I just wanted to put together a special post of my favorite songs and quotes about the Savior for Easter. Whether you celebrate the religious aspects of the holiday or if your observances are more of a secular nature, I hope that you'll find peace and joy during this time. It's just as important - if not moreso - than Christmas. Without Easter, there would be no reason to celebrate Christmas.
It's probably just because I've been dealing with Life Stuff lately, but all these things have a special meaning for me. All of these things combine to make up my testimony of the Savior. I share it in hopes that it will help someone who's having a hard time or just wants to feel God's love. Either way, I wish everyone a happy Easter!
11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. (Alma 7:11-12)
"Whatever your struggle, my brothers and sisters—mental or emotional or physical or otherwise—do not vote against the preciousness of life by ending it! Trust in God. Hold on in His love. Know that one day the dawn will break brightly and all shadows of mortality will flee. Though we may feel we are “like a broken vessel,” as the Psalmist says, we must remember, that vessel is in the hands of the divine potter. Broken minds can be healed just the way broken bones and broken hearts are healed. While God is at work making those repairs, the rest of us can help by being merciful, nonjudgmental, and kind.
I testify of the holy Resurrection, that unspeakable cornerstone gift in the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ! With the Apostle Paul, I testify that that which was sown in corruption will one day be raised in incorruption and that which was sown in weakness will ultimately be raised in power." - from "Like a Broken Vessel" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
"As we rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, He can help us endure our trials, sicknesses, and pain. We can be filled with joy, peace, and consolation. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ." from Preach My Gospel Lesson 2: The Plan of Salvation
26 And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness; 27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. (Ether 12:26-27)
"If there had been no fall of Adam, by which cometh death, there could have been no atonement of Christ, by which cometh life.
"And now, as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God—I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, and as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person.
"I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.
"But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way.
"God grant that all of us may walk in the light as God our Father is in the light so that, according to the promises, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son will cleanse us from all sin." - from "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane" by Elder Bruce R. McConkie
5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. (Matthew 28:5-6)
15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. (John 20:15-16)
Well, folks - the end is near. Or, at least nearer than it was 24 hours ago. Sparklepirepalooza* Part IV has hit theaters and everyone - Twihards and Twi-haters alike - felt it.
I make no secret that I fall into the Twi-hate camp (though with less ferocity than most). I have no desire to see "Breaking Dawn." I did watch the trailer mostly because of my own sick curiosity and also that I am glutton for punishment (the above video is not that trailer. This video is so much better). The whole trailer revolves around Bella and Edward's wedding and honeymoon. Honestly, both Bella and Edward look about as excited about their impending marriage as I would be about seeing this movie (as in "Please don't make me do this! Please! Please! Pleeeeease!!)
But something has bothered me excessively about the Twilight franchise. Not just Edward's stalkery, controlling and abusive tendencies toward Bella. Not Jacob's character derailment just for the sake of having a cheap love triangle. Not even the *shudder* imprinting of Renesmee (and don't even get me started on that creature OR her weirdo name. Holy crap - WHY?) All of these things have been documented extensively by Cleolinda, Mark Reads Twilight and Reasoning With Vampires and a whole host of other blogs. While these are brimming with snark, none of them have really hit on the thing that truly, truly bothers me about this series. And now is a good a time as any to explain exactly why I hate it. My hope is that, after today, I won't have to mention it on this blog again.
It is well known that Stephenie Meyer is LDS (or Mormon, if you prefer). In the interest of full disclosure, I am LDS too. At first, I was excited about a fellow member of the LDS Church writing a popular fantasy series and be in the public mind because that would somehow work towards showing the world that, hey, we aren't as weird as you think we are. Then I read the books. And, not for the first time, I realized just why people think we're so weird (Dear World, I implore you - Please don't judge us all by Stephenie Meyer! If you want a good fantasy author that happens to be LDS, I suggest Shannon Hale, Brandon Sanderson, Jessica Day George and Ally Condie. Just for starters).
I will admit - I got caught up in the Twilight craze a bit. I read the first three books shortly before I left to serve an LDS mission in Florida and I really didn't have time to critique them with a discerning eye. I just wrote it off as a silly vampire romance for squealy teenage girls and there wasn't much harm in it. Then I left for my mission and didn't think much about it for 18 months.
For those not familiar with the life of an LDS missionary, here's some basic facts - as a missionary, you don't watch TV, listen to the radio, read books or participate in any kind of entertainment not put out by the Church. You are there to teach people about the Church and you're 100% focused on that. You write home once a week and get to call home twice a year. It's intense and grueling and extremely hard, but you also experience so much growth and spiritual maturity, so that makes it worth it for a devout member of the Church. But you just don't know what's going on in popular culture unless someone tells you about it. And even then, you just don't care.
I tell you this to illustrate how I perceived Twilight. While I was a missionary, "Breaking Dawn" was released and the first movie came out and Twilight-a-palooza was at a fever pitch. People were also interested to know that Stephenie Meyer was LDS. Well, of course we missionaries are going to be excited about this! Any publicity that brings the Church into the public eye is a good thing - whether it's positive or negative - because that gets people asking questions and they often come to the missionaries to ask. And missionaries LOVE being asked honest questions rather than just being yelled at to "F-off" as we go down the road. Except until we came to the part where some girl squee-ing over Twilight asked me whether I was "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" - and I honestly had no idea what she was talking about. And no, she didn't want us to come teach her family about the gospel (sigh… onto the next house, I guess).
I returned home from my mission and could finally sit down and find out what the hoopla over Twilight was about. I watched the movie (it was crap, but most movies-from-books are), re-read the first three books (umm… okay, not the greatest) and finally read "Breaking Dawn."
And that, Dear Reader, is where I reached my breaking point (no pun intended). I still don't think I've recovered the brain cells that I lost.
It went further than crappy writing and a "What-the-Ever-Living-Hell-Was-That?" reaction. I realized how horrible Edward and Bella's relationship was and also how terrible Bella treated Jacob and how Jacob's character completely went off the rails. But worst of all - I realized that people (members of the Church included) found ways that Stephenie Meyer had supposedly incorporated Church doctrine into the narrative, mainly the doctrine of eternal marriage.
I can (almost) forgive all that other BS in these books. But when you sell a story that can be interpreted as a commentary for something I hold sacred and turn it into a pile of muck, I take issue with that. It's even worse when it's a member of the Church doing it because that just adds fuel to the argument that Mormons are these strange psycho freaks. Especially because there are legions of asswipes with an internet connection who don't need any excuse to take potshots at people's religious views (for the love of all that is good and decent, why are you giving them more ammunition? They don't need it!)
And it got worse - as I roamed around the internet and found reviews of Twilight (both professional and amateur), I felt even more sick as people took Bella and Edward's relationship and marriage as an excuse to malign the Church and its teachings. This is the reason I could not read through all the "Mark Reads Twilight" reviews - many of those posts were the most insulting and offensive things to me on a personal level. And the worst part is that Bella and Edward's marriage is NOT an eternal marriage. It's a gross mockery of the institution and I'm not happy that Stephenie Meyer wrote the books that way in the first place so that the movie producers could basically characterize it as True Blood for fourteen-year-olds (What else do you expect? It's vampires and teenagers - of course Hollywood's going to do that?)
I realize that not everyone believes the way I do and I don't expect them to. But I do expect people to get their facts straight - or at least make an effort to find out the truth from a reputable source (it's amazing how many people who hate the Church go anywhere except the official Church website - or even Church members - to get their facts and figures). Since there hasn't been a suitable response to the people who bring the Church into their Twilight bash-fests, this is my effort to set the record straight.
Topic #1 - Marriage and Family
The Church teaches that the family is the most important thing for anybody - whether you're a parent or a child (which, everyone is one or both of these). We are to work together as families to get through this life. Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained and instituted by God. When a marriage is performed in the temple by proper priesthood authority, a man and a woman can be sealed to each other for time and all eternity. Also, any children born to them will be sealed and they can be a family after this life. There's also provisions made for adoption and remarriage and things like that that I won't go into here. But that's the basic idea. The reason for all of this is that God is our Heavenly Father and He wants us to return to Him and we can only do that as we are sealed together as families.
The caveat to all this is that the promised blessings in the marriage ceremony - promises made in all the ordinances performed in the Church, actually - are dependant on how we as individuals live our lives. If we adhere to the commandments of God and keep our side of the promises, then God will bless us with what he's promised (most likely these blessings will come in the next life). Of course, you have people who don't live up to their end of the bargain and God will judge them accordingly.
Topic #2 - Free Agency (also - Right to Receive Personal Revelation)
Another a key component to God's plan for His children is the concept of free agency or free will. Everybody has the right to choose. In fact, that's what our purpose in life is - to make choices and to learn from those choices. Without freedom of choice, God's plan would be pretty pointless. We are here to learn what is right and what is wrong and the only way we learn from that is by experiencing consequences - which we do NOT get to choose. Also, we can counsel with God in our personal lives and have His input on how we make decisions, if we choose to include Him in the process. This is known as receiving personal revelation. Example - A few years ago when I was asked to serve as the president of the women's organization in my congregation, I was asked to pray about it before I said yes or no to the position. I was entitled to revelation from God about the matter (Spoilers - I did accept the position and served for about a year). Marriage especially is something we are counseled to pray about - if Person A says they had a dream or a vision or saw something in their morning toast that means they are supposed to marry Person B, Person B has the right to receive that same revelation. And if Person B doesn't get that revelation, they are well within their rights to tell Person A to shove off.
I bring these things up as they relate to Bella and Edward (and some of the other Twilight characters). Edward essentially strips Bella of her free will by using his "AMAZING SPARKLEPIRE* POWERS OF PERSUASION" to tell her that he is her One And Only True Love (sadly these things do happen in reality - in and out of the Church). And Bella is just dumb enough to fall for it (let's be somewhat fair here - Bella's not the poster child for fully-realized characterization, here). But Edward is a controlling stalker and certainly NOT the kind of boyfriend I would aspire to having - and certainly not the kind of man I want my younger sisters or my niece or any of my former students to meet and fall in love with. Edward (and to a lesser extent Jacob, but he's still guilty) is an abusive and emotionally controlling person and it sickens me that these are paraded out as examples of healthy relationships. While I've never really had a serious romantic relationship of my own, I'm pretty sure a breakup isn't supposed to send you into a waking-comatose state for four months and a desire to risk your life in order to hear your beloved's voice tell you how stupid you truly are.
So there's that aspect of the relationship. But going back to Church doctrine - Bella and Edward's marriage is NOT an example of an eternal marriage. Not as the Church teaches it. Again, these are my own closely-held beliefs. Nobody has to believe them just because I do. My purpose in this is to clear up some very gross misconceptions and bring in some things that don't get discussed with the respect they deserve.
Please, please, please follow me on this closely - when people say Stephenie Meyer injected eternal marriage into the "Twilight" series, that is not true at all. Eternal marriage only comes in the next life. Everyone living right now in in their mortal life, sent here to learn right from wrong and to choose for themselves who they are going to follow. If a couple qualifies for and chooses to be married in the temple, they make certain promises between themselves and God. The Church teaches that, once they get to the next life, God will judge them as individuals and as a couple if they have kept those promises. If they have kept their promises, God will reward them with being married for all eternity and they will have their children with them (as long as their children have kept their own promises. This goes on and one forever - I told you, this is eternity you're dealing with). But living forever in this life is not - I repeat, NOT - how this is supposed to work.
Let me tell you, eternity is going to be a wonderful thing. True, I haven't actually seen it for myself, but I do know that as good as this life can be, heaven is going to be a zillion times better. The best part for me is that God is going to make everything fair for everyone - and He can do that because He is God. No one is going to have to fight over material things or hurt feelings because none of that is going to matter anymore. I can't really explain it very well - it's something you come to know on your own. But it is not living forever in this world with someone who brow-beat you into marrying them.
Bottom Line - Bella and Edward aren't married for eternity. Not by a long shot. Oh, they may live forever, having forever handsome immortality sex and chomping on dead deer carcasses, but that's about all they've got. Eternal marriage is so much more than that, no matter what the romance novels say. Twilight has nothing to do with the Church beyond Stephenie Meyer's interpretation of her beliefs (which, I would like to have a long talk with her Sunday School teachers because that's not the doctrine of eternal marriage that I was taught). And the next person that says Twilight has anything to do with Church doctrine (whether they mean it as a compliment or an insult), I am going to punch them in the face.
*Credit where credit is due - "Sparklepire" was originally coined by the lovely and witty Cleolinda Jones (though I tacked on "-palooza" just for fun). She is one that has kept religious criticism out of the Twilight discussion and I give her a lot of praise for that.
This past weekend was Pioneer Day here in Utah, so I was sort of off the grid for a while there. For those that don't know, July 24th is a state holiday commemorating the day the first group of pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley and began settling most of the present-day western United States. There's a huge parade in Salt Lake City and everybody gets to shoot off fireworks and there are barbecues and picnics and all the local government people have the day off. It's like we get a sequel to the 4th of July ^_^ Also, my youngest sister had her birthday on the 25th, so I went to visit the family and go boating with my aunt and uncle. I'm a little sunburned, but not as bad as usually happens (SPF 50, folks. SPF 50).
Anyway, it has been a particularly full week and it's only Wednesday. Prepare for a list, folks -
- I started working for real last week - HOORAY! It wasn't too bad, just busy (which was why I was not online so much). Around last Thursday, I did a super-duper early shift and it totally drained me and it made me a little sick. Not horribly bed-ridden sick, just enough to make me crash for a three hour nap after I got home. It was the weirdest thing - I only meant to be down for twenty minutes or so, but there went my entire day. Eh, what d'you do? This week's been tougher because the tech guys did a BIG upgrade to the system and it's shut down everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. Patrons are having to fill out paper applications for library cards and nobody can renew things or places holds. The clerks can get into the system a little bit, but it takes a long time and backs everything up out to the Pony Express. All the while kids are crying, old people are asking why things aren't working and I'm just getting continually frustrated. Once it's all back online, it'll be fine and dandy, I'm sure. But for now it's a pain in the butt and I want to slap the person who decided this would be a good idea.
- Taught the lesson in Relief Society in church on Sunday. Normally, I love my RS teaching gig, but this week the assigned topic was Eternal Marriage from the General Conference talks this past April. That is one of the most annoying gospel topics to teach in a singles ward, especially the young single women. I didn't want any of the ladies I teach to come away feeling like less of a person as is wont to happen in these settings (I'm LDS and have been for a long time, but I've long felt that married life as a Mormon is just weird. Not as it pertains to Church doctrine or anything - just how it's executed in day-to-day living. That's an essay in and of itself). But I did okay - we ended up having a good conversation about how it's not something to stress over if you're not married and it's a good thing to go get an education and start a career and not focus so much on finding a man and starting a family. The class seemed to respond well and I don't think I hurt anyone's feelings, so victory for me! All I can say is that I'm grateful that times have changed since my aunt got married (that's another story, but probably not for this setting).
- Enough with the whiny personal anecdotes - IT'S DOCTOR WHO TIME!!! (well, it will be in a month - YAY FOR AUGUST 27th!!)
(Bless the person who made this gif. It is magnificent.)
It would follow that BIG Doctor Who news would fall over a holiday weekend and I would be unable to devote full attention to it. But I'm going to do so now. SPOILER ALERT!! (well, more like THEORY ALERT!! but I suppose some people like to avoid those as well). Now that I've watched the trailer a few times, I have at least one thought that goes beyond OMG - DOCTOR IN TAILS! OMG - RORY PUNCHES HITLER!! OMG - OLD!AMY!!! This relates to the OMG - EYE-PATCH!RIVER!! clip.
Full disclosure - Part of this theory was triggered by a discussion of a short story Shaun from Traveling the Vortex wrote that uses this trope. I think the guys from Radio Free Skaro touched on it a little bit in passing, but Shaun's story really got my brain going on this after I read it a second time, so credit to him for lighting the spark.
I think that Series 6.2 is going to deal with some heavy-duty rewriting time and what the effects are of doing that. I wonder if the Doctor, Amy and Rory are going to end up in an alternate timeline that was caused by some meddling in history (like, say, saving Hitler's life for example). Eye-Patch!River clued me in on this - I think the River in that trailer is River in a future where baby Melody Pond was never rescued from Patchy (her real name is hard to spell, so she's Patchy). Patchy then raised Melody to be Patchy's successor and now adult!Melody is the leader of... whatever Patchy is the leader of (I don't think she's the leader of the clerics, thought I could be wrong). Somewhere along this alternate timeline, Amy and Rory left the Doctor, but fell in with some sort of rebel group. Rory was killed (which is perhaps why we don't see an Old!Rory in the trailer), but Amy became this awesomely-awesome pseudo-samurai person (as a counterpart to Rory the Roman, perhaps?) and fights the baddies that her daughter is effectively leading. Adult!Melody never meets the Doctor or her parents and is the enemy in this alternate timeline (she may even believe Patchy is her real mother). So, somewhere, the Doctor has to make like Marty McFly and go back and fix this back to the way it should be... which, I'm still working out what that solution would be.
Maybe the Doctor dying at Lake Silencio (which is really Lake Powell - there is no Lake Silencio in Utah. Not to my knowledge and I've lived here my whole life. /pedantry) in "The Impossible Astronaut" triggered the alternate timeline in the first place but the Doctor thought he was fixing something else when he let the astronaut shoot him, but that set the screwed-up timeline in motion because River, Amy and Rory convinced not-dead!Doctor to take them the 1969 and they fought the Silents, which turns out to be a bad thing.
Oh - wait! I've never mentioned that! Since "A Good Man Goes to War," I've wondered why the Silents kidnapped Amy in "Day of the Moon." At first I thought it was to switch her out with the Ganger, but it had said that she'd been a Ganger even before then. They even tried to get Amy to tell the Doctor she was pregnant, which obviously Patchy and Co. don't want him to know. So... why? Are the Silents in opposition to Patchy and the Clerics? Did we read these guys wrong? Are they actually the good guys? Did the Doctor effectively murder potential allies?
Okay, I have no reason to think that the Silents are actually on the Doctor's side other than they kidnapped Ganger!Amy and maybe were trying to get a warning to the Doctor that she was pregnant. Sort of flimsy, but then I think about all the people who insisted that River was Amy and Rory's daughter and that seemed like an off-the-wall theory at one time. So I'm more willing to entertain some of these odd theories at this point.
That was a long bullet to end the list, but if I'm right it'll be worth it. And if I'm wrong - well, it was fun to postulate anyway.
(Thanks to the joys of Wikipedia, I finally found out what risotto was. Now this video makes a bit more sense - and is even more funny ^_^)
This was the first weekend after I've been working for a full-on week and then I went to church in Delta. I love the singles branch in Delta. I have a bit of anonymity (not a whole lot, but a bit) and I can be my own person there (whereas in my branch in Callao, everyone knows my family, everyone is in everyone else's business, etc. You know, the real reasons people go to singles wards/branches - not that stupid excuse that it's the only place they can go to get married. I spit in the eye of that excuse). But this driving back and forth... it's exhausting. I am fully aware of how crazy it is to do so much driving, but I don't know that I have a choice in the matter. Well, actually I do. I could find a job in Salt Lake or Delta or Logan or Outer Mongolia and move away... oh wait... I tried that one already. We're in a recession and nobody can afford to hire any new people (and here's where I would usually be inclined to make a snarky political statement, but I just don't feel like dealing with the fallout right now. You can pretend I said something if you like, 'kay? Maybe I'll just randomly link to HillBuzz. Good enough).
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah - the only place I could find to hire me was at West Desert High School. Beggars can't be choosers. And it's not so bad as it could be - at least it's in the general ballpark of what I want to go into anyway (Youth Services Librarianship - yay masters degree!). It just requires that I live in the outer reaches of nowhere, which is coincidentally where my family lives, which is nice because I don't have to pay rent (I help keep the house and do a bit to help out the family business, though). But the driving! All the driving I have to do! I shouldn't complain - it's not like I'm not used to it. One day, perhaps, I will live somewhere that I live a block away from work, school, the grocery store and Barnes and Noble. Maybe even a place where I don't have to give the US Postal Service one ZIP code and UPS a completely different one. Maybe even a place where both Verizon and AT&T will have painted on their maps (what is that like, anyway?)
Then again, if I lived in a place like that, I'd hate all my busybody neighbors who have to know all the cackly beauty salon gossip ("Oh my GAWSH - she did WHAAT???" - please kill me) and live on top of me and call the cops when my dog craps on their lawn. My house would look just like everyone else's house because that's what the Homeowners Association (i.e. Hitler) told me to I had to do just to live here (I hate HOAs, in case you couldn't tell. I think it's a stupid idea, selling me a building lot and then telling me what I can and cannot do with it. It's my property - I'll do whatever the freck I want).
Just goes to prove that nowhere is perfect. Everywhere has things you love about it and everywhere has things you wish would go far far away. As it stands, I love being in Callao and I wouldn't move for anybody. I don't mind going to the city for a visit (but I also wouldn't be opposed to friends coming to visit me out here, hint, hint. Come on, all you wussy city-dwellers - it's not that far to come. Some of you probably make weekend trips to Lake Powell or Wendover without blinking an eye).
("Wussy" here is a term of endearment, by the way)
This post is all over the place - I don't even know where I started. Goes to show how tired I really am, I guess. I make random comments.
A few days ago, I realized this week I would be celebrating one year since I've been home from my mission. A year ago today I was in Orange Park, Florida having my exit interview with my mission president with a handful of other missionaries also heading home. It's so weird that it's only been a year - I feel like I've done so much since then.
Also - yesterday I went with my mom and my sisters to get some stuff for youth conference and I met up with my last mission companion, who is now working and going to school in Provo (I forgive her for that - she's the biggest sweetheart in the whole world and I was very blessed to have her as my last companion). It was so fun to reminisce about mission stuff and to hear how things went after I came home.
I'm also happy to report that the new mission president is going to keep the mission blog going - my mission president and his wife went home at the beginning of the month and I was afraid that the mission blog was going to go the way of the dodo (different mission presidents do different things). I just like being able to see what's going on with all those wonderful people I got to serve around. I recognize the missionaries less and less, but I know the places. It's like when you've been out of high school or college for years and years, but you still get happy and squee-ful when you hear that their teams are having success (I can apply sports to pretty much anything).
Shifting gears for a moment - I bought my one textbook for fall semester and it was $30 and I am happy. The syllabus for my other class doesn't list a textbook, so I'm thinking I'll only have one book to buy. That makes me happy because I'm going to have some excess money coming from my student loan and I can use that for a new laptop and for travel expenses (now I'm waiting to hear back from the high school if I have that aide job - which, it looked good as of a week or so ago. And I wouldn't have to move).
Beyond that - I have one more project to turn in that's due in two weeks. It's an annotated bibliography, which feels more like busywork. I'm trying to find one more article to annotate, but it's getting harder to find what I need for my topic. Something will turn up, though. I'm having too good a day to have that go down the tubes.
Oh - for something completely unrelated (but cool nonetheless), here's a video! I found this when I was lurking about on HillBuzz.org's comment threads and I thought it was pretty good. I've gotten to where I like to share fun videos on my blog because - well, because I can. I feel like I have a backlog of stuff to share - I might do some kind of 30-day meme where I post a video each day that I find entertaining. Hmm... I'll have to think about that.
I know that's from a song, but can I remember which one? Of course not!
I just finished reading "Enchantment" by Orson Scott Card. And can I just say, that was one of the cutest darn stories I've read in a long time! (Obligatory Spoiler Alert!!!) I think I really started to like it when Katerina and Ivan went to Ivan's time and Katerina got to meet his parents (and Ruthie, but I never liked her anyway). That first go-round in Taina was kind of annoying - mostly because Ivan and Katerina were both being twerpy about everything and the townspeople mostly failed at life (with the possible exception of Sergei). But it was cute how Ivan was kind and understanding toward Katerina when she first came through to his time, even though she wasn't when he first came to her time. Anyway, cute story - definitely going on my list of favorites!
I also had my class weekend - I think it's just because I had a pretty stressful week leading up to it, but I didn't enjoy class as much as I usually do. Some of it was fun, but I've kind of been grumpy lately about a whole slew of things that have nothing to do with school. Maybe The Greater Cosmos(tm) just decided I needed to have a downer week for no good reason. Wish TGC(tm) would give me some notice about these things.
But church was wonderful today. There was a lot about being patient and remembering that life works on the Lord's timetable, not mine. And adversity makes us tougher. Oh, and we had a Relief Society presidency meeting this morning and we got our first activity planned and started on getting Visiting Teaching going. And I'm going to be getting a blog set up for our Relief Society so the girls can get online and see what activities are going on. Anyway, church came at just the right moment. I love my calling!
Summertime has officially begun. Which means that I will be seeking out the darkest, most air-conditioned basement to hole up in until September. I hate the hot weather. Since coming home from Florida, I've especially grown to hate the hot dry weather (which, incidentally I grew up in - I don't know why 18 months in humid Florida would make that big of a difference). I like spring and fall weather the best because it's that middle-of-the-road cool/warm. I hate being sticky and sweaty, even worse than I hate freezing. At least when I'm freezing I can put another pair of socks on.
Oh, here's a funny story from the weekend - when I go up for my classes, I stay with my friend, K. A month or so ago, our cat had kittens and K said she wanted one to help keep the gopher population down in her yard. So, over this weekend, I took one of the kittens up to K. Now, I had a box to put the kitten in while I drove up. Most of my trip was out of radio range, so I listened to Glenn Beck's "Arguing with Idiots" audiobook on my iPod. But when I came to a point where I had radio reception, I decided to switch because my friend Sean Hannity was on. Now, up until this point, the kitten was happy and content in his box. But when I switched the radio from Beck to Hannity, the kitten climbed out of his box and demanded that I pay attention to him. He even climbed up to the front seat and under the pedals (did I mention I was trying to drive the freeway at the time?) Anyway, Hannity's show got over and Glenn Beck's radio show came on and I swear, the minute Glenn came on, the kitten calmed down and went back to the back seat and fell asleep. It was the weirdest thing ever. I told K about it (she's a Glenn Beck fan) and she said that we picked the perfect kitty for her (and yes, she named the cat Glenn).
ETA: I am going to be re-vamping this blog because I finally figured out how to play nice with Blogger. So, the boring white space behind this will not be permanent. Just to let ya know.
First of all, I want you to know that I'm not questioning my testimony of the gospel. I will continue to be an upstanding member of the LDS Church and do everything that is in harmony with my deeply held beliefs. That being said, if I ever had to question something in the church, it would be this: Family Home Evening groups in single wards.
I hate them. With a passion unbridled.
This topic comes as a result of a comment made at an Institute activity tonight. The subject of church callings was brought up and how people seem to get the callings that require you to do something that you haven't exactly been involved in (example - you haven't been to an Enrichment activity, you'll probably get called to be the Enrichment committee leader). I made the comment that I dodged the bullet - I thought that I would be called as an FHE "Mom" because I hate FHE, but instead I was called as a Gospel Doctrine teacher.
(for those not versed in LDS terminology: LDS families are encouraged to set aside one night a week (usually Monday) to get together as a family and have some kind of family activity - anything from a spiritual lesson to a board game or even a night at Chuck-E-Cheese's. This is known as "Family Home Evening" or FHE for short. Those of us single people who are living on our own are not left out - our leaders put us in "FHE" groups with other single people. Each group is overseen by two group leaders - one male, one female - who are affectionately known as the "FHE Mom" and "FHE Dad." The official idea is that we can be social and make new friends in our single state of life. The unofficial idea is to put single men and single women in an environment that lends itself to getting them married. That's the basic rundown - this knowledge is crucial to my post).
The girl making the comment seemed shocked that anyone would hate FHE! She and another guy who was listening in asked me how I expected to get to know people in my ward and make friends with them. I just glared at them and said that I don't want to get to know anyone in my ward beyond seeing them on Sunday. I failed to mention - and I wish I would have had the presence of mind to say this - that if I met a small handful of people that I could get along with, that's another story. But I do NOT enjoy being put with a bunch of random strangers and being compelled to be their bestest-best friends.
I have a disconnect about FHE. It may be the fact that, growing up, whenever a new couple moved into the ward where I lived (again, for the benefit of non-LDS - where you go to church is determined by where you live. Everywhere is divided up into geographical boundaries called "wards" that are led by leaders who are from the area. Several wards put together is called a stake - which is also led by local people). Anyway - whenever a new couple moved into my ward, more often than not their introduction talks would be include something along the lines of "We met in a Family Home Evening group in the BYU 494.3rd ward." After 18 of hearing this in my home ward, you tend to think that singles FHE groups are purely meant to be meat markets. And I am totally anti-meat market.
(I'm sorry if any of you married peeps met your spouse at an FHE group in the BYU 494.3rd ward. No really, I'm sorry).
Nothing in my life is normal (I can enumerate the reasons why later, if you really want to know). If I am going to meet that "somebody special" it is going to be a completely organic, out-of-the-ordinary experience. It's not going to be the way that everyone else and their goldfish meets their spouse. It's unoriginal and it's boring. I'm actually a fan of how my sister met her husband: our family dentist set them up. That's the short version, but how's that for a story? Not to mention the fact that they can get killer discounts on dental work (my parents have a cool story too - involves a wheelbarrow and a bag of Weed-n-Feed).
I am a homebody anyway. I do not enjoy hanging out with large groups of people. I hate being in large groups of people, especially when a significant portion of them are strangers that I will likely never see after this year/semester (I find it interesting that they put us in "Family" Home Evening groups. None of us are related and likely never will be. Obviously, there are exceptions). I don't have fun in groups of people. Period. Trust me, I've tried. Hasn't worked in 24 years and it will likely never work. And that's okay. If FHE groups are your cup of tea, I'm not raining on your parade. This is my perspective and I think it will be beneficial to see another opinion out there. If you're having fun at these deals, don't let what I say stop you (unless you really want to).
It's kind of like Ultimate Frisbee. I don't particularly enjoy Ultimate Frisbee. It's great if you do, but don't expect me to wet myself over the prospect of playing. Ultimate Frisbee is for people who want to play football but can't throw or catch a football. So, they play with something that will mask their inability to catch. But I digress - I was trying to draw a parallel.
Bottom line: I want to have fun - but with people that I am extremely comfortable around and that I know for a fact that I can be myself around (those are hard to come by - even within my own family). I'm an odd duck. My preferred relaxing evening is a movie or TV show that I've seen probably a hundred times and will probably watch a hundred times more. Or a book that I'm re-reading. Or writing. Or watching whatever football game is on. I will from time to time go out and wander around Borders or Wal-Mart or Hastings (that last one's only in Logan) - if I'm feeling adventurous, I will order some KFC or Chipotle or Panda Express and bring it home. I don't socialize for the sake of socializing - there has to be a discernible purpose. Which the vast majority of FHE groups lack.
Besides, how many Book of Mormon Pictionary games can you play in college?
I think I should just blog after church. That's where all the interesting stuff happens.
First, from the "It's a Small World" file - my old district leader was at church (don't want to say who in case I embarrass him). He said he wasn't sure if he was in my ward - but he's at least in my stake. It was odd seeing him outside the mission. Or maybe I just have a weird sense of... whatever.
Well... I'm the Gospel Doctrine teacher. It could be worse - I could be the FHE "Mom" (oh, smell...) It's actually not too bad. It's something I've wanted to do before, but I've been stuck in Relief Society and what-have-you. I'm excited for it.
Also - people in the USU 1st Stake - you need to learn how to sing "Called to Serve" (here's a lesson). That was the most anti-climatic, unfeeling rendition of the most beloved missionary song I've ever heard (I guess I can't blame the general congregation - that organ needs to be retired where it will have no chance of coming back. Unlike Brett Favre).
(I joke - I actually like Brett Favre, but Keith Oldermann keeps ragging on him. Wish someone would retire that idiot... yes, I know his name's really Olbermann, but he's a twerp, so he deserves a few typos.)
