Goodnight iPad

As the Second Counselor in my Ward's Relief Society, I have the opportunity to teach a lesson about every three months in our Sunday meeting.  Yesterday was my turn again and I chose to discuss a talk given by Elder David A. Bednar from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles titled "Things as They Really Are".  He gave the talk about two years ago and talked about the importance of our physical bodies and how Satan tempts us to minimize the importance of our bodies by the influences of technology.  We all use technology on a daily basis and often for good and meaningful purposes, but there is a fine line which we often drift over and soon find that we have wasted two hours on Facebook or twitter or other social media sites or cyberspace realities.  

Elder Bednar warns against the dangers of becoming too consumed in these things and not taking advantage of our physical bodies which allow us to be involved in numberless activities.  Instead, we seem to live vicariously through others as we "follow" them online.  He said, "If the adversary cannot entice us to misuse our physical bodies, then one of his most potent tactics is to beguile you and me as embodied spirits to disconnect gradually and physically from things as they really are…Please be careful of becoming so immersed and engrossed in pixels, texting, ear buds, twittering, online social networking, and potentially addictive uses of media and the Internet that you fail to recognize the importance of your physical body and miss the richness of person-to person communication." 

I have also felt concerned about this for some time, especially when I think about my future children and how it might affect them.  I don't want our family to be consumed with TV, video games, social media, or anything else of that sort. My mom even sent me THE CUTEST BOOK that really shows how much life and technology have changed since even I was a child:

Please tell me you remember Goodnight Moon!

Well, the lesson yesterday went really well.  There were lots of comments and discussion and even though I was the one teaching, I learned a lot from the other women. This morning when I was running with Tilly, we talked about the lesson some more and other thoughts we had.  I came home feeling like it wasn't enough for me to just give a lesson, but that I need to change some of my own habits and really put into practice what I was teaching the other women.  

So, I have decided to challenge myself to make some changes. For the next two weeks I am going to limit myself to 30 minutes a day of non-school-related screen time and one movie a week.  Screen time includes TV, movies, internet of any kind, Phil's iPhone (I don't have my own iPhone, but I play games on his sometimes), etc. I threw in the one movie a week because Phil and I like to watch movies or TV shows together, but we probably watch more than we need to, so this will be a good limit for us. I am really excited to do this.  I think it will help me to balance my time a lot better and to use my screen time for the best or most important things (like checking email, paying bills, blogging) rather than the "I'll-look-at-this-website-because-I'm-bored" things.

I've also made a list of things I can do instead of screen time:

Read

Sew/Crafts

Cook

Study/Homework

Listen to or read General Conference talks

Relief Society projects

Call friends or family 

Go for a walk

Listen to music

Clean

I will blog (in 30 minutes or less) my progress over the next two weeks and see how I feel. I am excited to see what difference it makes in my life!

We're Moving!

Finally, I can announce it!  Phil and I are moving to Arizona! We've known for a while now, but have just been telling people on a kind of "need-to-know" basis.  We aren't moving until the beginning of August and I guess we felt like we didn't want people to write us off too quickly.  Anyway, we've told enough people now (including Phil's boss) so its not really a secret anymore and I wanted to blog about it.  I'm obviously excited, for lots of reasons.

One:  We are moving because Phil has been accepted to Thunderbird School of Global Management.  Its a private school in Glendale (just west of Phoenix) and is ranked #1 in the world for MBA's in International Business!  Its a great opportunity for Phil and I am just so happy for him!

Two:  I like to go places.  Ever since I graduated high school I have moved about every 18 months if not more.  I first left New Mexico to go to Ephraim, Utah and attend Snow College.  Then, I graduated Snow a semester early (its just a two year school, and I finished in 3 semesters) and went off to St. Petersburg, Russia to teach English.  After 5 months in Russia I moved back to Utah, but this time to Bountiful with my grandparents.  After about 9 months in Bountiful I left for Madrid, Spain on my mission of (you got it) 18 months.  Now I am back in Utah, but this time in Salt Lake City.  We have now been here for about 15 months, so I'm sure you can imagine that I am feeling an itch to move again.  I don't think I will always want to move around, but while we are young and yet to own a home, I love it.

Three:  The weather!  I LOVE the sun.  Having grown up in New Mexico, I always had the sun on my face, even in the winter.  I miss it when it's cloudy for too many days in a row.  Honestly, I think I may have seasonal depression because I thought I was going to die in St. Petersburg when it was so dark and gloomy and the sun didn't come out until May.  Salt Lake is OK in the summer, but it gets pretty cloudy and snowy and cold in the winter, plus there is a terrible inversion from living in the valley and I miss my sunshine. I know it gets to be like 120 degrees in the summer in Phoenix, but I would so much rather be hot than cold.  I'm so excited.

It will of course be very hard to leave our friends and family.  We love our Ward--I don't think we will ever find another as wonderful as the 11th--and have been very happy here.  Except for his mission, which falls into a different category, Phil has never lived outside Utah, so I think it will be an even bigger change for him.  But, we are looking forward to starting this new adventure together and I'm sure we'll love it.

Una boda

I have been thinking about writing this post for a while and I am so glad I finally have some time to do it!  Well, lets see...where to begin....

I was in my third transfer, second area on my mission when I met Glenda and Manuel. I had served in a small town called Parla previously and there had helped prepare two little girls for baptism, however I was transferred to Barrio 8 before their actual baptism date. I really wanted to go back to see them be baptized, and we probably could have gotten permission to do so, but for some reason I just decided that we would stay in B8 and help the Elders with a baptism they had that same night.  Hna. Sharp, Hna. Barnes and I were working around the temple that day and then planned to stick around to help with the baptism and that is when we met Glenda and Manuel.  

They appeared on the temple grounds looking for help.  We met them and began to talk and they told us that they wanted to talk to someone about their relationship because they had been going through some hard times and needed some counsel.  We asked them to stay for the baptism and then they would have an opportunity to speak with the Bishop.  They stayed and we got to know them more.  We found out that Manuel was a member of the church, but hadn't really attended for years.  Glenda was not a member, but was open to learning more.  They had spoken to a leader of a different church before coming to ours and he had told them they should just separate.  They didn't want that. I don't know what our Bishop told them that night, but he did not tell them to separate and I think it gave them hope. 

Just to be clear, when we met Glenda and Manuel, they were not very happy.  They were far from their children in Honduras and were struggling in their relationship.  We began to teach them the missionary lessons and they started to read the Book of Mormon. I will always remember the change we saw in them.  They were happier and had hope that they hadn't had before.  I remember one day when Glenda called us just to tell us that she had had a hard time sleeping the night before because she felt anxious, but she started to read the Book of Mormon and she felt peace.  They started to talk about one day being sealed in the temple and having an eternal family.  They were completely different people from those we met that first night at the baptism.

Glenda wanted to be baptized, but she and Manuel needed to get married first so they started working on the paperwork.  I don't know all the laws, but it takes a lot of time to get married in Spain, especially if you are from a different country.  However, little by little they made progress toward marriage.  They kept attending church and made friends in the ward.  After 7 transfers in B8 (about 10 months) I moved to another area.  But, I still had some opportunities to visit Glenda and Manuel.

 They were always happy to see me and I was always happy to see them.  I often thought about, and still wonder, what would have happened if we had gone back to Parla that night instead of staying for the Elders baptism? Would someone else have helped Glenda and Manuel? Would they have separated instead of working through the hard times? I felt at the time that I had missed out by not going to Parla, I wished that I had gone instead.  But then something wonderful happened.  I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knew so much better than I did why it was that I needed to stay in B8 that night. 

Glenda and Manuel were married last Saturday, March 31, 2012. 

I am SO happy for them.  I know that one day they will be sealed in the temple and have an eternal family. ¡Felicidades Glenda y Manuel!  ¡Les quiero muchisimo!