not to brag or anything...

Not to brag or anything (who am I kidding? the whole point of this post is to brag), but I have had TWO culinary successes in TWO days' time. Yes, it is true.

Success #1

So we have these tacos that go way back in my family. I'll be honest, I might be making the first part of the history up, but I THINK my mom's mom or grandma learned the recipe from some missionaries way back in the day. My grandma learned how to make them and would make them for my mom and her siblings growing up. She then made them while she and my grandpa were on a mission in Ireland. My mom got the taco-frying genes and I grew up loving them. We started feeding them to the missionaries when I was young and it became a big competition to see who could eat the most. I THINK Elder Falilu (spelling?) holds the record at 32 tacos. The most I have eaten is 14...not too shabby eh? We always have mom's tacos during the Priesthood Session of General Conference while the boys are gone. Annie fried them this time and did a fantastic job. We had leftovers Sunday afternoon, so I thought I should get some good practice in so I can carry on the tradition. Guess what, it was NOT an epic fail...they weren't half bad. :) Pretty proud of myself. 

Success #2

Let's just say Monday was not the best day I've had in my life. In fact, I wasn't a huge fan of Monday. I had the urge to make pumpkin break and got it in my head that if I could successfully make pumpkin bread, all would be right in the world again. Result? Some pretty darn good pumpkin break and and going to sleep Monday night feeling pretty good about life!

HAPPY FALL!

Family History

Well Elder Bednar's talk in the most recent General Conference inspired me to try doing family history!! I recently learned to index and have loved doing that, but I decided I should venture deeper in the world of family history.  I logged into new.familysearch.org and started checking out my family tree.  I have an awesome family and most everything is pretty much known for the first branches...but then I got to the 1600's and there were blank spots and I got excited! I started searching familysearch.org to find missing spouses.  I was a little discouraged because I just couldn't find anything.  So decided to try a different one. AND I FOUND HER! Ja. Gow was missing his wife and Margaret Gow was missing a mom...and I found her! I was pretty excited. So I added her on my family tree! As I linked up to her family tree, I discovered like 5 more children we didn't know Ja. Gow had. Pretty sweet. (and then I noticed someone had entered that Janet married a James Gow in the 1800's...since she was born in the 1600's, I was doubtful.  So, I posted a discussion to correct it (since I couldn't delete the link since I didn't add it) and found a cute little button that will email me if anyone responds.  Isn't that awesome! I'm an official family history doer! Who knew it could be so fun? I feel like I am Nancy Drew solving family history mysteries.  (Yes I read every Nancy Drew book ever written when I was young and still own most of them. classic.)  Just wanted to share my intense excitement with the world!!

i love reunions :)

Well this past weekend was AMAZING. i got to reunionize with so many people i love. 1st stop: SISTER IRELAND!! my mtc companion :) She had driven down from Canada for conference weekend, so we got to have dinner together at Zupas.  just hearing her laugh again made me so happy.  i couldn't have asked for a better first companion on my mission.  she taught me SO much about humility and diligence.  she also taught me how to look at things from an investigator's point of view.  I admire her so much and will love her forever!

next stop, WASHINGTON SEATTLE MISSION REUNION!! I wish i'd taken more pictures, but here are the ones i DID get.  Me and Diane (aka sister bush) . . . 

me and sister burch!

me with three of my companions: lacey (sister burch), diane, and kayla (sister sawyer)

and finally, i got to meet the Lee Family! Sister Lee was one of my last companions on the mission. She is still on her mission, but i got to meet her family! They came from korea to see General Conference.  It was such a sweet experience to meet them, hug them, and talk with them.  Now I know why sister lee is so amazing.  Now i need to save up so i can go visit them in Korea :) They brought be that beautiful scarf as a gift from Korea!!

I think this is what heaven will be like, just reunionizing with all the people we love :)