Things my mother has taught me about loving others

1. Never give up on anyone.

The example most prominent on my mind with this one is one of our neighbors, Shauna. My family is very close with Shauna and her husband Tracy. Tracy came back to the church about five years ago; Shauna gave her consent, but warned that she wanted nothing to do with the church and that he wasn't allowed to bring any Mormons to their house. Well, our families began to be very close, and over the last five years, we've had get together's at both our house and theirs, Shauna has come to church several times (like when one of us was giving a talk or for Christmas), and she attended General Conference in the Conference Center with Tracy in April. Even though it's been a long time, and we all hope that Shauna will get baptized (the happiest thing for me would be to see Tracy and Shauna sealed together; they love each other so much and it would be so wonderful!), my mom hasn't given up on her. She's always just been friends with the Smith's, loving both Tracy and Shauna.

2. Go out of your way to do something small. It might mean something big to them.

I can think of so many examples how my mother did this for me. One was from a very long time ago, when I was in elementary school. I'd gotten some kind of an award and they were having an assembly to present them. All the parents were invited, but my mom wasn't going to be able to come because she had to work. I was really sad about it, but I didn't tell her because I didn't want her to feel bad about missing it. The day of the assembly, though, I stood up to get my award, looked at the back of the room, and there was my mom with the camera. She had figured out a sub for work so that she could be there for me. It wasn't a huge thing for my mom to work it out, but it was the biggest thing for me right then, in my own little world.

Another example was from right after Ben and I broke up last summer. My mom knew we had broken up and she knew it was really hard for me. She couldn't be there that day, though. I went to church like normal and saw all my friends. When I got home, though, Jon left to a meeting and I was alone. I was having a tough time. When I walked into my room, I found a flower, freshly cut from our yard, and a card my mom. Even though she had to be elsewhere that day, she still found a way to be there for me. It was a small gesture, but it meant the world to me. She is always doing little things like that, at just the right moments. All those little things have made a huge difference for me. I hope to always take the time, thought, and effort to do the small things for others. You never know how much they will mean to the person you're doing them for.

3. If someone wants to love you, let them.

4. Always be sharing the gospel.

My mom always is. It's through quiet acts, that I don't think most people can see. Things like visiting teaching. She's been my neighbor's visiting teacher for I don't know how many years. My neighbor is not LDS, though both her children are baptized and occasionally come to church with us. But all the time, my mom is doing things for her--taking her cookies, bringing her Christmas gifts from Relief Society, inviting her to all the neighborhood parties and primary programs. Even though she doesn't come to church and hasn't been baptized, my mom has shared the gospel in a profound way with their family and helped us as her children do the same. And I think all of our lives have been better for it.

5. Serve.

My mom is ... a mom. So of course, she serves, all the time. Diapers changed, laundry, cooking, reading to us, helping with homework, driving us a million places etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. She would drive me to dance every week, plus performances, plus costumes, plus tuition, plus helping me practice at home, plus a million other things. When we were sick, she would make us toast and then cut it into strips for us; I always loved that. As a single mom, she woke up every single day, got us ready for school, got herself ready, went to work, came home, cooked us dinner, and did all the other things that moms do (which is a lot, by the way).

6. Even if they don't know you're serving.

The biggest example that comes to mind is from when we were living in our old neighborhood in South Jordan. Our neighbors across the street from us, the Perry's, got toilet papered. They were out of town, so my mom took my two brothers and me to their yard to clean it up. I was young enough that I didn't really understand what was happening or why we were cleaning it up. My mom, as we were walking back to the house, told us to not go around telling everyone what we'd just done (I don't know that I'm following her instructions by putting the story on my blog. Oh well.). She just wanted the Perry's to come home to a clean yard, not having to worry about the mess someone else had deliberately left for them. Even though at the time, I didn't really understand what was going on, it left me with a deeply embedded lesson of secret service, one that I won't ever forget.

Always hate stupid mythology classes.

Can I make a confession?

I'm not a good student.

I like to pretend I am sometimes. I even have segments of time when I try to be. There are quite a few people who seem to think I am, probably due to me liking to pretend that I am. But honestly? I'm not.

Don't get me wrong. I like school. I actually like it a lot, sometimes. There are classes that I can't get enough of. There are classes that I don't even have to study for and I get 110% in class, simply because I'm interested in the subject. My ballroom class last year, I never missed a single day. My developmental psychology class, I absolutely loved it. Tap? I wished the class was longer.

I don't mind homework. When a teacher assigns a chapter to read from the textbook, I'll read it. I'm usually good at going to class, depending on the class. There are some classes you can  get away with not going to, especially when you do the actual reading.

I just...
I hate studying for tests.
I hate writing research papers.
I hate any writing, actually, that I don't feel like doing.
I hate reading things (like articles) and coming out the other end not knowing what it was even about.
I hate when I get behind on reading.
I hate the stress that comes when you have a test or paper in the next week.

Right now, I am mostly frustrated with myself. I signed up for a stupid Greek and Roman Mythology class and I have no idea why. I don't even like mythology! What the heck was I thinking? I was thinking I needed another class to sign up for and that class was open and worked with my schedule and it filled my last general credit that I needed.

Dumb. Really dumb. And now, because I'm not a great student and I'm at BYU now, I don't know how I'm going to get a good grade on the stupid midterm tomorrow.

What in the world am I doing at BYU?

Being married is way better than dating.

Especially when your husband is this guy.