Some Untouched Engagement Pictures

School is Out!

My last semester at Utah Valley State University has finally come to an end! I now have about a 3 month summer before I begin another 4 years of my doctorate program. There's so much to do in the next three months, but I'm looking forward to every minute detail of it! I get married on July 17th! We've only been engaged for a couple weeks, but most things seem to be taken care of already. Spring has already found her wedding dress! I think the last few things we need to get done in regards to the wedding are finding a tux for myself, taking reception photos and sending out wedding announcements. I am so looking forward to getting married in the temple. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to be sealed for time and all eternity to the most amazing girl I've ever met. I do not know what, if anything, I have done to deserve someone of her magnitude. Whatever the case may be, it is my solemn pledge to work everyday to be worthy of her. It's difficult for anyone to truly comprehend "eternity," and I am no exception. Even so, may I be so bold as to suggest that eternity alone may not be long enough to spend with Spring? I am so grateful for the opportunity to create not just a family with her, but an eternal family. I have been taught from early on that families can be together forever. When your young it's difficult to comprehend a blessing of that magnitude. Heck, if you were anything like me as a kid, you may have cringed at the thought of spending more than 5 minutes with your family at some point, let alone being with them for forever. Thankfully, I have matured. I now realize the magnitude of such a blessing. I am grateful for the opportunity to be with my current family forever, and am all the more excited to create an eternal family of my own. Two blessings my fiance has blessed me with: A growing capacity for love and a growing desire to become more Christlike. So... pretty much I've found the perfect girl :)

On another note, I was reading and came across the following: [The Lord] doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world. I thought a lot about that. Certainly it is the Lord who bestows blessings upon us. In which case, how might our personal blessings "benefit the world"? My thought is that we do not possess sole ownership of our blessings. Heavenly Father expects the blessings he freely gives us to benefit those around us as well, thus benefiting the world. The blessings we receive should have a positive impact on those around us. We can provide positive impacts by doing something as small as smiling. Sometimes that's all it takes to change the mood of another.

I'm Engaged!!!

I suppose the best place to begin this blog is to say I'm marrying my dream girl. She's everything I could have hoped for, and so much more. As far as the engagement goes, I wanted to propose on Saturday the 25th. Spring (my fiance) I think was catching on that I was going to propose to her soon. To throw her off my scent I told her the fulfillment department of the ring store contacted me to tell me that there was a two week back order on the ring. The scent was lost! The weather reports weren't looking too good for the weekend. The last decent day weather wise was Thursday. On Wednesday I decided I was going to do it on Thursday. Wednesday night I went to see Spring's dad and asked permission to marry his daughter. He said yes! Thursday afternoon I took Spring up the canyon under the false pretenses of a hike. We walked a little ways to a spot where two little streams come together to become one. I told her that before we went any further I needed to tell her a story about these two little streams. I said, "These two little streams are cool all by themselves, but they wanted to be a part of something bigger and better so they came together. Now they're both apart of something bigger and better than anything they could have been on their own. We're both cool, you and I. I want to be apart of something bigger and better though. That something is being with you for all time and eternity. I want to learn with you. I want to grow with you. I want to grow closer to Heavenly Father as we both grow closer to one another." I then got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes! We're getting married July 17th in the San Diego temple. We're both ecstatic about everything! Here are some pictures:

The Two Little Streams




Where they converge









And this is where we'll be getting married!

Nodding Off

Making it to church has become somewhat of a struggle as of late. I no longer make my own schedule at work, and as a result I often find myself working the Saturday night shift from 10pm til 6am Sunday morning. Having church at 9 doesn't make it any easier. I have found out the hard way that should I attempt to catch a couple hours of sleep before church I won't wake up to my alarm, let alone make it to church. Instead I try to stay awake. By the time the 3 hour block is over I'll have usually been awake for 25+ hours. Staying awake in church under ideal circumstances can sometimes be challenging. Obviously 25+ hours of wakefulness is less than ideal. I recall as a kid rather enjoying watching some of the men in my home ward as they dozed off during sacrament meeting. There was certainly finger pointing and most definitely snickering, especially if one began to snore. I now have a better understanding of the sacrifices they made to make it to church. I now realize the importance they placed upon being there every Sunday, regardless of the circumstances. This past Sunday I was very happy that I made the necessary sacrifices to attend church. As the 1st hour ended the bishop announced that the stake president would be in attendance during sacrament meeting. I remembered just then that months prior I had told the stake president I would bear my testimony the next time he came to fast and testimony meeting. The first thought that ran through my head, admittedly, was "Oh no!!!" My testimony aside, it was one of the best meetings I can recall being in. The Spirit was so strong. Most people, for whatever reason, talked about the value of the friendships in their lives. One individual stated that being a friend was one of the greatest callings one can have. I would have to agree with such a statement. Similar to the common adage "you are what you eat," is "you are who your friends are." I have been lucky in life to be around people who place within me an aspiration to be better, as well as an aspiration to draw nearer to Heavenly Father.
I have also received a request to put more pictures on my blog. Not that this picture has anything to do with this blog, but here's one anyways.

Spring Break!

Spring break is here... and not a moment too soon! At last a break in the storm of life, and off to enjoy the calm of home. Calm? Is that how I would describe home? I suppose it would be difficult to describe anything containing 3 kids, all under the age of 9, as being anything resembling calm. So I suppose that's not how I would describe it, but one does not have to encounter the calm to find joy. My nieces and nephew are as full of energy and spunk as any kids, and yet they fill my heart and soul with unrefined joy and happiness. In a lot of ways they rejuvenate me by allowing me to see what's really important. I do wish I could see them on a more frequent basis than current circumstances permit, but the extended absences make the times I do see them all the more special. This week is not about finding the calm, rather it is about making up for lost time... lost time with those that we find closest to the heart, despite any physical distance.

Digging to sufficient Depth

One of the many blessings of the gospel is that it offers us protection in our daily lives. About 6 years ago I found myself in a precarious situation. I was in the east Iraqi desert with my Marine Corps unit. We were miles away from the nearest friendly unit and were outside of the protective blanket of artillery. We were left, quite literally, to defend ourselves. Shortly thereafter, we received word that approximately 50 Iraqi tanks were heading in our direction. As an infantryman, the prospect of going up against 1 tank, let alone 50, is debilitating. We had in our arsenal very few weapons that would have any effect on a tank. Our best defense then was to dig. The deeper the fighting position, or hole, the better. This effectively protects the infantryman against tanks. A tanks counters this by placing it's tracts on the fighting position and then spins the tank. Sadly, if the fighting position is not deep enough this act kills the infantryman in the hole. We stayed awake that entire eerie night. Every little noise sounded like that of distant tanks. Thankfully, the threat of Iraqi tanks bearing down on us never materialized. In our lives, the prospect of Satan bearing down on us can also be debilitating at times, and the threat of Satan's army bearing down on us very often does materialize. At the beginning of the school year I found myself very unprotected from such an army, and decided that a change needed to be made. I needed to dig deep into the foundation of the gospel. This year, a meaningful and sincere prayer is how I begin and end each day. I read scriptures before I go to bed and whenever I have time to spare throughout the day and I regularly attend institute classes. By immersing myself in things of the Spirit I have effectively dug my fighting position in the gospel. I can gladly state that my fighting position is of sufficient depth to protect me against just about anything that might be thrown my way. Digging a fighting position in the barren Iraqi desert required a lot of work, as does digging one in the gospel. Both fighting positions offered me protection, but a noteworthy side effect of digging a fighting position into the gospel of sufficient depth has allowed me to gain a closer relationship with Heavenly Father. Protection and a closer relationship with Heavenly Father... it's as sweet a deal as it sounds!

Happiness

What’s the difference between someone who’s happy and someone who’s not? It is that one encounters trials while the other somehow abstains from such encounters? Perhaps it’s an issue of money. After all, most marriages end as a result of financial turmoil. Or maybe it’s the fact that one person is more popular than the other. Or one is married and the other is still going stag throughout life. In reality, the issue of happiness has nothing to do with any of the aforementioned reasons. Happiness isn’t contingent on whether we are currently enduring a trial or not. We find opposition in all things, even in good things. That’s part of life. It certainly doesn’t have anything to do with money. Anyone who has traveled to a 3rd world country can tell you that there is no positive relationship between money and happiness. If anything, there is a negative relationship where the less money you have the more happy you are. If there is such a negative relationship, I think it has to do with realizing what’s truly important in one’s life… and it’s not money. Surely marriage can be argued as being a basis for happiness, but happiness can and should come long before that. Besides, if you can’t be happy before marriage what would make that change after a marriage? Like my drill instructor said, “The recruit you are today is the Marine you’ll be tomorrow.” There are very few intellectual things that can be taken from my time in the Marines, but I’ve found this statement to be rather profound. So how does one find happiness? Well, we all encounter opposition, and if happiness isn’t based on whether or not we are currently encountering opposition then the most important aspect of finding happiness is realizing that it’s that very opposition that allows us to find happiness. Bruce C. Haffen writes, “Without the taste of bitter in our experience, the taste of sweet is lost on us – we are without context, without a frame of reference and even the sweet things of life may be without meaning or purpose.” Continuing the point that our joy is in fact contingent on the presence and not the absence of opposition Haffen writes, “Joy-like grace- may well come in the midst of contrary experience, for it is a real part of life. Joy is not an alternative to opposition; it is part of a compound that includes opposition.” Further illustrating the point, those who have taken college courses have undoubtedly encountered a struggle or two. For those who have put in a lion’s share of effort to understand and to overcome these collegiate difficulties, eventually a figurative light bulb will turn on. At that point a measurable amount of joy is realized. In contrast, a student who finds the topic easy and does not encounter any struggles with it will glide through, more often than not without joy having not gone through the trial. In our personal lives, it’s important that we don’t seek to just glide through. On that very note Haffen writes, “When we are asked at the judgment bar how our life on earth was and what it all means, the following would not be a particularly satisfying answer: ‘Oh, it was nice. No big problems, really. It was a very nice life.’” We must not resist the refining fires that arise in our daily lives. I have been told that the measure of a man isn’t taken when all is well; rather it is taken during the tempests of life. How do we react in such a case? Do we act with honor and courage, or is it something we find ourselves needing to work on? Do we turn for help or do we pridefully think we are strong enough to handle it on our own? Just as important as IF we turn for help is to WHOM or to WHAT we turn for help. I know from my own personal experiences, as well as libraries of other’s experiences, that as we turn to our Heavenly Father for help we will be given the adequate strength to not just survive the tempest, but to find joy in it as well. When it comes to our interaction with our Heavenly Father, I try to imagine the interactions I will someday have with a child of my own. When my son is going through a problem and then decides to come to me for help, I imagine I’ll cherish the opportunity to lovingly guide him through life’s storms. I’m sure our Heavenly Father cherishes those opportunities as well. He wants us to come to Him, and we’re better off when we do. It makes one wonder why it doesn’t happen more often.