Conclusion

To conclude my blog this semester, I will talk about what I have learned. I have enjoyed this class for many reasons. I have made good friends and had fun experiences with them in and outside of class. We had some fun assignments like doing a review of the art museum and doing a restaurant review. There were some assignments that I didn't like doing at all like the research paper. I enjoyed the personal narrative because I feel like I do better at that genre than any other genre because I get to be fictionally creative. I really liked how we learned about how to show and not tell in our papers (as you could have seen from my oral presentation) and overall, despite the really hard papers and research we had to do, I looked forward to this class and it was a good experience.

3D Graphic Design

I am in a 3D graphic design class where we use a computer program called Maya. It is a really fun class where we get to learn all the tips and tricks about animation. The BYU Animation program is a really great program to go into. It is really hard to get into, but if you can get in then you will have a very good chance to work for someone like Disney or Pixar.

I have been in this class for a couple weeks now (it was just a term class) and before it started I had no idea how to use any sort of computer program to design things graphically but one of our assignments was to make a LEGO man in three weeks. This is what I have done.

I think it's pretty darn cool what I was able to accomplish in just three weeks.

S.E.I.Z.E.

Now the moment that we have all been waiting for! What does S.E.I.Z.E. actually stand for?? Well let me ease that burden placed upon your shoulders. The 'S' in S.E.I.Z.E. stands for Seize! Can you believe that? I know! It is quite a wonder.

Now, you might be a bit disappointed because you might be assuming that 'E' stands for Eize and the 'I' stands for Ize et cetera, however I am here to tell you, my avid readers, that that is NOT the case! Don't be disappointed!

The 'E' doesn't stand for Eize (luckily) but it stands for Eggs! Never forget that it stands for Eggs, for if you do, then Shawn Spencer and his trusty partner Lavender Gooms will be after y'all. And believe me, you don't want that.

Aren't they beautiful?

I know, I know. You are anxious as to know what the 'I' stands for. Never fear! Well...I don't know...

Umm...moving on! 'Z' stands for the only thing that a 'z' could stand for! And that is Zebras! They are such adorable little animals that love to prance and dance around the plains of wherever plains are in the world. Prolly Africa.

To finish off this wonderful night, I will reveal to you the fifth and final letter of the most wonderful acronym this world has ever seen or heard! The final 'E' stands for the Eighties! What was wrong with the Eighties? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Okay, maybe a few things, but that isn't the point! The Eighties were wonderful times and it's a pity I wasn't around to see the ones in the 1900s. Maybe I'll live for the 2080s. That would be pretty sick.

Now that you know what all five letters stand for, you just might win a T.V. show trivia question.

#psych4life #carpediem

Blessed Are We

    We are all blessed in more ways than we can count. God blesses us more than we deserve even though we try to do all we can to deserve them. We never really deserve all the blessings we receive from Him, but He blesses us anyway because we do try. That’s what He wants; that we try. 1 Nephi 13:37 talks about how “blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day…”. While serving a mission, I came across this passage and it struck me a lot so I’ll talk about how blessed we are, how we must endure to the end to be lifted up at the last day and how beautiful upon the mountains we will be if we will do these things.

    In Doctrine and Covenants 130 we read that “there is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated-”. In order to understand the scripture in 1 Nephi, we must delve into the others to find more meaning. To me, the promise in 1 Nephi about being blessed for seeking to bring forth Zion is so true. For every little thing that we do in this life to bring forth Zion we will be blessed. God promises such and I have full trust in His promises. No matter how big or small that act of “seeking” is, we will be blessed, which, in turn, helps us have the strength to endure to the end.

    Enduring to the end is hard. No one has ever said that it is easy and I have come to find, in my short life of 20 years, that it is not easy. I had to endure to the end on my mission even when it was super hard. I was seeking and seeking to bring people unto God and to build up His Zion. I endured many hardships and it was all thanks to the blessings of God that I was able to get through it all. I know, because of this scripture, that I shall be lifted up at the last day. Certainly, I must continue and seek, however I know I will so I know and can have comfort in the blessing of God that “if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb;”. If we all continue to publish this peace of which is spoken in this verse, we will find these blessings poured out upon us.

#blessed

    We are blessed when we seek to bring forth His Zion in these days. We will have the Holy Ghost to be with us as we seek. When we do these things, God will bless us which will help us seek even more. I really like how God blesses us for being good which helps us be more good. How great of influence will we become when we endure faithfully and publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy!

Suppose Not That Wickedness Was Happiness

            Wickedness and happiness both exist in this world. If there wasn’t wickedness, then we couldn’t ever be happy. God is all-knowing and that is why He made it part of His plan to let us feel the sadness and the sorrow that comes from making bad decisions. The scriptures say that we can’t be happy without feeling sad, so glory be to God for loving us enough to let us be hurt. Alma teaches us, while speaking to his son, that wickedness never was happiness. He also references the restoration of all things in that everything will be restored to its state whether it be good or whether it be evil.

            Lots of things can happen in life, good and bad. No matter what we do in this life, we will always make mistakes and end up being sad on one degree or another. If we don’t know God and His teachings, there is still the Light of Christ, with which we are all born, to help us realize the truth from error. We can destroy that light inside of us by making too many bad choices and so it will be harder to recognize the hand of God and His atonement in our lives. The scripture says “wickedness never was happiness.” I know that it’s true because, having been on a mission, I have seen lots of people as they don’t keep the commandments of God and I have seen how sad they truly are. They don’t have a lot of hope and that is one of the things that we all need in this life to keep us happy. Another reason I know it is because I have seen the difference when I make mistakes as opposed to when I choose the right. Regardless of whether we have bad things happen to us or not, we can still choose to be happy by being righteous.

You go sistas!

            The time of the restoration of all things will be a glorious time. Good will be restored to good and evil to evil. Like Alma teaches us, “Do not suppose…that ye will be restored from sin to happiness.” We are all going to make mistakes but that doesn’t make us evil. We must repent and become good again so that in the time of the resurrection, we can be restored to good. We can’t think that we will just repent when we die, which is why our desires and actions need to be good. They need to be this way so that we will be restored to good instead of bad because wickedness never was happiness.

            Even though it is difficult to be good all the time, we still need to remember the Lord our God and His eternal mercy. We can become good and when we are good, we will be restored to good. Happiness will abound and wickedness will be afar off.

Quidditch Through The Ages ©

Q: Quick
U: Underestimated
I: Indescribable (other than this post)
D: Dang cool
D: Dangerous
I: Incredible
T: Tough (you gotta be tough)
C: Catch that Snitch!
H: Happiest moments ever

That's me. Number 102. #quidditch

There aren't that many things that can give you as much joy as playing the game of all games. Yeah, that's right. The Q to the U to the I to the double D I T C to the H. It's the best sport in the world and makes me really happy.

We read in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 2:25 that Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy. Some might think that that would mean children or righteous Gospel living. Others would say it is playing Quidditch. I say that it is both!  God made us differently and that is what is so fun! The sport would be pretty boring if everyone was as good as me (Insert winky face here).

This is a shout-out to all you Quidditch players out there! The world wouldn't be the same without you! We are in your debt! Brooms up!

PS Come learn how to play Saturday mornings at 10 am in the morning ;) at Kiwanis Park in Provo. Here is the information.

Heart!

Rock of Our Redeemer

“They cannot fall.” That is the promise from the Lord to those who build their rock upon the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. A long time ago, there was a man who wanted the best for his family and he did everything that he could to make his family happy. He worked hard, made a lot of money, and took his family all over the world. They thought they were happy. Hard times came and the father’s business crashed hard. He lost a lot of money and was not able to make his family happy in the way that he thought he should. One day, while he was struggling under the pressure of providing for his family, he felt something inside. Something that all of have inside. The light of Christ. He remembered his childhood how his parents took him to church and how they taught him to pray. He recalled the feelings he had experienced during those moments and thought to try again. He prayed for the first time in a long time. Something indescribable filled his soul and he knew that it was of God. He started to build his life upon the rock of His redeemer, who is Christ. Day after day, he struggled through life, now teaching his children to obey God and to build their lives on His teachings. They were happier than they had ever been and it was because of what they were doing.

Jesus is amazing!

            The feelings experienced through that story is how I feel about the scriptural promise of Helaman 5:12. “…that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat up on you, it shall have ho power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall” is a scripture that really touches me. All of us go through hard trials and they usually aren’t the most fun thing in the world. I love to take comfort from the fact that the devil WILL send forth his mighty whirlwinds but that doesn’t mean we should just give up. Being built upon the rock of Christ will help us have the strength to carry on. I love the promise made at the end that if we are built upon Christ, we CANNOT fall. That is a sure statement and promise made by God, our Heavenly Father. We know that when He makes a promise, that promise is kept. If we do our part, He will do His.

Struggles of Life

Life is full of struggles. As a college student, I have lots of different things that I need to do. I must do homework for every single class which takes up a lot of my time. I rarely have time to do what I want to do. It's not healthy to always be doing school work. Luckily, I play sports so that gives me a couple hours to relax and not have that stress weighing on me.
I also have to go to work. I have my expenses and I need money to get through life. Work adds a lot to the level of stress that I have in my life. Usually it is nice to be able to focus on work, however it is when I am not working that the stress goes up because I think of the time I won't have to do my assignments.
Trying to juggle all the different aspects of life isn't an easy thing. We all go through tough times but it doesn't matter how many times we fall. It matters how many times we stand up again.