This morning, woke up nice and early so I could get to campus and start studying. I walk outside of my apartment building and there it was! My dream come true!  A huge hot air balloon was blown up and still ready to launch, just waiting for me to get on for the ride! Ok, not really. They were waiting for it to have enough hot air to get off the ground, but it was way sweet. Now I am on campus, in the work office because the HLRC is not open yet and I feel like I should be doing some kind of work because I am in my office. But I'm not going to ;)

So school has been great. Really tough, but I am enjoying it. It has gone by really fast. I have some really great friends in my Arabic class. We often study a bit extra to try to understand this language. It sure is tough, but I think it is coming along. Insha'allah. We're tough. Like these guys...



Not quite Arabic but you get the point. Maybe during the summer I will make an Arabic version of it.

I have been reading the Joseph Smith Papers Vol. 1 (it was my birthday present, thank you family!) and I absolutely love it. I haven't had a book that has kept me up late for a long time. I probably shouldn't do that but it's the only time I have and I want to read it more than anything else. It's great to read because it is putting the sparks back into my great love and appreciation for the prophet Joseph Smith. This book which covers much of his journals has helped me better understand who he is, what he did and why he did it. He truly was a prophet of God, he did see God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. And he really loves his fellowmen. That is the biggest thing I am learning through this book about Joseph is that he truly loves his brothers and sisters and gave so much to help them. In my D&C class, I often know the random facts that our teacher asks about things like when was the quorum of the twelve apostles organized. I stated February 14th 1835. He asked how did I know so many things like that. I said, "I read church history books for fun." It's true. I love it.

Last night, I was trying to study but I just couldn't. I have felt very uneasy the last couple of days and can't explain why because I have no clue why. So I couldn't study, I could have easily wasted time doing other things like facebook or reading a book but it wouldn't have done any good. And then I got a phone call from one my best friends Spencer Fields. Spencer and I have been friends almost my whole time here on campus. He's been an RA in my ward, RA's together in the same ward and have done many things together. He was just recently married to a wonderful girl named Kim. Spencer is now a hall advisor in the dorms. He called to invite me over for dinner. It was perfect. We ate a home cooked meal (haven't had one of those in over a month) and then we watched "Cheaper by the Dozen."
I don't know what happened, but near the end there when the son runs away and they find him, I freaking started to cry! What the heck?! I've seen this movie a good handful of times and never cried! Why then? I don't know. Except maybe I've been thinking a lot more of my own family and how much I am grateful for them. Maybe because I have been thinking of my own future family and what it'd be like, desires, and wishes. Definitely want to do it right. And definitely want to have it. Just got to convince a girl to take a chance on me.

Anyways, this post was mostly for my own sake. If it made sense, great. If not, sorry about that.

Islam: My View Point for September 11th

Lately, as 9/11 comes close I have seen much in the media (via Internet and TV) that there is much opposition to a monotheistic religion called Islam. I am not yet an expert on this matter but I want to express my outright disgust of the hatred towards Islam that is coming from so many people. It is the feelings I had while in Nauvoo and hearing anti-Mormons talking so negatively about Joseph Smith. The complete ignorance of what they were saying left me in awe with how stubborn we can be. How stubborn and ignorant are we towards our brothers and sisters of the Muslim faith? Let's just say there are some that are exceedingly ignorant. But I should precede it that my testimony of the Book of Mormon, prophets in latter-days, and the power of the priesthood is in fact very strong and deep within my soul. My apologetic feelings towards Islam or any other religion and culture does not weaken my testimony, it builds it. 

For Pastor Terry Jones of  Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla. it not a question of understanding but rather a christian duty (yes, a little c) to destroy sacred writings of a religion that consumes over 1.5 billion people of this world. Why? Because "Islam" is the one that attacked the country on 9/11/2001 and is built upon falsehoods, a false prophet and a culture that seems to be too aggressive for him. I have seen other obscene pictures depicting the fanatic Muslims saying death to America. My understanding is this, that there is in fact insane Muslims that attack our country. But this let me tell you that this is a small minority. Imagine that even 1% of any group or society was just nuts, completely and totally nuts, they loved to do exactly what each person of that group would want to never do for sake of doing what is right. Is that 1% enough to ruin the reputation for the group? Sure, it can be for everyone, or in some cases like Islam it is mixed. In the LDS faith, what about the Fundamental LDS church? The one with polygamy communities in Texas. During my mission, I had so many people think we were "that mormon church in Texas, with kids being hauled off because of the polygamous fathers." That certainly was not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that I preached so fervently for. In fact, they are not even part of the church at all! Could these terrorists or antagonists not be considered Muslim to the rest of the Muslim world? 

From an Latter-day Saint perspective, those of you that belong to my faith, do you not remember the drastic persecution while the saints were in Kirkland? Liberty? Far West? Nauvoo? Did they not destroy our printing shops that were distributing the Book of Commandments? Now known as the Doctrine and Covenants. Did they not murder and rape women and children? Did our own beloved prophet Joseph Smith not seal his blood and testimony by the balls from gunshots of martyrs? Was there not false accusations made of the religious teachings and social practices? These false accusations led to many imprisonments of the church leaders, is that fair? Are any of these actions just? Alright, my point is, whomever wants to distribute anything negatively of the Islamic faith, stop. It is only being part of the mob that persecuted the early saints. When does the church grow the most? When there is opposition to the church. 

"But this church is true and their religion is not." My response is, SO WHAT?! Yes, their early history and the spread of Islam seems a little sketchy, but can I tell you how far away we are from the real truth of the spread of Islam as Americans and even Mormons to understanding what it is really about? I know there are books out there that strongly oppose the Islamic religion, calling them blood thirsty, 'convert or the sword' type of people or simply to dominate the world. Aren't we as Latter-day Saints trying to spread our faith to all the world? Do not our own scriptures say this? 

D&C: 68: 8  Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, acting in the authority which I have given you, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(see also Matt. 24: 14, D&C 134: 12, Moses 5: 59, Morm. 9: 22)

They were doing what was fit for the time and place that they lived in. And still do today, in fact, they are the fastest growing religion in the world, all converts that I have met were never forced to join, it was an act of their own free will. 

I have two professors that recently have returned from, one being a mission president in Italy and the other teaching in the Jerusalem Center for a few years. Both of which are amazing men in the gospel of the LDS faith. Dr. Toronto, the professor that taught in Jerusalem and recently returned as a mission president, mentioned that as he would help teach Mormon tours to the holy lands he would receive many comments during and afterwards through emails about how wrong he was to preach positively of Islam and the prophet Muhammad. His response then to us as a class and to those individuals was, "I taught the truth and some weren't ready for it."  


My personal opinion, Islam was and is inspired by God because of the good that is in it. I recall of kindness and thoughtfulness was when I was helping my friend Mohammad Al-Nasser from Jordan buy a car while he was at BYU studying Law. As we were driving back after seeing a few cars to buy, he made the comment that he wanted "a car that is safe and reliable for his family." His family were in Provo at the time, he had and a wife two little children. It sounded exactly like something my Dad would say. It taught me a big lesson, first to take care of your family (I'm going to have a very safe care for my kids) but I think most importantly that they have the same love and concerns as we do. 

Alright, I'm done. I spent way too much time writing this when I should have been studying Arabic or for my Humanities of Islam class. I hope this helped and I apologize to be so brief on many principles I am trying to express. I simply did not have the time to really do this but wanted to voice my opinion against the hatred of our Muslim brothers and sisters. If only we could realize and remember that they are our brothers and sisters. God knows what He is doing. I have a testimony of that. 

God bless America! May we all be righteous and God fearing men. 9/11 will not be forgotten in my heart. 

Lessons Learned After the First Week of School Fall 2010

Oh how awesome school has been. I can't forget how amazing it is to be going to Brigham Young University and be in the apartment I am in.

So I thought I'd update just by sharing some secrets/lessons I've learned this last week:

1. Do not fall behind in your homework with classes, especially Arabic. And I haven't! It feels so great to be able to do all that I need to and know what people are talking about in each of my classes.

2. Clean your bathroom about 10 times. It smelled when we first got here and then we cleaned it again and again until I finally zapped it with Clorox bleach and now it just smells like bleach. I guess that is good enough.

3. Don't worry when your ipod touch stops working, it'll work again later. I don't know why it does this but it works eventually.

4. Practice your music constantly, because you are not good if you don't. That's no good.

5. DO NOT ask a random girl out for a date that was supposed to be a group date and then not be. It's really awkward because she probably just said yes to be nice and you can't do anything about it once you're there. But it still can be fun.

6. If the girl doesn't look back at you after she notices you look at her, she's probably not interested.

7. Teach a girl how to make smiley faces on the computer.

8. When your roommate tries to bleach his hair when his hair is red, it probably won't really bleach out.

9. When a really big football game is on, make sure you have the channel that it is on to watch it before you invite people over...

10. Remember that it is okay to take a nap when you are feeling really sick.

11. Don't finish the TV show 24 without your roommate.

12. When your laptop needs to be completely reinstalled, plan for a good day and a half of updates installing into your computer.

13. Don't forget to sign up for your Internet based class so you can take the quiz in time and have the right downloads.

14. Be friends first! I don't care if she is really pretty or excellent, be friends first so you don't freak her out.

15. And when you are trying to be friends, don't freak her out then either!

16. Auditioning for the Folk Dance team and making it and then later finding out you can't do it kind of bites.

Ok, that's probably it for now. Off to do Arabic while at home.

Shukran Gaziland! Ana buhub intu. Maasalaama!