Today in History June 27

Interesting event in our history that happened on June 27:

• In 1844, Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred by a mob in Carthage, Ill.

This is a truly sad day in American History. Here men that were trying to get others to live a more Christ like life were put into prison several times on trumped up charges and eventually martyred for what they believe. I would hope that something like this would never happen again.

Quote of the Day:

"People always seemed to know half of history, and to get it confused with the other half." -Jane Haddam

Summer is Finally Here

Now that the summer semester is almost over, it is finally starting to feel like summer. The first few weeks of summer were full of cold wind and snow flurries. But now it is getting up the 90s and I miss those cold days. At least when it is cold I could turn up the heat, we don't have any air conditioning, so once you are hot, you pretty much stay hot for the rest of the day. It doesn't help that my apartment faces west so the sun is right on our apartment for half of the day. It is almost warm enough to go swimming. Since all the good swimming place around here come straight out of the mountains the water is freezing, so it has to be really warm outside before I will consider swimming. I will at least have to go swimming once before I leave. It is hard to believe that in less than one month I will be done with college classes. I only have two and a half more weeks of class this semester. But I don't leave for like two weeks after the end of the semester for me. My final is really early, and I have already bought my plane ticket so I can't change. I guess I will just have to bum around Rexburg for awhile and enjoy being free. Because once I get home I will have start working, that won't be all that fun, but I need the money. This hasn't been the most fun of semesters so I'm kind of looking forward for it's end, but I will miss Rexburg and living in the small town. There are some benefits of living in a town this size, one being traffic. I never really have to worry about it. That is going to change very soon.

Finally, Wood Shop

Part of being in the Happy Factory Council is we get to help cut out the wooden cars that everyone gets to paint. Normally the council gets into the wood shop in the first few weeks of the semester. But for some reason last night was the first time we got to go, and there is only four weeks left of school. It is a long and frustrating story, so I will spare you the boring details. We have committed to provide 250 cars for a youth project on July 3. So last night we worked for about three hours making these cars. At first I was pretty worried, I didn't trust myself around high powered saws, drills, and sanders. I spent most of the time sanding the cars, I felt like that would be the safest thing for me to do. At one point I did work the big huge drill, I have to admit it was a little scary, but some how I left with all my fingers. It was a great experience and I can't want until next week so I can go again. I still think the school is crazy trusting me with using their tools. But it was way cool to see the process of it going from a old piece of wood to a object easily recognizable as a toy car.

Learning from Franklin

For school right now I am reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and to be honest the first part of it was not all that interesting. But in the second part you learn more about Franklin and who he desires to be and how he wants to live his life. Benjamin Franklin was a Deist, which means that he believed in a God who created the Earth, but also doesn't believe that God has much to do with out normal everyday life. I find this an interesting way of thinking about our Heavenly Father, but don't agree with him. For a small time in Franklin's life he was trying to become perfect, which he thought he could do because he knew right from wrong. He came across thirteen virtues that he tried to live everyday, to help him become perfect. This consumed his life for a short time period, but for a man that doesn't believe that God has a lot to do with our lives, includes a few prayers that he would say to help him along his way towards perfection. One that Franklin came up with himself that he would often say: "O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favors in me." And then another prayer that he borrowed from Thomson's Poems, "Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme! O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself! Save me from folly, vanity, an vice, from every low pursuit; and fill my soul with knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!" Although a few years later Franklin admits that he failed it his efforts to become perfect, we can all learn from him and his efforts. Even a pretty nonreligious man could recognize the power of our Father in Heaven and would ask for help to become better each and every day.

Sunny Southern California

This last weekend I was able to go visit my brother, and his family in Southern California. Since I only have class on Tuesday and Thursday this semester I left on Thursday afternoon and came home on Monday. I was a great trip, my brother's oldest daughter was baptized, it was nice to go. I usually miss things like that because I'm in school. I can't believe that Maya is already eight years old. I remember when I first came out to school she was only four. I also got to spend my birthday on vacation and with some family. It doesn't feel any different being 22 than it did being 21. We didn't really do anything special for my birthday, just had some Banana Pudding and Strawberry Shortcake, which were excellent by the way. It is kind of hard when your birthday falls on a Fast Sunday, but we did our best. I did get a really funny present from my sister, she got me a Ronald Reagan bobble head Doll. I thought it was very clever since I'm going to be a history teacher. It can be the random toy that is on my desk in my classroom. I didn't want to come back to school, it was so nice to forget about school and homework for a few days and pretend they didn't exist. But alas, here I am back in good old Rexburg.

Happy Factory

I am not taking a full load of classes this semester so I thought I would fill my time with other things. I wanted to do something good with my time, so I signed up for a service council. I was assigned to work on Happy Factory. Happy Factory is a great and unique way to perform service. It is a program that cuts out wooden toy cars, paints the cars, and then adds wheels. Once assembled the cars are sent to Salt Lake City, where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sends them out all over the world to children that have a trying life. We hope that by providing these toys we can give a little bit of happiness to someone in need. It is a great program and I am so happy that I have gotten involved it.

I spend two to three nights every week working on Happy Factory, whether it be actually painting the cars, or making sure we have enough supplies for who ever might want to participate. I get to play with toys and perform service at the same time, what more can I ask for. The school makes about 40 cars per week and about 30 people volunteer each Thursday night when we paint the cars. Everyone has a blast painting and meeting new people at the same time.

Life in Rexburg

I live in a small town in Southeast Idaho named Rexburg. I sometimes feel like a fish out of water since I was born and raised in South Carolina. I deeply miss my southern roots, but love life in west also. Rexburg is the home of BYU-Idaho, my school, and I love it. I am a senior and only have a few more months before graduating. College has been a great experience for me, I have really grown up and learned a great deal about myself.