Trying

I am trying.  I think we all are.  I have been a little overwhelmed this week.  First of all, it is almost the end of the semester and that is ALWAYS a stressful time.  But, tomorrow morning I will submit my last assignment and attend my last day of practicum and all I will have left is a few finals on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday!  Second, I had my student teaching orientation yesterday.  I am so excited about my placement!  I will be teaching at Providence Elementary which is not far from here at all!  For my first block I will be in a 4th grade classroom and for my second block I will be in a Kindergarten again.  I am a little nervous for next semester but what I am most nervous for is my life as a student coming to an end!  I am going to be a grown-up and I am going to have to find a real job!  WHAT?!  I just don't know what I am going to do or where I am supposed to be or what my plan is...and somehow that feels okay.  I have been questioning my ability to follow the Spirit more than ever before lately.  I just don't know if what I am doing is right and I feel like it has been challenged a bit.  That is why I am starting a big study on the Spirit tonight.  It is something that I am always striving to get better at!  I need Heavenly Father's help.  Finally, my sister had to have surgery yesterday to get her gallbladder removed.  She has been sick for quite some time and doctors were able to link it to her gallbladder.  They weren't sure what was blocking it so that was just so scary and stressful for me and the whole family!  Luckily, she had her surgery, and everything went very well.  She is recovering as expected.  Hallelujah!  Anyway, with all of this hitting at the same time I have had a really rough couple of days.  Not rough as in no blessings...there have been plenty of blessings!  And that is what I am including in this post.  My gratitude for the blessing of tonight.  I think more than a month ago I decided to have a little roommate Christmas night instead of buying presents for my roommates.  Really, the best gift I could ever receive is just enjoying time with those that I love!  I bought tickets for all of us to A Christmas Carol that I had seen advertised at the elementary school where I have been working.  Well, I had big plans to make tonight really great with a homemade dinner and lots of goodies, but time got the best of me and I couldn't live up to my own expectations!  I actually ended up picking up Cafe Rio for all of us and we ate together at home.  Mmmmm...pork tostada:)  Then, my roommates found their little chocolate letters from Sinterklaas in their klompen.  Yeah, it takes Sinterklaas a while to travel from the Netherlands to Utah so that's why we had to celebrate a few days late.  We then went to the musical and it was just fabulous!  There were 4 people that I knew in the cast and that made it really fun to watch.  And the message of that story is oh, so good!  It really is nights like this that make the trying all worth it!