The Borrower's Debt is the Only Regret of my Youth

I am to have a glorious v-neck tan later this week.

The Bountiful Chalk Art Festival was truly fantastic. 

Utah is rather Beautiful. In relative terms, it is gorgeous. 

"Uncle Aaron! The world is just so exiting, I have to dance!!!" -Nikolai

I Can See a Temple From my House

...It was my Birthday!

I truly have the greatest friends ever. :)

The Best Is Yet to Be

What will help me keep the promises I make when I am baptized?

Pray to your Father in Heaven for help.

We have three members of the Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost—helping us because of the covenants we have made.

To remind us of those covenants, we partake of the sacrament each week.

The power of your covenants is greater than the power of temptation.

Talk to your mom and dad.

Study the scriptures. … Obey the living prophets.

How should I speak so I can be like Jesus Christ?

Speak kindly.

Speak positively, including about yourself.

Our words, like our actions, should be filled with faith and hope and charity.

Never tell [others], even as a joke, that they are fat or dumb or lazy or ugly.

Try not to complain.

When we say kind, encouraging things to the smallest child or the least popular person we know, we are saying these things to our Father in Heaven.

The Best Is Yet to Be

The poet Robert Browning wrote:

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in his hand

Who saith, “A whole I planned,

Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!” ²

Some of you may wonder: Is there any future for me? What does a new year or a new semester, a new major or a new romance, a new job or a new home hold for me? Will I be safe? Will life be sound? Can I trust in the Lord and in the future? Or would it be better to look back, to go back, to stay in the past?

I Wasn't Planning on Doing Homework Any Way

My goodness I haven't blogged in a while! I hate the knowledge that I am procrastinating a post, especially one such as tonight's. I promise to not let 2 weeks go by again. 

Although, I must say, with AP tests around the corner, Prom and the SAT on Saturday, I could say that it is justified. 

Onto the interesting news of my life. 

Two Tuesday's ago my debate team and I had the chance to participate in a model United Nations conference on the campus of the University of Utah. It was Viewmont's first time, consequently we did not do fantastic. However, for being a first go at it, we most certainly did not do bad.

On that same day, I received a rather curious call from my mom....

Previously, I had attended a seminary assembly, which for all they who live outside the bubble is where the three or four seminary classes who meet during your period get together to have a guest speaker or something of that nature. When we had a seminary assembly, we had a brother who worked for the church as essentially a Temple location Realtor. He along with three other men and the Prophet select sites where Temples are to be built. 

After class, my seminary teacher (who happened to know that I love architecture) introduced me to this brother. We talked for a while, and talked about LDS Temples, architecture and careers. He then asked for my name, and I went on my merry way to APUSH. Lo and behold, after the Model UN confrence was over, I got a call form my mom saying that a man had called me and asked for me to return the call. When I returned the call he invited me to come down to Temple Square on Friday, and to tour the Church architecture department and to meet with one of the 5 Temple architects. 

That Friday after school, I boarded the Frontrunner south to Salt lake, and transferred onto the Trax to Temple Square. (By the way, you should take the Frontrunner if you live in Salt Lake, Davis or Weber county!) Dressed in a suit and tie, I walked down the streets of downtown into Temple square. I made my way up to the 10th floor of the Church office building and had the experience that I had most literally only dreamed about. 

The architect I met with has designed some notable LDS Temples, including the Rexburg Temple, the Philadelphia Temple, the Vancouver Temple, the Phoenix Temple, the Sapporo Temple, the Kansas City Temple and the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I was able to view several other Temple renderings and floor plans for buildings that have not yet been released. I was also able to view floor plans for current Temples and for ones under construction. 

 I can't even describe how amazing it was to meet with a man who literally had my dream job. I was privileged to learn more about Temple architecture than most LDS members. What was really amazing was that after viewing and learning so much of these Temples, I had the chance to share what I had designed with an actual Architect. It honestly surprised me that despite my age and never having been through a dedicated Temple, how accurate my designs were. It never occurred to me that what I was drawing on paper could actually be accurate to such a degree as real Temples are. 

On to my final meandering of the evening. Now that our house in NC has sold, we are officially official in house hunting. We are preparing to make offers when we find a house that really pleases us. And I think we are getting closer. One of our number one choices is just north of our current rental house, and in relative proximity to a park. Heaven knows if we will ever get to live there, but with that beautiful window in the living room, I would certainly hope so. 

My dear beloveds, I think I am read to go to sleep now. I love you all very much, and wish you the best happiness on your daily endeavors! Good night!

A Triple Tonight

I honestly do have a real blog post planned, that includes my interests, insights, and experiences. 

But I'm way too tired to write one right now. So instead, I am going to write something a tad less meaningful, but still mildly fantastic.

I love my nephew. He is the cutest thing ever. Even if he can't recognize me as a human while I am wearing my glasses. 

I love my roof. Very little feels as good as taking a short trip out my window, and just enjoying the spring air. I guess it is my external substitution for not having Tanglewood park just 5 seconds away, although this is even closer. It is nice to be higher up, and outside.

I am making progress on my Post Classical Ottoman city! I think I am going to name it The City Novum. The basic idea behind this is that while Greek, Gothic and Colonial styles of architecture all had amazing revival periods, a good portion of architecture never did have a large 20th and 21st century comeback. The City Novum is being designed on the idea that if classical ottoman architecture did have a modern revival period, it would look like this. This in particular is the city cathedral/church/tabernacle. I finished designing it today in physics, and when I got home, I started working on the CAD model. 

I can't even tell you how ready I am for people to start paying me to design these buildings. I am so ready to be done with school. 

I love each and every one of you. 

Ta ta! 

It is still me, all along.

For the third time in my life, I have gotten glasses. To be honest, I can only recall a handful of occasions that I wore my first pair. My second pair of glasses were more used, but people generally wouldn't remember me wearing them.

So now I have glasses again! I've determined that I am going to start wearing them more often now. I didn't realize that it was possible to see sharply at a distance, but with my glasses I can. Not to mention my eyes don't get nearly as tired now.

Another thing I love about this photo collage is how I progressively get more and more classy.

That might be my favorite thing, actually.

Well, I need to both go to work and ponder the deep mysteries of live. Toodles!

City Creek Center and Morp Fantastica

I had such a busy week.

I kinda hate those posts where you go point by point of every thing that has happened since your previous post. But in this case, I am going to do it regardless of my social disdain for the practice.

So on Monday I had the opportunity to go the the Utah Museum of Natural History, on the campus of the University of Utah.

It turns out all the maps on campus tell you exactly where it used to be several years ago. An hour and a half later we found that out. 

Regardless of that, it was still very enjoyable. 

Then, early Friday morning I had the chance to go to the midnight premier of the Hunger Games!

It was crazy! And I loved it. 

I did get rather motion sick, as I was sitting in the second row to the front, and it was 2:00 in the morning. Plus the cinematography sucked. However, the movie plot line was very true to the book and I honestly felt like I was watching it for the second time. 

Buuuuuut what I really want to talk about for the bulk of this post was this past Saturday.

In Utah high schools have about 10 dances every year. Before every dance, you and your date group go do a date activity, usually followed by food and then going to the dance itself. After some miscommunication and what not, our entire group couldn't go to our original day activity, which was the festival of colors.  Instead, Aerielle and myself went down to the brand new City Creek Center! It is the new mall in downtown Salt Lake, and it was fantastic. 

We took the FrontRunner down from Woodscross to Salt Lake. For all my non-Utahns, the frontrunner is the  regional passenger train that runs through northern Utah. From the main frontrunner station in Salt Lake, we transferred onto the Trax, which is the light rail system that runs through downtown. 

The trax took us directly to the mall in down town. City Creek Center occupies the two city blocks immediately south of Temple Square with a sky bridge connecting the two.

Not gonna lie, they made it classy as heck going to that mall. 

I got to share the fantastic experience with the lovely Aerielle! We meandered through H&M where I got myself a new shirt and belt, and we walk all up and down the rich stores, finding $600 pairs of heels, the food court, and a barrage of other stores. 

Oh, and as this was the fist Saturday since its opening, it was super super crowded. Which is a good thing! When we boarded the front runner around noon, we literally got the last two seats in our car. 

When we took the trax back to the transfer station, it was amazingly crowded. Below is one train that usually runs through the day. On most busy days they double up of the cars, and have two running together. 

On the first Saturday that the mall was open, they quadrupled the cars together. And it was still packed full. 

I have to say all in all, this was one of the best downtown experiences that I ever had. Taking public transportation made me feel pretty good about not wasting gas, and saving the environment and what ever, but it was also really nice to take public transportation directly to the center of the mall. 

Oh, and I don't know how true this cartoon is, but it really made me laugh. If you can't tell, the man on the right has a name plaque that says "Temple Square". 

And right before the dance, me and my date took a short walk into the mountains above Centerville, and watched the sun set. 

The end! 

Keep Calm and Carry On

This is the theme of my debate life.

On Friday and Saturday, I went to the 5A State Debate Tournament of Utah!
It was at Weber State University (For you non Utahns, that is pronounced wee-bur)

I ran an event called Public Forum, which is a 2 on 2 debate. There is a topic every month, this month's topic being "Resolved: The United States should suspend all assistance to Pakistan". My partner and I write 2 cases before a tournament, one aff (affirmation) and one neg (negation). Right before every round, there is a coin toss, and the winner of the coin toss gets to choose either aff or neg, or whether they would like to speak first or second. My debate partner is Eliza Thacker, and she is fantastic. We kicked some serious aff.

Because the States Tournement is on the campus of a University, there were several other events going on. One of these events was an Native American Pow Wow, located in the Ball Room of the student union building. 

Because me and Eliza didn't break, (Break meaning you break into the final rounds), we decided to pay the $3 and go watch. It was really fantastic, watching all those incredible dancers. The music and their apparel really made me think about how much longer their culture has been on this continent than mine has.  

After the tournament ended Saturday night, my debate team went out to eat a Mexican restaurant.

I have to admit, that I am a little sad that the debate season is over. However, I am very much glad that I will be getting much of my life back. And now I will have more time to focus on school work. But I learned so much, and such amazing experiences that I don't think I will soon forget. 

I guess I just have to remember one thing: 

And that's all from me tonight. 

A Small Adventure will do you a World of Good

Every Tuesday, some of my friends and I go to the Bountiful Utah Temple to do Baptisms for the Dead. It is really an amazing experience, and it is such a great way to start out your day. 

Twice a year, each Temple is closed for cleaning and maintenance. This week, and the following week happen to be the time of year that the Bountiful Temple is closed. 

In order to maintain our pattern of going every Tuesday, we decided that instead, we would travel to the next closest Temple, the Salt Lake Temple. 

Let me explain a bit more about Baptisms for the Dead.

This is the Salt Lake Baptistery Font. (It is much, much bigger in person.)

When people die, and have not been Baptized in the name of, and by the power of Christ when they were living, they are unable to enter the Kingdom of God by no fault of their own. 

When the nearest relative has given consent, their name may be taken to a Temple, and a living person may be Baptized in their behalf. This way, they have the opportunity to choose to enter the Kingdom of God, even if they didn't have the chance to learn about it, and be Baptized on earth. 

And that is why me and my friends go every Tuesday to do Baptisms for the dead. Because there are so many people who were born, lived and died with out every deciding for their selves if they wanted to be Baptized. Through a Temple, the living on earth can give them that opportunity to decided after they have died. 

It was one of the most spiritual Temple trips I have ever had. 

Maybe because it was a different Temple that we normally go to. Maybe because of the history, that this Temple is more than 100 years old, and Prophets and Apostles have walk its halls. 

It was special.

After we were done with the Baptisms, we went out side to walk around Temple square. We went into the North Visitor Center, to sit in front of the Christus statue. 

If you have never seen a Christus statue, it is a marble figure of the resurrected Christ. He is clothed in all white, and his hands are opened toward you. In the palms of his hands and on the tops of his feet are the holes where he was nailed to the cross. 

It was very quiet there. Just sitting in front of his statue.

Thinking about what he has done for each of us. The love he must have to have gone through that for us.

It was truly amazing.

It was an amazing trip, with the four of us. The Temple is full of symbolism, and just walking around its exterior afterwards made us feel good. I guess it is something beyond my comprehension. How all our simple acts here on earth have such profound reactions in Heaven above.