Where True Richness Lies

It's been almost a year since I last posted. I really should stop trying to set some sort of personal record for how long I can go before I post. I would say that I was busy but that's not entirely true. I won't get into those details right now. The big news is that my little family and I moved to Georgia. And our little girl is almost nine months old.

For reasons I won't list here, my little family is on the low end financially. In the entire time that Wendy and I have been married I don't know that we've ever been poorer than we are currently. That being said, I've realized something. I've realized that I already am rich. I have riches that money can't buy. I'll list just a few of them here.

I have my wonderful daughter Evelyn. Her smile is a wonderful thing to which to wake up. I love watching her explore and learn about the world around her and her little laugh is worth thousands at least. I love watching her make new and different expressions; it's cool because then I realize that I am indeed dealing with a strange, new, tiny human being who is just starting to be capable of showing me her personality. I look forward to seeing more of it.

I am especially rich because I have my wife. I get to wake up to her beautiful face every morning. I get the opportunity everyday to love her and try and love her better than the day before. I get romance her everyday. I never realized how easy it is to court a new girl every couple of months until I've been dating my wife for over a year and a half; marriage is an awesome challenge in that respect. I get to have fun with her and hear her quips. I get to kiss her everyday. I get to eat her cooking which is on par with the French cuisine I had. Most of my reads should know what a compliment that it is in it's own right. I get to see her play with Evelyn as she makes her laugh. I love it.

I am also richly blessed to have my parents and siblings. My parents support and encourage me despite my failings. I love talking to my siblings and getting their different ideas. I know my siblings and I don't always have much in common but it is awesome to see how we've all changed and how in some odd way we've stayed the same.

I want to be clear to my reader that I do realize that I do need money to maintain my richness. I just want to help my reader understand that in my eyes, I am already richly blessed. I hope that y'all can recognize where your true richness lies! I love you and hope that you have a good life until next time I post!

Looking Back

So I'm taking a few minutes to breath and get people updated. Sadly I'd love to talk to most of you one on one but alas, I do not have the time to do that.

After my last post, Wendy returned from her sojourn overseas. We enjoyed being reunited. We'd both grown closer to one another during her absence. Wendy was happy to spend good quality time with both her parents. A couple days after she got back, we came back to Idaho. Classes have started and we both have kind of crazy schedules. Plus, I started back to work this week so that's made life that much more hectic. The last couple of weeks have been good but a bit difficult getting back into the swing of things. I should mention that Wendy and I have one class together which is nice because it means we have a least two times a week that we're guaranteed to see each other. This semester, I have all new roommates which is cool. We're all chill which is nice. I'm currently reading two books "The Power of Six" which is from the sequel of "I Am Number Four" and the fifth book of Fablehaven. The latter series Wendy recommended to me and I really like it.

Wendy and I got to hang out with a couple of my friends from my freshman orientation. They meet in my group and later started dating. They are now married and they are living in the apartment complex that Wendy and I are hoping to live in next year. We threw around a Frisbee, and had a small game night with dessert. I'm sorry, I don't have photos of that.

Lately, I've been thinking about the past and where I was a year ago or two or however many. I guess, I've thought about this because of reading over my journal and just the events happening all around me. I thought about all the dating that I've done here at BYU-Idaho. I know I haven't dated tons of girls but I will say that I tend to get really attached to people. In the past, it's always made breakups a bit more rough for me. Having reread some of my journal entries from those times, it made feel kinda sad but also made me want to reach out to my past self to tell him that everything will be okay and this is just part of Heavenly Father's plan for us. Saying that reminds me of a video that I love from Elder Holland that you can see if you click here. I watched this video after most of my breakups to help remind that the future would be better. But I digress, if I could go back, I would tell myself to keep going even though it's hard. I would tell myself to that it will get better even if there's another breakup down the road. I would tell him that God has the situation firmly in hand and that He's guiding you even if you don't see it yet; I'll promise him that one day he will see it and it'll be awesome beyond his imagination. And I'll answer his question, the question he was always too timid to ask. I would tell him that all the heartache and sacrifices he went through we were worth it. I'd let him know that he was trading small copper nuggets for a treasury of gold. I want to conclude by saying to those going through hard times right now: keep going! It will get better. If you feel like the Lord wants you to sacrifice something or a relationship with someone, do it. I promise that it will be worth it. I promise that you will be blessed for your sacrifice even if like Abraham, you can't see how God will make it work. I hope that y'all have a good week. May the Lord watch over you and bless you.

Answering Our Prayers

Oh wow. So it's been over a month since I last wrote. Well to get y'all caught up. A few days after my last post, my family and I left for California to see my sister Megan get married to her best friend, Garett. It was fun experience and I'm glad to see my sister be so happy. It also made me excited because... It means Wendy and I are next! Yay!!!

After the wedding, we came back home to Utah. Since being back, I've done my best to keep busy and get needed stuff done. Well and I've done my best not to think about how much I miss Wendy. While being home I've been to a fair in Bountiful that had a some fun dance groups and one of them was French! It was fun to see a French dance group and made me miss the country even more. My darling Wendy got to visit it which made me a bit jealous. Well, I hope to one day visit it with my darling Wendy. I should also say that during this break we've been able to grow closer to one another.

I've got to hang out with my family and get caught up with them. It's been really nice to be able to hang out with them. I love being around my family; it always makes me feel like I'm spoiled. I've also been able to play with my little nephew Nikolai. He's adorable and he's crawling like crazy. For the most part he's really happy and really fun. Last week, my sister Catherine helped me make (more like helped her) a really cool t-shirt. It's a copy of a shirt from the Heroes of Olympus series that I read earlier; that series is a continuation of the Percy Jackson series. Anyways, I'm happy and excited to wear the shirt around campus.

I've also got caught up on watching some movies that I've wanted to see. I got to see the new Batman movie which was really good. I also got to talk to my dad about the French Revolution parallels in it. For me, it was really fun to be able to do that with him. I also got to watch a movie recommended by one of my French teachers called "Joyeux Noël" or Merry Christmas. If you watch it, you probably want to put English subtitles on. The movie has English, French and German all spoken in it. It's based on a true story from WWI. Around the Christmas season, a German tenor came and sung for some German soldiers in the trenches. He sung a hymn for them and a Scottish priest recognized the hymn and started accompanying the tenor on his bagpipes. From there three battalions, one German, one Scottish and one French rapidly become friends and stopped fighting. It was really cool and for me showed how the spirit of Christmas can unite people. It was really good.

So a few weeks before Megan and Garett's wedding, Catherine (my other sister) and Jesse's car broke down. It was horrible timing on many levels. I watched as they struggled with this trial. I know that they prayed a lot about it. I know that my parents and I prayed a lot about it. I will admit that I was impressed by both Catherine and Jesse's strength during this trial. A couple weeks ago, they were able to purchase a very good used car. It reminded me that the Lord does indeed hear and answer our prayers, even if our answers to our prayers are not immediately forthcoming. It also reminded of another prayer that was answered. I got home from my LDS mission in March of 2009. My plan was to date around for about a year and then find my special someone and get married. The Lord though, had a different plan for me. For three years, I went on flirted, went on dates, and did the whole dating game at BYU-Idaho. It was long and tiring . At times it was heartbreaking but I continued my search and continued praying. I'm glad that the Lord didn't get annoyed at my incessant prayers about finding my wife. Well three years to the day (or pretty close) that I got home from my mission, I got engaged to my best friend, Miss Wendy. I'll try not to brag about her too much... I just want to say that she really is my best friend in the whole world, like no else has been. To be honest, when I think about Wendy, I can just see so many of my prayers answered about how I wanted my wife to be, plus so many more awesome quirks and traits! I can honestly see that the Lord really did answer my prayers by giving me her.

I want to testify that the Lord really does hear and answer our prayers, even when we don't yet see it. Oftentimes we have to work hard, pray hard, and be patient to see our prayers answered but the Lord will answer them in His time. I have a quote that I shared with a friend of mine earlier that relates to working towards the Lord's answers to our prayers. Elder Holland said “Take advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow. Dream dreams and see visions. Work toward their realization. Wait patiently when you have no other choice. Lean on your sword and rest a while, but get up and fight again.” I testify that the Lord hears and answers our prayers. Oftentimes we have to work diligently towards their realization. I testify that the heartache, tears, and sacrifice that we have to go through will always be worth it. May the Lord bless you with the patience to see the answers to your prayers! Have a good week!

The Little Things

So this apparently has been a good week for all of my family. Two of my other family members had good things happen to them on Friday. And I got a girlfriend. :) So I think I will start with that story so as my sister Megan put it best "I don't have to tell a story a million different times". Not to mention people have been clamoring for the details. Don't worry, I'll get to my spiritual message following that.

The best place to start is at the beginning. During the break between semesters, my roommate Noé started a group on Facebook called BYU-I Harmony. I decided to join it mostly out of curiosity and a bit of boredom. As Noé got busy dating a girl, he assigned other people as to be administrators over the page. Many of them got busy too and so one day, Noé made me one because he knew that I checked up on the page regularly. Well the semester started and the group kinda died out. I aske around and found out that there was no girl administrator. So I asked for volunteers. A brave girl, named Barbara Spaulding, stepped up and volunteered. I made her an administrator and added her as a friend so that we could more easily communicate and coordinate things on the page.

Two weeks ago I contacted her and talked to her about trying to get the group going again. Last Sunday I decided that I should get to know my co-administrator a bit better. So I went explored her facebook page. I commented on couple of things on her wall and then I noticed that she was on. I decided to chat with her because we almost were having a conversation on her wall. Well we had really good open conversation about dating. We talked about we both hated dating which was ironic since we are both administrators of BYU-I Harmony. Well then, she said, maybe this was a sign that we should go on a date. So I asked her if we could meet up and then we could decide if we'd like to go on a date. She agreed. So then I got her number so that we could arrange our meeting.

We texted constantly for the next few days until we met. I was excited to meet her. Talking to her was better in person than it was digitally. The next day we hung out with my sister Megan and her boyfriend. We had a lot of fun and a good time. We decided then that we wanted to date each other. On Friday I asked her on a double date with my friend and former roommate Erick (pictured above) and my friend Sarah. It went well and we all ate well. Since then we have talked a lot and become very good friends. As my former roommate Victor told me. There are two types of girls, ones that you chase constantly; the second you chase each other. I feel like Barbara is the second type and I like it better.

So my message this week, is about the little things. Something that the Lord has placed an emphasis on following the small promptings. The devotional this week mentioned it, I read about it and many of the talks today in church today talked about following the promptings in the small things. I have learned that if follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost in small things that the Lord will be more willing to lead and help us. But we must make the effort to do so. I have seen how that works or doesn't depending our obedience. I am reminded of the scripture in Alma "that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." (Alma 37:6) I know that the Lord uses small means to bring about His great works. I feel like since I started what I thought was just a small side conversation, has turned out to be a great blessing in my life.

I hope that you will strive to follow the little promptings or like I like to think of them as spiritual nudges. May the Lord bless you with happiness is my prayer. Have a good week!

Having a Perfect Brightness of Hope

So this week has been rather rough. But I'll get to that in a minute. The highlights of my week were going to the temple with a couple of my friends. One was my friend Crystal; the other is a new friend named Mia. It was fun to go with those two crazy girls. The other was having a "short" lunch with my sister Megan. By short, I mean it only lasted an hour. For those of my readers who are unaware, my family tends to be very talkative. I imagine some of you will understand a bit better now, why I tend to be rather talkative.

This week, I also got to break out my winter gear which was disappointing. This week I'm slowly closing in on the end of The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. It is a continuation of the Percy Jackson series.

My roommate Risto pictured in my last post is letting me read it. I also bought the next book in the series called The Son of Neptune. I may like this series a lot considering that when I met one of the new sisters in my home evening group that I thought she looked like Annabeth.

Okay, so my week started and I was slowly coming to a decision. The decision I came to, around Monday evening, was that I was finished with the dating scene for the semester. I won't provide details just know that this was not quickly made decision; I'll just say that my dating history is best summed up by the French phrase "C'est toute une histoire." The next day I was going to do my scripture study and I asked the Lord that if He had anything in particular that He wanted me to read that he would direct me to it. I was prompted to read "Continue in Patience" by President Ucthdorf. As I read I felt the Spirit elbowing me and letting me know that this talk was meant for me to APPLY right now, so I changed my attitude and continued to read. Eventually I got to the part when he talks about how patience requires that we work towards our worthwhile goals and don't get discouraged because results don't instantly appear. I then read this line that was a sharp divine call (for me) to repentance "patience is not passive resignation". I knew right then, that I needed to repent. That afternoon, the devotional was on the Atonement and the temple which reinforced the Lord's message to me. That afternoon I went home and repented.

Well the rest of the week was characterized by lots of homework stress and no progress on the dating front. At first I was annoyed when the Lord reminded me that there must be opposition in all things; this includes dating. On related note, I will say that one of my roommates got engaged this weekend and right now, I am happy to be single because I know I couldn't handle all of the stress of an engagement on top of everything else I have to deal with.

I feel a bit uncomfortable writing this... mainly because I don't talk like talking my love life outside of a small group of people. They know who they are.

So I hope that you will try to listen to the Holy Ghost, especially when it tells you to repent. But more importantly, I hope you don't lose hope in the Lord's promises. I know that they are real, no matter how distance they may seem to you. God loves you. He knows the details of your life and understands your feelings perfectly. Never lose hope; the Atonement can heal you and help you regain the hope that you need. Remember the blessings and many answered prayers that you've had, if those are not great reasons to hope; I don't know what is!

I pray that you all have a good week!