September 4, 2014

     There has been no drama this week at work; therefore, I am not going to write about it. I have some adventures to write about, a YSA one and one with Eve. Work was crazy yesterday, and it inspired me to become something that I have been thinking about. My REVIT update is another weak one. I have been focusing more on preparing for my cross country team, running more, experimenting with a new content feed style for the Mormon YSA Blog Spot, and going to Institute.
     My adventures are impressive in my eyes. I befriended a girl in my new YSA Ward on Facebook, and I asked her if I could sit with her at church. Her name is Kesha Richardson, and she was sitting with Hannah Johannson. They are really cool. I asked Kesha how her week was, and she said something about work. I asked about what she does, and she works at a bakery. When that topic came up, Hannah asked if she would like to come over to help bake cupcakes for a marriage occasion. I asked if I can help them bake, and they were down with that. We were having a hard time deciding on a time. I like making things happen because there is always another way, and we figured it out.
     When we met, we were deciding between chocolate or vanilla. I said that we should do vanilla because it is more original than chocolate. Chocolate is too common. Hannah’s father is a retired chef, and he gave Hannah actual vanilla beans for Christmas or her birthday with a lifetime supply of vanilla extract. She probably got a liter of the extract. We first made the frosting, which was a surprisingly simple recipe; a whole thing of cream cheese and a whole thing of butter, a good guess on the amount of powdered sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla. A machine mixed it up, and it came out glorious. I love it when a food is so dense in nutrition that it goes through a series of flavors. I can't describe the order, but it was great. Do you understand the recipe?
     The batter recipe was cool to. Hannah cut open a vanilla bean for this one, and this recipe was not simple. She put the beans in the batter. It didn't taste like it had a series of tastes. I think that it tasted like normal cake batter.
     One thing that I discovered when I was playing with Eve and Ezra is that I could swing Eve in a circle on a rope swing, and I could let go of the ground. Eve and Ezra enjoy watching fun videos that I find on Facebook, and she wanted to make a fun video. She tried to think of some ideas, but they were lame. I thought that our discovery is pretty cool, so I suggested maybe we can make a video of it. She said that she will be gone all weekend, so I might not see her until next Friday. School for me starts next week, so I figured that I should issue a challenge that I thought of. Since I thought that the video was creative, I wanted to invite my friends and family to join in the fun. I issued the challenge last night, giving them a week like I gave myself the week to make the video. I call it the "Do Something Creative With Your Family Challenge," and I would like to invite you to join us, making creative videos. You have one week, and you should challenge other people too. The video is kind of funny because my head is cut off. I tried to have Ezra hold the camera, but he is only three. We had to set the camera on a swing. The first take of the movie was good, but the sound was too soft, and I was pulling Eve around too slowly.

     Work has not been difficult this week, which was nice. Yesterday was a day that blew my mind. I was palletizing the stone, coming off the line, and the last stone that we were working with looked like they were acrylic paintings. I was palletizing acrylic paintings, but it was stone. The colors were amazing. Every color was coming off the line with beautiful designs. I imagined that God painted the Bear Mountains, since that is the name of the stone. I was saving the scraps with all the different colors; yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, light blue. My coworker saw that I had a big stash, and he threw it all away. This stone inspired me to do something that I was thinking to do this past week.
     I have been thinking about how to reduce the waste of the company and be more profitable, since the waste goes into a pile after we cut off the veneer of the stone. I was thinking about making clay out of the silt and other products out of the scrap. I spoke to my general manager, and he said that the silt is basically worthless. Silt is stone fragments more than half the size of sand but more than double the size of clay. I don't think that we have the technology yet to grind silt into clay. I already looked it up. I was thinking of organising a salvaging crew to make additional products for Delta Stone Product, but my general manager said that business is a balancing act of time and resources to be profitable.
     I thought to myself one week that modern art is so terrible nowadays that the veneer looks more impressive. I was thinking of buying a big sheet of veneer and hanging it on my wall as art. I figured that I could make art out of the scraps. The Bear Mountain stone looks amazing. My coworker suggested that I get it polished at the small shop, so the image can be preserved. I started working on making myself art after I was enchanted by the Bear Mountain veneer. I took a picture of what I found, but it is nothing compared to the natural veneer off the machine. You can get a hint of the bright colors.

     Working on designing my cousin's house on REVIT, I was pointed out some things by my cousin that I didn't understand in the floor plan. The floor plans has a hall type area next to the master bedroom. I thought that it was a hall, leading to a deck or outside. The floor plans of the house is shaped kind of like a 'V,' and there is pool/fountain type area in between. That hall is actually a closet, making the master bedroom a little more private than I initially thought. Since that hall is a closet, it means that it is part of the 250 square feet. This is a first decision to reduce the square footage of the house, and it made a big difference. It changed the scale of the house, and now the approximate square footage is 5200 feet compared to 10000. I now need to completely change the house, which might take a while.
     I am preparing for the cross country season in advance. The team wants a good fellowship, so I am organising some team bonding activities. On the first weekend we will make team shirts. On the second week we will try to run up Table Rock. On the third week we will make shirts for the runners that completed the goal of jogging up the 7 mile trail. Fourth week: We will have a picnic at the haunted swing. I don't think that I should plan the entire season because I don't even know my team yet, and I should take into account the team members' personalities. I still need to design a shirt for the Table Rock event. I have a simple idea. I am thinking of making it a panoramic image with the saying "Would you dare run up Table Rock? I did and did it."

     I have been getting more miles of running in. I like the Heber Valley. I have been telling people that I love the valley better than living next to the beach. I have hills to run to in all directions, and there is no place not to explore. I love running hills and the challenge. I found a trail early this week, and it forked into three trails. I ran to the bank today, and I was talking to Jesse Kaupert about getting back to school. I told him that I was at the bank deciding which way to run next. I said to him "Maybe I will just run to the nearest hills," and I did that. I ran to the hill, and there were two houses in my way. I went to a neighbor, and I asked how to get up to a trail pronounced in the hill. He was nice, and he told me that it was private property. There was a way to get on the hill, and I only had to run a few more blocks. I made it up to the trails, and I took a picture. When I was heading back, I saw another trail that I could run, and I thought why not. Not long into it, I ran into a leg of a deer, which looks like it was eaten. I have never seen such a scene before in all my years of running. I was a little apprehensive about continuing, so I ran home.

     The way that I am exploring serving people at the Mormon YSA Blog Spot has changed a lot this past week. I used to share about 5 posts in the morning, and some in the evening; then, I changed to sharing blog posts every hour in the day and pictures every hour on the half hour. I am currently exploring, sharing blog articles throughout the entire day, so I can serve more people around the world; plus, I am not bombarding my followers through out the day. I now have slowed down my feed to sharing something about every hour of the day, but, since it is every hour of the day rather than just the day, I share the same amount of content letting me expand my service too. I use to share 5 articles in the morning to give my followers a variety of articles to choose from, but I figured expanding my service is more important.

August 31, 2014

     It's nice to be caught up in my journal. At this moment in my life, I am living with my grandparents, working a summer job. I am not going to write about my summer job today, but I will write about my grandparents. I also plan to write about my new YSA Ward in Heber City, Utah.  My first couple weeks here at Heber was a little depressing. I was playing with my first cousins once removed a lot for those couple weeks, and I missed interactions with real friends. My first week at the Heber City YSA Ward was this past week.
     The son of my grandparents' bishop drove me to church. I knew where it was, and it is only a few blocks away. He insisted on driving me though. He is pretty cool, but I don't know his name. He was sick last Sunday. As I sat with him, a girl sat with us, and I spoke with her a little before Sacrament; however after Sacrament, I have not seen them again. When I went to ward prayer Sunday night, I met the regulars.
     Ward prayer is a tradition that I have found is in very tight wards. It's a more social activity. We hang out after dinner, have a spiritual thought and a prayer, and hang out again. The first person that I met was Beth Egnew, who is the girl that I went on a date with last night. Our conversation didn't last long the first time that we met for an odd reason. The Elder's Quorum President is a Hicken. His name is Collin. I assume that he is part of the Elder's Quorum Presidency because he led the priesthood lesson on Sunday. After the spiritual thought and prayer, I wanted to meet Collin to know how I am related to him. I told him that I am from the lineage the John Henry the son of Patriarch Thomas Hicken. Patriarch Thomas Hicken is from England, and he is my grandpa's great grandpa. Collin did not know what son that he was from of Patriarch Thomas Hicken. At Family Home Evening Collin told me that he is from Addison's lineage. Addison is the son of Thomas Hicken, who is the son of Patriarch Thomas Hicken. Collin is about the same distance of a cousin as Nicholas Hicken. I thought that I wrote about him, but I could not find information about him, when I was searching my journal.
     Nicholas contacted me last semester because he wanted to get to know the other Hickens at BYU Idaho. We hung out a few times. He was jealous that I went on a mission to Jamaica. Nick loves Jamaica. He really admires Bob Marley. He likens Bob Marley with Buddha, Confucius, and Mohammed as someone given to a nation to look to as a religious leaders. I know that the Jamaican people look to him as a prophet. Nick told a story about him, saying that the high class people didn't like that Bob Marley would invite people from all walks of life to visit his house.
     Family Home Evening was cool, but I didn't want to play any of the activities because I already took a shower, and I need to get home early to get my sleep for work. I got to know a sister more. Her name is Hannah Payne. She is very beautiful, and she always hangs out with her sister in law. Her sister in law is studying to be an editor, so we talked about writing. A guy that I believe is named Chris hung out with us at dinner. We had a good group of people at our table. Later I asked Chris, if he heard whether Hannah was dating anyone. It turns out that she is engaged. I seem to have bad luck because a lot of people that I ask out are dating, engaged, or married.
One coincidence that happened in my new ward is that my friend from BYU Idaho attends the ward. His name is Trevor Sweat. We met my first semester at school, and we use to study in the quiet floor of the library together. We would just sit next to each other. I couldn't deal with the quiet floor because it was easy to fall asleep and the Internet was always bad. I don't like him everything relies on the Internet at school. My grandparents were worried about me getting a ride to school, and Trevor will be able to do that. I saw that he is a runner on Facebook, so I am thinking of asking him if he would like to join my cross country team. I feel like I need to be Mormon, and abridge, plainly explaining the coincidence; that is, God will provide for your needs; be it friends or even a ride to school.

    I mentioned yesterday that I had a date in the evening, and I went out with Beth Egnew. We actually got talking this time. It was a long date. I usually don't have such a long evening with my dates. I picked her up at 3:30. We went to the Swiss Days event in Midway; had dinner; and watched A Midsummer's Night Dream, the Shakespeare play. It was fun, driving to her house, because I was told to turn at Hicken Lane. As I was driving on that lane, I crossed Hicken Court. I had to take a picture of that. Aunt Audrey lives in Midway, and we had a hard time finding their parking lot because Wayne said that it was easy. I mainly looked for 5 dollar parking on Main Street. I drove into 3 parking lots before finding the family lot. We didn't have much time to explore, since we planned to go to a choir concert at 5. The choir was great, but it was not very Swiss. They didn't wear any cultural outfits nor did they sing any Swiss songs. We got a Swiss tacos for dinner. Beth only took a few bites and threw it away. These tacos were huge. I saved mine because I couldn't finish mine either. It was like a normal taco with beans, cheese, and salad; but it was served on fry bread. After dinner we went to see A Midsummer's Night Dream. The Timpanogos Valley Theater is run well. I have not enjoyed many Shakespeare's plays, but this one was fun. I liked the creativity of the immortal fairies that has two modes: one where human can see them, and one where the fairies can only see each other. I like it when good creativity becomes an instant classic. I think that we are missing creativity now a days. A lot of productions are the same old story told over and over. I think that companies are afraid of the risk that comes from creating something completely original.
      I have opinions about media that was discouraging to my movie loving roommate. I think that there is a template where some man-made catastrophe arises and everyone needs to unite to solve the problem. So many movies follow that template. I also don't like when producers are not original enough to create their own story. They do Romeo and Juliet or some other story that is put in different settings. I saw another common story line that is not original. A top secret or government organization falls apart, but somehow a person save the world from a radical person. These are my observations for the lack of creativity in media.
     When I came home, I told my grandparents how the date went. I already told you, so I won't get into that again. My grandmother was surprised that Eve and Ezra did not even mention my name that evening. This is not another journal entry about Eve and Ezra. At this moment they are both looking at the deals that they can get from the local grocery stores with coupons in the newspaper. They are healthy and normal person. My grandfather is 87 years old, and I remember that because he is the same age as the King of Thailand. In the year 2007, I went to Thailand as a graduation present with my mother and a family friend, and the country had yellow shirts designated to be worn each Monday for the entire year. I do love Thailand, and I still wear the Thai yellow shirt that I got today. My grandfather is named Glen Irwin Hicken, and he is the son of Irwin Todd Hicken, who is the son of John Robert Hicken, who I mentioned before. Glen most days of the week serves his community by mowing lawns. I don't know all who he serves. He also is knowledgeable with mechanical contraptions. We visited Wayne his brother yesterday, and he replaced a radiator in a lawn mower. He also helped another brother bale hay. I think that his name is Wayne too. One thing that is funny about my grandfather is that he believes that it should be basic knowledge to know the directions of North, South, East, and West. This would make sense for Utah natives. He says that he knows those directions at all times, and he has pointed out that it is basic knowledge that I should have a few times. College Football started this week, and he enjoys watching Utah's college teams. I believe that they are both BYU fans; although, there are members of the family who are University of Utah fans like my brother and uncle Allen. My grandparents are active members in the senior community, enjoying great friendships there not without football. Grandpa and grandma both have the same amount of patience with Eve and Ezra, which does have limits; although, they love them tremendously. My grandmother was named Carroll Lee Hicken, and she feels that the contention that they bring to the dinner table upsets her soul deeply physically more than spiritually. I believe that grandma has leadership in the senior center. She cooks still enjoying good sight mostly and health. Her walk is not perfect. Grandpa has a solid healthy walk. I am a runner, and I have developed a odd habit of observe the running and walking form of people. Grandpa fell this past week, trying to kick their cat out of the garage, but surprisingly he recovered in just a couple days. I think that he said that his knee hurt, and he would lose balance if he walked normally. He could only walk safely for the first day of the fall by keeping his leg straight. Tiger is their long living cat. She doesn't get much love from my grandparents, but we do feed her. She looks very unkept and dirty with flies following her everywhere, and her whiskers are mangled. My grandparents are good about their responsibility to visit in the homes of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which we call visiting and home teaching. They always inform me of the time that I need to watch Eve and Ezra, when they go. When I first arrived, I had a hard time rounding up Eve and Ezra, getting them home before it is dark, and my grandparents would drive around, looking for us. Much of their time is left lounging around at home. They enjoy classic music played from the television, and they relax with a nap or reading. They also watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune most every day. They don't eat much, and they were feeding me a small amount of food. Grandpa makes me breakfast most mornings. One morning he made me cream of wheat, and I ate the whole pot of cereal. I usually eat a little more than half of the pot of cereal. I was worried that I was not getting enough calories for my lifestyle In Heber, but after showing them that I eat more food, we have been more comfortable making sure that I eat enough. I talk well with my grandparents at the dinner table; although, grandpa is hard of hearing. It is not that bad. I often open up to my grandmother because she can hear well, and we have good discussions about my concerns. I think it is funny that most everyone here acts like they know everyone. When I talk about someone, they always ask for their last name. I think that my grandparents quit asking me for people's last names because they don't know everyone. They have failed to find a relation with everyone that I have spoken about, but other people do it in Heber too.
     About girls eating just a few bites of an expensive meal, my father said that is common, and my grandma said girls don't want to look like they eat a lot. I was chatting with a friend this week, and she said that she was trying to figure out dating. I thought that was odd because girls have so much experience. Boys are left behind usually. I told her about my date, saying "I think that guys don't care how much you eat. It is a sign of health to have good eating habits. Guys don't think about losing weight. They usually think of trying to gain weight. Girls should not worry. Just be healthy." She said. "True. Your the first guy that I ever heard saying that."
     The oddness of figuring out how to date for her as a beautiful girl came out, when I asked if she had a date recently. She said that she had not dated in more than two years, but she has a Skype date in December. She has already said that there are no good guys around to date, and she is waiting, which I understand. She is young, and she can choose. A Skype date a few months from now sounded suspicious. If the guy was really interested, he would want to Skype this weekend or this very night. She said that she never met him, but a couple of her cousins knows him; furthermore, he lives 5 hours away. I said that you should expect him to visit you as soon as possible even if it is 5 hours away. (Random Fact) Did you know that Joseph Fielding Smith rode his bike more than 100 miles each weekend to see his girlfriend? This guy is a loser. It turned out that they talk a little more than an hour each day. I have ran into a girl that had an abusive long distance relationship, and this is definitely one of them. Thankfully it was not for months like the girl that I counseled with. It has only been 4 days for my friend. I don't even know how they met, and I don't even want to know because he is a evil guy. My friend said that he already said that he wanted to marry her. She somehow was committed to him; although she was suspicious. She showed me the pictures that he gave her of him. He straight up looked creepy. I should post the pictures, so girls can see the hints. She also said that he would ignore her, when she asked for pictures. I bet that these are not even pictures of the guy that she is talking to. I had a suspicion that he was very controlling, and she said that he said that he really liked her, when she was trying to end the messed up long distance relationship, making her keep on with the relationship. At first I was telling her to make him visit you as soon as possible or end it, but when she opened up with everything, I encouraged her just to quit talking to him. I said that "Girls already have enough sorrow" to deal with this type of relationship. She was unsure about dating. She was grateful, saying "Thank you for opening my eyes." Everyone needs to be careful about long distance relationships. I encouraged her to date only local people. Make sure that he would do anything to be with you. I am a sisters' keeper. Having the courage to end these relationships are hard. The other girl that I mentioned didn't have the self-esteem to. I hope that I save another girl by opening up about this. I do love you, if you wonder whether your relationship is healthy, questioning dating like my friend. Email me at alexnhicken@gmail.com, and we can figure this out.

They don't even look like the same person... 

Prozen (Okay, that was a lame one...)

Anna: "Do you want to build a snowman?"
Elder Lopez: "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"


Now before I start, I just want to say that I've never actually seen Frozen. It came out after I left to do the Lord's errand. So seeing as I'll probably get my fair share of grief teaching about a movie I've never seen, me, being the Awesome!ly humble Elder that I am, thought I would open with that disclaimer. "Just get on with it..."

C'mon people... It's been almost a year since
this movie came out... Let it go!
Let IT go!!!

So Frozen! Oh what can I say about it... "Nothing. You just said so yourself, you haven't even seen it. I'm surprised you even know it exists. Do you even know what it's about?" I thought you'd never ask. Here's Elder Lopez's summary of a movie he's never seen according to what he's heard/seen in pictures. "That's a REALLY long name..." The trademark is pending.

From what I know, Frozen follows two sisters named Anna and Elsa. Now, for reasons I don't really know, Elsa has these really cool ice powers kind of like Frozone from 'The Incredibles' but for one reason or another, it's a secret cause I guess cool ice powers are shunned upon when you're a princess. Oh yeah, she's a princess by the way. 

So Anna and Elsa have a pretty *icy* relationship. Anna looks up to Elsa but Elsa isn't very what you call fond of her younger sister. There's also something about building a snowman. Anyway, something happens and Anna reveals that Elsa has these really cool ice powers during her coronation. She's all embarrassed and whatnot so she runs away. 

So it's up to Anna and a guy who really likes reindeer, his name is Steven right? He looks like a Steven. Oh sorry I meant Kristoff, that's his name. His reindeer's name is Sven. Anyway, he likes reindeer cause they're better than people for whatever reason.They team up to find Elsa cause she's like freezing the kingdom with her cool ice powers. "Why do you keep describing it that way?" What? Cool ice powers? Are you kidding? Reader, It's Cool. Ice. Powers. "Fair enough." So shenanigans happen, they meet trolls and an odd snowman named Olaf and they finally make it to Elsa's ice kingdom. The two sisters have a rough relationship like I said, and angry sister stuff happens, (like it occasionally does) and Elsa accidentally curses Anna to freeze if she isn't shown an act of true love. (Which doesn't happen as often) 

The gang go back to the the kingdom of Arendelle to find Anna's love interest who has the snazzy name of Hans... Gruber...? "Wrong movie" (Who I might add decided they're gonna marry each other the moment they met each other) After explaining all the crazy shenanigans that just transpired and stating that true love's kiss is enough to melt the ice and break the curse (which in Disney movies, it usually is) Hans for whatever reason, decides not to, (Which in Disney movies, doesn't happen very often) and Anna is doomed to freeze to death. (Okay now this part gets really shaky.) I think Elsa comes cause she's all sad and Hans being the royal meathead that he is, tries attacking her and Anna sacrifices herself to save Elsa, causing that spark of love between the two siblings which breaks the curse. Happy things happen and everything gets wrapped up in a nice cold little bow where the sisters love each other and Elsa gets to keep her cool ice powers.

How'd I do? "You're gonna get A LOT of people upset..." Probably, but it's okay cause we're gonna talk about raising expectations. 
So as I may have mentioned multiple times, I've never seen Frozen but there is so much stuff about it everywhere that I may have well watched it.

Oh I get it, Frozen "On Ice"
Ha... Ha... Disney...
"Whoa. someone'e bitter..."

Knowing what I know now, will I still watch it? Probably. I mean, just cause all the ads and memes people have made about it have bothered me to no end, it could still be a fantastic movie and I'm expecting great things cause people have given it the highest praise. So where does that put us? "In a post you don't know much about?" Well, I know half about what I'm talking about... "Fair enough." We all have expectations for things. Whether it's for ourselves or others or the Chinese restaurant that looks really sketchy but it still could be good. You know who you are...

Expectations are something that can make or break someone. Especially when you start comparing yourself to others. In Preach my Gospel, which is pretty much a how to when it comes to teaching missionaries how to mission. (It's even in PDF format!) There's a section called, "A Successful Missionary." In this little gem, we read, 

"Avoid comparing yourself to other[s] and measuring the outward results of your efforts against theirs. Remember that people have agency to choose..."

We are all expected to be the best we can be, but when others are being the best better than you are, it kinda stinks right? "I bet you feel that way a lot when it comes to your grammar huh?" Not important... When we feel that way, we always have to remember that we are all different and that are success is correlated to the most we can possibly do. At the end of the day, we'll be judged after all we can do. Now you expected a usual Elder Lopez blog where I more or less know what I'm talking about right? "Honestly, at this point, I don't expect much..." But what you got was a bogus summary that is going to send legions of die-hard fans to seek me out and destroy me, maybe freeze me to death, depending on how hardcore fan they are. Maybe make some Elder Lopez icecub- "Focus..." Right.

Okay, the caption on this one has
NOTHING to do with the picture...

It's all about high expectations! You expect the best blog so you come here! (That was a joke, and probably not a very funny one.) God expects your best, to give up everything for Him, which is next to impossible or really really hard, but we do it anyway and why? Cause He loves us and we love Him. Yes, we love Him. Don't ever give yourself such low expectations that people don't expect anything from you cause trust me on this one, it's a bad road. It's one that leads to lack of self-worth and many a day doing nothing and expecting something to happen. Having high expectations forces you to try harder and harder, to meet said expectations and it too is hard and sometimes, VERY annoying, but it forces us to grow and who doesn't like growth? Farmers sure do. A very wise missionary once said,

"There's no growth in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the growth zone."

So grow people! And stop posting and flooding my news-feed with frozen paraphernalia, I get it, I'll watch it... 

August 30, 2014

     This past week at work has been more rough than any other. At least I didn't get angry. I think writing about the workplace is good for people to see what money is worth. Beginning collaboration with my cross country team, I designed a shirt for my cross country team last night, and Eve said that a blank shirt should cost about 10 dollars. I said that is too expensive; then, she said why do people think that ten dollars is worth so much. Children seem so materialistic. They lie so much too. At least Eve and Ezra do. I think that it has to do with how they are raised. Their home is very broken. Their lies manipulate, which takes many other forms.
     Work started out lame this week, and literally ended retarded. I was giving veneer to my coworker, palletizing, and he threw back the ones that were 2 inches thick, so I put it on the line to be fixed. It should be between 1.25 and 1.75 inches, but the next day the crew leader says that they should be thinner than 1.5 inches. The supervisor agreed with the first statement though. When the people, cutting it, received the 2 inch veneer; they threw it down to me telling me to break the edge with a hammer, but the crew leader tells me not to. Stone and commands contrary to each other were coming from all directions. That was ridiculous. I lined the conveyor belt with all the bad ones that I didn't have time to break, and I also was not supposed to. They had to have a place. If it is not the machine, dumpster, or the pallet. It was also a display that a lot of the stone coming out of the machine is too thick, but they didn't learn much. This carried out over two days with me as the center focus. My coworker said that the measuring tape is the official standard. Did I tell you that I think that there are too many leaders at my workplace? Why can't everyone just trust that they are doing their job? Everyone sees what is going on. Nothing is hidden. My coworker went through basically the same thing as me, but not as obvious to get everyone's attention. I try to be flexible because the supervisor is, but the crew leader isn't.
     My coworker that has been my partner this past week is kind of ridiculous in my eyes to. I felt retarded because he can do 5 jobs at once while I can barely do one. When he was off doing another job, I was placing the stone on the pallet to be palletized. When he came back. I was so behind that I couldn't catch up. Another coworker rolls his eyes often when he sees my partner jumping around to so many jobs. My crew supervisor thought that he needed to teach me to do it faster; although, I have been doing fine. What he was doing was contrary to what I was taught too, but I did what he did. Basically putting down without order. I was remorseful because I have learning disabilities, and I can't think as fast as my partner. I don't like how people think that everyone can do the same thing that they can do. He expects me to jump around to every job like it is nothing. As I pondered my retarded state, being too slow to do my job, my coworkers thought that I was tired. Life is not that simple. I thought that my patience would eventually let me catch up, but my patience is not my crew leader's patience, and I was sent to another spot. I felt more isolated and given more freedom because my abilities are unknown, and I looked a little depressed.
     Coming home, I meet my cousin Hutch and his family. His children looked at me like I was a very random person, visiting the house. When Eve and Ezra came, they wanted me to join them, but I wanted Eve and Ezra to play with their cousins without me, the stranger. They rarely get to play with them. The children were playing with the weakness of youth, and my presence would have been awkward.

 I don't need to explain it if I have a picture of it.

     I wanted to work on designing my shirt for my cross country team. The only thing that people don't understand is the runner's lingo. The lingo of sitting on someone in running means to run right behind a leader for pace and reduced wind resistance.
     Collaborating with my team, I have found that the girls are up to talk more. None of the guys that I invited has committed to be on my team. I am telling them that I plan to have a varsity and junior varsity team for the experienced and beginner runners. I am excited because I have chosen two team captains already. Their perspective on the sport fits the role well, and they are excited for it too. A lot of people want to make good friends, and I am thinking that making shirts together would be a lot of fun for our first weekend together.
     Eve convinced me to play with her rather than buy a couple Shakespeare play tickets for my date today. I write that she is materialistic because Eve did not want to play with her friend Lillian because I broke her trampoline. She couldn't think of anything to do to play. Her creativity is weak. We have had fun, playing with McGuire, and she thought that we should play with them. Lillian came, and Eve said that I wanted to play with McGuire. I said that we should play with her, telling her that I did not say that I wanted to play with McGuire. McGuire and McKay eventually came out with a crossbow and a bow & arrows. Do you see the materialism? We played a little with it, but Ezra really likes water. He saw a hose, and asked if the water can be turned on.  McKay told him put his end of the hose in his mouth, and he will turn it on; then, McKay took the hose from him and sprayed everyone, getting them soaking wet. They played like they were firefighters, and the house was on fire. Spraying the house with water was too boring for McKay, so he left.
     I was driving a coworker to another job, so he can freshen up. He invited me into his house, and I watched a little Doctor Oz. The show today was about reducing home stress by unifying the family. The children in the show were manipulating like Eve and Ezra. They always lie to avoid the trouble of the consequences of the situation or actions and to get what they want. For example, Eve said that she was not wet to grandma before she felt asleep on the couch, when she was wet. Grandma would not want her to sleep on the couch, if she did say that she was wet. When Eve asked me to play with her and her cousins, she stabbed me with a pen, since I refused to go with her. She said that she hopes that her, stabbing me, will teach me to play. The pain was not bad. As I said, I am patient. I think to myself, if my coworkers hit me with something out of frustration. I would do nothing.
     My REVIT update is weak. It's only been a couple days since I completed the skylight. I checked out the square footage of the property, and found that it ranged from more than 3 to 7 times the size that they wanted. I am working more closely with my cousin to make sure that I design according to her desires. I like that she has not been too shy.

Good Monday to you!!

guess what i did today!! BIKRAM YOGA! oh how i missed it! it was so challenging, and now i feel like passing out cause it excerted a lot of my strength . It was great! 

 

this is my companion Sister Vargas and i at the Zone Temple Trip!

 

we had  a wonderful week, we had five investigators at church which were the ones we took to the Visitors Center last week and the Familia Diaz, we were so happy because it took a lot of investigation as to why that brother who is searching for truth, and can't find it in his own church and yet he still goes, as an obligation to  his wife as he says that he does it ofr his wife, although she doesnt even like to go and gave him clear permission that he can search for the religoin he likes and not to worry about taking his kids to their church and just go find the one that makes him happy, she did this in front of us. So we have a hard time understanding this man. His wife is super nice to us she even feeds us dinner and getrs so happy when we are there but she also says that we should pertend she is not there and she sitts in on hte llessons but she makes it clear that she wants us to teach her husband. He is a man with many questions and wierd doubts. We have scripture packed lessons for him when we go and we have been able to resolve some of his doubts, thankfully. ONe such doubt he had was the importance of baptism and how it is not necessary for us because Christ came to cleanse us from sin. So we shared i think it is John3:5 about how we cannot enter into his kingdm exceot we are baptized abnd of coarse the comission of the resureccted Lord, to his apostles which states clearly that they must go forth and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. It really was  a miracle to get them to church. and the members that have invited them before were shocked to see them there. also the members that have came out to teach them were glad they were there. We belive that perhaps we wont get to harvest these fruits but we knowthat we are nourishing them.

 

then we have been teaching the martinez girls and we helped them make invites for their baptism with cute pictutres from old ensigns and that made them even more excited for the day of their baptism, they have theri interview scheduled for this wednesday. not to mention this is a great way to find people to teach.  We are soups happy that their GRandma decided to join them and take the lessons and get baptized as well. they all came to church too. She cant read so we committed her to listen to the scriputres onlds.org its awesome!! We have seen a huge tur around in this family, because now the mother is supportive and bringing them to church and she also is home when schedule appointments. We are teacing them how to have a family home evening tonight and we are super excited. WEll we had taught the grandma the restoration and when we went over there again ot follow up if she had prayed about it. she said that she forgot and that she likes this church a lot more than any other church but doesnt have a firm testimony that is the only true restored churhc of Jesus Chirst here on the earth. so we  had to teach her again to refresh her memory, but this time we had her tell us what she understood and explain it in her own words after each point. it required a lot more focuse on her part. hehe  we are evil.

 

 we have this 13 yr old we are teaching and she is so prepared and is so mature! she prayed to know if the chruch is true and she said she felt good as she prayed so we asked her to describe her feelings and she sai that she felt her heart kindof burn and it wasnt heart burn it was a  really good feeling she said. we were both taken back and we said to her that she had a lot of faith and thats why God was able to respond so clearly. exceptfoher parents wont let her come to church. WE are going to have a little talk with her mothere and find out what we can do.

 We have been working hard, we love eachother , and we are seeing the miracles that come from being the best we can be.!!

love you lots!! take care y'all

this is them reading The Book of Mormon stories arent they super cute!?? love them to death

August 19, 2014

     It has been years since my friends that I hang out with are the age of five years on average. I have not met anyone from my new ward because yesterday was a big day for my aunt with a baby blessing and a return missionary. Work has been intense, but it is chill. I rarely get angry. I can probably count the incidents on my hands, but today was one of them at work. I am now designing a skylight for the my cousin. She really liked the fireplace. She was so excited that she showed it to her mother.  

     I have been hanging out with Ezra and Eve a lot. Some odd situations came up, and some hard situations came up. It is not hard for me, but for the children. Mostly it has been good fun. I am beloved by everyone. I was even invited over for a sleep over. This was after the hard situation for Eve. McKay, the brother of a child about Ezra's age, didn't play fair. It came naturally though. We were playing catch with a big ball about 2.5 feet in diameter. Monkey in the Middle was okay until Eve showed that she did not have skill in catching the ball. She eventually felt left out, and got emotional. That was hard for her. McGuire is the child about Ezra's age, and he has a huge white fluffy dog. They don't even know what it is, but they know that it will grow bigger, and it's only one years old! The dog was so cool that it played a game with me. I pet it and stuff; then, it started to hit the sides of my legs with her front arms. Since I broke the first trampoline that we played on, I have been banned from jumping on any other one. You may expect me to write about the odd situation, but it is too odd.

     On Sunday, we drove about an hour and half to Brigham City then to Corinne. Andrea's new child Ephraim Brian Grove was blessed. This Sacrament meeting was fun because I have not seen my cousins in a very long time. The bishop of this ward was fun. He taught that faith in Christ is a choice. This is an obvious doctrine of Christ, but the simplicity of it is easy enlightening because I feel many people like to follow the natural man to be compelled and forced to do things, giving up their agency to another being to be acted upon and not act for themselves. I think that this is partially why Joseph Smith was chosen to be the Prophet of the restoration. He was not acted upon by the philosophies of man mingled with scripture. He sought after what is true. After that sacrament meeting, we drove to Corinne for the sacrament meeting of my aunt Glennalee's ward, since Curtis, her son, returned from his mission.

He mainly testified of the atonement, and the ward seemed to be so small that he was open about the fact that he had a very hard time understanding a point of the doctrine of the atonement of Christ. I don't understand what he had a problem with, but I think that it had to do with the fairness of Christ, taking everything on himself. Christ alone can save the world from the Satan's chain of death spiritually and physically. He is the only Begotten of the Father, having power over death. He could have lived forever on earth. Maybe he could be created a kingdom during his mortal life, where he would rule forever, but he submitted himself to the will of the Father. He could not make a kingdom because he needed to learn how to resurrect from death, and he could not succor our every need; unless, he overcame everything them himself in the garden of Gethsemane. How could Jesus Christ be a perfect judge, if he did not have knowledge of everything human?

     I let Eve play with my tablet, and she took pictures on the way home from visiting the Day family. I had a bunch of pictures on my tablet from her, but I deleted it because I decided the factory reset my phone and tablet because the Facebook apps were not working well. Usually Google uploads all my pictures up to the cloud, but it doesn’t work for the tablet for an unknown reason. I do have one remaining video that Eve took. I think that it was inspired by the first day that we played together. On that day I played fishing with Ezra in the bathtub. Eve asked us to knock on her door to play something, but Ezra ignored her. I did what he did, and Eve came to tell us to knock on her door at least ten times. She acted like she got mad, but you can tell that she can’t. This video is her mad.

     My work place is very similar to my former workplace, Santa Cruz Nutritionals. I still feel like I am in a foreign nation at work, since most everyone speaks Spanish, and they don't know English. On Monday we had a safety meeting. I didn't know about it, but I was invited to join them. I was surprised to find that there are two separate safety meetings: one for the Spanish speakers and one of English speakers. I thought that we have done away with segregation. Some people might justify it because the Spanish people can't understand English. I think that everyone should learn a declared language of the United States of America, so the opportunities can be fair. My opportunities in my workplace is not as good as a Spanish speaking coworker because the supervisor can't communicate with me. I wish that I could start a campaign for this, but I don't have the time. I have my own life to live. Politics is interesting on this point. We are encouraged to serve in politics, but it takes a lot of time.

     The language other than Spanish in the shop is very hard to understand to. My supervisor basically shouts only one word. Bo! Another machine operator whistles like an eagle. The sign language after they get your attention is bad too. I think that there is common Latin gestures that I don't understand as an Asian. I don't want to say that they are Mexican because I am not sure if it. I formally met one coworker yesterday who is from Puerto Rico.

     I mainly lift stone packaged on pallets housed in wires. At first I was taught to break the stone in half, if it was longer than a foot. This is what I learned on one of the first days. A next day a largest rock that I picked up was two feet long; then, the next day I was lifting rocks about four feet long. These rocks can be as thick as 8 inches, and they are on average about 4 inches wide. I basically lift all day long at work. We make veneer. We load the stone into a machine that cuts it to be about an inch thick.

     

     I was admiring a stone this past week. It is called honey ledge. I would imagine that it came from the bottom of the ocean. It has a dark blueish color mixed with a silver mineral. I got some fragments, and it looks shiny. Not all of the stone looks like the shiny minerals. I was impressed that this veneer exists. It is  the most beautiful stone that I have seen. When I design buildings, I think that I should consider the materials that I am building with first because buildings will look odd, if an architect designs a building; then, tries to choose the material after because materials have a natural feeling, nature, history, and design to it. This is what I was thinking when I was impressed by the stone. I loved the stone so much that I took a video of it. My coworkers thought that I was odd. Here is a picture and a video of the stone.

   One thing that I did not like about the work place is that the wires, holding the stone on the pallets, would cut you, if you are not careful. I have scratches all over my arms, but cuts bleed. I got angry this past week after cutting myself for the fourth day in a row. It annoyed me because I learned to cut the wire and set it in a way that my natural motion would not collide with the wire, but the supervisor clipped the wire this morning. I was walking along, and it sliced my arm. I was pouting for more than two hours. I am tired of cutting myself, and my grandparents gave me long sleeve shirts. I wore a short sleeve shirt on Monday because I have a traditional Thai shirt that I wear most Mondays.

     Since I rarely get angry, I was able to see the fruit of anger. It sowed fear at every sight of me. When someone fears you, they are not as open with you. They let you be your untamed self. I feel isolated now. My supervisor quit training me, and started working more closely with another person, training him as a machine operator. I used to not be open with my mother because I fear her anger. I am still unsure how open that I am with her. I think that I learned to be more open with her because I waited until I went to traffic school to tell her about my ticket. Her reaction was calm. I think if I told her about the ticket the day of. She would hold it over me for months. I don't know, but things has been different at work. I am opening up more to people, so it is not as bad. People think that I am shy, but I don't want to sit with a bunch of Latin people, who can't talk to me during lunch. I like sitting on the stone in the middle of the Heber Valley surrounded by mountains.

     Another day at work, I shattered a rock, not breaking it well. I felt natural anger slightly, and I smashed the fragments into pieces. Right when I did that, the operation of the machine stopped. I didn't know why. I felt a deepening isolating because of my anger. Observing the situation, I realized that we just finished the requirements for the order of the product. I felt like that moment of alarm was God, giving me a time out and telling me that any sign of anger limits human trust.

I have another concept to teach about anger that I learned. It may seem odd, but I made sounds to myself like I was a wild beast, since the shop is so loud people can't hear me, lifting the heavy stones, and throwing the waste in the dumpster. I learned that you may become what you make yourself out to be. I became a wild beast that lifts and throws stones, and that beast became untamed when it got cut. You should be careful of the thoughts that you make yourself out to be.

My reputation may be tarnished because I talk of anger deeply. It makes sense because that is what anger does. I realized that it changes relationships. I have been told that I am one of the most patient people, an entity of peace. I was talking to my little cousins, and Eve noticed that I was talking louder than usual. I wasn't talking in anger. Consistency is important, so people can trust you.

     I was sorrowful for a few days, seeing the consequences of my anger. I saw people were trying to cheer me up by communicating approval of my work. The feedback is less because how the relationships has changed. I was thinking of apologizing to my supervisor who I worked closely with, but as the days when by it seemed so awkward. Explaining apologies are awkward, when you don't seize the opportunity, and you think that they won't understand. I don't even know how well he speaks English. 

     I have been working on the skylight, but I need to fix it. I thought that it was good at 5x3.09016994 feet. I like using the Golden ratio. It is about 5x3 or 1.61803398875. After the designed the skylight, I decided to put a trim around it and the entire room. That was a little tricky because the fireplace is curved and the ceiling has a pitch. It's not a straight line from corner to corner on the curved service. I was trying to click on a 3D edge line, so the sweep could follow it; however revit did not recognize where the ceiling and the wall crossed as a line. I realized how Calculus would be useful. It took me a while to figure this out. I realized that I need an edge for the sweep to follow, and it could not come from the wall. I tried shortening the wall to make an edge. I created the edge by editing the boundary of the ceiling. I was so excited when I figured that out. I was not done though because I needed the trim to go around on the other side. That took a while, but when I completed that, I realized that my skylight is too small, and the roof is too high above the ceiling, making the skylight look bad. I need to redesign that now before I publish this journal entry. The skylight ended up being 7 feet wide.

     Today after church I met the in-laws in my uncle Allen's family. The unity of his family is great. I was able to meet Jeffrey’s wife, Jess, and I meet Hali Hicken’s fiance Daeson. They have many inside jokes, and their relationships are mature.

Oh. I forgot to say that I ran into a cowboy and a couple cowgirls, leading a cow herd on a run. I was literally on a run, when I passed them. Here are the pictures.

Faith not Fear:)

Heya Love!

Last week was a little crazy at first but then it all worked out perfectly. Last Monday was Sister Rudd's Missionary Dinner with President and the plan was for me to be temporary companions with other Sister whose companions were going home as well. Well we got to President's house and the other Sisters weren't there yet. So President told us all to come in and while there the Missionaries who were going home all got together as they prepared for dinner. I felt so out of place. I stood next to President and talked with him for a while. ( that was a blessing in itself because we rarely get one on one time with President) He asked about how Mom was doing, I told him that I hadn't heard from her that Monday but I was sure she was ok. He then said that if I was worried he could call her to check up on her:) That was a blessing to know that. I didn't know we could do that. Then the other Sisters finally came and guess what their companions didn't come with them. So President thought for a while and then turned and told me. Sister Koroitamana I am assigning you to serve at the Visitor's Centre tonight until 8:30 would you do that? I was like! YES! He walked me there (it's right next to his house) and that was a blessing too! and he told me that it was rare that Sister get called to the Visitor's Centre especially if they're not originally assigned to serve there. He promised that someone was going to walk in there tonight that needed to hear my testimony or that needed me to speak Fijian. I was in awe and grateful for that opportunity. That night I served in the Visitor's Centre and it was such a great blessing. The Sisters there and I had  a lesson with an investigator named Sammy she is from Japan and hardly speaks English. I didn't get to speak Fijian to her but I did get to share my testimony and it was exactly what we needed. Since Sammy couldn't speak or understand English well we really had to teach simple and it was such a blessing to be a part of that.

 

On Tuesday we had another companion join us. Her name is Sister Harrison and she is great. Wow! I feel really grateful and blessed to be with her. She will be my companion for when Sister Rudd leaves, Tonight is Sister Rudd's last night and tomorrow morning she'll be flying off to Idaho. It's been great to learn from her but I feel like since she knows she's about to go home there's not that much of a push in our companionship to be exactly obedient and become fully effective and I miss that and need that so much! So I am grateful that I can do that more fully now:) This last week we had a great lesson with 2 investigators named Tyron and Adriana. We accidentally texted Tyrone thinking he was another investigator and after we had set up a time to meet with him, we then realized that it wasn't who we thought we were texting. We had no idea who this guy was or how we even got his number. Well we explained who we were and what we do and asked if he still wanted to meet and Guess what?!? he said of course!!! we were all sooo Happy and really excited to meet this "tyrone" We finally met with him and guess what?!?! He brought his Girlfriend along!!! Aw that was such a blessing. We had an amazing lesson with them and learned that the both of them went to El Camino College right across church and Adriana for the longest time has been looking to come closer to God and feel of his love but just didn't know how. She had gone to Tyron's church but didn't really feel anything there and when we told her about the Book of Mormon she was really excited to read it. I feel that the Holy Ghost was definitely present in our lesson because that morning the things I had learnt and was practicing in my personal studies were brought back to my remembrance clearly and we were able to teach to their needs through the Spirit. It felt so good. Unfortunately Tyrone and Adriana don't live in our area so other Sisters will be teaching them.

 

I got to go on Exchanges with Sister Djanie this week (She is our Sister Trainer now and she was my Trainer) That was such a blessing. She has grown and changed for the better so much and being with her really motivated to continue to learn, apply and change:) I am grateful for that blessing:)

 

I am coming to love this "YSA" thing:) I feel a lot of the things I am having to learn and share come from most of the Experience I've had right before my Mission! Whew! I am so glad and grateful to have Great Friends that help me to choose the Right:)

 

I Love you Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots more!!!!

Sister Koroitamana 

My Full Interview for the LDS Single Friends

The Mormon YSA Blog Spot collaborates with The LDS Single Friends Facebook page, and Malcolm Hong wanted me to answer these questions in order for his audience to know where I came from.

1. What inspired you to come up with the Mormon Young Single Adult (YSA) Blog Spot?

    The Mormon Young Single Adult YSA Blog Spot was a vision that I acted upon after completing a journal. My original blog was too time consuming, so I decided to do this blog. My blog in the blog spot is and isn't an exemplary blog for the people that joined me. I publish my journal entries. Writing my journal digitally makes it very convenient. A lot of people keep journal writing private, but who are they writing for? They are writing for friends and family to get to know them. My personal blog is an example of an original cause. It is to advocate journal writing. My personal blog is not an example because it is not a model to follow. No writing style should be an template for people to follow. I want people to come up with a blog as original as mine, and publish with me. My blog is the first of the blog spot, and people felt deceived at first because my blog title was too broad. I needed to tell them that I am recruiting bloggers to join me. 

     A few life experiences inspired me to establish the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. I have been led to promote many people through social media, and these opportunities led me to organize it. The blog spot promotes blogs and individuals. My little brother's mission was my first opportunity, publicizing his letters, and I am currently running a blog of a dear sister missionary friend. I became used to copying and pasting their content into blogger; although, I don't copy and paste articles of blogs to the blog spot. When I began it, many bloggers, joining me, found it inconvenient to access the blogger website, so I let them send me their articles personally; then, I would publish their articles for them. Some people thought that a blog can only have one author, so people with easy access to the Internet sent me their compositions; however, I believe in self reliance, adding many people as authors to the blog spot. This let them to post whenever they wanted. 

A couple other websites inspired the Mormon YSA Blog Spot too. I have also written for a website where many bloggers use the same website. The Mormon mommy blog site was hosted on the Mormon Channel, and that inspired it too.

2. How have your personal experiences as a Mormon single adult prepared you to manage the blog spot? 

     First hand experiences, managing my brother's mission blog, promoting a friend in her life goals, and seeking to bring the blogging content to its audience are main experiences that led me to manage the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. I will write about these three experiences. 
     Running my little brother's mission blog, I ran quickly into criticism because I wrote my perspective on the content. This also reflected family relations, so I learned not to be a host, putting my spin on things. First hand experiences like this crafted my skills in social media. Once a blogger, you instantly become a public figure, so you need to understand that facing the world is more immediate. 
     I served my mission in Jamaica, and a random Jamaican Mormon girl added me on Facebook, looking for friends. Our friendship gave me one of my first experiences representing an identity successfully. This Jamaican girl is named Dadrie, and she wanted to be a music pop star. I knew that it doesn't take that much effort to be a musician in Jamaica, so we decided to work on this. I also knew that the fashion industry has close relations with the music industry. Dadrie's sister spontaneously recorded her singing because she was a little shy, but I shared this video with a friend of mine that trained models for a living. She contacted a producer, and he wanted to make a song with Dadrie. I was her manager for her music career. I was negotiating with the producer, and I practiced my passion for communication with him to have good relations and professional conversation. She could have produced a song with an award winning composer, but Dadrie let school and a mission get in the way. She was never able to produce the song. Communication is important especially in social media because it is so easy to be misunderstood when writing. This professionalism in communicating was a necessary skill in developing and talking to so many people about the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. 
     Lastly, the responsibility to run the blog for a sister from my home stake was given to me because the promoter of the blog was not reaching the audience of the letters home. The sister missionary is named Joanna. After about 6 months into her mission, I found out that the person, running her blog was merely tagging Joanna in her Facebook statuses, when her letters were published. The original person running the blog is named Krista. The audience was only Krista's friends, and Joanna and her mutual friends on Facebook. I was one of Joanna's closest friends, and I was not seeing her blog articles advertised. If I was not part of the audience, the audience of her blog was not being reached. I approached Krista, and I asked if I can work the social network to bring the articles to its audience. I set up a Facebook page for her blog, and I found out, if I tag Joanna as the page all of her friends will see the pictures that she sends home. I figured out a way to reach all of her friends, the stake, and our singles' branch. After a while, the person, running the website, could no longer do it, so I was given responsibility to format the blog posts and advertising. 
     The promotion of individuals; the development of skills, representing people; and understanding and reaching the audience has given and led me to opportunities. Some are self-made like the Mormon YSA Blog Spot.

3. As you’ve managed your blog spot, what blog posts have you found particularly insightful or inspiring?

     Blog posts, where I collaborate with the bloggers of the Mormon YSA Blog Spot, are insightful. We have writers from all over the world. These articles are usually inspired by conversations, discussing real life situations. "You know what great things i witnessed last sunday?" by Camille Ramos was a conversation that I had with her, and she told this story to me. Camille is from the Philippines. (http://mormonysa.blogspot.com/2014/02/you-know-what-great-things-i-witnessed.html) 
     One article that I published recently was with a sister named Lesego Mholo. We were talking, and she spoke of comforting and sustaining the young women in her calling responsibilities. She expressed so much love with deep description. I wanted to merely publish our conversation, but the writers of the Mormon YSA Blog Spot are so anxiously engaged in a good cause that she committed to compose an article with her extensive comprehension of love. She is from South Africa, and her first draft was incomprehensible. Serving my mission in Jamaica, I was surprised that the broken English of both countries are very similar. I don't really edit the articles of bloggers in the blog spot because that is their job, but I am not going to publish an article that cannot be understood. I had her do a second draft. Since Lesego never got back to me, I asked her one Sunday what she meant in the first draft, going through each sentence. After about an hour, we had a comprehensible article on love. This article is called "happy is he who can discover the causes of things in old latin." Here is the link. (http://mormonysa.blogspot.com/2014/05/happy-is-he-who-can-discover-causes-of.html)

4. Mormons are no strangers to blogging, but generally speaking, there are relatively few Mormon blogs written by Mormon single adults. Do you have an opinion on why there are relatively few Mormon single adult bloggers, and do you feel this is a missed opportunity?

     I would not say that there are relatively few single adult bloggers. This is why I organized the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. The Mormon mother blogs are very organized, but we are not. We are singles, a bunch of individuals with powerful testimonies. This is why I knew that my idea would succeed. I remember one person on Facebook, commenting that my idea would fail. I knew that it could not fail because many single adults are blogging. They are always looking to widen their audience, and I give them another tool for publicizing their articles. I want the blog spot to be a reflection of the single adults around the world, so I don't leave out the blogger's articles that someone might think is inappropriate. This also is important for the culture of the blog spot. If I share only preferred articles, I am showing judgment and intolerance. I can't do this with my bloggers especially, if I want to build a community and original content. Learning to tolerate people is important for community. If people don't feel like they can fit in, they look for fellowship and acceptance in other places. 
     A blog is the person's personal ministry and life. Their example should not be preachy. A Brigham Young University - Idaho graduation speech by Elder M. Russell Ballard called "Making Your Influence Felt" taught that we should let our-true-selves be expressed. (http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Graduation/2008_04_11_Ballard.htm) If you love dancing, do a dancing blog. If you are an avid movie guy, you can critic movies. BTW Those posts are popular. There is so much talent in the world, and it should not be hidden and lost. Our passions no matter what they are will be a great witness that the Gospel has been restored. Don't hid your testimony. I recently listened to a talk by Russell M. Nelson, and he encouraged us to let our faith show. Your example is not about the words that you say, but how you live the Gospel. You don't even need to be good at writing. People will see your effort and example, and they will bear with you.

5. In your opinion, how do Mormon single adult bloggers bring a unique perspective to the Mormon blogosphere and why is their contribution so valuable?

     Single adult bloggers bring an unique perspective to the Mormon blogosphere because we have an ability to pursue our passions more directly. Usually married people put their family first. The many different lifestyles makes the blogs very diverse. I never read a mommy blog, but I would imagine that they all have a similar theme.

6. You mentioned that you created the Mormon Young Single Adult (YSA) Blog Spot because united individual Mormon single adult bloggers can stand as a more powerful witness of the gospel. As Mormon single adults, how can we better support each other to create unity and build Zion in our local communities?  

     One thing that I realized in my social media experience is that content creates a community. Content in this circumstance is a consistent feed of links, pictures, or conversations in a network. I mentioned this revelation to a social media specialist. I don't know if I made a difference, but I saw that the stake and branch group pages started to thrive because I added Joanna's blog posts there, and other people added content. I made a group one time for my family, and there was no community because the content was not consistent. Communities can be made online, but how can we build Zion? Zion is not our social media pages. 
     Zion are our homes; although, we are single. Social media gives a means of communication. Communication is very important to Zion, coordinating with each other, listening to each other, serving each other, etc. I would encourage you to develop the character inside to be a witness of Christ through repentance, so you can be worthy of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, having a pure intent to serve, the tongue of angels, to mourn with the comfortless that need to be heard and strengthened , the pure love of Christ, and the character to be a trusted representative of Christ. Blogging and journal writing can be a tool of expression, developing integrity, and winning trust because people feel like they need to live up to their word. Being unknown to your peers, family, and friends can let mysterious hidden things happen, if we are not open enough to communicate. Closing off yourself destroys families, friendships, and communities. Let us work together in unity and humility to employ all effective means of communication to coordinating Zion, the pure in heart.

7. What is your vision for the Mormon Young Single Adult Blog Spot and how do you hope to make a positive impact in the Mormon YSA community?

     My vision is for as many single adult bloggers that would like to join us to add their content to the blog spot. I don't call MormonYSA.blogspot.com a blog, but I call it a blog spot for many people's blog. If you want to add your content to the blog spot, but you want maintain to promoting your personal blog, that is fine. I will promote your articles separately as part of the blog spot. I hope that the bloggers of the Mormon YSA Blog Spot will promote their articles in the blog spot as if it were their own personal blog. 
     I ran into many people that did not have good internet access, but they still wanted to blog. You can still join by sending your articles in a message to the Mormon YSA Blog Spot page, and I will publish it for you. I can also add you as an author, if you would like to write for the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. Don't worry about the Y, if you are too old. We have single adult bloggers, sharing their content with us. 
     Many of the bloggers of the Mormon YSA Blog Spot are inactive, so most of the articles shared on the page are not from MormonYSA.blogspot.com. Their inactivity is my fault, and that is a long story. I have 31 blogs that I follow, sharing their new articles. This is my back up plan for the blog spot at this time. I hope to rebuild the blog spot. This new partnership with LDS Single Friends is inspiring.

How do you hope to make a positive impact in the Mormon YSA community?

    There are many ways to use blogging to serve each other. I have never had the life experience of losing a loved one, but a few of my bloggers have. I have shared the articles on the subject of death to a friend, who lost a loved one, so they can be comforted more quickly. 
    Blogs are a part of communities. I can't explain all the positive impacts of blogs on the community. In general, it strengthens the faith of the readers.