La Missione

I've done a lot of thinking on whether or not I wanted to continue my blog after my mission. Getting some separation from the blog world for a year and a half did my soul some good and I was really worried about picking it back up again. I didn't want to 'advertise' my life. I never wanted my life to seem to be something its not.

But as I've looked back on some posts that I've written over the years, I've realized the value my blog has had in my personal life. I've laughed at the things I've written, thinking "why in the world did I think it was okay to post that on the internet"... But as I've read, I've also remembered the things life has taught me over the years and my own words have brought me comfort and peace at this specific stage in my life.

So here I am. Back in the blog world. I promise to be honest, and to write the things that have enriched my life and maybe share a little of that with you too.

One of the things that has enriched my life more than anything has been my LDS mission. I think back to when I was deciding on whether or not I wanted to serve a mission and how confused I was about that decision. I spent many hours praying and pondering about what it would mean for me to leave my life and serve the Lord wherever he called me. Mostly, I was excited at the idea of an adventure. I wanted to serve a mission because I knew it would be an experience I couldn't find anywhere else. I didn't really even understand what a mission was when I was deciding to go. As I thought about that time in my life, I stumbled on a blog post that I never published. I wrote this post and scheduled it to publish the day that I went into the MTC... but something stopped me from posting it and it has sat in my drafts folder for a year and a half. I wanted to share a piece of that post with you.

"I've spent a lot of time thinking about whether or not I wanted to serve a mission for the LDS church...

There are so many reasons why our faith makes us happy. It's because we believe in a church organized the same way as when Christ first organized his church. It's because we believe in modern day prophets who have the ability and authority to bring us messages from our Heavenly Father. Not always in the Moses and 10 commandments kind of way, but in ways that we can apply to our modern situations. Why would our Heavenly Father provide that kind of communication then and stop it today? We are happy because we believe in eternal marriages and that our family connections will remain with us for eternities. We are happy because those sacred ordinances are being performed in Temples across the earth. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we seek for the good in the world. We are not perfect people, but we are humble people. We are constantly in communication with our Heavenly Father to find ways to improve and become closer to him. The Church is a means to an end. It is here to provide us with a path to return to our Heavenly Father and having that path has made all the difference in my life personally.

That brings me back to why I decided to serve formally as a missionary for the church. To my non-Mormon friends leaving school, my friends, my family, my job, and even my country for 18 months sounds crazy. I chose to do all of this because I know that this gospel is true. I know that if I can bring that truth and happiness that I have felt for myself to one person, then I have changed their lives forever. Our lives on earth are so small. I've spent a lot of timing thinking about just how small it is. With all that thinking, I decided to make a choice on what I wanted to dedicate this life to. It's a choice that we all have to make at some point whether we are consciously making that decision or not. & our choices will probably change many times throughout our lives. But in thinking about all of this, I decided that I want to make people happy. I want to bring people closer to knowing their Heavenly Father and their divine, eternal potential. Those are big words, divine and eternal, and they are both very real. & when I start to think in terms of divinity and eternity, everything else seems even smaller. So while many of you are still probably confused as to why I made this choice, I know for me that it is defining who I am and how I want to dedicate my life."

Looking back at this time of my life, I laugh. I laugh because I could have never comprehended just how true all of that was going to be. My mission taught me about eternity. It taught me about what I want to dedicate my life to. Being home from the mission it's sometimes hard to remember those things. We don't always get to think about helping people come unto Christ because we are just doing all we can to not fail all our classes. But I'm grateful that I wrote that post when I did, because it helps me today. God reminds me of those things as often as I forget them. Just a couple weeks ago, I got the chance to watch the LDS General Conference. If you follow me on twitter you definitely saw all my tweets about it. But I was re-reading some of the talks the other day and a certain one stuck out to me again.  You can watch/read it HERE.

After going through a really rough week this past week, I am always grateful for the reminder about eternity. I am grateful that I served a mission, and that my mission taught me so many valuable lessons. I am grateful that I know I have a Father in Heaven who loves me, and he knows me personally. So much hope and peace comes into my life as I seek his will and his council. The most precious gift I have on earth is the knowledge that God guides me. This week I have felt his sustaining power in my life, a power that I know I couldn't have mustered up on my own. It's a hard feeling to describe, but I know we can each feel it personally as we conquer our own mountains and our own heartbreaks. I believe in a God that is active in our lives, and I believe we can receive his power anytime that we show our faith in him. It is a humbling feeling to give yourself completely to the Lord, because you know that what you face is bigger than you have the power to overcome on your own. It's the ultimate trust fall. I am grateful to know that Jesus Christ suffered for us individually. I know that he knows our unique and personal trials and circumstances. With that, I know that he is the only one who knows what choices will make us the happiest, and he will guide us to make those choices.

That is why I served a mission... because I honestly couldn't imagine my life without his divine help every day. I'm grateful that I had the chance to be his representative, and to seek out those who were willing to accept God's plan for them through great faith. I knew that when I left on a mission I would be changing people's lives with the Gospel, but how little did I realize how much his gospel would change me.

Palm Sunday

What with April Fools happening yesterday, I had almost forgotten all about Palm Sunday. 

Palm Sunday isn't something that I had ever celebrated before... but last year while in Jerusalem, we got to walk with thousands of other Christians on the path that Jesus took as he rode upon a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. I don't think I ever had the chance to post about it, so why not be a year late? 

That morning, we got a group together for waffles in West Jerusalem. There is nothing on earth that is quite as heavenly as a waffle bar. 

Then we headed back to the Jerusalem Center to meet up with everyone and begin the palm sunday walk! By the time we had gotten there, most of the palms were gone. So we had to make do with other kinds of palms...

It was amazing to see all the different cultures, countries, languages, and people that were all there to celebrate the savior. We sang together (or mumbled, when we didn't know the language), we danced together, we clapped together, and mostly walked together. 

Happy Palm Sunday everyone.

This week I'll be re-reading my journal entries as we went through the last week of the saviors life.

I cannot believe that I left Jerusalem almost a year ago.

Who pressed the fast forward button? 

What Makes Me

A good friend of mine once told me that she liked reading my blog because I have a perfect life. I really hope that I don't come off that way all the time. My life is far from perfect, but I don't tend to share that part of my life here on this blog. I always seem to share the best parts of my life, because that's the part of me that feels worth sharing.  In light of all that, I decided that today I want to share what makes me... incredibly awkward. 

• Today I tripped UP the stairs on the way to school. Don't worry... I was only in a skirt. 
• I got a giant pimple right between my eyes. I call it my third eye. 
• I spilled mac and cheese on my freshly washed and ironed skirt just before leaving school today. 
• I cried three times while watching the Hunger Games. 
• I hum/sing when I can't think of something to say.
• I told a boy (on a first date) that my friends thought he was taking me to the woods to kill me. 
• If you asked me to paint your nails, I'd get more of it on your fingers than on your actual nail.  
• I've watched Moulin Rouge about 3456 times this semester. 
• I have a shaker of white cheddar popcorn topping on my nightstand right now.
• Yesterday, I bought two packages of Reese's peanut butter cups... for myself.
• I'm the mail key nazi in my apartment. 

I'm going to stop there before I get too carried away. Now for a stream of incredibly embarrassing photo booth shots from over the years... 

Spring Has Sprung

It's here! It's here! It's finally here!

Hello spring, it is so nice to have you!

You have brought me such joy already.

I can not wait to see what else you are hiding up your dainty little sleeve.

You brought me to my first trip to the Bean Museum.

You brought me to Stacey & Brock's beautiful wedding, complete with some of my favorite people in the world. 

You brought me to Heidi's house one fine evening, where we stayed up way too late talking about only the most important things in life. You also brought me German pancakes... well, it was mostly Heidi, but I'll give you some credit too. 

You brought me a beautiful BIRTHDAY GIRL! Zoe turned twenty, so we had plenty of reason to celebrate. Who knew that a Facebook group would have brought us together so long ago? She's kicked her teen years now and I'm excited to watch her on her many adventures to come. Watch out world. Seriously. 

You brought me baby leaves, sunshine, and even shadows! 

You brought me fresh bread. My first time baking it! You could tell I was excited by my multiple instagrams and endless tweets. How very accomplished I am, even if I did burn the top...

& some tough love from Farryn Elizabeth. I just thought this was funny. 

So HAPPY SPRING everyone. Get ready for plenty more foot pictures. I was really excited to pull out my saltwater sandals again. Suggestions for a new color this year? Brown, Navy, Pink, Red? Get them all? Okay. 

Feeling Fancy

A couple of months ago, my dear friend Zoe asked me if I'd like to be in a Gossip Girl style brunch for a commercial BYU was shooting. She knew I'd be sold as soon as she said Gossip Girl. I got all dolled up on a saturday morning and spent the day being in the background of this 30 second commercial. It's truly amazing how much work goes into a 30 second video. We got there before sun rise in order to get hair and makeup done. I sat in the dining room for about an hour so the camera crew could test the lighting. We were there for about 5 hours shooting, and that was just camera work. I have no idea how much time was spent just preparing for the shoot, coming up with the ideas, booking the room, finding the actors, and not to mention all the time they spent in post processing.
We made new friends, drank sparkling cider, and spent a lot of time fake laughing.

 

Glitter from Kristen Scharf on Vimeo.

Were you looking for me in the background? 

Oh wait, you couldn't see me?

You don't believe I was actually there?...

Well... aha! 

I took the time to screen shot the few times I make my commercial appearance.
(Complete with red arrows so you can tell my dark shadow apart from the other dark shadows)


Okay, well you still don't believe me...
but some day IMDB would like to know where my acting career began, so I thought I'd save them the trouble and post it all here for them to google later. I mean there was that one time you could see me clapping in the audience of "So You Think You Can Dance"... but I think this is my real debut.
Thanks for indulging me in my fantasy.

Life as of Late

Oh hey guys, it's me again. I'm really behind on my blogging. Actually, I'm really behind on most things... but I do what I can right? These past couple of weeks have been so crazy for me, but I love the chaos... it keeps life interesting. My motto is 'Never let yourself get too comfortable', I actually have a lot of mottos, but that's my most recent.

So lets try and put this all in order. A couple of weeks ago, my class took a field trip up to the Natural History Museum in SLC. If you haven't had a chance to go yet, you've got to make the trip. It was really fun to go as a class, we only have 6 students in this class so we've gotten pretty close this last semester. I'd have to say that its been my favorite class at BYU thus far.

We brought the dinner club back together... well kinda. Anna, Carson and I would make Italian dinners together every so often last semester. This year it's just Carson and I, but Anna joined us for a night at Terra Mia where we learned how to make Pizza Margarita. In Italy, you have to get a license to make pizza. Legit. We got to talk to their certified Pizza maker in Italian and then got free Pizza! Score for poor college students.

Then for the weekend we decided to go visit Farryn in Salt Lake. I saw her cute apartment for the first time and then we headed to dinner, just the girls and Scott (Farryn's boyfriend, what a sport). Aimee and I had been wanting to try this middle eastern place in Salt Lake because I've missed shawarma and she had heard about it from a friend. While we were waiting to be seated, we went next door for desert. They had the BEST gelato I've ever tasted, lemon poppyseed... genius I know.

Also, they let us draw on the tables... so that was a plus.

Then I became deathly ill right before my trip to Seattle. I was feeling a lot like this...

But, luckily, I was feeling a lot better by the time I was leaving for Seattle. I left with (what I thought was) plenty of time. It was a random friday and I thought there would be no trouble getting through security because I never had trouble before. I stepped off the tram from long term parking, got my boarding pass,  and rounded the corner to face an eternity of a line. I was stuck... It was getting down to the wire and by the time I reached the x-ray machines, I only had 15 min until my plane took off. I rushed through security as fast as I could without looking suspicious and took off running towards my terminal. My flight was scheduled to leave in 10 min and I was frantically running down the hallways. I'm looking at the terminal numbers and I realize my gate is the VERY LAST ONE. I'm sure the security tapes provided endless entertainment for employees as I sprinted with my carry-on, almost knocking out two older women. I got to my gate, out of breath and with hope in my eyes as the lady shook her head and said 'you better hurry on'. I ran on to the plane and the attendant had to help put my bag up because I could barely breath. As I sat down in my seat I felt like I needed a round of applause or something, but I was just happy I made it on at all.

It was a beautiful, rainy day in Seattle. I've always been a fan of rain and I loved how everything was so green. I loved driving down the highway with either side of the road lined with tall trees and the occasional break over a choppy lake. I loved the wood houses and the moss growing on trees. I loved how the whole city seemed to be alive and growing. I seriously wouldn't mind moving there. 

 

Then Saturday was the big day! Emily and Matt had a beautiful wedding and it was such a pleasure to be there to photograph it. We had fun working around the rain and managed to get some really great photographs in the process. You can be expecting those soon :)

 

And now its starting to feel like spring. The grass is coming in green and it's hoping to stay. The sun has been shining and I haven't needed a coat in almost a week. Everyone is giddy with anticipation for the semester to be over and for new summer adventures to begin. We had a fun outdoor concert the other day. A house across the street had a band playing on the front lawn, so I went out to join some of the other girls in my complex for a show on the grass. Those are the kind of moments that I love. 

So spring... I'm ready for you. Exams... I'm so done with you. & life... I'm so into you.