Everyone’s been writing nice posts about mom today, so I wanted to write a couple of things that I admire about mom. Mom’s always been full of charity. For as long as I can remember we have been going to rest homes and performing for the old people there. Sometimes we would grumble about going, but Mom would always get us in the car and tell us that serving others would bring us blessings. She’s exemplified that by her life. She has always spent what little money she’s had on her kids, never buying anything for herself so that she could have more to spend on us.
Mom is fun. She is always so creative thinking o
f things to do that are really entertaining. I remember back when we were really poor, and mom had nine kids at home, we would see other families going on vacations around the world, but I honestly think we had more fun than they did. We would go up to the field across the canal in Brighton and build wigwams. We would have ice skating races, cookouts over fires, and would go on hikes in the snow. One of my favorite stories from after my mission is when she was skiing up at the canyons with Willi and I and we all went up the 9990 lift. It only has double black diamonds coming down. She didn’t know it was for experts only and ended up sliding down a really steep slope on her backside, but she was still really happy the whole time. I thought I had the coolest mom in the world right then. No one else’s mom would ever do that. Thanks for always doing fun things with us, and not just for being there, but for being part of the group.
But, probably the best indicator of how good mom and dad have done is how their kids are doing. I don’t know hardly any families that have four or five kids that don’t have at least one with some problems, but every single one of Mom’s nine kids is stronger spiritually than pretty much anyone else I know. We are all close friends and love to spend time with each other. Good job, Mom. I love you!
me out to look at Dan we would shoot them with our super-soaker. At one apartment a girl named Stephi opened the door and with compassionate innocence said, “Dan! Who did that to you?!” and walked out the door. I sprayed her pretty good. Haha! She ran inside all wet and then after a couple seconds she opened up the door and with a look of complete charity offered us some brownies that she had just cooked. We accepted and it really did make me feel bad that she could be so nice to us just after we were mean to her.
In this clip from ‘Seven Pounds,’ Will Smith is trying to figure out whether or not Ezra Turner is truly a good person, so he calls him up and purposefully says the rudest things he can think of to see what Ezra will say back. I think the way that Ezra responds typifies what the savior was trying to teach when he said “Blessed are the meek.” So, whether or not the movie is ethical, I think the principle of how you should respond to people holds true.
If you are polite to people while you are doing door to door sales, then there are a lot of people who are polite to you … and there are a lot of people who aren’t that polite, and every once in a while you run into someone who is so angry that you had the audacity to ring his doorbell and will say whatever he can to try and make you angry.
After a while you learn that the best way to deal with those type of people is just to be humble and apologize. Anything else will just bring you down to their level. You can’t help what they say to you, but you can control what you say back to them.
Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. (Matt 15:17-18)
Indiana singles ward stereotype and they would all ask, ‘wait, are you from around here?’ Ha, it really was refreshing after hanging out at Butler University last weekend to see cute girls that you can just look at and tell that they are living their life right.
One morning a couple of us went to have a cultural experience so we went to the cemetery pretty close to us here where the US President Harrison is buried. I pride myself on knowing US history so I told everyone about how William Henry Harrison platformed his campaign to office on his victory (or massacre depending on which side you look at) over the Indians at the battle of Tippecanoe, which is also in Indiana. They used the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too!” while Harrison ran for President with his VP John Tyler. Harrison died from a cold about a month after being elected. I want to reread “The Red Prophet” by Orson Scott Card where he talks about the Indian Chief Tecumseh fighting at the battle of Tippecanoe.
So, when we got to the grave, it turns 
out that this is actually Benjamin Harrison, not William Henry Harrison. I don’t know anything about Benjamin Harrison, except that he was the president about 1900. Ha. They also had the grave of James W. Riley, the first person to get the gold medal of poetry, an Indianapolis native.
Our new apartment buildings are pretty nice, the are called the 'Lakes of Carmel.' Carmel is the suburb just north of Indy (no one calls it Indianapolis) that we live in. Our apt is the on the building you can see just on the right. You look out the back door and see the fountain going up in the middle of the lake. 
. My roommates are Caz who I knew from Foxwood, a biker buddy named Whit, a humble kid from guatamala named Carlos, and Jeff Lee who took Dad's Econ class. We have the funnest apt out of everyone out here by far. My new address is
