I don't know where to start, except at the beginning

It's definitely been a busy few months since I last posted. Dad and Stacey came out and helped me drive back to Ohio from Utah. Talk about exhausting, especially since I was already an emotional wreck. It was very similar to how I felt when I moved from Ohio to Utah. But now I'm in Bloomington, Indiana. That drive was a lot less stressful. Dad, Dave, and little Will helped me with that move. It's definitely pretty here, but it still hasn't "grown" on me like everyone says it will. Too many one way streets, which make me feel claustrophobic, and 4 way stops. And I swear, I haven't been to an area yet where the speed limit is over 30. Ridiculous. School started a couple weeks ago. I think it will be a really good program. We'll be assigned a teacher/school next month so we can begin getting our in class experience. There are only 16 of us in the program, and being full time we take all of our classes together. I like working with most of them. It is going to be a challenge though being back in the land of the "Gentiles". I can already tell I'm one of the few conservatives in the class. Just a couple days ago in my human diversity class we were doing this color personality test. I immediately knew I was gold since it's characteristics were organized, responsible, faithful, conservative views on love and marriage, etc. I was surprised there were 3 other girls in that one as well. That made me feel a little less alone. Until one of them was reading the qualities out loud and got to the one about marriage, stopped, and said "I just want to clarify that I don't agree with this at all." I shouldn't be surprised. What I was surprised about though was when I was talking to a friend of mine after institute about my class on Wednesday. See, in class we had someone come and talk about the legal issues in the classroom. The topic of homosexuality came out (discrimination) and that's when I could tell I was probably the only conservative. In class they're of the belief that you have to set aside your own beliefs and morals. Things like, reading books to your students with same sex parents rather than just the traditional mother and father. As you can guess, I obviously disagree. Anyway, I was telling this friend of mine (who is LDS) that I disagree with doing that. She didn't see the problem with it because "kids are going to be exposed to it anyway". She's also of the belief (as I am not) that sex education should be kept in schools, referring to things like safe sex and birth control because "kids will be exposed anyway". I feel it's the parent's responsibility to teach their kids those things, not the school system's. To argue with her though, I said "Well maybe we should legalize marijuana since people will do it anyway." She actually agreed that we should legalize it. I told her Christ wouldn't legalize it. Her response was, "Well, no, but we could tax it." Not even kidding. Here was an otherwise good, strong member of the church telling me that even though Christ would do something differently, we shouldn't follow for political reasons. I just don't understand that. I don't know about you, but I can't separate my personal, religious beliefs from what I think about the world. My religious beliefs make up who I am. Another example I'll take from the scriptures based on our Sunday school lesson today. We read in Alma about Moroni's title of liberty and how the Nephites went to war with the Lamanites to preserve their families, liberties, and freedom of religion. These were things that they were willing to shed blood over. They did not delight in the shedding of blood, but families and religion were more important. They had to stand up for what they believed in. They weren't going to let the Lamanites come in and tell them what to believe or how to worship. And the Lord blessed them for their faithfulness. Why is it any different for us today? Shouldn't we as faithful Latter Day Saints stand up for our belief in the family and our right to worship without letting the world tell us what to do? In Helaman's epistle to Moroni he stated, "And now they were determined to conquer in the place or die". They risked their lives to protect their families and their beliefs. If we truly believe the scriptures are meant for our day, why should it be any different for us? Anyway, to jump topic to something less passionate... I've been going to the YSA branch. I'd say there's probably about 50 people, so relatively small. Quite different from Provo wards. But I find that to be a good thing. I've made friends will different people in the branch and it's definitely not as cliquish as my previous singles wards have been. The church building is only like 2 minutes away, which is really nice. And we actually have our own institute building as well; also nice. The institute building is actually not far from the education building on campus where all my classes are, so I can just park there and walk without having to buy a stupid parking pass. We're studying the New Testament (Harmony of the Gospels) in institute. It's been pretty good. I've also started going to a class on Tuesday afternoons called Teachings of the current 1st presidency. I've only gone once, but it seems like a really good class. I don't know if I'll be able to go though after we get assigned classes to work in. So that's what's new with me. Just trying to adjust and figure things out. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.