over time

I've been home for over a week now from Jerusalem. Some things are different and some things seem to always stay the same (such as the great taste of BlueBell Ice Cream and the underestimation of time, and muscle, to move into an apartment). I went rock climbing with Chase Bowler and Veronica Benavides last night up Rock Canyon Park at
the Appendage on the 5.08, 5.09 there. It was there that we discovered
Veronica's rock woman instincts as she on her first real rock climb schooled both Chase aNd I, hands down. She was amazing... I think that I need to take more drill team classes/modern dance classes. I think that might be Veronica's secret... flexibility as well as a built up strength. Needless to say, I am once more excited to have friends that excel so quick at a passion of mine as well as share a portion of my passion- it means there's less time wasted on trying to convince them to join me in future escapades!

Chase said an interesting thing while we were climbing... Chase does that occasionally. He asked me a lot of similar questions as Dad - "how was it?" "How was Jerusalem?" and the final one "How was the spirit?". I thought for a while and responded with "well, for me it's hard for archaeological sites to hit home when they say 'this is so many years old, this is where Christ walked, Christ stepped on this stone most likely'. Being in Jerusalem wasn't a needed thing in order to build a testimony of Christ. However, it was neat because the spirit was present in a way to reaffirm what was already there for me. One doesn't need to travel to Holy Sites in order to know He lived". I really do believe this statement too. It was strongly emphasized in our religion class while there that just because we are visiting these sites, it doesn't mean that we should be growing in spirit. It should be through our study and our diligence to those things that can be done universally that makes our spirits sing at those sites. I don't know if Chase was simply humoring me or if it's similar to humility but he made a comment about a difference in me, more mature. Quite possibly he was humoring me to make me become puffed up, vain, and all those wonderful attributes I've been striving for for so long... or possibly it's similar to humility - you notice that there has been a change in your life and your actions over some extension of time but you aren't able to say "Oh that's where I became mature" "that's where I stepped from immature to mature - boy (girl) to man (woman)". It comes as a continuation of continued efforts that build layer upon layer until one day you can't believe you were once a water droplet and now a mountain of snow - possible to lose the state which you're in but with the correct actions on your part and conditions you put yourself in, only able to grow larger. A process over time