The Karate Kid

I really wish I had my camera today. The funniest thing happened at school. I never seem to have my camera when I need it.
Anyway, so I was walking down the hall of flags (self explanatory) and on the right side of the hall there is a courtyard. I could see a group of people looking at something, so I looked over too, and there was this random kid practicing his sweet karate skills by himself. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a while. The kid didn't hold anything back, and the thing is, he really had no karate skills whatsoever. But he was really serious about it. Soon a huge crowd began to gather and people were recording it on their phones and such. Finally one kid went out there and told him that everyone was watching, but he kept at it. Then a little later a different kid went out there and started doing some fake karate moves to be funny, it was awesome.
This all went on for about a half hour!
I wish I had had my camera!

Peer Pressure

Ok. I'm going to try and do this story justice. Keep in mind that I am the worst story teller in the world, and also that its hard to describe things on paper rather in person. I have decided to give it a shot nonetheless. It's not a super amazing story, but it's kinda funny. Here goes.
So at Institute (yes, another institute story.) once again while shaking my hand expressed his positive feelings toward me.(I think his words were: "You're the man!") No big deal. I already know this. He had me choose the hymn, so I thought I would have to play the piano again(I did last week) but turns out that I just chose the hymn. No big deal. By this time, he already has my name memorized, which is interesting because he doesn't know the names of too many yet. Anyway, the lesson went on, and about half way through, he paused, and started scanning the class for a volunteer. Yep, you guessed it. He stopped his gaze right at me, and paused and said: "yep, it's you." He then proceeded to call me to the front of the class. He had me stand there in front of everyone, and he told me(at least this is what I understood, as well as a few of my friends in the class) to "find a handsome young lady." Now I understood this as: "pick out a girl and you have to take her on a date." I thought this because earlier he had mentioned how important it is for us to go on dates with girls, etc etc. So thats why I was expecting that from him. So, to follow along with him, I started sheepishly looking around the room.
Then somehow he changed it to asking me if I was a handsome young lady. I have no idea how it got to that, nor how I had understood it the other way. Since I was not the only one to understand it that way, however, I think that he was the one that messed up.
At this point, I was already awkwardly in front of the class, and I didn't know what to do. So, somehow I ended up agreeing with him that I was a handsome young lady. Mostly because I was put on the spot. And peer pressure. Then he took it to the class. He asked them if I was a girl or not, and only like 2 people raised their hands, but the one girl said it was because she thought that everyone would too. Peer pressure.
Then he asked them if I was a guy and they all raised their hands, myself included, and he started asking me why I changed my mind. At this point my mind was starting to seriously jumble. He turned me around and had me look at a slide of the 10 Virgins on the projector, and asked me to describe them. So I did, and came to the point that they represented us, as members of the church.
Hence, the reasoning for the "handsome young lady." Because I am one of the 10 Virgins (metaphorically). So apparently I was right at first when I said I really was a handsome young lady. I'll just pretend like I knew it all along. Right.
Does anyone else think that that was the weirdest way to convey the message he wanted to get across? I sure do. It was so awkward. I already hate being in front of people. But my roommates told me that I was actually pretty composed, and handled it pretty well, considering the circumstances.
But it was so awkward. But funny.
I guess he could tell that I am gullable, and kind of a push over. Who knows. But as soon as his piercing gaze settled on me, his eyes lit up like it was Christmas.
But, the good thing about all of this is that he likes me even more because of this whole experience! Haha.
Hopefully this made somewhat of sense. I am not a good story teller. Maybe this didnt even seem funny. I guess you had to be there.
I'm not as bad as Logan, but I gained some awkward points on this one.

Stretchy Pants

We were playing a game like "mafia" for our FHE and at the very end, Christian(the Mexican kid that is going on his mission) was asking about how to say sweat pants, and Dutsons told him they were stretchy pants, and he told him to say, it. So later tonight we all got together and convinced him to say the quote from Nacho Libre, and it was so so so funny. So, here it is so you can all remember how it goes. Its way funnier with Christian!

Finishers Wanted

So today right after the opening hymn in Institute, the teacher likes to shake everyone's hand before class starts and sometimes he has to do it during the hymn, but after the hymn was over he came over to me and shook my hand and said:"You are a great guy. I can tell, and I don't even know much about you." Then he went about the class as normal. It was a really good class. He is really good at opening the class to us to comment, or discuss anything. We read a talk from President Monson titled "Finishers Wanted". A very good one. We ended up talking about how its not an easy thing to be a finisher. Its not easy to do all the little things right, but as we do our best we will be blessed and great things will happen to us (Alma 37:6). Then we read 1 Nephi 8:21-22, and in verse 21 it talks about how those in the vision of the tree of life were "pressing forward" to get to the tree. Then it hit me that being a finisher doesn't mean that we have to be the best, all we have to do is press forward, doing our best and repenting of our sins on our way. The blessings don't come immediately. They come after a while. But as long as we press forward we will be blessed. I really liked that.
Here is a small poem that President Monson used in his talk:

Stick to your task 'till it sticks to you;

Beginners are many, but enders are few.

Honor, power, place and praise

Will always come to the one who stays.

Stick to your task 'till it sticks to you;

Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it, too;

For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile

Will come life's victories after a while.

-Author Unknown

On my way out of the class, Brother Soderburg shook my hand at the door again, and said:"You are a great man, I know it!"

Needless to say I left the building in a great mood!

I love Institute.

Viva México!!

So the well anticipated day of the mission call came for our roommate Christian, from Mexico. He is here studying English at the BYU English Learning Center. He had been waiting for 5 weeks for the mission call. Wow, and I thought that 3 weeks was a long time for mine to arrive, and I was going crazy. So, Christian got his brothers there, and we all got together to watch him open it. He is going to.....(drumroll please) Mexico City West Mission! You could kind of tell that he was wanting something here in the states since he is already here, but he was excited. And even if he isn't too excited right now, he will be. He will LOVE it!
It brought back a lot of memories of when I received my mission call, and just of the mission in general. Good times. I didn't even know how to pronounce Fortaleza! haha
I am a very firm believer that you are called to the place where you are supposed to go. So I am happy for Christian and the new adventure that he will begin on March 17th(pretty soon).
As you can see, I changed the layout thingy on my blog to this super cool baseball one I thought that it was cool, and a little more reflective of my personality. I cant wait for baseball to start again. Although, it will be strange not actually playing it.
Well, I need to hit the sack.
Until the next time...

The best part of Provo

Macey's in Provo is my new favorite place to shop. Derek and I went to Fresh Market or whatever Albertsons changed to, but we were in the mood for some Guaraná, so we decided to go to Macey´s which is not too far away at all. Wow, they have so much good stuff! They have cases and cases of Guaraná and other sodas from other places, as well as the next best thing that I found is Água de Coco aka coconut milk in a can. (This is me drinking coconut milk in Brasil FYI)
I was so excited to find it. I love it with a passion. (I dont understand why it is called coconut milk by the way. it should be coconut water. Thats what it is in Portuguese. Anyway) Logan told me he had found it, but I always forgot to look for it, but since there are so many return missionaries in "P-town" you can find this kind of stuff really easily. Which is great.
We signed up for the Brazilian Club at school today. I have no idea what that means. But I guess they will have occasional parties and BBQs or something. But its fun to say that I belong to the Brazilian Club at UVU. It has a nice ring to it.
I am super tired right now. So I will end on that note, and get some shut-eye.
Until next time...

Pumping iron

Well today marks the first day of my workout routine, and I am pretty excited about it. I gained some definite "holiday weight" and I am not too happy about it, so Derek and I decided to get a pass to the gym by us, and today was our first day there. I am beat. It is a pretty good feeling. I definitely want to take advantage of the free time that I have while I am not working and work on my bod. haha
I definitely am a weakling though. Lindsay could definitely beat me in an arm wrestle again I think. Wait, didn't we do an arm wrestle after I got home? I cant remember, but it seems like we did and I won, but barely. But that is because she wasn't a super tough gymnast anymore. But still, I am weak.
Things are good on the school front. I am liking my classes so far, and I haven't really had too much homework which is nice. But then again, it is still the very beginning of the semester. I have already dropped some dough, and I need to get a job to improve the economic situation.
Things have been really good lately. I am in a good mood.
Today was my first day of institute class. We (Derek, Eric, Collin and I-my roommates) are taking Teachings of the Prophet Thomas S. Monson. I am really excited about it. There was a cool quote from Ezra Taft Benson that says: "The living Prophet is more vital to us than the standard works." I thought that was really interesting. Obviously the standard works are very important to us and we should study them often, but having a living prophet to receive revelation from God for us right now is so important. I love listening to the Prophet, because it is as if the Lord is personally speaking to us. SO... I am excited for the class. I think I will learn a lot.
So, Whitney and I have decided to "officially" go to the next level. I am really happy with how things have turned out. Its just a bummer that we are going to different schools. Oh well. I think just about all of you know about her already so I won't write too much. But things are just dandy! :)
Well, I can barely lift my arms to type anymore, so thats where I am going to end, so... TCHAU!

Back to school

Well the time finally has come for me to get back to school. A whole lot has happened since I last posted anything so I feel like a slacker but that's ok. I plan on doing a lot better now that I am hitting the books again. I am glad to be able to do something productive with my life, although I really did enjoy my time watching NCIS every day.
For those who didnt know, I am at UVU living in Provo rather than going back to Virginia to play baseball. This was basically the hardest decision that I have ever made. I was very very stressed out, because it was a win-win situation. But ultimately I decided to stay close to home. It just felt better. I think that either way would have been good, but this was what I felt best doing. So, we'll see how things go on that end.
I am really excited to get back to school. This was my first week of classes, and I am pleased with how things are going to end up. I have some good classes, and hopefully I wont struggle too badly. Its like riding a bike I guess.
Anyway. I moved in this week, and I have some really cool roommates. My roommate is Derek Dutson(who was my last companion of my mission) and there is one other guy from my mission named Eric, and his friend, and then there is Christian from Mexico and Taeku from Korea. They are both learning English at BYUs ESL program. I really like all the people I live with. We are having fun getting to know each other lately. Christian will move out as soon as his mission call comes in the mail, so we are excited for him.
Anyway, I dont know what else to write for now, but at least I am posting again right?
Até o próximo.