Finding Purpose

You know when you have like a hundred things you could or probably should do? Oh yeah that is my life like every single day. However, I have the hardest time finding the actual motivation to do any of these hundreds of things on my list. There are just so many other thing that seem so much more entertaining that I can be doing. I think I have really almost perfected doing these other things in my life. I mean prime evidence of that would be the fact that I just finished the eleventh season of Grey’s Anatomy when I am pretty sure I didn’t even start watching it until maybe two months ago at the longest.

I remember being a missionary and being so productive. Okay some of my companions may disagree with that statement, but really we were always doing something. And I can promise we were not ever just sitting around watching soap operas. Okay maybe like once or twice when we caught a peak at the members TV while it was on. We had Plan A and Plan B for basically every minute of every day. Now I am lucky to know what I am going to be doing in two hours.

At the end of my mission I started to quickly realize that I was not going to have the same purpose that drove my productivity. I was worried about what would happen when I got home from my mission and just didn’t have a purpose that I was so passionate about. I wish I could say that I came home and just kept my missionary spirit and purpose with me always, but I can’t. I fell. I let the things of the world come in and take away from some of the wonderful things that I had just barely learned. To me it is amazing how fast bad habits can creep into your life. Satan is good, he is a pro at stealing the hearts of man. I mean he has been doing it since the beginning of time. So why? Why do we think we can out smart him on our own. It has never happened and quite frankly it is never going to happen. We need help, we need help every single day.  

Luckily for you and for me we aren’t expected to be perfect. Our Heavenly Father knows that we are human and that we are going to make mistakes, he knows we are going to fall. He is always always there to pick us back up and cheer us on. He even knows that we will probably screw up again and do something dumb. Yet he still loves us and is there for us without fail. I find so much comfort in this. I don’t know how you couldn’t find comfort in this.

With Conference coming up this weekend I am exciting to get a reboost in life. Find new purpose and better myself. I can’t live all of the mission rules or have hours to study the gospel every day but I can be better. I can find joy in the little victories and delight in the beauty of God that is all around us. Plus I tend to have a lot of time to myself like every other week…..that I could fill a little more productively. 

When I started writing I had no idea where this post would go, but I kind of like it. Mostly I was just putting off the hundreds of other things I should probably do, but do not want to do. 

The Blog is Back!!

Once upon a time I used blogging as a way of expressing myself. I blogged about lots of random things that I am sure the majority of people did not care about, but it helped me. It helped me feel better. It was a way of venting and pretending for just a minute that maybe people actually care what is going on in my life. I mean let’s be honest sometimes my life is pretty epic. So here is to blogging again. No I am not going to blog every single day, but I would like to blog at least every other week. I feel this will help me in numerous ways.

So here is to the revival of my blog!! J

Here is a little about what has been going on in my life since my last post.

For my job I am on the road. I am on the road a lot, basically like every other week. Being on the road this much I have a lot of alone time. I mean I am basically alone twenty four seven for a whole week. Which hasn’t really helped me in the friend or dating department, but that is a whole different story. Okay back to me travelling, I talk to people throughout the day, but they are all strangers and all I have to go home to is an empty hotel room. I would say I have had my number of adventures during the past few months travelling and making the most of the time I have at home.

I have used it as my way to get closer to one of my lifetime goals. That being to visit all the temples in basically the whole wide world!! Which I have been doing a pretty stellar job at!

Los Angeles!! 

The new Payson Temple 

Gilbert, AZ

Denver, CO

And my person favorite! Newport Beach, CA

I have used it as my way to visit all my random friends living in different places. I even got to spend a whole weekend with one of my best friends in the whole world Summer Jones! Plus go on epic adventures with my old companion Kenedy!

Loved seeing this girl in Cali this summer!

Vising Summer, this summer!! 

When I gave Kenedy a thousand tortillas! 

Oh, I also go to see Larson lots since I always
 have to go to the Airport!

Seeing old mission friends in AZ!

I have used it as my excuse to take selfies everywhere I go! I mean who else is going to document all of my random epic adventures.

Marble Canyon!

When I went to the Grand Canyon all by myself and
took 100 selfies!

I know this is not a selfie, but we cannot forget
that one time I point a season pass to
Universal Studios!

And this my friends is why we blog on a regular basis, so you don’t have this random catch up blogs that make no sense. Basically, I am just living life one day at a time. Thanks for taking some time out of your busy life to read my pointless blog. I promise that in the future my blog posts my actually be worth something.

-Ashley P

Ashley P is....HOME!

I am back!!!! Okay so I have been back for over two months now, but I am finally back on my blog! Not having a weekly email anymore is a little sad, but then I remembered how much I loved to blog before my mission and how it was a great way to rid myself of stress!

My family loves me!

 February 4^th, the day that I never thought would ever come, came. I returned home from serving a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. If someone would have ever told me that I, Ashley P, would ever be a returned missionary, I would have just laughed at them. But those 18 months serving the Lord and meeting the people in the Chicago area truly have changed and shaped my life for the better. I am not going to lie, it was hard it was so hard. There were days I just wanted to quit and stop, but in the end it was so worth it. One quote that I come across on my mission is from Elder Holland:

“Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”

I have learned some of the truthfulness of this message. Life isn’t easy, and it is never going to be easy; but the blessings, peace, and hope that come through living the gospel are not things I want to lose in my life. I have discovered that it is easy not to live the gospel, but it is just as easy to live the gospel. The choice is ours. Trails and hard times are going to come to us either way, but wouldn’t it be better to have the help of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The beautiful thing about life is that we all have our agency we get to choose what we do.

At the "bean" with Hermana Barrett!!

Blessings came to me while I was on my mission, but since returning home the Lord has blessed me with blessing beyond my imagination. Things seriously just started falling into place for me. I was blessed with the opportunity to return to a job I loved the following week of returning home, found an apartment with great roommates, bought my dream car, and then got offered a job that I am starting to fall in love with!

I won’t bore you with all the details of my life, at least not yet. I leave that for my next post. Here is to the revival of my blog.

XOXO,

Ashley P!