April 18, 2018

On Sunday the bishop invited us over for a gathering with the saints at his house. It was a way to enable the saints to fellowship with the newer people in the ward. I spoke with a guy from the Elders Quorum, the primary president, and a former nursery worker. I didn't see many opportunities to meet people, so I played with Sydnie. Sydnie attends nursery. I like being a primary worker. It gives me an excuse to play with children. The Mitchells had a toy, which had two square rods attached. The two wooden rods were attached to a wood board. The toy came with many shapes that the shapes, which had a square hole, enabled children to practice hand eye coordination and logic. Children love to practice and experience life over and over, so I had a stack of these shapes, and I just gave her another shape after she placed one on the toy, doing this over and over until she got over it. Sydnie did the activity for several minutes.

20 April 2018

The past few evenings Jessica and I have been busy. Jessica had a Relief Society meeting on Tuesday, and she had Cub Scouts on Wednesday. We celebrated our monthly anniversary on Thursday.

Sunday 22 April 2018

On Monday evening we folded laundry because we were still catching up from me, doing nearly ten loads the previous Saturday. Our closet is too small to fit everything, so we bought a dresser yesterday at Ikea. Every weekend I seem to do something to set our house in order. We read D&C 119 & 120. 

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God; That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High."

We did not understand how to dedicate our incomings and outgoings to the name of the Lord.

On Tuesday & Wednesday, waiting for Jessica to complete her activities, I transcribed two StoryWorth audio recordings from my grandpa.

On Thursday, we went to Marco's Cafe in Multnomah Village. I forgot the name of my dish because it was a fancy Italian word; probably for wide noodles. They had an option for a half or a full size. I asked for the full size with the astonishing price of nineteen dollars. I set my expectations high, since the price was so high. I could make a feast with twenty dollars. My minimum expectation is that I will be full. I didn't care so much for the taste. I chose the dish because I love to explore unknown and exotic dishes. When I received the dish, I knew that it would not be filling. My face sunk in disappointment instantly. About a minute later, the waitress came to ask about the quality of the food. I didn't say anything because restaurants only have one opportunity to serve their food. This is their standard size for their full size. I said to Jessica that the dish was a quarter of the size that it should be. The flavor was a little bland. It had a little citrusy flavor on the first bite. The experience was a bad start to the date. I was grateful that we have a tradition to go out for ice cream. If the waitress was truly attempting to remedy the situation, she should have. I was not silent about my disappointment. I couldn't ask for seconds or thirds. They would have charged me sixty dollars. One odd ingredient in the dish was green peas. Peas don't match pasta well. I don't belief that I should be an exception. If a restaurant is going to serve quality food that satisfies a customer, I should not have to make a special request for them to fulfill their business. I learned in accounting that revenue represents the successful transaction of satisfying service. If customers are not satisfied, they will not return. Jessica and I will certainly not return to Marco's Cafe because we were not satisfied. I tweeted "I am grateful that @nectarfroyo let Jessica and I keep our monthly anniversary tradition bright after an unsatisfactory dinner at @MarcosCafePDX."

We traditionally get ice cream on the nineteenth of each month because we were married on that day of March 2016. There is no ice cream place in Multnomah Village. We went to Nectar Frozen Yogurt. Many of their flavors are ice cream flavors. That puzzled me when we first went there with Jasmine & Lucas. On the nineteenth, I put Dutch chocolate on the bottom of the cup with Pecan Praline. I put a lot of nuts in those flavors of frozen yogurt; then, l put a waffle bowl on top, where I put Eurotart frozen yogurt in with my favorite strawberries and frosting covered animal crackers.  The rich chocolate tasted refreshingly not creamy, since it was not ice cream. The frozen yogurt saved the evening from my disappointing dinner.

When we were walking back to the apartment to watch a film, a guy asked me to film him. I held his camera where he asked me, not knowing exactly what he will do. He ran, jumping up on a concrete structure. After hopping to the other side of it, he jumped about ten feet, attaching himself onto a square pillar about five feet wide. He then jumped back to the concrete structure, hopping to the other side again. Finishing his stunt, he did some sort of flip. I don't think that he did a front or backflip. He did it in three attempts, twisting his ankle on his first attempt, but he rubbed out the pain. After filming him, I was asked if he was disturbing my walk with Jessica. I said that he wasn't because we were already home. When he realized that I lived where he trained, he asked if I wanted to train with him. He could train me.  He told me about local gyms, which were actually pretty far. I think that he said Gresham has the closest one. I did not straight forward say that I shouldn't, not knowing how to express myself.

We decide to watch the Emoji movie after. It was not as bad as people made it out to be. I liked the simplicity of the story. I enjoyed the humor and the movie better than most movies that I watched recently.

On Friday evening we checked out Xfinity because "I found out that we can have free texting and calling with @Xfinity, since we pay for internet services through them." After the visit we decided that "The free unlimited phone & text service with @Xfinity is not a good deal for me because I need an iPhone to retain my phone number & pay a minimum a $12 for data monthly. It would take years until I actually save money after purchasing iPhones."

This weekend we bought a lot of food. The total probably weighed over 120 pounds; buying fifty pounds of wheat, twenty-five pounds of rice, and twenty-five pounds of oats. We practically ran out of everything. We are finally going to make bread again.

On Saturday morning, I planned my nursery lesson. I wanted to teach the children that they are children of God. God misses them dearly, and looks forward to them returning to live in his presence. I prayed that they know that their Heavenly Father loves them. The children's participation was weak mainly because I was a weak teacher. I read from Psalms 82:6, saying "All of you are children of [God]" This knowledge is important in order for the children to know their divine nature, capacity, destiny, origination, and ancestry.

Brother Kuhn play the children ukulele during snack-time and entertained them with juggling after.

I have had some cycling adventures this week. "Before turning on to the hilly Terwilliger Blvd, I found myself at a stoplight with two other cyclists, who were decked out in odd spandex. At green I took a wide turn to go to our lane, placing myself last. It was not long, going up the hill, before the second place person broke away from the pack, passing the leader. I decided to chase after him. I used a technique of riding without hands to have more torque in my effort. Since this was my first race in Portland, I didn't want to be too cocky and pass him, so I sat on him. I was only able to stay with him for a minute before I could not keep up. It didn't help to get off the seat. I still pushed though keeping within fifty yards of him. Cycling has been more enjoyable in Portland compared to Tualatin."

"I learned in X-country to not look back when someone is following you in a race because it shows weakness. Cycling up toward Terwilliger again, a girl was following me. The fast ride home let me catch up with @jraynium, waiting at a bus stop. I coached him on my BYUI X-country team." @jraynium is Josh Ray. He transferred to PSU to study computer science. He helped me prepare for my internship with Intel at Hillsboro because his father worked at the same location that I interned at. He followed up on my experience. I said that we loved living at Orenco Station, being close to Winco. Cortland Village Apartments had walk-in closet, which Jessica always brings up.

After church Brother Kuhn and I were asked if we were willing to teach Valiant 8. I think that this is unique because Jessica works with the same age of boys in Cub Scouts.

23 April 2018

Last night we had dinner at the Ledesma's. Mercedes cooked the carne Colombian style. We have good times, laughing.

I finally finished a bottle of Teriyaki sauce, which I wanted to review. It took about a month to finish, and I bought it because I knew that it would. One thing that made it last longer is that it required oil to be add to the stir fry; therefore, if you want a good tasting Teriyaki sauce that will last a long time, the Kikkoman: Teriyaki Marinade & Sauce might be for you. I would like to expound on the nature of this sauce. The ingredients are not natural. The ingredients are the following: SOY SAUCE (WATER, WHEAT, SOYBEANS, SALT), WINE, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, WATER, VINEGAR, SALT, SPICES, ONION POWDER, SUCCINIC ACID, GARLIC POWDER, SODIUM BENZOATE: LESS THAN 1/10 OF 1% AS A PRESERVATIVE. I don't know how I overlooked the wine, but the high fructose corn syrup is the main ingredient that we had an issue with. When cooking with it, the flavors very inconsistent without oil. When I poured it in my wok, it smelt like word chemicals. I will not buy it again.

I have not spoken about my work lately. There is an architecture firm that works in the save open office room as us. I asked them about a detail that I thought that might make a cold joint, and an architect that cycles to work like me said that they debated it for a while. Do you remember Morrison Hershfield, the exterior cladding consultants? I interviewed with them, and they didn’t continue talking to me. I got an email from them because Columbia Stone’s scope is the construction of exterior cladding of the Multnomah County Central Courthouse. They gave me a quality control check list for a few items. I think that is coincidental. I have been given the task of do a quantity take off of the entire shell of the building. It has been taking me weeks. 

11 April 2018

ThermaLeaf is a fire retardant artificial plant distributor. The website shows their desire to be specified regularly by designers. They approached me to do a neutral review. Don't want to do this just for fun. They offered me a payment of thirty dollars for each of my writing colleagues that publish neutral review content. I believe that they choose me because I have networked with many bloggers. I also have some network with designers.
 
Thursday 12 April 2018
 
This week has been my first week working on the site of the Multnomah County Central Courthouse project. I enjoyed networking with Hoffman as I made arrangements for our first scissor lift rental here.
I work in the historic and original Multnomah County Courthouse. It was at one time the substation for all of Portland, being the first building to have rebar in the concrete here too. Although the building is old, it looks modern inside. The floor that I work in is very open with windows surrounding me. The new Multnomah County Central Courthouse will wrap this building, so only two sides of it get sunlight soon.
Last night was Jessica's first day serving the Cub Scouts. I worked on preparing my talk. There is not much content yet on ministering.lds.org;
 
Sunday 15 April 2018
 
I spoke in Sacrament today. After the second speech finished, I realized that I spoke too long. The third speaker spoke, starting at 10:00 AM, and the fourth started speaking at 10:05 AM. Sacrament usually finishes at 10:05. I said the following words:
 
Good morning. I am Alex Hicken. I moved to Oregon permanently about two month ago. Since I ride my bike to work, I learned that the rain is not so dreadful. I graduated from BYU Idaho with a degree in Design and Construction Management. Last year I lived in Hillsboro during the winter off track semester for an internship with a mechanical contractor named Apollo Mechanical at the Intel campus, and the winter before in 2016 I lived in Aloha, attending the Beaverton Ward, because I was engaged to Jessica Ledesma. I have yet to see a summer here.     
I am humbled because I have been chosen to speak to you concerning one of the most momentous General Conference in the past few decades. My speech will attempt bring a more clarity to you with the changes.  
I will start by expounding on a quote from last week's first presidency letter to the church. "The separate programs of home teaching and visiting teaching are now a coordinated effort referred to as 'ministering,' overseen by the elders quorum and Relief Society presidencies under the direction of the bishop. Ministering is Christlike caring for others and helping meet their spiritual and temporal needs. Ministering may include Laurels and Mia Maids as companions to Relief Society sisters, and priests and teachers continue as companions to Melchizedek Priesthood holders."   
I would first like to address what ministering is. It is Christlike caring for others and helping meet their spiritual and temporal needs.
David Bednar taught that meekness is the root of Christ like attributes, quoting Moroni chapter seven. "And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity." Elder Bednar explains that "The Christlike quality of meekness often is misunderstood in our contemporary world. Meekness is strong, not weak; active, not passive; courageous, not timid; restrained, not excessive; modest, not self-aggrandizing; and gracious, not brash. A meek person is not easily provoked, pretentious, or overbearing and readily acknowledges the accomplishments of others." "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." I believe that meek people have a close relationship with the Holy Ghost, seeking for that which is good for other people. Meek people have the courage to bless others, when they are prompted by the spirit.
Jesus Christ always looked to personal revelation from his Heaven Father and guidance of the Holy Ghost for understanding of how to act. I enjoyed a quote from Larry Wilson's talk in the conference. "Being spiritually self-reliant is hearing the Lord’s voice through His Spirit for one’s own life." Self-reliance enables us to minister to people's spiritual and temporal needs. I feel like the revelations to change the structure and ministry of the Church is enabling us to be more united with each other as ward members, families, and in our companionships with the Holy Ghost. President Nelson spoke on receiving personal revelation. He said. "Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work." Our revelations will increase our faith to minister. If we receive a prompting to do something from the Holy Ghost, we can act upon it with confidence that God will sustain us. Although home teaching and visiting teaching has been retired, and ministering will still be overseen by the Elders Quorum and Relief Society presidencies under the direction of the bishop, we should not be afraid to have our own personal ministry, having the Holy Ghost as a close companion.
The Elders Quorum have become like the Relief Society, having most of the Melchizedek Priesthood holders meet in the third hour, and the Relief Society has become more like Elders Quorum, where the Young Women can be ministering companions with the Relief Society sisters. Now every member above the age of fourteen can be in a ministering companionship. This unity among the church members can greatly expand and simplify the work's efforts and fruits. We can have greater confidence working within our ward and family councils to reach out to individuals that are struggling.
Neal L Anderson spoke to BYU Provo last week about ministering, quoting Matthew twenty. "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." The prophets are enabling the church quorums, councils, and individuals to minister. Elder Andersen shared the following example of a university student's ministry: "I was going through a really rough time. One day I was really struggling, and on the verge of tears. I pleaded and prayed silently for strength to continue. In that exact moment, my roommate sent me a text, expressing her love for me. She shared a scripture, and bore testimony. It brought me so much strength, and comfort, and hope in that moment of despair." In my experience, trying to minister, I learned that I need to learn how to be straight forward with people. Andersen said. “To minister spiritually can begin with baking cookies or playing a basketball game, but eventually this holier way of ministering requires opening your heart and your faith, taking courage in encouraging the positive growth you are seeing in a friend or in expressing concerns about things you see and feel that are not consistent with discipleship.”
Many people are struggling, and we should be there to help them. I quote again from the BYU Devotional. “Unlike changing a flat tire, one experience rarely fixes a spiritual problem. It takes time, conversations and encouraging experiences that will help rebuild faith,” "It comes more like the dew from heaven than a one-time blast from a firehose. You have to minister again and again, as you help someone turn back to God, again relying on the Savior and his atonement.”
 
I felt bad for limiting the time of the last two speakers, but many people expressed their thanks to my prepared words.
I finally got my bike a tune up. A ball bearing on the crank felt broken, and the balls burst throughout the bike shop, when the guy opened it.
Nursery was great today. A boy that I made out of order because I embraced his silly personality last week was calm today. Brother Keith Kuhn has been called to serve with me in the Nursery. He is a humble man. I was able to talk to him, helping him feel comfortable with the children. Keith actually came to my wedding reception. When I asked if he did, he complained about how loud it was. Keith is a family friend of the Ledesma's. I believe that he is Jessica's primary teacher in her childhood.
Jasmine and Lucas came over for dinner last Friday. We ministered with each other, going out for frozen yogurt afterwards. The local stores at Multnomah Village are expensive, but the experience is convenient, since it is close. We went to Nectar. There was only one good frozen yogurt flavor as the others were ice cream type flavors. The honey lavender flavor was interesting.
 

31 March 2018

After the second session of conference John, my father-in-law, invited me to go to a member of his branch's house for Priesthood Session. When I realized that they will watch the session in Spanish, I concluded that I should see Lucas' plans to watch it, since they were going to come for dinner. He came a little earlier, and we watched the session together.
It was mind blowing. On the first priesthood session that President Nelson presided over. He restructured the priesthood quorum organizations. The high priest groups have been desolved.
We are staying up late tonight because Mercedes wants to make pumpkin spice cupcakes. I should get to sleep as soon as possible, since the cupcakes will not be baked tonight. I don't want to nap during any of the general conference sessions tomorrow.

April 1, 2018

One thing that I forgot to write about is a movie that Jessica and I watched. It is called "Leap!". Jessica was avoiding PG-13 movies that night. I have wanted to quit watching PG-13 a while back. The "Strictly Dancing" movie is PG, yet it still had disturbingly suggestive scenes. Movie ratings can't be trusted.
"Leap!" is a new favorite films. It is up there with "Meet the Robinsons" and "Ratatouille." I don't like to watch movies multiple times. The motion pictures mentioned previously are animated movies that made me laugh a lot. I loved the pure humor of these films.
Today's sessions of general conference were as mind blowing yesterday because home and visiting teaching has been canceled church wide to unite the newly expanded elders quorum with the Relief Society.
President Russell M Nelson's speech was so impressive that I think that I should base my talk on it. He taught how to receive revelation. There were a few talks about revelation. Larry Wilson spoke about the same thing. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is member of the Godhead to guide, comfort, and teach. It is called a constant companionship for those that are confirmed with the gift at baptism. We were taught how to have a more intimate and productive companion with the Holy Ghost. Larry spoke about a Navy chaplain, watching the ship for the night, during a typhoon. The boat had three engines. The first was not working, the second was at half power, and third was working.
The captain asked the chaplin, who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former missionary, to pray for the safety of the crew. The chaplin could have just prayed for the safety of the crews, but he prayed to know what to do. After a series of prayers, communications, or revelations, he learned that the fully functioning engine is being overused, and he proposed to the captain to reduce the load of the fully functioning engine; although, other crew members advised opposite. The proposal was heeded to, and the engine endured the night, and they made it out of the storm. The fully functioning crew did quit working when the waters were safe, and the ship puttered to a harbor with the engine with half strength. This is a example of how someone can be of service to man with the constant companionship. God loves everyone in that ship because they are his children, but only one had the Gift of the Holy Ghost, having the God's companionship. The chaplin's intimate work with the Holy Ghost gave him the guidance of the all-knowing Father in Heaven for the situation. President Nelson wants us all to engage their stewardships in a personal ministry with the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost; being worthy, prayerful, loving, and obedient. His speech and the new program of the Church are instructions for all saints to be fruitful servants of God as the chaplin.
Mercedes was able to make the Pumpkin Cupcakes that she was planning to make yesterday. They were so great that I ate my share of four cupcakes all in a row.
Last week or so, the church released a digital rendering of the new temple that will be built in Bangkok, Thailand. I downloaded the picture, putting it on my work computer's wallpaper. Two of my coworkers asked about the building, asking about the stone of the plans. They said that Columbia Stone Inc would like to help build the temple. I wish that I could live in Thailand, and help manage the construction. I am too weak to speak up. My voice would probably prove unfruitful. Our company has bid for several of projects of the church and Utah with near success, but none were rewarded.

Saturday 7 April 2018

Today we prepared red curry for the ward sister missionaries' dinner.

Sunday 8 April 2018

The sister missionaries came at 2:30 PM because they were heading to the temple to serve at the visitor center. We were unable to host them as we have tried to last time. We followed the recipe very accurately; although, I could have measured the paste on a scale. I looked at a cook's conversion table online. My in-laws, which we hosted for dinner later, thought that the curry was excessively spicy. I tried it, and it was not spicy. I doubled the recipe because we were serving double the people. It is apparent that red curry is much more spicy than yellow curry. I put a third cup of paste in my first batch of yellow curry, feeding four people, which were Jasmine, Lucas, Jessica, and I. No one complained. I put a half cup of red curry paste, following the recipe with precision, and everyone except the sisters and I, which we spoke to today, expressed their pain and displeasure greatly. I was not ashamed because I Iived through the same experience, when my mother cooked cowsoy soup for the first time. I wondered about why one of the sister missionaries said that yellow curry is her favorite. Does she actually know the different curry flavors?
Last week a sister on Facebook waved to my profile of the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. I have spoke to her previously. She asked me where she could find a group of young single adults in northern Washington. I understood her difficulty when she told me where she lived. It was remote. I followed up, when she greeted me again, asking if she found a group of young single adults. She affirmed that she did; plus, she has a boyfriend now. I am happy that I was able to help her. I have served as an administrator of the social media pages of the Mormon YSA Blog Spot for years, and it is nice to hear a fruit of my efforts.
The Mormon YSA Blog Spot has actually been growing a lot lately. Most posts have clicks now where as posts rarely would have clicks before.
One thing that I got me thinking about the foundation of people's lives. People should be careful about the foundation that they choose for their lives. Opportunities are given to individuals based on their previous experience. I was given the task of making the cut tickets for the Kingspan insulation panels of the Multnomah County Central Courthouse project. This experience directly related to the experience that I had during my internship with Delta Stone Products to draft cut tickets for the stone. My internship with Delta Stone Products is a surprisingly important foundation of my life. At the time of the experience, the internship was questioned whether it qualifies.
I started my third period of service in a nursery. Jessica served with me today; although, she was sustained to serve a calling to serve in the Cub Scouts today. I built a house out of a toy, putting a windmill on the house. A boy named Desmond caught on to the word windmill, repeating it several times. I tried to talk to him about the wind and the electricity that windmills can produce, but the children barely speak. I asked a girl her name, and I thought that she said Gabriela. Another nursery leader said that her name is Lily. Lily is a common name based on my experience serving in the nursery. The children seem to mumble around me, but I have heard them speak well to people that they are familiar with.

11 April 2018

A company asked me to participate in their blogging marketing campaign, but I have been quiet about it because I thought that it might be a scam. They would reply to email once a week, which I thought was odd. The company's name is ThermaLeaf. I will write about it more later. I want to get this posted.