Diana Leaney López Ruano

Its a bit silly really, I shouldn't be so upset about it. But alas, I am. I lost my necklace to the sea. Yup. The sea took it away from me. THE necklace. MY necklace. Anyone who has seen me in the past three years knows the necklace of which I speak: The one that never ever comes off unless I'm in the Temple. The one that matches my sisters necklaces. The one that meant more to me than I realized until I lost it. The one that made me feel close to the ones I love and miss. The one that I now reach for out of pure habit... and is now gone. At least I lost my neclace to such a formidable opponent. If anyone were to take it from me I would insist it be a great force such as the sea. This specific sea being along the beaches of Sanya, Hainan, China. There is a saying on the island that it is "the end of heaven and the end of the sea" Of course, the Chinese would consider China "heaven", but as I write this lament I'll have to leave my neclac

Isn't it crazy how even though I am thousands and thousands of miles away from home, I can still talk to those I love as if I never even left? They say that true friendship, the kind that makes you reserve a special space in your heart for that specific person, doesn't really get the concepts of distance or time. Today I got to skype my little sister Stacey as she was getting ready for bed. We just chatted really. No intense conversations about the meaning of life... no tears or deep dark secrets... Just two sisters talking as sisters do. And guess what? It was as if I was sitting in the room right next to her. Just chilling on her bed as if we had all the time in the world to just make each other laugh and ask questions about how our days had been... :') And so we talked:) And as she got more and more sleepy, I told her to turn out the lights and I would keep talking to her until she fell asleep. I kept going on, about everything and nothing at all, and s

Today I got to call a toll free number so that I could go to church! Well, listen to it at least:) I get to call this number and listen to Sacrament and Sunday School over the phone. The Branch covers a large portion of China and I'm the only member in ZhuZhou as far as I know, but it felt so good knowing that I'm not alone in this big ol country! That even though I'm on the opposite side of the WORLD my family will be listening to the same Sunday School Lesson on the Book of Mormon in twelve hours when they go to church. You would think it would be hard to pay attention, listening for those few hours over the phone, but oh its not. Its like going to the temple after not being inside one for a long time -or eating ice cream after going on a diet haha- I loved it! Listening to the words I know my Heavenly Father wanted me to hear... Everything seems so real now that I'm working harder to keep my testimony firm. All my past trials and decisions have helped in makin