Teaching and Living like BYUH Students

Hello there! I have been a little MIA lately. Please forgive me. I have recently returned from Ukraine and wow that was an experience in itself. Coming home was a bigger culture shock than going to Ukraine. I am used to hearing everyone around me speak Russian hearing Russian on the television or seeing it on signs. I got very comfortable pretending like I didn't exist. I learned to tune out the sounds around me including people. I forgot I can communicate with the people around me in English at the grocery store and around etc. None the less I am doing better and am excited to be back in the USA!

I was only home for a couple of weeks during that time I caught up with family, and friends, went running, and watched some of my favorite TV shows. Aka THIS IS US!

My next big adventure is that I am moving to Hawaii! In fact, I live here right now as I am typing this. I feel the ocean wind, smelling the salt air. life is good over here. I moved in with my Aunt and my best friend Heather Walker. Oh my goodness I love living in Hawaii already. One of my favorite things about living at Laurie and Hanks is the sunrise I see every day from our balcony. I have been getting up with the sun to run before it gets too hot and sometimes I stand at the top of the stairs and just sit for a minute and enjoy the beautiful morning before running out the door. I feel so blessed to live here. I feel like I just want to take a million pictures of everything! Heather, I go out sometimes and have fun with my camera. 

We both got mopeds this week! Mine is black and is the cutest thing I have ever seen! I have never ridden one before and when I first tried to ride it I didn't have the strength to pull the moped over the kickstand. I better get working on my arm muscles! Heather has a cute white one. I love riding behind or on the side of her as our hair blows in the salty air. We have been calling it "zipping" around. Sometimes we zip around the BYU Hawaii campus for FHE, other times we zip to the temple! One time we zipped to Foodland before it closed so we could each buy a bug bag of puffy Cheetos. Our favorite snack! 

I have never in my life lived this close to a temple before! We try to go once a week if we can! We came out one night and Heather found a cute slug on the ground. Speaking of bugs on the island. I had no idea how many chickens there were on the island. I mean holy cow so many. And they make noses all night long. I think the locals are used to the sound because nobody pays attention to the chickens. Nobody talks about the chickens when they talk about their vacation but yet that's all I can seem to talk about because there are so many. 

Working at the preschool has honestly changed my mind about my major. Right now I am finishing my classes at Snow College so I can get my associate's at BYU Hawaii in January! Thanks to Laurie I was able to finally get submitted! But one day I was teaching my lesson and Jonny came up with a big smile on his face and gave me a hug. It was at this moment that I decided that I wanted to become a teacher when he did that. So thanks, Jonny! Even though some kinds cry it's worth it to see them smile!

When we aren't working we are meeting friends on the BYU Hawaii campus or catching up with mission friends. Jackson Lewis otherwise known as J$ just recently came home from his mission and we have loved all hanging out as returned missionaries! Since we aren't actually students at BYU we can't technically join the student activities but because we look the same age as everyone nobody checks to see if we are actually students. We enjoyed a beach BBQ and a tour of the PCC!