Finals Week

This week was the last one of the semester! I'm so glad to be done with all my classes, and grateful that I was able to finish everything on time and do reasonably well (hopefully!).

Monday was my last full day of classes, and it started out in a pretty awesome way. My first class of the day was Book of Mormon, and we sang an opening hymn: "Far Far Away on Judea's Plains", a song written by an ancestor of mine. After we sang, my professor mentioned that this is the only Christmas hymn written by a Latter-day Saint, so I raised my hand and shared that I'm related to him. My professor got SO excited and said "So you must know the story behind the hymn, then!" I was a bit embarrassed to admit that I didn't know, but my professor did, and he shared it with the class. 

When St. George was first being settled, one of the first things the pioneers built was the St. George Tabernacle. Around Christmas of 1869, a huge group of Catholics moved into the area, and wanted somewhere to hold a Christmas Mass service. They were told that they were welcome to use the tabernacle. However, they had no music with them, so John Menzies Macfarlane (my great great great uncle) offered to write a Christmas hymn for them. He did, and it was performed at that Christmas mass service by a choir comprised of both Catholics and Latter-day Saints. The story is really neat and fun, but I got something more from this experience: I would NEVER have listened as intently to this story told by my professor if I hadn't known that I was related to the composer. Because I've been involved in genealogy for the past few years, I was able to recognize the name of an ancestor, and learn even more about them. It strengthened my testimony of genealogy so much!!

Tuesday was my little brother Alex's 8th birthday! Jake and I FaceTimed with him that night and got to hear about his birthday party, and how much fun he's having taking karate classes. I miss that little guy so much.

Jake and I have been talking about starting to save money to buy a dog hopefully sometime next summer, because we had been told that we were allowed to have pets here as long as we paid a little more for rent every month. However, we looked on our apartment's website and talked to the managers, and it turns out that we can't have pets here at all. That was really disappointing news for me to hear, because I've been really missing having animals around, even more than I thought I would. It would have been really nice to have a dog to keep me company when Jake is at work or in school or busy with his church calling, but unless we move somewhere else in Rexburg that allows pets, that won't be happening any time soon.

On Friday morning, I gave my final presentation in my Book of Mormon class. We had to be in class at 7 am which I was NOT happy about, but it was my last final for the semester, so that was somewhat comforting. Here is the video that I made and presented to my class. I spent the entire semester looking for examples of service and charity throughout the second half of the Book of Mormon, and figuring out how to apply it to my own life. It was a really eye-opening experience and I'm so glad my professor asked us to do the assignment, because I never would have thought to do it otherwise. After I finished presenting I was allowed to leave, and that feeling of freedom was so awesome! As I waited outside for Jake to pick me up, it started snowing! The snow didn't stick since it's still not quite cold enough, but it was fun while it lasted.

Saturday Jake and I woke up ready for a nice day together, since Jake didn't have to work until that evening. We decided to go grocery shopping and as we were on our way, it started snowing SO hard that we almost couldn't see! We made it to the store and back safely, and it was a fun little adventure. Then Jake decided that since today was his last day off until Christmas Eve, he wanted to finish his Christmas shopping for me. So he dropped me off at home and went to the store, and was gone for about an hour. When he got back I locked myself in the bedroom so he could wrap my gifts. He had put some gifts into plain cardboard boxes, so I was allowed back into the living room as he was finishing up, and I have to say it was really amusing watching him try to wrap things properly. Mom taught me some wrapping tricks a long time ago and I guess I've just always taken them for granted, because watching Jake was just hilarious. I ended up finishing his wrapping job on the last box because it was turning into such a mess!

Sunday morning I made Jake a festive Christmas bow tie for him to wear to church, and he looked adorable! We had fun at church playing with a little two year old girl sitting in the pew in front of us. She sat on my lap for a good 20 minutes and we looked at some picture books together.