Smarts!

So I am still not doing much of anything so I thought I would take a moment to get something off of my chest. This will be a more testimony oriented post, but I think this needs to be said. Today I was in Relief Society with my mom (I Love it when that happens!) and we were discussing what "provident living" means. During the course of the discussion the women brought up the need for an education. As always they began discussing all the things that could happen to force a woman to work. I know that is true because Christ Himself taught that the rain falls on the just and the unjust, but I think so many people miss the bigger picture.

See, this is what makes the Church so great: There is always more to learn. While having the means to support oneself in whatever may come is very important, it is more important to become like our Father in Heaven. I very firmly believe that every bit of truth we recieve adds to our spirits. My favorite class this past semester was "psychology of music." I love studying neroscience in that and my other classes. That is mostly brain science and what the brain does to our body. With an enlarged understanding of the way I operate I can more fully understand the way Heavenly Father operates. I still don't undertand how the celestial brain works, I don't even understand how the temporal brain works, but I have a much better idea because of what I learned from a school class.

One of the most testimony building classes I ever had was anatomy and physiology. If ever any of you feel that Heavenly Father is not mindful of you, look at your body. The greatest testimony of divinity I have ever found is the microscopic detail of our physical temples. They are so beautiful and they are made to withstand so much. I am amazed that we live through life. Not only are we created so perfectly (in spite of our imperfections) but we are guarded night and day. Constantly in that class people would ask "how did I survive this, that, or the other?" and the teacher would say "I don't know." Every day I came out of that class I knew my omnicient Father in Heaven loved me.

One of my passions is psychology, or the disection of the human spirit. It never ceases to amaze me how similar we all are. All humans have the same basic needs and uprotection mechanisms. The human mind works in a fairly predictable way, which is why counseling can work. However for all our similarities we are infinately diverse. We all have the same needs and a lot of the same perceptive abilities, but we are all so different. We all gain testimonies in different ways and bring different likes and dislikes. We all overcome trials with different outlooks. We have been designed to compliment each other and given the tools to build each other as well as recieve edification. I know this because of what I have learned in a colection of psychology and socioiogy classes.

No, I am not going to leave out the most important one in my life. I know music is a spiritual power. Because of the music history I learned in the assistant principal viola chair I know that J.S. Bach was inspired. He was the first to write with a thing called the triad. The notes are symbolic of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I feel music places me where I can communicate to my Father in Heaven all the feelings of my heart that are beyond words. I know how to place music to a setting that is beautiful and inspiring. I have arranged many LDS hymns over the years and enjoyed it very much. I can learn music quickly and effectively. Because of this I see some beauty in the hymns that those without this training miss out on. My knowledge of musical resonance has helped me understand how truth enters and changes our hearts as well as how to listen to everything, including the Spirit. None of my viola teachers were ever LDS, nor my orchestra conducters, but music gave them access to special truth to prepare them for the fullness of the gospel.

Okay, this was kind of a long winded way to get my point accross, but I want to testify that we are not called to get an education only so we can provide for ourselves. Spencer W. Kimball (at least I think it was him) said that it was more impotrtant to get a spiritual education than a secular one, but we still need both. I like to think of it this way. Spiritual education is like water. We need lots of it every day. Secular education is like food. Going without that is not so urgent, but we will die without that too. I testify that my secular education is one of my greatest spiritual strengths, and I admonish everyone to learn every thing they can. It doesn't have to be school, it could be reading, or even the discovery channel, but I know our salvation is dependant on taking opportunities to learn.

I'm Singin' in the Rain

Tucson has been blessed with a 3 day drizzle and I am loving it!!! I went on a half our walk with my dog this morining and enjoyed every minute of it. Every time I smell a storm in the air I think of the primary song we used to call "The Rainbow Song."

I like to look for raimbows

Wenever there is rain

And ponder on the beauty

Of an earth made clean again

I want my life to be as clean

As earth right after rain

I want to be the best I can

And live with God again

I know when I am baptized

My sins are washed away

And I can be forgiven

And improve myself each day

I want my life to be as clean

As earth right after rain

I want to be the best I can

And live with God again

Rain gives earth a clean smell and feel. I have always loved being out in the first real storm of the year. This one doesn't count because it is only a drizzle. I mean when I stand outside and get soked in under 5 minutes. This was closer to getting "misted." It still gave me that special energy that I only seem to have during a storm, and a certain desire to make "mess and mischeif" that doesn't come out too often. (It is way too easy to make both when outside is wet.)

I think he liked getting getting wet a lot less than I did. We dried off when we got home and I curled up with a book and enjoyed the good weather in front of an open screen door and my puppy Charlie curled up at my side. I have been very blessed in that I have never been afraid of thunder, in fact I wished for it today.

I love curling up with a good book and listening to the thunder. There is a danish word I have discussed with my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Mike at length. If I picked the right one out of the dictionary it is hjertelig (I think it is pronounced here-ta-lee but I can't really understan Uncle Mike, or anyone else for that mater, when he speaks Danish.) That is a wedding picture of them just because I think they make an adorable couple!

It is the feeling of watching a blizzard outside and being warm and safe and comfortable inside by the fire. Missionaries use it a lot to discribe feeling the Spirit. The sensation always hits me stronger during a monsoon thunderstarm, but I was contemplating it today. It is a nice feeling and I am glad to know that there really is a safe place during every storm, no matter how strong the wins, hard the rain, or loud the thunder.

When You're Hot, You're Hot!

I certainly am hot. I am in Tucson with a swamp cooler that works like it is in a union. However, it is good to be home. I can't complain about the cooking or the company. There is not much to tell becase I have mostly been resting. I made it through finals week and got As and Bs on my term papers and didn't do half bad on my finals.

I signed up for a busy schedule next semester and I can already tell that there are going to be days where I'm not sure how I will survive (they will be called Tuesdays) but I will be learning a lot of great stuff and making serious progress towards my degree. I am in two chouirs and various academic classes. I am looking forward to it

One thing I can do right now to pretend I am productive is watch DVDs in spanish to brush up on a skill I once had. It is suprising how much I remember and how fast I can drive certian members of my family crazy that way. The downside is thaht there are a lot of movies that have a french language track, but not a spanish one. It makes me wonder, what's so great about french anyways?

Talking about spanish made me think of the bitter sweet spiritual experience I had today. Elder Claudio R. M. Costa came to our stake conference to release our stake presidency of ten years and put a new one in place. That release was hard on everyone I think, but especially those like my brother and I who don't recall any other stake presidents. I'm sure he will grow to love ths stake presidency. I'm not sure I will be around enough to get to know them.

I love listening to Elder Costa. I like his accent, but I love the words he speaks. He talked about going to the temple to get to know the Father. I think all of us could improve our attitude towards the temple.

Okay, I think that is it for this week. Thanks for the time spent reading this!

A Better? World

Someone told me earlier this week that "The world would be so much better if everyone smoked weed because then no one would care enough to start wars." No wars sounds good to me, so I started thinking about a world where everyone is high on a depressant. What would it really be like? The answer I came up with is clearly portrayed by the Eloi in H. G. Well's "The Time Machine." Really the novel is a protest against capitalism, but I think it's also about people who are high.

It takes place 802,301 ad. When the time traveler gets there he finds a civilazation that is perfectly peaceful and lives in perfect luxury and contentment. At first this sounds utopian, but soon he finds a library full of rotted books that have not been touched since before anyone there can remember. When the time traveler starts reading from the Bible and no one understands or cares about the concepts of time, eternity, or mercy. Not one of them can read or write and their language is very limited. There is a decaying museum in the city with a whole bunch of artifacts considered useless by the population, which has no clue what any of them are for. Some of them are weapons but others are pieces of art and history, completely useless to people who just don't care.

Some drugs cause people to get billigerent, some cause them to hallucinate. Maijuana just relaxes people and places them in a state of passive euphoria. They are very rarely criminal. They sit around and enjoy colors and sounds. No class, no conversation, no work. They just sit around and "be happy" just like the Eloi. Is it worse to have wars or to have nothing worth fighting for? I'm interested in your opinions.

The ongoings of Jana

This last week was intense! Not too exciting I'm afraid (except for the parts that were) but it was intense. It has been the week before finals. I had a take home test, a project, a two papers due this week. I got it all done to some degree of satisfaction (I hope to the satisfaction of my teachers, but that remains to be seen.)

Amidst the studying I got a chance to do some fun things. The first of which was FHE on Monday. It was the "friendship dinner" and everything about it was amazing. The food and the company were both wonderful. On Tuesday I got to spend some quality time with Chef-Tess. I do this every Tuesday and I love it every single time. I even got a tag on her blog. I shall be known forevermore (at least on her site) as "String Cheese." I like it. And I got to be a hand model. That is going on my resume from now on.


Thursday was an all day/ almost all night study session. I got a lot done. I had to write the two papers in APA style after using MLA up until now. I got through it and (who knows?) I may have learned something in the process.

Friday I got to spend time watching some basketball. My ward's girls' team won the championship and the boys came pretty close. It was a lot better of a friday than studying that way. My one and only complaint was that the cultural hall was too cold, but otherwise it was fun. Good friends, good game, who could ask for more?

Today was fast Sunday and it was an amazing spiritual feast. The perscribed focus of the meeting was missionary work. It is humbling to hear the modern miracles that are taking place here and all over the world. The testimonies of my ward family were edifying and inspiring. Each one left me feeling a desire to draw closer to Christ. Now I am at the house of one of the angels I visit teach (and her fiance) listening to good music and giving thanks for a wonderful day.