We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

So I'm in this video for like one second.  But Karina and Ellie are very much featured in it.  And Eric is in my ward - so DUH I have to share it :)

Watch! Share! Boost of the views! Check out Eric Thayne on youtube :)

curse of breaking things

I have a curse.  No really, I do.  And while I write this I can't even laugh at myself anymore.  I just want to cry.

It all began with my Dell computer a year ago.  Don't even know what happened, it just decided not to turn back on again.  Started making weird beeping noises and overheating.  I lost everything.  After a couple weeks without a computer I decided to rent from BYU.  Let's just say I went through SIX of them.  Same sort of thing, they decided not to turn on.  One couldn't hold a charge for more than five minutes.  Sometimes I would back things up, other times I forgot to back some stuff up.  So I hardly have any papers or anything I wrote from my freshman year of college.  After going through six PCs, I bought a Mac.  Haven't had any problems whatsoever.

But the computers are only just the beginning.  I dropped my phone in water.  Oops.  Had to borrow someone's.

I went on a bike ride on Karina's bike.  Crashed it.  Broke the tire.

My ipod.  Kept deciding not to play stuff and the computer finally didn't recognize it anymore.  It's dead.  Maybe it got dropped too many times, I'm not sure.

I crashed my family's car on the way home from Utah (sorry, guys).  This one really isn't that funny, more like traumatizing.  But my roommates still insensitively laugh at me about it.

When I came back from AZ to Utah this year, my camera all of a sudden had a lens error.  No idea where that came from - it was working in the airport and decided not to work once we landed in Utah.

When I was in California I dented a bike rack.

And now, just yesterday, I wake up and my phone decides to completely die on me.  The touch screen is fried.  It lasted me so long....like 8 months.  That's a record.

So now I'm phoneless, without a camera or an ipod.  My computer still works, thank goodness.  And I was smart enough to get insurance on it just in case.

I also seem to have a problem with breaking toilets too.

I know material things aren't what make life wonderful.  But I like having working electronics.
I have a problem.  I swear, I don't throw my phones against the wall or smash my cameras with hammers.  Maybe I'm clueless, maybe there's some rule to technology everyone in the world knows about except me.  If there is, could you please tell me?  Because I'm sick of this.

I think I'll go cry myself to sleep now :)

Remembering Names

“Remember that a man's name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

For the past couple of weeks, I have started my new job as a Peer Mentor through BYU's Freshman Mentoring program.   As soon as I came to BYU a year ago and met my peer mentor, I knew it was a job I would love participating in.  Being a mentor at Chandler Prep and being the oldest of seven children, I have always found myself in that "mentor" role.  I'm an Anthropology major, so I love to meet people, get to know them, and understand them.

Getting ready for New Student Orientation brought some anxiety but mostly excitement.  I had been training to meet these students for so long, and I finally got to meet them and get to know them!  And once I did, everything became so tangible.  Names became faces, and the real work began.

Now, something I don't like to admit - I can't remember names.  I will recognize so many faces around campus - of people I've never even met.  I have a favorite couple I see walking around everywhere, but they probably have no idea who I am.  She works in the Science and Maps section of the library, and they're quite adorable.  I know their faces, but I could never tell you their names.  With this lack of a gift that I have, I was worried about NSO.  For the days before it, I kept praying that I could remember names.  I still keep praying for that.  Because "a man's name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language."

I mean, honestly, if someone calls me by my name, I feel valued.  They know my name; they remember me.  And I would hate to make someone feel like they are not valued by not remembering their name.  And guess what?  I am remembering names so much more now!  A simple prayer that has been answered and has strengthened me.

God knows each of us by name.  He can name all of his children by name.  Jesus Christ suffered for each of us individually.  He knows our name, our deepest fears, our happiest joys, and our hardest trials.  My burdens are His burdens.  And when I can't sleep at night when I'm thinking about my students, because I care so much about them already, I know Christ has mine and their burdens too.  I love Him, and I am eternally grateful that He will forever know my name.

How Great Thou Art

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,

Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,

Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,

How great Thou art, How great Thou art.

When I look at the stars, overlook a valley from the top of a mountain, or admire the detail of delicate butterfly wings, I am in “awesome wonder” God’s creations and perfect love.  Surrounded by nature, I am humbled by God’s magnificence and cannot help but thinking, “How great Thou art.”

Glacier National Park - Montana

Whitefish, Montana Summer 2011

Singing the words to “How Great Thou Art” is a “prayer” (Doctrine and Covenants 25:12) unto my “Lord my God.”  

 Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, is manifest throughout all of His creations.  His light is throughout the world, and sometimes we fail to recognize and be humbled by this.  I am very grateful for the beautiful world that surrounds us, and I know that Christ’s light is throughout the world.  The simple beauties that surround us testify of Christ, and all things point to Christ.  If Christ is the center of our lives, then all of our questions and doubts can be answered.