Gird Your Loins With Truth

Thanks to the upcoming General Conference, Stake Conference, and October Primary Program Justin will not need to prepare a single Primary Lesson for another month. Perhaps he will use the time to do some recreational reading, go geocaching, or actually put something up on his blog. Only time can tell.

Today I spent some time reading an email home from one of my friends in the mission field who is right now serving in the phillipines. It being a mission and all, I can't exactly share all of the awesome things he is now experiencing because I'm only writing during my lunch break, and there is just too much cool stuff. Instead, I would like to expand on a little comment he shared that came from President Faust: When Jesus was in the desert and in the process of being tempted by the devil, how did he combat his foe? Let's take a look at the scriptures (taken from scriptures.lds.org):

1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not atempt the Lord thy God.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11 Then the devil leaveth him, aand, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
(Matthew 4:1-11)

Christ fought with scripture! At a moment when Jesus was weakened (at least physically) by days of fasting, he showed us that one of the best ways to deal with the adversary is with the truth found in the scriptures and words of the prophets. This really means a lot to me right now, as I am trying to go back and rememorize the scriptures masteries I learned back in High School. Not just to be able to find them and maybe recite them mostly if I think about it, but to have them down pat-- in order, any time, any place, and by topic as well as I can recite the articles of faith. So far I've been at it about a month and have the Book of Mormon up until Jacob 2:8-9, and Doctrine Covenants 14:7 (including the first four verses of the JSH section... that's a long one so I'm doing it a little at a time). Having those scriptures in my arsenal has already been a great blessing in my life as I use them to answer questions brought by my primary students; I'm sure that I will be greatful for them on my mission and for the rest of my life.

Stay strong everyone, the gospel is true!

Justin David

Shivalree ain't be ded yett, fuu!

So for those of you who don't know, I happen to more or less live in the 'ghetto' part of town. This surprises a lot of people considering I'm probably the least 'ghetto' person you'll ever meet-- I speak excellent english (ex-english major), have a generally mellow temperament, eagle scout, tend to stay in school, do my homework, go to church, drive the speed limit... you get the picture. If you're looking for trouble, well, you probably won't find me there.

Anyway, so the other night I was pulling in front of my house after a long day of work and I drive past this guy double parked in front of a condominium near mine. He's got his engine running and is honking his horn like he thinks it's a snare drum. I could hear him coming all the way around the circle, and it takes a little while for me to collect my apron and work things from the back seat, so he had probably been sitting there honking for a good five, possibly ten or so minutes. Well, as I'm unlocking my door a lady dressed up kind of nicely flings open the door he's parked in front of and screams "Come up to the door and knock, you idiot! Just cause you LIVE in the ghetto doesn't mean you got to BE ghetto!"

As her words registered in my mind, I imagined them appearing on a t-shirt. I have to give major props to this woman, and hope her man either shapes up or she gets a new one. You don't see that many guys these days opening the door, or walking on the outer part of the sidewalk, or doing any of those little things that show respect. I must admit it's even a little harder for me now that my car only unlocks from the driver's side-- if I want to open my date's door I usually have to run REALLY fast and hope they have trouble with the broken handle.

Brambles

"Throughout the world and among the membership of the church, there is great joy and great pain. Both are part of the plan. Without one, we cannot know the other. 'Men are that they might have joy' (2 Nephi 2:25)and 'for it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things' (2 Nephi 2:11) are not contradictory; they are complementary. In describing how he felt when he turned to the Lord, Alma the Younger said, 'My soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain.' (Alma 36:20)." (Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, Turn to the Lord Ensign May 2010)


I ran into this quote during my studies and felt that it eloquently summed the need we have for tribulation in our lives. It is so hard to see when we go through hard times how much those had times contribute to the growth of our character and our abilities.

When I juggle, I would not appreciate the ease with which I catch the balls, or the thrill of initiating a faster or altered clawing sequence if i hadn't been for all the hours I remember of dropping ball after ball watching as they roll mischeviously under chairs, couches, shopping carts, parked cars, and various thorny brambles-- then crawling over, around, and through each obstacle so that I could drop the ball again.

Similarly, when I sit in testimony meeting and cry quietly as a child stands to bear pure testimonty of my Savior Jesus Christ, I would not appreciate the overwhelming sense of peace and joy brought by the Comforter quite as much had I not all the terrible memories of loneliness and perceived despair brought on by sin, confusion, and frustration.

By walking among struggling members of the church and looking back on the stepping stones in my life, I know that the Lord lets us experience adversity for a reason-- if it's not for us to learn a lesson, then it is to give someone else the opportunity to serve. I try my best to be tankful for the trials that I'm given and perhaps more greatful for the ones that I'm not. Bearing testimony of my Savior, His Atonement, and the presence of the Gospel and a living prophet upon the earth I leave this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Blinking Sky

have you ever felt sad
leaving that first star
out by herself
on the shelf of heaven
waiting for a friend
then walked into an
empty home
hoping you might reach her
but still need time to grow
your wings
how lost must her shelter be
afraid for brightness
slowly fading
eager for the everglow
that springs from star
and heaven's joining
yet time
will fill the script
between one page's end
and the plot's completion
reveal how long the star will wait
and when you
friend
will learn to fly

Introducing My Brother

YW Leader: "Hey, are you that guy?"
Ojastro: "Which guy?"
YW Leader: "The guy with the arms!"
Ojastro: "Yeah... I'm the guy with the arms."



This is my younger brother, Ojastro Abraham (a.k.a. 'Circus'). Believe it or not, he's only been bonebreaking/waving for about a year-- he's just awesome like that. This is him performing at youth conference last friday. He had about four days to put that routine together, hindered somewhat by the fact that the website he uses to make remixes shut down; fortunately he found out how to use the one on our computer just in the nick of time. Oh, and for all you screaming ladies in the background, he's only sixteen (seventeen in October) so he's not back from his mission for at least another four years. In the meantime, just relax and enjoy the show.

Field Trip!

This last Tuesday was probably the best day-off ever! At least, it has been since I did deliveries for the Bishop's Storehouse. I grabbed my Xathanael (brother, 6-years old), two sack lunches, and loaded into the school bus for my first elementary school field trip in ages! An hour and a half bus ride with a trillion rowdy first grades isn't exactly on the top of any one's wish list, but it was totally worth spending the day chaperoning(still does not make me an adult) a trip to the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
Accompanied by my brother and his friend James, we spent three hours jumping form exhibit to exhibit nonstop with a brief lunch somewhere in there. One of the first exhibits we encountered was this kind of coyote-walk thing where it grades your quietness in crossing a path of gravel. I was extremely disappointed that Xathanael insisted on cheating every time by putting his feet up against the box walls instead of actually walking in the gravel. Typical little brother(I'm sure that at his age I would have done the same). Another game on the upstairs floor involved swinging a stick back and forth to get another stick attached on a rotating joint to balance vertically on top. With the two younger boys cheering me on, I was very happy that my contact-juggler training finally paid off and I got it balanced on the first try. Definitely a highlight of my day.

One thing I can't get over is how incredibly and easily frightened Xathanael gets over little things. He refused to put the color-bubble over his head on the grounds that it was too frightening (picture to be included later) and he was not too keen on several of the living creatures nor the shadow-catching box (which James didn't want to move away from). Instead he touched anything and everything that had controls, buttons, or a joystick. I fear he is of the electronically addicted generation... although I must admit that having a cell-phone with distracting games on it bought me a good 30 minute nap on the way home so it's not all bad. Love my little brother, and thank him for letting me tag along. If only I was three feet tall... then maybe I could re-enroll.

I L0ve Ball00ns

This is kinda my unofficial balloon sensei. He can be found at "balloon-animals.com" along with a fairly comprehensive list of simple balloon creations. Apparently if you write him he'll also try to develop a design upon request, although I'm sure he has a lot of orders to sort through, and he does have a life (sorry girls, but he's married). He's pretty entertaining to listen to, although he does talk a lot so if you're fast on the up take it's not bad to skip ahead in the design. What I admire most about this balloon master is his amazing lung capacity; that's why I chose the second video in particular, despite the bad video quality-- about 2 minutes in you see him try to inflate 4 balloons at once with his mouth. He doesn't entirely succeed, but the result is still impressive. I still can't inflate a single balloon without at least using two hands (at least not without tiring myself out). And inflating with my mouth took some practice. Anyway, the first video is nearly brand-new on the site and I just picked it because it looks cute and cool and now I want to figure out how to build one really bad.