Resistance

The greatest bit of resistance that I encountered at BYU was probably the first two weeks of my campus life. I am not sure what it was-- possibly a combination of homesickness and culture shock-- but i had a really rough time in those first two weeks. I had been in Uganda for the last three weeks and had driven almost straight from the airport to Utah. I suppose that my being so down was as a result of that. How did I deal with it? I'm not entirely sure. I think it might have been that after a week or two I was really just involved in the whole University thing, and knowing my roommates better and making friends must have helped too. Overall, i think that "resisitance" just took care of itself naturally.

Halloween

I really did not do anything for hallowen. I ordered some rugby games on rugby mediazone ,watched one and then watched a movie with some friends. All in all not a huge day for me.

Work Wisdom

The bit of the wisdomm that I got from the talk by President Hinckley was that, just as his Model T's lights ran only when the motor was at a fast clip, so too do we have to keep moving if we want to have light in our life. The light that he refers to I take to mean the Light of Christ. In order to have Christ in our lives we need to go out of our way to do so. That means that I must read my scriptures and ponder them in order to have that light in my life.

I do not have any great lessons that I have learned from hard work. I have had several hard jobs over the summer and I have hated them terribly. In school I've never had to try very hard, and certainly never taken any lessons in regards to the importance of hard work in that respect.

Education in Zion

The exhibit that most interested me was a very small one. It was one of the papyrus scrolls that Joseph Smith translated and got the Book of Abraham from. It didn't have very much information about the scroll itself; the display was just a description really. I think that when I have more time I will post about that scroll.

The rest of the exhibit was sort of interesting, just not anything that I care too much about. I guess that I've always had the mindset that the church cares quite a bit about education so there was nothing too mind blowing about there being a focus on 'education in Zion'.

Homecoming

I choose to go to the barbeque thingie mainly due to the fact that there is free food. It was really just a big pep rally. They had hamburgers and hotdogs. I wanted a hamburger but I ended up in the wrong line so ended up getting a hotdog, some chips and water. At the barbeque the Cougarettes, kind of a drill team with girls, performed and so did the band, performing something or another. All in all not too impressive, but at least the food was alright.

Conference Correction

The talk that I choose to write about for the blog assignment was Dallin H Oaks talk given on the Saturday morning session. Why Dallin H Oaks talk you might ask. Well, I hadn't looked at the blackboard before conference so I didn't know what to listen for. When I found out what the assignment was I asked my roommate what talk would be useable and he suggested this one. So I listened to it again on lds.org and here are my impressions/responses to the blog assignment:

The talk given was on the sacrament, its importance and what we can do to better honour and remember the atonement. This is a subject that is fairly important to me (as a holder of the priesthood) and I am a priest so, at least at home, I am expected to bless and sometimes pass the sacrament. As such, I really took this talk to heart. Even when I am blessing or passing the sacrament I sometimes am distracted from the true purpose of the sacrament. I was impressed by Dallin H. Oaks insistence on maintaining the sacredness of the sacrament (bit of a tongue-twister), through hymns, and behaviour, and I feel that is something that I have be mindful of.

Dallin H Oaks counsel is of particular gravity. The sacrament is an integral part of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and needs to be treated with due respect, in sacredness and holiness. This is sometimes hard to do. We (all members of the church) need to heed Oaks advice in this respect.

"Y" the Y

I was impressed by the size and dignity of the Hinckley Center. It was a really great tribute to President Hinckley. What really stood out to me was how nicely decorated it was, there was also a really good 'feel' to the place. As for 'once a cougar, always a cougar', as a BYU student I have a really unique opportunity to learn in a spiritual environment. The high school that I went to had only two or three members of the church at it at any one time. That's out of a total population of 2,300! Being able to go to a University like BYU is a great opportunity for me to connect my education with my spiritual development. Instead of my spiritual development continuing despite my education, they can develop in tandem.

Inventory

The questions for this blog post are: What did you find better then you anticipated; what is one aspect of school you found harder; and if you could change one part of your experience at BYU what would it be.

Well, when I first thought about the first question I found it difficult to answer. I was so busy prior to coming to BYU (being on a different continent for August, and then moving the day I got back) that I hadn't really the time or inclination to anticipate anything. I suppose the only thing you could say is that there are certain things that I think are better here then in other universities. One of those things is how close together everything is on campus. I do have a 30 minute walk onto campus in the morning (and back in the evening) but my friends that go to university back home in B.C. could spend 30 minutes walking between classes! I didn't, when choosing classes, how close everything is on campus.

For the second question I suppose that it'd have to do with the reading that is involved in university classes. I didn't realize until I saw my syllabuses, how many pages of reading I'd have to do each day. I have to read chapters every week for Political Sciences, a half hour of Book of Mormon everyday, the New York Times everyday (which can take a really long time), a chapter of Physical Sciences three times a week. And that's on top of studying and essays...


Last paragraph. What would I change about my experience at BYU? Well, I sure wish I had less work to do during the day. Work like doing this blogpost actu

Adventures in Zoobieland

What exactly is Zoobieland? 

My adventure was quite an adventure. It did not involve anything Zoobieing nor did it take place in Zoobieland. It took place on BYU campus.

I was planning to meet up with Ran and Kyle, but I miss-communicated and ended up missing them by about an hour. So I did my exploring in the library (yes, how original). On the fourth floor I did find something rather interesting, a really cool poster that I know want to buy. It's the Wave of Peace poster, by and LDS professor in 1985, in commemeration of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Incidentally, I'm half-Japanese and have actually been to Hiroshima, and the Hiroshima Peace Museum and Memorial. Anyways, as well as travelling through the upper reaches of the library I also hit up the lower levels of the library. Can't say I found anything that terribly interesting. Finally I headed over to the Spencer W Kimball Towers and headed for the next to top floor (the top floor takes a pass key to get to). I looked around, didn't find anything (just classrooms and stuff) and then headed back down.

I wish I had dressed up the Mauser Statue instead...

Bloch Talk

For this assignment we were asked to look at the painting by Carl Bloch, Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda. What was struck me that most about this painting was how little people seemed to care about Christ. In particular, the man in the red hat seems disinterested in Christ even though he seems to be waiting to be healed by the pool. In fact, he is on the edge of the pool, seemingly waiting to jump in at the first sign of a ripple (in order to be healed) when it is in fact only by coming unto Christ that he will be healed. I take this as a sort of metaphor for the world. That we rely on other objects and fancies to 'heal' us when all we have to do is rely on Christ.

The question that was asked in assignment was who do I most resemble? I would have to say that I most resemble the child. The child in the painting looks interested in what Christ is doing but also somewhat mystified by it all. I feel that as lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I am aware of the atonement of Christ but I sometimes fail to take advantage of all the benefits of it.