leave a mark

Whew!! Is it July 28th already? I have been gone sooo much and have been so busy!

Sorry for the blog negligence! :)

So first of all, I left for FIJI on July 2nd and it was the Most. Amazing. Trip. Ever. It was so fun and I was so sad to have to leave! The people there have so little and yet are the most content, happy people ever! And the ward there was awesome! So many fun people!

I am away from home (yet again) in California at the moment, so I won't share too many pictures. It is just a pain to upload the pictures because my internet is reeeeally slow right now! :)

Chilling on the beautiful beaches



 

Baptisms at the Suva temple

 Me with Harrilea and Junior

 

Me with village kids

 

Some of us with a bunch of the ward's youth

 

At a school in the village

 

Working on the bathroom

 

Finished toilet and septic tank!

 

Me with David

 

We had so much fun serving the people, playing with the kids, learning about the culture, swimming in the ocean, making new friends, participating in church activities, and doing other fun things like seeing a movie and going to McDonalds! Tell your kids to save/fundraise for a HEFY (link) trip!! It is the most incredible organization ever!

 

It was so neat to see such a different part of the world. It helped me to be a more rounded person and gave me new perspectives. You guys, be grateful for what you have!!!

I was also reminded how much God loves everyone.

People! YOU. MATTER!!! And if you are ever feeling down on yourself, try serving others. Be a light to other people and make their lives better. I promise you, it will make you feel important when you spend your time being an instrument in the Lord's hands.

I heard something interesting when we were at the temple doing baptisms for the dead. The temple president came to give us a little thought before we got started, and I love what he said. He read off a few of the names of people we would be getting baptized for and shared their birth dates and where they were born. He reminded us that they were real people who lived and breathed and until now probably thought they had been forgotten. He got a little emotional and pointed out that these people are probably never thought of anymore, never mentioned. Who knows - their names being spoken in the font may be the first time they've been mentioned in years and years.

I don't want to leave people forgotten. I want to feed Christ's lambs. I want to serve Him forever and ever. I want my friends to feel like I love them. I want to make sure that I leave this life having given everything I could possibly give.

I want to rescue people. I want to strengthen Christ's army. I want to leave a mark on the world - leave a mark in heaven.

This is my purpose, and this I will do.

I truly could never share enough about my experience in Fiji. But it didn't end in Fiji.

There are people here who need me. And most definitely people here who need you.

“Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, but with great purpose in heart.”  - Gordon B. Hinckley

You guys are awesome. I'm really stoked to start blogging a lot again. I'm just spending time with family here in California, but when I get home the summer should start winding down and I can get myself back into a good blogging routine!

Have a lovely day!

Haley

it always will be true!

Happy Sunday!

I'm not really sure what I want to write about, so let's just see what happens, shall we?

Lovely picture of the Barton clan in Oregon.

Girl's Camp - Love these girls with all my soul!!

St. George temple

I have a good couple scriptures to share.

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Doctrine & Covenants 6

 22 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things.

 23 Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?

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It breaks my heart when I think about those who were strong in the gospel - served missions, etc. - and then fell away. It makes me so sad when they say 'I don't think I ever really believed it.' 

In times of doubt, remember back to the times when you knew. Think of the times when you felt the Spirit so strong. Did He not already give you a witness? This is why it's so important to keep written record and journals. 

It's true! It will always be true! 

I am making a decision right now to do better at journal writing. I have some amazing examples in my ward of girls who write in their journals all the time. I want to be one of those people! And my incentive can be to fill up the journal so I can buy another cute one! haha! 

My mom and I spent almost all day yesterday shopping for my trip to Fiji! I'm so excited and nervous! I am leaving a week from Tuesday! I will post lots of pictures when I return! (And I'll be sure to write in my journal a lot!) :) 

Have a wonderful Sabbath Day!

And a wonderful week!

Haley

summer update!

Hey y'all!!

It's been a while, no?

Well I've been busy busy busy!!

School ended! (hallelujah)
I've been in Oregon for a week!

And I'm leaving for girl's camp tomorrow, so the busyness (is that a word?) continues!


I really don't have much to share - I don't even have Oregon pics on the computer yet! Oh! I do have a couple!

There you go. A joyful picture of me and my cousin from our family trip. (It was an extended family trip. I am super close with my dad's side of the family, so we all caravanned (is that a word?) up to Rockaway Beach for a week!)

If you have a minute (or nine), watch the following video! I love her videos, but I especially love this one! Hers is such a happy conversion story! 

Till we meet again ---
(hopefully I will be less scatterbrained by then!)

Haley

life's good!

I just wanted to share how much I love life right now! 
  People are so good!! I know I say it all the time, but I truly love people! 


It continues to amaze me how our Heavenly Father could create so many unique, beautiful spirits!

I know I shared this picture not too long ago, but hey! I'll just share it again. haha.

Cool, right?!

I had to visit an art show and write a report about it for an art class I'm taking. I decided to go to a chalk art festival that was held in my community over the weekend.

It's so interesting to see what people decide to draw when they could draw anything. 

Check this one out!

I whipped my report out in a quick fifteen minutes and didn't exactly ponder the experience like my teacher wanted me to. haha. So I just said all this stuff about how art is a form of social media and how it can change the world, blah blah blah.

But you know what? I was kinda right!

YOU have things to share with the world! You have thoughts in your head that are incredibly unique and could truly change the world!


What a work of art the human race is!

Wow!!

I'm so excited for the future! People can say all they want about teenagers and about how society is doomed, but I know some truly incredible kids! Kids who love God and do what's right and know stuff about the Middle East and China and places like that that I could never dream of understanding! :)

Great things await us!






America by Imagine Dragons

I can't get this song out of my head. I love love loooove it. LOVE it.

It's one of those goosebumps-I-love-my-country kind of things.



That's another thing! I just wanted to remind people to never take our amazing country and the luxuries we have for granted.

I feel like - especially during elections - there is so much tension and talk about how our country is doomed and in ruins and going downhill.

Well it's still the greatest nation that exists!

 

 



There are those, I know, who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream.  They are right.  It is the American dream.  ~Archibald MacLeish 




Life's good, people! God has His hand in everything! You are SO blessed!

Be nice to others! Remember who you are!





P.S. On a more serious note, my heart aches for all who were effected by the tornado in Oaklahoma. My prayers and the prayers of many others are with you. God bless you all.

P.P.S. I think that minus the piercings and lack of personal hygiene (and a whole lot of other things), I'm pretty much a hippy. Yep. World peace, man! (haha) :)

lately

Hey! It's been a while, no?

Hmmm... what have I been up to?

Well obviously there's still school. Ehhhrugh. (<- don't ask how to pronounce that.) School. The reason my posts have been lacking, if you were wondering.



My sister's basically a beast at gymnastics. Just sayin'. So part of my family traipsed down to Las Vegas for a meet a couple weeks ago and left behind me, my brother, and my best friend Sydney (her fam was out of town during the same time period. What are the odds?!?).

I love my family and all, don't get me wrong. But I looooove when they go to out-of-state meets. I don't ever go because of school, which is fine with me because there is nothing a teenager likes better than being left at home alone for a few days!

At Gateway :) (Zach was on a campout, not that we would have taken him anyways, haha.)

I got an iPhone. Let's just relish in the goodness of this. 

Aaaahh. Three cheers for technology. :D

Someone hit my car in the high school parking lot. Same day I got a new phone, actually. Hmmm... joy. [insert sarcasm, in case you missed it.]

It was pretty bad, too, a couple door panels need to be replaced. But it's all good because the other kid's insurance is paying for it. Even though that's sad for them... :(

I was in the car, too. Just sitting there. That was a joyful moment. 

So yep. Missing my car at the moment. I'll probably get it back Wednesdayish. 

Not. Soon. Enough.

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Yay for all you mothers out there for all you do!

God is good! You are enough, you have enough!

Happy Spring!!

soldier girls

Happy April everyone! I hope you all enjoyed General Conference! If you missed it, you can watch/read/download here! You won't regret it!!

I've been sooo busy with school and am consequently so excited for summer.
And this trip.
And my best friend Sydney is coming with our family for two weeks to California! Yay!
What do you all have planned for the summer??

Hmmm... I'm trying to think of something interesting that has been going on in my life... I pretty much worked and watched Doctor Who all Spring Break. So not much to share there. I took the ACT this morning for the second time.
There's nothing more joyful than a good ol' standardized test!!!

And I'm really into Dancing with the Stars at the moment. Okay sorta into it. I watch most of the episodes. haha.

I got a letter in the mail the other day. It brought serious joy. Turns out it was just from this Radiothon I participated in... but yeah you should all mail me letters because I rather enjoyed finding that little surprise in the mailbox.

And here's my new favorite picture.

So I wanted to share this spectacular music video with y'all.
If you are familiar with T.C. Christensen (think 17 Miracles), he has a new movie coming out soon called Ephraim's Rescue. I'm so excited!


So here's a spectacular music video from it! Go get tissues (you're welcome)!



Here's my favorite line:

"We reached for God from where we stood."

God is closer than you think! And He can be reached by anyone! No matter where you're calling from!

You're never too far away and the Atonement is always accessible to you. Our Savior's grace and mercy extends to all, even you.

Don't you forget it!

Love to you all, have a great Sunday!





P.S. You can find this song on iTunes!! I've been listening nonstop!

we don't have to.

"The message of Easter is not that Jesus is alive, it is so much more. The message of Easter is that Jesus has risen!"
-Colin Smith







"May we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not in the flush of comfortable times, but in deed and in courage and in faith. May we stand by Jesus Christ at all times and in all things, and in all places that we may be in, even until death, for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone."




Happy Easter everyone!

I think it's so important that we remember the meaning of the holiday.

If you can't do it on Christmas, at least do it on Easter. Because the Atonement is everything to you. At least it should be.

It's the reason we are saved.
The reason we will live again.
The reason families are forever...
The reason we can have joy.
The reason you are never alone.

You can do all that you can - and be all that you are - because of the Atonement.


And remember that because Jesus walked such a long path alone, we don't have to. 

He cries with you.
He rejoices with you.
He walks with you always.

And don't you forget it.


(and to finish, this quote just intrigues me...!!)


"According to the laws of legal evidence used in courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history."
-Harvard Law Professor Dr. Simon Greenleaf



Have a lovely day and don't forget why we celebrate Easter!

the miracle of forgiveness

This video was shared in my YWs lesson last week... I usually kinda shy away from the longer videos (silly me), so I hadn't seen it before! :)

Enjoy!




I think that the miracle of forgiveness is such an amazing thing. Albeit unintentionally, the young man in this video still took a lot away from Chris and his family. And the fact that Chris was so ready to forgive is such a cool thing.

So why is it so hard to forgive people for the little things? If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I am a firm believer that most people are just trying to do what's right. And even if they don't always go about it the right way, at least not in your opinion, it's important to keep in mind that people are trying. 

I make so many mistakes in my life that cause me to beg for forgiveness. And if the Lord is willing to forgive me, why should I be slow to forgive the little things that others do?

I want to live a life filled with love for others. I never want to be one who holds grudges. I don't want to judge people because of things I hear about them. And I want to be the kind of person where if anyone said something negative about me, others wouldn't believe it.

I want people to think of me as the person who will love others for who they are and for what they are.

So how about we start being slower to judge, more rarely offended, and quicker to forgive.

----------

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. 
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. 
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” 
-Mother Teresa

courage

...Surviving is about courage and faith....


Sometimes it takes courage just to keep going.
Sometimes it's about doing the right thing.
Or sometimes you just have to have courage so that you can prove to yourself that you CAN do it.

I've been telling myself for forever that once I turned 16, I'd donate blood. Blood is so needed by so many people and well, I've got it to give.

But when the blood drive was announced at my school, I thought Oh man... I'm actually 16 now! It took me about a week just to get the courage to sign up. I seriously asked a dozen people what it was like, watched youtube videos, read what people thought on Yahoo Answers... (LOVE Yahoo Answers! Wouldn't have an A in Chemistry without it!)

Eventually, the day before the blood drive, I had a moment of courage and told my bff Sydney that if we didn't go sign up THIS SECOND, I wouldn't be able to do it.

I was so SO scared. Scared of passing out, that it would hurt for a year, that I wouldn't be able to play the region championship game we had that night, (we WON!! I still am an idiot for playing in that game. I was out of breath after 3 minutes. ha.) I was just SO freaked out for so many reasons. Most of them entirely impractical.

I just kept telling myself that it wasn't a big deal and it would go perfectly.

But you know what? Friday came and I donated blood. And it didn't go perfectly, but I still did it. (hehe... they had a hard time finding my vein so they had to go kinda deep or something like that, because it hurt really bad the whole time instead of just during the initial stick... but I still did it!!)

And I'm pretty proud if I do say so myself.

And now that I've done it once, I can do it next time easier. (Hoping beyond hope that it goes easier, less painful, and faster!) :)


Courage isn't something you're born with. At least I don't think so.

Courage isn't about wanting to go skydiving or bungee jumping.
Courage is about being scared out of your pants to go skydiving and still jumping out of the plane.

Courage is about pressing forward even if you are worried about the future.
It's about trusting in the Lord even if you want to scream and cry because you are so scared.

It's about doing His will even if it's hard for you to accept.

It's about initiative.

Doing what you have to do even if you dread the possible outcome.

It's when grief and pain are on the front porch and you open the door and deal with them head on.
Because you know they're not going to leave and putting things off doesn't get anyone anywhere.


We agreed to do hard things before we came here. We agreed to be tried and tested. And we were excited to prove ourselves.

I think trials ended up being harder to get through than we had originally imagined.
But they're still there.

And the courageous thing to do is to deal with them so that we can keep on keeping on.

And enduring to the end. That takes courage.






P.S. What things have YOU done that required courage??

the strongest verb

I don't know if any of you have read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, but it's fabulous. I think it's the only book I've ever had to read in school that I thoroughly loved. I learned a lot about God and life by reading that book. I highly recommend it.
I found the following story on a website today... This story was told by Paulo Coelho, so it naturally caught my eye... enjoy.

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As soon as he arrived in Marrakesh, Morocco, a missionary decided he would stroll through the desert at the city’s boundary every morning. On his first stroll he noticed a man lying on the sand, caressing the ground with his hands and leaning his ears towards the earth.

“He is mad,” the missionary said to himself. But he saw the man every morning during his walks and after a month, intrigued by that strange behaviour, he decided to approach the stranger.

He knelt beside him and asked, in broken Arabic, “What are you doing?”

“I keep the desert company and offer solace for its loneliness and its tears.”

“I didn’t know the desert was capable of crying.”

“It cries every day, because it dreams of being useful to mankind and turning into a huge garden where people could cultivate flowers and tend sheep.”

“Well then, tell the desert it accomplishes its mission very well,” said the missionary. “Every time I walk here, I am able to understand the true dimension of the human being, as its open space allows me to see how small we are before God. When I look at its sands, I imagine the millions of people in the world who were born equal and am reminded that life isn’t always fair towards everyone. Its mountains help me meditate and as I see the sun rising on the horizon, my soul fills with joy and I feel closer to God.”

The missionary left the man and went back to his daily chores. To his surprise, he found him the next morning at the same place, in the same position.

“Did you tell the desert everything I told you?” he asked.

The man nodded.

“And even so it keeps crying?”

“I can hear each of its sobs,” answered the man, his head tilted towards the ground. “Now it is crying
because it spent thousands of years thinking it was completely useless and wasted all this time blaspheming God and its own destiny.”

“Well, then tell the desert that despite having a short lifespan, we human beings spend much of our days thinking we are useless. We rarely find the reason for our destiny and think God has been unfair to us. When a moment finally arrives in which we are shown the reason why we were born, we think it is too late to change and keep on suffering. And as the desert, we blame ourselves for the time we have wasted.”

“I am not sure the desert will bother to hear it,” said the man. “It is used to suffering and it can’t see things differently.”

“So then let us do what I always do when I feel people have lost faith. Let us pray.”

----------

It's only natural that a man someday wonder "what exactly am I here for??" I learned in health this week that most start their search for identity when they're a teenager. I thought this was kinda interesting, and I really sincerely hope that some of the teenagers I've met haven't found themselves yet, if you know what I mean. haha. (No one in particular!)

My point is, man's search for identity may begin as a teenager, but it takes many people a long, long time to really figure out who they are and what their purpose is. And whether or not it takes you a long time to find yourself doesn't really make a difference. Many people, like the desert, will regret their past and will wish they had come to their senses sooner. But that's the point of life.

Move on and rejoice in the knowledge of a better life ahead of you.

In English this year, we've written a couple papers where we were required to take out as many to be verbs as possible while making revisions. Yeah. Try taking every occurrence of be, being, been, am, are, is, were, etc... out of your paper. H.a.r.d.

My teacher explained that the be verb is the weakest verb in the human language. "It shows no action," she explained.

I suppose in a paper this is often true. It's probably better to use other verbs sometimes.

But the weakest verb? I think not.

Who you are, what you choose to be, what your purpose is, these all seem like very strong statements to me.

Be a faithful disciple. Be a doer of good. Be a peacemaker.

People always make mistakes and slip up. You will say things you will regret. You already have experienced this, and you will no doubt experience it again.

But when you think about someone you knew years back, it isn't the little things they said that you remember. You remember them for the kind of person they were. What they did with their life, and how they treated others.

So be a force for good in the world. Decide who you are and never look back. Keep moving forward and continue learning new things about yourself.

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?”

-Robert Browning