"Operative Relevancy"...Something to ponder and maybe share...

SO Micah and I are full swing back into classes and busy as ever... and though I may have been dreading some of my classes this semester because I knew that they would be a little more out of my "comfort zone," (i mean its not sewing, or drawing, or sports, etc, ya know) I have been so excited and enthusiastic over the past couple weeks about learning new things about life and I'm seeing all these great connections between my classes. Usually history and writing are not "my things", one because history usually goes in one ear and out the other, and two, i love writing but it seems to take me so long to say what I really want to say and alot of writing classes have timed essays that drive me nuts. But this time, my history of creativity and writing about arts and humanities classes have really intrigued me! They've opened my mind, and made me think, (or maybe I have been willing to think more.)
And then I get to go to a French grammar class, which is ever so challenging, because its all in French, and sometimes I don't really know what's going on...But it also gets me out of my comfort zone and trusting more in the "gift of tongues" again like I did so often as a missionary. On top of all that I have astronomy which is "new" to me, and then probably my favorite, "Intro to teaching Seminary". I figured that the seminary class would be pretty simple and not too much work, but surprisingly I have had alot to think about and learn about in teaching more like the Savior, having a powerful testimony, and really connecting with those you are teaching.
So this brings me to what I was really blogging about today.... in this religious teaching class that Micah and I have together, we were talking today about how everything we teach about should be centered around firstly, the Doctrines of Christ, especially the atonement, and secondly, around the Restoration of the gospel and priesthood through Joseph Smith. We were talking about how to effectively foster faith in others in these most fundamental truths as a teacher. To both Micah and I in class, it seemed that we barely scratched the surface and that alot of what was discussed just reiturated what we read and that we know already the importance of the atonement and restoration. Just barely towards the end of class, our teacher asked us to think about our own experiences and how we know that the principle discussed was true, and what that would look like in a teaching situation say if you had to teach seminary tomorrow. But then the class was over and we didnt really go on and hear anyone's thoughts or share our own.
When we got home we got the Ensign magazine from the mail and I thought, Oh I need to open that and see whats in there. Turns out that the first two articles are on the fruits of the First Vision and the message from the Sacred Grove. I read them and thought, this is exactly what we've been talking about, what the Restoration of the Gospel REALLY means to us today. The last section of the second article is called "The First Vision in Our Lives." You should go read these articles if you haven't yet. In one of the last paragraphs it says that "we must take care to connect the events of the Sacred Grove with real life and present circumstances" and then will these truths have "operative relevancy" for our lives, as Neal A. Maxwell would say. So as I understand it, if we take our experiences and figure out how the atonement and the restoration can or should apply to them thats where this "operative relevancy" comes in to play, when they are connected to our daily life.
So I was wondering if anyone would like to share some of their thoughts about how the Atonement or the Restoration of the Gospel have had "operative relevancy" in your daily lives... This takes some thought... But I'd love to hear what you all think and how you might share your thoughts about these fundamental truths, that a student, (or friend, or whoever it might be), might not only feel your sincerity, but the reality of these truths in real daily life.
This ended up to be a really long post, and many probably didn't make it to the end here, but if you did, I'd love to hear some of your feelings....Thanks!

Yeah for Breaks!

Micah and I have really enjoyed having a couple weeks off from school...We had a blast in Oklahoma! Al was so excited to see all her wonderful and dear oklahoma friends... And Micah enjoyed getting to know the fam even more, playing sports and games, and yes relaxing!

We want to again officially thank mom and dad for making it all possible, for getting us there, getting us a place to stay, feeding us, and spoiling us with so many wonderful gifts.

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Since we have been back home in Utah, Micah made it back from Baltimore just fine too, we have been able to clean up all the christmas stuff, clean out our oh-so-messy-spare-computer-catch-all-room, relax some more, spend some time with neighbors, and work some too.

Here's the after pics of our study room, that makes me happy everytime I walk by it now, instead of the cringe that I got everytime before....

I forgot to take the before pics, they would have been pretty comical. But the idea was you couldn't see any desktops at all and you couldn't even see the floor, or even walk into the room, and stuff was falling out of the closet in all directions. So I'm pretty proud off all we got done in like 3 hours...YEAH! Oh and my favorite part is the book shelf with all the books organized and fitting on the shelf, and my cute lamp that shines up on the first gift Micah ever gave me. It is the floating picture frame, with all our first pics together back in August and September of 2007! I still haven't made a curtain yet for our window that doesn't have blinds on one side...that project is still to come, but my lovely little baby blanket has been working for now..haha. We do what we can, right... ;)

Anyways, we are so excited for 2009, for new classes and for new things in life...

Finals...Shminals...all done!

Yeah we are finally done with all our projects and tests, as well as all the Christmas programs, and choir pieces....Now we get to relax a bit and think about "Christ"mas and family. I say "Christ" mas because we gave our last lesson of the year today on The Spirit of "Christ"mas. It turned out great. I was sick all last night with a cough, itchy throat, and trouble breathing and sleeping, (I think its the post-finals syndrom, or my usual getting sick every Christmas). But I still made it to church and set up all the "cute stuff" for our lesson, the cute nativity that mom sent us, some pictures of Christ, and some prelude music complements of Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The lesson was up to Micah though, since I needed to preserve my voice for singing in the choir right after it. We did both bear our testimonies at the end, I figured I could handle that much. We love our class, and it was really full today, more than we've ever had!

But anyways, no more choir for a couple weeks, and no more classes for a couple weeks...Yeah!

This week we also enjoyed having several fun meals.... One was a sushi night! We made our own sushi wraps and lettuce wraps...It's a decent one timer, but we wouldn't make it a regular thing.

On Friday night we had fun at Jaden's Curious George Birthday Party. Jaden is 4! Yeah for him!
I had alot of fun picking out a book and some fun gifts to go with it. I got him the Curious George Dinosaur Discovery book, and to go with it was dinosaur undies, a dinosaur shirt, and little dinosaurs toys. The shirt looks super cute on him! ANd I had alot of fun making wrapping paper out of tissue paper and construction paper. He probably didn't appreciate the cute dino-looking wrapping as much as I did, but I had fun with it. Here's some pics...

Christmas is almost here, and we are so excited for Christmas Eve with Micah's family, and arriving in Oklahoma on Christmas Day to see my family, and little Owen especially. We will miss Mike and Carrie and Nickleman. But sounds like they seeing all sorts of cool things and places....EGYPT?!?! Golly geez, thats awesome. Well maybe some day we'll make it outside of Utah and somewhere besides Oklahoma , Colorado, and Texas, to see cool things... hehe :)

As for now, having almost everyone together for Christmas in Oklahoma is gonna be awesome...Can't Wait! Welp, we are gonna make some cookies for some people in the ward and at work, so till next time...

--Al & Micah