Getting what you need

Our Recent Life

Sacramento has been great recently. Beth and I are pretty much all settled in and we're moving along. There are so many things going just right for us. I can't even explain all of it. We have been enjoying bike rides and walks in our nice neighborhood, trips to the temple only 15 mins away, and our new jobs. Beth is grateful for her job at Inalliance Inc. where she coaches the developmentally disabled on how to be better job holders/volunteers and I am loving the research going on at Shriners Hospitals for Children. Shriners seems to appreciate me to because they offered me a paid position following my internship until school starts up again in September. We love our apartment and the ward we're a part of.

Recap

When we were first preparing to leave for

Sacramento we were in and out of the financial aid offices trying to get together what we needed for the move. We were waiting on a tax return-hoping that it would arrive in time, trying to get our grants in order and rushed, still arranging a contract with the apartment we had found, and Beth hadn't found a job yet. Ultimately, I felt like I did not have a whole lot to offer the situation. We had been working up to that point and I had studied my hardest at school but that is really not much... I felt at times like we were driving down a dirt road an old truck with nothing good to help. I did have hope though - I knew that in every moment I was trying to follow the Savior, magnifying my calling, doing my home teaching, and trying my hardest to be a supportive husband.

Similar Stories

On two occasions 4000 and then 5000 men, not including women and children, left their homes, villages, and even food to listen to Jesus Christ. After listening to Him they were tired, more than likely close to fainting, and it was time to leave back to their homes to rest and eat. But Jesus was "moved toward compassion toward them" and said "they need not depart, give them to eat" and "I will not send them away." These multitudes did not have much to offer - The multitude of 5000 men could only offer "five loaves and two fishes" and the later multitude of 4000 could only offer "seven loaves and a few little fishes". On both of these separate occasions the Lord blessed the food and by His grace multiplied the few resources into an excess. It was noted that "they did all eat, and were filled." Furthermore, they were always left with extra to gather up in their baskets.

I hope this story accurately demonstrates the life of our family. I have offered much but to follow the Lord and He has taken what little I have and multiplied it in excess. He is Wonderful.

Preparing a Way

In "The Way Back" one motivated man liberates others from a Siberian Gulag - a preparer of the way.

Elizabeth and I have been more recently captivated by inspirational movies that demonstrate the awesomeness of man and their ability to do great things that seem impossible. We've been

watching movies that involve trial, conflict, and overcoming or just movies that make us want to be the better people - like "The Way Back", "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", "American Violet",and most recently "Wretches and Jabberers".

In "Wretches and Jabberers" "two men with autism embark on a global quest to change attitudes about disability and intelligence. In this movie two men go against the odds and prove to thousands that they are intelligent. They have been trapped in a world that is much less than perfect where they cannot communicate with others due to their neurodevelopmental disabilities. They prove that they are intelligent when they learn that they can communicate, though slowly and with difficulty, through typing - "we are more like you than not" they say and teach the significance of unity - a powerful principle to be applied in zion. Tracy, Larry, and the others with autism they overcome adversity of the world to help others with autism be able to move forward in this world and live better lives. They are two amazing examples of preparers of a way.

I believe that the Lord often sends us to areas, job positions, families, and even specific

bodies in order for us to prepare a way for others to come. We can establish means for many

others to gain their standing in the Kingdom of God. In a sense can be like a modern day Jo

hn the Baptist. Just as he prepared the Way we too can prepare a way for Christ to come to the lives of others and for others to be better/have better circumstances.

Referring to John the Baptist the Lord said, "Among them that are born of ^awomen there hath not risen a greater than ^bJohn the Baptist." He was great because he prepared a way, acted by baptizing him for whom he had prepared the way, and magnified his stewardship. I imagine that the Lord too can think that we are great. We too can prepare the way, baptize/teach, and magnify our callings.

Let us all be preparers of a way and follow His Way - even the way of Christ.

Blessings and Bigger Blessings

I'm not sure how many people read this blog but hopefully this picture will at least make someone curious enough to take a look... It has been a while since my last post and a TON has happened. I feel pretty confident that this picture and one other can represent most of it. Curious?

A second title to this blog could have been; Getting Married Can Seem Tough. "Seem" should be the key word in that title. I'm thankful for a wonderful wife who makes it so that "seem tough" remains outside of reality.

On September 2, a Thursday afternoon, Elizabeth and I left Washington heading for a new apartment (which we had not yet seen) in Rexburg, ID. We had JUST enough money for the drive down and to pay our first month's rent on the apartment. The Trooper (from the pic above) had been miraculously given to me which enabled us to pull the U-haul with the things we needed. I'm going to make a long, long story short now. I want everyone to know that we have seen miracles. That Trooper broke down three times on the way here - after every mountain top I passed it seemed to brake down at the foot of the next, Beth had to drive on ahead to make it to the apartment before the manager left, we didn't know how we were going to move our stuff in, not to mention the hassles of getting everything ready to go before we left. This past summer was a wild one for us.

Well, I suppose that doesn't

really explain a whole lot at all...But to me this explains a lot more:

I know how we've gotten this far and I know how we'll get much, much farther. I know how that old Trooper kept on making it through those valleys and how it is still running now, I know how her car got amazing gas mileage, I know how she stayed awake for that whole drive, I know how we have enough money to pay our bills, I know how she got a raise and promotion, I know how I am getting an amazing internship and am receiving amazing opportunities to further my academic success.

It is because long before we got married, Beth and I committed ourselves to base our marriage on the teachings of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for how He has blessed my life. For every dollar we've made since we've been married, Beth is there to make sure that a full tithe is paid on it. Winston Churchill said, that "we receive our inspiration from the mountain top but our maturation from the valleys of life". It is at the mountain of the Lord that I have been inspired and instructed and its is through the trips back and forth to that mountain that I am being built into a better a person.

How will I get closer to the Lord's reality for my wife and my future children? I may not know the details of what to do and how to navigate those valleys but I know who I will plead to for guidance. I know where I can get the guidance. I know, with all my heart, that Jesus Christ and lives and is aware of EVERY detail of my family's life. I believe in Him, and I have hope that He believes in me. He carried that Trooper through the valleys it represents - and it was in His Temple, the mountain of the Lord, that we began our eternal marriage.