At the beginning of the semester when Sister Steadman told us that we would be keeping a blog, my first thought was: "ugggh!" I am someone who really doesn't enjoy a lot of social media things. I do have a facebook but it is mostly so I can write messages to people that I met on my mission in Germany. It is much easier to stay in contact through internet then it is writing letters and such.
But after a while of these blogs, I didn't really view them as being such a burden. Instead I began to view them as being almost a journal where I get to tell stories and write about things important to me.
It wasn't always the thing that I remembered to do, I usually found other things to do before updating my blog, but I did really enjoy seeing what experiences other people in my class had. That was probably my favorite thing. While in class you don't hear about certain stories or feelings that a lot of these classmates have had in their lives. That is what I really enjoyed was being able to read what others have experienced.
I must honestly say I really came to enjoy this class more than I thought I would. My fiance took a writing 150 class last year and she seemed to always be so busy with it and stressed out by it. But for me that hasn't really been the case. I enjoyed most, not all, but most of the projects we had in the class a lot more than I thought I would. I am grateful for the time I got to have with it and for everything I learned!!
Friday, December 5, 2014
Christmas!!!!
This is by far the warmest december I remember having before in my life. This entire first week it felt like it did last year in the beginning of october. I heard on the news last night that yesterday was a record breaking warm day which is very interesting cause on that exact day one year ago, it was a record breaking cold day. It was almost as if its trying to balance itself out.
In spite of the weird warm weather, I am still so excited for Christmas. it is truly my favorite time of the year. I basically started looking forward to it back in July to be honest. I am also excited to spend christmas not only with my family this year, but also with my fiances family.
I was with them last year and we had a huge rock band party and it was awesome!! I really want to cherish this christmas and the next few weeks because I will be leaving for 5 months on January 13th for the Air Force.
I am grateful for what I have learned this semester and for the different classes I have been able to take!! It has truly been a huge blessing. i will be taking summer classes when I get back but until then I get to embark on this new journey in my life.
In spite of the weird warm weather, I am still so excited for Christmas. it is truly my favorite time of the year. I basically started looking forward to it back in July to be honest. I am also excited to spend christmas not only with my family this year, but also with my fiances family.
I was with them last year and we had a huge rock band party and it was awesome!! I really want to cherish this christmas and the next few weeks because I will be leaving for 5 months on January 13th for the Air Force.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
American Airman!
I briefly touched on it once before, but a couple months ago, with the support of my fiance and family, I joined the United STates Air Force. I have been going to drills the weekends they have been held and gradually been learning and preparing myself before I leave for basic training. It has pretty much been basic training, for basic training.
My job that I will be doing is I will be a hydraulics specialist. So I will basically learn to master the workings of the aircraft from top to bottom. I am someone who really likes to do hands on things so I am really excited for this opportunity. It is a six year enlistement and basically during that time after my training and what not I will work one weekend a month and that is about it. And by doing that, I get all of school paid for plus get paid a good amount just to go to school.
I will be leaving for basic training right after the winter semester begins. I will be leaving January 13th and be in basic training for 8 1/2 weeks. From there I will then go to tech school where I will learn my job and I will be there for about 12 weeks, so five months altogether. I get back June 2nd and in the meantime my fiance will be doing study abroad in Italy and she will get back a week after me. We will then have about a month and a half or so to prepare for the wedding and will probably get married either July 31st or the first few days of August! I am super excited for this next chapter in my life!!!
My job that I will be doing is I will be a hydraulics specialist. So I will basically learn to master the workings of the aircraft from top to bottom. I am someone who really likes to do hands on things so I am really excited for this opportunity. It is a six year enlistement and basically during that time after my training and what not I will work one weekend a month and that is about it. And by doing that, I get all of school paid for plus get paid a good amount just to go to school. I will be leaving for basic training right after the winter semester begins. I will be leaving January 13th and be in basic training for 8 1/2 weeks. From there I will then go to tech school where I will learn my job and I will be there for about 12 weeks, so five months altogether. I get back June 2nd and in the meantime my fiance will be doing study abroad in Italy and she will get back a week after me. We will then have about a month and a half or so to prepare for the wedding and will probably get married either July 31st or the first few days of August! I am super excited for this next chapter in my life!!!
How I met my fiance
This isn't the most usual way of meeting your fiance that I've ever heard of....
When I was a senior in high school there was this girl that I totally developed a crush on. I got her phone number from one of our mutual friends and one day I called her and asked her on a date. After that she completely played hard to get and was impossible to get a hold of. It absolutely drove me insane. But every now and then she would text me or something and ask to do something. I left on my mission not long after this... I'm sure you are assuming that the girl I just talked about is my fiance.....well guess again..... my fiance is actually this girls little sister!! hahahahah plot twist!!!
yep I was on my mission and didn't ever really hear from my fiances sister, aka the way I met my fiance. So I got home and came to see that she had gotten married and just kinda dated other girls for about a year. Well it turns out her little sister, my fiance, comes to BYU and we would always see each other on campus and say hi and stuff. Well one day we talked and got lunch together. After that I decided I wanted to ask her on a date so I did, although I had no idea how potentially awkward it could be... It was all up in the air and I was super nervous.... So we went on the date and I had a blast and I was completely head over heels for Amanda aka my fiance aka the younger sister of my original crush and we began going out a lot.
I was so worried amandas sister was going to be so weirded out by the situation, but it turns out she loved it! Luckily I never kissed her when I had a crush on her, or else that could be potentially much more awkward. It's a total blessing now that her older sister was the way she was with me because I saw her and the family enough to get to know them, including amanda my fiance, but also wasn't around her enough to make any moves or anything because she intimidated me too much haha but now I get along awesome with her sister and her sisters husband and we visit them all the time and they are some of my closest friends!! so everything worked out just great!!!
When I was a senior in high school there was this girl that I totally developed a crush on. I got her phone number from one of our mutual friends and one day I called her and asked her on a date. After that she completely played hard to get and was impossible to get a hold of. It absolutely drove me insane. But every now and then she would text me or something and ask to do something. I left on my mission not long after this... I'm sure you are assuming that the girl I just talked about is my fiance.....well guess again..... my fiance is actually this girls little sister!! hahahahah plot twist!!!
I was so worried amandas sister was going to be so weirded out by the situation, but it turns out she loved it! Luckily I never kissed her when I had a crush on her, or else that could be potentially much more awkward. It's a total blessing now that her older sister was the way she was with me because I saw her and the family enough to get to know them, including amanda my fiance, but also wasn't around her enough to make any moves or anything because she intimidated me too much haha but now I get along awesome with her sister and her sisters husband and we visit them all the time and they are some of my closest friends!! so everything worked out just great!!!
Songs about me!!!
I love country music. Absolutely love it. Most of my friends however are not big fans of it. Neither is most of my family. That is why it is so funny to me that I love it as much as I do. I didn't really grow up listening to a lot of it. Some John Denver here and there but he's not even country, he's folk.
But somehow that twangy, weird, stereotypical genre of music completely sucked me in when I was about 10 years old after getting a hold of my uncles old garth brooks cd. I absolutely loved every song on it and would listen to it before going to school almost every day.
If there was one country singer that I've really come to love more than all others, it would probably be Brad Paisley. Maybe its because I'm a hopeless romantic and he has the best love songs, or maybe its because I love the guitar and he was voted the 79th best guitar player of all time by this guitar magazine. He was I think one of two country singers on the whole list, maybe even the only one. Country somehow just had/has a way of being completely relatable to me. I love the messages, the sound, the lyrics, just everything about it. But I don't only love country music. I actually have a very broad taste in music and pretty much love everything. Country, Rap, Rock, Alternative, Disney, etc. I listen to it all!
But somehow that twangy, weird, stereotypical genre of music completely sucked me in when I was about 10 years old after getting a hold of my uncles old garth brooks cd. I absolutely loved every song on it and would listen to it before going to school almost every day.
If there was one country singer that I've really come to love more than all others, it would probably be Brad Paisley. Maybe its because I'm a hopeless romantic and he has the best love songs, or maybe its because I love the guitar and he was voted the 79th best guitar player of all time by this guitar magazine. He was I think one of two country singers on the whole list, maybe even the only one. Country somehow just had/has a way of being completely relatable to me. I love the messages, the sound, the lyrics, just everything about it. But I don't only love country music. I actually have a very broad taste in music and pretty much love everything. Country, Rap, Rock, Alternative, Disney, etc. I listen to it all!
That old german language
I was lucky enough to serve my mission in Berlin Germany. It was truly the best 2 years for my life!!! It was simply amazing and I had such a blast doing it! Right from the beginning I was so determined to master the german language. This was because in my MTC district, I was the one who had the least amount of experience with German.
So I studied the language intensively. Every free second I had I was studying the language. Whenever I got the chance on a bus, train, bathroom, wherever I was studying the grammar or trying to memorize new vocabulary words. Because quite frankly I was horrified when I first got to the country. I didn't understand anything that was being said and my trainer wasn't the most talkative person I had ever met in my life. At first it was like I was running into a brick wall with the language. I think Mark Twain said it best about the german language: "Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, "Let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions." He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it. So overboard he goes again, to hunt for another Ararat and find another quicksand. Such has been, and continues to be, my experience. Every time I think I have got one of these four confusing "cases" where I am master of it, a seemingly insignificant preposition intrudes itself into my sentence, clothed with an awful and unsuspected power, and crumbles the ground from under me. For instance, my book inquires after a certain bird -- (it is always inquiring after things which are of no sort of consequence to anybody): "Where is the bird?" Now the answer to this question -- according to the book -- is that the bird is waiting in the blacksmith shop on account of the rain. Of course no bird would do that, but then you must stick to the book. Very well, I begin to cipher out the German for that answer. I begin at the wrong end, necessarily, for that is the German idea. I say to myself, "Regen (rain) is masculine -- or maybe it is feminine -- or possibly neuter -- it is too much trouble to look now. Therefore, it is either der (the) Regen, or die (the) Regen, or das (the) Regen, according to which gender it may turn out to be when I look. In the interest of science, I will cipher it out on the hypothesis that it is masculine. Very well -- then the rain is der Regen, if it is simply in the quiescent state of being mentioned, without enlargement or discussion -- Nominative case; but if this rain is lying around, in a kind of a general way on the ground, it is then definitely located, it is doing something -- that is, resting (which is one of the German grammar's ideas of doing something), and this throws the rain into the Dative case, and makes it dem Regen. However, this rain is not resting, but is doing something actively, -- it is falling -- to interfere with the bird, likely -- and this indicates movement, which has the effect of sliding it into the Accusative case and changing dem Regen into den Regen." Having completed the grammatical horoscope of this matter, I answer up confidently and state in German that the bird is staying in the blacksmith shop "wegen (on account of) den Regen." Then the teacher lets me softly down with the remark that whenever the word "wegen" drops into a sentence, it always throws that subject into the Genitive case, regardless of consequences -- and that therefore this bird stayed in the blacksmith shop "wegen des Regens."
This is just a small excerpt of an entire piece he wrote on the subject of german. haha luckily I came to become fluent in it after about 7 months of intensive studying and now I absolutely love it!!!
So I studied the language intensively. Every free second I had I was studying the language. Whenever I got the chance on a bus, train, bathroom, wherever I was studying the grammar or trying to memorize new vocabulary words. Because quite frankly I was horrified when I first got to the country. I didn't understand anything that was being said and my trainer wasn't the most talkative person I had ever met in my life. At first it was like I was running into a brick wall with the language. I think Mark Twain said it best about the german language: "Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, "Let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions." He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it. So overboard he goes again, to hunt for another Ararat and find another quicksand. Such has been, and continues to be, my experience. Every time I think I have got one of these four confusing "cases" where I am master of it, a seemingly insignificant preposition intrudes itself into my sentence, clothed with an awful and unsuspected power, and crumbles the ground from under me. For instance, my book inquires after a certain bird -- (it is always inquiring after things which are of no sort of consequence to anybody): "Where is the bird?" Now the answer to this question -- according to the book -- is that the bird is waiting in the blacksmith shop on account of the rain. Of course no bird would do that, but then you must stick to the book. Very well, I begin to cipher out the German for that answer. I begin at the wrong end, necessarily, for that is the German idea. I say to myself, "Regen (rain) is masculine -- or maybe it is feminine -- or possibly neuter -- it is too much trouble to look now. Therefore, it is either der (the) Regen, or die (the) Regen, or das (the) Regen, according to which gender it may turn out to be when I look. In the interest of science, I will cipher it out on the hypothesis that it is masculine. Very well -- then the rain is der Regen, if it is simply in the quiescent state of being mentioned, without enlargement or discussion -- Nominative case; but if this rain is lying around, in a kind of a general way on the ground, it is then definitely located, it is doing something -- that is, resting (which is one of the German grammar's ideas of doing something), and this throws the rain into the Dative case, and makes it dem Regen. However, this rain is not resting, but is doing something actively, -- it is falling -- to interfere with the bird, likely -- and this indicates movement, which has the effect of sliding it into the Accusative case and changing dem Regen into den Regen." Having completed the grammatical horoscope of this matter, I answer up confidently and state in German that the bird is staying in the blacksmith shop "wegen (on account of) den Regen." Then the teacher lets me softly down with the remark that whenever the word "wegen" drops into a sentence, it always throws that subject into the Genitive case, regardless of consequences -- and that therefore this bird stayed in the blacksmith shop "wegen des Regens." Come what may and love it
Come what may and love it
This talk is honestly one that changed my life. It was given by Elder Wirthlin a couple conferences before he passed away. In this talk he spoke of different principles that all of us should adapt into our lives that will help us be happier. One of my favorite things that he said was that we must learn to laugh. He then goes on to say, "Have you ever encountered a driver, that when you make a mistake, reacts as though you've insulted his family, his honour, his dog, and his ancestors all the way back to Adam?"
President Wirthlin was just such a happy guy who was so easy to get a long with and relate to. In this same talk he also tells a story of his daughter. She was waiting for a blind date and soon a man came to the door. He seemed somewhat old but she didn't want to be impolite, so she introduced him to her parents and then walked outside and got in his car. After a few minutes she came running back inside bright red in the face because she came to realize that he had come to pick up another daughter to be his babysitter. President Wirthlin then said that when the actual date came, he couldn't even go out to meet him because he was still in the kitchen laughing too hard.
I personally feel that is something we as members can improve on, or at least me. I seem to take things pretty seriously sometimes and find myself getting stressed for stupid reasons. That's why I love this talk so much. Learning to laugh was just one example, he gave plenty of them and that is why its a talk that has stuck with me all of my life. He really knew how to convey they message to me and made it personal.
This talk is honestly one that changed my life. It was given by Elder Wirthlin a couple conferences before he passed away. In this talk he spoke of different principles that all of us should adapt into our lives that will help us be happier. One of my favorite things that he said was that we must learn to laugh. He then goes on to say, "Have you ever encountered a driver, that when you make a mistake, reacts as though you've insulted his family, his honour, his dog, and his ancestors all the way back to Adam?" President Wirthlin was just such a happy guy who was so easy to get a long with and relate to. In this same talk he also tells a story of his daughter. She was waiting for a blind date and soon a man came to the door. He seemed somewhat old but she didn't want to be impolite, so she introduced him to her parents and then walked outside and got in his car. After a few minutes she came running back inside bright red in the face because she came to realize that he had come to pick up another daughter to be his babysitter. President Wirthlin then said that when the actual date came, he couldn't even go out to meet him because he was still in the kitchen laughing too hard.
I personally feel that is something we as members can improve on, or at least me. I seem to take things pretty seriously sometimes and find myself getting stressed for stupid reasons. That's why I love this talk so much. Learning to laugh was just one example, he gave plenty of them and that is why its a talk that has stuck with me all of my life. He really knew how to convey they message to me and made it personal.
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