The first weekend in October is coming! What an awesome time of year this is. I think I subconsciously associate General Conference with the chilly morning air of September. It's an awesome time of year for a few reasons like no more summer heat, trees change colors (well, lots of trees in this area just go to sleep, but stay green), and the dark mornings will soon brighten with the end of Daylight Savings. All cool stuff.
Of course, I've been waiting for 6 months for General Conference. Ever since the last amen by President Monson in the Sunday afternoon session in April I have looked forward to October. And for 6 months I have read conference talks and have lessons on them in sacrament meeting talks and in elders quorum meetings. I also listen to talks in my car on my way to school. There were tons of awesome talks last conference and I'm re-reading some of them now and loving them. You know what's funny? I notice a big difference in how I feel when I read talks for my morning scripture study compared to when I hear them in the car. The Spirit is stronger when I read. It's probably because it's quieter and because I'm not distracted by details of driving.
This last week or so, I read and heard some really cool talks. When I really concentrate on them, I feel the Lord reaching down from heaven and filling my mind with directions for all aspects of my life. He helps me in my research, especially when I'm stuck on something. He helps me be a loving and kind husband. He helps me see how to teach my kids the gospel so they will be happy, both in our home now and for the rest of their lives.
The most important part of listening to conference talks, of course, is to feel and recognize the Spirit and learn how to become like our Savior, Jesus Christ. There is a tasty side to General Conference for our family. You may remember that we make peanut butter popcorn! T&L, if you're watching, thanks again for that recipe. :)
We have started talking with our boys about conference weekend. This helps us to look forward to it and also to settle down and prepare our minds for the weekend. It's like a marathon mixed with a fire hose. It really takes a few months to digest all the talks properly. And I'm thinking now about ways I can adjust my scripture study to make it for efficacious. This time I want to read through all the talks and mark them up. When I've done this in the past, I get more out of them when I hear them in the car. It doesn't go the other way for me.
Last night Angie brought up taking notes as she was heading to the Relief Society session of General Conference. It is something I used to do a lot more than I do now. I was on the extreme end in my younger years, to the point that only be able to summarize the talk and the stories therein and miss the real meaning or the principles that the Lord would have me learn right then. Now I'm on the other extreme and I hardly take any notes. Today at church, my friend JO said (and if it wasn't him, it was someone else in our joined meeting) that he takes notes just so he can pay attention. The debate for Angie and me is whether or not it actually helps because we don't go back and read the notes! I know that taking a few notes will keep my mind on the talks so that's a good reason for doing it. The times I take notes on what impressions come to me are the times I take away a really important theme for me to work on. It's really important to me and I love working on things and improving myself.
Maybe taking notes like that works for you too. If you'd like to share your thoughts on how you take notes, please do. As for me, I'll have out my little notebook and watch and listen for the Lord's direction in my life.
And eat some peanut butter popcorn.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Stop it!
I've had an amazing and shocking experience since Brigham was born. My struggle with sanity and parenting for the past several years has become the norm (unfortunately) and the birth of my third son has been a big wake up call in how I deal with "problems" that I face on a daily basis.
For you parents out there who have more than one child and, for better contrast, with several years in between any two kids, this should make a lot of sense. Our lives turned to bliss when Brigham was born. Even the energetic older kids pushed the pause button on the ludicrous speed. I would look at Briggie and think, "Wow, I love you so much. Why do I love you so much? I don't know, but I do know you haven't done anything to make me mad."
A few days or weeks after the novelty of our newest birth wore off, we got back to normal. And I mean the normal that I've been trying to turn into happy times with less success than I hoped for. The short of it is this. The all-too-common complaining and bickering spurts would raise my temperature and then I'd look at the new baby who has never yelled at me and my feelings would abruptly change. Yes, that was a good feeling. I'm not complaining about that for even a (milli)second. The shock was that I have the difficult times and deal with those circumstances with such negative emotion.
It's really sad to me to think that I don't handle life and challenges better than that. I used to handle challenges like the water running off the untouchable duck's back. Now I long for those days and am trying to get that back. Piece by piece. Little by little is better than nothing. And it's been a hard road so far. There has been progress lately and I guess that's why I'm writing this blog post.
This last General Conference had some talks that talked about the problems that come when we hold onto anger, hurt and other prideful feelings. I've heard these different talks just this last week or two so they stuck out. Elder Scott talked about how anger, hurt and defensiveness gets in the way of receiving revelation. President Uchtdorf, in his now-famous "Stop it" talk taught me the following. I'll quote the paragraphs that mean the most to me. I'd like to paste his whole talk in here. It's that good.
Jesus taught: “Forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not … [stands] condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin”3 and “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”4
For you parents out there who have more than one child and, for better contrast, with several years in between any two kids, this should make a lot of sense. Our lives turned to bliss when Brigham was born. Even the energetic older kids pushed the pause button on the ludicrous speed. I would look at Briggie and think, "Wow, I love you so much. Why do I love you so much? I don't know, but I do know you haven't done anything to make me mad."
A few days or weeks after the novelty of our newest birth wore off, we got back to normal. And I mean the normal that I've been trying to turn into happy times with less success than I hoped for. The short of it is this. The all-too-common complaining and bickering spurts would raise my temperature and then I'd look at the new baby who has never yelled at me and my feelings would abruptly change. Yes, that was a good feeling. I'm not complaining about that for even a (milli)second. The shock was that I have the difficult times and deal with those circumstances with such negative emotion.
It's really sad to me to think that I don't handle life and challenges better than that. I used to handle challenges like the water running off the untouchable duck's back. Now I long for those days and am trying to get that back. Piece by piece. Little by little is better than nothing. And it's been a hard road so far. There has been progress lately and I guess that's why I'm writing this blog post.
This last General Conference had some talks that talked about the problems that come when we hold onto anger, hurt and other prideful feelings. I've heard these different talks just this last week or two so they stuck out. Elder Scott talked about how anger, hurt and defensiveness gets in the way of receiving revelation. President Uchtdorf, in his now-famous "Stop it" talk taught me the following. I'll quote the paragraphs that mean the most to me. I'd like to paste his whole talk in here. It's that good.
Jesus taught: “Forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not … [stands] condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin”3 and “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”4
Of course, these words seem perfectly reasonable—when applied to someone else. We can so clearly and easily see the harmful results that come when others judge and hold grudges. And we certainly don’t like it when people judge us.
But when it comes to our own prejudices and grievances, we too often justify our anger as righteous and our judgment as reliable and only appropriate. Though we cannot look into another’s heart, we assume that we know a bad motive or even a bad person when we see one. We make exceptions when it comes to our own bitterness because we feel that, in our case, we have all the information we need to hold someone else in contempt.
Man. This describes me all too well. I have to admit to myself that when my kids are being kids (not making bad choices, I mean just being their learning selves) that my bad reaction does not have to enter the equation. The situation would be better off if I could just chill. I'd also be better off for the time I'd gain back where I, instead, have to cool off.
He said, “… of you it is required to forgive all men.”7
May I add a footnote here? When the Lord requires that we forgive all men, that includes forgiving ourselves. Sometimes, of all the people in the world, the one who is the hardest to forgive—as well as perhaps the one who is most in need of our forgiveness—is the person looking back at us in the mirror.
This topic of judging others could actually be taught in a two-word sermon. When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following:
Stop it!
So I have some major renovation to do and I've already begun. It's hard. I believe that Jesus the Christ has paid for my sins and felt all the pain that I will ever suffer. He is willing to take that upon Himself because he loves me and He loves you. "Come unto me" comes with a beautiful reward of peace and happiness. Guess what I just realized? It also comes at a price. What price? "I will show unto [you your] weakness" (Ether 12:27). And while I am struggling now, I know from experience that the peace that will come into my life and permeate my heart in the end (and yes, at certain points along the way) will be much higher peaks than the valleys of difficulty.
I take great comfort in at least one point of Christ's doctrine. It is that children under the age of accountability are without sin and are perfect in Him. Skyler isn't even 8 yet so he is, in at least that sense, perfect. As I've watched him make choices I can see that he has the purest intent in everything he does. He is just hard to control.
Control? Yes, apparently that's what I'm after. And it is I who needs to let go.
I am applying the two-word sermon of "Stop it" and I already feel the Lord's tender mercies in my life. Outcomes are not what I would choose them to be. I'm frustrated on a daily basis, but avoiding the buildup of stress and anger is reward enough for the hard work. I hope this weakness will become a strength unto me.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Wherever you are
This morning I was reading in Helaman 7:7-9 as part of this week's Sunday school lesson. This is the chapter when Nephi was praying on his tower and the wicked Nephites (Gadianton's robbers) gathered around to hear him pray. Kind of a funny scene in my mind, but it set some awesome events in motion over the next few chapters and lots of people get converted.
Anyway, these verses have an attitude that will bless any person in whatsoever circumstances they find themselves in life. This might be the place they live, the job they have, hard things to deal with, or anything else that's hard to handle.
Nephi was having a hard time with the wickedness that his people had fallen into. In verse 7, Nephi wishes that he had lived centuries before when the Nephites were "easy to be entreated" and "were quick to hearken to the words of the Lord." What a great time that would have been!
However, Nephi is quick to say next that he knows he has been called to live in his own time. This is the part that caught my attention. It reminds me that the Lord has put me here on earth and given me the life that I have. There are some things that I wish I could change about my circumstances. But this verse teaches me that life isn't meant to be a breeze and that I need to learn from the difficult things. In fact, it is actually those hard things that give me cause to remember the gospel, our Savior, repentance and being the best husband and father I can possibly be. At Judgment Day, it won't really matter that my kids grump before school or stay awake past bedtime. I will be judged for my actions and desires.
I love the gospel and the blessings that come to me and my family for living it. Blessed be the name of the Lord. His plan of salvation is so amazing! :)
Anyway, these verses have an attitude that will bless any person in whatsoever circumstances they find themselves in life. This might be the place they live, the job they have, hard things to deal with, or anything else that's hard to handle.
Nephi was having a hard time with the wickedness that his people had fallen into. In verse 7, Nephi wishes that he had lived centuries before when the Nephites were "easy to be entreated" and "were quick to hearken to the words of the Lord." What a great time that would have been!
However, Nephi is quick to say next that he knows he has been called to live in his own time. This is the part that caught my attention. It reminds me that the Lord has put me here on earth and given me the life that I have. There are some things that I wish I could change about my circumstances. But this verse teaches me that life isn't meant to be a breeze and that I need to learn from the difficult things. In fact, it is actually those hard things that give me cause to remember the gospel, our Savior, repentance and being the best husband and father I can possibly be. At Judgment Day, it won't really matter that my kids grump before school or stay awake past bedtime. I will be judged for my actions and desires.
I love the gospel and the blessings that come to me and my family for living it. Blessed be the name of the Lord. His plan of salvation is so amazing! :)
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Dejunkification
Yesterday was a long, busy day. And I got a sunburn. But it was so worth the effort and effects.
When we moved here we had two kids and considerably less stuff. Skyler was 22 months old and Wes was 3 months old. We brought what I'd say was too much stuff. I say that now, but back then it seemed about right. It all fit in our small apartment back then so it couldn't have been all that much.
The amount of stuff we own has changed.
A lot.
In our years here we have purchased a lot of stuff. Some of it is for the boys, some for Angie and me, some just because we ... well, actually, I have no idea why we have some of this stuff.
When we moved from our apartment into a 3-bedroom mansion, we felt like we had all the space in the world to hold stuff. I have to tell you that the spaciousness of this house is due partly because there is less storage space than typical homes. Each room has a little closet, but that's it. No game closet or linen closet. I even busted out my inner handyman one year and put up some shelves above the washer, dryer and deep freeze. That was about a 15% boost in our storage capacity. And it felt Grrrreeeat! (Think Tony the Tiger.)
Time went on. So did our purchases. We filled every nook and cranny in our domain. I still remember the day at the store when we were deciding on buying something for Wes. I think it was the activity center we got when he was ready for it. Anyway, there we were in the store and since I was the one who kept reorganizing our stuff so it could fit in all our closets and under beds, I knew we were out of room. And this type of toy thing is pretty big. I remember turning to Angie and saying, "where are we going to put this thing when it's time to put it away?" Her answer and my acceptance has haunted me for years.
Yes, years.
She said, "We'll find somewhere." I guess I thought she knew something I didn't know. Well, that began our life of not putting everything away. It has been a stressful topic for me. The more time goes by and the more stuff we have accrued for our growing family, the deeper it hurts.
So let me tell you what we did yesterday. We dejunkified our shed! I better rewind a bit and tell you that we bought a shed kit and got some help putting it together in our back grassy area (it's no yard). This was a life saver at the time. I guess I thought that would act as some sort of magical bag of holding and solve all my storage problems. It didn't. It couldn't have. Not when we just kept buying things.
With a potential move on the horizon (after graduation and finding a job...no news yet), the question on our minds is, "How much room will we have for our stuff?" It is so stressful. Partly because we have looked into the cost of living in expensive places where tiny homes will be all we can afford. And it basically comes down to how much stuff do we want to keep. Sure, there are things we can get rid of. But if we move into a house that can hold it all, why get rid of the stuff in that gray area? You know?
We've debated having a Yard Sale or a Yard Free. We've talked about donating stuff or giving it away to friends. Or listing things on craigslist. We ended up deciding that the best thing to do for our emotional state and the speediest solution would be to go through the shed and quickly decide if an item was for keeping, donating or garbage.
We spent about an hour pulling everything out of the shed and putting it into piles. The result was thrilling! The pile of "get rid of" was huge! I felt that dormant organizer wake up inside me. I could see where things might actually be moved from our living space out to the shed! The end result wasn't so quick to come though. It took a few hours to go through boxes, throw away certain portions and get the rest ready for recycling. That included breaking down boxes so they fit in my car. It was a tight fit, but so worth it in the end. The van was chuck full, too, with everything going to donation. I spent the next hour driving both vehicles to their respective destinations, finalizing the freedom of space.
I do love space.
Empty space.
Living space.
Outer space.
(That's been a joke lately about where we could move to get away from our 10 days of power outage, another partial day of power outage, 5 days of losing our Internet connection, etc.)
We would benefit from taking the counsel of modern-day prophets to "live within your means" and apply it to the volume of our home. I'd like to enjoy the stress-free lifestyle of fitting in our house just as I enjoy living within our income.
Any stories you'd like to share about dejunkifiying your life?
When we moved here we had two kids and considerably less stuff. Skyler was 22 months old and Wes was 3 months old. We brought what I'd say was too much stuff. I say that now, but back then it seemed about right. It all fit in our small apartment back then so it couldn't have been all that much.
The amount of stuff we own has changed.
A lot.
In our years here we have purchased a lot of stuff. Some of it is for the boys, some for Angie and me, some just because we ... well, actually, I have no idea why we have some of this stuff.
When we moved from our apartment into a 3-bedroom mansion, we felt like we had all the space in the world to hold stuff. I have to tell you that the spaciousness of this house is due partly because there is less storage space than typical homes. Each room has a little closet, but that's it. No game closet or linen closet. I even busted out my inner handyman one year and put up some shelves above the washer, dryer and deep freeze. That was about a 15% boost in our storage capacity. And it felt Grrrreeeat! (Think Tony the Tiger.)
Time went on. So did our purchases. We filled every nook and cranny in our domain. I still remember the day at the store when we were deciding on buying something for Wes. I think it was the activity center we got when he was ready for it. Anyway, there we were in the store and since I was the one who kept reorganizing our stuff so it could fit in all our closets and under beds, I knew we were out of room. And this type of toy thing is pretty big. I remember turning to Angie and saying, "where are we going to put this thing when it's time to put it away?" Her answer and my acceptance has haunted me for years.
Yes, years.
She said, "We'll find somewhere." I guess I thought she knew something I didn't know. Well, that began our life of not putting everything away. It has been a stressful topic for me. The more time goes by and the more stuff we have accrued for our growing family, the deeper it hurts.
So let me tell you what we did yesterday. We dejunkified our shed! I better rewind a bit and tell you that we bought a shed kit and got some help putting it together in our back grassy area (it's no yard). This was a life saver at the time. I guess I thought that would act as some sort of magical bag of holding and solve all my storage problems. It didn't. It couldn't have. Not when we just kept buying things.
With a potential move on the horizon (after graduation and finding a job...no news yet), the question on our minds is, "How much room will we have for our stuff?" It is so stressful. Partly because we have looked into the cost of living in expensive places where tiny homes will be all we can afford. And it basically comes down to how much stuff do we want to keep. Sure, there are things we can get rid of. But if we move into a house that can hold it all, why get rid of the stuff in that gray area? You know?
We've debated having a Yard Sale or a Yard Free. We've talked about donating stuff or giving it away to friends. Or listing things on craigslist. We ended up deciding that the best thing to do for our emotional state and the speediest solution would be to go through the shed and quickly decide if an item was for keeping, donating or garbage.
We spent about an hour pulling everything out of the shed and putting it into piles. The result was thrilling! The pile of "get rid of" was huge! I felt that dormant organizer wake up inside me. I could see where things might actually be moved from our living space out to the shed! The end result wasn't so quick to come though. It took a few hours to go through boxes, throw away certain portions and get the rest ready for recycling. That included breaking down boxes so they fit in my car. It was a tight fit, but so worth it in the end. The van was chuck full, too, with everything going to donation. I spent the next hour driving both vehicles to their respective destinations, finalizing the freedom of space.
I do love space.
Empty space.
Living space.
Outer space.
(That's been a joke lately about where we could move to get away from our 10 days of power outage, another partial day of power outage, 5 days of losing our Internet connection, etc.)
We would benefit from taking the counsel of modern-day prophets to "live within your means" and apply it to the volume of our home. I'd like to enjoy the stress-free lifestyle of fitting in our house just as I enjoy living within our income.
Any stories you'd like to share about dejunkifiying your life?
Sunday, July 15, 2012
It's been 3 weeks since I wrote last. It's been a very crazy time and we have been very blessed to pass through it so well.
Oftentimes I pray for protection from harm, danger and accident. I also pray sometimes for my family's protection with the presence of holy angels. I've had experiences in the past where I believe those prayers were answered. This month, again, we've felt that blessing.
It all started on Friday, June 29, 2012 around 5:30pm when I was on my way home for a hot date with Angie. I had already picked up our babysitter and Angie called my cell to tell me about the humongous storm coming within the hour. There were dark storm clouds ahead, those dark blue kind. It was pretty to look at.
But not the aftermath. It was pretty something else. Lame.
The storm was called a derecho. It only lasted 10-15 minutes in our area and I'm guessing it was similar in other areas. It was very powerful, however, and it leveled trees and many power lines in several states. We did not know this at the time. Even if we did, it wouldn't have made much difference.
It was date night.
Hot Date Night.
And we had a babysitter. We got out flashlights and candles for everyone and some glow sticks for the boys in case the power stayed off during the night. Glow sticks are part of our 72-hour kits for just this reason. Our boys go nuts in pitch darkness. We avoid the screaming with a fun glow stick. Thanks, Dollar Store!
Our plans were to go to dinner that night. The storm was heading southeast and we didn't want to catch up to it by driving after it. So we went north and it's a good thing we did. We tried to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant in that direction. We got to the general area and found out that Wal-Mart's power was off. That wasn't a good sign. We kept going to the restaurant, thinking they'd be out of power too, but it was date night! Hot Date Night! We made it to the turnoff for the Mexican restaurant only to see the road blocked with orange cones and guarded by a police car. Then we saw a fire engine and smoke rising nearby. There was a little fire in the trees between us and our favorite California Burrito (with chicken!) so we couldn't go any farther. I guess lightning struck a tree and caused the fire.
We saw so many businesses without power that we headed north again to the next city. There was a little diner in a small area that happened to have power. They got flooded with customers at this time since so many people were without power. I heard there were 3.2 million people who lost power from the storm. I can't confirm that, but I can confirm that 600,000+ lost power that are customers of our electric company in our state alone so I believe the number. Anyway, many of these people were looking for food and this diner stayed open past hours to serve them all. We were very grateful. (BTW, Angie's black bean burger was even better than my super duper awesome BBQ-smothered pulled pork sandwich. I want to go back just for another taste of that burger!)
This power outage occurred during one of the hottest weeks I can remember. Temperatures were 90+ degrees Fahrenheit every day and some days were over 100 degrees. Add on humidity for a rough time. The first day we just drove around all day in our van so we could stay cool. We drove an hour to get to some stores that were open and we spent the day shopping in comfort.
The following days were nuts. We couldn't cool off the house at night because it didn't get below 70 degrees. And the uncomfortable and uncanny lack of wind was a huge deal. In essence, the house didn't cool off in the evenings below about 80 degrees and each morning we had to leave by 9 or 10am because we started getting cooked alive in our house.
Each night got worse and worse. We set up a tent on the porch one night, but I decided last second not to sleep in it, even though it was cooler outside. Good thing, too! It rained really hard that night. That would have been really lame because our boys are scared of thunder and terrified if it's close.
After a week of spending the afternoons and evenings with friends or at the church building, we happened to be with another family from church when they got a phone call saying their power was on. We were so blessed to be with them because they invited us over to spend the night. We'd been on the verge of finding somewhere to go for a night or two. This was a miracle for us. These people truly are angels who reached out and blessed us and, especially, our kids.
We were worried about our kids for days, especially our baby. Nights were so hot that we didn't know if the boys would get sick or if anything bad would happen to them from heat overload. We didn't want our baby to get too hot or too cold and didn't know how to dress him before bed. We were blessed with good health during those hot nights at home. We were more blessed to have cool nights with air conditioning at our friends' home. All the thanks we gave them didn't equal the blessing it was to be there. We hope to return the favor to somebody who needs our help as badly as we needed theirs.
Thank you JJJMG&C(&A)!!!
Oftentimes I pray for protection from harm, danger and accident. I also pray sometimes for my family's protection with the presence of holy angels. I've had experiences in the past where I believe those prayers were answered. This month, again, we've felt that blessing.
It all started on Friday, June 29, 2012 around 5:30pm when I was on my way home for a hot date with Angie. I had already picked up our babysitter and Angie called my cell to tell me about the humongous storm coming within the hour. There were dark storm clouds ahead, those dark blue kind. It was pretty to look at.
But not the aftermath. It was pretty something else. Lame.
The storm was called a derecho. It only lasted 10-15 minutes in our area and I'm guessing it was similar in other areas. It was very powerful, however, and it leveled trees and many power lines in several states. We did not know this at the time. Even if we did, it wouldn't have made much difference.
It was date night.
Hot Date Night.
And we had a babysitter. We got out flashlights and candles for everyone and some glow sticks for the boys in case the power stayed off during the night. Glow sticks are part of our 72-hour kits for just this reason. Our boys go nuts in pitch darkness. We avoid the screaming with a fun glow stick. Thanks, Dollar Store!
Our plans were to go to dinner that night. The storm was heading southeast and we didn't want to catch up to it by driving after it. So we went north and it's a good thing we did. We tried to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant in that direction. We got to the general area and found out that Wal-Mart's power was off. That wasn't a good sign. We kept going to the restaurant, thinking they'd be out of power too, but it was date night! Hot Date Night! We made it to the turnoff for the Mexican restaurant only to see the road blocked with orange cones and guarded by a police car. Then we saw a fire engine and smoke rising nearby. There was a little fire in the trees between us and our favorite California Burrito (with chicken!) so we couldn't go any farther. I guess lightning struck a tree and caused the fire.
We saw so many businesses without power that we headed north again to the next city. There was a little diner in a small area that happened to have power. They got flooded with customers at this time since so many people were without power. I heard there were 3.2 million people who lost power from the storm. I can't confirm that, but I can confirm that 600,000+ lost power that are customers of our electric company in our state alone so I believe the number. Anyway, many of these people were looking for food and this diner stayed open past hours to serve them all. We were very grateful. (BTW, Angie's black bean burger was even better than my super duper awesome BBQ-smothered pulled pork sandwich. I want to go back just for another taste of that burger!)
This power outage occurred during one of the hottest weeks I can remember. Temperatures were 90+ degrees Fahrenheit every day and some days were over 100 degrees. Add on humidity for a rough time. The first day we just drove around all day in our van so we could stay cool. We drove an hour to get to some stores that were open and we spent the day shopping in comfort.
The following days were nuts. We couldn't cool off the house at night because it didn't get below 70 degrees. And the uncomfortable and uncanny lack of wind was a huge deal. In essence, the house didn't cool off in the evenings below about 80 degrees and each morning we had to leave by 9 or 10am because we started getting cooked alive in our house.
Each night got worse and worse. We set up a tent on the porch one night, but I decided last second not to sleep in it, even though it was cooler outside. Good thing, too! It rained really hard that night. That would have been really lame because our boys are scared of thunder and terrified if it's close.
After a week of spending the afternoons and evenings with friends or at the church building, we happened to be with another family from church when they got a phone call saying their power was on. We were so blessed to be with them because they invited us over to spend the night. We'd been on the verge of finding somewhere to go for a night or two. This was a miracle for us. These people truly are angels who reached out and blessed us and, especially, our kids.
We were worried about our kids for days, especially our baby. Nights were so hot that we didn't know if the boys would get sick or if anything bad would happen to them from heat overload. We didn't want our baby to get too hot or too cold and didn't know how to dress him before bed. We were blessed with good health during those hot nights at home. We were more blessed to have cool nights with air conditioning at our friends' home. All the thanks we gave them didn't equal the blessing it was to be there. We hope to return the favor to somebody who needs our help as badly as we needed theirs.
Thank you JJJMG&C(&A)!!!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Friends
I am so grateful for good friends. I've had some really good friends throughout my life and this past month or two has been a time of constant reflection on the good friends that I've made over the past several years.
Angie and I met some of our very bestest friends six years ago. T&L were moving for graduate school just as we were. Another person who would become a great friend gave me their phone number so we could move out to graduate school together. We rented a truck together and drove out in a two-party caravan. One memorable part of the trip was that a tire needed to be replaced on the moving trailer at the truck rental store, even before we pulled off the lot. The other three tires on that thing were replaced in Wyoming (in the middle of nowhere, let me tell you), I think in Nebraska, and the last one in Indiana. Anyway, T&L are our very best friends. It's hard to imagine life without them right now. We have been through the last several years of life together and shared many happy moments with them. If you know them you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when I say they are amazing in every way. If you don't know them, it would take a dissertation (besides the one I'm writing) to explain it all to you. I wish you could know them.
Anyway, we got to our destination safely and were very happy and grateful to arrive. T&L were the first to unload their stuff from the truck. We hadn't closed on our home yet and our stuff was loaded in the truck first. When we got here, there were tons of branch members literally waiting around for us to pull up so they could greet us and help unload. I'd been calling ahead to give our ETA. The last tire repair was so delayed that, from what I remember, our 7pm estimate turned into 10pm or so. And you wouldn't believe me if I told you how many people were there waiting for us. It was awesome.
Well, that was on a Saturday night. We went to church the next day and we were all invited over to a family's home for lunch. They knew we weren't prepared to fix a meal for ourselves. It was the biggest spaghetti meal I can ever remember. It was so nice of them.
The next day we closed on our house and I, somehow, maneuvered the monstrous truck (the wrong way, oops!) up our winding, narrow road and positioned it to be unloaded right at our porch. So many people showed up to help us move. It was awesome.
And then we began our adventure here with a 22-month old and a 3-month old (who was on oxygen at the time). The first week went by in a quick blur with all the orientation meetings I had at school and in my department.
Then, on the next Saturday, we went to help a new family unload their pod. All the same people, it seems, showed up to yet another move. All to help a family they'd never met. And it didn't matter. This was the gospel in action.
Little did I know that the man who stood before me would become my best friend who I'd nickname JP a few years later. We hefted their things up two flights of stairs for a while under that hot sun. I remember the pizza toward the end of the move with a watering mouth. Yum.
If you've been keeping a running total of how many best friends there are in this story, you may be asking, "How can someone have more than one best friend?" When I was a kid, I thought you could only have one best friend. I used to keep track of who that person was. It changed often in my early years. I also kept track of my favorite song, car, color, sword, karate style, scripture, sport, sibling, etc.
I came to realize for myself that my "best" whatever was really a class, a level. It was not a pedestal with just enough space for one person, idea or sound. I have many favorite things now and the list keeps growing with time. Just for music (and you can ask my wife to verify this), I have said, "This is my favorite song" so many times that I now have to say, "It's in my top 100."
I'm just saying there's room in my heart for more than one best friend.
A year went by and then another. We helped people move in and move out. A new family moved in at that point that we became pretty good friends with too. Even though this guy was the newcomer, we became friends over time for lots of different reasons. We talked about all sorts of different stuff from football and business to "alogarithms."
"What?"
"You know, patterns for doing things."
"You mean, 'algorithms'."
"That's what I said."
"No. You said a mix of 'algorithm' and 'logarithm'. They're not the same thing. Please, never say that word again."
We also talked about astronomy and other cool things. I got to know him over four years and am really, really glad I did. He's great. But this reminds me, he never told me about Big Foot. I only heard reference of it from other people. Please, tell me!
Our family has just watched JP and his family move about as far away as one can move and still live in the United States, Mr BF Alogarithm has gone (but not too far) and this week we just said goodbye to T&L. And this is where the tears start to flow.
Goodbye, my friends. Better yet, "See you later."
I love you. We love you.
Angie and I met some of our very bestest friends six years ago. T&L were moving for graduate school just as we were. Another person who would become a great friend gave me their phone number so we could move out to graduate school together. We rented a truck together and drove out in a two-party caravan. One memorable part of the trip was that a tire needed to be replaced on the moving trailer at the truck rental store, even before we pulled off the lot. The other three tires on that thing were replaced in Wyoming (in the middle of nowhere, let me tell you), I think in Nebraska, and the last one in Indiana. Anyway, T&L are our very best friends. It's hard to imagine life without them right now. We have been through the last several years of life together and shared many happy moments with them. If you know them you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when I say they are amazing in every way. If you don't know them, it would take a dissertation (besides the one I'm writing) to explain it all to you. I wish you could know them.
Anyway, we got to our destination safely and were very happy and grateful to arrive. T&L were the first to unload their stuff from the truck. We hadn't closed on our home yet and our stuff was loaded in the truck first. When we got here, there were tons of branch members literally waiting around for us to pull up so they could greet us and help unload. I'd been calling ahead to give our ETA. The last tire repair was so delayed that, from what I remember, our 7pm estimate turned into 10pm or so. And you wouldn't believe me if I told you how many people were there waiting for us. It was awesome.
Well, that was on a Saturday night. We went to church the next day and we were all invited over to a family's home for lunch. They knew we weren't prepared to fix a meal for ourselves. It was the biggest spaghetti meal I can ever remember. It was so nice of them.
The next day we closed on our house and I, somehow, maneuvered the monstrous truck (the wrong way, oops!) up our winding, narrow road and positioned it to be unloaded right at our porch. So many people showed up to help us move. It was awesome.
And then we began our adventure here with a 22-month old and a 3-month old (who was on oxygen at the time). The first week went by in a quick blur with all the orientation meetings I had at school and in my department.
Then, on the next Saturday, we went to help a new family unload their pod. All the same people, it seems, showed up to yet another move. All to help a family they'd never met. And it didn't matter. This was the gospel in action.
Little did I know that the man who stood before me would become my best friend who I'd nickname JP a few years later. We hefted their things up two flights of stairs for a while under that hot sun. I remember the pizza toward the end of the move with a watering mouth. Yum.
If you've been keeping a running total of how many best friends there are in this story, you may be asking, "How can someone have more than one best friend?" When I was a kid, I thought you could only have one best friend. I used to keep track of who that person was. It changed often in my early years. I also kept track of my favorite song, car, color, sword, karate style, scripture, sport, sibling, etc.
I came to realize for myself that my "best" whatever was really a class, a level. It was not a pedestal with just enough space for one person, idea or sound. I have many favorite things now and the list keeps growing with time. Just for music (and you can ask my wife to verify this), I have said, "This is my favorite song" so many times that I now have to say, "It's in my top 100."
I'm just saying there's room in my heart for more than one best friend.
A year went by and then another. We helped people move in and move out. A new family moved in at that point that we became pretty good friends with too. Even though this guy was the newcomer, we became friends over time for lots of different reasons. We talked about all sorts of different stuff from football and business to "alogarithms."
"What?"
"You know, patterns for doing things."
"You mean, 'algorithms'."
"That's what I said."
"No. You said a mix of 'algorithm' and 'logarithm'. They're not the same thing. Please, never say that word again."
We also talked about astronomy and other cool things. I got to know him over four years and am really, really glad I did. He's great. But this reminds me, he never told me about Big Foot. I only heard reference of it from other people. Please, tell me!
Our family has just watched JP and his family move about as far away as one can move and still live in the United States, Mr BF Alogarithm has gone (but not too far) and this week we just said goodbye to T&L. And this is where the tears start to flow.
Goodbye, my friends. Better yet, "See you later."
I love you. We love you.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
So, it's Father's Day
After we came home from church and had lunch, we settled down into quiet time at our house. It's a marvelous thing, that quiet time. I mentioned to my wife that I was thinking about my blog and didn't know what I'd write about yet today. "How about Father's Day?"
Oh, ya. It's Father's Day.
Sweet.
That means awesome dinner, presents and extra family love. Ya, baby! Our family tradition is to choose dinner on our special day. Normally I'd go with lasagna, but I slaved over buying and heating one up for Mother's Day so I went with something Mexican. I said I wanted burritos with chicken. Then Angie went to town on the supporting feast. She's so awesome! We'll eat it soon so ask me later how it was.
My wife is so rockin' awesome for many reasons. I'm glad I married her and I'm glad we have an awesome family together. I'm looking around the house at my little kiddies right now and I am so happy to have them in my family. She and I make a great team. We work hard and are on the same page with just about everything. She makes my life worth living. When I get a quiet moment around the house I like to look at her for a minute or two. Sometimes she catches me, sometimes not. I'm so lucky to have her.
On to the rest of what makes today a special day.
One of my kids doesn't have any teeth. I really like that about him. No, seriously. He's sooo cute! I kinda forget that he doesn't have teeth until I see in his mouth. Otherwise I don't think of it. When his first tooth comes in it's going to change him a lot. Or so I think. I'm trying to love him up every day just in case his look changes too much. I think I'll still love him. He's rolling around next to me and I think that's so cute too! His cackle is my favorite sound. His smile is about the best thing there is to look at. I should post a picture so you can see it. Stay tuned.
The next closest child in the room happens to be the next oldest boy, Mr Wes. I love Mr Wes. He's silly in the morning, energetic in the afternoon and unpredictable in the evening. He brought a lot of love with him from the celestial world when he came to join our family. He's great. He's frustrating sometimes, but that's not his problem. From his point of view the only problem is when he can't open his fruit snacks. "Dad, I willy, willy need your help!" He is growing up so fast right now. His speech is improving a ton and so is his vocabulary. He has impressed me with him mobility lately too and climbs the stairs pretty well. He's awesome. And silly. Silly, silly Mr Wes!
My oldest boy (who is now the closest one in the room; no, wait, now he's in the other room) also brings a lot of happiness into my life. According to one of the great sacrament meeting talks today (quoting from a recent General Conference talk), parents learn more from their kids than kids learn from their parents. This has been the case with Skyler. Putting it another way, the Lord has scrubbed my soul and rounded off some of my rough edges with this child. There have been lots of ups and downs with this little fella. The downs drown out all else in life and the ups make me realize how good it is to be a dad and father in a gospel-centered home. He's also naturally talented! I love seeing him pick up new things so quickly.
Now for a surprise Father's Day treat. My younger (and taller, he would have you know) brother sent me some of our childhood family videos on DVD and they arrived yesterday. It had footage of all my family members from my younger brother to my four grandparents. This so cool for Father's Day because I got to see my dad and both grandpas. It had more of one of my grandpas, the one that I knew as quiet. He was pretty jovial in these videos. That was so cool to see. He died when I was about 15 and I don't remember him being very verbal before that. He had a stroke, I think, when I was little so I didn't see the side of him that I watched yesterday on DVD. It was awesome. I love that man.
I got to see my dad in the videos too and it was so cool to see how sweet he was to my siblings and me. I was about 5 in these videos and don't remember much of it from back then. My older siblings are 4 and 6 years older than I am and I'm excited to see what they think after they watch it. Anyway, I called my dad today and talked to him. He is happy to hear how close I am to graduating and finding a job. He's getting on in years. Hopefully we'll be able to visit him soon. The transition from here to my next job could be a good time, but we don't know which direction we're going yet. He really wants to see us. It will be good for my boys too because they don't remember seeing him before. Sounds like we need to head over to One Man Band again. That's where we'd always go eat together. Navajo tacos. Mmm, boy!
Oh, ya. It's Father's Day.
Sweet.
That means awesome dinner, presents and extra family love. Ya, baby! Our family tradition is to choose dinner on our special day. Normally I'd go with lasagna, but I slaved over buying and heating one up for Mother's Day so I went with something Mexican. I said I wanted burritos with chicken. Then Angie went to town on the supporting feast. She's so awesome! We'll eat it soon so ask me later how it was.
My wife is so rockin' awesome for many reasons. I'm glad I married her and I'm glad we have an awesome family together. I'm looking around the house at my little kiddies right now and I am so happy to have them in my family. She and I make a great team. We work hard and are on the same page with just about everything. She makes my life worth living. When I get a quiet moment around the house I like to look at her for a minute or two. Sometimes she catches me, sometimes not. I'm so lucky to have her.
On to the rest of what makes today a special day.
One of my kids doesn't have any teeth. I really like that about him. No, seriously. He's sooo cute! I kinda forget that he doesn't have teeth until I see in his mouth. Otherwise I don't think of it. When his first tooth comes in it's going to change him a lot. Or so I think. I'm trying to love him up every day just in case his look changes too much. I think I'll still love him. He's rolling around next to me and I think that's so cute too! His cackle is my favorite sound. His smile is about the best thing there is to look at. I should post a picture so you can see it. Stay tuned.
The next closest child in the room happens to be the next oldest boy, Mr Wes. I love Mr Wes. He's silly in the morning, energetic in the afternoon and unpredictable in the evening. He brought a lot of love with him from the celestial world when he came to join our family. He's great. He's frustrating sometimes, but that's not his problem. From his point of view the only problem is when he can't open his fruit snacks. "Dad, I willy, willy need your help!" He is growing up so fast right now. His speech is improving a ton and so is his vocabulary. He has impressed me with him mobility lately too and climbs the stairs pretty well. He's awesome. And silly. Silly, silly Mr Wes!
My oldest boy (who is now the closest one in the room; no, wait, now he's in the other room) also brings a lot of happiness into my life. According to one of the great sacrament meeting talks today (quoting from a recent General Conference talk), parents learn more from their kids than kids learn from their parents. This has been the case with Skyler. Putting it another way, the Lord has scrubbed my soul and rounded off some of my rough edges with this child. There have been lots of ups and downs with this little fella. The downs drown out all else in life and the ups make me realize how good it is to be a dad and father in a gospel-centered home. He's also naturally talented! I love seeing him pick up new things so quickly.
Now for a surprise Father's Day treat. My younger (and taller, he would have you know) brother sent me some of our childhood family videos on DVD and they arrived yesterday. It had footage of all my family members from my younger brother to my four grandparents. This so cool for Father's Day because I got to see my dad and both grandpas. It had more of one of my grandpas, the one that I knew as quiet. He was pretty jovial in these videos. That was so cool to see. He died when I was about 15 and I don't remember him being very verbal before that. He had a stroke, I think, when I was little so I didn't see the side of him that I watched yesterday on DVD. It was awesome. I love that man.
I got to see my dad in the videos too and it was so cool to see how sweet he was to my siblings and me. I was about 5 in these videos and don't remember much of it from back then. My older siblings are 4 and 6 years older than I am and I'm excited to see what they think after they watch it. Anyway, I called my dad today and talked to him. He is happy to hear how close I am to graduating and finding a job. He's getting on in years. Hopefully we'll be able to visit him soon. The transition from here to my next job could be a good time, but we don't know which direction we're going yet. He really wants to see us. It will be good for my boys too because they don't remember seeing him before. Sounds like we need to head over to One Man Band again. That's where we'd always go eat together. Navajo tacos. Mmm, boy!
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Humble pie
Today's Sunday school lesson was awesome. It was Alma 5-7, some of the most awesome chapters for self-reflection and self-analysis in light of gospel living in all scripture. They are powerful. Mega. Giga. Tera. Peta. (I'll stop there with the metric stuff.) It was a big lesson with very inspiring material.
I'll get right to the stuff that hit me the most. And I say this with the realization that I haven't been blogging so much about how stressed out I've been. Yes, I've missed some posts lately (I wrote one out of four weeks this past month). That was part of me realizing how much I am trying to do at once and figuring out what I need to let go of. There are so many cool things I want to do and work on. It's easy to come up with new ideas to work on, especially games to design. But I have to say no to new things plus I need to let go of some old and current things.
I'm still not around to Alma's point in today's lesson. Hold on a second. It's really good.
One friend of mine has taught me that I, on an energetic level, need more space. He describes the stress I hold in my neck as feeling pressured and I know I need to make more room for what really matters. At first that meant I could shuffle around how much time I spent on scripture study and give myself more to family time, but that didn't do it. I started saying no to things on my plate, like game development. It's too much right now with my work load and thinking about jobs.
I started telling myself that I'll not work on some things until after I move and settle in. It has helped. It really has. I'm past the stage of relying on the arm of flesh. There's no way I can keep up the load I put on myself so I thought I had given up my desires and was putting the Lord's will before my own. Until today's lesson.
The root of what's getting me is a twist on some of my favorite scriptures. I counsel with the Lord in all I do. Or I think I do. Maybe I've been asking to not be stressed without giving up the lifestyle that brings it on. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart? Lean not unto thine own understanding? Check, check. Really?
No. I'm fooling myself. I can see through Alma's teachings today that envy and a lack of humility have clouded my judgment (there are many more lessons that can be learned from these chapters). It kinda makes me sorrowful that I have let this happen to me. Where did I go wrong? Little by little it happened. Time for change. Again.
Long story short: I gave up radio and TV in high school because I heard in seminary it would make life better. Cut out the junk and fill the holes with uplifting things. Result? Amazing things happened in every aspect of my life. I was the happiest person I knew.
Not today.
I'm working at getting it back though. Counseling with the Lord must be accompanied by the quiet time to reflect and ponder on what He is trying to tell me. A "Go, go, go" attitude crowds out the Spirit. Perhaps I have turned that into "Go, go, slow down slightly," but really need to be "Go, slow, chill!"
Any unexpected thing to do or think about really puts me over the edge. How can I be operating at safe levels when a child's mess or crying puts me into panic mode? Answer: I actually thought I was doing ok. How? I don't watch TV or listen to the radio, but "Go, go, go" has been just as (or more) detrimental. Still, I've been deceived.
This sorta seems like I'm being really critical of myself. That's not how I mean it to come across. But I want to be honest and acknowledge my position before God. It's humbling, but that's the point. My will plus my arm of flesh will fizzle out. God's power and guidance will take me places I would never be able to see or experience. I know that's true. If bearing my soul helps out someone else then it's all worth it.
Thank you, John, for teaching the lesson today. Thank you, Alma, wherever you are. Maybe you are reading this via some Angel app. Thank you to all the ancient American prophets who wrote their testimonies and speak to me as if from the dust. Thank you good friends who have listened patiently as I spout off my problems. Your advice, wisdom and counsel has been worth more than gold. I hope you get an extra snack time in heaven when ambrosia is served in the afternoon.
My eyes have been opened. My heart has felt a change. It is now up to me to cut out a quarter of what I try to do. It's really slowing me down in the long run. I want to have the constant companionship of the Spirit. I believe that can happen if I slow down. "Go, slow, chill!" And keep praying. Prayer is a friend that I can't give up.
Thanks for following me in this journey. If you've felt similar to how I feel and want to tell me or other readers about it, please feel free. :)
I'll get right to the stuff that hit me the most. And I say this with the realization that I haven't been blogging so much about how stressed out I've been. Yes, I've missed some posts lately (I wrote one out of four weeks this past month). That was part of me realizing how much I am trying to do at once and figuring out what I need to let go of. There are so many cool things I want to do and work on. It's easy to come up with new ideas to work on, especially games to design. But I have to say no to new things plus I need to let go of some old and current things.
I'm still not around to Alma's point in today's lesson. Hold on a second. It's really good.
One friend of mine has taught me that I, on an energetic level, need more space. He describes the stress I hold in my neck as feeling pressured and I know I need to make more room for what really matters. At first that meant I could shuffle around how much time I spent on scripture study and give myself more to family time, but that didn't do it. I started saying no to things on my plate, like game development. It's too much right now with my work load and thinking about jobs.
I started telling myself that I'll not work on some things until after I move and settle in. It has helped. It really has. I'm past the stage of relying on the arm of flesh. There's no way I can keep up the load I put on myself so I thought I had given up my desires and was putting the Lord's will before my own. Until today's lesson.
The root of what's getting me is a twist on some of my favorite scriptures. I counsel with the Lord in all I do. Or I think I do. Maybe I've been asking to not be stressed without giving up the lifestyle that brings it on. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart? Lean not unto thine own understanding? Check, check. Really?
No. I'm fooling myself. I can see through Alma's teachings today that envy and a lack of humility have clouded my judgment (there are many more lessons that can be learned from these chapters). It kinda makes me sorrowful that I have let this happen to me. Where did I go wrong? Little by little it happened. Time for change. Again.
Long story short: I gave up radio and TV in high school because I heard in seminary it would make life better. Cut out the junk and fill the holes with uplifting things. Result? Amazing things happened in every aspect of my life. I was the happiest person I knew.
Not today.
I'm working at getting it back though. Counseling with the Lord must be accompanied by the quiet time to reflect and ponder on what He is trying to tell me. A "Go, go, go" attitude crowds out the Spirit. Perhaps I have turned that into "Go, go, slow down slightly," but really need to be "Go, slow, chill!"
Any unexpected thing to do or think about really puts me over the edge. How can I be operating at safe levels when a child's mess or crying puts me into panic mode? Answer: I actually thought I was doing ok. How? I don't watch TV or listen to the radio, but "Go, go, go" has been just as (or more) detrimental. Still, I've been deceived.
This sorta seems like I'm being really critical of myself. That's not how I mean it to come across. But I want to be honest and acknowledge my position before God. It's humbling, but that's the point. My will plus my arm of flesh will fizzle out. God's power and guidance will take me places I would never be able to see or experience. I know that's true. If bearing my soul helps out someone else then it's all worth it.
Thank you, John, for teaching the lesson today. Thank you, Alma, wherever you are. Maybe you are reading this via some Angel app. Thank you to all the ancient American prophets who wrote their testimonies and speak to me as if from the dust. Thank you good friends who have listened patiently as I spout off my problems. Your advice, wisdom and counsel has been worth more than gold. I hope you get an extra snack time in heaven when ambrosia is served in the afternoon.
My eyes have been opened. My heart has felt a change. It is now up to me to cut out a quarter of what I try to do. It's really slowing me down in the long run. I want to have the constant companionship of the Spirit. I believe that can happen if I slow down. "Go, slow, chill!" And keep praying. Prayer is a friend that I can't give up.
Thanks for following me in this journey. If you've felt similar to how I feel and want to tell me or other readers about it, please feel free. :)
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Journals
Do you ever miss writing in your journal? I do. I used to write in it like crazy. When I was young(er) I was in the habit of writing in it every day. There were times where I went without it being daily, but I liked it so much that I always went back to writing in it every night.
I've been in grad school for 6 years now. For the first few years I was pretty good at writing in my journal. I probably wrote a bunch of days every month. But for the last few years I have written just a time or two per month. It's easy to keep track of because I open a new document for each month and I label them by month and year. Lately, more often than not, I have skipped a month, written once in the document, then skipped a month before writing again.
Bummer.
There are lots of things about this stage of my life that I will want to remember so I feel bad for not writing about more of it. There is one redeeming claim on these memories. Besides writing for the intent of posterity reading about my life, I have a habit of writing down a list or snapshot of what's going on in my life. You know me: I try to do too many thing at once. It has been my practice to offload my thoughts onto paper or a list that I title, "What's going on." I do an emotional/brain dump and get it all out. So there is a separate record of what I've been up to.
I've been thinking about getting back into my journal more again. Honestly, it probably would have started already except there really are a lot of things going on right now with graduation and hunting for a job. ("Hunting," ha! Sounds like I'm tracking down an animal. Actually, there are similarities...) I also think of this blog as a sort of journal. I tend to write about what's going on in my life and tie it into gospel principles so it's not a comprehensive look at my life.
Let me tell you about my favorite memories of writing in my journal. In 6th grade, my teacher Mr. Abegg forced us to write in our journals during class. Yes, forced. That's what I thought back then. I still have that journal. The cover is a picture that I drew in pencil about a castle LEGO set that I had back then and I drew a moat around it with a drawbridge. The castle guards are standing around talking about how boring their job is. The lead guard overhears them and he says, "I heard that." I get a kick out of that every time I read it. There are also my favorite entries that I look for every time I open that journal. I remember a day at recess playing football with a new student named Joey. We had organized recess football teams and we were on the same team. He was also on my competition soccer team. 6th grade was the only year I play competition and we won 1st place in the league! Woo!
Another fun journal memory is of my grandma. She would pay me for writing in my journal. It sounds too good to be true for a kid, but I am grateful that she did it. Her method of payment was gummy worms. She gave me 1 worm for every 5 lines I wrote. Totally awesome. My dad also got me to write in my journal in much the same way. I felt like he got it from her. Maybe I told him about it and he kept up the good habit.
I love writing in my journal. When I read about my ancestors I feel connected to them through their words. I think the same will happen with my descendants. Who knows! There are some embarrassing things I've written in my journal, but I hope it shows that I'm a normal person with weaknesses. Maybe it will help someone out.
I've been in grad school for 6 years now. For the first few years I was pretty good at writing in my journal. I probably wrote a bunch of days every month. But for the last few years I have written just a time or two per month. It's easy to keep track of because I open a new document for each month and I label them by month and year. Lately, more often than not, I have skipped a month, written once in the document, then skipped a month before writing again.
Bummer.
There are lots of things about this stage of my life that I will want to remember so I feel bad for not writing about more of it. There is one redeeming claim on these memories. Besides writing for the intent of posterity reading about my life, I have a habit of writing down a list or snapshot of what's going on in my life. You know me: I try to do too many thing at once. It has been my practice to offload my thoughts onto paper or a list that I title, "What's going on." I do an emotional/brain dump and get it all out. So there is a separate record of what I've been up to.
I've been thinking about getting back into my journal more again. Honestly, it probably would have started already except there really are a lot of things going on right now with graduation and hunting for a job. ("Hunting," ha! Sounds like I'm tracking down an animal. Actually, there are similarities...) I also think of this blog as a sort of journal. I tend to write about what's going on in my life and tie it into gospel principles so it's not a comprehensive look at my life.
Let me tell you about my favorite memories of writing in my journal. In 6th grade, my teacher Mr. Abegg forced us to write in our journals during class. Yes, forced. That's what I thought back then. I still have that journal. The cover is a picture that I drew in pencil about a castle LEGO set that I had back then and I drew a moat around it with a drawbridge. The castle guards are standing around talking about how boring their job is. The lead guard overhears them and he says, "I heard that." I get a kick out of that every time I read it. There are also my favorite entries that I look for every time I open that journal. I remember a day at recess playing football with a new student named Joey. We had organized recess football teams and we were on the same team. He was also on my competition soccer team. 6th grade was the only year I play competition and we won 1st place in the league! Woo!
Another fun journal memory is of my grandma. She would pay me for writing in my journal. It sounds too good to be true for a kid, but I am grateful that she did it. Her method of payment was gummy worms. She gave me 1 worm for every 5 lines I wrote. Totally awesome. My dad also got me to write in my journal in much the same way. I felt like he got it from her. Maybe I told him about it and he kept up the good habit.
I love writing in my journal. When I read about my ancestors I feel connected to them through their words. I think the same will happen with my descendants. Who knows! There are some embarrassing things I've written in my journal, but I hope it shows that I'm a normal person with weaknesses. Maybe it will help someone out.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
A boy's service
Last week my whole family got sick, including me, and it was bad. We laid around, each on our worst days, looking very pathetic. It was not our normal routine for getting sick. Usually the boys get sick first, Angie might get a little of it or maybe a medium dose of it. I often get a little something in my stomach for a couple hours and then it goes away. Just as often I don't get anything at all. Then we get better and get back to life as normal.
Last week was horrible.
The boys got sick, but it wasn't obvious that they were hit any harder than normal. They get fevers and runny noses pretty easily. They asked for blessings and we talked about faith, priesthood blessings and service. Then Angie got sick. It came fast and hard. In hindsight, I should have taken something to boost my immune system. I take vitamins every day and that often keeps me out of trouble so I don't have to do any last-minute defense. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. But I digress.
Angie was bed-ridden and didn't walk around much for a couple days. One of those days was Saturday and I was feeling pretty poorly too. Skyler wanted to do something sooo nice for Angie. It's something he's been planning to do for weeks, but it hasn't worked out. Angie and I are so impressed with his initiative. And his love.
He asked if he could make Angie lunch in bed (or on the couch) since she wasn't going to join us at the table. He wanted to make scrambled eggs on a cookie sheet (and wanted to grease it first) and then hand deliver it. It was the sweetest thing. Now, I had to help him and he wanted to go way faster than I could handle. He got the eggs out of the fridge and was about to start cracking them into the cookie sheet by the time I got myself off the couch to stop him from cracking the first egg. This at least shows that Skyler has lots of guts and is willing to do hard things. Most days it's hard enough to keep up with all he wants to do. That's just how he is and we love him for it.
I helped him crack eggs into a bowl so he could fish out bits of shell. Then he had a hand in cooking the eggs, but before they got done he tried to spray the cookie sheet (again), thinking that we'd pour the eggs onto it like a plate. It was awesome. So I encouraged him to get out a plate to put on the tray. He didn't understand why. It was so funny!
Well, it was a great thing and we praised him highly.
On Friday morning I heard him in the kitchen and went out to see what was going on. Sounds in the kitchen usually mean trouble. Today it meant I caught Skyler doing another good deed. He was disheartened that I found him making my lunch. Surprise! He made me a peanut butter and honey sandwich, carrots, trail mix and chocolate-covered blueberries. What a little stud! It was awesome!
Last week was horrible.
The boys got sick, but it wasn't obvious that they were hit any harder than normal. They get fevers and runny noses pretty easily. They asked for blessings and we talked about faith, priesthood blessings and service. Then Angie got sick. It came fast and hard. In hindsight, I should have taken something to boost my immune system. I take vitamins every day and that often keeps me out of trouble so I don't have to do any last-minute defense. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. But I digress.
Angie was bed-ridden and didn't walk around much for a couple days. One of those days was Saturday and I was feeling pretty poorly too. Skyler wanted to do something sooo nice for Angie. It's something he's been planning to do for weeks, but it hasn't worked out. Angie and I are so impressed with his initiative. And his love.
He asked if he could make Angie lunch in bed (or on the couch) since she wasn't going to join us at the table. He wanted to make scrambled eggs on a cookie sheet (and wanted to grease it first) and then hand deliver it. It was the sweetest thing. Now, I had to help him and he wanted to go way faster than I could handle. He got the eggs out of the fridge and was about to start cracking them into the cookie sheet by the time I got myself off the couch to stop him from cracking the first egg. This at least shows that Skyler has lots of guts and is willing to do hard things. Most days it's hard enough to keep up with all he wants to do. That's just how he is and we love him for it.
I helped him crack eggs into a bowl so he could fish out bits of shell. Then he had a hand in cooking the eggs, but before they got done he tried to spray the cookie sheet (again), thinking that we'd pour the eggs onto it like a plate. It was awesome. So I encouraged him to get out a plate to put on the tray. He didn't understand why. It was so funny!
Well, it was a great thing and we praised him highly.
On Friday morning I heard him in the kitchen and went out to see what was going on. Sounds in the kitchen usually mean trouble. Today it meant I caught Skyler doing another good deed. He was disheartened that I found him making my lunch. Surprise! He made me a peanut butter and honey sandwich, carrots, trail mix and chocolate-covered blueberries. What a little stud! It was awesome!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
500 Dates
Angie and I have been on about 500 dates. Sounds crazy, right? It does to me, but it's true. We aren't keeping track, exactly, but we make it a point to go on a date each week and have done so ever since we were first married. I think we've missed some weeks and I remember going twice some weeks (when we went out for lunch spontaneously and didn't need a babysitter).
We've been married for 10 years now (in March). Multiply that by 52 weeks/year puts us over 500 dates just since we got married. We saw each other almost daily while we dated, but I don't know if those count as dates. If they do, add over 100 more (that's rounding down). We dated for over 4 months, including our engagement, before getting married.
Our first date was on Nov 3, 2001. We went bowling with some of Angie's friends. I knew Kristi from the singles ward we attended. All the other people were their friends. The guys were Dave and Davey, which is easy enough to remember. My other memories of that night were mostly about Angie and how I really, really loved being with her. I still love being with her. There was some leaning going on at the bowling alley. She sat on a table between turns and I only had the guts to lean my arm up against her leg as I sat on the seat next to her. She wanted to reciprocate some contact (she told me later), but we were both pretty shy about it.
After bowling, we went to her house and watched Shrek. Angie's dad was there with us. He must have been coming and going and I'll tell you why I think that. During the movie, Angie and I started leaning. Ya, leaning. It was pretty awesome. I really wanted to hold her hand and was getting up the, well, I can't call it "courage," to do so. It's more like I was building up a whole bunch of "anti-regret" and I didn't want to look back on the night wishing I'd have held her hand.
Let me tell you, this was very forward for me!
We leaned more and more until our hands were touching back-to-back. I faked a pretend hold in the hopes that she'd think I was going for her hand and then she'd hold mine. She didn't bite. Then it was just a flop attempt and I decided to just grab her hand. So forward for a first date! But I really, really liked her and there was crackling energy in the air. It was magical (for both of us). It was the awesome-est feeling.
I still get that feeling around her. Ya, she's that awesome.
So anyway, we were holding hands and this must have been when her dad left to make poopcorn (ew, that would be gross). How about popcorn? Let's just say he made popcorn. Because when he came back I could see his surprised reaction in my peripheral vision.
After Shrek, we watched Iron Chef. It was one of their family's favorites, but was new to me. What a fun show! We have lots of inside jokes from watching that show over a year or two before it was taken off the air. Anyway, let me jump to the end of the date.
Angie asked me out on this date so she came to pick me up. When she dropped me off, I didn't want to shake hands in the car or hug across the arm rest. I didn't want it to look like I was going for a kiss or anything! That's way beyond what I could have gone for. So I asked her if I could give her a big hug. I went around to her side of the car and gave her a hug. The hug she gave me back was 10 times more magical than holding hands during Shrek. It was bliss. Pure love. And I still feel that way when we have some peace and quiet and give each other a sweet hug.
In everyday life we still have a lot of good feelings for each other. We work hard at our marriage and parenting. We have good days most of the time. There used to be more hard days than we have now. We've come a long way and still have a long way to go. This weekend's stake conference was uplifting and I love how the Spirit teaches us what we need to do to be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is only through Him and our Father's plan of salvation that we can find true happiness in life.
And it's so good going through life with my wife and best-est friend, Angie. I love you, Babe!
We've been married for 10 years now (in March). Multiply that by 52 weeks/year puts us over 500 dates just since we got married. We saw each other almost daily while we dated, but I don't know if those count as dates. If they do, add over 100 more (that's rounding down). We dated for over 4 months, including our engagement, before getting married.
Our first date was on Nov 3, 2001. We went bowling with some of Angie's friends. I knew Kristi from the singles ward we attended. All the other people were their friends. The guys were Dave and Davey, which is easy enough to remember. My other memories of that night were mostly about Angie and how I really, really loved being with her. I still love being with her. There was some leaning going on at the bowling alley. She sat on a table between turns and I only had the guts to lean my arm up against her leg as I sat on the seat next to her. She wanted to reciprocate some contact (she told me later), but we were both pretty shy about it.
After bowling, we went to her house and watched Shrek. Angie's dad was there with us. He must have been coming and going and I'll tell you why I think that. During the movie, Angie and I started leaning. Ya, leaning. It was pretty awesome. I really wanted to hold her hand and was getting up the, well, I can't call it "courage," to do so. It's more like I was building up a whole bunch of "anti-regret" and I didn't want to look back on the night wishing I'd have held her hand.
Let me tell you, this was very forward for me!
We leaned more and more until our hands were touching back-to-back. I faked a pretend hold in the hopes that she'd think I was going for her hand and then she'd hold mine. She didn't bite. Then it was just a flop attempt and I decided to just grab her hand. So forward for a first date! But I really, really liked her and there was crackling energy in the air. It was magical (for both of us). It was the awesome-est feeling.
I still get that feeling around her. Ya, she's that awesome.
So anyway, we were holding hands and this must have been when her dad left to make poopcorn (ew, that would be gross). How about popcorn? Let's just say he made popcorn. Because when he came back I could see his surprised reaction in my peripheral vision.
After Shrek, we watched Iron Chef. It was one of their family's favorites, but was new to me. What a fun show! We have lots of inside jokes from watching that show over a year or two before it was taken off the air. Anyway, let me jump to the end of the date.
Angie asked me out on this date so she came to pick me up. When she dropped me off, I didn't want to shake hands in the car or hug across the arm rest. I didn't want it to look like I was going for a kiss or anything! That's way beyond what I could have gone for. So I asked her if I could give her a big hug. I went around to her side of the car and gave her a hug. The hug she gave me back was 10 times more magical than holding hands during Shrek. It was bliss. Pure love. And I still feel that way when we have some peace and quiet and give each other a sweet hug.
In everyday life we still have a lot of good feelings for each other. We work hard at our marriage and parenting. We have good days most of the time. There used to be more hard days than we have now. We've come a long way and still have a long way to go. This weekend's stake conference was uplifting and I love how the Spirit teaches us what we need to do to be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is only through Him and our Father's plan of salvation that we can find true happiness in life.
And it's so good going through life with my wife and best-est friend, Angie. I love you, Babe!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
See your ancestors on createfan.com
Our ward has been talking about family history and sharing our own conversion story or that of our ancestors. Our bishop has been telling fun stories of one of his ancestors. And he's been talking about our ward members printing off our fan chart (createfan.com) and finding out how many people in our ward have common ancestry. It sounds so awesome.
Angie and I printed out our fans and have been having fun reading names. Here's a cool line in Angie's family. Jens Ottosen, son of Otte Nielsen, son of Niels Jensen, son of Jens Vogensen. Cool, huh!
She's also related to Parley P. Pratt. There's an asterisk there so we're not sure about what that means yet. I really love the fan and how it shows nine generations. The efficiency strikes a chord in my inner mathematician.
Here's another sweet line Angie has. Christian C Christensen, son of Anthony Christensen, son of Christen Christensen, son of Christen Christensen, son of yet another Christen Christensen. Awesome, baby!
I didn't think I knew any conversion stories of my ancestors so I didn't think I could contribute to the "ancestory show and tell" minute in priesthood meeting today. But I thought of one! It's my grandpa Ragozzine. Let me tell you about it. My aunt submitted this story in the Ensign (several years ago). If I find it, I'll definitely post a link to it. I'll paraphrase the story because it's been a while since I read the details.
My grandpa Ragozzine married my grandma (she was a member of the church, he was not) and they raised a family together. I think he went to church, but not sure for how long. Anyway, the part that I remember most is that my aunt would ask him when he would get baptized and he kept putting it off for his own reasons. My aunt went on a mission and was elated to receive a letter from him (during her mission) saying he was finally ready to get baptized. So cool. What a letter to get on your mission!
I remember my grandpa Ragozzine. He was a quiet, loving man. I remember playing checkers with him when I'd go to their home in the summer. He beat me every time. He might have shown some mercy, meaning the game would be prolonged, but he always won. I think he'd play canasta with my grandma and me too, but I don't remember that happening too many times. Just the memories of losing at checkers. A lot. He always tried to find a football game on TV when I was over at their house too. He'd call me to the living room and try to find a game when it wasn't even football season. I was so naive that I thought he'd find a game on some channel anyway. Grandpas are awesome like that.
I love my grandpa and I know that I will see him again. I wonder if he gets to see glimpses of his descendants or if he has a wireless connection to the Internet and can read this blog post. Care to comment, Grandpa?
Sorry for shooting out those windows with your BB gun. I thought you said I could.
Angie and I printed out our fans and have been having fun reading names. Here's a cool line in Angie's family. Jens Ottosen, son of Otte Nielsen, son of Niels Jensen, son of Jens Vogensen. Cool, huh!
She's also related to Parley P. Pratt. There's an asterisk there so we're not sure about what that means yet. I really love the fan and how it shows nine generations. The efficiency strikes a chord in my inner mathematician.
Here's another sweet line Angie has. Christian C Christensen, son of Anthony Christensen, son of Christen Christensen, son of Christen Christensen, son of yet another Christen Christensen. Awesome, baby!
I didn't think I knew any conversion stories of my ancestors so I didn't think I could contribute to the "ancestory show and tell" minute in priesthood meeting today. But I thought of one! It's my grandpa Ragozzine. Let me tell you about it. My aunt submitted this story in the Ensign (several years ago). If I find it, I'll definitely post a link to it. I'll paraphrase the story because it's been a while since I read the details.
My grandpa Ragozzine married my grandma (she was a member of the church, he was not) and they raised a family together. I think he went to church, but not sure for how long. Anyway, the part that I remember most is that my aunt would ask him when he would get baptized and he kept putting it off for his own reasons. My aunt went on a mission and was elated to receive a letter from him (during her mission) saying he was finally ready to get baptized. So cool. What a letter to get on your mission!
I remember my grandpa Ragozzine. He was a quiet, loving man. I remember playing checkers with him when I'd go to their home in the summer. He beat me every time. He might have shown some mercy, meaning the game would be prolonged, but he always won. I think he'd play canasta with my grandma and me too, but I don't remember that happening too many times. Just the memories of losing at checkers. A lot. He always tried to find a football game on TV when I was over at their house too. He'd call me to the living room and try to find a game when it wasn't even football season. I was so naive that I thought he'd find a game on some channel anyway. Grandpas are awesome like that.
I love my grandpa and I know that I will see him again. I wonder if he gets to see glimpses of his descendants or if he has a wireless connection to the Internet and can read this blog post. Care to comment, Grandpa?
Sorry for shooting out those windows with your BB gun. I thought you said I could.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Mosiah 4:9 is one of my favorite scriptures. I don't think about it very often, but when it's quoted, I instantly remember the reference. The message is powerful and I just came across it in my Book of Mormon reading. I love its message. This scripture reads:
9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
This scripture is true. I know that God, our Heavenly Father created all things through Jesus Christ. I know that when I pray, I am speaking to my Father in Heaven and that He knows all. It is a gift and a blessing to be able to approach Him in prayer and to ask for divine wisdom. He knows and sees all. It is humbling to feel that I can communicate with my Creator and get direction for my life here on the earth.
And I'm learning the latter part of the scripture about how man cannot comprehend all the things that the Lord does. It seems like I have to keep reminding myself of that as I pursue many interests and take the next step along the path of my career. I'm following what I feel He has in store for me. Some choices are not the choices that I would make. Sometimes my opinion of what to pursue (such as where to live and the cost of living of such places) is not what the Lord has in store for my family. It has caused a lot of groanings in us to understand that He is in charge and knows all. He can see the whole path that we will trod and the blessings and pitfalls we will face if we trust Him or not.
I love the Lord and trust Him. I am grateful for the gift and promptings of the Holy Ghost. My life is rich. Not because I have attained blessings by my own wisdom or strength. Quite the opposite. It is when I give up my own opinions and ideas, and align myself with God's ways, that I am blessed with abundance.
What scripture(s) strengthen you?
9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
This scripture is true. I know that God, our Heavenly Father created all things through Jesus Christ. I know that when I pray, I am speaking to my Father in Heaven and that He knows all. It is a gift and a blessing to be able to approach Him in prayer and to ask for divine wisdom. He knows and sees all. It is humbling to feel that I can communicate with my Creator and get direction for my life here on the earth.
And I'm learning the latter part of the scripture about how man cannot comprehend all the things that the Lord does. It seems like I have to keep reminding myself of that as I pursue many interests and take the next step along the path of my career. I'm following what I feel He has in store for me. Some choices are not the choices that I would make. Sometimes my opinion of what to pursue (such as where to live and the cost of living of such places) is not what the Lord has in store for my family. It has caused a lot of groanings in us to understand that He is in charge and knows all. He can see the whole path that we will trod and the blessings and pitfalls we will face if we trust Him or not.
I love the Lord and trust Him. I am grateful for the gift and promptings of the Holy Ghost. My life is rich. Not because I have attained blessings by my own wisdom or strength. Quite the opposite. It is when I give up my own opinions and ideas, and align myself with God's ways, that I am blessed with abundance.
What scripture(s) strengthen you?
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
General Conference was awesome, once again
Our family spent Saturday morning relaxing and getting ready for a day full of conference talks from church leaders. We made peanut butter popcorn, as promised, and snacked on it in three sessions. (By the last session on Sunday, we had completely forgotten about it. Sugar overload, I guess.)
We have spent years helping our little guys be reverent in sacrament meeting. It has paid off at church and it sure pays off on conference weekend. The boys actually sat through most of the first session before they got restless and went to play in their room. They often play quietly and that was the case this time too. Our boys are just the best.
We felt the Spirit so much by paying attention to the talks, talking about the messages together and listening for messages that would answer questions that we had written down beforehand. A couple questions I wrote down were:
How can we be a happy family?
How can we know the Lord's will for moving after Dad graduates?
I've been working on being patient with my boys. It can be tough sometimes. And I feel like they are really, really good boys. They bring a lot of happiness, peace and joy into our home. I'm so glad to have them. We are happy when we cooperate, speak kindly to each other, give lots of hugs, spend time together and have tickle fights.
I'm getting closer and closer to graduation. It's kind of weird to be so close to the end. It has been coming for nearly 6 years and now it seems like it's zooming up! We are talking about what kind of house we want to live in, how big it might be, if it will have a yard, what Skyler will do if there's no snow during the winter, etc.
We also got some bonus material from conference talks. It's stuff for our extended family. We have family members who are struggling with some tough medical and parenting issues. We passed along our thoughts to them and, hopefully, helped strengthen them at the same time.
Conference is just the best. I look forward to downloading all the talks (they are all available here now. Enjoy!) and swapping out the CD in my car from last conference.
Maybe I'll blog again about the talks I liked the most. If anyone suggests what they like to read here, I could lean toward more conference talks and scriptures or family happenings. Or else I'll just keep writing about whatever happens each week.
It's been 6 months since I started this blog. I've posted something each week and I'm s'happy that I have. I love talking about the gospel and hearing that others are reading my blog. Thank you all for reading, sharing it, and Liking it. May you be blessed for helping share the gospel!
We have spent years helping our little guys be reverent in sacrament meeting. It has paid off at church and it sure pays off on conference weekend. The boys actually sat through most of the first session before they got restless and went to play in their room. They often play quietly and that was the case this time too. Our boys are just the best.
We felt the Spirit so much by paying attention to the talks, talking about the messages together and listening for messages that would answer questions that we had written down beforehand. A couple questions I wrote down were:
How can we be a happy family?
How can we know the Lord's will for moving after Dad graduates?
I've been working on being patient with my boys. It can be tough sometimes. And I feel like they are really, really good boys. They bring a lot of happiness, peace and joy into our home. I'm so glad to have them. We are happy when we cooperate, speak kindly to each other, give lots of hugs, spend time together and have tickle fights.
I'm getting closer and closer to graduation. It's kind of weird to be so close to the end. It has been coming for nearly 6 years and now it seems like it's zooming up! We are talking about what kind of house we want to live in, how big it might be, if it will have a yard, what Skyler will do if there's no snow during the winter, etc.
We also got some bonus material from conference talks. It's stuff for our extended family. We have family members who are struggling with some tough medical and parenting issues. We passed along our thoughts to them and, hopefully, helped strengthen them at the same time.
Conference is just the best. I look forward to downloading all the talks (they are all available here now. Enjoy!) and swapping out the CD in my car from last conference.
Maybe I'll blog again about the talks I liked the most. If anyone suggests what they like to read here, I could lean toward more conference talks and scriptures or family happenings. Or else I'll just keep writing about whatever happens each week.
It's been 6 months since I started this blog. I've posted something each week and I'm s'happy that I have. I love talking about the gospel and hearing that others are reading my blog. Thank you all for reading, sharing it, and Liking it. May you be blessed for helping share the gospel!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
I am grateful for divine protection
Today I am very grateful for the safety of my family. In particular, I am grateful for an answer to prayers that has saved the life of one of my sons.
I often hear families pray for blessings of protection and my family does the same. The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us that the priesthood authority has the keys to the administering of angels and in my personal prayers I have often prayed for the protection and safety of each person in my family. Something very scary happened on Sunday after church and luckily, or with divine providence, Wes was miraculously saved from being hit by a car.
We've had lots of trouble with keeping track of Wes after Sunday meetings. We spend more time tracking that boy down in the church building! He's like a little leprechaun. You can stare at him for ten minutes without blinking and the second you take your eyes off him, bam!, he's gone. This Sunday we tried something different. It was a nice day and people were hanging out on the sidewalk. Nobody wanted to get in their car and drive home so we decided to stick around. There was a group of kids on the lawn away from parents and they were at least 15 feet from the road. The kids were old enough to know to stay away from the road.
Enter Mr. Wes.
He wanted to go over with those kids and I watched to see what he would do. He plopped right down beside the other children and had a great time (and sat in place) for quite a while. Some kids came and went. I looked over at him often to make sure he was ok.
Here's the scary part. Avert your eyes now if you have a queasy stomach.
The last time I looked over at the group of kids, I saw Wes standing up a few steps away from them. He was staring at the road, probably 20 feet away from it. I honestly thought to myself, "Is this what it's like to be a parent and see their kid for the last time?" There were no cars around. The road by our church doesn't have much traffic on it or I would have been by his side the whole time. Well, he suddenly bolted straight for the road. And two cars appeared out of thin air, heading on a collision course with disaster.
I ran toward him, but there was no way I was going to get there first. The cars were going fast. They didn't show any signs of slowing down. The first car had no reason to slow down because he wasn't going to hit Wes. The second car was so close to the car in front of it that it probably couldn't see Wes. Whatever the case, they sped on their way and Wes ran right into the road, just feet away from being hit. He was laughing hard because he loves to run. I got to him right after he got into the road, sat down and turned to face me. I had already looked to make sure no more cars were coming. Then I reached down to hold his hand, which he took, and then he followed me off the road and I took him to the car.
I was pretty calm at the time. Since then, I've replayed it in my head lots of times and have gotten pretty scared. I think Skyler might have gotten the worst of it. He was there with the other kids and watched Wes running toward the road. He started screaming for me, paralyzed where he stood. And he was on the verge of tears after the fact.
Crazy times. And I know that my Heavenly Father has given us a miracle. For days I thought, "Our life could be very different right now. We could either be at the cemetery or in the hospital with a critically injured boy. Big sigh!
We have been giving our thanks in prayer to our Father in Heaven for his safety and that he is still with us.
We sure do love that silly boy. We love having him in our family. He brightens up our day with his smiles, his laughter and his testimony. I know that the Lord put him in our family and now I know he has been preserved to stay with us. I hope it's for a good, long time.
I often hear families pray for blessings of protection and my family does the same. The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us that the priesthood authority has the keys to the administering of angels and in my personal prayers I have often prayed for the protection and safety of each person in my family. Something very scary happened on Sunday after church and luckily, or with divine providence, Wes was miraculously saved from being hit by a car.
We've had lots of trouble with keeping track of Wes after Sunday meetings. We spend more time tracking that boy down in the church building! He's like a little leprechaun. You can stare at him for ten minutes without blinking and the second you take your eyes off him, bam!, he's gone. This Sunday we tried something different. It was a nice day and people were hanging out on the sidewalk. Nobody wanted to get in their car and drive home so we decided to stick around. There was a group of kids on the lawn away from parents and they were at least 15 feet from the road. The kids were old enough to know to stay away from the road.
Enter Mr. Wes.
He wanted to go over with those kids and I watched to see what he would do. He plopped right down beside the other children and had a great time (and sat in place) for quite a while. Some kids came and went. I looked over at him often to make sure he was ok.
Here's the scary part. Avert your eyes now if you have a queasy stomach.
The last time I looked over at the group of kids, I saw Wes standing up a few steps away from them. He was staring at the road, probably 20 feet away from it. I honestly thought to myself, "Is this what it's like to be a parent and see their kid for the last time?" There were no cars around. The road by our church doesn't have much traffic on it or I would have been by his side the whole time. Well, he suddenly bolted straight for the road. And two cars appeared out of thin air, heading on a collision course with disaster.
I ran toward him, but there was no way I was going to get there first. The cars were going fast. They didn't show any signs of slowing down. The first car had no reason to slow down because he wasn't going to hit Wes. The second car was so close to the car in front of it that it probably couldn't see Wes. Whatever the case, they sped on their way and Wes ran right into the road, just feet away from being hit. He was laughing hard because he loves to run. I got to him right after he got into the road, sat down and turned to face me. I had already looked to make sure no more cars were coming. Then I reached down to hold his hand, which he took, and then he followed me off the road and I took him to the car.
I was pretty calm at the time. Since then, I've replayed it in my head lots of times and have gotten pretty scared. I think Skyler might have gotten the worst of it. He was there with the other kids and watched Wes running toward the road. He started screaming for me, paralyzed where he stood. And he was on the verge of tears after the fact.
Crazy times. And I know that my Heavenly Father has given us a miracle. For days I thought, "Our life could be very different right now. We could either be at the cemetery or in the hospital with a critically injured boy. Big sigh!
We have been giving our thanks in prayer to our Father in Heaven for his safety and that he is still with us.
We sure do love that silly boy. We love having him in our family. He brightens up our day with his smiles, his laughter and his testimony. I know that the Lord put him in our family and now I know he has been preserved to stay with us. I hope it's for a good, long time.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Sharing the gospel, planting a seed
Each week at church, the brethren of the priesthood (ages 12 and above) meet together for announcements before going to our classes. During this short meeting, each quorum and group reports and announces their own business and events. Part of the time is also given to the full-time missionaries serving in our ward. They remind us of our responsibility to share the gospel and I love the saying, "every member a missionary". I try to make the sharing of the gospel a part of my life by speaking to people around me about my beliefs and answering questions. Sometimes it makes me nervous. Sometimes I fail to follow promptings. I'm sorry for those times.
Angie and I eat at a favorite Mexican restaurant. We love Mexican food.
A lot.
We frequent our favorite Mexican spots wherever we live. Well, there is a manager at this place that we go to that I've wanted to share a Book of Mormon with. We asked our full-time missionaries in the area if we could use a copy of El Libro de Mormon to give away. They were more than happy to provide us with one.
A few weeks later, when I remembered El Libro de Mormon on my office shelf, we took it down with us on date night and hoped this manager would be there.
He was.
And I got nervous during dinner. I recognized that nervous feeling as, "I'm nervous, but I'm going to do this anyway. I feel the Lord is near to help me."
You know me, I'd rather get it over and done with so that I don't have to feel nervous any more. I would have even talked to him during dinner - because he likes to make the rounds and see how patrons are doing. It turns out that his rounds were in another part of the restaurant and I was nervous that I wouldn't get the chance to see him before we left.
Well, I'll just jump to the end. I started wondering if I should give El Libro de Mormon to our waiter. He's a really nice guy that we've seen there a lot of times over the year and a half or so that the place has been open. But I decided that I'd give it to the man I intended it for from the beginning. On our way to check out I was just going to meander up to the cashier and hopefully catch his attention. It worked. When he saw me, I smiled and walked over to him. We shook hands and then I asked him if he had ever heard of The Book of Mormon. I held it out so he could read the title. "No," he said. He held it with one hand, but wanted to let go of it. So I just told him that I wanted to give him this book and that it was about Jesus Christ. He was very grateful (I think) and he accepted it. I told him I can answer any questions that he has the next time I eat there. That will be soon enough!
Back to our church meeting and announcements. After I shared that story, the full-time missionaries said, "Oh, ya. We met that guy this week and he told us about that." How cool! I wanted to find out from them what happened before going home, but I didn't get a chance to. I guess I know who I'm calling tonight. :)
I love sharing the gospel and bask in the warmth of the Spirit and the love of God for reaching out to his sons and daughters. We are part of the gathering of the House of Israel in these, the latter days. The Book of Mormon is the standard of this work and His people are being brought in, one by one. It is a miracle. I'm so glad to be part of it.
"So the last shall be first" (Matt 20:16). I have seen that firsthand throughout my life as the gentiles are being gathered and joining the House of Israel. I saw it on my mission in Bahia, Brazil and see it again every time I open my mouth to share the gospel and every time I see a person get baptized into our ward. How awesome is that!
Very.
Angie and I eat at a favorite Mexican restaurant. We love Mexican food.
A lot.
We frequent our favorite Mexican spots wherever we live. Well, there is a manager at this place that we go to that I've wanted to share a Book of Mormon with. We asked our full-time missionaries in the area if we could use a copy of El Libro de Mormon to give away. They were more than happy to provide us with one.
A few weeks later, when I remembered El Libro de Mormon on my office shelf, we took it down with us on date night and hoped this manager would be there.
He was.
And I got nervous during dinner. I recognized that nervous feeling as, "I'm nervous, but I'm going to do this anyway. I feel the Lord is near to help me."
You know me, I'd rather get it over and done with so that I don't have to feel nervous any more. I would have even talked to him during dinner - because he likes to make the rounds and see how patrons are doing. It turns out that his rounds were in another part of the restaurant and I was nervous that I wouldn't get the chance to see him before we left.
Well, I'll just jump to the end. I started wondering if I should give El Libro de Mormon to our waiter. He's a really nice guy that we've seen there a lot of times over the year and a half or so that the place has been open. But I decided that I'd give it to the man I intended it for from the beginning. On our way to check out I was just going to meander up to the cashier and hopefully catch his attention. It worked. When he saw me, I smiled and walked over to him. We shook hands and then I asked him if he had ever heard of The Book of Mormon. I held it out so he could read the title. "No," he said. He held it with one hand, but wanted to let go of it. So I just told him that I wanted to give him this book and that it was about Jesus Christ. He was very grateful (I think) and he accepted it. I told him I can answer any questions that he has the next time I eat there. That will be soon enough!
Back to our church meeting and announcements. After I shared that story, the full-time missionaries said, "Oh, ya. We met that guy this week and he told us about that." How cool! I wanted to find out from them what happened before going home, but I didn't get a chance to. I guess I know who I'm calling tonight. :)
I love sharing the gospel and bask in the warmth of the Spirit and the love of God for reaching out to his sons and daughters. We are part of the gathering of the House of Israel in these, the latter days. The Book of Mormon is the standard of this work and His people are being brought in, one by one. It is a miracle. I'm so glad to be part of it.
"So the last shall be first" (Matt 20:16). I have seen that firsthand throughout my life as the gentiles are being gathered and joining the House of Israel. I saw it on my mission in Bahia, Brazil and see it again every time I open my mouth to share the gospel and every time I see a person get baptized into our ward. How awesome is that!
Very.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The feeling of "General Conference" is in the air
I love General Conference. The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints assembles two weekends a year,
in April and October, to listen to church leaders and get a full dose
of Spirit for the next six months. I look forward to conference
weekend for several weeks before it actually arrives. I’ve been
thinking about it for a few weeks now.
I like to listen to talks in my car
from the previous conference. I have made some attempt to keep a
growing list of my favorite talks and listen to them in the car too.
We used to have to buy the CDs from ldsdistribution.org, but now they
put the mp3s on lds.org and I download them within hours or days and
burn them to CD. I didn’t want my several years’ worth of sets to
go to waste so I gave them to other people to listen to. I was happy
to get back so many “thank you”s. The warm fuzzies made it all
worth it!
The new signin on the church’s web
site allows users to keep notes online. I’ve been marking
conference talks mainly, but also making some notes in the
scriptures. That came in handy one Sunday in particular. I can’t
remember if I blogged about it or not, but I’ve told the story many
times. One Sunday there was a mix up with the elders quorum
instructor and nobody had prepared the lesson. I borrowed an iPad,
accessed my notes on the conference talk and we had a nice lesson.
I love technology.
I also love that song from Naponeon
Dynamite, where I got those words/lyrics.
One silly thing about scheduling
General Conference is that it’s not on “the first weekend of
April/October”. It’s actually on the first Sunday and the
Saturday preceding it. The “numbers guy” inside of me has been
looking forward to this happening for a long time. I’m sure it’s
happened in my life, but I don’t remember when. I’m happy to see
that it’s happening this month. Conference starts on Saturday,
March 31. Woo!
Our family has a tradition for watching
General Conference that we started to get the kids excited to watch
it. We talk about this tradition leading up to it and Skyler has
already been talking about it. What do we do? We make peanut butter
popcorn and chow down as soon as the first session starts. We have
usually made a double batch, but found that it’s way too much for
us. That was enough popcorn to give us a treat during several of the
sessions and still have some left over after Conference weekend. We
have trimmed down our consumption to one batch.
Here’s the recipe. It's from our friends, T&L.
2 poppers popped popcorn, remove unpopped kernels
1/2 cup white karo syrup
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
Cook the sugar, honey and syrup for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add the vanilla, salt and peanut butter. Drizzle over the popcorn and stir. (This is the end of the recipe. Try it. And enjoy. Thank me later! :) )
1/2 cup white karo syrup
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
Cook the sugar, honey and syrup for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add the vanilla, salt and peanut butter. Drizzle over the popcorn and stir. (This is the end of the recipe. Try it. And enjoy. Thank me later! :) )
The peanut butter really stands out in
this recipe. It’s probably all the sugar and corn syrup. We
actually halved the sugar in the recipe and I think it’s tastier
now. It was too sweet before. (The recipe listed here has the amount
of sugar we use.)
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Bearing testimony in word and deed
There are so many exciting things going on in life right now! Family stuff, work, research is moving along, graduation gets closer every single day, employment ideas, recruiter phone calls and job interviews, and some game development that is going very well right now. This blog is for spiritual matters. When I talk about non-spiritual matters I for sure want to talk about how it relates to seeking the guidance of the Lord and receiving answers to prayers.
Well, today is the first Sunday of the month and that means we had fast and testimony meeting today. I share my testimony often at church. Part of it is to overcome fear, but I try to feel when the Spirit tells me to bear my witness of the Savior. When I feel it most strongly, it is a feeling that starts the day or night before. I just know ahead of time that I'm going to do it so I am usually the first one up. That helps my nerves too, to be the first one up. I don't like being nervous so I'd rather act quickly and enjoy the rest of the meeting while I listen to other people's testimonies.
Another reason for sharing my testimony so often started many years ago when I learned that my sins can be forgiven by bearing testimony to others. That's in Doctrine and Covenants 62:3.
There are days that I really feel the Spirit (or lack of it) telling me not to bear my testimony that day. Those fast and testimony meetings tend to have lots of other people bearing testimony. Maybe I'm just being told ahead of time to not worry about it. I don't know. But what I do know is that when I feel like I should do something, it's always better to follow the promptings of the Spirit than to follow my own way.
I shared my testimony today about how much I love the beginning books in the Book of Mormon. I'm not sure if it's just Nephi's (and Jacob's) writing style. I think it's because they are bearing their own witness of Jesus Christ and that touches my soul. Most of what is in the 1st and 2nd books of Nephi is pure doctrine. A lot of what comes in later books includes mundane topics like history and war, speckled with doctrine. The last few chapters of the Book of Mormon really focus on the Spirit again and I really like those parts. Then, when I start reading the Book of Mormon over again, I bask in the testimony of one of my favorite prophets ever. I just feel so happy reading the testimony that others have of my Savior. It's a huge strength and blessing to me. One day I'll meet Nephi and tell him thanks (if that's how it works in heaven).
I enjoyed hearing everyone else's testimony today. The one I'll mention is a friend of ours who bore her testimony about a scripture that I have been telling Angie about a lot lately. When this friend quoted it, Angie and I looked at each other. It was awesome.
The scripture that she quoted can be found in Psalms 46:10 and D&C 101:16. "Be still and know that I am God." I have had a lot of things on my mind that are important (or that I make more important than they should be, like looking for work and my game development hobbies). "[Being] still" has saved my sanity lots of days over the past several months, ever since I began preparing for my interview with Google.
Our friend said, "This scripture has meant different things to me during my life," and that is true for me too. But the recurring theme for me is that I bring too much upon myself and try to handle it all. I love working on ideas and accomplishing big things (or what I think are big). In reality, I just need to calm myself down and understand the Lord's plan for me and "...know that [He] is God."
I'm holding back on exploring new job opportunities right now. The main reason is because I've been told way too many times by recruiters and employers that I need to call back when I'm about to graduate and can move on short notice. This is a good problem to have, but it hasn't stopped me from applying for more jobs that sound too awesome to pass up. Looking back, I just started looking for jobs too soon. The other reason that I'm not looking for jobs right now is that I found something at a recent astronomy conference that might work out and they will wait for me until the summer. Even without that, I wouldn't be looking for work right now like I have been. It takes a lot of time and there are many software development job openings right now.
My testimony is that the Lord knows all. His ways are higher than my ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). When He tells me something and I feel and recognize His voice, I know that obeying will be the best thing for my life. Hands down. No complaining. Just do it.
One more thing that I want to say is that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are among the nicest and most charitable people I know. A friend of mine that I play a lot of board games with fell off a ladder a couple days ago. Long story short, he landed on his heels and broke them in a big way. He'll be off his feet for months. Several willing people at church volunteered to go build a wheelchair ramp at their home. It's an emergency situation for this family. I love seeing people reach out and serve.
I love being a member of this church.
Well, today is the first Sunday of the month and that means we had fast and testimony meeting today. I share my testimony often at church. Part of it is to overcome fear, but I try to feel when the Spirit tells me to bear my witness of the Savior. When I feel it most strongly, it is a feeling that starts the day or night before. I just know ahead of time that I'm going to do it so I am usually the first one up. That helps my nerves too, to be the first one up. I don't like being nervous so I'd rather act quickly and enjoy the rest of the meeting while I listen to other people's testimonies.
Another reason for sharing my testimony so often started many years ago when I learned that my sins can be forgiven by bearing testimony to others. That's in Doctrine and Covenants 62:3.
There are days that I really feel the Spirit (or lack of it) telling me not to bear my testimony that day. Those fast and testimony meetings tend to have lots of other people bearing testimony. Maybe I'm just being told ahead of time to not worry about it. I don't know. But what I do know is that when I feel like I should do something, it's always better to follow the promptings of the Spirit than to follow my own way.
I shared my testimony today about how much I love the beginning books in the Book of Mormon. I'm not sure if it's just Nephi's (and Jacob's) writing style. I think it's because they are bearing their own witness of Jesus Christ and that touches my soul. Most of what is in the 1st and 2nd books of Nephi is pure doctrine. A lot of what comes in later books includes mundane topics like history and war, speckled with doctrine. The last few chapters of the Book of Mormon really focus on the Spirit again and I really like those parts. Then, when I start reading the Book of Mormon over again, I bask in the testimony of one of my favorite prophets ever. I just feel so happy reading the testimony that others have of my Savior. It's a huge strength and blessing to me. One day I'll meet Nephi and tell him thanks (if that's how it works in heaven).
I enjoyed hearing everyone else's testimony today. The one I'll mention is a friend of ours who bore her testimony about a scripture that I have been telling Angie about a lot lately. When this friend quoted it, Angie and I looked at each other. It was awesome.
The scripture that she quoted can be found in Psalms 46:10 and D&C 101:16. "Be still and know that I am God." I have had a lot of things on my mind that are important (or that I make more important than they should be, like looking for work and my game development hobbies). "[Being] still" has saved my sanity lots of days over the past several months, ever since I began preparing for my interview with Google.
Our friend said, "This scripture has meant different things to me during my life," and that is true for me too. But the recurring theme for me is that I bring too much upon myself and try to handle it all. I love working on ideas and accomplishing big things (or what I think are big). In reality, I just need to calm myself down and understand the Lord's plan for me and "...know that [He] is God."
I'm holding back on exploring new job opportunities right now. The main reason is because I've been told way too many times by recruiters and employers that I need to call back when I'm about to graduate and can move on short notice. This is a good problem to have, but it hasn't stopped me from applying for more jobs that sound too awesome to pass up. Looking back, I just started looking for jobs too soon. The other reason that I'm not looking for jobs right now is that I found something at a recent astronomy conference that might work out and they will wait for me until the summer. Even without that, I wouldn't be looking for work right now like I have been. It takes a lot of time and there are many software development job openings right now.
My testimony is that the Lord knows all. His ways are higher than my ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). When He tells me something and I feel and recognize His voice, I know that obeying will be the best thing for my life. Hands down. No complaining. Just do it.
One more thing that I want to say is that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are among the nicest and most charitable people I know. A friend of mine that I play a lot of board games with fell off a ladder a couple days ago. Long story short, he landed on his heels and broke them in a big way. He'll be off his feet for months. Several willing people at church volunteered to go build a wheelchair ramp at their home. It's an emergency situation for this family. I love seeing people reach out and serve.
I love being a member of this church.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
I, Nephi, having been born of...
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| Artist: Arnold Friberg |
"I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents..."
Nephi's parents were goodly because they were righteous Jews who kept the commandments and followed the Spirit. Lehi was a prophet and had visions from the Lord to know how to protect his family. He lead his family away from the impending danger that befell Jerusalem a few years later. That would have been difficult to leave the comforts of home and live in the wilderness. It would be difficult for me.
The verse continues, "...therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father."
I have always taken this verse to mean that Lehi was a good dad and wanted to teach his kids about life, the universe and everything. With that in mind, I try to teach my kids stuff that I know as well as let them learn things on their own and explore their own talents. I have a feeling that Lehi did all this and much more.
Well, this verse was in our first Sunday School lesson this year. I happened to be in Texas at the time, but I shared something that we don't often think about with this verse. It's this:
Laman and Lemuel were also born of goodly parents.
So, what happened to them? The short answer is that I don't know. The long answer also involves me not knowing. It's just interesting to see that some of Lehi and Sariah's children were obedient and others were not.
That's really all I wanted to say in this post, but it seems like it's not enough. Maybe I'll say that Nephi didn't just follow his dad into the wilderness. Here's a verse that makes Nephi seem more like us, in that he had to gain a testimony for himself.
1 Ne 2:16, 19 show that Nephi wan't born with a testimony. He sought one. Verses 17-18 show that Nephi loved his brothers and shared his testimony with them. I'm proud of Sam for listening to his younger brother. That's not easy for some people to do. He (and I'm sure he wasn't the only one) also tried to help Laman and Lemuel understand the will of the Lord. We also know there are some sisters involved here because they married the sons of Ishmael. Striving to live the gospel was a family affair. Some just did better than others.
I want to be a goodly parent and a goodly son. I am grateful my parents taught me the gospel when I was young. They must have taught me from very young. I don't have any memories like, "Ya, that's when Mom and Dad started talking about church stuff." I hope to be a goodly parent by teaching my kids gospel principles. We already talk about baptism, dating and courtship, the law of tithing, fasting, the Word of Wisdom, temple sealing and eternal life. Angie and I love it when our boys teach us their understanding.
We are all very blessed. The Lord has showered many tender mercies upon us.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Kids teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
I love it when my kids get assigned talks in primary. Skyler is getting old enough that he can think up what he wants to say almost by himself. It's harder to get him to sit still long enough to come up with the talk than it is to get him to figure out what he wants to say.
I think this is the third time that Skyler has given a talk where we wrote it down and he read it by himself. The two previous times he wanted to write it down in a little notebook that he keeps in his scripture bag. This time he wanted to type it up. I sort of remember typing up one other one so maybe this is the fourth talk that he's done mostly on his own.
Last night we sat down at the computer together and talked about the topic, "How Nephi was blessed for choosing the right." I think it was a little harder for him to think about this topic than others, but that's ok. It just took some extra discussion about the end blessings for the choices he made, rather than talking about what he did to get those blessings.
Here is Skyler's talk. I typed it up for him, but he put all these ideas in. Angie and I both gave suggestions, but he chose what he would actually say. It was fun(ny) to hear him say stuff like, "No, I don't like that sentence so take it out" or "Change the order of those sentences." He wanted to be done a few times before the talk was long enough, but he stuck it through. I'm proud of him. Here's his talk in its entirety.
"My talk is about how Nephi was blessed for choosing the right.
"Nephi was freed from ropes because he prayed for help. His wrists were sore, but he did not complain.
"Nephi got the brass plates from Laban because he followed the Spirit. He knew that the Lord would bless him.
"Nephi was protected from his brothers by an angel because he chose the right.
"The Liahona gave him directions because he followed the prophet Lehi.
"I know the Church is true. We can be blessed by saying our prayers and choosing the right. I know that Jesus lives.
"In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
I think this is the third time that Skyler has given a talk where we wrote it down and he read it by himself. The two previous times he wanted to write it down in a little notebook that he keeps in his scripture bag. This time he wanted to type it up. I sort of remember typing up one other one so maybe this is the fourth talk that he's done mostly on his own.
Last night we sat down at the computer together and talked about the topic, "How Nephi was blessed for choosing the right." I think it was a little harder for him to think about this topic than others, but that's ok. It just took some extra discussion about the end blessings for the choices he made, rather than talking about what he did to get those blessings.
Here is Skyler's talk. I typed it up for him, but he put all these ideas in. Angie and I both gave suggestions, but he chose what he would actually say. It was fun(ny) to hear him say stuff like, "No, I don't like that sentence so take it out" or "Change the order of those sentences." He wanted to be done a few times before the talk was long enough, but he stuck it through. I'm proud of him. Here's his talk in its entirety.
"My talk is about how Nephi was blessed for choosing the right.
"Nephi was freed from ropes because he prayed for help. His wrists were sore, but he did not complain.
"Nephi got the brass plates from Laban because he followed the Spirit. He knew that the Lord would bless him.
"Nephi was protected from his brothers by an angel because he chose the right.
"The Liahona gave him directions because he followed the prophet Lehi.
"I know the Church is true. We can be blessed by saying our prayers and choosing the right. I know that Jesus lives.
"In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Do not spend money for that which is of no worth
I've been reading 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon and have come across several verses that I wanted to share. I'm in chapter 9 right now, but maybe I'll go back and pick up a few of the other things I wanted to blog about in previous chapters.
It's hard for me to remember that Nephi didn't speak all the words that we read in 2 Nephi. Every time I come to 2 Ne 6:1, I read, "The words of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, which he spake unto the people of Nephi."
Oh, ya. Jacob!
He was one of Nephi's two younger brothers born in the wilderness during the years between Lehi's exodus (with his family as well as Zoram and Ishmael's family) from Jerusalem and reaching the promised land (somewhere in the Americas).
Jacob was a powerful teacher and had a strong testimony of his Savior. We read in 2 Ne 2:2-4 that "[Jacob knew] the greatness of God" and "beheld in [his] youth His glory". What a strong child and youth he must have been to gain a testimony of the gospel from his dad (Lehi) and other faithful family members when he had to live through the "rudeness" of his other brothers (2 Ne 2:1).
Back to chapter 9.
This is a long chapter about Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice for all men. Toward the end of the chapter we read the following verses. Verse 51 is the scripture that our stake has chosen to be our theme for 2012. It makes more sense to me in the context of what leads up to it.
48 Behold, if ye were holy I would speak unto you of holiness; but as ye are not holy, and ye look upon me as a teacher, it must needs be expedient that I teach you the consequences of sin.
49 Behold, my soul abhorreth sin, and my heart delighteth in righteousness; and I will praise the holy name of my God.
50 Come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.
51 Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness.
I have a testimony of the truthfulness of these scriptures and of Christ's power to save. I know that this life is our time to prepare for our eternal reward and that we will receive from God's hand every blessing that we are worthy to receive in this life for our happiness now and at the Judgment Day for the eternities hereafter.
The choice I have before me is what job to pursue. It's been on my mind for years, but especially so for the past several months. Providing for my family and enjoying the work I do are just part of the decision. Where to live and our ability to save are also part of the equation. We need to provide for Wes's special needs in the short (and long) term(s). Verse 51 teaches me that I do not need to spend money for things which are of no worth. Having a PhD in physics and astronomy will bring in a decent income and there are lots of things I'd like to do with that income. Jacob, the wise teacher that he is, teaches me that the real importance in life is to "come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not".
I am thankful for the peace that comes over me from reading the word of Christ that I receive through His holy prophets and through the Spirit. I need to be still and let the Holy Spirit guide. Too often I try to stand in His way and I have to keep reminding myself to pause and listen.
It's hard for me to remember that Nephi didn't speak all the words that we read in 2 Nephi. Every time I come to 2 Ne 6:1, I read, "The words of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, which he spake unto the people of Nephi."
Oh, ya. Jacob!
He was one of Nephi's two younger brothers born in the wilderness during the years between Lehi's exodus (with his family as well as Zoram and Ishmael's family) from Jerusalem and reaching the promised land (somewhere in the Americas).
Jacob was a powerful teacher and had a strong testimony of his Savior. We read in 2 Ne 2:2-4 that "[Jacob knew] the greatness of God" and "beheld in [his] youth His glory". What a strong child and youth he must have been to gain a testimony of the gospel from his dad (Lehi) and other faithful family members when he had to live through the "rudeness" of his other brothers (2 Ne 2:1).
Back to chapter 9.
This is a long chapter about Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice for all men. Toward the end of the chapter we read the following verses. Verse 51 is the scripture that our stake has chosen to be our theme for 2012. It makes more sense to me in the context of what leads up to it.
48 Behold, if ye were holy I would speak unto you of holiness; but as ye are not holy, and ye look upon me as a teacher, it must needs be expedient that I teach you the consequences of sin.
49 Behold, my soul abhorreth sin, and my heart delighteth in righteousness; and I will praise the holy name of my God.
50 Come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.
51 Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness.
I have a testimony of the truthfulness of these scriptures and of Christ's power to save. I know that this life is our time to prepare for our eternal reward and that we will receive from God's hand every blessing that we are worthy to receive in this life for our happiness now and at the Judgment Day for the eternities hereafter.
The choice I have before me is what job to pursue. It's been on my mind for years, but especially so for the past several months. Providing for my family and enjoying the work I do are just part of the decision. Where to live and our ability to save are also part of the equation. We need to provide for Wes's special needs in the short (and long) term(s). Verse 51 teaches me that I do not need to spend money for things which are of no worth. Having a PhD in physics and astronomy will bring in a decent income and there are lots of things I'd like to do with that income. Jacob, the wise teacher that he is, teaches me that the real importance in life is to "come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not".
I am thankful for the peace that comes over me from reading the word of Christ that I receive through His holy prophets and through the Spirit. I need to be still and let the Holy Spirit guide. Too often I try to stand in His way and I have to keep reminding myself to pause and listen.
Monday, February 6, 2012
It Didn't Smell Like That In Brazil
Yesterday morning I woke up and smelled something really, really nasty. It was the worst diaper smell that I've ever experienced. Not that the smell itself was the stinkiest, but because I was still in bed and the aroma reached my olfactories before I even got out of bed.
Ew.
Gross.
The realization grew even more grim when I regained a bit more consciousness. No diaper-wearing child was clambering for attention at my bedside to be changed. That meant the source of smell was far, far away. Time enough for wafting odors to make their way into my room. But I doubted the worst so I kept thinking. And then it dawned on me. We were making beans (Brazilian style) overnight for Sunday dinner with some friends. Cooking beans is the most unpleasant kitchen smell that I've ever witnessed. Oh, except for liver. My mom ate liver and onions and that wins the worst smell award, hands down. But I digress.
Why the topic of Brazil? Why the beans and rice? I went to Brazil to serve a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and loved almost every minute of it. We invited some families over for a tasty reminder of the time we spent in Brazil.
Serving a mission is a tough thing. Maybe that's why we're sent when we're young, energetic and resilient. We get to serve a mission when we turn 19, but can begin our two years any time before turning 26. Young women can go when they are 21 and have no upper limit to their age, except that they be single. And couples can go once their kids are grown and out of the house. Sounds pretty sweet. Angie and I are planning on going some day and we talk about it once in a while. Wes might go with us. We plan on having him around for quite a while. He's going to be a great missionary. :)
One of our friends that we invited over for beans and rice served in Bahia, Brazil in the mission neighboring mine. She told us a week or two ago that she made cheese bread balls and was trying to perfect the recipe. Her husband served in The Philippines. He's awesome. So are their kids. Our other friend went to Manaus on his mission. That's in the Amazon rain forest. His wife and kids are awesome too. We all had a great time hanging out until the kids' bed times told us it was time for the party to end.
I have to say that I love talking to people about serving or living in Brazil. I love speaking Portuguese. And I love telling people who ask me, why I lived in Brazil for so long and worked so hard down there. From 6:30am to 9:30pm, missionaries find others who want to learn the gospel of Jesus Christ and spend their time teaching and answering questions. I am so glad I went, but I'm glad that the next time I serve I'll not be on such a tight and rigorous schedule.
I already know who my companion will be and I won't have to worry about transfers.
Ew.
Gross.
The realization grew even more grim when I regained a bit more consciousness. No diaper-wearing child was clambering for attention at my bedside to be changed. That meant the source of smell was far, far away. Time enough for wafting odors to make their way into my room. But I doubted the worst so I kept thinking. And then it dawned on me. We were making beans (Brazilian style) overnight for Sunday dinner with some friends. Cooking beans is the most unpleasant kitchen smell that I've ever witnessed. Oh, except for liver. My mom ate liver and onions and that wins the worst smell award, hands down. But I digress.
Why the topic of Brazil? Why the beans and rice? I went to Brazil to serve a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and loved almost every minute of it. We invited some families over for a tasty reminder of the time we spent in Brazil.
Serving a mission is a tough thing. Maybe that's why we're sent when we're young, energetic and resilient. We get to serve a mission when we turn 19, but can begin our two years any time before turning 26. Young women can go when they are 21 and have no upper limit to their age, except that they be single. And couples can go once their kids are grown and out of the house. Sounds pretty sweet. Angie and I are planning on going some day and we talk about it once in a while. Wes might go with us. We plan on having him around for quite a while. He's going to be a great missionary. :)
One of our friends that we invited over for beans and rice served in Bahia, Brazil in the mission neighboring mine. She told us a week or two ago that she made cheese bread balls and was trying to perfect the recipe. Her husband served in The Philippines. He's awesome. So are their kids. Our other friend went to Manaus on his mission. That's in the Amazon rain forest. His wife and kids are awesome too. We all had a great time hanging out until the kids' bed times told us it was time for the party to end.
I have to say that I love talking to people about serving or living in Brazil. I love speaking Portuguese. And I love telling people who ask me, why I lived in Brazil for so long and worked so hard down there. From 6:30am to 9:30pm, missionaries find others who want to learn the gospel of Jesus Christ and spend their time teaching and answering questions. I am so glad I went, but I'm glad that the next time I serve I'll not be on such a tight and rigorous schedule.
I already know who my companion will be and I won't have to worry about transfers.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Young Woman of Faith
Thank you all for your suggestions for improving the content of this blog. I didn't get to email everyone back directly, but I really appreciate your efforts. :)
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In a general sense, there is so much that I want to say on this site. If I spent a few hours a day I could probably keep up on all the thoughts I have when reading scriptures, hearing talks in Sunday services, trying my best to have and follow the Spirit and watching the testimonies of my family members grow. Today I'd like to share my impressions of a powerful testimony borne by a young woman of faith last week in sacrament meeting. She is 14 years old.
I don't know her very well since I don't work with the youth. Her mother is a very faithful latter-day saint who tries to do her best to love and serve all those around her. This young woman seems like her testimony has grown almost over night. I say that because I don't see her as very outspoken. She gave the youth talk and I was shocked to see her on the stand before the meeting started. I was pretty curious to see what she was going to say and I was a little nervous for her. I've never seen her speak before (that I can remember) and I hoped she didn't feel too pressured into giving a talk. Nobody likes to be pressured into giving talks.
While she was giving her talk I felt such a strong witness that she knows that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. She spoke of struggling on a group assignment because one particular boy in the group obviously didn't want to help out with the work. When it came time to grade the other group members, this young woman wanted to give him the lowest grade possible. However, she gave some thought to it and even talked to her wonderful mother about what to do. They agreed that there may be some things going on in this boy's life that weren't obvious on the surface. Maybe he was having a hard time at home or something else kept him from working harder on the assignment. She wanted to give a grade slightly higher than the lowest just to help him out in some way, but then she said something that touched me even more. She didn't feel honest about doing that either! In the end, she gave him the lowest grade available because the teacher would know that he deserved it. Then her testimony of Jesus Christ and of being His follower touched me even deeper when she said that she would help him out in the future whenever she could instead of watching him do nothing and letting him fail.
I was so touched by her talk and her testimony. This youth speaker bore a powerful testimony of doing what is right. And through her willingness to share her feelings, many people at church were blessed. I am grateful for the friends that she hangs out with because together they are helping each other walk the path that will lead them one day to meet God and be found worthy to stand in His presence.
May we all stand and do what is right.
************
In a general sense, there is so much that I want to say on this site. If I spent a few hours a day I could probably keep up on all the thoughts I have when reading scriptures, hearing talks in Sunday services, trying my best to have and follow the Spirit and watching the testimonies of my family members grow. Today I'd like to share my impressions of a powerful testimony borne by a young woman of faith last week in sacrament meeting. She is 14 years old.
I don't know her very well since I don't work with the youth. Her mother is a very faithful latter-day saint who tries to do her best to love and serve all those around her. This young woman seems like her testimony has grown almost over night. I say that because I don't see her as very outspoken. She gave the youth talk and I was shocked to see her on the stand before the meeting started. I was pretty curious to see what she was going to say and I was a little nervous for her. I've never seen her speak before (that I can remember) and I hoped she didn't feel too pressured into giving a talk. Nobody likes to be pressured into giving talks.
While she was giving her talk I felt such a strong witness that she knows that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. She spoke of struggling on a group assignment because one particular boy in the group obviously didn't want to help out with the work. When it came time to grade the other group members, this young woman wanted to give him the lowest grade possible. However, she gave some thought to it and even talked to her wonderful mother about what to do. They agreed that there may be some things going on in this boy's life that weren't obvious on the surface. Maybe he was having a hard time at home or something else kept him from working harder on the assignment. She wanted to give a grade slightly higher than the lowest just to help him out in some way, but then she said something that touched me even more. She didn't feel honest about doing that either! In the end, she gave him the lowest grade available because the teacher would know that he deserved it. Then her testimony of Jesus Christ and of being His follower touched me even deeper when she said that she would help him out in the future whenever she could instead of watching him do nothing and letting him fail.
I was so touched by her talk and her testimony. This youth speaker bore a powerful testimony of doing what is right. And through her willingness to share her feelings, many people at church were blessed. I am grateful for the friends that she hangs out with because together they are helping each other walk the path that will lead them one day to meet God and be found worthy to stand in His presence.
May we all stand and do what is right.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Trust in the Lord with All Thine Heart
Proverbs 3:5-6 just took on a deeper meaning for me this morning. I've been thinking tons about getting a job after graduation and have been applying to lots of jobs that sound interesting and that would use my skills I learned doing astronomy research. If you've read some of my other posts about how I stress out about things, it should come as no surprise that I have been stressing out about where to move and what job to take.
A few areas in the private sector where I'd do well are image processing, quantitative data analysis, physics modeling, problem solving, algorithm design and technical writing. From that list alone there are many different directions I could go as I take my first step into what academics call "the real world".
I'm an idea man. I'm also a perfectionist and a completion-ist (I got that word from my friend Rebecca. Thanks, Rebecca!). This spells trouble in times like this where I am free to explore ideas. There are several different avenues that any one of those skills could take me. I've spent tons of time looking up companies and job descriptions. I'm not sure that I'd call it a waste of time, but "overkill" is pretty accurate. When I see that I've spent too much time on job hunting, do I sit back and relax? No. By the time I begin any sort of relaxing technique to clear my mind, more ideas flood in and the stress level stays just the same. Nice try, self.
This morning I took a break from my Book of Mormon reading and flipped through some pages that I have bookmarked with those little tassels. I've had a tassel in Proverbs 3:5-6 for a very, very long time and I have read it at least once in the last week. Today it meant a whole lot more to me. Here's what it says.
5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
I felt the Spirit tell me that I have been putting in too much effort on my own and have not used my faith in the Lord to ask Him for direction. My patriarchal blessing gave me wise counsel specifically about my career and I really do feel His direction in this important decision. However, I realize that I am trusting in my own power to fulfill the blessings promised to me. I'm overdoing what needs to be done and drowning out the Lord's will for me because I'm doing so much busy work. Instead of studying more companies and finding more job openings, I need to pause more often, pray and ponder. I need to take each day and week one at a time. I need to be actively patient and act in faith.
Then I cannot go wrong.
"Balance," I keep telling myself. Now I need to figure out how to do that.
A few areas in the private sector where I'd do well are image processing, quantitative data analysis, physics modeling, problem solving, algorithm design and technical writing. From that list alone there are many different directions I could go as I take my first step into what academics call "the real world".
I'm an idea man. I'm also a perfectionist and a completion-ist (I got that word from my friend Rebecca. Thanks, Rebecca!). This spells trouble in times like this where I am free to explore ideas. There are several different avenues that any one of those skills could take me. I've spent tons of time looking up companies and job descriptions. I'm not sure that I'd call it a waste of time, but "overkill" is pretty accurate. When I see that I've spent too much time on job hunting, do I sit back and relax? No. By the time I begin any sort of relaxing technique to clear my mind, more ideas flood in and the stress level stays just the same. Nice try, self.
This morning I took a break from my Book of Mormon reading and flipped through some pages that I have bookmarked with those little tassels. I've had a tassel in Proverbs 3:5-6 for a very, very long time and I have read it at least once in the last week. Today it meant a whole lot more to me. Here's what it says.
5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
I felt the Spirit tell me that I have been putting in too much effort on my own and have not used my faith in the Lord to ask Him for direction. My patriarchal blessing gave me wise counsel specifically about my career and I really do feel His direction in this important decision. However, I realize that I am trusting in my own power to fulfill the blessings promised to me. I'm overdoing what needs to be done and drowning out the Lord's will for me because I'm doing so much busy work. Instead of studying more companies and finding more job openings, I need to pause more often, pray and ponder. I need to take each day and week one at a time. I need to be actively patient and act in faith.
Then I cannot go wrong.
"Balance," I keep telling myself. Now I need to figure out how to do that.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
My Son's Happy Tears
If you are new to my blog I must begin this post by saying that we recently had our third boy. Now you're pretty much caught up. We heard it was a good idea to give presents from the newborn to the older kids. This worked out way better than we thought it would when our second child was born and we hoped for at least a neutral welcome into the family this time around. It seems that most siblings are jealous and we wanted to minimize those hard feelings. Now you new viewers are all caught up.
Our newest boy gave presents to his older brothers that they would like. Our intent was to soften the blow a little (in their minds, at least) that we spend a little less time with them than before. The first time we did this, our oldest fell in love with our second and they have been the best of buds ever since. I think he remembers what toy he got, though I don't know which of the gazillion things laying around our house it actually is.
Fast forward five years and imagine how much fun it was for our older boys to get cool presents from baby and from Mom and Dad. The scenery of the hospital with Mom laying in bed with tubes in her arms was probably pretty weird for them so my wife included games and stuff for them to pass the time. They loved opening the presents and all that, but now I realize that something even greater was going on that neither my wife nor I fully understood.
Our older boy was so excited to see his baby brother right from the beginning! He wanted to hold him and play with him.
All. The. Time.
He has shown so much love toward his baby brother that we are continually amazed that a child (and a boy, nonetheless) has this much affection and awareness to give it. He picks him up all the time and tries to walk around the house with him (that makes us really nervous!), loves to give huge smiles to him and even plays games and activities with him (and helps the baby write down scores).
Angie and I have loved watching all of this unfold. And this leads me to the point of this post. The other night we were gathered around the baby, watching him laugh and coo at us. It was the best, from our perspective as parents.
And then I looked at my oldest boy and noticed something totally amazing. He had tears in his eyes. They were those kind of tears that one sheds out of pure love. He noticed that something was different too. He wasn't laughing hard so I knew it wasn't laughing tears. He looked at me and said, "My eyes are watering." He is very aware of himself and is also capable to describing things like this to us. That is amazing all by itself. We had a tender moment telling him that those tears come from the deep love he feels for his family (and especially for his baby brother).
It was a very sweet moment. I'm glad I got to see it.
Our newest boy gave presents to his older brothers that they would like. Our intent was to soften the blow a little (in their minds, at least) that we spend a little less time with them than before. The first time we did this, our oldest fell in love with our second and they have been the best of buds ever since. I think he remembers what toy he got, though I don't know which of the gazillion things laying around our house it actually is.
Fast forward five years and imagine how much fun it was for our older boys to get cool presents from baby and from Mom and Dad. The scenery of the hospital with Mom laying in bed with tubes in her arms was probably pretty weird for them so my wife included games and stuff for them to pass the time. They loved opening the presents and all that, but now I realize that something even greater was going on that neither my wife nor I fully understood.
Our older boy was so excited to see his baby brother right from the beginning! He wanted to hold him and play with him.
All. The. Time.
He has shown so much love toward his baby brother that we are continually amazed that a child (and a boy, nonetheless) has this much affection and awareness to give it. He picks him up all the time and tries to walk around the house with him (that makes us really nervous!), loves to give huge smiles to him and even plays games and activities with him (and helps the baby write down scores).
Angie and I have loved watching all of this unfold. And this leads me to the point of this post. The other night we were gathered around the baby, watching him laugh and coo at us. It was the best, from our perspective as parents.
And then I looked at my oldest boy and noticed something totally amazing. He had tears in his eyes. They were those kind of tears that one sheds out of pure love. He noticed that something was different too. He wasn't laughing hard so I knew it wasn't laughing tears. He looked at me and said, "My eyes are watering." He is very aware of himself and is also capable to describing things like this to us. That is amazing all by itself. We had a tender moment telling him that those tears come from the deep love he feels for his family (and especially for his baby brother).
It was a very sweet moment. I'm glad I got to see it.
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