Hi, I'm Elder Choe!

"So, what's there to know about you, Elder Choe?"

***

I'm a Yellow-Red, I'm spontaneous, I'm a missionary, and I'm a Mormon.

Some say that that in complete darkness, he navigates by shouting, his left knee attracts cats, and that he can solve a Rubik's cube just by staring at it for 15 seconds - all we know is that his name is Mi Nam (and that's one word).

As for what I have to say: I am very fortunate to have been blessed with a father who has a deep love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At eight years old, I was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As I grew older, my father set a wonderful example of attending his meetings and magnifying his callings; however, in lieu of following in his ways wholeheartedly, I decided that I could coast on his testimony.

Wrong. Buffalo.  

I made no real effort to understand what the Gospel really meant to me - this lead to me being "active" in the Church, but not active in my heart.

As time passed, I found myself rapidly approaching college. It was there that I found myself wandering around in the ways of the world, searching for some sort of happiness. Now, get this - I didn't find it there.

I found happiness in service to others, being the big brother that my younger sisters deserve, attending Church, and following the example that was set by my dad.

Who would have though? Well, apparently Alma did.

***

"Awesome! So, why are you a 'Mormon'?"

***

Why is the sky blue? I dunno - it just makes sense!

I suppose that the real question here is, "Why did you come back?"

Well, I came back because I found happiness that the world could not provide. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, as restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith, is here for us to apply in our lives. It was when I began to test the waters (Moroni 10:3-5) that things just clicked - I had always known that the Book of Mormon is true, I had never questioned the validity of Joseph Smith's First Vision, and the teachings and doctrines of the Church just made sense - morally and spiritually.

I'm here because I've proved The Lord in days that are past! I stay where I am because He continues to bless me with testimony-strengthening experiences, and I am able to stand and say that - as Elder Jeffrey R Holland said - "[I] know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true."

***

"Wow! So, how do you live your faith?"

Well, friend, for now I'm serving a full-time mission in the far-away, exotic, and isolated locale of... Utah(land). Yes, I was called to the Salt Lake City West Mission, and I love it.

I live my faith by helping others come unto Christ. Going beyond the name tag, I see that as an individual, I have a long way to go. I rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and I trust in Him; those are the only smart things to do, really. By sticking to the principles of the Gospel
- obeying the Commandments, giving service, and trying to follow Christ's example, I have found fulfillment in ways that words cannot describe.

I love my faith! It gives me a sense of purpose and has blessed me with an eternal perspective on life. The whole message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that our natures can be changed; we can be refined into the marvelous beings that our Heavenly Father created us to be. I know that Father IS aware of me, that He DOES love me, and that He wants the BEST for me - and all of this for You, too!
So, what are you waiting for, friend? Go on - "Ask the missionaries!" They can - and will - help. The Gospel will change your life.

***

I love that I've been blessed with the privilege of using this blog as a medium to share the Gospel! In addition to my contributions here, I also have my own blog - I've linked to it above, but I'll share it with you, again. 

You can find it here!

I'd love to have you friend and/or follow me on Facebook!

I love this Gospel.
Feel free to use this image I made for
your own uses - an occasional
link to my page(s) would be
appreciated!

New to this

Hi my name is Sam! I am a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I have been a member all my life and I love the church more and more each day! I strive to live the gospel in everything I do! I am from Mississippi but please don't hold that against me!

January 11, 2014

Yesterday after serving in the Saint Francis Catholic Soup Kitchen, which I wrote in my last journal that I go with Michael Angulo to each Friday morning, we were hanging out. The missionaries were serving with us in the soup kitchen, and upon their request we made them a word document, which they can give to members of the church that they may ask for referrals. We were also trying to think of something to do. Jesse Kaupert was not down to hang out because his older brother, Michael, just came home from his mission the day before. His family is big on family, so he is busy for this weekend. After I talked with Jesse, I realized that I can hang out with my new Brazilian sister, the foreign English student that I introduced to you in a past journal entry. She wanted to hang out, so we waited for her.

Michael Angulo join the blog spot as we were figuring out what we are going to do. His faith is amazing. He just popped out of nowhere a few years ago in the church feeling prompted to come. He claimed to be a member, and he come from a less active family. God blessed his life with the good fellowship of the Ocean YSA Branch, and his faith grew; although, he barely knew the gospel. He accepted a mission call to Canada inspired by his patriarchal blessing. I feel honored to have witnessed all of this. He is a great friend.

As we were waiting for Nathalia, I received a call from work, inviting me to work this weekend. I asked if they can work Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I said that I don't work Sunday, asking if I can have that day off. He said that I will have to look for another place to work because they were looking for people to work on the weekend. I explained that I worked there before, and they were usually flexible. I get my usual two days off, but I get Sunday off and another day off in the week, a day where I serve in the temple. He accepted my acquisition, saying that he would call the shift manager to see if it would work out. He called back a few minutes later, saying that I don't have to work on Sunday. I can just come in for Saturday and Monday. I was so excited. I love working. I will have to tell you about my work place.

I am also excited because I finally got the day shift, which starts at 6 and ends at 2:30. I have always wanted this shift because I have been missing Family Home Evening and Institute in my home Ocean YSA Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Michael and I showed Nathalia the Capitola Village. She was grateful that it did not have the hundreds of homeless people like downtown Santa Cruz. I explained that Santa Cruz is an odd place, when it comes to homeless people. I heard that neighboring cities would send their homeless to our town. I further explained that when I visited China I lived in Nantong, a city of eight million people, and I did not see homeless people all over downtown. Although I did see some, they were not all over the place like downtown Santa Cruz. It has way too many crazy people. Nathalia recognized that the Santa Cruz kind of prides itself on how weird that it is.

Nathalia and I were exhausted from the day, and I went to sleep early, since work starts at six. I have a testimony of the scripture verse in Doctrine and Covenants 88:124. "Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated." When I go to sleep early, I always wake up with my body and mind invigorated.

Today I woken up at 2:30 by what I believe is a vision like the Tree of Life somewhat, which is in the Book of Mormon. Some cultures believe that dreams are visions. Some of my dreams don't have significance to my life, but I believe that this has spiritual depth in it. I woke up in my vision in an interesting place. I was in pitch darkness. I felt like I was in a bottom of a pit. I imagine that the surface would be a nightmare to a claustrophobic person, for I felt like I was in a tight cylinder type spot, but the surfaces were like a football long and rounded. I felt like this was a test of mental and spiritual learning, for we are all enlisted until the conflict is over. I pondered when I woke up, if people would freak out in this situation. People may just give up with no purpose or hope of life beyond the present, and let themselves die thinking to themselves. I am in hell. I held on to my knowledge of good though that I obtained by searching the light of Christ. I believed that there was something outside of the position that I was in. I felt like I can barely move in this tight situation, but I believed that I felt around I can find a way out. I did not have to feel too far to find that the ground was in arm lengths distance. I crawled out of the cave type thing. When I got out, I did not see much of great scenery, but I saw a bunch of youth sleeping around the contraption that I was in. It looked like a case of a big musical instrument, but it was opened. I was placed here. I think that I passed the test because all the youth woke up only minutes after I crawled out of the contraption. They did not speak to me. They just continued with their usual routine, heading to a facility to wash up and prepare for the day. In this experience I never had anxiety. I trusted God that there is always a way to the light and out of our dark abyss. There is a faith in God that is the true way of living.

It is through, the Christ, Jesus, and he will only have one teaching that we can hold upon. He gives this way by telling prophets, his mouthpiece, the Gospel. The Gospel has a deep definition. A way that I know it means is that the Gospel is the establishing of the Kingdom of God, and that is through repentance. God the Father and Jesus Christ has appeared to man of Earth, and he has called men to serve him as prophets to restore his Kingdom. The first prophet was Joseph Smith Jr. called in 1823, and we still have a living prophet today named Thomas S Monson. I encourage you to find the way out of your pitch darkness claustrophobic situation, if you understand the situation. There is a way. I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the complete truth, and I would invite you to inquire of yourself of the truthfulness that I know with God. This process is through prayer, and you will feel the love of God, confirming the truth, if you inquire correctly. Information about the church for inquirers can be found at Mormon.org, and you can request the missionaries to visit for guidance in your learning of the way and teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I hope that you are not hopeless in the darkness, thinking that there is no way to a greater life, because there is.

January 9, 2014

     Today is another special day, since I was able to serve in the temple. Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are a place of mystery for the world because how sacred it is. We are not supposed to talk about these sacred things in depth. I have been serving as an ordinance worker of the Oakland Temple for a couple years now. I am not exactly sure it if has been three years yet. All ordinances are performed with covenants in mind. Covenants are one of the most important things to take upon ourselves in mortality. They are one of the key parts of our judgment of our inheritance in the Kingdoms of Heaven. Covenants are given to man from God that we may return to his presence, for we lived with Heavenly Father before our mortal lives. He wants us to obtain eternal life; therefore, he gives us the task to be obedient to his will in order to fulfill the covenant to obtain the desired eternal life. Doing his desires will prepare us to be like God, which is eternal life. There are three covenants for the common man to obtain eternal life, and two of them are received in the temple. The third one is marriage, a sealing to make your marriage last through all eternity, if you are faithful to the covenant. Only by receiving all three can the children of the Heavenly Father of every human spirit, who is God, be given eternal life.

     There is a lot of work to do in the temples, and I was happy to say that the work today in the temple was only slowed by the patrons. Many times in the shift that I work in the Oakland Temple, we are understaffed. It is almost sad that it is so understaffed that I can walk in say that I would like to be an ordinance worker, and they will set me apart at that moment. I am an exception because I have experience, and they know me there. They said that I can go to Brigham Young University Idaho and return to work without going through the big process for the reasons that I just mentioned, and I did that today. In Rexburg Idaho, my temple work is average because the faith is so great there. I have applied twice to serve as an ordinance worker in the temple, and I get no feedback. The competition is so great. The Rexburg temple usually works at its potential, but the Oakland temple rarely does. I would encourage you to make a commitment to go serve in your local temple to make sure that the work of God in the temples are fulfilled at a greater potential.

     The ordinances in the temple are for the living and the dead, for the Latter-day Saints believe that every soul needs to be part of the New and Everlasting Covenant to fulfill God's plan for the salvation of his children. Every human is to be part of the covenant, so everyone can choose it for themselves. In the next life, people do not need to receive the ordinances; although, it is performed for them. Their agency is thus respected. One may think that it is impossible to be able to record and perform the temple ordinances for every person, but we have the Millennium, the final thousand years of the existence of this mortal Earth, which is led by the resurrected Christ himself. Jesus Christ provides the way to accomplish his work, and we cannot be saved without everyone joining the New and Everlasting Covenant. It is only through Christ that we can be forgiven from our sins through these covenants administered by God’s Priesthood power.

     As an ordinance worker, I feel the love of God, when I interact and maintain friendship with people. When I walk around, I try to follow the Holy Ghost. The promptings are so subtle for me, but I know that it comes from God. It takes effort to see where I can serve, but when I seek for opportunities to serve, I am led by God to be in places that I need to be. An ordinance worker was given the assignment to aid a man to participate in sealing for the dead. Although the man was old and was forgetful from dementia, the man cannot even remember his children, but he was prompted to speak in Hawaiian. The ordinance worker was surprised, asking him how he learned the language, and the man said that he learned it when he served in the Navy. The ordinance worker was Hawaiian, and at that moment he felt the love of God greatly. "I needed that." Expressing gratitude to the coordinator, he said.

     Some people may think that it is prideful to talk about yourself. My little brother served with me as an ordinance worker, and I think that he only told a few people. I don't tell everything about what I do. If you don't let people know about you, how will your posterity know you? My little brother went two whole years, serving a mission in Bolivia, and he did not keep a journal. I was so disappointed when he said that upon his return. All the knowledge and experience of his mission may be lost for future generations. Our faith supposed to bless nations; not be so humble that no one even knows what you stand for. 

Health & Exericse

Health and exercise are a key essential in our everyday life, to be able to help us have a bigger and better day. A good healthy exercise should normally be between 30-60 min, a good walk or jog or both. do some weight lifting or some push ups and sit ups. The best time to exercise is in the morning a reason why, its cause it helps to be able to think more clearly, and have more energy and it relieves a whole of tention in the body that can cause anger, sadness or depression along with many negative emotions. Most of us will be kind of weak before we do an exercise a good thing to do is to have some fruit or some nuts or some veggies, always try to drink a glass of water along with the food you do it, doing so will give the body positive energy sufficient for your work out. It's always important to eat after your workout to cause your body will experience fatigue so try to add some good protein after your work out such as something like eggs, chicken, or turkey and eat along with again some good healthy snack such as i wrote above. Make sure to continue to drink water.Normally we should always try to drink 8 decent size glasses of water. Doing all this makes the brain and the body work more effectively throughout the day and doing this makes you feel a whole better also.Thanks for reading this. and have a good day.

Michael Angulo a.k.a Gulo

Meet Michael Angulo

Hey all, this is Michael Angulo or you can call me gulo or mikey. I am from Tracy,CA currently living in Capitola, CA. i will be attend cabrillo community college. I am 25 years old.

Meet Camille Ramos

Hi brothers and sisters!

Just wanna introduce myself. I am Camille Ramos, 22 years old. I am taking up Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy. As you can see at my picture I am not an American, but rather an Asian (specifically a Filipina). I love to mingle with different types of people. My parents called me as a generous and kind one, but at times I think I am not :) I was born after my family was sealed. I am the youngest among my 3 sisters and 1 brother. All of my sisters are married and have their own kids. My brother are getting married this March. I am single, yes i am! Haha, but no need to worry guys, in God's timetable i will go and get married inside the temple for time and all eternity. I would love to try blogging so hope you guys will try to read my blog. Thanks to this beautiful sister, Alexander Hicken for allowing me to be part of this blog for YSA. Hope you guys will enjoy and have fun. I am hoping that as you read our blogs, you'll be inspired to do something best than what we did. Let us do our best! Be the best sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father!

Meet Aellen Ross Daileg

Hello everyone 

im aellen ross daileg,currently 17 years of age w/ a fair complexion and had a lovely smile who's seeking for new friends.
i am,fond of reading books,travelling in different places(rain or shine),listening music's like lds youth music,surfing the net,watchng lds movie's and capturing picture's wherever i go.but most of all i love attending parties:-) and other entertaining creations.
i am a woman,who has fear w/ GOD.
(i'm a MORMON & i love it)
i am person who can be hurt inside but i can still manage to smile outside
its my pleasure to meet you all guys:-).
i would love to work w/ you..

January 8, 2014

I have not been called in for work today, but my work to promote the MormonYSA.blogspot.com is going well. I like to say the MormonYSA.blogspot.com, for it is a Mormon YSA Blog Spot, a blog spot for young single adults. Surprisingly the Filipino people are most active, and willing to write. We have 5 authors already. I have been trying to recruit bloggers individually, looking for YSA bloggers, and inviting large Mormon Facebook groups to join. My success so far has come from talking to individuals that 'like' my posts.

Today has been special somewhat because I have had chores given to me and getting outside. Writing in my journal as I walk around, I saw a homeless sister. Mormons call each other brother and sister. I always think of the scripture in Mosiah chapter 4, when going through life, seeing homeless people and service opportunities. The following sentences are the verses, starting at 16:

“16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just

18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.

22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.

23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.

24 And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.

25 And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received.

26 And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.”

I usually don't have money on me because I just use my card to buy things, but I did have money. I approached the sister and spoke to her, asking what I could do to help. I listened a lot, and she said that she ponders, making a sign that says 'Reality is that you can be standing here homeless.' Her husband has lost work. He used to own a construction business, but one of his employees did not secure a ladder or platform well, and he fell off, falling through the second floor, landing on his back. He broke both his back and neck. Suffering from a nerve problem, he is losing use of a limb. I gave her what money that I had, and offered dinner to them, if my parents are willing.

My parents aren't really into my charity. Mormons use the word 'charity' interchangeably with doing charity work or acts of love. When people ask for change and things, I share what I can. Early in 2012 my mom gave me a bunch of change for my travels to San Francisco, and she rebuked me for giving it to a homeless person.

I spoke to another homeless guy named John, who lost his shelter early in December, and I invited him to join our family for dinner as I did the sister and a homeless veteran. John warned me that some people are dangerous to invite in a home.

I look forward to the day, when I can live as charitable as I can.

If you would like to help these homeless people, you can contact me. I have their contact information.

Meet Hermana Joanna Salas

Hermana Joanna Salas is a sister missionary, serving in the Scottsdale Arizona mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am a good friend of hers, and she is having me run her blog. This is her latest letter home, which are her blog posts.

Hi everyone!

Interesting week this week
so we prayed for inspiration on what to teach one of our investigators, she is the one with 6 children and a husband in jail. We went over to help her clean the house and then taught her about tithing and read Elder Bednar's talk on "The Windows of Heaven" and it was a bit strange. we thought that it would strengthen her faith and she will have the desire to live it, but she isn't putting her trust in God as much as she should , plus she would talk over me and  talk to her daughter as my companion bore her testimony, and towards the end of the lesson she went out to answer a call, we waited and waited, turns out she ended up watering her plants outside, leaving us inside. we know she has a lot on her mind and its sort of hard to focus, we love her but sometimes we feel she is not interested. She did however, said she wanted to wait for her husband so they can get baptized together, but she isn't coming to church, she is still going to the catholic one and after she goes to sell things. We did invite her daughters to come to church and she said that she wanted to so we will have a member pick her up and hopefully through her kids we get Erica to come and really see. ( i am also realizing that we cant do this alone the member need to go and offer a helping hand as well) I am learning a lot from this women. just how simple gospel principles bless our lives and how we need to put God first above all things and that faith will keep us strong and dedicated to work hard for a brighter future, plus showing children to love Heavenly Father and live his commandments, under any circumstance, is super important so we may receive those blessings poured out from heaven.

We are starting a Preach my gospel class every Thursday night that we are all super excited about. We need to prepare these members to know what the lessons are and how to be more involved.
WE had the best lesson in the whole wide world!!!!!!!
we have another family that we are working with they are perfect the mom always invites us over for food and loves us and we love her, her two daughters and son are so reverent during lessons and they loved church, they went on fast and testimony meeting and those testimonies we so powerful! i loved loved loved them.
there is a blind sister in our branch, she talked about how imperfect she was and how she is so grateful for the gift of repentance and the atonement because through that she can take off her loads and be happier, and she i will one day be able to see her Father in Heaven and hug him, she knows it takes a lot of work to be worthy for that honor. I think she had everyone crying. before sacrament meeting started we asked her kids how they liked class, they said they loved it and looked so excited, momma loved it too and she even offered to come clean the chapel on Friday! and she also saw our other investigator at church with her 7 children her name is Blanca and she was moved with compassion towards her, she told me that if she ever needed anything that she would love to help and even come out when we visit her, wow she is already feeling the missionary spirit. her charity impressed me!
anyway about he lesson we taught them all The Plan that Heavenly Father has for the Salvation/happiness of his children and her husband was there because he works a lot so that was a miracle. The Orozco's came out with us he is the young mens president and she is the Relief society president , the lesson was so sweet, they did a great job. i loved what that brother said at the end, that if if the sisters say that what they are teaching you comes from God, who better to ask if this is true than God himself? i loved how eager they looked and the spirit of gratitude that was felt in the room. We invited them to follow the example of the Savior by going down to the waters of baptism. she looked at her husband and then looked at us and responded "well don't we need to be married first?"
we all giggled and the family  that came with us talked about how after his mission he went to go pick her up in Chile and two days later on a  Thursday picked out a dress and got married on Saturday at the Mesa Temple. she said that all she want is her loved ones there and have a simple wedding, we told her that can be arranged, so we are feeling a wedding coming on soon!!! she did look really excited. the one thing that planted a seed in her heart about the church was the example of a friend and how she is so strong and she wants to be like her. What a blessing ! 

I love you all thank you very much bye

January 7, 2014

After posting my last journal entry, Trevor said that he initially had no intention to develop a romantic relationship in Bolivia, but a good friendship turned romantic before he knew it, confirming nothing was hidden from me and he has full trust in me. His spontaneity is not my style, and he knows that.

Anyhow… (That is a made up word that my mom says.) Today is special because I had my first day, practicing AutoCAD. Learning AutoCAD is my new year's resolution. I am surprised how many people don't know what AutoCAD is. It is a 3D modeling program for used in many professions. The holidays were hectic for me, so I finally got to it today. I have been attempting to read an article for a couple weeks now. They first advised me to practicing navigating the 3D space. Practicing without an actual sample project was completely different, but I learned the basics. After getting used to it, I downloaded a condominium model and navigated around it. That was just as difficult as the previous practice; then, I was advised to experiment and learn the tools in making things. I made a cube with twelve lines, and that was easy. Using the command line is interesting. I was trying to put a dome on a side of my cube with arcing lines, but I could not make them attach to opposite corners diagonal from each other. I was feeling tired, so I took a break from that, preparing for a jog.

One thing about me that I would like the family and friends of mine that read this to know about me is that I am a long distance runner. Last year about May, I tried to run track, for I did in high school. I got injured before the end of the second week of the season. I realized that I got injured because I was an avid blogger, following the world news very closely on Twitter and retweeting every development that I can. The investment of time was hours a day to publish daily tweets at ReadtheStoryoftheWorld.blogspot.com. Sitting and laying around each day to keep up with the news made me weak to my knee injury that I found myself with. I blogged the story of the world for more than two years, but I had to quit. I attend Brigham Young University in Idaho, and, seeing that the cross country championship times of the school were slow, I knew that I could win. This was a new goal in my life. I trained over the summer, overcoming my injury, and I won the championship race of Brigham Young University Idaho's 2013 cross country. My goal now is to continue my high school goal to break the 10 minute barrier in the two mile. I focused on the two mile in high school. My friends are scared to train with me now that I win 5Ks in Rexburg, the small town that has little competition.

I tell them that I even went on a run with my mother a couple weeks ago, and we had a good time. I have been running for about ten years, and mom finally started running on her own will this past year. She worked up to running about 30 minutes on the treadmill and was confident enough to run with me. That moment a couple weeks ago was the first time that we ran together. She may have gone out too fast. If you don't know running lingo, that means she started the run too fast. I thought that she was not use to running on the road because she just runs on the treadmill, not being used to propelling herself forward. We jogged for a good 10 minutes, and walked the last 20 minutes. We had a good time, talking.

Last week was also fun because I watched a movie while I was preparing for a jog. It takes about an hour after eating before I feel good to run. Looking for a good animated film, I foundThe Girl Who Leapt Through Time. After watching that movie, I was so inspired that I decided that it is my favorite movie, and I am not one to have a favorite movie. The story is so good. The characters are well developed, and the fun is not the usual stuff. The main character's attribute to travel into the unknown inspired me to run in a way that I have never done.

On my run I felt like running in the opposite ways of my intentions. I am from Santa Cruz, California, and my first direction was towards Pleasure Point. Since that run would be to short, I turned to run to the Capitola Village. There was traffic in the road, so for an odd reason I ran in the road next to the cars outside of the biking lane. Running through the village, I usually just go straight up the hill out of it, but I ran up the stairs and around towards the New Brighton beach. I usually run this direction, so I went down a trail, going down to the railroad. I thought that I could run on the beach. I have not done that in years. At the New Brighton beach, I saw a trail that said no trespassing, so I didn't go through. Running along the beach on a dirt road, I saw some stairs, going up to the campgrounds, which was a good hill to run up. I explored the grounds and found a road, leading to a neighborhood. The streets had the railroad tracks, which lead to a state park that I never seen or heard of before. I even checked on Google, and they don't have much information on it. It has a plaque dedicated to Senator Henry J. Mello and Vicki Powell for preserving the land. I explored those trails until I returned to the street that I began at. I didn't want to run on roads or train tracks, so I found a trail going through the woods. The trail was nice. I even saw a deer, and I have not seen a deer on one of my runs for years. This trail got iffy, but it existed. There were many trails in the woods. One led to a fallen tree that I crossed. I wondered if they were drug trafficking trails. I felt like I might get lost in the trails. I was led to a den type area. Homeless people might live there. I saw two tunnel like trails that I didn't want to crawl through. I thought that animals may live here too. I felt a little lost and that it was time to go home, so I found a trail that led me to the railroad, which goes toward my home. My friend's mother saw me, walking on the side of the street, so she drove me home. I was picking at a sliver in my neck, and my shirt was scraped, which I thought were signs of a good adventure. I checked out the trail of my adventure today, finding some more trails to explore tomorrow.

Our family received a new Brazilian foreign English student last Friday. A friend of mine, which I should identify, Jossy Reyes, thought that she may be trouble. We never hosted a teenage girl, nor did we ever have any sisters in my family. We were a little worried, but we are down for whatever she brings though. Her name is Nathalia. 

I joked that Jossy thought that she was trouble because her Facebook cover photo is of her laying on the beach with two parrots, standing on her feet and head. She is super cool like all the other Brazilians that I met, and she is more fragile than expected, having Asthma. We played Pokemon Monopoly on Sunday night. We decide that the houses of the orange property should cost double because, if you have them you are almost guaranteed to win. The game was never completed. Since I was having bad luck, I had to play more aggressively, and dad was worth the most, winning the game. Nathalia likes hanging out and exploring the town until late, so we miss her at dinner.