Monthly Archives: January 2008

Long Nights with Juliet

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I think I’m about two days behind with working late nights getting a new server up and running. It all went fairly well, other than we were there until 5 Tuesday morning after starting at 5 Monday afternoon! I spent another good chuck of time there last night, but still made it home at night. I made it back to the office this afternoon to get payroll done and make sure the place wasn’t completely falling apart.

I’ve been too busy working, so I don’t really have much to report. I’ve practically shuttered myself from the world to focus on this project and have been sleeping weird hours for me (maybe not for pyro) so there just isn’t much to say. NAMM starts tomorrow. It sounds like we’ll be there Thursday and Friday. There are also some sessions that might be worth a trip up there on Saturday as well, but I may just be feeling so ready for a nap by then that I may not go.

I’m going to sleep…. I have to be up in six and a half hours!

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Proving God Correct

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President Smith said in conference Saturday night that we don’t need to live our lives wrong to prove that God is correct, we could live our lives in accordance with his plan to prove him right. I know I don’t have the exact words, so maybe someone can tell me specifically what he said.

I was pondering this over breakfast this morning and thinking that sometimes I live as if I know everything is true, but I don’t press forward as such. It’s almost like it will come out in the end, no need to verify it now.

I’ve told people before that even though I now the Church is true, I also know that it wouldn’t hurt to follow the guidance of the Church even if it wasn’t true. We’re good people, teaching good morals and standards, learning to be more Christlike. If it isn’t true, are we doing anything that hurts us? I certainly don’t think so.

I don’t know where I was going with this, nor do I know if any of this makes any sense whatsoever, but I hope that we can press forward proving ourselves and our God right, not following the hypothesis test that it hasn’t been proven yet.

Better Prepared to Press Forward

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There was so much to think about from today that I don’t even know where to start. In fact, I couldn’t even come up with something good to say that stuck out at me at branch prayer this evening. I knew I shouldn’t have gone! I was actually thinking that so much of it seems like the same old thing we keep hearing, but I didn’t really want to say that tonight to everyone. I think it’s true though. At first I had the take that we know all this, why keep telling us, aren’t we doing a good job already? As I pondered, I realized that we keep getting told the same thing because we haven’t quite got it figured out yet and someone is hoping that if they explain it enough times that it will finally sink in. It’s good because each time someone talks about a subject we do generally learn something because either new information is presented or it is presented in such a way that it gives us new inspiration or it suddenly clicks. For example, the statistic that the average melchizedek priesthood holder goes to the temple only three times a year is disturbing. I know that everyone isn’t equal, so some are going frequently and others are not going at all. Some may not even have current recommends or be worthy or hold one, but we clearly need to improve on this.

We were asked to continue to prepare for emergencies this morning. This was good timing after the fires in October and hopefully will call many people to action. President Smith, I believe, said that he had been preparing for earthquakes, but hadn’t thought about the impact of a fire. After our opportunity to evacuate I believe I am better prepared, but know that I still have a long way to go. We had more about living within our means I think (although I could be confusing this from last night – I didn’t get enough sleep). Either way, I thought about it some more today. There are definitely some steps I can take to cut my expenses to save for the future (and emergencies) and provide more in offerings.

The Sister from the Young Women’s Presidency talked about observing the Sabbath and how we need to make decisions about what is appropriate and what is not – we can’t expect someone else to give us those answers. She gave an example of a brother who was hoping she would grant him permission to run a marathon on the Sabbath because it wasn’t offered at any other time. He ended up receiving blessings after running it alone, in traffic, on the Saturday before the actual marathon. He later got to come to Salt Lake for general conference and was able to run a marathon in St. George the weekend after. Of course we can’t see what is in front of us sometimes, but we need to do our best to follow the guidance of our prophets and press forward with the faith that we will be blessed by doing so.

The fireside tonight was on marriage and preparing for it. Elder Tingey said we aren’t going to find perfection because it doesn’t exist (at least not in our reach). He challenged us as a step in preparing to ask someone who would tell us honestly what we could do to improve our physical appearance. I’m not sure I completely understand the weight of this question, but maybe with some more pondering it will be more than a hysterical remark and instead can be a thought provoking question leading the participants to growth and improvement.

Hopefully someone will remind me of the other important things that were mentioned because my brain in turning off…

Consistent

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So it’s way late, but I shouldn’t go to sleep without writing down at least some rough thoughts from stake conference this evening. I probably shouldn’t have gone to Claim Jumper with the Dowden clan, but why mess with tradition. I need to be up in like 5 hours to be back at church for the general session tomorrow.

President Smith pressed consistency with which we do things. This would include temple attendance and reading among others. We had a good talk on fasting and also talks on provident living, specifically keeping ourselves debt free (or getting out of debt) and paying a full tithe and offerings. We were encouraged to fast for 24 hours from midday to midday, which makes more sense to me than what I had been under the impression most people were doing – fasting after dinner Saturday till dinner Sunday. If we go from lunch Saturday to dinner Sunday we may really be going without three meals, not just the two required, but we will be pressing forward with more faith and making a bigger sacrifice.

Thoughts on Elder Ballard: Using New Media

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Sister Dowden pointed out to me the other day this talk given at BYU-Hawaii’s graduation last month. I had heard about it, and read excerpts, but never taken the time to read and ponder it in full.

Elder M. Russel Ballard: Using New Media to Support the Work of the Church

LDS Newsroom Article: Apostle Urges Students to Use New Media (excerpts and commentary)

He asks, “How will you use these marvelous inventions? More to the point, how will you use them to further the work of the Lord?” The easiest thing to do with these marvelous inventions is to have fun and enjoy using them, but couldn’t we try to be mindful of the good news that we could be sharing at the same time? Maybe the easiest thing to do is just be thoughtful of how our actions may affect others and the example that we are setting for others to follow. Like some of the email fowards say, it is easy to forward on a joke, but will you forward something testifying of Christ? I don’t think you need to try and shame anyone into sending that message forward, but let’s be open about it.

Do you represent yourself to be a Christian, even a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Do you hide things that could be faith or testimony builders to others? I know I have had problems with some if not all of these. Today I’m proud to post on facebook and other sites that I am a member of Christ’s Church restored in these latter days. I am thrilled to post pictures from trips to Salt Lake and church activities. I know that people see pictures and things that I write and at least desire sometimes to be part of that fun. If someone reading this is interested in joining us, please know that you are always welcome, even if you don’t explicitly get an invitation.

Brooke setup an event on Facebook this morning (or late last night) promoting a trip to the temple to do baptisms. Sister Dowden beat me to saying it, but what a great use of the Internet and social networking (facebook). She took the extra time to put information on the event page about the reason we do baptisms which could prove useful to someone who stumbles across the page. Wouldn’t it be great for our friends to look at what events we are going to, wonder what this baptisms/temple trip is about and then read to find out why we are going? I don’t know what Brooke’s motivations were for putting that on there, but I commend her for her efforts and hope I am inundated with event requests for things like that! Maybe we need to do an event for each activity we have in the branch and try to invite everyone, even non members friends to join us. I know it could be good, but would there be something better?

Elder Ballard tells that one member shares his efforts of missionary work on his blog daily. Maybe in addition to thinking of where we have seen the work of the Lord in our day we can give examples of the missionary service we participated in. Maybe these examples will help others of our faith find a way to share with others. Maybe something in our text will help someone find the Church when they are searching Google. Maybe sharing a brief testimony everyday will help some reader to learn of the Truth.

I know I for one don’t like talking about my weaknesses, but maybe I need to more often discuss how I have been able to overcome them with the help of the restored gospel: the Church, priesthood, blessings, etc.

Eldar Ballard says:

Use stories and words that they will understand. Talk honestly and sincerely about the impact the gospel has had in your life, how has it helped you overcome weaknesses or challenges, and helped define your values. The audiences for these and other New Media tools may often be small, but the cumulative effect of thousands of such stories can be great. The combined effort is certainly worth the outcome if but a few are influenced by your words of faith and love of God and His son Jesus Christ.

I can tell you that my blog and it’s readers had something to do with me joining the Church. I’m sure it’s happened elsewhere as well. Look back to April-May-June 2004 and I’m sure you’ll find some interesting tidbits. Maybe my blog can have the opportunity to do good work again with someone else reaping the benefits.

I know that I could help demystify the work of the church to non member through my blog. Too often I write about things in my personal journal but then delete them before posting for reasons I don’t necessarily understand. I will try from this day forward to promote the things we actually do so that readers can understand and have a clearer picture. I would love to clear up the confusion between temples and chapels/meetinghouses.

Sister Dowden, thank you for reminding me to read this article and to ponder it in more depth than I previously had when I caught a glimpse of it through the Church news bulletin.

If anyone has questions about the Church or some activity, please don’t hesitate to post a comment or email me directly. If you don’t want to discuss it with me, call the Church where someone would be happy to discuss it with you. And if you want more information about joining us, please let me know as well.

I do testify that this is the True Church of Christ, restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. President Gordon B. Hinkley directs and guides some 13 million members of the Church today here on earth as a prophet of the Lord. We have the priesthood authority and the ordinances necessary to bring us back to our Father in Heaven, all we need to do is Ask and follow his counsel. The Book of Mormon is true and blessings will come to those who follow it’s teachings and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

What Will I Regret?

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I think my brain has been under too much pressure lately because I can’t even think of what to write about. I listened to two conference talks this morning, the second one being good, better and best, but I can’t think of what the first one was… With a quick trip to lds.org, I was able to jog my memory: “Service” by Elder Steven E. Snow.

I remember it clearly now. I was pondering about the regrets question. His mother had answered that she wanted to have served more, even when she was active in many church callings. Thinking about it today, I regret not doing everything in my power to take advantage of the opportunity presented to me to attend BYU-Idaho and pulling the stones out of the wet concrete. I’m fairly certain my life would be completely different if I was to have gone and I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. I want to make it clear that I don’t regret where I am today or the opportunities I’ve had along the way, but it would have been great to have continued at BYU-Idaho. I can only imagine the ways I would have grown from that experience. In any event, the real question is, in 50 years what am I going to regret? May I also have the answer that even though I was already ready to serve others, I didn’t give it everything I could have? I’m probably doing a good job now, but I know that better and best are out there and can be reached if I would just try a little bit harder. That ties into the other talk I pondered on today. I think I had been doing better with my choice of how to spend my time and resources, but I wonder if I have fallen back a little and am not doing the best I can.

I was busy in the office today, but it was good busy – catching up on many little things that needed to be done a long time ago and making sure all the financials and such are in order for the close of the year. I played some more with Exchange tonight, but couldn’t get it to actually allow logins or make mailboxes, but we are hopefully on the right track.

Batch, Christa, Bouse and I went to Claim Jumper for dinner and then it was bedtime! I’m hoping to get some things done around the house tomorrow (driveway, maybe the lights, carwash), maybe get out for  a bikeride and then head to the office for a while before stake conference.

I Will Go

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I got a bit of a late start to the office this morning after sleeping in and then taking care of things that kept popping up. I spent most of the day trying to catch up from being out of the office and then played with some stuff on our server before heading to Institute.

We had a good discussion about Abraham and Issac (Genesis 21-25), the faith he had to sacrifice his son and the amazing actions of Rebekah who almost immediately says “I will go” and the servant who goes to find Rebekah who pays such a detailed prayer and then when his request is granted he questions if it was at the hand of God. It was very thought provoking.

I left was getting ready for bed when I realized that there was a new CSI on tonight. I tried to catch up with the replay, but I didn’t get there until the end of the hour, so I’m watching Without a Trace in HD.

I haven’t come up with a better plan for Idaho. I am thinking more about maybe staying here and getting things done that are necessary and saving some money for once. It could be fun, but there are probably better ways to spend time and money, so maybe we’ll just have to see how things come together or don’t…

Making Progress

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Batch and I made good progress this evening. The new server is running smoothly and we have tested the transfer of just about everything we can think of. We’re going to find the best time to go back, reformat the remaining machines with new hard drives, and take this baby live. It looks like it should be working great, so I just hope that it continues to solve all the speed problems they’ve been having. There must be something wrong with the previous machine we used as a server.

We got caught up on some work this morning at the office, but there is still a lot to be done.

I still can’t figure out what I want to do for Idaho in two weeks. Do I want to go up Tuesday and do the Rexbrug Temple open house or do I want to try and cram that in on Wednesday or Thursday? Do I really want to see the concert two nights in a row, or should I sell the tickets for one of the nights? And then there is probably the real important question: Is there just too much going on this month that I shouldn’t take off? Maybe I shouldn’t force Shelly into going to something she really isn’t interested in going to and should find a better time to torment her.

So many choices… I think it’s time for bed!

Server Fun

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Well today wasn’t nearly as exciting as yesterday, but I guess we all have to work sometimes, right? Batch and I spent the day installing Windows Server and pushing around machines … We’ll be back tomorrow afternoon and evening to continue the fun.

I got to go to La today for lunch. I haven’t been there in forever, so it was nice, but it wasn’t as good as I was expecting. I think I just had my expectations set really high. It wasn’t bad by any count.

Cheesecake AnaheimLauren had been bugging me to get pictures on facebook from yesterday, so I had to make sure to take care of that first thing when I got home this evening. They are up there, and I decided to make a group so everyone else could post pictures, comments, etc. It drives me crazy that you can’t add events after the fact, so I made one for tomorrow. I then found a few other events that I will be attending that didn’t exist on FB, so I took the time to create them.

I really didn’t do too much else today. I need to figure out my plans for Idaho later this month so I can get my flight booked and go see Shelly! Alas, it will have to wait another day as I need to get some sleep tonight.

Company Disneyland Outing

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Today must have been good because it just flew by! We had our company outing at Disneyland today. I picked up Sibonet, Tara and Lauren (S) and we were at Disneyland just after they opened. We met up with Christa, Batch & Bouse. Nathaniel and Erica joined us a bit later.

We hit California adventure first: Tower of Terror, Soaring, Screaming, Ferris Wheel, Mulholland Madness and Tower of Terror again. I couldn’t believe what time it was – and we didn’t spend much time at all waiting in lines.

AstroBlastersScottSibWe went to Disneyland to get fast passes for Space Mountain before getting lunch/dinner, but found there was only a 10 minute wait. We quickly discovered this was only because it was a 10 minute walk and that there really was only a few minutes of waiting to board. We tried to talk with Stitch, but he was on vacation this week and Nikki was nowhere to be found. The only thing in the park that had a line was the submarines, so we decided not to stand around for that. Bouse managed to beat me on Astro blasters, with a gun in each hand!

We had an awesome waitress – Teal – at The Cheesecake Factory after Batch decided we should walk there. It was great as always, and we definitely ate too much. Teal talked me into trying a new cheesecake, the chocolate oreo mudslide or something like that. It was quite good, once I got past the nuts in the crust. Lauren insisted that we take a cab back to the park – which she, Tara, Sibonet and I enjoyed while the others walked.

We got right on Pirates after getting fast passes for Indiana Jones, then went for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad before hitting the Matterhorn as the park was closing. We didn’t get to do Indiana Jones because of some problem with the ride. Maybe they will honor our fast passes for another day?

I’m trying to keep the long story short so I can get to sleep, but it was a great day and we will have to do it again soon. I’ll try and post pictures later, but I have a feeling the next couple days are going to be kind of long working days.

Off to a Good Start

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Today was good. I got lots of comments at Church regarding my suit today. i told everyone that I wear it once a year and figured I’d just get it out of the way right away. Church went well, fasting went well and it rained, so it was a good day. … I have a feeling that 2008 is going to be a great year.

After break the fast I went with a few others to Rancho Cucamonga to support Sister Dowden who was talking at a fireside. I brought mics in case she decided to use one, but she just decided to be herself and talk loud.

The day has pretty much been nonstop, so I haven’t had a chance to write any letters or to really ponder much.

We’re off to Disneyland tomorrow for our work outing. It looks like the rain is supposed to stop by 8, so we should be good. Maybe we’ll get lucky and with many people going back to school and maybe the rain will scare some others off so we will have an empty park to play in.

Quotes from Og Mandino

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Myspace.com Blogs – Quotes from Og Mandino – Megan MySpace Blog

Three of these stood out to me:

I have never heard anything about the resolutions of the apostles, but a good deal about their acts.

Setting goals is great, but moving forward with them is so much better. I fear that I am guilty of spending too much time setting goals or making to do lists, but then I never accomplish them. Then I sink into the feeling that since nothing ever gets done, why bother. That feeling is obviously wrong. It needs to be done and it needs to start with an example from me!

Love doesn’t sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread: remade all the time, made new.

I like to think of love as a verb – it needs work.

There is an immeasurable distance between late and too late.

So the real question now comes: Am I just late or too late for work each morning? Seriously now, that is profound. I don’t think I’ve considered the difference between those enough. I’m definitely guilty of being late to many things – and I’m referring here to late to act or late to praise, not being late to work, but it is generally better late than never. On the other side, there is a time when the opportunity has passed and never comes because one was too late.

May we all act with love before it is too late, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

License to Wed & The Wednesday Letters

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Salt Lake Temple at ChristmasI feel like a total bum. I haven’t changed out of my pajamas and I haven’t taken a shower all day! I guess I seriously need more work to do! I enjoyed listening to the rain this morning and just hanging out around the house. I did some reading, caught up on some accounting, got pictures posted from last week, spent almost an hour on the phone with Apple to get a new MacBook Pro battery (one of my current ones is bulging), spent some time pondering how to best plan some Sunday School things for the year, looked at flights for later this month and did a few other things. In all, it was a pretty productive day, I just never really got started!

I watched License to Wed this evening. It was quite a good movie. I thought it was very well thought out and well scripted. I must also admit I like Mandy Moore, but that’s beside the point. (And I tend to love anything with Robin Williams.) Some of the things the Reverend did may have been a bit excessive, but I think couples should have to go through a lot of pre-marriage counseling and be forced to think some things through before they tie the knot. Maybe we actually do need an actual license to wed with it’s accompany tests with how many marriages that don’t last past the wedding. I couldn’t believe some of the conversations it appeared this couple had never had and yet they were approaching marriage. I couldn’t consider asking someone to marry me without knowing how many kids she wanted to have. I would further think you would know where your bride wants to get married early on as well. What do people talk about if they don’t talk about these things when they’ve been together for years already?

I was thinking of how hard communication is in our daily lives. We need to learn to communicate better. As we get more tools to do so, I think we only backtrack and end up actually communicating worse than we had before. We have multiple forms of instant communication that can separate enormous distances and yet sometimes we can’t figure out the most simple of problems. I know I have a problem many times communicating my sincere feelings and getting the point across at times. I don’t always like to be direct and I like to have fun with things, so sometimes it is hard to tell when I am being sarcastic, trying to be funny or downright serious about something. I don’t know how to improve that other than to be direct all the time, but it seems that has gotten really old really fast in the past.

I hope someday to find someone who I can really communicate well with in both directions and get to the point where we can tell what the other one is truly thinking regardless of what or how something is said. That has got to be the second biggest key to any successful relationship, the first being love of course. Heck, communication may be more important than love because if you can communicate well you can probably get along even if you don’t truly love the other person!

The other thing I was thinking about in the movie is how sometimes we just can’t see what is right in front of us. We get so wrapped up in thinking that our way is the only way or that our way is right that we don’t notice how someone else’s way may be a bit better than ours. We may not realize that the way we treat certain people or always turn to someone else may hurt the overall relationship.

And then there are vows. I always love it when people write their own vows, but I can’t begin to fathom how hard an undertaking like that must be. The little vows they have at the end of the movie are quite funny, little things such as not to cry with the cubs lose, not to drink from the carton, to not check out your hot sister… What the writers came up with (not trying to ruin the end of the obvious ending to the movie) was pretty good: “I promise to fight fair and always make up. I vow to trust you no matter how jealous I get. I promise to be out of the ordinary. I vow to tell you what I feel without waiting for you to ask. I promise to be the best dad to however many kids we have. I vow to never ever let you go again.”

Trust, Communication and Holding on. The only thing I see missing is love, but I guess it is implied! Maybe being quick to realize your fault and be sorry wouldn’t hurt too. Maybe there is no simple answer! I guess when you realize that you love someone and that someone may not be perfect, but that they would give the world for you, you may be on to something. I guess it is time to move on to something else.

On a somewhat similar subject, I finished The Wednesday Letters today. I pretty much read the book in two sittings: Monday on the plane and this afternoon. I was thinking that their weekly letters may have helped keep the communication line open and certainly left an interesting story for their kids to unravel. I won’t go into the forgiveness that they must have possessed because it may ruin the story, but it made me want to start that kind of a tradition or legacy to leave behind. How great would it be to have a letter from each week of life together? I would think that something like that must convey some extra sort of dedication to keep it up week after week. So many things get left behind, but dedication like that may give one – or a relationship – a bit of extra power to survive some of the tougher bumps along the road.

Of course I thought of Tara when reading a good portion of the book, and I don’t mean like between husband and wife. I agreed to write her and had been thinking about what kind of things I could write that would be meaningful and useful to her. It came to me through reading this book that sometimes the actual message isn’t the important part, but rather the conveyance of love and support is what is truly critical. I’ve definitely been thinking about her since she reported on Wednesday. As weird as this may sound, I think she is the first missionary I have known before he or she entered the field, or at least that I was close to. I’ve been thinking about what it must be like for her and what an amazing opportunity it must be to be so focused on serving. I hope I have that same opportunity sometime.

No Rain Today

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I’ve been running so late everyday this week that I haven’t read in the morning and have instead opted to listen to conference while driving. It has been nice having something more relevant to ponder throughout the day.

I was a bit disappointed we didn’t get any rain today. I even wore my boots to work today thinking we were going to get some excitement today, but nothing came of it. I spent most of the day continuing to clean up the books and pressing forward with the little things that need to be done.

Alison and I met for dinner at BJ’s tonight and then went to Costco. We found some great art pieces that I would have loved to have bought, but I wouldn’t have known what to do with them if I had. If I had a whole house to decorate, I might have had to purchase a few of the pieces, so I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t have a house to decorate. I also saw this Pirates of the Caribbean bed that I loved. It’s again a good thing I didn’t have a kids room to go put that thing in cause it was $800! (Most of the artwork was above $300.) grandcanyon.jpgI really liked this one picture assortment they had of the Grand Canyon and wanted to buy it for my dad if I knew it would actually go in a good place in the house.

I have no plans for this weekend – or I guess rather tomorrow: Saturday. I was hoping to get some time in for a bikeride at some point or maybe I could clean my car, but if it actually rains like it is supposed to neither of those will probably work out too well.. Maybe I can spend the day cleaning up around here and reading, or maybe I will finally work on some server tasks I’ve been putting off that I could do from home. Maybe I could book my travel for Idaho & Salt Lake later this month so I don’t end up waiting till the last minute like I normally do. Well, it sounds like I’ve got an adequate list together now, so maybe I’ll just go to sleep!

A Mint & Caramel Kind of Day

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Oh, what to report from today? I was totally awake at 6 this morning, but kept telling myself a few more minutes and then I’ll get up. I actually think I kept myself from going back to sleep, but it was close to 8 when I finally decided to get out of bed!

I somehow managed to not actually try the new mint caramel things yesterday, so I tried one as soon as I got to the office this morning. They are quite good. Props to Maegan for finding them!

I got more trouble regarding going to Switzerland for chocolate tonight at Institute. I think because everyone is talking about it, I may just need to find some time and go. Maybe we’ll take a trip there this summer or do just get crazy some random night.