Being in School does not = Getting an Education

So, you're in school?

Cool.

Unfortunately, being in school is not the same thing as getting an education. There are many people who've gone through a plethora of years of so called "schooling" all to get a little, flimsy piece of paper. They missed the boat.

Don't get me wrong.

A diploma is really important. It gets you stuff like a lifetime career. Yeah, we want one of those.

But, really. We are in school to learn. It's all about gaining knowledge so we can do well in the career that we are trying to reach. Not to mention how it can help us better understand the world, life, others, our family, ourselves.


That's what I've been thinking about recently.

Sometimes, in the past, it was all about a letter of the alphabet for me. Like, isn't that  'A'  so much more triangular than a 'B'? So much more appealing.

 I had to have it. 

So, I worked really hard studying for hours before I took a test or quiz, only to forget all the information in the next few days.

Think about it.

I was spending thousands of dollars just to forget things.

What about those who cheat their way through school? Aren't they really just cheating themselves?

But, a mission changed things for me. All of a sudden I was learning because I loved people, I loved myself, and I loved God. I wanted to make the world a better place.

And that concept stuck.

Now, when I study, there's more about understanding how information can help make me better, and you better, and us better.


I still want to get good grades, but I want so much more than that.

I want an education. A real one.

Does RM actually stand for "Real Meaning" ?

I'm back. That's right. 

Back.

Back to my blog and back to the world where my life consists of wearing pants, listening to modern music, and being a regular young adult human being. Which is why I can actually be writing this right now.

Except for one thing. 

I have now joined the small (in world terms) ranks of returned missionaries, people who have had stepped into the shoes of being set apart, consecrated, and thrown into the relatively bloodless but ultimately spirit wrenching battlefield of earth's missionary realm, and have come back to reality.

It tends to change things up a bit.

But here's where it gets really interesting.

Because life is really interesting. It is a 70 or 80 or 90 year experience that we have during a an experience that lasts for trillions and trillions and trillions of years.

An eternity actually. 

Whoa, earth life is something pretty brief and extraordinary. 

 It seems there are RM's who go around thinking that they have hit their spiritual peak, that it is all downhill from here, that their MISSION... Oh their beautiful mission, if only they could return....

Really, people?

Do you not think this is exactly where God wants you to be right this second? 

Yes. A mission is a beautiful grand experience. You breathe.  You live. You love. You laugh. You cry. Yes. You feel like you have never felt before.

So, does the removal of a little plastic black square from your shirt remove the capacity for all that? 

No. It doesn't. Only YOU can do that. Only I can do that. And that's the way I see it. Some doors have been closed. 

But many have been opened. I can still talk to the stranger sitting by me on the bus IF I have the gall to do so. AND NOW, My family has become such a great priority to my life, my personal "purpose". I can play basketball with Hyrum! And I can study my scriptures with Kristen. I can actually talk to my piece of forever anytime I want. That's a big deal to me.

 I can improve my talents by practicing the piano. I can redeem people who have passed on. 

And yes, some days I miss my mission.

 But, life is a great mission. 

And life is not over yet. Nor is it ever. So, I don't really want to pine over what is not, but I 'd rather recognize what can be. With the help of God. 

RM really can stand for "Real Meaning". 

The Best Super Bowl Commercial Ever. And I mean Ever.

Beautiful. Just Beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMpZ0TGjbWE

A Stance on Freedom

If America was to decide tomorrow that kings should reign and dictators should rule, we would object. If America was to decide tomorrow that people should be silent and freedom should be obsolete, we would oppose. If America was to say ‘line up your children so we can shoot them, the population is growing too large’, we would rebel.

But if America only ruled a little badly, we would sit. If America only got a little more stupid, we would sit. If America was to say ‘stop having children; it is bad for the economy; feel free to kill your child as long as it is not yet born’, we would sit.

We would sit until the little changes in rules became big changes, and the slight stupidities became major idiocies.  We would sit until our economy wore down, and our taxes overcame the income of the people. We would sit until our youth grew corrupt, until the citizens became destitute, until the constitution became obsolete.

We would sit because the changes would not be enough to make us move. After all, what is one more injustice? What is one more dollar of taxes? What is one more person without virtue?

For, the world does not work in major leaps. A country does not wake up one day and decide that it will shatter into a million pieces, crushing the hopes of all the citizens. People do not suddenly go from being free to being imprisoned.

Sitting is all it takes for a country to fall. For our country to fall.  Sitting is the easiest way for diminish, slowly and without acknowledgement.

And so, we have few choices. We will sit until there is nothing left to sit on, or we will stand.

And if we stand, it will take effort. If we stand, it will cause challenges. If we stand, it will be difficult.

If we stand, we must work.

But if we stand, we  conquer.

Why I am Going on A Mission.

Two years ago, a mission wasn’t on my agenda. It wasn’t part of my plans. It wasn’t in the scope of my desires. I didn’t think a mission would be in the cards for me. Missionaries leave for a year and a half (or two if male), and I wanted to do other things with my life. I was an eighteen year old girl with a mild fear of missionaries, and I thought I wanted to do other things instead. God thought otherwise. 

God knows me. He knows my challenges and difficulties, and he knows me strengths. During fall of 2011, I did a project on missionary work. It increased my love for missionaries, and it gave me a passion for missions. But, I still didn’t know I would be going on one.

 I didn’t know until January 30, 2012, a year ago exactly. On that day, I said a simple prayer to a loving father in heaven. I wasn’t praying about being a missionary. I was seeking help to get through a problem that I could hardly grapple alone.  He inspired me to make a promise through the power of the Holy Ghost, a power that can only be recognized through experience, to say that I would go on a mission. I would like to share from my journal the commitment that I made:

“The first thing that popped into my head when I was praying was that ‘I would serve a mission’[to say]. I didn’t really like that because it wasn’t what I want to do.  I don’t have much of  a desire to set down a year and a half of school, and life, but I promised him that if I was worthy and untaken I would go serve him. I intend to keep this promise so I’m writing it down.”

Quite simply, this is the reason that I chose to go on a mission. Because I made a promise to God. I am not willing to break my word. Since then though, my desire has become so much more.

At the time of my prayer, I thought I was preparing for something about two and a half years in the future, but I followed through with my commitment. I began to prepare myself for a mission, publicly announcing that I was going, which seemed silly at the time(not to me, but probs to others). I went to mission prep class during Sunday school, and I volunteered at the MTC. Most importantly, I came to terms with the idea of a mission and came to desire it for myself.

Less than nine months after I made a promise to go, our latter-day prophet announced to the whole church that girls could go at nineteen. I was nineteen. I had been taking the semester off, trying to earn money with the goal to go to BYU Jerusalem, which costs about the same as a mission. It was the first semester I had ever taken off, and I had no excuse of waiting to sell a contract.

God had prepared me without me even realizing it. New things utterly terrify me. If I had not known that I was going on a mission, I do not know if I would have made the choice to go. I know that he wants me to go, and I trust him.

I want to go on a mission today, partly because of the commitment that I made, but it has become something much more. I have a joy that fills my heart and soul with such sweet peace. I believe that out there somewhere could be a person who needs to hear the gospel from me. This church is true. It’s the coolest and truest thing ever. Just as Joseph Smith said, “I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it...” (JS History 1:25, Monson’s Talk on obedience).  I know it, and I cannot deny the truth. I don’t want to deny the truth!

You may not understand how I feel, but I know that you can come to know how I feel. This gospel has been an immense blessing in my life. I invite you to pray, read the Book of Mormon, and come to taste a fruit that is beyond anything you have ever partaken of. I promise you that if you do so it will be awesome, truly and wholeheartedly awesome. 

Waiting for a mission Call. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

It is easy to desire something that isn't part of God's plan for us. It is even easier to desire something that is part of God's plan for us IMMEDIATELY.

I have fasted that my call would be here, yet it has not come. Is it challenging? I would say yes, but the truth is it stopped being such a big deal to me about a few weeks ago. They say patience is a virtue, and through this is experience I have learned that I don't have the patience that God needs me to have. He has his own time table. There is a right  time, place, and process for most things in life. The expected arrival for my mission call was supposed to be the 19th of December, but that wasn't the time that God expected it to arrive. I put my trust in him and hope that I will get a call eventually.

.....And so I wait.

It's not much different than what  I will be facing when I do go on a mission. People won't be leaping to get baptized in a day or two or even a week or two. Most likely. And so I will wait. And I will pray that the day will come that a decision will arrive. And I will lack patience and be frustrated and wish that the people I am teaching would discover the truth already. If I am even teaching anyone that is.

My call will come someday, and in the meantime, I trust that there is a reason for me to be patient. God knows all things, and I know very little.

What I do know is that he has a plan for me. He loves me. He wants what's best for me. He holds the truth. And the truth can be discovered through this gospel.

The Man Who Liked to Eat (Stories for my Advanced English Class)

The Man Who Ate and Ate

There once was a man who liked to eat. He ate and ate and ate and ate. Until finally, his stomach swelled like a whale, and his face looked like a watermelon. He would have kept eating, but the town ran out of food. No one in the town could eat anymore because the man had eaten up all their food, so they kicked him out of town.

They sent him away, and as he left they could hear him walking, and it sounded like, "Glup! Glup!"

He was so very fat that he couldn't walk too far, so he stopped at the next town over, which was about 400 yards away. In the next town, people were preparing a massive feast. The aroma was wafting through the air. The man who ate too much could not resist coming over and asking for a bit to eat.

The people in the town were friendly, so they offered food willingly. The man ate and ate and ate and ate. First, he ate the hundred potatoes they had laid at. Then, he ate the giant turkey. He ate and ate and ate, until he had gobbled down the town's feast, the town's food,and the town dog.
Then, the man laid down. All the people in the town cried out in frustration that their food was gone, but the man did not hear, for he was dead.

                                                                          The End