Engineering 101

     When I grow up want to go into Engineering… or some thing where I can build things and see something great be built. I just love seeing anything I have created be built. I can remember building fort after fort down by the creek next to my house. One of the forts was like the Floating Gardens of Babylon. It had three different levels. We would have gone on to a fourth level but school came along and no one got to it. I still wonder how we got some of those strands of bailing twine to hold the weight but it was awesome. I like seeing stuff be built whether it is my idea or someone else’s idea.

     During my childhood, as I look back, I see two key events that help expanded my knowledge of engineering. One event was while I played with Legos. Just like if you play chess your IQ goes up. The more you play with legos, the more your desire to build marvelous contraptions grows.

     The second event happened while I was at church it while I was in Primary. In Primary there is a song called, "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man" The song basically goes like this:

-Scenario 1-

The wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rains came tumbling down. The rains came down, and the floods came up, and the house on the rock stood still.

-Scenario 2-

The foolish man built his house upon the sand, and the rains came tumbling down. The rains came down, and the floods came up, and the house on the sand washed away.

     Back then I only heard about how how I should build on sand. It wasn't until years later I actually learned what my teachers actually wanted me to learn. They actually wanted me to learn something about faith. This song basically was just telling me simply to "remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." Helaman 5:12 "And if ye shall always do these things blessed are ye, for ye are built upon my rock. But whoso among you shall do more or less than these are not built upon my rock, but are built upon a sandy foundation; and when the rain descends, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon them, they shall fall, and the gates of hell are ready open to receive them." 3 Nephi 18:12 The goal of that song was to remind me that the only sure foundation that can be built on is the foundation of Jesus Christ because when all else fails Jesus Christ won’t. Then once you have sure foundation on Christ you can build up from there.

     For me, faith is one of the hardest qualities to have or grow. Sometimes the person I'm talking to is excessively muscular and he makes a semi-truck look like child’s play toy. He may be all those qualities and more but as I remember to exercise faith in Christ and realize that the message of the Restoration is bigger than him. The person starts to shrink back a regular size and is not so big. This work is amazing and I wouldn't miss it for the world. I'm grateful that I am able to add something into people’s lives that can help them return to their Father in Heaven.

    

Trunky

     “Last night, I was writing my brother's birthday card and I started crying. I started crying because I thought of home and after mission life and I was like, "This sucks, I'm going to have to leave in 18 months." I decided then that there are two types of trunky-ness.
     One type is where your mind just dreams of home and who are you going to date, what video game you’re going to buy, who you’re going to marry blah blah blah. That is the negative type.
     Then you have the positive type of trunky-ness. It is the kind where you realize where you are and you only have 18 months left and instead of grieving for the time to come quicker you realize that isn't enough time to get everything done. It then becomes the driving force behind you. You want to full fill your purpose more so you do as Nephi and you GO AND DO.” (Email Home-Aug 8) 

     You are deemed to be trunky when you start to let thoughts of tomorrow over ride the now moment. This happened to me when I was working at the Cheese Factory. I was going through the motions. I would get to work, prepare to go on the line, work the line till lunch, I would have lunch, go back to work, then go home. I was always thinking of what I could have been doing or what I would have done. I had little or not excitement for the work. It was until a few weeks back when I was talking about working at the cheese factory did I realize that I was trunky for periods of time while working at the factory. I started to feel bad because I had just wasted a whole summer to not living in the here and now but living in the future.

     I know that I missed out on a lot more than I gained because I was trunky at the cheese factory. It took me a year to realize that I had been living way beyond the mark. I could have learned so much more if I had stopped thinking so much about what I was going to do and how I'm going to have fun later and focus more on what I needed to get done at the moment and have a fun time while doing it. I hope by me sharing this example it will help us take a perspective change and change the driving force from ‘because we have to’ to ‘because we don't want to miss a second!".