Track is over at Brigham Young
University - Idaho. Again it is disappointing. The disappointment came by rain
and thunderstorms, for the championship meet was canceled. Another
disappointment that had to do the BYUI competitive long distance running
program was that I was not offered the position to coordinate cross country in
the Fall semester of 2014. I explained to the interviewer many of my ideas to
make the program thrive, hoping to create a culture of fitness throughout the
school.
A
couple career exploration assignments have been making my life stressful the
past couple weeks. I don't believe that career exploration assignments should
be curriculum in a class because people are always doing that. When I realized
this, the assignment was simple. I did not have to research careers because it
is a natural activity. I have researched many careers in my life already, so I
just wrote about the careers that I have explored in my life. Many people may
not have the time to explore careers because there are many obligations that
distract people from pondering the career paths possible. These two assignments
were stressful because they were side projects, and they were both forgotten
and procrastinated. The assignment was for my Business 101 class.
A
classmate in my Business 101 class has come to really enjoy my sense of humor.
People; who observe me such as peers, instructors, and family; has noticed that
I have a unique sense of humor. My favorite high school physics teacher pointed
out to my special education teacher that I had a good sense of humor. I laugh
at many of the teacher’s jokes and things that are not even jokes but humorous
things. My classmate even recommended that I be a professional laugher this
past week. Occasionally people ask me why are you laughing, and I don't know
how to explain it.
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minuscule way that I do missionary work is I run a Mormon YSA Blog Spot,
sharing the blog articles of many single adult bloggers on several social media
sites. I got to meet one of the bloggers that I found this week. I would say
that it is a date. The way that I found her was interesting. It was inspired a
BYU Idaho devotional. The speaker is on the leading edge of education. His name
is Chris Wilson, and he invited us to create a community in his speech by
discovering or making a way out of the world by using the hashtag BYUIExodus on
Twitter. For those in the future or present that don't know what hashtags are
on internet social networks, you can join a global audience, when you click or
post a hashtag, seeing all the posts with that hashtag. Brother Chris Wilson
invited us to write two chapter titles of our personal Book of Exodus out of
the world and traditions of man. My chapter titles were ‘Growing toward Fatherly
Leadership’ and ‘Family Life.’ I would also say that another good chapter title
is ‘Claiming my Agency.’ The girl that I went out with favorited my chapter
titles tweet, and I saw that she was a blogger. I asked her, if I could share
her articles on my blog spot, and she gave me permission. I asked her if she
knows other YSA bloggers, and she did. Since she was local, I decided that I
might as well ask her out. She had not published an article in about half a
year, so I asked if she will publish an article soon. She published one as we
conversed on Twitter, saying that she has been working on a couple recently. We
casually went out for frozen yogurt. She seems amazing, but our personalities
expression was limited because I believe that we were not comfortable. The
conversation was very slow. I plan to ask her out again.
Yesterday
was an unnecessarily busy day. I have an important deadline tomorrow for my
Building Information Modeling class. I signed up for a 10K, and my friends went
to go shooting in the evening. The 10K was interesting because it was organized
by a very small group of students. The participation was small, and only a few
runners came. The majority of the participants were the organizers. It was a
fourth of July theme. We all had flags, and we ran with them around town. Some
people may have felt awkward because they were walking or running alone with
the flag, but I felt that if I lead the run with person that invited me to join
the event. It would be a signal to people that is not just one weird person,
running around with flags. The leader has a broad agenda in this act. I don't
really understand if he had a specific reason for his activism. He said that
the politics in America are a mess, and we need to become a more united
society. He encouraged an national movement of service in the community with a
hashtag and twitter of OldGlory. Running with the United States flag for about
6 miles, I felt that I was participating in a uniting cause. The leader was not
impressed by the turnout or the reaction of the community, but I feel that
people saw the broad message that he hoped. I saw a construction worker pause
to watch us, and people ponder and react.
In the
evening I went shooting with Jesse and a few of his married friend couples.
This is the first time that I had shot shotguns and pistols, so my actions were
a little rookie. The sister's husband of Jesse's friend's wife was good to be
patient, instructing on proper etiquette; although, my actions were dangerous.
His urgency was good. I shot a clay pidgin in my first round of five, and I
shot two in a row on my second round. Shooting with a shotgun is easy compared
to pistols and the other guns that they had. Afterward we had a bonfire, and
the wives made a couple peach cobblers in a Dutch oven. I basically had two 4th
of Julys.
Today is now the 6th of
July. This past week was somewhat stressful with due dates and tests. I didn't
do very well on them because I had many assignments to do, and I was not able
to put enough time into them. If I had one superpower, I would wish that it was
controlling time. I would mainly slow down time. I only ran twice this week
because my load is so demanding. I am putting my time in preparing some
resubmittals, practicing my building plan document skills. One of my final
assignments for my Building Information Technology class is to prepare a cover
sheet. This requires a rendered image of my modeled building. Rendering takes a
long time. A rendering is the program producing an image from virtual light. I
have not completely done a real one. I prematurely tried to load one, and it
takes a hours. That is what I heard. I want to post my first rendering on this
journal entry. I designed my first coffered ceiling. It is not an average
coffered ceiling. Coffered ceilings are usually just recessed panel in a
ceiling in a square pattern. My ceiling has a curved edge on it, so I had some
interesting angles and curves in my coffers. The image is thirteen percent done
with twelve minutes. My perspective of rendering is that it takes a lot of
skill. As you can see my first two renderings are very lousy. The van and truck
look so bad. I found seamless tiles images for the brick, but it still looks
fake. I look forward to making my buildings look real. My teacher always rags
on us because we are not amazed by the graphics, but this is like Nintendo 64
graphics. Our video games are way better. Some renderings look impressive, and
some look like old video game graphics.
A couple other things that happened that I don't feel like writing
about is Jesse's birthday and a 4th of July. We just went exploring in the
hills of Rexburg for Jesse's birthday, enjoying the Hickory restaurant, and we
went to Idaho Falls for the 4th of July.
During sacrament
meeting today I had a sacred experience that I wanted to relate to you. Praying
to feel the spirit can be a witness that God loves us, and the plan of
salvation is true. The knowledge of the Plan of Salvation comes from many different
witnesses of the spirit in each aspect. A meditation on it can bring a witness
of it too. The Plan of Salvation are 'things as they are, and as they were, and
as they are to come.' In this testimony meeting, my testimony that I felt like
communicating would make sense, but I felt that the simplicity of the precept
that it needs explanation. The explanation is personal. Before I get into the
explanation, I will review the topic. It is to pray to feel the spirit.
Before my mission I don't
recall feeling the spirit as taught in the word of God, a burning in the bosom.
I never stressed it too much because the spirit can be felt in other ways. I
knew that the fullness of the Gospel is only in the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. When my second mission president took reins, he came with a
powerful belief that God gives revelation according to the scripture in
Doctrine and Covenants 9:8. "But, behold, I say unto you, that you must
study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is
right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall
feel that it is right." I was out on my mission about eighteen months, and
my mission president expected us to confirm every plan with God by these
instructions. My mission president was named President Graff. Since I never
felt burning in my bosom, I needed to call my mission president, since he was
enforcing the new policy. He had me pray to feel the Holy Ghost by this burning
sensation in my bosom, and I prayed for more than an hour with no result.
President Graff also had a powerful testimony of gifts of the spirit by the
laying on of hands. President Graff served a mission just previously since
becoming a mission president. On his mission, he worked on learning Spanish for
many months, but he couldn't. His mission president was counseling him on
learning the language, and he decided to give him the gift of tongues by the
laying on of hands. Ever since that blessing President Graff was able to speak
Spanish. He blessed me similarly, but he had my companion bless me to feel the
spirit as a burning in my bosom. Ever since that blessing, I have been able to
feel the Holy Ghost as a burning in my bosom.
The sensation comes rarely
as I am use to. I felt it powerfully during sacrament meeting today, and it
came because I was prompted to pray to feel the spirit in my morning prayer. I
encourage you to pray to feel the spirit of God. The request for this broad
revelation is complex though. One can pray to feel the comforter, but it will
rarely visit you without a purpose. It mainly visits people to testify of Jesus
Christ as the Savior of all men, and it may also abide within us to let us be a
witness of Christ. Praying to feel the spirit without a purpose can be tricky
because the purpose of his presence is uncertain. I felt that the spirit
testified of the Plan of Salvation, the Atonement, and the Godhead today, but
how can the Holy Ghost strengthen our testimony of our knowledge without having
a knowledge of the fullness of the Gospel. It can testify of each aspect of the
Plan of Salvation, the Atonement, and the Godhead as the individual knows it;
although, it may not be whole yet. Many people testified of the relationship of
the Holy Spirit with man in today's fast and testimony sacrament meeting.
Prayer without a specific meaning rarely works. Praying to know the truth is so
broad that one's relationship with God and his guidance would have to be very
deep to have sequential revelations. A knowledge of the fullness of the Gospel
is hard to come by without reading the word of God. The Book of Mormon is
essential to obtaining the knowledge of the fullness of the Gospel, since it
contains the fullness of the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation. This book is
unique for its ability to be a witness of the truth. The truth has many names
such as the fullness of the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation. The Plan of
Salvation are 'things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come'
as I said before. The Book of Mormon is unique because the words therein were
directed to be written by God by prophets. It was abridged by Mormon and
translated by Joseph Smith by the direct guidance of God. Praying to know
whether this book is true without a complete know of the content therein is
realistic because these unique characteristics that it has. Knowledge of the
truthfulness of the Book of Mormon is designed by God to also be a witness that
the all the prophets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are
true because Joseph Smith is the founding prophet of this church, and he translated
the book only by the gift and power of God.
Writing my testimony in
this journal entry is not an excuse for not telling my testimony in fast and
testimony meeting, and I had a trust issue in the guidance of the spirit that
these complex relationships can be related well with my words, teaching my simple
concept that a singular prayer can testify of all truth. The sensation of the
burning in my bosom enlivened my intelligence, reminding me of the truthfulness
of the Gospel. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is the uniting means of learning,
communicating to everyone's souls. I should have gone up to teach my revelation
in fast and testimony session because I can be the conduit of the God, speaking
the words prompted to say to relate the concept that I was led to feel and
teach because the Holy Ghost is the universal means of learning and revelation.
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