Tuning in for the Win

Yesterday I bought an antenna for our TV, and I'm glad I did, because Marian and I got to see the spectacular finish to the BYU vs Nebraska football game. When I first set up the antenna, I was frustrated because it didn't seem to be working. Thankfully after a few minutes of readjusting and trying different things it started to work. 

BYU was down by just one point and we got the ball with less than a minute on the clock. After a few plays, we were still out of field goal range, and now only 1 second was left on the clock. The play call was obvious; it was time for a Hail Mary pass. The result was an unbelievable catch that won BYU the game and ended a 29 year home-opener winning streak for Nebraska. In case you haven't seen the clip, here's a link where you can watch it.

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/114572/byu-qb-wr-break-down-game-winning-hail-may

My difficulty with the antenna is a lot like communicating with God. Sometimes it takes multiple efforts and patient adjusting on our part in order to pick up and maintain a strong signal. So if you're prayers ever seem to go unanswered, that doesn't mean that God is not there or that He isn't responding. More likely we just need to learn to adjust ourselves to tune in to hear His divine voice.

Life is Great

Life is interesting. Life is unpredictable. Life is hard. Life is great! All of these variations of life have been my lot during the past two months, and I feel incredibly blessed. There are so many stories I could tell you. Instead, I want to show you in pictures.

Much to my chagrin I became a University of Utah student for a few weeks. I went to Armenia with the Global Health Armenia Program. It was an incredible experience to be back in Armenia and to learn so much about global health and the history and culture of Armenia. The stones in the front are hand carved cross-stones and the monastery in the background is Noravank.

Shortly after returning from Armenia, Marian and I were married! As you can see from the picture, it was a very happy day for us. We were sealed in the Dallas Texas Temple. We were married there, because temples provide a place where marriages can be pronounced for time and all eternity. What a blessing and joy Marian is to me.

We had a fantastic reception that evening and the next morning we were off to Kauai. In my opinion, it is probably the most beautiful place on earth. Marian and I had a great honeymoon and another reception in Utah, and then it was back to real life.

Here's one more picture from Kauai. This place inspires me. It's called the Kalalau Valley. I think I could sit and stare for hours.

In case I have managed to capture your attention up unto this point, I want to share a parable that came to my mind yesterday as I was reading John 20. 

After His resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared to 10 of His apostles, but one of them, Thomas, wasn't there. When the other apostles told Thomas, "We have seen the Lord," he replied, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25). We might reasonably ask, why was it so hard for Thomas to believe? Couldn't he trust the words of his fellow apostles? The following example convinced me that I'm not that different.

There were many times during the past few years where I wondered if I would ever get married. I thought, what if 10 of my family or closest friends came to me and all said, "Lance, you won't believe it, but we met the perfect girl for you!" I think my skeptical response would have been like Thomas', "I'll see it when I believe it." Having faith can be hard, but the Lord is patient with us and doesn't hide himself from us though we may find it hard to believe from time to time. Jesus appeared to Thomas. Lance found Marian. And I can't imagine being any happier.

Microbiota

Hello again. Sorry it's been so long. Life is busy! I am almost done with my first year of medical school. My final class is immunology, which has inspired this post.

Our bodies have many built in defense mechanisms to counter an infection. One such defense is the microbiota or microbiome. In case you're unfamiliar with these terms, let me explain. We generally think of bacteria as being bad, disease causing little cells that we want nothing to do with. Would your feelings toward bacteria change if you found out that there are more bacteria on the surfaces of your body than cells in your body? Surprise! Your body is the home to about 10 times more bacteria than human cells. Thankfully, in most circumstances, these bacteria serve to protect you, and the role of these "healthy" bacteria is an active field of medical research.

Now, back to the microbiota as an immune defense. Your digestive tract is covered in these "healthy" bacteria, which take up space, so that disease causing bacteria have no room to grow. However, if your microbiota is disturbed (by antibiotics, disease, etc.), then you are more prone to being infected by another type of less friendly bacteria. The parable here is simple and easily recognizable. Filling your life with good leaves no room for the bad. You cannot simply give up something bad and expect it to go away. Filling your life with light will help you remove the darkness.

2048

Distraction: In other words, a smartphone. If you own a smartphone, you know what I'm talking about. It's not very hard to procrastinate something by playing a game, trolling a social media feed, or checking email. I purposefully don't have many games on my phone, but one of my favorites has been 2048. If you haven't played, in this game you have a little 4x4 board with numbers (multiples of 2) that you slide to combine matching numbers into bigger numbers, with the goal of obtaining a 2048 tile. I really haven't played much until recently, when I decided it was an easy way to take a short study break.

During one such break this week, I was playing 2048 and had made considerable progress. I was getting nervous and began to sweat. Shortly after I reached the 1024 tile, Marian called me and that interrupted my game (don't worry I answered. She's definitely more important to me!). When we hung up, I decided to finish out the game, and within about 10 swipes, I won! I couldn't believe it. I had no idea I was so close. Here's the evidence of my victory.

Although this was just a trivial game on my smartphone, the same thing happens in real life. Sometimes we are so close to the goal and we don't even realize it. But if we just hold on and press on, we may soon be surprised by the result. 

Spring is Here

This is a wonderful time of the year! The weather is great, the flowers are blooming, and the birds are singing. You may think that Texas is a brown, barren place, and while I'm sure there are some areas like that, Dallas is actually pretty green. The trees are leafing (yes that is a real word) and the flowers are blooming! Here is some of the beauty I saw this week:

The Spring season reminds me of this scripture: "And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me" (Moses 6:63, emphasis added).

If all things bear record of God, then how might the Spring season bear record of Him? It is at this time of the year that nature comes to life. What once was dead springs forth new, fresh, and beautiful. Also at this same time of year, nearly 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, with an immortal and glorious body. On this Easter day, may our belief in Christ allow us to see the beauty in the world. Because He lives, we can find renewed purpose and perspective.

I hope you enjoy this special Easter message #BecauseHeLives.

Popping the Question

A few months ago I wrote a post entitled "Tying the Knot," but it wasn't about marriage at all...Sorry if I disappointed any of you back then, but don't worry, the title of this post won't disappoint!

About a week and a half a go I got engaged to the amazing and adorable Marian Randall (Don't worry this won't get mushier. I'm not into the whole public "brag about my girl" posts when it should really be said to her in private). She knew this was coming sometime soon, but she had no idea when. With some help from our friends, Alexiss and Leslie, it turned out fantastic.

On Wednesday nights Marian often has a girl's night while I am volunteering at the Dallas Temple. I called her as I usually do on my way to the Temple, and I played it off like everything was normal. A few hours later Marian got picked up by her friends to go shopping. One of them had a perfect (and true) cover story about needing to go get a children's book as a present. They "decided" to go to Half Price Books (a true gem of Texas)--which is where Marian and I had read children's books to each other on our first official date.

Before they got to the store I set out one of the books we read on the first date, The Stinky Cheeseman, my journal entries about her and our relationship, and a piece of paper with her name on it. Then I went and hid in another part of the store. Marian walked in and started checking out the children's books, and then BAM she saw the papers with her name on it and the arrow pointing to a chair. Still unsure of what exactly was going on, she began to read my journal entries, and I moved in closer so I could hear what was going on.

At one point I heard her ask, "Is he here? Where is he?" The last journal entry was for that day and it said to open the book to the marked page. On that page I had highlighted letters spelling out "Will you marry me?" Then (after a slight delay) I walked around the corner and got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. And she said yes!

We will be getting married in the Dallas Temple on July 1st for time and all eternity. You see, in my religion we believe that God intends for marriage to be an essential relationship in life and beyond. I am so happy--the happiest I have ever been. All of the dating and working and worrying I have done up to this point was definitely worth it. I am very excited to start our own life together this summer. Happiness is found in living the gospel of Jesus Christ in families.

Miracle on Steppington Street

Sometimes we simply cannot explain the outcomes we witness. Some will say this is just chance, but I am a firm believer in miracles. Thursday night I had one such experience. I was out helping the local missionaries in my ward. At one point I was backing out of my parking spot, and I forgot that there was a keypad behind me. Suddenly, my car stopped and jolted forward. I was stunned and looked back to see the keypad right behind my car. I had hit a pole that was protecting the keypad! I couldn't believe it. How could I be so stupid? I had seen the keypad earlier, but totally forgot about it. Certainly there would be a large dent in my bumper, I thought. As I opened my car door, I prepared for the worst. Amazingly, I could find no sign of the collision. After looking closer, I found a small scratch down the length of my bumper. It is hard to see in this blurry picture, but take a look for yourself. The scratch is down and to the left of the bright line.

To me this was a miracle, a gift from a loving God. Said another way by the prophet Nephi, "The tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith" (1 Nephi 1:20). Miracles do not produce faith, but rather miracles strengthen and confirm our existing faith. This and many other experiences are evidence to me that miracles  still occur today.

Dealing with Broken Glasses

Last night I played an intramural racquetball match with another student from Turkey. I've been playing racquetball now for about 3 years. It's a very fun sport and can be played in any kind of weather--because it's played on an indoor court. Since I started medical school I've played about once a week with some of my classmates.

When playing racquetball it's a very good idea to wear eye protection. Without it, you leave your eyes vulnerable to serious damage. The ball moves fast and is the perfect size to create suction in your eye socket, and you don't have to be a doctor to know that's a dangerous thing! About a year ago I broke my racquetball glasses. In an attempt to save money (a whole $10) I glued the part back on and wore a hat to keep the glasses on my face. I've dealt with this inconvenience for a year, and over time the glasses became more and more difficult, such that I had to adjust them after most points.

During my match yesterday, the glasses finally gave out. They kept falling off and I felt bad for delaying the game and creating a hazard to us, so I took off my glasses. This distracted me as I was worried about being hit in the face. I can't totally blame my loss on this fact, but I feel like it certainly affected my performance. It could have been easily avoided if I had taken a few minutes to buy a new pair of racquetball glasses. So what did I do right after the game? I went and bought a new pair of glasses...something I should have done many times during the last year.

What's the parable here? Well, when you know something is wrong in your life, take care of it. Fix it. Mend it. Replace it. Repent of it. Don't let it consume you and ruin the happiness and success you could have otherwise. That is the message of the Savior Jesus Christ. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

Travel Bug

By raise of hands, who knows what geocaching is? Wait, really? I expected more of you to raise your hands. If you don't know, geocaching is a real-life treasure hunt that is happening all over the world. Other people hide "caches" or small plastic containers in public places and post its location online. Then people like you and me go and try to find them. The idea is that you can exchange a little toy or trinket for another that is in the cache and record your visit, without being discovered by the "muggles" (people not geocaching).

Yesterday Marian and I went geocaching near White Rock Lake. It was a beautiful day, and we found 2 of the 3 caches we were looking for. You can see part of the first cache we found in a tree above my head. It was a peanut butter jar wrapped in burlap. I was a little worried it wasn't a cache, but someone else's stash.

Our purpose was to find a new home for Marian's travel bug, Mr. Fox. Hailing from Provo, UT, Mr. Fox is a small stuffed animal with the instruction to take him as far south as possible (Provo to Dallas is pretty good, wouldn't you say?). As I opened the cache, I found that it was completely full. To make room for Mr. Fox, we would have to take something else out. The largest item was a nasty looking mermaid doll. We exchanged her for Mr. Fox and promptly threw out the mermaid.

What can we take away from this parable? Sometimes we must get rid of something to make room in our lives for something more important. Are you making room for the most important things in life? God, family, friends are the most important in my book. My experience has taught me that when we put God first, we have room for all the rest, but if we put things before Him, then we will be frustrated by our lack of wisdom and time.

An Experience in Bearding

For the first time in my life I decided that I would let my beard grow out over the winter break. Before this I think I had never gone more than 4-5 days without shaving. I'm not sure what got in to me--well it was probably curiosity for the most part--but I determined not to shave for at least 2 weeks.

There were a few obstacles along the way, but I let my beard grow for about 16 days. Here's the result.

After a while I felt like I looked older and it started to itch less. People say that after 2-3 weeks it isn't so bad, and I started to like it--sometimes. Overall it was a good experience for me. I learned that I can grow a beard (albeit a little spotty) and it taught me a lesson in self-judgment.

As I began to grow my beard, I started to feel like a different person--even though I really wasn't. I felt like everyone was noticing my beard first and thinking something like, "Why is he growing out a beard?" or "Can't he do better than that?" And some people did make comments, but they weren't ever critical. My favorite was said by a friend in Utah who attributed my new-found strength to my "Samson Beard." Slowly, I began to realize that most people didn't care to note my change in facial hair, so why should I be so critical of myself?

I imagine that you may have had a similar experience when you got a new pair of glasses or woke up with an unattractive zit on your forehead. The lesson: Remember you are generally your own harshest judge. Don't get down on yourself. Be proud of what you have and do the best you can.