If I were any better, I'd be twins!

Monday
I did not sleep the night before this night. I shamefully admit that I destroyed my sleep patterns by finding and experimentingng with new movie making/sound recording software, while organizing the files on my computer. At this current stage of maturity that I am in, the word CLEAN=destroy what's making the mess if you don't know/don't care where it goes. I dumped all of the old school files on my computer, only to find out later that I accidentally got rid of an important NHS document where all of my recorded service hours were! Heavenly Father had mercy on me, however: I had just sent the file to Brianna so she could tally the service time, so I was able to get it back from her. I could have easily learned this lesson the hard way; when am I ever going to GROW UP?

As soon as I can bear the growing pain, I assume.

Today I worked at Anna's house again. She's married now, and is therefore getting ready to move.

Tuesday
I took some good notes in seminary today. What I got from Superhero Beckstead's lesson today were fantastic bits of knowledge such as "Most trials are self inflicted." "But Christ can even strengthen you in those ones." "Just because something is simple doesn't mean it's easy." "American continent motto: Inasmuch as ye keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land." and "Hardships form togetherness."

Today was another good school day, with a lot of LLs. Thanks to Ceana, I remembered the Latin LL! I had a very fun time in all of the LLs that I went to today, especially Mrs. Naylor's English lesson. I feel safe saying that that was the most entertaining livelesson I have ever attended; lots of creative phrases were made.

Mwahaha, our group of 9 from the Semester party is planning another music party with more people at Miranda's house on the 4th of March... I'm so excited!

Wednesday
I worked for the last time at Anna's house today. I have many responsibilities, and the work I'm now doing over there can easily be done by a crew. I need to learn to just chill and leave some responsibilities to others.

Other than that, same old school.

This evening, our Varsity team organized a theme for these next three months: Cooking! We thought up a lot of different activity ideas, ranging from live chicken butchering to getting food-handling licences. We put our best ideas on the calendar; I'm so glad that everything worked out so well! We made salsa that night just for a warm up after planning.

Thursday
Where on earth does all of my time go? This week has been the craziest of my life so far. Today I had a dentist appointment, and was told that I'm not cleaning my teeth well enough when I brush. Haha, another weakness to strengthen!

Had a good piano practice as well; I'm simply loving my lessons with Hildegard of Grants Pass (likes to go by her "title" now and then for kicks!). As much as I feel I'm improving, I need to really step up on my piano practice. And guitar practice. And schoolwork. And scripture study. And family relations. And friend relations. And missionary work. And book reading. And scouting. And cleaning. And the rest of the list...

I love life! There is so much to do. How can one ever be bored?

Friday
Today was a blast! Got a bit of school in, then went to see Jeff Nelson (Grants Pass park coordinator) at 11. We set up the activity in our area for ORCA Cares Day: March 17th. We're going to replenish the wood chunks that make the paths throughout my most favorite park in our city: the Reinhart Volunteer Park. Again, Heavenly Father has given me such mercy for having everything work out just fine! I need to spend a ton of time on my knees thanking Him.

After chatting with Jeff (who's a really cool guy, by the way. He's a fan of Covey too!) I went back home, then was picked up by grandpa Seable to go to his house. And then it began...

Anthony Jarvis has become a digital songwriter. He now puts simple poems to simple music that he finds on this really cool music site! Anyways, he wrote an extra-cheesy song called "My Valentine" that he wanted to turn into a music video. Today I helped him do just that; you can find it in my videos on facebook. It was such a ridiculous song, but that was what made it so fun! Here's just a taste of his lyrics:

"For you I would do most anything,
I'd die or count all of the people in Beijing..."

We've decided to make a video this year for each holiday. We already have ideas for St. Patrick's Day...

Saturday
Today I got into movie-mode and decided to make a couple of guitar videos for a couple of birthday girls on facebook, as well as a cover of Longer by Dan Fogelburg. Then after doing a bit of schoolwork (cough, not enough) I went to go tract with the missionaries in our ward. We first met at the stake center with a few of the other Priesthood holders. Our goal was to go out and find a bunch of people whom we had not seen or heard from in the ward. And I think we did pretty successfully. In the individual groop I was in, we were only able to contact one guy, who was embarassed to come to church because of how rude some of the members were around his wife and daughter who are not members. But from what I hear from some of the other groops, we found some people who wanted home teachers to start coming back to them. Therefore, we were successful.

Once I was driven home from that, I made a few phone calls to some MB counselors and set some appointments. I've almost gotten everything done Merit Badge-wise; just wrapping up some different stuff this next coming week.

WHAT DID I DO WITH MY TIME TODAY? My word, why doesn't stuff on my task list get DONE? I need to work on prioritizing more; even Soke pointed out that weakness of mine when I practiced karate. I believe that this weakness can be made strong. I can do this, but not by my own power.

Schoolwork buildup...

This evening we went to grandma's house (the gathering place for all special occasions) to celebrate Aunt Kirsten's 40th birthday! I got to learn a lot more about her in the party games we played; I need to get to know this lady more! People shared fun family stories about her, such as the "intruder of the house" and "the amnesia incident". Kirsten's been in a ton of childhood accidents; it's amazing how she survived getting a hole gouged into her head by a falling statue, being bit by a savage (oh, HA. Savage) dog, accidentially stabbing herself to the bone with a spoon, and more! I love Kirsten; I'm going to have to get to know her more. By the way, she's 11 weeks pregnant!

Sunday
Today's sacrament meeting was fantastic! Katie Wooley had just returned from her mission, and gave a talk about her mission experience. President and Sister Woodley (yup, that's not a typo) also gave talks in sacrament meeting today about the temple. The strong testimonies from these two people who worked in the temple so much strengthened my own testimony greatly. I want to go to the temple! I'll have to make it a monthly committment when I am an adult.

After sacrament meeting we went to Sunday school, in which Brother Hancock taught us the lesson in which Jesus talkes to Nicodemus about being born again. I remember that Sister Baxter had taught me this lesson a couple of weeks ago when I was visiting the Baxters. It was much easier to be taught by the Spirit in Rory's classroom than Brother Hancock's, I feel. Maybe it was the throwing of chocolate, the disruptive talking of everyone else, and the objective-less teaching strategy of Brother Hancock that made it difficult to feel inspired in class today. I don't know. Maybe I should just change my attitude about it and see what I can do to make Sunday school more spiritual instead of blaming others.

In priesthood, Brother Evans taught us discipline in the way he does whenever our system for the sacrament bread messes up (the Sunday I was gone the system fell apart, oops!): he "forced" the members of our quorum to copy scripture for the whole lesson time. I suggested D&C 88, and so we spent that whole last 40 minutes copying the first verses of that section on scraps of paper.

After church, Sabrina came up with a wonderful Valentine's Day surprise: tomorrow afternoon, I and some of my guy friends are going to go and serenade Fa and Carmen at their house! I heard both of them say that they did not like Valentine's Day. We plan on turning that around, mwahahaha~!

Today was plan-out-the-week-day and prepare the house for missionaries to come; Elder Hill and his companion (dang it... forgot his name! Very new missionary.) came to dinner. We made some delicious Thai food for our Sunday meal: curry, pork, rice, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, and brocoli. Delicious! Their message to us was delivered very well: if you want to be a good missionary, or student, or husband, or anything else, you need to be willing to do two things: to keep the right attitude, and work hard! I hope I can take their challenge to try harder to do that this week.