Finals Have Started and a Great Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! This past week has been really good. My last day of classes was on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were reading days, and finals started on Friday! I went to several reviews during reading days and spent most of my days studying, though I did get to take some breaks to hang out with Grant and do stuff with Amelia and Meredith.

On Friday morning, I took my Book of Mormon final. It was really easy and only took me about 15 minutes! That afternoon, I took my Physical Science final at the Smith Fieldhouse. It was not quite as easy...but it went really well. On Saturday morning, I took the Spanish 321 final, which went well. So three of my four finals (not including a Writing presentation) are successfully done! My last one is World Civilizations to 1500 and it is going to be a frickin' beast. I'm waiting to take that until Wednesday so I can study my brains out until then. And on Tuesday, I am turning in a paper for Writing and giving a group presentation. Finals are over on Wednesday, so I'll start packing and cleaning, and I will be back in Laramie on Saturday, April 26!

Today was such a great Easter Sunday. Church was incredible and I felt so uplifted by the testimonies and messages that were shared today. I'm grateful for the chance we have to remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the message of hope that it brings. I really like this video by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and think it has a great message for this Easter Sunday: https://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#none-were-with-him
Here's a picture of us after church:

 Amber, me, Amelia, Meredith, and Natalie:

Also, Meredith, Amelia, and I decided to go for a walk after church because it is such a beautiful day. We walked down to the duck pond on campus by way of a gorgeous and charming stone pathway with a stream running by, small waterfalls, and beautiful flowers everywhere! I fell in love with it, and luckily, it is very close to where we'll be living in the fall. At the duck pond, we saw awkward mating turtles that we decided were breaking the Honor Code. But we also saw the most adorable baby ducklings ever! It was such a fun and relaxing walk. :)

I hope everyone is having a beautiful Easter! :)

Update -- sorry I'm such a slacker

I'm sorry I haven't written in so long! It's been a crazy and busy couple of weeks and I haven't taken any pictures, so I'm just going to briefly sum up recent events.

Last weekend, I met Mom, Dad, and Josh in Salt Lake, where we went to the Saturday afternoon session of conference together in the Conference Center. We had a great dinner together and then Mom and I had a girls' shopping spree while the boys went to the Priesthood session. Afterwards, we had pie at Village Inn. I said goodbye to them and drove to Murray (only about 15 minutes away) to stay at Grant's sister's house with him. We spent the night there and then watched both sessions of conference on Sunday with his sister Monica, her husband Thomas, his brother Brian and his wife Aubree. Thomas and Monica made us a delicious breakfast and dinner, and we had a good time with them. We headed back to Provo around 6:00 pm.

Other than that, things have been fairly normal in terms of classes and everything. My last day of classes is on Tuesday, and then I have Wednesday and Thursday off as "reading days." Final exams start on Friday and go until Wednesday, April 23. I'm planning on driving back to Laramie on Saturday, April 26 or maybe sooner, depending on how things work out.

I can't believe my freshman year is almost over! It has gone by so fast. It has been an amazing experience for me overall and I feel like I've grown a lot in so many ways. I'm very grateful that I decided to come to BYU; even though it was hard for me to move away from my family, it was definitely the right decision and Provo is the place I need to be. I am so thankful for the people I've met here and the friends I've made. However, I am also super excited to be coming home to Laramie for the summer, to spend time with the people I love most. :)