Music and Lyrics

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, 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, 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 wise man once said, "Strangers are just friends that you haven't met yet." Don't ask me who that wise man was, because I have no idea. It could have been a woman. The important thing is the wisdom of these words. There is an interesting translation between Spanish and English. The verb 'conocer' is usually translated as 'to meet' or 'to know.' However, it is more accurate translate 'conocer' as 'to be familiar with' due to confusion with another verb ('saber') in some cases. I think my relationship with my family is very closely depicted by the differences in this translation. You see, I "met" my family when I was born, right? However, due to age differences and my constant attention to friends and extracurricular activities during jr. high and high school, I 'was not familiar' with my family. I 'knew' my family, yes. That is the difference. Fast forward to a time when I ...

Dear Reader, Today's lyrics come from a song we learned in Elementary school during Halloween. Ever since I can remember, my feelings have been mixed about the holiday that supposedly has to do with death and darkness. However, this year my opinion of Halloween has become more solid. We will see this through a few pictures from the past couple of days. First, on the right, we have Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.  I kid you not, she was reading a book as she was walking across campus. Granted, she was actually studying for a test, but it was very appropriate to see her walking around just like the movie "with her nose stuck in a book." (If memory serves correctly, the book was something about anatomy or physiology). Where else would Belle work  other than a library? Who else did I also run into? Well, check for Belle again! This time she was dressed formally for work. Where does Belle work? In the library, of course! She was very accommodati...

Dear Reader, Today marks a very important celebration for everyone on earth. Twenty years ago today, President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stood in a General Relief Society meeting and read aloud " The Family: A Proclamation to the World. " This document has so much substance and inspiration. In honor of this anniversary and also of the family, I wanted to share with you what I know about "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." Firstly, the title itself is very direct and has several underlying messages. Since the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there have been 4 official declarations or proclamations made by apostles and prophets. While normally declarations such these are directed at the members of the church for their improvement. However, "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" is exactly that; it is a proclamation to the world . The truth contained in this document i...

Dear Reader, I ran into Cosmo on the first day of classes. Yes, it's Saturday. Sue me. It just seems like a good idea today to give a quick little update on my life, especially since we are concluding the first week of classes at Brigham Young University. It has been a fun-filled week and it may be on the list of most productive weeks in my life. Whether or not it is actually on that list, I feel fulfilled this week. The Lord has definitely helped get everything done and keep up with my schedule. So, without further delay, here is a summary of the week in no particular order. Classes started! Yay for being back on campus all the time! One of the biggest changes is going from seeing only people in my ward to seeing basically everyone I know on BYU campus. I kid you not: I ran into dozens of people I had not seen for 5 months or more this week. Some had come back from missions, others had transferred to BYU from other schools and still others popped out of the woodwork to ha...

Dear Reader, For those of you who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, participating in music is probably at least a weekly occurrence, if not more often. For those of you who are not members of the Church, you probably already know that every week during church meetings, there are always hymns and music being produced by the members. We sing hymns in sacrament meeting, sometimes in other Sunday meetings and put together special musical numbers for special events like ward parties. With all this live/untouched music, a question came to mind: why does the church not switch to using recordings of all the hymns in sacrament meeting or other common church events? One of my favorite songs when I was growing up Considering the secular side of music, why is it that we long to hear our favorite bands in person? Why do we jam stadiums, crowd clubs and book live wedding music? The answer, my friend, is divine. Music is a source of creativity. Music re...

Dear Reader, Temples are amazing. They are the only place where a man and a woman can be sealed together forever by the power of the priesthood. I was able to witness this firsthand on Saturday when my roommate and his wife knelt across the alter in the Timpanogos Temple as they were sealed for eternity. There was so much happiness in that sealing room during the ceremony. As the couple walked in, there was a huge smile on both their faces. Jacob (My roommate) and I have known each other for a long time. I was actually on his first date with McKay (his wife). Don't worry; it was a double date. That night as we were talking about dating and what we liked about the date that day I told him, "I like you two. There is a good feeling about her." Sure enough, just over 5 months later they are now sealed for all eternity through and by the power of the priesthood. Of course we also enjoyed their reception later that night, but I was enjoying the fact that they are perf...

Dear Reader, Disney's Enchanted film has a good amount of good music, including the song that contains today's post title, "How Does She Know?' The majority of this movie is spent on the development of a love story between a single father and a fairy-tale princess who is lost in the real world. The princess, of course, knows everything there is to know about showing someone how you love them. What I want to share with you is a little about the 5 Love Languages (A book by Gary D. Chapman ) and how it corresponds with this song and our Heavenly Father. Does that not make sense? Don't worry, it will. First I'll tell you about the different lines of the song that explain each love language. If you have not seen this movie, watch this clip to hear the song and marvel at the musical brilliance of the composer. 1. "Does he take you out dancing just he can hold you close?"  This is a perfect example of the physical touch love language. Having some...

Dear Reader, I have never lost anyone terribly close to me. However, several conversations and recent events have made me think a lot about death and what happens afterward. I have always understood the basics of what happens after we die; we go to either spirit paradise or spirit prison (Read more about that here ) and then we will eventually be judged and put into different kingdoms of glory . Here on earth we have a lot of power to choose where we end up, based on our actions and whether or not we are sealed to our families through the power of the priesthood. With all that information in mind, I have been thinking about how to live life. Sometimes my friends think I'm kind of cold-hearted because my emotions do not tend to get out of control when thinking about death and losing loved ones. I prefer to think that it is because of an understanding of this plan that God has for us. Knowing what is going to happen, death and losing people seems more like saying, "Hey, se...

Dear Reader, The Lord has given each one of us many opportunities, including the time we have in this life. Yesterday in fast and testimony meeting, a young man talked about his experience with tithing in relation to his time. He explained that many people see miracles when they pay their tithing because they are in a situation where they cannot pay their tithing and pay for something else that is really important. These miracles usually occur when the person decides to pay their tithing first. Somehow there is enough for the other things they needed to pay for as well. He took that principle and explained it from a standpoint of the time we have. Just so we are on the same page, the Lord has given a commandment to pay an honest tithe. In other words, one commandment that we have in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints is to give one tenth of our annual income to the church for many different things. This young man from yesterday went a little bit into paying tithing...

Dear Reader, Please have snow and mistletoe. Emphasis on the snow. There is certainly a special feeling being around loved ones for the holidays. Today my family and I had an early Christmas Eve party. It is a little difficult to plan logistics when two siblings are married with kids while two others are living away from home. Thus, we have started a new tradition. Cool story, right? The Lundstrom Family, Thanksgiving 2014 My feelings towards the holidays have been pretty different than they have in the past. I hear stories about friends traveling home for Christmas break. Some of them travel to the east coast, others to California, etc. It has come to my attention this year more than others that some college students don't see their families during months because of the distance from home. It has definitely helped me appreciate the time with my family more. I also appreciate my other "family," or the people who are not literally related, but we are very close.  ...

Dear Reader, 3.141592...These are the numbers that begin pi. Here is one of the most random things you will ever learn about Dale. I love numbers. The title for today's post actually comes from a song when I heard when I was in third grade. You may be able to find a recording of it somewhere online, but it would be a arduous search, because the song I heard was sung by a guy who came to our elementary school to teach us about math during an assembly. The song used the numbers to create a melody based on the corresponding intervals. For example, in a C Major scale, pi would correlate as follows: 3=E . 1=C 4=F 1=C 5=G 9=D 2=D Anyway, that is just a small sample of weird things that numbers do in my head. The real purpose of today's post is to record one of my favorite conversations with my Dad. He and I began to argue one day about the numbers 2 and 3 . We quickly decided that 3 is by far the more significant number. We decided that because there are many occurrences of t...

Dear Reader, I am thankful for my siblings.  Happy Thanksgiving to you! Today's topic line comes from a song entitled "Don't Write Me Off" in a film that you will have to guess. I'll help you, though. The movie is about a singer who tries to revive his career after more than a decade by singing with a rising pop star. While working with her, he meets a girl who has a gift with words and becomes his lyricist. Like any other Romance, he messes up and the girl runs off. In an effort to win back her trust, he writes the song containing today's title. I imagine that the guy (played by Hugh Grant), felt very similar to how I have felt this week. There are several reasons I have felt the need to tell people not to write me off this week. We will start off by reviewing my first week back at work. I started working at The Western Nut Company , just like a couple of years ago. Although I have picked up quickly on things that I remember, there is still...

Dear Reader, When looking my Facebook timeline or at my twitter account, you can see that I haven't uploaded nearly as many pictures in the past couple of weeks as were posted during my first couple of weeks here in Spain. I have had an epiphany in the past week or so. To me it seems that the internet, selfies, videos, links, etc, are all meant for one thing: to share an experience with someone or multiple people who were not present for the original experience. The thought came to mind that the pictures I have posted have the purpose of sharing my great experiences with you, my friend. They say a picture says a thousand words. This is true. However, there is much more than that. For example, you can see that we are happy and enjoying ourselves in this picture in front of the great city of Toledo. However, I discovered that, unless you were there with us, you do not fully appreciate the view that was behind us. You do not fully appreciate that Liz has a fantastic smile de...

Dear Reader,  I wanted to invite someone else to share their thoughts on the blog. So, here is a little something from my sister, Cami. It is an unedited address to BYU/College students everywhere.  So Dale asked me to write a blog giving advice to BYU students. Because, let's face it, you guys are totally lost and confused and you need it. And I am a big guru. I know because I went to BYU, didn't die, and graduated. So you all should be clamoring for my knowledge. Okay, so in all honesty, I don't know how I feel about giving advice to perfect strangers on the internet. Sometimes I read articles that are really heartwarming and helpful, but a lot of them seem to be general platitudes and cheerleader advice that make my inner cynic want to die a little. Not exactly my style. I could fake it, though. Aw, shucks, you go to BYU! Magical school of wonder! It will be the best and worst years of your life. Go for your dreams. Find yourself. Find your magical spouse of wonder. ...