Life is beautiful!!

So, lately I have been pretty much having the time of my life and I reckon itll get better :) I hope at least lol!! The other weekend I went n swam in the ocean for the FIRST time since my stay here..I know who the heck waits that long? well, me!

So, one night a group of us ventured off to the rockingham beach and of course had to make some kodak moments ay!

We tried to hop on this little ship we saw on the "jetty" but, apparently the owner was sleeping inside!!

HAHAHAHA notice how liz has her shorts ripped..our dear  friend laurence was taking tons o pics of us doing handstands yet failed to inform liz of her biiiggg rip in her pants!! hahaha classic!!
Later that night we decided to go KANGROO hunting..unfortunately we found nothing!! All is well though because I am bound to see one while I am here haha!!

Anyways, here I am living my life up in the Indian ocean!!! It looks soo clear right? haha the beauty of editing photos ay? Nah but it really is pretty clear and I loved every minute being in it, I cant imagine coming home to just a lake!! I was pretty paranoid about whether or not a jellyfish was going to come out and sting me! By the time I got super comfortable a little kid runs out of the ocean nearly in tears that he got stung by one...haha couldnt of been better timing!!

This is me n liz at the beach!! We went a little camera crazy but hey, thats what im all about capturing memories!! I have learned here in Australia that getting ready is overrated..Im now n officially rockin the full on natural look! well to an extent..Anyways! The other night a big group of us spent the night at the Whites casa n had a Bbq! We decided to play risk, but me being me I was only worried about setting up my army and then took off haha!!

Me n Jrae!!

These two boys R from halfway across the world also!! But, they pretty much have been here for over 2 years considering they both served missions here the left one from canada n the right from good ol utah!!

Apparently they eat everything with bread??

Also, these last couple weeks I had some beautiful experiences with the family I am living with!! As most of you know they are Jehova Witnesses and are the most kind loving respectful family I have met! Since day one of my being here all the family and I talked about most of the time was religion!! Of course we spent alot of our time asking and answering questions about each others religions! Unfortunately, I have NEVER been good with words, so I had the missionaries come over! Elder Jacobbs, & Elder Shoebrook! They were able to speak with the family and fill them in on the history and background of our church!! That being said, the family decided to take on the opportunity of reading the book of mormon:) Although, I knoooww this in no way means that the family will all of a sudden decide they want to become apart of this church, but it was THE greatest blessing to be able to share the gospel with them and help them understand where my faith lies! The greatest blessing in life is to be able to share the knowledge that I have about that beautiful book of mormon and the things its taught me in life!! All I know is that god sent me here to Australia for soo many reasons that ive already figured out and I know theirs so many more reasons for my being here and I cant wait to find out what they are!! :)

<3

Wrong Country!!

                                                     This is what they call a "large drink"

                                                     The mozzies here are evil...pure evil..

                                                      NANDOS!! amazingly yummy chicken

                                            Me, Liz, Gennie at hillary harbour!!

                                                            Beautiful!!

                                                           Me n Pedro!! hahahahah
Its been FAR too long since ive sat here and wasted time blogging about my life here in OZ!! Why am I in the wrong country youd ask? Uh...Maybe cause its filled with 90% of Maoris or Kiwis!! So here I am...Over 1 month into my journey halfway across the world and I have currently befriended 99% Maori friends..and apparently I am beginning to look like a maori!! All I can say is that I definitely have no problem with this!! I love me some maori pplz!! I cant say ive done much since ive last posted but, I can say that ive met some pretty amazing people!! This last week I spent the weekend with good ol ginny n liz up north of perth and got to experience what they call..'op shopping' aka DI/Budget shopping at home!! All I can say is thats how I roll :) Also, I have come to the conclusion that the lords sent me to a country filled with ridiculously beautiful voiced people SOOO I can have the chance to learn to sing (one day)!! I am pretty sure every person I met here has vocal talents..and yes I am verryy much jealous of them!! One more interesting thing about my being here is that I pretty much have found myself in church activities about???? 3 times a week...2 nights of what they call "tute" (no, not the fart tute guys..institute "tute") and sundays which have firesides afterwards quite often!! All I know is that its definitely been a blessing being here with such an amazing group of YSA members who take this gospel to heart...which def is a big MUST DO considering their living in a country of agnostics!! Huuugee testimony builder for myself and I can tell that its just the beginning of that spiritual strength that im gaining through their examples!! So to sum up my first month here in OZ.... its been "mean as"!!! :)

In a matter of time!!

So this weekend I went to the beautiful island of PENGUINS!! Yes..Penguins!! Whats the temperature here in Australia you ask?? oh you know only about 90 Degrees Farenheit!! So how on earth are they living here.. I have no clue. Poor penguins!! Although I must say these penguins are lucky to be living on such a GORGEOUS island!! Me and my Camera became best friends that day I couldnt stop taking snapshots of all of its beauty!! So here it is people a piece of australia in its beauty!!

Beautiful ay?? It took me as much as going to penguin island to realize how beautiful it really is here!! I spent these past couple weeks looking around thinking..um its ok..not amazing..but I definitely got a newsflash on this island!! :) Pretty much ive spent these last couple weeks trying to figure out why im even here and taking hardly ANY notice of my surroundings just my life at home..and well lets just say the journeys just begun!! Im now and officially ready to LIVE IT UP  to its fullest!! :)

The tourist!!

So here I am living the dream life Down under..And yet it is only the beginning!! Considering its week 2 I must say this is pretty much the most interesting past couple of weeks I have EVER had in my life!! ... (exaggerating) Pretty much I spent the week figuring out where on earth I am...hm has it hit me that im in Australia? Surrounded by people with some crazy lingo ? Living by a beautiful ocean? um..NO!! I would just say im currently living a surreal life at the moment! I would LOVE if reality hit me so I could enjoy the moments a bit more instead of spend my days looking a bit confused. I am currently living with a Maori family in new zealand..So here I am and American living in Australia..Learning Maori & Aussie Lingo. I wonder what kind of looks ill get with that mix of an Accent!! In fact.The Harris family and I have spent half the time weve spoken to each other staring at one another blankly..considering we can hardly understand each other underneath all the American/Maori accents. Most importantly though I must say I have the most beautiful kids to look after!!! (seriously their gorgeous) And the sweetest and most understanding family to live with!!

Of course it took getting used too but, now they currently introduce me to their little play mates as their "big Sister" .. and so I have now just adopted 2 new sibilings Little brother Tane and Little sister Maia :)
On the scale of my interesting couple of weeks I have now officially graduated from the Dolphin Driving School!! I now drive on the left hand side of the road and would prefer it more than driving on the right hand side!! First day was definitely interesting as the lady stormed up to the front door angry that I have taken so long to come outside (how was I supposed to know??) But, in the end we became friends!! She then invited me to hang out with her 30 year old daughter..haha!

Another interesting part of my life here down under so far would be my favorite gift in life which is..the Food!! Lets just say I cant wait to dig into a big American Flavorfilled Dish!! :) Its a good thing this family I currently live with has some good cooking or Id be a little lost in life. I did have a chance to eat a Mcdonalds meal lets just say..Mcdonalds is Mcdonalds.

Me and Ngakina thought we were nightowls considering we went out at 10 o clock at night to get Mcdonalds.. (yes that Is really really late here even for me) haha! Good times! The most interesting part of my couple weeks was my time at church!! So walking into church I thought hey..cool Im going to my YSA ward..No..I ended up in a family ward. And split off into a YSA group after sacrament made up of 10-15 people!! Shocking?? YES!! Of course I knew the churches wouldnt be as strong here but, I had no idea until I walked into church that day! But, I did meet lots of real nice people very friendly!! I had the chance to go on a river cruise around Perth as a big YSA activity!! And I must say these Aussies know how to PaRtY!! Lets just say that cruise ship was Jumpin!! Literally!! Me knowing hardly anybody..I sure made my rounds of groovin on the dance floor doing my own thing..of course I ran into people who just let me dance in there groups what can I say..Im in freakin Australia gotta live it up ay!

                                                     They Call childrens diapers "nappies"

                                                          Australian Bananas??..YUM!!

                                                  Only those who have know me well Understand
                                                  the true meaning of this photo :)

                                                       Money here is def more pretty than
                                                       U.S green dollars!!

                                                    Love them All such a sweet family!!

Anyways as much as id love to tell you readers my whole experience here so far ..lets just sum it up to pretty much amazing and def a life changing experience!! And its only the beginning:)

God gives us dreams a size too big, so that we can grow in them.

So, the other day I spent my time in Vegas and pretty much had a blast besides the fact that my immune system decided to fail and let me get sick! Did I let that bother me...no way (ok maybe a little). Well, overall it was a blast the whole reason we took a trip there was to take Bri to the airport so she can go travel to Fiji for the heck of it..and New Zealand to be a nanny! Dropping her off at the airport was pretty much one of the most sad things ive seen because of how hard it was for her to say goodbye! I then put myself in her shoes and realized wow...What am I doing? Am I going to be strong enough to say goodbye? What if I get homesick!? What if I dont get homesick? What if im making the wrong decision? What if this will be the BEST decision ive ever made? Then I finally got a grip and thought... no, im doing this. As big of a dream as it is, I know gods given me this opportunity to GROW, to learn, to make a difference in my life and maybe make a difference in someone elses life! Like ive said... "God gives us dreams a size too big, so that we can grow in them." Its time to a take a leap of faith :) As I was crossing of my list of things to do I realized that I dont have a Australian Bucket list yet!! Time to get one started ay?

• Learn some Aussie lingo
• Have an Accent by the time I come back to America
• Pet a Kangaroo (hopefully thats allowed?)
• Gain a stronger testimony/relationship to the gospel then I ever have before!
• Visit the Perth, Australia Temple
• Photograph/Study Aboriginals
• Make some great Aussie friends :)
• Learn to swim in the ocean... (or in general haha)
• Learn to not be afraid of the ocean
• Learn to surf!
• Go sailing/Boating
• Travel to my native country Samoa
• Travel to N.Z and all other Islands I possibly can
• Learn to drive on the left hand side ( yikes)
• Makea  difference in my Australian families life
• Learn and gain a great relationship with my Australian family as well!
• Strengthen my Photography Skills!
• Attend Zumba!
• Help those families who lost their homes in the flooding in Australia!!
• Scuba dive
• Swim with sharks when In a steele cage!
• Swim with dolphins!

Well...thats about all that I could pull out of the top of my head for my journey down under!! yeah, its pretty lame but, hey as soon as I get there im sure my updated bucket list will be 10x better :) Ive definitely spent these last couple of days realizing how lucky and blessed I really am! Blessed with a beautiful family, with a home, with my health, with talents, opportunities, great examples, and many more small but, simple beautiful blessings in my life:) The other day I was looking through some photos and took notice of how gorgeous some of the small things I photographed really are!! Its funny how sometimes that happens...where you have to look twice or maybe more times to realize how important and beautiful everything is!

                           Definitely have learned how much I take nature and the beauty in it for granted!!

The temple..Nothing could compare to how beautiful it is!

Hahahaha! In vegas we went to Cheesecake factory and me and jaron got a diff kind than Bri and Jason and for some odd reason I kept saying...can I have some of your cheesecake? Can I have a bit? Can I have some Please? As Bri was in the middle of a conversation I guess you could call it an Inside joke!

We went to this art store and they were selling crazy things like a dented in piece of scrap metal for like 10 grand...and this table of marbles where you sit on a plate for prob a bit more than 10 grand!!

                                          The new Centre building in vegas it was GORGEOUS!!

                                        The bellagio decorations!! One of my fav pics soo pretty:)

A piece of 2011!!

                                                                 Gearing Up for Australia


Wow, ive finally hopped on the blogspot banwagon! I have always loved looking at other peoples blogs and how cute they are so I FINALLY got one put together.
So its 2011, the beginning of my new year with so many suprises awaiting me!! I have  taken on the challenge of moving to Australia for the year and couldnt be more mixed with emotions!! First off, for all those who love to ask me the question of if im nervous....Yes!! Not nervous about being in Australia, but about finding my way around the airport :) Sounds a bit silly right? Well, thats the truth consdering ive never been off around airports by myself. Even though ive never been to australia by myself either,but Ive spent many nights on my knees and couldnt feel more comfortable taking on the opportunity!! I will be tending to 2 beautiful children while there and am VERY excited to join their family!! Although, I know I have the most important people in my life here at home, I know I definitely have something to look forward to coming home to! :) Also, for those who love to ask me... How does Jaron feel about this? Haha lets just say hes the most supportive in all that Im doing! I definitely couldnt of asked for a better support system!! Lets just remember people, I am only leaving for a short while NOT forever :) Well everyone YAY I have completed my first blog post...and if your still reading this Ill be suprised considering my nonstop rambling. I cant wait to post up my adventures from "down under" :)