Cafe Rio? I Think Yes.

Today I went on a grand adventure to a wonderful restaurant called Cafe Rio. The walk was not too terrible from my apartment and the weather was perfect. My brother tagged along and we ordered the grilled chicken salad, the grilled chicken burrito enchilada style, and a tres leche.  The salads are very good but I tend to get sick of it really fast because it's the same flavor over and over that I put in my mouth. In my opinion, I think they should put more rice in them and a little less chicken. The grilled chicken burrito enchilada style never fails to satisfy the monster in your stomach begging for food. There is a perfect amount of each ingredient inside and the white cheese they put on top melts just perfectly and is that kind of cheese that fails to break and stretches forever and always. They also have this lovely mild green sauce they smother on the burrito and it sinks to the bottom of the aluminum serving trays, drowning everything else in it's delicious goodness. However, the absolute BEST part of the whole meal was the tres leche.  We ate it first, and that was the worst decision ever because it made our other food not even compare. All we wanted was the heavenly tres leche. It's a small circular cake with the diameter of about 4 inches and as the name says, it has three different types of sweet flavored milk added to it, making it very soft and moist.  You have the option of adding strawberries and whipped cream to the top.  This is the treat that keeps me going back to Cafe Rio.  Go taste of it.  You will instantly be addicted  and find yourself craving it for every meal.

Discussing Church Talks

Over the weekend I got the chance to go over the notes I had taken from Stake Conference with a friend.  My friend had to go out of town to give his return-from-mission speech that Sunday in his home ward and missed the opportunity to hear what Elder Snow, Sister Beck, and Elder Holland had to say.  He had been asking me the past couple days about looking at my notes and so I gave them to him when we both were home. I had to call my Mom so I let him take the notes home and read them. When he returned them, he asked if I could go over the notes with him and explain some of the stories.  I was a little apprehensive about discussing them because the talks were given a while back and I was afraid I wouldn't remember anything, when I was the one who took those notes! I didn't want to look like I hadn't payed attention.  However, I agreed and he came in and we began to converse. We talked for a good hour and I realized that while talking with him, I made connections I never would have made with the different talks if I hadn't talked them over with someone else. It's one thing to take notes, but it's another to actually know what the speakers are saying and apply it to your life.  I never realized how important it is to talk about what your thoughts, especially when it comes to church related things. You get different perspectives on certain ideas and you get to hear the different experiences people have had.  In the end, you come out with more knowledge than before.  I am very grateful that my friend had come over and insisted that we discuss the Stake Conference talks because it definitely helped me grow spiritually and get more out of the talks.

My Favorite Weather

Wednesday was my absolute favorite day of the week. We got a wonderful storm that made the air smell like Utah dirt and brought dark, gloomy, yet also comforting (in my opinion) clouds.  I am from Texas and we get intense storms similar to those quite frequently. It is very hard for me to come to Utah where the weather is not nearly as exciting. My favorite weather is dark, overcast, foggy days rather than sunny days. I am happiest when that weather comes around. I have observed in the three years being here that the storm clouds always hang out around Timp and never come our way, and so I have come to be disapproving of the mountains surrounding us.  I look up the weather all the time, continually checking what the chance of rain is for the day.  I missed the rain that happened earlier that morning because I was in a class.  I was so bummed to come out and smell the rain and see the puddles on the ground and realize I missed it. Thank goodness the best downpour ever occurred when I had a 3 hour break later in the day.  I sat on the steps in front of the Talmage Building with my brother and watched the torrential downpour as we ate our delicious gummy bears we had just bought in the vending machine. We watched students running to get to their next destination, and others walking, not caring whether or not they got wet. We also saw someone with an umbrella hat on and she made watching the rain that much more enjoyable. The rain stopped 15 minutes later and my brother and I headed our separate ways. I am so grateful we finally got a storm in Utah and that I could get a taste of what I get back home in Texas. Cross your fingers we get another!

The Habits of Great Learners

In my writing class, my teacher asked the students to read Elder Eyring's talk called "A Child of God". He listed five habits that great learners have or should have, which were welcome correction, keep commitments, work hard, help other people, and expect resistance and overcome it. While reading the talk,  two that really stood out to me were welcoming correction and expecting resistance and overcoming it.

Welcoming correction for me is really hard when it comes to English and Writing classes. Not that I'm cocky and think I'm always right, but I'm not comfortable letting people read my work because I feel like I am not at the writing level I need to be at as a college student. I just want to keep my writing to myself because it's embarrassing for me to have someone read my works, but honestly what I never realized until I read this was that the more I allow people to read and edit my own papers, the more I will improve in my writing and learn from the feedback I receive. 

Expecting resistance and overcoming it is also a huge ordeal for me and I think that is one of the main reasons why I am major-less right now. One thing that Elder Eyring said really affected me and helped me realize what I need to change. He said, "Some learning has been easy for you. But more often your enemy has been discouragement.  You may try to avoid that by choosing to learn only what is easy for you, looking for the path of least resistance.  But the great learner expects difficulty as part of learning and is determined to work through it." I felt like he had me cornered and was looking me straight in the eyes as I read that part because he had found my weakness and that was what I needed to hear. I need to branch out and not be afraid to take the higher level classes in majors. It's time to grasp the fact I will have hard classes in ANY major I choose and find that determination in me to get through it.

I'm very glad we were assigned to read this talk because it was very inspiring and I hope to better apply these qualities of great learners to my life.