Hero Week: Part III: Henry B. Eyring

Henry B. Eyring. Growing up in the same ward as President Eyring, I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary around him. He was kind and friendly, but I never really interacted with him. It all started when I was interested in my dad's audio tape collection of church talks. As a young boy of ten, I asked my father which talks he would recommend, and he let me take a few upstairs to listen to. I remember distinctly, sitting at my desk in the southwest corner of the upstairs. I had taken out paper to take notes, realizing I was making my Heavenly Father happy in learning about his gospel through his servants. When I picked up the pen after starting the audio tape, the pen went back on the table, and all I could do was listen in awe of hearing what I wanted to become.

That's when everything changed. When I heard other General Authorities speak, I felt the truthfulness of their words, but I never connected with anyone like President Eyring. It was a talk given at BYU called "Come Unto Christ". The talk starts out this way:

You have moments when you want to be better than you have ever been. Those feelings may be triggered by seeing a person or a family living in a way that lifts your heart with a yearning to live that way, too. The longing to be better may come from reading the words of a book or even from hearing a few bars of music. For me, it has come in all those ways, and more.

I had never listened to anyone who could convey the feelings of my heart. I had grown up in a family with parents I felt were perfect, and wanted to have the same drive, the same ability to sacrifice self and give more than I had. As the talk continued, I could feel the same desire he had, when his voice slightly cracked, from love and remembrance of how he felt when reading the same. From the tenth chapter of Moroni:

O, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot. [Moroni 10:32­-33]

That urge to rise above yourself is a recognition of your need for the Atonement to work in your life, and your need to be sure that it is working. After all you can do, after all your effort, you need confidence that the Atonement is working for you and on you.

I knew that day that I would ever be linked to this talk. Despite my failures and shortcomings, even to the obsession of perfectionism, I knew if I kept trying, the Lord would make changes in me. President Eyring then listed goals, not directly for us, but as a witness of how someone knew they were doing what was right.

This talk brought me to listen to more talks, whatever I could get my hands on, to listen how he obviously had accomplished the goals I was just starting. I learned to love the process of asking "how can I know" and "how will I feel". I thank him for always being willing to share how we can become like Christ, not just learn about Him.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Double the Cuteness

Well there are many things about having twins that are hard. But there is something extra cute about having two babies together and how they interact with eachother. Feeding times are especially cute. We try to have them always eat at the same time, whether it's nursing or baby food. I nurse them at the same time. I often feel like one of those mama pigs that just lays there (I sit though) and the little piglets gather around and find their spot. Maybe this is because my babies snort when they get worked up. Anyways, lately they hold hands while they're nursing. It's so sweet! I'd take a picture but, you know, not really appropriate. They are also very cute when we feed them baby food. For some reason I have no problem letting them share binkies and bottles, but when I feed them solids they have to have separate spoons. They look so cute sitting in their bumbos next to each other. As I've mentioned before, Tanner seems to be willing to eat at all times. So if he's laying next to Natalie and her hand or head gets near his mouth, he will try his hardest to eat her. She never seems to mind. One of these pictures looks like he's giving her a kiss, but he's just trying to latch on.

Hero Week: Part II: Paul and Mo

Paul and Mo. I'll never met a couple like Paul and Mo. Things that are hard, things that are complicated, are made to look easy. I remember the first time I met Paul and Mo, Lisa's parents, over five years ago. Mo was kind and fun, with a very warm and welcoming personality. Paul, with his quick wit and fun humor, quickly became someone I respected for his abilities to make rough times seem easy, because "[enter your issue] is nothing compared to [something horrible], so we can handle it", followed by a chuckle. Paul and Mo make doing the right thing (and rightly so) fun and exciting. I saw so much of Lisa in both of her parents, that I knew it was going to be a great relationship.

From the wedding plans to Sunday dinners, the early years of being married to Lisa went very smooth, as Paul and Mo were always there, not just to be helpful, but to be involved in the fun and work involving our young family. I remember the days them helping us move through our year of apartment-hopping trying to get away from the smoke smell at Carrington to the cruise around Mexico. It's great to be around such examples of the hard working and service-oriented people they are, as it just exudes confidence in their capabilities and your own hopes to be like them. Paul's knowledge of the scriptures and humble attitude complimented by Mo's amazing capability to take on and handle gracefully much more than I could ever imagine. Paul has frequently come over to help teach me how to do electrical/lighting, help with software development, etc.

But hero week is not just about great people helping out. Sydney's favorite two people (outside Lisa and I, and even then, sometimes) are "gramma and papa". I can't count the number of times they've taken Sydney to the park or the pool, on a walk, to get ice cream, to treat her as such an integral part of their lives. Now, with the recent addition of the twins, they just love taking one of the kids and giving them one-on-one special time. They have taken us into their home (literally), from recent weeks of Lisa's ACL surgery, to helping with the twins, Sydney for sleepovers, the list just goes on. Every time I feel we've pushed too far, that we've asked too much (or they just call and ask if they can come take her for the day), they step up and ask what more they can do to help.

It's not as though Paul (in the Stake Presidency and owner of Ruben Engineering) and Mo (Young Women's president), aren't very busy people. The phone is frequently ringing of people they've offered to help, or those who know they'll do anything they can, from neighbors and ward members...just anyone. They've blessed our home and family immensely. What examples!

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Hero Week: Part I: Frank and Jenny

I am notorious for thinking about how grateful am I for people and the things they do, a ways after they've been so helpful. You would imagine that after so many people have done so many things, I would become more grateful and more service-oriented myself. So today starts the beginning of Hero Week: the week where each day I'll pick people who have made a momentous change in my life and the lives of my family. My fear for having to leave people who have done a lot out is overwhelmed by my gratitude for the extent to which these individuals have gone further. Without further adu:

Frank and Jenny. Frank is my third oldest brother and self-proclaimed most handsome, strongest, etc. brother. There are several things I distinctly remember from my childhood, in between times I've lost a lot of my memories due to "rough times" and trying to forget, that I'm grateful to Frank for. Frank loves basketball, and loved to play more back when the knees weren't such a pain, literally. I remember several times when I was < 10, I would spend hours each day shooting hoops in front of our house. When Frank's friends would come over to play ball, or go over to the church and play, he frequently would invite me (not just let me) play. I thought it was because I was so good. The things you learn later in life.

When Frank came home from his mission to have work done on his knee(and return shortly thereafter), we stsyed in the same room for about a month. I remember it wasn't a painful thing for him (staying in the same room, not knee surgery). He'd have me push hard on his leg, and tease me about how hard I *wasn't* pushing, and spending time with me a lot.

When he was married and was living in Cedar City, and I was having self-esteem issues, Frank and Jenny invited me down for a week during summer break. I remember crying on their couch, with them patiently listening to what I was struggling with, and trying to help. I remember a few walks at night around Cedar City where we'd talk about anything on my mind, and how great I felt having such great friends.

When I lived with Frank and Jenny while mom and dad were on their mission, I remember many times of stuffed pork chops, watching Toy Story 2 so many times with James and Ben, going out to Jenny's parents for dinner on Sundays.

Since I've been married, Frank and Jenny have always brought meals when we needed help (baby births, Lisa's knee surgery, etc). I remember spending a night automating my sprinkling system, putting the big swing together, and many other times where Frank would bring the kids to help Jenny have a break and to teach the kids about service and helping others. After the twins were born, Jenny brought all four kids out to help us around the house, bring lunch, and play Wii, while Jenny and the boys took turns holding the kids.

This is a relationship I never want to lose. Calls to just chat, see how things are going, discuss the slow demise of the Atlanta Braves, just whatever.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

No RSS today

Obviously I have no sense of time, as it's 12:42AM, and I just finished doing a collage I didn't need to. If you view this over RSS, open up my main page and you'll see it up top. 7 Moore has a new image!

Explaining Why

We have been trying to teach our 3-year-old Sydney what the word "why" means. When we ask her "Why didn't you go potty in the potty seat?" or "Why did you fill up the toilet with baby wipes?" She just gives us this blank stare. Sometimes she answers the question like we're asking her where she did things. We've tried to get her to fill in the blank -- "I did this because..." I guess this is one of those things that they just have to catch on to naturally. Defining the word why just doesn't work too well. I don't even know how to do it without using bigger words that she also doesn't know. I'm sure once she figures it out she'll be asking me why all day long. I'd like to learn her reasoning on some of the random things she does though.

Candidate match game

In my RSS feeds, I include the politics/election content from USA Today and the Washington Post. Today, as part of the USA Today content, there is a "Candidate Match Game", where you answer 11 questions from Iraq to health care, and see who you match best with. Oddly enough, my top three are:

1. Mitt Romney (follow his blog - my choice)

2. Duncan Hunter (who?)

3. Mike Huckabee

Click here to play