Keri's not so awesome week

So classes are just classes and while I like all of them they definately don't qualify as the highlight of my week. This week my astronomy lecture teacher posted the grades we got on our midterms. Since this class you have to get 150/150 on all the practice tests and a pretty decent grade on the tests I am really struggling. If I only miss five questions on the practice tests I get a D on it. I am such a procrastinator so I am not reading my textbooks like Im supposed to. The final was 75 questions and since I had only read one chapter in its entirety out of four and my average for the practice tests was a D because I kept missing one question on each and totally forgot to take one of them, I was expecting to get a D on the mid-term. Sure enough when I looked at my grade when it was posted it said 67 for the midterm. Thankfully I found out that the number wasn't the percent but the number of questions I got right out of 75. That gave me a high B. Close shave there. All my other classes are super easy. I either rarely get homework or there are lots of assignments to make up for if I bomb one. Not my astronomy lecture. My whole grade is practice tests and tests and they are all weighted super heavy that I am probably gonna get a B in that class.

Last Thursday Kelly and I had to take our computer down to the techy fix it place because some stupid anti-virus software that we are not even paying for would not let us on 3/4 of the sites we need for school because they were "unsafe". WHATEVER!!! If I am not paying to use you get off my computer. Unfortunately we could not uninstall the stupid thing so we took it to the tech place. This also leaves us without a computer so we spend our time down in the computer lab on the first floor. While the computers are totally up to date they charge for printing. Hopefully ours will be fixed before I need to print something.

The highlight of my week was definately conference. Lots of good talks even though I didn't get notes from alot of them.

Thoughts

"I know that I am not what I must become. I pray that I might be willing and moldable to the Lord's tutoring and correction." - Neil L. Andersen. from this talk

Thursday's Thought

"Individual recognition is rarely an indication of the value of our service. We do not know the names, for example, of any of the 2,000 sons of Helaman. As individuals, they are unnamed. As a group, however, their name will always be remembered for honesty, courage, and the willingness to serve. They accomplished together what none of them could have accomplished alone."
From Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk "Lift Where You Stand."

Thursday's Thought

While I was reading Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk "The Power of Covenants" this scripture really stood out to me:

"...willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice..." D&C 97:8

Sacrifice implies an awful lot. So, I had to stop and ponder...

Am I willing to sacrifice to keep my covenants? to obey the Lord's commands? Do I jump in whole-heartedly - with both feet? Am I going for the "A"?

No, I'm sorry to say ... I think ... I'm often guilty of more of a ... half-hearted attempt ... doing just enough "to pass." Sorta skating by.

Now, don't get me wrong. Just passing might be really great for some people, it might be all they can do, their best effort. But, I don't think I fall into that category. I could do better. I need to do better. I want to get an A. I want to graduate with honors.

And that made me think of another quote, this one from Lawrence E. Corbridge's talk "The Way":

"He paid the price of our education." meaning the Lord, of course.

So, not only am I away at school, getting an education, I'm here on scholarship. I'm here on scholarship and I've been slackin off. Time to repent and get back to work.

Thursday's Thought

"I delight in the examples of those in the scriptures who walk by faith on their earthly journey. Each time I walk with Abraham and Isaac on the road to Mount Moriah, I weep, knowing that Abraham does not know that there will be an angel and a ram in the thicket at the end of that journey. We are each in the middle of our earthly path, and we don't know the rest of our own stories. But we, as Abrahan, are blessed with miracles."
Susan W. Tanner
See or hear the rest of this talk from the Sunday morning session of April 2008 Conference here.

Conference Quotes

From the Saturday Morning Session:

"reverence is profound respect mingled with love" - David O. McKay (Margaret S. Lifferth).

"know and know that you know" - Allan F. Packer

"in times of trial let covenants be paramount, obedience exact" - D. Todd Christofferson

"a trial is an invitation to grow" - Henry B. Eyring

From the Saturday Afternoon Session:
"You're gonna text your talk?" M. Russell Ballard's grandson

"if we desire more faith we must be more obedient" Kevin W. Pearson

From the Sunday Morning Session:
"Discipleship is not a spectator sport" Dieter F. Uchtdorf
"The Lord will shape the back to fit the burden" Neil L. Andersen quoting Pres. Monson
And Jeffrey R. Holland's talk was so good I got sucked in and forgot to take notes.

From the Sunday Afternoon Session:
I liked the GPS analogy with the "Warning: Lost Reception" by Jose A. Teixeira
"Decisions determine destiny" Elder Teixeira quoting Pres. Monson
And also by Pres. Monson - regular temple attendance gives us "strengthened resolve to keep the commandments"

What were your favorites?

Go here to see/hear them yourself.

Hawaii anyone?

Naka is teaching the Young Men and Young Women in our ward a Polynesian dance. They are going on a trip to Salt Lake to see General Conference. They will be performing the dance while they are there. Looking goooood guys!

General Conference

Well, after 8 hours (10 for Nathan) of listening to apostles and prophets our brains are a little fried. But I thought I would share with you my favorite talks, which you can listen to here if you missed it.

In the Saturday Morning session Elder Dallin H. Oaks talk about reverence in Sacrament meeting was specifically for our family. So the rest of you can probably ignore that one. We DO sometimes laugh in Sacrament Meeting. Usually about what the speaker has said - so we are paying attention! I cannot deny that we sometimes adversely affect the reverence of those around us - since we have been shushed, MORE THAN ONCE!

In the Saturday Afternoon session my favorite talk was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk about Angels. This talk really touched me because, one night when I was having a particularly rough time I asked Andrew to give me a blessing. This was before he left on his mission. In the blessing I was commended for doing genealogy and temple work for my ancestors and that some of them had been assigned to watch over me and my children. Probably too personal to share, hope you don't think I'm bragging.

In the Sunday Morning session I really liked Elaine S. Dalton's talk. Two quotes I liked from her talk: "You be the one to stand for right even if you stand alone." and "I can do hard things." I also liked President Monson's "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved."

And in the Sunday Afternoon session I liked Boyd K. Packer's talk about patriotism and hardships.