I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Wow. First off, I love this video. I love to hear President Hinckley's voice. I absolutely love this song. It is my favorite hymn.

As I was watching, pictures of Celestial rooms in temples flashed across the screen. As they did, I felt a rush of... I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. Joy. Peace. Consolation. I suppose the best way to describe it is I felt a rush of "goodness." It was powerful, and made me really want to be in the temple. Callie and I are going to dinner tonight for her birthday. We're going to decide on a time to go to the temple very soon.

Also, that feeling of goodness absolutely was the Spirit testifying to me of the truthfulness of those things. The gospel of Jesus Christ and everything that accompanies it is true. There is no doubt in my mind. Thanks be to God for that reminder and additional testimony on this day. -Wes

And you, do you believe?

There is a parable. In the stomach of a pregnant woman, two babies are conversing - one, a believer; the other, a non-believer. One asks the other, "Do you believe in life after birth?"

The believer: "Of course. Everyone knows there's life after birth. Here, we're only preparing and developing for what's to come."

"That's ridiculous. There is no such life after birth," says the unbeliever. "Can you even imagine what that world would look like!?"

Believer: "Well, I don't know all the details. But, in that world, there will be more light and joy. For example, we'll eat with our mouths."

"That's far too funny. We have our umbilical cord, and it feeds us. No one has ever come back from there. Life merely ends with birth."

Believer: "No. I don't know exactly how our world will look after birth, but either way, we'll see Mother. And she'll take care of us."

"Mother?" asked the non-believer. "You believe in a mother? Where is she?"

"She's everywhere. She's all around us. Thanks to her, we're alive. And without her, we are nothing."

Unbelieving baby: "A complete lie. I've never seen any mother. Therefore, it's obvious that she simply doesn't exist."

"No. I don't agree. When everything is raging out of control, we can hear her singing and feel her caressing our world. I believe that our real life begins only after birth. And you, do you believe?"

Interesting that this would be on a Russian news channel.

The Soul's Captain

Hopefully, you have seen the movie Invictus with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. It's a pretty good movie. I haven't heard how Nelson Mandela is in real life, but Freeman portrays him as probably the most Christ-like leader I have ever seen depicted in film. It was pretty inspiring to me.

The poem, by the same name as the movie, by William Ernest Henley, is referenced several times in the movie. While Mandela was incarcerated on Robben Island, the poem Invictus was a great source of strength and inspiration for him because of its message of self-mastery.

The first 3 stanzas of the poem are pretty inspiring. As President Hinckley said, "It is a great poem. It places upon the individual the responsibility for what he does with his life. Through these many years, when I have been faced with difficult choices I have repeated these stirring words."

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,


Black as the pit from pole to pole,


I thank whatever gods may be


For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance


I have not winced nor cried aloud.


Under the bludgeonings of chance


My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears


Looms but the Horror of the shade,


And yet the menace of the years


Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,


How charged with punishments the scroll,


I am the master of my fate:


I am the captain of my soul.

The last stanza, however, is rather defiant of any god or "higher power." In it, Henley basically says he can choose his own path, make his own rules, and that he is above any sort of punishment found in scripture.

After Henley wrote Invictus, Orson F. Whitney, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wrote a response entitled The Soul's Captain.

The Soul's Captain

Art thou in truth? Then what of him 

Who bought thee with his blood? 

Who plunged into devouring seas 

And snatched thee from the flood?

Who bore for all our fallen race 

What none but him could bear. – 

The God who died that man might live, 

And endless glory share?

Of what avail thy vaunted strength, 

Apart from his vast might? 

Pray that his Light may pierce the gloom, 

That thou mayest see aright.

Men are as bubbles on the wave, 

As leaves upon the tree. 

Thou, captain of thy soul, forsooth 

Who gave that place to thee?

Free will is thine -- free agency 

To wield for right or wrong; 

But thou must answer unto him 

To whom all souls belong.

Bend to the dust that head "unbowed," 

Small part of Life's great whole! 

And see in him, and him alone, 

The Captain of thy soul.

Our New Abode

You may have been privileged to hear the story of our apartment-finding fiasco this year. Well, for those of you who weren't so privileged, I'll spare you and just go right into pictures.

We are enjoying our new place. It comes at a price. We're paying more than we would like, but we were just days from having to be out of our other place and had to take something. It's pretty nice. The paint is actually new. The management didn't just try to sell us on the idea that the apartment was "newly-remodeled," like at our last one... which, by the way, still had white streaks on the wall from where they had patched holes from the previous tenants and the carpet obviously hadn't been replaced since 1980. This place was actually recently remodeled. We are the second people to live in it since everything was done. The carpet still has life to it. It's not matted down. The kitchen and bathroom have granite countertops. The appliances are new. There's a stacked washer and dryer (HUGE selling point). The bedroom is considerably bigger. Now we can fit all our stuff in it. There's not as much storage at this place as at our old place, but we've found out how to make it work. We bought a few cabinets and a bookshelf from Walmart.

The layout is quite different than our other place. The layout of the last apartment was more of a long rectangle with all the rooms going straight back. From the living room you could see clear to the bedroom. This place is more of a square layout. You enter into the living room (and we had to put our table in there because it's too big for the space in the kitchen). To the left, there's a little entryway into the kitchen. Then, there's a hallway leading to the bathroom. This hallway takes a turn and enters into the bedroom. This layout segregates things and gives it more of a home feel than before.

So here are the pictures. Enjoy!

The entryway with tile. We like that.

The plaque my mom made us. She did these for one Christmas (I think it was 1996). Yes. It is on slate. This one used to hang at Grandma and Grandpa's house. With Grandpa's recent passing, it needed a new home. So my mom took off the year of Grandma and Grandpa's wedding and put the year of our wedding on it. Thanks mom!

"My Religion" - Tyler Smith

A few weeks ago, I read this very well-written response to a generally difficult question for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). One of my best friends from the mission, Tyler Smith, who is always very crafty with words, wrote it. I commend it to you all. Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.alltyler.com/2010/06/my-religionfor-real.html

I add my testimony to Tyler's. Christ is the center of my faith. He is the Redeemer of my soul. I wish there was something I could do to repay that debt fully. The only thing I can do is try my hardest to live my live as He lived His. We can all do it. "Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am" (3 Nephi 27:27). However, we don't always have to live that way because Christ wants us to or commands us to. With time, we will want to live that way. It will be sweet and joyous to us to help others, to say a kind word, to look for the good in others, to be a better person. After all, we are here to have joy. "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25). As Tyler suggests, focus on those things. Leave the world building to later.

In the past week...

We have been to 3 weddings, and I have pictures from 2 of them. Saturday the 20th, one of Wes's best friends from high school got married. We went to his wedding at the Salt Lake Temple at 10, and then returned at 3 for another. The second wedding was of a really close friend of Wes's family. It was a really pretty wedding, and I was able to help and do a lot of the flowers. It was fun! I don't really have any experience in floral design other than one beginner class I took about 5 years ago at BYU-I, but I loved doing it! They turned out pretty well.

Holly was one of my roommates and best friends at BYU-I. We served missions at the same time and wrote each other, and have been close since. I didn't think I'd be able to get work off to go, but I found someone to take my shift at work, so Wes and I were able to drive down to Vegas for the weekend. It was a really short trip, but so fun. It was so great to be there to see Holly. She looked beautiful, and SO happy. We stayed with some family and friends of Wes, and it was really fun. It was so nice to spend some time relaxing with Wes. Hopefully there will be more time for that in the summer!

The Boys

Our trip to Montana was great. We loved visiting, eating, and watching the Olympics. I love seeing the pups and I took more pictures of them in those 3 days, than I have of Wes and I since we've been married. Really. They are SO cute though.

Barks trying to get by Lincoln's food...

This is my favorite. I LOVE Linky's teeth and gums.

I miss them and can't wait for the next trip!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We are off to Montana tomorrow and won't be coming back to Provo until Monday. I'm so excited to have a little break and to see my family. Plus, we have about 6 dozen sugar cookies to eat. It will be a fun weekend. Happy Valentine's Day!!

Better Late Than Never.

So I am a pretty lousy blogger. I am kind of the same way with my journal. On my mission, I wrote every day for the 18 months of my mission. There was always SO much to write, and I never had enough time to write everything I wanted. Now, I feel like there's nothing really exciting going on...at least nothing special to blog or write about. But, life is good. I still am looking for a job, but other than that, things really are great. Wes is studying hard in school and doing very well. I am so grateful for that. I have a couple leads on jobs, so hopefully I'll see the fruits of my labors soon! seriously.
I have been keeping busy at home cleaning a lot(I honestly enjoy it), reading, cooking, baking, doing laundry, and I guess I can put exercising in there too. I love cooking and baking, but it gets so expensive! I love trying new recipes, but there are always at least 5 ingredients I don't have for the new things I want to try. I am looking forward to 7 years down the road when we can afford to buy ingredients to make good food.
I was pretty excited when I came across the recipe for the meal below. The only thing I didn't already have was the pork. And fresh ginger. I think the ginger was $.30. Anyways, it was actually really great because I was able to get rid of some things that we don't love eating by themselves. Wes is a little picky, but he actually loved it. He thought pork with apples and raisins was a little strange, but was surprised to find out that it actually tasted really good. I love cooking when it's simple, cheap, and tastes good.

We never go out. Really. I actually prefer staying home and watching a movie, but sometimes it's fun to go out and do something different. Since we don't go anywhere, I usually wear makeup twice a week. To church, and then maybe on Friday or Saturday night. Anyways, I got ready to go out on Saturday night, and I guess Wes figured he better take a picture. We went to a birthday party and it was fun. There were A LOT of really good treats.

oh. AND, Beyonce has hairbling. Or at least she had it at the Grammy Awards. Wes is pretty excited about it. Ha. Maybe it will help business...