Know Who You Are!

Hey everyone :)  I hope you all are doing splendidly :)

I'm having a blast on the mission! :) Provo is AWESOME!

Here are some of my highlights/funny moments from the past week:

>BLESSINGS: A wonderful, sweet, caring fellow citizen of Provo, came out of his way on a hot summer day (rhyming it up!) to bring my companion and I.........drum roll please.........FROSTY's! :) HAPPY DAY! :D

 

>SEAFOOD:  Ok ok ok...So just a tip for all of you!  I told a lovely, sweet sister in our ward who was making us dinner in a few days that I love love love seafood!!! Which I really really do.  I mean, I love scrimp and crab and fish, ya know all the seafood you could get at Red Lobster...pero...to her this actually means that I LOVE LOVE LOVE....octopus and squid and muscles and clams and oysters...you name it! Hahaha. So yeah...you can guess what I had a HUGE plateful for dinner... :) I had a fun time lol.  So take this from me...DO NOT tell a Hispanic that you love seafood.. it turns out a little fishy! Haha :)

>THE STRENGTH OF THE SPIRIT: We had a wonderful lesson with one of our investigators about the first part of the Restoration lesson.  My companion and I were able to testify about the power of the Atonement.  It was so perfect! Exactly what she needed that night.  She has been going through so many things in her life and the Spirit touched her heart SO MUCH when she learned that she can let go of ALL of her guilt and sins because Christ atoned for all of us.  She felt Heavenly Father's love and she felt how special she was to Him.  :) LOVED THIS! Then at our next lesson, she said that she had received a priesthood blessing from the bishop.  We were able to testify to her that the priesthood is restored on the earth again and that God knows her personally as His daughter :) She said that she feels and knows that this is true! :) Yay!
 

 >I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE: I had the amazing opportunity of going to the Provo temple with President and Sister McCune :)  It was such a wonderful experience to go to the temple -like always :) I felt the Spirit and I know with all my being that the temple is a house of the Lord.  I am so grateful for the knowledge that I will be with my family forever! :)

>KNOW WHO YOU ARE: This past Tuesday we had Zone conference (A meeting/training for all the missionaries in an area, with our wonderful mission president) and it was pretty much amazing!  We had a scripture study in the morning.  And I want to share something that I learned from it... :)
Our call as missionaries is to say nothing but repentance to the people.  And this really means: it's our call to say nothing but CHANGE to the people.  Change for the better, change to increase faith in Jesus Christ, change to become closer to our Heavenly Father.
Now, in order to change oneself, one must KNOW ONESELF.  We have to know who we are in order to know how to change ourselves in a positive direction. We all are children of our Heavenly Father.  We are all special and unique in His eyes.  We know are not perfect; we all make mistakes, BUT our mistakes do not define us. They should not change our identity.  Our actions are simply the things we do, NOT the makeup of who we are.  With this knowledge of who we are to our Heavenly Father, we now can know how we can change our lives to be better aligned with His will.  We are now able to see and recognize what things in our lives are not in accordance or agreement with our divine nature.  This acknowledgement of our divine nature opens the way for us to utilize the Savior's Atonement in our lives and allow Him to change our hearts and our souls.  Through using the Atonement every single day, we are changing, we are repenting, and we are progressing closer and closer to our Heavenly Father :)
Through Christ ALL things are possible, including us becoming clean and pure, despite the mistakes we have made and the ones we make everyday.  He knows we aren't perfect, He knows our thoughts, desires, EVERYTHING...and still, He never stops reaching out to us and inviting us to feel of His love.  He does all of this because He loves us, He knows who we are, what our divine nature is and who we can become.  He will never ever give up on us.  We now have to do our part and REACH out to Him.  We must TRUST IN HIM and RELY ON HIM because He is the one who will stick with us through it ALL and GUIDE us through anything that comes in our path.  Jesus Christ is the one who can truly CHANGE us and turn us into the person our Heavenly Father wants us to be :) 
>Isn't this so great? I love this! :)

Anywhoo... :) This was an AMAZING week! And because I am a VERY slow writer lol This "week" was actually last week...BUT the miracles are just piling on top on one another! And it is so hard to get all of them into writing! hehe :) I love it!

I know you all can find amazing experiences and blessings and miracles in your life EVERYDAY, if you simply look for them :) So start TODAY and look for blessings and miracles in your life and I can promise you, you will find so so so many!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so so so true! It has blessed my life many many times over and over again.  I am so grateful to my Savior and I know that He lives and that He loves me.  I know that if we rely on Him, He will never ever lead us astray, but lead us to everlasting happiness.
And I say all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen :)

Have a blessed week everyone! :)

Love, Hermana Derges

Out in Provo!

Hey everyone! I has officially been one week and a day in the field!! :)

Woot Woot!

I hope everyone is doing well and having a great week! 

Last Monday/Tuesday Morning my district said our goodbyes to our awesome MTC teachers, Hno. Roden and Hna. Taggart! I am going to miss them a bunch because they taught me SO MANY amazing things that I will make an impact on how I serve my mission. Thanks you two!



After our last class at the MTC on Tuesday, we packed up our bags and traveled the long hours and plane flights and bus rides and camel rides...ALL the way...to the Mission home in Provo!!! (hehehe) and met President and Sister McCune! They are so wonderful and so nice! We had an dinner and then an orientation and a devotional. I learned some really neat things! That we are now "facebook" and "blog" and "mormon.org" missionaries (as some of you have seen already!)  It's really neat how fast the work is moving forward! Eek! We are teaching someone this Saturday via FB and I am super pumped!

After our time at the Mission home, Hermana Sablan and I spent our last night as a companionship...sad day...But we had a fun last night!  We stayed with some members from the area :) They were super nice!

The next morning we all had breakfast at the stake center, where we had orientation and then a devotional from our President :) I learned that we need to leave our nets and follow the Savior and feed His sheep. (John 21:1-17)  The Lord needs all of us to go serve and teach our brothers and sisters and help them come unto the Lord.  We have to forget ourselves and go to work! :) 

After this, we met our TRAINERS!! :) Yay! My companion/trainer is Hermana Cordova! :) She is from California, really close to Disney Land. She is super nice and sweet! And SHE KNOWS ESPANOL! Haha :) So I can learn how to talk and understand the people we teach! We are in the Provo Slate Canyon area! Right at the bottom of the mountains! So pretty :)

My first week has been fun but hard...because I can BARELY understand anything my investigators and less actives are saying....jaja Which is, ya know, kind of difficult to teach....lol  But ALL IS WELL! :) I am learning slowly, but SURELY! :)

We have AMAZING people who we are teaching! I love it! They are all so sweet and we have a few who are really progressing really well.

We have gone tracking! Which it is quite funny running into members every couple doors that we knock..haha.  One door we knocked, a man answered and we asked him if he had ever met or heard of the missionaries before and he said "oh well...I was one for two years.." Haha. Yep. Members are EVERYWHERE! So great! :)  They help a ton in the work out here!

Another great thing that we do in this area and take shifts at the Provo City Center Temple booth! :) We are there for a couple hours a couple times a week.  We tell people what happened to the tabernacle and what it is being built into right now! We get to share this lovely message about Temples and the importance of them in our lives! :)  I love the Temple! And I love that we are so fortunate to be able to go two times a month! I AM SO EXCITED TO GO! :) I haven't been in a while because the Provo Temple has been closed for cleaning...so as you can tell I am pumped!

I love this gospel and I am so lucky and fortunate to be able to here and teach the great people of Provo, Utah.  I know that Heavenly Father has lifted me up and has prepared me for my mission.  I know that I can do the Lord's work with and ONLY with His help.  I can do nothing with out Him and without the spirit in my life.  As I have been striving to have the spirit with me and rely on Him and FORGET myself, I have seen many special things happen :) I know that my Redeemer lives and that His Atonement is real.  This is why I love Alma 7:11-13!  I know I mentioned this last week, but I just love it so much.  Christ died so that He could Atone for not only our sins, but ALSO for every little sorrow, emotion, pain, sickness, EVERYTHING, so that He would know to how to HELP US with ANYTHING we are going through.  He is there through it all.  TRUST and RELY on Him.  He loves you and wants you to come unto Him.

I have a wonderful testimony of these things because I have seen the work of my Savior in my life every single day.  If you try and look for how the Savior is working in your own lives, I can promise you that you will see in countless ways that He is blessing you.

Count your many blessings...name them one by one...  :)

I hope you all take care and have a wonderful day!

Thank you for all of your love and support!
Love, Hermana Derges :)

And it Ended with a Bang!

Wow! This week was fantastic! My last week en el CCM ended with a bang for sure!! :) Oooh yeah!

One of my last classes with one of my amazing teachers, Hermana Taggart, I learned that i have POWER in my calling! I am a representative of Jesus Christ! In our mission conference I learned that I need to think, act, and DO as the Savior would if he were in my shoes right now in Provo, Utah. This really made me think, I want to be able to see others the way Christ and Heavenly Father see them as well! This is so important, especially as a missionary but also as a member of the church. This is His church and His truth and I have a special calling to spread His word to the world. There was a sweet sister who sang a solo in our departing devotional entitled, "I Will Not Be Still" which a part of the chorus goes like this: "How can I keep this truth to myself, when I could lift somebody else". I LOVE THIS! I want to lift others through teaching them the light and love of the gospel and of Jesus Christ! Why wouldn't I want to share this amazing truth? EVERYONE deserves to know that God loves them and Christ sacrificed Himself to provide a way for us to not only live with Heavenly Father again, but to help us in the here and now! Go and read Alma 7:11-13! :) I love these scriptures! Christ knows how to help us and knows how to lift us up to higher heights! :) Go share this wonderful truth with those around you! Don't keep it to yourself! :) I know that you will be blessed by doing this! The spirit will guide you to know what to say. :) Sunday night, after all of the amazing devotionals throughout the day, we watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration :) I love this movie! After it was over I was just so pumped to go out and teach others about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and about the restored gospel!

The spirit is so so so strong here en el CCM! I am super sad to leave but so EXCITED to go into my field! I can't believe I leave tomorrow afternoon :) My mission president is actually coming to pick us up! hehe :) Our district sang the EFY medley in Spanish at our sacrament meeting :) and I forgot to mention that last week, I got to play my flute with Hermana Garces on the violin and Elder Craven playing the piano; we played "As I have Loved You". So much fun to play and sing such lovely spiritual music! My Spanish, I feel, is pretty good...this feeling might change once I actually go into my field...lol PERO, esta bien! All is well :)

Sale Vale everyone, I hope you all have a WONDERFUL week!
I love you all!!

Love,
Hermana Derges :)

The view from my classroom! It's the "Y"


Hermana Taggart!


Our zone singing "Para Siempre Dios este con vos" (God Be With You Til We Meet Again)


Hermana Sablan and I with MTC President and Sister Nally


Our lovely zone with the amazing Sister and Brother Price


Look who it is! Andrew!!

I am Representing the Lord Jesus Christ

Hola everyone!! :)

I hope everyone has been having a great week! :) And thank you for all of your emails and letters!

I was able to be a host for new missionaries this past Wednesday! :) I saw Andrew! He pulled up right in front of me!!! So neat to see a familiar face! I hosted two new sisters! One was going to Philedelphia and the other one was going to Tahiti speaking French and Tahitian! Crazy! And I think learning Spanish is hard at times lol. I am sooooo thankful that I am NOT learning a harder language like Chinese or Finnish lol. My spanish is coming along wonderfully! :) I didn't have any silly mess ups this week! YAY. Very successful week haha.

TIME is flyyyyyyyyyyinnn!!! I received my travel plans!!! I leave the MTC next Tuesday (4th)! WAHOOOO! :) And like most of you have guessed the itinerary was two sentences! :) haha I'm going down the street ya'll! :) I am so excited to get out into the field!! :) but I also love my little safety bubble at the MTC. Hehe. I am learning so much here!!! I am ready to start teaching real people out in Utah who haven't heard or accepted the gospel! :)

Anywhoo....I loved this past week! I learned so many spiritual lessons! Like: I need to BE MYSELF-be cheerful! And BE BOLD but not overbearing :) I learned an analogy I was taught about being a chosen generation: If you filled two basketball stadiums full of people, and an angel came around to pick ONE person to come to the earth in these last days. Well, the angel came and chose you and me! Out of 200,000 people the angel chose you to come to the earth! Now, think about it, are you living up to their expectations? Or better yet, are you living up to the Lord's expectations for you? Are you becoming who He expects and wants and created you to be?

I LOVED this :) I am trying to do my best to fill the role Heavenly Father has called me to be. :) And you all can too!

I love you all! I know this gospel is true!! :) Jesus Christ lives and through Him you can be forgiven of your sins! Just pray and have faith and TRUST in him!

Chao Chao!! :)
Love, Hna. Derges! :)


All the sisters in our zone!

Spiritually Jammed Packed!

Hola World! :)

This week has been great and so jammed packed with spiritual experiences! It started on Monday when I had lost my voice! And I was SO BUMMED because I really wanted to sing at Tuesday Night's devotional, esp. because it was going to be broadcasted to the MTC's around the world. So Monday night my comp and I say our nightly companion prayer and she asked that my voice would return and low and behold....it did!!! Yay! So i was able to sing for President Hinckley's son Robert Hinckley! :) Miracles all around! :) At the devotional, I learned so many great things for us to do and not do on our missions. One thing that really stood out to me was that we should not be ashamed of our testimonies and we NEED to be CONVERTED to the gospel and to the Lord! Missions are super hard (but worth it all the way!) Pero, when you are converted unto the Lord, when the hard trials and hard times come, it will be WAY easier to face them :) So....my advice to all of you...GO BUILD UP YOUR TESTIMONY AND THEN BE CONVERTED TO THE LORD :) Okey dokie???



Another awesome thing that happened this week was in our Relief Society meeting. I learned that we need to have faith in EVERY footstep that we take! Even though our faith will be tried a lot throughout our lives, if we keep away from our temptations, strive to be obedient always, and always remember to pray always, then our faith will be STRENGTHENED so so much and we will grow closer to the Lord! :)



Last thing! From Elder Bednar's talk, Characters of Christ (That I had the amazing privilege to watch again last night) I learned once again that we need to TURN away from the natural man and repent and "re" turn to God. Turning to God and out to others in compassion, love and service is following what Christ did throughout His life. His WHOLE character was looking to others and serving them with love. Even when He was persecuted, betrayed, and when he was suffering for our sins in the garden and on the cross, he was turning out from himself and looking to others and caring for them. WOW! I love the Savior so so much and I know that HE LIVES! :) Let us follow the Lord's example and not think about ourselves but lose ourselves in serving Him and others with LOVE. I know we will be blessed for making this change in our lives! I am striving to do it more and more in mine and I can see it change me :) The GOSPEL IS TRUE and it TRUELY does bless lives!! :)

My District!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!! I love and miss you all!
Love, Hermana Derges :)

"Yo Soy Dios" :) Jaja

The Beautiful Provo Temple!


Our pretty door :)

"What-e'er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part" :)

Hola everyone!! I hope everyone's week has been awesome!!

FIRST OF ALL, I want to give a BIG shout out to my best friend in the entire world, Christen...SHE IS ENGAGED YA'LL! :) Oh my goodness! I am SO excited for her! Christen! You better be photoshopping me into your wedding pics for sure! haha :) I love you!

Second of all, my week has been splendid! :) Hermana Sablan and I have 2 new investigators, Belgica and Jime! They are so neat! And it has been fun to teach them in Spanish. Our three lessons with them this past week have been great! We have taught 10 lessons so far in Spanish :) Crazy, huh?? Plus! We are barely using notes anymore! We have been trying to just follow the spirit to teach to their needs and the Spanish words come just when we need them to! :) It's crazy how much we are learning in el CCM! :) This past week I have memorized the 1st vision, baptism commitment, and teaching someone how to pray in espanol! :) Sweetness! I owe all of this to the Lord, He certainly helps out his servants accomplish all that He has asked them to do! :)

In el CCm, we have the blessed opportunity of teaching real people (I say this because our investigators, mentioned above, are actually our teachers acting out an investigator) lol and helping them in their lives! All kinds of people come just to be taught by the missionaries. WE taught a couple about faith and how we all need to strengthen our faith and hope in our Savior Jesus Christ! It was a super neat experience! :)

Last thing! Yesterday, (Sunday, which is the best day next to P-day) was super awesome! The sisters were taught in the Relief Society that we should NEVER be discouraged as missionaries because whatever our efforts produce, we will ALWAYS be planting seeds in others' hearts! Whether we are the ones planting or gathering in the produce, we are ALL essential in the Lord's work! And last night in the devotional, I learned that what we do or say as missionaries is definitely not the most essential part in helping others come unto Christ. The most important part is that the spirit needs to be there to touch the hearts of our investigators to allow them to feel the truth of our words and the love that Heavenly Father has for them!

:) I am going to start a line of the week, bc something funny is ALWAYS happening!

(Bearing our testimonies during our lesson with Jaime)
-Hna. Sablan: "Yo soy Dios..."
-Me: (While trying not to giggle..but failing lol) "Yo se que Dios??"
-Hermana Sablan: "Oh yeah oh yeah...Yo se que Dios..."
Hahaha oh yeah my companion is God, and I am lucky enough to be her comp. lol :)

Love you all!!
Love, Hermana Derges

FIREWORKS!

Hola everyone! :)

I hope everyone has had a great week! :) I have had a roller coaster but everything is going great :) My spanish is coming along great and i have been learning a TON! :) MY comp and I have taught 5 lessons in Spanish thus far and we have done splendidly lol even though it has been stressful to do it..it has been quite an adventure. We taught an "investigator" (teacher actor) Mateo and during our lessons He committed to be baptized and to read and pray to know that if the BOM is true (it think we all know what answer he got :) and to pray to ask for forgiveness of his sins! He said that we did a great job at making him feel our love and God's love :) Happy happy day! :)

Oh btw..the talk I mentioned last week by Elder Bednar is called, Characters of Christ :) (GO READ/LISTEN TO IT! :)

July 4th was really really neat! First of all, I hope you all had a great 4th! I did :) In the evening we had a devotional about our founding fathers and then we watched The 17 miracles movie til about 10pm :) it was so great! I learned a lot about the Mormon pioneers and I am so thankful for them and their sacrifice. Then they gave us ice cream and we got to watch the fireworks that were shot off from the BYU stadium! :) Such a nice treat!!! Here are some pics!

Las Hermanas :)

Waiting for the Fireworks at 10:20 :)




FIREWORKS!!!

Plus we got to go to bed at 11:30..but we still had to wake up at 6:30...yuck lol

Last thing :) A district from our zone left today and I was so sad...They were AMAZING! Now we are the only four sisters in our zone...At our testimony meeting, Hermana Barlow sang a song, that she wrote, while playing it on the piano. It is called, Two Years by Carli Barlow :) (You can listen to it on Itunes and i think youtube) SO PRETTY! It helped me remember why I am on my mission :) I want to pay the Lord back everything He has done for me by going out to serve Him for 18 months. Like in the song, 18 months (or Two years like it is in the song) is not a long time in comparison to eternity :)


My District :)


The sisters in our zone :)

I know that this gospel is TRUE! You can know it too! The Lord loves you all and is watching over you ;) Believe and trust in Him

Love you all!
Love, Hermana Derges

It's Official!

I am now a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

Yay! So Here is my first blog post from within the CCM! (MTC en espanol!) :)

But first of all! Just so you all know my P-day is on Mondays! So....WRITE ME! :) :) :) por favor? lol Even if it is just to say hi! I would absolutely love it! :) Also I believe I told you all wrong..on DearElder.com click the MTC provo mission! :) thanks everyone!

So here is an update of my first couple days here! The first day was kind of crazy and overwhelming but it was a fun first day! 

Here is my companera! :) Her name is Hermana Sablan and she is from Seattle! She is so sweet! :)

And here is my district! All of the hermanas and one elder are going to Provo and the other three are going to Texas!

The first night we were actually put in a lesson where we taught investigators in English (thank goodness!)

On Thursday, my comp and I were walking past some elders and they said Konichiwa to us and we had no idea what to say back lol after an awkward pause we finally said hola! then quickly giggled and walked away! good times lol! Also we met our teachers today ! They are so cool! But they only speak spanish to us! lol

We taught our first investigator in only Spanish on Thursday! Crazy pressure! But we got his phone number and he committed to reading the BOM and meeting with us again! :) Then at the next lesson I accidentally asked if he had an esposo...which is husband in spanish lol... :) I QUICKLY corrected myself and said esposa lol :) We taught him the first lesson and he committed to reading and praying if the BOM was true and to coming to church the next day! :) Awesome! haha! Great day!

We met our Branch presidency and they are so sweet and nice! :)

A funny thing that happened in the middle of class on Friday to get our blood flowing from being in class for 6 hours... we sang "head, shoulders, knees, and toes...en espanol with all the motions!!! :) SO FUNNY! We were just cracking up the whole time!

Sunday has been my favorite day thus far! En la manana, the sisters watched Music and the Spoken ward and went to Relief Society! I learned that we need to FULLY IMMERSE ourselves in the gospel and we need to not only know how the spirit feels to us but how he TALKS to us as well :) Then on to Sacrament meeting where two people get picked to speak randomly...(its kinda feels like the hunger games lol) Then we walked around the temple! So amazing! Unfortunately the temple is closed until August!

Anyway Then in the evening, we listened to a talk by Elder David A Bednar on turning outward towards others like Christ did instead of looking inwards...BEST TALK EVER! Don't be a cookie monster lol

That is all for now, I love you all! The gospel is TRUE!!

Love, Hermana Derges

Utah, Here I Come!

Alriiiiiiiiiiiighty my friends, I am being set apart in 1 1/2 hours to be a MISSIONARY for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!!

I am so excited!!!! and I am also feeling kinda nervous...but I hear that is normal?? hehe 

Then tomorrow, my mom, dad and I leave at 6:40 AM to fly to Salt Lake City :) oooo yeah..not a huge fan of the flight time though...

We will be spending time with my two sisters' families who live out there ;) I can't wait because I haven't seen them in years!! And I am very grateful for their hospitality :)

Then, it's off to the MTC for me! Yay!

...........................................................................................................................................................

So...Here is how my blog is going to work out for my mission:  My lovely sisters, Brandi and Jaime, will be posting updates each week for me.  (Thank you two so SO MUCH for doing this for me btw) :) 
And so by me keeping this mission blog, I can keep an online journal of what experiences I have had over my mission for when I come home to look back and cherish.  I also, wish to share my experiences with all of you :)

 So to end my last blog post before I enter the MTC, I just would love to share my testimony of this glorious gospel.  It's amazing the path I have taken to get to where I am now and I know, I could not have done it without the Lord's help. I don't know why the Lord has called me to serve in Provo or to speak Spanish, but I am going to try and work my hardest and lose myself in the work for Him because He has called me to His work.  I have truly grown so much in the gospel these past several months.  I have a strong testimony that my Savior loves me and knows how to help me become closer to my Heavenly Father.  I know the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and that it did happen and that by applying it in our lives we can become clean and pure.  I know that the gospel brings peace and happiness to all of those who embrace into their lives.  I know Heavenly Father answers prayers because He has answered mine many times.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that by studying and pondering its teachings we can become more like our Savior.  I am so thankful for the gospel and how much it has blessed my life, and continues to bless my life.  I can't wait to embark on this amazing journey and to be a representative of Jesus Christ.  The gospel is true, and I cannot wait to share this wonderful message with others. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!
Love, Hermana Derges :)

It's Down to One Week!

Oh my goodness time is flying by! Almost 3 months ago was when I received my mission call and now I am entering the MTC in 7 days!! craziness!

so......since I haven't posted anything between then and now...I'll give ya a little update on what has been going on in my life :)

~After I received my call, all I could think about is my mission and getting ready for it...there was (and still is) a lot to do! but I think I have been handling quite well... (or at least I hope so!) ...haha :)

~I have gone through the temple to receive my endowments!

 The fam and I went to the Kansas City Temple on May 25th!  BEST DAY EVER!

I love the temple and it strengthened my testimony of the gospel so so so much!  I know now more than ever that I am a daughter of God and that He loves me. I know my Savior lives and that I can be the person Heavenly Father wants me to be if I rely on Him and His Son and use the Atonement more fully in my life :)

I was so excited that my family could come with me and support me on this wonderful day! (Just a few because someone had to watch all of my crazy nieces and nephews, right?)

 

The weekend we spent in KC was a blast and here's a picture to prove it :)

 ...an awesome picture of my family :) and I have to say it describes us prettttty wellllll....

~I finished up my junior year at Oklahoma State! I am almost done!! Yay :)  I'll be coming back after my mission to finish up my degree in Human Development and Family Science with an option in Early Childhood so I can start teaching the kiddos! Hopefully my mission will prepare me for that in a way??? ...maybe?? lol

~I graduated from Institute!! :) I am very happy that I was able to go and learn more about the gospel and have that wonderful break between the craziness that school and work can bring :) It has definitely been a testimony builder...so for those of you out there who haven't been going, go go GO! :) I promise it will bring blessings into your life because I have seen it a number of times in mine.

~I had to say goodbye to all of my amazing friends and good ol' Stillwater for 18 months...and head home to Missouri for the final countdown

 The small summer group :) at my last FHE... (which was pretty neat btw, we learned how to fence!!)

 My amazing singles ward friends have helped me become a happier and better person :) And I am going to miss you all very very very much!

 I also want to give a shout out to this lovely bunch :) That day at Frontier City was such a blast! You all have been so good to me and you all have supported me every step of the way! Thank you all very much for how you have blessed my life :)

  And of course I could not leave out these two lovely people in my life :) These two are simple the greatest!!!

Christen, you have been the greatest friend to me :) We have had so much fun together and I'm so sad to leave you!!! BUT I am so excited for what life brings you in the next 18 months! You better keep me updated missy! lol...and David, you are simply amazing :)  Thank you so much for all of your support of me going on a mission.  I could not have made it this far without you!  Keep being as sweet and as wonderful as you are :)

Thank you two for being so good to me! I will miss and I love you both soooooooooooooo much!

..........That's basically it on the update...plus I kinda need to go to bed, haha.  The waking up at 6:30 and lights out at 10:30 is going to throw me for a loop for a bit, but I will get the hang of it! Hehehe

Anywhooo.... Life is good. SO good! :)  Now, I am off to be set apart tomorrow! Then flying out to Utah on Friday and bam ba da boom...the MTC on Wednesday!! Yay :)

So goodnight everyone! Sweeeeeeet Dreams!

~Love, Hermana Derges :)