Freewrite: More Updates

I don't really know what to do with all the random happenings of my life, so I guess I'll just group them all together today and call it a Freewrite.

Update 1: Wyld Lyfe Party

First of all, last weekend there was this party up on campus that a few friends and I went to check out. It was pretty cool--they had this big tent filled with reptiles that you could hold.

Giant tortoise in a box.

Albino Nagini.

Lizards and snakes and turtles in tanks.

Reed rocking a literal boa (okay, it's not really a boa.)

Me with a snake under bad lighting.

A huge lizard, the second-biggest species under the Komodo Dragon.

It was supposed to be a dance party as well, but when we got there, there were only like ten people on the dance floor, and the music wasn't really good for dancing. We just ate some mini kabobs from Panda Express, then went back to the Colony to play Just Dance so we could satisfy our dance cravings.


Update 2: Ran into Steve

Earlier this week I was walking to the University Press Building for a class field trip, and I happened upon my old Grounds Crew boss, on the job with my old truck and a new crew member. I hadn't seen Steve in almost eight months, so we had a happy reunion.

We chatted for a bit, then I asked him if he knew of a faster way to the press building than going around the construction zone of Heritage Halls. He said, "Yeah... What you could do is come back to the shed with us, get a slice of Swedish rye bread, and then we can take the truck there." I heartily agreed to that plan, feeling lucky that he just happened to have some of his amazing homemade Swedish rye bread on hand (it's time-consuming for him to make, so he doesn't make it often, but it is seriously to die for. I need the recipe).

Going back to the shed and sharing a loaf of bread felt like I'd never even left. It smelled like gasoline and mulch and metal things, and it made me nostalgic for that satisfying, hard-working Grounds year. Rather than run all the way from the Colony to the University Press Building, I got to relax in the Grounds shed and chat and eat bread, and then I got a ride the rest of the way and still ended up getting there five minutes early. It was awesome. :)


Update 3: University Press Tour

The class field trip was a tour of the University Press Building, where Stowaway will be printed. It was really cool to go through the whole printing process, and to see that--no really--there are only four colors of ink used. They showed us a flip book, where there were four transparencies--one for each color: cyan, yellow, magenta, and black. They laid down one transparency at a time, and it was like a magic show. With each transparency laid, the photo gained more depth and color, until at the end it was a perfect snapshot with so many colors it seemed impossible that they all came from only four transparencies. It was really cool. I wish I had a video or something to demonstrate everything they showed us, but I couldn't find a good one. Sorry.

(I heard a story, though, from a girl who went on the tour a year ago, and apparently back then they would demonstrate that the ink was oil-based by taking the ink sticks and licking them. If you get enough water on your tongue first, none of the ink comes off of the stick. They used to do this to freak people out by doing this without explaining first. I'm a little sad that I didn't get to see that.)


Update 4: Stowaway's Penultimate Proof!

On a related note, we went through the third proof of Stowaway on Thursday, and it's coming together so nicely! It's going to be beautiful. I really like what they've done with my spreads, though I am a bit sad that I didn't have more of a hand in it. They look awesome, but I can't take credit for them because the design team changed them so much from my initial, mediocre design. It would have been so cool if I could put the spreads in my portfolio and say that I did all of it. Alas. What can you do.

Look how studious we are.

Update 5: Confetti Eggs FHE

On Monday, even though it was still March 31st on not technically Easter Month yet, our FHE activity was to make confetti-filled eggs. It was really fun, especially since half of the girls there were so grossed out by the process of blowing the egg shells clean. It did look rather disgusting, but it was fun.

First you've gotta choose a worthy egg.

Then you carefully chip a small hole in the top and bottom of the egg (the strongest parts of the egg, so good luck)

Then you blow through one hole to push all the insides out of the other hole.

It's kind of revolting.

Then you decorate the shells.

And wait for it to dry out so you can fill it with confetti (we got impatient and used blow dryers).

Sadly, we didn't actually get around to throwing the confetti-filled eggshells at each other, because we'd put so much effort into drying them out and decorating them with markers that we didn't want to destroy them so soon. But it was fun, and I highly recommend making it an Easter tradition. I certainly plan to.


Update 6: Paraguay Reunion

Last night there was a Paraguay missionary reunion at the Wilk. It was hosted by the mission presidents who ran the mission before I ever got to Paraguay, so it was mostly a bunch of "older generation" people who I'd never met before. My mission president, Pte. Madariaga, is from Argentina and so he doesn't come up to Utah for reunions much. I don't know when I'll get to see him again, and until he does come up I don't think my actual mission friends and I will ever all get together again. But I did run into some old friends, and a lot of people I knew from missionary reputation only (like the trainer of my trainer, for example). Plus it was fun to just get into conversations about Paraguayan things that I haven't gotten to think or talk about for a long time. It's amazing how many memories resurfaced and how many random Spanish and Guarani words rolled from my tongue even after nearly two whole years back (can you BELIEVE it's been that long?? I can't.) I'm really glad I went.


Update 7: Got asked to the ward formal!

When I came back from the Paraguay reunion, I found that I had been asked to the ward formal by my good friend Isaac. This is how he asked:

Isn't it cute? It's kind of hard to see here, but it's a little wooden plane with little wire stick figures holding on, and it says "Fly away with me to ward formal!" Awww! It's super cute. I'm definitely going to keep it. :) Now I just need to figure out a cute way to answer "Yes!" And I need to find a dress. We'll see how that goes.


Conclusion: I just realized that I'm seriously going to miss all the goings-on at BYU. I have high expectations for my new ward and social life up in Salt Lake. :)

Book Review: Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher

Guys, look! I'm reading so much lately!

Not that I have time for it or anything. Finals are coming up at breakneck speed. I basically only finished this book because it was due today and it had like three holds on it so I couldn't extend the due date. So I plowed through it today between classes and somehow managed to finish it.

...Only to pick up another book--the first in the Heroes of Olympus series. I had it on hold, so I had to pick it up this weekend or I'd lose it to someone else on the hold list.

Somehow I keep forgetting that no really I'm leaving BYU in three weeks. I have another book on hold (Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson) but I'm like 13th on the hold list. I won't get it until like next year, and I'll be nowhere near BYU then. I'm gonna go cancel that hold right now.

(Two minutes later)

The point is, I have no time to read, but I'm doing it anyways, so I might as well give a review of this awesome book that was both a sacrifice and a privilege to read.

Without further ado, here's a synopsis of Furies of Calderon (via Goodreads):

In the realm of Alera, where people bond with the furies--elementals of earth, air, fire, water and metal--fifteen-year-old Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. But when his homeland erupts in chaos--when rebels war with loyalists and furies clash with furies--Tavi's simple courage will turn the tides of war.

And here's my review of it:

First of all, Tavi (the kid who the synopsis makes sound like he'll be the "Chosen One" of the series) actually isn't really a huge focal point of the book. I mean yeah he's obviously the main character, but there were six other main characters who had just as large of roles in the plot as Tavi did. So don't read that synopsis and think, "Oh sheesh, this is just like Star Wars and Harry Potter all over again."

No. It's not.

It's not a book geared towards 15-year-olds. It's definitely adult-oriented. Rather than a coming-of-age story, it's more like a crazy-awesome mix between Avatar: The Last Airbender (because they can control elements), Pokemon (because the elemental furies take forms and fight each other sometimes), Lord of the Rings (because it's a fantastical setting with battles and such), and something else I can't put my finger on... Mission: Impossible? Avengers? I dunno, the characters are just awesome at what they do.

The magic system is amazing, of course. I would expect nothing less from Jim Butcher. I'm actually impressed with how separate and different it is from the magic of The Dresden Files.

Basically, there are these elemental spirits called furies that people befriend as they grow up. It's like a rite of passage--everyone has at least one fury that helps them out (except for Tavi, poor kid). The furies give people power over their specific element, as well as other skills. For example, watercrafters have water powers (obvi), but they can also feel other peoples' emotions, heal, and change their physical appearance. And people aren't limited to only one fury, either, nor are all furies equal in strength, so everyone's abilities are different.

It makes for lots of awesome fight scenes. Jim Butcher is a master of action writing that's not just impressive, it's cool. It makes you want to see it on a big screen, blow-by-blow exactly how he wrote it.

One of my other favorite things about Jim Butcher's writing is that his books only take place over a few days at most. He's a master of taking his characters and telling them, "Your whole way of life is about to be destroyed in the next 48 hours. Figure it out. Go." It's amazing what he can fit into such a small space of time, but it makes the conflict more real and panic-inducing, and it makes the action that much more fast-paced and urgent.

What really gets me is that he manages real character development that doesn't take months or years to establish. These characters start one way, then 48 hours later they've gone through so much that they're permanently changed. It's crazy, and I love it.

Another thing about his writing is he makes character conflict believable. Yeah, there are always some characters who are just absolute evil, and there are those who are unshakably good, but then there are characters in between who do bad things for genuinely good reasons, or vice versa.

The one character who I was sure was 100% evil, who I was sure I was going to hate and want dead, turned out to actually be very sympathetic and tragic. Refreshingly, even one of the good guys recognizes this and helps her (I'm so tired of TV drama characters who are like, "Well, I understand you better, but for the sake of the plot I'm going to still treat you like dirt and hate you for all time").

The only weird thing about reading this book was that it seemed to me that it hadn't been thoroughly edited. I'm not even talking about minor typos or punctuation, I mean there were serious substantive editing problems. I've never noticed that in any other book I've ever read before, but in this one it was glaringly obvious. One character's name alternated between "Aquitaine" and "Aquitanus". Sometimes it was like the dialogue had been accidentally rearranged. I can't remember what exactly the dialogue said, but it was along these lines:

Character A: No, we need to go over it.
(New Paragraph)
Character B: We need to go around.
(New Paragraph)
Character B: I don't care what you think. We need to go around.

And then there were times where I think maybe autocorrect just botched things, but it made the narrative confusing. Another example, watered down but more accurate in context than the last example:

Gram: Firecrafting won't work.

Amara: What if we tried something else? Firecrafting.

Gram: (Thinks about it). Fear... Yeah let's do that.

Wait...did you just say "let's try something besides firecrafting--let's try firecrafting instead?" That makes no sense... Did you mean to say fearcrafting?

I kind of wish now that I'd gone through with a pencil and marked all these things I found as I read. Not that it would have ever gotten back to the publishers or whatever, I just hope that I'm not the only one who noticed these mistakes. Hopefully the next edition of the book will fix these things.

I don't know. Maybe it's just because I'm actually making editing my career now, so I'm hypersensitive about these things.

Editing mistakes aside, this was an amazing book. It had much cleaner language than The Dresden Files, but still contained some sexual content so I can't with good conscience recommend it to younger readers, necessarily, but he's never so graphic that I would rate this R or X or whatever. This is a great book. Please read it.

(And a side note about the Dresden Files: I could singlehandedly gain Jim Butcher dozens more fans of his Dresden Files series if he would just leave out the innuendo so I could actually say to people like my parents, "Hey, read this!" Alas, I cannot. They're missing out on so much awesomeness just because there's that one scene in every one of his books that makes me cringe. I'm still determined to just buy my own copies and white out the bad parts, though. They're too good to just dismiss altogether. This isn't just crass, rude, gorey storytelling meant to shock and awe--with Jim Butcher, good always triumphs over evil, women are valued, ethics and standards are contemplated and encouraged, and the story is just breathtakingly engaging. He's just, sadly, not LDS, so his standards of sexual purity is typical of the average American's standards. So, while I can't openly endorse The Dresden Files, I'll just end by saying that they're really really REALLY good.)

Deadline: Definition Argument

So in my Persuasive Writing class, we're learning about "definition arguments". A definition argument is where you use the exact definition of something to explain why it's NOT something else. For example, a cat is not a dog. Why?

Because this is the definition of a cat (via dictionary.reference.com):

noun

1.

a small domesticated carnivore, Felis domestica  or F. catus,  bred in a number of varieties.

2.

any of several carnivores of the family Felidae, as the lion, tiger, leopard or jaguar, etc.

3.

Slang.

a.

a person, especially a man.

b.

a devotee of jazz.

4.

a woman given to spiteful or malicious gossip.

5.

the fur of the domestic cat.

A dog is a domesticated carnivore, bred in a number of varieties, but it's not in the genus Felis, nor is it part of the Felidae family, a gossipy woman, or the fur of a domestic cat.

(I'd say that a dog isn't a devotee of jazz, either, but my dogs can't get enough of Louis Armstrong).

Anyways, we're doing our own definition arguments. It's a group project, of course, because my teachers just love to force me to make friends when I only have two weeks left at BYU.

We decided we're going to define "a date", because it's amusing and helpful for the rest of the class. I'm so glad we found an entertaining topic. It makes writing the paper a little easier.

It's still kind of boring, though. So why am I writing about it? A) because I have nothing else to write about today, and B) because when teaching us about definition arguments, our teacher introduced us to these awesome YouTube videos that have seriously changed my whole outlook on certain things. Namely, pennies and Pluto.

Watch these videos. If you're not convinced that pennies are worthless and Pluto isn't a planet, then at least you have to admit they're funny:

Thank you, CGP Grey, for changing my life.

Book (Series) Review: Percy Jackson

According to Wikipedia, I'm almost a decade late in getting into this series. The first book was published in 2005, and I'm sure I heard people talk about it then, but it wasn't until this last year that I actually picked up the books. Thankfully, the last book was published in 2011, so once I started reading the series, I didn't have to wait for any sequels before I could finish it.

Here's a TV Tropes synopsis of the series as a whole:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is an Urban Fantasyseries by Rick Riordan based on Greek mythology. In the books the Greek gods have moved to the United States, and their home, Olympus, is now located at the 600th floor of the Empire State Building. They have many demigod children with mortal humans. Unfortunately, these demigods attract mythological monsters, so they must travel to a safe haven in Long Island, New York, called "Camp Half-Blood", and learn to fight. The books get progressively Darker and Edgier throughout the series as a war with the Titans approaches.

Not gonna lie, I had some qualms about the whole premise. Everything from Greek mythology has moved to America while retaining its Greekness, the Greek gods are real and running everything, and they're sleeping around with mortals and having tons of kids like it's no big deal.

It's just a little sketch, if you think about it. I mean, all these kids are at camp with dozens of half-siblings, and none of them bat an eyelash at the idea that one of their parents has so little loyalty to the other. I wasn't sure if I wanted to endorse a "pagan" and "adulterous" cast of characters.

But then I decided to not be suck a stickler and just accept it as fantasy and give it a shot. At first, I found the writing and plot to be just a bit too juvenile for my taste. But I kept going, and I was reminded of how fun juvenile fiction can be. I got really into it and now I can say that I really love the series. Enough to be slightly offended at how untrue to the source material the movies turned out to be.

If nothing else, the fantastical elements are pretty awesome, I must say. Depending on their parentage, each kid gets a unique set of demigod powers. Rick Riordan had so much Greek mythology to pull inspiration from, and the way he adapted it to a modern setting is always unique and often hilarious. The way the gods adapted to modern American ways is especially humorous.

And the dialogue is gold. Every character gets at least one funny line, even the main antagonists. It's all terribly clever.

So if you're a kid, I'd definitely give this five stars and tell you to give the series a chance. It's excellent juvenile fiction and will keep you entertained. If you're an adult, it's still super entertaining, you just have to remember that it was written primarily for kids.

Just have fun with it.

Now on to Heroes of Olympus! From what I read of the first chapter of the first book, it's going to be awesome. Much more complex and aimed at an older audience than the Percy Jackson series. I'm excited to read it.

Deadline: Internship

Okay, since this is job related, I'm calling it Deadline, but really this is just going to be a random rambling post.

I GOT THE INTERNSHIP!

Who's "ready for great things"? I am! ME! ME!

You're looking at the new summer intern for LDS Living magazine. Right now I'm kind of in shock, but a half hour ago when I checked my e-mail, I was a complete wreck.

When I came out from the dead zone that is the basement of the JFSB, I had a few unread e-mails. Since I was running to get to work on time, I waited to check them until I had already gotten to the office and settled down at my desk.

My heart skittered when I saw that one of the messages was from LDS Living. I was so excited to open it, but at the same time I was terrified. I was sure that I would be inexplicably rejected, just like the last two times I'd applied for internships.

I'd felt so good about the interview and the location and the whole LDS Living deal, that to be rejected would have crushed me. And I was so sure it was going to happen. I couldn't think of a single good reason why it would happen, but I was so afraid that it would.

So I said a quick prayer, similar to the ones I made every night before I got my mission call. "Heavenly Father, if I don't get this internship, please help me be okay with it and move on with my life."

For a moment I just sat there, shaking and feeling tears build up. Then I took a deep breath and checked my e-mail.

The tears that I thought would be shed in bitter disappointment became tears of absolute euphoria instead. I couldn't believe it when I saw that I had been selected! Finally.

Man, how I wished that I had checked my e-mail before I got to work. I would have whooped and went running down South Hill, Maria Von Trapp-style, rejoicing for all the world to hear.

Instead, I had to sit still at my desk and pretend like nothing happened. I had to act like a calm professional for the next four hours, only releasing my excitement through texts to my family that contained five too many exclamation points.

Now that it's been a half hour, I should probably be glad I didn't open my e-mail outside. Someone probably would have YouTubed my outburst of joy and then my future employers would have seen it and changed their minds. :)

I'd just like to thank the LDS Living team for being so friendly and inviting and seeing my potential as their newest team member.

I'd also like to thank my family for their support during this difficult job hunting time, my editing teachers for giving me a valuable life skill after all (sorry I doubted you), and my roommates for listening to my drama.

Also, I'd like to thank the Academy... But since no one ever seems to finish that sentence with any reason why the Academy should be thanked, I don't really know how to parody that. What does that even mean, anyways? Nevermind, I'll just stop now.

Freewrite: Apologies. Here's an update.

I'm sorry I've been so bad about writing lately, but my excuse is that I've been writing too much. For the first time in months I've been working on my fiction, so all my writing energy has gone into everything BUT blog material. Sorry. :)

I could have just posted a bunch of Drafts of my writing, but it would be so out of context I don't know if you'd enjoy it. So instead, I'm going to give you a brief update on my life, and then my next post will be on Sunday.

Update 1- Job Search

On Tuesday, I had yet another job interview, this time up in Salt Lake City with LDS Living magazine.

I loved the interview. The work environment seems so friendly and comfortable--very tight-knit and definitely my style. From the questions they posed and the enthusiasm I felt in answering, I think this would be the perfect job for me.

After not getting the Church editing internships, I'm wary about getting my hopes up, but I just can't help getting excited about the idea of working adjacent to City Creek, with a sweeping view of the Assembly Hall and the temple, on a magazine that follows my same values.

So third time's a charm, I hope! They said they'd let me know by the end of this week if I get to come work for them or not. If I get it, I'll post about it very soon, I'm sure.


Update 2 - Editing Job

We printed our second proof of Stowaway yesterday, and the final drafts of text are all done. We should be seeing printed copies in the next week or so.

In the meantime, I'm editing a book for my friend, Greg, which is a very interesting undertaking. He dictated the whole thing using voice recognition software, and so every other day we meet for two hours so I can read it out loud and make sure that it makes sense in written form.

We get through about seven chapters every time we meet, so we're making very good progress. THe goal is to have the whole thing cleaned up for publication by April 11th.

Mostly I'm just catching homophones and stuff, but occasionally we run into phrases like "This condition is was is very to the..." We both just stop and stare and try to figure out what Greg said out loud that the software didn't understand. After saying it out loud to ourselves over and over, one of us realizes, "Oh! It's necessary!" It's like a crazy version of Mad Gab, and can be very entertaining sometimes.

This weekend I'm going to help format the whole text so that he can self-publish it. All my Print Publishing training has prepared me for this precise task. :)


Update 3 - Fiction 

I don't know what triggered it, but lately I've been overwhelmed with creativity. I hadn't done any serious writing since November, but then this week I wrote a lot.

I've currently got three stories going on, and one of those three stories is part of a series. Having so many ideas all at once means that I keep randomly grabbing my phone, scribbling on the nearest sheet of paper, or whipping out my laptop so that I can write down what just went through my head.

When my mind is resting just before I fall asleep is when my best ideas seem to happen, and I learned a long time ago that I can never say, "Oh, I'll for sure remember that in the morning. I'll wait until then to write it down." I always forget. So whenever I get a good idea, no matter what time of night it is or how tired I am, I roll over, fumble for my phone in the dark, and try to make a note in my groggy state. Sometimes it means having to interpret weird autocorrected words in the morning.

When I'm not writing, I'm drawing my characters so I can really visualize them.

You've already seen some Snow Glider stuff, so here's Anastas, the MC's love interest. 

And here's a spread that nicely sums up Nara's relationship with her awesome snow dog, Kai. The words are the lyrics to "Gone, Gone, Gone"

And this is a sketch I don't like of Yiska, who makes a few appearances in Snow Glider. He's a shape-shifter, hence the wolf shadow. I can never draw Yiska right, for some reason. Men are hard to draw. But this one will do for now.

Or I'm lining up my dream cast, should they ever make my books into movies (I can dream, can't I?).

I'm also working on establishing distinct voices for each character. I've learned that dialects define characters more than descriptions usually do. And since I love writing in first person best, I want to make sure that the reader notes a difference between one character and another. There's no point switching viewpoints if both voices are exactly the same.

The series I mentioned has been very entertaining to write. It was originally just going to be one book, and that's the plot line I have most established. But now it turns out that this one book is going to be the last book in the series. Everything else I've come up with has to do with the characters' backstories. Since I'd prefer to publish them in chronological order, it looks like I'm writing the ending first. That will make writing the "prequel" books much more interesting, since I'll have a very clear idea of how it all plays out in the end.


Conclusion

So that's my life as of lately. I'm sorry again that I've been so inconsistent this week. Stay tuned for my long post on Sunday!

Soliloquy: "Have ye inquired of the Lord?"

I apologize for the lack of post yesterday. I'm working on a longer post that I had planned on publishing yesterday, but I didn't feel like it was quite ready yet, so I just didn't post anything.

So today I just wanted to comment on an insight I gained yesterday while reading the scriptures. It will also kind of serve as a disclaimer for next week's Sunday Soliloquy--the post I've been working on.

Now, I don't know who reads this, but whether or not you believe in the Book of Mormon, I hope you can agree with the concept I'm about to point out.

The passage I was reflecting on comes from 1 Nephi, chapter 15.

 1 And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been carried away in the Spirit, and seen all these things, I returned to the tent of my father.

 2 And it came to pass that I beheld my brethren, and they were disputing one with another concerning the things which my father had spoken unto them.

 3 For he truly spake many great things unto them, which were hard to be ^aunderstood, save a man should inquire of the Lord; and they being hard in their hearts, therefore they did not look unto the Lord as they ought. 

4 And now I, Nephi, was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, and also, because of the things which I had seen, and knew they must unavoidably come to pass because of the great wickedness of the children of men. 

5 And it came to pass that I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine ^aafflictions were great above all, because of the ^bdestruction of my people, for I had beheld their fall. 

6 And it came to pass that after I had received ^astrength I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations. 

 7 And they said: Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the ^aolive tree, and also concerning the Gentiles. 

 8 And I said unto them: Have ye ^ainquired of the Lord?

 9 And they said unto me: ^aWe have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.  

10 Behold, I said unto them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will ^aperish, because of the hardness of your hearts? 

 11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ^aask me in ^bfaith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.

To give you some context, Nephi and his family are traveling in the desert, led by the Lord away from Jerusalem to find the Promised Land. Lehi, Nephi's father, had an in-depth dream that's really an extended metaphor of this whole earthly existence (I could write pages and pages about said dream, but I won't today).

The family didn't really understand what Lehi was talking about, so Nephi went off on his own and prayed for understanding. Because he was so faithful and humble, the Spirit of the Lord showed Nephi the same vision that his father saw, explained what it all meant, and even went on to show Nephi the future of his posterity.

This future was rather bleak for Nephi--he saw great blessings ahead, but eventually his descendants would all be wiped out by the descendants of his brothers. That must have been extremely hard for Nephi to see.

So Nephi comes back to camp after this experience, and he finds his brothers still trying to understand what Lehi was talking about. They've been bickering about it the whole time he's been getting answers from the Spirit, and seeing them like that must have broken his heart. He's already seen the future. He knows that his brothers will turn away from the gospel and lead their posterity astray.

He's seen what they will become, and despite all that they've done to him (it comes as no surprise to the reader that they fall away--they weren't the nicest people to start with), he loves them. They're his brothers!

This isn't my favorite depiction of Nephi and his brothers (if that's even what this is--I'm not positive), but I had the HARDEST TIME finding a painting of them where they're not fighting. Seriously, they had a troubled history. Maybe someday I'll write a story or at least draw a picture of Nephi and his brothers back when they didn't hate each other. Laman and Lemuel didn't start out evil, after all, but that's how we all remember them, and how everyone paints them.

It says that he didn't approach them until he had "received strength". He was exhausted--physically, mentally, and emotionally. He had to take a minute to catch his breath, but then he approaches and asks why they're arguing.

"We cannot understand," they say. They just have no idea what Lehi was referring to, and they're already irritated with the whole journey to begin with. No doubt their debate was heated and exasperating.

And so Nephi asks them, "Have ye inquired of the Lord?"

"We have not; for the Lord makes no such thing known unto us."

At this point, I can almost imagine Nephi just throwing up his hands and scoffing in disbelief. "How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord?" he asks. "How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts?

"Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?--If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you."

I just love this response, and it's what I wanted to comment on today. Lately I've been hearing all these discussions--no, arguments--about the doctrine of the Church, and it makes me want to ask, "Well, have you asked the Lord?"

Unlike Nephi, I am not in a position to accuse people of not keeping the commandments or not having faith. I've definitely never had strong enough faith to receive a vision from God. But that's something I'd like to have, and that's something I know we all could have if we applied these principles.

Don't harden your heart
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Ask the Lord in faith.
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Believe that you will receive answers.
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Be diligent in keeping the commandments.
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A clear, undeniable answer.

It's that simple, but we all need to be better about it, especially when it comes to these doctrinal debates. The truth of the matter is, we can pull obscure quotes from general authorities. We can use philosophy and history and scripture to one-up each other. We can argue our points of view until we're blue in the face. But we cannot change absolute truths, no matter how many debates we "win".

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a democracy. We don't put the commandments up for a vote. We don't let men decide the things of God.

So why are we arguing? It's okay to have questions, and it's okay to talk through doubts with others. But ultimately, your questions should be and will be answered by the Lord. What He says goes. No viral blog post nor popular opinion poll nor petition will change eternal truths.

And if you aren't sure what truths are eternal and which ones are temporal (and thus flexible), then ask GOD for understanding. Let Him tell you and no one else. If He says something needs to be changed, then by all means go for it! But the fact of the matter is that He has promised not to lead us astray. He has promised that His prophets won't lead us astray. You can trust them, because God will testify to you that you can. That's why I watch General Conference--because I know through the Spirit that President Thomas S. Monson, his counselors, the Twelve Apostles, and all the other speakers will help me better understand correct principles that the Spirit of the Lord has already told me are true.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm saddened by all the arguing. I haven't had a vision like Nephi did, but the Spirit has still told me what is true and what is not. And so when I see my brothers and sisters fighting, I just want to ask, "Have ye inquired of the Lord?"

If you haven't, then do so and be content with the response He gives you.

If you have, then invite your debating buddies to do the same.

Only the Lord can say what is right and what is wrong. If we all listened to Him rather than putting our trust in our own opinions--or worse, in the opinions of others--then there would be no need for debate.

The Lord's ways are straight and clear, not twisted and confusing. He wants to give us answers, peace of mind, and calm in our hearts.

Give Him the chance.