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.

The Blessing of Serving Others

So this week has been less productive then I wanted it to be. I will be honest and say that for most of the week, I've been moping or trying to avoid thinking about the ache. I have got somethings done but not as much as I'd like. It's been a while since I've been in a serious breakup so I had forgotten what I needed to do to properly handle it. This week I have again really felt the love of our Heavenly Father. Earlier this week I started preparing a lesson for Sunday school that I didn't need to and ended up learning something that I really needed to know. For me, it was tender mercy of the Lord.

This week I got to talk to my Bishop because I asked him for advice about something. It was really nice because I got to express my appreciation for him and he got tell me how much he's appreciated what I've done. It was really nice.

So I'm hoping to take a few pictures this week. I'm sorry, I've been slacking in that area too. I will say that I do like collecting inspirational posters and inspirational quotes. The poster above is one of my favorites. I feel like that's definitely been true in my life. Today was a good day. I directed my ward choir and it was really good. My choir didn't really mess up and the Spirit was definitely present after they had sung. That really made me happy because it was an answer to my prayer.

Yesterday I went to a party held by one of my friends. While I was there, I talked to a girl who had recently gone through a hard breakup. I told her that I'd been through a pretty bad breakup myself. She then asked me lots of questions about breakups. It was one of the few times that I will say that I was happy to have all my experience with breakups! I was so glad to be able to help her. This helped me to know that I was where the Lord wanted me to be. After talking to her, I realized that I knew what I needed to do recover my breakup; I just hadn't been doing that. For me this was another clear reminder of the truth which King Benjamin testified of, that as soon as you keep one of the Lord's commandments "he doth immediately bless you." (Mosisah 2:24) I've learned that in my life. I have also learned that in giving service to others that we are blessed.

I hope that y'all have a good week! I hope that you find some ways to serve others this 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 Power of Prayer and a Loving Heavenly Father

I'd like to start by apologizing to my readers for having not written in a while but to be honest I haven't felt like to doing much of anything for a while.

I know that many of my readers will be wondering what happened with my girlfriend. I will not put the details on here. I will simply say however, that I am writing a poem about it entitled "I Am Not A Boat". If you'd like details call, text me, or message me and I'll do my best to respond and give you the details. I apologize to those who have done so and I haven't responded.

The last few weeks have been long and hard. I will say that I know that our Heavenly Father answers prayers. I have felt that more as of late. The week of my breakup was hard for me emotionally. I was blessed to have one of my good friends in town, my old roommate Victor. I will admit that it was a great blessing to have him listen to me every night of this hard week. Having him there was an answer to a prayer.

This weekend I went "home" to Utah to visit my family and to be a part of a baby blessing of my nephew Nikolai. He is really cute.

It was nice to be around my family and have them support me through this rough period of life. I feel like the love that they have shown for me is reminder of how much my Heavenly Father love me. A few weeks ago, I listened to a devotional by Brother Walquist given at school some time ago. It was called "Lord, is it I?". If you click on the link, it will take you to a page that should have a different forms of the talk. It was a really good talk and it made reflect on what I was doing. One thing of which it reminded is that we, as Latter-day Saints, have commandment to pray vocally. I will admit that I have been pretty bad at keeping this one. Within the last few weeks, I have done my best to obey this commandment more. I will say that these prayers have made it easier to focus and to see the answers to my prayers. I would like to invite you my readers to try praying vocally. I promise that you'll more readily see the blessings that our Heavenly Father pours out upon you. I hope y'all have a good week!