DAVID ARCHULETA...drool

Okay, I am like in love with David Archuleta. I didn't really care who won or lost American Idol last year, (I love Jordin Sparks now, that she won last year), but this is the first year that I've really wanted someone to win. this kid is Mormon, just older than me, and from Utah. I REALLY REALLY want him to win. I like all the songs he sings, they're all songs I love, and I love the way he sings them. Even if people have to bash him about singing religious songs. He's in the top 5, DANG IT I HOPE HE WINS. He's so cute. And a guy that can sing...makes me drool hahahahaha Oh, and he can play the piano too. And how he can sing songs by girl artists...

Here's his audition:



And the top 6, singing When you Believe from The Prince of Egypt I love this song!!!


And Think of Me from Phantom of the Opera:


And just some random video of him singing a thousand miles:


And finally, him singing Mary, Did You Know? (I really like this song)

You Are the LIGHT of the World

Well, I'm getting really excited for summer. But I'll be sad to see spring go. I got asked to the dance on Saturday, and it's a very sweet story. I'll have to explain it when I get the pictures from the dance. Girl's Camp, Youth Conference...Youth Court Conference, EFY, my friends from Japan coming...yes, this will be a summer to remember.

Go watch the movie on lightmovie[dot]com. It is very good. We're using it for Girl's Camp this year.

I'll write what it says here:

You are the light of the world!

And as such, you are here to use your Light
to uplift and transform anything unlike
peace, harmony, and good will.

Rather than impose your will upon what you do not want,
choose instead to think, feel, and intend
that what you prefer...already is!
Act as if.
See it as accomplished.

In doing so, you create
a Quantum overlay of
infinite possibilities and probable futures.

You are the Light of the World.

You do not need the world's permission
to shine your light upon the dark.

As you suspend judgment,
your Light instantly neutralizes lower energies.

In the midst of shining your Light,
polarized thinking is aligned.

Just stand in the midst of all you resist
and instead of letting judgment take you over,
put your entire focus upon the Light.

The Light makes a way when there was no way.

You don't have to warn the darkness
that you are coming with the Light.

You are the Light of the World.

Let your Light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works
and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
- according to Matthew

And so it is...

Lexi's Spiritual Lows and Highs

I'd just like to share a spiritual experience. I had been a spiritual low the month before I went to Japan. And the sad thing was, I hadn't even noticed it. I had been so busy. Heavenly Father was completely pushed out of my life. I had no time for Him. I didn't notice this either. I was making friends with people lower than my standards. Gina tried to talk to me about it, but of course I just blew her off, because I couldn't see it myself. Looking back on it now, I can't believe I didn't listen to my best friend. I was going off on the wrong track. I was coming home late every night on a school night because I just had so much going on. I w as so stressed out. My spirit was crying out for me to talk to somebody. So I would come home crying every night talking to my mom. And Brother Rasmussen. But it just wasn't enough. I wasn't getting the help and advice that I needed, even though I knew both of them were trying their best.

Finally, one night while I was talking to my mom, (just a couple of nights before I went to Japan), she said that it's good that I'm talking to my mom about my problems and stress, but that I needed to talk to my Heavenly Father. Because He can give the best advice and help that I need. And he knows exactly what I'm going through. And I should be praying all the time. That's when I finally realized that I hadn't been praying or reading my scriptures for the past month. And my spirit had been crying out for me to talk to Heavenly Father, not just my mom and seminary teacher. It had just completely slipped out of my life, and I hadn't noticed. And that scared me. I was stressed out that night though, that I was crying and couldn't control myself. I wanted to say a prayer, but I had to have my mom help me. The second that prayer was done, I stopped crying, and I was able to sleep peacefully, and I felt the stress taken off me.

And even though the last few days before I went to Japan were so stressful it should have been enough to kill somebody, I was able to get through it all.

And so I had that amazing spiritual uplift in Japan. I came back to Utah on a spiritual, hyper high (Gina, too).

Finally, it was just a few days after I came back from Japan. I found out that Gina had been praying for me that I would notice what was going wrong while I was in Japan, and I would get back on the right road. Her prayer was answered perfectly. And to think she included me in her testimony during testimony meeting at youth conference. It should have been the other way around. I seriously don't know what I would do without Gina. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if Gina hadn't prayed for me. I might still be on my spiritual low and just downward spiraling.

This week, I've been getting ready for my patriarchal blessing. Reading my scriptures and praying everyday, going to mutual, bearing my testimony during fhe, taking good notes during General Conference, and not listening to bad songs. And Stake Conference was really good. I'm so glad I got to be a part of the youth choir. The 2 youth speaker's talks were very spiritual, and all the speakers after that said at least one thing about the youth. And I got to go straight to my patriarchal blessing after stake conference. I really liked my blessing. It was very positive and happy. And just talked about my future positively, and helped me feel at peace about my fears of the future. I can't wait until it comes in the mail!!! I want to read it again and again!!! I love spiritual highs!!!

Like I promised, here are the videos and purikura. Lots of inside jokes and stuff, but you'll get the feel of how much fun we had there. ahahahaha/uhohohouhohouuhohoho

General Conference was the bestest. I got a lot out of it this time, learned a lot of stuff I needed. I love how each person gets something different out of it. Church is amaza-zinga!!!

Tokyo Stake is wasa wasa baby wasa wasa hoo hoo

I would like to say that I am back by popular demand, but it's more just like I'm back from Japan. Go and read this post that my mom did. It's pretty much amazing. It was so hard earning all that money for Japan. I'd been saving for a year. It was so hard for me to leave, and I promised all the Tokyo stake youth that I'd go for youth conference the next year. I found a job as fast as I could, and started saving. But me being a shop-a-holic, it was hard haha. But I still saved a lot. And it only happened because I paid my tithing. That was the first time it was so hard for me to pay tithing. I'd always been paying it since I was little, but this time I had exactly the $900 for my ticket just a few days before I left so I wouldn't be getting another pay check until after I came back, and the deal was I had to give the $900 to my parents before I left. So if I paid tithing, I wouldn't be able to keep the deal. But I did, and it all worked out somehow.

Me and Gina had jet lag issues, and we have a whole bunch of homework to catch up on now, but it was definitely worth it. All the pros outweighed the cons. Maika's family was so nice to us. We took lots of purikura, ate dinner at the Nakagawa's on our first full day there. Maika and Ribeka gave their 7-year old daughter the missionary discussion on the plan of salvation (because it's the rule in the Nakagawa's family that their kids have to take all the missionary discussions before they get baptized). It moved me to see them teach a little girl so spiritually.

The next day, Sunday, I went to church at my old ward. People didn't recognize me. Sad day. They thought Gina was Tashi, and I was her friend. Does it get any more sad than that? People would look at me with a weird look on their face for like 10 seconds and then their eyes would get big and you could tellWe went over our script for our skit and dance for the youth conference talent show. It was the first time I'd seen Kousuke since I'd left. It had almost been a year. We both looked way different. Then we went and picked Ribeka from her youth conference committee meeting. Yuichiro and Masaki were there, it was so fun to see them.

The next day, Monday, the 24th, we went to Maika's last day of school with her. Her teacher wrote all this stuff in calligraphy to take home with us. Her teacher and class are really nice. I hadn't seen them in a year and a half. She's graduating next spring!!! Then we went straight to Nakano to hang out. I got to see Urara, McPork, Ari, and Tom for the first time in a year too. I missed all of them so much. We just played games from like noon to 7 pm. The "I love you game was so funny. Or the "I'll kill you, so help me!!!" (inside jokes)

Tuesday, we practiced our talent show at our ward building all morning, went shopping in the afternoon, and went to Masaki's house for dinner. We had so much fun there, and the food was REALLY good (watch the pictures in the slide show), and the "Is Mr. Mumble Home" game was so fun. But all of these things aren't funny when I write them down. You just had to have been there to understand.

Wednesday the 26th, we practiced all morning again, went and did karaoke with Maika (she's freaking good), and then went to the Tokyo temple at night with Kousuke and Masaki. We played cards and ate McDonald's in the annex. But we couldn't stay late, because we had to go to youth conference the next morning.

So Thursday, we woke up early, picked everybody up, and we drove the 2-3 hours. Well, youth conference was...*insert every postive, word you can think of here*. Our talent show ended up winning first place, we taught them lots of dances, we made tons and tons of inside jokes, Gina had to get over her bathing with all the girls issues, we taught missionary dicussions, wrote letters to the missionaries from our stake, had an amazing seminary lesson and guest speaker, danced our hearts out at the dance, I had a heart-to-heart with Tom, bonded with Yuuki & Tom, cried our hearts out during the graduation when we all sang those songs (when they brought out the guitars, I started crying.) Me and Gina were crying so hard, we made all the boys cry. And the testimony meeting...there's a special feeling about Tokyo Stake, especially around the youth.You can only feel it there. The number of kids is few, but the few are strong. They're modest, don't drink anything with caffeine at all, the boys don't tease the girls, they're polite, and very spiritual. We took so many pictures. Dang it, I miss them so bad!!! We went shopping, took more purikura, and ate out the night we got back. I got like no sleep when I was at youth conference, I didn't sleep when I got home because we went shopping and stuff, but I stayed up til 11:30 waiting for tom to call because he said he would and then talked with him until 3 in the morning when Maika's cell phone ran out of battery. (Because he was going to Okinawa the next morning with his family and I wouldn't see him again before I left).

Sunday, they asked me to bear my testimony about paying tithing during sacrament meeting because the bishop had heard me bear it at youth conference. All the Nakano boys (Yuichiro, Urara, and McPork) came after church to come hang out, and they all went to the Nanjos for dinner. Masaki and his cousin Riisa showed up too. I was so lucky. On my last night, I got yakisoba, curry, and okonomiyaki all in one meal!!! We played a ton more games, and the boys fought over who got to do the dishes. It was so funny. They finally decided that each person could wash for 10 seconds and then they would switch. And so they were all like "your 10 seconds are up!" haha We took a lot of pictures that night too.

Monday morning, Kousuke showed up early, we took purikura, packed up, and drove to the airport. Masaki, Riisa, and Yuuki all showed up and surprised us. There wasn't any room in the car, so they all took the train for 2 hours with their own money!!! Talk about love. We took a ton of pics, filmed our goodbyes.

It's been so hard adjusting back to small town Utah life. I feel like I'm moving back all over again. *tear* They're coming this summer, and me and Tash are going back again next spring for youth conference. We'll be back haha

I just wanted to say I'm so thankful that I was able to go. It looked like it wasn't going to work out up until the last minute, but how it all worked out...only Heavenly Father could have been behind it. I'm Japanese on the inside, and I feel like I'm half Japanese half American, so when I live over here I feel like I'm only living with one of my parents and vice versa. I miss Tokyo Stake!!! But I'm thankful for the experiences I had here too!!! Hurry and come to Utah

Watch our wonderful slideshow of the 200 pics we took

I'll post videos and purikura next time