05 March 2008

tagged by mandy

Tagged

I got tagged by Mandy. I am new to the whole blogging world and am still trying to find what I want this to be... therefore this is coming rather late.

10 years ago I was
... living in teh Glenwood with some of my best friends and my brother Mark at BYU. I was only a little over six months off my mission. Even so, I already had one friend that was engaged and close to marriage and another one close on his heals. By this time, I think even Pat was participating in Group Scripture Study...


5 Things on my To Do List for Today and Possibly Tomorrow:
Finish a business plan
Finish module five on the Church's Feedback Lesson
Run and lift
Network for new position
Possibly receive a haircut by the world famous Jess

7 Things I'd Do If I Became A Billionaire:
Set the financial future for my family and myself - Trusts, IRAs, Savings, pay off loans... etc.
Create a microcredit NGO for Brazil
Build up Capitol to Push Giv Clothing forward
Go get my PhD
Go Back to Brazil
Visit all of my friends and family, or possibly just take everyone on a trip around the world.
Donate seriously large amounts to the Perpetual Fund Fund

7 Places I Have Lived:
Provo, UT
Chicago, IL
Spokane, WA
Fortaleza, Brazil
Jerusalem, Israel
Phuket, Thailand
Salt Lake City, UT

5 Jobs I have Had:
Landscaping
Janitor
Client Development
Research Associate
Leadership Development

2 Bad Habits:
Leaving room messy
Watching too much tv


Things Most People Don't Know About Me:
I don't like being told what to do though I can be a good follower... I have rules about singing in the car, for myself and others... I have been over 80 Mph on roller blades...

25 February 2008

A Visual Panegyric


I have not yet found words to adequately describe my thoughts and feelings on the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley.


Like Whitman, I feel to cry, 'O Captain! My Captain!' to a Prophet whose compassion showed me the Savior's love and whose belief in me filled me with the Savior's hope.


This loss has reminded me of when my first mission president left the mission and an elder came to me and asked, "Elder Romney, do you feel a difference in the mission... its different now. I don't have that same feeling as before." The spirit gave me an answer to the question I was asked, for me and for that Elder, and which it seems applies to the passing of this great giant. I looked at him and said, "Elder, we were blessed to be led by such a man as President Martins Silva. His love, his spirit, was so great that the light and love of Christ literally showed through the perfect prism of his soul to fill us all. Now, we have to figure out how to do it on our own."


So too, I see it with President Hinckley. His great gift was to love, hope, and believe as the Savior would and be able to share it with you personally even if he was speaking to the world. This was not rhetoric for him. The way the Savior loved differently enough to reach out to the afflicted and to the children, so too loved President Hinckley. As Sheri Dew said, "He believed in you more than you believed in you, he thought you were better than you did."


A door has been shut, a window closed.


Yet, I know the Lord’s work will move forward and I am so excited to be part of the change and growth that is coming. Of course, the work will go on. Of course, President Monson will work wonders and is a great prophet already. I love him and had the spirit testify to me at the Leadership Conference that he is God's chosen and anointed leader of this church on the earth. He is great and will do great. But I feel in my soul the loss of my Prophet... President Gordon B. Hinckley.


Him who who helped me believe and hope a little bit more every time I heard him. As he said of Elder Maxwell, let me say of him, "I do not think we shall every see his like again".


Exult O shores, and ring O bells!

But I with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.


Even now, words are so inadequate and so I offer this picture of the hands that served so faithfully and so lovingly for so long. This picture touches me, for I know those hands just as much as if they were put upon my head every day these past 14 years. I thank my Father in Heaven for the blessing of having lived in the time of President Gordon B. Hinckley. I hope you all enjoy the picture and remember him as I do.