Final Blog Post

At the beginning of the semester I wasn't too worried about this blog.  I figured that I would be able to post a blog once a week and it would be a breeze.  More than half way through the semester, having not done any blog posts besides the required ones, I began to dread posting on this blog.  Being the procrastinator that I am, I put this blog off way longer than I should have.  I was surprised however that I actually enjoyed doing some of these blog posts.  After reviewing my blog I have noticed that my blog contained basically three different types of blog posts.  One type of blog posts was the required posts about our different papers that we had to write (research, personal narrative) throughout the semester.  Another type of blog post were the ones based off of church leaders talks given in conference.  The last type of blogs that I did were basically highlights of my freshman year at BYU, which I enjoyed writing.  Well, I think that pretty much wraps it up.  So long.

Finals Week

Finals week is soon approaching.  I can hardly believe we only have three days left of class.  It seemed like first semester was long and drawn out, but second semester has flown by.  I'm not looking forward to preparing for finals.  Spending hours and hours in the library aren't exactly what I would call a good time.  Finals week is exhausting and by the end of the week I feel like being lazy and doing nothing.  On the bright side though, I won't have another semester of college to attend after completing these finals.  Not that I dislike college, its just that I wont miss going to classes.  I will be able to look forward to spending time with my family over the summer and preparing to leave on my mission.  Although I am dreading finals week and I want it to go by as fast as possible, I am not ready to leave BYU.  I have had a great time here and it will be sad to leave.  Oh well, that's life.

"Mountains To Climb" -Elder Eyring

Elder Eyring gave this talk entitled "Mountains to Climb" in the Saturday Morning session of General Conference.  The topic of this talk was overcoming trials in this life.  I really enjoyed listening to Elder Eyring deliver this talk because he is one of my favorite apostles and you can tell he cares and is sincere by listening to him.  I'm going to mention a few parts of his talk that I really liked.  Elder Eyring talked about how he worked in construction when he was younger.  He went into detail regarding the laying of the foundation of a building and all of the necessary steps in doing so.  He also mentioned the fact that time and patience were needed in the process to ensure a strong foundation.  He then related it to the gospel saying, "In a similar way, the ground must be carefully prepared for our foundation of faith to withstand the storms that will come into every life. That solid basis for a foundation of faith is personal integrity."  We must prepare ourselves by strengthening our foundations so we can withstand the storms of life.  He also discussed the fact that we can benefit and grow from our trials as we strive to overcome them.  He stated, "Trouble itself can be your way to strengthen and finally gain unshakable faith."  Faith is a necessary part of overcoming trials.  We must act on faith as we struggle to overcome our hardships.  Elder Eyring said, "Moroni, the son of Mormon in the Book of Mormon, told us how that blessing could come to pass. He teaches the simple and sweet truth that acting on even a twig of faith allows God to grow it."  The last point that I really liked from his talk was when he was talking about his mothers death and the words President Kimball gave at her funeral.  President Kimball stated, “Some of you may have thought that Mildred suffered so long and so much because of something she had done wrong that required the trials.” He then said, “No, it was that God just wanted her to be polished a little more.”  I believe that it is important for us to understand that trials are not necessarily put in our lives because of a wrong we did.  They are placed in our lives so we can grow stronger and be polished as we exercise faith and work through them.  As Elder Eyring said, "If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing."

Rock Climbing in Provo Canyon

This past year I began to pick up rock climbing with one of my roommates.  He bought a climbing rope and all of the other equipment that is needed to climb safely.  Rock Canyon is a very convenient place to rock climb since it is so close to campus and it has tons of climbing routes for beginners on up to experts.  My favorite climb that I have done in Rock Canyon is the one pictured below and is called Green Monster.  This climb is fun in particular because to begin you have to free climb (meaning without ropes) an alternate route to get to the top.  So you actually begin at the top of the climb, rope in and repel down it, and then you get to climb up it.  Below is a picture of me roped in and ready to repel to the bottom.  I also included a picture looking up the rock face that I took once I had repelled to the bottom.  If you are ever bored on a weekend, find somebody who has the equipment and go climbing in Rock Canyon.  You will have a blast!

Getting ready to repel to the bottom.

This is a picture from the bottom of the crack that we climbed.

Boating!!!

Boating has always been one of my favorite things to do as a kid.  My family bought a speed boat when I was young and every summer we would go out on the lake with the family and go tubing, wake boarding, water skiing, or knee boarding.  It was always a blast!  Once I got a job in high school it became harder to find a time to go boating with the family.  Now that I'm at BYU I obviously haven't had a chance to go boating in a while and I'm leaving on a mission soon.  This being the case, I really hope to be able to go boating with the family this summer.  Its on my list of things to do before I leave on my mission.

My cousin and I having fun at the lake

Red vs Blue Dodgeball

This was definitely one of the highlights of last semester at BYU.  Last year on September 16th, I went with a group of friends to the Red vs Blue Dodgeball game at Thanksgiving Point.  It was called the Red vs Blue Dodgeball game because it was the University of Utah (Red) against Brigham Young University (Blue).  Just for the record, BYU had way more people come.  Property Solutions sponsored the event as a fundraiser for Camp Kesem, a local charity which benefits the children of cancer patients.  We broke the world record for the largest dodgeball game in history and had a blast at the same time.  Below is a video I took in the middle of the game.  Check it out!

Mizzou Basketball!

Being from Missouri, and growing up playing basketball, I have always been a fan and supporter of Missouri Tiger Basketball.  The only problem is, there typically hasn't been all that much to cheer for in the past.  This year was different though, or so i thought.  The Tigers had an impressive season, ending with 30 wins and 4 losses going into the NCAA Tournament commonly known as March Madness.  Missouri secured a number 2 seed in the West and the future looked bright.  I thought that they would make it to at least the Final Four and maybe even the championship game.  Missouri's first tournament game was against Norfolk State ranked 15th in the West.  This was the first time ever that Norfolk State had made it into the NCAA Tournament.  What should have been an easy win, ended up being a battle to the end.  The game was close throughout the entire game, with each team shooting very high percentages.  In the end, Missouri ended up losing a heart breaker by two (86-84).  They had a great season, the future looked bright, but they ended up short.  Well, I guess there's always next year.

Marcus Denmon going strong to the hoop.

Kim English, a starter for Mizzou.