He Knows Me Better

        I’ve been thinking a lot about my future and choices I need to make lately. A lot of you who might read this are probably aware of some of the things going on in my life and what I am trying to accomplish, and if so, I have probably asked for your help. I hope this post doesn’t make you feel like your advice, prayers, and inputs are unwanted. It has often been said that Heavenly Father will help to answer our prayers through other people he has specifically placed in our lives. I will always cherish the conversations of support that I have had with each of the Angels in my life lately.

        As I have been feeling frazzled as I try lots of new options… The greatest news for me, is that Heavenly Father knows me better than I know myself. On my way to work the other day, I was listening to music on my ipad and decided to switch to an EFY album I used to listen to on my mission. A song came on, and it was seriously an answer to my prayers.

The lyrics say:

It feels like I’ve only got a piece of the picture

I’m trying to figure out just where I fit here,

There is One who sees all I’m meant to be…

Sometimes I can’t see past what’s on the surface

But He helps me understand the depth of my purpose

He gives me faith to hold as my path unfolds…

In a world of voices that say they have the answer

I escape the noises, close my eyes, and I turn

To the One who sees all the pieces put together-

He knows me better.

        It was EXACTLY what I needed to hear and remember at that time. Since listening to that song, I have turned to a lot more prayer and fasting, and more importantly- quickly acting on promptings that I have. It has led me to some new and exciting ideas and opportunities, which I will share sometime later, as well as insight into who I am and what I stand for when I drown out the noise of the world. I love it. I love me!

       Click below if you'd like to hear the song :-) 

He Knows Me Better Video

Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence

I seriously cannot at this moment think of a more influential message that has ever been shared with me in my life. Besides my own personal conversations with God and some trusted individuals, this message has been the most profound that I have been able to keep coming back to in life, over and over again over the course of the last 4 years. It started the day after I made the decision to get baptized. A super hard, frustrating, fulfilling journey full of lots of uncertainty. Sister Stephanie Jarstad sat down on my bed next to me and without even saying much jotted down in a little notebook "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence- Elder Holland" A year later, when I was struggling to complete my mission papers, and was having some financial setbacks and an extreme lack of support... I reminded myself, "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence". Throughout the 18 months that I served as a full time missionary, I wrote down this title and printed off a handful of different copies for myself and for different people who were struggling with decisions and lacked confidence that they could successfully do what they had been called to do. About 6 months ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with an urgent prompting to write a letter to a dear friend of mine. In it, I included quotations from this talk by Elder Holland along with a copy of the talk in its entirety. The inspired words from Heavenly Father, spoken eloquently through Elder Holland's mouth were influential in helping her make the decision to serve as a full time missionary. She is now serving faithfully in Colorado. The word "CONFIDENCE" has pretty significant meaning for me. As a general rule, when I am in a safe environment, I feel that I am confident with myself. I try to accept my imperfections, although some have proven to be particularly challenging. To me, the opposite of CONFIDENCE is UNCERTAINTY, or ANXIETY... A feeling of worry rather than a feeling of peace. As I have made many important decisions lately, I have felt a very extreme sensation of wavering between CONFIDENCE and ANXIETY. I have fortunately been guided by the Spirit to find outlets to help me feel confidence and assurance of moving in the right direction. The moment I start to feel safe, and confident in my choices... The adversary (aka Satan) decides to sneak out of the corner and try to make me second guess my choices and take away the feelings of direction and hope that I have begun to build up. Satan has been able to make eternally insignificant things (Like finding out I have 5 cavities to fill when only 6 months ago I was supposedly cavity free, and my dental insurance runs out in less than a week) break through the wall that I have worked so hard to fortify to protect myself from him and his deceptions. I have experienced intense drifting between calm, peaceful assurance and reminders of everything that isn't perfect NOW. Tonight, after a long two days of pondering, discussing, studying, thinking, questioning, and second guessing... out of the blue I heard the words- Clear as day- in my head... "CAST NOT AWAY THEREFORE YOUR CONFIDENCE" followed by the most important (to me) quote of the entire 20 minute long talk...

As a reminder to myself, and to anyone who might ever care to read this... You know enough. You know what you need to do. Heavenly Father may, from time to time, re-direct your paths but he will allow you to do so with a feeling of peace and hope, even when uncertainty lies ahead. No matter what lies and deceptions Satan may put into your head and into your heart... There is one feeling that he CAN. NOT. MIMIC... And that is PEACE. If it was right when you prayed about it, and trusted it, and believed in it... It is right now. Trust God, believe in good things to come... All is well.

Well hello there!

I decided after 3 + years to get back on the blogging scene. I have a lot to say and I feel that Facebook statuses... stati, rather, are just not cutting it for me! This is going to kind of be an outlet to share my thoughts (That sounded deep and dark) that are a little too deep or a little too random for Facebook! Yahoo! Realistically, I should usually just keep my mouth shut but... It is what it is :) Please, be blessed by this :P I love you all!

And um... Here's me in a play a year ago. You're welcome!

Called To Serve

Well, shoot... In case you were wondering, blogging is OBVIOUSLY NOT going to be my 2011 New Years Resolution. Because A) I would fail and B) I'm GOING ON A MISSION!

I opened my call on November 8th (After almost a month of waiting!)


(Kirsten and I both look so super freaked out!)

And I am going to...........



THE GEORGIA MACON MISSION!!!!!

Well, I know most of you guys already knew this but... I figured it was still blog worthy :)

I am so excited to be a missionary in Georgia! I will be reporting to the Missonary Training Center in Provo, UT on January 26th :)




ALSO...While I was waiting those endless days outside my empty mailbox, this song was a common occurance between me and my friends. It's pretty cute so I hope you enjoy!!!

Where you lead...I will follow.

In case you didn't know...I am obsessed with Gilmore Girls.

It is all because of this girl--->

My 2nd year of college was spent watching EVERY episode of the 7 seasons.

Sometimes I get sad that my life doesn't come with "La la...La la...laaaa ahhhh" music in the background.

Gilmore Girls ends up being my life in one way or another all the time. It's kind of awesome/depressing. I want to be Lorelai when I grow up (Minus the whole having a kid at 16 thing...) Gilmore Girls reminds me of Western (AKA The happiest time of my life) and the Vortex, and staying up on the magical couch of narcolepsy when I was sick or sad watching it all night long. I always sleep best with Gilmore Girls playing almost inaudibly in the background.

These guys are kind of my family--->


and laugh if you may, Brian Owen, but I am super connected to them. I just watched this and cried when Rory graduated from Chilton... I love their wittiness "Is it raining?" "No, it's National Baptism Day...Tie your tubes, idiot!" ..."He called me hot plates...he SO likes me"... "Amber BFF'd you!" "Well I feel truly blessed!" etc. etc.

So there is really no reason for this post... I just love it and have a freakish attachment to it. Oy with the poodles already!

The Story

"all of these lines across my face,

tell you the story of who I am,

so many stories of where I've been

and how I got to who I am..."

Today I had to write an autobiography for a school assignment.

This is my life. One page. 12 Font. Double Spaced.
My name is Emily Brooke and I was (accidentally) born in Montevideo, MN on March 7, 1988. I have lived in Wyoming my entire life and although I am not a “cowgirl” I feel that the Cowboy State’s culture, cuisine and climate have all had a role in shaping who I am today. I am tough and outspoken but my heart melts easily. I cry an awful lot! My passions are theatre, music performance and appreciation, service and children. I participated in almost every sport and activity imaginable as a child but excelled only in performing arts so that’s what I stuck with. I am learning how to cook and I love good food. I have great parents, an ambitious younger brother and a beautiful older sister who was “adopted” into our family growing up. I have a close bond with my aunts, uncles and cousins on both sides of the family, and I have wise, strong grandparents. My mom and sister are both teachers and I am no stranger to kids. For example, each summer since high school I have taught between 40 and 120 children at a 3 week long intensive theatre performance camp for children ages 8-18. I cannot describe the passion and energy that these students have, and their thirst for learning and adventure is contagious! I have not always been excited to be a teacher, but now I can’t wait. Following this semester, I will continue my education at UW in fall 2012. In the interim I will serve as a missionary for my church and I am so excited for all of the opportunities that are coming my way in the near future. I can’t wait to be a teacher, mother, wife and lifelong learner always!

'Cause Cold Nostalgia Chills Me To The Bone...

So, I was just listening to Owl City and it made me feel happy/sad...It reminded me of a time of the end of summer last year when my life was a little bit topsy turvy (and it wasn't just from riding the swings multiple times at the county fair). I feel that every summer around this time I feel a little "iffy"...I usually have a few weeks to slow down and re-assess my past 3 months and make new goals for the school year and adjust to people coming and going, while I seem to always stay pretty constant. So...I started this summer with a list of 87 new songs to discover, and a plethora of daily goals and a plan: to finish 2 books (just 2...haven't come even close to finishing either of them)... to lay out at the Econo Lodge as much as possible...to drink as much cherry limeade & diet coke as possible...to work out while watching One Tree Hill with Shallie as much as possible...and to make incredible memories during what I consider the last summer before "Growing Up". Looking back, I have only gotten to fall in love with about 1/2 of the songs so far, never once had the time to lay out or work out (seriously, I worked 18 hour days people!) but I drank enough Diet Coke to compensate for all of that! The one goal that I did meet was to make amazing memories!!! I had THE best little group of friends that I spent approximately 900 hours with this summer. I had 115 students who brightened my day for a month, and motivated me to work harder than ever before. I had good adventures with great people. I babysat. I spent quality time with my parents. I enjoyed learning new skills at a new job. And I've got the sketchy tye dyed t shirt to prove it :) Thanks, to all of you who were mentioned in this little note for being such an amazing part of my life! Here's some pics to recap the past couple months!!

Sometimes when you're shopping at the Rock Springs Mall...You get too tired to live anymore...Then this photo happens.

My Summer Besties watching fireworks on 4th of July...
I don't know what I would've done without my Shallie, Zack & Taylor Dawn!
A few of "The Telephone Hour" girls in "Bye Bye Birdie!



The 100 Ways Ballerinas...We kind of stole the show, no big deal :)

Super fun Opening Night Girls Night Sleepover that Taylor and I hosted for some of the high school girls! We were playing the Ugly, Uglier, Noise game WHILE doing the traditional feet in the bathtub soak (a Girls Night tradition!)


So the last moments before "Annie Jr." opens, Beau decides to add in Christmas decorations...Oh Beau! Which led to Tasha, Taylor and I making a huge dirty trashcan full of popcorn and stringing it until the wee hours of the morning :)


Just a few of our fabulous kids!!! LOVE them!