Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  Before I go get all sappy on you, I wanted to share some cheesy photos.  I am not really into the whole commercialism of Easter, but we did get some chocolate bunnies and a bag of candy & eggs (thanks to my cute mom) to celebrate the holiday.

We went to stake conference and listened to Danny’s sister give the most beautiful talk on the Atonement.  She did a fantastic job and brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion.  Elder Worthin from the 70 was also there.  He also gave an amazing talk on the Savior.  It was so nice to be in that meeting really focusing on the Savior especially today when we celebrate His resurrection.  I just want to share some thoughts about the Savior that have really touched my life. 

The prophet Joseph Smith said: “And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father.”

In his talk “None Were with Him” Elder Holland so eloquently said:
Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are. Truly the Redeemer of us all said: “I will not leave you comfortless: [My Father and] I will come to you [and abide with you].”

My other plea at Easter time is that these scenes of Christ’s lonely sacrifice, laced with moments of denial and abandonment and, at least once, outright betrayal, must never be reenacted by us. He has walked alone once. Now, may I ask that never again will He have to confront sin without our aid and assistance, that never again will He find only unresponsive onlookers when He sees you and me along His Via Dolorosa in our present day. As we approach this holy week—Passover Thursday with its Paschal Lamb, atoning Friday with its cross, Resurrection Sunday with its empty tomb—may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,” for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
[Click here to read his whole talk]

And President Monson said: “My beloved brothers and sisters, in our hour of deepest sorrow, we can receive profound peace from the words of the angel that first Easter morning: “He is not here: for he is risen.”
[Click here to read his whole talk]

How grateful I am for the gospel in my life and for the knowledge that the Savior IS risen.  What a beautiful blessing and comfort in our life!

And...We're BACK

     To the land of the free, home of the brave. It always surprises me how nice it is to come back to America even after the most amazing of experiences abroad. There is just no place quite like it. We had an amazing time in Bali though. We saw some stuff we’ve never seen before, did things we’ve never done before, and went to a place we had never been to before. It was so fun to just be able to spend some time together, no work, no phone, no internet, no TV, no anything to distract us.

     The weather in Bali was amazing – about 80-85 every day. We only had one day of overcast, and it wasn’t our beach day, so it was perfect. We arrived late, and when we got to our hotel, to our surprise it looked NOTHING like the pictures on the internet. There were lizards in the room, AND in the bed. The bathroom was quite possibly carrying diseases, and our air conditioner didn’t work. I know that sounds totally spoiled, but when you are going from snowy cold weather, to HOT & humid, it was quite a shock. We could barely breathe it was so muggy in our room. But we had been traveling for about 20 hours, and were exhausted, so we showered in our shoes, put towels down on the bed (luckily we had brought our own) and crashed. We both vowed we would find another hotel in the morning, and we did. We just went walking around down the boardwalk of the beach, and found a really nice hotel right on the beach. The price was fairly comparable to what we were already paying for the crap hole so we booked it, and we were SOO glad we did. It was totally worth the little bit extra that we paid. We were right on the beach, and the grounds were BEAUTIFUL.

       Our first day was our beach/relax/get used to the time difference day. We just spent it walking around the city, window shopping, looking for a hotel, booking all of our other activities, at the beach, and at the pool. It was so nice. We ate dinner right on the beach, watching the sunset over the ocean. It was such a relaxing day and a great way to start off the vacation.

   We hired a driver for the next day, because the roads are absolutely INSANE. There are no stop signs, or traffic lights, they drive on the opposite side of the road, and there is a lot of traffic. We didn’t want to mess with it, and with getting lost, so we just hired someone to take us everywhere we wanted to go. It was very nice. We went to a little town called Ubud where we saw the Mandala Wisata Wenara Wana Monkey Sanctuary. It was so cool. We were the only two people there, so we got a lot of attention from the guides and from the monkeys. They climbed on us, and we held them, and fed them. It was so much fun. They would just grab your clothes and climb up your body and sit on your hand, or on your shoulder. The sanctuary is located in the middle of a forest. Some of the trees they said are 500 + years old. There is also a sacred Hindu temple there where they hold ceremonies that kind of worship the monkeys. The type of Hinduism they practice in Bali is different from many other places; it combines Animism, Ancestral worship, Buddhism, and Hinduism. We didn’t see the ceremony, but the guides told us about it.

       Next we were off to ride the elephants. It was a little pricier than we expected, but we thought it was worth it, because when else are we ever going to have the option to ride an elephant? Our elephants name was Donny. He was 7 years old, and the biggest, tallest elephant at the park. We got to ride him together which was fun. We went for about a half hour on a little trek through the jungle.

      We went to see the rice terraces & volcano after that. The rice terraces are pretty much everywhere, but there were a few really big ones that we wanted to see. They were amazing. The people obviously don’t have tools like we do here, and they pretty much create these with a shovel, and their hands. It is truly amazing.

      The next day we went on a little sail boat with 2 other couples over to Lembongan Island. It was really fun. The other couples were quite friendly, one from London, one form Australia, and we had a good time getting to know each other as well as each other’s cultures and differences. Once we got to the island, we got to snorkel, which was beautiful, go on a ride in a glass bottom boat, kayak, ride the banana boat, play on the beach and at the resort’s infinity pool, which overlooks the ocean. They caught a fish on the way to the island, and that is what we ate for lunch. Fresh sea food is so much better than the stuff we get here. 
      The next day we went white water river rafting down the Ayung River. We saw some class 2 & 3 rapids, and got to go over a 12 foot drop. It was so much fun, and probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. The river goes right through the most amazing tropical jungle. The water is warm, unlike our rivers here, and there are waterfalls, and flowers, and rice terraces, and birds, and monkeys all throughout. There are also a few people who live along the riverbank. They live virtually in the middle of nowhere, with very few neighbors. It was really cool to see their water systems and their little huts right along the river. Amazing how and where some people live. We were on the river for about 3 hours, and then we had lunch. The little “restaurant” we ate at wasn’t really a restaurant, but we’ll call it that for ease, was right in the middle of this most beautiful jungle. There were rice fields surrounding us, and it was so green. We ate rice and fish, and chicken. It was so good, and the scenery made it even better.

           Our last day in Bali was sad. We didn’t want to leave this paradise place, and as all last days do, it went by way too fast. We wanted a little more beach time, and had seen and did most of the stuff we wanted to already, and it was a PERFECT day. So we spent some time at our beach soaking up the sun, playing in the surf, and trying to fend off the hawkers that were trying to sell us everything you can imagine. We read and slept, and played, and read, and slept, and played. About 3:00 we decided to do one last thing. We wanted to see the famous “water temple” called Tanah Lot. Tanah Lot means "Land [sic: in the] Sea" in the Balinese language. The temple sits on a large offshore rock which has been shaped continuously over the years by the ocean tide.

       Tanah Lot is claimed to be the work of the 15th century priest Nirartha. During his travels along the south coast he saw the rock-island's beautiful setting and rested there. Some fishermen saw him, and bought him gifts. Nirartha then spent the night on the little island. Later he spoke to the fishermen and told them to build a shrine on the rock for he felt it to be a holy place to worship the Balinese sea gods. The Tanah Lot temple was built and has been a part of Balinese mythology for centuries. The temple is one of seven sea temples around the Balinese coast. Each of the sea temples were established within eyesight of the next to form a chain along the south-western coast. (Thanks Wikipedia)
     We didn’t want to get a taxi, because how boring would that be? But we didn’t want to get a car, because of the aforementioned issues, so we hired some guys to take us on their scooters. It was about an hour ride (if we took a taxi, it probably would have been 2) but totally worth it. We were dodging in and out of traffic, bouncing up and down on the bumpy roads and fearing for our lives some of the time. The temple was beautiful and the scenery was amazing. We saw it at low tide, so we could walk around and explore a bit. We were planning to stay for sunset, but it got really overcast once we got there and started to rain a little. Needless to say, there wasn’t much sunset to see, so we headed back home, which was an adventure as by that time it had started to pour. Our drivers and Dan donned their ponchos, (Dan’s driver happened to have an extra, don’t worry, he did offer it to me, and I refused being the adventurous romantic that I am, and wanted to get soaked in a Balinese rain storm on the back of a scooter) and we drove home. It was a lot of fun.

       We came back late, went for a swim, and as we had already checked out of our hotel, showered off at the pool shower in our swim suits. Dan was embarrassed, but I thought it was funny. He kept telling me to hurry but I shushed him and kept doing my thing. Our flight didn’t leave til 2 AM, so we got to the airport around midnight to be safe, and it’s a good thing we did. We got through security and everything and were going through customs and found out that you have to pay a small fee in cash to exit the country. Well, we didn’t know that, and only brought cash and a credit card. We made sure to use all of our cash, because we didn’t want to bring any of their money home with us, and we were quite literally freaking out because they REFUSED to let us through without paying them the 20 bucks it was. We called the international hotline for our credit card to see if we could get a pin to withdraw cash at an ATM, and they said it would take 5-7 days. We asked the airport people what we could do and they told us to go to a store and have them run our credit card and then give us the cash. So, I stayed with the luggage and Dan went to get some money. He had to leave the airport, went to 5 stores, and 8 hotels, and no one would help him. So he said a little prayer asking for help and walked by a bar. He got the impression to go in, so he did. He asked the owner if she could please run his card for the amount and then give him the cash. At first she said no, but he begged and pleaded and filled her in on the situation, and she said, “fine, if you buy me and these 4 girls a round of drinks I will do that for you.” So he did, and we made it on the plane in the nick of time.

     And now here we are, back at home, to our normal, boring, tedious life…but hey, at least we live in America and at least we have a home to come home to. Now, we are eagerly awaiting our next vacation to a place that we are still determining.