The Feeble Attempt to Update with Lack of Sleep and on Pain Meds!

I realize I'm not a legitimate "writer", but I definitely feel like I have "writer's block" right now. I keep looking over at my small assortment of pictures from the last few weeks and have NO clue where to start. Or even what I feel like writing about. Of course missions and Argentina will be involved haha, that's basically my life at this point. But what the heck! It's 11:00 at night, and I'm just gonna rant! So I sincerely apologize if none of this flows in any sort of sensible order. I'm just "goin' with the flow!"

Current Update: I have officially started the process of receiving my passport!! The first, tiny step amongst the massive list of background checks, FBI clearances, visa applications, emails, etc. I liked the idea of Argentina SO much more before the Travel Department sent me my traveling info haha. I'm also going to get my wisdom teeth out in approximately 10 hours! Yayyy...No worries, it's only two years over due. My bad for not listening to the dentist years ago when I was told to get them out LAST Christmas--at the latest. **Cringe** OH! And guess what else! I'm living at home for three months. Oy vey. Don't get me wrong, I love you, Mom and Dad! I love my family. I love Quincy...But going from being "independent" and at college/California for the last year? Yeah, it's a weird transition going back to being under my parents' roof. :P Haha. But I'll be fine, I know it. Janna Hodges doesn't leave for her mission until the beginning of March, so we're both around here for quite some time haha. Believe me; we WILL be making plans!

Rexburg: It's a beautiful place, y'know that? Kelsey took this picture a couple weeks ago, while she was walking up to the temple one morning. Her and I ended up going at the same time and not even knowing it. (: I mean, of course, I love going to the temple. But there's just something about going and seeing your best friend sitting in there with you.

While still on the topic of temples...A couple weeks ago, there was a couple gals who sent up a group called Sister Missionaries of Rexburg, ID. There have been a few other groups around, and their plans were to get as many of the gals putting in their papers/have their calls and take a picture. Just to get to know some of the other girls and such. (: Anywho, it was way cool! This first picture is of all the groups who did it: Salt Lake City area, Provo, REXBURG!, BYU-Hawaii, and another group from Utah.

And then here in Rexburg, we wanted to find other gals serving in specific countries, and we were able to get group pictures! So...Viva la suda america! The other gals are going to Chile and Brazil, but so far I'm the only one in the Burg headed to Argentina. It was still such a fun experience, though.

And then the following week after that??...FINALS WEEK.

I love "Whose Line is it Anyways?" :D Haha it was hilarious. My finals, luckily, were pretty great! I aced 'em all, and I finished my last final on Thursday at 6:30 in the morning for Spanish! Haha. Which I also aced. (; 

Kaitlyn, my roommate, and I had a free night to relax in the middle of the week, so we decided to just lay in bed and chill. Well we both got changed, sat on our beds, and busted out laughing. We put on the exact same clothes. Sooo what do we do? Take pictures of our last week of being roommate. (:

Matchinnng! And we both had our black kapri sweats on!

Goofy faces. (:

Kaitlyn being...Kaitlyn haha.

Hysterically laughing. (: I'm gonna miss her a ton. I already do!

I've always been blessed with the greatest roommates, but at the beginning of the semester, I always worry about who my roommates are/will be! So believe me when I say that we are a very diverse group of girls. Oddly, we all get along super well. Little scuffles over dishes or something, of course, but wow. It was incredible. So we celebrated our last night by eating chinese takeout and watching She's the Man. (:

So much fooood! :D

And thennn...Begins the packing. A little different than before, however, because I was having to take ALL of my stuff with me. Didn't feel like putting my stuff in storage for two years haha.

Then finally all the family got into town for graduation! :D 

Saturday night, West, the parents, and I all got on the road to head home--except we got stuck in a storm, so we didn't get very far haha. We stayed the night in Dillon, Montana and got up to leave Sunday morning about 10:30. The best sight of all? Seeing the Christmas lights on I-90 just before getting home. (:

Washington: So! Now here I am in Quincy, WA for the next three and a half months haha. I got my eye doctor appointment finished, and I had my wisdom teeth taken out yesterday! (Yes, I stopped in the middle of the post and am now finishing, two days later haha). Not too swollen, and I'm really doing fairly well! I'm honestly just hoping to not get dry sockets. **Crossing Fingers**

But aside from having teeth ripped out of my jaw, I got a couple early Christmas presents from my best friends. (: Mocassins that I kinda sorta got to pick out/approve of beforehand. :P And a long, comfy skirt! The fuzzy mocassins are from Shaun, and Kelsey surprised me with the skirt. I love them bothhh. :D

I realized as I put on the skirt that I didn't have a big enough mirror in my room haha, so my last resort was the bathroom. Don't judge haha.

Anywho! I apologize for the lack of details, but methinks I'm just super tired and on a few medications. (: So! This is the update for now, until I am more coherent. (; Love you all!

"You Are Hereby Called To..."

PSYCH!!

Hahaha hold your horses now! I've still gotta tell y'all about my Thanksgiving weekend!! I will mentioned, however, that I KNEW my mission call was going to come the ONE week I wasn't going to be in Rexburg! Talk about killing a kid, sheesh.

Anywho! Christian, Audrey, baby Kali, and I all set out for Tri-Cities about 3 pm on Tuesday, stopped at Costco for dinner and a few groceries, and we all finally pulled in to the Rhoten's place about 1:30 am. (Or 2:30 am Rexburg time. Bleh!) I crashed on the couch, and the next morning I woke up to a giddy and fun-loving Jackson! (: (:

I love that little guy so much!! We all hung out most of the next day, and then Dene', Jackson, and I took off for Yakima to stay at Keith and Kristen's. I was definitely loving all the family time with my parents, West, Dene', Jackson, Keith, Kristen...It was great. I just had to catch a quick picture of Grampa playing with Jackson: grabbing his feet and making him fall back on his butt. Bahaha Jackson got a kick out of it. :P

West and I got to camp out on the living room floor, so we were continually creepin' on each other and whatever the other was doing on each other's technology. (;

"Heyyy thurrr!"

We had Thanksgiving dinner with Grandpa Maxwell and Kay, stayed another night, and took off the next day to spend a WHOLE HOUR in Quincy haha. Technically I can say I went home...Sorta haha. Either way, I had to get some Dinkus cuddle time in. (: I love my kittyyyy!

We quickly headed out for Spokane to meet up with Chris and Erin Clark, and we went to The. Best. Burger. Place. EVER. Oh my goodness. I died of deliciousness. I WILL go there again before leaving for my mission haha. Anywho, we went back to the Chris and Erin's place, and Chris and Dad were hooked on some flying game. It was so funny watching them, I had to snap a photo and get a quick video haha. For Dad's sake, I won't post the video. (; But I love the picture, because you can see Dad making flying noises with his mouth. :P

Love you, Papa! (; The next morning we met up with Christian, Audrey, and her family for breakfast before going to pick out a Christmas tree! :D This is the "adults" posing haha.

Mi hermano y padre. They're pro tree-cutters by now. (;

Freezing my butt off.

Mi mama y yo. Warming up by the fire with...

S'MORES!

Yup. We did this Christmas "Hick Style".

Missed this kid WAY too much since last May. (: 

And I got to sit with this giggly gal all the way home! (:

So on Friday afternoon, I had texted one of my roommates and asked if she had checked the mailbox yet for my call! No answer. Gah. Ever heard of Death by Mail? Yeah, it was a first for me, too. Anywho, I finally texted my other roommate Saturday afternoon after getting the Christmas tree...My poor family. Suddenly they hear squeals and screams from the back seat: "AGHABA MY MISSION CALL IS THERRREEE AGGGHHHHAAA!!!"

Dad: "Say what??"

Shelan: **Repeating squeals and screams**

Score!! I was so excited!! Except for one fact...I was still in Washington, eight hours away from my call. Didn't think dying twice was possible? Fairly certain I proved that wrong. I was dying that whole night, but I was so excited the next morning. We (Christian, Audrey, Kali, and I) all hopped in the car, said bye to Audrey's sisters, and got on the road two minutes before our desired "Time of Departure". (That's saying a lot, considering our departure time from Rexburg was postponed three hours haha). All along the drive home I was texting everybody and writing down people's guesses for where I might go, all while staring at my ideal guess: Argentina...

Many may wonder why I wanted to serve in Argentina in the first place, because "Why?" is almost always the follow-up question after "Where do you want to go?" Most of my family understands why I want to go here haha, but perhaps some of the extended family and other friends don't. I have one weird name that basically sums it up: Cornu-Labat. 

Curious as to who they are? I'm "Facebook friends" with their entire, incredible family. Yes, I dated their son Felipe for a short while during high school, but let me make it clear that that is NOT the reason I want to go to Argentina haha. I did come to know the Cornu-Labat's through Felipe, though, and I absolutely fell in the love with that family. The youngest is the only daughter, and she is the baby sister I never had. She's a sporty, fun-loving gal. I loved seeing her almost everyday and getting her hugs. (: Crazy, Pauline. The middle child was the popular, out-going Alfonso! His parents call him Alfon usually; I called him Fonzo. (: Then comes Felipe, who is a couple years younger than me. Could you tell? Probably not. He's almost an entire foot taller than me. Something I came to notice about the Argentine culture, though, was their energy for LIFE. They live to love life and party it up! The Cornu parents are one of the most incredible parents I've ever met. The entire family has a special place in my heart. Anywho, while they lived in Quincy, I spent a lot of time with them all haha. They spoke Spanish around their home typically, and I loved listening to their "sh" accent. They sort of let me into their family and shared with me SO much about the Argentine culture. They let me be a part of their celebrations, birthdays, food, lifestyle, everything. I absolutely loved it all. And then some unfortunate events came around, as life tends to do, and they all moved back to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I went to go visit during school the day Felipe was leaving, and all was well. I gave him his and his brother, sister, and mom their letters, and we had lunch and relaxed. Then it came time for us to say good-bye...I managed to not cry in front of the rest of the Cornu's, but Felipe, being my best friend and understanding it'd be a long "see ya later", walked me out to my truck and gave me the big, familiar hug. Although we weren't dating, he was/is still one of my best friends. And let me tell you, it is hard to drive away from a family so dear to you, unsure of when you'll see them again. It wasn't until I was leaving for college that I was finally able to write my good-bye letter to Gaston, the father of the family. It's hard to describe him and Ana in short terms, but all I will say is that he wrote me back soon after, calling me an extra daughter of his. Had I ever been to Argentina? Nope! Haha. But ever since, I have always wanted to experience this wonderful place in person. 

Okay!! So we were driving! We got home about 7:30, and I had told everyone that I was planning on opening my call at EXACTLY 9 o'clock. Not one minute early, not one minute late! (Like I could have actually waited an extra minute. Psh.) I don't have these pictures, but Christian and Audrey do, so I'll have to include them next time. Or I'll just add them later. (:

I had my FHE brothers all around, a couple softball gals, my best friend from California (Kelsey), more BYUI friends, my wonderful roommates, my brother and sister in person, and the rest of my family on skype--all rooting me on as I shakily opened my letter! I was thoroughly surprised that I did not cry! I am fairly certain that I was shaking too much haha. Can I tell ya a little secret? I "accidentally" glanced a couple lines down while reading the beginning lines of my letter and saw where I was going. It truly was an accident, though! I swear haha. Peripheral vision just gets the better of us on occasion haha. Anywho! For the great announcement!!!

"Dear Sister Lybbert:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Argentina Mendoza Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months. You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, March 27, 2013."

**Sigh** I am so unbelievably blessed. I'm not sure how rare/common it is that a missionary is called to serve where they really want to go, but...Goodness. I have work to do! And I am SO excited. I may not have cried while opening my call, but I bawled in thanks on my knees that night to my Heavenly Father...Thank heavens I'm taking a Spanish class this semester. :D Viva Argentina!

"If you work your mission hard, it will be easy; if you work your mission easy, it will be hard."

The Wait Of A Mission Call, Plus A Trip to Utah

I finished off my last post (almost a whole month ago--sorry!) with mission updates, and I do believe the last thing I mentioned really was that I was having my last interview (stake president interview) that night! That was pretty exciting, especially at the very end. As my stake president glances down at his tablet, which is showing my papers, he finishes our interview with: "Well, Sister Lybbert, we are definitely blessed with some incredible technology nowadays, so you know what? I'm going to shake your hand, send you on your way, and your papers will be in the hands of the First Presidency in approximately ten minutes."

I wanted to cry. Present tense: I want to cry haha. So incredible, and the possibility of a mission became SO real...But now the hard part...WAITING.

Needless to say, I was a little perturbed. Especially when the mission submission's doctor called to talk about my knee; this meant that my papers were not completely through the medical part yet, and I would have to wait even LONGER. GAH! Anywho! While I was waiting, my roommates were finding stray cats and bringing them home haha. This little guy snuggled with me at night (:

The next morning after my Spanish class, I was on the couch reading with my blanket on me. He comes to sit up next to me for a couple minutes and then hops back down onto the floor...It was kinda weird, honestly. I readjust my legs to spread out where the cat was, and I freeze...It was warm...And wet...UGHHH! The darned cat peed on me! I was ticked. He then nearly pooped on our living room floor before I put him outside. For some reason, I just like dogs more haha.

The weekend of the 17th, Christian and Audrey were kind enough to let me borrow Christian's car; a couple of mine and Kelsey's friends from California were getting married in Eden, UT, and we REALLY wanted to go...So we started making plans for our trip down to Utah! First stop? Ogden (about 15 minutes from the reception) for some DELICIOUS sushi! I had done some research to make sure we were getting some GOOD sushi for a reasonable price. We ended up getting three rolls and splitting them. Ohhhh boy. Talk about sat-is-fac-tion!

Kelsey taking pictures before taking off:

Almost ready to leave Rexburg!

Kelsey has always wanted to get out and take pictures of the state signs while driving through, and she finally had the chance! So this is me running to the sign...

And then jumping up on it! :P

I swear I only looked away from the road for 2 seconds...

Kelsey: "Shelan, show me how excited you are for sushi again!"

Me: **SQUEALLLL!**

The baja roll, which Kelsey chose.

Om. Nom. Nommm.

The sushi that I chose. The best one EVERRR. (:

One of Kelsey's choices, the mango roll. So pretty! Too sweet for sushi.

And yes, afterwards, we did go next door for ice cream. It was a weekend of slight splurging. (:

We went to the reception, drove down to Provo, met up with Shaun and his fiance briefly, and crashed at Caitlyn Law's (she's from Omak!). That Sunday, Kels and I had to take off pretty early, because she was flying out early that morning from Salt Lake to go home for Thanksgiving! Sooo jealous. Anywho, I took her there, dropped her off, and I decided to hang around Salt Lake a bit more. It's not very often that I have to chance to just wander around temple square, so that is just what I did. My favorite building is the old Assembly Hall. I can only imagine all the work the saints performed to have this gorgeous building. I enjoy just sitting there and relaxing and thinking. I got to pondering about where the heck my mission call was at that moment. Closer than EVER before, yet I still didn't know haha. Talk about a poor girl going BERSERK! Well a couple pairs of sister missionaries came wandering through the hall, and one pair stopped to talk with me--of course haha. That's their job. 

They quickly found out I was, in fact, LDS, and we got to talking about school. One of the sisters attends BYU-Idaho, and the other sister was from China. The subject of missions came up, and they asked if I was planning on serving. I mentioned that yes, I was; my mission papers were somewhere very close, most likely. They asked where I was wanting to go and why...I've never been a talented multi-tasker--especially when it comes to talking and crying at the same time haha. Granted I'm very nervous about going out for 18 months to purely serve the Lord, but I am so...at peace with that. So excited. I just want to up and leave NOW haha...

Anywho, we talked for quite some time, and then they headed off on their way after I gave them a couple referrals and my number. I sat for a while longer, overwhelmed with tears and happiness. And then I got up to walk around some more. Met a Tongan lady and talked to her for quite some time, dropped her off at her singles ward, and continued to walk towards the temple. It is hauntingly beautiful in the most pure way I can imagine. Everyone loves the castle look, as do I. But I also love all the symbolism and what it represents.

I got in the car and headed back home. Dropped off the car at Christian and Audrey's, and I decided to stay for a while. This gorgeous little lady is starting to smile, and it melts my heart every time. (:

Needless to say, my nieces and nephews are kinda, sorta, definitely the loves of my life. (:

More Mission Updates Coming Soon!! :D

Apple Parties, Baby Blessings, Halloween, and MISSION UPDATES!

So I swear I do NOT have that busy of a schedule, but getting around to writing a blog post just seems so...time consuming? That still isn't even a very good excuse; especially not on days like today, Tuesday, since my one and only class is Spanish. Therefore, I am done with classes at 7:30 AM, before anyone else even starts classes haha. Anywho, I'm a few weeks overdue. Since I'm hungry, we're gonna start off with a Taco FEAST!

My roommate, Lindy, is now engaged! Well she got engaged several weeks ago haha, but since she and her fiance, Chandler, are from Idaho Falls, he often comes over. Melody and I were out in the living room and talking about how hungry we were, yet too lazy to make anything. All that day I had been planning on making myself some delicious tacos for dinner. Well Lindy and Chan are heading out the door and say, "Hey, we're running to the store for stuff for tacos. Are you guys needing anything? Milk? Bread?" Melody says, "Oh! I was planning on making tacos for myself, too!"...Me: "Well that's just weird. So was I!"...We then decided to compile all of our ingredients and have our Taco Feast. :D Yes, that is about 2.5 lbs of delicious hamburger!

Everything from cilantro and a giant bowl-full of shredded pepperjack cheese to seasoned meat and guacamole! Mmmm. (:

Now that I'm in dire need of food...Next! I was able to watch the end of Christian's ultimate frisbee game after I finished my own softball game. (: So here are a few shots of my lovely brother, coaching and playing a game he loves!

RAWRRR!

Coaches leading their team

Last fall semester, while living with Kaitlyn and Gill, we hosted an Apple Party! It was a great fall idea and was tons of fun! Kaitlyn has decided to make it her annual festivity to bring in the fall season. But first, we needed a load of apples to cook with. (PS: An "Apple Party" is basically eating a bunch of apple-y things such as apple cake, apple pie, caramel apples, apple crisp, caramel and marshmallow dip for sliced apples, apple cider, apple juice...Uhhh yeah. Delicious.) Last year we were able to get all of our apple at the university's orchard for super cheap. So we figured we'd do that again, of course...Unfortunately, we arrived and all the apples had been cleared out. Sad day. But we did take the opportunity to take several fun pictures. (: Most you can find on Facebook. I have an album for my pictures, and I am tagged in all of the other ones Kaitlyn took. But I thought I'd include a couple of my favorites. (:

Yes, the majority of these pictures are posed hahaha.

It snowed. Gah. Freak. I already was having California withdrawals; the snow in the middle of October was NOT what I was hoping for yet. Oh well. It's all gone and melted for now. (: Best not jinx myself, though. Oy.

My view at 6:30 in the morning, waking up to snow and heading to class.

Melody is from California and was SUPER excited about the snow. :D

Kaitlyn and I headed to the temple that afternoon. (:

And what had I been SO excited for FOREVER?! Everyone came to visitttt!!! Except for Trista and Russ. ): I can definitely see why they didn't come up, though haha. New Mexico is quite the distance. :P

Momma and Papa decided to accompany me to Idaho Falls for my doctor's appointment. Padre needed a nap, methinks. (;

Uncle Christian teaching Jackson how to spit grapes super far. :P

Playing with Jackson, who (of course) was hiding behind his own momma.

Jackson playing a game of peek-a-boo haha.

Oh m'goodness, you should have seen the look and excitement on his face when he finally was able to "hold" baby Kali. :D Hahaha in this picture, his mouth was the biggest "O" I had ever seen on his face. (:

While the family was here, one of my FHE brothers received his mission call!! Sean Dalton was called to the Lyon, France mission and reports February 20th! I'm a water spout and cry all the time anyways, so of course I begin tearing up as he begins reading it. But oh my word, when Sean broke down and started crying, too...I was a goner. My roommates just stood next to me and laughed, because they are so used to it now haha. Anywho, I compiled the few pictures of him opening his call for you to get a good idea of his reaction (my other FHE brother is the one on the right holding the cell phone, that's Jacob our FHE leader/Dad). The picture on the bottom left is my favorite haha, he was just really overcome with excitement and happiness all he could do was cry a tad. It was so great, and he is WAY excited to serve in France!

The next Monday after all the family went home, I had to head back to Idaho Falls for my LAST doctor's appointment! (Yes, these last couple of weeks have been full of lasts: LAST paper to fill out, LAST doctor's appointment, LAST bishop interview, LAST of all the interviews...) Kaitlyn came with me, so we made a quick stop at Winco, which is ALWAYS an adventure with us haha. The Sunday evening before, we had watched a couple of our friends do the Cinnamon Challenge. I had not seen anyone do it before, but I will take everyone's word for it being awful haha. Including Christian, considering he's done it before. :P Anywho, Kaitlyn and I were walking through the bulk foods and both busted up laughing when we saw the glorious amount of cinnamon there. (;

That same day, Monday, our entire ward had an FHE Halloween party at the counselor's house! My whole apartment and I weren't super huge on the whole dressing up dealio, but Becca suggested we all be cats. Thus...We became cats lol. From the left to the right: Me, Kaitlyn, Melody, and Becca. (:

Off we go to the party! This is my bishop, getting the game of Limbo ready for us. (;

He has been absolutely INCREDIBLE to work on my papers with. He has done so much for the MANY perspective missionaries in my ward.

A few of the guys from our ward who continually stop by our apartment; they won the best outfit award!

My roommates and a few of our great FHE brothers!

Wuendy is on the far left, Lindy is the cute blonde gal to the left of me. Then it goes me, Becca up top, Aaron is below her, Mel is to the right of Becca, Kaitlyn, Jake is standing next to Kaitlyn, and Danny is below  Jake. (: We were only missing two of the guys: Jacob and Sean!

Dance par-tayyy!

Kaitlyn's birthday was the next day, Tuesday. So what do you do? Streamer our door shut (almost shut--for about a week we slid under, because we didn't have the heart to take it down haha) at 5:30 in the morning! :P

Random: I love my Religions teacher. I took his Book of Mormon class last Fall and absolutely loved it. So much that I signed up for his Family Foundations class this semester! He is a bishop here in Rexburg, he always knows how to bring the Spirit into our lessons, he used to be a seminary teacher in Kennewick before teaching here, and (as you can tell from this video) he always has so much fun, enthusiasm, and joy doing what he does! Haha.

Mission Updates!

I know, I know. This is really what you're looking for among all these random pictures and nothingness haha.

-Paperwork?! DONE!

-Doctor's Appointments?! DONE!

-Dentist Check Up?! DONE!

-Bishops Interviews?! DONE

-Stake President Interview?! TONIGHT!! In approx. one hour, in fact. (:

After tonight, my stake president will send my papers off to Salt Lake! The average here for receiving a call has been between 10 days and two weeks. The latest I've seen is three weeks. All I have left is to get my wisdom teeth out (scheduled for December 20th, yes, just before Christmas haha), a last eye doctor check up (scheduled for December 18th), and to get my Hep A shots!...Whenever I finally get those haha.

Where do I want to go? Honestly, just Spanish-speaking. I love my Spanish class now, and Spanish is one of my minors. It would be SO great. Even more specific? I'd love to go to Argentina haha. Everything I've heard from Felipe Cornu-Labat's family has made me want to visit so much! There or just anywhere in South America. Orrr for in states? Shaun mentioned like Pennsylvania or one of the states on the East Coast that were the first colonies established in the U.S. That would be incredible. :D

Depending on when I get my call my depend on when/where I decide to go to the temple. I sort of just assumed the Columbia River temple. Possibly over Christmas break? However, Christian said that him and Audrey may not make it home for Christmas. ): Sooo I dno. Plans are still up in the air, and I am open for suggestions.

Alrighty! That's all for now. I really don't know what else you all want updates on, so I'll leave it at that haha. I'm gonna grab something to eat and head to my last interview! :D Love you all!