Music and Lyrics

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, 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, 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, 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 Reader, Recently a friend of mine who works at the Missionary Training Center uploaded a picture to Facebook of all the name tags she has. Her tags were all related to work at the MTC whether as a missionary or as an employee in several different departments. I had to laugh because I have worked with her on several of the jobs or seen her while working those jobs. I also laughed because I have just as many name tags from the MTC. My affinity toward missionary culture started while I was really young, according to my parents. My dad was ward mission leader in the church congregation we attended while living in Boston. Due to his calling, we had regular contact with the elders. My mom fed them dinner regularly and as a result, I was constantly surrounded by missionaries who would wrestle with me, tease me and teach me. This connection with these young men was apparently a very important part of my life. According to my mother there was a dramatic change in my attitude when we...

Dear Reader, My deepest apologies for not writing the past month. It has been one full of adventures! Although, I think the Lord is putting us through some trial by fire! Don't worry, we are alright and everything is going forward. There have just been some learning experiences/hiccups along the way. They were all good for us, though. It has been quite the experience, really. Let's talk about what we have learned. First of all, cars are an expensive blessing to have. We have an awesome story for that which involves keys, accidents and repairs. So, we took a trip to Idaho in July to be with family. One of the days we spent there was at Bear Lake. Just as we were packing up our belonging and getting ready to leave, Lauren realized she didn't have the key to our car...whoops. The family started combing the beach and sand looking for the key, but we decided that it was lost to the elements. Lesson learned: don't take Lauren's keys off of her lanyard. Blessing: fami...

Dear Reader, I have resisted posting something so direct because my faith in the political process had not yet disappeared completely. However, based on recent events, I can no longer stay silent. For those of who know me, I don't like to involve myself heavily in political debates. Today's writing goes against that normalcy; the arguments made herein are researched and I will debate the subject.  My friend Kevin Burningham posted the following essay online. Although I cannot fully agree with the assumptions made in the first paragraph, everything else is exactly what has been going through my mind about the 2016 presidential election. I fully agree that Donald J. Trump is not fit to be President of the United States of America. I have put in bold several key points. " To my beloved LDS friends and family, Though our church emphatically defends its political neutrality, I know that most of you are conservative, due to most of you being from the Mountain West, and th...

Dear Reader, I apologize for the hiatus from writing. 'Tis an unhealthy relationship which doth not have at least a weekly contact (Actually, according to Preach My Gospel , you should have daily contact with important people). But alas, I digress. Our purpose today is to explore the question that came to mind while watching the 186th General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this past weekend. I'll have to look at my notes to see exactly when this question came to mind, "What is the difference between authority and power ?" Image via  ldsmissionaries.com  (Original Source: www.missiongeek.net ) Through many years of teaching about the restoration of God's priesthood, I have used those two words almost interchangeably. However, my ways have been erroneous. You see, power and authority are used all the time within the church. It is taught that the authority of God is given through his priesthood power. Kind of ambiguous, right?...

Dear Reader, Yes, this blog is not very popular. Yes, this is a political post. Yes, I know nothing about politics. However, I have been watching several of the political debates (In an attempt to be an informed citizen) and the most preoccupying aspect of the 2016 presidential race is the countenance of the candidates. Again, my knowledge of politics is very limited and it is most likely that I am missing something, but my thoughts must be put out there. At this point I do not formally endorse nor belittle any of the current candidates. Rather than a description of his/her policies, this is a description of what I believe a president should be like in character. Truth be told, I didn't know how to put my thoughts into words until our Family Home Evening activity tonight. Every Monday our apartment gets together with another apartment in the ward for some kind of activity. To start the activity, there is always a spiritual thought given, based on what a person has read in the ...

Dear Reader, An epiphany in Church the other day. While pondering what makes good leaders and what they do, it suddenly became clear that the most successful leaders all have something in common in their speech. All good leaders tend to say "we" and "us" instead of "I" and "me." This concept first came to my attention years ago while I was reading a book of leadership quotes. The quotes were principally centered around the fact that a leader doesn't tell people what to do without actually trying himself. Thinking about teachers, we ask them for their help because they have done the thing they are expert in, right? Well, this epiphany from Sunday put a new spin on that idea: good leaders say "we" and "us" not only because they are relying on the efforts of the team, but because they know they are not alone. I believe that the majority of good leaders know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are with them. When tho...

Dear Reader, Imagine driving down the freeway in fog that limits your vision to about 200 feet in front of you. Despite how many times you have flown down this part of the interstate highway, it is difficult to determine exactly where you are especially because the signs glance by right as you pass them. This was a reality for me this morning as my friends and I organized a caravan to a ward in Salt Lake City to listen to a talk given by another of our friends. The 10 of us jumped into to two cars and took off from Provo into the thickest fog I have ever seen in the valley.  Being the optimist, I found excitement in the new experience despite how potentially dangerous the journey could be. As I drove, it was kind of weird the different Gospel parallels that came to mind as we went through the hazy lack of vision. First came the comparison between the lead car and prophets. Obviously this is the Gospel according to Dale, but I imagine that the prophets often times know where...

Dear Reader, Deck the halls with lots of students! Fa la la la la, la la la...way too many students. Here is your fun fact for the day: the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University becomes one of the busiest places in Utah during December. Students at the University are studying for finals, meeting up with their groups for the final projects and getting those last minute tips from their tutors. They are all in the library. Today I could not find a spot to sit! There is no need to fear, faithful reader. The floor can be a great place to write, as long as there is a wifi connection that provides communication with you. I realized that this Blog was visited for the 8000th time this week. What a great Christmas present! Thanks to my mom for the 7999 visits! Thank you, dear reader, for the 8000th. I figured that between this milestone and the Christmas season, today is a good day to share my view on Christmas and the reason for the season. So go ahead students, take a break fr...

Dear Reader, Photo Courtesy of thedailysheeple.com . The lyrics from today's title comes from the uplifting film/Broadway Production Newsies . The story deals a lot with people fighting for a cause and the main characters sometimes get involved with the law. One question that keeps arising as the story unfolds is, "How is that fair?" As this week has gone by, I have thought a little about what how the law works and what we should do about it. Thus, my question to you is this: what is justice? It is an abstract concept.  Miriam Webster's dictionary defines justice in several different ways. One of the most prevalent meanings is "the administration of law;  especially the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or equity." Although, another definition listed on the same page defines justice as the conformity to truth, fact or reason.  Based on that, I would really like to know what you think about justice i...

Dear Reader, Today I attended the Brigham Young University Campus Devotional at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. The speaker was Brother Hilton of the Statistics department at BYU, who gave a great talk about trials and letting our light shine. The main idea I want to share about what he said stems from the scripture in Matthew 11:28-30 .  " Come   unto me, all   ye   that   labour   and are heavy laden, and I will give you   rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke   is   easy, and my burden is light." The idea Brother Hilton shared that the reference to 'light' should be considered as a noun. Most of my life I have always thought of 'light' as an adjective, meaning that it is not heavy or burdening. In other words, I thought that scripture meant that taking the yoke of Christ u...