The End is Near

Well, today is the last Sunday I'll have as a freshman at BYU. I am excited to be finished, but sad to go. It has been a year for me to learn and grow, but it's gone so fast that I haven't done everything that I wanted. But, I am very grateful for the opportunity that I have had to be at Brigham Young.

I've done a lot of things since I moved out here in August. I better learned what career I am interested in pursuing and how to get there. Living without my parents has made me take on greater responsibilities for taking care of my house, and made me develop my culinary skills. I am also very proud that I have learned to play the guitar in only a few months. Elder's Quorum activities have given me the opportunity to have some friendly competitions and see just what I can do. My friends made sure that I had plenty of fun dates! Even busting open my eyebrow wasn't too bad. I think that most importantly, I have gotten to grow my testimony of Jesus Christ by being able to attend the temple regularly, teach in church, and take classes on the Book of Mormon.

I think that I owe everything good that has happened to me here to the wonderful people around me. I have had the privilege of being a part of the Provo Young Single Adults 48th Ward. I am thoroughly convinced that we have the best ward in the stake, if not the entire church. They have befriended me and taught me meaningful lessons. Parker Evans has shown me what it means to work hard and the amazing results you can achieve. Kati Briggs and Sadie Meyers have taught me that happiness is a choice, not a result of your circumstances. Brandon Quinn has demonstrated going above and beyond your call of duty. And my roommates have shown me how to be patient. These are only a small set of the many teachers I have had the pleasure to call friends. I hope that I can keep in touch with all of the people who have touched my life in this freshman ward.

It's true that it hasn't all been easy. I had trouble with the classwork. Sometimes I struggled a little financially. Making friends didn't come as easily as I had hoped at first. I even had to get thirteen stitches in my eyebrow! But, despite all of this I would not change any of this experience. I have loved getting to be a BYU Cougar!

Happy Easter!

Last night, I had one of the coolest Easter weekend experiences of my life! My roommate, Tanner, got tickets to go to a concert at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Some friends and I went on a date to hear the Temple Square Chorale, which consists of auditioners and first year members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They did a Requim, which was all in Latin (thankfully, the translation was all in the program), and several other awesome Easter songs. It was really edifying to be able to spend two hours thinking about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I was moved to tears more than once. After the concert, I saw the statue The Christus through a window of one of the visitor centers at Temple Square. I almost cried again thinking about how wonderful it is that Christ loved me enough to pay the price for my sins. This concert was one of the greatest testimony building experiences I have had!

Also, I recently had my camera returned to me, so tell me what you want pictures of here or on facebook! I'd love to let you all see what it's like here at BYU!

Winding Down Sure is Hard

Well, the end of another great semester at BYU is coming to a close. Instead of getting to kick back and spend a lot of time with my friends like I would want, we have all been very busy. Just in the last couple of weeks, I have taken 4 tests and written a paper. Now, these aren't like the test back home that I could ace without putting any thought into it. Tests at the Y are much harder and I have had to really buckle down. Thankfully, I have done really well on all of them! I don't know about my paper, since my TA has 25or so to grade. I think I did really well, though.

Not only has school been busy, but I have had to work hard in my calling as Family Home Evening Group Leader. I've had the opportunity this semester to work with Erinn Tollman, one of my FHE sisters, to plan out some fun activities for our dorms. Since we only have a few weeks left, Erinn and I decided to really make some fun activities to close the semester out. Everyone was busy last week, so our plans to take family photos fell through, but I bought ice cream for everyone and we had a fun time! In the next couple of weeks, we are going to have a service war, a big party, a game of capture the flag, and all around fun.

Because I've been so busy, General Conference seemed to be timed perfectly. I was the best to be able to listen to prophets. The choirs were all amazing and invited the Spirit so well. I'm not going to lie, I did fall asleep during two sessions, but what's Conference without a little nap here and there? Today, my friend Matt Maddix invited me and some other guys to his house for lunch. It was probably the best food I've eaten since Christmas! I'm very grateful to the Maddix's for inviting me into their home. I think that the theme that stood out to me most during Conference was to learn my duty, expecially the "why," and then do my best to fulfill it.