Another Semester Gone By

As things begin to wrap up for the beginning of the semester in a week or so I find myself busier than ever. I don't know why this happens but it seems that the world, and college professors, seems to conspire to destroy the lives of students at that most stressful and critical moment of preparing for and finishing finals. As college becomes ever hectic, and even more so with all of the added responsibilities of being married and having to work basically full time, I find myself trying to think positively as a way to keep my head above water, metaphorically speaking. As I've reflected a little on things that help me to overcome I remembered having heard a talk from David A. Bednar, one of the twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in which he voiced some very positive advice. He simply stated to the audience that if he could have the wish of his heart, that he would take every single individual aside and tall them that "you can do this". He then went on to testify of all of the various spiritual and religious elements that make that statement valid but I just loved the simplicity and earnestness of his statement, "you can do this". I guess I that I too would echo those words, if you ever are in need of a respite, if you ever feel that you can't go any further, if you feel that you would rather cease to exist than take on the seemingly impossible challenges that lay before you; just know that "you can do this".

Remote Meeting Blog Post

To all of my devoted followers out there, this post is strictly to fulfill a class assignment... So excuse the boring content. So 3BMD is the group that I'm apart of for this assignment and essentially we needed to have a "mobile meeting", or rather just meet through a medium like Skype or Hangouts through Google, etc. So we all connected up and met and discussed our project which was a business consulting proposal for Delta Airlines. For this project we reviewed and analyzed a number of complaints that people had filed with Delta Airlines and then brainstormed a variety of ideas and ultimately came up with a list of recommendations for how Delta could fix their problems. So as a team we just discussed the results of our presentation and findings, seeing as we had already given our presentation. I have to say that meeting in any other form rather than in person is difficult for me when something as important as a large grade is on the line. That being said I do realize that mobile meetings certainly are effective, especially if you are a part of an international organization and need to be able to meet with someone without have to add on the cost and time of traveling to see them. So overall the remote meeting was certainly an effective way to communicate once we had gotten past all of the technical difficulties, but I would still prefer to meet in person if that option is available.

Taking Steps Into the Dark

One of the most profound lessons I have ever learned happened while I was a missionary in training for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was struggling a lot with the concept of the divine inspiration and guidance as opposed to my own thoughts and desires. How could I, or anyone for that matter, tell the difference? An inspired instructor of mine shared a clip with me that was a portion of a talk given by Elder David A. Bednar, one of the twelve apostles of the church I was about to go out into Las Vegas to represent. Elder Bednar said simply that if we are being "good boys and good girls" that we will inevitably be led by the spirit to do that which is in line with the will of God. Or in other more simple words, we will be inspired to do those things that will bring us and our loved ones and those whom we will associate with throughout our lives, great happiness.So if you can't figure out what the next steps are in life, no matter how much you pray and fast and seek for answers, then perhaps the answer that God is giving you is to move forward with faith, seeking after those things that are good and uplifting and we will ultimately be led to do those things that we should.

DDDS...

... Or in other words, "Don't Do Dumb Stuff". I had the opportunity of being the senior patrol leader for a group of boy scouts as we hiked more than 70 miles through the mountains of Philmont, in northern New Mexico. Our adult leaders, being the wise and intelligent beings that adulthood had turned them into, came up with this motto that would become the foundation of our time during those two weeks together. I can remember many occasions when an important difference in the outcome of events had been changed due to the heed that we all gave to this one simple little phrase. In the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ, we are also counseled that it simple and easy to give heed to the word of God, the which will lead us on to eternal life and everlasting happiness. So "Don't Do Dumb Stuff" by cheating yourself out of everything that you could have had for the rest of forever because you were too caught up in instant gratification. Happiness is really so easy to obtain, the reason why it perhaps isn't as much as a large part of our lives as we would like is because there are dumb things that we don't want to give up.

Happiness and Investments

What is an investment? I think that it is simply a sacrifice of something that we could have now for a greater return in the future. That being said, do we invest enough in ourselves? in our own happiness?  and if so, to what extent and do we do it enough? just as in the "real world" there are many different types of investments of to make. Whether you are investing in bonds, stocks, or whatever else it may be (not to mention all of the smaller categories that make up bonds and stocks) they have all differences that will produce different results. and so the next question to consider is, if we are investing a good amount, is it in the right things? We could spend all of our time investing in ourselves, in our own happiness and success, but never achieve either because we are simply investing in the wrong things. When we truly invest in true happiness we cut out a lot of the things that are said to make one happy, things like; alcohol, tobacco, pornography, pre-marital sex or any sort of sexually intimate relationship outside of legal and lawful marriage, etc.... These are the things that the world teaches us will make one happy, and perhaps that in the moment they will provide a certain level of "satisfaction" or carnal "fulfillment". But remember the definition of investing? we sacrifice lesser things so that we can have greater things! By giving up the pleasures of the world today we are investing in the treasures of heaven for tomorrow. Treasures that rust and moth cannot corrupt and where thieves cannot break through and steal or spoil. Treasures that truly mean something and will not only be valuable here but invaluable for the rest of time and eternity. Investing in things like selfless service, abstinence, keeping the commandments, preaching the gospel and others are those things that are of most worth to us and will only become more and more valuable as we invest in them. These are the things that will lead us on to not only eternal life, but also eternal happiness.

Don't ever give up

When I was serving my mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I heard a talk by one of the leaders of the church, David A. Bednar. His talk focused mainly on missionary work of course but there was a part of it that stuck out to me and has been with me ever since. "You can do this" are the words that continue to echo through my mind. Elder Bednar made this statement in conjunction with expressing his desires to talk with and spend a little bit of time with each and every missionary. He stated that if he had the ability to so do that he would pull every single one of them close and tell them "You can do this." I think that we can all do this. We weren't sent here, from wherever you believe that we originate from whether it be bacteria or aliens, to fail. We've proven it time and time again that there is something greater within each and every one of us. For me, I believe this "greater" identity or ability or whatever it is that you want to call it, a divine heritage. For me, this something greater that gives us the ability to achieve success even when it seems the very jaws of hell gape open after us is the power of the Almighty as He supports His children in their righteous endeavors. "You can do this", I can do this, we can all do this.

Faith in Every Footstep

This past week was absolutely killer. Trying to balance a full-time job, it's not quite full-time but rather close, with school and then family commitments just about left me groping for my sanity. Coupled with all of that are a lot of other difficulties; finances, grades, strengthening relationships, work commitments, you get the picture. Through all of this there were so many times when I would stop to ask myself, in the few seconds of "free" time that I managed to steal every day, "why is any of this happening?" I began to find myself doubting in large measure a lot of the blessings that God promises through scriptures and other means of revelation because they certainly didn't seem to be happening in my life no matter how hard I tried to be obedient to commandments and what not. Above all, things seemed to become more difficult the harder I tried to do well in all of my commitments, those spiritual as well as secular. It came to a point where I was considering making major changes in my life to cut some things out so that I could handle the things that were being dished out to me.

To make a long story short I was trying really hard not to mope around but rather look for answers when, as if by divine intervention itself, I found myself reading from the Book of Mormon in Ether Ch. 12. For those of you unfamiliar with this specific book or chapter, just understand that it's main subject is that of faith, specifically, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a verse in the chapter that reads "And now I Moroni would speak somewhat concerning these things, I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen. Wherefore dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until AFTER the trial of your faith." Reading this simple passage just stopped me dead in the water and suddenly so many things started to make sense. All of those blessings and other things that I felt had been promised to me but that I had been cheated out of due to a lack of manifestation in my life suddenly seemed so very much more realistic. I simply just wasn't, or even wanting to for that matter, endeavoring to endure these trials with faith, trusting in God that He would deliver me and keep His words and etc. The chapter continues with talking about miracles, and how they are also only manifest AFTER the trial of our faith, how God cannot perform any miracle without there FIRST being faith manifested.

Moral of the story? don't give up on God because He doesn't operate according to your time schedule, just keep on keeping on and trust that He is watching over you. We might not understand why things happen the way they do but if we trust Him and try our best to keep His commandments and do the simple things that are asked of us then we can be assured that everything will be alright in the end.

Just Another Day

I'm going to endeavor to keep this post relatively short as not a lot of awesome things happened this week, in fact it was kind of a rough week. Currently I'm attending college full time as well as working about 30 hours a week. This week just about killed me due to a large multitude of exams and projects being due. It's really during times like these that I wonder "why am I doing this to myself"? It seems like it would all be so easy to give up sometimes and just get out, to go live a life of irresponsibility in my parents house for the rest of forever. But then I always remember my motivation and I think that is the key part. One of my favorite quotes of all time is "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions", which really has nothing to do with this blog post but the other more pertinent quote that I also love says "Where there is no vision the people perish". To me this really means nothing more than that as we keep our motives in view, as we are able to maintain the vision that got us started in the first place that come what may we will be able to continue on in the face of great adversity.

Losing Ground

I've heard it said that when it comes to life that if you're not progressing that you're regressing. I guess when we consider things like memory, physical fitness, developed skills like musicianship for example, and other things that if we're not constantly seeking improvement and practicing that those skills do get rustier and rustier until the day when they've just about abandoned us completely. I'm bringing this up really for just one reason, and that's to simply illustrate my subject for this blog post; that of the importance of keeping oneself dedicated to performing the small and simple daily things that, for some reason beyond me, seem to contribute to the day in a larger than life proportion. This week has been especially taxing for me as I've worked more hours this week not only in school but also in my job at the Utah Food Bank.

Trying to keep even just these two important parts of my life balanced is, in and of itself, a miracle to be had indeed. Those things on top of family life, my emotional and mental sanity from so much work, trying to fulfill religious commitments, and a social life to top it all off just make things seem a little impossible at times. It's during days and weeks and months like this where I definitely start to slip in the small and simple things that I know I should be doing but just for one reason or another don't actually do. I've come to notice that when I let this foundation slip away from me, due to negligence on my part, that things almost instantaneously begin to crumble away as well. The next thing I know, I'm sitting in a dark corner sucking my thumb while in the fetal position and wishing that everything would just go away for a bit.... OK, that's not really how it all goes down but you get the idea.

I think that as an essential part of all of our journeys through life that we need not only to develop a foundation, some sort of uplifting and strengthening routine through which we can renew ourselves spiritually and mentally and physically, and learn how to and spend the effort and time maintaining it that we will find greater happiness and success in life. My goal is to help others, primarily through providing hunger relief and also through the ability to become educated and trained so that not just "symptoms" are treated but so that the underlying problem, poverty in general, can be overcome. I can't even begin to imagine how I'm going to accomplish all of that or how to get there in the first place, hence the reason for this blog, but how much more lost would I be every day if I had to start from ground-0 again because I didn't have a foundation? The sheer thought of it is almost too much for me to handle so I'm not going to endeavor to give you a mental image.

Foundation, foundation, foundation. If it's not getting better, it's getting worse.

A companion for the journey

Like any good and notable adventurer, though I'm not actually one, I too have a cherished companion who always seems to have my back. This companion is my wife. How to describe her.... There are at least a million different things that I could say to praise her for the blessing that she is in my life and for her impeccable character but I doubt that even all of the blogs in the world would be sufficient to give you a picture of the grandeur of her womanhood. She is, in every sense of the phrase, the "Proverbial Woman" as described in Proverbs 31. The reason why I've dedicated this blog post to her is due to a potent lesson I learned this past week while I was at work. Currently I work at the Utah Food Bank in Salt Lake City as a Volunteer Project Specialist. Basically what I do is I help train the many volunteers that come in daily to assist us in the timely and efficient completion of the various projects that we do to help fight hunger in the state of Utah. It was while I was at work one night talking with one of the volunteers that I was brought, again, to the knowledge of a serious problem that I have that I've needed to fix for a while now. I have always loved to tease people because I enjoy the reactions I get out of them, I guess you could say that I find it really entertaining. Pretty pathetic and immature huh? This is an issue that's been brought to my attention many times and I'm sorry to say that I've never really made much of an effort to overcome this great imperfection of mine. So even on into my marriage I still struggle with this and my poor wife has been nothing but patient and loving with me. On top of everything that she has to deal with she also has to come home to a husband who can really be a little relentless sometimes with the "tonterias" as they would say in Spanish, or in our language just plain old foolishness. So I've committed now to really work at this whole teasing thing and just grow up and be a more responsible and mature adult. I imagine that by now you're asking yourself "so what in the world do your personal problems have to do with my life?" The moral of the story is (I've always wanted to write that) that I believe it is so important that we are cognizant not only of who we ourselves are, because I can bet you the whole world that you're not perfect and that you have things to improve just as much as I do, but also of how the things we do affect others, especially those whom we love. I tease out of fun, yet for others and especially for my wife it's not necessarily a very pleasant experience and so it is time for me to wake up and smell the roses, it has been time for a long time now. We need to cherish our friends and loved ones, and also all of those around us. I believe that perhaps one of the greatest manifestations of love and respect for someone can be manifest in our willingness and sincere efforts to change ourselves for the better. To be the best person that we can possibly be. Now you might ask, "how on earth am I to know how to be the best person I can be if I don't even know what the best person I can be is?" I think the answer to a question like that can only be found in our Savior Jesus Christ, as He was the only perfect one to have walked this earth. Multiple times He brings attention to the fact that He is the light, the life, and the way and that we are to come unto Him in order to receive salvation. I contend that in order to really come unto Him that we must become like Him, through developing "Christlike" attributes. They're called "Christlike" for a reason. And I suppose that with my goal of being more kind and loving to my wife, and to all of those around me that I am seeking to try and become just a little bit more like Him, our perfect example so that my "companion for the journey", my wonderful wife, will choose to continue to be my companion even after this mortal journey is over and on into the journey of the eternities.

The Small Things Matter

I had a pretty powerful experience this past week and I apologize to my readers for not being more diligent in recording it sooner. This experience, though of a secular conclusion, was absolutely spiritual in nature and for those of you who aren't very religious or spiritual by any means than I hope that at least through reading through some of my posts, though I don't promise that all of them will have some sort of spiritual background, that you'll be able to see the value that an ideal of learning from everyone and everything is very precious indeed. But anyway, to continue on with my experience. It wasn't until I served a mission, basically a two-year commitment in which a man or woman consecrates themselves to living special rules and preaching the gospel, that I really began to understand what it was that I wanted to do with my life as a career. Up to this point I had always found interest in a variety of things but that was as far as it went, just a scratch on the surface. I had recently been transferred to a new area, just another one of those things that we do on missions, to serve with a new companion by the name of Elder Jacobs. No his name was not actually "Elder" but it was a title that we all used being representatives of not only the LDS church but also of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was during my time in this new area, simply a different part of the city of Las Vegas which is where I spend the majority of my time as a missionary, that I met and came to befriend someone who has changed my life forever and someone who I hope will continue to be a close friend and major part of my life. The name of this individual was Brian W. Burton, but I later came to know him as Father Burton for a variety of reasons which I might endeavor to explain later on. Anway, Father Burton and I quickly became very close as my companion, the other missionary I was laboring to preach the gospel with, and I continued to meet with him frequently to share more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and as he shared more and more about his beliefs and his experiences. Father Burton is a special man, his career and sole focus is to feed the communities of Southern Nevada as he is currently the CEO of Three Square Food Bank. When I found this out, and continued to learn more about the things that he did for work, I became completely fascinated by it and thus began my quest to enter the realm of Nonprofit business. Since this time in 2012 I've been striving to learn and do all that I can so that I could some day be placed in a position in which I can help facilitate the feeding of hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions, of people. So how does this all tie into my experience of last week? To make an already long story short I had been struggling for quite some time to figure out really the best means of going about accomplishing these goals of mine. It had come to the point where really I just wasn't having any success and had seemed to exhaust all of my options and so the depression began to set in. Remember all of those other interests I mentioned at the beginning of this post? I was constantly being plagued by these thoughts that I should move on to something else, despite the special feelings that I had received about doing my best to help feed others. It wasn't until two Sundays ago, and many many prayers and much studying, that I finally received what I believe to have been an answer to my many supplications to the Almighty. I won't give you all of the details, but to be more succinct my wife and I ended up in some random ward of the LDS church out in Orem UT. It was there that I met a man, who later identified himself as the Managing Director for the school of Entrepreneurship at BYU where I was currently attending, who put me back on the straight and narrow path toward ending world hunger!... or something like that anyway. He simply told me a few things that I had been praying to hear, things that he couldn't have known to say without having been inspired of God. Moral of the story? God lives, and takes great interest in our lives and the paths that we follow. He love us. We truly are special to Him. I know that He not only hears our prayers, but with great care and wisdom He answers them, as only and omnipotent and omniscient Being could do.

The First Step

I guess that the reason why we spend a lot of time in school studying out of history books is so that we can learn from them. Learn so that we know the direction that we need to continue to follow, learn so that we can improve, learn so that we don't make the same mistakes as those before us. And how is all of this knowledge recorded? Through the written word. Even technology with all of its recent advances hasn't been able to replace that. So it stands to reason that in order to learn from one's own past, so that he/she may be able to more accurately see the future, there is a need to write things down and I suppose that is to be the reason for my blog. I have dreams and goals just like everyone should have and I hope that through some of my musings here on this blog that I'll be able to help at least someone, even if that someone happens to only be myself. And so here we go!