Catching up, rambling, and a really long post of thoughts.

(Apparently not only the post is rambly and long. I'm losing my writing skill of making things short and interesting. Not that I ever possessed that skill. ;) )

First of all, cute story from last week. I helped a man and his mother find CD's and fix the head phones on the sample listening thingy, and voila! We're best buds now. The man seemed like he wasn't entirely there, which sort of just made him more endearing. (Which is terrible to say. Marissa, that's why I love you most. You're mental. ;p

 Except just kidding, that's awful, I apologize. But I really do have a soft spot for those with mental disabilities. I swear there's a different spirit about them.)

He came through my line first to pay for his purchase and visited with me about Michael Martin Murphey, (because I told him my dad has some of his songs, and I really like the CD he was buying.)
The second time he came through my line was with his mom, and I had a huge line up behind them, but I didn't even mind because if he wanted to visit- well by darn- we were going to visit. (Also, I was stalling dealing with less friendly customers.)
Later they came back in to get another copy of the HooDoo newspaper/map, and chatted for a moment again. He smiled at me for a minute and then said in a quiet voice, "I'm sorry if this is too bold, but you are a very nice young lady." How cute is that? This is why I love working with people. I see plenty of crabby ones who are always in a hurry, but that just makes me appreciate the ones who are kind and down to earth and patient even more. I learn so much from people in just the few minutes I talk to them.
His mom also came back to get a memory card, and when I told her I loved her ring she told me the story behind it. Her husband, who has since passed away, bought it for her and she always treasured it. When her daughter was 12, she asked if she could borrow the ruby ring, and the woman let her for one day. Somehow the ring was lost and so years later on the woman's 70th birthday, her daughter found a replica of the ruby ring to give for her birthday present. It's always so fun to hear the stories behind pieces of jewelry. :) As the woman's son gathered her things to leave, she leaned over the counter and grabbed my hand and thanked me and thanked me. Old ladies are so sweet! (Usually.) :)

Also, the shoppaholic in me couldn't resist sharing these quotes from a woman and her husband who came through my register last week:
"My pleasure of life is enhanced by a good bargain!"
"God doesn't want His children to pay retail taxes."
:p They were full of it.

(I've noticed that I notice jewelry most often when I'm looking for things to compliment on people. So have other people ha. A man behind his friend and wife in line commented on how I compliment everyone. I explained that I like trying to make people smile, and that it makes me feel happier too. He decided it was a pretty good idea, and that I'm not too bad of a young lady. :p)
Today a smaller woman hunched over her purse showed me her ring that was her mother's and father's wedding bands combined with their initials etched into them. (That's one sweet heirloom!) I loved her response after I told her that I thought her hat was cute.
"Cute... I like you, thank you." :p She also gave me her contact information and told me to look her up if I was ever in Switzerland. And that she'd teach me how to ski if I came in the winter. That's one awesome grandma! :)

Next item of business ;) my date that I wasn't even planning on! (But first, a really long, and probably semi unnecessary prologue.)
I had Sunday and Monday off this week, which was fantastic, because working Sundays is really hard. I'm not a fan of it.

Saturday I got to go and spend some quality time with Grams and Gramps in Hatch, and visit about everything. Every time I visit, Grandma makes a point to sit down and listen to everything going on in my life, all my worries and struggles and accomplishments... we still haven't solved world hunger yet, but we're working on all that. ;) I'm so happy I have such a great family! It's been amazing to be with both sets of grandparents so much the past four months. I always feel loved, and special, and very full of great food. ;)
Talking with Grammie Marilyn about my future, and about hopes and dreams makes them seem closer and more achievable. But then again, being around that special woman makes heaven feel a little closer no matter what you're talking about. (Thanks Gram for being such a great example and friend! Love you!)      
Sunday morning I went to Relief Society in Hatch, where the lesson was on chastity. It's interesting to me, now that I'm old enough to appreciate it, to be in Relief Society with a group of older women. I used to just feel really out of place, but now I love being there and listening to their retrospective advice. They've been through everything I'm going through already. They've already dealt with dating to find a handsome Mr. Right, and they've already raised their families. Do you know what that means? They've got serious treasure in the form of grandmotherly advice! I love it!
I had a good chat with gramps
There was a fireside which was awesome :) from Elder Dane O. Leavitt, and his wife. (One of the Quorum of the 70.)
(Ok. Now we're getting to the unexpected date.)
After the fireside, I noticed a text from a Mr. (Oh yeah I'm not using names) PTV. Asking if I was in Cedar.
I waited an appropriate amount of time before responding, so as to sound like I'm not totally lame with no life and desperate. ;) So long story short, we set up a date for Monday night at 8. Monday rolls around, and I finished watching 17 Miracles (which you totally need to see) and blinking tons so I wouldn't bawl and mess up my makeup I just spent plenty of time perfecting for the date. PTV picked me up and we got horchata from Costa Vida, and then grabbed colored pencils and pens, paper and envelopes from his house and went to mine. We spread out the supplies on the floor, fought off my tough 'guard dog' and went to work writing a bunch of notes. Most of them were anonymous, and a handful of them were just random notes to leave on random cars and doorsteps. Delivered "Ninja Style" wearing dark colors and rolling across lawns like Agent 007. (This was sort of an ironic date, because Tyler and I had talked about doing this once either right before, or right after we broke up. Needless to say we never carried out the idea, so I was super excited to finally do it!) One of them from PTV expressed thanks for having the best kept house on the street, and it was probably one of my favorites to drop off because we drove around looking for the cutest house to put it on. Once we found one and were standing in front of it, my date put his arm around me, "Breathe it in..." (said rather dramatically, while gazing at the house with the pillars, cute porch, mowed lawn, and Narnia lamp.) :) He's so obnoxious, I love it.
On the way back to my house we may or may not have ran through sprinklers. Because I love it. :p And sang songs.
Also, we had serious conversations that delved into 'get to know you' stuff instead of purely nonsensical banter. Although nonsensical banter is really entertaining, this was probably my favorite date of the 3 we've been on because it was more get to know you! Goodness. Can we all cross our fingers there's a fourth date? I think the P in PTV is wavering a little. ;)

But now I'm going to go read The Alchemist, inside. With a lamp. (I had grand schemes of sitting out on the front porch but I went blog crazy and typed for a million years instead. Wasting away perfect daylight. Thanks ADD. :p)

Now on to my really long post of thoughts.
I've been thinking a lot about our relationship with Heavenly Father and Christ, and their relationship with each other and the whole circle of relationships.
A week(ish?) or two ago, I was actually discussing this with my pretend twitterpation victim, and so last week he called me after work and told me he'd thought of our conversation again in his institute class and had remembered a bunch of scriptures that went along with my questions that he felt like he should share. (Which I thought was kind of cool that he'd be so open with his testimony and feelings on scriptures.)
One was in 3 Nephi 27:13-27 , which talks about how Christ was sent into the world to do the will of the Father, and repeats the words "my Father sent me..." and states that Christ does all his work according to the power of Heavenly Father.
My PTV (I'm shortening it because I'm lazy. :p But in case you're not following my ADD though process that stands for pretend twitterpation victim.) referred me to "Anointed One" in the Bible Dictionary. It said "Jesus is spoken of as the Christ and the Messiah, which means he is the one anointed of the Father to be his personal representative in all things pertaining to the salvation of mankind. ..."
Next was in John 17, specifically verse 21 through 23. 
Ok. So the summary of what I'm sounding really preachy about is, Jesus only does what he does because he has seen Heavenly Father do it. Heavenly Father and Christ are both perfect, which is why they can help us and perfect us through coming to Christ and through the atonement. Jesus was sent to be our representative of Heavenly Father, but that doesn't mean he replaces God. It's like my PTV said, with athletes and their agents. The agent represents the athlete, but that doesn't make the agent the athlete. Without the athlete there is no representative, and no audience for him to represent the athlete to. Make sense? (It did to me, and mostly this is just thought barf so that it'll be more solidified for me. I know, I'm selfish. :p)
I still obviously don't understand it all, but I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who made everything in life possible and enabled Christ to be my Savior. Without him, it is impossible to reach our full potential and be with Heavenly Father again. How amazing is it that we have an older brother that was willing to come and lay a pathway for us through his example and sacrifice? And how awesome is it to have friends who think of scriptures for you in institute and call you just to give you a list of them so you can thought barf it onto your blog to bombard everyone else with? ;) But truly. I am so grateful for how everything works, even though I still don't understand it all. :)