Every day,every hour turn the pain into (core) power

Tonight was so great.  For many reasons.  I would like to share a story that I was not an instigator of, but saw a lot of great things by witnessing it happening.  It fact, it happened to me.

Without going into tons of detail, this week has been really hard for me.  Sometimes there are things that happen that are just tough to deal with.  One of those things happened last Sunday.  Each day since I have tried to distract myself and tried to stay busy to move on in life and be happy despite what the real desires of my heart have been.  I feel like I've done an ok job at it, but it most definitely has been hard.

That's where my friend Lucy comes in.  She's great, always has been and always will be.  Ever since I first saw her I was impressed with her accomplishments in life.  Then, ever since I met her, I have been inspired by her to do hard things and accomplish big dreams.  These are among a few of the things knowing her has taught me.  Like me, she has also had a really difficult week.  Unexpected stresses like mine, but also she had a slammed week of school work. One huge test, and preparation for like 4 more that will take place next week.  In addition to that, she is a collegiate athlete, and travels every other weekend for competitions - missing classes to do so.  She has time consuming and strength draining workouts every day.  She has responsibilities as a friend to help others, as a daughter to contribute to her family, as a sister to motivate her siblings, and again as a student-athlete trying to balance two very demanding roles in difficult coursework and difficult physical exertion.  How she does it is beyond me.

Late last night, as I had just climbed into my bed, I decided to send her a text for taking the time out of her day to go skiing with me even when she had so much to do.  I valued the time with her and really value the friendship we share.  She immediately responded and said, "Come down here I have something for you." Haha I was half asleep and surprised, I wasn't expecting to see her that night nor for her to go out of her way to do something so secretive for me.  I threw on some clothes and went down and lo and behold she had a HUGE bag of Core Power and whole wheat bagels.  Seriously among my favorite things.

Why I am telling this story is because of her dedication to selfless service.  That is what this blog is about, right? So Lucy had a crazy week, probably crazier than mine, but she spent her saturday night (she literally could have done ANYTHING - she has many friends and lots she could be doing) with a friend doing something kind, nice and thoughtful for someone else.  THAT'S HUGE! WHO IS THIS LUCY GIRL ANYWAY!?!?

What added even more to it was to understand her heavy load last week and upcoming heavy load this week.  She posted on social media this morning a picture of herself skiing and she said something along the lines of, even with "a bajillion" things to do, it is never a wrong choice to ski, even if it is only for one run.  After she skied is when she went and picked up and delivered the goods for me.  If she had a bajillion things to do when she was skiing earlier that day, she most definitely had so many more things to do instead of do that act of service for me.

And that is what it is all about.  I think I have written this before, but there is never time to do something nice for someone else.  There is always reason to be filling our time with other tasks, important things, urgent things, and any combination of both.  She understands that, yet she took time to do something for someone else.  I hope she felt the power that comes from sacrifice and service, especially at inconvenient times when other things seem more pressing to get done.  She will likely never know the lasting impact that simple act had on me. Now I want to get back out there and go find someone I could help like she helped me!

Happy Valentine's Day

Greetings my lovely blog.  It has been quite some time since I have posted or written in here.  I don't think that correlates with my actual service (hopefully not).  But I do have one story for the books.  I felt pretty criminal about it, but it was totally legit.

Awhile back (and by awhile back I mean like, 7 months ago) my friend locked her bike at her apartment bike racks but lost the only key to the bike lock.  Ever since she told me this tragic story, my mind had been going crazy about how I could be the hero and secretly get her bike unlocked and freed for her.  This was so small task.  Even if I initially thought that it would be.

I started doing some research to find ways to pick bicycle locks without destroying the lock itself.  To this day I am not COMPLETELY positive that is possible.  But the closest thing I could find was from this cute little video:

Yeah, don't get your hopes up.  It is not as easy as that guy makes it look by casually unlocking it mid-conversation at a coffee ship.  I took to it though, and the first trick I encountered was that my pen had too small of a circumference on it.  So I heated the pen by a fire, and it got a little bit bigger, so again my heart took courage. But yeah that didn't last long.  I tried spinning that little pen just like in that video for like 20 minute before I gave up eternally.  Like I will NEVER do that again.

I kept putting it off, and then I decided if I were going to get the bike free, I would have to destroy the lock.  So that took my to Home Depot.  I grabbed a nice strong hack saw but decided I better ask someone first.  And boy am I glad I did.  When he saw my hack saw after I explained my dilemma, he laughed.  Hysterically.  Like it was kind of out of place how much he laughed.  He took me to some of the tools they rent out and said, "OK, this is what you need.  Good luck and don't let the cops find out."  Thanks, great advice bro, that makes me feel really good. Plus there was no way I would be able to keep the noise down or keep my own head on operating that thing.  Do I need like a license to run this machine?  

Her bike was locked up on campus so I figured I would give the campus police a little ring to make sure they understood what was going on and that I wasn't stealing the bike.  Here was the conversation:

BYU POLICE: Campus Police.
ME: uhhh hey.
BYU POLICE: Is there an emergency?
ME: well not yet, but I just got this heavy duty piece of equipment from home depot that could very likely lead to a BIG emergency. (ok, I didn't actually say that part... but still, it was going through my head).  No there is no emergency, but I am about to go cut a lock on a bike that isn't mine but that I have permission to take.  Oh yeah and I'm 25 and the bike belongs to a freshman at Helaman Halls.
BYU POLICE: Ok..?
ME: So, I'm not stealing it so I don't want to cause any trouble.
BYU POLICE: Well I cannot guarantee anything, but if you have formal writ of permission, then you can proceed and any officer that approaches you you not stop or fine you.
ME: k. So does a text message count?
BYU POLICE: no.
ME: well, what is a "formal writ of permission?"
BYU POLICE: Use your best judgement.
ME: Ok that makes me feel better.  Ok...? well in that case, definitely don't send any officers snooping around Helaman Halls tonight in like an hour... (I laughed for effect)
BYU POLICE: Best of luck to you. (NO laughter reciprocated)


I hung up not really knowing if that helped my case or made it worse... Actually, that is a lie.  I definitely know that did NOT help my case.  But, I couldn't go back now. I grabbed the tool they gave me, its called a GRINDER, and strapped on the operators helmet and face mask and ear plugs (seriously was all that necessary Home Depot? I was trying to be discrete, but now I was walking into a shark tank with a bright orange EAT ME sign hung around my neck) and started toward the bike.   I think from here we will continue the story in video form:

Nailed it.  Cut right through that bad boy.  No police, no problem.  The bike is sitting in my friend's room awaiting her return from a weekend trip she took.

At the end of the ordeal, she was so happy she got her bike back and can now ride it all over campus and around town.  Her father, however, will probably not be too pleased with what I did to his lock...

In the Dark of the Night

Have you ever heard that song?  You know, the one from Anastasia?  Rasputin is the star singer? Anyway, it's funny and the actual song has nothing to do with what I am writing about but the title remains fitting.

There are a few --  just a few -- examples of heroes in what members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints declare as scripture that act during the late evening.  OK, so I am sure there are other examples too in the scriptures that I won't highlight right now but here are a few I find fascinating:

1. The Savior prays late into the night the evening of his capture prior to his trial and crucifixion.  He invites other heroes to join him in acting  late into the night through prayer - but they fall short and fall asleep. 
2. Teancum "steals privily" into the tent of an enemy during the midnight hour to end -- or at least postpone -- an invading army from breaching home lands.  Everyone in his own army is asleep and everyone in the invading army is also asleep when this act occurs.  He did this at the end of a long day of brutal physical combat.  I can only imagine how tired he must have been. 
3. Captain Moroni goes to examine enemy movements in a fallen city once the night falls.  Still during the night, after a long march his own troops made, he require that they build ladders and cords and to sneak into the enemy infiltrated city while they sleep.  When the enemy awoke, they were so scared, they all ran away, and Moroni recaptured the city without a single person in his army dying.  

 I wanted to share a little story from someone who gets it.  Someone who would do something just like those heroes mentioned above. Let me give you one example from his life that illustrates this. Lets call him Jerry.   I was driving home with him one night.  It was late at night and I had an early class the next morning.  I was exhausted from the day's efforts.  Jerry told me he needed some help jumping his friend's car.  She had left it in a nearby town after the battery died when she was getting gas on her way to work that morning.  I told him I needed to go home but that  I would help him if he could get the keys from this girl right then and we could go right away.  He tried to reach her, and found out she was busy spending time with some family because they had just had a death in the family. The poor girl must have had one heck of a day.  They were about an hour drive away.  Jerry took me home and he told me he would just wake up in the morning and go jump the car.  

However, the next morning I found out after Jerry dropped me, he waited for a few more hours till he could obtain the girls keys and then he and another friend went out suuuuper late at night/morning to get the car back in working order.  

Now, I was exhausted that day.  I could hardly face going to help her if we even had the keys around midnight.  But lets think about Jerry.  And also his friend?? What in the world.  What saints, right?  Waiting up, getting the work done that needed to be done in a timely fashion.  They are heroes.  Exhausted, stressed, also needing to wake up early, but they still got it done.  The next morning the girl was so grateful. She didn't know how she was going to get to work that morning and I am sure she couldn't face figuring it out that night before she went to bed after spending a long time with her grieving family members.  

The world is filled with a lot of good. I want everyone to realize that.  Bad things happen, people make bad choices sure, but the world is FILLED WITH GOOD.  It's about time you open your eyes to see it.  And if you can't do that then open your heart and DO IT yourself.  

Better than Hakuna Matata?

I woke up this morning and I honestly did not think that I would be doing any significant secretive service today. I just started another semester of college this week, and between my 16.5 credits and 2 part-time jobs I have been stressed and frazzled trying to get everything done that I needed to.  But that is exactly why I love DAGTW.

 "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

Let me tell you what I mean: 

I have been preeeetty stressed today. I have been putting off an assignment that I have been needing to do for the professor who employs me for a very long time.  I just hadn't gotten around to it yet.  So I left one of my classes early so I could spend the rest of my evening quietly hidden deep in my favorite and private study nook on campus.  

I left work at 1pm and everything went just as planned.  I had a great workout.  A little bit of a crossfit workout.  Nothing better. Actually  maybe a girlfriend would also be that nice but since I can't keep those around too long I'll stick with my bike and shoes for now.  (yeah, we broke up last night).  

- ANYWAY - 

I had been studying for more than 30 minutes when my phone rang.  It was from a nice girl I home taught in my previous ward.  She was stranded and needed a ride. I accepted and thought, "perfect, this counts as a good turn right?"  I thought for sure I would feel great about myself for serving and helping this friend of mine.  And I did feel great.  But it was not until I was driving my car talking with this girl that I realized I could do more.  I love serving, it is so fulfilling. People need help. A LOT. I need help A LOT.  This is how I get help, by doing things for others. And if I thought I had a terrible day, surely there were other students just like me who are feeling all the same pressures.  

With this, I remembered a classmate of mine - we have the same major and he is in most of my same classes this semester.  It's a good thing I like him because we sure do see a lot of each other. Today he was not himself.  He was absent from our presentation this morning and was late to our afternoon class.  At this later shift, he was absent minded and unfocused.  You could literally see the stress oozing out of him. OK not literally, I mean figuratively -- which I guess now is literally synonym of figuratively?  Bottom line: poor kid.  So, of course I could do something.  So I'm at the campus grocery store right now writing this in preparation to buy ingredients for a fruit salad.  And by ingredients I mean fruit.  Maybe I can write little phrases of praise to him on the fruit.  That would be kinda fun.  Hopefully it doesn't make the fruit taste like Sharpie though haha. 

I hope this inspires my friend to do something for someone.  Because honestly, that is the way to drop the stress.  "Forget yourself and go to work."  And right now that work is serving others.  So if any of you reading this, (all 1 of you), if you are as stressed as I am or my co-worker was today, if you want to get better, don't wait around for some ninja to anonymously bring you fruit.  Go and do something for someone else.  it'll work.  All your worries --- yeah forget about them.  They will go.  It's even better than Hanuka Matata.  

later skaters.

FAILURE

Don't you hate it when you plan something out in your mind and it is just sooo perfect only to find your mind highly overestimates your physical ability...  Even if you go over every fine detail and you think there is no way to go astray there is ALWAYS something to go astray.  So this has happened to me millions of times.  From building sand castles to planning out a perfect date -- my mind always gives me an unrealistic glimpse of what I hope to create.

Even though this has happened so much, each time I think of something new I think, "Oh, well in the past maybe my mind has led me wrong but oh no, this time -- yeah this time this will actually work."  Literally every time.  So the latest and the greatest story is from last week's attempt at DAGTW.

It all began when I developed a relationship with a good friend.  For the sake of remaining as anonymous as possible, we will call him Danny.  Danny is way cool.  Anyway so he has an iphone 6, and of course, the screen is cracked (if you knew "Danny," this would be no surprise).  I had noticed this every since I started hanging out with him.   I don't think it really bothered him too much, but every once in a while he would make mention of it ever so discreetly.  So.  I planned something big.  I found the least expensive professional iphone repair company and made an appointment to fix the screen.  But a secret service ninja can't just let his friend know what his plans are.  He would have to do it secretly.  And that is exactly what I planned on doing.  I knew Danny worked two jobs.  One on his university campus and the other at an office off campus but not far from his on-campus job. So here is how the story went in my overly-positive mind:

While Danny was going from job A to job B, I snuck into job B's office (wearing a disguise) to make a secret kishkumen-esque deal with his co-worker.  His co-worker readily agreed to distract Danny long enough to switch out my iphone 6 with theirs.  I would then take Danny's iphone to my appointment to get the screen fixed and bring it back in an hour and Danny would magically have a fixed screen and have no clue how or when it happened.  

Danny got to work while I was hidden in the bushes behind the office.  Co-worker worked her magic and made a successful switch of the phones.  Work was so busy that Danny never checked "his" phone for the next hour.  Co-worker gave me Danny's real phone and I was off in a rush!! I quickly made the appointment, and was given a discount for my good looks and I raced back to drop the phone off.  Co-worker ever so secretly switched the phones back.  Danny was so surprised when he got off work.  He literally could not contain himself with joy as tears rushed down his face in gratitude for the magically miracle that had taken place.  The end. 


Ok now let me tell you what actually happened.  I wasnt sure how long Danny took to get from his first job to his second.  So I made a friend with a stranger who was sitting just outside Danny's first job.  I told them I would give them a CapriSun if they would call me once Danny left the office.  I made sure they knew who Danny was and then I was off to his second job!  I timed myself driving from the two jobs so I knew how much time I would have once I got the phone call from the stranger.  Beautiful plan right?

I got to the second job but the office was closed.  No one was in there.  I was so frustrated.  I hope they don't ever look at the security cams because I was totally throwing and breaking stuff all over the place.  Just kidding.  So I waited and eventually someone came to open the office.  They showed up about 5 minutes before Danny was supposed to be done with his first job.  TALK ABOUT PRESSURE.

I quickly explained the situation to Danny's co-worker.  In a very Debbie Downer tone, they laughed and told me that was a stupid idea and that Santa Claus wasn't real either.  Literally as they were telling me this, I got a phone call from my stranger saying Danny had left the building !! I had about 6 minutes based off my time early that day.   "Can't you just have a liiiitle bit of hope sister scrooge???" 

After a little bit of sweet-talking, they agreed to help.  They were unsure of how to make the switch but they said they had an idea.  GREAT!!  It was a miracle.  I quickly hid just in time for Danny pulling in to the parking lot.

About three minutes after Danny went in to the office, his co-worker came SCREAAAMING out of the office.

"HERE HERE I HAVE THE PHONE QUICK TAKE IT TAKE IT!!!"

I whipped my head around and my heart sunk and I saw them running toward me with Danny hot on her heels.  Danny must have thought he was being robbed.  oh great. 

To sum it up, things didn't go as planned.  I was still able to convince Danny to let me fix the phone so I wouldn't have to cancel my appointment haha.  But he wouldn't let me pay for it or anything.  And I was discovered.  Some ninja I am.  Moral of the story, don't trust my imagination or Danny's co-workers.

love,

me

New Zealand Miracle

Last month, I was on a plane departing from a tiny little airport in my hometown headed to a nearby state just a quick hour or two away by plane.  I sat next to a Polynesian woman. We will call her Lanai. Lanai had some very interesting stories.  She had many very interesting stories.  In fact, I was so grateful the plane ride was only a short distance because if we had flown across the country I am sure her stories never would have ceased!

However, on of her stories was really incredible.  Her father was a Christian missionary in New Zealand many years ago.  When he had returned and raised a family of his own, he told the story to his children often.

During his mission, he was assigned to serve a small community high up in the mountains.  At first, he struggled to accomplish the tasks to help the community in this area.  He had high hops and big plans, but his offer was not received well by the local residents.  Surely a little frustrated, he was humbled in prayer and concluded he needed to fast to witness a miracle and a change of heart.  Lanai mentioned this particular fast lasted more than the typical 24 hours.  It came to a point when the missionary was so hungry he did not have strength to do continue talking with members of the community.  He was up in the hills, away from any house or person besides one other missionary who was with him.  He prayed that God would deliver just one loaf of bread so he could end his fast and have renewed physical strength to continue his work.  At the conclusion of the prayer, he opened his eyes to see a fresh loaf of bread on a rock not far from where he was praying. It seemed to have appeared out of no where.  It was nothing short of a miracle. The man needed a loaf of bread and prayed in faith and God delivered.   For many many years this was the end of the story.  

We hear stories like this every once in a while.  And quite frankly, I hate to be the scrooge of the day but I always am just a liiiitle bit skeptical of the reality of some of them.  I do not doubt that God has the power to do something like this - absolutely not but they always seem so out of place.  I don't know many of them seem too bizarre to be true.  Perhaps it is a lesson to me to have more faith in modern miracles.   I should have more faith.

Lanai continued on with a new addition in the story.  She had recently met someone who lived in the very community at the very time her father had served as a missionary in.  This woman had a story of her own.  It was a story passed down from her mother.  It was a story of the missing loaf of bread.  The mother was busy making bread for her family one hot afternoon high in the mountains of New Zealand.  Her house was far separated from her tiny town.  As she was making the bread, she for some reason she could not recall, she set it outside on a nearby rock to cool off before bringing it in with the rest of the loafs she had just made.  After a few minutes she returned to the rock but could never find the loaf she had just set out there.  She didn't know where it had gone or what had happened to it.  She said that she would always remember the story however because it all occurred on the same day she was introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Later that day she was in town and had met the same missionary who had found her loaf of bread. They never connected the stories until both of their daughters met together in Utah and exchanged stories.  Interesting isnt it?

The point I am trying to make with this story is that miracles can occur by everyday people.  The woman making the bread never knew what happened to her loaf.  The hungry missionary never knew how the bread appeared on the rock.  The bread maker was a modern day angel.  I am sure God directed this exchange.  It was great.  I love stories like this. If we do what we are supposed to and live the best we can, we will be put in situations where we need to be in order to help others and spread the light of Christ throughout the world.

Blog update

Howdy.

In my first post, I mentioned I would use this blog to record my own random acts of service.  Well, that's changed. haha. I mean I definitely will still do that, but don't you just love when Christmas time rolls around and those stories show up on Facebook about people leaving anonymous tips of like 100 bucks to some desperate waitress or someone randomly buying someone else's groceries when they can't afford it ?  I love those stories.  Absolutely love them.

So on this blog I am going to throw in a few stories of other acts of kindness that I hear about to supplement the journal keeping of the things I do on Wednesdays.  Right now, I do not plan on sharing this blog with anyone ha but if the day ever comes that I do, and you are actually reading this, then feel free to email me any story of random service that you would like me to post about.  Dagtw4@gmail.com. All stories are welcome.  I love reading and hearing all about them.

Part of my fascination with these kind of stories (especially the anonymous ones) is because of a religious belief of mine.  We read in Christian scripture about the ministering of angels.  We read about many miracles where angels have divinely intervened to bring about some great miracle.  We read about Joshua and Jericho, and Hagar and Ishmael all being aided by angels.

We are also told that angels have not stopped ministering to people today.

"Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?  I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore if these things have ceased... it is because of unbelief"

And the greatest part about this is that God uses everyday people to act as angels for us today.  We can be inspiration to act in good service for others.  Some of the stories that I share that are not my own wednesday adventures will be focused on everyday people who act as angels.  

im out.