It's been a pretty good week

It's been a pretty good week. I've had a lot of fun socializing with people from my hall and the Air Force. Been keeping up on my school work and had some really good experiences that I want to share this week.

First off, Thank You! to Matt and Michelle for sending the Chinese New Year treats, I really appreciated it! Also, thanks to Mom and Dad I finally got my new phone (looks really good bytheway!) and just need to open it now and figure out how to switch the calls and texting to my new phone (I still can't believe my EnV2 is almost 2 years old!). Also, thank you so much for the Junior Mints! I've been trying not to eat them (because I've been craving them since christmas break) but on Friday I ate an entire box in under 10 min watching a show. They're just so good! They're like Lays: You can't have just one! Also, I went on Wednesday and bought 2 loaves of Wonder Bread for a total of $3 (It's not the highest quality, but the other loaves were $3 and I got a 2-1 deal), so I'm going to start making some Peanut Butter Sandwiches more often (I just need some honey or some good water...)

Alright, this week was pretty good, like I said there were some cool things that happened but mostly your normal average college life. I had a BOM, a Poli Sci 170 Geography Quiz, and a Hobbes Quiz this week , which I did well on all 3 (93, 100, and approx. 85ish, respectively). The only things that were of any interests (besides my hair cut!) was the LLAB and Tri-Det Tournament that we had.

Before I get started into LLAB, I wanted to briefly give a summary on what Condolleezza Rice said on Jan. 13th for BYU's Forum Address. (I thought I had covered it, but didn't. And at the request of individuals, I'll discuss her talk).
One of her main arguments was "Today's Headline and History's Judgment is rarely the same". We have to do what we think is right, regardless of what the world currently says about us. She talked about the "Great American Myth" of the Log Cabin: about how anyone can come from the most humble of circumstances and do great things. She said that the Log Cabin idea was the very fabric of our society. She talked a lot about education. Education transforms people, because it doesn't matter where you came from but where you're going. Rice also said that our biggest foreign policy problem is the K-12 educational system. She talked about how we needed to get parents involved and how she personally thought the "self-esteem" teaching revolution was one of the biggest detriments to our youth ever (Finally! Someone else agrees!). She closed by saying that we always need to be optimistic about our current situation and our future, because we may not be able to control the circumstances, but we can control our response. With optimism, things that seem impossible seem inevitable.

So that was Condolleeza Rice's speech. In LLAB, we had a speech contest that had to do with a John Q. Adams quote about leadership, "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader". I thought about doing it and actually attempted to find room to write such a speech, but I had to have it done on the Monday after my really crazy week (See last 2 posts) and I didn't have time to write an effective speech on what leadership meant to me that week. However, after seeing how it went this year, I'm going to definitely try next year. There were some really good speeches, some of which had the following: "Good leaders eat last, so get use to eating Egg Omelet", "Being a leader requries you to be optimistic about yourself, your team, and your situation, even when everyone and everything else says otherwise". The best one of the day was by a 200 (He's getting ready for Field Training) and he wrote this amazing poem. It was about moles and how they hide away from the light and the challenge to get to the light, saying that "I'll try tomorrow-but tomorrow is never today"; while a leader will go through the trial and pain to get to the light, but as soon as it has reached the light, will turn back and to go and help others get to the light. I was hoping that I would have a copy of the poem to show (I emailed him and asked for a copy), but I haven't received it yet. Anyway, that was a really good LLAB, even if he didn't win (most people thought he should have won, but oh well.)

The last interesting thing was this Saturday. We had the Tri-Det Tournament in Logan at the USU campus. The Tri-Det is a competition between BYU, USU, and UoU AFROTC Det. as we do Drill and Ceremonies, PT, and knowledge bowls. BYU has won for the past 5 years in a row, and we won again this year. We swampped everyone at PT and the games (Dodgeball and Ultimate Frisbee), and the Knowledge Bowl, but USU won the Drill and Ceremonies (Not without a lot of speculation from BYU and UoU. I'm not judging, but apparently the inspectors were judging us a lot harder than USU, but I wasn't there, so I can't say). So we got to take home the trophy for the 6th year in a row. Now, you could sign up for any number of events, but we brought almost 100 people with us, so there were times where the activities were completely full. I got to talk, joke around and hang out with Cadet Connors a lot (more on him later) and I got to participate in one game of Dodgeball.

Now, the game of Dodgeball I played wasn't part of the competition but was just a friendly rematch by USU for fun. I can't throw, so I was mainly concerned with dodging and gathering balls for the teammates who could actually throw. Well, even though I was moving around, they weren't throwing them near me and to make a long story short, after about 3 minutes or so I was the only one on the BYU side against about 15 or so USU players. My fellow cadets started chanting my name and cheering me on, and I'd be lying if I said that didn't feel pretty cool. I was hoping they would start throwing balls at me because I can catch them pretty well, but I realized that I had all 5 balls on my side. Fantastic. So I grabbed one and jogged over to the line and jumped while throwing the ball at one of the USU players feet. I got him out, so I was like "Yes! 1 down, like 14 to go!) and started to back pedal when a USU player grabbed the ball I threw and hit my feet as I was back pedaling. So I didn't get a bunch of them out (afterwards, I was daydreaming that I was dodging and throwing those dodgeballs like something out of the Matrix: sliding, turning, rolling, dodging, etc.). The cool thing was a bunch of people were congratulating me for holding my own against them, so that was pretty awesome!

Now, Cadet Charlie Conners is a good friend of mine. He's an RA in Merrill- I think (it's right next to my Building) and is a fellow 100 cadet as well. He's a really nice and fun guy to be around and we get along great. We were in the same car both ways, and recently we had sparked his interest in Phineas and Ferb. I am pleased to say that after about 2-3 hours of Phineas and Ferb episodes on his Iphone, he was solidly hooked. So I now have a cadet in the Air Force that loves Phineas and Ferb almost as much as I do! So that was a success on my part!

Also, this week was State Conference, so we had Elder Lund of the Seventy come as well as Elder Nelson of the Quorum of the 12 because we released our Stake President. Elder Lund gave some good talks, but his message was really spread out in the two talks given at Priesthood and Stake Conference. His Stake Conference address was about the "Mystical Journey", about how we shouldn't let these few years slip by and to make the most of it. Those kinds of talks are always food to reflect on and see if you're making the most of your 2 years. Elder Nelson gave talks about marriage. He said that President Monson's "What keeps me awake at night" lists tops off with: 1. Young Sisters without dates, and 2. Too many worthy YW who want to get married but have no opportunity and too many YM who don't date because of professions or hobbies. He talked about dating and eternal marriage, about how that was our most sacred responsibility as priesthood holders. I took good notes, but I felt more like this was your stereotypical "BYU speech" than anything (though I really did enjoy Elder Nelson's talk!). I liked more when he got into the details of the language of Greeks and Hebrews (i.e. how Hebrew means "from Abraham" and how "I am that I am" translates to "I am becoming what I will become") more than anything else. It seems to me that most of the YM still don't seem to interested in dating right now because of missions and lack of interest on both parties. Right now, I feel fine just talking with people and being social. Other than that, I really had a good time at Stake Conference!

So that's about it! My only real goal this week is to try and not watch as much T.V. this week. I don't have a lot of homework, but I need to stop watching so much T.V. and spend more time doing scripture studying and Preach my Gospel. So I'm feeling pretty good (especially after being a little under the weather this week. I was so tired that it was debilitating. I'm feeling much better now!). Hope everything is going well for you guys and someone should really post soon! Love ya!