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!