"Jesus did not give up His whole life so I can give half of mine."

Happy Resurrection Day of our Savior, Jesus Christ, everyone!

Random news:

• Two days ago, I was approved for a student credit card! Woohoo for building up credit and growing up!
• I can't believe we've only been in school for two weeks.
• I ADORE MY SCHEDULE SO MUCH. There is not a single class I am taking that I don't love.
• LDS Marriage & Family with Brother Goodman (with whom I took Mission Prep freshman year) is my teacher and wow. Just wow.
• I love being sore. Is that weird? No. Sarah (my roommate) agrees with me. It's that good sore when you know you've been working hard. In my case, dancing hard. I LOVE my Contemporary Dance class. I am always sweating bullets afterward. And sore.
• I am working ALL day Friday. And I mean ALL day: 10a-9p and that isn't even including closing, which takes longer.
• I am working Saturday night, too. With Sarah, of course! I work Fridays with her, too.
• Liz, Sarah and I are absolutely LOVING living together. Now that we know each other, we are getting along ridiculously well. I love them so much. We're praying about finding an apartment (staying in the ward boundaries, hopefully) where we can all three live together (but we want to move out of this one).
• Speaking of praying, we've started apartment prayer. Sarah and I thought of it. Our minds are ridiculously in sync this semester, it's weird. Apartment prayer usually only consists of Sarah, Liz and I because Ashley's always with Oliver (they are dating).
• I have been eating peanut butter sandwiches every night for dinner the past few nights. And no, I'm not going to plead the lame "I'm a poor college student" excuse; I have money to buy food and I buy good food. PB sandwiches are all I want to eat for dinner! It's weird! It's because I eat two granola bars throughout the day as lunch; my body, however, craves PB sandwiches for lunch, and me not giving my body PB sandwiches results in me eating them later in the day.
• Today, I forced myself to eat broccoli-cheddar soup, though. Yay me!
• This Portrait Photo class is DEFF pushing me out of my element; it's all in the studio (for the most part) and working with lights. BUT IT IS SO, SO FUN!
• I should probably go to sleep. It's 12.30 am, I still have studying to do, and I have to wake up for a 9 am class. And no, I will not plead the lame "I never get any sleep because I'm a college student" excuse; I SLEEP WELL! Minus Tuesdays and Thursdays, my long days.
• I need to buy more milk, more orange juice, more bread, more granola bars, more grapes and tomatoes, red and green peppers. Hurray for healthy eating!
• It really is SO important to whole-heartedly do daily scripture study and pray on your knees multiple times a day; I have been finding myself relying on it more than ever these past two weeks- not because I have some major issues or problems and not because I need to check it off my "list", but because I want to. I sincerely want to and it's filling my heart with that desire more and more. God is just revealing such amazing, great things in my life and teaching me so much. It's unreal.
• I adore Indian food. It's probably my favorite.
• "Because I have been given much, I too must give."
• I just really love my life.
• It's ridiculous how much I love my life.
• I am so thankful God gave me life.

I treat this blog as a journal of sorts, if you haven't noticed. I enjoy it very much.

♥ Melizza.

Surrender.

The thought of surrendering to anything/anyone is seen as a sign of weakness, but I beg to differ.


I think in many cases, surrender is a sign of STRENGTH. This is not true when people surrender out of fear- this is not what I am talking about. I am talking about the people who surrender, that know themselves SO well and have their heads well on their shoulders, because they see the bigger picture.


Before I go on, let me declare one thing: Art is in everything. Art is everything. When I say this, I go beyond the general idea of art that involves stages, scripts, violins, paintbrushes and cameras. I am also talking about doctors, teachers, lawyers, paramedics and anyone else in a career.


To me, surrender is a sign of SELFLESSNESS, or the desire to be so. As an artist, you HAVE to surrender. If you are selfish with your time, you can make decent, good art, but you cannot make REAL, TRUE, GREAT art. You cannot truly progress and grow. I know this from personal experience. The artists I look up to give up whole days and days to their art. Even a few hours isn't enough. The artists I look up to aren't perfect, they DO mess up, but they take extra hours and days out of their time to make improvements and alterations. They stand in front of a sheet or sit in a library with their noses in books for hours upon hours to try and learn, become better. They surrender to become better.


To go even further, I think surrendering to someOne, the One and Only God, takes even more strength and eternal perspective. This is the ultimate, great surrender. There is no single thing a person can do that takes more courage, strength and selflessness, nor is there no one thing/person that can provide greater happiness than when you surrender to Him. When you surrender to Him and truly surrender to Him, you love with His Love. Unconditionally. You put your family first. You serve your family. You seek the weary, the poor, the broken-hearted and tend to their needs. You think less about yourself and more about Him. You think less about yourself and more about His children, His work.


In a world that screams that people should stand upon a mountain proclaiming their individuality and greatness, with all else and all others beneath them, the world is ever in need of more people that are willing to lie low (figuratively-speaking and spiritually) and under those at their lowest to tend to them, LOVE them, lift them, encourage them, unify with them. It's easy to be high and mighty; it's harder to lower yourself. A lot of times, what is easy also tends to be the cheapest. Don't go for easy. Don't go for cheap. Humility is the greatest strength. Loving is the greatest thing we can do in that strength. Loving like He did is going the extra mile- like Jesus Christ always does for us.


Status: currently trying to embrace all this in my own life.

♥ Melizza.

Random news + Love plans:

• Jonathan Canlas is teaching a photography class at my school. NBD. 
• On that note, I would take it if I was a Photo BFA student. I can next semester! SO blessed to be at my school.
• My school's photo studio is SO sick. Our equipment is ridiculous. I can't wait to get my hands on it all and experiment Saturday!
• I am now officially certified to handle food at restaurants. My new Utah Food Handler's Permit says so.
• Everyone in Utah: COME EAT AT TOKYO SWEETS AT THE PROVO TOWNE CENTER. It's delicious. And new!
• I just realized that I LOVE history. Not the general history classes like "History of France" and "American History", but SPECIFIC history classes. I have taken History of Dance and History of Modern Civilizations through Literature in the past here in college and adored them both. I am currently taking History of Music and History of Jazz and I adore those even more. It's unreal. I have goosebumps the whole time. No joke. History minor, anyone?

My Love plans?

I am going to see about getting a group of people to do some outreach here in Provo. Back home with Mickey (a few years back), I would sometimes participate in what they called "Love Bags"- packing sandwiches, notes, water and such together to hand out to the homeless back home in downtown Ft. Lauderdale where there is a BIG homeless population. Well, I know there are quite a lot of homeless here in Provo, too. And they need love. REAL love.


I remember one time in downtown Ft. Lauderdale, Mickey and I spoke to a man named Cliff for two solid hours. I wish we had more time to speak with him. I wish I knew where he was right now. I know there are thousands upon thousands of people like Cliff: without food, without a home, without a family, without hope. I want to help introduce love and Christ into the lives of people like Cliff.

"Jesus said to feed the poor, not donate.” I read that here on Keegan's blog a while back and it really struck and remained with me.


We have been commanded to unite with our fellow brethren; how can we possibly do that by writing out checks to charity efforts? I mean, it's still an awesome thing to do, of course, but with God and His work, we must go the extra mile. We must LOVE His children personally, individually, as He loves us.


"Because I have been given much, I too must give."


All for His glory, all for His children.


less of me, more of Him.


♥ Melizza.

I just got through one of the hardest, busiest days of my life.

AND I DID WONDERFUL!


I really am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who is always there lifting me up, supporting me and being my strength.


Seriously.


Before intimidating obstacles, I ask myself, "How in the world will I get through this?"
After conquering those obstacles, I ask myself, "How in the world DID I get through this?"


And I know it's ALL because my Savior has already carried the burden for me.


I can do hard things. 
All things.
Because of my Savior! 
It's so beautiful to have that knowledge and assurance in my life.


"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:13


♥ Melizza.

Elder Mark Daniel's e-mail to me today:

"MELISSA!


can I just say, that you are fantastically, marvelously, expectacularly, seriously, awesome?
Enserio, you are wonderful. Don´t EVER forget that!! :) I miss you a butt load and all our amazing jokes and whatnot. Thank you soooo soooo much for being Meli :) So we had lunch at a member´s house the other day, and their daughter was blasting taylor swift from her room and it was SOOOOO amazing!! haha for three reasons, number one, it was taylor swift in argentina, two, it was should´ve said no, and so I thought of nichole337, and three, I was like, freak, I miss Meli SO much!


BUt yeaahhh :) you´re soooo much more awesome than me. No chiste. Hope your semana is FANTASTIC!!


I miss you and I love you Meli loo!
Elder Marky Mark"

My thoughts:

1. Ridiculous goofy smile on my face.
2. He is doing such beautiful, great work on his mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
3. I am so proud of him.
4. He is one of the best examples in my life.
5. I miss having my best friend nearby.
6. Mark has been on his mission for five months, already! Oh, how the time FLIES.
7. I pray for him and those he teaches every day.
8. I'm thinking I may not NOT want to spend eternity with him.

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

http://mormon.org/jesus-christ/

♥ Melizza.

“I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden. I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”

—	Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Thoughts on a mission.

So I legit, seriously think I plan to serve a full, year and a half-long mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I want to dedicate that time to bringing people to the fully restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't choose where to go; the Lord would call me to serve where He wanted and needed me. I could serve speaking English, Spanish, Tagalog, or any other language He would want me to speak and teach in. I have to be 21 years old to be able to serve this mission, and that's a year and a month away, but it's never too early to start thinking about it. If I decided to go through with this, I would submit my papers next summer and be able to enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC) by November, when I'll be turning 21.


It's all very exciting :}


♥ Melizza.