Making the best of things

So I officially have 39 days left before I pack my bags and head out for my mission. Whoa..I think that seriously JUST hit me on how soon that is. So I have a little over a month! What I have been trying to do before I leave is make the absolute best out of each and everyday that I am here. It takes too much effort to keep your day on a down slope so you might as well have a great attitude towards everything!

This year, my birthday was soooo awesome! On May 28th, I turned 19!! that seems so old! I swear I was turing 9 just the other day. The first part of the day was really slow going and didnt do anything and really was wondering if it was going to be a good birthday at all. As the afternoon came along, my family and I got together and decided on what we were going to do. We ended up going to Texas Roadhouse and seeing Prince of Persia after. Most of the time when my family gets together, tensions rise and we end up arguing over dumb stuff. This night was different. We saw sides of each other that we havent seen before. We laughed until our guts were hurting! We had such a good time with each other. It was something I really needed from my family and I am glad it was able to happen on my birthday.

The next day Mandi surprised me and took my out for our celebration! We started off the day by going on a hike up Bell Canyon. I have done this hike tons of times before but this time was very different. I noticed the beauty in everything and enjoyed every minute of it. It was such a tough hike! All of it was so worth it once we got to the waterfall. It was freezing cold but once you saw that and the beauty of the valley, it was breath taking. It was weird too because I even ran into someone I havent talked to in such a long time. After that we went to Bonsai for dinner and OH BOY it was sooooo good! our chef was awesome too! he was really funny and made our night.


THEN AMANDA GRADUATED!!! How cool is that!! I really dont think it has hit me yet!! Im way proud of her and cant wait to hear the things that come her way in the near future. Things are happening so fast! It seemed like just the other day I was helping her out with her first math assignment in September. Now she is done with highschool for...EVER!

About 2 days after that I was able to go to Moab with the family. Usually we have about 5 or 6 other jeepers go with us but this time it was just us. It was really nice because we only had to deal with our schedule and do things we wanted to do. The weather was a little hot but it was so nice and relaxing. One of the nights I was able to go for a walk and just reflect on things that are going to be happening here in the near future. Im so ready for this mission I cant even explain it. It going to be so tough and difficult to leave my family, my second family, mandi, and my friends. We had a really fun trip down there.


The day after I got back I had to get ready to go camping with some neighborhood buddies. We would be going to wyoming for a week to ride dirt bikes, fish, and just relax. I havent had that much fun in a long time! Even though it rained almost everyday we were there, we made the best of it and had fun playing in the mud and catching an average of 10 fish a day!! I thought I was tough and didnt ever get home sick, but the day before we left I got really home sick and wanted to go home that very second. Let me tell you that was only 5 days and I am getting ready to leave for 730 days!! I know I can do it I know I can.

Slot Canyons

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go on a camp out and a hike with a bunch of people from my neighborhood. It was pretty funny how it worked out because I didnt know about it until a day before everyone was going to leave. My buddy Zach called me up and told me about it and I gave it some thought and said WHY NOT!? The next day I realized that I had 2 hours until I had to go and I didnt have ONE thing packed. I called up Zach Jaden and Dylan and luckily they pretty much had everything for me. We finally got everything together and headed out while it was pouring rain and really windy so we were kind of skeptical about the situation. It was a long 5 hour drive to our destination. While driving there we had a blast quoting from funny movies and also getting on each others nerves! After 4 hours had passed, we all wanted to kill each other. We arrived at East Canyon at 930 pm. We got our packs out of the trailer and took a 20 min hike to our camp spot. I though we were going to by hiking to a REAL camping area but little did I know, we were just looking for a flat piece of ground. As we started to lay down our tarps and sleeping backs we came across scorpions! Kind of Scary!! We all slept right under the stars and let me tell you, I have never seen starts so bright. It gave me a lot of time to just think about what will be happening here in the next month and a half and what the future has in store for me. We woke up around 7, packed up, ate breakfast and started hiking at 930.

As we entered into the Slots, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I dont do to well with heights and we were repelling down some steep cliffs and we had to shimmy our way down some steep slots. Most of the slots were barely wide enough to fit your shoulders through. We had 25 people with us so it took a long time to get through some of the tough situations. We came to a point where we had to make our own zip line over these two ice cold pools. It was a really neat idea. After that there was an area where you had to hold your pack above your head while you pretty much swam through this ice cold muddy water. At the end of this pool was a steep rock that you had to have help in order to climb up it. Lucky me, I was that person to help 23 people. Some of those bigger guys almost pulled me in. My left arm was DEAD when I got everyone through.

There was a situation where one of our hikers slid down this rock and got his foot stuck in a tight crack and he injured his tendon. It must of hurt really bad because it was a long fall. We all took time to have a moment of silence as we gave his a priesthood blessing. Even though I was shivering cold, I felt this warming spirit come over me and at that point I knew that things were going to be okay and that he would make it out of there. Surprisingly he made it out of that canyon.



The whole reason why we did this hike was to go to the spot where Aron Ralston had gone. Here is a video that tells his story. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h91Iptsl5CM&feature=fvw

As we started to end our hike, we noticed that we were kind of ... lost. At this point we had hiked a total of 13 1/2 miles in 12 hours so we were all dead tired. I dont know if anyone else did it but as we were hiking I had said a little prayer in my heart asking that we would get out of there and not have to camp. About 30 minutes later we saw flashing head lights off in the distance. We all started screaming and flashing our head lamps. Sure enough it was Bishop Findlay. I was so thankful for that moment!


I love the power of my faith and for the power of the priesthood. I know for a fact that if it wasnt for that blessing, our hiker would of had a really hard time making it out of that canyon.

Stop and Smell the Roses

Isn't it weird how when we are little and young we wish we were older because we want more responsibility and we want to be able to stay up later on the weekends, get our drivers license, and move out. Whats even more strange is when we get older we wish so bad that we could still be those little kids that could find the best hiding spots while playing hide and seek, we didn't have to worry about what was for dinner because mom would have the table set and you would have family dinner almost every night, and you didnt have to be responsible for ANYTHING!

I know that I wish so bad that I was a little kid again. It was fun to have all the neighborhood friends and walking over to their house and spend hours on end hanging out with them. Those were the best friends you could find. Dont get me wrong though, I love growing up and experiencing all the things life has to bring me. Making new friends, going to college, going on a mission, and all the things yet to come.

I go through life way too fast though and I know most of us do. We dont take time to "stop and smell the roses". Meaning we dont take time and realize whats around us. I am caught up in a lot of worldly things and have the idea that I have to be doing something all the time. When I am just sitting around doing nothing I get flustered because I want to be doing something with my friends. I need to turn that idea around take advantage of it because there will be one day where it will be rare for me to find time to just relax and do ...NOTHING! Ill be on a mission where I have to work everyday all day for two full years, Ill come back after that and have a job while going to school at the same time, and dont even get me started on a family! It seems so far away but it will be here before I know it!

It takes to much effort to be down or to have a bad day, its so much easier and more fun to turn it around. When I do this I know it rubs off onto other people.

Bad Things Happen To Good People

Okay I really had to stop everything I was doing so I wouldn't forget what I wanted to write about!

Just a couple of minutes I got done reading something in my scriptures. Jacob chapter 5. Its a really long passage and its about not giving up pretty much. This people had been working hard for years and years and never gave up and always gave people a second, third and forth chance. No matter how hard these people worked and how faithful they stayed, bad things were always happening to them and they just weren't getting a break from it all. After years and years finally things came around and when they did it was HUGE for all of them!

Im a weird kid but I really found this fascinating because when things dont go my way right then and there I want to give up and move on to the next thing waiting for me. Im a pretty patient guy but Im human and can get frustrated pretty easily. When things are hard for me, I really tend to wonder why in the world something like this could be happening to me and how could there ever be something good that could come from it. When it gets to this point I have two decisions I can make. I can just give up and take the easy way out OR I could tough it out, become stronger from the situation and know how to help other people that will be going through the same things that I have. It gives me that jump-start compared to other people.

Why do Bad things happen to good people and sometimes good things happen to bad people? It gets frustrating sometimes! It's hard when your really trying your best to be the best you can be and follow the path that is set for yo, and all of the sudden something annoying and dumb comes crashing into your life making you want to quit and give up. Most of the time I treat these things as a CHALLENGE! Only sometimes. I like to see what is put in front of me and see if I can accomplish it! I know that if I do, I will gain something to be a better person and HEY its a pretty good feeling! I look at my life and say that I have it bad, but then I look at some other family members or just people I know and.. WOW.. I have it soooo easy compared to them! The people that are strong with their faith are usually the ones that are happy no matter what comes their way. They are willing to take on anything as a challenge and over come it and then some.

Its kind of a depressing song but one song that reminds me of this topic is "Hold On" - Good Charlotte.
* Hold on if you feel like letting go, Hold on it gets better than you know. Don't stop looking, your one step closer. Don't stop searching it's not over. Hold on if you feel like letting go, Hold on it gets better than you know. Hold on!

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Friends!

There are a lot of different types of friends out there. Friends that you can count on always, friends that will drop everything for you to help you out in times of need, and friends that become aquaintances. You have to love those people that you meet and you feel like you have known them for such a long time. Those people are put into your life for certain reasons and those are the people you want to hold on to. You can learn a lot from them and they can learn a lot from you. If you find the right people to hang out with and to be around, they essentially form you to be the person you grow up to be. What I have learned while growing up is that it takes a lot of work to keep and form solid relationships with people that you care about. There have been people that I have been friends with for most of my life and I really thought they were friends that I would grow up with and have them over to my house for family BBQ's.

Well I was wrong and it does suck a little bit. It's not fun to see them go down a path that I wish I could prevent. It gets to me when I see their drunken pictures all over the web and see how much "fun" they are having..

Im doing good now though because I have a couple of good friends that I can go to and that will hang out with me for me and we dont need other stuff that messes with us in order to have fun. I still love those guys to death and will be here for them if they ever need help.

Changes

What a year this past year has been! So many things have been happening in my life and changes have been occurring weekly. One year ago, I was a senior in high school going to Juan Diego. I didnt really know what I wanted to do with my life and have no intention of doing anything really important or big. I wasnt really taking what was going to happen after high school to seriously. I applied at Utah Valley University and luckily I was accepted. I didnt have a major in mind so I just signed up for the classes everyone signs up for. To this day I still dont have a major in mind. I might want to get on that. I met someone so amazing and she decided to share some important concepts to me. I never thought in a million years that I would be going on a mission. I have been working pretty hard these past couple of months to be ready physically, mentally and spiritually to be ready for this mission because its not just something you can go out and do.

In preparing for this mission, it has made me realize what can come your way if you just do the things your supposed to do. There may be some things that come your way that you may not want to do but you know that if you end up pushing forward and sacrificing things here and there, things will come your way and you will end up being a better and happier person. A couple of months before I got my call I put up a map in my living room for friends and family to put their guesses on there. There were guesses all over the world. From Australia to Finland and from Africa to Canada. Once everyone put their guesses on there, it kind of hit me. I really could go anywhere in the world. It was becoming more and more real to me. At first it was just something I was preparing for but now it was becoming tangible.

Then the day came! On March 24th I woke up with only one thing on my mind. It was a wednesday and that means that my chances of receiving were very good. I went to school walking to class not knowing what was really going on because I was so hyped up. After school was over, I raced home finding out that the mail had not even come yet! I sat in my front yard pushing my skateboard back and forth over the cracks in the driveway waiting for the Mail lady to come racing around the corner. I saw her come around and got even more excited. I went inside just so I couldnt see her put the mail in. After she left I walked over to the mail box hoping that my call would be waiting there for me. I had amanda's voicemail going as I opened the lid. WOOOOHOOOOO BAMMMMM! I wouldnt doubt if the whole neighborhood heard my hootin' and screaming. The only bad thing about this was that I had to wait 4 whole days in order to open it! Saturday rolled around and I was able to have lots of people over to experience the letter opening. Then I read it.

Elder Sidney Alton Morley is called to serve in the Mexico City, Mexico Northwest Mission. Spanish speaking of course and I will be reporting to the MTC on July 21! Before I opened the letter I had all these places I wanted to go to. Rachel to me that no matter where they tell me I'm supposed to go, I will know that it is the right place for me. When I read my call, it was exactly what she said. It was the most right thing ever and I knew that I wasnt supposed to go anywhere else.

Here is the funny part. Months before I got my call, my mom told me all the places she didnt want me to go. Low and behold Mexico was one of the places. She is still up tight about that fact that I have to go there but Kohnie told me something really special. As Im out serving there will be a spirit in the house to comforting my family. I know it will be hard for her but she is strong and I know that she will get through it all.

It is also sooooo weird that I will be leaving July 21. I mean that is the absolute most perfect day to leave. I will be able to be here for Amanda's birthday and also be able to experience Travis's and Rachel's wedding. It going to be hard though because I will be having so much fun with everyone that week and then a week later I will have to leave everything just like that.

Things will work out the way their supposed to. If they dont go the way that I want to, I have to realize that its not what I want to have happen, its what HE wants to have happen.

The Countdown

So I havent blogged in theeee longest time!!!
I thought that I should change that soooo here we go!

I blogged a long time ago about starting up a mission and a couple of months later a lot of things have happen. I started my mission papers about 1 month ago and now I am almost done. It really does seem like time has flown by. When I was thinking about going on a mission, I thought that 8 months was soooo far away but now if everything goes the way I have planned I could be leaving in about 3 1/2 months to 4 months. Things could change but that seems like its tomorrow. I have a ton more to do like finish the Book of Mormon, grow an unbreakable testimony, and KNOW that I myself is ready to do the work of the Lord. Everyone that I have talked to has said its the best 2 years of their life but Im still scared to leave. The longest I have been away from my family is 5 days and its going to be weird to be away from them and everyone else for 2 SOLID years. To not be able to call them when I want and go to the traditional holiday dinners is going to be hard. BUTTTT its going to be awesome to spend those holidays with my future companion and future investigators. Its cool to think that there are people waiting for ME, ELDER MORLEY, to teach them something that they will be able to benefit from.

I am so grateful for all the support I have with everyone including my family, my church, my friends, and what I like to call my 2nd family (the good ol' nielsen family) they are truly awesome!!!!

Wish me luck!