Overall Summary of the Blogs

Well the blog assignment is finished. I think it is funny how when we started this semester I did not really know what a blog was or how to create one. I know right, which planet have I been living on? But, now I do know both of the answers to those questions. To be honest I did not think that I would enjoy this assignment very much, but I have been pleasantly surprised throughout the semester. I have really liked taking a few minutes every so often to examine the things that are happening in my life and write down the things that I think the world be interested to know about me. In a talk by President Eyring a few years ago, he spoke on the importance of recording the things that are happening in our lives, especially those things that help us see the hand of God blessing us. I feel so blessed, and I have been able to see the hand of God in my life so many times throughout the semester. I especially felt His guiding help throughout the entire marriage process that I went through this semester. I am so grateful that I have all of these blogs that have recorded memories about my wife and I, and our wedding and honeymoon and the first months together as "newly weds." These are cherished memories that I will always hold sacred. My wife has started another blog for us both so it looks like we are going to be blogging for a long time. This really has been a wonderful learning experience. For those that have been reading, I hope you have enjoyed reading about my life.

Studying Without Knowing

All semester I have tried to work hard to do all of the assignments in each of my classes, but it seems like I never know where I stand in my classes until the very end of the semester. I have always thought this made school hard because it makes it harder for the students to stay motivated throughout the long semester. Before my mission this made it easy for my to procrastinate all semester and not realize how terrible my grades were until the very end. When my father returned from his mission he was on academic probation from his freshman year. He told me during my first semester back from the mission that when he came home from the mission he didn’t know how he was going to do in school. He felt like he was different but he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know until the very end of the semester that he had aced every class. I think that return missionaries really improve their ability to be diligent and have hope that everything is going to work out. We are coming down to the very end of the semester and it is that time to find out how our grades are lining up. I hope that everything will turn out well.

Easter Morning

I am sitting in my wife's grandparents home right now. We just finished watching the morning session of conference. It was so great, I thought that Elder Richard G. Scott's talk was amazing. The final part of his testimony was amazing. He looked straight into the camera and bore an amazing testimony that as an Apostolic Witness, he knows that the Savior Lives!!!! My wife's family has all of her family up here visiting for spring break. It is so fun because there are about 12 little kids running around and then a bunch of college students and the parents. I am so happy that we get to spend this holy holiday with at least one of our families. One of the things that I love about our relationship is that we both love each others families. We are looking forward to the last session of conference. I love hearing the General Authorities speak, they always have such inspired things to say. All of the things that they have to say are so in tune with what is going on in the world. I am so grateful to have leaders that set such Christ-like examples for everyone. I love this Gospel so much. I am so grateful to know that the Savior was resurrected and because of HIm, families can live together forever. There are so many people that don't know these things. I feel so blessed to know.

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.