books and school and Christmas prep

A while back, I wrote a couple of posts about The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. (here and here) I was pretty critical of the book. But I went on to read the second and third books in the series (Enna Burning and River Secrets), and I actually really enjoyed them. They were annoyingly descriptive like The Goose Girl, and sometimes there was some really awkward and out of place dialogue (like that weird "red egg of the omen" thing in Enna Burning--I think it was supposed to be funny, but it was just really awkward). They were a little sappy sometimes. (Ryan couldn't stand to listen to them when he was in the car with me.) They're definitely young adult fiction. But I really enjoyed the plots of the books. I thought they were original and interesting and I enjoyed seeing the conflicts unfold and get resolved. I particularly enjoyed Enna's perspective as she struggled to control her firespeaking abilities and ended up hurting other people and struggled to forgive herself. I thought it was very realistic and said a lot about the way we feel when we sin, especially when the sin hurts those we love the most. Both books give some interesting insights into temptation and what can happen if we let our temptations get control of us. So I don't know that I'm retracting my previous thoughts about The Goose Girl, but I thought I should add that I have enjoyed the next two books in the series, and will probably try to find the fourth book. The audio book version is actually quite good, although the voices tend to augment the sappiness and awkwardness sometimes. They have a different voice for each of the main characters of the story, so it's kind of like listening to a play instead of the same person reading all the parts.

We watched a clip from MSNBC the other day that showed excerpts from an interview with Sarah Palin, followed by MSNBC people's thoughts about what she said. (Sorry, I have no idea where it is because Ryan was the one who was reading the page.) Sarah Palin was asked about what she likes to read, and one of the things she said was that she enjoys reading C.S. Lewis when she wants a little inspiration. One of the guys on MSNBC laughed really hard about that and thought it was really funny that she gets her inspiration from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe--because, after all, that's just a kid's book. Obviously he hasn't read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, or the rest of the series (which are inspiring books, especially the one he made fun of), nor does he know about Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and other books that C.S. Lewis wrote. They're not quite the same as Junie B. Jones or The Magic Treehouse.

I've recently been reading Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series. I've never read them before, but I think they are great. The story is original and intriguing and I find it very inspiring.

Schoolwise, the semester turned out pretty well. I got good grades in both of my classes and I'm still sane. After a review for my mineralogy class, I asked my teacher if I could get some help with a couple of concepts that I didn't quite understand, so he handed me his tinker toys (very helpful when you're talking about the structures of minerals, actually) and helped me figure it out. Then when I was done, he told me I'm doing well in the class and that I'm one of the people he would like to recommend to people who are looking for undergrads to do research with them. He said I really should start doing some research and even introduced me to a professor. I could either do research for pay or for credit. So I'm going to start looking at some of the different faculty members here and what they are studying so that I can start doing that too. It would probably only be a couple of hours a week. It will be helpful to be involved in something like this while I'm here so I can get a better idea of what I'm interested in and also be more qualified to work if I need to once I'm done with school. I really feel blessed to have these opportunities available to me right now.

One of the difficult things about being in school is that it makes it kind of hard to get ready for Christmas because the first half of December is consumed by finals and other end-of-semester type things. Now that my finals are all done I finally have some time to do some shopping and preparing. Next year maybe I should get all the shopping done before school starts, although it's kind of hard to know that far in advance what someone as little as Kevin will enjoy. We still haven't decided about a Christmas tree yet because we know Kevin will probably tear it to bits, but I'm starting to feel like I would at least like one for a few days. We've at least taken out the advent calendar--and we hung it up quite high because we quickly realized Kevin was just going to pull on it if we left it in its usual place. We took Kevin to Target and let him play with a few different toys, and then we chose a couple of the ones he liked the most. Ryan and I got some Christmas presents, but it seemed kind of silly to wrap them up when we already know what they are and they are things we just want to start using. It's a lot more fun to give presents to other people than to think of things you want yourself, I guess. The only thing I can think of that I want is some new clothes, but the main problem with that is that the clothes in the stores are all so ugly. Is a plain t-shirt that's thick enough to be worn by itself too much to ask? Because it's been a long time since I've seen one. I've seen a lot of skulls and leopard prints, though.

how to prepare for college

I've been thinking lately about some of the things I would or wouldn't have done differently during high school and my first couple of years of college, and I thought I would share my list and some suggestions since I have several relatives, including one of my sisters, who will soon be in college.

• One of the things they told me a lot in high school was that if you want to get scholarships or get into a good college, you have to be involved in lots of clubs. Yes, it's important to be involved. But if I could do it again, I would have aimed a little harder for quality instead of quantity. I wouldn't have bothered to stay in the clubs that had a boring meeting every week but did nothing but have a few uninteresting activities every school year. The best clubs were the ones where I participated in most of the activities, had a leadership role, and had a good relationship with the adult leader. Those were the clubs where I made good memories, felt like I was making a difference, built up experiences and accomplishments that were worth mentioning in scholarship essays, and found people who would write good and meaningful letters of recommendation for me.
• Same goes for service. Definitely do a lot of service, but make sure it's meaningful and that you feel like you're making a difference. One of my favorite service projects was Lunch Buddies, where I ate lunch a couple of times per month with the same elementary school girl, who needed an opportunity to have the good example of an older person.
• Take the hardest classes your school offers (without overloading yourself!). GPA is very important, but so is your ACT or SAT score, and if you take higher math classes and other difficult classes, it will help you learn to think about more difficult concepts and the ACT and SAT will not be as difficult. Also, I felt that because I had taken the hardest classes I could, the transition to college was not as difficult for me. Difficult exams were not new to me in college because I had already been taking difficult exams in high school.
• Do some research before taking AP classes or classes that offer credit for both high school and college. See if the colleges you are looking into accept those credits, and also find out if those credits will be useful in college (i.e. if they will count as a general education class or a class for your major). Also think about if you're planning to take more classes in that subject. I took Spanish for dual credit in high school even though I figured I would probably take more Spanish in college. Then when I got to college I realized it was a waste of money to pay for those credits when I knew I would be taking more Spanish. I also took a class about computers for dual credit, and it has never counted as anything useful--general education or major classes. However, dual credit or AP classes can be useful--for example, if you have an idea of what you will major in and you know you will not need more math classes, then it's a good idea to take a dual credit math class while you're still in high school because that will save you time. Most people don't have a hard time getting enough credits to graduate from college--and if you do have some more credits to earn before graduating, then you can use that for something fun or useful.
• Stay close to your high school counselor. I went to my counselor at the beginning of my junior year and explained to her that my parents probably wouldn't be able to contribute very much money to my education, so I would need all the help I could get with scholarships and such. She often called me in to her office to tell me about a scholarship I could apply for or a job I could try to get. Most of the scholarships I received were ones that she had pointed out to me.
• Save money to pay for your education. Don't just rely on your parents or grants or scholarships. Your education will be a lot more meaningful to you if you have been working hard to pay for it yourself. I saved almost all of the money that I earned through my jobs, but I often wonder if I could have found more ways to earn money if I had just looked harder.
• Try to decide on a major before starting college. It's really helpful to be able to jump right into your major when you get there, rather than taking lots of different classes and hoping you'll find your passion. One really useful thing that I didn't know about was that you can look up the classes that you have to take for the different majors. At BYU they're called MAPS, at other schools they're called degree audits or other things. Look at the various majors and read through the list of classes that you have to take for each major, and also look at possible careers that major could prepare you for. However, it's pretty common for people get to college and then after a year or so realize that they actually want to do something else. I went through all of high school thinking science was awful, and then I got to BYU and took some science classes from people who were actually good teachers, and I realized that I actually really like science, and now I am studying geology. What ended up happening was that I have all of my general education requirements finished (because I was trying to at least accomplish something while I was figuring out what to major in), so now I'm doing just the science classes, which can be kind of draining.
• Make your college education useful. Choose a course of study that will make you a better person, enable you to use your talents to help other people, prepare you for a job, etc. It's a big investment, so think of it that way, not just as the next thing after high school.
• Don't rule out a technical or trade school. There's nothing wrong with studying to be a mechanic or a construction worker or whatever else you can learn at a technical school, and you come away with valuable skills that enable you to work.
• I felt that in high school a lot of learning was by rote memorization. College learning is more conceptual. You've got to understand concepts and be able to apply them to many different problems. If you can figure out how to do that, you will be much more successful, and your education will also be a richer experience.
• Learn how to cook and buy food before you go to college. Homemade food is cheaper and healthier than prepackaged or restaurant food, and if you are already confident with cooking a variety of foods, then making your own meals will not be hard. Also, once you're in college, try to have a little bit of food storage. I'm not necessarily talking about 50-lb. bags of wheat. But I found it comforting to have things like a couple of extra cans of spaghetti sauce or extra bags of rice or pasta.
• The For the Strength of Youth pamphlet still applies when you're in college. Watch wholesome movies, listen to clean music, look for uplifting entertainment, and even when you start to date exclusively, continue to follow the standards given by the church leaders. I know that might seem kind of obvious, but I was very surprised when I got to BYU to find that there were actually a lot of people who seemed to think that those things didn't apply anymore, or not as stringently. In particular, I found that the sections about dating and sexual purity were very helpful when I wanted to know what the limits should be for a boyfriend and girlfriend or two people who are engaged. I had a wonderful roommate who told me about "Celestial dating," and I strongly believe that Ryan and I were blessed because we "dated Celestially" as we prepared for a Celestial marriage in the temple.

Knowledge, a Gift of the Spirit

Today we talked about gifts of the Spirit in Relief Society. It was a lovely lesson and I learned a lot from all that was said.

One of the topics that came up was the gift of wisdom vs. the gift of knowledge. Ever since I was in Young Womens, when we read that there was the gift of knowledge and the gift of wisdom, the explanation I got was something to the effect that knowledge is good, but it's useless unless you have wisdom, and wisdom was defined as actually applying the knowledge. This was the explanation that we got again today, and of course this also led to a discussion about the problem of being "learned" but not hearkening to God, as explained in 2 Nephi 9:28:

"O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish."

I do agree that it is a problem to believe that we are smart enough that we don't need to hearken to God anymore. I don't want to give the impression that I disagree with that.

But as I listened to this discussion today, I got the feeling that this was wrong in the context of discussion the gifts of the Spirit. I don't think we are completely understanding knowledge if we always dismiss the gift of knowledge when we discuss gifts of the Spirit. If knowledge is a gift of the Spirit, then it must be something that God would want us to seek, something that we can use to build His kingdom and bless other people and draw closer to God.

I felt that I should look it up in the scriptures and found that knowledge has an entry in the bible dictionary, which transformed my view of what the gift of knowledge is. I encourage you to look up the entire entry yourself, here. Here are some things that I learned:

• Knowledge is essential for our salvation. If we want to develop a divine nature, to be like God, then we must have knowledge.
• We cannot be saved in ignorance--we must have knowledge of God, and of his ways and works. This knowledge does not come in one revelation, not even for a prophet. It comes line upon line, a little at a time.
• From what the BD says, my conclusion is that the knowledge we are talking about when we discuss gifts of the Spirit is spiritual knowledge. It is the knowledge that we gain by studying the scriptures and the words of the prophets, and by seeking and following personal revelation that reveals eternal truths to us.
• In the verses in 2 Peter (cited in the BD entry), it says to "add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge . . . " The way he says this suggests already having faith and virtue, and then adding the knowledge to those. This suggests to me that the knowledge he is talking about is not something that is unused--it is something that is received after we already have faith and virtue, which are characteristic of action, and therefore I would think that knowledge is also a principle of action.

I guess after learning these things, I'm still left with the question of, "What is the difference between the gift of knowledge and the gift of wisdom?" In fact, it seems even more complicated than before. So I guess I'll have to do more studying, because I don't know how to answer that question. Maybe the line between knowledge and wisdom is kind of fuzzy. I just wanted to point out that it's important to understand that the gift of knowledge is very important. It is something that involves learning incredible and beautiful things--things that are essential to know if we are to become like God and achieve our full potential. I think in the scriptures the word knowledge means something somewhat different than the definition the world would give it.

I also would like to add that I am not saying that secular knowledge is bad or not worth seeking. I do think that spiritual knowledge should have a priority over secular knowledge, but I believe that God wants us to also seek out secular knowledge as much as we can. I will never forget the video I saw once of President Hinckley, in which he marveled at the many things we have learned about chemistry and the many ways that knowledge of chemistry has blessed us in the latter days. My studies of geology have truly increased my faith in God. There have been many times as I have walked out of a class or a lab that I have paused and realized that I could feel the Spirit. At those times I felt even more awed at all of the things that God knows, and all of the planning He did to make a place for His children to have mortal lives. From my own experience I know that if we approach secular learning with a humble attitude and faith in God, the secular knowledge will make us better. Neal A. Maxwell said something once at Education Week that explains this very well:

"I now hasten to add, having said these preliminary things, that the role of secular knowledge is very important. Latter-day Saints should have all the genuine excitement others have in the traditional adventure of learning, including learning secular truths, and we should have a little more. In fact, when we are so learning and so behaving, we are truly “about [our] Father’s business.” This should bring to us a special and genuine zest for learning.

"Furthermore, those of us who have spent much of our lives involved with traditional education regard it as one of mankind’s most useful, productive, and cost-beneficial enterprises. It is even more beneficial, however, when it has the added spiritual dimension. Moreover, secular education wisely does not pretend to give us answers to the great “Why?” questions—any more than you and I would read a telephone directory in search of a plot." (Neal A. Maxwell, "The Inexhaustible Gospel", Ensign, Apr. 1993, 68)

oops

I pushed the Publish Post button instead of the Save Now button while I was working on my previous post. I've added more to it. So if you read this blog by Google Reader or email you might want to go to the actual post to see the rest of what I wrote.

Well, this afternoon was my Calculus final. Unless I did a really horrible job on it (i.e. less than 50%), I should pass the class. So I sold my book back on the way home. We already have two other Calculus books, so I'm pretty sure that will be enough for me to use in the future if I need to look something up. It's quite a relief to be done with this class. It's been a hard semester. But I'm done with all my math for my degree. I still have two semesters of physics (probably calculus-based) and another chemistry class to take, so the really hard classes aren't over yet, but I'm over one of the highest hurdles. It's pretty neat to think of all of the things I've learned since high school. When I graduated, I would never have expected that I would go on to take Calculus 3 and several of those really hard science classes and major in Geology.

We had our quarterly Relief Society activity on Thursday. It was a beautiful program with a reader's theater featuring several of the women in Christ's life, as well as several musical numbers. I ended up volunteering to play the piano for three of the pieces (one women's trio singing Mary's Lullaby, one soloist singing Gesu Bambino, and one flutist playing Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella), so I was kept busy throughout the week with practicing those, and I am also on the Relief Society activities committee, so I also helped decorate and "undecorate" the Relief Society room for the activity. When it was all over, though, I was grateful that I had helped as much as I could even though I had a lot of studying to do. I could tell that many of the women who came had felt the Spirit, so that made it worthwhile to me, to know that I had helped other people draw closer to Christ. It was also very fun to spend time talking with my friends in the ward and eating all the yummy treats--we had a lot of really delicious food! At the last minute I asked Ryan to come help with the nursery because we had had a hard time finding men from the Elders Quorum to were able to do it (because they were all taking care of their kids at home so their wives could come), so Ryan and Kevin came along and helped watch kids, eat the leftover food, and take down decorations.

Yesterday we had the new sister missionaries over for dinner. Again, even though I had studying to do I was grateful that I had taken the time for something spiritual. They left a spirit of peace in our home. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but recently I have noticed that the missionaries have been doing a lot more to encourage us to think about ways to share the gospel. For example, when we had the elders over for dinner a while ago, they asked us to specifically think of people who would be receptive to the message of the gospel and write their names down along with a way we could help them feel the spirit. I'm a little more used to them saying, "Well, if you know of anyone who would like to talk to us, feel free to let us know," but I think this new approach is good because it has helped me to feel even more that it is my job to find people for the missionaries to teach, and to think of specific ways I could bring up the gospel with people I know who are not of our faith.

Telling the stories of Jesus

I've been thinking this year that I wanted to do something Christ-centered with Kevin in the days leading up to Christmas. I've seen people who do some really cute things, and maybe in future years I can see myself doing that, but for now I just can't see Kevin appreciating those things. He doesn't have a very long attention span, and the cutesy things would just get torn up or he wouldn't notice. But I still wanted to do something. I wanted him to feel the Spirit testify to him of Christ this year. So I've been pondering about it over the last few weeks.

One night I was lying in bed thinking about it again, and for some reason I heard Elder Neil L. Andersen's voice from his talk in General Conference in April 2010, saying, "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus." (I must really like this apostle, I guess, because his talks keep coming up when I need some answers--like when I blogged about it here.) And I felt that I should tell Kevin a story about Jesus every day as we get closer to Christmas. So I decided to use the gospel art book, and every day I will use one of the pictures and the story that goes with it and tell Kevin the story. It will probably only last a minute or two most times because that's about what his limit is.

Today Kevin was getting frustrated. He was trying to play with a little riding toy, but it was hard when it bumped into things or when he had a difficult time climbing onto it, and it eventually melted into Kevin kicking the toy repeatedly and crying, and then getting mad when he looked up again because the toy was still there and still being uncooperative. At this point I remembered that I was going to start telling him the stories about Jesus today and felt like maybe I should do that now and then put him down for a nap. I wasn't feeling too optimistic considering his emotional state, but I figured that it's good just to do it, so I got out the gospel art book and flipped to the first page with a picture of Jesus. On the left side there was a picture of Jesus, and on the right side there was a beautiful picture of space with dust clouds and stars and galaxies and another picture of the earth from space. So I sat down in a chair with the pictures and pointed to the picture of Jesus and said, "Look, Kevin. This is Jesus." And I told him about how Jesus created the earth for us, and how he also promised that he would come live on the earth himself and suffer for our sins and die for us so that we would be able to repent and be resurrected. You know what? He actually calmed down and stood there and looked at the pictures, and somehow I knew that he had felt the Spirit. It was such a wonderful moment, and I was grateful for the guidance that I received to do this with Kevin. I don't know if every time will be like this, but we'll do our best, and this was a confirmation to me that Kevin really is getting something out of it.

a little guessing game

Guess how much I spent for all of this food.

Yes, that's Ryan's head in the top left hand corner. He thought it would be funny to jump into the picture.

I've been getting a little disenchanted with couponing lately. It's not so much that I don't like clipping the coupons and making the list. I still enjoy seeing how much I've saved. I do feel like it has made a difference in our budget and that it helps us have more money to spend on things like produce. It's just that it's getting harder to find a good time to go grocery shopping. A grocery trip usually takes a couple of hours, whether I clipped coupons or not. That's time that could be spent doing homework or getting dinner ready on time or spending quality time with my friends or with Ryan and Kevin. If I go during the day, Kevin has to come, and that's a pretty long time for him (for those moms who do it with three kids or even more, I really admire you). And it's hard to find a good time to get my list and my coupons ready. If I can just get some uninterrupted time, it doesn't take very long, but if Kevin is underfoot then it's really stressful because he will reach up and take/crumple/scatter everything. Lately I've been getting groceries late at night because Ryan is home and Kevin is in bed, but I don't like to go out in the dark or lose my evening with Ryan. Plus, at night the grocery stores generally just have the self-checkout lines open, which I think is a pain, especially when I'm buying enough stuff that there's not enough room for it in the bagging area, and if you try to move things the computer tells you to put it all back. I ended up doing two transactions because I knew it would never all fit.

So anyway, because of all those things I've found myself skipping grocery shopping lately even if there are some good sales, because I just don't feel like going. But today I decided to make my grocery trip anyway, and when I walked out I realized I had gotten a ton of stuff and hadn't even spent very much. So I guess I'm going to keep watching sales and matching my coupons after all.

My total spent was $18.93. How much would you have guessed?