Mothers Without Borders Boutique!

This Friday & Saturday the Mothers Without Borders Boutique will be taking place!!

All proceeds go to help continue building the Mothers Without Borders

Family & Children's Resource Center in Lusaka, Zambia.

Become part of a miracle.

Items made by the amazing people of Zambia will be sold

as well as crafts made by locals!

Layton location: Chantilly Mansion Layton, Ut (170 N Main)

Lehi Location: Mellor Hidden Meadow Reception Center Lehi, Ut (877 N 100 E)

Boutique hours: Friday Nov 6: 9 am - 9 pm

Saturday Nov 7: 9 am - 6 pm

MWB Updates! :)

So yes... All my posts are about Africa or Mothers Without Borders but

this week in institute my teacher said "If your heart has really been changed by something -

you're going to want to share that thing with everyone"

And that is exactly how I feel.

So here are some updates on my favorite organization:

• My fireside has found a theme The Worth of a Soul and it is definitely still in the works!! The people with authority are workin it out... I am thinking it is going to happen the Sunday before Thanksgiving but I will keep anyone informed who wants to be :) Kathy (MWB founder) is amazing & even volunteered her husband Philip to speak!! It's gonna rock.
• Clearfield High School (woo woo!!) is throwing around the idea to sponsor Mothers Without Borders for their annual fundraiser: Falcons are Fabulous! I am so pumped about this! Thanks to my cute sister McKall (she is senior VP) and really pushing this idea to them!!
• Next Friday I get to go to my baby sister Shelby's (okay she is 11 but still my baby sister) elementary school and give a slideshow presentation on all my amazing friends in Africa at the Children's Resource Center & have the elementary school kids write letters to them! How cute is that?!
• And last but certainly NOT least... the Mothers Without Borders Boutique is coming up!! November 6th & 7th!! Their are going to be boutiques both days in Layton as well as Lehi. Their will be some great things from Africa to buy as well as fun crafty things made by locals and all proceeds go to support Mothers Without Borders! It's going to be awesome! The first day of the Layton Boutique Liz Lemon Swindle will be their to sign her painting The Worth of a Soul (picture of the savior & baby in Africa aka Philip & Kennedy!!)

So there ya go! Thanks for reading and caring :)

Love Will Conquer

A couple weeks ago my sweet friend from Zambia, Carol Zulu, passed away.

Carol had been really sick for a long time but her passing was really hard to handle.

I was recently able to attend a memorial in her honor this last weekend.

It was so nice to be with my 'local African family' (as I like to call them)

& to grieve with people who knew Carol and knew what an amazing, amazing girl she was.

Carol was the biggest example of loving freely & forgiving quickly.

That girl has been through SO much in her life but I never once heard her complain or voice anything negative ever, and if you could only understand the pain she was constantly in - it's unbelievable.

At her memorial Kathy (MWB founder) read the poem Love Will Conquer by Emmet Fox & it totally summed up Carol Zulu - it touched my heart SO much and I had to share it:

There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer...

no disease that enough love will not heal;

no door that enough love will no open;

no gulf that enough love will not bridge;

no wall that enough love will not throw down;

no sin that enough love will not redeem...

It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble;

how hopeless the outlook;

how muddled the tangle;

how great the mistake;

A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.

If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world...

Here is a link to a youtube clip of slideshow memorial of Carol Zulu

Mothers Without Borders is going to be putting together a

Carol Zulu Children's Sanctuary

where children dying from AIDS can do so in a clean enviroment surrounded by family and loved ones. I am going to be putting together a HUGE fundraiser to donate to this fund...

I talked to Kathy and she was more than happy to come & speak at a fireside!

I will be sure to keep you all informed on this :)

I'm a bad blogger!!

Wow... its been a while since my last post!

Sorry i'm such a bad blogger!! (to all my fans out there - haha jk)

Life has been good. I've started school at Weber State & am enjoying it for the most part.

(I have a class with over 115 students!! ah! I have never attended such a huge class!!

Weber still overwhelms my poor little Snow College heart sometimes!)

I have been so nervous about liking school & having a positive experience at Weber but I've found that you get back a lot of what you put into it...

I've met and made some new and fun friends & look forward to what the next couple of weeks will bring :)

Although my life continues to move on... my heart still feels like it has been left in Africa.

I can't believe I was only there for such a short time but I miss it so badly all the time!!

Just a few of the many things that I really miss.....
Baby Elizabeth & her mom MiriamMy gorgeous friend Jackie - she had her baby girl :)

My second family

I miss my sweet friend Carol Zulu. Carol is one of the biggest examples to my heart & there is no doubt in my mind that I have been changed for good because of her coming into my life.

Carol Zulu I love you. I pray for you. I keep you in my heart always.

I've heard it said by someone that Zambia is the place where the sun shines brighest one them. I couldn't have put it better myself. I will return to Zambia someday & sometimes that's all I have to know to make it through my hard times!

One Week Later...

Painting my hand to add to the wall at the Child Resource Center 

So i've been home for a week now... where does the time go!? 

Adjusting has been okay.

I have always felt bad for missionaries who have a hard time coming home & only want to ever talk about their mission & yadda yadda ... now - I total feel like that. So sorry. haha

I think I'm finally fully back to normal with my sleeping schedule (Zambia is 8hrs ahead)

Random things still make me cry. Grocery stores are the worst! 

One thing i've been worried about in coming home was forgetting how much love I am capable of giving to others. People in Zambia are easy to love. People I seem to come into contact with in the America everyday - not so much. haha 

One interesting perspective that Kathy was able to give me in Zambia was to

"Remember who you are and remember who they are"

I never thought about it like that before. Yes, i've always learned that I am a royal daughter of my Heavenly Father but never seemed to realized that everyone I come into contact with is also a son or daughter of God. Everyone. That has helped me change my outlook. I'm really working on loving & honoring everyone no matter where they are in life. I want people to come away better from knowing me!! 

 Adding my hand to the wall!! It was so neat :) 

After Africa

First of all I have to say that there is no possible way for me to fully express my experiences in Africa.

I can do my best to tell you about the things I saw & felt but you will never understand unless you experience.

So on that note.... I almost don't even know where to begin!! 

I do know that never in my life has my heart felt so hopelessly broken but so full of love.

Everyday I came into contact with people who suffered unparalleled amounts. It was hard for me to just see everything, let alone understand that what I was seeing was their reality. 

Yet, i've never met a more loving & spiritual people. These people gave me their love immediately & so easily. This love that I received from the people of Zambia literally overpowered me... I will admit that I often have a hard time saying I love you to people in my life who I maybe shouldn't, but with the people in Zambia it was the most honest & heartfelt thing. I could easily tell people I loved them & mean it with every cell in my body. 

I don't think that I would have had the experience I did in Africa alone without it coupled by the amazing Kathy Headlee Miner. This woman is honestly the biggest inspiration to my heart and I'm pretty sure an angel on earth! Kathy taught me to really notice what caught my attention & not to judge it, just pay attention. This was SO hard! But Kathy always told us (my team) that we were overqualified for this journey in Africa & our own life - just take a breath and know it's not to much. One day we would understand why we needed to see & experience the things we did. Heavenly Father is the only one with the answers and he is willing to share them with us if we just ask! 

One of the biggest lessons I learned and am constantly trying to remember is to live in the now.

Right here, right now. Now is the only time that I have control over - the past is gone & thinking about or worrying over the future doesn't change a thing!! I only have power over the now. Realizing this was powerful. The now I experienced in Africa hurt. A lot. I would try to use different methods to remove myself from the now & what I was seeing - Kathy was so brilliant & took away our ipods as a method to avoid the escape & distraction they would provide. 

It was interesting to learn & hear from my team members all the different ways they had of taking themselves out of the present and coming to learn my own way of not dealing with the now. I know now that I want to change my coping mechanisms & work through things!! 

I always want to live in the now. 

Okay well that is not even a small fraction of everything Africa has brought to the forefront of my mind but I think enough to let process! (This is really proving to be a great therapy to try and explain all this.) I promise to keep updating with the different things i've learned & experiences that changed me. Thanks for taking the time to read this & better yet care!! 

Another important thing I learned in Africa: the world is a better place just because you exist!

 

The picture that touched my heart before Africa

And now even more - meet Philip & Kennedy! 

The two from the picture :) 

Meeting them only made the picture more special for me. 

Click the grey words to read the story behind The Worth of a Soul

It is the most touching story!!