The Best Two Years... So far..

Today I woke up rushed out of bed, and ran into the shower got changed and headed to the temple, sat down and read through the New Testament for the most part of the hour or so wait. While sitting in the back row awaiting the time to go and do confirmations a friend leaned over and told me "Kevin I think it is so awesome that you were able to go and do baptisms for the dead on the anniversary of your own baptism."

Quick Side Note: For those not of my church but read my blog none the less. In our church we follow the guidance of Peter in 1st Corinthians 15:29 "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?" We don't exhume bodies or anything but instead, baptized by proxy for those individuals, so they have an opportunity to accept the beliefs of our church, and obtain the remission of sins that come with baptism.

Back to the story: I had completely forgotten in my rush of the morning and getting out the door that two years ago this day I committed to change my life. It has been tough, not always easy and it has not always been fun. Over the last two years I have stood for what I have felt right, and what I feel God would want me to do, I would go as far to say that I have tried my best to act in his name at all times.
Where has this gotten me? Well, I left the sunny state of California for the frozen abyss of Idaho. It has put me at odds with my friends and people I love, and it has seen me develop into more than I could have ever wished.

I love Idaho I never thought I would say something like that but I just did. You find people more friendly and not just the Mormons ;). I have a theory, it is too cold to hate someone up here, you never know when you will have to show up at their house and stay a bit just to stay out of the cold. I have learned more here than I did in my 2 years at CSUEB. The level of education and staff are superior to that of the state school. It feels like the teachers here genuinely care, anyone who took Scott Bentley's English Course would know that "caring feeling" CSUEB professors have. I have had so many teachers here genuinely interested in what our groups do. Speaking of which, wonderful, a word which does not adequately describe groups projects here. We had one class that we participated in group projects in all the time. I never had any problems with papers getting turned in late or even really burning the midnight oil waiting for that one lazy group member to turn something into us. So if any of them read this: "THANK YOU!! For making my life easier!"
It is not always easy to do the right thing. I have learned from experience, I did many years of cadets and I had to make tough decisions that had consequences Last fall I participated actively in California's Yes on 8 campaign. I called many California voters, explaining the ballot measure and talking to people on the phone about the feelings that I had towards the issue. This tried me in many ways me but I knew what I had to do. I love true friends, such as one of my Co-Workers who even though their opinion differed with that of mine, acted and felt as if nothing had changed. That goes to show the true measure of a great person.

I had a tough time with my parents when I decided to become a member of my church, my mom felt deeply saddened because of fears of missing the opportunity to attend my wedding. However I know that my father and mom both see the changes that have taken place in my life. My mom and dad see the difference in me after a day in church, the self reflection and the good graces I receive fall upon them as well.
I will close with some bold statements but I will say now that I mean every one of them.

I know that I am a loved child of God. I know that through Jesus Christ I can return to my Father in heaven, and become perfected. I know that I will reside with my family forever, just like I had always dreamed of doing. I know that the temples on earth this day allow that to happen. I know that I have changed and become a better person by becoming a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that I and my family receive blessings in more ways that I can number because our father who in heaven loves each and every one of us. I know that he loves you, in fact he probably loves you more than me ;). I feel gratitude for the Book of Mormon, it has changed my life in a way that no other book has, I know that through that book I have grown closer to my Heavenly Father.

I challenge you to answer this question: What do you know?

I love you all, and hope that you take care.

Never saw this comming...

Well I figured I would update the blog because I haven't for a while and it just seems like it is time so I figured I would tell a story from my life currently...

CRAZY DAY TODAY!!! I was walking around town today with some of my buddies and as I was looking down the street I saw this kid get shot by this other group of kids. So I ran as fast as I could back to my apartment! But as I was running I tripped in some snow and fell they caught up to me and beat me up and threatened me, I got home and told my mom I got in one little fight and my mom got scared. She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air. I begged and pleaded with her day after day, But she packed my suite case and send me on my way. She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket. I put my walkman on and said, 'I might as well kick it'. First class, yo this is bad Drinking orange juice out of a champagne glass. Is this what the people of Bel-Air Living like? Hm this might be alright. Well, the plane landed and when I came out There was a dude who looked like a cop standing there with my name out I ain't trying to get arrested I just got here I sprang with the quickness like lightening, disappeared I whistled for a cab and when it came near The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror If anything I can say this cab is rare But I thought 'Now forget it' - 'Yo homes to Bel Air' I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later' I looked at my kingdom I was finally there To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air

The End :-) Thanks for reading guys!

You make it easy, as easy as 1,2,1,2,3,4

I am having an amazing time here in Fremont!

I have been home for all of about 48 hours now and it has been great to feel the love here. I was able to attend church yesterday and really enjoyed it, there are so many wonderful people there, and there has been so much growth in my home ward as well. Quick update on life, I was able to go to In-N-Out in Provo Utah on opening day, it was amazing, just as good as it is here in California. I hate to say it but 5 Guys burger's are better, but also much more expensive... The battle continues I suppose.

I've lost part of my life to a video game... It is called Top Racers, it is a game that makes you play the role of a Formula 1 team principle, which is like a team boss. It has been a good waste of time for my break, hopefully it will not cut into my school when I go back.

I had a great lunch with one of my old Co-workers/Bosses/Friends Eduardo today, it was great to spend time with him and hear about his adventures since I had last seen him. He had been able to do something that is a dream of mine, get in a car, and drive as far as it will go and just fly home from wherever the car decides to die, he made it to Michigan where the radiator gave out, he repaired it and donated it to a family out there that needed it. I also had the opportunity to explain some basic gospel principles to him about my church. It was really good to have lunch with someone who loves God, and isn't of my faith, there is a lot to be learned from others.

Music has been a saving grace for me these last few days. I have been listening to a lot of music by the Postal Service and bands like them, Owl city, The Grey Race, and even Death Cab... I had a talk with a friend back in Rexburg about how much I love music and how much better it makes me feel when I listen to the type of music that I love. As Forest Gump would say "And thats all I got to say about that."

I also have to say that I was able to spend some time with a certain family in my ward who I love beyond measure, they have the worlds CUTEST kids!! I went over to their house and played with them and fixed their cars rear hatch struts. while working they followed me around the neighborhood while I was trying to find some Vice Grips. I finally found a monkey wrench that would do the trick. After I finished that, we went inside and I was able to read all three stories from a Diego book to one of the kids, while he sat there quite happily, even through my horrible reading... I asked him if it would be OK if I moved in next door, he shook his head yes, but then I asked him if he would play with my kids and he said no :-(... Maybe he would change his mind if the opportunity presented itself... :-) That child though is honestly one of the sweetest spirits I have ever met.. I hope if I have a son he turns out to be somewhat like him.

I have saved this because I know some people won't care to read this :-)

Speaking of going back, I have been putting some time into my computer back here, that in particular has been kinda fun. It is an old Pentium 3 laptop that will soon be made into a file server and remote access laptop, that will allow me to bypass lame downloading restrictions at BYU.

Information overload

So, I have decied that I have started to overload myself with information that is pretty much worthless. Yesterday one of the teachers in my class said "There is no worthless information." I beg to differ. He said this was evident because of an example from his mission. The story goes as follows

"I was once in a house with an inactive family, and I noticed that in the case behind us was all 7 seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". I then went on to relate all 7 seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to all the prophets of this dispensation..."

REALLY!? I consider this dumb blind luck, but I think that knowing that my iPhone 3G is slower than a 3GS because it fails to utilize a few parts of the digital spectrum that the 3GS uses, I fail to see that as important, yet I do know it.

Oh well.. So this is where the story is going, I decided to start using RSS feeds for getting information. For those who do not know RSS stands for Really Simple Syndicate, it allows me to have a bunch of articles placed in a box for my viewing on my phone or even my browser, almost like getting emailed the top stories from the day as they happen. In doing this I hope that I will be able to slim down the information that I am taking in and just read articles that are actually important.

Also I have found some interesting things over the last few days as a close friend of mine prepares to get married. Last evening we discovered "synthetic diamonds". I was always under the impression that synthetic diamonds were cubic zirconium, which isn't true. There is a newer technology in the market today. Companies have created technology that will create diamonds with extreme heat and pressure in a diamond oven, and then will cut them and sell them as "synthetic diamonds". Maybe its the business man in me but I really like this idea. Better quality, no monopoly of the trade and less abuse of the labor force in the diamond mines. However, I would love to hear everyone's opinion about it... We are talking about a 2 carat diamond for about 200 bucks...

Or you could even rival Kim Kardashian
http://www.theinsider.com/news/557516_Kim_Kardashian_shows_off_her_engagement_ring
Her 7 Carat ring reportedly cost somewhere of about 20 million...
Synthetic Price: 729 Dollars...

The interesting thing is, they are identical to the diamonds mined around the world, a jeweler could never tell the difference if it wasn't for a laser inscription marked by diamond companies. I really don't see the point... Maybe you do... Let us hear it!

Take care!
PS: 20 Mil @ 2% per year is $400,000 dollars (2% per year is the average rate on a 1 year CD)
20 Mil @ 3.35% Per year is $670,000 (5 year CD)

Obviously there are better ways to invest, but a 20 Mil trust would be cooler but eh, its Reggie Bush what more could you ask?

Idaho? I think not..

Well, I figure this would be an effortless way of mass communication. I made the blog to kind of do stuff with the YSA Conference, and that never really materialized. Upwards and onwards anyway, for those of you who do not know Idaho has been AMAZING to say the least. I have been able to visit Yellowstone. I went to General Conference for the first time in my life. Believe it or not, I have somewhat of a date tonight as well. Classes are going well, I have made friends with one person here in particular, my roommate, his name is Daniel Evanko he hails from the fine state of Oregon and is quite a character.

It is not often that I meet people who have a deep understanding of social interaction, Daniel has this and its quite fun to talk back and forth about some of the decisions we make in everyday life. So that’s a bright spot, made a new friend, always a good thing. ;-)

My family apparently is doing pretty well, they are taking care of themselves, and it is my mom’s birthday tomorrow! As for my ward family, I was reading Cheri’s blog about Emma crying things out, and I had the same discussion with a “Covalent” roommate of mine, he’s covalent because he doesn’t live with us but he spends time over here like he does… anyway, he was having the same problem with his girlfriend. He was asking me if it was normal for girls to cry for just no apparent reason not because of something he did but all together just because… I’m proud to say I gave the same response as Spencer, “Duh!”…

In other good news, my first ancestor was baptized yesterday. I was blessed enough to have a close friend of mine do the work for me. I wrote a little bit of a life story of my Great Grand Mother, and told her about what she was like and her personality and such. It really made a difference we felt. So many times we do temple work and people are nothing more than a name. However in reality, they were people who lived just like us, they had lives, they had children, likes, dislikes and personality quirks. I was able to share some small details about how she lived, her personality and just many things about her love for Heavenly Father. I can remember visiting her as a young child, the last time I saw her in fact. While she was in the hospital, we left the room and as we were leaving we could hear her thanking the Lord for having been blessed with a family such as us that cared enough to visit her in her time of need. I am so grateful for the blessings of the temple, to be with the family that loves me so. I know that my family is awaiting the family history work that I am doing right now.

Anyway, I’m off to live it up, I hope you all are as well take care.

Getting started

So welcome to my blog, I can't promise much. I started this thing to start getting myself out there on the Internet. I currently am rocking Myspace, Facebook, Twitter accounts and so I figured I would slide in to home with my fourth Internet guilty pleasure and start my own blog.

I guess I'll start off with my expertise, I was watching the TV this morning while I was at the gym and saw some information about the economy "recovering. I am quite excited to hear good news from the TV about the "recession" I am glad that newscasters have decided that people are tired of hearing that the economy is crashing and now people will tune in more if they say that the economy is doing much better. What I am really waiting for is for someone to chalk this up to our lord and savior, of course I am speaking of the one and only Barrack Obama. Either way I'm happy to see green in my portfolio again ;-) (thanks HUN). While I am talking about Huntsman, Jim Cramer is a blubbering idiot, that is all.

I am so excited to start off on my summer this year. I will have a lot of work on my plate. I just want to start by plugging the CaliforniaYSA Twitter and Facebook groups and also their website. So here follows the shameless plug.

Website: http://www.californiaysa.org/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/californiaYSA
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/California-USA/California-YSA/181164785544

Please join and follow respectively.

Also if you are a YSA sign up for conference! I can't even begin to explain how much fun we will have!

This will be such an exciting time for everyone, I am really reminded of last years efforts in the battle for Proposition 8. This in my opinion will be a great opportunity for people to start working together. This will give us all a chance to lift where we stand as President Ucthdorf asked us to do in General Conference last fall.

Thank you all for reading! Have a wonderful afternoon!