Halloween is my Favorite

But I am waay to old to be trick-or-treating.

I barely had time to even plan a costume or carve a pumpkin this year. School has just been crazy. 

Like, I am obsessed with Halloween. I have been known to cry because I'm too old for it all. None of this "you're done after age 12" crap. I'm much older than 12. Granted, the past two years I've gone can collecting for the food shelf rather than ask for candy, but it's not really the candy I care about. I love dressing up and walking door to door and being in costume.

And then I read this post by Sarah K over at The Sprinkles on My Ice Cream

His Porch Light is Always On

I still feel like I'm losing Halloween, but it doesn't feel quite so bad anymore. 

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<3 Marie-Rose

Speech Dilemma

A week from today, I have to give an informative speech for speech class. I know I want to talk about Mormonism, but I don't quite have a topic narrowed down yet. The speech should be 5-7 minutes long.

What on earth can I talk about in 5-7 minutes??

Some ideas I've come up with include early church history, explanation of the BOM/D&C/PoGP books that most Christians don't have, or an explanation of common misconceptions (one of my friends did that last one a year ago, so I don't wanna look like I'm copying hers, but it makes the most sense as a topic....).

I ran into one of my classmates in the hallway after class today. He said he was really interested to hear what I have to say. So that makes me feel more confident in talking about my religion, but it doesn't help me narrow down the subject matter.

When I passed around a survey on Monday asking people what they know and what they want to know about the Mormon church, the most common answers were "nothing" and "everything," respectively. So that totally helped a lot :P

I'm thinking early church history. If I don't go too deep, and don't cover very much time in history, it won't be too long. I'm really worried about going over time. So we shall see how this goes :)

<3 Marie-Rose

I wanna be baptized!

D'you know how excited I am for that day to finally come? I even have a date picked out, even though it won't be until June. I have a countdown and everything.

244 days until June 14, 2014, in case you wondered :)

No, that date is not my birthday. See, on June 12, 2012, I made the decision to be baptized. Two days later, I told my parents (June 14). So the 14th is kinda special for that reason. Plus, in 2014, the 12th isn't a Saturday, but the 14th is. And EFY will be that week, so most of my friends would be out of town on the 12th. But they should be back by Saturday evening (I hope)!

It's been a long time to wait. I still have a long time to go. But at the end of these two years I've been waiting, it'll totally be worth it.

Sometimes I feel left out and frustrated that I haven't been baptized yet. My friends do everything they can to help me not feel like that, and I appreciate it very muchly, but it still happens.

Sometimes, tho, I'm just so excited to be so close. It doesn't matter that it hasn't happened yet. It will soon. My mind is made up and nothing will stop me :)

<3 Marie-Rose

General Conference

I was unable to watch general conference over the weekend. It was super sad. My aunt was in town (we never get to see her, she lives super far away), and she's my mom's sister (my mom's side of the family being strongly Catholic), so I didn't want to make waves by asking to go to a friend's house to watch conference. Plus it was homecoming weekend and I had waay too much homework to do and my parents wanted to do family stuff with my aunt......... *sigh* Life. So therefore I couldn't watch conference. (don't get me wrong, seeing my aunt and family stuff and all that jazz was awesome. But still)

So I downloaded audio podcast versions of conference talks on my iPod.

I haven't quite figured out the formatting of the podcast app yet (apparently Apple did some weird thing where they took podcasts out of the music app? And reviews of the Apple podcast app are terrible, so I got some other app. Anywho). But I kinda sorta know how to pick a talk and get it to play. I can't tell which ones go with which session or in what order and it drives me crazy, but that's okay. I turn the volume all the way up on my iPod speakers (I drive a super old car and dunno how to connect my iPod to the car's speakers) and listen to the talks that way on the way to school. It's not quite as loud as I like, and I miss stuff cuz of that (plus driving safely is a little more important in that moment than concentrating 100% on what the speaker is saying), but it leaves me in a good mood.

Which is like my substitute for seminary, seeing as how I can't do that, either (can you tell I'm frustrated with all this stuff I can't do?). Anywho.

So I really like the idea of having access to conference talks on my iPod. Even if I'd been able to watch, I still woulda downloaded them anyway. Cuz there's always those days when you need to go back and remember how awesome conference is. It's a long six months between conferences. And with the holiday season, I'm willing to bet that a lot of us will take some sort of car trip. I know my family will. Twelve hours in the car with my sisters? Yeah, not fun. So I "listen to music" *cough*conference*cough* and that helps a lot. (They don't know I'm converting. That would be awkward. So I just try not to let church come up in conversation....)

Even if you don't take a long car trip, I'm sure you could find a time when it's useful to have access to the words of the Prophet and general authorities. In the words of my speech teacher, the spoken word "goes out, and then falls" (or something to that effect, I can't quote her exactly). But if you listen to it over and over, you can remember it! You ever have that feeling when you're reading the scriptures and you recognize a passage because someone used it in conference? I have. I hear it in their voice, too. It's pretty awesome.

<3 Marie-Rose

I love blogs

I super love this blog post by Whitney Sue over at Feel my Sunlight. Check it out!!!

extraordinary ninety and nine

This is why I love blogs. Other people have the most amazing thoughts and I love reading them.

<3 Marie-Rose

The Power of Member Missionaries

I have a testimony of the power of member missionaries. Those of you who are out there, trying to share your beliefs with the non-members around you -- some of them just don't listen, and it's frustrating, isn't it?

Guess what?

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I'm proof that what you do isn't worthless. I have an amazing group of friends who were willing to share their faith with me, and they let me share mine in return, and here I am setting my baptism date.

Ya know what the one requirement is in all of this? Patience. Actually, I lied, there's a second one. Kindness.

Patience means that some people take years to start thinking maybe the LDS faith is for them. It took me at least three years, I think, if I'm doing my math right.

Kindness means that you never push people to believe as you do. It means that you ask questions about what they believe. It means that you accept that some people will never change their minds. It means that you be a friend to everyone, regardless of their religion. It means tolerance, and even more importantly, acceptance. If you come across as pushy and aloof, no one will listen to you. Yes, we believe that the Mormon faith is the one true Church on earth. No, we do not force others to accept this as fact.

Think of it this way.

I was originally Catholic. Now, if a Catholic came up to me to try to bring me back, would they be able to do it? Nope. By the same logic, if I walk up to the same Catholic to try to convert them to Mormonism, could I do it? Nope. Unless Heavenly Father prompts a change in their hearts, there's nothing I can do.

Kay, so now I'm contradicting myself, right? Only kinda. You should always be willing to share your faith with others. And don't feel like you're not making a difference. My friends made a huge difference in my life. But don't expect that your sharing your beliefs will always "work". D'you know what? Being pushy just makes people less likely to hear you.

We all just wanna understand each other a little better, right?

<3 Marie-Rose

Sometimes you feel worthless

I know how that goes. I've been kinda down for the past week or so. So I'm gonna give you some advice, and hopefully I'll follow it too :)

Always remember that you are loved. Heavenly Father loves you more than you could ever imagine.

2 Nephi 2:25 "...and men are, that they might have joy"

Remember that one other post? "Hope Always," where I talked about the "depression verses"? Those are especially appropriate when you're in a self-pity mood that you can't shake.

Ya know what else? I read this quote once, I forget who said it, but "talk to yourself as you would to someone you love." That means don't tear yourself apart. Don't beat yourself up. If your friend felt like you do now, how would you cheer them up? Do yourself a favor and treat yourself like a dear friend. You gotta love yourself, cuz you gotta deal with yourself for quite a while :)

Another quote: "Don't give up... Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead... You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come." -Jeffrey R Holland

And one last quote, cuz I super like quotes "Never let weakness convince you that you lack strength" -Unknown

<3 Marie-Rose