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That boy.

So that one boy that has kinda been a huge part of my life, especially for the last year, yeah, Tristan...

Well today is day one of something that he has been longing to do his whole life!

 He is going on his MISSION!!!!

I am so so so excited for him! I am so glad that he made the decision long ago to forget about himself and do the Lord's work for our brothers and sisters.

I find it pretty awesome that he got called to serve in California where the weather is amazing, because he hates being hot...and I mean HATES IT. 

So last night I was able to talk to him one last time before he enters the MTC today, and it was great.

We talked about good times, we talked about things he had to do on his mission, and we made sure we knew his favorites so we can send him care packages!

But most importantly, Brittany and I told him that despite how much we are going to miss him, we don't want to see him before the two years are up!

I hope and pray that he will be able to do all things that the Lord has need of.

More than anything however, I hope he opens his mouth and shares all that he knows.

I'm sure that his fear of speaking will be chased away by the spirit.

Two years isn't too long.

Tristan, you're gonna do great!

Nostalgia

I miss colorguard.

I miss winterguard.

I wish so much that I could be in them still.

But I feel like I am in the right place...I really hope I am at least.

Thankfully workouts started today, zumba starts next week, and I am joining a dance class next semester.

Maybe then i will feel better.

After all, it is the dancing I miss the most.

I miss my girls alot, as well as Ms.Robbins, it doesn't get any better than Ms.Robbins that's for sure.

I look forward to seeing their performances, they look intense, and way awesome!

Who knows, maybe I'll see a winter guard performance live ;)

Lou-Gehrig’s is a Funny Thing

Living with a sense of humor helps me make it through life. It also is the only thing that kept my uncle alive. That’s a promise. 

Robert. That’s my uncle’s name. I like to think that Heavenly Father took Robert away from us because Heaven needs a little more sense of humor.  Even though this story is one of much heartache, and many tears, I hope to tell it with a bit of my uncle’s uplifting spirit.

Robert is my mom’s baby brother. He is the golden child; he is the only boy, you see. I think of this awful disease in a strange light. Think of a cow. You know how some farmers raise cows to be as plump as they can be without bursting, and then they send them to the slaughter so they can eventually be eaten? It’s pretty awful isn’t it? But guess what. You know those other cows that DIDN’T get slaughtered; they live long miserable lives of eating grass from familiar fields’ day-after-day. Meanwhile, those other cows lived short lives eating as much as they could and to them that was heaven, I’m sure! Now even though their lives were not of great length, those plump cows lived happy lives, and after they are gone they bring much happiness to testosterone crazed men who love to barbeque their lives away. Anyways, sorry to go off on a tangent about cows, but this all has a point. Robert refused to let a day go by that he wasn’t making someone, somewhere laugh. I don’t just mean laugh casually, I mean hysterically laugh until you find your chest hurting and your eyes watering.  I remember always looking forward to Robert’s visits, but by the time I was a teenager his visits became sparse.

Shortly before his fortieth birthday Robert developed a pain in his arm that he couldn’t seem to ignore. After sometime of being irritated by it, and asking around as to what it could be, he and his family came to conclusion that he had Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. So he scheduled a doctor’s visit. The doctor wasn’t convinced that it was Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, so he ran a few tests. On Robert’s fortieth birthday he received a phone call informing him that what he thought to be a minor problem was in reality the end of his life. He was diagnosed with Lou-Gehrig’s Disease and told all about it and the time frame in which he had left to live. Imagine being told when you are but forty years old that you will only have five years left to live. Now imagine that you have a daughter who has a hole in her heart and has to survive off of a battery powered pump, and a son who is but seven years old and sees you as the center of his whole world. Wouldn’t that hurt you so much inside? Not Robert, not him.

Robert saw this as a challenge. A challenge as to how much happiness he could bring to others in the few years he had left in this world. So as his challenge began, so did ours.

Lou-Gehrig’s Disease, explained in a nice way, slowly shuts down all the muscles in your body, drains your spinal fluid, and leaves you limp and useless until finally your heart shuts down, taking you out of your misery. It was not easy for my family, especially my mom, to comprehend how God could diagnose any of his precious children with this disease. It is not hereditary, contagious, and it is definitely not something you can avoid or cure. It comes to whom it wants, when it wants. Doctors cannot explain why it happens, or really even what it is. They only know what it does to the human body, but they also know they still can’t find the cure.

So as the years went by with us all suffering together, we created stories and adventures that are amongst the best times in my life. Often Robert would make a joke about his arm hanging limp beside his body. We didn’t find his sickness humorous in the least bit, but he made us laugh regardless. When he lost the ability to walk for long periods of time, he would try to race us while he was in his wheelchair pulling himself along with only the strength of his frail feet. Any time I walked into the room he would say with the biggest smile on his face, “you’re purdy!” I loved it when he said that to me. I knew he heard that saying off of Spongebob, the cartoon, so it was even more humorous.

In the few times that Robert would silently sit in his wheelchair and listen to the family’s conversations, he would sometimes go into a daze and stare into space and when he did I would look into his eyes. They were happy eyes, but I could tell they held pain deep within them. I think that’s what hurt me the most. Knowing that this was the happiest man I knew, but he had to hold more pain then I could imagine. I couldn’t imagine the pain he had, because he never showed it to us. He strived his whole life to be a happy man, and he succeeded. I have never met a man happier, in better times, as my dear Uncle Robert. He may be away from us temporarily, but his legacy lives on in our family. His jokes are still shared, his rabbi beard is still spoken of, we still call each other “purdy,” but most importantly his sense of humor still lives in this world through us, his family, and his strength.  So we still live here grazing on grass for the time we remain, while he enjoyed everything he had here on this earth, and became an inspiration for us all.

For him, I believe in finding the humor in this life…life is a funny thing.

Heavenly Father loves you, It's true.

I can't explain the warmth I have here in Rexburg, despite the harsh coldness already coming out way! I love it. I love everything lately. The Lord has blessed me with more than I could ask for right now. It is somewhat hard to take in. I have always thought it was hard to "love everyone" in the way that Christ does, but I think I am beginning to understand it. The spirit here encourages all to be true disciples of Christ. I love this gospel, I love my family, I love my friends, I love you all, but most importantly I love where the Lord has brought me. I plan on making the most out of being here at the Lord's university. At all times, remember these scriptures.

“The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light
and truth.”

“A man cannot be saved in ignorance.”

“Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this
life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.”

Raw Foods, Day 1.

So today was day 1 of my new Raw food diet.

No I am not eating raw meat or something nasty!

It simply means anything that is a "raw" food, I can eat it. 

Ex: fruits, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, nuts...blah blah blah.

And I can NOT eat anything that is or has to be cooked.

Ex: any and all meat, chips, potatoes...you know. 

But, GET THIS... Dairy is a no no as well! 

See this is what people don't know..

The reason that this raw food diet works when it comes to desperate measures for weight loss (in my case) is because sugars from fruit and other raw vegetables and what not are natural sugars that slowly make their way into your blood stream and they last longer, where as the sugars in nasty foods that are processed and all, go into your blood stream fast and leave fast. Also FAT is in cooked foods, if you are eating raw foods all day there is no fat! 

Some people may think this is crazy, but I am not asking for opinions on what I am doing.

Seriously, there are people who have taken this on as a lifestyle and have lost hundreds of pounds.

I have tried most everything when it comes to losing weight. And nothing has worked, so I'm hoping and praying that this is it! 

I encourage anyone who is looking for a great way to lose weight to look up peoples stories about results from raw food diets, it will convince you to try it.

Any ways, I hope day 2 gets easier. Today wasn't necessarily "hard" but it was difficult to have to turn away what everyone else was eating for lunch and dinner. 

But hey, I am determined and set on achieving my goals!

I can't believe some people.

Mormons are not crazy alien people who practice things that are unrealistic and/or ridiculous.

I guarantee that people would be surprised if they took the time and devotion to know the REAL truth about Latter-day Saints.

 People always get angry and accuse Latter-day saints of having "secrets" in our religion or in our Temples...

but if those people would be quite and listen they would realize...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no secrets.

We only have very sacred, personal practices in our religion. 

 

I have always felt the need to correct people when they are wrong, but everyone knows no one will admit to being "wrong"when they are shown the truth.

No one person can ever just give the truth of this gospel to anyone.

It is something that just like every other thing in life...

YOU your self have to truly have the want to understand the truth, and then you allow yourself to receive it.

People who preach anti-mormonism are simply wasting their time..

I mean honestly, what are you trying to prove?

We are not brain sucking, cult practicing freaks.

 

 Two things often brought up: Joseph Smith, and Polygamy

 

 

Joseph Smith was simply a man chosen by God to restore the true gospel on the face of the Earth. Joseph Smith's time was in the 1830's in a time of great confusion and religious excitement.

You learned about this in History class...

"The Great Awakening"

You may think it is a coincidence, but I choose to believe that God knew what he was doing and what he was starting.

As for the whole polygamy thing, this always gets changed around because the world we live in is perverted and ignorant.

The church was brought up after the civil war and many women's husbands were killed in the war, so as valiant men (only the most righteous were granted this privilege) they took care of women who were widowed after the war. This was not "I'm gonna marry as many woman as I can"  

NO.

Many women were left with no shelter, no food, and no income because of the loss of their husbands, and some men were able to take them in and give them a home, protection from those persecuting the Mormons, and food.

In the late 1800's this practice was stopped and banned from our religion, because it was no longer needed

 

So do realize that if you hear, see, or know someone who practices polygamy, they are by no means a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or as many call us by, Mormon.

 

 

If a person does not want to believe something that is a personal thing, and no one needs to judge them for that.

But I am a firm believer in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

and you won't ever see me going around bashing other people's religions.

WHY you ask?

Well, why waste my time bashing other's beliefs just because I have insecurites and guilt on the inside when I could be strengthening  myself in my faith, my beliefs,my testimony

"Would Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ want me to judge my brothers and sisters, his children, in my carnal ignorance?"

 

"Would Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ want me to persecute my brethren?"

 

I only know that I am doing what I feel I need to do when it comes to my faith, so why do so many people focus on sharing lies about Latter-day Saints when they could use that energy to strengthen themselves.

I understand that not everyone does or will understand the actual truth about Latter-day Saints, but realize that when any one tries to learn about anything with a stiff neck and no actual intention of learning...they won't learn..

This principle stands in school, in work, and at home..

and it is no different when it comes to learning about religion.

You know the good ol' saying our mother's all said to us growing up...

"If you don't having anything nice to say, don't say anything."

Well I think

"If you don't have any truth to share, don't share anything at all."

But of course, I do realize that there will always be those people who will choose to remain ignorant and not understand the truth about how amazing, pure, and absolutely true this gospel is.