Happy Holidays!

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a while! 

So much has happened in the last month! Some of the main things that I remember are that my family and I went on a trip to southern Utah for Thanksgiving, I got super sick, and my temple schedule changed. I've also been making more of an effort to vary my scripture studies a bit. :) And I made some time to visit SeaQuest again. It was nice to see some of my animal friends! 

1- Thanksgiving trip

2- Sick

3- New temple schedule

4- SeaQuest

1- Thanksgiving was so fun! I got to stay at Grandma and Grandpa Johnston's house one night, then spent another night at Grandma and Grandpa Howard's, and also stayed with Uncle Dave and Aunt Shelly's family for a couple of days. We went hiking around Dixie Rocks and went on another hike to Red Cliffs! I enjoyed both hiking trips, but Red Cliffs was definitely my favorite. There were so many gorgeous rock formations and cool desert plants! I also climbed up a couple rock walls I wasn't so sure I could--but I had to prove to my siblings that I'm not too out of shape. XD One of the highlights is that poor Benton fell in a pool of cold water! Luckily, he wasn't too soaked, though; he was mostly just embarrassed because some strangers saw him slip. 

2- I got really sick a couple of weeks ago. It was a really nasty stomach bug that knocked me down for almost a whole week. I can't remember napping so much ever! I got sick on Thursday and basically slept for all of Friday. It wasn't until the next Wednesday that I started to get some strength back. Poor Benton got sick at the same time as me, and the two of us spent a lot of time resting and trying to stay hydrated. I don't like getting sick, and that experience made me so grateful for the blessing of good health! 

3- This month, I've been tasked with arriving early to the temple so that I can scan the recommends of the other ordinance workers. That means that I've been waking up at around 3:45 am so that I can arrive at the temple by 4:45, and I man the front desk from 5:00-6:00. It's been exhausting, but I still love serving in the temple. I've had a lot of time to read the scriptures and ponder things. I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the 10th time in a row. I decided to start keeping track a couple of weeks ago, because my dad says that he keeps track of his Book of Mormon readings. I only read it twice before starting my mission, so I've now read it 8 times on my mission. I'm wondering if I can squeeze in a couple more read throughs before I'm released to make a nice, round 12. :)  And as I mentioned towards the beginning of my email, I've been trying to vary my studies. I've been working more on my Old Testament readings too. I got stuck in 2 Kings for a while, but now I'm finally into Chronicles! I'm trying to read at least a chapter every day to stay in the habit. 

4- Going to SeaQuest was so fun! I took Benton after school one day, and it was great! Not too busy, so we were able to feed a lot of animals. The roads were super slick and scary, though. I hated driving down and coming back. I slid and almost rear-ended another car once. While Benton and I were there, we played with the bengal cats, fed the sharks, stuck our hands in the doctor fish tank, pet the sturgeons, and had fun looking at all the other awesome animals. A member of the marine team was target-training the blacktip sharks while I was there. She gave me the last squid in her bucket and let me hand-feed a big gray smoothhound--another kind of shark! It totally made my day! Sadly, I didn't film it happening, but it was so cool to see a shark that was maybe four feet long come up and snatch a squid right out of my hand! I also got to talk to some of my old friends and coworkers there. I'd love to work at SeaQuest again after my mission's over. It's such an amazing place!

Hope everyone's doing well! I promise I will send another weekly soon!