Music and Lyrics

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, 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,  I did. A couple of weeks ago I popped the big question to the lovely, talented and lovable Lauren Busath. The day was not as eventful as most engagements, but I thought it was perfect for us. We are very excited to be getting sealed in the Bountiful Temple in August! In celebration of the recent events, here the story. However, we wanted to get both sides. Everything in bold is Lauren's writing. Everything else is me.  Now, Lauren and I have dated twice...once back in 2012-2013 for a few months before she left on a full-time mission and now. We went on our "first date" in February of this year and had such a great time. I felt as though we hadn't skipped a beat since the last time we had been out. So, come the beginning of May, I was head over heels for her already. We had already been to my sister's wedding together and we were doing pretty much everything together. Thus, the engagement was not a foreign concept.  After dating only three shor...

Dear Reader, Last weekend I had the great opportunity to fly out to Pennsylvania and spend quality time with Lauren's family and their ward. Having spend most of my time in the Utah bubble, it had slipped my mind how different another place can be, even if it is in the same country. It was a lovely experience because of these differences. I wanted to note a couple of the biggest differences that made me analyze my life a bit. First off, I noticed that everything in the area we were in was "far away" from the next thing because of the difference in roads. Here in Utah it is custom to drive quickly on the freeway from place to  place and go fast with speeds upwards of 80 mph (Note that the speed limit is only 70 mph in most places...just talking about the culture). Of all the driving we did last weekend, I never saw a road that had a speed limit more than 55 mph. Everything is so far apart because the speeds are slower. If something is 20 minutes away in Utah, it's...

Dear Reader, A good portion of my female friends and acquaintances love country music. It is something perplexing to me, but it has never been a problem. Two of my closest friends at the moment listen to country music almost daily, especially Keith Urban and Toby Keith. This fascination with cowboys became apparent to me when my best friend and I were cowboys for a day back in 2007. Here is an article that recently came to my attention: " One girl gets exactly what she asks for. " Read the story. It is pretty entertaining. Now, let me share our side of the story. Mike and I grew up together and we had just become part of the same priest's quorum in 2007. We were always being told to be our best selves and serve others. Little did we know that would include a random cowboy day on Christmas Eve. Our young men's leader asked us one day if we wanted to help out in giving a Christmas present. We of course agreed, allowing him to explain the situation. He told us a...

Dear Reader, After talking with a friend of mine, I suddenly remembered some statistic I heard years ago that friendships lasting 7 years or more will be friendships for life. After researching and trying to find where the statistic came from, it seems that I slightly misinterpreted the idea. Of the articles about the subject, the Huffington Post  says that friendships have a high rate of decay which occurs around 7 years of friendship and Live Science  cites the same research that talks about a person's circle of friends being replaced every 7 years. These ideas seem slightly pessimistic to me, so I want to tell you that being friends for 7 years or more is really a blessing, rather than dwelling on how friendships don't last. Another article that popped up during the search for this 7-year statistic was an article about nurturing the friendships that already exist. The friendships that I have had for a long time are so great because we have seen each other grow and eve...

Dear Reader, I have been hiding something from you. It is a terrible thing for me to do considering that the thirteenth article of faith from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints states that  "if there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." What I have been keeping from you, loyal reader, is someone who fits all of the above categories. This lovely lady has been one of the biggest occupants of my time lately. Why? Because she is worth the time. Meet McKenzie. She is brilliant, beautiful and very athletic. We have been spending a lot of time together. I may like her...just a little bit. We have been dating for almost a month and the time is well spent. Our conversations are enlightening for both of us and almost always filled with laughter, too (mostly her laughing at how bad my dad jokes are). She is studying Statistics here at Brigham Young University, which she enjoys a lot. She tries to teach me a litt...

Dear Reader, In the Brigham Young University Chorale, we are singing a song entitled "Precious Lord, Take My Hand." It is a really cool a Capella arrangement that encompasses a plea to the Lord to help us through life. The line "When the Darkness Appears" took on a new light when I was thinking about an aspect of getting to know people. When the darkness appears, there are two things that happen: people open up about themselves more and they are more prone to do irrational things. I'll give a few examples to demonstrate (as always). I'll say again that people tend to open up more after dark. Take, for example, a girl that I took on a few dates a while back. We went out and did activities during the day. The dates were fun and we enjoyed talking to each other. However, I always felt there was something missing. My roommate suggested one evening that I take her out to something after dark. That was the first time the idea popped into my head that people w...

Dear Reader, Today is the birthday of one of the greatest people I know. Here is a list of things that another friend wrote about her a couple of years ago: "The Greatest Person Is..... I'll give you some hints. She's a GIRL She makes delicious Ham Fried Rice She meets her commitments She's dependable She understands my humor She is easy going She is aware of others She makes life fun She is a hard worker She's ambitious She loves the Lord She's very service oriented She's really pretty She's chillaxed She makes me laugh She and I can talk about whatever I've almost killed her and she still loves me Any guesses yet?? She's pretty great....basically. She's MORGAN!!" That comes from another blog written about Morgan. I edited it just a little bit so all of those things apply to me, too. Hopefully she is having a grand time on her mission right now. She is serving the Lord full time in Mexico....

Dear Reader, Have you ever heard the song "Letter to Me" by Brad Paisley? It elaborates on an interesting idea of writing to a younger version of himself. What would you write to yourself at a younger age? I have often thought about time travel and changing the past and have discovered a few things. First of all, if something in the past is changed, the entire future is altered. For example, if you write a letter to yourself at the age of 18 with instructions to not participate in a certain activity, your memory of that activity is erased and the opportunities and lessons learned from the experience are lost, perhaps never to be returned. That means that if it were possible to change the past, you could only change one thing about it. If you want to know more about this concept, I suggest that you watch the Back to the Future trilogy (1985). However, if we ignore this first discovery, it is fun to think about what might have been if we did things differently. How would ...

Dear Reader, Happy Birthday to one of my best friends! Ok, it was his birthday yesterday and I was incredibly busy all day, but he is very important so he still needs recognition. Tyler, my roommate for over a year now, is one of my best friends and we will be friends for life. It is pretty incredible how similar our opinions are on different topics of life. Let me tell you a little about how marvelous Tyler is. We have lived together for over a year and have never had a serious fight. Obviously we have had disagreements, but Tyler is so relaxed and easy-going that we have never even come close to being mad at each other. That takes talent when living with me. Tyler is also one of the smartest people I have ever met, both in books smarts and street smarts. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Neuroscience. He is amazing with numbers. For heaven's sake, we discuss GMAT math questions together. Pretty cool, right? He is also very wise when it comes to ...

Dear Reader, I apologize for not writing in awhile. I can give a million excuses, but there is a great explanation of excuses. Someone once said that excuses are like armpits; everyone has at least a couple and they all stink. In other words, you don't really want to share them. However, there will be at least one reason for being so busy mentioned here. Her name is Lauren. Isn't she gorgeous? Today we celebrate Lauren. It is her birthday! We won't disclose how old she is today...just another year older and wiser. That phrase is not just a cliche this time. I happen to know that she has become another year older and wiser. As one of my best friends, we have learned a lot about one another and even more about ourselves.  For your information as a reader, I will share a little about why Lauren is amazing. Lauren can make anyone smile. I'm not joking. Every person I have ever seen her talk to has smiled at one point or another during their time together. Alway...

Dear Reader, My girlfriend's head is on my shoulder. It hurts her face because my shoulder is bony. She does not like it much when her face hurts. The end. Feel enlightened. Ok, that was not really the end. That is just what Lauren wanted to input about my blog. This is the first time she has really seen my blog at all. She has yet to see any of the posts. Unless she stalked me, found it and read it without me knowing. I wouldn't mind that. She knows basically everything about me anyway. This is one of the few things she hasn't seen, but it is nothing of extreme consequence. It is more of an added bonus. As the title suggests, she is very attractive: physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and whatever other -lly words you can think of. I love her a lot. Tonight she showed how awesome she is by bringing me some milk after she ended her shift at work. That may not seem like a lot, but it is very significant. She also dances with me. Again, not a huge deal, but I...

Dear Reader, Ok, I have no been very diligent in giving incredible insights or updates from my life recently. I know excuses are like armpits (everybody has a couple and they all stink), but I think the few updates I'll give today will give a good idea of why I have been very busy. There is reason #1. Ok, probably reasons #2-7, as well. We have been busy going on scavenger hunts, baking cookies, watching movies and going on adventures (She won't ever admit it, but she thought my scavenger hunt was pretty lame). Lauren and I have so much fun together. She may or may not kill me for posting the picture above and talking so much about her, but there has to be a full explanation for not having a lot of time. That time has been well-used, however.  The song title for today? Well, that comes from her. It's that one thing that is inexplicable when you love someone. That one thing is the perfect combination of the little things. As Alma says in the Book of Mormon, ...

Dear Reader, Just as the title suggests, I have not forgotten about you. I have just been extremely busy, thus leading to a slow increase in number of days between posts about my life. However, I write to you today just to let you know that not a whole lot has happened in my life recently. Oh, except this: MY BEST FRIEND RECEIVED A MISSION CALL TO SERVE IN MEXICO! Yeah, I'm pretty excited about that. I hope my besties give me a copy of the video they made of my reaction to her call. My mind was blown! For some reason I thought she had told me she wasn't considering a full-time mission, so I was thinking she would just come back to school in the fall. That wasn't her plan at all! I'm so glad that she has made this decision to serve the Lord full time and help others find the joy that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So, that's my life right now. My best friend is going on a mission and I'm working all the time. My life is pretty exciting, right? Th...