week. Even though it was hard, I was surprised at how much fun it was after all... I'm completely sore today, but feel good :). Hooray for exercise!

Hand another cool experience with mission prep class today... Hillary and I (my roommate who also wants to go on a mission) prepared the second lesson about the atonement. We taught Sasha Solo, who is a teacher at the MTC, and it was incredible. We worked together so well - while I was talking Hillary would be finding a scripture and vice versa. I just felt so good about the whole thing... I wish we could be companions while I'm on my mission!

The guessing is still on about my mission call. I talked to the bishop today, and he said it hadn't been sent yet... which means the earliest I could get it would be next Wednesday. It seems like an eternity till then! So, if you'd still like to hazard a guess, let me know :).

Love you all, and hope you take time to see God's hand in your life this week. I know he loves each one of us so much!

Margaret

ADVENTURES OF A LIFETIME!!!!

A day I will always remember –

03/21/10

I’m 21, and it’s the 21st of March (my golden birthday) and I just turned in my mission papers! Wow… it feels great!!!

It took forever - had to reschedule all of my appointments at least once in the process. Today was the last step - my interview with the Stake President. What does that mean, I've submitted my papers? Well, it means that I've officially volunteered to serve an 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints somewhere in this wide wide world. I'll be dedicating that time completely to service. It's going to be AMAZING. I started a Facebook group for it so people can start guessing where I will be called. If you'd like to guess and you don't have Facebook, just email me and I'll send you an invite. Or just email me your guess! I'd love to know. I could get sent anywhere in the world, and I won't know when I'll be leaving exactly until I get my call. My availability date is for May 1st, which is coming rather quickly... I can hardly wait!

So, that excitement is actually just the tip of the iceberg this weekend - Brad has made my birthday this year a one-of-a-kind fantastic mind-blowing experience. It started Friday afternoon (yes, two days in advance!!!) with some Lindt chocolate (one of my favorites :)), and a trip to the park that involved a kite (despite the snow), some delicious cinnamon bread and lots and lots of bubbles. Coming back from this adventure I found my door adorned with sticky notes, and a little package on the table that contained a new furry frogy friend:)...

Saturday hit and I'm still reeling. It involved the appearance of my roommate laden with a beautiful tray laden with omelet, English muffins, cinnamon rolls and a delicious smoothie. After some shopping for the Germans I was confronted with a grinning Brad, a gorgeous bouquet of brilliant flowers and ANOTHER furry, this time beary friend - aquamarine, like my birthstone, with a bag of matching m&m's on it's arm. Impressed yet??? It was only the beginning.

Next adventure involved a trip to the chocolate factory to get a caramel apple - in the past I have been sadly disappointed in the deliciousness of caramel apples - they always look promising, then prove to be slightly disappointing with the first bite. This caramel apple, however, changed my perspective forever - because this was a caramel apple in STYLE: smothered in Reeses pb cups and chocolate. After about 5 min. in the car I had managed to spread the chocolate from my apple to my fingers, jeans and coat. It was great, but necessitated a pit stop at the mall. However, within minutes we were on our way again - for me, into the unknown.

SLC appeared on the horizon. And before I knew what was happening, we hit the town. Starting it off with the Joseph Smith movie, we traversed Temple Square, and enjoyed dinner in the Garden (a restaurant on the top floor of the JS Memorial building overlooking Temple Square). As if that wasn't enough. Caught completely unaware, I magically landed in a splendid white carriage for a drive around old Salt Lake. Um, WOW??? With an epic bubble war to finish off a crazy amazing day, a very happy almost-birthday girl hit the pillow.

This was one of the most beautiful of all first-days-of-spring I've ever experienced. The air was fresh and cool, the sunshine gloriously warm. After Mission-prep Brad handed me a key and asked me to check his mail box. Yes, the story goes on. Brad knows me so well, and is always taking notes... under the butcher paper I discovered some origami paper and an instruction booklet, as well as small package of silicon cup-cake holders. After my interview with the stake president he pulls out ANOTHER package, which revealed a beautiful journal. I am all set as far as accessories for my mission. Then he started asking weird - texting mysteriously, stealing my phone away, then having a sudden desire to go for a walk. Suppressing a smile, I pushed the door open and was met by a lusty shout of "surprise!!" Cake (!with candles!), cookies and lots and LOTS of friends. Who could ask for more?

Before you go, I have another bit of amazing news to share!!!!!! Last week I participated in the national Dancesport competition at BYU. I competed Foxtrot up and made it to the quarter finals, then competed in the 284 Silver level Waltz competition and took 2ND PLACE!!!!!!! I was so shocked!!!!!! It was BEYOND AWESOME and I was SOOOOOOOO happy....

I live a fairy tale, and am going on a mission. How could life be better?!?!?!

Hope your lives are full of bubbles and March Madness as happy as mine!

Love,

Margaret

A Dance Romance :)

Once upon a semester, there was a really insane story developing in the wild and crazy life of yours truly. Would you believe it? I'm madly busy with all my gallivanting and adventuresome shenanigans. By the way, catastrophe struck when my dear, dear trusty laptop bit the dust! The poor blue screen of death was very tragic and irreparably irreparable. Thus, we no longer know how or when to communicate with the rest of the greater population of the wonderful great peoples of my universe. Sorry! Luckily, I have a connection in my neighborhood. He is called by the name of Brad.

Can I mention that I'm very much in good standing with my newest, brightest, bestest, most fantastic... oh well, this is infuriatingly simple nooooooooo yes? I just started dating a really sweet handsome self-serving humble crazy fun-loving guy. We started dancing - foxtrot, chacha, two step, mambo - all that in a matter of days! It has been a crazy blast! What do/would you believe if I told you that three weeks ago we talked until 3 in the morning and decided to start having a landslide of fun together: we went cardboard box sledding, dancing, in-and-out'ing, running, scavenger hunting, finger painting, and much much more.

So, it should be no surprise that today was a fairytale. Really! They do come true. From breadcrumbs of cheesecurd and chocolate to gallant white stallions, we traversed realms of valentine mischief. First I presented my well thought-out scheme of sweet fantasy. It began with a sleepy trip to the parking lot to view the prancing rays of sunlight and construct a horse of paper and automobile. Then, Brad stumbled across the trail of cheesecurds, plodding happily along towards the anticipated rewards that were waiting for those of pure intent. Upon arriving, a beautiful maiden greeted the dashing knight at the door. Presenting a square wrapped parcel, she instructed her knight to read the words written in the magical, whimsical storybook. And lo, the quest continued! A great blue blindfold mysteriously bedeviled his vision and allofasudden he was sallied forth to the parking lot, where the sight of his white steed burst upon him! Yeah. It was pretty sweet!

My adventure was insane and amazing and beyond words and.... yeah, wow. The knight had a LOT of fun planning it, too. :) I could tell. It all started when a young friar came bearing gifts from lands afar. It was a Twix bar. On the wrapper was written in the hand of the East, "Margaret" (that means it was in Japanese). Beneath in hurried scrawl she found divinings that lead her to the aforementioned stallion to begin her mission to find the knight who had ...mysteriously... vanished! First to rollings hills and memories of adventures past, to lamp posts and kisses (Hershey's!) and Turkish delight! Then on to the lonely hilltop where she found a bright blue beanie full of more chocolate surprises! Thereupon she was guided back again to the Temple for sweet gummy blessings and clues to move on! At the FLSR she climbed a tree, braved the dragon's keep, mountaineered the stairs, earning even MORE chocolate all the way, until she found THE LAST CLUE!!! Engraved deep in the sport of the knight (RitterSport) were these ominous words: "You've finally reached the end! Now go to where it all began". Skipping blithely I found my own challenge thrown back at me: "If thou art of pure intent, Please Knock!" Heart racing, she defiantly knocked on the looming steel door. The quiet summons to enter contrasted starkly with the cold, uninviting display presented at the gate. She slowly pushed open the massive portal latch betwixt her trembling, slender fingers. Um, uhhhhh.... the Knight errant with a ravishing smile, sparkling cider, and a bouquet of glorious flowers that would have made Penelope herself green with envy swept her off her feet! We are both sure that Valentine's Day has never been better. The End.

I don't know what else I want to talk about. I just want to say this...
So, um, just one more side-note. My mission papers are coming along nicely. I'm very excited about this recent and riveting adventure in the life of ME. That's all.

Love,
Margaret and Brad (who wrote every other word in this one-of-a-kind email!)

Dancing, Sculpting, Spaghetti Factory

There's about a foot of fresh snow on the ground just now. Saturday morning I went for a jog and couldn't help but drink in the beautiful sunrise against the snowy caps of the mountains and the thick blankets of snow over the leafless branches of the trees. It had all come down on Friday night - I was going with Scott from the Chinese house on a triple date to the museum of people and cultures on the south side of campus. Snow was falling thick and fast when we left, but we didn't have any trouble getting there. We enjoyed a scavenger hunt, a trivia game, and then a competition for who could make the coolest clay object. I knew immediately what I wanted to make, and Scott, although he was slightly incredulous that we would be able to do it, agreed. We made a dancing couple out of clay, and it turned out amazingly well... their dance frame was amazing! We won the most prestigious award of the evening for the Judges' choice, which was a huge almond toffee symphony bar.

Exuberantly victorious, dancing couple in hand, we foraged our way through the heavy snow to the car. All went well until we tried to make it up the slippery incline to the FLSR. The car's tires desperately needed to be changed, and before we knew it we had slipped off the road. Just as I was about to hop out to push, another car pulled over and the young man inside got to the hood before I could even open the door. In seconds we were back on the road, and we slipped and slid ourselves the rest of the way home somehow. Isn't it cool to see how people are so willing to help?

For the last part of the date we settled down to a round of Settlers of Catan, one of my favorite board games. Before the other teams had a clue of what we were up to, Scott and I had amassed ourselves a huge stock of land, resources and development cards that helped us win the game in a landslide :). It felt great... two victories in a night!

I've been doing quite a bit of dancing lately... Tuesday I introduced Brad to the Social Dance club, and taught the poor boy about 6 dances (at least the basics of them) in one night. By the end I'm sure his head hurt, but he make significant progress! He asked if we could practice again this weekend, so we settled on Sat. evening. Later in the week he texted me to ask if he could take me out to dinner afterward, which I had no objection to. 15 min. before the date started he called me to ask if I wanted to dress up a little - so he could get a feel for what the testing conditions would be like lol. I agreed, put on a skirt, and drilled him in cha cha for an hour and a half. When we got tired of that, he took me to the car and said he thought it would be nice to go to the spaghetti factory, which was awesome since I had never been there before. The food was excellent, and we talked for 3-4 hours non-stop... it was great!

Otherwise, it's hard to get up the self-discipline to do all of that school work/teaching prep that isn't due tomorrow, but I am doing really well with keeping on top of what I have...

Dinner's finally ready, so I've got to run.

Love and miss you all!

Margaret

A Patisserie, a Chinese/Danish tragedy, some Cheesecake and Curry...

Life is so fun at the moment... I have to admit I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Not working makes everything SOOOO easy! I'm actually on top of, even a bit ahead on some of my hw, a wonderfully stressless, joyful sensation. I'm still working hard to fit German 201 prep. into my schedule, because even though Professor Brewer has the main topics planned, she has left the details to me. I'm hoping to spend some time on that tomorrow (I love holidays!!!). My other plans for tomorrow include an excursion to SL with Eleanor, Christine, and a few other girls from the RS to see a movie about Queen Victoria, and practicing the foxtrot with one of they guys in my ward who goes by the name of Brad.

Now that the future is taken care of, I turn to the past...

Tuesday night I cooked an amazing taco soup for 30 people, accompanied by a beautiful salad and mouth-watering toffee bars. Toffee bars are now officially one of my very favorite desserts - quick, easy, and incredibly scrumptioous.

Wednesday afternoon I went on a date with Jonathan... he made me lunch, then took me to a French bakery (patisserie) for a heavenly raspberry mousse/cake creation. We've know each other since my first semester freshman year, so it was really nice to spend some time talking, laughing and catching up.

Later that day I sent Professor Brewer an email asking her how she taught vocabulary. Her reply was that she assigns them the whole chapter, but only requires passive knowledge of the words. I have to admit that I strongly disagree with this idea... in my opinion, the only reason to learn vocabulary is to know how to use them and be able to use them. I'm not often angry, but this grand injustice of busy work did rile my temper... it was actually more just utter frustration, but it was so strong it felt almost like anger. The German program could so much to improve the lower level German classes and it's not being done.... ahhhhhh!!

Thursdays are my favorite day of the week - I don't have class 'till 2pm, so I can get enough sleep, get a lot of school work done, and go to the temple after the morning rush is over. At dinner that evening Phil asked me what my plans were for the weekend. I told him I had none aside from homework. As if that was the magic phrase, I got asked out once for Friday and once for Saturday within the next 3 hours...

Friday I went with Jeffry from the German house to see Living Legends - a Native/South American/Polynesian dance performance that was absolutely fabulous. My favorite pieces included a native American dance where the dancers used wooden hoops to create intricate shapes, the mystical circle symbolizing eternity. I also loved the fire of most of the Polynesian dances - the cat-calling, hand slapping, feet-pounding energy and vigor of it all. I feel like we could use some more of that in our straight-laced straight-faced culture... :).

At 11:00 Zach came by dropping Hillary off, just as I was assembling the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. He suggested we make some cheesecake, because I had mentioned I had been wanting to make some. Our tiny brave group of three invaded Macy's to obtain some elusive cream cheese and graham crackers, then stayed up till 1am concocting a cheesy delight. Our only mishap occurred when I attempted to blend the cream cheese mixture and shaved of a good chunk of the wooden spoon I was using to stir with. Naturally the wood splinters ended up nicely distributed in the creamy delight... with pained concentration I was able to fish the worst of them out, and assumed the rest of them would just add to the flavor.

Saturday morning I added the layer of sour cream to the cheesecake and spent most of the day reading Tartuffe by Moliere for my English class. Andy, another guy from my ward, took me to the international cinema to see a tragic but excellent Danish film, then to participate in a curry night with the French house.

Alack, it grows late, and my tales are running short... but never fear! Next week promises to be just as good... so stay tuned!

Love you all!

Margaret

A New Adventure... Again!

Wow - school has officially hit once again. It has been a challenge, as always, but classes seem to be going quite well. My German writing class is intensive, I absolutely love my French class this semester, and my masterpieces of world lit class has been an interesting experience in democracy. All of my alternative pedagogic experiences are coming into play, as the professor had us create our own syllabus with assignments of our choice. It promises to be an interesting sweep through world literary history...

It's nice not to be teaching at the moment, but I can't shake off the quiet dread of what will happen when I start teaching two classes at once next block. In every spare minute I've tried to do some more class prep to make my life easier... sadly it's not going to pay off quite as much as I hoped. I got a call from Professor Brewer the other day, who said she had put the syllabus up online for my review. To my surprise, she had the entire syllabus, including my half, all planned out. As I scanned through it, my heart nearly stopped when I saw that she was planning to teach 3 chapters of grammar before I started teaching. The implications hit me hard - it meant that I had half the material to cover in the same amount of time, and that I therefore had to somehow double my classroom material to have enough meaningful activities for my students. In quiet desperation I wrote Professor Brewer an email, explaining my situation and suggesting a few things that I thought would be meaningful so that I could flesh out my class time. I received her response yesterday, which basically said that I shouldn't be so worried because she had everything planned out for me. I'll be going to her office on Monday to discuss it further with her... so we'll see how that turns out.

Friday I went to Nikki's aunt's house to help her celebrate her 20th b-day. It was great - lots of pizza, a pool, a moive, a game, lots of cake and ice cream... didn't get home till 2am, but it was worth it :). Saturday I went with Nathan, one of the other teachers in the German department, to see an art museum and have dinner, after I went shopping for the German house in the morning. My roommates are heroes for going shopping with me on such short notice! I've been really blessed when it comes to that.

I think that covers the basics, and the CES fireside is starting, so I bid you all adieu,

Love and miss you!

Margaret