It's Been a Great Week

It all started with an awesome Stake Conference in which Pres. Uchtdorf urged us to read and study the Preach My Gospel manual. I've heard that many times before, but for some reason I felt a really strong impression to follow his counsel this time. I started Sunday afternoon and have continued through the week, journaling as I go and really taking every sentence to heart. I'm not very far into the manual, but I've already had so many answers and insights that it's really been amazing. My testimony has certainly been strengthened in that I know that the leaders of the church give us the things that we need to hear in order to improve our lives and draw closer to the Lord. Both President Uchtdorf and Elder Cook gave amazing talks that struck many chords with me and have increased my desire to do good.

This week was also great because the kids and I got to go to the Dallas Children's Museum for the first time. And while there were definitely way too many people there and I almost lost Steven at one point, it was a neat experience. They absolutely LOVED the dinosaur dig and the water table. It was a great place to have fun and learn at the same time.

Yet another reason why this week has been good is because I actually stuck to my commitment to work out 4 days this week. I've been trying to increase from 3 to 5 workouts for awhile and it just hasn't been happening. So I set a goal to work out 4 times and I achieved it! I've started a running program for beginners (I've always hated running) that should allow me to work up slowly to being able to run 3 miles in two months time. I tried it for the first time on Friday and, while my mind was telling me that I hated it, my body sure felt great all day. I also had an AMAZING upper body workout on Thursday with my sister involving pyramid training (I LOVE weights) and man am I sore!!! Still!!! But at the same time, I feel stronger already and my body just feels good. "It hurts so good!" The weight loss is going great; I'm approaching the 25 lb. mark, so that's definitely something to be happy about. I just have to share this because I find it really interesting. John and I broke down tonight and got burgers and fries for dinner from Mooyah Burgers. They were great, but I'm feeling so sick. I've been eating SO healthy for the last few months that I could just feel the grease going down and sitting in my stomach. I know it sounds gross, but I just find it amazing that I'm that in tune with my body now. Who'da thunk!?!

Wednesday was another great day. I worked on Young Women stuff from 4:00 until I had to leave for mutual that night and had a great "Getting to Know You" night with my Beehives. I've been praying to be able to develop stronger relationships with the girls in my class (they all have very "unique" personalities that can make it hard) alot lately and I feel like Wednesday was a great step in the right direction. I also had the opportunity to teach a class on integrity this afternoon for a Personal Progress Roundtable and I really enjoyed preparing for it. The value experiences that I chose to teach involved ALOT of scripture study and it was inspiring to read about all of these characters in the scriptures who demonstrated unwavering integrity in the face of temptation (i.e. Esther, Daniel, Paul, Joseph Smith, etc.) The class went over really well and I was able to meet girls from other wards in our stake.

...A great week...