It's a Small World

Two stories.

Story #1: Before my mission, I worked in a BYU cafeteria. Once I got out of the dishroom, I was mostly responsible for restocking drinks and cleaning up spills. Certainly not the most glamorous of jobs, but my co-worked and I got along really well, so the time went pretty quick. He taught me the ropes of the job, and we quickly got a routine down so that most of our time was spent just standing around and talking. We laughed about all the funny things people wore, who sat with whom, and occasionally snuck drinks out of the almost-empty Chocolate milk bags. Mmmmm.

Story #2: I checked into my apartment today to drop off a few things before I move in for good. As I was picking up my key, one of my roommates was there. He said "Oh, you're [insert Yellow's name here]. You know our other roommate [insert roommate's name here] then." I wasn't aware of knowing any such roommate, so I was quite surprised. I got into my apartment, but nobody was there, so I didn't get to find out.

The point of all this: I did some further investigation. They're the same person. Walt Disney was right.

It's a Small World After All

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

I'm living out of town for the summer, so when I receive mail at home, my mom usually puts it in a larger envelope and forwards it to me here. The other day I received one of these envelopes with two letters inside.

The first was a wedding invitation. (Yes, another. Hence the previous post.) It was from a high school friend I hadn't heard from in a while. He was one of my favorite people in high school and I was very excited to receive his wedding invitation. It's fun to see so many of my friends getting married and generally being very happy.

The second was a letter from a girl we baptized in my mission. I won't be too specific out of respect to privacy, but here are a few snippets:

"...I didn't go to the temple and I don't plan to. I stopped going to church three months ago."

"When you come, you'll find only 4 or 5 people. Nobody goes to church anymore."

"Regarding the Book of Mormon, it's sitting abandoned on the bookshelf. I don't touch it at all, and I'm not interested in it anymore."

Needless to say, I wasn't nearly as excited about receiving this second letter. It was good to hear from her; I hadn't heard anything in a number of months. But this wasn't exactly the news I was hoping for.

She thanked me for writing and said she hopes we can still be friends despite the fact that she's left the church. And of course we can. In my opinion, one of the true tragedies about current church culture, (especially in Utah,) is that we don't know how to deal with those that don't follow the ideal path, so we shun them. Instead of reaching out to them, instead of keeping those relationships open, instead of showing these people the love of Christ, we block them out. These are the people that need our help the most. These are they of whom Christ said "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick."

My mission president taught me something very profound. He said that there are two parts to a testimony of the Church. The first is that the Church is true. This is what we generally think of when we imagine a testimony. It involves a testimony of Christ as the Savior, a testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith, a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and other such things. The second is that the Church is good. This means that the Church makes me feel happy inside. This is why we have ward parties and basketball teams. When there is no unity among the members, they won't stay. As missionaires we taught people that the Gospel brings joy. If they don't feel that joy, they'll leave.

I think that's what happened with my friend. The happiness and joy that comes from the Gospel was gone. And if men are that they might have joy... then why go to Church if it doesn't help in that pursuit? Granted, the Church isn't perfect, but if we don't do our part to make it better, it will never get there.

Sixteen

Make that sixteen weddings this year. Just got another one.

Summer of Love

Let's begin by stating a few things. I like girls. I really do. I enjoy dating. When I'm in Provo, it's not at all unusual for me to go on 2-3 dates per week, often with different girls. This makes me quite happy, since in high school I probably went on 10 dates total in 3 years. I've been feeling quite good about my social situation. I think I'm about right where I should be.

But evidence would suggest otherwise. Between March 1 and August 5, I have been invited the weddings of no less than 12 friends. These aren't just acquaintances either. My best friend, wonderful mission companions, roommates... these are all the people I hang out with! A few others are getting married, but I haven't heard directly from them yet, bringing the total to over 15. With only 2 exceptions, they're all my age.

I don't know what's gotten into everybody, but apparently Summer 2006 is the designated time for everyone to get married. And I missed the boat. That's perfectly fine with me; I'll get married when I love the girl so much there's no question that I want to be with her forever.

Anyway, if anyone else would like to announce their Summer 2006 engagements, please feel free to comment. Especially if you happen to actually know me.

I made it!

A few months ago I rediscovered BYU's 100 Hour Board, a Q&A board on which any registered user can ask a question and get an answer within 100 hours. It has quickly become my favorite way to fill the empty minutes at work. It's a great way to learn lots of random information and keep yourself entertained. At first I just read the daily posts, but I soon discovered the "I'm Board!" link, which displays a random question from the archives.

Occasionally readers ask the Board a question along the lines of "How do I become a writer for the Board?" The answer is always the same: "Search the archives." This intrigued me a bit, because I'm always looking for more information. I didn't necessarily want to apply, but I wanted to know how in case I had the desire at a future time. However, none of my searches resulted in the necessary information. This only whetted my appetite.

About a month ago, I came across the necessary information. By that time, I was thoroughly addicted to the Board. I had favorite writers, and I even stared reading their blogs. Realizing that I was spending a lot of time on the Board, I decided to jump through the hoops necessary to apply to be a writer. If I'm going to be on the Board that much, I figured, I might as well make a useful contribution.

Monday, I was browsing the archives while waiting for someone at work when suddenly a whole set of links I had never seen before appeared. The Board occasionally has little bugs, so I figured it was just one of those, but this was much more extensive than ever before. I then saw in the top right corner the following text:

Logged in as [insert Yellow's name here].
(Probational Writer)

I was stunned. Could it really be? I poked around a bit. Yes, I could see the Inbox. Yes, I could assign categories to questions. Yes, I could click "Reply" to questions.

I made it!

I did a little semi-elated dance in my chair. I'm sure my cube-mate thought I was quite crazy. But then, I am. And I don't even care!