09.12.11

I am going to post little snippets from Ivy's letters each week. Check her facebook page for her current address, or you can always message me at alebbon@gmail.com.

Amy

Oh! And something crazy that happened this week, I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and the light suddenly sparked and we had no power. We finally got it working the next morning as long as we didnt flip one particular switch for the bathroom. Then when we came home that night, we accidentally flipped the switch and the whole apartment went out and we couldnt get the lights or power back on. We were really tired so we just went to sleep and decided to worry about it in the morning. Needless to say, it was really difficult getting up at 6:30 in the morning with a no power and only a little flashlight to light the way. I just about died during morning exercise and pushed a lot of buttons on the breaker box (is that what that is?) and finally got the power to work. We called the mission office to see if they could tell us what to do, and they said to change the lightbulb or something. So, when we got home from working, I stood on a chair and went to take off the glass dome surrounding the light and water suddenly spilled all over me. The bowl was completely filled with water! In my shock, I tried to get it away from me, and threw a bunch of it in Sister Lanctot's direction. All she could say after that was, "That was a bad surprise. That was a really bad surprise..." We still have no idea what caused the water, and even after talking to a lot of people in charge of the apartment. Weird. Well, just pray that we won't die.

.Mission :)

The time has come! I leave for the MTC tomorrow and get dropped off at 1:15 in the afternoon. Ah! You can believe that my stomach has been in weird little nervous knots since the minute I woke up this morning. It's a big step, but I'm so excited to be going.

This is what I posted on facebook:

I will be serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints starting May 25, 2011 and will get home on Nov 25, 2012. I am putting school and many other aspects of my life on hold as I go and share what i strongly believe in with others. Best of luck to you all, Thanks for all your friendship.

The mission address for the first 9 weeks is:

Sister Ivy Nielson
Germany Berlin Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604


You can send letters to the mission office in Berlin after the first 9 weeks at this address until my sister updates the new address at:

Sister Ivy Nielson
Germany Berlin Mission
Zerbster Strasse 42
12209 Berlin
Germany


My sister will be updating my facebook, as well as my blog regularly. (hopefully)

Take care and I'll see you in a year and a half. It will be an adventure, that's for sure. :)

-Ives

.15.

15 days and counting until I report to the MTC.

It's been crazy, guys...just crazy.

-Ives

.Easter cake.

I made an Easter cake.

Can ya tell?

I hope you all have a Happy Easter tomorrow and remember to keep Christ in your thoughts.

-Ives

.excuses.

"Excuses are the refuge of cowards."

A wise one (also known as "The Guru") once told me that. So I took it to heart. I have no excuses for not doing a single blogpost for a while.

"The Guru" has no idea who said it. Other than the fact that He himself said it.

Don't judge me.

-Ives.

.Now.

"Now is the time to do the right thing; no matter what the consequences are."

-Gordon B. Hinckley

Why wait, right?

-Ives

.Germany.

This is a map of the Germany Berlin Mission. It's composed of 8 areas, or zones. The zones follow the stake boundaries.

As you can see, it's a pretty big mission.

-Ives

.before.

Before you talk, Listen.

Before you react, Think.

Before you spend, Earn.

Before you criticize, Wait.

Before you pray, Forgive.

Before you quit, Try.

-Ernest Hemingway

Beautiful quote!

Hope you had a good day :)

-Ives

.rapunzel cake.

-Ives

I know that I said that I would post more pictures of the Rapunzel cake today, but when I got home from mission prep, I realized that the camera wasn't home. I promise to post them tomorrow though. :)

Today was such a busy day. Interview before church, then church with some very wild kids, then a 10 minute nap. After that there was another interview and ended with Mission prep which ended up lasting 3 hours.

I'm ready for bed. And may I say that my feet are killing me. Lots of walking in high heels. My toesies need a break! And they will...ohhh they will.

-Ives

.Rapunzel.

I made a Rapunzel cake for a very sweet little 3 year old.

I'm real tired, so I'll post more about it tomorrow.

-Ives

.expressions.

"If God spoke anciently, is it unreasonable to believe that He can speak in our time? What man would think to deny God the right to express himself?"

-Gordon B. Hinckley

Just a thought.

-Ives

.attempt.

One of my favorite quotes of all time. Simple, but it makes you think.

-Ives

.GBH.

"Industry, enthusiasm, and hard work lead to enlightened progress. You have to stay on your feet and keep moving if you are going to have light in your life."

-Gordon B. Hinckley

"Years later he [Gordon B. Hinckley] concurred with Emerson, who, when asked which of all the books he had read had most affected his life, said that he could no more remember the books he had read than the meals he had eaten, but that they had made him."

-Sheri Dew

These two quotes came from President Hinckley's biography, which I have yet to finish (we won't get in to that...), but I really loved what I read.

-Ives

It was Kenji's birthday today. And do you know who else shares his birthday? My stinkin' youngest brother Taylor! He's 17 years old!!!! AHHHH!!!! CRAZY!!!!!

How to make a spiderman cake head. As told by an amateur who has never attempted it.

This should be interesting...

Step one: Get some cake and form it into a block.

Step two: form a basic shape out of said block.

Step three: Try desperately to make that block into a recognizable human head.

Step four: Trim, trim, trim! I noticed his head was a little too big and round. Like a lightbulb!

Well, it still kind of looked like a lightbulb when it was all said and done, but we won't get in to that...

Step 5: Add a nose. I made just a rough little nose because, as you can see in the pictures, Spiderman's mask hides most of his features and squishes his nose down quite a bit.

Step 6: Cover in fondant. I was running out of time at this point, so it was a quick job and there's a whole ton of bumps and rips, but I really didn't care. The piping helped hide that anyway.

Step 7: remember to have someone take a picture of a very tired, basically demolished you when you're finished.

Step 8: Pipe on that frosting! This was a really quick job. Maybe 4-5 minutes worth of piping. Those kids were anxious! I probably would have tried to make the piping a lot cleaner...and make sure the eyes were the same size, but hey! It's cool right?

And there you have it. Cake. Spiderman Cake.

Happy Birthday Little Chenny :) Oh, and you too, Tay. If you would ever read my blog.

I forgive you though. Since it's your birthday and all. :)

-Ives

.your world.

I should be asleep. But I remembered that I didn't do a post for today. Ah!!!

Anyway.

Here's a quote for you. I might add something else tomorrow.

But probably not.

"your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it."
- Buddha

Did anyone else check out General Conference today? It was fantastic. I can't wait until tomorrow.

But that quite kind of goes along with Dallin H. Oaks talk on what we really desire and how what we desire determines our priorities and choices and eventually our actions. It was very interesting.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow :)

- Ives

.sweetums.

I spend the day with this little boo.

She even helped me design and decorate a cake.

She is so sweet. I just love her :)

-Ives

.I'll never eat a tomato.

Well, I actually LOVE tomatoes! Especially the ones grown straight from our garden in Oak City. Mmmm mmm mmm...there's nothing like it.

But anyway! There's this book:

Ever heard of it?

It's actually really good. Especially when you have it in POP-UP form.

Everything's better when it's a pop-up!!!!

Heck yeah!

And it even turned into a nice story time with the kids.

ahhhh...this is the life :)

-Ives

.tragedy.

"One of the great tragedies we witness almost daily, is the tragedy of [missionaries] of high aim and low achievement. Their motives are noble, their proclaimed ambition is praiseworthy, their capacity is great. But their discipline is weak. They succumb to indolence. Appetite robs them of will."

-Gordon B. Hinckley

I never, ever want this to happen to me. If I'm going on this mission, I'm going to do it right.

That's all.

-Ives

.spiderman.

Kenji is almost 5.

And since we would be out of town on his birthday, we decided to surprise him with his very own spiderman cake and birthday party.

It was epic.

My big sis informed me that I would be making a cake this morning and I went to it.

8 hours later, I came up with this:

I don't understand how it could have possibly taken so long, but that's just the way it goes sometimes, right?

I took one lunch break.

That doesn't seem right.

But at least it got done before the kids had to go to bed.

And it actually looks like Spiderman! Right...?

Right...?!?!?!

Kenji seemed to enjoy it. Which is all that counts in the end, really. :)

And it's always nice to have a good support system. I mean, I kept asking Micah what he thought of my carving skills and all he would reply with was, "Ivy (As he's looking straight into my eyes with a serious look on his face), it looks really good for your first carved cake." And "It's good enough for a 5 year old! Seriously!"

Yup.

Gotta love those support systems.

-Ives

.shine.

My fantastic sister, De-light, shared this quote with me, and I just fell in love with it.

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."

-Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Isn't that great? Thanks, Dighty!

-Ives

.time.

I've been learning a lot about myself and life these past couple of weeks. Talk about an emotional roller coaster! The most important lesson I'm learning right this moment, is that sometimes, you just have to let time run its course.

Which is more difficult than it sounds! Anyway. It's past my bedtime (10:30 just creeps right on up there, doesn't it?!). I was even working on a picture, but couldn't finish it in time. I guess it just comes down to priorities.

But I do have a good missionary quote for you, since, ya know, I'm going to be on one in less than 2 MONTHS. ...zing!

The countdown has begun. Brace yourself.

So here's that quote I was talking about...

"If you go on a mission to preach the Gospel with lightness and frivolity in your hearts, looking for this and that, and to learn what is in the world, and not having your minds riveted- yes, I may say, riveted-on the cross of Christ, you will go and return in vain... Let your minds be centered on your missions and labor earnestly to bring souls to Christ."

-Brigham Young

Man, who doesn't love a good Brigham Young quote to keep you focused?

-Ives

.pain.

"We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weights tons."

-Jim Rohn

Truth.

-Ives

.growing up.

I had a good long conversation with Kenji as I was making cookies today. The conversation mostly consisted of me almost lecturing him on how he is not to forget me while I go on my mission. And maybe I even threw in, ever nonchalantly, how he probably shouldn't grow up either.

He didn't say much about it all, until a couple minutes later, and this conversation unfolded:

Kenji: "But Ivy, if I don't grow up, Daddy will spank my bum!"

Ivy: *sporadic laughter (of course)* You crack me up, Chenny boy!

Kenji: Well, you crack me up! [pause] *giggle* We cracked ourselves up!

...two minutes later...

Kenji: I don't want to grow up, because I'll die.

Ivy: hm...

Maybe you just had to be there. Or maybe you just have to know Kenji. But he really is quite an exception child. And I did love making cookies under his ever watchful eye.

He also gives great compliments.

Such as: "Ivy, you make the BEST cookies and cakes in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!"

Yeah, I can live with that. :)

-Ives

.wisdom.

My own personal superhero sent me this video over facebook yesterday. I absolutely adore the song and was intrigued by the video. It's simple, yet very profound. I love it.

Anyway, but it got us on the subject of loneliness and how art brings out some of our deepest emotions and still remains as beautiful as always.

With that said, my awesome big bro sent me a quote with his own little message/interpretation attached:

"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony." - Benjamin Britten

"It is true that music does delve into the deepest recesses of our emotions. And it is still so beautiful. How is that possible? Maybe that is why we love our families so much... The source of many of our problems in our life, and at the same time, an everlasting joy gained from contact with them. The same can be said of loneliness, how can you truly contemplate anything without being in solitude of some sort? Can you correctly order your thoughts with so many outside stimuli? While loneliness isn't something I would recommend much of, you should take advantage of those times to order your thoughts, define your life. Find yourself, so to speak. Just my take on it Sis. :)"

-Ben

It made me think about things, and so I wanted to share it with you.

There is a lot of wisdom in it.

-Ives

.evil.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

-Edmund Burke

-Ives

.hawaiian dance.

So I'm finally getting around to taking pictures of the Aloha Festival! Yay! Woohoo!! Yippee! Yippee...? Yeah!

During the first number, I've been told that there's usually a lot of room in front of the stage for the dancers.

But not this time:

They could really see in to the bowels of our armpits.

What a lovely thought. Seriously.

*cringe*

And here's a picture that one of the photographers in the group took during the performance:

Not bad, eh?

All in all, Hawaiian dance was amazing. I loved it. I wouldn't think twice about signing up for it again next year if I wasn't going on the Mish. But Germany is cool, too, so I don't feel TOO bad about it. :)

-Ives

.my camera man.

Everyone needs a good, solid camera man when exciting, eventful things are going on and Micah did so well.

Even when there was utter chaos everywhere else in the room, he stood strong.

Although you can hear him distinctly yelling, "She's going to Germany, she's going to Germany!" over and over again. Which I find absolutely adorable.

-Ives

.excited!

Have I mentioned how ridiculously excited I am to be going on a mission?

Not to mention to Germany. Ah!

I'm still in shock.

-Ives

.yup.

To those who listened in to the call, this is why you heard so much stuttering and stopping.

It's because I was doing this:

Just soaking it in. :)

-Ives

.ah.

It's been a bit of a crazy day and I totall forgot about posting anything. Sorry!!

I've been doing a lot of research on Germany and it sounds like such a fascinating country! I'm looking forward to Learning much, much more about it. :)

I start the new missionary schedule tomorrow morning 6:30 am here I come! Bleh...

-Ives

.YES!!!!

Alright, today was, in fact, THE day. I got my call!!!! Yay!!

It was a very interesting day though. The mail usually comes by 1 on any given day. So when we went at 2:30, we were fully expecting mail. But I was surprised to find an empty box. It was confusing. I didn't know what to do with myself. So we went to get ice cream to make ourselves feel better and check back later.

Where is the mail...????

An hour later...no change!!! I thought there was no chance of a call today.

At 5ish, I thought to myself, "what the heck, I'm going to check that mail again! There's no way we could just have an empty box!!!"


And the one day I went to get the mail alone, the call was there! Not that I wasn't excited to get it, because I was, but jumping up and down, screaming on the sidewalk is kind of embarrassing if you're doing it alone. Just sayin'.

Anyway, about an hour after that, I got everyone all set up on Skype and the phone, which was pretty crazy, not going to lie, and I read my mission call!

Opening my mission call was such an amazing experience.

I even got tackled by my big sis, which is always an interesting! Love ya, sis ;)

So here it is:

I'm going to be serving in the GERMANY BERLIN MISSION and report to the Provo MTC on May 25th.

I'm still getting used to the idea of going to somewhere as awesome as Germany. I'll just have to repeat it over and over and over to myself...Germany, Germany, Germany...

The question is: where am I going to find winter clothing in AZ...?

I hear it gets pretty cold there. ;)

Today has been such a fantastic day! Thank you so much for your love and support. This is going to be a wild ride, and I need all the prayers (and letters!) that you can possibly offer.

-Ives

.dumb.

These pictures say it all:

After realizing the big envelope was, in fact, NOT my call and instead some kind of dumb insurance information:

Good thing we spent all day moving. I was thoroughly distracted.

Poor Delight, she waited here an extra couple of days so that she could watch me open my call, and won't be able to see it now!

Sad!!!

I'm almost certain the call with come by tomorrow.

Or I might freak or something.

-Ives

.waiting...

Waiting.

For my mission call.

My bishop emailed me on Friday and said that it was in the mail. So we were SURE that it was going to be here by today.

But no. It wasn't in the mail. If you want to see the dismay and disappointment in action, my big sis took a really great, embarrassing picture of me dropping the mail on the ground and eventually walking away. It was great. Seriously.

It better come tomorrow. I swear, if it doesn't come...ugh.

Anyway.

In order to distract my self, I made a cake!

So here it is:

I swear, there's more frosting in this cake than cake. Yeshhhh...

-Ives

.quote.

We're moving. Still moving... So it looks like another crazy busy week. Which means I'm tired and slightly brain dead (not like that's anything new...ha!) and I only have a quote for you today.

I really enjoy it and I have no clue who said it, but here it is:

"You are a once-in-a-lifetime, never-before-on-earth, never-to-be-again, personality.

Understand the importance of that."

:)

-Ives

.Sunday.

Today is Sunday! And boy, was it a busy day!

I taught my primary lesson to some crazy, yet awesome, kids and then I went to an awesome Mission Prep. I seem to get pick on a lot during Mission Prep. Probably because I'm usually the only girl to go... Have I mentioned that all of the guys are scared of me? It's a bit strange. I guess I'm a pretty scary person. Oh well ;)

After mission prep, I came home and talked with the sis's for a while and skyped the boy frand.

Schweet.

It really was a pretty awesome day, I have to admit.

My big sis likes taking embarrassing pictures of me while I'm talking, I've realized...

And Delight was supposed to be in this picture...Where did she go...?

And I look slightly retarded in this picture. I didn't even realize that my big sis was even sneaking up and taking pictures while I was skyping. Weird...

hm.

-Ives