"All is Well"

I just finished reading an address given by President Uchtdorf in Ogden earlier this month.  He speaks about the pioneers, and what we can learn from their example.  The talk is very applicable--it's much more than one of those "listen to me tell you about everything the pioneers did" talks.  He makes clear and relevant connections to our lives.  I'll share a few parts that I liked.

When I think of the lyrics of that hymn ["Come, Come, Ye Saints"] and the context in which it was sung, it brings tears to my eyes. I am very much aware that all was not well with these Saints. All they had to do was to look around and see how it really was. They were plagued by sickness, heat, fatigue, cold, fear, hunger, pain, doubt, and even death.

But in spite of having every reason to shout, “All is notwell,” they cultivated an attitude that we cannot help admiring today. They looked beyond their troubles to eternal blessings. They were grateful in their circumstances. I am in awe of those wonderful souls who, despite every evidence to the contrary, sang with all the conviction of their souls: “All is well.”

I have my own reasons for loving the song "Come, Come, Ye Saints," especially the second verse, but I love how President Uchtdorf talks about it.  I have really tried to be a happy and an optimistic person over the last few years.  Sometimes--as recently as last night--someone will ask me "How was your day?" to which I generally respond that it was good.  However, it is when they ask what made it good that I am unsure of how to respond.  A lot of the time it was just a normal day.  Nothing too good or too bad happened.  Other times, I've had what could be objectively described as a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day for any number of reasons.  But even when that happens, I still manage to be positive about it.  I'm not trying to toot my own horn here; I still get frustrated, disappointed, or saddened by things.  I am very grateful, though, that I have cultivated the kind of attitude that allows me to be happy regardless of circumstance.  President Uchtdorf explained it splendidly in his talk.

We can learn something from the pioneers. They woke up each morning with clearly defined purposes and goals that everyone understood—to serve God and fellowmen and to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley. Every day those purposes and goals were clear to them; they knew what they needed to do and that each day’s progress mattered.

I often get preoccupied with things that need to get done.  I wake up with a list: shower, shave, eat, catch up on news, read e-mails, pack a lunch, and try and get to class on time.  I spend the next several hours in school mode--going to class and doing homework.  Before I know it, it's night-time and I haven't consecrated any of my time to the Lord that day.  It is so important to wake up with priorities and goals, and to focus on those.  I need to be better at that.  I know that if I do things in the proper order, the Lord will be a lot happier to help me out with the other things.

When we complain about a Church meeting that has gone four minutes over its allotted time, perhaps we can hear the voices of those blessed pioneers: “Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard? 'Tis not so; all is right.”

This one hit home.  I was recently complaining to someone about meetings ending late, meetings seeming to drag on when nothing is being accomplished, people talking too long at the podium, and institute lessons going over.  So this paragraph was a much-needed slap in the face.  One thing I struggle with is complaining.  I just do too much of it.  I need to adopt the philosophy Elder Wirthlin learned from his mother: "Come what may, and love it," (Oct. 2008) or, at the very least, "Come what may, and quit whining so much about it."  Interesting that this portion of President Uchtdorf's talk is titled "Optimism."  And I thought I was doing so well at that.

I'll end with one more quote from the talk.  I hope that it will be enough to inspire you to read it yourself (the link is at the bottom of this post).  If you read with a "what can I do better" attitude, you absolutely will come away with something (or some things, in my case) to work on.

The pioneers were not supermen and superwomen. They were just like you and me. How often did they wonder if they could go on? They must have asked themselves over and again, “Can I do what I have been asked to do?”

But they pressed on. In faith, one step at a time, they pressed on. They trusted in God and His divine and merciful plan. And they left a legacy that will inspire and strengthen generations to come.

"All is Well" - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

Healthy Dessert

Katherine, the girl I went out with last night, is doing a sugar-free thing for a little while, which presented me with a dilemma. I wanted to have some kind of dessert or snack after bowling, but I didn't know what I could get that was sugar-free.

I remembered that some of the girls I worked with last summer also tried a sugar-free diet, so I called my friend Hannah. She gave me a few ideas, including "yogurt parfait," which is what I went with in the end. She explained it as yogurt with granola and fruit, so I bought some strawberry yogurt, Honey Bunches of Oats granola, and a mango.

When Hannah explained it to me it sounded okay. Probably not going to be my favorite dessert, though. Well, it turned out to be absolutely delicious! We finished the mango last night, but there's some leftover granola and yogurt, and I just had more today. So if you are looking for a healthier dessert, this is a good choice.

Note: The yogurt isn't absolutely sugar-free. Katherine is just trying to avoid things like sweets, so she was okay with it. If you're trying to find something absolutely sugar-free, best of luck to you!

Truth or Dare Bowling

Last night I went on a date with a girl in my ward named Katherine.  You should already be impressed that I went on a date.  Anyways, I checked the weather the day before to find predictions of thunderstorms.  So all the great outdoor date ideas I'd been considering were out of the question.  I decided we would have dinner at my apartment, then go bowling.

Now, I enjoy regular bowling, but I wanted to make it a little more memorable.  I decided that for each frame we would have to bowl a different way.  For example: lefty, backwards, or granny-style.  I started looking online for some more ideas and found a site that suggested truth or dare bowling.  So I found/came up with a bunch of questions to choose from.  But because I wanted the best of both worlds, I decided that we would do truth and dare.  This is how we did it: the first bowler picks a dare at random (I printed off the truth questions and the dares and cut them into individual strips), and both bowlers bowl that way.  Then you pick a question at random, and both people answer.  It works better if you pick the question before bowling so that you have some thinking time.

You could do this a lot of different ways.  You could make it work with a group too.  Have each person pick an individual dare or question instead of all doing the same one.  If you do that I'd suggest returning them to the pool afterwards so that other people can still get it (and so you don't run out of papers).  You could actually do truth or dare and let people choose which they'd like.  Or you could say odd-numbered frames are truths and odds are dares.  Or if your score is odd, you have to do a dare, and if it's even you have to do a truth.  I'm sure there are even more things you can change.  If they let you, I'd suggest putting up the bumpers so that there aren't gutter balls (you'll get a lot).  Unfortunately at the BYU alley you have to have someone under twelve for the bumpers.

I had a lot of fun, and I got to know my date better.  And I didn't even have to make conversation!  The truths were plenty to keep it going.  Sometimes we had to remind ourselves were bowling because we got talking too much.  We had a great time, and the result was quite amusing: we tied.

Let me know if you want to see the list of Truth questions and Dares that I used.

Elder Ballard's CES Devotional

May's CES Devotional by Elder Russell M. Ballard was great!  Though he discussed heavy topics like technology, pornography, and (gay) marriage, he kept the mood light and made a few jokes along the way.  He talked about some really important things though.  I highly suggested watching, or reading, at the very least, this talk.  I suppose the CES devotionals are directed at the young single adult age group, but I think this one was very relevant to teenagers, and I think you will get a lot from it.  So here it is!  It's Sunday, so watching this is a great way to spend some time today!

CES Devotional May 2014

Love,
Nick

My Celebrity Look-Alike

Last night after institute I introduced myself to girl I sat by during the lesson.  She gave me her name (Melanie) and told me that when I was wearing my glasses I looked like Clark Kent.  I laughed because no one had ever said that to me before until two days earlier.  Catherine (the one I went to the Murder Mystery dinner with) said the same thing to me just the other day.  I thought it was funny that two people said the same thing so close together when no one else ever has.  But as they say, "in the mouths of two or three witnesses" are celebrity look-alikes confirmed!


Image Source

One of the Reasons I Like Country Music

It's unfortunate that Jake is on his mission, so he isn't going to read this (at least not for a while).

In the last year and a half I've become a big fan of country music.  Just like any other genre, there are songs that I like, and plenty that I don't like.  But one of the reasons I like country music is because it seems like country artists express religion far more than artists in other genres (gospel music excepted).  I have a few examples of songs that I've become aware of recently:



This is "Love Without End, Amen" by George Strait.  I'm likely to be a fan of any song about father-son relationships, but this one is really good.  I like the shifts in perspective in each of the three verses, especially the last one.  Next is another George Strait song.



The other day I had a very spiritual conversation with a good friend.  We got in the car to head home, and this song was the first that came on.  I really like the humble reflection in the words of the chorus.  Hopefully we don't need to wait for the milestones in our lives to open our eyes.



This one is a previously unreleased song by Johnny Cash entitled "I Came to Believe."  Listen to the lyrics.  I'd really like to learn some more about Johnny Cash and how he changed his life.  I'm hoping to watch the film Walk the Line sometime.
Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of the Killers, sings a cover of this song that I really like.  It's in a short video about the new Johnny Cash CD.  The song starts at 1:03, but I suggest listening from the beginning.  He talks about some of his own feelings about the song.



Hope you appreciate my thoughts--feel free to comment with your own.  Do you know any songs where artists express their spiritual sides more?

Murder Mystery Dinner

Last Saturday night I went on a double date to the Old Spaghetti Factory at University Mall in Orem.  We were there for a Mafia Murder Mystery show put on by performing group Salty Dinner Theater.  It was a lot of fun.  We arrived between 7 and 7:30.  They gave us three menu options, took our orders, and showed us to our seats.  The actors and actresses roamed around the room talking to the guests at all the different tables.  They were really friendly and made it a lot of fun.

The show started after we got our appetizer and continued throughout the evening.  There were several musical numbers too.  I think my favorite was "Come Fly With Me" because I knew the words.  The actors and actresses interacted with the audience a lot, which was fun.  At the end of the show, one of the characters dies, and everyone has to write down who they think it is and what they think the punishment ought to be.  They collected everyone's slips and sorted out the ones who got it right as the ending was explained.  Then they brought in the slips of those who got it right, and the guilty parties (they picked two of the actresses--the one who was actually guilty and the one who most people voted for) had to undergo their punishments.  Some of the punishments were drinking a glass of water sprinkled with parmesan cheese, getting ice cream in the face, and singing I'm a little teapot.

The whole evening was very enjoyable and memorable.  The company had a photographer there, and they put some of the pictures on facebook.  I look pretty ridiculous, so I'm not tagging myself in the one I'm in.  But feel free to look at their facebook page.  I had a great time, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Notes:
It was a really fun date, and I'd definitely do it again.  It works as a single, double, or group date.  It was a somewhat expensive date (thank goodness she asked me out and told me she'd be paying).  Tickets are $15 each for adults, though I think Catherine said she found a deal on Groupon.  The tickets didn't include dinner, and each of the menu choices was about $10.  The meal included a salad, the main course, and ice cream at the end.  Appetizers cost extra.  I wasn't sure what to wear, so I went semi-formal with a button-up and khakis.  It ended up being a safe guess.  I probably could have gone a little dressier (tucking in my shirt or wearing a sport jacket), but I also saw people in jeans, so it was pretty flexible.  It's nice to dress up though.  If I remember, the show lasted an hour and a half or so.

Note 2:
I saw the director of my study abroad program there--turns out his son was one of the actors!