Thursday, November 11, 2010

Reflections


Not to be too cliche' or to beat the dead horse of mission talk, but I have come to ponder and reflect on my mission over and over again as time goes by. In all reality, there isn't a day that goes by where I don't think of my mission in some form or fashion. My first Mission President, President Albert E. Haines III, used to always call it the "laboratory for life." I've come to appreciate that analogy as I've seen the controls and variables of my mission consequentially poke their head out in the practicality of 'real life.' I talk to my friends, brother, sister, roommate, professors, church leaders, etc. every day, and in each of those conversations it seems that I cannot get away from the oftly repeated phrase, "On my mission..." Now unless you've been on a mission, and I mean really been on one, not only go to the MTC, use the plane ticket to wherever, and live in some place for two years; what I'm talking about is the full immersion of self in service, to take your heart and put it in the Lord's hands and allow Him to mold it more than almost any other experience allows you to; unless you've done that, you can't know exactly why that phrase lights itself in my conversations so oft, or why others seem to do it repeatedly as well. My mission has accentuated every good trait that God has blessed me with and has exterminated many of the ill ones I lived with for the first 18 years of my life; if it did not exterminate it, it tempered and dulled it to less than it was. Every facet of my being has been enlightened by the experience and has illuminated my life from the inside growing outward. The profundity of it is to see my life's abrupt change from a mediocre boy to a motivated man. "I know that I am nothing, as to my strength I am weak, therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast in my God, for in His strength I can do all things." (Alma 26:12) This is my secret to happiness and the change that has been wrought. I can equate all of the trouble I have caused myself to selfishness and pride. Humility on the other hand, has only ever contributed to the furthering of my happiness. This lesson alone takes most men decades to realize, if some even ever realize it at all. This is only one of the many thousands of principles that so transfigured my life when I lived in Chicago. So in the faces of scorn which respond to my repetition of "On my mission..." will I smirk at their ignorance and hopefully portray to them some of the joy, nostalgia, and impact which this statement induces within my soul.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Wonderfully Repetitious


Though many of my writings may contain this sort of thought pattern, whether in my journal, on Fbook, or even for assignments in class; I must say I cannot contain it in my soul and that is why I write. I speak of the gospel and its effect on my life. How it is the source of all my joy, the eternal kind, the stuff that fairy tales and folklore only dream about. It changes my perspective from one of mediocre temporal endurance of lily daddling through life to one of supreme achievement and bliss in the felicity of seeing beyond next week, next month, or even next year and smiling at the depths of the universe, knowing that one day, I will have a universe of my own where I am the God of it, and love, patience, virtue, honesty, and all else that is good, lasts forever. Forever! Can you imagine? The only way that you can truly know what I speak about is to have partaken of the Spirit that comes from our Heavenly Father, letting Him open your eyes, brushing from them the filthy opaqueness of a natural man, and letting them swim in endless waters of truth. Only then can you feel the joy that I have in my heart and know why I write of these things as some may label a Christian zealot would. Yet, maybe my zeal is better termed gratitude for there is none that can ever repay what has been given in way of blessings to me, and more especially in the atonement of Jesus Christ. The least I can do is to further the happiness I have been lotted to others in the same way it is sustainedly given to me, namely through this gospel. I doubt that few of you ever read this, but if you do, most likely you know me, and know that I am a man of balance. If there is any extreme in me it is on this subject, and is only so because of the continuous, harmonious balance it allocates my life. Today is a Sunday, and especially on this day, though it comes on other days, my thoughts turn in gratitude toward my God. I am severely optimistic for my future because of my trust in Him, and in that trust lay the source of my current euphoria.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Namaste


My life is one of wonder and adventure. Each day has something else to offer and I can't wait to find what that is whenever I wake up. Yesterday, it was going to Yoga for the first time, on a whim. I went upstairs in the P.E. building because I didn't have my fundamental team sports class, so I decided, "why not try Yoga?" I fell in love with it, I felt more peace than I have in a while. In some ways it makes me feel the part of a hippie, but as I reconsider my life I may be fulfilling that very label. I went hiking almost every other week this last summer and pretty much lived in Zion National Park. I'm taking a modern dance class this semester which is an enigma unto itself. My favorite music right now is eclectic, ambient, classical, electronica, rock such as The Album Leaf, Tristeza, or Jonsi and Alex. I live with one foot in the outdoors all the time now and am trying to change my diet to one of health and happiness. One of my favorite forms of transportation is my longboard. Now all of these things separate don't equal a hippie, but the culmination of them supports my theory and paints the picture of hipstamatic grandeur which I never would've imagined for myself a few years ago. I'm still far away from the whole quit bathing, rockin the sandals with my bell bottoms, and flaunting a flower vest and head band; yet, living granola doesn't seem as far off as it did before. Good thing I cut down trees for a living to keep me in check...