Music and Lyrics

This weekend is the 4th of July, or Independence Day in the United States of America. One of my favorite songs during this time of celebrating the country is "God Bless the USA." The words paint a detailed picture of the beauty of the United States, both in a physical and emotional aspect. Our country is often depicted in a majestic manner such as this, making it seem like the greatest in the world and we often hear those bold words, "I'm proud to be an American."  With all of the issues that have been cropping up over the past couple of years such as impeachment, systemic racism, foreign intervention, and most significantly the COVID-19 pandemic, I have reflected deeply about what we celebrate with the 4th of July. These issues are just a few of the many that have made me wonder about the country we praise so proudly.  Am I really proud to be an American?  Thomas Jefferson wrote the candid words of the Declaration of Independence, which were th...

Dear Reader, Some friends of mine have recently been writing blogs about different topics from entrepreneurship to family life. There are some really consistent writers; some are very articulate. At the beginning of this year, one posted for the first time in 16 months! However, no matter how often they write or what topic they address, it is always nice to hear from old friends, especially on a platform where they share their most honest feelings. I love reading what these friends are doing and what they are going through. With that said, I come to you again from behind the keyboard to apologize for my neglect in writing due to working, parenting and singing. How can I keep from singing? Down below I will give you a life update, but I wanted to inform you all of how great our Heavenly Father is. He knows us. He loves us. He wants the best for us. He sent His son to fulfill the atonement and learn how each one of us feels in order to comfort us in our times of need. Now, for an ...

Dear Reader, Our little boy has not even arrived yet and I am already feeling the pressure to a good example. All growing up, I was always told to never do anything that I wouldn't want my children to know about/do themselves. "Always be on your best behavior, your children will watch you." I will be honest, I have always agreed with that idea and I think it is a good way to live your life. However, I didn't feel the weight of that responsibility until my wife got pregnant. I feel like I am getting more and more pressure from myself to be a perfect example, even though this little boy hasn't even met me yet. That's why I am relating so much with this song right now. I know, this isn't too deep. I just wanted to share the song more than anything.

Dear Reader, Family ties are great. They are hard to maintain sometimes, but they are well worth the effort. God gave us families for a reason. I have seen it time and time again that being part of a family can help you come back from any setback or go forward to accomplish any goal. It must be said that my family is perfect for me. Heavenly Father knew what He was doing when He helped Lauren and I come together to form our own family and bring together our extended families. My in-laws are very generous and my parents are very loving. My siblings (in-laws included) are all fun to be with and they each teaches me in little ways. This past year with new family and lots of grand experiences has shown me how it important it is to be part of a family. This time last year, Lauren and I were preparing for our wedding and thinking about where she would be applying to grad school. Last fall we worked hard to finish as much school as we could and we planned to wait on have kids until she...

Dear Reader, You most likely feel at times that there is so much to do and not enough time to do it. Is that right? It is ok to agree. I have often felt that there is a lot that I can't accomplish because my day is too short and lots of things depend on me. That is the reason you are receiving a challenge, should you choose to accept it: make a list of what roles/titles you have. Then, take those roles and put them in order from most important to least important. This may be difficult because it is rather revealing about oneself. If desired, you can take a step further and list out the responsibilities of each role in order. As a quick example, I have compiled a short list of my most important roles in the order I feel they best should be taken care of. The first of these roles are all crucial to each other and have to be care for simultaneously at times. I encourage you to think of your own list of roles while you read. 1. Child of God This is above all the most important ...

Dear Reader, Today I simply want to share a story that has strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon over the years. Professor Felix Mynhardt was fluent in many languages, including English, Afrikaans, Hebrew and Egyptian, as well as many others. He was employed as a language professor when he had been praying that the Lord would give him some divinely important task that would justify his having this gift of language from God. In 1970 he visited with a group of Mormon leaders, who sought to commission him to translate the Book of Mormon from English into Afrikaans. He said that he knew of the Book of Mormon from his religions studies, and his initial reaction was that he did not want to be involved in translating it. However, that evening, as he prayed upon his knees, as was his habit, he said the Spirit of the Lord convinced him. The message was something on the order of, "You asked me for a great, divinely inspired task of translation, I sent it to you in the form o...

Dear Reader, Normally I would apologize for a long absence, but the experience we had today just can't wait. I had an entirely new view on taking the sacrament because of a simple oversight by one of the boys passing the sacrament to us. Then the Bishop spoke and gave a little more perspective on spirituality. First, the sacrament. Today we attended our new ward in Kaysville and we were sitting on the front row of the overflow area in the chapel. As is customary with the sacrament meeting in the Church of Jesus Christ, the members of the Aaronic priesthood will bless the bread and water that represents Christ's flesh and blood before allowing the members of the congregation to partake of it. While they were passing around the bread on their trays, our row was somehow skipped. My wife, my in-laws and myself did not receive the bread while taking the sacrament. My father-in-law and I both did our best to attract the attention of those priesthood holders helping with the ...

Dear Reader, There is a story of man who had a dream about death. He had passed from life and now found himself in a room full of sky-high filing cabinets, the kind found in libraries with authors' names written on small index cards. The cabinets were lined up in every direction and there seemed to be no end. The man wandered through the shelves and noticed something peculiar: the drawers, instead of authors' names, had interesting parts of life written them such as 'Jobs I've had' or 'People I've helped.' Intrigued, the man continued looking at the names of drawers until he came to a realization that the drawers contained detailed descriptions of the different instances of his life. He opened a drawer with the title 'Times I've cried' and read, in detail, about every time he had cried in his life, the reason for his sadness and where he was when it happened. He then looked in drawer after drawer and found that every card came from his l...

Dear Reader, This semester I have been taking several program language classes. PHP, SQL, Python, HTML, CSS...they are all very useful when working with things on the internet. However, I have realized by taking them that it is EXTREMELY important to be careful with our technology. I referenced a song a few years ago, Online , which talks about how you can fake a lot of things on the internet or social media. It is even more apparent now that we need to be careful with everything we ever post in order to care for our physical, financial, social and emotional well-being. I'll give just a couple of examples of what I mean. In my python class, my teacher showed us how very easy it is to spider websites to find information. Granted, the examples he showed us were about finding all the sports statistics of a specific team or all the LDS General Conference articles with a particular theme, but the tricks he showed us could also be used for finding personal information about everyone...

Dear Reader, Photo Credit: Sydney Christofferson This morning the writer's block was hitting hard. However, while searching for ideas of a topic to write about (which usually pop up during the week), I realized my best reason for writing is right next to me: my supercalifragilisticexpialidocious wife Lauren. Now, those of you who know me in real life will know that Lauren is the most amazing woman. I talk about her a lot. She is athletic, funny and ridiculously talented. I have never met anyone who doesn't love her. Seriously, people are always saying how they love working/studying/whatever else with her because of her bright personality and genuine smile. Her intelligence is one to be reckoned with. Right now we are in the middle of applying to graduate schools. She applied to three schools in the top 100-ranked schools in the nation (#6, #14, and #44). She applied to these schools and has already been accepted to 2 (#6 and #14. We are still waiting to hear back ...

Dear Reader, I was brought up with bits and pieces of chivalry be taught in my home. When I say bits and pieces, I am mostly referring to the highlights of what chivalry once was. You can read all about the original code and rules from the middle ages and before by reading Wikipedia . However, it is important to note what the lingering effects of chivalry are and how they tie in with courtesy. A man named Gautier gave what he thought the ten commandments of chivalry were, 5 of which I believe are still useful and vital today: Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God. Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word. Thou shalt be generous, and give largesse to everyone. Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them. These commandments are a great way to start a ha...

Dear Reader, Image Credit: Western University The other day I was doing some math because apparently that is something people in my family do for fun. The numbers of the day had to do with the amount of time it takes to become good at something, the time it takes to become a master. You may have heard once or twice that after practicing a given task or skill for 10,000 hours, you become a master at it. This idea comes from Malcolm Gladwell in his book, "The Outliers." This sent me on a rampage of calculations. I'll summarize them as best I can below. In a year, there are 8,760 hours. This means it is impossible to become a master of something in less than a year. It would take at least a year and almost 2 months to become a master in something. However, that is assuming you practice deliberately and effectively 24/7 for that time period on whatever it is you are trying to master. Let's factor in basic needs, though. Out of 8,760 hours in a year, a person sho...

Dear Reader, A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.  Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the devil decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man's weary mind "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it." This gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a ...

Dear Reader, The simple birthday song above implies a principle that I have considered important in my life since I was a little kid just learning to speak. Everyone understands the same message differently. Languages have always fascinated me. There is what some would call magic in how two people can say the same thing but in two totally different ways. You might call me biased because it is my career, but linguistics and translation is vital in our world today. It recently came to my attention that the White House removed their Spanish localization and translations from their website, as seen on inverse.com , gizmodo.com , and other websites. While the website underwent a huge change for a new president and his cabinet, it is more than a slight oversight to remove any language from your website, especially if the website represents a government entity. Now, I'm doing my best to give our new president the benefit of the doubt, despite the numerous scandals, outrag...

Dear Reader, Photo Credit : English-SpanishTranslator.com As my "auld" acquaintance, it has been awhile since we last talked. However, I'm here to wish you a happy new year! One of my resolutions is to write at least twice a month, which means I must find topics or ideas at the same rate. Luckily, today's topic was an easy choice based on a conversation I had with Lauren over the holiday break. Lauren and I flew home to Pennsylvania to visit her family, which was a delight. On our returning flight, she asked me to help her prepare for an interview for graduate school. We looked at the possible interview questions for a particular school and went to work. The first questions were simply inquiring about her past, her family and her interests; it was small talk. The questions became more specific when they shifted to her reasons for attending graduate school and her motives for wanting to be an occupational therapist. She mentioned her desire to help other peopl...

Dear Reader, Heavenly Father answers prayers. I have seen it so many times and I still forget what that statement means. Today, I want to share five stories with you that illustrate how Heavenly Father is always listening. When I was young lad, I lost one of my favorite toys. At this point in my life I honestly have no idea what toy it was, but I loved it immensely. It was simple thing, but as I was tearing my room apart looking for it, my mom asked me if I had prayed to ask Heavenly Father for help. I was a stubborn child and didn't want to ask for help, so I kept searching before I finally gave in and knelt next to my bed. The prayer probably wasn't very long, but it was enough to let Heavenly Father show me His love. I kid you not, the toy was next to my knee when I opened my eyes. A similar thing happened to a young boy that I taught as a full-time missionary in Chile. His name was Matias and he loved to play ping pong. Actually, that was one of the reason my compa...

Dear Reader, The other day I had a shower thought that was quite profound. Upon pondering the thought throughout the week, it became clear that it was too good not to share with you. It is a principle that is sometimes hard to learn, but it is important none the less. The only enemies I have are the clock and myself .  That is the thought that started it all off. Then, as I started thinking of how to explain this to other people, the song posted above came to mind. "Me and God" reminded me that my shower thought was right, as long as I stand with God and work with him. For him, all things are possible. Therefore, I am my only enemy next to the time I have on earth. Now you might say, "Gus, why is the clock your enemy if God can alter the fabric of time to do his will?" I don't know how that works, but the clock is my only enemy because we have a set amount of time to live in this probationary period God has given us, so we have to use it wisely. ...

Dear Reader, Image Source: lds.org Today I want to write about a unique experience I had last week in our LDS Ward in Provo. We attend a family ward, which means that there are families and members of all ages. In a normal family ward, the number of young men (between 12 and 18 years of age) would be enough to help pass the sacrament and make sure that every one in the congregation has the opportunity to participate. In our ward, however, there are just a couple of young men in that age range, creating an opportunity for the older priesthood holders in our ward to participate in administering the sacrament. This past week I was asked to be one of those priesthood holders  to administer the sacrament to the congregation. The sacrament consists of eating the bread and drinking the water that has been blessed for those who take it. It is a symbol, just as the bread and wine Christ gave his disciples in the Bible . It allows those who have made covenants with Christ through Ba...

Dear Readers, You are important. If you are reading this, is it highly likely that you care about the future of America. I care about the future of America. That is why I care about the officials who run this country and, more importantly, who they are and what they stand for. In my mind, the best leaders are those who don't want to be in their position, but find themselves taking the role because of a lack of good leadership or because they feel it is the right thing to do. Admittedly, that determines my vote sometimes. However, the most ideal situation is when I find a candidate that I can actually support. This doesn't mean that I agree with them on everything. I have never found a candidate that meets that criteria. That is why I will be voting for Evan McMullin in November. Hearing him speak once was enough to catch my attention as a candidate for public office. However, I like to research further into candidates and their campaigns, like every citizen should. ...

Dear Reader, If you are a citizen of the United States of America or have lived here for more than about a year, you know at something about how the current atmosphere of this year's presidential election. Leaving all the affairs behind of the two-party system, this year we need options more than ever. We have them. I decided that if nothing is done, the country is going to have a miserable time.  Your vote counts. I don't care who you are or where you live. Your vote matters. It may not make a difference in final result of the electoral votes in your state, but your vote means more than that. Your vote is your voice. If you don't vote, you are using your voice to say that you are okay with the current state of the United States and its leaders. Your vote is your opinion of how you think the country should best be run and who should be doing it. We don't want either of the candidates in the two-party system running the affairs of the United States.  #Vot...