Life

Life is an interesting thing. We are faced with so many decisions daily. Some are not really important but others make a huge impact in our lives. I've been reading several church books lately and all of them have talked about feeling the spirit and learning to listen to promptings given to us by the spirit. I think as a Christian and as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints that is the key to life. We are all just doing our best to make it back to our Heavenly Father. In the past two days I have had two conversations about this. One with my Mom and one while I was on a date. I love talking about the gospel and about Heavenly Father with others so I can get others perspective. That doesn't mean I can just go off what they said I still need to study and pray and learn on my own. I am so glad that God has placed us in families and given us friends so we can help each other in this long hard journey on Earth.
I am so grateful my Mom made the very important and hard choice to homeschool me and my siblings. I know that is one of the reasons I have such a love of learning. I've spent my whole life watching my mom learn and she instilled that in most of her children. I've made a lot of choices in my life some for the good and some not so good. But that is how we learn. So long as we take a lesson learned from our mistakes and move forward that is the important thing.
I know this story is random but I feel I need to share it. While I was on my mission someone very close to me chose to leave the church and start drinking and smoking. It broke my heart. I was serving the lord trying to help complete strangers come to Christ and my own loved one wasn't even there. It was a very hard few months. My mission President knew about all that was going on at home and helped me as much as he could but he could always be there because he had over 200 missionaries to look after. So he called my Zone leader to look after me and told him what was going on. One day at a zone lunch I was sitting next to my zone leader and as the conversation at the table drifted on some gospel principle (I don't remember what but what I said pertained) I said under my breath that I was frustrated with free agency and sometimes I wished we didn't have it because it hurt when people chose the wrong. I said this out of anger and hurt that's not really how I or feel. But my zone leader turned to me and shared this scripture: Moses 7:29-37 I'm going to paraphrase but in 29 Enoch sees the lord weeping and Enoch asks the Lord how he can weep because He is holy and he has created the Earth and so much beauty why is he crying and in the end of verse 32 God says "gave I unto man his agency" and then he goes on to say all the horrible things man has done. The end of verse 37 it says "and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?" God is sad when we do wrong. It makes him sad. It makes our loved ones sad. However we have to have agency and we have to allow others there agency. Even though it breaks Heavenly Fathers heart he allows us to make our choices. So in other words we need to not only think about the choices we make daily and think of the impact it will have on our lives we also need to love one another and allow others to make their own choices.

Feminism

I've read a few articles on feminism lately and I know it is a very heated debate in todays world. But I want to share my opinion and my beliefs. I think it is a joke!! I don't understand why women want to be men. I enjoy being a women. I love the fact that I get to one day be a stay at home mom, clean my house, cook food for my family, support my husband in his job, and support him as he leads my family towards truth. I have watched my Mom do all these thing and I know she doesn't regret any of it. Also just because she doesn't have an official carrier she has accomplished so much in her life. She has not only raised and taught 11 children and prepared us for life spiritually, emotionally and mentally. She has organized and planned many homeschool group and activities. She has put together and runs a educational camp for youth every year and so much more!!! She is my biggest hero. She has done all this while still teaching me and my sisters that we are ladys. We need to act like ladys and respect ourselves like ladys. There is nothing wrong with any of that! As I have thought about where the world has come and what the feminist movement has done in our world it makes me sad. It emasculates men. It takes away their role in life. If every one is doing the mans job who is going to do the women's job? since the feminist movement started women have started dressing like men, talking, like men, acting like men, and stealing the mans role in life, in the home, and in the work place. This is one of the reasons I like wearing dresses all the time. (besides the fact they are comfortable) I like the way it makes feel. I feel pretty and like a women. This doesn't mean I don't think women shouldn't work or try their hardest to be good upstanding citizens but why do we have to do it while taking over the whole world. We all just need to work together. When my little sister Tanille was a senior in high school she wrote a whole research on this subject and I think it is really well written and has some good points in it. All that I have said is just my opinion but for her paper she studied and worked hard. I hope you take the time to read it because it is great:

Feminism Speech

                When questioned, one-third of women said they consider themselves feminists.  What does it mean to be a feminist though?  Feminists believe in making men and women the same and interchangeable, hoping that if they become the same they will rise above the men in our country.

                To clarify, feminists and the suffragettes of the 1900s are not the same; neither do they stand for the same things.  Suffragettes were family-oriented whereas the feminists promote divorce and casual sex.  They were also against abortion unlike the feminists who say abortion is a way to get out of a trap.  The suffragettes were trying to allow women the right to vote, and with the 19^th amendment in 1920 they got what they were fighting for.

                The feminists, on the other hand have been fighting for the Violence Against Women Act.  This act is not gender-neutral, and does not assure men their Constitutional rights in the family courts.  Specifically, feminists promote divorce and hatred of men, deprive men due process protection, and ignore men who are victims.

                To emphasize this, the Violence Against Women Act is all about rights for women, but what does it do for the men in our country?  For starters, it will bring many innocent men to prison because of false accusations and guilty presumption without any evidence.  The men in our country are being accused of rape and abuse.  This will give the men of this country fewer rights than some robbers or murderers because they do not have a fair trial.

                Feminists have also promoted one night stands instead of marriages and though marriages have decreased, divorce has increased.  Even their membership quota states, “No more than one-third of members can be participants in formal or informal marriage,”  Feminist leader Jaclyn Geller said, “We must stop repeating the absurd mantra ‘it’s okay to be single’ and adopt the more aggressive stance that, ‘it’s not okay to be married.’” This shows how aggressive they are becoming. 

                As a result of the anti-men publicity, feminists have been trying to circulate; men cannot do anything about the feminists.  If a man tries the feminists reply with shrewd comments such as, “Any man today who may say that they are being male-bashed by the movement shows insecurity.

                Nonetheless men have tried to go up against the feminists, with little success.  Roy Den Hollander, after going to the Supreme Court about discrimination, said, “Fighting for men isn’t a very popular thing to do in America these days.  Feminists take control of every institution.” 

                Although the feminists are damaging to men, women are affected in a negative was as well.  Most women in America want a family to love and depend on.  Feminists have made this reasonable goal difficult and unpopular.

                Equally important is the fact that they are saying there is no difference in gender.  Feminist Susan Okin states it in this way, “One’s [gender] would have no more relevance that one’s eye color or the length of one's toes.”  They decide to ignore the research that has been done that suggests that men’s and women’s brains are wired differently and that they have hormonal differences.

                All in all, why would the feminists want this great change in America?  Why would they want women to have sex on a whim and afterward abort their children or promote unnatural birth control?  There is no one answer but feminists want women unattached form children and family life, the place women instinctively want to be.  They are promoting women to work hard in the work field, saying they should have the same jobs as the men, and if they aren’t like in science and math they call it discrimination.  Though as Larry Summers says it is not from discrimination but because these women usually want flexible schedules instead of working the labor-intensive way men have to in order to get to the top jobs of these fields.  In research concerning women working it was proven that as women have gained more freedom, education and more power, they have become less happy. 

                Feminists have seen a problem and tried to fix it.  There was discrimination against women but rather than balancing the scales they are trying to reverse them.  Equal rights are great, but when we try to make men and women interchangeable we create problems.  The “equal rights” amendment does not truly promote equal rights, but only the agenda of the feminist leadership.  Because of the suffragists and other women we have equal rights in America.  We cannot now put the men where the women once were.

Thank you Tanille for putting it so nicely and allowing me to share your paper! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. I also hope I didn't offend too many people I just wanted to share the way I feel.

Spring has Sprung

I know its been a few weeks since I've posted anything sorry. Things have been coming together for me lately. I am still working part time and it is nice to have a little money to do what I want and to take care of my needs. It makes me feel good. I have been on a few dates with a few different guys. Its nice to be out in the world again I miss having friends and going out to do things on a whim. Because my closest friend is 45 min away it takes some planning to get out there. I have been on two dates with the same guy and I really like him. I hope something comes out of it. He is super sweet and we talk all the time. It makes me feel special because he has initiated most of the conversations. I love it. I would be ok if we started dating. So yeah things are looking up. But nothing in this life can be easy... just when I feel I'm on the uphill climb I started feeling more and more pain again. I finally called my doctor to have my back checked out again. I had an MRI this past Saturday and I got the results yesterday (Tuesday) I have so much scar tissue that it is hitting my nerve in the same place the disk was hitting. It feels all the same to me I can't tell the difference of what's hurting me. After talking with my doctor and my Mom we all feel the best thing to do to fix my back is to have a second surgery. They will remove all the scar tissue and remove part of the bone so if scar tissue comes back again I will have more room in there so it shouldn't hit my nerve again. This surgery has 97% chance of success (but so did the last one. I just keep telling myself what are the chances of me being in the 3% two times in a row? It should be fine but cross your fingers and pray real hard) although I am not looking forward to having another surgery that sounds awful!! I don't respond well to medicine and they always have a hard time keeping my pain managed. but I am willing to take one day of hell and a few weeks of recovery for a lifetime of being healthy. I am trying to be positive about the whole thing. I won't lie I have cried a few times when I think about losing my freedom again. I know I don't have a ton of friends in the area but I do like to hang out with them when I can and I like to go on dates and be free. I do spend a lot of time at home now so a ton won't change but I won't have the option anymore. I like having options. I'm hoping to have a fast recovery because 4 weeks after the surgery is camp. (I am a counselor at a camp my Mom and older brother run. Its really fun. I look forward to it every year and can't wait to see all my girls again)