Making Decisions based on Correct Principles

So these last few weeks have been crazy. Lots of exams, stress and generally getting things done. I'm currently writing from my parents place. I've been able to have lots of fun with Wendy despite the hectic schedule. Last week Wendy's mom came up to pick up Wendy and to get to know me better. Getting to know part of Wendy's family was really nice and helped me understand my Wendy a bit better.

A few weeks ago I found a website that sells t-shirts with special designs from different movies and TV shows. I know that my sister Catherine, is really good at making cool designs for shirts. So I talked to her and in the next few weeks, hopefully she'll be able to teach me how to make cool shirt designs in the next few weeks. If I make any cool shirts, I will be sure to show you, my dear readers. My other sister Megan is getting married in a week. It makes me anxious for December so that it'll be my turn. My sister Catherine cut my hair recently which is nice because it is warm out and then I'm going to California for Megan's wedding soon. I currently reading the fourth book of the Fablehaven series, which Wendy recommended to me.

I will say that the last four days have been rather long for me. Why, you may ask? Because for the last four days I have been missing the company of my darling Wendy. This is the longest that I have been absent from my darling Wendy since we first met. Honestly, I don't remember missing this much since I was little and emotions were overpowering, or like being Tinkerbell who can only have one emotion at a time. Being without her has made me realized how truly blessed I am to have her in my life. Recently, I've thought about the decisions that lead to me meeting my darling Wendy. Looking back I realized that I have not explained this story on my blog.

It started with a decision that I that I made in back in the spring of 2010. I knew that for a break between semesters that I would be working. Just working and being a single guy. I heard about a service opportunity on campus to be a director for freshman orientation. I decided to volunteer for it because I hated the idea of being selfish for seven weeks doing nothing for anyone else. For that seven week break, my apartment complex needed to move me to another complex for the break. When I was filling out the paper, I asked the guy advising me which address I should put down and explained my situation. He told me the address that I was at for the break. In hindsight, I realize NORMALLY I should have put my regular address. The break was fun and I ended up having a girlfriend for a week while I helped with freshmen orientation. The guy's mistake just meant that I would do more walking while helping the freshmen but not much more.

So time went by and I kept in contact with some of my group and went to get-together parties when I could. In March, I was invited to party by a the girl on the far left in the purple. She happened to be roommates with a girl named Michelle who was a former sister missionary (for my church) where Wendy lived. I mentioned Michelle in this post as the girl I helped by giving advice. Michelle had tried to set up Wendy with another guy at the party. I helped Michelle and even asked if it'd be okay if we could go on a date sometime. I remember talking with Michelle when Wendy came by and interrupting making a (in my opinion) rude comment about how she was still going on about her last break even after three weeks. Well after the party, I was walking home when Wendy got my attention and asking if she could walk with me. I agree and we talked until we got to the entrance of her place and then we talked for about an hour more. It was good conversation, if not a bit awkward at the time. Wendy asked me on a date and even offered me her number so that I could "help [her] with French homework". Before I left, Wendy asked me if I'd give her a hug. I said that I would stating that I like hugs but that I know that not everyone does. Well, I gave her a hug and she commented that I knew how to really hug unlike other people she knew. Well I left thinking that I had a date with her but nothing would probably come of it, like so many of my dates. How wrong I was! Well we went on a date and Wendy made sure that Michelle knew that she was interested in the redheaded guy (i.e me) and so I never got a date with Michelle but got a second date with Wendy instead. :) And as they say, the rest is history folks!

The moral of my story is make decisions based on correct principles and the Lord will guide your life. At the time, I didn't think I was being guided by His hand but I was. You may not see it. It may be frustrating and aggravating but trust me, He has a plan. Just make sure that you're doing your best to obey correct principles and God will bless you for it. It may not be immediate and it may be years from then, BUT He will bless you. I promise you this. I love the Lord and He has blessed my life beyond my wildest imagination. I hope that y'all have a good week!

P.S. Never write about your fiancée when she's out of the country. You end up spending half your time looking at photos of her and missing her more. 5 more months!

Written for Their Good

I apologize to my readers for not having written in a while. I was going to post on Sunday but then my nephew decided that he wanted to come into the world. So I decided to hold off until he was born. Well the last few weeks I had to get over a cold that I caught from my roommate a few days after I got back here in Rexburg.

For the past several weeks, I've been reading President Monson's biography "To The Rescue". Two weeks ago, I read about how he was in a stake conference, when he was called upon (without an interview beforehand, which is normal) to become a mission president over the Eastern Canada mission. Acting in faith he excepted the calling. When I read this part that I laughed to myself and thought about how nice it was that this type of situation didn't happen anymore in the Church. Well the very next Sunday, the bishop of my ward, Bishop Wagner, called my name and had me sustained to two callings for which he hadn't really interviewed me. This is one of the many times, that I know that the Lord truly does have a sense of humor.

The following week I was released from my calling of being assistant ward clerk. It was almost 9 months to the day that I'd had that calling. It was interesting because as much work and despite the many long Sundays that this calling had required, I'd really come to love it. For about 9 months, I'd been able to work with my bishopric on a weekly basis. I can tell you that they are just as human as you or I are. They have jobs, families, and worries like other middle-aged men. But I can also testify that these humble men are inspired of God. They have given callings to young adults that they barely know and yet those people have been ideal for those callings. They ask these same young people to give talks every week, and the talks that they give are inspired often despite their speaking abilities. To be honest, there are many Sundays when I feel blessed to be a member of the Lord's true church.

These last few weeks, I've done a lot of scripture reading, listened to a quite a few devotionals, and I've even been blessed to listen to an Apostle, Elder L. Tom Perry come speak at my university. Needless to say, it was rather difficult for me to come up with an idea as to my spiritual thought to share. I know someone reading this post will say that I've already shared one but that wasn't entirely intentional. In the last few weeks, I will say that I've had an epiphany. If you don't know what that word means or are too lazy to look it up on Dictionary.com then I'll try to explain what I understand it to be. For me, it was like I'd been struck by lightening and I suddenly understand something. Growing up, I'd always heard the phrase that "The Book of Mormon" had been written for our day but I had always figured that this was more of a figurative meaning rather than literal. Well during the past few weeks, my little brother Aaron wrote a post about his political views about a certain subject. This sparked a conversation and I ended up reading some articles posted up by uncle Chris that were written by Orson Scott Card. I want to remind my readers that he is the author of my favorite series "The Tales of Alvin Maker". Anyways, I was reading one of the articles by Brother Card when I had my epiphany. The Spirit made it perfectly clear to me that was a correlation between what HAD happened in the Book of Mormon and what we are experiencing TODAY. Earlier I read this scripture written by Nephi to the Gentiles (or non-Jews) where he writes "for I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days; for in that day shall they understand them; wherefore, for their good have I written them." (2 Nephi 25:8) It was a moment that changed my life and, at the time, sent chills down my spine. Now I can testify as did President Benson that "The Book of Mormon... was written for our day. The Nephites never had the book; neither did the Lamanites of ancient times. It was meant for us. Mormon wrote near the end of the Nephite civilization. Under the inspiration of God, who sees all things from the beginning, he abridged centuries of records, choosing the stories, speeches, and events that would be most helpful to us." (Emphasis added)

I hope that those of you, my dear readers, who have read the Book of Mormon will try looking for how the Book of Mormon relates to our day. If you're having trouble with it, ask the Lord to help you see it and I promise you that He will help you to see how it relates. To those of you, my readers, who haven't read the Book of Mormon. I challenge you to get a copy of it; they are sold at many different places or you get them for free from some LDS missionaries. I ask you to read it. I want you to know that I know that this book was written by prophets inspired by God and that it was written for us. If you ask God about it's truthfulness, He will tell you in your heart. Then if you decide to follow the Lord, it will change your life as it has mine.

For any of those who have forgotten, my dear nephew Nikolai was born just two days ago.

And I am now 24. I hope that y'all have a good week!

The Greenie Theory

So this week has been long and kinda hard but the good news is that it ended with my family coming up. Then the next day I had a date.

Monday we had a fun HE. One of my roommates planned it. First we played a game of missionary tag. Then we did a fun activity that had someone get their face dirty in the dark. Then the same girl named Monika volunteered to have her face remade into a Sundae. So we did that. Here are some photos.

I should mention that the guy Monika is hugging is my roommate Risto. He's one who came up with both the ideas that got Monika dirty. So you can see that she was just being "sweet" and sharing with him.

On Friday my family came up from Utah to spend some time with me and my sister Megan (Refer to last post). We had dinner together at Applebees which was really good. We had fun and got to feel like a family again.

Saturday morning I worked and then I came home. My date happened earlier than planned because she had some time constraints. I made Sloppy Joes that were more like soupy joes because I added too much water. My date brought a cinnamon apples in syrup which was really good. We decided to make Muddy Buddies (also known as puppy chow) on the spur of the moment which was messy but fun. Before I left, my date gave me a full bag of muddy buddies to take home. This is what's left.

On Tuesday we had another excellent devotional given by a Brother Wilkins who's grandfather was President Harold B. Lee. He gave a great talk about not worrying about the future but living to the fullest today as the best preparation for today. To be honest I really needed to hear that. As of late I've been worrying a lot about my immediate future in different aspects and it was creating a burden of worry and doubt. This burden had been stressing me out and limiting my productivity. So I talked to the Lord and I've worked at removing it; that talk helped me because it's changed my attitude about how to deal with stressful things.

I came to realize that this burden has stopped me from doing something important. Stretching myself. No, I'm not talking about making myself taller (as nice as that might be). I mean getting out of your comfort zone and learning. My religion teacher Brother Pyper (I'll get a picture of him one day, I promise) has a theory that I believe is at least partly correct called the Greenie Theory (hence the title). It goes that when one goes on a mission, you get in the MTC and you're nervous and don't know what to do and you're really uncomfortable but learning and growing a lot. Then you're sent to the mission field and the same thing happens. This cycle repeats itself at many other different stages of our lives.

I think that can be like being humbled. Originally the Lord will humble us but as we grow more spiritually mature, then He expects us to humble ourselves. If we forget, then He will come along and humble us again. I feel like the Lord will initially move you out of your comfort zone but eventually He expects you to do that by yourself. I personally had forgotten and it had created a spiritual burden that I had not consciously recognized until this week.

Remember that God created "things to act and things to be acted upon" (2 Nephi 2:14). We must act for ourselves. If want our talents to grow we cannot bury them in the ground or use them solely for our own benefit; we must take them to the money changers or use them to help others then and only then will our talents grow. If we do no use our talents, we will find them diminished or taken away. I hope that each you looks for you talents. If don't know them, go find some one to serve. I promise that you'll find them then. I hope you find a way to stretch yourself and find a way to get out of your comfort zone so that you can grow in the Lord's way. This my humble prayer. Have a good week!