Movin' on Home

I've realized saying goodbye never is easy. As cliche as that sounds, I didn't think it would be hard to say goodbye to friends until it was actually time to leave. Since I don't report to the MTC until October 16th (mid-semester) I decided it would be best to move back home to LA. Honestly, if I could've stayed in Provo I would've, but it just made more sense to go home. Thankfully one of my best girl friends Sophia is out here in LA too, but it was still hard saying goodbye to my Provo babes: Ally 'hot stuff' Morgan, 'Camface' Camille Jensen, McKinzie Olson, the boys (you know who you are) and the list goes on.

Me and my ladies during our last few hours of bonding time in our apartment. #matching sweatshirts #towelblanket

But since I've been home, I have had a lot of time to prepare for this next chapter of my life. I have been devoted time every day to scripture study and other things pertaining the mission. One of the biggest things however, was preparing to enter the Lord's house, which I was fortunate enough to do on August 31, 2013 in the Los Angeles Temple!

Me and my parents right outside the LA Temple main doors!

I received (I say receive rather than take because it is a gift I was able to receive from my Heavenly Father) my endowment with my mom as my escort, and it was honestly one of the best experiences! Don't get me wrong...it was still pretty strange, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Church is true. There is just a great feeling of peace in the temple, something that I wasn't expecting I guess. I mean I think I was stressed a bit at some points during the session, but the second you walk into the Celestial room, peace and tranquility just overcome you. So yup now I'm sporting the g's and lovin it haha.

That has honestly been the biggest thing that's happened to me since I've been home. I have seen a few friends here and there from BYU and high school, but nothing too crazy has been going on. I am just taking this time to prepare to serve and learn on my mission, and I am so grateful for this time!

Definitely missin' my ladies though ;)

Called to Serve and Other Things!

SURPRISE!!!! I have been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bangkok, Thailand! I enter the Provo MTC on October, 16, 2013, and I cannot wait to go and serve the people of Thailand! Honestly, receiving my mission call was one of the most exciting things I have ever experienced. Waiting for that little envelope was excruciating, but it was most definitely worth the wait!

So I know it has been a while since I've last posted, but my world literally has just been turned upside down since I've decided to serve a mission. I have been working at the McKay School of Education's PR office for my internship, and it has been a great experience! This job is what takes up a majority of my time this summer, but I've stilled managed to make time for some fun :)

Roadtrippin' with my ladies to St. George

Crazy 4th of July festivities with this lovely lady!

Taylor Swift concert with my girls!

Trip to Jason's cabin in Idaho...ya lots of hiking #notahiker

Those are just a few of the things I've done this summer, and there is definitely more fun to be had during my last month here in Utah until I am gone for 18 months!! I'll be moving home at the end of August until I'm supposed to enter the MTC in October (exactly 1 week before my birthday)! Roadtrips, food, shopping, fun, and more has been planned for my last month here, and I am so grateful for all of my great friends who have made this last summer so amazing! Realistically, the majority of my friends won't be here when I return, which is pretty sad, but I'm glad we can at least have this last hurrah before I leave!

Peace and blessings :)
-Britt

Secretaries for Life

This is one of my best friends :) We like to go and get diet coke from vending machines on Sundays. We also are work partners. We decided that because our friendship is so memorable and comical, and because of the fact that we have no problem with doing clerical work the rest of our lives, that we will create a TV show entitled "Secretaries" to be broadcasted on Bravo. Look for it coming soon to a TV near you! ;)

This month has seriously been a week of roommate bonding. With Ally and Sophia graduating, our whole apartment has been experiencing some extreme senioritis. However, Ally and I have taken up a new job working as research assistants for the economics department at BYU. It's really hard work...NOT. haha it's honestly the most fun I've ever had working.

Basically we go to elementary schools and count the amount of vegetables the kids eat. If they have eaten a full portion, we get to give them cool little tokens they can use at their school store. We also work at another school and set up iPads and watch 1st graders play this math game. Sooooo basically our job rocks cuz we get to hang out with cool little kids all day, and I get to work with my best friend...#luckiestgirlintheworld

We have also decided to instigate #TallteeTuesday. I got Ally an awesome tall tee for her birthday, the big 22, and don't worry we listened to Taylor Swift's 22 basically the entire day of March 4th.

Don't worry, we also decided to relive our childhood years and build a fort in our living room! I mean, it was pretty short lived cuz Cami didn't like the clutter for more than 24 hours, but it was a good scary movie night setting.

Basically, I love my roommates, and I'm really sad that Sophia will be leaving us come fall....o and did I mention that we don't have a place to live in the fall yet? yup...so hopefully we'll find somewhere to live before I leave for LA this summer!

Bundle of Blessings

Got to fly home last weekend for my cute little nephew Spencer's baptism! I honestly cannot believe he's already 8 years old! I remember changing this kid's diapers!

But overall, my weekend at home was so great! I got to spend time with the fam and see some friends I was really missing! Too bad it was so short. Now....back to good old Provo....

On a good note, I was able to get back in Provo in time for my friend Colette's wedding! She was such a beautiful bride :) We actually threw her bridal shower in our apartment the week before.

And of course I got to spend some quality bonding time with my lovely roommates. Maybe it's because it's Valentine's Day, but we've all been relying on this roommate time this week. Time for us to get boyfriends? Maybe, but for now we're content just "dating" each other and gorging on food and desserts.

Exhibit A:

Love me some cake and bonding with this girl ;)

Fall Madness!

Fall semester of my senior year at BYU has officially started. It kind of seems surreal that while I am here thinking about graduation, all of the boys from my freshmen year are coming home from their missions. But so far, it hasn't been too bad! Don't get me wrong, having all major classes has been stressful, but it still feels like summer!!

Me and my lovely girls Lauren and Taylor decided to throw a back to school bash, which turned out to be a total hit! We had more people than any of my previous dessert parties, probably cuz it was a dance party haha. Unfortunately however, we got a complaint from a married couple that lives at the Enclave. They informed us that if we didn't turn our music down by 10:30 they would call the cops. So, we decided to move the party from the courtyard to the parking garage. And honestly, it was INSANE!!! We probably had over 200 people there...but by 11pm the po po showed up and shut us down. But I think that just means our party was a huge success, since it had to get shut down ;)

And don't you worry, all us hosts were rocking our matching cheetah print pants. We wanted to be looking fierce for our first bash of the year! 

I feel like these ladies have been my home away from home. When ever I need to get away from homework (which is...all of the time) they are there for random diet coke runs or just to hang out!

     

They even came with me to support Zack at his ultimate frisbee game!

And we just love our random Walmart runs in between our tanning time by the poolside. 

O and how can I forget the amazing soccer season we've been having!! Cami Jensen, aka my lovely roommate, was made the BYU soccer team captain! And last night we had a game against Penn state, which is currently ranked 6th in the nation! We dominated!!! Beat the 3-1, which is phenomenal. Save it to say, Cami was a very happy camper once she got home :)

Well that's all for now! I should probably prepare for my 416 debate this week! :( School=no fun.

Summer...in a nutshell :)

Somehow I've gotten super behind on blogging. Summer is almost over, and I haven't posted anything till now. So for that, I'm sorry!


I guess I've just been super distracted lately with school, being sick on and off for the past month, and just life in general. But finally I have some time to just sit down and write.


Where to start...ok how about with the fact that my best friend Brooke got married this past may!!! it was such a pretty wedding, and I couldn't have asked for a better guy for her. Her and Curren have been living here in Provo now, and luckily I still get to see her about once a week.

Me and the beautiful bride!

Huge wedding party outside the Newport Beach Temple 

All of the bridesmaids at the Arizona reception. McKinzie caught the bouquet haha

Me featuring the lovely couple

Maddi and I were asked to sing the couple's wedding song at the luncheon "Beautiful Love" by the Afters

Then once the the wedding festivities ended, that meant I had to get back to real life and head back to Provo for summer term classes. Though don't worry, I didn't let school get in the way of play time :) Yes, I have been going to classes and working super hard writing for the BYU Universe...but it's summer! And a girl needs to play and get her social butterfly on!

So in order to get my roommates Cami and Sophia to socialize, we decided to have monthly dessert parties. The last one we had was in honor of Sophia and our friend Leigh's birthdays! And let me tell you, they are quite the hit here at the Enclave. 

Me and the beautiful birthday girls.

Sometimes our parties take a turn for the worse, and we get thrown in the pool. But we rock the wet look ;)

And what would summer be without our Asian PowWows!? Living with Sophia has truly brought out my asian side, and I love it. Because of her, I've started making asian food on a normal basis. And we're not the only people in the ward that love asian food! We call it our Asian powwow group, which usually consists of me, Sophia, Thongvun, and Anthony.

On occasion, we get visitors that work at NuSkin with Thongvun

And what's even crazier is that this summer I've been camping and hiking a lot! So crazy, and any person who knows me really well will know that this is a huge step for me. It's probably because my friend Zack Woodmansee is very good at convincing me to participate. He and I have discovered that we are basically the same person. He's just the white male version of me, but it's probably a huge reason as to why we get along so well and hang out on a daily basis. Here are some pictures of all the active things he's gotten me to do this summer.

 at the Mona rope swing

 starting a late night campout in Cedar City

group picture in the "narrows" of kanaraville

we decided we should start a band because of how epic we looked walking down the street together with our matching bandanas

And something else I've been pretty proud of this summer is my music playing abilities! I've been practicing really hard on my guitar that I got this past year. Brooke's wedding was just the beginning. I've sang at a few open mics here in provo, and I even sang at our ward's open mic. Singing is something that I have always loved, and being able to play the guitar is only making me want to pursue music even more!

And of course, what would summer, or life for that matter, be without some quality roommate bonding time. I've been so lucky to be able to live with Cami since freshmen year, and now that I've moved into this new apartment, I have the opportunity to live with Sophia and Ally...though Ally has been in Washington D.C. for far too long!!! It's been such a blessing, and we always have a good time together :)

These lovely ladies came with me and some ward friends to the park by the MTC to watch the 4th of July fireworks!

So as far as recaps go, I'd say that is a pretty good synopsis of how my summer has been this far. Now on to my last week of summer classes and finals, and then I get to go home for a few weeks before Fall term starts!

I PROMISE I will be better at updating my blog! So till next time!!

Picnics, Sunny Days, Happy People

Weather!

We were so lucky with the weather these past few weeks...now as I am sitting in my living room listening to the scary wind storm going on outside...I can happily say that I took advantage of the weather when we had it!

 Cute half-asian Sophia!

 Meet Brad...we like to sing together :)

 And you should all know who this cute girl is....it's Kelsey Jean Briggs! You can't tell in this picture but I totally wrote her a poem and drew a picture of her on some swings, which just happens to be one of her favorite activities.

And this picture has nothing to do with sunny days outside, but it documents this friendship pretty well.  Everyone, meet A-Babe, also known as Ally Morgan.  When we had no other plans on a Friday night some weeks ago, we decided to get Thai food.  Little did we know that our twin sisters would be waiting for us there!

Snow is supposed to be coming...sad, but I'm glad I got to take advantage of the weather when I had it!