Back to School Back to school....!

Have you ever felt the spirit so strongly from a lesson, or discussion, you have been a part of that brought such a feeling of peace that all your cares and troubles seemed to melt away? On the other hand, have you ever been so frustrated that you physically want to lash out at something or someone? This past week I have gone through both of these extremes.


I’m 26 years old, I’m married, I have one baby on the way and I’m starting all over again as a freshman. If that’s not disheartening, then I don’t know what is. Somehow this time I thought I would magically have the ability to be a great student and it would be easier. I guess the 3 years that have gone by since the last time I was in school have clouded my memory and I forgot a few things. My wife was studying the English 101 manual for the class she would be teaching and she read something to me that struck a chord. “To learn is hard work. It requires discipline. And there is much drudgery. When I hear someone say that learning is fun, I wonder if that person has never learned or if he has just never had fun”. Ha. I actually laughed when I first heard that but I’m finding out again how true it is. The reality of this statement has started to weigh heavily on my heart. The task at hand looks like a huge mountain for me to climb, and I admit I have wondered to myself if I really have what it takes to make it. But, lucky for me, the Lord has a plan for me. My life has been preserved for a specific purpose. I know this because I have seen the protecting hand of the Lord in the preservation of my life through several experiences.

I may have forgotten who I was but the Lord hasn’t. He knows who I was and what I can become, and he has been teaching me that there is distance between who I am today and who I am supposed to be tomorrow. I have also learned that the time is short and there is no time to waste. 2 Nephi teaches us that “men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life through the great mediator of all men or to choose captivity and death”. Alma 34 also teaches us that “this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God”. I have been placed here in this school at this time for a specific purpose. I don’t know yet all the reasons why, but I feel for now, here is where he can teach and mold me best. Here is the place for me to best prepare myself to meet my maker, to develop my talents and to become what he would have me become.

This University is truly the Lords’ University. I have never witnessed such a place on the earth, and the exciting thing is my time here has just begun. Yes I have begun to feel growing pains but like you stated on our syllabus Bro Christensen “Becoming GREAT extracts a price”. I know that if I have faith on the Lord Jesus Christ I can do all things.