Happy Birthday Carol

I almost forgot to brag about my sister, Carol, on her birthday because I feel like I brag about her all the time (see this; and even my friend brags about her here). I'm pretty sure most of my friends know about my oldest sister who was sort of like a second mother to me. She tries to convince me otherwise, but I can never see anything but goodness, patience, wisdom, peace, optimism, faith and courage radiating from her at every moment.

The truth is, none of us are immune to feelings of discouragement, doubt, frustration, and occasionally, fear. It is because I know she has probably felt these feelings at times, that I think her all the more remarkable. She has amazing gifts that she uses to combat all these normal human weaknesses. I've never heard her gossip or speak unkindly of other people (and I'm always so ashamed when I catch myself doing this in her presence...well, I feel ashamed whenever I do this, but especially in her presence). She forgives and forgets when myself or others have let her down. She loves people and knows how to show it. She seems to easily sacrifice things of little importance for things of eternal importance. When you are around her, you want to be a better person.

I can recall many stories involving Carol over the years. When I was a kid (8?...who knows) I went to go visit her at BYU and she took me with her to do all the fun, crazy things that only a BYU college student would do (sneak in to a guy's apartment to tape silly magazine pictures all over his walls, make funny videos, etc). That's when I knew I wanted to go to BYU when I grew up. I wanted to be just like her and have fun just like she did (academics weren't really on my mind).


I wanted to know Japanese just like she did, so I took Japanese classes whenever they were offered at my school. When I got called to serve a mission in Japan (just like her), I was so excited thinking that somehow I would magically become more like her. I even met people on my mission that knew Carol (her mission president's wife was in one of my wards. She told me when she met me that I wasn't as great as my sister yet, but that I could get there. WOW, for brutal honesty, but I could tell Sister Aoyagi loved me because she loved my sister and wanted me to be the best missionary I could be). Whenever I felt discouraged, I would think of my sister and how much she loved the Japanese people and loved the gospel. Her love for them infected me and I came to love them so much that the very thought of leaving that country and the work, nearly killed me.

In short (or I guess, In long), at all the major turning points in my life, I have followed a similar course as Carol (this is not to downplay my other sisters because they have played major roles in those turning points and their examples are paramount as well). But for some reason, the Lord knew that many of my decisions in life would need to parallel her decisions. And even though we are different in many ways (e.g. I have never been an avid reader and I cannot make pregnancy look so easy, etc.), I have relied on her example to become who I am today. I just don't know what course my life would have taken up to this point if I didn't have an older sister to idolize growing up.

And the coolest thing about Carol, is that she isn't going to take credit for a word of this. She's going to say, "Oh Lauren, you have such a bad memory!". Nice try sister...you're funny too.

I don't have any pictures of Carol on my laptop, so she has escaped just this once! But I will re-post one of her favorite youtube videos in her honor).