Sunday, May 6, 2018

Moving and Birthdays

Soooo it was May the Fourth and I am now 22. I feel no difference. But I did have a good day! I slept in a little, had lunch with my aunt and one of my cousins, went on a "hike" ;) and picked up one of my favorite cousins so she could have dinner with us. I also facetimed with my mom and siblings at home, then Natalie called. 

Moving was interesting. . . . I had a meeting yesterday morning for my summer job, and got back in town sometime in the later morning to pick up my new key. Made a couple trips with things back and forth while waiting to see if anyone would come help. 
And no one showed. 
It's really lonely sometimes?

Then Sari, who was my visiting teacher, texted me that she was back in town and how was moving going. Being the angel that she is she then came ASAP to come help me finish up. She also called another friend to help pick up my desk and bookshelf. :)

Seriously, lifesaver. I would've spent the rest of the day trying to get everything done. This meant I still had time to pick up food for the week, and unpack. 

Sometimes I feel like Heavenly Father knows we expect something to happen, so He plans it differently because we need to learn and grow. That definitely happened yesterday. I was expecting to be done moving by 3-3:30, instead it was more like 5:30-6.  But He helped me know I'm not alone and that I am loved. He totally planned that. ;)

I went to my new ward today, as well as the old one. I'm planning on just going to my old ward for the summer, because with my new job as Head Commissioner at Camp Bartlett I'll only be home all day on weekends so I won't be able to go to many activities (if any). It was nice, I met people. :) 

I like my new place which is good, and I'm excited to make new friends. 

Have a wonderful week! 

Love y'all,

Kalani

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Ramblings

Soooooooo I should totally start writing more, I mean - now that I have a computer it's going to be much easier to do this. 

Right?!

Hah. Feels like it should be easier, but how do I start? What do I say? I mean. . . 


Hello everyone! 
If you are new to my blog welcome. If not, thank you for coming back.

I am just going to ramble because I do that. . .

I am trying to find a different job. The one I have now is just awful. I had a job interview on Thursday and am waiting for a call this Wednesday or Thursday to find out if I get it.

I had a good week. Went on a date on Friday, ice skating and bean bag toss and a lot of talking. It was fun. :)

Having a computer has helped me organize things. I now have all of my mission photos and videos on my computer and am in the process of choosing which ones I keep and post for all to see.

I don't really know what else to say. . . I have updated my photography blog. I'm trying to get some business with that, yeah my pictures aren't perfect but I have a good eye for pretty shots and enjoy spending time just taking pictures.

Kalani

Sunday, February 4, 2018

He Looks On the Heart

“The more I love someone 

the easier it is to talk to them.” 


My Relief Society President said this in church today. We were talking about something completely different from what came to mind - this is how I feel about Heavenly Father. 


Sometimes it’s hard for me to speak to people - usually when I’m trying to share my feelings. I got a little better at that after I served my mission, but I still have problems sharing about my life and my feelings, even with people I know well. 


The main reason I mention this is because it was Fast and Testimony meeting today. The easiest way for me to bear my testimony is through song - that’s how I feel the Spirit the best and how I feel the most accepted by Heavenly Father. It’s easier to sing my feelings than speak them. A lot of people don’t understand that, because the standard is bearing testimony through words and it’s not as accepted to sing a testimony. Yes, I did bear my testimony today, but a lot of the time when I do it’s because I feel awkward or judged when I don’t get up. I hate speaking in front of people. It’s one of the reasons I love singing so much. Besides, when I sing I know He hears me - I mean He hears me when I speak, but not in the same way. When I speak I only know the world hears me and sometimes judges on what I say. 


Back to the point, of when I love someone it is easier to talk to them. This holds true for a lot of my family and friends, I’m more comfortable with them. But really, when talking to my Heavenly Father? I feel like I can talk to Him about anything! And it’s the same the other way as well, He loves all of His children so much so that He is always talking to us through the Holy Ghost. He does this because He doesn’t care what we say or do as long as we are striving to follow Him and loves us enough that He will eventually forgive us for our mistakes as well. He knows we have the potential to be perfect and has provided a way for that to happen through our Savior and His church. This is why I feel that singing my testimony is okay. Because He knows each of us so well and wants us to be comfortable, and knows I am most comfortable when I am singing. 


It’s also true that when we pray to Him and tell Him everything that we have a hard time saying to others (including the facts about those people we like/have crush’s on, etc) He knows how to guide us in that. He is our Father, and He provided a Savior who knows everything we are going through. 


This is how I know that He doesn’t care what we look like. He doesn’t care if we are black or white or Asian or Mexican or anything. He loves us for who we are on the inside. We recently had a Mormon message video night as a stake, where each of the wards shared a video thay had made that was like a Mormon message. Our video was about loving others as God does, looking on the heart instead of what we can judge of them.




1 Samuel 16:7

This is what we all need to do. Instead of judging others and not being able to talk to them we need to love them as God does. It will still be hard to talk to people at first but after getting to know and love it will be better. It’s still not something I’m very comfortable with, even after years of trying, and I am still way more comfortable singing. But I know Heavenly Father and those who are important to me understand and accept the ways I am able to express things. 

Thanks for reading, I know it wasn’t really much about how I’ve been doing, but it was something I needed. 

Kalani

Monday, September 18, 2017

Talks and Things

So I forgot to post this until now. . . This is the talk I gave last Sunday. 


"How We Can Strengthen Our Relationship With The Savior

I want to start by introducing myself a little. My name is Kalani, I'm from Brookshire Texas and I am the oldest of eleven. Today I am giving a talk on how we can strengthen our relationship with the Savior. 

Most of what I'm going to say I learned or grew to better understand while I was on my mission, and because I will be referencing it a lot during my talk I served in the California San Jose Mission, English speaking. 

While I was studying for this talk I found a talk by Elder Dallin H Oaks. In his talk "He Heals the Heavy Laden", he quotes part of a letter which says "Intense, daily scripture study, regular temple worship, and serious, contemplative participation in the ordinance of the sacrament are all indispensable parts of a true repentance process. This, I assume, is because all of these activities serve to deepen and strengthen one’s relationship with the Savior, one’s understanding of His atoning sacrifice, and one’s faith in His healing power." (Oct 2006 Conference). 

As I kept looking I found a talk by Elder James E Faust titled "A Personal Relationship with The Savior" (Oct 1976 Conference). In this he talks about five essential things that can help us get closer to the savior. 

Number one is communication through prayer. Before my mission prayer and I had a complicated relationship. I knew that if I prayed Heavenly Father would help me in some way - like the time when I was 8 and prayed for twin baby dolls, and the response came in the form of twin sisters when I was 9.  On my mission I learned the importance of prayer, it was something we asked people to do all of the time. One of my favorite things about prayer is that Heavenly Father wants to hear from us. Yes He knows what happened throughout the day but He still wants to here it from us. He gives us a promise in Matthew 21:22 which says "And all ​​​things​, whatsoever ye shall ​​​ask​ in ​​​prayer​, believing, ye shall receive."

Number two is service. My mission was a service oriented mission. We did service almost every single day, and I came to understand that the best thing about service - as well as following the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ, I found out that through service to others - self less service with no thought to gain anything in return, can heal us. Service can help us have peace. I'm going to use the missionary scripture in D&C 4, verse 2 which says "Therefore, O ye that embark in the ​​​service​ of God, see that ye ​​​serve​ him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand ​​​blameless​ before God at the last day."

Number three is striving to be obedient. I didn't figure out the main reason Heavenly Father asks us to do things until my mission. To put it very simply, it's because He loves us and wants us to be safe. Because of that we have the commandments and a perfect example to follow - the Savior. I love D&C 82:10 "I, the Lord, am ​​​bound​ when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no ​​​promise​." He has promised us so many blessings when we do as He asks - one of those blessings includes a better relationship with our Savior. 

Number four might just be my favorite while also being one of the hardest things to do, because of how simple it is - remembering and acknowledging the divinity of the Savior daily. I like to think that this also includes remembering that the Savior loves us for who we are, no matter what. 

Number five is reading the scriptures daily. Reading in the scriptures, we find out about the Savior's life. How better to strengthen our relationship with someone than to learn about them? Because in the scriptures "..we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." (2 Nephi 25:26). This is where we go to read about the miracles He preformed and the blessings He gave. And we know He loves us because we are constantly receiving more scripture through the words of the Prophets and Apostles. I'm always excited for General Conferences and I love reading the Ensign and New Era to hear what they have to say. 

Now I want to say something. I know some of you were probably listening to me list these things and just nodding and rolling your eyes thinking "yes I know, that is always what we are told to do" and I understand. I've done that before, and thought that before. But I also want you to know that I know how much these things really do help us to strengthen our relationship with our Savior. I felt it happen to me on my mission and I saw it happen to those I taught. These are really simple things, which also makes them really hard, but I know how much they help. Even if you only have time to read or listen to a verse of scripture or a hymn, it helps. I'm not going to say I'm perfect at any of these things, because I'm not. But I'm trying and I know that as we all try to do these things our relationships with the Savior will be strengthened and so will our relationships with our family and friends. 

In his talk Elder Faust quoted a missionary who said " Is not the greatest need in all of the world for every person to have a personal, ongoing, daily, continuing relationship with the Savior?” Elder Faust then says that "Having such a relationship can unchain the divinity within us, and nothing can make a greater difference in our lives as we come to know and understand our divine relationship with God."

I want to bear my testimony to all of you that I know these things are true, and I can promise that as we continue to do these things our personal relationships with our Savior will be strengthened. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Kalani



Monday, August 14, 2017

Moving Away

Summer was really busy, with work and people. I loved being home with my family and spending time with friends back in Texas, but sadly I also knew it was coming to an end. 

I took family photos and Raymond's senior pictures (lots of fun). 


I'm not really a fan of traveling by myself. It's kindof scary. But I do love adventures, so. 


I love being able to see mountains again. Was always a comfort growing up. 


It's weird driving past temples and church buildings again when they're on almost every block. But it's also  really cool. It was awesome drive less than 20 minutes to the temple!  


Even though it was a little scary to finally be out on my own, it's going be a fun adventure. I've made friends and I have cousins close by. :)

Have a great week! I think I'll try updating more frequently again. :)

Kalani

Thursday, June 15, 2017

It's June? What?

So many pictures this past two weeks. . . Not sure I can put them all on here. . . xD

Now I'll just talk about what I did that made it so I didn't post last week.

My boss asked me to go to a training camp to become the aquatics director at Bovay. I agreed, because they really needed one and I like water. I drove there with coworkers to the camp which is near Dallas/Fort Worth area - yay long drive! Bleh.

When I arrived, I found out that I couldn't be an aquatics director because I wasn't a lifeguard yet (I get that training sometime in the next few weeks), which was something I had mentioned to my boss, like, don't I need this for that? and he said no so I didn't worry about it. Until I got there. My coworker, Miss Becca, called and arranged things and I was able to stay at the camp to become a program director. I think I had more fun doing that than I would've with aquatics. . . :)

It was a crazy week but also kindof fun. :)
















As it it now almost the end of June. . . haha. I think I'm way behind now. Well, some highlights: Lisa turned two. Natalie came home. :) We went hiking. Made some new friends. Three of our cousins came to stay for a week - fourteen children is a LOT. It's been a while since we had to use two cars, our fifteen passenger didn't quite fit sixteen people, but we had fun!

So many things wow. 

Today is Hannah's seventh birthday! It's crazy how time flies. 

Well. I've found I'm to leave Texas soon. I planned everything, so I knew this would happen, but I find I don't want to leave my family. I fly up to Utah August 8th, and I'm going to live there and work until I can get instate tuition at Utah State. :) It's going to be a fun adventure!!! 

Haha, hope everyone has a great week. 

Love, 
Kalani 

Monday, May 15, 2017

Camping Alone and Happy Mothers Day!!

It was a pretty good week. 
                             

I worked on Monday. At FHE we played murder in the dark. 
Tuesday and Wedsneday I worked. Thursday was institute. 
On Friday and Saturday I went camping with nine of my younger siblings and no parents. Somehow we survived. ;) I went to a YSA event on saturday at the beach in Galveston (California beaches have ruined any other beach for me, sadly - or not, as there Galveston ones are gross in my opinion). I had a lot of fun with my friends, even if the drive there and back were long. 
Today I was in charge of getting said nine younger siblings to church by myself. Whooohooo. I taught my five year olds about the importance of the Book of Mormon and why it is the word of God. :) Spent the rest of the day wishing I could sleep. 
Also I'm going to be the chauffeur for the week. This should be an adventure. :)

Love y'all,

Love, 
Kalani