So, some of you may have seen these already (meaning family and those who might have to travel to Utah), but I want to share with everyone our pretty nifty Save the Date postcards!

We went back and forth on how we wanted to do these, and then Hayley came across some really great postcards online that sparked this idea.  We found that you can get a do-it-yourself stamp at most any office supply store, and we thought that would be a really fun look for these.

After picking everything up, we painstakingly put all the minuscule letters onto the stamp and got to work!  Here’s the final result:

In reality, there was another batch that were prepared first…  For those who aren’t aware, the wedding was originally going to happen in Houston, but in order to accomodate family (especially those who have difficulty traveling) we decided it would be best to move our plans to Salt Lake City.

To the point, we initially stamped some Save the Dates for Houston, and I have to share them because they’re so stinking cool!

Isn’t that a super great postcard?! We probably should have tried to find more of them (since we’re still in Texas and sending love from here to y’all), but we found the Utah ones right after the location change and figured we wanted to emphasize the Utah-ness of the wedding for those who we had already talked with about it.  And I should probably mention that these Love from Texas cards are from a random gift shop at a hotel in Dallas – it may have been difficult to acquire more of them without a giant/special order.

All of that aside, we’re super happy with how fun our Save the Date postcards turned out.  We really had a fun time putting them all together, so hopefully you all really enjoy them as well!

And remember… SAVE THE DATE!

Well, I’ve been asked by quite a few people for details on the engagement (SURPRISE!), and I think writing a blog post about it is probably the most appropriate way to spread the word (since I don’t have everyone’s email address).  I feel bad enough that most people learned about this on Facebook…

First off, Hayley and I have been dating since her first weekend in Houston.  I met her at Institute on a Thursday night (plug for Institute!) and thought, “Wow, she’s pretty great!  Easy to talk to, easy on the eyes…  That’s a good start, right?”  I failed to get her number (because I’m lame) that night, but the next day I looked her up on Facebook and sent a quick message asking if she wanted to attend a friend’s graduation party (Alina is now Dr. Alina) and meet some other wardies.  Hayley accepted and found my whit somewhat fun, so she shared her number and we made plans.  Well, things were going too well, so I decided to be bold and expand the plans by inviting her to dinner before the party.  Needless to say, things went so well she broke up with her boyfriend back in Utah!  (Kidding – that was already happening, but it’s funny to me that there was a mini-overlap of maybe 48 hours from our first date to her actually finishing the breakup.)

Since that fateful eve, Hales and I have had a blast getting to know one another, going on trips to Austin, Utah, Dallas, The Happiest Place on Earth (Disneyland – shame on you if you didn’t know this), and throwing birthday parties for one another.  She has very naturally become my best friend, and I can honestly say that she makes me a better man through encouragement and the occasional chastisement.

So – the engagement!

We’ve been talking about getting married for a little while, so it was something we both knew would happen.  In fact, I picked out the diamond and ring about 3-4 weeks before actually proposing, then just waited for the jeweler to get everything squared away.  By the beginning of October I had a small box burning a hole in my pocket (figuratively – don’t worry about the pants in my room with the burn marks, that’s from something else) and wanted to just make it official.

Well, on October 15th I made plans w/ my friends Jason and Erin (and their baby girl) to double by getting some dinner and then heading to Miller Outdoor Theatrefor a recreation of the Pink Floyd album “Dark Side of the Moon”.  After picking up some food we headed to the park, got situated on some blankets, and began eating.  After a little while, Jason’s little one (she’s about 18 or so months old) was getting fidgety, so I told her to come grab some toys out of my camera bag.  She started digging through and found Gumby (thanks Gumby!), a slinky, and then this funny little mystery box.  When she lifted the box out I told her, “Uh oh!  That one is for Hayley! Do you want to go give it to her?”  She looked around, turned towards Hayley, and dropped the box at her feet.  (Yes, this was all kind of according to plan, though how much can you count on the acting abilities of an 18 mo/old?)  Hayley looked confused, Erin ended her phone call realizing what was happening, Jason smirked, Aliya ignored me, and I leaned over to whisper things in Hayley’s ear which left her blushing and excited.  I pulled out the ring, got a kiss, and then Erin caught this face with my camera:

Part of why this was fun for me was because I’ve been teasing Hayley that I would propose to her in front of a giant crowd, which I successfully accomplished since we were near the front of the lawn with a couple thousand people behind us.  They may not have known what was going on, but that’s probably for the best so Hayley wasn’t so embarrassed.  There was, however, a pet duck with the folks next to us that gave a celebratory *quack*.  (Yes, I may have imagined the *quack*, but the duck really was real and on a leash…)

We got a few more pictures of Hayley being excited and surprised (I had to apologize to her since she didn’t feel like she looked all that cute, but I always think she’s crazy when she says that).  Below is a decent shot of the ring – it’s the Tiffany Engagement ring (yellow gold band w/ a white gold crown).  The rock isn’t huge, but boy howdy does that thing sparkle!  (Note: SUCCESS!  Trust me gents, if you’re looking for rings, sparkle > size…  Multiple reasons: 1) carat size is biggest price booster.  2) lots of sparkle makes it look bigger anyway.  3) it’s honestly more noticeable.  4) non-sparkly huge rocks look like cz.)

After that, a few phone calls were made and I got a chance to play w/ my favorite neice.  She looooves the iPhone!

And yes, in case you were wondering, I was very happy.  It was kind of an odd moment…  You prep for that kind of thing for a long while and then it’s over… Done.  And then everything gets sappy and you have to just sit there and smile.  Haha!  Actually, it was a nice weight lifted off my shoulders – I was (and still am) a happy man.

This is either the official call to the ‘rents, or she might actually be talking with my Mom.  I let her do most of the announcing.

And as a thank you to my little helper, I made sure the youngin’ got a chance to call some people herself.  She used up the rest of my battery making phone calls, but since she helped me present the ring, I guess it’s only fair..  (BTW, isn’t she funny? She grabbed my phone, saw Hayley talking on hers, and decided to play along.  According to Erin this little lady loves her phones and Jason is going to struggle once she’s a teenager!)

As for plans going forward, we’re tentatively (95%) shooting for March 26th as the wedding date here in Houston, TX at the LDS Temple.  We’ll have a ring ceremony and a celebratory reception in the late afternoon/evening.  For all the Utahns out there, we’ll also be doing a reception near Ogden (possibly at Weber State’s Alumni center) a couple of weeks later.  For the Chicago folk, we will be doing an Open House at my parent’s place possibly the week after that (none of this is set in stone, btw).  The reason for an Open House instead of a Chicago reception is simply that I don’t know that many folks back home any longer – so many of you have moved across the country!!

So that’s my story!  We will have further adventures to share, I’m sure of it..  Just stick around and we’ll keep you posted!  There may even be a new blog a brewin’ that will chronicle all our happenings, with two authors (which hopefully means more posts)!

I previously posted my testimony on this blog a couple years ago.  Go here to read it.

Here is another testimony (on YouTube) that I think is really touching.  If you’re at all curious about the Book of Mormon and what I believe to be true, go check out this video.  It’s only 5 minutes, and maybe you’ll understand me a bit more!

No, I’m not making an LDS version of I am Legend (though I’m curious what that would even be… Any thoughts?), but I want to do a better at being a bit more vocal about who I am and what I believe. No worries, I’m not going to be doing any preaching to try and convert everyone I see, but there are plenty of people out there that have misconceptions about what I believe and so I guess I’m responding to that more than anything else.

What surprises me is that there is such animosity toward members of the LDS Church and that it is OK in the public sector to say whatever you want about us. I thought this article was particularly interesting (and yes, it’s written by someone who is LDS). I was shocked at the attacks people made on Mitt Romney throughout the Republican primaries, and I’m really sad to see him out of the race – he is by far the best republican candidate on paper. Honestly, he’s one of only a couple people I would feel comfortable voting for (McCain and Obama are NOT on that short list by the way).

I’m not trying to talk about politics, but rather my feeling that the United States is full of hypocrites. We love to pontificate about the importance of being open minded to homosexuality, different races, foreign religions, etc…; but the nation refuses to respect a group of over 6 million American people who live by their faith in what many scholars proclaim to be a truly American Religion. This doesn’t even seem like a stretch, to be perfectly honest – we’re talking about American people who live clean cut lives, that are general good members of the community, and that are some of the first to respond with humanitarian aid in an emergency. What’s the problem?

Well, people don’t like to be bugged by LDS missionaries, and some member of the LDS Church are pretty obnoxious when it comes to sharing their faith – but aren’t a lot of other religions like that as well? I’m OK with LDS missionary jokes on occasion, because I can see how that is obnoxious to some people, but what’s with the straight hatred?

OK, so you don’t agree with our beliefs, but who cares? Just because Mormons believe that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three distinct and separate beings that are one in purpose rather than one in physical form does not mean that we are less Christian than the next person. In fact, the LDS Church is only one of many Christian groups that believe in that same doctrine!

Again, I’m not trying to argue specific points of doctrine, rather I hope to point out how ridiculous the prejudice is when you consider that we are pretty much your prototypical Americans. Yeah, we do some things differently (e.g. we don’t drink alcohol or smoke), and we certainly are cheesy when it comes to family time, but does that make us ripe for ridicule in the public square? Does that make us un-American?

If we are so concerned about being an open and accepting society, why are most Americans playing the role of hypocrite when it comes to LDS folks? Going back to the election (and I’m totally stealing this from the article I referenced above), we have a black man, a woman, a baptist, and a Mormon that were all running in the primaries… Do we hear much criticism of the black man? Goodness no! Have I been called sexist for suggesting Hillary would be a bad chose because I disagree with her politics? Oh yeah! Do we make fun of the former baptist minister who says his religion defines him? No, no, no!

What about the Mormon? Well, he’s weird…

On this past Fourth of July I stood up and proclaimed myself to be proud to be an American – but that doesn’t mean I don’t think we have a lot of room for improvement.

So, I completely abandoned Pyxlin recently… I abandoned it because I was pointed towards LDSJournal.com, which I consider a better solution to my needs. Not only is it free, but I like how easy it is to use, without the obnoxious wait times and such that I experienced with Pyxlin’s site. Pyxlin was great, and I don’t regret the money I spent to get a year subscription (it was cheap, and I wrote daily), but that’s all a sunk cost now that I see something that meets my needs in a better way.

Few examples:

LDSJournal.com runs much faster because it doesn’t run on the silly platform that Pyxlin uses!

Pyxlin:

LDSJournal:

As you can see, posting on LDSJournal is very similar to posting on your blog. I don’t have to worry about the silly typesetting thing that gets really annoying.

You can also use Firefox spell checking (see above picture for red squigglies), which you could not do in Pyxlin… You were instead forced to use their retarded spell checker.

LDSJournal also allows for footnotes (images and such) as well as journal addendums that can be time stamped differently to show that you went back to old journal entries and had thoughts that you wanted to share. This could be really neat for reviewing your journal at the end of the month or end of the year. You could go in and explain how certain thoughts became really important to you as the month went on and how different experiences may have shaped what you decided your next steps in life to be.

I also don’t have to have silly chapters and things in my LDSJournal. Everything is associated with a date (see the calendar on both the image above and the one below that lets you know when you’ve made an entry), and when I decide to print something (the functionality for that is forthcoming, but I’m faithful since I’ve already seen development since I moved to their service) it will be set chronologically without hassle. Apparently they are also working on the “tag” feature I would really like, which would allow me to print a different journal just based on entries with spiritual experiences or confessions of love (cheesy!).

I also like that it tells me right at the bottom what my most recent journal entries are and the dates associated with them. This just makes it a little easier for me to keep track of my progress with an actual idea of what I wrote about based on the entry title.

Anyway, this is my new recommendation! Certainly check it out (it’s FREE). I encourage everyone to keep a journal for a bunch of reasons:

1. It helps you process what you did during the day
2. It is great for thinking through whatever you are experiencing in life
3. I often have my “A HA!” moments as I’m writing in my journal, and those really help shape my life
4. It’s sort of recommended by the Prophets and Apostles…

A friend of mine, Chris Haleua,  put up a website/blog at http://www.bookofmormontruth.com/, and I thought I would contribute by sharing my feelings on the Book of Mormon…  I’ve copied below what I sent to him to post on his new page.  As a side note, I think it’s important to put good information out there when you see a lot of falsehoods taking up the bandwidth – this goes for anything religious, social, whatever!  Use the internet for sharing good rather than for spewing hate…  That’s my goal!

I guess I should start by saying that I didn’t always believe the Book of Mormon to be true…  My Father is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) and my Mother is a Presbyterian.  I grew up going to church with my Dad, but I spent a fair amount of time once I really began thinking about my faith wondering whether or not any of the stuff I was being told was true.  It’s a little fantastic to think, isn’t it?  A boy named Joseph Smith seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ, then being instructed some years later to translate a story of people here in the Americas and their religious experiences…  You have to admit, it’s kind of hard at first glance to believe that a story like that could be true.

My testimony is that it IS true.  When I was in high school I decided that it was time for me to figure out whether or not this book really was what everyone told me it was.  I grew up in the Chicago-land area, so I had my church friends telling me it was true and my school friends telling me it was written by Satan.  The only way I could think of to prove it one way or another was to read it and to pray about it-trusting that God would never lead me astray if I were to pray in full faith, asking for enlightenment.  (Remember John 11:22 – “But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.”)

When I read the Book of Mormon, I felt a great peace and sense of faith come over me.  Knowing my Bible pretty decently, I thought of the scripture Galatians 5:22-23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”  At that point I knew something was right.

After reading I would pray and ask if the book and its words are true, and I would always feel at peace, filled with love, and with a desire to continue reading more.  After consistently feeling that way for an extended period of time, I knew I was doing something right.  I continued in the Book of Mormon until I had completed it.  In the final chapter, the prophet Moroni promises the following (Moroni 10:3-5):

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

I had been praying all along, but at this point I knelt down and asked one more time if the Book of Mormon is true, and I can testify that it is!

The Book of Mormon has been a strength to me throughout my life.  At times I struggle with the complexities of life, and I realized a long time ago that the teachings in Ecclesiastes are true, and that a life filled with good things is still empty and futile if it is without God.  When I read in the Book of Mormon (and the Bible for that matter), I feel the Spirit of God in my life and I can make it through the hardest trials and feel the greatest joys when things seem to be going my way.  One of my favorite Book of Mormon scriptures is found in Helaman chapter 5, when the prophet Helaman spoke to his sons, saying in verse 12:

“And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”

As an LDS Missionary I saw the Book of Mormon change people’s lives.  These weren’t simply non-believers that finally found Christ, but devout Catholics, Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses that began reading the Book of Mormon and discovering the truth of it for themselves.  The teachings in the Book of Mormon drive us to become better disciples of Jesus Christ, and that was the challenge that each of these converts took upon themselves.

I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and it has changed my life and made me a better man.  Alongside the Bible, the Book of Mormon helps us understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ more clearly.  If you’re curious for yourself, take the time to validate the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon for yourself! 

As always, communication on anything I write about it appreciated and welcome.  Just post a comment, and if you ask a question I will respond.

So, I’ve been putting this off all week… I suppose I’ve been putting it off because I’m not entirely sure what to say or how to say it, but the honest to goodness truth is that I need to say something.

We’ve all had teachers in our lives that have made a profound impact for one reason or another… I have had several, I suppose, but the one that has had the greatest impact would be Gordon B. Hinckley. Gordon B. Hinckley was the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a Prophet of the Savior Jesus Christ. This past Sunday evening he died at the age of 97, ending a long life of compassion and service.

President Hinckley led the LDS Church through the majority of my life, and I have had countless opportunities to hear his counsel on how to live a more Christ-like life. There was always a challenge to be more charitable, loving, accepting, and faithful. His testimony of Jesus Christ was witness to the Savior’s divine nature and mission.

“Believe in Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Redeemer, the Son of God, who came to earth and walked the dusty roads of Palestine-the Son of God-to teach us the way of truth and light and salvation, and who, in one great and glorious act offered an atonement for each of us. He opened the way of salvation and exaltation for each of us, under which we may go forward in the Church and kingdom of God. Be not faithless, but believe in the great and wonderful and marvelous blessings of the Atonement.”

( “Selections from Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley,” Ensign, Mar. 2001, 64.)

He testified not only of Jesus Christ, but of the restoration of Christ’s Church through Joseph Smith (to clarify: Joseph Smith is not considered a Mormon God, nor is he more important to us than Jesus Christ – we simply honor and respect him much like the Jews honor and respect Moses). President Hinckley’s testimony was simply that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Church of God, restored on the earth with the proper Priesthood authority that was held by the Apostles of old. He testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, scripture written by “other sheep” on the American continent who also saw and testified of Jesus Christ.

To me, President Hinckley was a role model and teacher. He has taught me to be a better son, brother, and future husband and father. On numerous occasions he has taught me the importance of treating everyone as a Child of God, because that’s who we truly are. He challenged me to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it – and because of that I gained a personal testimony of Jesus Christ, served a two year LDS Mission and changed my life. He gave me a greater perspective of my potential, and I can only hope to live up to it.

I’m not going to lie, I feel terribly inadequate writing something about someone who has been a strength to so many people. I am not terribly articulate, but I can certainly confess that I love President Hinckley and I know he is a Prophet of God. People will argue and dispute that, but I am personally satisfied that it is the Truth.

I place my thoughts alongside those of millions of others who have been touched by the life of a great man. I thank thee, O God, for the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley…

The great thing about the CP80 initiative is that it is about choice. It isn’t an argument that pornography should be made illegal in all forms or that laws should define that only adults may access it, but it is about giving a family or organization (I don’t want to leave business situations out of this) the choice of whether or not they want to allow pornographic content to come across their wires.

For those who are unaware, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and during the Priesthood session of the October 2006 General Conference, President Hinckley asked all the men of the Church (I’m assuming much of what he said applies to women as well) to “Rise Up, O Men of God”. During that talk he read a letter that was written to him by a brother who was (or at least I’m hoping I can use the past tense) heavily addicted to pornography. In the letter, the brother pleads, “…please plead with the brethren of the Church not only to avoid but eliminate the sources of pornographic material in their lives.” President Hinckley later tells us “…there must be self-discipline enough to turn it off.” Yes, I believe he was using the pronoun it to refer to the computer itself, but if it were possible, I think he would prefer we turn the pornographic material itself off.

The Family Movie Act is a great example of a way in which the US Government has given the family a say on what they can do to control media entering their home. The Family Movie Act is not about forcing rated R movies out of the house, or about forcing the movie industry to censor their products, but it gives families a choice about the kinds of media they watch. The CP80 solution to internet pornography is basically to require website to “rate” themselves just like movies are forced to be rated from G to PG to PG-13 to R, etc… Once a website is “rated” by switching to a different port, families can now decide whether or not they want that kind of media entering their homes.

There is no limit to freedom of speech, since those who want to access pornography will be able to, and it will not make it any harder for people to get to their website (the URL isn’t going to change, they’ll probably just be forced to have a landing page – something many digital certificate companies require for certification anyway [my roommate works at DigiCert]). Oh, and as for enforcement? I’m sure the government is OK with fining people like crazy if they violate; when do they not like collecting a lot of cash, they just need to make the fine hefty enough.

Just because it’s hard or seems like a large task doesn’t mean we should just give up. I don’t look to take away the right that others have to indulge in whatever they would like to indulge in, but I would very much like the ability to keep destructive materials out of my home. I have seen too many families, marriages, and lives destroyed over pornography to the point that I barely trust myself enough to say that I will never give in to it. Think about how much time you spend on your computer everyday! Think of how many idle hours some of you have spent just floating from one site to another online! What’s to say that Satan won’t hit you someday with a temptation strong enough to steer you or a loved one to something you would never partake of under normal circumstances. We will all face temptation, but I think it is wise counsel to eliminate as many situations and opportunities as possible when it comes to serious transgression.

Those of our generation can make a difference because we actually understand the technology behind the magic that is the internet.If we can’t stand as disciples of Jesus Christ on something like this, when will we stand on his side? I don’t know what legislation will pass, I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I think true discipleship asks us to stand up in situations like this. We wanted the ability to choose before we came to earth, shouldn’t we continue to fight for it now that we’re here?