Mission, YO!

So we are in the single digits people. 99 days until I leave for Brazil. This makes me equally excited and freaked out. I'd like to share how I knew I was supposed to go on a mission. The decision to go on a mission wasn't a super simple one like it was for some girls. Some girls watched conference and knew right away they were supposed to go. Or there were girls who had wanted to serve their whole lives so the announcement was perfect.  I was never turned off to the idea of going, but I never was like, yes I am going once I'm 21. My opinion was when I get to 21 and if I'm not married, I'll make that decision. Let's be honest though, I was kind of hoping I'd be married by then. Mormon girl problems, seriously. When the announcement happened, this is what went through my head : HOLY COW THIS DECISION I WASN'T PLANNING ON MAKING FOR ANOTHER TWO YEARS IS HERE. So I watched conference, then watched President Monson's address again later that night and prayed to know whether or not I should go. The Spirit works in many different ways. It isn't always some huge manifestation or super grand experience. Sometimes it is just the feeling of peace, or that makes sense. That's what I had. After watching it again, I thought, why not? That makes sense. What greater thing could you do than go on a mission? Not only would I be serving the Lord and others, but I was excited for the growth and desire to always do good that comes with a mission. However, I regret to say that within the week, I talked myself out of it. My thoughts were: oh my gosh that is so scary, you are halfway through school and you have a full ride scholarship, a mission is so hard, your family won't be a huge fan of that, I think I will choke when teaching people and just be awkward., I don't want to be doing this because everyone else is, is it more me just wanting to go then an actual answer, I want to do study abroad in England. So I regret to say that as the week passed, I talked myself out of it. DON'T DO THAT! Seriously, don't ignore a prompting when you know you've had it! Remember what you felt. So a month went by, and suddenly I started thinking about going again. This time it didn't seem so scary and I could see myself going. I wanted to go! I was still really keen on going for the right reasons and being 100% sure that it was I was supposed to do. After praying, fasting, and reading my patriarchal blessing, I just knew. I also knew that I knew it all along. That was the first week of December. I do want to add though, that the day after I made my decision and I felt so good about it, I started freaking out again. All these silly little worries started flooding in for the next week, but I absolutely knew I was supposed to go. There was no denying it! I think that Satan tries really hard to work on you and have you do contrary to what the Lord wants. I think that it's one of the times where I actually felt Satan working on me. I am going to link a talk by Elder Holland that I didn't read until after this whole debacle,but it was perfect for the situation and brought me a lot of peace to the way I felt. The rest is history I guess. I am going to Brazil in 99 days! I am so so so so so pumped. It can still be overwhelming because this is what goes through my head everyday: finish your semester strong, be preparing, prepare for the temple, buy cute mission clothes( which by the way is the worst), visa stuff, passport stuff, get your shots, etc. I am just excited to be out there. I just want to go go go! We live in an exciting era, the work is moving forward at such a quick pace, and I am excited that I will get to be a part of that.
http://www.lds.org/new-era/2004/08/remember-how-you-felt?lang=eng

Come Get Your Lemonade!

                                          Pre-Lemonade lemons

                                          Lemonade makers

                                          Lemonade Stand

                                          Me enjoying the fruit of my labors. Get it?

                                         Arizona not sucking.

So the plan today was not to have a lemonade stand. My plan was to get ready, go to Goodwill, San Tan mall, and Trader Joe's. When the girls came and asked if they could have a lemonade stand, I wasn't that enthused, but I couldn't say no either. I mean, they're adorable and I knew they were really wanting to have one.  Apparently, Mother had told them they could have one but she forgot she had a doctor's appointment. The girls went and grabbed their cute friends to help them, and the stand began. You guys, I think I had almost as much fun as the girls did. I was the official lemonade maker delegator and would make the lemonade once they would squeeze all the lemons. Next thing I knew the whole neighborhood was participating and they would come in asking for more lemonade, like every 15 minutes. Business was booming. I even ran to the store to get more cups. In total, they made 20 dollars. Winning girls! I helped them for about 2 hours and once my mom got home and the stand winded down, I stuck to the original plan. Goodwill was a bust with the exception of getting two ties for missionary friends. I always try being a good thrifter, but I am terrible. I think it's because I am not very patient to look through everything. Everyone says they find mission skirts and cute clothes there and all I find is short jean mini skirts and shirts that have stains on them and cat hair. Maybe someday I'll be good at thrifting, but thus far I am far from it. I'll stick to Forever 21 and TJ Maxx. On the other hand, Trader Joe's is my place. I LOVE Trader Joe's. Basically, anything you buy from there will taste good. Serious. I'll share my favorites though:

•  The blondie bar mix. SO GOOD. 
• Any of their organic vegetables/fruit. It always tastes delicious. 
• They have butter leaf lettuce year round which is my favorite lettuce. It beats all other lettuce.
•  They also have pre-packaged salad, and my personal favorite is their Pasadena Salad. It has it's own special dressing and it is really yummy.
•  Trader Joe's has the best frozen pizza. I even prefer it to some of the fast food pizza. 
• Also their tamales are way good. 
• And Joe's O's. (Trader Joe's Cheerios)
• They have these frozen cheesecakes on popsicle sticks. YOU GUYS. 10/10
•  I am a flower lover. I just love flowers. They make me happy and they are pretty. Trader Joe's always has a beautiful selection of fresh flowers, and they are usually WAY cheaper than any other place that sells flowers. They also have pretty potted flowers as well! Sadly, this trip they didn't have ranunculus which are my favorite. It is ranunculus season though, so I'm excited.

Just go to Trader Joe's. I promise they won't disappoint. It's great. I hope you had a great Friday, because mine has been splendid.

Well hello!

My name is Tiffany. I live an interesting little life. Like really funny things happen to me all the time. I don't even know why. I've come to accept it, and when these things happen, I'm just like well of course that happened. DUH. It is high time that I make my own blog. Am I right? Let's start with ten fun facts about myself.
1. I am Brachilan.Tannis Manning can proudly coin this term. My dad is from Brazil, while mother is from Chile. I guess you can say I'm ethnic.
2. Speaking of Brazil, I am serving a mission for my church there for 18 months! I leave June 26th and I am so incredibly excited.
3. This brings me to fact numero tres. I am a Mormon! I know it, I live it, I love it. Ask me all about it. (seriously)
4. I have the diet of a five year old. The only cereal I like is Cheerios and I've eaten it since I was three. The closest you can get me to an adult diet is salad. I love me some salad.
5. I really love to read. When I was in the third and fourth grade I won an award for reading the most out of the whole school.(Those little AR tests or Reading Counts tests? I don't remember) Take that fifth graders.
6. I am the worst exerciser. I go run, and then I treat myself to ice cream right after. YOLO.
7. One time, Alexis proved she was my best friend by eating a bite of dole whip float. If you don't know, a dole whip float is pretty much pineapple soft serve over pineapple juice. It brings me joy. Anyways, Alexis hates pineapple so much that she is scared of it. This one time she almost cried when we got pineapple juice on her. Ask Meagan. So Alexis ate some dole whip, and that my friends is true friendship.
8. I LOVE Disneyland.
9. I'm sarcastic. I'm working on it, okay?
10. Concerts are my favorite. Something about live shows is really magical.
This is real. This is me. I am exactly where I am supposed to be. Yes, that is a Camp Rock quote. Anyways, this leads me to the actual blog entry. Last night after shopping with my gem of a friend Ashlyn, we decided to grab a treat. Everyone always needs treat. Always. So we pick up our other gem friend Krista and we head over to McDonald's for some McFlurries! It was 10, and apparently they close the first window where you normally pay them. We are just kicking it inside my car waiting for them to take our money so we can pull up to the second window and get our ice cream, when we hear someone yelling, "DOWN HERE". I drive down and politely smile at him and say, " Oh sorry I was used to the first window". You guys, let me just tell you, this guy woke up on the wrong side of the bed. McDonald's worker guy was just like, "Well you should pay attention because I said second window". Uhm hi, you are the rudest. Whatever, we got our food and I kept smiling at him because you have to combat rudeness with kindness. We sit in the parking lot and eat our ice cream and of course I am the one who decides we need chicken nuggets. Contrary to popular belief, McDonald's chicken nuggets are not made out of pink slime, they are made out of goodness. At least that's what I like to believe. So we go around again, and don't worry I pulled up to the second window. As we drive away this time, we notice a napkin inside of our bag that says to call Shad in the red shirt. Shad is not the mean guy, but still, it was fetchin weird because we didn't even see Shad. Who is Shad?  So the moral of the story is, don't go to McDonald's late at night. It is just an overall bad idea. Plus, it isn't good for you.