:)

I have what I call a "Book of Remembrance" where I keep all of my most favorite quotes and stories. I used to write a lot more than I do now. If I found a quote that I loved, I would say exactly why it was important to me and kind of my interpretation, I guess you could say. Mostly just random musings. I should start doing that because I found a paragraph that I wrote about this quote, and I loved what I wrote down. So here it is:

"Elder Russell M. Nelson said, "A covenant with God is not restrictive, but protective." Heavenly Father gives us commandments to essentially save us from ourselves from ourselves. It's important to see the blessings, as opposed to the restrictions. The phrase, 'I can't, I'm Mormon' should really be reworded to 'I can, but I won't, because I know what you don't' :) We need to stop fighting the Lord. It's important to have the right attitude when looking at life. If we approach life with 'a bunch of rules' then we will be miserable. It's guaranteed. The rules define life and help receive freedom. In the Strength of Youth Pamphlet, there are 111 blessings on 42 pages. Once we begin seeing the blessings, instead of restrictions, the commandments become sweet. The Strength of Youth principles are Eternal and freedom only comes from obedience through rules. I guess you could say that the 'truth will set you free.'"

I love this church. I love this gospel. I love everything about it.

I'm just so lucky :)

Well, I'm off to skype with one of my favorite people and then go to bed! Because this whole new sleep schedule is rough...photographic evidence of this morning's event can be found here. But trust me, it's not pretty.

-Ives