This year I have had the delight of taking New Testament from a passionate professor who has really helped open my eyes to both the deeper meanings and the cultural contexts of the Bible.  Especially following my mission, I am ever fascinated by worldwide religion, history, and traditions, and hope to find opportunities to learn more.

bonus picture of Rachel & I's favorite creature to ever walk this earth

Today proved nothing extraordinary.  Just another March day, not lacking in moments of boredom nor frustration.  But yet it was good, and that is the sweetness if life.  That we can be uplifted by dumb, completely ordinary things, like:

• the smell of smoke intertwined with rain
• daily jogs and ab workout videos
• the 50¢ gala apple from the vending machine, smothered in PB and shared with Rachel 
• getting fist bumped by new acquaintances from the ward
• getting an A on the 100-question anatomy exam which I had dedicated my life to studying
• {speaking of anatomy, who would have ever thought that queasy Kate would suddenly be holding human hearts or intestines?}
• talking to my mom on the phone  
• realizing surname spelling errors on ancestral documents which, once corrected, lead to wonderful genealogical finds
• reading German fairy tales out of my Grimm Brothers' book

my mission mama

step one: cover the pork in flour, then eggs, then breadcrumbs

step two: deep fry it. voila.

Spätzle is literally just dough made out of flour, egg, water, and salt shredded in a cheese-grater looking contraption into boiling water, removed with a ladle the second it floats to the top

Other fun this week: Paige, Rachel and I dressed up with every ounce of determination to party it up.  No movie this time, we decided!  But after an hour of disagreeing and shooting down each others' ideas, we accidentally wound up on the couch yet again watching bizarre SNL skits.  Whoops!

bonus pic of my fancy shell pasta ... so proud of myself

high school buds back together again for some All-American Sunday breakfast

we took Paige out to Brazilian food in honor of her mission call

I am a maiden of no magnificent name. 
I was born petite, but I was by no means fragile.  I yearned to stand, and it didn't take long for my tiny limbs to learn how to manipulate gravity.  I was a gymnast.  And so too was I a child of kaleidoscope creativity, beholding the earth in all its fantastical shapes and colors.  I was an author and an artist and a musician.   I was a dreamer.  My chisel was restless and ready to chip my name into this generation.
21 years is an eternity to a 21-year-old.
Now teetering on the edge of insignificance, I etch my quiet pathway amongst those who know my voice.
in diesem moment bin ich nur ein und vierzig kilo, und ich suche meinen platz in einem riesigen großen welt.  menschheit ist laut.
There are people who matter dearly, dearly to me.  There are people who extend their hearts. In the big grand scheme of this world, perhaps they too are inconsequential, but to me their call is heard.
tenemos vida con toda nuestra esperanza.... amor.... y luz. 

 I entitle this post D- in honor of the score on my midterm that I obtained... after spending 5-8 hours in the cadaver lab almost every week this whole semester, plus countless more hours studying at home.  Curve, I'm counting on you.

• Cousin Paige knocked on the door, asking us to sit down so she could tell us something.  "I opened my mission call.... I'm going to Brazil!" I simultaneously hugged her and screamed in her ear for excitement. She hadn't even told us that she had definitely decided to serve, much less that she had turned her papers in! When we facetimed the family, all Adam could say was "YOU'RE JOKING" whilst my grandparents' jaws dropped to the floor. 
• I have gotten in touch with several of my mission companions and buddies-- oh how I adore them!
• Rachel and I are masters of baking. 
• We hit up the BYU Museum of Art. Rachel has a keen talent for deciphering paintings.
• I have discovered many names of ancestors for my genealogy class. How cool to read photocopies of original census records or WWI draft registrations! 
• I drove in the snow for the first time, and the second, third and fourth. Not too scary.