Climbing Switchbacks: Overcoming Trials

This morning I got up at 6:30am (I know, strange behavior for me) to hike (even stranger behavior) the Y with my good friend Morgan. I don't usually like doing anything so early, let alone something so active, but it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time. Morgan and I tried to hike the Y earlier this summer but I wasn't in great shape, and we went at 1 in the afternoon during 90 degree temperatures... you do the math. So you can imagine my disappointment when I had to quit 5 switchbacks up - I felt defeated. I swore to myself and to Morgan that by the end of the summer I'd hike the Y. I know it's September, but it's still in the 80-90s here so I don't feel like summer is over. Technically I met my goal so... I win. 

In all seriousness, I would like to share my experience hiking the Y. The Y is on one of the mountains just east of BYU campus here in Provo: 


(picture courtesy of http://occasionalpiece.wordpress.com/2014/05/page/2/)

It's 2.4 miles round trip up the side of the mountain, and during the hike you gain 980 feet in elevation. You can imagine how this might be difficult for me since I grew up in Corvallis - which has an elevation of 225 feet above sea level. Nevertheless, Morgan and I set off on our hike. At first I felt like I was doing just fine - I was expectantly out of breath but hanging in there. Then, once again, around switchback 5 or so I began to lose faith in the adventure. I began to think of reasons for us to turn around and figure out ways to get out of it. Every time we would round a switchback, I would slow down and look at the ominous hill I had to climb next. But every time I did that, Morgan looked back at me and calmly said "come on, you can do this" and kept walking with complete faith that I was following. She was patient, supportive, and cheered me on every time I kept walking. Before I knew it we were at the Y! I couldn't believe my eyes when I actually saw it. We sat at the top and talked about our lives and futures for a good 30 minutes before deciding to come back down. It was a great experience and I'm glad I persevered long enough to enjoy the gorgeous view of Provo. I fully understand that I would NOT have made it up there without Morgan. She was my coach, friend, and cheerleader the whole way up. 

This experience got me thinking about the trials of life. When Morgan and I were sitting at the top, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between our hike and how life can be. I realize this isn't an original thought, but it's the first time I've really applied it personally. I wanted to quit with every climb of a new switchback because I thought I wasn't physically able to do it; yet, the only thing that kept me going was Morgan's faith in me and my capability to make it. Let's compare a switchback to a trial. There have been trials in my life that seemed so ominous and unbearable that I looked at them in their entirety and thought "nope, I can't do this". I didn't believe I had the spiritual strength to overcome them. But each and every time that happened, my Savior was there, holding out His hand and saying "come on, you can do this". The reward for our hike was being able to see the beauty of God's creations and the immensity of the mountains - and to spend time with a wonderful friend. The reward that we've been promised for enduring to the end is much greater than that - it's eternal life. If we can keep climbing and pushing through the spiritual pain and feelings of incompetence, the Savior has promised that He will help us along the way. We are not alone. We are never alone in our trials and afflictions because Christ not only loves each and every one of us, but he has also descended below all things and born so much more than we can imagine. During difficult times I am guilty of thinking "no one understands what I'm going through". Although it can absolutely feel that way from time to time, I can guarantee you that is not true. You are never alone. 

I love my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I know my Savior loves me and knows me. I know I am never alone - even in the moments in which I feel that no one could possibly understand what I'm going through. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the Lord's true church on the earth and through it, we can return to our Father in heaven. I know that Elijah fulfilled Malachi's prophecy that the hearts of the children would turn to their fathers - and because of that truth we can be sealed to our families for eternity. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows me and wants me to return to live with him. I am nothing without my Savior - I owe everything I have to him. I cannot wait to see Him again and thank him for helping me along in the journey. 

Of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

24

Ky is TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OLD. I can't believe it... he's so old. Yeah yeah, I know those older than 24 are now complaining about how "that's not old at all!" but to a 21 year old who's known Ky since he was 21, that feels old. 

Saturday, 7.12.14 (his actual birthday), was a day full of surprises. Let's just start at the beginning shall we? 

If you all recall from last year around this same time, Ky abandoned me went on a family vacation without me to go white water rafting down the Rogue river in Oregon. He happened to be there on his birthday, which in fact was the second year in a row we were apart for his birthday. No, I will never let him forget that. 

So this year was a first for us - we actually spent his birthday in the same state. Such joy. What did I have planned for this momentous occasion you ask? So many wonderful things!! Just scroll down and behold the amazingness that was July 12th, 2014. 

We had breakfast at IHOP because neither one of us had ever been. Ky was "very" excited to be there. 

Oh. It's your birthday? I forgot to mention it to the IHOP employees. 

Feasting on his spoils. 

Surprise #1 was the Hill Airforce Base Aerospace Museum! Ky had mentioned to me about 3 separate times that he would really love to go there. So, after IHOP we hit I15 and I told him to drive until I told him to stop. He figured it out about 1 exit before we got there, but it was still a rewarding feeling to watch him in there - it was like a kid in a candy store. I swear. 

Two F16s flying around for Ky's birthday. NBD. 

An old school helicopter that we both thought looked ridiculous. 

My favorite part about this war propaganda? "DO IT NOW". Ok U.S. Airforce, you've convinced me. 

It was unnerving to be in the same room as this thing. It gave me the heebie geebies. 

Ky said if he could have any plane in the world, it would be this one. The P51. But I hope he'd rename it, because I'm not cool with him riding around in a plane called "Audrey". "Mariana" just has such a ring to it. 

I would want the SR-71 Blackbird so I could fly to London in about 3 hours (from Utah). Then Kate Middleton and I could become best friends, because I'm convinced the only thing keeping us apart is the distance. Neither one of us are too into the long distance friendship thing... it's just too hard to overcome. 

My favorite squadron decal. I like things that inspire fear in people. 

Once we got home we were exhausted from all of the fun we had, and also driving on the freeway just generally always exhausts us. So we took a long afternoon siesta, and then Ky went rock climbing with Devin and Will while I "made dinner and cake". At least that's what Ky thought... MWUAHAHAHAHAHA. Really, I was setting everything up for the party with the help of my lovely friends. Together, we got it all ready for Ky's grand entrance. 

This is the moment I had been anticipating and planning for. 5 months in the making. It was so worth it. My only regret is not getting a shot of all of the wonderful people waiting for him to arrive. We are truly blessed to have such great friends!!! 

Jenna, Dani, and Mr. Ashton a.k.a. the biggest flirt ever. But seriously, with those eyes, who can blame him? Work it kid. 

From left to right: Elaine, David, a very cute and tired Mae (who turned 1 the day before Ky's birthday!), Lizzie, and Evan. 

He's such an attention seeker. You'd think I never pay any attention to him at home. 

Derek, Joe, James, Denver, Ky, Will, and Devin. Together they make the whitest boy band to ever walk the earth. Although I still think they're way cooler than One Direction. Even without the British accents. 

Mandy, Carissa, the mastermind behind the greatest birthday Ky has ever had, Matheus, Erin, and Jess. Fun fact: Jess and Jon (not pictured above, but he is below) are getting married in exactly 21 days!! We can't wait. 

This sums up any picture moment with these two. I can never get them to behave on the first try. That's why I love them so much. 

But, without fail, they eventually comply. 

Needless to say, Ky's 24th birthday was one to remember. On Sunday, while sitting in sacrament meeting, Ky turned to me and said "do you ever have those days that are so great you never want them to end? Well, yesterday was that day. Thank you." Oh heavens, I choked back tears. He deserves everything he got and more - he's the chips to my salsa and I am so grateful for him. Here's to many more birthdays together. 

"Life is Short"

Today's blog post is due to an email I received today. The email's subject line was "Mariana: life is short, have an affair!". At first glance, I was certain this must be a play on words. You know, like those articles we've seen recently that have a catchy title to draw you in. So I clicked on it to see the "real" message, and this is what I read: 

"The #1 rule to having an affair is to never do it with a single woman. Instead, date a married woman who has just as much reason to keep your affair a secret as you do. At (insert name of the disgusting company that offers this service) it is 100% SECURE, completely anonymous, GUARANTEED!" 

Let's talk about this email. I was initially appalled. I could not believe that this was something people actually go for. Then, I was extremely mad. How in the world did I get this email? Why are these things getting sent to me?? Then the thought kept running through my mind... life is short. 

Dear disgusting company that promotes adultery, 

Life is short. Really? About 80-90 years is short? I don't think so. That's a whole lot of time to go without close familial ties or friendships because you screwed everyone over. I know our society is really into this YOLO* nonsense, and yes, it's pretty funny some times to skip class with your friends and say "YOLO" to justify it. I'm guilty of it. But when it comes to destroying a marriage commitment and potentially tearing apart a family unit, that is where my tolerance ends. It should be where everybody's tolerance ends as well. I know that marriage is seen as unimportant in our society. It's way more fun to just live with someone and be commitment free. If it doesn't work out, then you can go your separate ways without any mess and call it good. That's a lie that has been perpetuated by our society. I'm not suggesting that everyone should marry the first person they fall in love with, but if you do enter into this marriage covenant you need to keep it. I repeat: YOU NEED TO KEEP IT. 

To have an affair is to trade an everlasting joy of family and friendship for a temporary pleasure. Will you have fun in the moment? Probably, especially if you're the kind of person to do that in the first place. Will you be happy in the long run? Absolutely not. Not a chance. I can almost guarantee it. I don't have any experience with this because both my parents and in-laws (my closest examples of long-lasting marriages) are completely faithful to one another. But believe me when I say that temporary pleasures do not make for everlasting joy. But hey, you know what? Life is short. 

I don't want to cheat on my husband. Why? Oh I don't know, maybe because I love him and have built an eternal friendship and trust with him. We are one unit now. It's me and him - we have each other's backs and are our greatest supporters. When I have a bad day he is the first person I turn to for comfort. He has dropped everything for me on several occasions simply because I needed a hug and a chat. We've been married over a year now and it's not always been a cake walk. Whenever you put two people together that were raised in different homes, you're going to have conflict. But the way you go about fixing it is not by cheating on your spouse, but by working hard alongside them to continue your marriage. It's a conscious choice you make every day to love your spouse more than yourself and to put their needs before your own. Yes it's hard, but it's so worth it. That sort of relationship is not anything to play with. I know what I stand for, and adultery is not it. 

So to the company that is inviting me to commit adultery, no thank you. I plan on keeping my covenants I've made with my husband and the Lord. 

Sincerely, 
Someone with morals. 




*for my more seasoned readers, YOLO is an acronym for "you only live once".  

Exploring part II

Welcome to part 2 of our Friday exploration day. After the Hogle Zoo (part 1) we crossed the street (literally) and visited "This is the Place". For those of you who may not be familiar with the story, "This is the Place" is referring to the place that Prophet Joseph Smith received revelation about, where the Saints would one day arrive in the Salt Lake valley. Brigham Young also saw the vision and when the Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham pitched a stake in the ground and said "this is the place". 

The monument was way cool, and we took many pictures of the cool statues and their stories. Enjoy the pictures! 

The three flags here (from left to right): Utah state flag, United States flag, and the Mormon Battalion flag. 

So cool story: there was a description next to this statue which gave an account of a man named William Frederick Fisher. I saw his name just as Ky had finished telling me a story of one of his ancestors who had been in the Pony Express. Come to find out from my father-in-law, we actually might be related to this very man! 

That's me with two of the greatest men who ever lived: Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. 

Three of the greatest men who have ever lived. 

A statue of a pioneer family. What an amazing test of faith all of those families must have gone through in traveling to the Salt Lake plains. 

This is me and Etienne Provot. The city of Provo is named after this French explorer. Or at least his name is French, maybe he's Canadian? 

This is the place! Pretty cool huh? I think the monument is very well done - and there's a sort of reverence just being there. 

This is a quote from one of the plaques around the monument: 

"Rising above the Salt Lake Valley is a dome-shaped peak. Brigham Young saw it in a vision before the Saints left Nauvoo. He saw an ensign descend upon the hill and heard the voice of Joseph Smith say 'Build under that point... and you will prosper and have peace.' 
When Brigham Young first arrived in the valley, he immediately recognized the peak. On the morning of July 26, 1847 several men climbed its slopes. 
This small group of church leaders gazed out upon the valley below. 'This is where we will plant the soles of our feet.' President Young said, 'And where the Lord will place His name amongst the people.' 
Here they were, almost a thousand miles from the nearest settlement to the east and almost eight hundred miles from the Pacific coast. They were in an untried climate. They had never raised a crop here. They had not built a structure of any kind. 
They were exiles. Driven from their fair city on the Mississippi into this desert region of the west. But they were possessed of a vision drawn from the scriptures and words of revelation. 
This great pioneering movement of more than a century ago goes forward with Latter-Day pioneers. Today pioneer blood flows in our veins just as it did with those who walked west. It's the essence of our courage to face modern-day mountains and our commitment to carry on. The faith of those early pioneers burns still." - President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

This experience certainly strengthened my testimony of the pioneers who crossed the plains to fulfill a revelation given by the Lord through His prophets. Their faith stands as an example to me of what true faith is. I hope to show the same faith and devotion to our Heavenly Father as they did. 

We ended our amazing day by eating delicious hamburgers at Red Robin's. Although I didn't capture a picture of our burgers, I did get our dessert. Red velvet cake... yum. 

Until next time. Which will hopefully not be another three months from now. ¡Adios amigos! 

Exploring part I

Hello! It's been so very long since I've posted anything. Usually in the past I've said this after not blogging for 2 weeks, but now it's been 2 days shy of 3 months since I've last written anything... oops. I guess life gets in the way a lot of the time. 

Well honestly nothing eventful has happened in our lives. I'm not pregnant, we haven't graduated and won't for a while, and my sister isn't home from her mission yet. Not having anything exciting to write about also contributes to me not blogging. But that all changed when Ky and I took a trip on Friday to... THE HOGLE ZOO!! This is Salt Lake's zoo and it was so much fun. I had been getting restless for a while because I only ever go to 5 places: 

1. School, on BYU campus.
2. Work, on BYU campus.
3. Home, 3 minutes away from BYU campus.
4. Church, at the foot of Wymount and only 2 minutes away from BYU campus.
5. Macey's grocery store, about five blocks west of BYU campus.

Pretty much we like to keep it simple and stay within a 1 mile radius from campus. It's our safe zone apparently. So on Friday we braced ourselves for an adventure into the great beyond. 

We began our day with breakfast at the Awful Waffle. Yeah, that's the actual name of the restaurant. Despite its name, the waffles were DELICIOUS. I regret to inform you that I did not take a picture of them. But we both got the same vanilla based waffle with nutella, strawberries, bananas, delicious sugary sweet syrup, and lots of whipped cream. 

Then we hit the road and made our way to the Hogle Zoo! They gave us a map of the zoo (which Ky used as a route so we could "get our money's worth and see every animal in the zoo") and we started with the primates. Enjoy the montage of animal pictures with an occasional caption: 

This is a Colobus monkey, not a skunk. Don't worry, it fooled me too. 

This is by far our favorite picture of the day. This is the adult male orangutan. He's a handsome fellow. 

If Ky eats all of his fruits and vegetables, he might grow up to be as big as the male orangutan. 

The elephants' watering hole. 

These two little kids were talking to the rhino and saying "hey there little guy!" in the same voice that I'm sure their mom uses to talk to them/their baby sibling. It was so adorable. Especially because this rhino is anything but "little". 

This is a Jedi lemur. Really though, I'm pretty sure that's his scientific name. 

Our presence is recognized. WAY TO BE OREGON. 

The seals and sea lions were near impossible to capture on camera. These two seals were "hugging" each other and fighting almost the entire time we were looking at them. The throngs of children made it difficult to get a good view so we quickly moved on. 

One bear resting on his sister or her brother. I can't really tell what gender they are soooo yeah. 

This is called a Palas cat, but I'm pretty sure this is the wild ancestor of grumpy cat. 

Sloth! I made sure to take lots of pictures for my friend Kristin - a fellow sloth fan. 

These are called Tamarin monkeys. What's interesting about them is that the male is the primary care giver. He only gives his young to his mate when they need to be fed, then he takes them back. 

This is called a Kinkajou, and he (or she) was by far the ugliest animal we saw all day. 

Apparently monkeys love Fisher Price toys as much as babies do. 

We found Timon, but no Pumbaa. 

This is called a Sand cat. I need one as a pet. 

This is the Chuckwalla lizard. In its description, it says "Males will do 'push-ups' to attract a prospective mate, or to assert dominance over an intruding male." Wow, who knew men and lizards had so much in common. 

Ok, so you know when you go to the zoo as a kid, and you press your face up against the glass at every new animal? Then you reason with yourself that as an adult you should probably step back and let the kids crowd the animals and you'll just take pictures from afar. Nope, not Ky. As you can clearly see from the picture, he wanted to be front and center, looking at all of the animals too. He's just a big kid at heart. 

This is the Black footed cat, and it is a very rare animal to find in zoos. Hogle Zoo is one of the only zoos to have them. 

We came back three times just to be able to see the Lynx. Ky was so excited when he (or she) finally came out of the cave. 

Read part 2 for our visit to "This is the Place" and dinner at Red Robin's.