Marathons, Missionaries, and Mini-Gardens

    I first want to share my latest articles in the LDS Church News:

•   Here is the Church News version of the missionary article I wrote, also published in the Deseret News on Wednesday. There is a wonderful map that the designer kindly helped me with in the print version, and I had hoped it would be online, too, but it's not, so try and find a printed version.
• A profile about a "young mother" from Hawaii,
• A profile about a mother (grandmother) from Arizona. She grew up in Idaho, and we had a nice chat about our common roots. I have done several of these interviews, so you will be seeing several of these over the next few weeks. It's really interesting--American Mothers, Inc. names one Mother of the Year and one Young Mother of the Year (meaning all their children are under age 18) for each of the 50 states, and out of 100, 15 of these women are LDS.

And here are some photos from the half-marathon that my cousin Erika and I ran:


Every runner has to have a power meal before a race...

...And after the race too...

   I have always had positive associations with gardening, but I thought I couldn't have a garden as a college student. But then, I saw an idea for an urban garden from Brazil online. It took about 4 hours, and a lot of trial and error, but my roommate, neighbor and I have figured out how to make it work.

   Our beans and radishes have sprouted, and the beans especially appear to be doing well. We are still waiting on the parsley, cilantro, and oregano. (My neighbor made the cute labels).

  The good news is, most of the cuts on my fingers from slicing all of those bottles with a naked razor blade have healed! (Thanks for making me take a first-aid kit up to school, Dad!)