The Mormon Update

Utah has it all! It is the Mormon homeland, the place of great mountains, and the place of the "best snow on earth". Lately, it has snowed and snowed. On some days, the weather has reached -8 degrees F (-22.2 degrees C). Personally, I am very jealous of my friend in Chile who is experiencing a beautiful summertime at the beach.

Inside from the world, let's get back to the Mormon Mothership. Here is your update:

• The average time spent for missionaries at the Missionary Training Center is now officially reduced by thirty-percent.
• The number of missionary applicants has risen by 471 percent.
• A recent stomach flu went viral at the Missionary Training Center--an epidemic of sorts. Over a hundred missionaries were affected. However, it only lasted a few days.
• A Chelsie Irish has come up with a great idea to help foster children by helping them to have proper storage cases for their belongings instead of trash bags. 
• Personally, I would like to thank Chelsie for her efforts. I grew up in the foster system and one of my earliest memories is having to put mine and my sister's few belongings in a box. Another memory is of being in a foster home that eventually became my forever home. However, there would always be rumors that I would end up going elsewhere (that happened for five years) and so we would have to stuff everything I had in trash bags just out of preparation. I have to say that this idea of hers is incredible and I am sure that it will help many children

Can I just say that I love being Mormon? Living in Utah, being Mormon is everything. I don't mean that in a prideful way. I mean, that being Mormon is our culture. It is the root of our humor and the centerpiece of our lives. Yesterday, a group of friends from my ward and I went to watch the Notre Dame versus Alabama football game at a sports bar. It didn't matter that there could be alcohol there--what mattered was that we could all just have a good time, no temptation. So what do Mormons talk about at a bar? They tell mission stories, talk about the player on the screen they think should have gone to BYU because he too is a Mormon, theorize about the scientific matter-makeup of the soul, and discuss whether or not a certain scripture passage in the Book of Mormon refers to the Catholic church--all while, of course, cheering on the winning team (Alabama) and just being around friendly faces.

Notre Dame is a Catholic school that is pretty famous here in America. As I sat by my home teacher watching the game, we chatted about the school. "It's like BYU, but Catholic" he said. "Oh, so they have an honor code?" I inquired and to that he said "No! But they do have Jesus." To that, I joked "Do they have Moroni too?" Later, after chatting about how bad BYU has done in our last season and about how Notre Dame is usually a strong (just not against Alabama that night) and aggressive team, I said "The only difference between Notre Dame and BYU is that BYU is too polite too win."

Honestly, I don't care about football but it was fun to have a good time. Some days, I realize just how empty my life would be if I wasn't Mormon. I mean, what would I laugh about?