Genuine Fake Watches for sale!

Today, I'm typing from the Kirkwood Highway Library, over in Newark.  It's a cool mid-size structure, with big plate-glass windows and a fancy decorative facade.  It's got a good selection of books, too, so it's not too bad.

I'm on an exchange with Elder Hidalgo, a cool elder from Chile.  About 5'5", he's a good elder with a good testimony.  Strappy little guy, too.  He is the smallest of the four spanish elders in our district, but he's always good for anything.  Little by little, he's overcoming his fears, and becoming stronger.  Just last friday, we had a wrestling match.  (A little uneven, I think:  Me, at 6'3" and 270 pounds, against him at 5'5" and maybe 170.)  I won, but in the course of the match, I shattered the crystal on my watch. 

So, here in Newark, I went to the Farmer's Market.  It's a nice little warehouse-ish thing, and has a jewelery kiosk where they sell cheap watches.  Now, I sport a  ten-dollar watch, and am feeling slightly guilty for supporting people who make cheap stuff in China.  Because I was actually able to inspect the watches, and check that they actually work, I was able to avoid buying a cheap, imitation product. (To read more about fake watches, click here and here.)

There was one watch that I really admired.  It was nice, shiny, had three dials, and I could see myself wearing something like that.  But, when I asked to see it, I took a nice close look at it.  Those three dials for date, month, and year?  Painted on.  Total fake.

In life, we need to check out what we do.  Really, that's all that we ask anyone to do.  We have a message.  As in all things, we need to check whether something is real or not.



A plastic hat is probably a good sign of a fake.

 Imagine that you're walking down the streets of New York city, and a stereotypical guy in a trenchcoat walks up and spreads his coat wide.  Inside, there's row after row of glittering watches: Rolex, Breitling, TAG Heuer, all in gold, leather, silver, and of course very expensive.  The man rubs his unshaved cheeks, and says, "$40 bucks. Take your pick."

Now, it's possible that the watches are real Rolex watches.  But, how can you be sure? 

The only way is to compare it with the genuine product.  That's really all that we ask people to do:  Look at what we have.  Compare it with the Bible, always having an open mind.  Most important, ask God.  I'm sure He knows what's true and what's not.  If you ask him, you can be confident that he will answer your questions.

Mission pictures

After forty minutes of struggling to upload photos around the restrictions placed on me by the library's system, I give up.  Elder Winter, one of the assistants to the presidents here, wants me to send him fifteen pictures for a slide show, kind of summarize my mission in fifteen pictures.  I'm able to upload them fine.  It's just this one part where I have to Email the pictures to him.  I can't, because the library system doesn't allow us to save documents.  When I asked the woman at the reference desk, she said that it's mostly to spare the system.  If everyone were to upload, save, and do whatever, then the system would be a mess.  (I notice that the downtown library seems to do pretty well with it.)

So, I'm going to see if I can't download the pictures here and send Elder Winter the pictures that way.

A flash picture taken during Hurricane Irene.

Light exposure is everything.

Susquehanna!

Now, for the pictures sent home and uploaded by my mother.  Let us see if he can't extract them.
 Me and the Liberty bell had a thing...
Thank you, President Winegar.
 Joaquin and Alvaro, the first found-to-baptism people I ever had.
For the record, I started it.
First saturday of the mission, and we get a blizzard.
I think it's some kind of rule: Every missionary needs this shot.
What a pair of goofballs...

Hopefully, this will work.
If not, I'll never really know.

Life is good.

New resolutions

As I sat at my desk this morning, idly picking at the spot where the plastic finish is coming off, I looked at the calendar and realized something:  In exactly two weeks, I will be flying home.  Two years of being a full-time servant of the Lord will have come to an end.  It's a rather sobering thought. 

With only two weeks left to go, I've come to a decision.  I will finish strong.  In the past, I've broken mission rules.  Nothing serious, but the little things have always gotten at me.  Reading outside the mission library,  wasting time online, watching TV, little stuff like that. 

That's done.

I have fourteen days left.  I don't want any regrets.  As such, I am deciding to live each one of these days as if it were my last.  By taking it one day at a time, I can make better decisions.  I can choose to be exactly obedient to each and every one of God's rules.

Of course, there will be pitfalls.  (Interestingly, when I went to Google to look up a picture for pitfalls, I got a bunch of screenshots for a video game I didn't know about.)  When we go into people's houses, and they've got futbol games blaring away, it's difficult to ask them to give up futbol for even thirty minutes.

But I know that with Faith, all things are possible.  All I have to do is the little things; scripture study, prayer, the choice of a seat in a house with a TV on.  It's all a matter of what I choose to do.

Let's do this thing.

Lessons learned on the mission

I think that today I'll talk a bit more about lessons that I've learned on my mission.  It's been a good two years. (Well, just short of two years, but who's counting?)  I've served in around seven different east coast cities, and I've seen more of and learned more about people than in the rest of my life.  If anything else, it's taught me the people that I don't want to be.  It's also taught me a bit about time.

Time is one of the most valuable resources in the world.  Once spent, it can never be refunded, returned, or exchanged for store credit.  It's gone for good. 

We have the God given gift of choice.  We can choose what to use our time on.  We could use our time to surf the internet, exchanging an hour of our life for a few cheap chuckles.  We could read a good book, and learn more about the world.  Or, we could spend a few minutes talking with God and be enlightened.

I know that if I choose to do what is right, God will bless me with success.  Life is better when we follow the example set by Jesus Christ.

Pencils

We were over at the house of one of our friends.  Edgar and Karen are some of the strongest members in our little congregation here in Wilmington.  We had gone over to help them with some translation work, making sure that they had some paperwork in order.  They invited us to stay over for lunch, a nice rice-beans-and-chicken combo.  (Sometimes, I suspect that they ask us to do chores as an excuse to get us over there.)  While we were there, we got to talking about life, and hwat we have to do, and especially what we as missionaries can do better.  He got to talking about how we should use examples for everything we teach, and back it up with scriptures.

One of the examples that he gave us is really good.  Edgar talked to us, and asked wheter we have faith.  Of course, we said yes.  Then, he pulled a pencil from his pocket and asked a question.  "Says in the Bible that with faith, you can move mountains.  Can your faith move this pencil from this hand to the other?"

Well, my companion sat there grunting and thinking about it for a while, and admitted that he could not.  I had seen the example before and so knew the answer.  Reaching for the pencil in his hand, I transferred it to the other hand.

"Exactly."

Just like it says in James chapter 2,

14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. ~James 2:14-24

If we will show God our faith by doing what he says, we will see miracles in our lives.  We will have eternal life, and nothing that Satan throws at us will be able to bring us down.

What to do when life happens to you

So, a few days ago, it snowed.  I have to say, it feels really weird to see the white stuff before November even starts.  We only got about half an inch, but it really felt weird.  My friends from Utah say that this is normal.  I disagree.  (Until I was about fifteen, we never got enough over in Redmond to actually stick.  Then, in two years we got about two feet of snow.  It was a real pain, especially since I couldn't really get around on a bike.  Not unless you have something like this...)

It just goes to show that life is never predictable.  Sometimes, crap happens.  Over in NYC, all the snow downed a lot of trees, and some estimates say that it will cost around 500 grand to replant new trees.  Life is not too hot over there.  (That's why there's snow.)

Why is life so hard?  If God truly cared about us, why would he let us go through such trials?

I kind of like a talk given in General Conference a few years ago.  One of the speakers asked the audience, "Would you hurt your child, and make her cry, for something she didn't do?"  He went on to say, "Of course!  When you take a child to the doctor, and give her a flu shot, your child is hurting and crying!  Why would you do something like that?"

The answer is simple.  You know why it will help your child.

In this life, sometimes we can't see the resons for the trials and the hard times.  We are like children, crying on the doctor's table.  But as we grow up, and learn from the past, we learn more about why bad things had to happen, and say, "I'm glad God was watching out for me."

To read the entire talk, go here.

Lessons learned on the mission:

Today, I just thought I'd share some lessons that I've learned on my mission.  As missionaries, we leave everything behind for two years to go teach the Gospel.

The first one, I'd say, was prompted by what I did on Wednesday.  Wednesday morning, at five-thirty in the morning, we got a phone call from one of our members.  We had talked about maybe us running with him in the morning.  I was half hoping that he had forgotten it, since I despise running.  To quote Neal Armstrong, first man on the moon, "I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running up and down a street."  (I'm quite willing to spend a few playing soccer, though.  Interesting.)

But, sure enough, at 5:30 we get a call saying that he'd be in front of our house at 5:45, maybe 45 minutes before we normally get up.  We got dressed, put on our running shoes, and huddled back in the covers in hopes that they would still have some residual warmth.  He arrived all too quickly, and we got into his little Protege.  (Incidentally, this is exactly the same kind of car that I had back at home.)

We drove over to a little park he knew of, Greenbank Park.  It's a nice place, and all the jogging paths were lit by little streetlights.  I'm groaning, still half asleep, and really wishing that I was back in bed.  We got out of the car, and walked over to the path.  I thought it was interesting that there on the pavement, there was a little line that marked "Start / Finish."



Rocky ran too.



We got jogging, and it wasn't all that bad.  Sure, I was tired, and I was just trying to maintain my position a couple dozen yards in front of Francisco and Elder Lindsley.  I think that's the longest I've run for a long while.  The path that we were running on had little markers painted on the concrete, "1/4 mile," "1/2 mile," etc.  I had thought, when I saw that first one, to run up til the 3/4 mark and stop running there.  Somehow I missed it, and for the first time in two years, I ran a full mile non-stop.

 My companion tells me that running is more mental than physical.  (In that case, I'll just get cut by thinking about running.)  I didn't believe it until I saw that marker there. 

In life, we can do whatever we want.  We're able to grow up and be whatever we want.  The choices that we make will determine who we become, and ultimately whether we are happy or not.  In the words of Lehi, a prophet living about 600 BC,

Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself. ~2 Nephi 2:27

We can be happy, I know, only through Jesus Christ.  He is the source of all that is good, and can help us in more ways that we can imagine. 


Now for lesson two learned in the mission:

It's not a good idea to microwave a hard-boiled egg.

Autumn!

I have to say, I'm all for fall.  By that, I mean that I love fall.  It's my favorite time of year.  The leaves change color, wind blows through your hair, and you really feel alive.  As the leaves gently fall off of the tree, you get the lovely crunch of foliage under your feet.  It's not too cool, but not too hot either.

Fall, to me, is when God gets out his big paintbox, and doesn't spare anything.  Oranges and yellows mix with the much tamer browns, while the blue sky outside shares space with cirrus clouds.

To me, autumn is a witness to God.  He exists, and Autumn is my proof that he loves us.  He wants us to be happy.

Really, that's why he sent Jesus Christ to pay for our sins.  Through him, we can be clean from all sins.  We can be free. 

The computer is timing out. I'm talking about time. What luck.

I'm sitting here in the Newark Public library.  Finally, a decent computer.

As I waited for the computer to become available, I was just stunned by how much information we have at our fingertips.  In each bookshelf, we have at least a hundred books, each one hundreds of pages long.  In the bookshelf to my right, we have books of history, the presidency, a seperate book about the president's wives, the civil war, a book about native american tribes, another one listing TV shows from 1995 to 2007, over in the shelves even further to the right, you have two books on D&D. (I checked.  Habit.)  You have Mormonism for Dummies, you have shelf after shelf of paperback romance books, you have Terry Pratchett, and an incredible amount of information.  If you were to live here, and just start reading books, you might finish them all before you die.  Maybe.

There's just too much information here in the world for any one man to process.  That's in books alone.  Then, you have the Internet.  Even if you were to remove all redundant material...Click here for something mindblowing.

As the first little picture there says, if you were to read all of the Internet from one end to the other, it would take 57,000 years reading nonstop.

In all this, it's important to prioritize.  There are things that are downright bad, things that are good, better, and best.  We each have 80 or so years, a gift from God to use as we see fit.  If we choose, we could go to lolcats and read all about certain cats are denied cheezburgers.  We could spend any amount of time reading on forums about webcomics, gaming, books, fantasy, romance.  (I should know, that's how I spent a lot of time three years ago.  Except for the romance part.)

But that wouldn't be best. 

God has commanded us to seek wisdom from the best books.  I know that if we will spend time reading from the best books, something I've interpreted to mean the scriptures, we will have happier lives.

You can find the Scriptures with your local missionaries.  Or, since you're on a computer right now, why don't you check out the scriptures right now?

Musings on Mormon

My voice is back to normal, thank goodness.  After a chili eating contest with a mexican, I was afraid that I had done some permanent damage.

I've been reading the Book of Mormon lately, and I am constantly amazed by the sweet Spirit that I feel whenever I read it.  In times of trouble, it helps me to rise up.  Life is easier, and I've actually found that I look forward to opening up this wonderful book.

The Book of Mormon sustains me.  It, more than anything else, helps me to know that this is the true church of Christ.  As it says in Matthew 7,

My Life, Gaming, and the Gospel: Sneak Attack!

Time played a rather rude trick on me a few days back.  As missionaries, we each pay $400 a month into a missionary slush fund to diffuse the cost a bit.  It goes towards rent, electricity, gas, and all that fun stuff.  Less expesive missions need less, while more expensive missions need more.  In this mission, we get all of the housing taken care of, and we get $130 per month to spend on food.  Since we go grocery shopping every monday, and since October has five mondays, this means that this month we have slightly less pocket money than usual.  I was sitting at my desk, looking at the calendar and the amount of cash that I had left, working on my budget.  I flipped up the calendar to the month of November, to see how many weeks were in November, when I stopped short.  The six week period we're in, at the end of which I return home to Washington, ends half-way through November.  I just sat there and thought a bit: in three weeks in this month, and three weeks next month, I'd be sitting at home.

So what do I do now?

It kind of felt like something out of Dungeons and Dragons.  There's this whole class called the Rogue.  They're schtick is that they sneak up on something and stab it.  It does more damage than usual, and is a real pain.  (Since I like to play big guys with big swords, I'm usually the target.)

Sometimes, we have something similar in life.  We're just going about, doing our job, helping others, when something comes out of nowhere and smacks us.  Why does this happen to us?  Is God punishing us?

Of course not.  To say that bad things only happen to bad people is also to say that good things only happen to good people.  God is not punishing you.  He loves you, and wants you to be happy.  Sometimes bad things just happen. 

However, God has a plan.  It is so wide in scope that we really can't take it all in.  He has his eyes placed on Eternal Life.  These eighty-or-so years that we have are just a drop of water in the Pacific Ocean compared to that.  While it seems everything to us, God knows what is truly important. 

I know that as we trust in Christ and repent, and are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end, we will have the eternal life that God wants so badly to give us.  If we move forward even in the tough times, we'll have eternal life.

And now, the definition of a sneak attack:

It's kind of weird to think that I am now almost at the end of my mission.  I have a transfer left, which translates out to forty-two days.  Well, 41 now, but who's counting, right?

I feel like I've begun to get it.  Things are starting to work out.  If there's one thing that I've learned from my mission, it's to trust in the Book of Mormon.  I know that as we read its pages, we will always find something to guide us.  God loves us, and wants us to have success.

I love my mission.  Let's do this thing.

Suuuuuusquehanna!

Not quite the same ring as Ooooooklahoma, but still awesome.  Yesterday, I was glad to get up at four thirty AM so that we could be in Broomall on time for the bus going to Susquehanna.  Susquehanna county, NY, is where much of the Book of Mormon was translated.  I didn't bring my camera cable here, so unfortunately I am unable to upload pictures at this time.  Maybe later on.

For now, I just want to say that I know that the priesthood was restored there.  I felt the spirit myself, and know that it's true.

Now have some Google pictures.

I'll come back and upload my own.  Promise.

Temple!

On Saturday, construction was officially begun on the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Temple.  That means that there will now be a temple inside of our mission boundaries!  And what an awesome looking temple it is.  Sturdy, and with a nice old-fashioned look to match the buildings around it.  I heartily approve.

(For information about the Philadelphia Temple, see http://mormontemples.org/philadelphia.)

For those who don't know what a temple is, let's go to the first instance of a temple in the Bible.  In Exodus 25, the Lord told Moses that the people of Israel must make him a house, a Tabernacle.  It was to be of the finest gold, brass, and the people were to give everything willingly.  This would be a holy place where people could go to be close to God, where God could manifest himself to his people.  The camp of Israel was organized by tribe, with the tabernacle at the center.  You could say that the tabernacle was the center of their lives, since any meat to be eaten had to be killed at the temple.  It was symbolic of how God ought to be the center of our lives.

This tabernacle served the Israelites for many years, until it was replaced by Solomon's Temple, a larger, grander version of the temple.  It served the same function, as did the Law of Moses, that of constantly reminding the people of God.  Although this temple was later destroyed, other temples were built to replace it.

When Christ was crucified, temple worship changed a bit.  To tell the truth, in 70 AD the Temple of Herod was destroyed by the armies of Caesar, and the temple was never rebuilt. 

Until...

As part of the Restoration of the Gospel, God told Joseph Smith to build temples.  During his lifetime, only one was built.  Nowadays, we have over a hundred.

These unique buildings serve a sacred purpose.  We believe the promise given to Peter in Matthew 16:19.  Families can be sealed together, not just of this life (til death do ye part), but for all eternity.  That means that after you die, you will still be family.  Your grandfather will still be your grandfather, your son will still be your son, and your wife will still be your wife.

I know that if I were in Heaven, and were not able to be with my family, I'd want to go whereever they were.  It wouldn't be heaven without my family.

Life is good.

Life, Legos, and the Gospel

Let's talk a bit about Legos.  As I've stated back in a previous post, I love them.  They're fun little bits of plastic, aren't they?  (Expensive too, at about 10 cents each...)  You can build pretty much anything and everything with them.  Me and my companion, Elder Lindsley, were just yesterday debating whether or not one could build a house out of legos.  We came to the conclusion that if we had enough bricks and enough superglue, there would be nothing wrong with it.

Here's a look at just some of the weird things people have built with Legos:

• A list of ten weird creations, including an ipod case, a knitting machine, a difference engine, a NES, and a Mac.
• A Rubix Cube solver
• A fully Functional Guitar Hero controller
• The Arc Du Triomphe

• Now just tell me this is not cool. ^
• Last, but definitely not least, The Brick Testament.  The Bible, now in Legos.  Actually really funny.
• If you're hungry for more, go to Seankenney.com

It kind of makes me really respect God a lot more.  Imagine that you are God.  Your task is to organize a world for your children, and all you have to use are Legos.  You have to make it big enough to hold six billion or more people, to be self sustaining, to give light, life, and generally have a place for all your creations and children to live. 

Sure, you have a lot of legos.  But they're still Legos.

Just think about the good job that God has done.  We are living on a world made of things even smaller than Legos.  We're all made out of those atoms.  God loves us, and has provided a way for us to succeed here on this earth.  He is much more intelligent than we can ever hope to be.  In his love, he has provided a way for all of us to become like him.  Jesus Christ came to earth, and suffered for our sins.  It's called the Atonement, and through Jesus Christ we can become perfect.

The Face don't want to listen

As I sit here in the library, blankly staring at the screen, I've realized two things.  First, for some reason the screen settings are tweaked in such a way as to make it impossible to remove the blurs before and after everythign on the screen.  I shall have to persist in my typing, though fifteen minutes in I already have a headache.  The things I go to to get my internet fix...

The second think is that I have no idea what to write about.  So, I think I'll just write about people.

See, people are a bit funny sometimes.  At times, they're wonderful people, and will sit and talk to us for an hour on the sidewalk, park bench, or where-ever.  At other times, we have drug deals on the corner, marijuana smoke drafting into our apartment through the AC unit, murders, rape, pillage, genocide, all that fun stuff that humans are capable of.

Then, we have the other people.  These people just ignore us.  We'll greet them with a cheerful, "What's up?" or maybe a more serious, "How's it going?"  Then, we wait, and they walk past us, usually without eye contact.  There may or may not be earbuds helping them ignore us, but usually not.

I really don't understand this, to tell the truth.  Why don't people want to hear what we have to say?  In most cases, I think it comes from not understanding our message; they honestly don't know what we have to offer.  They don't understand that we have what they need; they cannot get to heaven except by fulfilling the conditions that God has set, which include an authorized baptism.  They simply can't. 

I wish I was able to help people understand.  Like Alma, at times I wish to say,

1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

 2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.

 3 But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me. ~Alma 29: 1-3

Oh well.  As it is, we'll have to keep doing it the old fashioned way.  It's like a sign I saw once:  With faith, you can move mountains; just don't act too surprised when God hands you a shovel.

Migra Migra Migra!

So, I am a Spanish missionary.  I like it.  The people are usually very friendly, and if you make them laugh they'll talk to you for hours.  Plus, they feed you.  Oh, boy, do they feed you.  Empanadas, enchiladas, tacos, tortas, carne asada, mole, sope, and a number of american dishes as well.  Love the people.

I often talk to people about life.  Where are they from, how long have they been here in the United States, what's their favorite food, how's their family.  I often ask them why they're here?  By that, I mean to say, "Why did they come to the United States?"  I mean, why go to all the trouble of traveling to the border, paying over five thousand dollars to a person called a Coyote in order to cross safely, get here in a country that speaks a language radically different from their own, and then go through all the struggles of getting a job, apartment, and raising children with neither social security card, US identification, credit history, or usually a GED?  Life is not easy for a hispanic immigrant.  Why bother?

Usually, the answer is to get a better life.  It's not fun, it's very difficult, and you have to constantly be on the outlook for la Migra.  But, there's work here in the United States, and there's relatively little in Mexico.  (I'm not going to argue about politics.  They're here, that's all I care about.)  They need jobs to take care of their families there, to build themselves a nice house there, to do all manner of good things.  They understood the risks, and decided that the potential gain was much greater.

In the same way, all of us here on this earth have taken a decision.  Though we don't remember it, we all made a choice to come to this earth.  Back before the beginning of time, we lived with God.  He is, and has always been, our loving Heavenly Father.  He wants what's best for us.  Although he has a glorified, perfect, immortal body, back then we didn't; instead, we were spirits.  We had arrived to a point where we could no longer progress.

So, Heavenly Father called us all to a grand council to discuss the issue.  He told us of his plan; we could go to a place he had prepared for us, called Earth.  There, we would take physical bodies, and be able to choose.  A  part of being able to choose is that some of us would probably not make it back; we'd make bad choices, and disqualify ourselves from having all that God wants to give us.

As part of this plan, Jesus Christ was chosen to be the Savior.  He would make it possible for all of us to come back to God.  It would require faith and repentance on our part, and perfect obedience, pain and suffering on His,  but if we were to fulfill the conditions we could become clean through his Atonement.

We were all tremendously excited.  But then, Lucifer stood up and proposed a different plan.  Instead of having free choice, and perhaps falling, he suggested that we would all be escorted through this existence, and be forced to do what was right.  Nobody would fall away, and for all this he suggested that maybe he should get the credit, and be God for a while.

Amazing as it is, a third of heaven followed Satan, as he came to be called.  They will never receive the chances that we have, and never have bodies.  However, we are here because this life is something good.  We can learn.  It's not easy.  We understood the risks, and we decided that the potential gain was much greater than any risk.

(For a child's version of this history, with accompanying scriptures, see The Old Testament Children's Storybook)

Life, Movies, and the Gospel: Pirates of the Carribean

So, raise of hands, who here loves Pirates of the Carribeans?  I mean, you have a coming of age story, an unlikely hero, a romantic love-interest, a cuckoo captain, black magic, aztecs (a long time before the movies anyway), the aztec's gold, and a whole lot of funny moments.  What's not to like?

This is, of course, only about the first movie.  The second movie was a two-and-a-half hour long advertisement for the third movie, and the third movie was a three-hour-long tie-up-the-loose-threads exercise.

So, let's start with Will Turner.  I really think that he's the main character, because he's the one who actually does stuff.  (You know, character progression?  That kind of thing?)

At the start of the first movie, Will is basically a nobody.  He's the under-appreciated apprentice of a drunkard blacksmith.  He knows nothing about who he is, except that he was taught to fight pirates.  Accordingly, he learns to fight pirates, prompting this interchange of dialogue when he meets the pirate Jack Sparrow:
Jack Sparrow: [looking at all the swords] Who makes all these?
Will Turner: I do. And I practice with them three hours a day.
Jack Sparrow: You need to find yourself a girl, mate. Or perhaps the reason you practice three hours a day is that you already found one, and are otherwise incapable of wooing said strumpet. You're not a eunuch are you?
Will Turner: I practice three hours a day, so when I meet a pirate, I can kill it.

Unfortunately, Romantic Interest Elizabeth Swann is kidnapped by pirates, who turn out to be undead, cursed pirates.  With an undead, cursed pirate monkey.
And thus, an unlikely hero in search of his romantic interest accompanies the cuckoo captain to combat the ghastly ghosts.  (Would they be zombies?)  Along the way, Will comes to know who he really is: the son of a pirate.  With that in mind, he really starts to grow.  He returns to combat more pirates, and eventually defeats them.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we should compare Piracy with anything in the Gospel.  Maybe I am.  What I'm talking about is growth.  Let's think about what would have happened had Will just been told he was a regular guy?  I mean, no memory loss, no mysterious past, just a loving adoptive family?  Nothing.

In the same way, were we to just be here on this earth, everything hunky-dory, we would never grow.  We can never underestimate the value of this time here on earth.  We can choose to grow, to learn, and to become more like Jesus Christ.  However, we can also choose to do nothing, become less, and eventually lose all that we have.  It's all up to us.

Watch update: This too shall pass.

Aaaand, because I trusted my elders quorum president, I no longer have a new watch.  (He also steals ties.) And, somehow all of my watches have conspired to die at the same time.  I'm currently using the pocketwatch that Elder Bingham left behind.  Not nearly as cool.

Still, life goes on.  It kind of reminds me of a story from Persian poetry.  There was once a king who had almost everything.  He charged his wise men to make him a ring that would make him happen when sad, and sad when happy.  They returned, and gave him a ring engraved "This, too, shall pass."

It's so true.  When we're feeling down, or when we feel like we just can't go on, all we need to do is remember that "This too shall pass."

And now, something completely unexpected when I searched "This too shall pass" in Google.

On watches and fish hooks

So, yesterday, I found myself in need of a new watch.  Rather, say not that I needed a new one, but that I rather desired a new one.  While we were in Family Dollar yesterday, to buy my companion a desk lamp, one of the watches at the front desk caught my eye.  It looked good.  Stainless steel, with three dials, month, date, and one dial that I still don't know what it's for.  I checked out the price tag, and was shocked to see that it was only $8.00.  Snag that one, I said.  Picking it up and congratulating myself on being such a savvy businessman, I bought it and took it home.

It looks something like that.  Now, that's a mighty handsome watch, I thought as I cut through the packaging.  Pulling off the bit of plastic that held the crown away from the body, I began to adjust it, to try to move the date hand to the 1st of September.  However, after about thirty seconds of watching the hands go around the face, I realized that I had been taken in.  This watch, almost too good to be true, had turned out to be just that.  My desire to get something good for less led me to get just what I paid for:  a normal, good looking watch, with three extra dials glued onto the face.

So, not so savvy.

Sometimes, we do the same thing in life.  We look at something, and say to ourselves, "Now that's nice."  Whether it's a car, or a nice house, a boat, for me it might be a good set of books or a computer, we say, "Dang.  If I had that, I would be happy."  It begins to occupy our thoughts, and we begin to obsess.  When we get it, we open it with relish, only to find out that this package doesn't contain happiness.  It only contains a product of the world.

You see, Satan doesn't want us to be happy.  He's bitter that he lost the war, and I believe that he knows he'll eventually lose the war with God.  However, he and all his followers have dedicated themselves to taking down as many as they can with them.  Like the old proverb says, "Misery loves Company."  He tricks us, promising us happiness if we do what he says.  When we, like a fish entertained by the promise of an easy meal, go after Satan's worm, he sets the hook.

The best things in life are never easy.  I'm trying to lose weight by eating less, because I believe the end goal to be worth it.  My companion and I teach people every day a message that is radically different from the world and its standards.  Obeying these rules would place most people out of their comfort zones.  In this world, it is not popular for people to not drink coffee.  It's not popular for young men to just give up two years of their life and about ten thousand dollars to serve God.  It's not easy.

It's not meant to be.

The greatest gift that God has for us is eternal life.  As a friend of mine once said, "There's only one thing that  we need to change in order to go to heaven:  Everything."  It made me laugh then, but it's true.  If we truly expect to be in God's kingdom, we must give up everything and trust in Christ.  He has paid the price for us, and is willing to help us.  If only we would allow him to help us, we could be happy.  And this is the kind of happiness that lasts, joy.

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." ~2 Nephi 2: 25

I know this is true.  Although I am a bit disappointed at myself for buying what I should have known would be an inferior product, I am happy because I am doing what is right.  God loves us.  He's made a way for us.  If we, as disciples of Christ, hope to follow his example, we must be prepared for our own small moments in Gethsemane.  It's difficult.  But it is oh so worth it.