Paying Attention and Loving

So many changes that have happened in over the year since I last posted. First we are in Utah and we doing better. Our little family has grown and we are blooming family of four. We are a fun and silly bunch which I'm glad to say that I learned from my family that I grew up in. Evelyn is a cute toddler who understands two languages, French and English, and speak one and a half. Julie Leanne joined our family four months ago and is a happy little girl who has thus far decided to Daddy's little girl and Evelyn has taken claim of Mommy.

I love to expound on the ways that our lives have gotten better but some of them are too personal to address on here. I will say that I have been doing some "Wii exercises" as one of my friends used to joke with me. I have also cut back on my reading which has helped me focus on families and friends. Wendy and I have made friends in our ward or congregation and we intend to only get more because we are greedy like that. I do want to say that I am married to my best friend who is wonderful and who is bent on helping me be a better man. I love flirting with her. Also if you haven't have listened to the song "Beauty and the Beast" it's awesome. My favorite line from it now is "learning you were wrong". I like it mainly because my first impression of the beautiful woman who would become my wife was not a positive one at first. I've had the good experience of learning just how wrong my first impression was of her.

I do want to mention that I am excited for the Pokémon Go App. I will only mention this topic in passing to warn anyone who might have an inclination of talking to me about it, as I might talk your ear off about that subject. I do want to mention that Brandon Sandersen has become my favorite author is another subject about which I could talk at length.

The title of my post is based on something I realized from an experience with my second daughter Julie. Wendy had just given birth to our daughter, I had clamped the cord and Julie was off to a great start. As always the nurses needed to check all of Julie's vitals and make sure that she was healthy and ensure that she could indeed survive on her own. I remember that there were three nurses checking all of the monitors and looking at Julie to make sure would be fine. In the midst of all of these screenings, I remember hearing Julie cry for probably the second time in her short little existence. I glanced at Wendy to ensure she was alright and then went over to little Julie. She was crying, red and flailing. I put my hand out to her and she grabbed my finger in her tiny little hand and suddenly stopped crying. As I reflected on this experience I realized that three very caring people were all paying attention to Julie but I had to reach out in love and that's what she felt. I think that we often tend to pay attention to what someone is saying or doing or we are thinking about our response. I think that we often forget the vital part that we need to love them. I'm not saying that things two things are mutually exclusive but I am saying that we tend to do one rather than the other. As both the Apostle Paul and the Book of Mormon prophet Moroni taught that if we don't have charity we are nothing. While we do need to pray for charity, I think that it is also important that we exercise the muscle that is love towards our brothers and sisters. I pray that as you go through out your week that you will exercise that muscle of love towards your neighbor. I know that as you do so you will touch the lives of others in positive ways and you will start to reflect the love our Heavenly Father and Christ to others.

Going Home

So I have a confession. I've lied. I didn't know the meaning of busy until I got married... Oh yeah, for those of you who missed it. I got married to my best friend Wendy. She is crazy like me so we have some pretty awesome times. I was planning on writing this post several times in the course of the last three months but things kept coming up. I will say that being married is a lot of fun though.

I'll do a brief summary of what's been going on in my life. I got married. We got an apartment. Wendy started another semester and I started a new job. Wendy and I went our friends Sean and Liz to a Valetine's day stake party. Wendy and I hang out with friends and sometimes family. We had my brother-in-law Gregory here which was fun. We had to go down to Utah to pick him up so we stopped by to see my family. Also I got my sister Catherine hooked to Percy Jackson & the Heroes of Olympus series. I'm working on getting an internship down in Utah for the summer. Now for some pictures.



And here is a picture from the Valentine's day dance.



My thought this week comes from a quiet moment today. Today I sat outside the Rexburg temple. I haven't been there this entire semester which is the longest that I've been without it since I was on my mission. I'm not gonna lie, I miss going there. Sitting there on a cool quiet day reminded me that it was really here that I felt like I was home for the first time in this small town. I was reminded that the temple is in part a reminder that one day we'll all go home one day or another. Our time here is time to get prepared to go back home to our Heavenly Father. This life is a temporarily sojourn in which we must learn, grow, and "write home" as frequently as we can. If you haven't talked to your Heavenly Father recently, I recommend it. I know that He always wants to hear from you and sometimes if you listen He has something to say. I hope y'all have a great 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 Tender Mercies of the Lord Are Over All Those

So this week has been interesting. It's been fun but hard at the same time. I've had a lot of homework, work, and other issues. The good news is that I have a date later this week. I'm happy about that I think it'll be really good.

On Saturday I was able to go back to the temple. I haven't been in over three weeks which was waaaay to long. The good news is that even though I had to wait for an hour in the temple, I was able to feel the Spirit and I even felt a pang of grief at having to leave the temple and go home.

Saturday afternoon, I got to see my sister because we both worked the same shift at work and then we decided to have lunch together. I also got to walk home with her on Sunday. It was good to be around family and get to talk again. We've both have been busy and so we haven't see each other a lot.

On Sunday, church was really good. Every single speaker touched on something that I needed to here. Also we had a special music number and a sister performed the most beautiful rendition of "Come Thou Fount" that I have every heard. I will be honest, I cried because the Spirit was that strong.

This week, I was in the middle of writing a missionary when I realized a tender mercy of the Lord. Before my mission, my sister Megan (pictured above) were really close. When I came after my mission, I was more mature and my sister was a young women and no longer the little girl I remember. So needless to say we found that our relation would need to change and we tried making it work with some success. Then my sister applied to and got into BYU-Idaho. Eventually she decided to live in the apartment complex next to mine. Because she lives "next door" we've been blessed to be able to rebuild our relationship to as good, if not better, than it was before. I realized that this was a tender mercy of the Lord. After that I started to see many others in my life.

I ask you, my readers, to look for the tender mercies of the Lord. As I learned in church on Sunday, "the Lord doesn't have a cell phone" but that doesn't mean that He isn't trying to sending us the equivalent of little love texts or tender mercies just as often as we receive texts. I hope that you stop and review you days and look for the tender mercies that our Father in Heaven has given you.

Wear Your Heart On Your Sleeve

I apologize for not having written on Sunday and Monday but I was extremely busy with Church, school, and work. I wasn't sure what exactly I was going to write about on Sunday when I remembered what day it was. As all or at least most of my readers will be aware, Sunday was the decade anniversary of September 11. I believe had my grandparents lived, that the day they will never forget was December 7; I believe for my generation, we will say the same of September 11.

Like many of my readers, I remember exactly where I was when I learned about the tragic events that changed our nation. I was initially shelled shocked for several days there after. If my memory is correct, I believe that my dad was on a business trip in Chicago on that faithful day. I remember at some point realizing the fact that just like I had seen on 9/11 that any of my family members or friends could taken from this life. This reality was underscored by the fact that I had already experienced the deaths of both of my grandmothers.

I remember in the days following September 11, hearing stories of family members and relatives about how they had lost a their love ones that day. I also remember that the most oft expressed regret was that that they wished they had told their loved ones and friends more frequently how much they loved and appreciated them. That memory still brings tears to my eyes. I then remember looking into the faces of the members of my family and promising myself that I make sure that my family members always knew that I loved them. From then on, I did my best to tell the members of my family how much I loved them and appreciated them. I more readily said "I love you" just before saying bye. I decided during that time that if my family and friends didn't know that I loved them by time that they left this world, that I would have failed part of my mission for this life. I started a tradition that my family knows about; I started giving each person of my family members a hug just before going to bed.

Since then, I have committed, to use the phrase from "Ever Ever After" from Enchanted, to "wear[ing] [my] heart on [my] sleeve". As some of my readers may know, this attitude from time to time causes me some pain but I will say that I have yet to regret it despite the heartbreaks it has brought me. I believe that too many times we fail to express love and gratitude to the extent that we should. I feel that for those of us who are trying to follow the Savior that this is a transgression. From what I know from my own life and what I have read in the scriptures, I believe that the Savior and our Heavenly Father both express their love to us readily and frequently. Therefore, if we wish to follow their example we must do the same.

So my invitation today is find more ways of expressing your love and gratitude to your loved ones and friends. If you can, learn to wear your heart on your sleeve; I promise that not that life will be easier, but I will promise you that you will learn to love the life the Lord has given you more and that you will come to view others more like our Savior views them.

Family, isn't it about time?

I know my title is cheesy but then again so am I. Those of you know me on a personal level, know that I love cheese. This is one of many reasons that I got along with French people so well. This last week I went home to North Carolina to visit my family. Among other things that we did, we went to a cheese factory and a nearby gift shop right.

There I got this!

That is a cheese knife. You use to cut the cheese (no, not that way). Then you use the prongs on the back to put the piece of cheese on your baguette or bread. I personally think it's genius and I am glad to have one for my cheese.

I spent a lot of time with most of my family. I wasn't able to spend time with two of them because they are in Europe. I think it should be mentioned that I haven't seen my family in North Carolina since January because I have a job here in town so it makes sense for me to stay here =year round.

I got to hang out a lot with my mom, dad and little brother (who's only presently shorter than me) and I had a ton of fun with them. Being around them again reminded me of all the reasons I love and care about them. They are honest and open about what they think of me and my ideas. We readily appreciate each other's humor and sensitivities. Most of us are avid readers. We all accept as fact that mom is always right, according to my dad, and that she is super cute. Then there is my dad, he is calm and collected when needs be or crazy and funny depending on the circumstances. To quote of one my favorite characters Aang, my little brother Aaron is "a mad genius". By the end of the week I was sad to leave my family because I had remembered how much they mean to me. They support me through my good and bad times. They help me learn and grow in the gospel and other areas of my life.

This is a reminder that your family is important. Friends will almost always come and go but family is forever. I ask you to keep your family close. They love and care for you, even if they're bad at showing it. I know that sometimes it can be hard to believe that they love you. But I know if you look hard enough you can see that they do love you. I hope you have good week!

The Atonement

So this has been a long week and it is very likely that this upcoming week is going to be just as long if not longer.

To be honest I didn't have many ideas this week that weren't school related or about how the Lord's plans differ from our own.

So this Sunday has been pretty crazy and I'm writing this during a few free minutes I have. In my Elder's Quorum, we went over the Atonement of Christ and we read several scriptures about it. For some reason reading through them, I got deep sense of his suffering and heartbreak. One example of this that stuck out to me was when Christ was brought before the chief priests and scribes. These men were to be the most trained int the Mosaic law and the prophecies about the Messiah. Yet when Pilate presented Christ before them and asked what they would have him do to Christ; they answered "Crucify him!" "We have no king but Cæsar." (John 19:15) It clicked for me how heartbreaking this had to be to the Savior. There he was alone, His Apostles, disciples and friends were not there.

For me I realized how much the Savior can empathize with our pains, and loneliness because He has been there. The Lord loves you.

Laying the Foundation

So I've decided to start a blog. I do this not only because people in my family wanted to start one but also because I felt impressed by the Spirit to do so. I'm not entirely sure as to what exactly I will be posting on a weekly basis but I think much of it will by my thoughts or gospel insights for the week. I'd also like those who follow to please let me know that they are doing so. I also like feedback so that it may help me tailer my style.

So my thought this week is about friendships and love. This was mainly sparked because one of my roommates lost one of their grandparents. I've done my best to comfort this roommate because he is one of my good friends. It reminded me of how much our families mean to us. I love my family and I love my friends; I may have to write about my definition of friendship due to my unique use of the word. It reminded me of how love creates invisible lines between us like the one between Alvin and Stuart in the Tales of Alvin Maker (this is my favorite series of all time). I also thought about the word cher/chère in French. The word is often used as meaning dear but it can also mean expensive. Oddly enough, I feel that this dually is appropriate. I think this because the people that are considered dear are often described with such phrases as "invaluable" or "priceless". Thus they are in sense "very expensive."

This event with my roommate me also think about friendships. I like the explanation of Antoine de Saint-Expéry in "The Little Prince". He describes how friendships are created through a set of rituals and how it then makes people unique to one other. I have found this to be very true in my own life.

My last thought was this. I think that when we learn to love someone we may not necessarily creating something new but I think that we are simply remembering the person's real value.

So learn to "remember" the real value of those around. Try to treat those around as if they were "expensive" to you because you never know how long you have them for.