I live in the most beautiful place ever. Here is a few pictures I have documented over the last few years. These pictures don't do it justice but I still will attempt.

 Summer

Spring (Almost)

Winter

Man oh Man. I have not written a blog post in a really long time. I will try and be better but I may end up giving 6 month updates every now and than. Sooo here is the updated on life....

School-

I got back and just wanted to jump into it. I had my life planned out.... or so I thought.... I had planned on teaching secondary education english. It wasn't until I went to translate at a parent teacher conference. I started talking to the teachers and after that experience I just realized that it really wasn't for me. I did learned that online classes are better for me. I looked into an online speech pathology. I am really excited! The upside is I can live wherever I want! I start in the Fall unless they have a few classes I can take right now.

Work-

The one thing I knew for certain was that I wanted to come home and work for an eye doctor. I don't know why but I had always wanted to work for an eye doctor AND that is exactly what I did. I can't say it wasn't a blessing because it ABSOLUTELY was. My first interview the interviewer was from my mission. The second interview, the interviewer is home teaching companions with her husband to my grandma. Heavenly Father completely blessed me. I have loved working there! The doctors are amazing. I haven't learned the tech part yet but I am hoping to one day. I really want to be certified. For right now I am the front desk and it has worked really well with my schedule.

I guess there is not much more to report I don't know what other lives I have. Oh I know I will throw in my travels. The most recent being Arizona!

I went down and spent the first few days with my cousin. She is such a great Mom. I really loved being in her home I learned a lot from her example. And she has such an adorable home and family. I can't wait to see her again.

We didn't do anything too crazy. We did go for a little hike. Her 7 year old took our jumping pictures they turned out so well. Don't ya think?

 The rest of the time I just hung out with my friend from the mission and some other friends from my college life. It was really great to see everyone. Here is a few pictures from the trip. I will say that a big highlight was going to the Spring training baseball game with Kory. Not rubbing it but I will say that my team won! Nice right? Go giants.

I know I am no longer a FULL-TIME missionary but I figured I am still a member missionary and I am learning new things everyday that I could still share with whoever wanted to listen. On the mission my letters home to my family became a journal entry for me. I didn't always have time to write what I learned and so I wrote it home. Now that I am home I have time to write but for some reason my love for pen and paper as not come back to me. I think it is because typing is so much easier. I have been home for 7 weeks and I can honestly say that I have missed writing my thoughts to the family and friends that care what is going on in my life. I decided I would share some of the things I have learned starting with the most recent.

Last week I substituted for my wards Gospel and Doctrine class. Can I just tell you how scared I was? Luckily I had a good knowledge about the subject because... well would anyone like to guess what it was on? If you said missionary work that is right! YOU WIN!!! It was probably the only reason I was called to teach but you know since we are studying the Doctrine and Covenants this year it was more the pioneer stories of the first missionaries. As I was studying and preparing for the lesson I realized how incredible the sacrifices were that our pioneers made to go out and teach the gospel. I mean we are talking Dad's leaving families to go off and share the gospel. We are talking recent converts being baptized and then leaving pretty quickly to go share. I was blessed to have had the opportunity to study for this lesson. As I studied and thought about the sacrifices that were being made I thought about how much missionary work is about sacrifice. It is funny because I maybe thought my mission as being a sacrifice at some point or another but after awhile I really loved what I was doing. Leaving my job, car, life at home to go serve the Lord to go be a part of a higher purpose became my life. I don't know if that makes sense but I loved what I did so much that it wasn't a sacrifice anymore. Does that make sense? Now that I had to come home- against my will I might add- I consider to be a sacrifice. I have to come back to the world to live a higher life and fulfill a higher purpose. Right? I mean if you asked missionaries to stay I am sure they would say yes. I know I would! There is a reason that missions last for a year and a half or two years it is because now that we have become.. .well one of the reasons I think anyway.... is because we have become true disciples of Christ and now we need to go out in the world and be the best missionaries we can be for our friends, family, neighbors, etc. I know there were several members back in the mission that I thought "when I get home I will be a member missionary like them". This is just all Amy theory here. I could be completely wrong but you know it was just something that I learned. 

If you are still interested in reading more about my post mission life I have one more thing to share.... So I came home and pretty much jumped right back into my old life.... big mistake. I honestly love the people that I knew before my mission but what I couldn't handle was being in the same big groups that didn't get me anywhere. No offense to the people because it was my own actions. I realized that I was acting how I did before my mission. AND I didn't go on a mission to be the same! So after three weeks of the same thing I finally bailed on my old life (not the friends). I just can't do it. Before I came home I said to myself "I just want to be completely involved in my life." I didn't want to worry like I had before about what might or might not come along. So I changed my ways. I will tell you it has been great. It was more for the dating life then anything else. I remember being so worried about it before my mission. Now... and this is weird because I am still trying to figure it out... but I have SO MUCH faith. I have no worries at all... that is not all aspects of it of course but the majority.... I am super excited to be at the job I have. I am learning things I didn't even know existed! I am super excited to be in school and I have some serious goals to get me there. I am in LOVE with what I am doing! My friend... okay that is an understatement but my dear dear dear friend said something to me the day that we went to catch up. She said that she learned that people may come and go.. speaking about dating again... and through it all she was okay but what she wasn't okay with was when her relationship with Heavenly Father became weak. She realized that as long as she has that on good terms all the relationships she comes and goes through in the end she will always be okay. I loved this thought. It is true. I can't tell you how many times I wanted it to work out with someone and didn't. Now I know that all I have to do is work on my relationship with my Father in Heaven and no matter what happens or doesn't I will be okay. Faith is a beautiful thing. I have more to learn I am sure but you know one day at a time.

Not that I am counting but...one week left!

June 10

Hey! So I have one week left! This week is going to be super crazy! Let me give you the run down.

Monday- The best store in the Whole WORLD!! Charlie Brown! We are super excited!

Tuesday- Temple day!

Wednesday- Exchanges begin. I am headed to Santa Clarita with Hermana B

Thursday- All day in Santa Clarita!

Friday- Temple again for the missionaries that are leaving.

Saturday- Father's day activity for the ward

Tuesday- Transfers

Wednesday- Fly home!

I pretty much have something everyday. I will be super busy. No time for thoughts of home! I am excited! I need to get lost in the mission for this last week!

This week we had the Youth of Santa Clarita come out and knock with missionaries. The girl I was with had some really great inspiration when I told her to decide where we went next. She lead us to a place I would have never have gone to and we were able to find a family we are going to go back and visit. She was truly inspired. Sadly that wasn't how it ended. We received word that my companion was done but I decided to go two more houses. We went to the first house and let's just say by the time we were done talking to the guy the youth walked away in tears. He kept cutting us off and we kept getting things thrown at us that we couldn't answer. I felt super bad. These types of things don't happen very often. I just hope I didn't crush her dreams! She saw the real life missionary day though. I have to go but I will see you next week! Love you all!

Sweet 16

June 3

It as been a crazy week! Palmdale has become a water zone for the fire we are having. We saw 9-12 fire trucks drive by as we were waiting for this light. This park has been completely shut down to be a station for all the firetrucks to park. It has been really interesting. I hope the fire goes away soon but at the same time that means the firemen will be gone.... haha jk.

We had a miracle this week! We texted our investigator to see if she was coming to church and she replied back saying "I am already here". She ended up going to the English ward with one of the Young Women she has become friends with. We totally didn't expect that. She has been really trying to find an answer. I hope she receives some guidance soon. I would really love to see her get baptized before I go but I don't want to rush her into something she is not ready for. Especially since her parents want her to wait until she is 18 to get baptized or to change religion. She is super great though! I love her no matter what!

We had an exchange where I went to Santa Clarita this week... Two different exchanges and I went there both times. The first one was with Hermana B. She came the same time Hermana S did. She is super sweet and we had some great times together. We went contacting and she wanted to see how to bring up family history so we focused on that. We found this lady who was SUPER stand offish at first but as we talked to her about family history and the website she opened up a ton! It was so wonderful! She told us about her family story of the things she already knew. It was really interesting. We also found a less active who is living with her boyfriend and her boyfriend was really excited to find out more about his family. I am super excited to hear what happens.

My exchange with Hermana H was pretty awesome. We have too much fun together to be real companions but we got a lot done. We had a breakfast on Saturday at the Stake Presidents house. He is actually from Spanish Fork. It was with the whole Santa Clarita zone  and his house is super nice! When we were done we came back to Palmdale to and did a companionship study with the Assistants. However as we were saying our goodbyes we locked the keys in the trunk and so we spent the next hour and a half trying to get them out. Our fearless Assistants were able to get them out after much effort. They are super great. This week we are super excited because we have more exchanges and at the end of our exchange we will be heading down to Santa Clarita to go knocking with the youth for a conference they are having. We are super excited. I also have my first and only Mission Leadership Council meeting on Wednesday. I am excited to see President. It has been said that he is way more bold in these meetings. Usually they are just with the Zone leaders but since the Sister Training leaders have come about I hope he is still the same. A lot of the Zone leaders I have talked to have loved those meetings with President. Either way I know I will learn a lot! Hermana H and I are super pumped. Our companions will be going out and doing the work while we are at the meeting.

I am at my sweet 16. These last 16 days are going to fly by. I think every other day I have some sort of activity or exchange or meeting. It is super crazy! I am just going to go and plan on sleeping when I get back. Maybe for a day or two!

Anyway I love you! I will write you next week! Have a great week!

Love Hermana Fish!