10 day social media fast!

I've been doing the 10 day social media fast since President Nelson gave the challenge at the women's conference 6 days ago. I've done plenty of fasts from social media before, just on my own because I got tired of it. But oddly enough this one has been a lot harder, I was talking to someone and we decided it's Satan trying to get to us. Since we actually are following the prophet on not doing it over just deciding to not do it on our own.

Another challenge at the women's conference was to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I'm in 1 Nephi at the moment and reading all about Laman and Lemuel who ALWAYS complained about everything. It's always kind of annoying reading about those two since they always complained so much. Well I was at work today and one of the ladies there was telling me that she's seen huge complaints on social media this week in relation to President Okes talk at conference. I actually saw it somewhat in some group pages right before I started the 10 day fast. I actually looked up the talk tonight because I didn't know what anyone could be complaining about in relation to that talk. I'm still shaking my head because he didn't say anything to abnormal. Other then he did say things in relation to the proclamation to the family. Anyway I find it odd that anything bad is being said about that talk.

But I was thinking about it and I guess it's kind of like Laman and Lemuel who took the truth to be hard. If someone's going to complain about a conference talk then something is amiss.
I decided maybe that was the foresight of President Nelson and maybe some of us needed a break from facebook so we'd miss the complaining. I loved conference and don't want to be affected by those complaining about a church leader stating the truth.

General Conference!

This weekend was general conference, which was great!! It's funny but I totally was thinking during just about every talk how something in it applied to my life. Of course by the time conference was over I could barely remember any of the talks. But I concluded it's because if your spirit guided during conference then you'll be connected to spirit guided things that are said. Clearly all conference talks are spirit guided, especially since we always hear people say 'I had a question and it was answered in conference.' I actually did have that experience, life was seeming pretty good so I didn't come up with a question until last night. It was in relation to someone I've had a lot of problems with, super hard to figure out what to do with the situation. But then the second or third talk in the morning session was by Elder Holland on not holding onto problems with people. I was kind of frustrated with that talk actually, but it seemed like Elder Anderson's talk afterward fit right with it on not giving up during trials. So once again it's pretty clear the talks in conference are spirit guided, since I doubt they talked together about their topics beforehand.

But it was a great weekend and one of those where I hate to see the weekend come to an end. Not because I hate going to work on Monday, but because conference was so spiritual and honestly it's probably what people in the spirit world experience all the time. (just a thought) I wish at times like this that I didn't have to go back into the world, but there's no way around it. In order to not be apart of the world I'd have to stay in my apartment and go no where. But it goes to show that conference was great and hope others agree with that!

I found it interesting where President Nelson put emphasis on going to the temple. I have tried to do that a lot anyway since there is a temple in my town. But it made me wonder if the world will get even worse then it is. Anyway I am doing the 10 day fast from social media or at least facebook, since I don't do the others a lot. I am trying to find temple names, but I hit a dead end after finding about 15 on one family line. I have decided that during the 10 days of no facebook I'll try to find names and index. Funny enough indexing isn't bad, you just have to find the stuff that is easier to read. I had tips given to me from people in my ward on doing the war records. Most of those are generally easier to read and besides there is someone who reviews what you do. So need to fear, if you do it wrong someone else should catch it. The idea of it could be done wrong isn't a good excuse to not index. Anyway hope others will join me on finding family names and indexing. Happy Sunday!!

Sunday is great!!

Since I've been in the over 30 ward they do this day conference during the summer involving Logan and Ogden, along with anyone else who wants to show up. There were some from Idaho and Salt Lake there too, mainly people who like the conferences and go to anyone they hear about. Well at these conferences they have different classes, some spiritual and some dating related. In the morning I went to this class on the temple, and it turned out to be the recently released Logan temple president that talked at it. While there he talked about a youth group from Idaho that came one time at 5 am to do baptisms, since they needed to get back in time for school. Well suddenly I wanted to go to the temple, especially since it had been closed for the last month. I decided the people who planned the conference should be happy I applied something to life. So I skipped the last talk last night and went to the temple before it was closed at 8 pm. Today when I was going to church I went by the temple and suddenly stopped to stare. Maybe I was the only one to see it, but it was totally glowing. It  reminded me of a former stake president in Roosevelt who was the Vernal temple president a few years ago. He said something along the lines of by being at the temple a lot it makes you more holy. At least he'd noticed that as the temple president for three years. This incident just reminded me of that, if your doing lots of spiritual stuff then you'll notice the difference.

Also today at church this girl talked who I didn't really know, and only a few weeks ago had a conversation with. Well she told about this relative who lived in Nauvoo as a teenager. He was quite friendly with Joseph Smith and one day this guy named William Law asked him to go work for him. This teenager had a bad feeling, but Joseph Smith told him it was a good idea to take the job. So he went and started working for William Law and he started hearing the adults talk in apostate ways. He always paid attention to the conversations and one night was asleep. (apparently he slept there) But he woke up and heard them talking about killing Joseph Smith, and they wanted him to help them do it too. He went over and told Joseph Smith what they had said, well Joseph Smith said 'Yes help them and load the gun or whatever they want, but don't worry if I'm suppose to live they won't succeed.' So he went back and the next day they wanted him to help them load the gun. He did it and was standing there when they tried to shoot Joseph Smith. Well the gun wouldn't work and the bullets wouldn't come out. (something like that) They were mad telling the teenager that he'd loaded it wrong. He said 'no I didn't do it wrong' and the guy turned and tried to shoot a post. Lo and behold all bullets shot totally normal as they should have previously. But it was a pretty cool story because it goes to show that no one dies by accident. Although we refer to them as car accident, bike accident or boating accident. It's a good thing to remember in life. Happy Sunday!

What happens when you meet apple phones virtual assistant named Siri!

My old phone died and I had to get a new phone. I didn't even think about it when buying it, but I got an apple phone that has Siri on it. Well I randomly started asking Siri all these random questions, and one of those was 'who is the oldest person in the world?' It was a person whose 125 in Japan I think it was, but they've only been the oldest person in the world for the last 2 1/2 weeks. Well I got Siri to look up who was the oldest person in the USA. That person is a lady in New York or Boston (somewhere like that) who is 113. I read on and they said that they will keep an eye on people's records through some alert. When they get alerted that someone is 110 then they'll look up info on them and try to talk to them. Well in the process of media attention they will ask them how they think that they have lived so long? I read about one person who said that they ate healthy food and kept it small on the unhealthy food. Their favorite food was fried chicken, but they kept it down on that throughout life. (but still ate it) Someone concluded it was having the next to perfect genes and only few get those genes to live past 100. Another lady said that God helped her live that long.

I found this interesting because the world is always trying to determine how something could have happened if it's out of the norm. But if you think about it the whole reason why someone would live past 100 is because God helps them live that long. It's true that eating unhealthy food could cause an early death. But most likely in those cases those people just get sick and stay sick until they're supposed to die. I've seen a lot of people who've had cancer and then survived through surgery or chemo. I knew a guy several years ago who had to do both chemo and surgery and is still alive. I don't think there are any near perfect genes out there. It's called God will let you live until your supposed to die, even if it's past 100.

I also found it interesting because they said in the USA there are 36 known people who are over 110.  There could be more but birth records weren't kept very well before 1933.

Also it was wierd to think of someone being born in 1900 and still being alive now. They literally were alive through several wars, the great depression, pioneer life, internet and now the internet being on a phone. That would be pretty wierd to be alive that long.

I did realize that if I lived to 118 then I'd live in three centuries, wouldn't that be cool? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to do that though because all the people I read about were alive but in assisted living centers or hospitals. But it would be cool to say you lived in three centuries, although this one would be the longest for me. (the 2000's) I'm pretty sure that won't happen though because I've eaten to much sugar in my life to get past maybe 80. :D

Random conclusions!

         I am reading this book called 'Visions of Glory' by John Pontius. It is about a guy who had some near death experiences. What he learned in one near death experience is that God could actually turn around time. Meaning we could go back in time and repeat things, but it's not part of the plan on this earth. So we can't back track time. I was thinking about how that would be wierd if we actually could back track time.

         That led to remembering a talk I'd heard awhile ago. It was by a lady named Stephanie Nielson who was in a small plane crash as of about 10 years ago. I believe it was early August of 2008 that the accident happened. She ended up having a near death experience as well, although she doesn't explain much on that in her book 'Heaven is Here.' But she was trapped in the plane while it was in flames. The people in the front had gotten out, so she was the only one trapped. She did have divine guidance in getting out of the plane or she'd be dead. But she got out and ended up seriously burned. After months in the burn center in Arizona and Salt Lake she's very functional now. But does look quite different from before due to skin grafts and such. She does a lot of going around and talking at firesides. This particular one I saw was recorded and put on youtube from a devotional at Utah Valley University. (UVU) Someone there asked that if she could repeat time would she get in the plane again knowing it would crash and burn? I expected her to say 'no way', but oddly enough she said 'yes.'
       
         Anyway after remembering that and reading the book, I thought 'there is no way I'd want to repeat time.' But then I remembered if we could repeat time then I never would go back into that apartment I was in during 2017 with those really, really bad roommates. That would be nice to have that as something that never happened. But interesting enough I've realized this summer that I'm actually glad I lived in that bad apartment with the bad roommates and bad landlord. Because in Utah with mainly LDS people it's easy to be naive and assume everyone is good. (or you hope everyone is good) But I have thus realized from meeting those people that there is evil in Utah and even evil in the church. Not the church itself, but there are evil people who proclaim to be LDS and even go to church. I've become much more careful in the last 18 months. I have since made sure I have locks on my phone. If I meet someone I don't become tight with them super fast. I generally steer clear if I get bad vibes from them and don't think to myself 'okay I have to be friends with them to be a good LDS person.' I generally would think that before 2017 when meeting just about anyone. But you know what? It's actually okay to stay away from people who aren't a good influence or who will try and drag you down. Also I've thus realized from that incident that it really is good to call the police if your in a situation that calls for it. I previously thought it was better to stay away from the police. But technically they are trained to help people be safe. And some situations just aren't safe no matter how you try to get around it.

          Most people who know about the bad roommate stuff from early 2017 will be surprised to hear that I'm glad now that I lived there. Because I majorly went off for a long time about how it was the most ridicules thing I had to live there. And I didn't understand why I had the impression to move there if it wasn't good to be there. But I really am glad I moved there because it's become a living reality that we have to be aware that there are evil influences in the world and not everyone is going to be as they proclaim to be. Unfortunately a lot of dishonesty happens and a lot of people in the world put on a fake face. Word from the wise: be careful as to who you associate with and don't trust everyone you meet just to prove your a good LDS person.

100 Happy Days!

Day #68: Happy pioneer day to those who are in Utah! I was in the parade with a handcart group, it was super hot with all the pioneer clothes on. I am happy that I live in current times, it would have been hard to be a pioneer. I also am reading this book about the Willie and Martin handcart companies, it's super sad they got stuck in the winter of Wyoming. But amazing how many went out to help them from Salt Lake when they found out there were still people coming.

100 Happy Days!

Day #67: Family history makes me happy!

100 Happy Days!

• Day #66: I love words of living prophets and more especially a book I found recently that is written by the apostles makes me very happy. A quote from President Nelson is this: 'Plead with the Lord for the gift of discernment. Then live and work to be worthy to receive that gift so that when confusing events arise in the world you will know exactly what is true and what isn't.' People kept telling me that you learn something from every experience in life. In relation to those horrible roommates last year I always thought 'no way, I learned nothing living there except that I would never want to be horrible like those people.' But not long ago I had the realization that the ONLY reason why I figured out how horrible all those people were was actually due to the holy ghost. I wouldn't have figured it out on my own, other then maybe catching on that I hated how controlling they tried to be. And that they'd say things that contradicted what they previously said, so it was obvious they were liars. But one clear experience I had was when the biggest bully of the apartment (one who'd been there around 5 years) got everyone into a huge fight. I left town to get away from the stupid crap. But my Bishop had said to me before I left 'make sure your room is locked at all times.' I made the mistake of telling that bully that I was leaving town, so she cornered me right before I left so that I'd forget to consider locking the door. The next day my sister suddenly asked me if I'd locked my door in Logan, then explaining she'd randomly had the impression to ask that. I realized that I hadn't, but we decided that I could just ask that roommate to lock it. (I didn't know what a bully she was then) Well I suddenly had a very dark impression that I shouldn't ask her. The last resort was to ask the landlord, but as an after thought I was like 'oh I should just get the roommate to do it.' But then my sister said 'no if you had a bad feeling about the roommate then don't do it.' So I got the landlord to go lock the door, but turns out that very night the nasty girl started trying to message me and get all sweetie on me. I'm pretty sure she was there when the landlord showed up to lock my room door and was mad about it. Anyway I went back and learned later on how horrible and dishonest she was in general. (good deceiver is all there is to it) So anyway recently I realized a lot of what I found out in relation to what she was doing was from impressions of the Holy Ghost. I know that I learned from living there that I'd NEVER want to live without the holy ghost. The only way to decipher good from evil in the world is through the holy ghost. We really can't do it on our own! Sadly there are nasty/evil people in the world currently. I would have honestly been so screwed with those horrible roommates if I had not been in tune with the holy ghost. The holy ghost literally saved me multiple times in that nasty place.

100 Happy Days

Day #65: Vacation makes me happy and being with family!

100 Happy Days!

Day #64: Sunday makes me happy and going to church. Super great that it is Sunday tomorrow!!

100 Happy Days!

Day #63: I was reading this book not long ago about understanding the temple endowment. (LDS temple if your confused) Well one main point given is that to understand the temple endowment you need to be directed by personal revelation to understand it. Also stated in the book is that if you haven't had any personal revelation in a long time or even seen miracles in your life in a long time then YOUR lacking in faith. To have a true relationship with God you HAVE to have personal revelation. If your not having personal revelation then God isn't talking to you and it's all one sided on your part. God only refuses to not communicate or give personal revelation when your following Satan and ignoring the commandments and prophets from God. Remember if your having issues with this then you can change through the atonement of Jesus Christ and receive personal revelation in the future. I thought that was a very good point and grateful that I have recently seen miracles in my life. And as stated on my day #62 I obviously have recent personal revelation or I wouldn't have gone to the store in a rush and then ran into that guy from YSA ward. I am happy to find out that the key is personal revelation on understanding the temple endowment because there are points of it that are hard to understand. I'll keep the personal revelation in mind in order to understand the temple endowment better.

100 Happy Days!

Day #62: At church it's been interesting because in the last 5 weeks we have sang the song 'These Emblems We Partake' three times. It really caught my attention the first time on verse 3 because it says: 'The law was broken; Jesus died that justice might be satisfied, that man might not remain a slave of death, of hell or of the grave.' It just really came to me that this is saying if you don't use the atonement and don't repent while knowing better you are allowing yourself to become a slave to Satan. Reality is that if you want to repent and use the atonement then yes it'll be hard, but it won't be as hard if you let Christ help you to change. The atonement is real is all I have to say and I know that from first hand experience. It's just sad when people continue in misery being a slave to Satan when they could actually use the atonement to be happy. I hope everyone will use the atonement considering it is free to everyone!

Break away from 100 Happy Days!

Well sometimes the internet can be fake or it just looks like people have perfect lives. Generally because they don't state the problems that they do have. So some bad things going on for me are that last week the water heater in my apartment blew up. It happened the night before Memorial day, so all Memorial day I was catching water in a bowl. And ever since then I've been listening to this very loud fan dry the carpet that got really wet. It was the first time in almost a year where I actually wished I had roommates again. When I had roommates before they were so bossy and wanted to be in charge of everything that they'd report stuff to the landlord. I was glad to not have to worry about reporting problems to the landlord in the past. But unfortunately I have to do all of that now that I'm on my own.
Also a nasty situation I found out about today is that some librarians at a neighboring library got laid off for no reason. The claim in the news report is that they were laid off due to the budget being low. It's just awful because the two laid off have master degrees. It's pretty sad. Especially since it's pretty hard to get library jobs as it is without leaving the state or so it seems.

100 Happy Days!

Day #61: I didn't work today and so I wasn't in a hurry to wake up. Well suddenly I just woke up and looked at the clock. I saw that it was a good time to be awake. After being awake about 10 minutes I suddenly had the urge to go to the grocery store ASAP. I was going to go to the grocery store since I was off, but really wouldn't have considered it vital to go to the store so fast. Other then I was out of food and kind of hungry, usually smoothies don't do much for long. (mostly what I had in the apartment or canned food) Well I decided to go to the store if I had the impression to do it. I was trying to leave and kept forgetting stuff, so I kept going back in. Finally I left and I noticed it was really good weather. So I decided to walk and ride the bus back at the end. Well I was about 1 1/2 blocks away from my apartment when I almost ran right into this guy. I quickly realized that I knew who this guy was, it was actually a guy that I knew from a YSA ward 3 years ago. We were about 5 feet from running in to each other, except I was coming from another way. So he didn't see me and crossed the street. From the back I couldn't quite tell if it was him, but I was pretty sure that was who I had seen on the corner before he turned to cross. Well while deciding if it was really him the chance was missed to say anything because he suddenly was like 1/2 a block a head of me. I stayed back long enough to determine it was him and eventually he was a block ahead of me, apparently a fast walker. Well I went in the direction of the store and he walked the other way, later found out he was going up north to his job. Well I texted him since I'm doing the 'no social media this week' and said that I was pretty sure he had been in front of me. He said that he had been along that street at that time, but was going to work since it was such good weather. So we conversed a little and then I said that I was actually really happy that I'd seen him. Even though we hadn't actually conversed I was glad to see him because he's one of the very good people I've known in life. It was so nice seeing a good person in the world today after being bogged down for to long with horrible people in the world. I realized that apparently I was supposed to see him or I wouldn't have had the impression to get to the store so fast. And any other day off I wouldn't have woken up that early either most likely. Happy to be reminded that most of the world is good people, but unfortunately bad people do exist by the bad choices they make everyday.

100 Happy Days!

Day #60: Not doing facebook or social media for a week makes me HAPPY!! Surprise to you all, but President Nelson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (lds.org) Did a meeting yesterday and encouraged the teens and anyone else interested to not do facebook or social media in general for a week. I liked his description of facebook and social media. It has good points to it, but it's a FAKE world! I noticed that back with those bad roommates. They were JERKS in real life, but put on facebook how loving and spiritual they were. They also put on fake pictures of them covered in make up and such ridicules things when in real life the one specially told me 'makeup is a waste of time and I don't wear it.' So I have always made a valid effort to not put fake stuff on facebook or social media in general. I always appreciate those who do the same. I don't count blogging as social media, but it's been great so far without social media in my life. If not for this challenge I would probably be on facebook right now over blogging. :)

100 Happy Days!

Day #59: I love my job and the fact that it brings in new information to my life. I found this movie today at work called 'A 2nd Witness'. It's about a lady from the Willie handcart company named Elizabeth Panter. While with the handcart company traveling she was out picking up buffalo chips. A random guy came up and asked how the company was, and she said they were starving. He led her to this cave and gave her all this buffalo meat he had dried. After leaving she tried to go back and couldn't find the cave entrance. The main part of the movie was about her daughter who was with the handcart company as an infant. After her mom died she stopped believing the story as much due to others saying it was probably made up. She was later in Idaho at church with her daughter when this older guy got up to talk. He told about being with the Willie handcart company and starving, but a random lady in the group met a stranger and got buffalo meat for the group that probably saved a lot of people. Her daughter took that as the second witness that it had really happened to her mom. At the very end the older guy talking in this sacrameeting said 'We were without substance but we were not without God's grace. And God put forth his hand to make his presence known.' I have to say I feel like I never have money because I'm forking it out to rent or student loans. Yeah I'll probably be poor forever, but I will be the first to say that even if I'm poor forever my life isn't lived without God in it. And having God in your life is the best thing you can have in life. It's more important then having tons of money and it brings more happiness then money ever can.

100 Happy Days!

Day #58: I was reading about some LDS authors and one in particular that does a really good job in LDS movies is Jason Wade. He's Brother Savage in 17 Miracles and usually a parent in some others such as Cokeville Miracle. Anyway the movies he's in make me happy!! There was a interview with him that is through LDS Living. Apparently at one point before acting in movies he was homeless. So this is what he said in relation to that: 'I am so glad the living-out-of-my-car days are over. Those were some dark days, but it had so much more to do with being spiritually and creatively lost than it did not having any money for rent. You ask yourself some pretty poignant questions when you get to that level in your life, and most days I didn't like the answers. I didn't know why I was here. I didn't know where I was going. I started to question everything.
But in the months and months of questioning to come, I started to answer the questions differently. I stopped blaming everything around me and I took personal responsibility. I realized I was the only one who could make choices to get me out of that dark place, so I started to collect all the things that made me happy or gave me a reason to wake up in the morning. I fell in love with Pennsylvania's beauty. I started to record my travels. I started to visit the historical sites and state parks and make little documentaries. A feeling of fulfillment awakened as I was running the camera, talking in front of it, and editing the footage throughout the night. I felt a sense of purpose.
This new energy emerged and I used that energy to prioritize my life. I put Church attendance on my top 5 list. I made my prayers more about being grateful and not so much about complaining. I stopped being a recluse and put more effort into being around people with good energy. This ultimately brought me to my senses. A very clear vision emerged. I needed to embrace my passion for acting and I needed to get back to Utah where I knew I had a stable job in Wildland fire. I could get out of debt in a few summers and I was hoping there was a talent agency that would pick me up.' This was a pretty inspiring thing to read because it's true, stop blaming others and take responsibility for your circumstances. That is what will change your life and make your life more fulfilled and happy.
http://www.ldsliving.com/-LDS-Actor-Jasen-Wade-From-Living-in-Car-to-Movie-Star/s/80262

100 Happy Days

Day #57: I realized that on this day a bunch of years ago I went to the MTC or Mission Training Center. Yep going on a mission for the LDS church was one of the best things I've done. Sometimes it's sad to think it'll never happen again. But truth is that we can be just as happy and in tune with the spirit as we were in the mission field. Key is that you have to LIVE the gospel and LIVE in tune with the spirit for that to be happen. If your miserable then what is causing that? Time to make amends and fix your issues or you'll never be happy if you continually blame others for the problems YOU create!!

100 Happy Days!

Day #56: Riding a bike makes me happy!! Yeah kind of random but I recently started biking again. I haven't rode a bike in 20 years, but it's great fun!! :D

100 Happy Days!

Day #55: Blessings of being honest makes me happy. I've had a side job and back in January I really was a bit on the poor side. Well at this side job we write up our hours on our own and turn them in, so we don't turn them in through a computer. I had several days back in January where there wasn't a lot to do at the side job. So I left early those times and one of the people there said to me 'oh just mark that you were here the whole time.' Well it was tempting since I needed money, but in all reality now that I think about it there was maybe $10 lost overall from leaving early. So yeah I ended up marking the right times and interestingly enough hours picked up a lot soon after. I started getting more hours then I could do and had to drop some hours. Anyway I had long forgotten this and just recently was reminded of it. I realized that it's so true, God WILL help you if your honest. On the other hand, if your NOT HONEST then God isn't going to help you. And that is an absolute fact!!