Oh dear, I'm going to get behind

things that have happened:
-One day I rode my bike from WSU to the Frontrunner with a headstart on the bus and I beat it
-the next day the bus had a slight headstart on me and we got there about the same time.
-Thursday I had another amazing institute lesson (details below)
-Friday there were 2 opening socials for my 2 departments. I so love them both.
-I just rode my bike to Kaysville and back. There in 30 minutes, back in 34 (more uphill on the way back). It's somewhere between 5 and 7 miles one way.
-I had another run-in with a staple on Thursday. This time, it was 45 minutes before my piano lesson. Good job, me! I might be banned from staples again.
-After said staple incident, I had a run-in with a water faucet. Also right before my piano lesson. Maybe someone or something doesn't want me doing well in my studies...
-I am a freakin' photoshop master!!! more to follow.

So, institute. I hope I can get this across. The sermon on the mount in Matthew 5 was like a leadership conference for the apostles. He starts right in with the "blessed" things (or beattitudes)--which are amazing like I never really realized before! He gives the same lesson in 3 Nephi 12, but starts it off with the instruction to Follow Him and also to listen to the apostles. That part wasn't included in the NT version because the 12 already knew that, but when He taught the people it's there. And it is so important. As per last week's lesson, If we don't listen to the apostles, it's like we are rejecting Him personally, very important for us to hear that often. Actually in Matthew, they had just received the invitation to "follow Him" in the previous chapter, so it works.

We also learned about the beattitudes, that they are like stair steps, each one on a higher level than the previous one. The last one, though, is "Blessed are they who are persecuted for my sake" and it makes one think "how is persecution the highest level of blessedness?" Well, since Christ was persecuted, it puts us on His level, which is the highest! Then we looked at some translations. The word "blessed" from the Greek means "oh! the happiness/joy of..." and in Old English it means to be marked with blood (like, the blood of Christ from the atonement) and from the Hebrew means adore or kneel, like Christ adores us/Christ kneels to us! He loves us, He really does! So it was basically an amazing lesson yet again.

Pretty much anyone who wants to go to institute can! Do it!