My Wendy Darling

So these few week have been pretty crazy but pretty awesome. I've been keeping up with work, school, and of course, my darling Wendy. Some of you may notice a post before this. I needed to use my blog to sell a spare ring that I have. So you can ignore the last post.

So over the last several weeks, Wendy and I have gotten to know each other much better and become great friends. We've developed a deep level of friendship that neither one of knew existed. Wendy's been able to meet my crazy family and get to know them better. So now on to the story that most of my readers are waiting for.

A week before my last post, Wendy and I went for a walk as we often do. On the walk, Wendy got nervous and told me that she wanted to talk to me about something but she was nervous to bring it up. I told her not to be nervous and promised that I would not be judgmental of what she said. She told me that really liked our relationship and she'd like for it to become more permanent. I told her that I think that I would like that too but I wasn't sure about it. I explained that I had recently gotten out of a really rough relationship and that I was really hesitant about considering that option. She pleaded with me and told me that she had thought and prayed about it a lot and she felt like it was right. In the end, she convinced me to pray about it. The Lord told me that my relationship with her should continue forward. I was really surprised by that answer; I was totally not expecting it.


Then after a few days and a bit of struggle within myself, I decided to start making things happen. The day before my last post, Wendy and I took her great great grandmother's fused wedding set to the jewler's to get downsized, separated, cleaned, and replated. We got them back within the week. The days prior to getting the ring back, I talked to my parents about our decision. Then I had to ask her parents.... My feelings while asking them for permission are best summarized by the last line of the announcer from the Legend of Korra. Wetting my pants

So.... yeah, it was intense. I now completely understand why my brother-in-law forgot his number. But I obviously got their approval. After getting her approval, my parents requested that we come down so that they could get to know my darling Wendy better. So last weekend, we went down to Utah and they got to know her better and they like her too.


On Tuesday, I finally got everything together to propose to my darling Wendy. I wrote her a poem called “The Greatest Miracle of My Life” and I tore off the last three lines that talked about me proposing to her. I put a little picture of a kiss over it (so that it'd be "sealed with a kiss") and taped it closed. I also printed off a picture of purple tulips because that her favorite type of flowers. I clipped both the poem and the picture to her front door and then knocked. I ran around the corner where they couldn’t see me (I found out later that Wendy answered the door) and made sure that they found it. Then I acted pretty normally all through out the morning and afternoon. On Tuesday's my university has religious fireside at two o'clock which Wendy and I usually attend. We did so on that Tuesday too. After devotional we went to Porter park (Wendy's favorite place and one of our most frequented places). We walked around half of the end of the park until Wendy suggested that we sit down under a pavilion nearby. We did and I pretended to find the piece of paper that had the last three lines on it; I glanced at it and told Wendy that it was for her. As she read it, I got down on one knee. When she had finished, I proposed to my darling. Her reaction was her expression below. And she said YES!!!!

I'm so excited to marry my best friend. As I told her once, I will never call her the girl of my dreams. The girl of my dreams was not nearly as awesome as she is. I hope y'all have a good week!

Such Mercy, Such Love and Devotion Can I Forget?

So this last week has been good for both me and my family. My sister Megan got engaged to her boyfriend. I approve of him for two reasons. One he has good taste, he's going to marry my sister and two, I can trust his literary opinion so I'll be able to get good book recommendations from him. Okay, I'm kidding. I like the guy and he's nice to my sister, even when she clings to him like Agnes to Gru's leg.

In other news, I got my taxes done. My parents gave me the happy news that they're negotiating a contract with a couple to sell our house in North Carolina which is good. I also got registered for all the classes that I wanted to take next semester.

This week, I've also been able to talk to two of my former companions from my mission in France. I got to talk to Mark Stoker, the handsome blonde devil below and Yann Tanoé, the other handsome guy with the luscious lips.

I'm not going to lie, it was really good to talk to these guys. It was good to have some time to talk to and be able to focus on someone else for a bit.

I used most of this week to prepare my gospel doctrine lesson and it turned out well. It helped that I read a talk in the Ensign that talked about the goal of teaching in the Church. This really helped me to have a focus in my lesson and also to help me be guided by the Spirit. Also on another spiritual note, I got a bit of a surprised today when the Bishop announced that the ward choir would be singing next week at ward conference. This came as a surprise because I had planned on it being in two weeks; not to mention, we didn't have choir practice last week, and I didn't get a song that I wanted us to sing. SO, this is going to be interesting.

This week, I've really felt the love of the Lord. I feel like He's communicated his love through my family, and friends. I can't say what a blessing and a strength this has been to me this week. While this week has been a good week, I can't say that it hasn't been an emotionally hard week. I would like to tell you about one such incident from this week that made it really clear to me that the Lord loves me. On Saturday, I was on my way home from running an errand in town. It was a nice balmy 45 or so degrees outside, so I decided to take a longer way home pass a new shopping center. As I walking towards the shopping center, my Bishop got out of his car and said hi. He stopped and talked to me and asked me how I was doing. He was genuinely concerned and gave me advice and counsel. I want to say that just before meeting my Bishop I was listening to the song "Lead Kindly Light" and I had just listened to the line "I loved to choose my path, but now, lead thou me on!" I cannot in words explain how much I felt loved and humbled by my Father in Heaven. As some of my readers may know, the title of this post is a line from one of my favorite hymns "I Stand All Amazed"; this line is refers to the love and devotion of the Savior. I want to testify that I have felt the love of Lord this week and I hope that I never forget it. I hope that y'all have a good week! I hope that you are able to see how the Lord loves you!

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!

The Power of Choice

So this week started out with me fighting the despair and discouragement; it seems to me that Satan must have been running a campaign against me. I asked Heavenly Father to help me overcome but promised to do what I can to overcome it. I will say that Heavenly Father helped provide me with love and support that I needed. I want to share an idea that helped me. I have made a list of songs that I call my "Pick Me Up" . I listened to that song which contains a mixture of my favorite hymns and quite a few of my favorite modern songs that have positive music and positive lyrics. Listening to these songs truly helped keep me buoyed up through that rough patch.

On Tuesday, I think I had a pretty powerful lesson in Brother Pyper's class; his pictured below with me. One of my class mates told a story from her life and taught us an application of scripture.

This week, I had a string of good scripture study sessions mainly because I followed the promptings of the Spirit and I read some different talks and scriptures that I wouldn't normally have read. On Friday I went and watched a movie with one of my good friends, Chellie. The movie is called "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time". As may be obvious from the title, it was about time travel. I liked the movie because without meaning to, it highlighted how our simple choices have a large impact over the long run. This seems to have been a theme for me, at least this weekend.

The last two days the stake to which my sister and I belong has had it's stake conference. It has been very good to get so much instruction. This afternoon, a girl in my French class (who's apparently in my stake) gave a really good talk about the Atonement and choice. She said that everyday she gets on her knees and tells the Lord that she's going to give or loan him her agency; I really like that idea and want to set that as a goal for myself. Another sister in our stake referenced President Ucthdorf's talk "A Matter of a Few Degrees" and said that we should also look at that a few degrees of improvement can have a large impact for good. She also encouraged us to get to the temple as often as we can.

So this week I'm going to try to make some improvements in my life. One of them is smiling. I feel that if I'm happy that I should be smiling more than I do. Another thing that I'm going to do is pondering after doing scripture study so that I can better apply it. I will continue to make a small list of things to improve. My challenge to you is to find small things that you can improve and to make those choices and stick with them because you don't know the importance it may have in your life.

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!

Continuous Revelation

Wow.... So it's been about two weeks since I last posted. I think a few of you may have seen the change that I made to the back ground.

Seeing as it's been two weeks since I posted, I suppose that I should give you an update on things. Well I getting a handle on my classes which has been a bit rough. I think my brain is asking for a break.

Last weekend I went 'home' to Utah to visit my family. It was nice to have all of us together but it was odd because I was reminded of how we've all become our own adults with different interests and different lives. My family and I had the opportunity to go to General Conference. It was amazing and like my dad said best "Has it really been 3 hours already?".

Being there reminded me of the great blessing that we have to live in age were have easy access to the words of a living prophet of God.

I'm always impressed by the talks. Especially after I learned from Elder Holland that almost none of the speakers are assigned a topic. I'm impressed how well those men and women are able to follow the Spirit and teach the gospel with their own voice.

I'd like to lead you, my readers, with a scripture that I got re-read a couple of weeks ago for my class.

“And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit.” (D&C 11:12)

This verse stuck out to me because I always want to follow the Spirit but it is often less than straight forward on how to recognize those promptings. This scripture sheds some light on the matter.

Elder Bednar last General Conference talked about revelation. He said "But regardless of the pattern whereby [revelation] is received, the light it provides will illuminate and enlarge your soul, enlighten your understanding"

I love how the Lord has given us both the scriptures and living prophets who can help us to better understand how to recognize the Holy Ghost.

I challenge you and myself to try listen a little bit harder for the whisperings of the Spirit.

When You're There and Then Serve Those Around You

Sadly I've been pretty busy between Sunday evening and now. I went on a ward tubing trip which was fun despite me being severally cold afterwards. I started reading The Screwtape Letters last week. It is very interesting and slightly difficult read. It is a good book because it has helped me become more aware of some of the subtle ways that Satan and his servants attack.

So the title contains two ideas that came to me last week. The first one is to "Be where you're supposed to be, when you're supposed to be there." This idea comes from Sister Clark the wife of the college president, President Kim Clark; oddly enough she got the line from another speaker when she was in college. Last week I was in the middle of helping out at the Celebrate Youth activity, when the Spirit bore witness to me that I was where the Lord needed me. I don't know if any of you, my dear reader, have had this experience but if you haven't, I hope you are blessed to have it. I will say that this is not the first time I've had this wonderful experience but I still enjoy this experience every time because then I know I'm where Heavenly Father needs me to be, when He needs me to be there. From my short experience in life, I have that doing the will of our Father in Heaven is always the most beneficial experience, no matter how odd, strange or awkward the decision may seem on the surface. Often following impressions of the Spirit and being where the Lord needs you can help serve some one who needs help.

The other thing that I learned this week, I learned on Sunday during both my scripture study and a fireside for our ward was that when you are having a rough time, find some one else to serve and it will help both of you out. In serving them, you lift their burden and follow the Savior in helping to lighten the burdens of others. The way it helps you, is that when you help them, often times you see how minor your problems are or how blessed you are. Recently I had an experience where I thought was tought, I then asked the Lord to let me serve someone. The person he sent me to help was my roommate. I helped him they best I could and soon came to realize how blessed I am.

So my recommendations for you are one, to follow the Spirit so that you can be where the Lord needs you to be when the Lord needs you to be there. The second is when you are feeling low, to find some one else to serve. I promise that doing both of these things will bless and brighten your day.

Not Knowing Beforehand the Things That I Should Do

Yesterday I went to the temple with my roommate Erick and my friend Crystal Champion.It was nice to be at the temple and feel the Spirit. Crystal and I were being sealed for some individuals when the sealer by accident called me, Brother Champion. That made me laugh.

Also I found out that sometimes having only two and half hours of sleep can be a tender mercy from the Lord. Yesterday I talked to another friend of mine and found out some news that under normal circumstances probably would have been rather disheartening but because of my lack of sleep, it just struck me as being really funny.

Saturday morning I was talking to one of my roommates about different things and I ended up sharing with him an experiment of mine. One day I few weeks ago, I was running and pondering on the things that I've learned and what other lessons I could draw on from the scriptures. As I was doing so, I ended up thinking about Nephi the son of Lehi because he is one of my heroes. I recalled that Nephi had been commanded by the Lord to go with his brothers to Jerusalem to retrieve the brass plates. After Nephi and his brothers had arrived, they then had to find a way to retrieve the brass plates from Laban. These four brothers came up with the idea to send a negotiator to Laban to try and persuade him to give up the plates. They then draw lots and Laman is sent in. Laman's negotiations failed and he fled for his life. Then these four brothers come up with the idea to trade some precious items for the plates. They try this and the bargaining fails and they all flee for their lives into a cave. The thought struck me, that at this point that it would be very easy to be frustrated and discouraged.

Nephi and his brethren had been commanded by the Lord to retrieve the plates. But why then had they failed not just once but twice?! Hadn't Nephi just said that the Lord will prepare a way? Where was it? After Nephi had been beaten and saved by an angel, he left for Jerusalem in faith. What I realized was that Nephi and his brethren had tried two very conventional ways of retrieving the plates and failed. When Nephi does retrieve the plates, it is entirely due to his following the promptings of the Spirit. A conclusion I've drawn is that the two prior 'failures' were failures so that Nephi and others could realize that his success came because he followed the Lord and not because of the wisdom of the world.

Having had two failures of my own, I decided that I would follow Nephi's example and follow the promptings of the Lord. In the mornings I sometimes pray to follow the guidance of the Spirit during the day. Sometimes if my mind is quite enough, I get promptings about things I need to do that day. I have found that my days are much more fulfilling to myself and others. While I have yet to see a full success in this particular area of my life, I know that when I do, it will not be because of any wisdom of my own but it will because I, like Nephi, followed the Lord's direction.