Remember who you are....

This is my Grandpa, Norman Dale Rex. I never met him in this life, he died when my mother was nineteen. Here is her story of his death.

I have heard numerous stories of him, amazing stories about what a great person he was. Just recently my family recieved a few stories about his mission from one of his old mission companions. It was amazing to get to hear about what a great missionary he was. Not only was he a great missionary, but a great father from what I heard, and funny too. I love my Grandpa.

Hearing the story of what it was like for my mom and the whole family when he died has made me think a lot...it has made me wonder: why was he taken? Inside I know that God took him for a very important reason. Maybe he is needed more in Heaven than he was needed here. Maybe he was just too pure and good to be in this evil world any longer. I can always speculate why, I am only human however, so I cannot know until I die. Still, I miss him. There is a kind of void without him, that somehow I feel is necessary.

I also wonder: if my Dad was taken right now, could I get through it? How would it affect my family? Who would be there for me to help me get through it? I feel the greatest Love for my Mom's family, and I wonder just how they all got through it. I also think about some of my friends, if that happened to them, would I be there for them? Without a doubt I know I will.

I recieved an e-mail the other week from my wonderful Grandma:

"'You were in the War in Heaven, and one day when you are in the spirit world you will be enthralled with those who you are associated with. You will ask someone in which time period he lived in and you might hear, I was with Moses when he parted the Red Sea, or I helped build the pyramids, or I fought with Captain Moroni. And as you are standing there in amazement, someone will turn to you and ask, Which prophet time did you live in?
And when you say Gordon B. Hinckley, a hush will fall over every hall, every corridor in heaven and all in attendance will bow at your presence. You were held back six thousand years because you were the most talented, most obedient, most courageous, and most righteous. Are you still? Remember who you are!!'
-Boyd K. Packer

As a teenager, your Grandpa Dale used to hear 'Remember who you are!' from his father every time he'd go out on a date, go to play in the sports he participated in, and to participate in a play production, etc.

The impact those loving and concerned words from his father had on Dale was significant enough that he said them to our children as they would leave our home to go out into the world for their various activities, too.

You...are the leader of our family's rising generation, so I want to pass onto you these words from my heart and from your Grandpa Dale's heart (I know him, and I know that he loves you deeply enough to have told....you these words when it was your turn to leave him to come to earth), 'Remember who you are!'"

I love this e-mail, and I love my grandma. I know that when I left Heaven and my grandpa Dale to come here to this earth he echoed those words "Remember who you are!" one more time.

Remember, in The Lion King, when Simba is feeling down, and Mufasa comes in the clouds? I love that part, because he says those same words "Remember who you are!" and Simba takes it to heart, gains courage, picks himself up again, and saves the day. When I am in fear, and pain, and feel down and inadequate, I just think of my Grandpa Dale, and I know that he is up there in Heaven looking down on me echoing those words one last time, "REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!"

Amateur Astrophotography

I love my Telescope...
Look at these pictures of the moon I took tonight. With that telescope and a simple digital camera.


Now that's nothing compared to this:
But hey, it is pretty good for the first few pictures taken through my telescope. That's a picture of the Sombrero Galaxy in infrared. I didn't take it though, NASA did. If you want to see some pretty sweet awesome astronomy pics click here. I could spend hours looking at those pictures. Here are some of my favorites:Earth at Night
Volcano and Aurora
View of space from Southern Utah. That's without a telescope. Pretty amazing.
Orion's belt. The three stars of Orion's belt shown from left to right are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka.

It changed my life, It will change yours

I have thought long and hard and I have decided that life rocks....really, right now my life is amazing. It wasn't always this way though.

I'm sure that I can look through my life and see a few things that have changed me into who I am today, but the one thing I know that I would be nowhere without is the Book of Mormon. I am a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I have the best parents a kid could ever hope for, and don't deserve them sometimes, and I acknowledge that I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for them, but the Book of Mormon is not something that was already there like my parents were. I had to discover it for myself.

Before I began reading the Book of Mormon I was just...not happy at all. I felt like I had no friends, like I was an outcast, and I was always scared of things like death, people, being without my parents, lots of stuff. At about age 13 I began reading the Book of Mormon for the first time, but wasn't mature enough to understand it or get anything out of it, and it took me over two years to finally finish. As I read through it the first time my life gradually got better, and by the time I finished it at about age 15 things were going pretty well. I would not have finished it the first time had it not been for Divine Guidance when my Bishop issued a challenge to my ward to read it. By the beginning of my Sophomore year at Provo High I was addicted to this book, and I still am. I was on my way to finishing it a second time when again by Divine Guidance the Prophet of the LDS church, Gordon B. Hinckley issued a challenge to the entire church to read it again and I completed that challenge. And yet a third time, by Divine Guidance we were studying the Book of Mormon in seminary that year and I was put into the classes of two of the most amazing men I have ever known, Brother Goss (semester one), and Brother Laing (semester two). They changed my life forever. After finishing President Hinckley's challenge to read it, having read it twice already, I made a goal to read it two times in 2006 and I completed that goal. I have now read the Book of Mormon four times and I am currently on my fifth time reading it.

I have come a long way since I first discovered the Book of Mormon almost five years ago. Because of the Book of Mormon today I am very successful in school, and happy to be there. My life has purpose and meaning, and I find that I can be happy no matter what is going on. I have more friends than I can count, and I am blessed to be best friends with some of the best people in the world. I have a wonderful room of my own, a car of my own, and a wonderful home to live in with an awesome family. I know now that I am loved beyond anything I will ever comprehend. Now I actually look forward to death, I love being with people and talking to them, and I know that I can and will survive without my parents.

So what is so great about this book that it so drastically changed my life? To know for yourself and experience a change of your own you must read it and pray to God to know that it is true. That is all I did. That is the secret to my success. I know that if you read it and pray about it then you will experience the same change that I did. If you want to get a copy of the Book of Mormon please click here.

The Best Room I Ever Had

Welcome to the best room I ever had....

So here's the story....
I "got to" share a room with my younger brother Zack for my entire life up to last summer. This room once had a tile floor and was kind of the overflow room where all the junk that didn't have a place would get put. At the beginning of the summer last year my parents said that if I cleaned it out I could move in there. After much persuasion I finally got my parents to let me move most of the junk in there into our garage. After shampooing some old carpet we had I got my Dad to help me lay the carpet in there then I moved in. I do not think it is coincidence that around this time my grandmother had just moved into a new house in Springville and had a few things she didn't need anymore, including a queen sized waterbed which became mine, at least for now. After filling all seven of the tubes for the waterbed by myself and getting it all set up I spent about half a day moving my stuff in there. I consider myself very blessed to have a room like this...
BYU Dartboard that I got from my grandma for my birthday. Very entertaining.

A Map of the World that has pins in it for every missionary I know.

Bullitin Board that I got from my sweet awesome brother Zack last Christmas.

A large picture of a blue corvette. The nicest car in the world.

Rolltop desk that I use for school stuff.

Pictures of my Dad's. Cool stuff.

The biggest and bluest and most comfortable chair in the world, and it's mine. My dear mother bought it at a yard sale for ten bucks and decided to give it to me. In the background is my dresser which I also got for free.

My waterbed. Sooo comfortable, but notice I have three blankets on there, my room gets really really cold at night.

Quote wall. Containing thirty pages of the best quotes ever.

My "Title of Liberty." Good stuff.

This is my nightstand that my Dad made in a woods class at BYU. Shown on the nightstand: Clock, Ipod, Cell Phone, Sister's Ipod, Statue of Jesus Christ with "The Living Christ" behind it, Wal-Mart Giftcard, Missionary Journal and pen, Duty to God award, Telescope lenses, and lamp with fortunes from fortune cookies on it. There is a BYU pennant in the background that I also got for my birthday from my grandma. I love my nightstand.

This is the bottom shelf of the nightstand. Here I have put my yearbooks, last years journals, and other great books.

My "Missionary Desk" that I use for studying the scriptures and other good stuff like Preach My Gospel. I got this desk and the chair for free when one Saturday one of my best friends, Murphy, called me to see if I could help him move some of his relatives. I went to help them, and they said that they were just going to throw that desk and the chair away and said I could have it and it fit perfectly in my room. It is not coincidence that I got this desk.

My snowboard, which provides me with hours of fun up at Sundance.


My Telescope that I got for Christmas. Provides me with hours of fun gazing at the stars.

My Awesome Car

Over the summer I bought a 1972 Chevorlet Caprice for $600. I know, $600 is very cheap for a car, and at first I was very skeptical about how well it would run. I couldn't drive it the day we found it, so my dad drove it. He took it on the freeway and tested the V8 engine in it and said yes. So I paid for it, but on the bill of sale it says that the car belongs to my mother, which really makes me mad when I paid every last cent for it. I think it was worth it, a great car for a cheap price. The transmission in it is a little bad, but that can be fixed. And it really needs a new paint job, but it would probably cost me more than I paid for the car to paint it because there are so many rust spots. I just turned 16 on August 4, and for my birthday I got a sweet new radio/cd player in it and new speakers, it's awesome.

It's a sweet car, but the biggest downside is the gas mileage. It gets between 10 and 13 miles to the gallon, and with gas prices going as high as they are I will not have very much money left by the time I graduate, if it lasts that long. Maybe I will get a new car that gets better gas mileage before I graduate, but I really love and appreciate this car cause I paid for it.

A year later (August 2006)...
My dad took it in to get the transmission checked because we were having problems with the reverse and got some bad news. The guy told him that the reverse is pretty much gone and there are only two working gears in it. So I'm selling it to my uncle Rodney to put in a demolition derby, pretty sweet stuff....

AP World History

My 7th period at Provo High is AP World History with a guy named Mr. Murphy. When I signed up for the class I had no idea what I was in for, I thought it wouldn't be that hard, but I had never taken an AP class before. I was late for class the first day of school because I was out eating lunch a little late. Well when I walked in I was given an odd stare by Mr. Murphy. Not knowing what to do I blurted out my name, guessing that's what he wanted. He replied immediately with a "Did I ask?" and I quickly said "no". "WHY ARE YOU LATE FOR MY CLASS?!" Mr. Murphy yelled at me, and I quickly answered "I was at lunch, I'm sorry it won't happen again." He lectured us on random facts of history for the rest of the period.

On the second day of class I was on time, thank goodness. He began by telling us about how hard the class was going to be. He gave us our textbooks and after we got them he said "You have two textbooks for this class, the one before you and your notes". He then walked over by the door and pointed to a rack near it. He told us that that rack was for all of his other classes. Then he turned around and pointed to three large racks under a counter that were full of paper and said "these three are all for you". Then he had a guy go to the back of the room and pull out a huge binder full of what looked to be around 300 papers. He told us that that binder would be our second textbook and then explained to us that we would be getting roughly 85 handouts per term. It was then that I realized just how hard this class was going to be.

The third day he was talking with a girl in the front row the he doesn't really like very much, it was very funny. He asked her if she had ever been to hell and she said "yes, once" and he replied "well, welcome back."

I have always hated history, I always thought in my history classes "This is so boring, why do we care about some stupid dead people?" I don't know why or how, but Mr. Murphy makes history interesting and I think I will like it for the first time in my entire life.