My Brother's Assignment

My brother, Benjamin, is off at BYU-Idaho and has sent us an assignment of his. It's impressive. His teacher gave him a 100% and told the rest of his class to look at it. My brother is quite proud. And so am I. I love my brother.

"In life there are numerous opportunities to learn, whether it comes from an experience shared on TV or a classmate talking about the mountains of homework his/her teacher is assigning to get the students familiar with the material. The difference between an educated person and a normal person is the will to learn more than what is expected of him/her. Eliot A Butler says, 'An educated person is one who by his or her own initiative and discipline is consciously, vigorously, and continuingly learning.' According to Eliot, the person with a mountain of homework would quickly get on top of the pile and get ahead of it maybe by reading into the next section the teacher is planning on talking about the following day to be prepared with any questions or to give insight for what the teacher is talking about for the other students.

"Alexander Calandra told a story about a student who didn't want to be held back by procedures of how to do stuff. This student thought 'outside the box' and had no end to his ideas. It is important for an educated person to constantly apply what has been learned in different situations to figure out what direction to head would be best for a given predicament.

"The more a person learns in the right spirit the more he/she is humbled. The reason behind this is that the more a person knows about a particular topic the more a person can do with what has been learned. For instance, a person may know only how to do basic math problems consisting of dividing, multiplying, adding, and subtracting but all they may use it for is for is dividing up 12 apples between 4 people while if they had learned a littler geometry they can now figure out how to build buildings with support beams that will allow the structure to stay standing longer in addition to what could be done before. This continues to happen until a deeper insight of the subject causes a realm of ideas of what can be accomplished to be flowing toward it's pursuer. Eliot quoted Will Durant who said, 'Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.' The more we learn the more we realize we haven't learned.

"Many may wonder why they ought to be as educated as they can, Eliot has pointed out that in D&C 88:80 it reads 'That ye may be prepared...'. Our wisdom and knowledge are two of few things that we get to keep after death, so building ourselves an abundance of knowledge and wisdom would help us be prepared for whatever waits for us after we return to live with God. Besides, God has commanded us to be educated, isn't that a good enough reason in itself?

"Some advice given by Thomas G. Plummer of how we can be more educated is as follows: We should keep a journal to 'find [our] own voice, [our] own thoughts'; We should take a second opinion on an important matter and 'study it out in your own heart' (D&C Section 9); We should take a break once in a while to idle our thoughts. If we are always under pressure it would be hard for us to not make a mistake, getting back to work after taking a break from all the pressure is like getting a jumpstart in your own heard.

"Unfortunately many of the outspoken criticizers in the world today are the people that know the least about the matter (Eliot Butler). If a person were truly educated they would to tell the world that they are because they'd aso have a considerable amount of realization of the stuff that he/she doesn't know. An true educated person would be open to all ideas and suggestions on a topic and not just rely on his/her own wisdom/knowledge because they would know that there are more things that they do not know than they do know."

Talk: Service and Obedience

So I gave a talk today! Yay! First one I've given for a few years. Apparently I was pretty good. Yay me! But of course, I had a ton of help from the Lord. My talk would not have been successful in the least without Him.

TALK on SERVICE and OBEDIENCE:

When I was assigned this talk on Service and Obedience I was very excited. I felt that I knew a lot on both subjects and would be able to come up with a talk just like that. However, I soon came to the realization that I wasn’t sure how the topic of Service and the topic of Obedience were connected. I had absolutely no clue. I’ve learned that combining two simple things can become very complicated in my head. So I asked some of my friends from college on their suggestions.

Here are some of their responses:

“Well. If you are helping others you are obeying the Lord’s commandment.”

“Service makes you feel better! No joke... Sometimes when I am feeling sad or something, I do service and it always make me feel good. I LOVE service! It is one of my favorite things.”

“When we serve, we are being obedient. I’m not sure where in the scriptures, probably New Testament, but the Lord commanded us to feed his sheep.”

“There are different types of commandments that the Lord has asked us to obey and if we obey them, in many cases, we are serving other people.”

I love friends.

Anyways, with all these suggestions I decided that I was going to make a list of the common things in between Service and Obedience.

Service is obeying the Lord.

Obedience is serving the Lord.

Service is attached to expressing Love.

Obedience is an action taken to show you Love your Heavenly Father.

Service blesses the lives of others, and yourself.

Obedience blesses your life, and the lives of others.

It turns out that they are more intertwined then I had originally understood.

We are all asked to serve others. When I was young, every once in awhile my family would pick a park to visit for Family Home Evening and we’d go around with the plastic bags from the grocery store and pick up trash. Our ward helps clean a school and a cemetery yearly. I remember when my family’s house was being built, and our neighbors’ houses as well, and having people move in and out of the ward throughout the years and having my dad and brothers and occasionally the rest of us help. I remember all through my years having messages on our phone asking for my parents help with a sister in the ward who just had a baby, or a brother in the ward who was in the hospital, or how so-and-so might like it if we helped them in their yard for a mutual service project.

We are asked to serve others. And we do. Sometimes we are asked by the Spirit to serve in ways that we never would have supposed. We all try our best to serve and grow.

I’ve learned that obeying the Lord is serving the Lord. We each have our agency and what we do with that agency determines what kind of life and legacy we leave. But because we have agency we have a choice to NOT serve and to NOT obey. When we chose to obey the Lord, to give our Will willingly to the Lord, we are serving him.

This brings me to the next connection between Service and Obedience. Love. We serve others because we Love them. We care for them. We wish them the best. We truly wish to serve them because we Love them. Sometimes there are times when you don’t particularly care for someone, but when you begin to serve them, you begin to Love them.

Up at BYU-Idaho my second semester, my roommates and I had a very interesting FHE group. They put us all into “families” so that on Monday nights we can have Family Home Evening together. Well, this second semester we had some very interesting people in our group. One apartment of girls did not much care for the rest of us. My roommate truly struggled with this problem because she was what we call the Family Home Evening Group Leader, or “FHE MOM”. She was in charge of helping to arrange our Family Home Evenings; the lesson, and the activity, and the treat (because not very many starving college students would show if there was no treats). Generally, she was just supposed to help get people together and be a sort of family with Love and HomeTeachers and even annoying Brothers. It was difficult however with 1/3 of the girls not liking everyone else. So my roommates decided that they’d respond and attack with the master plan of Loving Them To Death. The agenda? Serve them by making them cookies, inviting them over for pizza, helping and asking for homework help, etc. Amazingly, by the end of the semester, they didn’t seem to not like us as much as they used to not like us. We will probably never be the closest of friends without further work, but I can say that I did end up loving them.

When we Serve and Obey the Lord we are expressing our Love for the Lord, for all He has done for us that we can never repay because every time we try we just get more in return.

Obeying the commandments that the Lord has given to us, we are blessed with more abundant blessings, even if they are not readily obvious. Let’s take a commandment we all know and love. The Word of Wisdom. We all obey the commandment because we are told to and we do what we are told because we Love the Lord and have Faith in Him. The blessing is being healthy. Sometimes, by obeying this commandment we are an example to others in our lives who notice and we may help them on their way to learning more about the Savior. That’s a rather simple example, but it shows how when we obey a commandment it helps us and others.

When we Serve others we are obviously blessing others, but often through serving others we are serving ourselves. My roommates and a couple of my neighbors, every Sunday at 3:30, would go to the nursing home and visit this wonderful lady, Anita. We began this little tradition because we all wanted to serve together and some of our friends worked there at the nursing home and so we chose to visit on a day that we could all regular make it. She was fabulous. We truly loved her. None of us were from the area, nor knew her prior to our first visit. But she taught us so much. She could never remember us from the week prior and sometimes she would repeat a story that she had already accounted to us, but Anita and my friends and I grew and learned and loved each other. There were days that were hard for her to enjoy because of pain and struggles and regrets, but when we’d visit she was always ready to impart to us a new piece of knowledge. We gained so much knowledge and wisdom from a lady who, when first married, lived in a tent during the Depression while her husband built a highway, who, with her sister-in-law whom she didn’t like much, began riding her bike everyday because it was a good form of exercise and would also help her understand this sister-in-law and force this sister-in-law to exercise because it was good for her. This sister shared her wisdom gained from the experiences of her life as we had served her by visiting. Often I think that my friends and I were served more by her than we served her.

One of the greatest examples where Service and Obedience are joined and intertwined and have much in common is in Luke 22:42 when Our Lord, Our Savior, Our Elder Brother, knelt down in the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed saying “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, by thine, be done.”

What an ultimate source of Service for all of us. What a magnificent example of Obedience to Heavenly Father. Such an exemplary act.

How I love my Savior. How I love all He has done for us. It is hard to express in words. I know, with all my heart and soul, that our Father in Heaven, and His Son, Jesus Christ, knows each of us. Knows all of who we are. Who loves us in spite of ourselves. Who will help us overcome our imperfections so that we may return to our Father. I have a testimony of the importance of Service and of Obedience in my life to express the Love I have for Them in return.

The Memory Base

"Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used." ~Dr. Carl Sagan

There is a distinction between knowledge and wisdom and intelligence. Knowledge is "the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association" according to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary. Being a wise person is marked by deep understanding, keen discernment, and a capacity for sound judgment. Wisdom is the knowledge of how to apply all other knowledge. Intelligence incorporates both knowledge and wisdom. Intelligence is the process of collecting the facts and how one uses those facts by using judgment.

Intelligence is also what all are (D&C 93:29-30, 36). But God is more intelligent than the rest of us (Abraham 3:19-22). However, even though intelligence is not made nor created we can obtain it through diligence and obedience, as whenever we receive a blessing from God it is by obedience to the law upon which it is founded (D&C 93:29; 130:18-21).

The other day I was reading an address by Elder D. Todd Chrisofferson entitled "The Blessing of Scripture". Scripture enlarges the memory of a people and of individuals. It helps us to always remember the Lord and our relationship with Him and the Father.

It teaches you about past people, cultures, and events we did not experience personally and might have forgotten otherwise in our histories.

It shows you that life is only a small little moment on the timeline of Eternity. It reminds you that the trials you experience are only a moment, but that it is significant in the fact that what occurs on mortality affects the rest of your existence and what kind of existence it will be. So it enlarges your memory to all of forever rather than just limited to mortality.

However, I was struck with the inspiration that scripture can do more than that.

The scriptures can be read in so many ways. It can be read as a story of a real people. It can be read as an instruction manual for specific or broad topics. It can be read as a compiled biographical work or the first history books invented. It can be used to study economics or perhaps politics. The scriptures are multidimensional; there is more than one aspect to it.

As a result, the scriptures can literally enlarge our minds in another way that I had never before considered.

Let's add Cognitive Psychology into this explanation. (Though I honestly can't claim to know much about Cognitive Psychology). But I know that somehow it fits into this explanation. If I knew more about it. Meanwhile, until I do, let's just keep to my theory and for those of you who know more please ponder upon the matter.

We are told to make personal connections to the scriptures so that its teachings can become more applicable to our lives (Teaching from the Scriptures). However, in connecting a thought to multiple topics it is easier to recall that thought. In the process of connecting the thought to other topics it becomes a bigger aspect of our lives and it is easier to apply when it has such a presence in our minds.

So if we can connect the scriptures to every aspect of our lives, and our lives to every aspect to the scriptures, then just the process of opening and reading the scriptures should bring to the forefront of your mind a thought or memory. Opening the scriptures opens your mind and allows the Holy Spirit to help connect the thoughts in your head to other thoughts, creating that 'lightbulb' moment, especially if we have actually already begun to connect to the scriptures. The scriptures become an extension of your memory, of your life. You would have made the scriptures truly applicable when it becomes such a part of you.

I think connecting to the scriptures in such a way will help you organize your life, your mind. The scriptures have a format, a structure in physical form. When we connect to every aspect of the scriptures or the scriptures to every aspect of our lives we will have a format in which to organize our thoughts, and by extension, our lives.

I think that this level of connection could occur with most anything as your base, if you can make a great many connections to it. I think this should be kept in mind and perhaps studied by those who are in that particular field of study, or at least in a related field.

However, the scriptures are probably the best source in which to base yourself upon. There are several reasons for this. First off, they are the words of the Lord. There really can't be anything better in which to listen and obey. Also, as perviously mentioned, the scriptures are so comprehensive and so specific that one can truly connect to such a work on a variety of different levels and a variety of different topics. It is something in which if you truly connect you it can help you verses harms you in an obsessive sort of way.

The scriptures is not just one thing to be focused on and worshiped. The scriptures, if read and connected to truly, brings you to other elements in life and other teachings and expands your memory. Where most other works, if connected to, will only limit the expansion of your mind.

I would love to see a study about physical objects, sounds, and smells becoming an extension of a memory, but to see it developed further and see if a person could be healthily connected in all memories and thoughts to the scriptures and the things of the gospel. I'd love to learn more about this and where exactly Cognitive Psychology fits in.

Traditions

I have a Family class this semester for my minor and it is an excellent class. The textbook we use is entitled Strengthening Our Families: An In-Depth Look at the Proclamation on the Family by David C. Dollahite.

This engrossing textbook I plan on keeping it for the rest of my life. Or at least until I can hand it down to someone to be used. The best books should be used over and over and over again and be studied, and written in, and marked, and much thought put into it.

It is fascinating, this book. Recently we just studied a chapter entitled "Valuing, Preserving, and Transmitting Family Traditions" which is Chapter 23. But how interesting this chapter is!

The textbook defined what traditions are: “Traditions” are defined as beliefs and practices enacted to repeatedly from generation to generation and taught by face-to-face contact within small groups (314).

Susan Abel Lieberman said, "Family traditions counter alienation and confusion. They help us define who we are; they provide something steady, reliable and safe in a confusing world."

Family traditions give each family an identity, both extended families and nuclear families. There are traditions that are handed down from parent to child and parent to child, as a result, the cousins, aunts, uncles, etc all have bits and pieces of the same traditions. But each nuclear family has their own unique traditions as well. Two people from different families, with different traditions, come together and pick and choose which traditions they wish to continue from both sides of the family. Then they create new traditions that better define who they are as their own family. The traditions express a shared interest in most cases.

There are seven issues related to the creation and perpetuation of family traditions:
1. Distinguish between good and bad traditions
2. Encourage a unique family style
3. Be selective and creative in fashioning new traditions
4. Be inclusive
5. Be service-oriented
6. Foster storytelling
7. Nurture natural traditions

Number 1:
There are many traditions that we can develop in our lives that will not better ourselves or our posterity. Some traditions can actually be a hinderance to growth and progression. When we create our own traditions for our families, perhaps they are the best we can do at that point in time, but in the next generation children will only add upon the foundation of the traditions you have taught. If they are positive traditions and leading in the right direction, usually the traditions added on to the former will be even better. Having the best traditions now create the greatest traditions later. But it goes the other way around too. Bad traditions are added upon. Obviously, children have agency and they will choose their own way, but when you raise them with certain traditions they will remember them.

Number 2:
There are many traditions that are held among many families, but it is possible to have a common tradition become very specialized to your family. For example, many families have prayer. But where they hold family prayer can give meaning. Or a certain treat made and eaten only at Easter/Christmas.

Number 3:
Traditions should be adapted from the families of both spouses. It'll encourage a healthy new family unit verses favoring one side of the family over the other.

Number 4:
When creating new traditions the variety of interests and ability of family members must be taken into account so they help build closer family relationships.

Number 5:
"Performing service as a family is one of the best ways to perform service within the family" (314). Having a tradition that serves others on a yearly or monthly or weekly basis instills in the children habits of service that will be perfected as they mature.

Number 6:
Telling storys about ancestors or relatives creates unity between the generations and strengthen family relationships. In my family my mother frequently tells us stories about her siblings, her parents, her aunts and uncles, her grandparents, my cousins... and as a result, even though we live so far away from them all and my great-grandparents have passed on, I feel like I really know each of them and family reunions are always so much fun. "Sharing the stories of daily experiences, both humorous and difficult, encourages a sense of common experience that also units families – sometimes over generations" (314).

Number 7:
"Traditions that are unrelated to actual family life often feel forced and uncomfortable; with good reason, theses are the least likely customs to be continued" (314). Many family traditions grow out of things that are already done: game playing, celebrating holidays, eating, working, traveling, singing together, etc.


We should also be recording these traditions down.

Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander has said, “That which I do not in some way record will be lost at my death, and that which I do not pass on to my posterity, they will never have. The work of gathering and sharing eternal family keepsakes is a personal responsibility. It cannot be passed off or given to another.”

Also, President Spencer W. Kimball has said, “Let us then continue on in this important work of recording the things we do, the things we say, the things we think, to be in accordance with the instructions of the Lord. For those of you who may not have already started your books of remembrance and your records, we would suggest that this very day you begin to write your records quite fully and completely.”

Journals, scrapbooks, etc are not just for thoughts, experiences, events, memories, although those are very good things to write down. But they are also for writing down traditions you have and the purposes behind that tradition. That way, several generations down, if someone wishes to know the reason why they do a certain thing, then it is understood. In my class one girl brought of the matter that her mother would always cut off the ends of the roast for Thanksgiving dinner. Her daughter asked her why she did that, because it was perfectly good meat, and she said she didn't know, that it's what her mother had always done. So she when to her mother and asked her why she cut off the ends. The reason? It wouldn't fit in the pot otherwise. Traditions and their purpose should be written down so others can choose to continue or discontinue or revive a tradition.

Here are a few articles:

Preserving Your Family Traditions

Creating Family Traditions

I'm sure there are tons of other articles you could research if you wish too.


So, Question.
What are some of your favorite family traditions?

The End of A Beginning

One. Two. Three.

That is the number of days I have left here in Rexburg, ID.

At least, the number of days I have left until the end of my first semester at BYU-I. It's amazing at how much I've learned this semester. The door to a wider world has been opening. I am beginning to see more of the things I never knew of. Its... remarkable.

What have I learned? What are the things that caused the door to begin opening?

Knowledge, of course. College has a lot of that.

Wisdom. Something gained through experiences.


Being the oldest, I imagine myself to be an adventurer, a discoverer. I helped to map a portion of the wilderness so my younger siblings can see what is out there and perhaps make their own adventures a little easier in a certain way.

I've learned of things that are immediately applicable to my life. If it not so immediate then it is certainly going to be helpful in the future.

My HIST 101 class has taught me that you can learn to enjoy a class that normally you might not enjoy. That even when you've changed your minor to something else and you no longer need to worry about the class too much, you still put effort into it. That just the process of doing something that you don't quite enjoy is something worth learning. It teaches you to be always cheerful and positive and looking on the bright side of things. I've learned to love that class for a variety of different reasons, rather then dislike it for one. It has become a worthwhile class just from the attitude I've had.

My SFN 302 class, or as I call it, my Nursing class, is a wonderful one. There are only 12 girls in the class and its a class where we are all there just to learn. We aren't taking the class in order to pass a test, but rather for our own personal use. Its a class where Learning by the Spirit is something that causes miraculous things to be discussed and learning about in the two hours we are in the room. The girls in this class are close. We honestly learn from one another and the experiences we have had.

My General Studies course 105, or College Success, was an extremely helpful class. I just learned about things that I probably would have discovered and learned about well into my Sophomore year at minimum. I learn of things that the college student should know. Like where all the buildings are, and generally what type of building it is. I've learned of strategies to help me acquire and remember the knowledge I learn in my classes. Its been extremely useful.

My Writing Class, or FDENG 101. I love this class. The first day I didn't know quite what to think. The second day of the class I didn't know what to do as my group from the first day all dropped. But as the semester continued it became one of my favorites. I've gained a whole class of friends. The style of teaching was different in this class then any other that I had ever had. But I loved it, if only because it was what I personally agreed with from my High School years. I've recognized the things that are taught were usually already incorporated into my life, but I became aware of them and try to improve them. Things such as writing about what you really care about and for an actual reason. It has been a great semester.

My Book of Mormon 2, or FDREL 122, class has been quite fun. My teacher had surgery and was gone for 4 weeks, but in the meantime we had 2 other teachers, elderly teachers that were well retired from teaching seminary. I've learned so much. I've read the Book of Mormon several times, but learning different lessons from most every verse and discovering the words of the prophets on a particular issue that I had never thought of before.... it was fantastic! I already had a strong testimony of the gospel, but its definitely be strengthened as I read the second half of the Book of Mormon again.

American Foundations, or FDAMF 101, is a great class. Because of the program I was in in High School, I took 3 classes of American History and Government. Much of it seemed repeating, but I always learned something new. This class I expected to be the same thing, but we learned more about the economics and the principles behind our government. I have learned so many things to be applied to my life. I've learned to have better faith in God in the aspects of the economy and government in my life. I've learned how miraculous it was for the creation of our Country and what it has led to. It has been so amazing to be able to have gospel truths and principles taught in relation to both government and economics, things that many people think are entirely separate.

My Intro to English Studies class, or ENG 110, is a requirement for my English major and it has also been extremely useful. It helped me to discover all of what I could do with my major and how to accomplish getting there. Both in school and in the world. It makes me more sure of the things that I have decided to study.

These are only my classes and the surface of what I learned in each of them. But the rest of college has been just as much of a learning experience. I have learned how to love those that are hard to love. I have learned how to live on my own. I have learned how to be more responsible of self and others. I have discovered that a good attitude truly does make a difference. That a smile can mean the world. That life is hard and challenging, but worth it.

I'm wondering what exactly it is that I'll be able to learn the rest of my school semesters. What an adventure.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." ~Winston Churchill

Things to Smile About

I was at the McKay Library this morning and I found a well worn thick little red book entitled Lengthen Your Smile. Its by Robert Nash and published in 1996. It looked interesting so I picked it up and checked it out. To my unexpected amusement I discovered that the book contains short stories for a Latter-day Saint for every day of the year but Leap Day. I randomly opened to a page, read, and then started laughing. Here are some of the stories and the day it is to coincide with (not that the day matters, but just incase you want to look for yourself sometime):

April 21
"Four Religious Myths:
1. It's easy op get credit for doing good, but hard to get cash.
2. Noah's wife was Joan of Ark.
3. The fifth commandment is 'Humor thy father and mother.'
4. It's hard to hear anything in church because the agnostics are so terrible."


May 15
"A Poem quoted by author Alma Heaton probably contains some good advice for young men and young women:

Before I heard the doctors tell
The danger of a kiss,
I had considered kissing you
The nearest thing to bliss

But now I know biology
I sit and sigh and moan,
Six million mad bacteria
And I thought we were alone."

June 2
"Spencer W. Kimball told the story of a young Mormon soldier in World War II who wore both a standard wristwatch and an older, larger pocket watch. His buddies noticed him regularly looking at both watches, and asked why he checked the time twice.
'The wristwatch tells me the time here where we are, but the big watch Pa gave me tells me the time it is in Utah,' said the soldier. 'When the big watch says 5:00 A.M., I know dad is rolling out to milk the cows. And any night when it says 7:30, I know the whole family is around a well-spread table on their knees thanking the Lord for what's on the table and asking him to watch over me and keep me clean and honorable.
'It's those things that make me want to fight when the going gets tough,' said the young man. 'I can find out what time it is here easy enough. What I want to know is what time it is in Utah.' "

June 5
"Just when you think you've escaped pride . . .
A Sunday School teacher gave a lesson about the arrogant Pharisee who prayed in the temple next to the humble publican and expressed thanks to the Lord that he wasn't like his prayer-mate. The publican, meanwhile, bowed his head and smote his breast and asked the Lord to forgive him for his sins.
The Sunday School teacher's suggestion? The members of the class should all thank God they were not like that Pharisee!"

July 23
"A rancher in Kamas, at the base of Utah's Uinta mountains, decided he wanted to sell his ranch. He hired a real estate agent, who came out to inspect his property and write up an ad.
Later the realtor called the rancher to go over the ad copy with him before placing it in the paper. 'For sale,' read the realtor, 'Picturesque white frame ranch house with white picket fence and eighty acres of rich farmland in the middle of beautiful Kamas Valley. Clear streams of mountain water flow nearby, well-stocked with rainbow trout. House faces rugged mountain peaks and is located in a small, friendly farming community with good schools and a new church.'
'Stop!' said the rancher. 'The deal's off! This is the kind of place I've wanted all my life!'
The moral: 'Hold fast to the blessings which God has provided for you,' said J. Reuben Clark. 'Yours is not the task to gain them. They are here; yours is the part of cherishing them.' "

August 26
"A positive mental attitude is important - and so is a firm grip on reality. Charles Ora Card was called by President John Taylor to build a Mormon settlement in western Canada in 1887. The town he founded - Cardston, in the province of Alberta - became a wonderful settlement, but on the high Canadian plains, it was wind-swept and cold.
One gusty, frigid morning, Brother Card was walking to Church with his father. 'Isn't the air fresh and invigorating?' he asked.
'Yes,' said the father, 'and isn't there a lot of it?' "

October 19
"Lucile C. Reading, a former counselor in the general Primary presidency and managing editor of The Friend magazine, illustrated her belief in the joys of work with a story about Thomas Edison.
Edison's wife worried her husband was working too hard and encouraged him to take a vacation.
'But where would I go? asked the inventor.
'Just decide where you'd rather be than anywhere else on the earth, and then go there,' Mrs. Edison advised.
Her husband agreed. 'Very well,' he said. 'I will go there tomorrow.'
The next morning found him right back in his laboratory."

December 15
"Parents: If you ever wonder whether or not you have an influence on your children, remember the story of a father who took his three young sons on a summertime trip to Yellowstone Park. Upon their return, they dropped by Grandma's to report their adventures. And the first thing out of their mouths? They didn't describe the bears, geysers, elk, moose, hot pots, mountains, fish, rivers, or lakes. 'Grandma!' they said, 'Daddy got a ticket for speeding!'

I would highly recommend this little book to everyone and anyone. Although, I think that with most of them your probably going to have to be LDS to really understand. Otherwise your going to think we are a bit peculiar. In which you would be entirely right.

The Weekly Goals

I am reading Mormon Essays by D. James Cannon and it got me thinking. The author came up for the idea with the idea of these essays from the scripture Alma 32:27 which says, "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." The phrase I wish you to focus upon is "experiment upon my words".

Cannon decided to choose a scripture for a week and then try to apply it in his life for that week. When the week ended, he would write a little essay on the the scripture and what he learned about it. Cannon: "My personal experience in taking one scripture per week and putting it to the test, living by it, and applying it to my problems, decisions, and attitudes of daily pursuits has been most rewarding."

How motivating that is! How I wish to do the same!

And I shall!

That just shows a true and deep understanding and intellect, or at least a wish to gain it. It's an admirable trait: the wish to progress.

I shall try to do this.

I think it will also make my daily scripture study more effective as I seek for the ways I can take that scripture and apply it to my life. Could you imagine if I ended up taking every verse in order and assign each a week?? How much progress I would make in the time period of several hundred weeks? I think I shall try that. I really shall. but maybe not every single verse. yet. :)

Drawings and Thoughts

I love looking up quotes. I love it. Quotes on Life, Love, Friendship, Family, Happiness, Joy, Wisdom, Knowledge, Smiles, etc. I just love it all. Some of my favorite are as follows:

“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.”

"A laugh is a smile that bursts" ~Mary H. Waldrip

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face" ~Victor Hugo

I was in class today and decided to draw some. :D It was a lot of fun. It just makes me smile. They are rather simple drawings, but they were fun to make and then scan... :D so I hope some of them just kinda make your day and have you smiling.



I don't really know what to call this. A fuzzball? A fluffy? Whatever it is, people like them. I love to draw them.



My Blue Flower.



Luv ya!!



This? I just wished to randomly draw. :D Love the quote too. However, wings are very difficult to draw. But I think I did ok. :)



All about Living. :)



Another Happy Quote!!



I wanted to draw a home with a nice little quote. I like this a lot.



Girl + Boy


So that's really all in the drawing department for the day. But It was nice to do. Wish my mind could come up with actual amazing things as this was just kinda doodling in a somewhat thoughtful manner. But it certainly gets you to think calmly, or in other words, it's a kind of meditation. It's enjoyable.

Drawing can get you to think in a different manner then you perhaps normally do. Even if it is only doodling. Love it.

Registration: The Craziness of it All

It is my firm belief that the hours between 2 and 5 in the morning are meant for sleep.

Sure you can stay up until 1 am and take an hour to get in your bed, but by 2:01 am you are to be asleep at the latest. Then 5 am should be the absolute earliest in which you wake.

Of course, this is only for the average person. If you have a job that requires you to have different hours then of course you should not live by this way of sleeping. But for the average college student... this is the MINIMUM of sleep we should get.

Last night I went to bed at 3:30 am and not because I was having a social life or any such thing. Nope that's not why at all. It's because of reregistering for classes. Amazingly I was able to get all the classes I wished to have. After several hours because the site was being extraordinarily slow...

But here is my schedule now (you can click on it to see it up close):



I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to have the classes that I wished to have because of overlapping or conflicts and whatever else could go wrong... But goodness, prayer really does work you know. It really does. It even helps you get through a day of classes with little sleep. You learn to go into a deep sleep from the time your head hits the pillow to the time which the alarm goes off and feel well rested.

I'm excited for them. I really am. I didn't really want to have my classes start at 7:45 and 8 am every day... but those were really the only times in which they were offered and I need to take them for my major. But I am excited about the fact that my classes will be done by noon, expect on Tuesdays and Thursdays when they'll end at 11 am.

I'm also quite proud of the fact that I've limited myself to 16 credits rather then 21 or 18... It was a very difficult thing to do, just to let you know. But I'm extraordinarily excited!

It's amazing to me that my semester is almost over. Three more weekends... and that's all. Crazy.

Just have to finish up on this one first. Insane. Time goes by so fast! It seems like I only just got up here! So much has happened. So much has been learned. It's wonderful.

Library: the Collection

I was about 8 years old when my parents began looking for a new house to live in, because we were having an addition to the family, my little brother Robert. Once in awhile, they'd take the rest of us children with them. One time we were looking at different house models, and I clearly remember wanting a certain model because they had two high walls of bookshelves. My parents had to explain to me that the house we were building wouldn't automatically have the bookshelves in it. I knew that, but didn't really believe it, because since I could now visualize it, I wanted that house just because the dream of having a little library like that seemed more realistic when living in that house.

Cicero has said, "To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul."

Since I was little I began to picture owning a library in my home. But what amazed me was that as I grew and matured, so did the context of my imaginary library. The shelves were first filled with the Harry Potter books, the Eragon books, the Alex Rider books, the Dr. Seuss books, mostly the entertainment and fantasy books. Soon, the were filled with a more classical, science and historical fiction angle. But I never really had much of an interest in the non-fiction genre. Until recently.

As Holbrook Jackson said, "Your library is your portrait."

Now my library would include all the perviously mentioned books, along with Way to Be! by Gordon B. Hinckley, as well as some of his other books like Standing for Something. It would include Elder Neal A. Maxwell's books such as Moving in His Majesty and Power. Also, I'd love to get some works by President Thomas S. Monson and the other church presidents. It would also contain Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell, Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach their Kids that the Poor and Middle Class do not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter, The Five People you meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, Seven Miracles that Saved America: Why they Matter and Why we Should have Hope by Chris Stewart and Ted Stewart, Live your Life for Half the Price by Lyle and Tracy Shamo, Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell, Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

Of course, this isn't all. I'd include all my textbooks from college, some literary journals, some encyclopedias, church magazines, talks on CDs like The John Bytheway Collection Vol. I & II and The Little Things that can make a Big Difference by Daryle Hoole. I'd add on biographies, "How To" books on different skills, essays by Thoreau and Emerson, and journals of my ancestors and relatives, including my own. My library would also contain little inspirational thought books like Small and Simple Things by Marjorie Pay Hinckley.

I'm sure that in a few days I would even have more to add to this imaginary collection.

President Hinckley has said, "I love libraries. I love books. There is something sacred, I think, about a great library because it represents the preservation of the wisdom, the learning, the pondering, of men and women of all the ages accumulated together under one roof to which we can have access as our needs require."

What a wealth of Knowledge! What a wealth of Wisdom!

There are few things I wish to collect in my life: friends, family, and wisdom.

"A library of wisdom, then, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it," says Richard de Bury, one of the very first English collectors of books.

I don't entirely agree, as there are more important things then books, such as family, the gospel and the goal of achieving Eternal Life, but a collection of wisdom, even if it is only located in the mind, is something to always increase and magnify.

How I wish to make my dream a reality. And I am working on it. But it'll take awhile. Books and the like cost a bit of money, and poor college students do not have that much to spare. Except slowly and surely. The textbooks will be a required buy, and every once in awhile I shall buy a book to add to my currently non-exsistant shelves. It'll be an adventure.

When I was little I learned about the Library of Alexandria. I noticed it because, well, Alexandria is my name, then the word "library", and I discovered that it was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I learned it was the largest library of the ancient world. I then came to the startling question of "What is the largest library in the world today?" I learned that the Library of Congress was in fact the largest library. It soon became my goal to visit that place someday and own a library card for that library (though not long after, I learned that public can't check out books, though they can use them). So someday I would visit. What's rather ironic of course in the fact that my family this Spring Break is going to D.C. without me. Sad sad sad. Oh well, I shall accomplish this goal someday! I have a whole life ahead of me!

What an adventure it will be! To collect knowledge, wisdom, and experiences.