I'm not a fan of Halloween at all, except that it's another reason to get candy (as if I needed another) :). However, there have been a couple awesome activities that I've had the opportunity to be a part of the past few days. Friday night was a Murder Mystery Adventure at a friend's house and Becca and I got to dress up as Bill Nye's disgruntled lab assistants. Our objective was to knock off Chuck Norris, but we were a little too slow in figuring out exactly how to do that so we ended up just knocking off Bad Horse instead at the last second and became the new leaders of the Evil League of Evil. It was a lot of fun and I was surprised how well people stayed in character throughout the night!
Tonight we had a combined FHE activity. We made boats out of gourds and floated them down rain gutters that had been set up outside. Alas, I was unable to find good balance on mine, and by virtue of putting a sail in my gourd, it would not stay afloat. But it was great watching other people get so into it. Pretty heated competition. :) Happy Halloween!
Yesterday afternoon was an awesome stake conference meeting. Perhaps to the surprise of some, the focus was not eternal marriage, but the importance of temples and the significance they play in our lives. A member of the Provo temple presidency and his wife both spoke, along with members of the stake presidency and other members of the stake, and all of them gave outstanding talks. One of the best comments that I enjoyed was made by the wife and she said "The temple covenants are not restrictive, but that they are for our protection". The other day I saw an article in the New York Times that talked about the some of the restrictions we face at BYU and just the church as a whole like no tattoos and the like. In addition, they talked to some members that had found "ways around the rules" and what they did and listed their suggestions. You can read them here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/fashion/young-mormons-find-ways-to-be-hip.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=Rebelling%20if%20only%20just%20a%20little&st=cse&scp=1
Needless to say, I thought the concept was rather ridiculous. I mean, sure, I wish I didn't have to worry about shaving facial hair on a regular basis here at BYU, but I don't feel like its really limiting my agency or the ability to express myself. I know that the Lord has given us commandments for our ultimate benefit. Life's not really about what we're willing to live with sometimes; it's what we're willing to live without.
There were great talks given in the other session of stake conference today as well. There was a variety of topics covered. I was particularly impressed by a comment made in a talk by one of the Elders Quorum Presidents from my ward. He made the point that our futures will be glorious if we keep our covenants. I agree that no matter what happens in life, we can always rely upon the power of the Savior's Atonement and the covenants that we have made to give us strength. I'm so grateful that my parents taught me the importance of the temple, not just by putting up pictures in my home, but by attending on a regular basis. The temple pictured above is my favorite temple for many reasons, but especially because of the covenants that I made there and the many times I've been able to return to renew and remember them. I look forward to the day when I will have the opportunity to make more and receive the blessings that come from that. My life would not be the same without regular temple attendance. I'm so grateful to have one so close by here in Provo and I hope that we will all take advantage of the opportunities that we have to attend our own temples whenever we get the chance.
I had an interesting experience walking to campus Saturday morning. I made the commitment that I would focus my thoughts on what I had been studying earlier that morning from a General Conference talk, just to see if I could do it and I was amazed at how difficult it was. In just a matter of fifteen minutes, it was all I could do to not be distracted by everything that was going on around me. It was a reminder of how important it is to take time to go to the temple and take advantage of the opportunities to ponder and pray about the things that concern us the most. The Spirit is so strong there. It is my goal to not only endeavor to seek the Spirit while in the temple, but to bring it back home with me as well and make my own home a place where it can reside.
So tonight during my American Literature class we got to talking about Emily Dickinson, but before we jumped into the discussion of her poems, we saw a brief PowerPoint presentation of her. On the first slide, beneath a picture of her, there was a quote from her that said, "I am one of the lingering bad ones". When I read that, I almost immediately thought of the girl in the picture above. For those of you who don't recognize her, she's a character in of of my favorite Disney movies, Meet the Robinsons. And if that doesn't jog your memory, here's the part of the movie she's in (you can skip to the last nine seconds if you only want to see her, I couldn't find a clip with just her, but the whole thing is pretty funny).
This is how I envision Emily Dickinson as a child. As you can tell, I don't think very highly of this particular poet. She definitely had some poems of impact, but I personally don't care to read her. I read enough in the newspapers about death. I don't really care to sift through her constant references to it in her poetry.
Anyhow, Dickinson is one of the reasons I'm not a big fan of early American Literature. But not just her. I don't really care for Melville, Poe, Rowlandson, or basically half the people I've read this semester. I've found shining rays of hope in Emerson, Whitman, and Douglass, but the rest of the semester thus far... eh, I don't really care to revisit. Most everyone up to this point that I've read from this era has some serious issues with their religious/political agendas in their writing, or like in the case of Poe, think they're the best writers on earth and no one can compare. So if anyone cares to dissuade me, I'd love to have a better appreciation for these authors, but so far, my teacher hasn't really been able to do that for me.
So to preface this, I'd like to say that I love and cherish many of the songs in the primary songbook. Among my favorite songs is this one. I was trying to download an mp3 of it from the church's website, but I guess they don't have it available. If anyone knows how to get it from there, I'd really like to know. Anyway, I decided to search through YouTube and see what I could find and this was the first thing that popped up, and not surprisingly, the best of the videos that I found.
Over the past few weeks, things have been pretty crazy in my life with trying to figure out if I really wanted to teach English at the jr. high/high school level and taking a class specifically for it. With it finally coming to a close this past week, I've been trying to get into the habit of reading my scriptures first thing and it's incredilbe how much that has made a difference for me. Its reminded me of the love that my Heavenly Father has for me and I am so grateful for that. I feel so privileged to have a knowledge of that. I truly took this knowledge for granted growing up in the church. It was heartwrenching to go out into the mission field and to try and help people not only learn this, but how their lives could improve as a result of that knowledge. So many people I met didn't have this knowledge or had forgotten it and had a very difficult time learning or relearning it. I'm so thankful that my parents took the time to teach this eternal truth to me, even when I wasn't the most teachable. I know that our Haeavenly Fatehr loves each and everyone of us, no matter what we've done. He wants each of us to feel of His love, and the love of His Son, Jesus Christ.
To those who feel like they have been separated from that love, or haven't felt it at all, I hope that you will continually seek after Him and realize that He wants to help you more than you want to be helped. In a world that tries to demean and demolish the things that we hold dear, it can be difficult to see or feel that love in our lives at times. But I have no doubt that even in the moments that we feel cast off from the Lord that we really aren't. I know that He has helped me through every challenge I've faced in my life, and I know that He will do the same for all of us if we allow Him.
I'm grateful for what the creator of this video wrote: "Despite all the darkness that is surrounding us, we can see, feel, and hear much beauty of our Heavenly Fathers creations. May you all find the time to still smell the roses and be grateful for life and hopefully this will help you to raise up your children for the future". I too hope that next to knowing that our Heavenly Father lives, that my future children will know that they are loved not only by their father on earth, but infinitely more by their Father in Heaven. This knowledge has changed my life and affects me in ways that I can't imagine. One of the greatest ways I've been able to feel His love is by reading the scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon. If there is one resounding message throughout the book, despite the continual tragedies and trials that occur, it's that our Heavenly Father knows each of us individually and loves us. When Christ visited the Nephites after His resurrection, He said, "And ye see that I have commanded that none of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might feel and see [me]..." (3 Nephi 18:25). I testify that our Savior and our Heavenly Father will never command any of us to go away when we diligently seek Them, and we will be able to literally feel in our hearts the love which They seek to give us. :)
O.k. not really, but this still an epic picture right? And truly I'm glad this isn't what happened after trying to cram for my midterms today. I've made a promise to myself that if I do end up teaching college, I will not create tests for my classes like the one that I took for American Literature. I am grateful to my teacher in that he did give us ample information as to what we could expect to see on the test. However, given that the majority of it was identifying quotes from our texts and giving really brief summaries of what we learned from them, it was A TON of information to try and pack into my brain in a short period of time. But even with several days of studying, it would have been too much in my opinion. Why you ask? I believe that our brains work a great deal like our stomachs when it comes to the intake of information compared to the intake of food. Ration yourself, have three good meals a day, and eating becomes a rather enjoyable activity. Subject yourself to a lot of food in a short period of time, and I mean A LOT of food in a very short period of time, and you won't be retaining a great deal of it. The same goes for studying. Reading and preparing for class discussions can be enjoyable when you pace yourself. Try to memorize sixty different quotes, what they mean, and fifty some odd key terms in a short period of time and you can bet that if I had to retake that midterm in a week, I'd probably flunk it. Granted, I could have taken some time earlier in the week to study some more, but when you're trying to put that much information in your head, unless you review it on a regular basis, you can bet that you won't retain it for long at all.
Well, enough on my ridiculous midterm rant, last night Becca and I went to the Nickelcade over in Orem and had a great time playing arcade games and winning tickets for intriguing prizes. I found out that my pinball skills have kind of gone down the drain since I last played and I should practice some more and that Becca and I are pretty evenly matched in Air Hockey. We ended the night with 361 tickets. Becca got a fan like the one you see below, only not quite as fancy.
And I got me one of these...
Ok, so it was more like this one that can fit in your hand, but you've got to admit, having something like that in your house would be pretty awesome.
We also got some WarHeads and got a kick out watching the faces we made as the candy made initial contact with our tongues.
I'm so looking forward to church tomorrow and not having to worry about midterms for at least a few more days :)!
So this is not the best of quality but you notice in the center left there is a goal which was used to play World Cup Soccer tonight for German Week. There was a pretty good turnout! There were several teams comprised of three people, with each team representing a different country. Among the countries represented were: China, South Africa, Brazil, and of course Germany! I believe the Chinese dominated, but if I'm wrong, I'm sure the Daily Universe will provide better coverage of the event in the next couple days. Thanks to all who came and supported tonight!
There was a rather interesting question written question in chalk towards the front office of Lone Peak High School today. I meant to take a pic of it, but it was washed away. In essence it said, "I was born gay. Were you born with hatred?" Above it was an intriguing quote from Ghandi, which I'm not sure how it was related to the quote below. Its truly saddening to see such reactions come from a very misunderstood group of people. While I personally don't agree with the question posed, I do understand how it feels to be so misrepresented and ridiculed for one's beliefs. Recent news commentators have reminded us that The LDS Church as an institution is anything but respected among some people. Few things get my goat more than those who refuse to try to understand our religion. I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I totally respect that right. Too many wars have been fought and too much innocent blood has been spilt over this issue. But, when someone tries to tell me they know my religion better than me when they themselves have not lived it, or they try to separate me from other Christian groups, I can lose it pretty quick if I'm not careful. To those who believe or question whether or not we are Christians, I refer you to a talk given by one of the apostles, or main leaders, of our church today. http://lds.org/general-conference/2007/10/the-only-true-god-and-jesus-christ-whom-thou-hast-sent?lang=eng
I am not asking that you conform to my beliefs, but I ask that you show the same respect that you desire for your own creed and beliefs and that you understand where I come from. Just because we as members of this church do not hold to some of the same beliefs as other mainstream Christian churches does not make us any less Christian than anyone else in the world. I hope that we will show people of all creeds, beliefs, races, sexual orientations, from every walk of life, the love that Jesus Christ wants us all to share. I pray that we will recognize that we are all brothers and sisters in spirit, sons and daughters of God, and that we will treat each other as such. :)
So the picture above is an activity we did in my English Teaching Exploration class. It's called chalk talk. You have a topic in the middle and anyone can come up and write anything about it, but they have to be silent. As you can see, it can get pretty messy, but its fun to change things up every now and again. This class has been a blast and I HIGHLY recommend it to any English majors at BYU who have an interest in teaching. I know that's a pretty limited amount of people, but I still think it's a very underrated class. There aren't enough colleges, even within BYU, that have a class like this. It has helped me so much in deciding what I want to do for a career.
FHE was awesome tonight as well. We had a lesson about "The Good Samaritan" and how it's also comparable to the main points of the Plan of Salvation. Then we played a game called "Celebrity Bowl", which is kind of a mix of several games like Taboo and Charades. It was great fun. I have an awesome family to be a part of.
Tomorrow night will be World Cup Soccer for German Week on campus, which Becca is spearheading, so if you're looking for something interesting and exciting to do tomorrow night on campus, come check it out. It's going to be great!
So first off, tonight I had the opportunity to go the BYU Spectacular featuring just about all the amazing performing groups on campus and the legendary Brian Stokes Mitchell. I'm kind of ashamed to say that before tonight, I really knew nothing about him other than the fact that he was the singing voice of Jethro in The Prince of Egypt for the song "Through Heaven's Eyes". If you ever have the opportunity to hear him in concert, take advantage of it. It will be worth it!
Before the show I met up with Becca, her sister Jenny, and her mom at Zupas Cafe, which clearly is Utah's competition for Panera Bread. Extremely good sandwiches! I had Becca order for me since I was running late and she got the Honey Bacon Club (as pictured below and I must say, it doesn't do it justice at all). Simply a masterpiece. I must say my girlfriend has a great sense of taste. So, if you happen to find yourself in a similar situation, having to order something from Zupas, having never been there, I recommend this!
Today was my second day of teaching Senior AP English at Lone Peak High School. It went pretty good overall, but I have a LONG way to go with improving my teaching skills. I really need to work on asking better questions to get students talking more. That's one of the greatest challenges I've faced so far.
On a more serious note, I read a very interesting article on the front page of The New York Times this morning about the death of Steve Jobs. While for many of us, the announcement of this event was abrupt and unexpected, it was not so for many of his closer friends and family. However, he only allowed so many people to come and pay their final condolences to him. One of his closest friends once asked what he thought about having kids and Jobs replied, "It's10,000timesbetterthananythingI'veeverdone." Now, I'm no expert on all the accomplishments of Jobs, but I think it's safe to say that he brought about some pretty revolutionary achievements in the tech world. And despite those triumphs, he says in essence that having kids doesn't even compare. It's good to know that whatever I choose to do for a living that when I come to the end of my life, what will matter most is not how successful I was in my occupation, but in my own relations with my family. I look forward to raising my own family someday and plan to be the best father I can be for them. I'm so grateful to have the amazing family that I do and a father to whom I couldn't look for a better example. R.I.P. Steve Jobs, and thank you for reminding us all of what truly matters in life.
