Do Smart Things

https://www.lds.org/church/news/do-smart-things-with-your-smartphone?lang=eng&_r=1&cid=HP_TH_26-5-2016_dCN_fCNWS_xLIDyH-1_

So I recently read this article given by my first mission president M. Joseph Brough. He is now in the general young men's presidency.

Anyway most of us that are on this blog have a smart phone. We need to learn to do smart things with it. I have been more aware of that since reading this article and I have been trying harder to be where I am completely. Or in other words I have tried to be fully engaged in a task instead of getting distracted by my phone.

 Those are some thoughts for you. I know that they can be a great tool if we let them be.

The Reunion was fun

So I had fun at the reunion. I had some questions about Heather. I guess I need to write a real post some time but for the family who hasn't met Heather.  Here are some pictures of Star Valley and Heather

Jobs

Ben just applied for a job with Flathead electric. It will be in Libby, Montana. We'll  be hearing back next week about interviews. And they'll hire at the end of the month. We are more than ready to be a family again. It's such a challenge to make family goals and "be a complete  family" as my children would say. This fast Sunday we are fasting for the Libby job and other opportunities for our family be together.

My Prezi

For my FAML 360 class final project we had to create a prezi.  Here is the link to mine.

https://prezi.com/qc8cltabblqb/learn-to-dance-by-hearing-the-music/

"It's a Happening!!"

10 points to whoever can guess where the title comes from. It's from a movie, yes.
I don't really have a good picture to go with the title, but I thought maybe the hodgepodge of pictures deserves a title like that.
Below is Passion fruit mousse. Super good!!

 This is the view from the apartment of a couple of friends from the Catholic University here in Salvador (UCSAL).

 Angus and I played some soccer. I scored a goal!! It was pretty much a lucky break, but it was still cool. Everyone was so surprised and the other team was kind of mad that an unskilled American could even score a goal. I mean Brazilians are soccer geniuses, right? They are the only country to qualify for every world cup, so they do have a storied tradition.

 I was in the library this week and I saw a girl reading this book. It was fun to think back to days of yore when I first read the Hobbit. I remember Linda Lee reading the book and I saw the cover. It was Bilbo with his small elven sword hiding from Golum. I think it wasn't long after that that I picked up the book and read it. I wonder what this girl is thinking as she reads through on her first time, and in English to boot.

 They did some serious tree trimming here near our house. They had some really big lifts and they had closed off the street. It was cool to watch.

 Some more sunsets. Cool story, Salvador is one of the only places on the east coast where you can see the sun setting over the water.... because normally it will set over land, but the bay here is big enough that you can see the sun setting on the water.

 Some cool trees by a museum here.

 So I went to go do a research interview with Graziela Pimenta. I am partners with her and her twin brother Gabriel. We are trying to set up interviews and do them together. So we went into a nearby favela (which is like a shanty town or a squatter colony). The Brazilian government never really opened up the land to settlement like the US government did. The land has always primarily been owned in large plots by plantation owners or by people who received land grants, etc. Similar to Mexico and much of Latin America. That did create some problems once the slaves were freed in 1888. They weren't really given a place to go. So even today there is a tradition and a culture of settling on unused land that isn't theirs and just building houses. The favelas are super labyrinths. They have lots of side streets and ins and outs. Easy to get lost and easy to hide. This is a picture of a favela through a gap in this wall.

 This view is from Gabriel and Graziela's apartment! Below in the black is Gabriel. Like I said, he and his sister are students at UCSAL. On Saturday I went to do an interview with them and I ended up staying the afternoon at their apartment. One thing about Brazilians is that they love to talk. They can talk the day and night away. We talked about school, about interviews, about buses, and about the church! I told them about the word of wisdom, the restoration, the priesthood, etc. It was a good conversation and they seemed interested. They were very respectful and also shared some of their beliefs and traditions growing up Catholic. Gabriel only wears black. Haha. He showed me his closet. All black with some gray.  I was just waiting for a grumbly voice to say, "I only work in black or very dark gray." I hope to be able to share more with them this week, and invite them to listen to the missionaries. Yesterday at church some of the students invited their host family to come to church with them, so we had two investigators at church! It was totally rad.

I am really loving Brazil. I am learning a ton here. Interestingly, much of what I have been learning is personal and more spiritual than cultural. I have realized that I have a deep-seated tendency to consider myself "better" than others. Either because I am smart, or strong, or spiritual, I think of myself as better because I think I have "more". I believe the praise that other people give me, and I tend to even praise myself sometimes. It is just so subtle. I think to myself, "I could take that guy. I'm stronger than him." or "I should help that girl, she doesn't have as deep of a testimony as me." or even "The Savior is better than everyone, so he can help all of us." On the other side I might think things like "They are out of my league." or "I don't really want to be friends with someone who is so rich."

It isn't that helping others is bad, but I recognize that in helping others or interacting with them, I tend to do a lot of comparing too.
How can I share what I have with others who lack without thinking that they are less?

To quote the words of Jacob, " And now, my brethren, I have spoken unto you concerningp ride; and those of you which have afflicted your neighbor, and persecuted him becuse ye were proud in your hearts, of the things which God hath given you, what say ye of it?
Do you not suppose that such things are abominable unto him who created all flesh? And the one being is as precious in his sight as the other. And all flesh is of the dust; and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever. " (Jacob 2:20-21)

It isn't just having more; it isn't just actively being mean to others.
Do we let our feelings prevent us from connecting on a deep level with those around us?
Do we see everyone as a child of Heavenly Father? Our brothers and sisters?

I have realized that I have a long way to go, but I'll be working on it, and I hope to be able to see everyone with the potential they have and the heritage they carry instead of comparing myself to them.

One. Massive. Update.

Well well well. I bet some of you forgot that you had a little brother named Jared. He leaves on a mission for two years and then he was never heard from again...

Probably eaten by a gator.

Well I am here today to dispel rumors, make amends, and write blog posts.


Since returning from my mission a lot has happened. I will try to update with great efficiency and lots of pictures. 

Last Night in the Mission Home

My Go Home Group!

Coming down the Escalator!!

Since I have gotten home, I feel like I have been really trying to find myself. Honestly for a while I had a really hard time being myself around the family. Still is hard sometimes. So I withdrew from the family for a while. Now I am working on coming back.

I really have changed so much since before the mission. I haven't shown that fairly to the family.


So when I got home, the first thing I did was go to my companion's wedding. (It literally the day after I had gotten home. He was my favorite companion from the mission. He was pretty awesome. I loved him a lot!

His wedding was really weird. 

First of all, when your companion kisses a girl, IT'S NOT NORMAL!!! I was still introducing myself as elder!! Also I'm a foot taller than everyone else, but I guess I was still mostly normal. 

Also we had some friends from the mission come, and this one sister missionary that I knew comes and gives me this big hug (weirdest experience of my life!! and I went to Louisiana on my mission!!!) but then I realized it was OK and it was all better.

This is us!

Obviously the duck face was still cool when I left so don't judge.

So since then I have been going to school and going on lots of dates. 40 dates in the 7.5 months that I have been home. That's 1.2307 dates a week! Not too bad! I was at 33 dates in 4 months which 1.903 dates a week, but then I ran out of funds and slowed it down. A lot. 

This is Becca! She is engaged now. Not to me. This was a double date with John before Heather was his girlfriend.

I have some great roommates! We have some amazing adventures. We call ourselves the brotherhood of the frozen pants because we found frozen pants on our doorstep one time! Shown below

We have many adventures together. We do things such as Buffalo Wild Wings, 

Camels,

and tons of awesome hikes! 

You will see throughout a guy with curly hair throughout these pictures. He is a friend from the mission. He is not a roommate, but he might as well be because he comes like every weekend! haha The Muslim looking guy is also from the mission. He is a roommate.

I also have entered a whole new world since the mission. The world of dance!! I love it so much!! I had no idea that it existed!!

So I go to country dance almost every week. And have gotten pretty good! So they tell me. Just country swing. Not two step or anything. 

Where's Waldo?!?

My strategy is simple. You get good by acting like you are really bad until you are really good. Because you ask all of the really good dancers to dance with you and then they teach you how it's done!!

Now I do crazy lifts and stuff. Its pretty awesome!! 

Here is another few dances. The first is a spotlight dance and then the next was the recent Masquerade ball. I'm taking an intermediate ballroom dance class with the girl that I took to the Masquerade ball and we were really good! We won the dance contest that they had there! Free pretzel baby!! Woot woot!! 

We also started a scripture study class on our own and went to general conference in April! The general conference adventure was pretty awesome and a story within itself! If I get enough requests, I will write about that one too! haha

This is Ben!

Real quick. There were some protesters all over the place and they were saying really horrible things. We were standing next to some Samoan guys--they aren't afraid of anything--and we all started singing The Spirit of God to help bring the Spirit back. It was pretty awesome!

TEMPLE!!!

Here are some other pictures of the mission homies!! Zach is in one of these too. 

Bathroom selfie!!!!

Last but not least, we formed a group where we will go serenade to entire apartment complexes. It's a way to find new investigators ;). We get a lot of girls to come gather outside the apartments (like 30 or so) and then get numbers and dates. It's pretty awesome! 

That's about it! If you have any questions or comments or you want full stories, give me a call @ (208) 996-1412 so that we can catch up! :) Never to busy to talk to family.

Love,
Superman