Friday, February 27, 2015

February 22, 2015

This week has been productive somewhat. I gave blood on Tuesday, and Jessica and I received our Valentine's Day packages on that day too. On Wednesday when Jessica and I began to Skype, a thought popped up in my mind, saying "You should not be dating her." This is not the first time that this happened, so I gave it some thought. Today is Sunday, and Jessica and I are fasting to confirm this prompting today. Pondering the thought that I should not be dating Jessica was unbearable last night, and I expressed it to her.  Also on Wednesday night, I prayed for a missionary opportunity, and the next day my work situation changed. I did my taxes on Saturday.
     The opportunity to give blood became exciting on Tuesday, when I found out that my blood type is O positive. I was told that I can do a special donation where I give double the red blood cells. They said that it was actually easier on the body because they only take the red blood cells, and put the plasma and everything back into the body. One thing that I would need to do is gain fifteen pounds because O positive people need to weigh 150 pounds to qualify for the opportunity. I don't want to gain 15 pounds, hoping to convince them to let me do that special donation without gaining the weight.
     Jessica's Valentine was greater than I can ever imagine. It was ocean themed for I said that I love goldfish, the cheese snack. I gave her seaweed snacks on the first time that we ever ran together, so that fit in the theme too. She decorated the inside of a box like an ocean, putting stickers and fun quotes on it. She also wrote a note, putting it in a bottle. I am grateful that God let us have a most glorious Valentine's Day before reminding me that I should not be dating her.






     The thought that "You should not be dating her." for an odd reason came when I saw how young Jessica looked as we Skyped a couple times. This happened about a month ago, and Jessica felt the prompting to, but we did not hearken to it. Ever since that night on Wednesday, the thought that I should not be dating Jessica has been plaguing my mind. It became so unbearable last night that I could not fake a cheerful nature in our nightly conversations. I have no idea why God intervened in our relationship. I asked if we can text each other rather than talk over the phone because I was troubled by God's advice. I recently learned that if a thought is dwelling on my mind unyielding to my desire for it to go away with prayer, it is the Spirit of God. I had to communicate what was on my mind. It took me forty minutes of pondering whether I should send the text message. I knew that it will turn our relationship into a tailspin. We decided to fast after our hearts were torn apart by the thought that we should be apart. I felt the spirit after beginning the discussion. My fast was a petition to God to let us continue dating. When I got home after the fast and church, I prayed for a long time for a solid answer. I am feeling the spirit strongly sustaining my petition. Today is now Tuesday. I asked what Jessica concluded in our inquiry of God, concerning us. She concluded that we should not continue to date steadily, so we decided to have an open relationship. We are hoping that she will grow into herself by the fall that we may date again.
     It has been a week since our dating drama happened, and things have settled. My revelation was that we can keep our relationship because we want to be together, but Jessica's revelation was that she is not ready for steady dating and marriage. Gordon B. Hinckley once said "It is better, my friends, to date a variety of companions until you are ready to marry." I feel a connection between the personal advice to me from God that "You should not be dating her" with her revelation that she is not ready for a serious relationship. It makes more sense. 'I should not be dating her because she is not ready' is God’s advice. We fasted about whether we should date, and I felt that was a petition to the Lord that we could continue dating, since we did not just let it fall apart. We somewhat decided to quit dating for a little bit until she matures; then, resume the relationship. That didn't make much sense to me. Why should we date around, if we want to be together in the end? Dating is a pain. We decided to work on the things that she feels that she needs to mature in. We were taking it slow anyways, and it's not any slower, but we have a greater focus on our preparations.
     A coworker of mine is named Carlos, and he has been told to take the position of another coworker, who I usually work with, since he did not show up on Thursday and Friday. We got along well. His English was mediocre, so we were able to develop a closer friendship easily especially since he loves to talk. On Friday he asked me what church that I attend, and I said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; then, he replied that he began to read the Book of Mormon last Monday. I listened to him talk, and he seemed to be a solid person. I can't judge his personality, but he has great integrity, respecting himself and the law of chastity. I got his phone number Friday afternoon, hoping that he could come to a game night that night. I had not been invited to it yet, but I was invited to last week's. He said that he was coming to the game night, but he never came. Missionary opportunities scare me because they rarely turn out well. I have had a couple, and I feel responsibility for their souls, since I am their link to the church. I invited him to church, and he did not reply to my message. This is how quickly God will answer prayers of your willingness to serve in his work to save souls, for I prayed for a missionary opportunity on Wednesday night, and Carlos was led to me the next day. I hope that I follow through well tomorrow.
     Late this past week, I started doing my taxes, and I completed it on Saturday. I did it with the mobile app of TurboTax. It is surprising that one could do their taxes with a mobile app. It was easily understood. The only difficulty was that it would not except my double check with my Utah tax return. I took most of the day to figure out everything, but only about 6 hours of work for me. It may be different for others.
     I am adding more content, since today is the 27th of February, a Friday. Weird things happen when you are working with a good investigator friend. Carlos' phone was not working well that first week when I invited him to church, and he couldn't reply to my messages. On Monday we went to pick him up for FHE, but he was at a bar. It turned out that a friend called him up, asking for him to counsel with him because life was hard on him with his ex wife and daughter. On Thursday night, we were planning to go to Institute, but the class was cancelled because the teacher couldn't make it. We are hoping to go to church on Sunday.
     I would like to tell you about my work and my interesting health situation currently. I don't know why I am not feeling well, but yesterday I felt weak at work. On Monday, I felt like my feet and hands were freezing all morning long. On Tuesday or so, I was wondering about my diet because I felt fine, but something was off. I think that I am not getting enough calories. I think that I have been getting about 1000 calories. Since I fasted, I could not eat as much breakfast as usual. I thought that my body was weak not eating enough, and fasting pushed it over the edge; plus, I donated blood last week. My grandma was thinking that I may have a little 24 hour bug to overcome. I think that I was getting about 200-300 calories for breakfast, 300-400 calories for lunch, and 400-600 calories for dinner; which is a range of 900-1300 calories because my grandparents usually prepare and serve me food. The drama that I had with Jessica over the weekend had me return to my usual habit of not snacking between meals of lunch and dinner, which snacking I did on previous weeks. I need about 2500 calories for my job, since I am lifting most of the day, and it is cold. I am use to getting about 500 calories for breakfast and 800-1000 calories for lunch and dinner, ranging from 2100-2500 calories a day at school. I went to tell management that I felt weak, and they fed me a bunch of food, and I didn't feel week after lunch, but I did feel achy allover my body. Today my stomach has been feeling weird, but the aching has been gone since this morning. I ate my usual 500 calorie breakfast this morning, feeling good about that, but I didn't feel full like usual. At lunch, I told my grandma that I felt bloated, so she recommended that I drink a teaspoon of baking soda. The recovery from that is weird because it makes you more bloated. It tastes like odd salt water, making one burp like consuming a carbonated drink. This is my current state.
     I also made Jamaican rice and peas on Wednesday for my grandparents, but making that is not as special as curry.
     This is the recipe that I followed. I recommend cooking the beans for an hour; maybe more, you can taste it yourself after soaking it over night; then, add the rice in the pot to cook. The beans when I cooked it was a little crunchy.
The scallion, Scotch bonnet, garlic, and thyme are not meant to be in the food when you serve it; therefore, take them out before serving it. Put the entire scallion, garlic clove, thyme, and Scotch bonnet in the pot when it is cooking. Scotch bonnet is a Jamaican pepper. I usually replace it with a habanero. Don't dice anything.

 x peas 1 cup first!       serves 3-4
x garlic a clove or two when boiling the peas
x rice two cups
x coconut milk three cups
x salt pepper   table spoon
x pimento seeds
x scallion a couple whole strains
x butter       table spoon
x thyme  a sprig is a few inches long. Use two
x Scotch bonnet

thyme  a sprig is a few inches long. Use two
Scotch bonnet
pimento seeds





Here are some adventures with Eve. She is stealing some of Goldfish, and she had a message from the One Direction band who she loves. She said that the video is the greatest thing that she has ever done. 




Follow up Monday: I told you that I was going to tell you about "Runaround," a short story that leads into the science fiction series of Foundation and Robot by Isaac Asimov. It explains the three founding rules of the artificial intelligence of robots in a story, showing the limits of their intelligence. The story is very interesting, but it is obviously set up to explain these three rules and the usefulness of them. An interesting story is not always amazing.

     Jessica and I also read "Reason," the next short story of the Robot Series. I think that the fundamentals of reason in the robot is a reflection of the author's opinion of religion. The perspective of the robot is interesting. Jessica and I realized that part of the story is flawed because the other robots should not have the same reasoning skills as Cutie. I think that the author was just excited about a new development in his robotics idea because he eluded to basically what Cutie achieved at the end of the story. I think that literature is a reflection of the author's perspective, and I think that it is interesting to learn about the author from their compositions. 

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