Church History Museum

Today's mission was supposed to send me on a free tour, but it interfered with my school schedule so I couldn't go. So the new mission was to research the 1844 presidential election after and then take a photo of something related to the topic in the Joseph Smith display in the President's Gallery at the museum. 

Done and done.

I LOVE walking through the Church History Museum. It is one of my absolute favorite things to do here in Salt Lake. So, I walked straight to the escalator that takes you to the Presidents Gallery, and the moment you get off that escalator, President Joseph Smiths gallery is the first thing you see.

This sign reads, "Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, presidential candidates in 1844, detailed their political views in these letters in response to a request from Joseph Smith. Disappointed by their letters, Joseph Smith announced his own candidacy for the presidency."

So cool. 

What's next Captain?

(HA I so love calling my dad that :) )

xo,

Mo

I Hope They Call Me on A Misssion....

HA, gotcha!

Though serving a church mission would be great, this is a different kind of mission.

This morning, Captain sent me the following message:

"Morgan, your first assignment should you choose to accept it, must be photographed and blog by 10 MDT this evening.

Clue: John Rowe Moyle's lasting impression. 

Extra Credit: His likeness lends a hand to a family in need."

To which I replied: 

"I accept. Thanks Captain!"

I then thought to myself, I have no idea what "John Rowe Moyle's lasting impression" even means! Was it a person? A painting? I had no idea! But, good thing I have google!! I googled it, and sure enough, it's a statue located in Temple Square. 

In fact, here it is!!

John Rowe Moyle was a Mormon pioneer. He was a master stonemason for the beautiful Salt Lake City Temple and was the carver of the inscription "Holiness to the Lord" on the temple's east side.

How awesome is that?!

Mission One has officially been filed as complete. What's next Captain?

xo,

Mo

Mothers Day (video)

Happy Mothers Day Mom!!

xo,
Mo

11 to 3 in 5

On Monday May 6, I couldn't have been more excited for school. I was taking 11 credits this semester, which was more then I had taken in Fall of 2012, so I was excited for a 'busy' work load. I thought that if I stayed busy, the summer would go by faster, and that the busier I was would mean the sooner Michael would be home. HA. Well, change of plans.

This is how I went from 11 to 3 in 5.

(11 credits to 3 credits in 5 hours)

Monday was great. I went to my Personal Finance class from 8:50-9:50, and headed straight to Book of Mormon 1 from 10-11. I so love my Book of Mormon teacher (I'm pretty sure I am one of her favorites too). She reminds me of one of my friends back home in Arizona. She even has the same sarcasm. It is so great. Anyways, that was my Monday. Super easy, and left the rest of the day open to work on homework, do laundry, etc.

Tuesday. Tuesday was the BEST. I was so worried about the classes I had on Tuesdays, but they ended up being some of my favorite. 12:40-2:10 was my Medical Terminology class. My teacher seemed nice, and then he informed us that all tests were to be open book tests, and that he gave extra credit. Seriously, I don't think it gets much better then that. Later that day, I had my Medical Office Procedures class. I was really worried about this class because its three hours long. This class is from 3:30-6:30. I went into this class and loved the teacher right away. After she introduced herself, went over the syllabus, and class rules, we played those dreaded 'getting to know you' games. Ugh. I always hated those. For this 'getting to know you' game, we were told to partner up with the person next to us and find out their name, where they are from, something about their family, and five fun facts (talents, hobbies, favorite tv shows, etc). By the end of the designated time we were to stand up and present this person to the class. So, my partner for this was Tristan. I went first and introduced him, the class clapped, the teacher asked him a few questions, and then it was his turn to present me to the class.

 It went something like this. "This is Morgan. She is from Phoenix Arizona. She is the second oldest of five kids in her family, and her older brother is returning home from his mission in the Philippines in two months. Her five interesting facts are that she can say the ABC's backwards (the class quietly gasps and laughs), she enjoys blogging and reading in her spare time, she comes from a family of law enforcement, her favorite movie is Pride & Prejudice (teacher loudly gasps and exclaims "WE ARE KINDRED SPIRITS!!", and I just about died laughing, it was seriously so funny), and she enjoys shopping and clothes".

After the class finished clapping after Tristan finished reading off my fun facts, one girl in class raised her hand, and, in her broken english, (she is from Brazil....SO cool) asked if I could do the ABC's backwards. HA. I knew that was going to happen. I laughed and said I would, but told the class I had to turn around and do it because I get embarrassed. I hurried and said the ABC's backwards which received a standing ovation from the class. HA! Then my teacher stood up and said, "I can't believe you like Pride & Prejudice, it is one of the most romantic movies of all time!" To which I replied, "Right?! I mean, have you seen Mr. Darcy? How can you not love him?"

 Who knew I was so cool?

Wednesday. The day from heck. The day I went from 11 to 3 in 5. Wednesday morning, I got up at 7 to go get ready for my Personal Finance class. I find this little note of my school account that said I had to test into that class, and that I hadn't taken that test. And therefore, I was being dropped from it. HA fine. So I went back to bed for an hour. I got up and ready for school, went to my Book of Mormon class, signed up for the devotional that I wanted (YAY!), and left school. My next class wasn't until 1:30 so I went home and did all of my Medical Terminology homework that was due the next day. I left for my 1:30 class, which was Skillbuilding 1 and found a friend I recognized from my two medical classes, to sit by. SCORE. After taking four stressful timed typing tests, the teacher announced that if we had never taken a typing class before, to see her after class was over. I almost didn't stay after to tell her, but I did. After all, I can type over the required '20 correct words per minute' to be in the class. So I stayed after and told her I had never taken a typing class before. She then told me to drop her 'Skillbuilding 1' class and pick up her "Intro to Keyboarding" class.....

Long story short, my school account would not let me drop my 'Skillbuilding 1' class because it was a requirement to take if I was going to be in Medical Terminology, and Medical Office Procedures. UGH! My teacher told me to drop my medical classes and take them next semester and take up her typing instead. I went to the school counselor after class was over and she told me the same thing. The counselor then dropped me permanently from my medical classes.

I tried to call my mom on my way home from school, but when she answered, she asked if I could wait on hold while she finished another conversation with someone one the other line. I tried not to cry the whole 8 minute walk home. If I could keep it together for those 8 minutes, I would be fine. I came home, got on my school account and just stared at my very open school schedule I now had. When my mom finally came back on the line, I broke down. I carefully tried to explain to her everything that had happened, and that nothing could be done, through my cracking voice and tears. After hanging up with her, and crying some more, my Dad called and we tried to find a loophole, and see if there was any way I could get back into my medical classes. We successfully failed. With those four classes (personal finance, medical terminology, medical office procedures, and skillbuilding 1) being dropped, and the one (intro to keyboarding) class being picked up, I now only had two classes to fill my summer schedule. Book of Mormon being on Mondays and Wednesdays, and Intro to Keyboarding being on Wednesday afternoons, leaving most of Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays completely open. So much for  having a 'busy summer schedule to make the time go by'.

And that is how I went from 11 to 3 in 5.

I know everything happens for a reason. I just need to find/look for the positive side to this :)

Hoping for better luck this upcoming week!

xo,

Mo

Temple Square

I have now been in Utah for seven days. It feels way longer then that, but in a good way. The first three days, my parents were here. While they were here we wondered around a good portion of downtown, went to some of the local restaurants, and also went to some 'hole in the wall' places. One of which was a super delicious breakfast place, and the other I forgot because it was gross (in the words of my father, "you win some, you lose some").

Anyways, the week slowly rolled by. I waited everyday for my roommate to show up (she is still not here; school starts tomorrow), and made myself get out and wander around everyday. I normally found myself at City Creek. I so love that place. I even went to Starbucks on Friday and got 'the usual'. AKA, a grande hot chocolate with a pump of caramel. You can never go wrong with chocolate and caramel. And the lady who made it put in more caramel then usual. Seriously, it was fantastic. I will be heading there again tomorrow to celebrate surviving the first day of classes. So after all this time of walking around City Creek, I realized I hadn't walked around Temple Square yet. Sure, I have been there hundreds of times, but each time feels different. Sometimes you're there wondering around looking at the millions of Christmas lights in the winter (SO awesome, and highly recommended), sometimes you are simply passing through as you head to the Conference Center, or, if you're like me, you simply enjoying wondering around and wanting to lose yourself in such a beautiful place. Well that is what I did today. 

While wondering around, I tried to really look at things from a different perspective. I enjoyed looking at the different colors and types of flowers, that not long ago were concealed with snow. People, and who they were with. What were they there for? Family pictures? In search of a quiet place to ponder and study? Or maybe they were just tourist that were intrigued by the beauty of the Salt Lake Temple.

Here is some of what I saw.

This cute older missionary couple getting pictures taken

This group of families struggling to keep all of their kids together, and dry for family pictures

Bright flowers

The beautiful Temple

This guy getting some pre-mission pictures taken

One of my personal favorites

 This middle aged couple trying to take a 'selfie' together on the bench, and laughing at their failed attempts :)

This one is just my favorite :)

I could walk around Temple Square all day. It was fun thinking back on some old memories that have happened here. I thought about things like walking around and giving my old roommate a full tour of Temple Square last fall, and being invited by family friends two weeks before Christmas to see the Christmas lights, while sipping on delicious hot chocolate and sharing stories of how we can help others during the holiday season. 

Some of my favorite memories have come from being here.

And I can't wait to make more.

xoxo,

Mo

2 Lessons, 1 Day; Thursday May 2

So, i'm going to try out this whole 'blogging' thing again.

Lets see. I got here (Utah) on Monday, and I moved into my new room on Wednesday. I was so worried that I was going to get one of the smaller rooms that they offer, but luckily I got the same size room as last time!! (Its the biggest room they offer) Yay for big rooms! So, Thursday morning I went and did two loads of laundry. No big deal, right? HA. Trust me, I learned my lesson alright. Normally, it costs one dollar to wash, and you pay by the quarter for how long you want the dryer cycle to be. Typically, fifty cents will get a load completely dry. So, I put my fifty cents in the machine, along with my wet clothes, and I press the start button and nothing. NOTHING! So naturally, I press it three or four more times. Still nothing. Then I read the little screen on the dryer that is flashing '$1.25'. Seriously?! It was going to make me pay an additional seventy five cents to dry my four shirts, and two pairs of leggings?! This is were I learned my lesson. I put the additional seventy five cents in and started  the little machine up. IT WORKED! Now, for the other load. So, leave it to me to think that it was only that one machine that was 'broken'. So I go ahead and put in my fifty cents into another empty dryer for my second load. Again, it starts flashing the '$1.25' thing at me again. Turns out all of the machines require a dollar twenty five. UGH. Long story short, I ended up paying for $5 for 2 loads of laundry. Including, two, sixty five minute drying cycles. HA. Lesson. Learned.

After my exciting laundry experience, I decided that I needed to get out. It is definitely not safe for me to just roam around City Creek. Seriously, this place has some of my favorite stores all wrapped up into one convenient location. It is not good for my wallet. So, I decided to walk through City Creek to get to  Harmons and buy a couple of things that I needed anyways, like a shower curtain, and fruit. (Seriously I used to only have dry cereal and microwavable mac and cheese in my room). It actually would have been a cheap trip, except for the fact that I paid almost $10 for a dang bag of grapes. Maybe I should look at how much things cost before putting them in my cart....oops :) Another lesson learned.

Needless to say, I kind of had a frustrating morning/early afternoon. However, things did take a turn for the better later on. Wouldn't you like to know what happened.... ;) (HA, I sometimes think I am seriously the funniest person ever). But in all honesty, it was just that one of my friends called and we talked on the phone for a little, and then I face-timed my best friend Amy. And then ended my night by watching the greatest movie of all time. (Pride & Prejudice) So yeah, it was a great afternoon.

xoxo,
Mo