Small Towns

So this past weekend I went up to my family's [unfinished] cabin, located near the small farm town of Paris, Idaho. Going up there reminded me of the reasons why I love small LDS farmtowns, reasons that I were going to write about; tidy, perfect yards and well kept houses; church houses filled to capacity every Sunday; modest and conservatively dressed people; hardworking saints that still shine with a pioneer attitude; and just an overall atmosphere of humble diligence that I haven't been able to find in the city. That doesn't mean that you won't find these qualities in the city... they just seem to be more prominent in the country.

But this blog isn't about Paris, Idaho. Rather, it's about my hometown, Willard, and the neighboring town of Brigham City, which will begin construction on an LDS temple this Saturday. Most of you probably know how passionate I am about my hometown. After all, it is one of two towns that has a prophet buried in its cemetery (Lorenzo Snow), it has the second oldest seminary program in the Church, the Mutual Improvement Association was first started in Brigham, and Elder Boyd K. Packer grew up there and served as the seminary principal for many, many years. Brigham used to have a trolley system (much like San Fransisco) and Brigham Young used to frequent the town. Brigham City was one of the first settlements outside of Salt Lake City (included with Logan, Ogden, St. George, Provo, and Preston) and is one of the few communities that has a tabernacle. People used to come from all over the West for the fruit grown there. Willard used to have an opera house. Okay, I feel really prideful right now, so I'm going to stop. Basically, it used to be a very important community, but now nobody gives it any recognition. But the Church hasn't forgotten us. When my stake was split a few years ago, Elder Perry (whose family helped settle a town in the area) told us that great things would be happening to the community. When the Brigham City temple was announce to the community, we were told that we were one of the Church's most diligent temple areas and it was about time we got a temple.

Okay, I'm done. Basically, I'm really excited for the groundbreaking this Saturday. So go ahead and smile and shake your head; I'm proud of where I'm from. Ha ha!

Letters

I feel like I should blog about something, but I don't know what to blog about. So I'll talk about the great letters I have received within the past week. On Thursday morning, I got a letter from my younger brother, Michael, who has been working at scout camp for the summer; my only form of communication is by letter because he doesn't get any cell phone reception unless he's hanging upside down on top of a rock with a squirrel tied around his neck. Thursday afternoon, I got a letter from my best friend and adopted brother, Elder Howard, which was fantastic because he always has the habit of writing things that I need to hear at that specific moment. Then, on Friday, I got a letter from one of my very good friends, Elder Miera, whom I have not heard from in months; he's grown so much since I last heard from him and it was so great to know that he hasn't forgotten me. Then, this morning, I got another letter from Elder Howard (which kind of surprised me) and he told me some more of his missionary thoughts and yet again said exactly what I needed to hear to get me through the day. And last but not least, I got a postcard and souvenir from my dear cousin, Jamie, from her honeymoon; she thanked me for playing the piano at her wedding.

And just a few minutes ago, I found out that one of my best friends, Jeannette Thompson, might be returning to Provo this fall (I thought that I would never see her again). So basically, I feel like I have been blessed with so many good friends. I love y'all!!!!!

A Note from a Soccer Kid

So one of my jobs this summer is to go through the buildings after summer camps have checked out for the week and prepare them for the upcoming camp next week. Usually we find plenty of trash and the rooms are in disarray, which gets pretty annoying. But today as I was cleaning up after a soccer camp, one of my coworkers (Megan Nield) found a very touching item on one of the shelves in the room. It was a folded piece of paper, which said "Please leave for the next camp." When we unfolded the paper, we found the following message written in a young boy's handwriting (this is a direct quote, complete with spelling and grammar).
"Dear Youth,
Hi, Im Brian. I was here last week and it was a blast. Weather this is your first year, second year, or third year you'll love it. The best part of the week is day 4. It is the most spiritual. You have an awesome counselor. He is a great guy. He will teach you everything. I just wanted to write this to you so I tell you what an experience this is. By the way, write in your journal so you will never forget it. So have a great week, and remember that you are a child of god and He loves you.
-Brian"

Not gonna lie: finding this note made cleaning up trash and folding blankets for the summer worth it. These kids are here not only to learn how to become a better athlete, but to gain a stronger testimony and to have a "BYU experience," which many of them may not have the opportunity to have. What a blessing it is to be a student at Brigham Young University and to be doing the job that I have now. The hours may be weird and the work may be frustrating, but it's all worth it.

NACURH, Inc.

One of the highlights of my job (working for RHA, not as a Conference Assistant) is being paid to travel the country for conferences. This past week was spent in San Diego for the national RHA conference, also known as NACURH (which is, by the way, the largest student-run organization in the world. Just FYI). The weather in San Diego was beautiful, never getting hotter than 70 degrees; if it wasn't so darn expensive and crowded, I would live there in a heartbeat. Anyways, for the most part it was just another conference. I sat through a 5 hour business corporate meeting (where we spent over an hour arguing over whether to call a piece of legislation a bathroom, restroom, or "public facility." We eventually settled on "public restroom."), I went to a few NRHH workshops and I'm now ready and excited to take over as BYU's NRHH president, and I ate some pretty good food. But that was it. No beach time, no Sea World. This conference was purely business.

I sat in the San Diego airport for over 5 hours, waiting to board my delayed flight. But while waiting, I ran into one of my seminary teacher's wife, which was pretty unexpected considering that I come from a town of 1, 500 people and she comes from a town of even less. And to make coincidences even better, the kid sitting next to me went to school with my younger sister. Small world, eh?

I also had the opportunity to teach the plan of salvation to two young women.

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