Power of Prayer

It is days like today where I am grateful that I have a knowledge of prayer. I know that I have a Heavenly Father who is always ready to listen when I'm ready to talk. He is always there when I need Him. I have faith that He is there and that He will help. I have gone through the moments when I have prayed and the answers have come in the most bizarre way, or the answers I seek have not come for an extended period of time, or I have received answers but not ones I had hoped for. The important thing is that I believe in the power of prayer. 

My first experience isn't even my own but it is one that I would like to always remember.

It is from my Grandma McLaughlin and I am retelling it as I remember. 

My grandma has struggled with psoriasis for almost 60 years. There have been times it was worse than others but it is something she has had to deal with most of her life. There were times that I remember her being almost depressed. There were the memories we would share and as the day would come to a close and we would say our goodbyes, it almost felt like we were having to say goodbye forever. Luckily she has found happiness again since then. But last year my grandma went to her weekly bible study group and she asked the ladies there to say a prayer for her. This is how I know that my grandma also has faith in the power of prayer, because she asked for that little extra help. About a week later Pappap out of nowhere asked if they could start eating blueberries. That is where it all started. For over a year my grandma has been eating a handful of blueberries everyday, and on Christmas day she shared with us that her psoriasis is cleared up and she feels amazing! 

Pappap has no idea why he wanted to start eating blueberries, but I believe it was inspired to help answer Grandma's prayers. 

There are many people who could try and argue me on my beliefs, saying things like, "why wasn't that prayer answered many years ago and grandma would have felt better much earlier in life?" I get the why questions a lot, and I don't know everything but I have a pretty good idea that God needed her to go through certain trials in her life to learn certain lessons that otherwise would not have been learned. Anyone can ask why bad things happen to good people, and as bad as they may seem at the time, they are really for our good. I believe that each of us has a certain plan and things we need to learn while here on earth. Maybe Grandma found even more joy and happiness then she would have otherwise. Maybe it was to help show her the power of prayer. Whatever it is I am glad she went through her trial but I'm even more excited that now she has found a solution!

My second story is not as big as the first but it is another great reminder that God hears our every prayer, not just the big ones. 

Today I was outside in the backyard with Dad and Kevin shooting Dads muzzleloader. We had our fun and cleaned up and went inside. When dad was taking apart the gun to clean it he realized that a wedge piece that holds the barrel in was missing. He asked Kevin and I if we had seen it and since we hadn't we all went outside in search of it. We do have some snow on the ground but it is slowly melting away.  We searched for about 10 minutes with no luck. As I was searching I silently just said a quiet prayer to help us find this missing piece. There was no doubt in my mind that God would willing me help me since I had done my part in asking and having faith. Not even a minute later I found it sitting on the ground near some mud.

Would I have found it had I not said a prayer? Probably eventually we would have. But the point is that it was found after I had prayed. Either way it amazed me yet again the love that God has for me enough to help us find a small piece of a gun. 

I am grateful for the knowledge I have and the power of prayer!

Christmas 2013

Aunt Faith sent us beautiful flowers for Christmas!

The best part of our Christmas Tradition is going to Christmas Eve service at Dads church every year. It is the best way to help us keep in mind what the real reason for Christmas is. We read the Christmas story from Luke and hear a great Christmas message each year. There would be no Easter without Christmas. The Only Begotten Son had to be born into this world so that he could die for us and allow us to return and live with Heavenly Father someday. 

I love being home with my family and especially these big guys that take care of me and make me laugh. I know they will always be looking out for me and they know that I care about them more than almost anyone else in the world.

it is also nice to be home with my great parents that await these visits anxiously! I love being home and creating new memories with my family with every visit. This year for Christmas Eve we went bowling and had some great times.

one of my favorite gifts was this Penguins mug with a piece of the old arena nicknamed the Igloo. They tore it down some years ago and now they have the Console Energy Center. 

For my class my mom got my class this book because they love the video, even though it's ridiculous.

it wouldn't be Christmas without and awesome present for Grandma and Pappap. This year they got a legit park bench. Especially cause my family is awesome they had it put together in about 15 minutes.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I can't wait to live with no roommates!

If your lucky you have escaped my rant about roommates. Going through college I for the most part had nice clean roommates. Maybe because this is a bigger house means we can have a bigger mess, but I don't agree! I love a clean kitchen and have to have one. My roommates don't feel the same motivation as I do apparently because most days I feel like their mother or the maid. I try hard to leave it until they clean it up but I can't take it that long and who knows how long it would be before they get around to it. 

So much trash!

Always a full sink and an empty dishwasher

keys are meant to be left in the door...right?!

the lint apparently gets put on the floor outside the dryer

Sometimes they sweep but leave the dirt pile 

I can't wait to live alone or with just one other person or with someone responsible!

Doubt not, fear not

In the Latter Day Saints church we believe in paying a tithe to the church of 10% of our income. The Lord has given us everything and all he asks is 10% in return to help other people and build up the church. I have been paying this for years and have always heard stories how The Lord has blessed people in their time of need if they are full tithe payers. I have never been in a position that I could be one of those people until now. 

I'm not going to go through my whole financial history but recently with medical bills and doctor visits an other unexpected costs, I have run rather low in numbers. I wish I didn't have to worry about money but I do. 

Some time went by and I was getting lower and lower in money and I was stressing out more. I kept thinking in the back of my head, "is this where The Lord comes in to bless me? And if so where is he?" 

I should have remembered everything I've been taught that I should not fear. The Lord did pour out his blessings upon me throughout 3 days time...

Day 1- a friend that owed me money unexpectedly paid me back

Day 2- for whatever reason me school district has extra money and are usin it as a holiday bonus to teachers :)

Day 3- I am getting paid a small bonus in December for a leadership team I am on at school. 

The Lord is, and always will be, on my side and watching out for me. I need not fear, with him always near. I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Cheist and the principles that I live like tithing and have been blessed for my obidience. 

Harry Potter 5k

There is a wonderful teacher that I work with at school and she told me that she was running a harry Potter 5k. Well naturally I got super excited and jumped on the chance to do anything Harry Potter! Of course I dragged Ashley along with me and it was a lot of fun.

They even had a mini tri-wizard cup for the winning house. We were both on Gryffindor, I am not sure which house actually won.

 

I LOVE HARRY POTTER!

Ali Daugherty

November 22, 1989- October 27, 2013

Dear Ali,

From what I can remember we first became friends in 4th grade Mrs. Hurt's class. We went to Amy P's house or Olivia's house a lot for sleepovers and it was always a good time. There was one night though that you slept over at my house and my mom too up to Giant Eagle for some snacks. We decided to try Flammin' Hot Cheetos, which was not a very good idea at the time. Luckily my mom was smart enough and suggested we get an ice cream bar too just in case they were too hot. We got back to my house and we were choking because they were so hot and I just remember stuffing the ice cream in my face to try and cool it down. 

I am not sure why that memory has always been so vivid in my memory, maybe because I ended up loving those Cheetos! 

Fast forward 2 years when I met Erica and I found out that you two grew up together and once again we became pretty good friends. The 5 of us girls were together all the time on the weekends. You were always so loud, you had legit conversations when you were sleeping, you hog tied Niko Givinangalo! We were thrown in the pool countless times, corned many houses, had our own little Christmas party every year. We sat in the nook every morning before school started. You and Liz cheered, while Erica and I were mascoting. We dominated Powder puff football. 

There are so many memories that I hold on to from when I was growing up, from those who have passed and those still around that I don't see anymore. You were definitely a part of my life for many years as we grew up in little old Ligonier. 

I am proud the woman you became too after school. I was always excited to see pictures of Kendyl on facebook or instagram. I only met her once but I could tell what an amazing mother you were. I know that your family will raise her and take good care of your little girl and always reminding her of her amazing mother. 

Between Adam, Megan, Brandon, Alex, Zack, you, and others, I hope that someday Ligonier will stop seeing so much death in the younger generation. I pray for peace for all the families, but I can see how a little town comes together through each one. 

Watch out for us Ali, I know where you are and that for some reason the Lord needed you there more than here. I will see you again someday, and until then this is not goodbye, but see you later. 

Love,

Megan

A Magical Halloween

I have a friend that I go to church with and his family kinda goes all out for Halloween. They decorated the inside of their house like Hogwarts and they did an amazing job!

We will just say that my friend Andrew is a little bit TALL

We also had a really great day at school with my mom there to help! We had a parade, decorated cookies, played in pumpkin guts, counted pumpkin seeds and so much more! Good thing it was a short day because they were crazy.

Bucketlist update!

I started writing on my blog when I started my bucket list. I have done a lot since that time and I think that calls for an update! I still have more to cross off but I feel that this is a list where I actually check things off and have fun crazy adventures! Maybe in a few months I will have more to cross off, one never knows where life will lead...

Two Questions- Bucket List

Have you found joy in life?
Has your life brought joy to others?

1. Get married to my best friend- I want to find that someone who I can completely be myself with and love forever. Obviously I haven’t had much luck yet, but when I find him, he is going to be one lucky man!

2. Have children- I want the whole process of being pregnant, birthing, crying screaming baby, terrible twos, pre-teens, teens, adults. The joy of having children is nothing you can compare to…so I have been told.

3. Go to another country- I can’t be stuck in the US forever. I want to see another culture and other places on this beautiful earth. I love being in nature and I can’t imagine seeing some of the natural beauties of this earth. CHECK  This summer I just got back from an amazing trip to Ecuador which I have posted enough about already so if you didnt know I went then you must live under a rock, because I also talk about it all the time. It was an amazing experience and one I will never forget.

4. Ride in a rodeo- It is crazy and could be dangerous, but hey it’s not that long right! Check! There was a rodeo at school (yeah that's what we do in Idaho). I was telling my friend how it was something I wanted to do. Her roommate happened to be in charge of the people riding in the upcoming weekends rodeo. I told her I waited to long to sign up...I was bummed. Later that night she called and said a girl had dropped out and if I wanted to I was in! It was so intense and I freaked out a little and then alot as they wanted me to get on this 700 pound steer! I lasted 2.8 seconds before slamming to the ground. I literally thought I walked away with a few broken ribs and concussion, but I sucked it up, got up, and ran for the gate. Best adrenaline rush in my life! Definitely a once in a life time experience.

5. Raft down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon- I love rafting and have done it multiple times down the Youghiogheny River, both the rapids and the scenic tour. I have never been to the Grand Canyon and I think this would be a great way to experience it.

6. Backpack through New Zealand- I love back packing, so going anywhere would be amazing. But I have seen and heard people who have gone there and how beautiful the country is. Ideally I would stay in a hostel and be a bum for about a month as I walk to countryside.

7. Compete in a triathlon- I grew up swimming, I love biking, and I hate running. Perfect! Well not really, but it still seems fun and something that I could push myself towards.CHECK (2 actually) Although I cant say that I did it alone. It was a team effort with lovely Erika Eichenmiller and Erin Hammond. I did the swimming part and it was a blast. It was pretty much an all day event. Erin started us off by running, then Erika almost died biking (but dont tell her I said that) and then I brought us home with the swimming. I am not sure it is something I will ever do on my own, but this was so much fun with my good friend!

 8. Become an ASL interpreter- I love working with children with special needs. I have never had the opportunity to take ASL classes but after I graduate I want to get my MBA in Deaf Education. I find sign language fascinating, and that even though people are limited on one of the senses they are still able to communicate. I would love to offer that service to people.  

9. Ride on a hot air balloon- I have just recently gotten over my fear of flying, but I think that this would still be a neat experience. $170 for an hour of flying where ever the wind takes you! To me that sounds magical.

10. Run a relay marathon-Like I said, I hate running. But I could push myself and as long as I finish I am happy with myself. CHECK. Didn't do this by myself either but it was more than a 26 mile marathon. We ran from Rexburg to Idaho Falls (the long way) 38.5 miles. There were supposed to be 8 in our group but 1 guy decided not to show. So we split up his leg and ran extra. We ranked 12th overall out of 72 teams with a time of 5 hours and 5 minutes! I have never been so tired and sore, but we had a blast the entire day!

 11. Go ice fishing- Well I love regular fishing and this is sort of like that but colder. The whole little hut experience would be neat, but not necessary. 

12. Visit a rain forest-Why not?! Except my awesome abilities to catch random diseases and sicknesses, besides that….. CHECK Seriously, this was the best thing I have done. The humidity was high and the rain came down, but really come on it was a rainforest! The nature was absolutely gorgeous and  I really could not believe I was there at all. I will never go back again but it was worth the trip one time. 

 


 


13. Win a competition- Really anything like on the radio, or entering some competition. I feel like we are a very unlucky family and never win anything. Funny story: This Christmas break my mom bought a ticket to support some fundraiser in my town and she WON! The lady called her and told her to come to town hall to pick up her prize. No one was home so she left a message. When we listened to it later my family literally all got together and just laughed. It was so exciting that someone in our family finally won something! It ended up being an alphabet pocket chart…super exciting I know. She gave it to me to maybe use in my classroom someday or with my children. CHECK. Last winter at BYU-I they tried holding the largest dodge ball game to break the record of I think 1600 people. We ended up with about 1200 people which is a huge game of dodge ball. We decided to play and I wouldn't exactly call this winning, but I wad the last one standing on the blue team. And yes I actually played and did not stand in the corner hiding. And no I did not cheat and stay in the game. I am just that good. Towards the end the gray team started shouting go for the guys leave the girl til last. That was my time to get some people out since i knew they weren't aiming for me. But once everyone else was out I saw like 30 people coming at me with balls! In my mind I won for the blue team. Last semester we had a rock paper scissor competition in my ward. With every competitor it was best out of 3. I ended up winning that competition and they gave me a plastic medal that I wore proudly! The guys also lifted me up on their shoulders, it made me feel like a true champ (even if it was just 31st ward)

14. Stand at the four corners Colorado, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico- to me that is fascinating, right now I feel like I live so close maybe I will make the trip. 

15. See a sunset/sunrise in Maine- so romantic, inside sources tell me that it is worth it.

16. Work with handicapped children- I am pretty much there. I have worked with a variety of children already from speech problems caused by a cleft pallet/lip, to differing degrees of autism and developmental disorders. That was just from my college experiences, working with families and their children would make me the happiest person. CHECK This will continue more in my life, but this was a good start at the orphanages! LOVE IT

17. Bike from Pittsburgh to DC on the Appalachian trail- My Pappap brought up the idea a few summers ago to bike from Pittsburgh to D.C. He asked if I would go with him!? Of course! So we started out small and he went to the gym and biked there a few times a week and I would bike a few miles. So we planned a family trip to Ohiopyle where you can rent bikes and go on their trails, which as so beautiful. But a few months before we were going to go, he found out he had cancer and they had to remove it. A lot of other things happened and I was planning on postponing the trip until he got better. That was our goal. He did get well enough and last summer we went and biked about 3 miles at Ohiopyle. It was enough for him and we would never be able to bike the Appalachian Trail together, but it is something that I want to do for me and for him. We have all the research done and there are a variety of choices. I want to just go with a pack and sleep on the side of the road and just bike. They say it will take about 3 days. My body might not like me to much but I have a reason and a purpose for doing this.
I feel as though I have completed step 1 of this goal. My family was going to do the whole thing but we were quite unsure about it. I bought everyone biking shorts and camel backs so that they could not back out. This summer we started in Ohiopyle and made it to Frostburg, Maryland. We went about 75 miles which I think is good enough to at least cross it out with hopes of one day doing the whole thing still. My butt actually grew used to the seat after the second day and I could have kept going! Pappap and Grandma did meet us at the end and we got of course got some delicious ice cream!

 18. Take a spontaneous trip- I have a friend, Martin, who was telling me how one day he would love to just go to the airport and find the cheapest flight and where ever it is, go! Hop on that plane with no plan in mind, but have an amazing trip. I have not forgotten that idea and would love to do it someday.

19. Spend the night in a castle in Ireland or Scotland- It’s my heritage…and way sweet!

20. Get punched in the face- This sounds so weird I know, but I want to know what it’s like spontaneously being slapped in the face. CHECK. Ok so it really wasn't punched in the face but I got slapped pretty hard. The funny part was that a friend of mine asked how he could help with my bucket list and this is the only one I could think of. So one day when I was totally not expecting it he came up and slapped me hard across the face! At first I was stunned and then I just laughed so hard and thanked him! People all around us were totally confused but that made it so much better! Thanks Jeff!

21. Make a list of 100 movies/100 books and watch and read them all- I love to read! This would be a great goal for me. I know that I have already read over 100 books, I wish I knew how many I have read in my lifetime. When I find a good book I just can’t put it down, literally.
22. Get on the show WIPEOUT - I love this new show and it is my next goal to make it on the show and hopefully make enough of a fool out of myself to conquer and win the $50,000!! WOOT WOOT! CHECK I soon have realized that this may never happen. I found out that you have to be resident of California which is extremely lame. So instead there is this 5k race that started this year called the Hit and Run. It is a 5k run with obstacles along the way. I think they base it kinda off of Wipeout and it sounded amazing so some friends and I signed up! It was a lot of fun and was about as close to Wipeout as I will get, I just wont have a chance to win $50,000.
23. Perogie Race- The Pittsburgh Pirates have this race after the 5th inning and I want to be in one of the races, Im not sure how yet but I'm going to do it!

24. Skydive!- really who doesn't put skydiving on their bucket list! It is one of those crazy things that crazy people do! CHECK. Welp I guess I am one of those crazies! I did it and I think I liked it! My friend Rob really wanted to go and he got a group of people together. I literally jumped out of an airplane at 13,800 feet! I don't even really like flying but maybe now I will feel safer or something. It was a total thrill and rush of adrenaline. I never would have gotten out with my jump master Josh pryin my hand off the door am rolling out! I was a complete mess but I did it!

25. Get new teeth- To most people this just sounds down right weird, but to someone who has been missing 2 teeth for most of my life this is like a dream come true! Someday it is my goal to not have to wear a retainer anymore and have permanent teeth that I don't have to worry about ever again! CHECK Things never seem to turn out how I would like, but they do happen. Implants would be the best option for permanent teeth, but for me that just doesn't seem possible. So I went to a dentist that I fell in love with and I went with what he suggested. It is called a cantilever bridge. He had to grind down some of my other teeth for a cap. It is hard to explain but the morale of the story is that I no longer am wearing a retainer! HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY TO ME!

 Out of 25 things I am 12 down, I would say that is pretty darn good!