Time Machine

I've been spending a lot of time with my Grandparents in Ogden recently. They have been living in the same house for over 50 years and thus provides a great job opportunity for me. I get to spend lots of time with them as I keep things up around their house. I have been able to re-tile their bathroom, paint various white objects in the backyard, and be called "a nice strong man" many times by lifting heavy objects onto high shelves (which is quite the self-esteem builder).

Since returning home from BYU Hawaii, I noticed that my grandfather has taken a liking to an old song that he would sing over and over again. He even taught it to his morning medical aid so he could sing it with him. As he would drive on out of his bedroom, him and his aid would come out singing, "I love coffee, I love tea, I love the java and the java loves me..." My grandma wasn't too big of a fan since coffee and tea has never played a big role in their lives, but I loved to see how happy my grandpa got when he started singing this snappy tune. He sang it so much that I couldn't get it out of my head. My grandpa asked my grandma and I to look for the Record. He knew he had the record with that song somewhere, but none of us knew where it was. It must have been frustrating for him because he can't get out of his chair to look for the record himself.

These days my grandpa depends on everyone to help him out. He is very limited in what he can do because of his muscular dystrophy. He has been in a motorized wheel chair as long as I can remember. He doesn't have the freedom that most of us take for granted, such as sitting-up on our own, walking down the hall, or brushing our hair, etc. Because I know that his life can get quite dull, I decided to find this song on the internet.

While he was busy looking over his new calendar, I secretly searched the lyrics and found the exact version of the song he had been singing. An amazing thing happened as I played the song; he got all excited and started to sing along. As the song played, he slowly got quieter and quieter until he temporarily left this time period. He closed his eyes and sat back in his chair. I could almost see the good old days relaying through his mind. I'll bet he was young again, standing next to a fancy record player and softly shuffling his feet to the beat of the music. It was a sight to behold. I hadn't seen him this calm and happy in a long time. It's amazing what music can do for the soul. Today, for my grandpa, it was a time machine.

Game Over

This will be my last blog of experiences on Hawaii, at least for a while. I can’t believe how fast time has flown by. I can say that I have no regrets, we didn’t let a day go by that didn’t involve some sort of Hawaiian fun.

Finals are over, and good riddance. I was glad that I didn’t procrastinate all of my projects and studying until the end, because of that, I got to enjoy myself the final weeks, whereas other people were running around campus with “deer in the headlights” kind of eyes.  

Do you remember me telling you how tough my biology class was? We had our final as well. It was the most prepared for final of all of my classes. I studied at least 20 hours for the final alone. Let me tell you a little about my semester with Biology.

First off, I am not biology. I do not eat biology, I do not drink biology, I will never sleep biology and therefore I do not understand biology in the slightest. It was a really tough class because most of the information was foreign to me. I didn’t fully understand how hard this class was going to be until I got my results back for the first test, 64%! That was a wakeup call. I met with my professor and we talked about things I could do to prepare better for the test. I felt like I was the only dumby in the class, but then he told me that I was with the average of the class.

I applied what he told me to do in my study habits and was able to increase my test scores by ten percent. I was sitting at 73% for my average and the class stayed at 64%. That made me feel quite good, but I still wanted to do all that I could to get an A in the class. As the final approached I knew I had to really pick up my game so that I could get a score worth bragging about. In other words, I guess writing a blog can motivate you to do outstanding things. Or else I wouldn’t have anything to write about.

As usual, I met with my group study. The members of the group were from my ward and we got along really well. We met often. Normally we would meet once a week for a couple hours, but as the final got closer; we ended up studying 5 out of the 7 days of the week. It was pretty intense. But it felt really good. I knew that I was doing all I could to get a good grade in the class.

All of this hard work paid off when I got my results from my professor. They weren’t posted yet, but I had to know NOW what I got on the test, so I emailed him. He responded that I got  55…my heart dropped…out of 62….at this point my heart picked itself back up and I then looked .3 inches to the right and saw 88.7%!!!!!! I couldn’t believe it. He congratulated me for my hard work. I was bouncing off the walls the rest of the day. You can ask my roommate if you don’t believe me.

To celebrate finals being over, my roommates and I headed up to the North Shore to watch the end of Pipeline Masters surf competition. We arrived just as they announced the winner, Jeremy Flores, who is French. We got fairly close to the stage and talked to some French people. It was really good to hear the infamous French accent again, it had been too long. Then we walked up and down the north shore beaches and soaked in the sun and waves. It was hard to say good bye. The waves were massive and we couldn’t body surf them, so we let them tear us to pieces. We could hardly tell which way was up when we surfaced because the waves would pick you up and flip us every which way.

On the beach we ran into a high councilman from our ward. Normally we see him in a suit, but this time, this old man was wearing boardshorts and carrying a huge pink surfboard. It was pretty shocking. We had a great talk with him. He has lived on the North Shore his whole life. He knew how to surf like a champ and did it almost every day. He even went to Utah to snowboard quite often. I told him he had the life and he responded, “Well, if you serve the Lord and are always ready and willing to serve him, the Lord will take care of you.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. I have seen signs of this in my own life. Given the experiences that I have had out here in Hawaii, I can’t help but notice the Lord’s hands in my life on a regular basis. Helping prepare the temple, being taught by the most successful man I know (James Ritchie), and learning how to really teach and study from the scriptures (by Elder Jerry Wilson) to name a few. I won’t number all of my many blessings; google doesn’t even have enough terabytes to contain that list.

Later that night Curtis and I returned to Haleiwa to eat dinner with some friends that left the next morning. One of them had their dad with him. His name is Monte Holm, a soon to be Mission President. He doesn’t yet know where he and his wife will be serving, but it was so cool to see the excitement that he had to serve. He is a very successful businessman and I know he’ll be an incredible mission president. He frequently asked us questions about our missions.

Since Curtis and I were the only returned missionaries present, we got all the attention. One thing he asked that stuck out the most was when he asked me, “What do you remember most about your mission president.” I immediately thought of President Merrell and his law of obedience. To this day I am amazed by that man. I feel so blessed that I got to serve with him in the mission office and watch him closely. I told Broth Holm of his obedience, and how he never lollygagged. He was always in a hurry and busy doing important things. He walked briskly and with purpose. I knew that President Merrell would never ask me to do anything that he hadn’t already done or was willing to do. That is why I loved him so much. I knew that President Merrell was Obedient to the T.

I also told him about President Carter. I loved how President Carter incorporated his business skills into missionary work. He had so many new and creative ideas for carrying out the work. The mission would try out the ideas, and if they didn’t work, they were dropped immediately. When they did work, we pumped on all cylinders to get the job done. He was amazing at this. He also spoke with such conviction. He and his wife were converts, but you never would have guessed it. It felt so good to talk about our missions and what we learned from our mission presidents. It made me feel bad that I don’t keep in closer contact with them.

To finish this trip out strong, we did one last hike near Honolulu. It is called Diamond Head. This is a WWII historical sight. There are old bunkers and mounts for machine guns. They were really well camouflaged on the top of a hill that overlooked Waikiki and Honolulu. It was a really cool hike.

Before heading back to Laie, we decided to grab a bite to eat at the cafeteria in the Ala Moana mall in Honolulu. I heard it used to be the biggest mall in America. We had a pretty neat experience at lunch that day. The cafeteria is shaped like a large oval. There are all kinds of Chinese restaurants along the rim. Everyone eating there is either Hawaiin or Asian. There were a few American restaurants in there as well, but even they were ran by Asians, which was kind of funny. After getting some food, we looked for a place to sit. There wasn’t a seat anywhere. We had to walk to the clear opposite end of the oval before we found a seat. There was a lone man sitting near 3 empty seats. He let us sit by him. It wasn’t long before we were lost in conversation. Because we stuck out like elephants in a vineyard, he asked us where we came from and why we were here. He knew about BYU Hawaii and asked us if we were Mormon. We got to talking about the gospel pretty quick; I was immediately thrown back to my days with Curtis in Agen. It was like old times. 

Companions reunited doing the Lord’s work. What an experience. We didn’t even seek out this opportunity. It came to us and thank goodness we were ready and willing. He told us that he knew missionaries and saw them every now and then, but felt sure that there was no church for everyone. They were all good and all had the same result. I immediately told him about how we were surrounded by tons of Asian restaurants, to the inexperienced mind, they were all the same, but if you sampled each one, you could probably tell a difference. It’s the same with the church. He chuckled and understood what I mean. We didn’t get much anywhere with him, but Curtis invited him to ask the missionaries he knew for a Book of Mormon the next time he sees him. We might not have preached the most beautiful sermon to him, but I felt we did our part. We talked about extraordinary subject, the Book of Mormon. Not many people talk about that these days, so I hope our words will ring in his head and that the spirit will drive him to seek for the sacred book.

The next day was filled with packing, but of course, we had to go to the beach one last time. We went for a couple hours and basked in all its glory and majesty. It will be a long time before I live on the coast somewhere, so we couldn’t say no to one last beach run. After we got back, just two hours before we left, we found out that our ride just bagged on us. Their truck broke down. We panicked a little and then called our bishop in desperation. He and his wife agreed to take us. What a way to end this adventure! We talked about all the fun we had these past few months. They are such great people and I am really going to miss them. I thought I saw a hint of emotion in all of our eyes as we said our goodbyes and walked into the airport. There’s no place like Hawaii. I love you all. Thanks for making my blog a part of your weekly routine. I’ll try to live up to my blog and keep you entertained and informed on my life as I head on down to Provo after Christmas. 

Mahalo and Mele Kalikimaka! Thank you and Merry Christmas! 

My last week in Hawaii!!

Greetings Mainlanders. I miss you all and will see you soon! I am very excited to come home and enjoy the spirit of Christmas at home. It feels like Hawaii is forcing the spirit of Christmas here. I don't know how else to explain it. It just seems so weird to be wearing nothing but boardshorts and a towel while walking to the beach and looking over my shoulder only to see christmas lights on a palm tree. It may be normal to some people, but not me. I have always associated christmas lights with tons of snow and big coats. 

I have decided to post something different this week. I had to write a talk for my religion class this semester and I felt, since I can't give it in church, I will give it to the world, through my blog.It has some pretty odd and awesome experiences at the same time. I know you will really enjoy it, so please take the time to read it. I even included a few photos from my mission! Voila:

Wickedness Never Was Happiness

I learned a great lesson while on my mission. I was serving in a little French town called Agen. The streets were narrow and wound in all directions. The missionaries in this town always used bikes because there were very few buses and most of the members lived far away from each other. I was new to the mission, only 4-6 months in to the mission. I was beginning to learn not only the language, but also the culture and attitude of the French. I learned many lessons in this town, but one has always stuck out to me above the rest.

Though there were many streets to take, my companion and I always rode the same one when going to the church because it was a direct shot. The church was a ten minute trip on bike. I was very close with this companion and would often talk to him while we would make the journey to church, or wherever we were headed. We would always warn each other of pornographic materials on the ground or on billboards. It was just something that we did, I don’t know why, but I did it much more with this companion than with the rest. This small act of obedience proved to be a great blessing.

Not far from our house, along this direct path to the church, there was a shop that sold merchandise that did not promote keeping the law of chastity. It had inappropriate images all over the front windows and door. Because of the warnings we would give each other, we always made a joke about it as we rode by. Each time we passed by this shop, we would turn our heads toward the opposite wall and say, “Elder, look at that amazing door…is that not the most amazing door you have ever seen?” A small act that I never thought would go noticed by anyone. As the weeks went by, we continued that practice very faithfully. Then, on a Sunday afternoon, my companion and I were talking to people on the streets. We happened to be on that same street and stopped a guy not far from the shop itself. After greeting the man, we began to introduce ourselves. He quickly interrupted us saying, “I know you. You are the two guys that pass by my store every day. Every time you walk by you both look away from my store. Why do you do that? It is very rude. I do not want to hear about your church. I could never join a church that teaches others to look away like that. Goodbye!” It wasn’t the longest conversation we ever had, but it was definitely one of the most memorable.

After the man had said that, we both looked at each other in pure shock. We couldn’t believe it. Neither of us had expected anything to come from our childish joke. My first thought was that of gratitude. What if I had decided to not heed my companion’s warning? What if I decided to let him ride ahead of me so that I could get a look without him knowing? What would the man have said to us then? I was sure glad that I followed the spirit and stayed the course of obedience. Had I not, this man never would have noticed and may have even thought less of the church. I learned a lot that day. I learned that Wickedness never could be happiness. Here was a man laced in sin. He sold terrible products that only deprived people of what they needed. They sought after things that were only mimicking the true and unmatchable feelings of true love. You cannot fake it. Satan knows our generation very well. He knows that sex is selling more products than any other form of marketing. He knows that the natural man follows his body much quicker than his heart.

There is a scripture in the Book of Mormon that teaches this principle very well. King Benjamin had been teaching his people before giving up his throne. He had served long and hard for and with his people. He was no ordinary king in that aspect, for he truly served his people. In the spirit of what men’s natural tendencies were, he taught, “For the ^anatural ^bman is an ^cenemy to God, and has been from the ^dfall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he ^eyields to the enticings of the Holy ^fSpirit, and ^gputteth off the ^hnatural man and becometh a ⁱsaint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a ^jchild, ^ksubmissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19). What a perfect scripture for this story! This man clearly did not understand what happiness really is. He had been so entrenched in sin that he didn’t even know it himself. Unfortunately this man did not accept the Gospel while I was there. I never did see him again on that street. I hope and pray that one day he will find the true light that comes from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I also hope and pray that the missionaries serving in that area uphold that same practice my companion and I did.

One of my favorite scriptures on this matter of what true happiness is, is Alma 41:10 from the Book of Mormon. In this passage, Alma was teaching his son Corianton. Corianton, though raised in a home of goodly parents, became a rebel in his later years of youth. He was called to be a missionary and to spread the good word to a wicked people. While on his mission, he caught the eye of a beautiful woman. This woman later seduced Corianton and it was not to his benefit. Alma took this opportunity to teach his wayward son of the gravity of his sin. He taught him of repentance and all that must take place in his life in order for him to be remitted in the presence of God. When speaking on the things to come after this life, Alma said, “Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10). Alma simply taught that a man cannot go from living a sinful life directly into the presence of God. A man must go through the process of repentance. He must have the spiritual change that was taught earlier by King Benjamin. You will not find peace in sin! You will not find happiness in transgression! That is Alma’s message. This may not have been what Corianton wanted to hear, but it is exactly what a loving father needed to tell his son. What else are fathers for, if they do not warn their children of the dangers in sin.

Just yesterday this lesson was reaffirmed to me. I went to Honolulu with some friends from school to see a movie. The movie was going great, even though the theater was a bit smaller than the size I was used to back on the mainland. There were only two sections of seats, the left and right side, which seems completely foreign to an American theater. This means the screen was a bit smaller and the walls a bit narrower. There were only about 15 people in the theater altogether and it only contained about 1/5^th of the amount of people they could fit in there. Three quarters of the way through the movie, just before the climax, a man stood-up out of his chair, he sat back down, and then right back up again. He was jittery and uncomfortable. It didn’t seem like he knew what exactly was going on, but he was in good company, because neither did we. He eventually got out of his chair, turned up the isle, took a few steps and plummeted to the floor, while hitting his head on an arm rest on the way down. The sound was very loud and not pretty. Everyone in the theater immediately jumped out of their seats to see what the matter was. The man lay unconscious on the floor until the medics came. Long story short, this man had drunk so much vodka that he had passed out completely. Tomorrow, this man will wake up wondering why he has a splitting headache and a massive gouge in his face. What he thought was giving him relief and joy, ended up sending him to the emergency room with a pretty bill placed on his bedside. By the clothes he had on, I imagine it will take him a while to pay off this adventurous weekend.

I hope we can all learn from these two examples. I hope that we can avoid misfortune in our lives by choosing first to obey the commandments. It is obedience that brings true joy. I know we can all do better in our personal lives to shut off the computer, turn off the television and pick up our scriptures. I know that if we can do this simple task, we will notice a gigantic change in our lives. I challenge you to identify areas in your life where you can improve. I know that as we remove the sin in our lives, we will feel a much lighter load on our backs. We will begin to feel the love of the Savior. He is there. He loves you and I. This is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

It aint over 'til it's over

It is hard to be a regular person after having experienced such a trip as Kauai, but I am doing my best to cope. I'd say the weirdest thing is that it is finals week, but it doesn't feel like it in the slightest. I have put forth my best efforts not to procrastinate anything this semester, and it has really paid off. Here I am in finals week and I have little to do. There are less classes so that students can work on their semester projects, but what happens to the students that have already completed their semester projects? I will tell you. I went to the beach for over an hour yesterday. I just laid there on the beach and watched the waves roll in. It was kind of weird. There I sat, while 200 yards away, hundreds of students were rushing to the library to study and do research.

 Another thing on my mind is going home. I don't to think of leaving this place, but I must. I am a crab in a beautiful shell, but this shell is getting small. I created this work of art, and now it is time for me to build a bigger and stronger one. I haven't regretted coming to BYU Hawaii for a second, not even a millisecond. I have grown so much from being out here. I have accomplished of few of my dreams out here:

Attend a University out-of-state

Clean the inside of a Temple

Learn to surf

Live on the beach

I don't think this is half bad considering the price I paid to get out here. I figured there really isn't another time in my life that I could do this. I wasn't even expecting to have fulfilled some of those dreams out here, but I did. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

The things I am excited about for home of course are my family, friends, and blankets. That's about it. Well, and obviously my snowboard. I can't wait to strap that baby on my feet and fly down the mountain.

That is a little of what I'm going through right now. Now to what happened over the weekend:
The school put on the infamous FALL BALL. I have never gone to a College Dance before, nor ever thought I would go. Dances were really fun in high school, but I thought it would be kind of weird to go to one in college. When the weekend approached, one of my good friends from the ward asked us that it was our duty to go to this dance. I was shocked, but apparently the school had paid roughly $30,000 for this dance. I was blown away. My friend told me that not many people were going to go to the dance and the school would have wasted all that money. Thus, it was our duty to participate.

The dance turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences I have had out here in Hawaii. There was an incredible meal just before the dance. It was an all you can eat steak buffet. They had mashed potatoes, fancy green beans, a mega salad and small refreshment tarts (chocolate and strawberry). You might say that sounds like an ordinary meal. It is, but not for a poor college student in Hawaii. I shoved down over two full plates that night.

After dinner we strolled on over to the dance floor with a live Jazz Band. This is where I began to see where all the money was spent on this dance. This band was exceptional! They had a great singer, solo artists on the saxophone, keyboard, flute and more. They played a wide variety of songs and it was just all out fun. Because we came to the dance as a group, and not individual dates, we just had a blast mixing and mingling with each other.

We did all sorts of stuff at this dance. They had rented out an entire ranch on the North Shore. They had karaoke in a barn in the back, dinner was under some huge tents in the pasture, the dance floor was not far from the dinner tents. They had torches lighting up the paths to each of these places. Unfortunately, we didn't take many photos. There wasn't much lighting anyway, but it was really cool.

Saturday and it was time to finish up my research paper. This photo illustrates what the whole day was for me. My paper was very interesting to me and I loved writing it. The topic of my paper was "By learning and applying Abraham Lincoln's leadership attributes, young entrepreneurs will be able to more effectively outsmart and outrun their competitors. Not a bad thesis. I talked about my paper with my professor yesterday, he loved it. He said I am going to do really well on it. I have also been talking to another professor on campus that knows a lot about Lincoln. He has about 30 books in his office on him, so he ought to know somethin'.

Well that'll be all for this week. I might get another blog off before I leave. Next week will be pretty simple. All of my finals fall on Wednesday. After that, I fly home saturday night. I'll have to fill in all those empty days with Beach, Surf Competitions, and Beach again. I am sure gonna miss this place. I am really excited to see most of you during Christmas Break. I better. I'll be home most of those two weeks spending time with the family and I cannot wait!!