5K

i just signed up to run a 5k june 13. in 6 weeks... i am crazy.... and i am going to die! the end.

Entry Post on Friedman

Toward the end of the Q and A at the end of his talk at MIT, Thomas Friedman spoke on the "competing forms of imagination" illustrated by "11/9" (referring to 11/9/89 when the Berlin Wall came down and the same period when the Windows operating system was marketed) and "9/11" (when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were bombed by Qaeda terrorists). Friedman asserts that "imagination is the only thing not commoditized in a flat world." It was different imaginations that brought down the Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers.

In his inauguration speech on January 20, 2009, President Obama said:

"To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it."

In considering Friedman's notions of imagination, and President Obama's pledge to people in developing nations, do you see yourself responding to the change he is calling for? How? Will you heed the admonition to avoid "indifference to suffering outside our borders"? How? Will you personally evaluate and perhaps change your resource consumption? How? Do you agree with Friedman's assertion that we need to develop, and encourage others to develop a more "positive imagination"? What will you do about this personally? What does it mean to you as an individual, as Friedman exhorts, to "export hope and not fear"? How might you do this?

i see the nation changing. As more and more people influence each other and as laws change we will move towards a more international friendly nation and world. there is a lot of suffering outside of our borders, i can be a miracle worker and solve the world problems, just by myself. there are better people for the job, people who have already taken the time to study and understand the people who are in need, and i am more than willing to help them, with money or with what ever way that i can help as a collage student. i hope as i get older, and finish with school that i can give more. i have looked in to natural living, and as a collage student i can not afford the totally natural life style. i have some health issues, that allows me to eat the organic and i have already worked that into my budget. some day i will have kids and i want then to know that they are going to influence the world, their positive imagination are going influence and affect the world.

New Semester.... and this weekend

i just wanted to let people know that the summer semester has started! and my birthday is this weekend, but i am going to be in Utah with my family! i have a class were i have to write blogs, so i will be writing more, but it will be mostly for my World Foundation class, so feel free to read them and comment.

crazy fun weekend

last week was my room mate birthday, so for the weekend we drove to her parents house in Napa Idaho. we left Rexburg at 1 and arrived their at 5:30. i love her family they are all very cute. the night was spent watching movies and me working on my art homework. kenzie and i were the last one to bed @ 2 am. Saturday was going to be for school work, but we woke up at noon. so we went shipping, but found nothing good. when we were shopping Jesika's mom called and asked what we wonted for dinner. @ dinner we watch a movie with the family and then played Rock Band. at midnight we put in another movie Jesika and Laura were out in the 1st five minutes. kenzie and i were left to our selves until 2am again so we went to bed. church was not until 2pm on sunday. i found out this weekend no matter how late church is we are always running out late. we woke up at noon again and had an hour to get ready. Kenzie and i got up and bore out testimonies. then we left right after sacrament. we left Napa at 5 and got back into town at 10. we stranded in Blackfoot for 2minutes, and the rest of the trip was really slow because we were driving 45mph.
on the way there i started reading Twilight out loud to my room mates,and the way back we continued to read. we got to chapter 18. this is the first time Laura and Kenzie have read the book, so we are reading in between studying, it is really fun to see their reaction to the book, and the really enjoy me reading... i dont know why.

nothing much to report

there is not a lot to write.
i got my class schedule for the spring semester its going to be kickin'
there are only 3 weeks left of the semester! but that also means that finals are coming up. mostly my classes are easy, the only one that is going to kill me is my art class (no i am serious, i worked for two hours tonight on my sphere and my right hand wants to fall off... it killing me). other than that life is what you expect! \

these are the classes i am taking next semster

ART HISTORY I T/T 3:00-4:30PM
SCIENCE FOUND T/T 9:00-10:00AM
GEN PSYCHOLOGY T/T 11:30-1:00PM
PROF COM FND M/W 10:15-11:15AM
DEVELOP WORLD M/W 12:45-1:45PM
NEW TESTAMENT M/W/F 9:00-10:00AM

Yea Me!

Grace

for my Religion class we had to write a paper on grace for a test, this is what i came up with. there are a lot of mistakes with grammar and spelling, im sorry but try to read it for what it is worth.

Grace

By Our Works

Sometimes in our lives we feel like we are inadequate. We are called to do great things for God, leave our families to serve a mission, hand over 10% of our pay checks, and fasting at least once a month. Some religions believe that they are saved if they only believe in God, and no matter what they do in this life they will be save at judgment day.

Through the grace of God we are saved from our sins, right? So what else would we need to do? In Acts 16 Peter teaches us that all we need to do is “believe in the Lord, and ye shall be saved”. But does it not also read in James that “without works faith is dead”? Through modern revelation we know that we are saved by the grace of God, but we also need to work.

We work by serving others and by growing and strengthening our personal testimony. As we serve we can feel the love of God. I have a personal testimony that we feel the love that HE has for the people we serve. Sometimes the ones we serve do not appreciate the work we do for them, but we still continue our serve. We are “willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death” (Mosiah 18: 9).

A personal testimony is important because it builds our faith. Men, by nature are foolish and weak. We strengthen our testimony by “the simple seminary answers” go to church, prayer, and read your scriptures. Sharing our testimony and teaching others. Our hearts need to be fully invested in our search and ponderings. As we draw closer to God we become more Christ like and less like the natural man.

Obtaining Grace and Gratitude

In Greek, the word which is translated as grace means “good-will, loving kindness, favor.” Our Heavenly Father is all loving. He sent his only begotten son to redeem the world. It is hard to be bitter, towards the Lord when you heart is full of love. Because of the Lord perfect sacrifice we can be redeemed by his grace. The main idea of the word “grace” is divine it means, help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ. Through the Lords love and good-will we are strengthen and help, to obtain eternal life.

There are many examples found in The Book of Mormon and the Bible of the Lord Grace. Some of my favorite examples are Alma the younger, he was trying to lead the hearts of the people away from God. One day an angel appeared to him, and told him to repent of his sins. He was so overcome by the spirit was became dumb; he could not speak or move. After three days we gained movement, he said

“…The Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God. My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more. I rejected my Redeemer, and denied that which had been spoken of by our fathers…” (Mosiah 27: 28-30).

Alma then accepted the grace of God, repented of his sins and instead of leading the people away he taught them about the God love.

Later Alma’s son Corianton had broke the law of chastity. He teaches his son about the plan of salvation,

“… With the justice of God that men should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good. And if their works are evil they shall be restored unto them for evil. Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order, everything to its natural frame” (Mosiah 41: 3-4).

Corianton repeats of his sins and becomes a great teacher and a mighty man. Because of the Lord’s grace we are able to be saved and have eternal life. There are countless other stories both in The Book of Mormon and the Bible where men are saved by the grace of God.

No one can keep the Lord’s law perfectly, that is why we need the grace of God and the Plan of Salvation. No matter whom we are or where we come from, we all shall be raised up at the last day, but those who are not repentant and obtain the grace of God, they shall not be saved. If we except God and endure to the end with our good works, we shall be redeemed, and have eternal life.

God command us to watch over his sheep, to bring the lost sheep back into the fold, as missionaries we serve the Lord and those who are seeking the gospel. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt 25: 40). We show God our gratitude by serving him, caring and loving others, and more becoming Christ like.

We should take the time to count our blessings, everyday. The world in a beautiful place, I believe there are holy place everywhere. As we take the time to observe the world around us, we will see the power and love of the world. As we get to know and serve our neighbors we come to see the love and beauty that the Lord sees in them. I am not perfect in these things, but I strive daily in becoming like Christ.

From God

Where does grace come from? “Grace and truth comes from God” (John 1:17). All good things come from God. Grace is something that the devil cannot obtain. It is something that the devil cannot understand, because of his fallen state. He has rejected the grace of God and so did all his followers, knowing that they rejected the only way to attain eternal glory. The devil and his fallen angles can no longer accept the grace of the Lord, so they try to make us miserable. They want us to forget our blessing and to only focus on the negatives of this life. When we see the world in a negative light, we are unable to see the blessings of the Lord. We Forget about His grace, and deny Him.

I know these things to be true. Men are far from perfect, and we are foolish in our wisdom. Through the atonement sacrifice we are saved. It is the grace of God that we have the Plan of Salvations. Through God’s grace we all shall be saved, but to live eternally in his Glory, we need to practice faith, and endure to the end.

In the name of Jesus Chris, Amen.

Extra

Here are some scripture that I really liked as I was studying and reading up for this paper. Eph 2:8, Peter 5:5, Jacob 4:7, Helaman 12:24, Ether 12: 26-27

I took most of my paper from the talk, Salvation: Grace or by Works? By Gerald N Lund

Source: lds.org

before and after

O YEA

After

after

before

after

during

hair cut and color

if I've learned anything in the last couple years about myself it is, that i make snap decision and i almost always follow through with it. for example, i have never really had the desire to color or cut my hair short again (to many painful memories from 6th grade). but for the last couple week, i really wanted to dye my hair red and cut it short. i felt like everyone was doing to long blond look, and i rexburg, id it is really hard to express yourself and different. this week was the perfect opportunity to make the drastic change. my room mates were heading down to Idaho falls, so some shopping. i didnt want to go to the locate hair saloon school, because i dont trust students with my hair. any ways after 4 hours of sitting in the salon i got out with something im really excited about!

project paper

so in one of my classes we had to take picture and then write about the picture. what made it a good picture and the element. i wrote about this picture... and this is what i wrote.

To you this is a picture of a dirty Mickey Mouse; to me it represents hope that not all is lost. There is a story behind this mouse that I would like to share, and maybe you will see this mouse the same way that I do.

My Parents have been doing foster care for nine years now. After my senior year they moved into a bigger house. This last November they had a house fire. Two of the kids never got out of the house. The Fire Marshal says the fire went from one corner of the house to the other in less than 15 min. That night my Parents lost everything. They lost two lives and their home, half of their income, my grandfather’s heir looms, and years of priceless memorabilia. It took weeks for my mom to go back the property and look at the ruins. As we walked around, we didn’t find anything to salvage, the insurance company called it a 100% lose. Because the fire was so hot and unstable, the firemen did not dare go into the house. They only kept the front of the house standing, so they could it as a reference point, in the investigation that would follow. It looked like a house from a Hollywood movie set; the back of the house was completely gone. Up on the top floor, on the little floor remaining, I could see a bit of red and yellow, but we were unable to investigate further. After weeks of rain, and then snow, my older brother, finally when into the house and extract anything that he could from the ruin. During his search he found a stuffed animal.

For all the things this stuff animal has been through it is in pretty good shape. Mickey Mouse was a created by Walt Disney; from this character he was able to create an original world of imagination. Since his creation, Mickey has become a worldwide icon to children of all ages. Seeing him in one piece gave me, personally, a sense of hope. This tragedy was a blessing in disguise. We could rebuild everything bigger and better. My family now has a motivation, to make a home for kids, where they can feel loved and safe. To me this mouse represents the raise from the ashes.

The object takes most of the space in the photo. The stuff animal is sitting on what is left of the walk way. After the fire trucks left the yard the dead branches and a pile of ward waste were piled up behind him. The colors in the photo are all natural. Mickey Mouse is usually dressed in an unnatural red and yellow, but because he is covered in ash and dirt the color are faded and obscured.

Roommates!

this is a picture of me and my room mate squeezed onto a couch, it was really awkward. (my room room mate, Jessica, is not present) there is me, McKenzie, Kairann, Jesika, and Laura. Last night we had a picnic in our living room and watched "you've got mail" and "Serendipity". because we spent so much time watching movies, we were up really late, so we had a midnight breakfast. french toast is way better at 12am instead of 8am.

giving in

so i'm finally sitting down and making a one of these blog things. it just easier to keep up with friends and family this way.