I WANT A BABY!!

My BFF from high school blessed her baby today. I hadn't yet met cute little KATE. She is adorable and such a good baby. After the luncheon it was my turn to hold her. Most everyone had gone home by then I had her all to myself for a long time.

I think I need one of those! HOWEVER ...... I have heard that the preferred method is to find the husband first, so I guess I need to work on the "Two little lovers sittin' in the tree....K-I-S-S-I-N-G" part before we get to the "baby in the baby carriage" step.

FUTEBOL (AKA SOCCER)

Saturday Night I attended my first REAL soccer game. My cousin has season tickets and along with his wife he invited me and his sister to join them. We had a great time.
It didn't hurt that the weather was PERFECT and they won 3-0!
The half-time entertainment was great complete with drill team action and the practicing of some fancy foot action by the players AND one of the ball boys.

We even had a player go down that was taken off the field via stretcher. He was back up and walking around so I think he will be fine, in case you were worried.

Then there was the crazy fan that was sitting right in front of me. (I am sure that everyone has been to some sporting event with a crazy, ultra-loyal fan that really gets into the game. He came complete with "THE BELL" that he would ring for about 5 minutes with each of the 3 goals that RSL scored. Let's just say it was LOUD!

Speaking of soccer.......congrats to Brazil on beating USA in the FIFA Confederations Cup. If we didn't win it, my next pick would have been Brazil. While on my mission in Brazil, where they are very passionate about the game, I was given many soccer lessons. I even was forced to pick a team and was often asked who "my team" was. My team was the Sao Paulo Futebol Club only because they played at the Morumbi Stadium that was right by our mission president's apartment.

After last nights game, I apparently still have a lot to learn about soccer, but I had a great time!

Thanks guys for inviting me to tag along!

RIGHTEOUS WARRIORS

I recently was watching the BYU cable channel and came in at the middle of a talk given at BYU Education Week in 2006 by John Bytheway.

Are there some people that you could listen to all day long? Among several others, John Bytheway is one of those for me. This talk was entitled "Righteous Warriors: Lessons from the War Chapter in the Book of Mormon." It was fantastic! I think he did publish this as a book, so you might already know about it.

I am always amazed at the interesting stuff some can pull out of the scriptures. I think that my brain works very differently. In school, I always loved Math, but hated English. Math is very straight forward....2 + 2 will ALWAYS be 4, but English always seemed very subjective. After reading a book, the tree might represent or mean something different to one person that to the next. One must hope that they came up with the answer that the teacher was looking for.

Therefore, I struggle with interpreting symbolism. When I read the scriptures I get the story, but it is hard for me to dig deeper and to figure out what the stories/parables etc. are trying to teach me, what I should learn from them. Once someone explains something to me, it makes sense, but I don't think that I ever would have come up with that on my own.


I missed the first part of this talk and tried to find it on the internet. I was only able to find it in audio & video form (not the text). If you are interested click here. He discusses one lesson from each chapter in Alma 43-62 (He only makes it to Alma 55). I just thought I would share some of the lessons from this talk.


Chapter 43 = If we are going to be attacked spiritually, our prophets can tell us where the enemy will strike.
Chapter 44 = Faith in Christ is a power to be reckoned with - with even in war. Moroni stands as a witness of God in all places.
Chapter 45 = It is expedient that the word of God be declared in times of war.
Chapter 46 = Covenants are power! Place reminders of your covenants everywhere. (Pictures of Christ, the temple, etc.)
Chapter 47 = Lehonti principle-Don't come down from your mountain (lower your standards).....not even a little bit.
Chapter 48 = Spiritual Preparation FIRST!
Chapter 49 = If you are prepared, ye shall not fear.
Chapter 50 = We have to be humble enough to obey what the "watchmen" (prophets) are telling us to do. They can see things we can't.
Chapter 51 = Beware of Pride - It will destroy you.
Chapter 52 = Don't leave your stronghold! Beware of the enticements, distractions & decoys of Satan.
Chapter 53 = If you know the church is true, be true to the church.
Chapter 54 = Fear God more than our enemies. Meekness does not mean weakness.
Chapter 55 = They were not slow to remember their God in their affliction.

He then summarizes the spiritual & temporal lessons.


Spiritual Lessons From The War Chapters

• Repent
• Prepare for attacks on your faith
• Beware of the nature of Satan's strategems (Heleman 3:29)
• Overcome fear with faith in Christ (D & C 6:36)

Temporal Lessons From The War Chapters

• Military Strength without spiritual strength is weakness
• Proper attitude towards war - sorrow to take up arms (Alma 48:22-23)
• Importance of righteous leaders
• When the world gets you down, let Christ lift you up (Moroni 9:25)

I am grateful to have people and resources to help me better understand these things.

SO FAR, SO GOOD

Okay, so after one week I was actually SUCCESSFUL!

(I have heard you are not supposed to use the word "lose," because that implies you might find that weight again).

1.2 lbs. in fact. It's not a lot, but at least I am going in the right direction. Here's hoping that I can continue to achieve good results.

I might post a proud moment every week or so. My proud moment for this week was that I did not partake once from the "CANDY JARS" at work.

Let me explain......Downstairs by the receptionist's desk AND at the top of the stairs are 3 large glass jars (6 total). Each of the 3 jars are filled will candy of some kind. Usually it is Red Vines Licorice, Peanut M&Ms & Fun Size Candy Bars (Reese's, Kit Kat, Almond Joy, Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, Peanut & Plain M&Ms). I pass these jars about 20 times a day going up and down the stairs to talk to or take things to co-workers, and with the amount of water I have been trying to drink I pass the jars out by the reception desk a lot on the way to the bathroom. It is hard to stay out of this candy especially if I just grab a few M&Ms, but if you grab a few, ten different times, it really starts to add up.