February 8, 2026

Dearest Lily and Isaac,

Great week!

• I got 97% on my anatomy test! AND found out I got 109/110 on my Bio Test! I only got 85% on my chem test, but overall I'm feeling pretty good about school...
• I got to do an Endowment session on Wednesday morning.  Dad had left early to go to Vegas, and Emmy had to leave early as well, so I made it an earlier session than I was planning and met Sarah Woodbury there!  (Water Polo friend, for those who don't know her)
• Emmy and I went to a "How to Train Your Dragon" concert on Friday.  It was AWESOME!  We watched the movie on a big screen in the music building concert hall while the philharmonic symphony played the soundtrack.  They even played the Paramount opening theme and the Dreamworks intro.  Everyone there knew all the right times to laugh and cheer and it was so much fun!!
• We went to Brick Oven. We forgot to take a photo, though, so Emmy edited one for me.  Haha!  I love it!
• Emmy and I surprised Joseph by stalking him to his apartment after the show and getting a tour.
• Emmy had Sweethearts on Saturday, and we hosted the after activity, so I spent Saturday cleaning and getting things ready.  She has great friends, and it was lovely to have them over.
• Dad and I had dinner with the Carmichael's down at the Joseph Smith Memorial building last night.  It was just lovely!  The scaffolding is starting to come down off the temple - at least a little bit.
• I played the piano in Primary today, and they are learning a song called "Covenants". I love it!  The doctrine taught in Primary songs is pretty much my favorite!

This week's devotional was particularly awesome.  Elder Shumway spoke on finding balance and leading the "abundant life."  He used the parable of the olive tree in Jacob 5 to talk about having balance between our personal branches (our visible things like work, school, hobbies, talents, dating, etc) with our roots (our covenental connection with God).  

I've never thought about this parable that way, and it was fascinating! It let me to think a lot about whether I'm giving God equal time.  In the ancient days people sacrificed their "firstborn" and "unblemished" things.  What are the "firstborn" and "unblemished" things I should be giving to the Lord?  

Secondly, I had a profound spiritual experience in my anatomy lecture on muscle Thursday afternoon.  This might be hard to explain without a visual, but I'll try.  

Muscle cells are very long and very skinny.  They can be microscopic width-wise but run the whole length of your muscle.  Each muscle cell is surrounded with a connective tissue sheath.  These sheathed cells are then bundled into groups called fascicles that are surrounded with yet another connective tissue sheath.  These fascicles (bundles of cells) are then bundled together again to form muscles which have yet another connective tissues sheath.  As the muscle reaches it's end and needs to connect to a bone, ALL of these sheaths - the cellular, the fascicle, and the muscle sheath - all extend out past the muscles, come together and form a single tendon that then anchors to the bone. 

As I sat in lecture listening to my teacher and visualizing all these layers coming together I had a new vision of what the Lord means when he says we need to "be one." All these different little cells doing their little part but focused in one direction and coming together with all the other cells to be anchored where they should be to accomplish the work that needs to be done. It was beautiful and profound! 

I love you both to the moon and back!!

Mom