things i'm learning ab christmas :)

lately i've been thinking about what christmas really means to me. tonight at institute we talked a lot about the ways we felt about christmas as a little kid. i thought about it and i remember last year thinking maybe christmas was just more fun as a little kid! sad!


but this past week i have realized that i think christmas is just starting to mean more to me.


something i felt really strong tonight--so amazing--and maybe it's not super christmas related, but it definitely is christ related, i just realize i am so grateful for my trials. and i'm not just saying that! or trying to tell myself that when i don't really believe it. the reason i felt that, which i've felt it before, but tonight in particular is because i noticed that i often just feel this new convert feeling. i just feel like i'm glowing inside and out and i feel such a deep love for the savior and his atonement bc i've learned how much i needed it. anyway, i realized it is BECAUSE of my trials that i am constantly turned to the atonement and i love feeling it in my life and seeing it change me little by little. in other words, BUT FOR my trials (haha! i'm a law school nerd ;D) i would not be able to have that new convert feeling with bright eyes and filling full of truth and light.


so i basically wanted to say--i am grateful for my trials. they have turned me to the savior, to love and appreciate and to know him, and to know more fully myself. i know that he knows our most sincere and righteous desires and that he is doing everything he can for us (thanks catie ^^). 


and i just wanted to say i am so grateful for people in my life who are always teaching me things. thanks you! i learn so much from you! and you didn't even know it :)