A little late for MLK Day, but...

Ok,

I always knew Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pretty cool guy. But for my Peacebuilding class, we read one of his books, "Strength to Love." What an amazing and powerful speaker! This book has deeply affected me, and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

At the risk of beginning and staying up late because I can't stop, here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

"One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying. A persistent schizophrenia leaves so many of us tragically divided against ourselves. On the one hand, we proudly profess certain sublime and noble principles, but on the other hand, we sadly practice the very antithesis of those principles."

The above quote is part of a theme throughout the whole book that makes its readers aware, page by page, that they are living far below their capacity for peace and good in the world. You cannot read this book as a feel-good book. When you read it, you feel your hypocrisies start to expose themselves to you and you feel inspired to be better.

"...we must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy-neighbor, the thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that he is. An element of goodness may be found even in our worst enemy....This simply means that there is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

I like this quote and the sermon its a part of because Dr. King is so masterful at making every person into a human being instead of a monster. Even after being stabbed, threatened, having his house bombed, etc, Dr. King did not hate individual people or blame them for the evil in the world. He saw them as his brothers and sisters who were victims of evil instead of perpetrators of it, and he saw potential for redemption, kindness, cooperation and friendship even in the most ignorant and racist people. Here is another quote:

"To our most bitter opponents we say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour an beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory."

I believe Dr. King had a high sense of integrity, not just because he was a pastor and could write very intelligent-sounding words, but because he actually lived by them. He exacts a high price from his followers. He expects them not to be silent. He expects them to fight for what is right no matter the cost.

"Do not despair if you are condemned and persecuted for righteousness' sake. When you testify for truth and justice, you are liable to scorn. Often you will be called an impractical idealist or a dangerous radical...Sometimes you may be put in jail. If such is the case, you must honorably grace the jail with your presence. It may mean losing a job or social standing with your particular group. Even if physical death is the price that some must pay to free their children from psychological death, then nothing could be more Christian. Do no worry about persecution, American Christians; you must accept this when you stand up for a great principle."

Dr. King experienced all of the things he described here. He gave his life for the cause he believed in. I could keep going, but I think I'll leave off for now.

Calling People

So one of my goals in my class this semester was to connect more with people from my past.  This may be a result of being an army brat as a kid and moving many places as an adult. I tend to basically "move on" whenever I leave one place and I'm not very good at keeping up contact with people. That, and as silly as it sounds, it actually makes me nervous to call people, even or perhaps, especially, those that mean the most to me. I'm not sure why. I think part of it is I'm afraid to hear bad news or because I've not chatted with someone in so long that maybe they hate me now.  I don't know why I think stuff like this but I do.

The first thing I've noticed is that it's pretty hard to get a hold of people. The first time I tried I called several people but no one picked up. One called me back fairly soon--an old mission companion of mine. It was fun to hear her voice and hear about her family and job. She's such a positive person and she was a light in my life as a missionary. Best of all, she's HILARIOUS. Missions are stressful things, and she really helped me along with her humor.

After that, my phone got all weird and DIED on me! And everyone else I had tried to call tried calling me back during that time but it was a few days before I got a new phone in the mail. I made a post on facebook asking if people wanted to skype me. It was partly in jest, but I was happy to get in contact with two more people from the mission! My favorite couple from the mission.  I wish I had taken a screen shot. It's been a long time since I've seen them, and I really wonder why I don't skype more! It's great to see people you're talking to. They felt the same and we had a nice little online "reunion." 

After I got my phone I tried a few more. There were many people who couldn't answer and a few old numbers that don't work anymore. I called my great-aunt to wish her a happy birthday, which I've never done for her before. She was on her way to Mexico! I was glad to hear it because it's so cold in Utah right now.

So far, I've had some pretty good experiences. I talked with my adopted "Grandma" for a little bit to catch up with things. I haven't seen her and her husband in over a year. She's been very supportive of me in my life, and she was a role model in a crucial time in my life. It was a pretty normal chat, which made me wonder, why I don't do it more often.

I also chatted with a former co-worker. She and her husband were just called to serve as Mission Presidents in a Spanish-speaking mission for the Church. She and her husband will find out next month where they will go. Since the Church has changed the minimum age for serving missions, there have been thousands more applications than usual. The size of missions is increasing and there are more than triple the amount of sister missionaries! They have two daughters who are missionary age now and they are both working on their papers. Their oldest, a son, just finished a two-year mission in Japan last November. How cool to have an entire missionary family!

Still, it's been a bit scary sometimes to call some people. Some I really love and admire so much but I just haven't done it. I hope to buckle down these next few weeks and call up the people that I miss and truly examine my feelings of fear regarding contacting them after a prolonged silence from me.

So I'm resurrecting this blog.

For class. I'm in the last required class for the Intercultural Peace-Building Certificate at BYU-Hawaii. My teacher, Dr. Ford, has structured the class so that we as students created our own learning framework. We will entirely grade ourselves for this project.

As part of my reflection and accountability, I'll be reporting about my progress here on my blog.

I don't think I'll post my whole framework and goals here, but you can see if you'd like here.

I have several things that I wanted to do every week. One was contact more people in my life. This week I talked with a friend of mine that graduated last semester, my little brother (girl problems), and my adopted Grandma. I don't know why I get nervous calling people up because the conversations are always fine. It felt good to have more real interaction with people than just facebook or none at all.

A Week in Turkey

OK, so I'm going to try to keep up with my blog and see if it's easier to share my life this way.  I'm having a great time in Jerusalem.  Part of the program used to be a trip to Egypt, since we study the Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern Studies.  Since the Arab Spring, Egypt is a lot less stable, so the program now takes us to Turkey.  We get to visit many ancient sites and cities, many of which are a large part of missionary work for the early apostles like Paul.

Initially I wasn't super excited about going to Turkey.  It's a replacement for the Egypt trip so I thought, "Eh, that'll work.  I'm sure it'll be fun."  But just from driving on the bus from the airport to the restaurant for dinner I fell in love with Istanbul!  Turkey was a beautiful country and the sites we got to see were amazing! I have to go back there again someday.

It's difficult to post a lot of pictures here because there isn't much bandwidth.  If I make it to the neighboring Hebrew University I can load much more, especially on facebook.

My favorite cities were the ancient cities of Assos and Ephesus.  Assos was small, but it was a great site. It overlooked the Aegean Sea and there was a rain storm out in the middle of it.  It's located in a really small town.  Our Turkish guide, Negeb said most of the residents were retirees.  It's out a little further so it doesn't get too many tourists, so it's still relatively quiet.  I'd love to retire there too.

Ephesus was amazing and huge!  It was so cool to walk down the main street and see all the buildings and imaging what life was like there.  Paul stayed there in Ephesus for two years.  It has a huge amphitheater that Paul got dragged into when the merchants who sold statues of the goddess Diana started a revolt.  A few of our classmates re-created the event.  It was quite entertaining.  Mormons are weird.  We got some funny looks from other tourists.  There was also some filming going on, so there were people in Roman clothing walking around, so by comparison, we may not have looked so strange this time.

The picture above is of the Celsus Library in Ephesus.  It was the 3rd largest library of the classical world (the first being the library in Alexandrian in Egypt, the second Pergamum in Turkey which we also visited).

Hope this will suffice for now.  Thanks for visiting!

My First Attempts at Creating a Marketable Product

So I managed to get my hands on some free materials, and then I managed to buy some extra stuff, and I started tinkering around to see if I could create something to sell as a fundraiser.  I still have not yet actually FINISHED something, but I'm getting close, so here's a sneak-peek of my styrofoam wall creations:

The above creations were done with fabric.  They were some of my first, so I made the most mistakes with them, like the edges not being very straight.  Fabric takes a lot longer to do, so my finished fabric products will be worth more than the paper versions you see below:

 With paper, I have a variety of nature scenes.  I have some ocean/beach themed ones (above) desert themes (below) and other leaf, forest, snow, water, autumn versions not shown here.  It's hard to tell in the pictures, but they protrude from the wall about 3/4 inches.  I will have a nice edging on them, but this is just a sneak peak anyway.  After the edging and some sealant, they will look much better.

I only have one sample of this so far, but the bulk of my products will be these 12x12" squares.  There will be several different designs that can be mixed and matched to create whatever effect you are looking for for decorating your space.  I'll include an example I pulled from online so you get the idea.  This piece is the most complete of anything I have so far.  Hopefully I will have more to show soon.
 

This is a close-up so you can see some texture.  Below is a sample of what the whole idea looks like.

Comments and suggestions are welcome!  Please don't make me beg for them!

BYU-Jerusalem

I was accepted into Brigham young University's Jerusalem Center Program for this summer.  Everyone I know of who has been there described it as life-changing.  I'm so excited to go!  The Center is located in Jerusalem on Mount Scopus.  

I need a little help with funding though, so I've created a widget with Paypal to track my funding progress.  I also have a few projects I've been working on to sell (coming soon) so hopefully I can earn some money that way too.

Thanks for all your help!

Pat Tillman Scholarship Essay

Pat Tillman was a famous football player who gave up his million-dollar career to join the Army after 9/ll. He lost his life serving his country, and his family put together the Pat Tillman Military Scholar Fund.

I've been applying for many scholarships, but out of all of them, I really hope I can get this one. I feel strongly about Pat Tillman's life of service. I'm not in the military, and I never can be, but I want to serve my country too. I want to serve in the way that I can and it starts with getting my degree. Here are the questions and my answers. Feel free to comment.

Explain your specific financial need, any gap in educational benefits you may already be receiving and your reason for applying for a Tillman Military Scholarship. *

Bold ambition describes my goals for my education and career, and I’m daring and determined enough to go for it! It will cost me $36,256 (tuition only) to accomplish ALL of my education goals in two years. I anticipate having $2,000 of my own money saved by the time school starts, and my other sources are a PELL grant (up to $2,100) and a SEGAL Education Award of $7,712. I have no other awards or scholarships at this time. I haven’t included other costs here because if the Pat Tillman Foundation can help pay tuition, I am resourceful enough to come up with the rest.

I’m applying for the Tillman Scholarship because it would be a great honor to receive it. I had never heard of Pat Tillman before applying for this scholarship, and I was deeply moved by his story as well as the stories of the other Scholars. Of course, I also have the example of my father and younger brother who both have served our country. Even my youngest brother (age 15) is enrolled in his school’s JROTC program. Unfortunately, I will never be able to serve my country the way they have. That’s why, as a Tillman Military Scholar, it would be an immense privilege to be associated with people like Pat Tillman, my father, brothers, and the other scholarship winners.

Even though I can’t serve in the military, I can still serve our country as a diplomat and peace-maker, and I fully intend to! The key to this is in my educational plans for the next two years based on my two main passions: meeting and learning all about people from different cultural backgrounds and working with people to solve problems and reach their full potential. I am majoring in International Cultural Studies with an emphasis in Communications and Culture. I will double-minor in Japanese and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and earn additional certifications in International Peace Building and Cultural Resources Management. Included in my plans are two study-abroad programs: one culture-based program in the Middle East, and a language-intensive program in Japan.

Intense? Yes. Possible? Absolutely. I can earn all of this and still graduate within two years for what it would cost for a year of tuition at some universities! You’d be hard-pressed to find so much bang for your buck anywhere else!



How has your family member's service in the U.S. military influenced your actions or inspired you? What have you learned through observing his/her service to our country? *

I’m grateful to my father and brother for their sacrifices for our country. It’s because of them that I am able to pursue my goals. I can fully enjoy learning about and visiting other countries because I have THIS country to return home to. My father and brother have both paid a personal price to protect this country and the freedoms that I enjoy as its citizen. When my father returned from Iraq, he had frequent nightmares and liked to be alone more than before. He got up early, went to work, and came home to work in his garage until he was too tired to do anymore. He came back inside after everyone else was asleep. My parents divorced shortly after.

My brother may have paid an even bigger price. He joined the army at 17 and served in Iraq as a convoy driver the next year. Unlike my father, he had a hard time being alone when he got back and fell into many addictive and destructive habits. I think it was the best way he could cope with (or drown out) his thoughts when he had to be alone. He was also paranoid about objects on the side of the road when he drove because he was trained to recognize things like that as possible IEDs. He did better with time (as well as my dad) and managed to marry a strong, beautiful girl (also in the military!) before leaving for a tour in Afghanistan. He is still there and now has a baby girl. She was born premature and has had some health problems, and although he got to come home to visit when she was born, he’s back in Afghanistan now. I know he worries about his family. I know he wants to be with his wife and hold his little girl. I know he sometimes worries that he might not make it back at all, and that’s the hardest part.

Neither of them regret serving. I don’t know if I can adequately describe how I feel about what I’ve seen them go through for me. I feel inspired and reverently sad at the same time. America was designed so that anyone can become who they want and follow their dreams. I feel that the best way I can serve them is to show that their sacrifice was worth it and means something to me.





Discuss your previous service to others and the community. How will you incorporate these service experiences into your educational and career goals? How do you intend to continue your service to others and the community? *
My involvement in service started when I served as a full-time missionary for my church in the Philadelphia area for 18 months. I was not paid during that time. In fact, my family and others sacrificed much to help me pay expenses. In the past, I’ve avoided talking about my mission in applications like this because I’ve worried about the religious aspect bothering some people, but I’ve gained so much from the experience it’d be terrible not to. It changed my life forever.

My mission taught me that everyone has worth no matter how poor they are in money, education, or circumstance. Once I truly saw that, it was easy to help people overcome their struggles. Everyone wants to be happy, and they do the best that they know how. I helped people to understand and apply different principles and values, but I think the greatest thing I did for people was to believe in them. I knew they could stop drinking or bring their family closer or let go of anger. I saw people make incredible changes and overcome tremendous obstacles.

Now I serve as a member of the AmeriCorps Literacy Initiative in Utah. I work directly with kids in small groups in targeted reading skills and practice to help them achieve grade-level standards. I manage a take-home library at the school where every student takes home a book every week to practice reading with parents. I plan and carry out literacy events to increase parent involvement in education. I’ve also done other projects in school designed around areas such as safety and service.

Community service is a huge component of AmeriCorps. I have volunteered with organizations such as the local food pantry, the Victim’s Advocate, the Family Support Center and LDS Humanitarian Services. I’ve stocked shelves, filed forms, supervised kids, created activity kits, tied quilts, cleaned a storage room, painted walls, washed windows, picked up garbage, collected and delivered cleaning supplies for a homeless shelter and can tabs for Primary Children’s Hospital. Whew! And I love it!

Bringing out the best in people is a part of who I am now. No matter what career I have, it will involve tapping unused potential for good in the world, hopefully from individuals to large organizations and even entire countries! Besides my career, I will also continue serving the needs of local organizations as I have been.

And....I'm back

OK,

Round Two. I will still be blogging about my attempts to do something good in the world. Right now, that includes getting ready for my education. I've been applying for a lot of scholarships, so I'm going to post about those as well. I think I will use this blog partially as a dumping ground for my completed essays.

Service Received--Tips

So in addition to my Americorps job, I also deliver newspapers. I really enjoy it. Since winter has started, I've started taking a little more time (a few seconds difference really) to pull into people's driveways so that I can get the paper closer to their door. Especially the ones I know are older. I do my very best every day to get them delivered as soon as possible, and to take care of any problems or mistakes I may make.

My customers have the opportunity to give a tip as they are billed, but out of the 60 or so customers I deliver to, only about four or five do so. I'm especially grateful for those who do tip, and also those who take the time to compliment me for what I do. It can be a thankless job sometimes, and their appreciation means a lot.

I made plenty of mistakes when I first started, which resulted in many calls and complaints. My record is SO much better now, but I remember the first time someone gave me a compliment it almost brought tears to my eyes.

So last month was December, a time of Christmas giving, I was delighted to receive more tips. Some in person, and almost double through my paycheck. In reviewing my paycheck I found something surprising: No one new had added a tip. The extra money all came from others who already tip me. They increased their tip. It leads me to think that there are those who give, and those who don't. I bet that this is true across the board, and not just in my tips. There are people who give already, and if there is extra need, it's the people who are already giving who step up and give more.

I hope to become the giving kind.

AE

Sponsoring

So a new opportunity to serve came up that I have never considered or done before: sponosor someone. Monetarily. Those who know me would say, "What? You mean you actually have some to give?"

Well, not all at once, but you know, yeah.

So what's the cause? A mission. For the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Having served a mission myself, I find it the singularly most influential thing I have ever done for myself, my family, the world, and the Lord. I would not be who I am today without that sacrifice. The idea of helping someone else have that same kind of experience is exciting for me.

Based on my own personal experience, the opportunity to serve a mission is worth any cost. That's because no matter what, the Lord will reimburse that cost a hundredfold or more. Whatever it takes to sacrifice to go while you have the chance is worth it. And you know, in the end, the things you thought would be a big sacrifice aren't. It's fabulous how the Lord works that way. Win-win.

I definitely will need the Lord's help on this one, but I'm assured that He is ready to give it.

I feel good. I'm excited.

AE

This Blog is NOT about marriage actually....

Well, I did it.

I created a blog. I've jumped on the band-wagon. Call me conformist.

I'm not sure how much I'll use this, but my idea is to document my attempts, poor as they may be, to be involved in something useful. The phrase "anxiously engaged" could be about pre-wedding ceremony stress, but I took the phrase from a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants. This book (D&C for short) is a volume of modern scripture used by Latter-Day Saints along with the Bible and the Book of Mormon. The quote is as follows:

"Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness." D&C 58:27

This verse and the verses around it, express Heavenly Father's delight in those who are proactive in serving Him and his children (translation: all of humankind.) We do not have to be told everything we can or ought to do. If we wait for personal invitations from God to do specific good, we may find ourselves waiting a long time and losing valuable opportunities. On the other hand, when we actively seek to serve, God will shower upon us the necessary ideas, opportunities and means to do them.

This all started because I was recently hired jointly by my local elementary school and Americorps. I'm learning quite a bit about service, although most of it has come in the form of a growing realization of how much there is to do out there and how much one person can actually get done. I'm hoping that this blog can help me to learn and figure out even more and that by documenting what I do and think about, I can continue to foster an awareness and attitude of serving. I know that with time and continued effort, my ability and capability to serve will increase.

Perhaps someday I can make a difference in the lives of thousands, like Mike and Joyce Murray, two of my most favorite people in the world. They are amazingly talented. Mike Murray co-founded a program called Unitus (www.unitus.org) that offers micro-credit loans to poverty-stricken women in several places in Africa. They served as my mission president and "mom" while I served in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission.

I know that there's not much I can do right now, and most of my efforts may be feeble, but I don't mind. I'm just happy to even start on this journey.

AE