Blessings Unmeasured

I feel so incredibly blessed. This week I got to sing in the Salt Lake Tabernacle as well as the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. A new friend in the ward told me about the Salt Lake Institute choir and I decided to join it this week. Turned out that this was their last week of rehearsal before the concerts this weekend. I miraculously learned 11 songs. Three or four of them I'd already sung before or was familiar with, but the rest, not so much. I absolutely love the songs we sang. I knew after that first and only rehearsal that I needed to sing even if I didn't know all the songs. I've been in quite a few choirs and usually there is at least one song that really hits home and encourages me to keep coming to choir even if I don't feel like it. Well, this time there were several songs that really impressed me. The first is O God, Beneath Thy Guiding Hand. I'd sung this when I did the Semester at Nauvoo Program, so it has a special place in my heart. The second piece is called Hark! Listen to the Trumpeters. Oh. My. Goodness. I LOVE this song. It is an arrangement of the song the men in Zion's Camp sang. The music and the words move my soul, I don't know how else to explain it. It's beautiful. The last of my favorites is called Take Time to Be Holy. This one has such a simple, but powerful, open, vulnerable feeling about it and nearly brought me to tears every time I sang it. After singing in the concert tonight, I felt like I'd just experienced a roller coaster of emotions and it felt amazing and overwhelming at the same time. I am so grateful I could be in the choir this weekend.



What added to the roller coaster ride today was being so excited to hike and explore around a waterfall again. It was an awesome camping trip. Although guys were invited, none came so it was just 6 girls and it was great. When we left last night we had no idea where we'd be camping, but we found a nice place really quickly up in the Unitas off of Mirror Lake Highway.



When I got home, I discovered that a letter I'd been waiting for came into the mail. Good news!! I received my eligibility letter for participating in the Alternative Route to Licensure Program from the Utah State of Education. It means I didn't have to take the US history class that I'm currently enrolled in, but it's okay. I can't express how much this means for me. I have a job and now I have the letter that says I can move forward to begin the process of getting my teaching license. It's just one more thing that has amazingly fallen into place. I feel so blessed and grateful.