BIG NEWS Revealed!

In a previous post I mentioned that we had huge changes taking place and that I wasn't at liberty to tell everyone yet. Well the time has come to let the cat out of the bag. About six months ago I went with my dad and his young men to the BYU vs San Diego State football game. Lyric and Scott were kind enough to let me sit with them on the 40 yard line 2 rows from the field. It was an amazing time and BYU won. While I was there I really felt the spirit. I decided that it was just that I was on the campus of my favorite college.

On the following Tuesday I had to go to a fireside with my young men. When I got there I found out that it was a CES fireside and that the young men and their parents needed to be there and that I could go home. My young mens president encouraged me to stay. I was pretty upset because Becky was pregnant and I really thought that I could be home helping her. During the presentation though I began to feel the spirit whisper to me that I needed to go back to school. I was bawling by the end of the fireside. I drove home and sat in the car for a minute thinking about how I was going to tell Becky about this.

I came in the house and helped put Audrey to bed. Becky could tell that something was wrong and kept asking me what the deal was. I kept putting her off because I wanted to have Audrey in bed and Becky's full attention. Finally everything was in place and I told her the experience that I had had that night. I said that I was suppose to go back to school. Becky told me that she didn't think so and we began to discuss, and cry, off and on the rest of the night. We came to the conclusion that I would see if it would even be feasible for us to go back to school.

Over the next few weeks I found that we qualified for financial aid and other grants that would pay for college 100%. The more that Becky and I talked about it the more we felt that this is what we should be doing. It just seemed like the Lord had something in store for us.

December 4th David was born and so it wasn't a shock when the Bishop caught me in the hall at church and told me that he needed to talk to me. I expected him to congratulate us on the birth and talk to me about blessing him. Instead he shut the door behind me and then said "I have felt impressed to tell you that you need to go to school and you need to become a teacher". I was in awe and must have looked like a deer in the headlights. We had not discussed going back to school with anyone. We hadn't even told our parents yet. I told the bishop that it was in the works and that I needed him to interview me for my application to BYU. A few weeks later he did just that and gave me a glowing review. The stake president did the same thing and we were on our way.

There were a few schools that we looked at but some didn't seem feasible due to the cost. One that was down on the list was Idaho State University. It was closer to our families and the price was right but we didn't really want to move to Pocatello. They were the first ones to accept me. I kept my hopes up for BYU but the day came when BYU denied my application. I was bummed about it but knew that the Lord was looking out for us.

We started making preparations to go to ISU and move to Pocatello. We made a trip down to check out housing and the campus. While we were there we met with my advisor in the education department. This all felt really good and we knew that the school part was what we were suppose to be doing.

As it has gotten closer we have tried to figure out how to pay for housing and food. We kept thinking that we needed to find something but we felt that the Lord would provide a way. This past weekend we made the trip again and have become managers of an apartment complex. This gives us free rent plus $700 a month.

We know that the Lord needs us in Pocatello and that I am suppose to go back to school and get my education. We cannot deny the power of the Savior in our lives. We cannot deny the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. We have been guided to Pocatello, and although scary and hectic, we know that the Lord needs us there at this time and we are grateful for His hand in our lives.

Is This FOR REAL?

In the 90's I was a young boy looking at BYU players with awe. I would wait outside the locker room for autographs of Ty Detmer, Eric Drage, Chad Lewis or anyone that had anything to do with the team. I was so excited about the chance to get to see these guys in action and then again in their street clothes. 20 years later I seem to be doing the same thing. As I looked at the SI cover for the hundredth time today I got to thinking about the men in my life who have brought me to this point in my BYU fan hood and wondered if they feel or felt the same way that I do today...Is This Real? For years I would go to games with my parents. We would sit in the north end zone and watch the games through binoculars. My dad would listen to Paul James on his Walkman during the game to get the play by play. Before that though my parents went with my Uncle Rob and Aunt Millie. They would take off to the games with all of their BYU gear and when they came home they would turn on the replay of the game and watch it. It was here that I fell in love with Uncle Rob's mashed potatoes and watching BYU games with the men that I thought knew everything about football. So now I ask, was this what it was like for you? Did you think that BYU football couldn't get any better when Steve Young, Robbie Bosco or Ty Detmer were playing? Did you believe that BYU had hit it's pinnacle? As I look at the cover of SI one last time before I go and buy it I truly stand in amazement over what BYU has done for me and I ask myself, Is This For Real?

O.I.C.

It dawned on me the other day that I had only reviewed one other Kurt Vonnegut book and my readers probably didn't understand why I was so amazed by the author. Well I did read another one that I forgot to put up here due to my fascination with Jimmer. I did read Breakfast of Champions in between Ask the Dust by John Fante and Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut.

Breakfast of Champions was a great book and I really liked it but I wouldn't encourage everyone to read it. It was just enough outside the realm of main stream that I am positive that not everyone would like it like I did. The story is about a writer, Kilgore Trout, who shows up in a lot of Vonnegut's books and Dewayne Hoover who owns a car lot in Midland City just off the freeway. Trout is coming to this small town to accept a writing award at a convention that he has been invited to. Dewayne is deranged and believes that everything Kilgore writes is the literal truth. Kilgore is also a little off but in the end you find him relatively sane.

I thought that this book was really good. A friend let me borrow it and I read it in a few nights. I really like the way that Vonnegut writes and his interesting take on mundane things of the world.

Quotes:

• Charm was a scheme for making strangers like and trust a person immediately, no matter what the charmer had in mind.
• I can have oodles of charm when I want to.
• Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease.
• Teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy: 1492. The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.
• Why are so many Americans treated by their government as though their lives were as disposable as paper facial tissue? Because that was the way authors customarily treated bit-part players in their made-up tales.
• We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.
• Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery.