To DC and Beyond!!

So much has happened and changed as I've come home from Jordan last Christmas, completed my last semester at BYU, and moved to DC for internships and grad school. I care about all of you and want to share what's been going on. Believe it or not, the following are abridged highlights and I wrote them in short chunks so you can read and leave for later as much as you like. I'd love to talk to any of ya'll about questions you have, so call or leave comments!:)

Me, Esther and Griffin Olsen, and Will Hussman. The boys were two of our TAs on the study abroad and all three plus our third TA are doing CASA, the best Arabic study abroad available to English speakers, that's what I'm told at least :)

This is Julia, my old boss at the MTC. She is one of a kind and so inspirational. 

-19-20 April – Graduation: Mom, Dad and Andrew came and it was great hanging out with them, I felt joyful camaraderie lining up with my friends from the Arabic study abroad, some of whom are now in Egypt with CASA, and how interesting to be basically done.

-21 April – Marathon and visiting Tyler and Casey for Conner's baby blessing: I ran it injured and came in at 3:55, I look how I felt, it was relaxing to hang at Tyler and Casey's house, Taigan is a ball of energy and loud noises :) and Tyler and Casey have made a great home together.

-May – MTC: I have loved working at the Missionary Training Center. My missionaries reminded me a lot, either directly or by just being them, that it is the best job ever. This is my last district. I love the missionaries so much and have the habit of EEEEK!-ing every time I see a pair on the street and have a huge desire to reach out and help them! :) I know the message they share is true and I am humbled by their selfless sacrifice to share it. I've been trying to help them everyday. My boss, who also was a missionary with me in the mission I served in, let me stay at the MTC indefinitely until I heard about a job in DC. She is so nice and because of that, I got to work through Friday and start work in DC on Tuesday. It'll be hard to beat going into a work everyday where you get to teach and bear testimony to called servants of God who want to learn and serve. It rejuvenated me everyday. I'm so grateful I got to work with those missionaries and all my coworkers too! That was one of the best and most instructive experiences of my life. It'll follow me forever.

-22 May – Moving to DC: I got accepted to a full-time, unpaid internship with the State Department and wanted to be able to at least pay for living expenses while working this summer, but didn't know how. I found out how when I called my old roommate and good friend, Rachel Ebeling. She was leaving her paid, part-time internship at Diplomatic Language Services (DLS), where she helped with editing the English portions of language curriculums prepared for the special forces. I applied, they accepted me, their schedule conflicted with the schedule the State Dept had for me, I emailed and emailed and emailed, finally, my State Dept. boss got back to me and kindly consented, “We can work around your schedule.” I told DLS, they said, “Can you be here next week?” The next day I had my ticket and the next week I was in DC sleeping on Rachel's couch!

 -25-27 May Memorial Day Weekend – NYC with Alison and Abby: Alison, a friend from Provo, decided on a whim to join me on my trip back East! We needed a place to say the first weekend, Memorial Day, and thought, “Why not stay with Abby in New York?” One bus ride later, Abs and I were reunited again! Abby tried to get me to kiss one of the many Navy guys in town for Fleet Week, Alison met a boy she likes, we walked everywhere in the rain and heat and loved it, talked a ton, and I got to see Lizzie pregnant. I love visiting NY because Abby is there. :)

-7-9 June – STERLING AND KIERSTIN AND FAMILY!! in Charlotte, NC: Sterling and Kierstin moved from CT to NC and the plan was for me to watch their three CUTE kids while they looked for a house. When I got there, they had just closed on a house, so we got to spend lots of time together, going to the NC museum, seeing their house and Mesha's future school, and swimming. I let Mesha and Griffin climb me like squirrels climb trees and Anya was as cute as (and resembling) a cabbage patch kid. I also really enjoyed just relaxing and talking with Ster and Kier. I also got to see Ameila Guffey, a sister from my MTC district and mission. That was a laugh filled night :)

Me and Amelia (Sister Guffey) crossing the state line into South Carolina and adding another state to my list.

-10 June – The Greyhound bus from Richmond to DC: I started eavesdropping on a marine and a sailor while waiting in line to board the third leg of my trip home from NC. I was eavesdropping because the marine was talking about his experiences in Afghanistan and I love hearing war stories. The marine's name is Nathan White and he's from Las Vegas. He sat next to me on the bus, I listened all about Afghanistan, he invited me to do something that day, I said I'm busy and with a lot of desire to invite and not much thinking, invited him quite fluidly to church that day. He came! All three hours, met the bishop, mission president, and missionaries, commented in both Sunday School and Priesthood. He had apparently been seeking to know more about God. He met with the missionaries that week and continues to investigate. I loved my time in Utah and my entire college and mission experience, but after seven years in Mormontah-o, I was so excited to be in a place without a majority church population and have more friends outside the church and more opportunities to share this gospel that's blessed my life so much.

A work party for a departing coworker. Great food and great people!

-Recently – at work at FSI: Getting to know my friends at work, I'm struck with oh how much the world needs the gospel. I've taken it's blessings as natural and for granted.

-Now – WORK IS SO COOL: I work two jobs, 50 hours/week, and take one class two nights a week for 3 hours at a time. Within the State Dept, I work at their school, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) with the Near East/North Africa section. This means that when we're not helping prepare syllabi for the classes our boss teaches, we are free to attend any class, which are all geared to train diplomats for their posts, and I usually attend classes for those going to the Middle East...do you understand how awesome that is for me?? I get to attend INTERESTING classes for free! It's learning without homework!!! It is wonderful. Even if I'm not listening to the authors of some of the coolest readings I had at BYU learning about Iraqi Insurgency and U.S. Counterinsurgency, the random people I meet everyday is just so stimulating in concert with the rest of my surroundings. Example: on the shuttle from Main State to FSI, I met a friendly army officer who works on Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan and Iraq. I peppered this friendly soldier with questions about what he's found that works and what're the biggest obstacles in getting PRT's to work. I then go to DLS where my editing work let's me listen to the news all day and hear about the environment in Afghanistan these PRTs are being implemented in, and then at night I go to my Peace Strategy and Conflict Resolution class and place this real time project in the context of past peace-making attempts and current theories. I LOVE this atmosphere and what I get to do here in DC!

-23 June – A Piece of Moment: Saturday, on a warm, slightly humid DC night, I was walking around the Washington monument at twilight, listening to a marine (Nathan) talk about how he deals with war, while glimpsing out of the corner of my eye a teenager getting her picture taken with a rainbow, gay-pride flag.... That's the context I live in! It's exciting and challenging and dynamic and always updating and changing. It's full of a dynamic mixture of unresolved social issues, real time politics that can be influenced, and war and current events, plus culture (I've been speaking Spanish everyday this week at work). It reminds me of the movie Forrest Gump where the viewer is plunged into the major social and political issues of the day through the music and characters' lives, however, this is the context of the 2010s and I get to live in it and feel like it's so accessible. I love it here!

I hope you all are doing fantastic and I'll start calling ya'll and seeing how you're doing. Thank you for all your love and for keeping me in touch with you and you're families. I LOVE YOU ALL!!! MWAH MWAH :)