Dear my family and friends,
I am now in my second semester of school at SVU. It's going to be a lot different than last semester I can already tell. First, would be my classes. I have a totally different schedule than last semester and for me being a freshman here at school, it's a tough change in a way. I have to think a lot faster and be more on top of things to get every assignment done on time. The classes I am taking are: Health and Wellness, Becoming Leader-Servants, Spanish II, Astronomy (which I am actually very interested in learning about), Reason and the Self (bleh, philosophy), Intro to Theatre History, and of course Institue which I'm learning about the Pearl of Great Price which will also be very good to learn more about the creation and Moses and Abraham. I never have truly studied them or read them. In seminary, they were just quickly taught and we never spent much time on those books so I'm really looking forward for that. I'm still meeting new people. Everyone or most everyone is of course still very, very welcoming and nice. It's such a great atmosphere to be here and to learn so much more. I am so surprised by how much my mind can still learn so much after going to school for 12 straight years and my brain hasn't blown up by the information is being put in here.
Today we had our first forum for the Leader-Servant class which actually anyone can go to it on Fridays. Our speaker today was Jason F. Wright. He wrote a couple books such as "The Wednesday Letters" and "Christmas Jars." He also co-wrote the New York Times best seller, "The Christmas Sweater," with Glenn Beck. Mostly, Mr. Wright spoke more on Christmas jars and his own personal experiences with them. He said he actually started it with his own family. They began with getting a good size jar and all the change that they would come home with they would put it in the jar. This went on for about maybe three months or something. Near the Christmas holiday, they counted how much there was in the jar. It came to about $90. Then they got a list of names of people who needed things such as money. When they finally picked who they wanted to drop it off with, the whole family came and pretty much ding-dong ditched leaving the jar of money with an anonymous note on the other family's doorstep. Mr. or Brother Wright didn't say what happened to the family when they opened the door, but what he did say was how his daughters looked after they got home from giving that jar full of money. He said that they just lightened up with what he called, "The Giving Gene." The giving gene came from his father and Bro. Wright also mentioned how his dad had that gene and how he wished that gene had been passed down to him. I could tell the way Bro. Wright spoke that he was a really good man, very faithful that he also had that gene, but it was probably hard for him to find it himself. Anyways, he and his family continued to give the Christmas jars away ever year for about 3 years before he wrote the book. He and his family started filling up their jars at the beginning of the year so they could save up more money for other families.
So I just wanted to share that because I thought that was such an awesome forum to start of the new semester with. I love you guys very much!
