She's Alive!!! With some great news!

I've been sick for 12 days.  That is my life!!  Today I can almost breathe and I only cough when I try to sing... if you know me, that's a lot.  I skipped church last week because I had to work all week and Sunday was my only "day off".  I had to find someone to substitute choir director and unfortunately I wasn't able to find anyone to sit in my Sunday School Class, so I forced my co-teacher to break the rules (Sorry Kari!).  It's been tough for me who rarely gets sick to succumb to the snot, sore throat, gut wrenching cough, and overall feeling nasty.  I have been living on Dayquil by day and Nyquil by night, tissues in every room in my house and in my office at work, and sore throat lozenges the first hour and cough drops the second.  It's been horrible.  Today I had to teach Sunday School and the choir was singing in Sacrament Meeting, so God blessed me enough to feel good enough to magnify my callings... except for the cough when I tried to sing.  Here's hoping He sees fit to let me feel good tomorrow, because I'm sick of being sick and it's really hard to do my job when I feel icky!
My house is suffering.  My kitchen had a week worth of soup dishes and glasses and some other things when I was pretending I didn't feel bad and I sort of cooked.  I finally got that cleaned a few minutes ago and I'm blogging instead of folding laundry.  I really should take advantage of this almost feeling normal and get everything done, but I have been noticing when I check other people's blogs, how far down I am on the list.  Isn't that sad?? I base my self worth on how many blogs are above mine on your friends list!!

 AND I have something so super exciting to report... My dear friend Aubrey and I have been on this perfectionish quest to make ourselves feel better about our lives.  It all started when I went to Stake Conference in May and Elder Shayne M. Bowen of the Seventy invited all of us to think of someone in our lives who needed rescuing.  Immediately Aubrey's name came to mind and I thought about our relationship.  We've known each other since sophomore year in high school... that's more than half my life.  We have been casual friends, going to dinner when it was convenient, hanging out, sharing problems, etc.  She was faithful and diligent when I was on my mission, and wrote me weekly, sent packages of treats, and generally helped support me as a missionary.  Why it had never occurred to me to relate to Aubrey on a spiritual level still makes me wonder, but because of some past stuff Aubrey has been struggling with her testimony for some time.  Without getting too personal, I felt in May that it was time to invite Aubrey to get her life in order and go through the temple. Now on the one hand, it may have been slightly selfish.  I want someone to go to the temple with me.  I want someone who can help me on my quest to perfection and someone who would support me as I supported her back.  I can't remember exactly how it came up, but since text messaging is the way we generally communicate, it was a text conversation that I brought it up in.  We talked about it and then we made a tentative plan.  We would choose things that we both needed to work on and start there.  We started with praying every night.  We then moved on to reading the Book of Mormon daily.  I made "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus" jars, that had things for us to do each week.  We draw one and we compare and talk about it.  One Sunday Aubrey faced a great fear and went to visit with her Bishop.  He gave her a recommend to do baptisms for the dead and said he'd talk to the Stake President about what she'd have to do to go receive her endowment.  One Sunday she faced another great fear and bore her testimony in church.  Week after week we supported each other.  We went to Deseret Book and bought Emily Freeman's new book Becoming His.  It's a guide to discipleship.  The road has been long and hard and we've both struggled; though luckily we usually struggle at different times, so the other one can be supportive and encourage.  Last week Aubrey met with her Bishop and Stake President and left the recipient of a temple recommend that will allow her to enter the House of the Lord and receive her endowment.  She texted me just the other day and told me to set aside October 4.  Later she sent me a message that said, "If you had asked me a year ago if I would be going through the temple now I would have said you were crazy."  I honestly have to say that what began as a challenge for me to help Aubrey has turned much more selfish than I ever imagined.  Everything that I have done to help her has been returned to me exponentially.  I can no longer call Aubrey a casual friend.  She is someone who has helped me so much become what I am today that I am honored that we were allowed to meet.  The person whose name came to mind one morning in May has through no fault of her own become my best friend because she truly is the person who knows so many of my weaknesses and loves me anyway.  I am grateful for her and for this amazing experience.  I'm so happy that she will soon have the eternal blessings of the temple.  Our next goal is to find perfection seeking twins, because then we'll be sisters!!!  Wish us luck!!