Lessons Learned

This past week, I was at Girl's camp. It was so wonderful to feel the spirit, to feel like I'm 15 again, and to be in the mountains and enjoy God's creations. I was over the 4th years who were going on an 8 mile overnight hike. We packed our 20 pound bags with food, water, sleeping bag, and tents. Once we set up camp, the winds started. It was threatening to rain so I said a prayer. Honestly, I prayed until about 3 in the morning. One girl was very sick, was throwing up everything. So I prayed for her. The storm was all around us but it never rained on us. The sweet, sick girl was able to sleep, at least for a couple hours. We all made it back in one piece and several of the girls even said it was fun. :)



While I was gone, my good friend Shellie's mom called to get her wedding pictures. I had the wonderful opportunity to take the pictures for the wedding. It was a lot of fun and I was so glad that I got to be apart of her special day. I should've gotten them to her months ago (her wedding was in April I believe), but my crazy life didn't slow down. So, I took them to her mom's house on Friday so that when she flew to Washington the next day (where Shellie is living now) she could take them with her. I could finally stop thinking about one more thing in my life that I had to take care of. Fast forward to Saturday night... I see that I have a message from Shellie. I'm thinking "Great! She got the pictures, she loved them. Awesome!" I listen to the frantic Shellie saying "Don't erase the pictures, the cd didn't work." Crap. So I get on to my computer, no pictures are there. I'm freaking out, bawling my eyes out. Poor Robby probably thought I was possessed. I had no idea what to do. This was her wedding. I knew I would be so devastated and could only imagine how she would feel. I began praying. Robby being the computer master he is, started working on a recovery of the files. After buying a Terabyte harddrive, and 5 hours later, we recovered 35 pictures out of 700. They were all the perfect ones though, eating the cake, dancing with her dad, guests, and decorations. I knew it would not make up for the 700 but it was better than nothing. I knew my prayer had been answered. I called up Shellie and left a message on her phone. That night, I said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for answering my prayers and for granting me peace. I also asked that He would bless Shellie to forgive me. At that very moment I heard my phone saying I had a text message. I finish my prayer and have this enormous amount of peace in my heart. I look at my phone, and it was Shellie. She wanted to tell me that the cds worked on a different computer and that she had all her pictures. ***Insert picture of me with mouth hanging wide open**** I immediately dropped to my knees to pray. I thought my prayers were answered before but I needed to learn a few lessons before He would really answer my prayer.

Lesson 1- Prayer works. Whether it is for comfort, peace, a problem, or any situation, He is listening, always.

Lesson 2- Prayers don't always get answered the way you want. I would've much rather just had the pictures work the first time and not have to buy a $120 terabyte hard drive and to be able to not have had that stress. But my faith has grown exceedingly and I know all my prayers are answered.

Lesson 3- I am a daughter of God who loves me and I love him deeply. Being at Girl's camp and remembering our theme, I am so glad that I have that knowledge. I am also grateful for my big brother, my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the chance I have to repent and to return to my Father in Heaven.

That was a long post. :)