鄧責彬 ♥ 傅佳慈

Talking in Her Sleep

2012-02-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

As you all know, we don't have kids and we are both really busy with school and work. With little exciting things going on, it's hard to remember to update the blog on a regular basis. We have done a few fun things this week and Nancyann is going to be coming out one week from today (not that we're at all excited for this, nor have we been looking forward to this for who knows how long....right). Anyway, as we finished watching tv for the night, I tried to wake Julie up so we could go to bed, she told me she would prefer to sleep on the couch (If I do let her sleep all night on the couch, I'm pretty sure she won't be happy in the morning. But when you're asleep, all you care about it staying that way). So I figured I'd check facebook and do a few other things on the computer while I let her sleep a little longer before I try to wake her up again to bring her to bed. I'm sitting here on the computer, minding my own business when Julie asks me, "Did you get it lower?".....Uh... what? She has a tendency to talk in her sleep. Just a few sentences, never much more than that, and I am never able to get a conversation going. It's too bad, I think it would be quite entertaining. I'm really curious as to what inspired this one from a few weeks ago, "I think his latest would have been for Kyle probably..." followed by her chuckling a few times.... I have NO idea how to interpret that one! Oh, and the other night she started humming in her sleep, that's a new one. It was just a few notes, but it was definitely humming and not just a random noise. Perhaps if she has some more great ones I'll share them in the future. Well, it's late. I think I'm going to go try to convince her to get off the couch to go to bed again...

*As a side note, all of my friends tell me that I take too long to tell stories... I wonder why in the world anyone would ever think that I was long-winded? Where would I get that from?

2012

2011-12-30T09:14:00.003-07:00

Keith and I have come to the conclusion that I say really strange/ confusing/ just plain idiotic things late at night while lying in bed. Yet they always end up being hilarious, so I guess it's all good. This is one of our latest conversations:

Keith was talking about how in 2012 there are going to be these solar flares, and there are going to be all these horrible results. Blah blah blah, cell phones don't work, yadda yadda yadda. Apparently he read all this stuff after some crazy man posted it online? I don't remember. I was sleepy.

Me: Well it IS going to be 2012. Isn't that supposedly "the end of the world? Again?"
Keith: *Laughs* Yeah, whatever. Have you ever seen that movie?
Me: 2012? No. All I remember is seeing the trailers for it. There was a lot of ice, some cave men, and a prehistoric lion? What's that thing called again?
Keith: ......... What are you talking about?
Me: A sabertooth something something?
Keith: ........Julie........?
Me: .....OH! We're talking about the movie 2012! Not 10,000 BC... duh...

I was only 12,012 years off... Great...

Christmas!!!

2011-12-28T21:43:00.001-07:00

Christmas has come and gone. It was a good Christmas, even if it was fairly different from previous years. First of all, I'm married. Yeah, that's different, but really, really awesome too! Julie's parents are really cool. They were willing to fly both of us out there for Christmas, but since I had to work all of last week, Julie is the only one that went. I don't know everything that went on, but I do know that Julie had an amazing time and barely slept all week long.

Lucky for me, we had a few friends stay in the area over break. There was only one day that I didn't spend at least a little bit of time with someone else here in Provo while Julie was gone. I was lucky enough to get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after off work, so I got a 3 day weekend, and I didn't even lose any hours either! I worked a full 40 hours last week, and I get 40 hours this week too! Anyway, Julie got back in town the morning of Christmas Eve, so I went and picked her up (Thanks Jeremy for letting use use your car all break!) As soon as she got home, she crashed for a good 3 hour nap. Julie NEVER takes naps. She was TIRED. We still didn't have anything to put in our stockings, so we went to Walmart only to find that it was stripped bare. It was crazy. It actually wasn't as busy as on Monday when we went back to grab some groceries (the return line went half way across the store). But we had a nice Christmas Eve just being together. Before we went to bed, we read Luke 2 by candle light. This is, more or less, what our Christmas looked like:

We didn't get a tree. We were going to put lights on the dragon, but the only lights we could find on Saturday were icicle lights or net lights... Yeah... So instead, we had... swords... Whatever. We'll do something better than this next year, for sure. One of our friends that Julie met her freshmen year here at BYU is from Orem, so we ended up spending most of Christmas evening there at his mom's house. In short, it was just a really simple Christmas, but it was fun.

Because I had Monday off as well, we decided that we were going to make some yummy food! I used the recipes from the Chinese food cookbook that I got last year for Christmas, and we made Broccoli Beef and Chinese Dumplings. It was so good! I think that the dumplings turned out better than the other dish, but it was still a lot of fun.

After making and eating dinner, we went to the dollar theater to watch Real Steel. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it! It was such a good movie! Both of us really loved it. We went with Michael, the same friend who we spent Christmas day with. It was just a really nice, relaxing day. But come Tuesday, my three day weekend was over, and I had to go back to work. Work has been okay, nothing special. But that has also left Julie home alone all day :-( NO FUN. We just remembered yesterday that we got her some Zumba DVD's a month or so ago, so she's going to keep herself busy doing Zumba. On top of that, we are having a good friend from study abroad over tonight. Geneva is one of the happiest people you will ever meet! We're excited to have dinner with her. Then tomorrow night, we are having a small party at our place with some friends and family who are still in Provo for New Years. We're going to make pizza, play games and just have fun. Perhaps we'll actually have some more pictures after the party (but don't hold your breath, neither of us ever take pictures...)

Only Hope

2011-12-09T17:42:00.003-07:00

So, I forgot this blog existed... I think Keith did as well, seeing as neither of us have posted anything in the past three months...

Anywho, life is swell! I absolutely love being married! Except for the fact that we have no money... and my husband is at work all day while I sit at home bored out of my mind...
but other than that, it's fantastic!!!

I am so happy I married my cute boy. He is seriously the most amazing guy in the world. He always tells me I'm beautiful, and he laughs at my stupid jokes. He deals with my blunt straightforwardness, and he NEVER gets upset or impatient with me. I've never seen him angry. I'm glad that's not his style. He knows how stressed I've been with homework and finals over the past few weeks, and he does everything possible to try and lighten my load. He makes me yummy food for dinner, does the yucky chores around the house, and is willing to just sit and relax with me when the night is finally through. He does goofy things that make me laugh CONSTANTLY and doesn't judge me for the random phobias that seem to control my life. He has gotten to know my best friends and loves them almost as much as I do. He respects and appreciates the things that I enjoy, even if he doesn't particularly care for them himself. He surprises me with things like candy and cheesecake. HE KNOWS ME WELL! He loves his family and tries to learn more about mine.

Speaking of family, I wish he could visit home with me! I'm going home to visit my family next weekend, and Keith can't come because he has to work all that week. It makes me SO SAD! Keith hasn't had many opportunities to interact with my family. By the time they finally started opening up to him, it was the day we were leaving after our wedding! At least he got to have fun with them for a few hours. Though I will be sad to part with my cute boy for a week, I am SO JAZZED to see my family again. I miss them like crazy and think about them every day. My brother Josh is going on a mission in January, so that's the main reason I'm going home. Mom thought it would be good for me to spend a little more time with him. Who knows where I'll be when he gets home in two years?! I'll be back on the morning of Christmas Eve, so I'll still get to spend that time with Keith. (Didn't think it'd be a great idea to spend our first Christmas as a married couple 2000 miles away from each other. Imagine that.)

Anyway, life is grand. Yesterday was the last day of classes for this semester, and I sadly realized that it was my last day of classes at BYU period! Next semester is just student teaching! I'm so close to graduation, and to be honest, I'm terrified about actually moving on to a new phase of life next year, but at least I'll have my best friend with me, and we can do it together. I love Keith so much and can't wait to find out what the future has in store for us. :)

P.S. In case anyone was wondering what the title was all about, I've been re-living my childhood for the past few days, and I thought of the movie A Walk to Remember. The song Only Hope (the one Mandy Moore sings in the play) was one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES! I love Switchfoot's original, but Mandy Moore's cover is SO good, and it's all because of the cello part. (I'm slightly obsessed with the cello. I think it's the most beautiful instrument in the world.) Anyway, it was always one of my dreams to play this song as a duet with someone else on piano, and I decided today that it was actually going to happen haha. Ordering the music now.

Listen/watch HERE if you don't know what song I'm talking about. SO beautiful. :)

Books

2011-09-28T13:46:00.000-06:00

I love reading. I enjoy movies as well, but reading has so much more potential to suck you into the world that the author crated than movies will ever have. Sure, there are times when I'd rather just watch a movie and be wow'd by the visual effects and how the director took the world in his mind and made it visual for everyone else to see. But that's always someone else's idea of how it looked, how the story played out. When you watch a movie made from a book you've previously read, you will inevitably be disappointed because this character didn't look the way you imagined them, or that character wasn't played the way that they should have been, or this place wasn't as fantastic as you had imagined it. Even if all you have is a vague idea in your head of what something should have been, a movie will disappoint. One of the beauties of books is that even with all of the description an author puts in, each person who reads will still interpret the characters slightly differently. The "movie" playing in your head as you read the book will be different from person to person, and even from one time you read the book to another.

The one thing I dislike about books, however, comes directly from their ability to engulf you in their world. After you finish a book, the world is over. You can no longer continue to explore the world as the character. Yes, you can go back and reread the book, and you'll probably catch things a second time that make the book new again. Or if you haven't read the book in a while, it will become new as you try to remember specifics about the characters or plots and rediscover them. But in the end, after you finish, you're thrust back into reality where the world you were so much a part of is just a story. There is one way around this: reading a book that is part of a series. I loved Harry Potter, with each book you read, you get to know the characters even better. You get to continue to explore their universe with them. The story doesn't end. Ok, so it eventually does end, but it lasts so much longer than just a single book! The same happened when I read The Chronicles of Narnia. As amazing as those books were and as great as it was to continue to live in the universe that the authors created, I still got to the end of the series and had to leave their world.

One of my all time favorite books is Ender's Game. If you haven't read it, you should. It is such a great book! I just finished reading the last book that follows Ender's life. Children of the Mind. Even with having to go to work, I still was able to finish the entire book in just over 3 days. It really love how it ended. It really was just a continuation of the 3rd book Xenocide. I could hardly put the book down (just ask Julie). But even though I finished a story line from the Enderverse, I'm not done. I still have the entire Shadow series, which starts off with one of the best books in the entire Enderverse: Ender's Shadow. Man I'm excited! So, even though I got to the end of one of the story lines, I can still throw myself into that same universe for a while longer and enjoy the brilliant characters Orson Scott Card created. Again, if you haven't read them, all of the books in the Enderverse come highly recommended from me!

PS. I know I'm horrible about posting on here and in all honesty, should have probably posted something about our wedding or any of the other more significant things that have happened over the past few months, but a post about a book is better than nothing, right? But I really do love being married to Julie. It really is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Perhaps I'll post something of a little bit more meaning later, but I wouldn't hold your breath ;-)

Or Not...

2011-07-31T23:59:00.000-06:00

Well, this was going to be a post about how awesome it is to have the key to our apartment and have a lot of my stuff moved in... But when I went to get the key to the apartment yesterday, the day that they told me to come by to get it, the office was closed. Ya, really cool huh? I was planning on having all the big stuff moved in today so I could have time to organize everything and clean what I need to in my old place before I check out. Well, looks like I'm just going to be really busy this week with moving and cleaning and organizing. Oh well. I'll survive.

Among the obvious reasons why I'm so excited to move into our new apartment, there is one reason that most of you don't know about...

(Thank you Google for auto-save... I tried dragging and dropping this picture

and instead of adding it where I wanted it, it went away from this page and

opened the picture up instead. Again, thank you Google for auto-save.)

No, my house isn't infested with tons of flies... Just two. Two flies (I thought it was just one for a while, but was proven wrong when they decided to tag team me) have been terrorizing me in my apartment for the past few weeks. They're pretty slow, but just fast enough that I can't catch them. They like to hang out where ever I am. If I'm making myself some food, they'll come taunt me right beside my plate or the sink or on the cupboard door (Thanks again Google for voice search! When spell check fails to read my mind, at least you can understand what I'm saying...). Or I'll be hanging out on the couch and they'll just land right next to my feet and start walking on them... Ya, that's obnoxious! Or my head, they seem to like that too. Like I said, they have been tormenting me for far too long and I'm so ready to be rid of them! Yes yes yes, I know... I should just go get a fly swatter. Two things: One, I'm lazy. Two, I never think about it when I'm not at home and the flys aren't teasing me. Now, what I need are one of those electric bug zapper/fly swatters that everyone seemed to have in Taiwan. When I was on my mission, I was sure that you wouldn't ever be able to buy them in America because, well, let's face it, it's a bunch of exposed wires with electricity going through them! But low and behold, Amazon has them for sale for $12.99! Not that I'm going to buy one... Anyway, good riddance to those stupid flys!

I love the dentist

2011-07-27T18:47:00.002-06:00

So yesterday morning I had a dentist appointment. Just a regular exam, the kind you get every 6 months or so. A while ago, I decided I really love the dentist. He's always able to get the yucky stuff off my teeth that I somehow can't get myself. He also compliments me. I love compliments. :)

Yesterday he said, "Julie, you have beautiful teeth! I think you're the best we've seen all day."

I actually talked about this with my brother a few days ago. I told him how the dentist compliments me on my nice teeth every time I go see him. My brother claimed that he says that to everyone, just to be nice. So after my dentist told me that my teeth were beautiful I asked, "Are they really? Or do you just say that to everybody?"

He laughed and then said, "NO! I think you've got the best set we're going to see today, and I would totally rank you in the top 10 for the week."

So at least for now, I once again absolutely love my dentist. He tells me I have pretty teeth :)

Holiness to the Lord. The House of the Lord

2011-07-26T21:30:00.004-06:00

Today was going to be an epic day. I was going to go to the distribution center in DC to pick out my special LDS underwear. Hooray! Though I wasn't feeling too hot and had a lot of other things on my mind, my mommy and I started our trek to Washington.

Definitely wasn't an exciting trip though. We had to take my dad's truck, which doesn't have air conditioning. In case anyone doesn't know, it's been over 100 degrees out here every day for the past week. IT. IS. HAWT! Starting at 3 in the afternoon, we made the 2 hour drive to DC. Mere minutes away, we find out that the bridge we usually take to get there is closed. We have NO IDEA how to get there now. And we forgot the GPS... cool. Luckily my mom and I see this woman walking down some residential road, and we stop to ask her for directions. She turned out to be LDS. Blessing #1. She told us how to get there, and we got there quickly. I am VERY thankful for this lady. When you get lost in DC, you can EASILY waste an hour trying to find your way. We couldn't afford to lose this time because the distribution center was going to close at 5:30. We got lost at 5. Bad news. But we found it and got my special unders just in time.

Speaking of those, I didn't know it was going to be so stinking hard just to choose what kind I wanted! I walked out of there with a billion different styles, cuts, and fabrics. I hate trial and error shopping. I would much rather buy something I KNOW will fit and that I'll like. But I'll get over it I suppose. Does anyone have any suggestions by the way?

Man alive, I'm just like Keith. This thing could easily turn into a manuscript...

To make a long story somewhat shorter? My mom surprised me by telling me we were going to stay in DC a while longer. The youth were coming to do baptisms at 7:30. We were going to stay. Not going to lie, but after driving around in that freaking hot car for 2 hours and getting a bit lost, I was NOT in the mood to waste 2 hours in DC and then stay for baptisms which always take FOREVER! We were all going into the baptistry, and I just wasn't in the mood to be there. I waited until the end of the line, still hoping that somehow I wouldn't have to go inside and I could magically transport home? One of the YW leaders actually forgot her recommend, and the entire time, I was hoping that she wouldn't be able to go in. That way, I would have an excuse to go out and do something with her. (STUPID! I KNOW! GRRR...)

They ended up getting everything with her straightened out, so I had to do the baptisms. As soon as the man scanned my recommend and I walked inside, I was overwhelmed with this feeling of love. The very second I stepped inside the baptistry doors, one of my friends was there to meet me. She squeezed my arm and said, "I'm happy you're here." I started bawling. I think I'm a little stressed? I was so ashamed of myself. I couldn't believe that just a few seconds earlier I had been so selfish. Why in the world would I not be "in the mood" to go to the temple?! It's not like it's going to do me any harm! I had forgotten what kind of work goes on inside those hallowed walls. It is the work of the Lord. The temple is His house. I was served a piece of humble pie to the face, while still feeling the Lord's love for me. (It's crazy how He can do that!) I needed to forget myself and my stresses and just do some service for a while! It made SUCH a huge difference in my attitude the rest of the night.

Basically, I love the temple. And even though I prefer to start my temple trips in a better mood, sometimes you really just need to walk in the doors anyway. I felt so peaceful, and after a few minutes of crying, I was totally happy. I also loved the fact that I was there with my 12 year old sister. I realize that we don't spend much time together. I loved doing her hair after we were baptized and her telling me how beautiful mine was. She is SO FUNNY, and I absolutely ADORE her.

I can't wait until the next time I get to go. I'm sure I'll be a bit more excited seeing as I'll be with my fiancee! And the next day we'll go again, and he'll become my HUSBAND! For time and all eternity. Incredible work really does go on in there. Holiness to the Lord.

Bridal Shower

2011-07-16T14:19:00.004-06:00

I had my bridal shower this morning, and it was a blast!

My good friend Amy threw it for me. In all honesty, I think she has done more to plan/prepare for my wedding than I have. I couldn't thank her enough for everything she's doing for me. She's ordering the flowers, arranging them and taking care of decorating the venue (which needs a LOT of help) I love her and her family to death and am inexplicably grateful for their help.

Anyway, my bridal shower was at her house this morning. It was a brunch, so we went, socialized, talked about the new harry potter movie (which most of us saw at midnight of course), and ate delicious food. After a while, she decided to play a game called how well do you know the bride and groom. Everyone got paper and pencils and had to answer questions about Keith and I such as where/how we met, what our first official date was, what we're studying, etc... I am proud to announce that I am the only one who got all of the questions correct. A lot of my close friends only missed one or two.

After that was over, Amy pulled out a package of napkins. She split everyone into 3 groups and announced that they would be making me a wedding dress out of said napkins. One group was to make a skirt, another a bodice, and the last group was supposed to make a veil. It was SO funny to watch everyone try to put the pieces together. After all of the pieces were assembled, it was then time to actually put them on me! Not gonna lie, I've never seen a better looking napkin dress in my life! Seriously, my friends were super creative and really got into this. My waterfall style skirt has a train covered in roses, I have a braided napkin belt across the bodice, and a rose on the front of my veil to tie the whole piece together. Not to mention, I had some rockin shoulder pads as well. Here are some pictures. Let me know what you think!

Next was the gifts. I got some great recipes I'm looking forward to trying out when I finally marry my cute boy (3 weeks from today! AHHH!) I got mostly gift cards because everyone knows we won't have much space when we move back to Utah, but there were some other surprises thrown in there as well. ;-)

Thank you SO MUCH to anyone who made an appearance in person or in spirit. The love I have for you is immeasurable.

True Friends

2011-06-27T14:57:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: I am rather wordy, if you don't want to read my ramblings, just skip to the bottom for the gist of this post.

This summer has been a very different than other summers I have had. Not even close to the worst summer I have had, that's for sure.... But this summer, all of my best friends are gone. I do still have other friends that are here still, just none of my really close friends. Aubrey graduated and moved back home. Nancyann was going to come back with me after the family reunion, but after being home she realized how much she missed it and decided to stay home all summer. And Julie is gone for the summer as well. Those three girls have been my best friends for a while now. Marshall had been out here, but he went back home at Christmas and is now in basic training. Phill and Crystal Littlewood left at the beginning of last school year for Massachusetts and Chris Hills transferred up to BYU-I last semester. Until just this week, Josh Foster and his wife Christie had been out here as well, but they just left to go back to Missouri for a pit stop before heading to Georgia for grad school. With my work schedule, I don't usually get to do much socializing outside of Sunday's, which is ok I guess. At least I have some time that I get to interact with people not on the computer or the phone. But my birthday was this past week. The past two birthdays have been lots of fun. When I turned 24, I finally had a group of close friends out here at school for the first time (aside from when I was in China) and so we had lots of fun. Last year we did a fun camping trip with everyone that was here, and since it was just after Marshall and Nancyann got out here, it was a blast! Like I said, I do have some friends out here still. So I figured I would invite a bunch of people to go to the tumble gym with me and have a party there. I sent out like 30-40 invites in facebook (which I know isn't exactly a sure bet to getting people to show up) I texted a few friends as well. The only solid 'yes' I got was from Josh. There were a few of my better friends who had valid reasons for not showing up, being out of town, work, etc. But it end up just being Josh, Christie, their little girl and Josh's little brother who's been out here all summer and I there at the tumble gym. At first I was kind of disappointed that no one else showed up, but then I started thinking about how much fun I was having with Josh and his crew. I have long known that I would rather hang out in boring ole' Provo with a group of people I love than travel the world alone. But I also realized that I would much rather spend the day with one really close friend than with a large group of friendly people who I'm not very close with. Later that night there was a group of people in my ward playing signs who invited me to come play with them, which ended up being a lot of fun. But like I said I have come to really appreciate the value of even just one close friend.

So, basically what I'm saying is I am so grateful for the awesome friends that I have, especially those that are closest to me. When I went to Massachusetts over Christmas break, I got to see Phill and Crystal and we had almost our whole tight group of friends back together from the previous year. Even though it had been a few months since we had seen each other, it was as if no time had passed. Those are the types of friends that you can't replace. I have been so blessed to make some really close friends and even though I don't see them very often (especially this summer) I'm still so glad that I have them as friends.

Announcements!

2011-06-24T13:08:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that Julie and I are getting our announcements printed right now. We should have them by Wednesday of next week or so. I know that some of you have already given us your information, but if you would like to make sure you get an announcement, please fill this form out! We will put an announcement up on here, but if you would like one emailed to you or a printed copy of it, just make sure you fill out that form. We have it set up so when you fill it out, it will populate a spreadsheet for us, thus making it TONS easier to organize all of the names and address of people who want an announcement.

Also, I apologize for being such a horrible blogger... I have been having a pretty good summer so far, in case you were wondering. It would, obviously, be better if Julie were here, but there are only 43 days left till we're married! I'll try to post some overdue updates soon... But I have found that instead of being overly productive, I've just come to wish that the summer would end and Julie and I could just get married already. I have been reading a lot of books lately. Lots of good books too. I'm not sure if I'm enjoying the books themselves or the escape from being alone out here more. Whichever one it is, it has been nice to read so many good books. And I still have some I need to read. Thanks Mom and Dad for the book! Oh, and thanks Riss for the cook book! I'm sure I'll be using it lots... Mmmmm....

Anyway, I think I'll wrap this up before I start rambling on about nothing and taking up pages and pages with nothing interesting to report. :-D Hopefully I'll update you soon!

Curse those Irish and their awesome dancing

2011-06-07T21:26:00.004-06:00

I think some of you have heard some rumors, and I'm here to put those rumors to rest.

First of all, yes. I did in fact break my toe. It happened a week ago now. I called on Friday to schedule an appointment with a doctor because this was no ordinary stubbed toe. There was something seriously wrong with it, and it sported shades of black and blue I didn't know existed. The earliest they could get me in was Monday, so I took it. Now this is something I've always struggled with when it comes to doctors. I like to think there's a reason behind their asking where it hurts, but every time I tell them, they feel the need to poke it, pull it, squeeze it, anything they can do to make the hurt area feel worse. Why can't they just believe me when I tell them what's wrong without having to see for themselves?! I think they just enjoy seeing others' pain. I mean, they are doctors after all. Anywho, I had some x-rays done, and then it was time to leave. However, as we were leaving, my mom wanted to schedule an appointment with the actual family physician to solve another problem that has been going on for a while now. We somehow managed to snag a slot for the next day! That never happens!

So I went back in today. And somehow, my x-rays hadn't been checked yet. When I had them done yesterday, the nurse said that someone would read them and let me know the results within the hour. I, however, heard no results. So today we made them read them while we were there, and the doctor said that he might have seen a fracture but that it was a bit unclear, so he wanted one more x-ray. After my scheduled appointment, I went and had another x-ray done. The nurse then said someone would read them right away and we could just sit in the waiting room until they told us what was up. After 45 minutes, we concluded that they must have forgotten about us again. But me being me, and my mom being my mom, we couldn't just leave with no results after waiting for that long. So we walked up to the desk and demanded our results. Neither of us appreciated being told to wait for a "few minutes" and then wasting an hour of our day. We got the guy on the phone and talked about my x-ray results.

It turns out I have a non-displaced fracture. In other words, I broke my toe. However, it hasn't moved out of place or become crooked. It's still aligned properly, so healing shouldn't be too much of a problem. It's a good thing too! The other night I had a nightmare that I wouldn't be able to wear heels at my wedding! LAME! So yeah, hopefully this thing fixes itself in the next two months. Otherwise, I'll be very upset, but the only thing I can do for it is tape it to its neighboring toe. That provides a support or splint. Then we keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. Either way, I can't walk, which is super annoying, or get my toe into shoes. So now that my toes are taped, I look especially ridiculous limping around in my flip flops.

The next rumor I would like to explain is HOW exactly I managed to break my big toe. Well, I had a lot of energy last Wednesday night, so I decided to let some of it out by doing one of the Irish dance routines I learned in my Irish dance class last year. Irish dance really works you, so I thought that would solve my problems in a jiffy. My favorite routine was a hard shoe dance like the clogging done in Riverdance. However, I was so excited to dance that I forgot to go put hard shoes on. I tried doing the routine bear foot. Let me just say, NOT a good idea. I didn't even make it five seconds before I kicked the floor and heard a LOUD crack. So yes, I broke my toe while dancing in my living room. Everyone agrees though. If I were going to break a toe, that's how I would do it. Something completely idiotic and avoidable. Typical...

I have another appointment in 3 weeks to get the results from today's procedure and then see how the toe is healing. Wish me luck!

Every teardrop is a waterfall

2011-06-04T17:38:00.003-06:00

Just for kicks and giggles, I've decided to update you all on the love of my life.

Coldplay.

I am SO happy right now. They released a new single yesterday!!! I think I've listened to it close to 50 times already. Yeah, I have no life. I know. Actually, not true. I do have a life. Obviously, hence the whole living thing. I just enjoy having music in it. :)

Anyway, so this song is awesome. It's called 'Every teardrop is a waterfall.' It has a bit of a techno feel to it. Definitely different from the slow, acoustic stuff they started their careers with and then the most recent viva la vida style, but I still really enjoy it.

The point is, you should all listen. now. here. Thanks :)

Announcement!

2011-04-16T20:09:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone! So we just made a spreadsheet in order to efficiently get everyone's mailing information for our announcements (which honestly won't be made for a while still, but hey! why wait when we can actually get something done now?). But yeah, just click on this link and fill out the needed information if you want one. Thanks!

GUESS WHAT

2011-04-15T03:32:00.003-06:00

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!

Yeah, sure most of you knew about that already, but I just wanted to inform those who didn't. I have the most beautiful ring in the world, and my cute boy is just that. He's absolutely adorable. I might as well explain how he did it so that all of you can hear my side of the story, but beware. I practically wrote a book. Maybe I'm spending too much time around Keith. ;)

On Wednesdays, Keith "supposedly" has class until about 7 pm. I, however, am done at noon. We always meet up and chat for a few minutes before I go home. We talked about how he was going to be home late and how we should do something fun for a date to celebrate the last day of class. It sounded good to me, and I started walking home. Now, I knew that I was going to be getting engaged in the VERY recent future. I was about 98% sure it was going to happen on Wednesday. I just didn't know how or when. Anyway, I went home, got my computer, and made myself at home on my couch. I needed to write two more papers, but I just couldn't concentrate. I texted my roommate Sarah and told her to come over after she got out of class because I was so bored. Lucky for me, she wasn't going to be out of class until 4:00. So I managed to waste four hours of my life laying on my couch and watching House. Cool eh?

Eventually, Sarah came over with a sandwich and some chips. We sat in my living room talking, and it was almost 5:00, the time Keith's last class starts. Sarah finished her lunch and told me she was going to go put her stuff away and that she'd be back in about five minutes. Sarah left and I went back to aimlessly wasting time on my computer. A few minutes later, I hear the door open. I figure it was Sarah, so I didn't turn around to check.

Next thing I know, there's a scarf in front of my face, and I'm being blindfolded. Of course, since I knew it was coming, I wasn't that surprised. I felt the scarf and knew I was getting engaged! HOORAY!!! Anyway, someone takes my computer off of my lap, and then someone tries picking me up off the couch. THAT is when I start freaking out. I have this thing about being picked up; I don't like it. So I start yelling for him to put me down, not because I'm terrified of being abducted by a bunch of people I couldn't see, but because I have a fear of being picked up. Anyway, my captors attempt to get me off the couch and take me away, but I was thinking ahead. I didn't have any shoes on. So I plop back down on the couch and call for my shoes which just so happened to be sitting right next to the couch. Suddenly both of my shoes are being put on my feet, and then they take me again. I'm led outside of my apartment, to the parking lot of my complex, and put into a car. One of my captors was even kind enough to buckle me in when I got in the car. The really awkward part about all of this though, is that no one is talking. No one says a single word even when I would ask them questions. I could tell exactly who my captors were though, even without hearing their voices, Sarah, Debbie, and Ben. I know my roommates and their boyfriends well. :)

Anyway, after I get in the car, I ask the driver if we're allowed to talk. He also decides not to say a word. I wanted to see who the driver was, so I decide it would be alright for me to just reach over and practically grope the man. Lucky for me, it was Keith. He starts playing cheesy songs and whatnot, and we start driving. After a few minutes, he stops the car and helps me out. He puts a bunch of flowers in my hand and tells me to take off the blindfold. I open my eyes and I'm standing on the side of a mountain, over looking Utah. My cute boy is down on his knee in front of me holding the most beautiful ring I've ever seen. Then he simply says, "Julie Peiffer, will you marry me?" No nonsense or suspense. Straight to the point. I immediately say yes and make him get up so I can give him a great big hug. After that's all over, he puts the ring on my finger. Then we stood there for a while admiring its sparkle in the sunlight, and man alive, does that thing ever sparkle!!!

So yeah, that's the story of how Keith proposed. We were also lucky enough to have my friend Chris brought in on the action right before I was abducted. Apparently he filmed the entirety of it until I got put in the car, though neither Keith nor I have seen this video footage. Maybe we can put that up here sometime in case any of our faithful followers want to see part of the action. Then we came back home and told a bunch of people. We called our family members and stuff, and then I was absolutely starving. We decided to celebrate by going to Olive Garden, but I kind of wanted it to be a social event, so we invited all of my roommates and their boyfriends to come with us. How sweet is it that we are ALL dating or engaged?! Sarah and Evan couldn't come though because Evan was at work and Sarah had a lot of homework to do. But the rest of us had a complete blast and stuffed ourselves to the rafters! Another side note, the reason this entire engagement was a bit unexpected at the time was because I thought Keith was going to be in class. It turns out the class was just a review for the final, and he had a friend get the notes for him. Apparently he had better things to do.

Anyway, the bottom line is, Keith is adorable. We are finally and officially engaged, I love him to death, and I cannot wait to marry him. :)

Hey!

2011-04-06T09:38:00.001-06:00

I've been invited to post on the blog. Pretty cool eh?

FYI, I'm really happy... and am losing a lot of sleep because of how jittery I am, which is pretty annoying. But still, I'd rather be happy and jittery than terrified and jittery! Can't wait to make this engagement official! The end. :)

Christmas Around the World, Finally!!!

2011-04-06T00:04:00.000-06:00

Here's the dance I did for Christmas Around the World back in December. Sorry for the wait. I just got my computer back today and I had to reload everything because they had to replace my hard drive for whatever reason. I'll copy the DVD and either mail it home or just send it home with Mom and Dad after they come out for my graduation for those of you interested in watching the entire performance, not just my dance. But at any rate, here's the video!

Conference

2011-04-04T16:32:00.001-06:00

I feel like general conference was trying to tell me something...

It was Julie! Julie's on the other side of the planet! Hey miracles can happen!

2011-03-26T20:56:00.000-06:00

So, I love Julie. I really do. She's absolutely amazing. She apparently really likes it when I update my blog. I guess it's not enough for her to be with me every second of every day ;-). Not that I mind, by all means! Please don't get me wrong! I LOVE being around Julie too! And those of you who have met her know why, she's just so much fun and I'm always smiling and laughing when I'm with her. Anyway, like I said, she likes it when I update my blog because she just likes to see what I'm thinking. I guess it is a different perspective when I'm writing to the blogosphere as opposed to talking to her directly. Anyway, We've been having a lazy Saturday, just hanging out. We played frisbee with some friends earlier today. We haven't played frisbee in a long time, like all year, and she's kind of missed it. A lot. Julie's obsession with frisbee is akin to my obsession with China, if that puts things in perspective a little bit. It was lots of fun.

Well, we're kind of just chilling right now. Julie was trying to convince Steven, my room mate, that he should let her cut his hair. He was almost going to do it, but then he decided against it for some reason. He needs a hair cut though, he's kind of getting to the 'mop head' stage. So I guess that idea is out. Perhaps we'll put a movie on. We played some Uno and Phase 10, oh and we made some cookie dough and ate probably three fourths of it... :-D. I love cookie dough. As I have said, Julie just really likes it when I update my blog, so I figured I'd spend this past few min doing that just for her. She said she would have blogged about our trip to Garry's last weekend. I would, but I don't really have any pictures of my own to put up. Oh, one nice thing about being 25, I can rent a car and not have to pay an arm and a leg for 'underage' drivers fees and whatnot. The insurance is still expensive because I don't have any car insurance of my own, but still, at least I don't have those extra fees attached to it. It really was a wonderful weekend though. I really love my family. As I get older, I realize more and more how truly unique my family is. Julie noticed it as well, that we can go months without seeing each other and as soon as we are together again, it's like we've been together the entire time. It was a lot of fun to meet Jenessa (Marshall's girl) and her sister who came down with Julie, Nanc and I. Also, I LOVE my nieces and nephews! They're all so cute and so much fun! I wish I could see them more often, but at least some of them are close enough to see every once in a while. Like everyone else in my family, I am TOTALLY excited about the upcoming reunion this Summer! And what makes it all even better is that Julie's dad said that if she would do whatever he asked her to do over the summer (weed, mow, other miscellaneous chores) then he would buy her plane ticket to go! YAY! Julie's going to be a the reunion as well! It's going to be a BLAST!

One last random update before I get off: Steven (the same one who needs a hair cut) said I could use his computer and one of his dvd's to copy my Christmas Around the World dvd to send home! So I'll do that within the next few days and get it in the mail the first of next week. So those of you who are interested and live close can go check it out at my parents place!

Ok, now I'm done. I hope you're happy now Julie ;-). Perhaps I will get better at blogging regularly. Or maybe I'll be able to convince Julie to start a blog of her own! Or maybe I'll just grant her access so that she can post on here as well... Hum... now there's an idea..... I'll take a poll: Those of you reading this, would you rather Julie starts her own blog, starts posting here on my blog (thus making it our blog), or are you indifferent as to the blogging habits of the girl I love so much and care immensely about? (hint: That last option should only be chosen if you don't even know who I am, in which case, why are you voting in this pole in the first place!?!?!)

還有一件事！我正在想取個名字給我美麗的女朋友。取好名字後就會跟大家分享！

Christmas Around the World DVD!

2011-03-26T20:23:00.000-06:00

I FINALLY got my Christmas Around the World DVD! Yay! It's only 2 months late... Whatever. I would be putting up a video of my dance right now, except my computer decided to hate me a little bit more. As soon as I get my computer back, I'll rip the section with my dance to my computer and put it up here. I'll also make a copy of the DVD and send it home so those of you who don't have a fast enough computer can watch it as well. You'll be able to watch the entire program as well if you would like. I know Grandma Willis would really enjoy it and I'm sure that there are others of you that would enjoy it as well. But like I said, my computer hates me again. For those of you who haven't heard about this whole fiasco, about 6 months or so ago (maybe longer), my computer screen started acting up. Everywhere that was supposed to be black had obnoxious red lines going through it. It was rather abrasive to the eyes. So I sent it in. When I got it back, guess what, the white now was turning this bright blue color! Oh, and the red was still there. I kind of needed my laptop for school, so I just dealt with it till January. I couldn't watch movies because the colors were crazy. I could hardly even write a paper without my eyes getting sore from the obnoxious colors. Anyway. in January, I sent it back in to Asus to fix it. When I got it back, they decided not to send my power cord with it.... Ya, that was really happy for me. But I borrowed a friends power cord and found that there were still really thin lines all over the place, but only when my brightness was turned all the way up. They told me that my power cord would come back with my computer after I sent it in again. So I sent it in, and they fixed it. Yay! Still no power cord. Grumpy! So after chewing a few people out and talking to a manager, I ended up getting my cord almost 2 weeks later. Everything was all fine and dandy. My battery was even lasting a little bit longer. Then after I get home from Garry's house last Sunday night, the backlight to the screen decided that it was going to give out on me. Ya, really happy about that. So I sent it in again and now don't have a computer again for another week and a half or so. So there you have it, my computer hates me again. At least I have a 2 year warrantee on it. So if anything else decides to go out on it or freak out on me, it had better happen before December! Anyway, within 2 weeks probably, I should be able to get a video of my performance up. Heck, I may have a video of our Scottish dance we're doing next week by then as well!

Julie Ann Peiffer

2011-02-26T02:26:00.000-07:00

Well, you all know who Julie is, and if you don't, here's a previous post catching you (mostly) up to speed. Ok, now that we're all on the same page... For those of you who do not have access to Facebook (if there are any of you) here is one of the pictures that I promised oh so long ago of Julie and I.

Awwww.... Isn't she gorgeous!? There are more pictures of Julie and I here if you haven't seen them. I know, neither of us take enough pictures. And when we do, it takes us both so stinking long to get them put anywhere where other people can see them. Well, I know that these next few pictures aren't exactly of people, but I figured that they are worth sharing anyway. You see, I'm kind of in love with Julie and she (for some reason) seems to love me back. Don't believe me? Well, here is some proof:

This was from walking her home one night. As we were walking through a parking lot, she decided she was going to write me a message. So I sat there as she wrote that lovely note for me in the snow.

You'll probably have to zoom in on this one to see what it actually says. I think I may have mentioned this before, but Julie got a hold of my computer one day when I had stepped out and left all of these wonderful notes on my desktop for me! Sadly, when I sent my computer in to get it fixed, they closed all of the notes, but that's why I took a screen shot! Now I won't ever forget how much she loves me! :-D

Now this is what I found on my door the morning of Valentine's Day. Again, isn't she so cute! I have since taken all of the harts off of my door and transfered them into my bedroom.

These next pictures are from preference. It was a Beauty and the Beast dance (thus the first picture).

The beautiful dress my lovely date was wearing

Not the best picture of me, but I love Julie's smile in this picture

Not only is she gorgeous, but she's funny too!

As you can see, we both love each other very much. We have a tendency to spend any free moment we have together. On top of that, pretty much all of our friends think that we are just a really adorable couple. A while ago, Sarah, one of Julie's best friends since Freshmen year, made some sort of comment about if she had a quarter for ever time we did something cute... Now every time we kiss or do anything that the group of friends thinks is cute, we will inevitably hear at least on person say, "Quarter!" I find it rather funny, especially when Julie plays dumb and says that she doesn't know why insert cuteness here is cute. There really are a ton of things that I love about Julie, but I won't go into those here. I know that most of you reading this were directed here from Facebook, and are thus waiting for the story of how it happened. Well, you're patience shall be rewarded!

Fridays are one of Julie's busy days. She has 6 hours of class (comprised of only two classes) starting at 8 in the morning. Disgusting, I know. Some friends had invited Nancyann and us over to their place for a game night, so we figured it would be easier if Julie just came over to my place after she got out of class. My only class on Friday's are my Folk Dance class at 2. Julie gets out of her class just before 2. So Julie headed over to my place just as I was leaving for my class. I happened to have a test I had to take today, so I wasn't able to head directly home from dance. I had a minute as I was walking over to the testing center, so I figured I would check my email/Facebook. Low and behold, I had 8 emails from Facebook telling me that people had commented on my 'changed relationship status'. Not knowing what the heck was going on, I got on Facebook myself, and sure enough, I had apparently gone from 'In a relationship' to 'Engaged' within the past hour without my knowledge and even without me actually proposing or asking any sort of question! No sooner did I see the word 'engaged' than I got a phone call from my sister in law wondering what in the world was going on. I explained to her that Julie was at my house, with my computer and therein lies the answer as to how I went from merely in a relationship to engaged without a single person in my family knowing about it before it was all over Facebook. As soon as I hung up with Sheri, my mom called. I didn't really give her a chance to say hardly anything before I went in on the explanation of what was going on. It's probably a good thing too, she was apparently pretty ticked that I would get engaged and post it on Facebook without actually even calling home and telling her and dad first! I can't blame her, that would be a pretty low/stupid thing to do. I had to go take my test after I got off the phone with her, but now, not even 12 hours later, I have received countless notifications from Facebook about people liking and commenting on my 'engagement'.

At any rate, this is my way of telling all of you that I am, in fact, not engaged. It was merely a prank that Julie pulled on not just me, but all of you as well. I hope that you all aren't too horribly ticked off at us/her. I, for one, find the entire situation rather hilarious! If you were wondering how things are going between Julie and I, the answer is things are absolutely marvelous! She really is a wonderful girl and I love her with all of my heart. If that's not enough, well, just think about what this post was all about and think about what you know about my brother in laws (specifically shortly before they were my brother in laws).

Well, I think I have successfully put those crazy rumors to rest. Though, I may have gotten some of you to thinking, potentially starting even more rumors :-D. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little fiasco at least half as much as I have!

Pictures and a Video

2011-02-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I posted all of the pictures that Julie and I took on facebook, but there might be a few of you who don't have facebook, so here is a link to the album that they are in.

So, being an Elementary Education major, Julie often has random, somewhat odd projects that she has to do. Her latest project was to make a video telling a story. She decided to tell the story of The Princess and the Pea. We enlisted the help of my room mates and a few of her friends to take the pictures then we compiled it all yesterday and made a video out of it. In order to turn it in, she had to post it to youtube. So that means you all have access to it as well! Anyway, it was really fun to do and turned out to be rather cute. I hope you all enjoy!

Roommates

2011-01-25T01:49:00.000-07:00

So, I don't think I've told too many of you about my awesome roommates that I have. Marshall knows them and so does Nanc and perhaps a few other people out here at BYU that happen to feel like stalking on my blog every once in a while. But other than that, most of you are probably rather clueless as to who my roommates are. Ok, well, after Marshall and I came back for this semester, I got a new roommate in my room. His name is Dalan Brown. He's really stinking cool. Unfortunately, as some of you know, he was in a car accident a few weeks ago and was hurt pretty bad. Broken scapula, broken rib, lost a lot of blood, gash across his chest, stressed artery coming right out of his heart, collapsed lung... It was pretty stinkin bad. But he's had surgery and things are looking up. He should have a full recovery and is leaving the hospital in the next day or so. I didn't have a lot of time to get to know him, but I really liked him. He would have been a really cool roommate. He's going back home to Idaho and will be back for the fall. So we'll see if we end up being roommates then or not. The other guy who is 'new' is David Howard. He has technically 'lived' here since the beginning of Fall semester. I say 'lived' because I think I can count the number of times he's actually slept here on two hands, possibly even just one. He apparently is pretty serious with his girlfriend and depending on how things go there, he's either going to marry her and we'll never see him again, or it'll end and he'll actually move in. Who knows what's going on with him... I did talk to him for about 1 1/2 hours last night and he seems like a pretty cool guy. Then we have Devon and Steven Janke. They're brothers from Ohio. Steven is the oldest. He works at FedEx early Early mornings (as in, it's not unheard of him to leave for work before I go to bed). This is his first time moving away from home and isn't exactly a social butterfly, but he's seriously just a really good guy. He likes computers a lot and loves playing video games, but he's a really caring happy guy. He's always more than willing to help with whatever you need and generally doesn't really care what other's opinions of him are, he's just going to be himself. Devon is pretty cool too. He has an amazing voice and is extremely talented with the piano. I know he plays the guitar as well and is good at that too, but I don't hear that quite as often as I hear him playing the piano. Last semester his classes kind of sucked the life out of him. We had a dance party about half way through last semester that he helped with and it kind of took me and the others who didn't already know him there off guard when we realized how fun of a personality he has. He can be just as goofy as the next guy and is also just a genuinely happy guy. Then there's Chris Layton. He's really stinking funny. He's almost always smiling and laughing about something. This guy can seriously take pretty much any situation and find humor in it. He was actually in the accident with Dalan and when we went to visit him this past Sunday, everyone was laughing about all sorts of random stuff he was saying. It's always a treat when you are around people with a sense of humor and thing that life should be enjoyed, not just endured. You can ask anyone here, my roommates are all pretty sweet guys. They're all just really chill and fun loving. Julie just thinks that they are amazing and I'd have to agree. I sure have been blessed with some amazing people around me. Hopefully next year Devon will be on a mission, but him aside, I'd love to keep my roommates who they are. Anyway, I figured you should all know how many cool people I'm surrounded by. I'm sure that you would all like to know how things are going with Julie and I, because, well, let's face it, everyone's always interested in others dating lives. But I'm going to have to leave you disappointed. I will say that I should be able to actually post some pictures of us tomorrow. Hopefully we get a few good ones that she won't despise and will let me put up here for the world to see how gorgeous she is. But till then, you'll just have to wait.

P.S. Sorry I'm so longwinded. I just can't really help myself some times... :-D

Chinese 311

2011-01-20T18:06:00.000-07:00

I added a Chinese conversation class last minute this semester. This is one of those classes that is different every semester and could really go either way, depending on the people in the class and more than that who is teaching and how they decide to set the class up. So yesterday was my first time attending the class, and from the looks of it I'm going to enjoy the class. At the beginning of class, she asked me to introduce myself and as I'm introducing myself I say that I served my mission in Taiwan. Before I continue, you must understand something about Chinese. Well, for one, there are tons of dialects, which greatly affect your accent (for native speakers) when speaking Mandarin. The accent that people in Taiwan have isn't exactly hard to understand, but because they don't curl their tongue when they should, it has a tendency to sound almost as if you have a lisp. Some missionaries, in an attempt to sound more like the people they served with, over compensate for this and just sound ridiculous. Even those who don't overcompensate have a tendency to pick up at least a little bit of the Taiwanese accent. Ever since I started learning Chinese, I have wanted to have accurate Chinese. Of course, there are some things that I say that are obviously the Taiwanese pronunciation and other things that show I clearly learned Chinese in Taiwan, but that isn't the accent I wanted to pick up. So I have worked hard to have good, accurate Chinese. Ok, back to my class. When I said that I served in Taiwan, my teacher didn't quite believe me. She said, "Really? Then why don't you sound like someone from Taiwan?!" I take that as a compliment, a big one. Nothing against Taiwan or the Taiwanese people, but my goal is to have accurate standard Mandarin. It really made my day. The rest of the class went really well too. There were multiple times when the teacher talked about some of those consistent mistakes in pronunciation people with a Taiwanese accent and how they really just bug the crap out of her, thus reinforcing how much I appreciated the compliment she gave me earlier. There were some people who would intentionally say things the wrong way because they thought it was funny, I thought it was about as funny as my teacher did: Not at all. It was just obnoxious. Anyway, aside from that, the class is really going to be a lot of fun. Our only homework is once every couple of classes we have to make a recording of ourselves talking telling a story or whatever using the vocabulary words from that day's lesson. We will have a vocabulary quiz every once in a while as well, but basically, that's it. Oh, and we have to do peer reviews of their recordings as well. But I'm excited. It's going to be a fun class. I'm kind of going to be in Chinese mode a lot this semester, which is more than ok by me! But I have 3 Chinese classes this semester and I couldn't be more excited about it!

Video Competition

2011-01-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

My roommate is doing a video competition for a scholarship website and he had me and our other roommates and some friends help him. It turned out really awesome. He wrote the music for it and everything! Anyway, watch it and click like. The link is here.

Isn't She So Cute!?

2011-01-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

I gave a talk in church yesterday, so Julie came to watch me. I'm pretty sure I ended up putting half the congregation to sleep, but there were a few people that came up to tell me that they really appreciated my talk, so I guess it wasn't all bad. Anyway, after church, Julie was just hanging out at my place. We made baked potatoes and chicken for lunch with Nanc and it was good. Mmm.... I love food. Anyway, as we were making the food, I had to go home teaching. When I got back and walked through the door, Julie was on my computer and she had a guilt look. I knew she had been up to something, but it was food time. I didn't get back on my computer for another few hours. But when I did there were 10 notes on my screen from her, all telling me why she loves me. Anyway, Julie is really adorable, isn't she?

The Joys of Being a Poor College Student

2011-01-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it's a new year and we all know what that means... Taxes! Ok, ok, I know most people don't really worry about them for another 4 months, but I figure, I only had one job last year and it's really simple to file my taxes, so why not just do it now and get it over with and get my return ASAP? So I go about filling out the forms online and everything and see that I paid about $100 for state taxes and $200 for federal taxes. I expect I'll get it all back, being in college and everything, totaling just over $300. Nice, I could use $300 about now. I mean, when can you not use $300? Well... As I finish the form and am looking it over, I look at the bottom line. My federal return is actually going to be right at about $1000! If I thought I could use an extra $300, I sure as heck have no problem getting $800 more than I expected to get back! Anyway, I'm just kind of excited about it right now and thought I would share the good news!

Long Awaited Update

2010-12-23T07:13:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've updated this. I'm really not half as good at record keeping as I used to be. Perhaps I'll make that one of my New Years resolutions... Everyone's favorite, right? Anyway, there's only a million things that I could talk about... The semester as a whole, folk dance, tap, Thanksgiving, Sam's wedding, coming home for Christmas, plans to go to Boston for New Years, Julie... But let's be honest here, I know you guys, and as much as you all care about whatever fun things I'm involved in and what I'm doing, the thing that everyone wants to know about is if I'm dating someone, who she is, what is she like, how much do I really like her? Right? Well, I'm also pretty sure that most of you who read this will at least have heard about her before, wither it be from talking to me directly, facebook or talking to someone who talked to me. But in case you forgot, Julie's from Pennsylvania, she's an Elementary Education major at BYU and we were in the same ward last year. She's a lot of fun, loves to laugh and has a beautiful smile. She's one of those people that is always smiling and is just genuinely a happy person. She prides herself on her hugs. In fact, she's had to teach a few guys how to give proper hugs (in her opinion, side hugs are not acceptable!). She's very sincere and you know that if she gives you a compliment, she means it. She can also be stuborn, especially when it comes to not believing half the compliments I give her. But don't let her fool you, she is as loving as she is beautiful.

Now, I'm sure that most of you are wondering what our back story is. Like I said, we were in the same ward last year and she was best buds with one of my room mates (the only other mostly sane/normal one). Towards the end of winter semester, I was getting a little tired of my friends not doing anything and started hanging around Julie more often. It didn't take me long to realize that aside from just being a lot of fun, she was really stinking cute too and I was starting to like her. Unfortunately, I came to this realization just before finals, which means she would be leaving for home really soon. You all know how intelligent I am when it comes to girls, especially when I'm starting to like them. So what do I do? I hold her hand and kiss her just a few days before she goes home (it still makes her mad when she thinks about it because that was exactly what she told herself she wasn't going to do). We talked and decided to try the whole long distance thing. I went out to visit her over the 4th of July and had really fallen for her. After I got back to Provo, I could tell something was up with her and after asking her about it she said she needed to figure some things out. A few days later she called me and we broke up. It took me a while to feel ok talking to her again without feeling weird or awkward about everything, but by the time I saw her again when school started, I thought I had moved on. We hung out a few times and I didn't feel like anything was awkward (not exactly her opinion). But when she came over to my apartment one Sunday afternoon, I realized again just how beautiful she is. I tried to convince myself that it was over and in the past, but a few weeks went by and the more I struggled to not like her, the more inevetable it seemed. Conference weekend was the worst. I knew that I really liked her (not sure if it was again or still), and I was pretty sure she liked me too, but we already tried a relationship and for whatever reason, it didn't work. Well, I had decided that I was going to ask her to reconsider a relationship. After going back and forth, making up her mind second guessing it and dealing with utter confusion, she decided to just do what made her happy. There's a lot more to all of that, but I'll spare you the details. As you all know, I have a way of taking a short story and make it long. But considering that there is a lot to this story (some of it public knowledge and some of it more personal) I don't feel like I have rambled too horribly much.

But there you have it. That is the (relatively) basic story of how Julie and I got to where we are now. I would put up a really cute picture of the two of us, but neither of us are wonderful at taking pictures, so we're kind of lacking in that area. And I would post just a picture of her, but she firmly believes that almost every single picture of her is hideous. But since this post came after much proding from her ("Your sisters update their blogs, why haven't you even touched yours?" Etc...) I will leave the responsibility of finding a suitable picture to her (reserving the right, of course, to choose a picture of my liking if she does not provide one in a timely manner). So there you have it, that is what has been occupying my mind and my time these past few months. I hope you all feel informed. :-D

Duh Moment

2010-10-08T08:52:00.002-06:00

So, this morning while thinking to myself in the shower about my homework and all that I have to do today, I realized something that is very obvious. Prayer can help here too! I've been rather caught up in and thinking a lot about other aspects of my life that require a close connection with the Lord so my prayers of recent have been mostly centered around that. It's so good to know that the Lord can and will help with any and all aspect of your life that you see fit to go to Him for help with. Anyway, as the hymn goes, "Don't forget to pray."

Patience

2010-10-07T21:50:00.002-06:00

Everyone's least favorite piece of advice to receive. Yet, it's something that I'm sure we could all use a lot more of. Even if you think you know what the outcome is going to be, there is still no way of knowing for sure until that answer comes. In the mean time, you're so distracted that productivity is completely out. Ok, so I could possibly be more productive if I weren't at home, but that might also foster less productivity than right now, but at least the distraction would be nice! Anyway, to quote Inigo Montoya, "I hate waiting."

Just Sayin'

2010-09-28T20:10:00.003-06:00

Why is it that every time I meet a new girl that I think I might be interest in, she always turns out to be so much younger than me? Well, at least I haven't met any freshmen that I've been interested in this semester. That's an improvement, right? Whatever.

Musical Fireside

2010-09-20T00:35:00.000-06:00

First off, our Stake Presidency here is amazing. Secondly, our Ward absolutely rocks. Now that I have that out of the way, we had a really cool fireside tonight. It was a musical fireside where they had a whole list of Primary songs up on the screen and they had a few people randomly pick which songs we were going to sing. After the entire group would sing the Primary song, the Stake Presidency took turns coming up to the pulpit and teaching or baring their testimony about what ever principle it was that was taught in the song. It was a really fun fireside and I think everyone really felt the spirit. I just want to share one thought that I had after we sang "Jesus Once Was a Little Child". First of all, the song goes like this:

Jesus once was a little child,
A little child like me;
And he was pure and meek and mild,
As a little child should be.

So, little children,
Let's you and I,
Try to be like him,
Try, try, try.

He played as little children play,
The pleasant games of youth;
But he never got vexed if the game went wrong,
And he always spoke the truth.

So, little children,
Let's you and I,
Try to be like him,
Try, try, try.

I remember when I was a little kid how this song made me think and try to imagine Christ as a child of my age. What would it be like to have known him when he was a little boy like me? It was exciting to imagine what life would be like having Jesus as a childhood friend. Well, I am no longer a little child like they sing about in the song. I'm 25 years old. It's been years since I've had those thoughts. But today, I was thinking, what would it have been like to meet Jesus when he was 25? There is almost nothing about his life from his childhood until he started his ministry that can be found in the scriptures. But at some point, he was a 25 year old man. He probably spent a fair amount of time working as a carpenter with his dad. But I'm sure that he had friends. He probably spent some of his spare time with him. Imagine, Jesus is one of your close friends. Everyone loved him, because he loved everyone. You knew that there was something special about him but you had no idea what it really was. I know that when he went back to Bethlehem during his ministry, many rejected him because they thought of him only as Joseph's son, but I would bet that at least some of them realized who he was and believed. How did Jesus affect lives in that time of his life? How would he have affected my life? How has he affected my life?

Anyway, like I said, it was a great fireside. I am so grateful to be where I am right now. I have so many great opportunities right here at my fingertips. And what makes it even better is having my little brother and sister here with me. I truly am blessed.

Michael Buble "Haven't Met You Yet"

2010-08-06T02:46:00.001-06:00

I'm not surprised, not everything lasts
I've broken my heart so many times, I stopped keeping track
Talk myself in, I talk myself out
I get all worked up, then I let myself down

I tried so very hard not to lose it
I came up with a million excuses
I thought, I thought of every possibility

And I know someday that it'll all turn out
You'll make me work, so we can work to work it out
And I promise you, kid, that I give so much more than I get
I just haven't met you yet

I might have to wait, I'll never give up
I guess it's half timing, and the other half's luck
Wherever you are, whenever it's right
You'll come out of nowhere and into my life

And I know that we can be so amazing
And, baby, your love is gonna change me
And now I can see every possibility

And somehow I know that it'll all turn out
You'll make me work, so we can work to work it out
And I promise you, kid, I give so much more than I get
I just haven't met you yet

They say all's fair
In love and war
But I won't need to fight it
We'll get it right and we'll be united

And I know that we can be so amazing
And being in your life is gonna change me
And now I can see every single possibility

And someday I know it'll all turn out
And I'll work to work it out
Promise you, kid, I'll give more than I get
Than I get, than I get, than I get

Oh, you know it'll all turn out
And you'll make me work so we can work to work it out
And I promise you kid to give so much more than I get
Yeah, I just haven't met you yet

I just haven't met you yet
Oh, promise you, kid
To give so much more than I get

I said love, love, love, love
Love, love, love, love(I just haven't met you yet)
Love, love, love, love
Love, love I just haven't met you yet

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Nancyann

2010-04-25T20:12:00.004-06:00

It has been nearly 6 years since I graduated High School and my family was an intricate part of my life. I gained a great appreciation for my family and came to understand how unique it was while on my mission, but I was gone. Even after I got home from my mission, any time I spent back in Missouri, my family was no longer involved in the most exciting part of my life to the extent that they were while in High School. It’s now been nearly two years since I have been home for more than just two weeks at a time. But even before then, even when I was home for the summer, I was working full time and heavily involved in Institute activities. This has been the first semester that I have actually had family even close to me while out here at BYU. And it’s not just any family, but Nancyann. I love Nancyann. Of all of my siblings, I think that we are the most alike. We’ve been buddies as long as I can remember. This is one of my favorite pictures of us together…

Having Nancyann out here this semester sure has made all the difference in the world! We didn’t spend as much time together as I would have liked, but in all honesty, we saw each other a lot. We had two classes together every Tuesday and Thursday. And not just any classes, but our Marriage Prep class and our Beginning Tap class. They were two of my favorite classes and having Nanc in there with me just made them that much better! It was so great to be able to practice with her for Tap and to talk about the things we learned in Marriage Prep. Not just that, but it made it a lot easier to do my projects when I had her to talk with and bounce ideas off of.

Aside from school work, it was so much fun to have someone to go to performances with. We saw a lot of shows, from a percussive footwork performance to the Shanghai Circus. We watched Tartuffe and As You Like It and went on quite a few double dates. From ice cream sculpting

To a photo scavenger hunt

To a percussion ensemble performance including a steel drum band, we kept ourselves rather busy. It was a lot of fun to be able to have someone to set some of my friends up with that I wanted to double with and more than that, someone that I could get input about the girls I was spending my time with from. There’s nothing like having someone who knows you and your history as well as she knows me confirm that the girl you’re crushing on is a great girl and more than worth pursuing to help you make up your mind. It sure helped that her and Julie hit it off right away and were instant friends! Aside from that, it was so nice to have her here to talk to about whatever it was that was going on in my life that I just needed to talk to someone about. Because she now knows all of my friends telling stories about them takes half the time because I don’t have to explain who they are and their personalities and why things are funny. She already knows the context.

I can’t wait for the end of June to get here! I’m moving into a new apartment complex tomorrow and only know a few people there. It going to be fun, but it will be so much better when she comes back and is in the same complex as I am! And what makes it even better is when she comes back out, Marshall is going to come with her! I can’t wait! This summer is going to be a blast! Here are a couple more pictures of us…

(EFY 2008)

(Hanging out with Nancyann, Marshall and some friends from the Institute some time back in 2006)

Folk Dance

2010-04-04T13:27:00.000-06:00

Well, I haven't exactly been very good at updating you all on what's going on with me. Well, this has been fun semester, mostly :-D. As far as folk dance goes, I have been having SO much fun! I've got some really good friends that I've made on my team and it's really just been a blast. We did a really fun dance for our end of the semester performance Spring Festival of Nations. It was a Hutzel dance from the mountainous region of Ukraine. One of my friends posted a video of it on facebook, but I know not everyone has facebook, so someone else posted a different video on youtube. I hope you all enjoy!

Last Weekend

2010-03-03T11:52:00.003-07:00

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I last posted here…Well… The semester is about half over, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t ready for it to end. But, then again, at the same time, I’m really enjoying most of my classes and don’t want a few of them to ever end.

Alright. Well, for starters, I love folk dance. It’s awesome! I have so much fun and I have made so many good friends from being involved in folk dance here at BYU. Last semester I constantly had something going on with folk dance. This semester, however, has been much more laid back. So when I got an e-mail a little over a month ago from my teacher asking for some volunteers, I jumped on it and volunteered. There was a conference held by a group who does research and whatnot on 18^th century culture, literature, life, etc. One of the guys who was involved in setting it up somehow knew my teacher and contacted her asking for some help. We got a group of 4 couples from my folk dance team together and practiced outside of class a few times learning some dances from the 18^th century. It was a very unique experience, but still lots of fun. We learned about 4 or 5 dances and taught a few to the people who were there at the conference. I think that my teacher got a video of the performance, but I don’t know for sure. Instead of posting a video, I’m just going to post some pictures. I’m just stealing all of these off of facebook, so most of you have probably already seen them, but whatever.

This is the whole group. Aren't our costumes the coolest!?

Here's a closeup on my costume.

And my awesome ponytail.

When one of the guy's ponytails fell out, we realized that they turned into pretty sick mullets :-D

The other guy took his off, but us three enjoyed our mullets probably a little too much.

Anyway, after the night was over, the guy who had invited us gave some money to our teacher to cover her expenses and included was $50 for each of us who helped participate! It was pretty sweet. I hope you enjoyed the pictures half as much as I enjoyed last weekend.

3 Dance Classes

2010-01-13T11:50:00.002-07:00

My schedule this semester is quite different than I expected it would be. I had anticipated that this would be my last semester here at BYU, but through a series of unforeseen circumstances and a strange twist of events, I'm going to be here until next April instead of finishing this semester. It's going to be a lot less stressful, which is nice. But by making that decision, I realized that I don't have to take the classes I was previously planning on taking. It works out much better this way, trust me. :-D Well, one of the changes was that I am doing at least one more semester of Folk Dance where as I assumed last semester was my last one. I'm VERY excited about this. I am also in beginning tap dance and the beginning world dance class.

First of all, the beginning world dance is a class that I could probably sleep through and still get an A in. That isn't a bad thing, and I most definitely will NOT be sleeping in that class! Easy as it is, it is still lots of fun. Most of the dances we are going to do in there are dances that I have done before at Rec. Nights (a Rec. Night is when the whole folk dance club gets together and they play songs that we do folk dances to). There may be a few others I have never done before, and there are also some that I haven't ever really learned, I just sort of picked them up as best as I could over the past two semesters. So it'll be fun to actually learn them properly. But I'll most likely pick up on the dances and have them down pat before half the rest of the class really knows what's going on :-D. Oh, and my teacher for that class is really cool. His name is Rustin, and he was my beginning clog teacher. It's going to be a fun class.

Beginning tap. I'm SO excited for this class! Nancyann decided to add it with me, so that will make it even more fun. But I have always loved watching tap and wished I could actually do it myself. Clogging was fun, but I think tap suits me much better. That class might require a little more out of class work than my other dance classes, but I will actually enjoy practicing for that class, so that makes ALL the difference. The short and long of it, I'm stoked for tap!

And last, but most definitely not least, my Folk Dance team. Ahhh... So much fun! I'm on one of the Wilk teams, which means nothing to probably 99% of you. Basically, the Wilk teams are much easier than the RB teams (we meet in the Wilkinson Center instead of the Richards Building). There is somewhat of a hierarchy of teams. The Wilk teams are usually the people who just made it onto a team, the RB teams are people who have been dancing for a while (my team last semester, 9RB, being the best of the RB teams), and then you have SPAC and PAC (Spring Performing Arts Company and Performing Arts Company). Because I wasn't even planning on dancing this semester, I didn't even try out for SPAC. I'm on 10WSC and my teacher is the same one I had my first semester doing Folk Dance. She thinks very highly of me and was rather surprised to see me in her class the first day. In fact, she actually told me that I should have been on SPAC. It's a nice change going from the intensity of 9RB and barely keeping up to already know half of the things we are doing and catching on to the rest really quickly. I will kind of miss being pushed and stretched to see how much I can do, but it's also lots of fun to actually know what's going on and to be able to help others. Plus, when you do partner dances and you actually know what you're doing, the girls have more fun dancing with you! :-D

So anyway, I have at least one dance class every day, which is really nice. My schedule isn't quite as conducive to naps as it was last semester, so I'm going to be really tired all the time this semester, but I'm still very much excited for it. Anyway, I just thought I would let you all know how much fun I'm having and how much I'm enjoying being so involved in dance. Aren't you jealous? :-P

A Much Needed Update

2010-01-11T11:26:00.002-07:00

Wow, well, there has most definitely been an eventful month or so... Well first of all, for those of you who don't already know, I am once again single. When I made the decision to end it with Paula, over a month's worth of frustration, anxiety and a whole mess of other less-than-fun feelings all seemed to dissipate. I could go into a whole explanation of why I decided to break up with her, but I won't. Basically, we weren't nearly as right for each other as we thought. Most of the pain was dealing with crap before I decided to end it, but there was still frustration and annoyances after it was over. I wish I could say I was completely over everything, but I'm not completely over everything. The relationship, yes, I'm over that. It's just the residual junk that is inevitable when a relationship that close/intense ends. Whatever. Even with all of that staring in my face over Christmas break, I still enjoyed myself while I was at home. I got to see friends and family that I haven't seen for quite a while. I did come to the conclusion, though, that I don't want to go back to Missouri this summer. I love my family and my friends there, but there isn't enough there to warrant living at home all summer. And I'm probably not going to take any classes either, so I'm just going to be working early morning custodial, probably sleeping all afternoon and hanging out/partying all night! I'm really excited about it, but I still have a whole semester to enjoy before I get to the summer! And I really do think I'm going to enjoy this semester. I have 3 dance classes :-D all of which I'm really enjoying. Nancyann decided to add beginning tap at the same time as me too, so we now have two classes together. I'm excited. It's already been a lot of fun having her out here, even though we haven't really done much of anything yet. We are planning on doing a double date this week or next and I'll probably just set her up with one of my friends. As I was thinking about who I could set her up with, I realized that almost all of my really close friends are either dating someone or are girls... I do have a few people I could set her up with, but really, almost all of my really close friends are girls. Anyway.

So I went on my first date in a long time on Saturday. I took one of my really good friends from work. She's in a beginning clogging class and we both had to go to a percussive dance performance. Well, there was one not too far away on Saturday, so I went over to her place and we walked to the theater. It was a really fun performance, we both really enjoyed it. After the show, we walked back to her place, had some hot chocolate to warm up and talked for about an hour. Then I headed home. It was just really simple, but it was a lot of fun. Like I said though, now I just need to figure out who I'm going to set Nanc up with and who I'm going to go with for our double date we are planning... Hum.... I'll attempt to be better about updating my blog this semester... No promises though, I know myself too well :-D. Anyway, I'm hungry. I'm going to go get myself some lunch or something. Later!

Where Can I Turn for Peace Hymn # 129

2009-12-06T16:04:00.002-07:00

Where can I turn for peace
Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
I draw myself apart,
Searching my soul?

Where, when my anching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately,
Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind,
Love without end.

Christmas Around the World

2009-11-14T18:31:00.001-07:00

Well, As a few of you know, I've been involved with BYU's Folk Dance program all year. It's really been a lot of fun. Well, every December BYU has a program called Christmas Around the World. It's a big dance concert centered around Christmas and how it's celebrated around the world. This year is the 50th anniversary of the program so they are making a big deal out of all of it. So that means I have been rather busy with all of that. The performances are the first week in December, which is right after I get back from Thanksgiving break. So if anyone happens to be in Provo that weekend, you aught to see if you can get tickets to the show! Grant it, the cheapest tickets are like $12 and they go up from there. Also, they've been on sale for a while so I'm not sure exactly what all is left. At any rate, we had a performance last night at some 5 stake youth activity not too far from here. As part of the activity, we performed almost all of our dances that we have learned this year. So we got to perform the dance we are doing for Christmas Around the World. We are doing a Scottish dance, which means that we got all dressed up in traditional Scottish garb. So I got a picture of me in my kilt. It's great! I just thought I would share the picture and without a little bit of background the picture doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Enjoy!

想爷爷奶奶的家

2009-11-11T13:41:00.003-07:00

I know that most of you who read my blog can't read Chinese, but whatever. We had an assignment in my Chinese class to write a short essay about a place that we love. No surprise for those who know me, I wrote about Grandma and Grandpa Adams' house. Perhaps I'll get around to posting an English translation of this within the next few days, perhaps not. Well, without further adieu...

想爷爷奶奶的家

假设你问我世界上最美的地方在何处，我只有一个地方可以提出：我爷爷奶奶的家。父母亲的家离爷爷奶奶不远，开车几分钟就到。小时候我们经常去看他们。无论是谁，大人好，小朋友也好，大家都特别喜爱拜访爷爷奶奶。

他们的农场有田，树林，山丘，一个水池，独木舟，和一个瀑布。夏天我们小孩玩得超开心。一整天躲在树林中跑来跑去。偶尔爬一棵树，偶尔建一个小堡垒。天气特别热时，我们去水池玩水或划独木舟。天黑了以后大家一起去瀑布旁边的壁炉烤肉。没有云的话什么星座都可以看得很清楚，连银河都很明亮。

随着季节的变化，爷爷奶奶家的美也有所变。秋天来的时候整个树林的叶子便彩色，就像树林起了火似的。冬天带来雪。树林变成一个冬天奇景。春天让雪溶化，整个树林重生。夏天之绿战胜冬天之百。我期待回到那个叫做‘爷爷奶奶家’的天堂。

Building a Firm Foundation

2009-05-31T21:51:00.002-06:00

This week has been rather crazy. With everything I had to do for school, I was also asked to speak in Sacrament meeting for today. I went camping Friday night so between getting back home, swimming with friends here, chatting online with friends (and Nanc) from high school, talking more with friends here and texting all day, it was after 1:00 when I finished my talk. Then I had to be at a meeting at 7:00. But even with all of that, I still think it went fairly well. Then this afternoon, I was thinking and realized that even though I'm not afraid of speaking in public, I'm much more comfortable with the written word. So I decided to type my notes up and turn it into my talk (with minor variations). I'm not really sure why, but I just felt like posting it on my blog as well. I won't be offended if no one reads it, but here it is!

In one of my areas on my mission in Taiwan, we had an investigator who had been around for a while. Because he had known the missionaries for so long, he already knew quite a bit about the church. He already had his own set of scriptures, English and Chinese. He even had his own hymn book. He loved the hymns, especially hymn number 85, “How Firm a Foundation”. Every time we would go to visit him, we would have to sing at least one verse of “How Firm a Foundation”. Sometimes we would only sing one verse, others we would sing all 7. Sometimes we would sing in Chinese, others in English. He just loved this hymn. I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of hymns that I know that I don’t really know. I sing them in Church every week, but I rarely think about what they are actually saying. Well, previously, this hymn was one of those. I sang it, often times without even having to look at the words, but I couldn’t really tell you what it said, much less what it means. Since then, that has changed. I’ve thought about what it was that made this man love this hymn so much. After reading it, I think I can see why. I’d like to read the first three verses for you:

1. How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?

2. In ev’ry condition—in sickness, in health,
In poverty’s vale or abounding in wealth,
At home or abroad, on the land or the sea—
As thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be.

3. Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

As we build our foundation upon the rock of Christ our Lord, this is what we receive. This is the same thing that Helaman was teaching his sons as they devoted themselves to preaching the Gospel. Helaman 5:12 reads:

12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Throughout the scriptures, we are promised that if we have Christ as our foundation, we will not fall. I think that is a blessing and promise that all of us would like to have. So now the question is how? How do we gain that sure foundation? If this sure foundation is centered on Christ then the obvious answer is that we must get to know Him if we are to have Him be our foundation. As we look into the Introduction of the Book of Mormon, we find:

Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

As we look at the Book of Mormon, we find that many of the prophets in the Book of Mormon saw Christ face to face. Joseph Smith did as well. When Joseph Smith states that by abiding by the precepts taught in that great book will bring us closer to God than any other book, I put a little bit of weight in his opinion.
I remember a promise that President Hinckley made while I was on my mission in 2005. As I read in Preach My Gospel, I found the exact same promise made nearly 20 years previous. He said:

“Those who have read [the Book of Mormon] prayerfully, be they rich or poor, learned or unlearned, have grown under its power. . . . Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you previously have read it, there will come into your hearts . . . the Spirit of the Lord. There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God”

When the challenge to read the entire Book of Mormon before Christmas 2005 was issued, I didn’t think too seriously about it until I found this quote and realized that it wasn’t a one time promise, but an eternal truth. Studying the Book of Mormon brings us closer to God.
Looking closer at Joseph Smith’s statement in the introduction of the Book of Mormon, we see that he doesn’t want us to merely study the book, but he wants us to abide by its precepts. Obedience is another way we build our foundation on Christ.
One of the greatest examples in the Book of Mormon of obedience is Helaman’s 2000 stripling warriors. We read that they were “they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.” (Alma 52:20) and that “they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness.” They had built their foundations upon the rock of Christ since they were young. It is evident that the Lord held up His end of the promise made throughout the scriptures that if we make Him our foundation He will not let us fall. Not a single one of the 2000 warriors were lost in the fight.
One last way that we are able to build upon the rock of Christ is through prayer. How can we have Christ be our foundation if we don’t know him? And what better way to get to know someone than by communicating with them? Prayer should not be us talking to a wall. When we start to think of prayer as a way of communicating with our God, we will find a power in our prayers previously unattainable. As we come to know Him better, we will have a stronger desire to rely on Him. We will find our will coming to align with His. We will find that Christ truly is our foundation.
As you sing the hymn “How Firm a Foundation”, the words you are singing are actually the words of God to those who have Him as their foundation. I truly love the other verses that we rarely sing. Christ promises us:

4. When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o’erflow,
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

5. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

7. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!

I know that as we build upon Christ as our foundation, he will lift and support us. He will never let us fall. He is the one sure foundation we have to build on. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Why Death Isn't Bad

2009-05-16T10:43:00.001-06:00

My Grandpa Willis died this past week. Enough can’t be said about what a great man he was. His funeral is this coming Thursday and I’m lucky enough to be able to hitch a ride with some of my favorite cousins back home to Missouri to attend it. Since his death on Wednesday, many of my family members have written notes on facebook or posted on their blogs about Grandpa. They have become some of my favorite things to read. My favorite is hearing or reading stories about Grandpa and things he said or did. I don’t really have a very good memory, as any of my siblings could confirm, so it is especially great to hear everyone else’s stories and memories of him. I think almost everyone has mentioned how much of Grandpa is in each of his kids and grandkids. If it isn’t his odd sense of humor, it’s his uncanny ability to fix things or to create them. Yes, Grandpa will live on in his posterity.

One of the deepest, clearest memories I have of Grandpa is him playing his harmonica while singing Alouette to us grandkids. And now after saying that, Alouette is stuck in my head. What ever memories we each have of that great man, they will always bring smiles to our faces. With such a man as Grandpa Willis was, you would be hard pressed to find anything negative about him. All who knew him loved him. He was a great example to everyone around him.

This was supposed to be about death in general, but I couldn’t resist going on about Grandpa. This just attests to my view of death. Though it is hard and sad, it is also joyous. Though talking about Grandpa before would always bring positive thoughts and feelings, after his death, those memories and feelings are more poignant than ever. Memories that haven’t been recalled in years come flooding to the forefront of my mind. Funerals should not be depressing, but a celebration of the life of those who have passed.

As I prepare to attend my Grandpa’s funeral, I think of all the people that I get to see: Cousins I grew up with, siblings, nieces and nephews, my own parents and grandparents who are still here. With the exception of my little brother who is on a mission, my whole family will be there. Such an occasion is hard to come by. I will be driving home with one of my favorite cousins who I haven’t had much of an opportunity to spend time with in over five years. I will get to see another cousin who I grew up with and went to high school with. These reunions will be happy. Though we miss our grandpa, we know that they he is now with his other loved ones who have been waiting and anxious to see him.

Much has been said about the reunions Grandpa must be having with his family, including children and grandchildren who made it home before him. How wonderful those reunions must be! Greeting a grandfather, father, brother, cousin, son who has lived a wonderful life as he passes to the next world. They must be celebrating his arrival as much or more than we are celebrating his life. One who worked so hard in this life will surly not stop to work once he has passed through the veil. Let him be an example to us, in life and death, to put forth all of the effort we can spare. Let us live as he did so that we may be able to enjoy similar reunions when our time is come and we are called home. Let Grandpa live on through us.

That Was Brutal

2009-05-02T13:36:00.003-06:00

Well, that was the longest 'short' week of my life. School started on Tuesday. But my day started earlier than school. Why would I ever subject myself to work so early in the morning!?! I guess that the $8.80/hour had something to do with it. Luckily, they are going to give me a different job to do, thus increasing my hours. No complaints there. As far as school goes... I'm going to be busy. And that's no exaggeration. I'm taking the equivalent of 14 credits, though it is really only 7 (Spring and Summer are shorter, so you have twice as many hours of class and go through the material twice as fast as normal). My Chinese film class is interesting, it's just that it's 3 hours long, twice a week. And being at the end of the day, it gets somewhat hard to keep awake, much less focused. As for History of Utah, well, I'll just say it's not the most riveting class I have ever taken. Gymnastics and Clogging, however, are tons of fun! If only my body didn't hate me for abusing it like I have this past week. But it will eventually be all good. Even if I am nice and sore and tired, at least I'm really enjoying myself.

As if school and work weren't enough for me, I was called to be the 1st counselor in my Elder's Quarm presidency. So I'm going to be nice and busy with that. But I really like the other guys that I'm serving with. The president was my home teacher last semester and is just an all-around good guy, and I live with the 2nd counselor and secretary. I am really looking forward to working with them.

So all-in-all, I'm pretty stinking busy. Which is good. I like busy. Busy is more fun, though possibly somewhat detrimental to my health. Two nights ago, I went with some friends to a midnight showing of the new X-Men movie, good movie by the way, and I was somewhat tired the next day. Then last night, I stayed up with mostly the same group of friends and watched Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (very funny, I highly recommend it). After it was over, we sat and talked until about 3:00am. I sure appreciate the fact that I'm regaining a social life after a somewhat boring semester last semester, I just kind of wish everything hadn't fallen on me all at once. Oh well, I guess if this is what the Summer has in store for me, BRING IT ON! I'm ready for it!

Amending the Revision

2009-04-25T14:59:00.001-06:00

Ok, well, I figured out the problem why people couldn't see my paper. But I've fixed it. So if you still want to read my essay, click here.

I Love Books!

2009-04-24T20:25:00.002-06:00

They got here! About 2 weeks ago or so I ordered 耶穌是基督 and the new 三合一 and I got them today! Ok, so probably not too exciting to you guys, but the first one is Jesus the Christ and the second one is the new Chinese translation of a triple (BoM, D&C, and PoGP). It is very exciting. AND!!! I start my wicked awesome fun (minus one class) Spring term on Tuesday. Those are only related because I will have a really cool Chinese film class. And I'm excited about clogging and gymnastics, not so much about History of Utah though.

I called a friend who took the Chinese film class a year ago and he said I could use his books, saving me about $40, pretty cool if you ask me.

I was at the book store, and they were out of the next book in the Ender's Game series, so I looked on line and found them and the parallel series, Enders Shadow, for cheaper than I could get them for the regurlar price, so I ordered them :-).

Like I said, I love books!

A Revision

2009-04-23T15:41:00.003-06:00

Well, I revised my That's Absurd! paper and just wanted to get some feed back on which version everyone thought was better. Click here for the revised version and the original is just a couple posts down my blog. Oh, FYI, the only part I really changed was towards the end. Enjoy!

Fantoms and Phinals

2009-04-19T23:49:00.004-06:00

Don't you hate the feeling of not having something that you have grown accustomed to? I've had the same watch for probably close to 10 years. It has been a great watch. But it broke. Granted, it's been probably 2-3 months since it broke. But I still get that blasted 'phantom watch' feeling on my wrist. I'll shake my arm to move my watch, which isn't there, down to its proper place. It bugs me. Also annoying is the phantom vibration of my phone in my pocket when it's actually in my hand or otherwise out of my pocket. Why does the body play tricks on itself? It's rather annoying.

On another, unrelated subject, I love a good book. It's been a long time since I just sat down to read a novel because I wanted to. I had never read Enders Game, so when I sold my text books back the other day, I picked it up. I highly recommend it. I started reading it today and would probably read through the night and finish it if I didn't have work at 5:00 tomorrow morning and a final or two to take tomorrow which I need to prepare for. Gosh darn school getting in the way of my college experience!

Bad Play Project

2009-04-18T16:42:00.002-06:00

I love theater. I especially love acting, but right after that comes a good play. Here in Provo, there is a community theater called the New Play Project. What they do is they give new playwrights the opportunity to have their plays acted out on stage for a first time. Well, some times, the plays that some people wright are just down right bad. A while ago the founders decided to do a compilation of the worst plays that people have written over the past few years. After the plays were selected, the directors were given one day to select the cast and put the whole thing together. Most of the plays were pretty short. When you bought your ticket to watch the "Bad Play Project", as they called it, you were given a complimentary bag of projectiles. The way we were to vote for our favorite bad play was to cast our projectiles at the actors on the stage. It was probably one of the most fun experiences I have ever had as part of an audience. The play that won was Pride & Predigest & Telletubbes: The Musical. It was pretty painful. Oh, but it was so fun to boo and hiss and throw things onto stage. What a great Friday night!

Personal Essay

2009-04-13T17:27:00.002-06:00

Well, I just finished my last paper for my English class, and I must say, I'm rather proud of it. It's most definitely my favorite paper I have ever written. So I figured I would share it. If you are curious, click here to read it. Enjoy!

Humbled on Wednesday, Happy Today

2009-04-11T12:11:00.002-06:00

Well, I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with BYU's Folk Dance program (probably not many of you), but it's something that I was introduced to this semester, and have grown to love. It was no surprise that I got onto one of the teams considering I'm a guy that tried out. Trying out was one of the main qualifying factors for guys to get on a team. Basically every guy who tried out made it to one team or another. Not to brag, but I have always considered myself a fairly good dancer. It's a talent for which I'm very grateful and enjoy very much. With that being said, the best Folk Dance Team at BYU is the Performing Arts Company (or PAC). To even try out for PAC, you have to have a special invitation. To my surprise, I was invited to try out! Now, keep in mind, there are only about 8 spots to be filled for guys and there were probably 25, maybe 30 guys there, many of which have been folk dancing for years and have lots of experience in other types of dance. All I have is a little bit of Social Dance background and a fairly quick learning curve.

Well, Wednesday evening was the first part of tryouts. They taught us four different types of dance: Ballet, Slovakian, Bollywood and Clogging. The Ballet wasn't hard, it was mostly just controlling yourself and your movement. We did a little bit of Slovakian in my class this semester, so it was halfway familiar, but still hard. The Bollywood was tons of fun, but also very hard. Wednesday when we were learning it, I wasn't getting it and was getting rather frustrated. Then we did Clogging... ha ha... I have never done anything even remotely like Clogging. About 10 min into the Clogging, I found myself wishing we would just go back to Bollywood, it was that bad. I was finally able to sympathise with the guys who just can't get dancing down. I had a nice big piece of humble pie for dessert that night.

Friday after dance class was over, my teacher came up to me and had to tell me that Edd (the man in charge of PAC and SPAC, Spring Performing Arts Company) on multiple occasions commented on how good I was doing and wanted to know who I was. That made me feel much better about Wednesday night.

This morning we finished tryouts. Not having really practiced much since Wednesday night, I didn't really feel too much better than on Wednesday. However, I did realize that my chances of making it on PAC are pretty darn slim, so I aught to just have fun and enjoy the fact that I even had the opportunity to tryout. So that's what I did.

Today was setup somewhat different than before. We all practiced together at first then went out of the room. We were called in by our numbers to dance in small groups so Edd could see us better. In each of the dances, I was called in in the first group to go in to dance. After attempting to just get the rhythm somewhat down for Clogging, Edd pulled me aside and asked how much Clogging I have done. Zero. Zilch. None. He said that I'm a natural dancer, but I really need to learn the actual steps. Wow, that was quite the confidence boost! After everything was over, we had an opportunity to show some of the other things we know besides what they taught us. So I went in and did a coffee grinder and a few flips. They once again asked how much dance I have done. Just a little bit of Social Dance. "Well, we had better see you next year" he replied.

I won't know until June ish if I made PAC or not. But I'm not holding my breath. I plan on taking some clogging this Fall. Perhaps I can make it onto SPAC for next year or possibly even PAC! Who knows. All I know is that I love dancing and it would appear that I at least have some potential in Folk Dance. So all I can do is keep dancing and doing my best and we'll see where it takes me!

I must be a masochist

2009-04-07T00:40:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago, I went ice skating. While there, I intentionally went sliding down the ice Superman style, hitting my knee hard on the ice on the way down. While there, I went down on my knees multiple times attempting to mimic a cool trick I saw someone else doing (it wasn't perfect, but it didn't look half bad by the end of the night, if I do say so myself). I also succeeded in knocking my knee on the leg of a table while attempting to sit down to take my skates off.

Later, I bought a pair of roller blades. On my christening trip around Provo, they succeeded in finding one of the worst spots on Provo's already crappy sidewalks, thus introducing my knees and hands and even one elbow to the ground!

In Folk Dance, at the beginning of our dance, I do a dive roll. It's ok, my hip bone breaks my fall on the wonderful wooden dance floor.

Yet again in Folk Dance, we were doing a relay race (No problem, we were on carpet this time). My partner and I had taken the lead with a piggyback ride being the only leg left of the race. She hops on my back and we take off. Not 15 steps into it, I stumble and wipe my knee across the carpet. (there is STILL a scab from that one)

Oh yeah, also in our dance, on multiple occasions, the men go down on one knee. You guessed it! The scabbed, knocked up, bruised knee!

This afternoon, I was playing frisbee. Some one threw the frisbee beautifully right toward me. Instead of using my hands, I decide to catch it with my upper lip and teeth. The result: A fat lip.

Later tonight, we are playing a game for FHE where we have crackers tied to our belts and we are trying to break everyone else's crackers off without loosing our own. It was down to Nick (a room mate) and I. Everyone ganged up on me. I attempted an awkward backwards roll, succeeding in hitting my hip, tale bone and my already scabbed up knee. Not to mention scrapping up my elbow and overextending my thumb.

I can't WAIT to see what tomorrow has in store!

Folk Dance

2009-03-13T00:53:00.007-06:00

These are a few videos of some of the dances we have been doing in folk dance. I have a tendency to forget the names of the dances though... But the dance is still tons of fun!

I'm the second person in the line on this dance.

Third from the end on this one...

I actually remember the name for this dance... Hambo. It's lots of fun. It's somewhat similar to Vianese Waltz, but still different. I've spared you the whole song (I swear, it's half an hour long), but this should be enough to get the point...

And last, but not least, this is our Russian dance. I don't know what the name for it actually is, we just call it our Russian dance. This is the one that we are going to do for the Spring Festival of Nations on April 1. We just finished choreographing it today, and it's a work out! Hopefully someone will get a video of it when we are in our costumes so I can post the whole thing then. But until then, this will have to suffice. :-)

Waiting

2009-03-03T17:56:00.002-07:00

Well, I'm going on a date in a little bit and I've all but run out of things to do till it's time to leave to pick my date up. Then I realized that it's been nearly a month since I last posted here on my blog. Anyway, I've been working on a research paper these past few weeks for my English class. We had our proposal for our paper due today, and like normal, I ended up procrastinating actually writing the thing out for a while. So instead of staying up really late like normal, I went to bed at like 9:30 last night (that's unheard of for me, just FYI). And then I woke up at 2:30 to compile my proposal. I got it done and I was a little worried that it wasn't going to be quite up to par for where it needed to be. But I went and talked to my teacher just after 8:00 and as she looked at it, she said it looked really good and that she was really excited to see what my paper turns out to be. I was excited that she gave me such positive feedback. Anyway, I had a test this afternoon as well that I spent some time studying for until I decided that another few min wasn't going to make a lick of difference. So I went and took the test and it took me nearly 2 hours, most of it was spent writing short answer and essay questions... Needless to say, my hand was rather tired after that.

So besides all of that wonderful stuff, as I was doing some stuff on the internet after my test, I had a though... I am taking classes this summer, why not check to see if I can get into the gymnastic class? So I looked, and there was 1 open spot left! So I snatched it up as quick as I could! I'm way excited! I finally have the opportunity that I have wanted for years! I have it Monday-Thursday at 9:00am. So I have something to get me up every day, but it's not an 8:00 class. Life is good... :-)

Ok, well, that didn't take as long as I had hoped. I still have a few min before I need to leave. Don't you just love/hate that nervous/anxious feeling before a date? I really have missed going on dates until I got back here to BYU. Anyway, I'm out of things to ramble about. Later!

Worth it

2009-02-12T10:27:00.002-07:00

Well, to start off, I'm an idiot for having an 8:00 class every day of the week. In my defense though, I didn't intend on having my schedule the way it is at the moment. In fact, I originally had a wonderfully nice,full schedule with awesome professors. Then I changed my life goal, thus messing up my perfect schedule. So now I'm stuck with a class at 8:00 in the morning every day. One of which, is my Honors 150, or freshmen writing class. "Freshmen?", you say, "I thought you were a Junior, what's up with that?" Ya, ya, I know. It's not a good idea to fail an introductory level writing class. Though I must say, I rather enjoy this class. It is 100x better than the non-honors section that I let myself fail. Well, anyway, being an English class, and an Honors section on top of that, I often have papers that I have to write. I tend to procrastinate. This becomes a problem when my paper has to be done by 8:00 in the morning. Tuesday we had a rough draft due for said English class. So I pulled an all nighter. I finally finished at like 4:30 or so, perhaps it was already 5:00, I'm not really sure. But I realized that I had a few hours before I needed to actually start getting ready for class. So I went to my bed and laid down for a nap... Bad idea. I woke up at 1:00 in the afternoon. The final copy was due this morning though so I stayed up a little later than normal putting some finishing touches on it. Come 6:45 this morning when my alarm went off, needless to say, I didn't want too wake up. So I hit the snooze a few times. 30 min later, I pulled myself out of bed, skipped my shower and took off to class. The 20-25 min walk to class usually does a fairly proficient job of waking me up in the mornings. Once I got to class, I remembered why it is that I enjoy my class so much. Crazy though she may be, Sis. Price (my teacher) is really a lot of fun. And we always have such interesting/fun assignments! So we are starting our research papers this week. The cool part though, is that she wants us to pull our topic from something in our family history. I think it's such a unique and awesome idea! What better way to find a topic that is meaningful and interesting! So right now I just need to think of stories from my family history that I could pull an argument out of. Wither it be something informative, argumentative or problem solving, 都可以. So if anyone has a favorite story from our family history, let me know (you all know how amazing my memory is).

Oh, and also, Sis. Price made home made cinnamon rolls for us this morning. 8:00 class? WORTH IT!

School and whatnot

2009-01-23T10:19:00.003-07:00

Well, I guess it's been a while since I updated my blog, hasn't it? Let's see... Where to start... I finally did get my stinking schedule all figured out. The only thing still missing is a job, which a guy should be calling me any day about. I have a pretty easy schedule, even if it does start early every day. I have a class at 8:00 every day, but I'm done by 10:00 except for Monday and Wednesday when I have the 2nd half of Book of Mormon at 1:00. I have an awesome teacher, Brother Bartholomew, and I found out the first day that some of my best friends are in the class too! Josh and Christie Foster, Kristen Foster and Christie's sister are all in there. It's tons of fun. Other than that, I have History 201, Honors 150 (same as English 150 except it's honors) and I'm on the 9:00 Folk Dance Team! My English class is actually a lot of fun. I had to retake English because I failed it a year ago when I just quit trying (bad semesters are NOT good for your GPA), and my friends in Nanjing last semester said that the Honors class is tons better, so I figured I would go with the Honors class. I have a really amazing teacher and it's a pretty small class. It is going to be a lot of writing and work, but I only have 9 credits this semester and I think I'm actually going to enjoy the writing, which always makes a difference. Oh, by the way Nanc, when you come to BYU in a few years, you have to take Honors 150 from this same teacher, you would love it! Besides, you'll probably be in the honors program anyway.

So the folk dance team... The first week of school I ran into some friends from back home who were trying out for folk dance and they told me I should try out as well. I figured, sure, why not? I love dance and I'm not in any dance classes this semester. So I went to tryouts and I realized that pretty much any guy that went to tryouts made it onto one of the teams. I've done dance before, but folk dance is totally different from social dance. It's still tons of fun though. Although, it is a wee bit more of a work out, which I'm ok with. We are learning all sorts of fun daces and at the end of the semester, we are going to have a performance that we get to be a part of. For that performance, we are going to be doing a Russian dance, and I'm really excited. We had an opening social for folk dance Wednesday night and it was tons of fun.

Well, I know that there's a ton of other things going on, but I'll write more about them later. Perhaps I'll actually get into a habit of posting on here, but I wouldn't get your hopes up :-).

New Year

2009-01-02T16:25:00.002-07:00

Well, I'm back in Provo now. A HUGE thanks goes out to Aunt Terri for picking me up from the airport and taking me down here to Provo! THANKS A TON! Well, I got here with no problems. I got moved into my new apartment and have, so far, meet 2 of my 5 room mates. One of them is from Hong Kong and is going to the English Language Center. He seems pretty cool. The other room mate is from California, the Bay Area, he said. But, being me, I don't remember either of their names at the moment. It will probably not be until late next week before I can actually remember their names, if we are lucky.

So, I went up to campus to talk to a counselor to figure out my schedule and what not, then I realized that everything on campus is closed the 1st AND 2nd... Grr... So I'll just have to go back tomorrow, no big deal. But I did go and get myself a few things I wasn't able to take on the plane. I have my bags all unpacked, but not exactly organized. So that's what I get to do later this evening. But I did go over to DI and get myself a bike for $15! I think it was only $10 2 years ago when I got my last bike. But this one had a lock with it and the tires actually hold air. So as of right now, I have a working bike for only $15, no complaints here!

I know that this isn't exactly in any sort of order, except for the order that things come to my head. But anyway. I had TONS of fun at the Guison New Year Party. It was AWESOME! I saw SO many people that I haven't seen for EVER! It was tons of fun. People that I haven't seen for 4 months, people I haven't seen for 4 years (perhaps even more) and everything in between. It was a great way to end the year. It isn't ever fun to say good bye to great friends, but I am excited to be back here in Provo. Well, back at BYU at least. I'm really excited to start over. New year, new apartment, new room mates, new ward, pretty much everything is new. It's a great time get rid of old habbits and start new ones. Anyway, I'll post more later after I actually get to see what my ward is like and after I figure out what the heck I'm going to do about my classes this semester. Later!

Revisiting the Shaolin Temple

2008-12-27T16:50:00.003-07:00

Well, I promised a movie a few months ago, and I finally got my hands on it. Not to mention a computer of my own (thanks a ton Garry!) and internet that isn't extremely slow. So here it is! Hope you enjoy it half as much as I did!

Figuring Things Out

2008-12-26T13:27:00.002-07:00

It's been a while since I posted on here. I know I should do better, but if it's not that there isn't anything worth mentioning it's that there is too much going on that I don't know where to start. So I guess first of all, Taiwan was amazing, just as I expected it to be. It was great to get in touch with old friends and see people I haven't seen for 2-4 years. It was awesome. I remembered why it was that I love those people so much. Here's a shout out to all of my Taiwan friends, you guys ROCK!

Well, I'm home now, back in good ole' Missouri. It has been awesome to be home for Christmas with family. Man, I must be having problems with jet lag or something because this whole week I just haven't had any energy. It's just getting frustrating and rather annoying. Perhaps it will get better once I actually get myself a schedule that I actually stick to. We'll see. Well, speaking of getting back to school, I finally figured out what the heck I want to do with the rest of my life. I have decided that I want to be a High School Chinese teacher. Ya, I know High School teachers don't exactly make the big bucks, and teaching high school probably doesn't mean that I'll be sent to China to work, but I'm still really excited about it. I have always enjoyed teaching, and I (obviously) love Chinese. So I think that this is probably the best suited job for me. One of my favorite things from this past semester was helping my 同学 with any Chinese questions that they had. And I don't think I can count how many times I have been told that I should be a Chinese teacher this past semester. So I'm getting really excited about it. The only thing is, I have no idea what I'm going to do about my classes for next semester. When I registered for my classes for next semester, I was planning on doing an International Relations major, and now that that has changed, I don't know if any of the classes I have registered for are going to be needed. So one of the first things on the list of things to do when I get back to BYU is to go talk to a counselor about what the heck I should do for next semester and the rest of my College career. Anyway, I think I'm going to work on uploading pictures to somewhere on the internet so I can show people. I'll post a link on here when I eventually get them up on the internet.

Taiwan

2008-12-16T09:16:00.002-07:00

Holy cow! I'm in TAIWAN! Crazy, I know. So many great things going on. So many awesome people. So many amazing places. I remembered why it was that I fell so in love with Penghu, I've gotten in touch with people I had forgotten about and hung out with old friends that I still keep in contact with. I really don't have much time, but basically, life is good and I'm still alive. Stories and pictures either when I get back home on Sunday, or the next day on Monday. Love ya!

Do You Speak Chinese?

2008-12-08T02:22:00.002-07:00

So tonight for FHE, we are building forts in our living room and making french toast and waffles. (pictures will come later) So earlier we were getting all of the bread and eggs. For 20 people, that's not a small amount of either. So I had it all in a bag walking back home and some random Chinese guy said hello. He noted that I had a bag full of eggs and bread so I told him that we were having a party tonight. He asked if I was going to school here, I said yes and that I go to Nanjing University. Then he asked me "Oh, so you speak Chinese?" ........ I just thought it was really funny that after 3 min this guy didn't even realize that I was speaking Chinese with him. Anyway, funny story, thought I would share.

End of Classes and Stuff

2008-12-05T06:23:00.002-07:00

Holy cow. That's all I have to say... Holy cow. This semester just flew by! I had my last class of the semester yesterday. Pretty crazy. I must say though, I am WAY excited that classes are over. But not quite so excited that I have to leave China. But also very excited about seeing my family and having Christmas. Also, I'm way pumped about going to Taiwan to see my friends. It's going to be great! So yesterday, after we got out of classes, one of the other class' teachers went with a group of us to sing Karaoke. It was tons of fun! And it was all of $5/hour for a room. Split that 7 ways, and you have a cheap recipe for fun! Then we went to get dinner at this place I hadn't ever eaten at... All I can say is that I wish I had discovered this place beforehand. Oh well.

On a random note. The other day in my speaking class, our teacher told us a story that...well, I'll just see how you react... Well, her daughter is in the US studying in College. Instead of calling on the phone, they use skype on the internet to communicate. She said that usually the sound isn't the best. You can't expect too much being over the internet across the world. But she said that the other day it was exceptionally clear. She then attributed the "change" to our good ole' friend, President Elect Obama. It's a good thing his whole campaign is all about "change". I don't really feel like I know quite enough about politics to make much of a statement on Obama, but I know a lot more than most foreigners do. Yet, the media has put him up on such a high pedestal that he can do no wrong. EVERYONE loves him. People here just assume that I love him as much as they do. They can't imagine that anyone wouldn't like him. Grr... It just frustrates me that anything that is slightly good that happens in America from now until Obama is out of office is automatically going to be attributed to him because he's a superhero. Do I think he'll do good things, ya, sure I do. Do I think that he can do no wrong, absolutely not. Another thing I just love is that if you don't like Obama, it's because you are racist. That makes sense. Grrr..... Anyway. Enough about that.

On a more positive note, I got my suit! Horray for cheap stuff in China! Now I just need to find a tie that goes really well with it... Um... Finals are on Monday and Tuesday, not worried about them really at all... Not much else is going on, just having a nice relaxing weekend here in Nanjing... Oh man, it's my last weekend here. Sad day. But next weekend I'll be in Penghu! Yahoo!!

Cheap Stuff and Buddha's Fingers

2008-11-27T23:52:00.005-07:00

Before I came to China, I had heard that I could get myself a new suit for pretty cheap while I'm here. I hadn't done anything about it until recently because I wanted to see what other people paid for their suits. So last week, mom put $100 USD in my bank account for me to get myself a suit. So I called up one of my friends that I meet here and asked him where I could go to get a suit. So Tuesday afternoon he took me with a few of his friends to the cloth market. Luckily, one of his friends has bought fabric there before so she knew which little shop to go to to get a good price. Long story short, I bought fabric and all the material I need to make a suit and having a tailor sew it all up all nice and fitted to me for all of 400 RMB, or about $60 USD. I love China. I have to go back on Monday to have it fitted and make alterations if needed.

So, because I had a little more money that I was expecting to have, I figured I could use a new pair of shoes. My other ones still work, but they have a mesh top... Not very convenient when it rains or for the snow when I get back to Provo. So I went to 夫子廟 (the Confucian Temple here in Nanjing, they have tons of cheap shops there). I got myself a pair of shoes for 60 RMB, or just under $10 USD. Pretty sweet. Then as I was walking around, I found some more Christmas present stuff that I wasn't originally planning on buying, but did because it was so cheap. Once again, I love China.

We went on our last "city" tour today. It wasn't really in the city, but it was close enough. We went to this place called 棲霞山 (Qixia Mountain) where there is this really cool Buddhist Temple. The place was way pretty. But one of the things that this temple is famous for is the sarira-pagoda... Ya, that's what I thought too when I first heard about it. Basically, when Buddha died (the man himself who became the Buddha) they cremated him and took his bones to al sorts of paces, one of them being here, in Nanjing at the Qixia Monastery. They put two of his finger bones in a stone or metal box and build this really cool pagoda overtop of it. Interesting, I know, but it was a really pretty place nonetheless. Especially with the changing colors of the leaves on the trees (yes, here in Nanjing the leaves are just NOW starting to change and it's already after Thanksgiving). Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure...

Really pretty maple leafs.
This cool path that I decided to go explore because it was really cool looking.
This is the finger pagoda.
The cool bell in the bell tower. Ya, I rang that.

I have more pictures, but some are on other peoples cameras and others are just on a different memory card. I'll post more later.

English Corner, Chinese Christians and 澎湖

2008-11-22T23:01:00.004-07:00

Well, Thursday I went with Brooke and Trent to this English Corner thing that some other college here in Nanjing had. It was an interesting experience. It was us 3 Americans and about 30-50 college age Chinese kids (mostly girls). It wasn't exactly the most organized thing that I have ever attended, but it was quite entertaining. But then, Brook had to let it out that I dance... Yes, I love dancing, but I enjoy social dance, not the "having sex on the dance floor with our clothes on" dancing. That is NOT my kind of dance. But that's what most people think of when they think about dancing. I was able to avoid too much awkwardness, but I still had a few choice moments. Other than that, I had to get my picture taken with about three billion people and all of them got my phone number (I have subsequently received many random texts and a few phone calls that I was not able to answer, all from, at least I assume from, these people I meet that night). Another thing that I was surprised by was how many people volunteered that they were Christians.

As I am doing a project on religions here in China, I found this a great opportunity to get some information about Christianity in China. I ended up going to church with Trent and Marc on Saturday with one of the girls we meet that night. She is a Seventh Day Adventist, therefore, church was on Saturday. One of the things that really took me off guard was how many people where there at church. There were about 100+ people in the congregation and before we went into the chapel, there was a whole other congregation. It was pretty cool. Then after the service was over we stayed and talked to some of the people who took us. I really enjoyed talking to them, but not as much as I enjoyed the phone calls that I made later that day...

So I finally called up a few people from my mission that I haven't talked to for a long time and haven't even seen for over 3 years. I love Sister Wu. She's great. As soon as she answered and I said one sentence, she recognized me! It was AWESOME! I loved it! It made me remember one of the many reasons that I'm in love with Penghu. I then called up Yueman, another one of my favorite people from Penghu, and talked to her for 5-10 min. It was great. She said that she is going to be off of work for the few days that I'm going to be there in Penghu and so I get to hang out with her for 2-3 days. I am so excited. It's going to be a blast! It just got me SO excited to go see all of my old friends from my mission. I can't wait!

80's Skating

2008-11-18T04:20:00.002-07:00

Well, for FHE we were planning on going ice skating. We were originally going to have a big group of everyone going, but people started bailing out left and right. So we started calling our Chinese friends. We ended up just having 5 people including one of Brooke's friends. After we finally got down to the road that the rink is on and searched for half an hour without being able to find it, we called them up. Apparently their machine ( I can only assume that they mean their Zamboni) was broken. Greg was feeling kind of sick, so he just went back home, leaving just us 4 that you see in the picture. (from left to right: Matt, me, Brooke, Vanessa) Brook's friend said that she knew where a skating place was. Funny thing. In Chinese, ice skating and just normal skating are the same word... Ok, I just lied. I just looked it up and apparently they are different, but just barely. And what I thought was ice skating apparently means just roller skating. So she took us to a skating rink. It was really small, if you can't tell from the pictures. But it was really funny. Everyone, with few exceptions, were on roller skates, instead of roller blades. The awesome selection of music was also very 80's esk. What made it even better was the decorations on the walls and the lighting. It was great fun. So, just in case anyone was wondering, the 80's are still alive and well in China.

Shanghai

2008-11-15T08:43:00.002-07:00

Well, there are no pictures to let you see as of yet. I did manage to get one picture with my camera before the batteries died, again. I think I'm going to just have to get myself some new rechargeable batteries some time soon. We'll see about that though. It was a really fun weekend, despite not having any pictures that I took. I, somehow, managed to spend about $100 over 3 days, which is quite a bit for me here in China. But I think that I'm pretty much done with all of my Christmas shopping, so that makes it a little bit better. And I got myself a wind breaker with matching pants and like 5 t-shirts, plus a few other random things. And then I also ate pretty good. So it's not too hard to see how $100 US just disappeared in one weekend.

Besides shopping, we still did quite a few things. This trip was different from all of our others because we didn't have any set schedule. We got there, got all set up in our hostel, then we were turned loose and we didn't have anything that we had to be together for until the train ride home to Nanjing. But anyway, Friday night, about half of the group took a 1 1/2 hour boat ride down the Huangpu River which runs right through Shanghai. It was a beautiful night! Nice weather, clear sky and a full moon. It was really cool. Here are a few pictures that I pulled off of the internet...

I'll try to get some photos of my own (aka pictures that I stole from people that I actually know as opposed to off the internet) soonish. I don't know if there is really a whole lot for me to say right now. It was a great weekend, but I can't think of any great stories from it. Well, I think I'm going to go get ready for bed and prepare my lesson for tomorrow (I'm teaching Elders Quarm tomorrow, yeppie).

As Requested... Some Pictures

2008-11-09T04:56:00.003-07:00

Well, here are some pictures...

Now here's the story:
We were on the train from Luoyang to Xi'an. I happened to be wearing the Shaolin Temple shirt that I bought while I was in Luoyang. Seeing my shirt, this dude who walks around the train selling stuff saw it and he came up like he was going to attack me. So I asked if he knew Kungfu. Of course, as you can see, he told me that he does know Kungfu and he proceeded to "teach" me some moves. It was pretty funny. We were just hanging out in the isle on the train doing all of this Kungfu. It made my day. But not quite as much as the day that I was actually in the Shaolin Temple show. That was an amazing day.

Getting Ready

2008-11-07T03:09:00.002-07:00

Wow, time is going by WAY too fast! Granted, there are a few things that I am excited for when the semester ends and I go home. Going to Taiwan is probably the first on that list. But anyway, the past week has been spent working on, among other things, getting ready for life to happen again. My flight from LAX to Kansas City had a slight problem and I just barely got it all figured out. It's not the ideal situation, but it's better than missing my flight home to Missouri just before Christmas. I'll get into California around noon Saturday December 20th, but then my flight doesn't leave for Kansas City until Sunday the 21st just before noon. So I have a 22 hour lay over in LA, thus bring the total travel time to get home up to 44 hours. That'll be fun... Besides worrying about my flight home, I have also been working on my plans for when I'm in Taiwan. I went and got everything all worked out so I can call some of my friends in 澎湖 (my paradise island), now I'm just waiting for one of my friends to get back to me with some phone numbers. As soon as I do, I'll get that all squared away.

Other than traveling (which I still don't really know exactly how the heck I'm going to get myself back to Provo) I registered for next semester's classes today. I like my schedule, it's not too bad. I am going to have a busy semester though. But it will be worth it. The only complaint that I have right now, are that all of the Chinese classes that I need are either not offered this semester or are already full. So I'm going to try to add 344 (a Chinese film class) with an add/drop card when I actually get to school. If I still can't, then I'll just have to think of some other way of speaking Chinese regularly next semester. I'm also trying to figure out job stuff. It's great fun, I'll tell you what. If I can't find anything better, I may end up being a custodian way stinking early in the morning. We'll see. At least I have my housing taken care of already though.

Sorry there aren't any great fun stories to tell about being here in China. I guess everything just seems so normal to me that I don't really know what would be interesting to other people. I have noticed though that I am very much Chinese in a lot of the things I do and how I think. I think that the first time I realized that was when I was talking about the Dao De Jing with a girlfriend and she told me how Daoist I am. Man was she right! Anyway, there isn't anything specific that comes to mind, it's just a few small things that I realize here and there about myself and realize how Chinese I am (even though I am obviously not actually Asian). I'm not sure if it's because I'm so Chinese that the Lord has lead me in the direction of China or if it's because He has lead me here and the time that I've spent here that has made me so Chinese. The world may never know.

Test Results and Such

2008-11-03T03:26:00.003-07:00

Well, I know that there were some people wondering about how effective my study habits actually are. And I must say, I'm not too disappointed in the results from my midterms. In my writing class, I have a 91%, speaking class is a 95% and my reading class is a 97%. So the worst grades I could possibly get this semester is an A- for 3 credits and an A for 10 credits... I'm not going to complain! It was kind of frustrating that I had to wait so long to figure it out though. Oh well, I think I will survive. Now I just have to figure out my schedule for next semester... And I need to decide if I want to take just 15 credits or 18 credits. Of course, there is a possibility that some of the classes are only offered at certain times that conflict with each other. Well, now I'm just rambling. New topic.

I randomly took off to Shanghai this past weekend with one of my class mates. It was a really fun weekend. But it was nice and tiring. We walked all over Shanghai. We went to the Bund, which was smaller than I expected, but still pretty cool. We also went up into the Pearl Tower. If only there hadn't been so many low lying clouds, it would have been way better. But it was still a lot of fun. One of the best parts was that in the pearl that is 50m tall there is a whole little theme park thingy. It was very entertaining. One of my favorite parts was a roller coaster. :-) I haven't ridden on a roller coaster since before my mission, and it was so fun! It wasn't exactly the most intense of roller coasters, but it was still great fun. Then in the basement of the tower, there is a way cool museum about the history of Shanghai. Also, it was really interesting to see the ex-pat life here in China. It kind of felt like I was back in America when we got to their house. I had chili, fresh baked rolls, and even pancakes for breakfast. It was quite the experience. We are going back to Shanghai in a couple of weeks with the whole BYU program, which will be a lot of fun again. Especially since the train tickets and all of that will be paid for. Hurray for saving money! And new topic.

We have been reading this book called Life and Death in Shanghai for our culture class. It is really interesting. It was written by a lady (who is still alive) that lived through the Cultural Revolution. It was written very well, and her English is all but native. It's a really great book that gives a lot of insight to the Cultural Revolution, which, I believe, is not very well understood in America. I would highly recommend reading it to anyone who is interested. New topic.

We apparently only have about 5 weeks of China left. HOLY SMOKES! This semester has FLOWN by! I still do have a little bit of time left. And then I still get to go to Taiwan for a week and a half. Speaking of witch, I need to get a hold of BYU travel and figure out my flight situation. Long story, ok, not really, I just don`t want to tell it at the moment. But I`m getting very excited to see my friends there. It`s going to be great. New topic.

And my new topic is that I`m done. I really don`t have anything else to say. So hope you all enjoyed. Later.

Pictures!

2008-10-28T00:11:00.003-06:00

These pictures are kind of in a backwards order, but not like it really matters. I'll attempt to put some more pictures up on facebook at some point. Oh, and there is a video of me in the Shaolin Temple that I need to get on here soon too.

This is the Summer Palace in Beijing. It was kind of cold that day, but this was still one of my favorite places we went while in Beijing.

The Birds Nest. It was pretty stinking cool. And I took a nap on the field in there. :-)

The Great Wall... Need I say more?

This is the Forbidden City. The only people allowed in here were the Imperial Family and their servants until 1950, one year after the PRC was officially organized.

The Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. They were built in order to guard the tomb of the first Emperor of China, Qinshihuang.

I belong in the 少林 Temple

2008-10-27T07:53:00.003-06:00

Well, as many of you know, I just got back from a stinking awesome vacation. The whole study abroad group took a 10 day tour of 洛阳，西安，and 北京。It was way cool. There is really a ton of stuff that we did, so it's really hard to figure out exactly what I want to say about it. I would put everything on here, but that would be a stinking huge post, so I won't. But I will give you a run down of some of the highlights. Unfortunately, my batteries for my camera were being stupid for a large part of the trip, so my own photos are somewhat limited. But I will steal some from my friends at some point and get some posted on here eventually. Let's see, Luoyang was the first place we stopped at. That's where Buddhism first came to China. Therefore, most of the things we saw had to do with Buddhism. Included with those sites is the Shaolin Temple. Yes, that is correct, the birthplace of Wushu Martial Arts. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was quite the site to see so many young people practicing martial arts. They were pretty intense. I kind of wish I could study there for a year or two. We did get to see a performance of the crazy things these Kung Fu Masters do. Then, about half way through the performance, they asked for 3 volunteers. So I, of course, had to volunteer. Being one of the only people waving my hand in the air wishing to be picked, not to mention one of the only white guys in the crowd, they decided to fulfill one of my greatest dreams and pick me to go up on stage with the Shaolin Monks. They had each of us mimic our "Master" and the style that they did. I ended up going last. My 师傅 did Preying Mantis Style. I will get a video of it on here, hopefully, within a week or so. Needless to say, I did pretty darn good. I have always wanted to do either Gymnastics or Martial Arts, and have never really had an opportunity to do either. So this was a dream come true. The crowed would have loved any white guy up there on the stage (you are automatically a celebrity when you go to China just because you are white). But the fact that I actually looked like I half way knew what I was doing, much less showed the other two guys up, just made the crowd go wild! It was great. My teacher told me that everyone gets their 10 min of fame and I probably just used about 7 of mine. And I am OK with that. I couldn't have thought of a better way to use them. :-)

Well, Xi'an was a really awesome city. There was a lot that we did there too, but once again, this post is already going to be nice and long, so I won't go into great detail about that. But Beijing was yet another awesome place to visit in China. Let's see, there was the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, the Water Cube, the Bird's Nest and the list goes on and on. It is hard to choose my favorite part of Beijing. But the Great Wall was definitely up there on the list. The area that we went to was not a very busy area of the wall, and it was kind of a cloudy day and it rained towards the very end of our stay there. But because of this, there was virtually no one on the area of the wall that we were on for a majority of the time. It was AWESOME! There really isn't any way for me to accurately describe the Great Wall except for awe-inspiring. We did so much stuff that it is kind of hard to figure out what to talk about. So I think that I will tell more stories later, perhaps. But we got back home Sunday morning at like 9:00. And then we started back up with classes today. But luckily, tomorrow, I only have 2 hours of class. So I shall enjoy that immensely. I hope that you are all very jealous of me, and soon I will upload some pictures so that I can be sure that you are all jealous of me. :-) More updates later!

"Preparing" for Midterms

2008-10-15T20:18:00.002-06:00

I don't like tests. But what I like less than tests are studying for them. So how do I manage, you might ask? I am after all a college student. Isn't taking tests a big part of college life? 没错! Testing is, in fact, a big part of college life. Little quizzes, or weekly tests aren't a big deal. So long as I pay attention to class and take notes, I usually remember the information needed to pass a small test. But what about Midterms, or Finals? Those are considerably more work and to be quite honest, a lot more stressful than a little quiz. 这倒也是. My first semester at BYU I found a very useful way of dealing with the stress that accompanies such big tests: I get a good, preferably thick, book, sit down and read it. No, not a text book, just a good novel or something of the like. I would enjoy going out with friends, but they are all busy stressing out over a test. Besides, I don't normally have the time to just sit down with a good book. So what was the book of choice for this round of stress? The Other Side of Heaven. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It is absolutely amazing! It's especially fun for me because it reminds me of my mission in some ways. Mostly just his feelings towards the people of Tonga remind me of how I feel about the Chinese people. He gives some of the wonderful insights that he had on his mission, and some after his mission as well. I have been learning so much since I have been here in China. Not just about China or the Chinese language, but about myself and what I have in store for the rest of my life. It has been such a great experience. Sorry, no specifics at this point. If you are curious, I would be more than willing to share some of the insights that I have had and feelings I have had while being here with you one on one, but I didn't really feel like it would be very fitting to post a lot of those things on here.

On a slightly different note, I'm taking off later today with the rest of the Study Abroad group for a 10 day tour of 3 of the Capitals (ancient and current) of China. We will first be headed to Luoyang, where Buddhism was born in China. It is also the location of the Shaolin Temple and the Longmen Grottoes. Then we will be heading to Xi'an, which was where Qinshihuang first unified China. He is also the one who, when he was buried, instructed terracotta replicas of his army and their horses and chariots to be buried with him. So we will get to see the Terracotta Warriors, among other things while we are there. Then we will be heading to Beijing. The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Olympic Venues... The list goes on and on. I'm so excited. It will be so much fun! I'll be sure to post plenty of pictures and let you all know how it goes!

450 Jiaozi

2008-10-11T05:49:00.003-06:00

Well, here's a little story from when I was on vacation in Yangshuo...

Well, the whole group had just gotten back from one of our day excursions and we were all hungry. So we decided to go get some shui jiao's, or jiaozi's, how ever you prefer to call them. I'm not a huge fan because there was one transfer on my mission where I ate shui jiao nearly every day for the whole transfer. Needles to say, wo chi ni le (I can't handle eating them too often any more because I ate too many of them, man Chinese is so much more convienent than English). But that's where everyone was going, so I had to go with them. We went to Dumpling Dynasty (jiao zi is a Dumpling in English). They said that one serving is 10 jiaozi. There was about 14 or so of us, so we decided to get 50 jiao zi total. Well, not long later, they brought up a plate full of jiao zi. We all stared eating them... Then came another plate... It was looking like a whole lot, and by the time they brought up the 3rd plate, we realized that we had obvously had a misscommunication. There was WAY more than 50 dumplings. So as they brought the 4th plate in, we told them to stop and realized what had happened... Who ever was over on the other side of the table ordering had ordered 50 servings, not just 50 dumplings! So that meant that they were going to bring out 500 dumplings! We had them stop there where they were and realized that we had about 450 jiaozi sitting on the table in front of us. So everyone ate as much as we could. Then when we were all full, we started forcing ourselves to eat more. I'm not going to lie, there were are few of them that got thrown out the window... but it eventually turned into a game of us vs. jiaozi. The other guys were set on finishng all 450 of them. I was perfectly fine with wasting them all. We did end up finishing every single one off (excluding the few that flew away and one or two that may or may not have ended up in a tea pot). But in order to get them all gone, it was like a drinking game where everyone took a turn shoving one more nasty, cool, slightly rubbery jiaozi into their mouth and trying to get it down before the rest of them that we had eaten came up. It was quite the experience, to say the least. And to top it all off, when we split the bill, it came out to about 40 RMB a person (just under $6 USD). Normally, I am able to keep all of the money I spend in a day under 30 RMB, and most meals I only spend between 5 and 10 RMB. So I spent 4x more than I normally do on one meal for something that I didn't really want to eat in the first place. But, hey, I'm in China!

Guilin and Yangshuo

2008-10-05T06:38:00.002-06:00

Well, I got back late last night from celebrating China's National Holiday. We got out of school for a whole week. So what did we do? We took off to one of the most beautiful places in the world: Guilin and Yangshuo. I was only able to go thanks to two of the most awesome people in the world, Vivian and Stephanie. Thank you both for helping me get there! We left Saturday afternoon from Nanjing on a 20 hour train ride down to Guilin. It was actually a pretty fun ride. There was a group of 10 of us that all traveled together and did most of everything together the whole week. So when I got to Guilin, I was totally impressed with how beautiful it was... Then the next day, we went to Yangshuo. Unfortunately, it was dark when we got there. When we woke up the next morning, however, I was totally blown away with the beauty of the place. We went up on to the top of the roof of our hostel just to take in the beauty of it all (that being the first picture). The first full day in Yangshuo, we rented bikes, biked through the most gorgeous country side ever to the Yulong He (He is pronounced somewhat like huh and means river). There we swam for a while waiting for our bamboo raft which we floated on for an hour or so. We got back on our bikes and went to Moon Hill, hiked up there and then took a minivan to a mud cave. We were so wiped out by the time we got back home that day! But it was totally worth it! My batteries died one the first day there, so I'm going to have to steal pictures from others before I can post them on here for you all to see. We just haven't had a chance to swap pictures yet. The next morning, we all got up early for a river cruise on the Li Jiang (jiang also means river). The scenery, of course, was breathtaking. Shoot, there is so much that we did that it's all getting muddled up in my head. We went night fishing, or more of watched these way cool birds swim in front of a bamboo raft who would dive down and catch fish for their master. It was pretty darn cool. Of course, there was some bartering, I bought myself a bamboo scroll with the Dao De Jing on it for about $7 USD.... Awesome... We rented scooters and took off to some more amazing places. We went to this little village. Basically we just had the time of our lives hanging out with friends in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I don't really have much time left, so ask me more questions when I get back home about everything I did, and I'll be sure to give you all the great details. Aren't you jealous!?

Baby Chaps

2008-09-23T08:28:00.002-06:00

At long last, I have captured the phenomenon known by some as "Baby Chaps" on camera. This one is for you Marisa. Well, in China, they apparently don't enjoy changing dippers very much, either that or they are just too expensive. Well, for whatever the reason, they have found an alternative to putting dippers on their children. This is a perfect example of what I have dubbed "Baby Chaps", for reasons that aught to be rather obvious. Now, granted, it isn't every baby that dons "Baby Chaps", but you sure see it often enough. Especially when your house is just down the street from the Children's Hospital. My first experience with these "Baby Chaps" was on the subway. There was some cute baby boy sitting on his mom's lap. Upon second glance, I noticed that he was flashing the whole train, via a proper use of his baby chaps. Some of these chaps are just a pair of baby pants that have the seam ripped out from the back all the way to the front. Others are a little more intense, such as the ones you see here. So there you have it, the famous "Baby Chaps". Marisa, I hope you enjoy. :-)

Huang Shan

2008-09-21T01:29:00.008-06:00

They say that there are 5 beautiful mountains in China that after you see them, you have no need of ever seeing another mountain. They also say that after you see Huang Shan, you no

longer need to see the other 4 beautiful mountains. In English, we say, "A picture's worth a thousand words." But there is no way for a picture to actually capture the experience of being up on top of Huang Shan and seeing the beauty for yourself. But since not everyone gets that kind of a chance, I'll just post some of my pictures that I took. We also went to this place called HongCun, which is about a 7oo year old city. It was pretty cool too.

Chinese Girls, America Boys

2008-09-15T02:37:00.002-06:00

Well, last night was Zhong Qiu Jie, or Mid-Autum Festival. The way you celebrate Zhong Qiu Jie is you eat yuebing, or moon cakes and go out and look at the moon, which is full and very beautiful. So that's what we did. The hotel that we go to curch in (yes, we have church in the basement of a hotel, it's a really nice one too) got everyone some yuebing. It's always kind of a surprise what kind of a yuebing you are going to get. Some are ok, some are outright gross (I had one that the insided looked kind of like green playdough, and it kind of tasted the same way too...) but as far as I know, there aren't any yuebing that are just really good. But it's part of the traditon, so you eat them anyway. Well, there is this really old Buddhist temple a littl futher south of where we live, still in Nanjing city called Fuzi Miao. So we figured, it's a pretty cool place, big tourist attraction, there has to be something going on there. So we piled into 4 or 5 taxies and took off down there after we had our quick weekly Sunday devotional. Well, there were TONS of peopl! I had forgotten my camera because it was piled under all of my laundry (that's a story for another time), otherwise I would have taken some pictures of how many people there were. But we didn't really do much but look arround and walk arround. It was still really intertaining though. But I think that most of the people there found us as interesting, or more interesting even than the things we went there to see. You see, as a white person in China (especically one who speaks Chinese) you are a celebrety. You always look like Brad Pitt, or Tom Cruse, or who ever the popular actor/actress (for the ladies) is who is within 20 years or so of your age. Well, the guys were all rather enjoying all the attention that they were getting. It was really funny to see groups of people looking at us and taking pictures of us, attempting to not let us see. They failed misserably at hidding it, but it was great. Then one of the guys would ask if they wanted to take a picture with them and before you knew what was going on, you had a whole crowd of Chinese college students (some times High School students) arround you, flashing the peace sign, taking a picture. Some of the girls were thinking that the guys were letting it go to their heads a bit too much. I just thought it was funny. I tended to stick to the kids a little bit more than the people our age. Little Asian babies are just so stinking cute! Them and their baby-chaps....also a story for another time, after I get a picture. hehehe... Anyway, so today, we were walking down the road and these two 12 and 13 year old girls came up to Greg and started talking with him. It was all fine and dandy until they tried to give him this little plush olympic doll and asking if they could make friends with him. Hahaha! It was so funny! Anyway, I'm about out of time now.

Just a few more things before Igo... We have a blog for all of us students her in Nanjing to post stories and pictures. You should check it out. There is a link on the side of the page. And to see some of my pix, click here. It's on facebook. Enjoy! More updates later!

I'm in CHINA!

2008-09-11T06:21:00.003-06:00

Well, I've been here in China for just over a week. And I LOVE IT! It was quite the experience getting here though. Nothing major happened though. Just long layovers. But after talking to some of the others who are here with me, I have nothing to complain about! I have taken a few pictures, but not very many. And besides, I'm not at my own home right now, I'm at a friends house using her computer and internet. It's probably going to be next Tuesday, at the earlest, that we actually get internet at our place. Well, I'm not sure how fast word travels, but the apartment that I've goten here is with 6 other guys. It's quite intertaining. It's rather big actually. 3 rooms, but only 1 bathroom. But for just about $430 a person for 4 months total rent, you can't complain too loud, right!? Classes are going to be kind of intense, being in the advanced class and only having class Monday-Thursday, but I am for sure going to learn a whole lot! I really hope that my Chinese improves a lot over the next 4 months. It has been an exprience getting used to simplified Chinese. I got myself this really cool electronic dictionary. It's pretty much a little palm computer who's main function is a dictionary/translator. It was about $130 USD, but when I can eat, and be full none the less, for $4-5 a day, I felt like I can afford it. Anyway. I don't have a whole lot of time, so I'll have to save some stories for next time I get a chance to post something. I'll try to get some pictures next time too. I'm just having a blast. I'll update you all later!

Last Day of Work

2008-08-29T18:59:00.003-06:00

Well, it finally feels like I'm going to leave! Today was my last day of work at Murfins. I really have enjoyed working there this summer. It wasn't ever too hard of work, and the people were lots of fun. Towards the end of the day, they called me to the back room. When I got there, they had a nice big chocolate cake that said "Good Luck Keith" on it. And they had a card that they had had everyone sign. It was really nice. It sure made me feel good. Everyone was saying that they are going to miss me. Then a little while later, the girls that I work with the most gave me a card from them as well. They wrote down their addresses and gave me a few dollars for me to send them a postcard from China. I do have a lot of good friends there, but I can't WAIT to actually get to China! And I'll be back in 4 months and I'll say hi to them then. But I'm down to the last few days before I leave. The ONLY thing I'm not looking forward to is the 40 hours of travel (including layovers) that I have to endure, ALONE, before I can actually get there. Oh well, it will be well worth it in the end! *just keep telling yourself that...

Sorry to Dissapoint

2008-08-17T17:24:00.004-06:00

Well, I promise that when I get to Nanjing that I will post more often than just once a month. I know that so many of you attempting to stalk me and have been highly disappointed with how hard I have been making it by not posting anything on my blog regularly for you. :-) Well, one of the biggest reasons/excuses that I have for not posting anything lately is because I have had Vincent (曾威榮) here visiting me for the past 2 weeks 多. It has been really fun. Unfortunately, I haven't really had a whole lot going on to keep him busy or entertained. And I have been working about 40 hours/week while he's here too. Oh well, we did get to go up to Independence and Liberty to see the Church historical sites there. It was really cool. We got to watch the Joseph Smith movie, it was pretty much amazing. Other than that I haven't really been up to much. Just counting down the days until I leave... 14 is the magic number for today. Unfortunately I just found out that my flight from Kansas City to Los Angeles was changed to an earlier time. So instead of having a 1 hour lay-over in LAX, I have a 12 hour lay-over! Lucky me! I think I might just shoot myself... I intend on keeping my phone active until I actually leave so I will probably call many of you faithful stalkers of mine while sitting in LA and implore you to entertain me. :-) No, seriously though, I will probably end up spending quite a bit of time on the phone while I'm sitting in the airport.

Well, perhaps I will find something else to post about before the end of the month. There is a dance this Friday. I'm planning on going up to St. Louis with some friends on Saturday to go to the temple since I won't have an opportunity to go again until December when I go to the temple in Taibei. The there is a baptism on Saturday afternoon, which will be fun too. Anyway, I think I'm going to go hang out with some of my cool friends, because, well, they are cool. Do I need any better reason? I think not. Thank you. Good bye.

So I'm lame... What of it?

2008-07-28T21:29:00.004-06:00

Yes yes, I realize it has been a few weeks since I got back from EFY and haven't so much as posted a picture on here. And I have been helping the Sister Missionaries with a WAY awesome investigator from China, and I haven't updated anything about him on here. So I'm lame, what are you going to do about it?!

OK, at least I'm trying. Sadly, I'm better at blogging now than writing in my journal. This is a highly depressing thing for me considering there was one year in High School that I didn't miss a single day of writing in my journal for over 360 days! Ya, I'm kind of proud of that, but I have digressed quite a bit since then in the journal department.

Enough of my random rants. EFY was basically amazing. WAY better as a counselor than as a participant. I had tons of fun, and learned a lot. I heard things in classes that I needed to hear to help me change things I needed to change. It helped give me a boost to do better with reading my scriptures and having meaningful prayers every day. Awesome speakers. Great dances. Amazing kids. Here is a picture of them. :-)
So there is this Chinese investigator that the Sister Missionaries have been teaching for a few weeks, by the name of Wei. He was a referral from some Elders in their District, I believe. Well, they had been trying to find a time where I could help them with a lesson (my mind kept wanting to say 陪 their 課... Old habits die hard, huh?). We finally did find a time to meet with him and his room mate, Kidd. Kidd did most of the talking, which was fine, but I really wanted to get to know Wei and figure out why, exactly, it was that the Sisters thought he was just so amazing. Well, later, we did get to talk to him alone. He is AWESOME! We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and the importance of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. (those were more brief that the rest of the Plan of Salvation) But we invited him to be baptized on August 23rd, and he accepted! Of course, we had to explain that after you are baptized and have the Gift of the Holy Ghost, it is much easier to learn the Gospel, and it comes faster. Also we told him that we would help him prepare for his goal. It was such a great experience to be there and set a baptismal goal! In just under two weeks, I will have been home from my mission for 2 years... That's just crazy. It was just so much fun for me to be a little nostalgic of my Missionary times, and also look forward to what the Lord has in store for me in the future...

This past week has just been crazy, what with work, FHE, Chinese investigators, English Class, a rodeo, a dance and preparing for both of them, and then getting FHE ready for this week, I have been slightly busy. Which, I guess, is better than being bored to tears. So the rodeo and dance. Ya, the were pretty much amazing. Krystal Guison does clowning every once in a while. The two Willard Wards had a combined Pioneer Day celebration out by Grandpa Adam's house. So her dad, who is either the Activities Committee Chairman, or just on the committee (which one, I'm not sure), asked her to be a Rodeo Clown. She figured it would be much more fun to have someone to play off of and what not, so she asked me if I wanted to be a clown. I figured, "Well, so long as she can make me look like a clown, I think I do a pretty good job of acting like a clown!" So I agreed. And, MAN it was a blast! The best part is after spending all of our energy being clowns, we got to go to a dance and spend all of that energy again! YAY! The dance was fun, but not nearly as fun as the ones at EFY, or the ones that we had here just after I got home from my mission. But all in all, it was a pretty much amazing evening. This is what I looked like as a clown, and another picture of Krystal and I together...

Pretty much, it was awesome. Sunday was GREAT though! I got to take a 2 hour nap right after having a wonderful Sunday lunch at the Guison's house. And they know how to eat good! Mmmm... Well, Vincent gets here tomorrow night, so we will see if I'm have time to post anything for the next 2 weeks or so, but I will try. And if not, in 2 weeks, I'm sure that there will be another huge post like this one covering everything in as little detail as I can possibly handle!

Bigger and Better

2008-07-14T23:15:00.002-06:00

Well, first of all, sorry I haven't posted anything about EFY yet... I will... Eventually... Check out my facebook for some pix. And if you don't have facebook, you can click here. I will get to it I promise. But first, tonight for FHE we played Bigger and Better. It's a really fun game. If you have never played it, the rules are rather simple: Every group starts off with one small object, usually a coin or something like that. You proceed to go to anyone's house you can find and ask them if they have something either bigger or better in some way than the thing you have. If they do, and are willing, you trade with them. After a while, you all go back and see which group has the coolest thing. (Groups are optional. The game is plenty of fun just going with your friends and not competing at all.) I intended on having a lesson about how out of small things are great things brought to pass. I left home early enough to prepare the lesson at church while I waited for others to come for the activity. Well, something small hit my tire. Actually, it wasn't that small. It was a really stinking long screw driver head for a drill. I think I may have drug the drill along with me for a while too. But anyway, I changed my tire, pulled the screw driver thingy out and now have it as a souvenir.
On to the game... Well, every group started out with a Korean coin. At the first house we talked to someone at, we traded the coin for $.50. Not much, but worth more than the original coin was. The next house, we got a can of pork and beans or something like that. It was beans 就對了. Then we got a bag of chips. For the chips we got a 5 lbs thing of ground beef that expired 2 weeks ago. We proceeded to trade that for a large stuffed bear holding a heart. It was a rather soft bear too... Anyway... We weren't sure what else we could get, and we bombed out on the next few houses. But the last house we went to, we traded the bear for a fake tree. It was pretty much hilarious. We should play that game again some time. It was tons of fun.

Ninja Monkeys

2008-07-04T10:50:00.002-06:00

So I was wearing my Ninja Monkey shirt the other day while I was doing my laundry. Then I pulled my Ninja Monkey shirt out of the laundry basket... Ya, that's what I thought too. So now Joseph has a Ninja Monkey shirt too. We are just that cool.

Fun Times

2008-07-01T10:03:00.002-06:00

So apparently there is this Chinese investigator that the sisters have who lives right by the church. He was supposed to come to church on Sunday, but he didn't show up. So we walked over to his house, knocked on the door and asked his room mate if he knew where he was. He was studying or something like that, so we asked if we could leave a note for him. His room mate didn't quite understand what we were saying, so I say, "我們可以留一個字條給他嗎?" ("Can we leave a note for him?) He just looked at me, kind of stunned, not sure why he could all of a sudden understand what these white people were saying. Hehehe, it was great. It's probably one of my favorite things in the world to see the look on a Chinese persons face when they realize that I speak Chinese. It makes me smile. :-)

I'm ok!

2008-06-27T20:01:00.002-06:00

Well, I went to the doctor again today. I got out of work for it too. :-) But for all of you out there who were concerned for me, I am fine. My bone isn't broken or fractured, just bruised. The doctor said that I don't need to wear a brace anymore unless I feel like it. My knee will be tender for the next few weeks, but I can handle that. It was odd using my knee again after not using it for a week. But after walking around on it all day, I think I'm used to it again. I kind of missed it. But there are no major problems! Thank heavens!

The Bonfire of DEATH!

2008-06-18T21:45:00.004-06:00

Well, my 2nd cousin and best friend, Phillip is in town this week. Most of the time he's out in Georgia being a bum going to school or some other lame excuse like that. But he's back for the week! And just recently, another great friend of ours, Jessica, quit her job at Sam's Club. You add these two together and you get no just any bonfire, but a Ceremonial Burning of the Smock/Bonfire. Yes, all rather cool. Well, if that wasn't enough, we throw my cousin Josh and I into that mix and you go from a rather special bonfire to The Bonfire of DEATH DUN DUN DUN!!! Well, there is this old fence post about as tall as I am, or perhaps a little taller. So of course, people tell me that I should jump onto it from the trampoline. Thinking that that isn't the best of ideas (for this fence post doth wiggle), I decide I will just climb up it from the ground. So I am standing there for a few minutes and out of nowhere I see Josh running at me. Fearing for my life, I yell, "JACOB!!" (note: Jacob is Josh's little brother who is now on a mission) Well, he didn't know that the post had the wobbling tendency. He thought it would be a great to run and kick the post and have me jump off over top of him. At least, I assume that is what he was thinking. I did not hear the thoughts in his head, so I cannot tell you for sure. Because I didn't hear the thought in his head, I didn't jump. Instead, I fell. My feet, who were firmly planted on the one foot round post, moved with the post. My body, who preferred to stay right where it was at, did not move with the post. As I assume most of you know, when your feet move out from underneath you and your body does not move, you often fall. This is exactly what happened to me. My foot, apparently, really liked the top of that post, so it got caught on it and tried to hold me up there. Fortunately for me, the will of gravity was stronger than the will of my foot. All my foot succeeded in doing was flipping me upside down, acting as an axis for my body to turn on and knock my knee into the post. My foot came un-caught, and the ground proceeded to break my fall. I laid there for a few minutes before I wanted to move again. As I got up to go lay on the trampoline, my knee popped (this is a rather regular occurrence and thus did not bother me. Also, it was my other knee that did not hit the fence post). Everyone freaked out and I just laughed at them. From what I heard, it looked as if I did a rather un-graceful cartwheel off of the fence post and landed on my back/butt. I wish I could have seen it. I'm sure that I would have laughed at myself. Which, I have found, is the best thing you can do in situations where you make a fool of yourself. That and blogging about them. :)

A Change of Opinion

2008-06-15T16:10:00.002-06:00

When the 2nd movie in the Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian, came out, I went to go see it with some friends. I thought it was an awesome movie! There were good fight scenes (without a ton of gore), a great plot, and characters that I already liked from the first movie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, plus a few others that I came to like as well. I hadn't actually had the pleasure of reading the books at this time, so I decided that I need to read the actual books. As we all know, the books are always better than the movie. So after looking for The Chronicles of Narnia at family's house, the library, and on the internet, I found a place where I could get the whole seres for only $7, including shipping! It was going to get to me faster than waiting for it at the library, and I could keep it! What a deal! They came in the mail just over a week ago and I got started tearing the book apart as soon as I could. If I didn't have to work, I would have finished the whole seres 2 or 3 days ago. Well, last night, I finished Prince Caspian, and I must tell you, I have changed my mind about my opinion of the movie. It was a good movie, as far as movies go, but they took so many liberties with the movie that the director should be ashamed of himself! Why mess with a masterpiece!? They mixed things up, added a love story between two characters that 1. weren't even the same age and 2. didn't have more than a few pages of the story where they were actually even in the same room! They had characters do things which were very much out of their character, and omitted things characters should have done because of things they had previously learned, but did not do in the movie. And then they go and create this whole battle that couldn't possibly, and wouldn't possibly (had the opportunity arose) have happened!

Don't get me wrong, I rather enjoyed the move, and still like it as a movie. But if you ask me, it isn't telling the same story that the books tell. Now, if they had said that it was a movie roughly based off of the books, that would be just fine. Or if they said it was a story similar to the one in the book, I would have no qualms. I just don't think that the story was told very well. C.S. Lewis did well enough on his own, thank you very much.

West Coast Swing

2008-06-11T21:35:00.004-06:00

My talk on Sunday went well. I talked about honoring the priesthood. It was nice to get it over though. I got The Chronicles of Narnia in the mail on Saturday, and have already finished reading the 2nd book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They are such great books! As always, the book is much better than the movie. FHE went pretty good, not as many people showed up as I would have liked to see there, and of those that did show up, there were still a lot who didn't participate. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, more people will come regularly and actually participate in the activities and lessons. Tuesday... Well Tuesday was a great day. After English class with the Sisters, Kami and I prepared for dance class. We got out the teaching DVD that she has and decided which steps we were going to teach. After a little while, we went out to her car to pick the music that we were going to use. She turned up the music in her car and we danced in the parking lot! It was so much fun! It's been almost 2 months since I have actually danced with someone else who dances a lot. It was a blast! I remember now why I love dancing so much. It's so great when you know what you are doing and can just have fun without having to worry so much just to remember how to do the steps that you have learned. And West Coast is such a fun dance too! It's very smooth and relaxed. It isn't the easiest dance to learn though. Of all the dances that I have learned, it was one of the hardest to just get the basic down. But once the basic actually clicks and you know what's going on, it gets much easier to do the other steps.

I must say though, it is one thing to learn a dance and learn it well. It is a whole other ball game to actually teach it to other people. I have to remind myself how hard it was for me to get it when I first learned it as well so I don't get frustrated when it doesn't go smoothly for others. The guys last night were actually doing really good though. There were a few of them who caught on really fast. It's quite impressive actually. I am so excited to keep dancing and teaching dance this summer. Now that I have this summer taken care of, I'll just have to figure something out while I'm in China so I don't forget it while I'm there.

English Class

2008-06-05T18:29:00.003-06:00

The Sister Missionaries at the University Ward here in Springfield that I attend have an English class that they teach twice a week. There are only 3 students, but they are all 3 from China. So when the Sisters told me about it I decided that I really wanted to go. Well, I went today, and it was so much fun! Come to find out, two of them graduated from Nanjing University! That's where I'm going to be going this Fall for Study Abroad! Crazy small world, huh? We talked about American holidays, and spent most of the time talking about Christmas. As one of the Sisters was drawing a picture of the Nativity on the board, they asked me to explain a little bit about who Christ is in Chinese for the 3 students. It was so great! It was weired though, I haven't done that in nearly 2 years! Not really in English or Chinese, come to think about it. Even when I have helped the Missionaries since I've been home, every at least knows who Christ is. It was a really cool experience. The best part is that English class is every Tuesday and Thursday, and those are my days off of work! Hurray! I'm way excited about it, it's going to be tons of fun!

大家好

2008-06-03T14:36:00.000-06:00

Well, I wanted to start a blog before I take off to China so I have a convenient way of keeping everyone up to date on what's happening and a place to post all the pictures that I'm inevitably going to take. :-) So I figured, if I plan on starting a blog, why not just start now? Not that there is really a ton going on right now, but I might as well get into the habit of posting on my blog regularly, right?

Well, on Sunday, I was called to be the Ward Activities Chairman. Basically what that entails is planning FHE every week and making sure it all goes ok. And luckily, absolutely NOTHING is planned for next Monday! Yeppie! And I need to find a few more people for the Activities Committee. OH, and I get to give a talk on church this Sunday. It's all good. My boss is out of town this week, so I'm working his schedule... 6:00-3:00 every day. Well, I do get Thursday off, but basically, I have a rather full week this week. But at least I'm not sitting at home doing nothing! Well, I need to get into town to cash my first pay check (I work at Murfin's Market, the local grocery store) before the bank closes. I hope you all enjoy the wonderful ramblings which I'm going to post on here. And please, PLEASE, leave your comments. That, in my opinion, is the best part about blogs. 改天在寫!