Bitter-sweetness

So today is technically my last day living in downtown with Brenna as my roommate. It's been a lot of fun and luckily Bren and I are good enough friends to leave the apartment with our friendship still fully intact, if not stronger than before. It's a bitter sweet experience as we move all our stuff out. The location was great, the apartment was cute, and we worked really hard to paint and decorate the place to make it our own. But at the same time we're also happy to be leaving behind the drama that we had to put up with there and certain neighbors, and we definitley won't miss not being able to find parking when we get home past 10pm.
I feel like living at home, as cool as my mom is, I'm giving up part of my independence again. It makes me a little sad because I really like being independent, but I know that I chose the right thing to do. My mom has been having some health issues again so it's good I'm living with her. I'm the only family she has in the United States so I feel like we need to stick together. Living at home again will be beneficial to me too. Saving rent money means I can finally travel and see the world like I've always wanted to. I'm still thinking about taking a backpacking trip to europe next summer. Anyone looking for a travel companion? lol It also means I'll be able to keep working part time so that I can go to school in the mornings. My mom's place is also a lot closer to Grossmont College so I won't have to commute so far. I know I want to do a lot of things right now, but I can't do them all at once. Everything has a time and place and I think this is where I need to be right now.

I went to institute last night. Elder and Sister North are teaching a class on the Pearl of Great Price and let me just say...it's amazing! I think it's quickly becoming one of my favorite standard works! It imparts a wealth of information regarding where we came from....things that aren't recorded in the book of Genesis. I've been struggling through a spiritual slump but this class definitley helped me out. It's geting me excited about the scriptures. Before last night it had been months since i read from them.

Tuesday I went with my mom to her bible study with her pastor. I kinda just wanted to spend time with my mom, but I think my testimony of the gospel grew. A lot of the adventist beliefs line up with LDS beliefs but there were some things that didn't make sense. I asked certain questions that were answered in a round-about way. What really didn't make sense to me was when her pastor told me that when we die we are nothing. He said our bodies return to the ground and so i asked what happens to our spirits. He said we don't have a spirit/soul unless our bodies are resurrected and God gives us life again. Basically he said when we die we are nothing. The funny thing is, when he said these things, I didn't feel the spirit. That's how I knew these things weren't true. But when I study what we know to be true in the LDS church, the spirit is there. These experiences this week between my mom's pastor and the institute class really helped me find my testimony again. Now I'm starting to remember why I joined the church in the first place. I missed this feeling and I'm glad to have it back.