He is there!

Ok, this week has a lot of positives, I promise, but honestly Im exhausted from the last half of this week. But to start off on a good note Ill talk about my temple experience on wednesday. It was just a normal day in the baptistry. I was alone - which I love. Its always good to invite people, but man I just feel like I can be more open to the spirit when Im alone. Anyways - I walked into the confirmation room with another girl who was alone, the baptistry man, and two older men who were related (I believe a son and father). All of us were strangers and honestly probably all just walking in the room thinking nothing other than getting these confirmations done and going home. That was definitely not what happened. So many little things just perfectly lined up in that room and the spirit was so strong because of it. The girl had been given some names from a couple outside the temple. These names were Korean from the year 800. The baptistry worker just so happened to speak Korean. The son and Father had recently been converted and I was able to do the confirmations for their mom and grandma that had already passed away. Testimonies were born and it was clear the people we did the work for were there with us in the room. Ive had spiritual experiences at the temple before, but nothing like this. We all left the room with runny noses, tear-filled eyes and many tissues. Me and Bethany - the other random girl - talked about the experience all the way to our cars. It was awesome. God is so real, I love him so much and with experiences like these I know without a doubt he loves me as well as all his other children. So this is definitely a high of the week and Im so grateful for it. 

My work week however looked more like this^ It honestly wasnt a bad week - it was just one of the more demanding, tiring weeks. It doesn't help that I picked up a 12 hour overtime shift on tuesday. My patients were actually fairly good, but like I said just really needy therefore I was exhausted by the end of each day. This week I had my first LVAD patient alone. Lots and lots of work for these patients. They are strapped to TONS of cords, medications, tubes, wires and of course their battery pack that keeps their heart pumping. These patients are monitored closely which calls for vitals every 2 hours. 2 hours seems like a long time - but no, not in a hospital. So it seems like you are constantly in the patients room doing vitals plus all the work such as labs, medications, helping them out of bed for therapy and so forth. With all their equipment a trip to the toilet and back seriously can take 45 minutes. So between having an LVAD patient plus two others I was running. and I mean RUNNING, all day. There was one point where I was doing the dressing change for the LVAD drive line (the wire that goes from the outside of the body straight to the heart) and a stat lab when my other stroke, meth-using patient decided to have chest pain. sheesh. Luckily everything was fine, but man everything seems to always happen at once. Anyways - I survived and so did my patients!! so its a win win. Ok but throwing it back to thursday morning I have to document this literal miracle. I had a few people worried about me and my commute that morning due to a massive wreck/oil spill. Well I had decided to flip on my maps and check out my ETA to work as i was driving. I was just south of Lehi and all of a sudden Siri tells me to exit in less than a quarter mile. There was no traffic in sight and I was in the far lane. For some reason I obeyed Siri - which I usually wouldn't have because I saw no need to get off the freeway and take the slower route of back roads. Well as Im going 30 mph on some side road parallel to the freeway I was kinda pissed. All the cars on the freeway were still hauling and Im over here having to drive like a grandma on roads that weren't even plowed all the way. I turned the point of the mountain and quickly realized how grateful I was that I did indeed follow siri. All lanes of traffic were at a dead stop and were being forced to exit due to the freeway being closed. I felt like an idiot for saying mean things about siri in my head. I immediately thought - dang this is such a good lesson to be applied to the gospel. There are way too many times that I think I know whats best - but in reality my way would lead me to hours of traffic where as the alternative gets me to my destination on time. So moral of the story - listen to Siri. I guess she does know whats best and she can see traffic in our path when we cant see it ourselves. So yes, I made it to work, just fine. My coworker however did not get to work until 11:30am. 6 hours spent in her car for a 30 minute commute. literal miracle I didnt get stuck in that awfulness. 

And Sundays with the bros. I count all three of these boys as my brothers and I actually love having them over for dinner every Sunday. Im definitely ready to be the mom of boys because I already know how to cook for them - they eat A LOT. They stayed over longer than usual today and we just talked and laughed and it was a fun evening. Im counting down the days till I get to come home. Two more weeks before Im on a flight home Christmas Eve. Its the thought of being home with family on Christmas eve night in our PJs watching Polar Express that is getting me through these next couple weeks. Im beyond excited to come home and spend christmas with the family. Also Im weird and I really look forward to the new year and just having a good reset, reflecting on a good year and making plans for the year to come. Life is crazy and good. I started thinking i jinxed myself in last weeks blog saying I had turned a point as a nurse and was feeling more confident. This week I started to regret saying that, but honestly weeks like this just give me more opportunities to become better and to learn new skills. So Im sticking to what i said last week and looking at this week as expanding my comfort zone and being grateful that my coworkers trust me to take patients as critical as the ones I had this week. Growing aint comfortable, but we can do hard things. Love ya!