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What really matters?

Dear Readers,

Today has been an interesting day to say the least. First off, I had a pretty good morning because I woke up early and discovered that Church didn't start for another 3 or 4 hours. That was nice. Going to church was a little marginal today because My dad coaxed me into singing in Sacrament meeting. To be quite frank, I love religious/spiritual music and love performing/sharing it. Although, for some reason or another, singing in church has limited appeal. Don't ask me why, but I don't like doing it.

As for the rest of the day, I went to the farwell of a great friend of mine and whom I will miss dearly. After that, it was back to my ward to give a talk in a combined youth meeting dealing with Ward Conference. The topic was the theme for this year: Joshua 1:9. Now, I don't know if I was speaking in a foreign dialect or everyone was just tired today or what, but looking at my friends' faces while I spoke of strength and courage made me feel like a terrible stranger. Not to them, just to intelligence. Funny, you didn't think intelligence could be a stranger to someone, did you? I mean, what do we define intelligence as? Street smarts like my brother? Book smarts like my sisters? Based on my thoughts of total failure today and the past little while, it seems intelligence of any kind has been a stranger. How can it be that an idea can be so understood by one or more people until they talk about it, then it is suddenly the most complicated thing in the world?

Even now, I feel I'm bringing up confusing ideas, so I'll stop and let you ponder a little while. Here's wishing you a productive new year.

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