Easter time is such a wonderful time. I have been able to feel the love of my Savior so strongly in the past few days. And in part, this is due to Easter.
My bishop (www.mormon.org) asked the fireside committee, of which I am a part, to put together a musical Easter fireside, on Easter. That means that instead of one speaker, he wanted several musical numbers done by talents in our ward. As we got together to discuss what we wanted to do, we realized how hard this would be.
Everybody goes home for Easter.
Everybody who is not going home is stressed out of their mind.
We decided to go by faith and started praying about who to ask to perform, and what musical numbers we wanted done.
The Lord answers prayers. People just came out of the woodwork, so willing to serve, so willing to help. As I checked on certain groups to see how their musical number was coming together, I was overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude and love for the gospel.
This work will go forth boldly, nobly and independent. And it will be because of the willingness of the Lord's servants. I am so grateful for the people who love the Lord and the gospel so much that they would be willing to sacrifice Easter dinner just to show up. Who would take time out of their busy schedule (for what college student indeed is not busy right now?) to prepare a musical number?
I am so grateful for this Easter season when I get to remember our Savior and the love He taught. The love that carries on in the heart of His servants.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Am. Gov. #12
I attended the last club meeting of "Free the Slaves" (apparently not associated with the NGO, they just happen to share the same name). A guy in my Government class is the president of the club and invited all of us to attend. It was eye-opening for sure. I knew that there were still slaves in the world, I just never knew any solid statistics on it.
I learned that a slave is anyone who gives forced labor for free under threat of violence, and cannot get out of the bondage.
27 million people are in slavery. That's the conservative estimate.
The meeting was very well put together, informative, efficient, and hopeful. Even though slavery still is a problem in the world today, I feel like there is something I can do, and it's not a hopeless problem.
I feel like this is an important issue that should be brought to everyone's attention. I know it is important to my father, a man whom I respect very much. He was one of my teachers at my high school. I remember one day he got up in front of the class and he spoke very strongly against the slavery that still exists today. The class full of immature high school kids grew solemn as he told us how disgusted he was that a ring of prostitution traffickers had been discovered in San Francisco, but the news had been pushed to the back pages because Tom Cruise decided to jump up on a couch. Because it was not front page news, this modern day slavery issue was withheld from the public's notice once again. My father told us that this should just not happen; human suffering should never be ignored.
Maybe I am simply feeling the residue from this impassioned lecture from a loving father, but I feel that the awareness of this issue needs to grow. People need to know that human beings are being forced against their will, to do things they will never see the benefit of.
Awareness.
Action.
Awareness.
Action.
If you care about any of your fellow human beings, please go to one of these sites and learn more:
www.PolarisProject.org
www.freetheslaves.net
www.love146.org
www.EndHumanTrafficking.org
www.NotForSaleCampaign.org
I learned that a slave is anyone who gives forced labor for free under threat of violence, and cannot get out of the bondage.
27 million people are in slavery. That's the conservative estimate.
The meeting was very well put together, informative, efficient, and hopeful. Even though slavery still is a problem in the world today, I feel like there is something I can do, and it's not a hopeless problem.
I feel like this is an important issue that should be brought to everyone's attention. I know it is important to my father, a man whom I respect very much. He was one of my teachers at my high school. I remember one day he got up in front of the class and he spoke very strongly against the slavery that still exists today. The class full of immature high school kids grew solemn as he told us how disgusted he was that a ring of prostitution traffickers had been discovered in San Francisco, but the news had been pushed to the back pages because Tom Cruise decided to jump up on a couch. Because it was not front page news, this modern day slavery issue was withheld from the public's notice once again. My father told us that this should just not happen; human suffering should never be ignored.
Maybe I am simply feeling the residue from this impassioned lecture from a loving father, but I feel that the awareness of this issue needs to grow. People need to know that human beings are being forced against their will, to do things they will never see the benefit of.
Awareness.
Action.
Awareness.
Action.
If you care about any of your fellow human beings, please go to one of these sites and learn more:
www.PolarisProject.org
www.freetheslaves.net
www.love146.org
www.EndHumanTrafficking.org
www.NotForSaleCampaign.org
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
NT #11
Besides my birthday, which I always take 1/4 of the year to celebrate, my favorite day of the year is April Fool's day.
I love pranks. Methylene blue, toilet papering, dixie-cupping, newspapering... it's all fun. I do have some firm beliefs like pranks should be easy clean-up, not malicious, and not vandalistic. I also think that pranks should be planned, and should never be off-the-cuff, spur-of-the-moment ordeals. Pranks done in haste often end in tears.
I thought yesterday would be a great day in my prank history. I was wrong. I did not pull a single prank. Oh I thought of a few, I plotted a little inside my head. But I did not execute a single one. And it's the weirdest thing: I do not regret it at all.
As I heard other people tell me of their crazy adventures involving everything from whipped cream to smashed eggs, from tears to dislocated shoulders, I sat and listened, smiled a little at the more clever ones...
and then I was done. I had no regrets. I did not have to worry about any clean-up (emotional or physical) or any retaliation.
And it felt kind of good.
I read the assigned scriptures for my religion class this morning on the Last Supper. I thought about it, and this is kind of a weird thought, but I thought "I wonder how Christ feels about pranks."
For some reason I can not imagine Christ short-sheeting a bed and later yelling, "you got punk'd!" (which is not a very sportsmanlike way to engage in a prank war anyway).
I just can not see Him having fun at someone elses expense.
Am I condemning pranks? No, not at all. I can't even guarantee that I will never pull another prank again.
All I am saying is that I did not pull any pranks yesterday, and I feel pretty good about it.
I love pranks. Methylene blue, toilet papering, dixie-cupping, newspapering... it's all fun. I do have some firm beliefs like pranks should be easy clean-up, not malicious, and not vandalistic. I also think that pranks should be planned, and should never be off-the-cuff, spur-of-the-moment ordeals. Pranks done in haste often end in tears.
I thought yesterday would be a great day in my prank history. I was wrong. I did not pull a single prank. Oh I thought of a few, I plotted a little inside my head. But I did not execute a single one. And it's the weirdest thing: I do not regret it at all.
As I heard other people tell me of their crazy adventures involving everything from whipped cream to smashed eggs, from tears to dislocated shoulders, I sat and listened, smiled a little at the more clever ones...
and then I was done. I had no regrets. I did not have to worry about any clean-up (emotional or physical) or any retaliation.
And it felt kind of good.
I read the assigned scriptures for my religion class this morning on the Last Supper. I thought about it, and this is kind of a weird thought, but I thought "I wonder how Christ feels about pranks."
For some reason I can not imagine Christ short-sheeting a bed and later yelling, "you got punk'd!" (which is not a very sportsmanlike way to engage in a prank war anyway).
I just can not see Him having fun at someone elses expense.
Am I condemning pranks? No, not at all. I can't even guarantee that I will never pull another prank again.
All I am saying is that I did not pull any pranks yesterday, and I feel pretty good about it.
AM. Gov. #11
We watched the movie "Amazing Grace" in my American Government and Societies class last week. Such a good movie. William Wilberforce, the main character, endeavored so hard to complete what he felt like he was called to do.
Our world has seen hard times. Our heritage is besmirched with bleak stains that come in the form of crusades, imperialism, ethnic cleansing. It seems that over and over again, people make the same mistakes over and over and over and over, and it seems that history is to be a repetition of darkness.
And then out of the bleak recesses of history books shines a light. A Gandhi, a Martin Luther King Jr., a William Wilberforce, a Schindler...
And the light shines brighter against the darkness.
Some people are set in the worst of times, and they do so much good; they bring about so much change almost single-handedly.
And sometimes I wonder if I could be such an instrument for change. Could I devote my entire life to a cause? Can I stand for something, even if I'm standing alone at first? And help others catch the vision? Would I be able to die for something?
I just don't know...
Our world has seen hard times. Our heritage is besmirched with bleak stains that come in the form of crusades, imperialism, ethnic cleansing. It seems that over and over again, people make the same mistakes over and over and over and over, and it seems that history is to be a repetition of darkness.
And then out of the bleak recesses of history books shines a light. A Gandhi, a Martin Luther King Jr., a William Wilberforce, a Schindler...
And the light shines brighter against the darkness.
Some people are set in the worst of times, and they do so much good; they bring about so much change almost single-handedly.
And sometimes I wonder if I could be such an instrument for change. Could I devote my entire life to a cause? Can I stand for something, even if I'm standing alone at first? And help others catch the vision? Would I be able to die for something?
I just don't know...
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