Spontaneous Overflow of Powerful Emotion

A little bit of background: I've encountered the painting She Will Find What is Lost by Brian Kershisnik (below) several times in the past year, and absolutely love it. In school I've also been reading a lot of poetry and talking about different styles, forms, and constructs (stealing the title for this post from Wordsworth). The other day I got an email about a Poetry Jam in the BYU Museum of Art where some of Kershisnik's art is currently being displayed. Each poem was inspired by a piece of art in the museum. With this in mind, I sat down in my Eternal Families religion class, and spontaneously wrote the following. Why today? It's my Grandma's birthday.

You Will Find I'm Not Alone

Sometimes, afraid to look around

I keep my eyes upon the ground.

Hoping to find there what I lost,

Hoping to avoid the cost

Of losing that which once I had,

Conviction, like my Mom and Dad.

I used to look around and see

Things that simply couldn't be.

Loving hands, long since gone,

Lifting, helping me move on.

My grandma on my mother's side,

I knew her love before she died,

And somehow feel it near me still,

especially when I do His will.

Many others paved the way for me,

Women whose strength I still see.

For, even though their hearts are gone,

Their love remains, and carries on

The work that they came here to do:

To raise the world, and love them too.

So though it seems I walk alone

They surround me, and though I am prone

To wander, searching, Lord I know

 You're there! My Mothers told me so.

Additional references: Alma 56: 47-48, No One is Alone, Brian Kershisnik.

Eternal Blessings

A week ago I was in my car driving up to school with my sister hoping to make it to Provo in time for the Worldwide Devotional with President Nelson, which I first heard about in sacrament meeting before we left. About an hour into our trip she received texts from two different friends asking if we would be there in time for the devotional. That’s when we found out that we weren’t just trying to make it in time to hear the devotional, we were trying to make it in time to be there. I’m not going to say exactly how fast I drove up the I-15 but by 5:45 we were sitting in the Marriot Center ready to listen to an apostle of the Lord. I guess someone up there knew I would be giving a talk today. (side note) Being an English-based major, I have a really nerdy love for words. Mostly other people’s and not so much my own. I love being able to see the teleprompter during devotionals and such so I can tell when they go off script or change the wording. Reviewing this talk in preparation for my own I’ve noticed how purposeful and perfect his words are. It’s a goldmine of Relief Society handouts and Pinterest quotes.

President Nelson left us last week with some advice to help us become true millennials and increase in our discipleship. He challenged us to: “Commence tonight to consecrate a portion of your time each week to studying everything Jesus said and did…Study everything Jesus Christ is by prayerfully and vigorously seeking to understand what each of His various titles and names means personally for you… Get to know him by studying all He continues to teach through His living prophets and apostles… Learn to articulate those truths in your own words.”. Keeping that in mind, let’s talk about the eternal nature of Christ. He is known by many names over the course of human history, but his message is always the same. By studying his teachings to his followers in each of the standard works we can see the consistency of the gospel. Christ works in accordance with divine laws so his teachings must be true, and the blessings he promises have to be real. “God’s truth is really true! What God says is right is right! And what He says is wrong is wrong!”

In this week’s BYU Devotional President Worthen talked about the 2016 Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year, Post-truth, which is defined as “circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”. We live in a world that is obsessed with information, but doesn’t always do a good job of spreading true information. It’s no accident that in recent years our Church leaders have been encouraging us to study Christ, to become more familiar with the Restoration of the gospel and the doctrine of the Church. Through the new Sunday school curriculum, re-invigorated seminary and Institute programs, and growth of missionary work throughout the church they are trying to prepare us to be the future leaders of the church. These worldwide Church devotionals and Face to Face events give us the opportunity to see, hear from, and speak to our current leaders more frequently than twice a year at general conference. As President Nelson said, “…there need not be uncertainty in your heart and mind about what is true and what is not. Uncertainty is born of imperfect or unknown information.”   Our information in the church is perfect, it is true, it is eternal, but we have to put in the effort to act on those things that will give us blessings as promised by people who have the authority to make and honor blessings for obedience to divine laws. Going back to President Nelson’s challenge, he promised that if we accept it: our love for God and his laws will grow, our ability to resist sin will increase, we will desire to keep the commandments, our ability to lead and righteously influence others will increase, we will eventually be able to come before the Savior as his true disciple. An apostle of the Lord has promised us these blessings. Additionally, he blessed us to be able to do all we need to make those blessings a reality.

I know that God has the power to bless us individually according to our needs and obedience. I know that He is unchanging in his love for us and desire for us to reach our full potential as His true millennials. I know that our prophets and apostles have been called by him to lead us in these days through revelation, and that he speaks to us individually. I hope that you will take the time to read or listen to President Nelson’s talk again and make those blessings a reality for you. 

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/worldwide-devotionals/2017/01/prophets-leadership-and-divine-law?lang=eng 

Check out Aunt Wendy's too.

Een Editorial: 2016

The Eens: What an exciting year for the Een Family! We were all together (for the first time in forever) and had an EENchanted Christmas, taking the whole family to visit Disneyland and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We have enjoyed many different musical and theatrical performances this year. All of us have contributed to Family History and took some of our ancestor’s names with us to more than a dozen different temples in Utah, California, Hawaii, and Nevada.

Kim: Kim was singing to the strains of Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name” when a renewing his driver’s license led to the discovery that Kim’s birth certificate was for an “Unnamed Male.” With Alayna to vouch for his identity to a notary and a document submitted to the State of Utah, all was remedied. Kim was called as the High Priest Group Leader in our ward and has given valuable service to the church and community in that capacity. He continues to teach auto-mechanics and manages our increasing fleet of cars.  

Miriam: Miriam had a pretty lame summer. Her recent call to the Young Women’s organization led her to Girl’s Camp where a stumble on uneven terrain while cleaning led to a broken fibula, minor surgery, and a knee-scooter for the rest of the summer. She and David enjoyed another year of singing back-up with Andrea Bocelli as part of the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society. She had a blast in May, taking Eliza and Alayna on a “Welcome Home” trip to several California Temples, beaches, and a performance of Newsies. Miriam heads the effort to make hand-stitched baby quilts for each new addition to her extended family, continuing the maternal family tradition.

Aria, Spencer, and Kimberly: Still in Hawaii while Spencer puts the finishing touches on his degree in Psychology, the Orrs are keeping busy with the family’s vacation rental business. Aria continues to work in the BYU-H online department and is expecting a little girl this spring. Kimberly loves her Aunts, Uncle, and Grandparents (and affixes the name “Alayna” to several of them to the elation of Alayna and the chagrin of others). She thoroughly enjoyed meeting Mickey and Minnie Mouse in Disneyland as well as her favorite Princess, Moana.  

Alayna: Alayna returned from her mission to Spain in late April! She has loved going to the weddings and homecomings of mission friends and companions. The continued contact with Spanish members and friends has been a great blessing in her life. Alayna spent another summer lifeguarding and teaching swimming lessons and returned to BYU in the Fall with the best roommate imaginable— her sister, Eliza. With another semester under her belt, she is half-way done with her Bachelor’s in English and is excited to add a minor in Editing.  She enjoys the extra prestige (and theme song!) of sharing a name with the new Disney (Channel) Princess, “Elena of Avalor.” Alayna loves spending time with her adorable niece and is ready to rejuvenate the #futurebabyalayna campaign with Aria’s new arrival.

Eliza: Eliza is thrilled to have her right-hand-(wo)man back as she and Alayna tackle their undergraduate degrees at BYU. During the summer she returned to the pool with the unique challenge of coaching the dive team—though she’d never dived competitively before. She sported some funky-shaped bruises as evidence of her diving efforts and was an over-all success. She is the cook, the chauffer, the teacher, mechanic to our car (Gideon), jar-opener and all-around domestic master of her college dorm. Eliza is a member of the BYU Women’s Chorus and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to sing with such big names as Gladys Knight and Peter Hollens. Eliza recently declared a minor in music.

David: This year has been a monumental one for our man. He turned 16, went on dates, attended two formal dances, received his driver’s license (look out, world!), became an Eagle Scout, and passed up Michael Jordan in height (6’7 ½” and counting!). David started an a capella group at his high school in addition his school, district, and community choirs. David participated in the Nevada Honor production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” which was one of five selected to perform at the International Thespian Festival in Nebraska this summer. David lettered in Swimming and was a Water Polo coach and swim instructor during the summer. He and Eliza were selected to represent the City of Las Vegas in the Southern Nevada Lifeguard Games and totally crushed it working as a team for their spinal event!   

Melissa: Melissa turned 12, joined Young Women’s, and went to Girl’s Camp! Melissa advanced to the Southern Nevada Regional Science Fair with her aquaponics project. She is developing her great musical talent and participated in an organ festival and a weeklong summer orchestra program playing the cello. Melissa outdid herself this summer, joining ALL of the available aquatic programs (synchro, diving, water polo, and competitive swim team). In November, Melissa became the first Een to complete the NaNoWriMo challenge (write 10,000 words of a novel in the month of November) and is always thinking of new stories to tell.