.friending

The seminary year has come to an end. The final lesson was yesterday and this morning we had a big breakfast with all of the kids and their bishops. It's sad to say goodbye for three months, but nice at the same time.

*Air with all of the bishops

I've been watching the seminary kids this year become better and better friends with each other. At the beginning of the year a lot of them (especially the first year kids) had never met or talked unless they were in the same ward. But as the school year has progressed I've seen some strong friendships grow between a lot of them.

I hope they consider Air and me their friends too.

Aaron's class:

My class:

I'm so glad to see them become like a family. But mostly I've loved seeing them look for friendships with other good kids who have their same values. Friendships at their age are so vitally important.

I don't think there's anything that has as much influence on a young person's choices or determines where they will end up quite as much as the friends they make.

From my experience I believe that kids learn behaviors from each other more than anyone else.

I'm saying all of this because I'm so grateful that I had such amazing friends growing up. They were always good examples to me and made me feel accepted and cool, without having to do bad things. You know? Good cool?

I really love my childhood and teenage years and think everyone deserves to have the awesome friends that I had.

*Kim, mee and Nichole--"BFF's"

*cousin/friends: Jessica, Aida, Camilla, mee, Jenny and Joni @ the Hill Cumorah

.The Visit

My visiting teachers were here this morning. What lovely women they are! It's just kinda unfortunate what had to happen while they were here today....... While we were sitting and chatting about our Sunday school classes I started noticing a noise coming from my kitchen. Finally we all stopped talking and stared at the kitchen in silence. "What is that noise anyway?"

It sounded like settling... but it also sounded like a chip bag being crumpled up. And then it would stop so we'd start talking again. But then it would start again. We started talking about mice and the fact that I've found a mouse in this house before. I was getting nervous.

They said the sound seemed to be coming from a cabinet so Sister Closson offered to look. She is fearless! We all peered into the cabinet under the sink and saw the trash can shaking! All of the garbage was moving up and down as a mouse tried repeatedly to jump out! Sister Closson threw the lid on the trash can and rushed the whole thing outside and put some boards on it to keep it shut.

The bravery of that woman is astonishing to me!

Someday I want to be Sister Closson.

And then Sister Allin inspected my house for places where a mouse could enter (there were lots I think). I think she left feeling a little bit concerned for me. When she gave the closing prayer she prayed that I could feel safe and comfortable in my home.

She definitely foresaw the uneasy feeling I have now.

That's what I love about visiting teachers.

We're having an exterminator come (thank goodness the company is paying for that (because we're paying our car insurance bill for this year and it's through the roof (we have two cars now)))

Yep! I just did parentheses within parentheses within parentheses. Awesome huh?

And yes, Air will be mowing our lawn today. Look at that grass!


.

.May long

*Air was telling me he loves me and I didn't even notice

We're having a nice long weekend before the very last week of seminary. Isn't summer awesome?

We organized a get together with Air's old group of friends from Lacombe on Saturday. It was so fun! I think all of the guys were just ecstatic to be back together. You wouldn't believe the stories these guys have from growing up together.

While we were at dinner, one of Air's buddies (not to be named) told us that his wife is pregnant! But he said it was a secret because they haven't told their parents yet. Shhhh!

Air immediately pulled out the iphone and typed it into his status "Guess what the secret is!"

It was hilarious, but I noticed that he was on my facebook instead of his own. Oh well.

While we were driving home later I got back onto “le book” to see if anyone commented… I was pretty amazed by people's first reactions:
And then the fun went on… My Mother-in-law and Grandma emailed me, worried that I was pregnant and hadn’t told them! Ahhh! And then at church on Sunday I had to clear it all up with the ladies in my ward! haha Isn't it amazing how fast information travels these days?

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Air's little sisters Tessa and Tiana slept over last night and we had a robot dance party:

And today, while Air was at work, I took them to Rundle Park! It was a beautiful day!

We went for a walk to the North Saskatchewan River (near the park). We threw stuff in.

And right now we're having a pizza party with the family! Yay for holiday weekends!

.

.On what changes us

*photo by Mark Mabry

At a seminary teacher in-service a few months ago we watched a video that Brother Patrick brought to share with us. It was on the Reflections of Christ photographic art by Mark Mabry. If you haven't already been to an exhibit or heard of it, its basically just these amazing photos of gospel stories. We have millions of paintings and illustrations; but for me, when I look at the photos of real people, it really comes to life.
So much more.

This photo at the top is one of Christ in the Americas after he was resurrected. He chose twelve disciples from among the people. At the beginning of the series of photos there is one image showing Christ calling the men to be his disciples. They all looked so different and unorganized. Some of them may have been dirty and working all day, some of them may have had family problems, some of them may have been stressed about their children, some of them may have been poor or some very wealthy. They were all coming from different backgrounds.

Near the end of the series of photos there is another image of the twelve men. After they have been taught the gospel and ministered to by Christ himself. They look like a totally different group of men. They are all clean, they all look happy and peaceful, and what stood out most to me was the fact that they were all wearing white. A symbol of purity.

They had changed completely.

*photo by Mark Mabry

That's what I believe living the gospel can do for us.

When I think of the most miserable of people, in the most dire of circumstances, with problems and issues and difficulties and sadness. I think of what the gospel can do for them. It can do the same thing it did for Christ's disciples. We can become something new and pure. It can bring peace and happiness to our lives. Everyone can have the same peace that Christ and his disciples had, but so many people push it away. There are even a lot of members of the church who don't have this kind of peace that's being offered to them from Christ.

I'm still learning to accept it for myself and become a changed person... there are just so many distractions. But I know that I won't be done becoming a better person and going through the refiners fire until I'm so pure that you can look at my face and see Christ's image shining back.

I have a feeling that won't be for a very long time.

**Don't steal. I absolutely stole these photos
from the Reflections of Christ website.

They're so beautiful I couldn't help myself.

.now on facebook too

We're back to seminary for a few more weeks before summer! I was worried that the kids wouldn't remember me. I was preparing myself for this conversation: "It's me Sister Gusa! you know? from before?"
Thank goodness they did!

Recently I was talking to a lady in my ward and she suddenly said something like: "I love all of the little love notes that your seminary students write for you on the board! They really love you."

Sweet of her to say that. But I was just too flabbergasted at the idea that she had read my blog somehow?? How could this woman have possibly found my blog?

So I said, "Yeah aren't they awesome? ...Do you read my blog?"

She proceeded to sound out the word in a questioning tone, "bllllllloooogggg?"

How embarrassing. She obviously wasn't reading my blog. "Oh, how did you see the notes from the kids?"

"I have Sunday school in your seminary classroom and sometimes the notes are still there from class. We love reading them! ...What's a blog?"

Then I had to explain to her that I'm this huge geek and I keep a journal on the internet blah blah blah...

So that was fun.

I'm pretty sure she judged me. haha

I love those girls!

.back up (finale)

We went to the Tracy Aviary with my sisters Elisa and Heather (and her 3 boys Cayden, Sam and Max)

Those little boys are so funny! Sam insisted on pushing Max in the stroller the whole time until I took him out of to carry him and let him walk around. Then he lost interest.

It was a beautiful day to look at the birds!

It looks like Heather and me were both on the phone, but I was just playing with my ear or something? Max is pointing at the pink flamingos

Family party on Mothers Day

My Mom’s favorite flowers in the world are lilacs. Always have been. Whenever I see lilacs I think of her.

It was so awesome to finally be with her on Mother’s Day again…

Oh, and the men cooked the meal. Air made stuffed potatoes!

*Gabe and Sam were playing a little game called “this ball is my baby”

On our last day there we went back down to Provo to visit Jesse and Lauren again and meet newborn Claire!

We all ate the best breakfast ever at Joe’s Cafe in Orem!

Joe wanted to get a picture for the collection on his wall.

*Air’s holding something called “Slap Ya Mama”--Joe’s secret ingredient?

Jesse and Lauren are adorable with their two little girls.

Good luck in Seattle you guys!

And then we drove back to Canada in one day. Whoa, that was one long day!

We saw this craziness:

There are still so many more things we did but didn’t take pictures of… We spent a lot of time with Nichole and Joel, visited my Ellis cousins, went to my nephew Gordon's Mario birthday party, saw some movies, and hung out with my brother Seth and his wife Linda... Boy, we were so busy!

I just want to say how happy I was to hear that you guys all read my blog. I love to keep in touch with the people I love, and ever since I moved to Chicago five years ago I've wondered if anyone back home cares that I'm gone or misses me as much as I miss them. So, thanks for caring guys! I care about you too. A lot.

Oh, ...I also discovered that a few of my own siblings haven't even glanced at my blog! Disowned!

Alright, not really. I can't help but love them anyway.

.back up (part 2)

*Gwen, Jason and baby Ian standing on their land

We were invited to go to FHE at my sister Gwen’s house. I just had one request: that they take us to see their recently purchased land in Lake Point next to my brother Tyler’s land.

That’s right. My brother's and sister’s families are going to be building houses next door to each other!

How cool is that??
I think I can safely say that their kids are ecstatic! And sooo cute.

We spent a lot of time with my friends Nichole and Niki while we were down there. Niki just had a baby a few months ago. She is just so beautiful!

Hogle Zoo was on the schedule the next day! I hadn’t been there in so long… To be honest, it’s not as great of a zoo as I remembered it being when I was younger… strange.

We still had a lot of fun though! We got to go with Niki’s family, my sister Linda and two of my cute little nephews, Ellis and Gordon!

We went rollerblading with my sister Elisa. We love rollerblading. It was a little cold that day so we didn’t get too far, sadly.

And after looking at these pictures I’m coming to terms with the fact that I look pretty terrible when I’m squinting in sunlight. Gotta stop doing that! haha

more to come…