News Flash::::Time is Flying!

I cannot believe how quickly time is passing, I just realized that last week if my brother had not been getting married next month that I would be leaving in less than two weeks. At first I was a bit disappointed to be going a month later, but as time as come faster and closer I have become very thankful that Nate is getting married. Though I am still very much excited to be going, I have realized that I still have much to do before going and that I have not been very good at getting it done. Though I have finally started getting on top of things. This past week I ordered my tickets...$1232!!!! This was done a bit differently, I am used to most airlines only doing your tickets through e-mail, but Orbitz actually sent them, they arrived a couple of days after buying them. It makes me a bit nervous as they are very expensive pieces of paper, and I don't want to lose them. Oh well at least I am trying to be organized and have a whole binder of everything about my trip in it and have placed the tickets in their big envelope inside the binder. I will be flying from Portland to LA where I will have a lovely 12-hour layover!!! Where I will then proceed from LA to Taipei.. I had hoped to have a seat much like this one on the right, it comes with your own personal touch screen/tv and it has a nice comfy chair that turns into a bed with the touch of the button (as seen in the picture) and it was not all close to others seats, but sadly this beautiful sight belongs in 1st class and I do not have the funds to afford that, so I will continue to dream from afar, in my own comfort (cough, cough :D) of economy class, comfortably seated closely next to my neighbors.
Another exciting piece of news, I finally stopped procrastinating and sent off my visa application and so will hopefully have my visa within the next week to week-in-a-half. I know that I am cutting things very close, but I am hoping that 6 weeks will not be too close ;D!

And once again another piece of exciting news, a piece that I find much more exciting than me sending off my visa application....I have bought a new laptop and it should arrive tomorrow!!! It is a dell and is pink :D, Kyle says that the processor is faster than his (which I am going to assume is a good thing) I am quite excited about it and will be sure to write a post tomorrow night when I get off work with lots and lots of pictures of me with my new laptop (ok I suppose that nobody else will care but me, but I don't care :D). And the other exciting thing, after much searching and changing of my mind I have found my dress for my brothers wedding, I think that it is beautiful and absolutely LOVE IT!! Here is the websites (Chadwick's Clothing) picture, I will try and post some of me in it when I actually receive it, right now it is on backorder and will not be sent until the 27th of June (which I cannot believe how quickly that is coming). I can't believe that it is less than 6 weeks until my last day of work, Nate's and Sallee's wedding, and when I leave for Taiwan!! I will keep you posted on the next 6 weeks and beyond!! Signing off for now, this is *Betherd*

Life Updates: The Happiness Never Ends

Mom----Nothing new about my mom except that she is tired and I wish that I knew what I could do to help her.
Dad----Is HOME!!!
Ben/Sonia/family----Coming home to visit in June.. (YIPPEE)
Nathan----Is Engaged!!!! (Getting married in July)...and is going to come see me in Taiwan in October!!!
Libbey/Erick/family----Going to Peru (happy for them, but totally Jealous)
Joel/Beck----Going to Peru (once again happy for them, but totally Jealous)
Kyle----Working for the summer for Google and getting paid to learn and do what he likes to do.
Me!!!----Still going to Taiwan, but my boss is allowing me to come a month later at the end of July rather than the end of June so that I can be here for the wedding!!

So these are kind of random notes, but I like to make notes so that I will remember in time to come what was going on in my life and in the lives of those around me :D!

Lessons Learned From Women in the Scriptures, A Tribute on Mothers Day

So tomorrow is Mother's Day and I was asked to speak in Church on the different lessons that can be learned from the women in scriptures. The following is my talk, I find it kind of funny as I am posting it in my blog and I took out a lot of it from some other persons blog that I found.

This past year while at school my wards Relief Society was privileged to have Sherri Dew come and speak to us for Enrichment night. While talking to us she asked us to make a list of things that we think that we deal with that she could never understand, things that we think that her and her generation never had to deal with. While talking with her we realized that though she may not have dealt with the same things that we did, she had many similar experiences and that we could learn from her. I find that at times I forget that there are others that I can learn from too. In the scriptures there were many experiences that I can learn from, particularly those of the woman in the scriptures.

Ruth and Hannah are two scriptural women whose lives took an unexpected direction. Ruth did not expect that her husband would die, and Hannah did not expect to be unable to bear children after she was married. Both Ruth and Hannah had great faith. We are told in Hebrews 11 that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” These righteous women could not see what the future held; yet they were faithful to the Lord and to the covenants they made.

It is interesting to note that Hannah’s story begins with a cry of distress and sorrow to the Lord and ends with a song of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. We do not always have the option of choosing our situations in life, but we can respond with faith and trust in the Savior.

We are told in 1 Nephi 7:12 “that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore. Let us be faithful in him.” And then continuing on to verse 13 he says “and if it so be that we are faithful to him, we shall obtain the land of promise.”

Hannah and Ruth possessed not only great faith but also hope. We learn from Mormon in Moroni 7:42 that “if a man have faith he must have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.”

Ruth looked to the Lord with hope for her future. When she lost her husband, she experienced the feelings of loneliness that her mother-in-law, Naomi, had borne when her own husband had died. Ruth’s compassion and faithfulness to Naomi are demonstrated in some of the most beautiful words ever uttered: “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” Ruth loved the Lord, and her faith and hope in Him were strong. Neither she nor Hannah gave up their hope. Rather it sustained them in their trials.

When the life circumstances of these women were changed, they had hope that the Lord would provide guidance and strength. We too can hope that the Lord will provide guidance and strength.

These two women possessed not only the qualities of faith and hope but also devotion and sacrifice. These Christlike qualities are among the fruits of charity. Hannah and Ruth loved the Lord, and they loved His children. They were willing to put their own desires and futures aside to what was right. Each of these women made a commitment to the Lord based on her faith and her hope in His goodness and mercy.

Although Hannah consecrated her son, Samuel, to the Lord, she continued to demonstrate great love and dedication to him, as shown by her yearly visits to the temple: “His mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifices.”

In a small way, mothers all over the world feel what Hannah must have felt as they prepare their sons and daughters to serve missions. Hannah’s love of the Lord and love of her son are also poignant reminders of God’s love for his children.

Like Ruth and Hannah, all of us will experience adversity. We may not always understand the Lord’s design for our lives, but we must remember that we are never alone. He is ever with us, and He promises us, “Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.”

In the scriptures we find several examples of virtuous women.

Esther: She influenced a king and saved her people. We can tell Esther was a woman of faith and virtue by her actions. When called upon to save her people, she was obedient even though it could have cost her, her life. She moved out in faith and sought the Lord in prayer and fasting. Ester’s faith saved the Jewish people.

Mary: Mary, the mother of Jesus, was another virtuous woman. 1 Nephi 3:55 says she was “a virgin most beautiful and fair above all other virgins.” She trusted in God and was willing to act upon her faith. In Luke 1:38, we see her faith in action as she submits to the plan and purpose of God, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word.”

Mothers: In the Book of Mormon we find 2,000 virtuous women. They are nameless, known only as the mothers of the 2,000 stripling warriors. These women had built their lives upon the same foundation as the virtuous woman of Proverbs. Their sons show forth the influence of a virtuous mother.

At the end of the night Sister Dew came around and gave each one of us a hug. I do believe that if we use the opportunity to learn from the women in the scriptures they too will greet us with hugs in the kingdom of Heaven.

I am grateful for the pattern of faith, hope, and charity that is shown to me in the lives of righteous women in the scriptures. I am also grateful for my mother, who trusts in the Lord and leans not unto her own understanding. I believe that what was said of Ruth could be said of my mother and the many others who navigate life’s challenges with faith and trust in the Lord: “The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord…under whose wings thou art come to trust.”

The Neglecting of a Blog

So my friend Erin came home on Monday from going on a weekend trip and she was quite disappointed in me as I hadn't added any new posts in a week or so. I realized that I had been spending so much of my time on my other blog that I had indeed been neglecting (I have to tell you that it took me about 10 minutes to think of that word, it was on the tip of my tongue but I could not think of it) this blog. So Erin, I apologize and am now correcting it. The part that I found quite funny of this situation though was that I had been posting quite steadily and kind of got Erin started working on her own blog. Anyway I came into her room and she was so excited to show me the many different posts that she had done during the weekend while she was gone, I felt like laughing for at least 20 minutes.
Oh, I almost forgot to write about my amazing discovery (or at least what I think is an amazing discovery). One day when I was writing a post I was looking at the different buttons and noticed that there was one that said something about linking, I wondered what that meant so I checked it out. I thought of something cool that I could do with this linking thing, when I mention someone I could link their name to their facebook page, their blog, or something else that applies to them (though I probably won't use it as much on this blog as it can be viewed by others and I don't want to have others privacies being looked into). But here is an example.... Beth Mathews, now when you click on my name it will open up to my facebook page (*Note* Be sure to open the link in a new page or tab as it will open the link in the same page that you are on).
So that is all for now, I will most likely write something else later, and will try to be better at keeping up on what is going on in my life.

Fun in the Ward

Last night one of the funnest nights since I have been at college. It started when I decided that I wanted to play a game, Jamie and Shalynn wanted to play too but we weren't enough people to play. I heard a bunch of people upstairs and went up there and asked if they wanted to play with us too. They did so we grabbed the game and headed up to the second floor lobby and all sat down in a huge circle. It was so much fun we had Paul, Randy, Jeff, Ben, Allison, Cindy, Will, Shalynn, Rachel, Jamie, and I- we were playing Taboo (a fun game for those who have never played before) we were having fun playing for awhile and then we were all just sitting around talking. All of a sudden Kevin came upstairs with water guns and started shooting Bryan and Irene. I guess Kevin's roommates had thrown his underwear at them and they didn' t know where they had come from so they placed them in the trophy case in the boys hall. He wasn't very happy as the cleaning people had taken them. So what started as water guns turned into a whole blown water fight. It was so funny because it moved to the third floor and our whole group followed upstairs to see what was going to happen. At one point they had Kevin locked inside a kitchen for like 10 minutes, they were finally going to let him out and everyone was like "oh the intermission is over." Finally when I got tired of that I came back downstairs to my room and started to clean a little bit, as we had cleaning checks this afternoon. Jamie and I were playing a game for a little while and then Liz, Allison, Paige, and Fernanda came to invite whomever wanted to join them in playing night games. So at 1:30 we gathered in the lobby and headed towards the central building lawn. We got there and the group of guys was already there. There was probably like 25 and we first split up for cops and robbers and then we played sardines. I got home at 3:30am, I had so much fun, probably not the best time to come home. I was cold but I had been running around for 2 hours and I had, had so much fun. I can't wait until next Friday when we are going to play again, this time we are going to gather a little earlier at midnight. Probably this is not completely interesting to the rest of the people that may or may not read this, but reminder this is more for me than anyone else (at least for now!).

The First Step in Preparing to Go

So luckily I already have my passport or right now that would be the first thing that I would need to be doing in preparation to go to Taiwan. But since I already have that my next first step is applying for my visa. I have kind of been lazy and putting off going and doing it, but today I had an extra hour and a half so I took my paperwork for visa application and headed to the Kennedy Center for International Studies and went to talk to Mary Lou, whom Nancy the current intern had suggested to go talk to. As luck would have it, as I was heading that way I ran into Natalie in the bookstore, I asked her what she was doing and asked if she wanted to go with me. She grabbed lunch and then we headed over to the Kennedy, we went and tried talking with Mary Lou but found out that she is in Germany and would not be returning until Sunday. So we made an appointment to meet with her on Tuesday afternoon, we found out that it would be a lot better idea to make an appointment rather then just try and come in, especially as the semester is drawing to an end, people are all wanting to make flights to places. So I guess that now I don't feel so guilty, I have started the ball rolling and hopefully it will all go very quickly.

A Experimental Post

So, one major part of blogging that made me excited was that I am supposed to be able to add pictures in the middle of my text. So I guess that is why I am calling this my experimental post. I am learning new techniques and seeing what I can do. (Sorry for those who have added this to their blog reader)


I was looking through my pictures the other day as I was trying to find a cute older one of me for my facebook profile picture. I realized that I didn't have any on my computer of when I was very young (which made me sad), but I did remember that my family had this random yahoo group (which I doubt that anyone remembers is there) and that there had been a picture of my family. So I went there, in hopes that a) it would still be there, and b) that I would remember my password (I seem to have difficulties with that). Low and behold it was still there and I did remember my password. I quickly stole the picture (though I am not sure if it counts as stealing when it is your own family website and it is a picture of you, oh well). I really like this picture. It kind of made me sad and happy at the same time though, because I looked at it and started to notice all of the changes: first of all I'm not a baby anymore (though my mom might beg to differ, saying that I am still her baby girl), second our front door doesn't look like that anymore, and neither do most of us as the kids anymore. Ben is much older (I guess that I don't really need to add that on everyone, as we are all a lot older :D ) and is married with three kids, Libbey is married and has little Jacob, and Joel is married. It is kind of interesting, because as I was thinking of all the different changes and looking at the picture I wondered what mom and dad were thinking back then, if they had any guesses of what we would be like when we were older. I guess that this is kind of interesting reminiscing, kind just of talking not really knowing what I'm saying.