General Conference

I am so excited for General Conference this next weekend!! I love hearing the Prophet, Apostles and other General Authorities speak to us. When I was in the mission I would get so excited for General Conference because I knew that I was going to hear the Brethren speak to me in my native language. There is such a power that comes from hearing them speak and not some translator. It used to give me so much happiness to invite investigators to General Conference and tell them that a living Prophet was going to speak to them, along with Christ's Apostles. I think most people thought I was crazy but Oh Well!! It really is amazing if we think about it. If other christian faiths found out that a person like Moses or Noah was going to speak to them, how excited would they be to hear them? They would be ecstatic, but just because they don't believe the "Mormons" they don't realize and understand that this is what is actually happening. I feel so grateful to know the truth and to know that no matter what happens, Christ's church will always be led in the correct direction. I really think that General Conference is a wonderful way for our Heavenly Father to answer some of the questions that we have had in our prayers. The leaders always seem to say those perfect things that touch our hearts in the the perfect way. I am so excited to listen to them this weekend!!

For a great part of my mission I spent a good portion of my days trying to memorize either scriptures, vocabulary words in english or in spanish. My father told me before I went on my mission that he developed a love for learning words on his mission and he urged me to do the same. I developed the same love for memorizing things on my mission. At the beginning of my mission I worked for the most part on spanish words so that I could increase my vocabulary of the spanish language. Once I improved that aspect i started to memorize the main points of scriptures. This greatly helped me become a better teacher to my investigators. At the end of my mission I started working on english vocabulary words to help me remember how to speak english. All of this practice on the mission has greatly helped me these last two semesters of school to learn things quicker. I am currently trying to learn new vocabulary words everyday so that I can augment the pool of vocabulary words that I draw from when I am writing. I still have a long ways to go but I think that if I can make it a daily habit of learning new words each day then I will be able to greatly increase the amount of words that I can learn. I think it is so amazing that people like President Monson have photographic memories, that would be so incredible to have. I am sure that he had to start learning things little by little, just like I am!
I have been working on memorizing "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe for the poem I have to memorize. It has been enjoyable to memorize a poem, I think that if I did this more often it would help me to become better at memorizing all kinds of things.

Tennis

My wife and I went to the mall today to look for tennis rackets. We have decided that we want to start playing tennis together. We are looking forward to playing every saturday morning. I think that it will be a great hobby that we can learn together. We both agreed on tennis because it is a sport that neither of us have played much, so neither of us will be able to laugh at the other one because of how bad we are (or maybe there will be a lot of laughing on both sides, ha). Since being married I have really enjoyed being able to spend time with my wife doing things like... Playing tennis, shopping, going to the temple, going to the grocery store, pretty much any activity that we can do together. We love spending time together because we both like the same things and we like to try new things together (not so much alone). I honestly just feel so lucky to be able to have a wife that is so supportive of all the things I need, try, and want to do. She is the BEST!!!! So if anyone wants to know how tennis goes tomorrow, just ask me in class on Thursday...

The Grapes of Wrath

I am reading the Grapes of Wrath for fun in my spare time (which isn't much) right now. I am about a third of the way through it and I have pleasantly enjoyed it so far. It was a little slow getting started but I it is starting to pick up. My father told me that I should read one of these book because it is one of his favorite books. Reading this book has caused me to think and ponder more about the depression and the difficult things that happened during that time. But it has also caused me to reflect on our country now and the economic recession we are passing through. These are scary times and I think we need to follow the counsel of the Prophets now more than ever. I am so grateful that we have a Prophet who prophesied over 5 years ago that we needed to be frugal and prudent with our money and live within our means. Those that took his counsel are very grateful now. Living within our means... It seems like such an easy concept but when pride gets ahold of our hearts it can be a difficult habit to let go of. I am grateful for the classics that we have that teach all of us but especially the rising generation about the past so that we don't commit the same mistakes as others. I think that it is important to know about the past so that we can better chart our future.

Vocabulary

I think that vocabulary is one the most important things an English major can learn. Throughout my childhood my father always told me that I should be memorizing vocabulary words. I didn't listen to him and for that reason I think that my writing skills have suffered over the years. But, since my mission I have started to develop an appreciation for learning vocabulary words. When my father was in college he got to the point where he was reading the dictionary because he loved learning new words so much!!! I am not to that point yet but I have started enjoying studying the meaning of words. It has helped being able to draw upon a greater bank of vocabulary when writing papers. I am no expert by any means, I think I am just playing catch up for all of my slothful teen years. I don't know why most teens don't think that knowledge is cool, but now I have this fire inside me that is driving me to learn as much as I possibly can. I hope that seeking more knowledge will always be a lifetime pursuit of mine.

Why do we watch TV?

Why do we watch so much TV? When I was on my mission, I remember thinking to myself repeatedly, “I love not wasting my time on TV!” But now I am back at school and I spend a portion of my week watching TV. I don’t watch even close to the amount of TV that I watched before my mission, but I still probably watch too much. Often after I watch a TV program I think myself, “what did I get out of watching that show?” And the answer usually is, “Nothing!” When I think about all of the wonderful men and women we learn about in school who did wonderful things, it is very clear to me that they didn’t waist their time watching TV reruns. No, they were studying and learning during their youth and that is what enabled them to do wonderful things throughout their lives. I think it is time for me to be more “anxiously engaged,” like the scripture says. I need to start doing my part and I am really going to try to stop watching meaningless TV that doesn’t contribute to my benefit. It is time for change.

Differences Between Men and Women

Now that I am married, it has been both fun and interesting to learn how to live with a woman. One of the fun things that we are doing right now is decorating our condo. While it has been fun, it has also been a bit of a challenge to find things that both my wife and I want to have in our home. There have been a lot of things that we have both agreed on very quickly, but other things have had to be a little bit more of a compromise. And when I say compromise, I mean me compromising to what my wife wants. It is funny because when I was single, I wanted all my things to be black, gray, or blue, but most of the things we have decorated our home with has colors like white, red, light blue, and cream. Oh how things have changed. Haha… My wife keeps telling me that it is the wife’s job to decorate the house and to be honest, she has done a wonderful job. It has just taken me a little while to change the way I think as far as the colors that I want to be in my home.

Rated "R" Movies

Well a couple of weeks ago we had a discussion in class about watching "R" rated movies and it was funny because I think it was the most class participation we have ever had. I made a lot of comments and I think that Sister Steadman believes that I am a adamant "R" rated movie watcher, but I actually don't watch "R" rated movies. We talked about a lot of different aspects that can play into it, but one of subjects that we talked about is how sex affects the way people think but how violence doesn't hardly affect people. I believe that this is true, when I was younger I used to watch quite a few "R" rated movies and I know that it had an affect on me and I am so grateful for the decision that I made on my mission to not watch "R" rated movies. However, I do feel that we as Latter-day Saints need to do a better job of not judging people of other faiths and of our own faith who do not live by this commandment. I think that people can be too judgmental at times and this makes the church look almost a little self-righteous. I believe one of the greatest things that the church is trying to do right now is find things in common with people of other faiths instead of pointing out the differences. I believe that this is a great missionary tool that has really helped the Work move forward. But I do think "R" rated movies do have a huge affect on people and that is why the Prophets have urged us not to watch them.

Honeymoon

Well I don't think I have talked about the Honeymoon yet. We went to Kuaui in Hawaii. It was so much fun!! My sister owns a condo on the beach so we got a great deal and had a wonderful time. Some of the things we did included: ziplining above the trees, taking a sunset sailboat cruise, off-roading through the jungle, off-roading on a private beach, and a luau. I know it sounds weird, but I think one of my favorite things to do was drive on the sand at this private beach. It was so much fun because we got to drive right up to the water and park. We could just lay out right by our jeep!! It was the Best!! I think the part that I enjoyed most of all about the Honeymoon was just being with my beautiful wife, and knowing that we are going to be together forever!! And the best part is, that feeling has only continued to grow and become more sweeter the longer we have been married. I feel so blessed!!

Giving a Talk

Giving a talk is a funny thing ain't it? My wife are new in our ward so sure enough, the second week there, the Bishopric hit us up for talks. My wife was pretty nervous about it, and to be honest, so was I. We had to give a talk about how to cleave unto your spouse, we have been married for a month!! What's up with that??? Do they suddenly think that we are experts??? Apparently so, haha.. Well my wife did a wonderful job on her talk. But it was funny because we got to church early and one of the members of the Bishopric handed us a sheet of paper with the guidelines for giving a talk in this ward. One of the guidelines was to not tell any jokes. Unfortunately for me, the beginning of my talk had a joke in it.. It wasn't inappropriate or anything but I wasn't sure if I should do it. So I had to sit there the entire sacrament meeting until my talk and try to decide whether or not I was going to use it. I decided to use it. And the Bishopric was laughing pretty hard so that made me feel pretty good. So everything turned out pretty good, but the best part about is that IT IS OVER!!

Night

Well I finished Night a while ago, but I have not had the opportunity to write about it yet. It was an interesting experience to read that book. I was filled with a lot of different emotions while I read it. It is a very remarkably sad story to take part in. If the Nobel Prize speech was not included at the end, I think I would have had a completely different perspective of how his life ended. I think reading his Nobel Speech prize gives the reader a lot more hope, knowing that he still believes in God. Reading about the Concentration Camps in Germany reminded me of how terrible that that whole thing was. Sometimes it seems like it was so long ago, but it really wasn't. When you read a book like Night, it helps to remind us that they were real people, with real emotions. When you get to know people and hear their life stories it makes them so much more real and important to you. I can't imagine how I would feel if something like that happened in the world right now. But the sad thing is, sad things are happening everyday in the world, and it seems like so much happens everyday that it almost desynthesizes us and makes us believe that anything can happen. I think that our generation is used to the impossible happening because amazing things are happening everyday.

Overwhelmed

Does anybody else feel overwhelmed at times? It seems like every semester about 2 months into it, life starts to get very overwhelming with all of the papers, test, quizes and projects that are due. It seems like everything is always due at the same time. But I do think that these overwhelming experiences are helping me and everyone else so that we will be more prepared for the future. I know that life isn't going to get any easier, but that it will continue to keep getting harder. I am so thankful that I know my Savior and I feel like I can turn to him to find peace through my trials. Life is hard and I don't think I could get through it without His help. So much of the world just gives up when life becomes too difficult. I think of the poem by Robert Frost which reads: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." I think that does make all the difference, the hard work that we are doing now, will make all the difference in the end for us as well. It is all worth it!