Music and Lyrics

Dear Readers, The first week of being in the MTC has been wonderful. However, one of our teachers very accurately described it as 'drinking from a firehose on full blast.' Lots has happened this week and hopefully I'll be able to remember it all and most in order. We've been very busy and I can't remember many details. After walking into the MTC, I shortly met up with my new Companion, Elder Palmer. He's from Blanding, Utah and loves being a rancher. All of his stories are exciting tales about roping steer and shooting prarie dogs. He's the oldest of 6 kids in his family. After meeting him, we met the rest of our district in our classroom that supposedly we will be spending almost all of the next 9 weeks in. Of the ten Elders in our district, 8 of us are going to Chile, Concepcion South. Elder Brown and Elder Francis, the other two, are heading off to the MTC in Guatemala in 3 weeks. We have bonded so well already. We continued in our classroom with Hermano(...

Dear Readers, Today is the day. I say see you later and leave you with my testimony. For those of you who came to the Garden Heights South Ward on Sunday, you will recognize what I think are the three basic points to any testimony. First, the Book of Mormon remains a true book today, just as much as when Joseph Smith Translated almost two hundred years ago. Second, Heavenly Father loves me, you and all of his children. He knows what you need and he will not leave you on your own. Lastly, Jesus Christ is our Brother and he lives today. He suffered the Atonement to understand what we have felt, what we are feeling and what we will feel later. I don't know if it's doctrine or not, but I believe that what we do to draw closer to him is our way of paying him back and try experiencing what he must feel in perfection. I love all of you and will see you in two. :)

Dear Readers, Yes, it was a party over at my house yesterday; complete with relatives, friends and neighbors. I love all of you so so so so so so so so so so much. I can't begin to tell you how much it meant to have all of you there yesterday. The last half of the title for today may or may not be true, but the tears I shed were probably happy. The day is finally here and I'm super-duper excited! :) I love my friends who stayed and talked with me and made some good times to go along with all the other times we've had. I'll probably write one last post tomorrow about some random thought on life in general, but as for this post, I'm writing to let you all know that this Blog will be comprised of my emails written to my parents for the next two years. Or letters. Or Postcards. So you'll hear from me periodically, if you are still reading my random ramblings still. ;) Again, I love you all! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I couldn't have gotten where I am witho...

Dear Readers, Ok...I fail. I couldn't think of a better song title than that for my experiences today. Actually, it's only for once experience: getting my hair cut. I apologize, for I am in no way trying to wash anything out of my hair except for maybe sweat or dirt. It might worry some of you if I actually was trying to wash a man out of my hair... Anyway, so I got my hair cut today. Yipee! It feels very nice to have shorter hair that looks somewhat good. Not to mention Sports Clips does a very good job of making you comfortable while cutting your hair and washing it. They are very nice down there and I'm very glad to have less hair. That's always a good thing for me. :)

Dear Readers, This day would make any future missionary better. This morning I got up early to go with the Missionaries to the Temple. Elder Gilmore, Elder Rohbock, Elder Antanazio and Elder Bills rode with me all over town afterward for shopping needs, but the temple was the best. Not only did we have a great Endowment Session, but we saw President Uchtdorf and shook hands with him! He and other Apostles were going into a Coucil Room in the temple, surrounded by Security of course. He saw our group along with all the other missionaries coming in and being stopped by the security, so he came over and commented on how great this group of missionaries looked. I felt a little bad because I'm not quite a missionary yet, but I don't think he minded. He made a point of shaking everyone's hand and talked to the Sister Missionaries a little bit about where they were from. A great way to start out the day, as my friend pointed out. It just goes to show that Temple attendance brings ...

Dear Readers, Last night was a wonderful night! Beyond belief! I went out with the Missionaries in our area and our evening went something like this: First we stopped off at the house of a Bishop in their area to see if they could meet with him. He wasn't home, but hopefully they'll catch up with him today after work. After that we proceeded over to the house of a woman who was recently baptized and who's teenage daughter is getting baptized soon. We had a great time talking about the differences between wards in Utah and other places while enjoying pizza and a wonderful little pumpkin spice drink that was delicious. One of the best parts of the night came at the next house where Ricardo and Sandy lived. They're a Catholic couple, but the most humble people you will ever meet. The father said that he's looking about religion mainly because he wants to follow Christ the best he can and he's talking to the missionaries to try and understand the dominant religion a...

Dear Readers, Weird choice of topics considering I blabbed all about music last time I wrote. Not to mention all the times before that when music was the main focus. The title is appropriate for today, however, because for the first time I can remember, there hasn't been music blaring in my head. I don't know if the effect appeals to me, to be honest. Today has been a day of a weird sort of emptiness because of that silence and it just seems to drag on. I need everything to just burst into to song so life feels normal. My apologies if this paints me in a bad mood, I'm not really. No mood seems to fit me right now. It's odd to feel something new and one has to try adjusting to it, whether good or bad(I really don't know which at the moment).

Dear Readers, Do you ever feel like singing, no matter what the song is? Just sing, whether it has words or not? Well, that brings up the song that gives us our title for the day. Voice Male came out with a CD entitled "Kid Stuff" with different songs that kids have sung or like to sing along with. One of the songs, obviously, has a chorus full of non-sense words and the verses are all about how you don't need words to sing. So, sing your heart out! Even if you don't know the words! Speaking of Voice Male, they are a great musical group. I love listening to them because they have such elaborate styles and voices of music that anyone will like at least one of their songs. They sing hymns in a way that makes you want to sing them. They sing party songs like "Celebration" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's." You can even find songs from Collin Raye that they sing very well. Go look them up. They have at least 7 albums that you might like. The best part a...

Dear Readers, That title has many, many meanings/depths to it that I'm actually proud of myself for thinking of a song that fit what I was thinking. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, don't worry. Be Happy. :) Today I discovered that most of my muscle mass comes from helping my sister. She, living very near by where my parents' house stands, always calls for helping when moving things around her house or hefting things from the store. You may recall reading about when she bought a treadmill. Yeah, somewhere between 200 and 300 pounds of machinery she tries to spend time on every day. Today, I helped move a bunch of things out of her front room and second bedroom for two reasons. First, she had people coming over to hang out in her house. Second, she has a friend who is moving in with her soon. She had about 10 boxes of movies, dishes, books and decorations to move in addition to two desks that weighed about 50 lbs each. Yeah, my sister makes me buff. So...