A Beautiful Ending To A Greater Journey Ahead

I am sad to say my time here is over. I have spent an amazing eight months here in India I will never forget. The time I have spent here has been one of the best times in my life, one of the hardest and one of great growth physically, mentally and spiritually. I have learned many things to prepare myself for the world out there and feel more than confident to face it now. Of all the lessons I have learned while being here, the most important one I learned was how to serve others. We all know the scripture from Mosiah 2:17 saying, "When ye are in the service of your fellow being, ye are only in the service of your God." I have received more joy and happiness while serving than in any other activities spent here. There is something magical about serving and helping other people. It may be always hard to do at first, but once in the act of doing it I cannot stop. Your heart will push you and at first you won't notice it, but when you do notice your life changes and continues to change in ways you never thought or imagined. Your perspective about life will change, your outlook on life will change and you will become more open-minded about life. A good friend of mine here told me one night as we talked,"If we change our thinking we can change our heart and if we can change our heart we can change ourselves and those around us and if we can change those around us we can change the world." To say I have completely learned this principle would be a lie, but to say I have tried to emulate my life after it everyday the best way I can is more accurate. I am still learning this principle and will continue to learn it my whole life. The beauty of knowledge and personal development is no matter how much we know or how great we think we are there is always more to be learned and we can always become better. I hope anyone and everyone who has read my blogs has sincerely taken to heart the words I have written and lessons I have learned. Whatever place you were in whether it was grief and you needed comfort or happiness and you wanted to read a few kind words of continual encouragement I hope I have touched, inspired, motivated and in some way changed your life. If I have done neither of these things then I hope the words I have written have in some way affected you positively. The wonderful experiences and memories I have had here will always be in my heart forever. This time in my life is a small beneficial chapter in an enormous book full of innumerable many more to come. Just because I have had this amazing time to grow and mature does not mean I am done becoming who I want to be; I have only begun. I hope each one of us can strive to continue to be better in every aspect of our lives, so one day we can all change the world for the better and those living in it. I hope all of you have enjoyed following me on this small wonderful journey I have just begun in my life; I hope each one of you can continue to follow me in the great journey ahead. I love these people and will miss them with all of my heart! I love each one of you and miss you all as well! Thank you for those who have taken time to read what I have written. It means a lot to me. God bless and take care!

Talking the Talk & Walking the Walk

I have been a little slothful these past few weeks and I have noticed it all the way deep down to my core. I have noticed it in my daily activities and with my schedule and other people around me have noticed my slothfulness as well. For awhile I kept on doing the monotonous routine of sleeping in late, being late to my scheduled responsibilities and staying in what I call my "Fortress of Solitude" or what some people call "The Cave" a.k.a. my room. I hate to admit all of this, but it has been unfortunately true. I have though, during all of this time, kept my spiritual morale up by reading great and inspirational words from Sterling W. Sill, C.S. Lewis and The Book of Mormon. I would not say my time has been completely slothful, but majority of it has been because I have not been completely obedient to my responsibilities. During this time I have noticed myself not only being isolated from others, but also not as happy as when I am around the happiness of others, and to me it is this very one thing which has hurt me the most during this time. In this great and wonderful journey, which we call life, we all make mistakes, but the greatest part of living this wonderful journey is being able to learn from our mistakes, discouragements, sorrows, griefs and hurtful pains. There is a wonderful quote I read while I was in my parents' apartment in New York from a little quote book they had sitting on a glass table in their living room which said: "Success is not defined by our position in life, but by the obstacles we overcome." We all face obstacles in our life, great times of adversity, pain, discouragement and sorrow, but if we never learn from these times in our life becoming better from them, then what good is it? We can always start over clean and it is never too late. Since being in this state of slothfulness I was recently able to talk with my mom. My mom always has a way of wording encouragement to really get to you in the most positive and constructive way possible without hurting you or making you feel bad, which is a trait I greatly admire in her out of her innumerable many. She was concerned, so she called me and gave me some words of encouragement I really needed to hear. She had heard I had sunk into this slothful state from updates via Skype and email. She told me now that I have this last stretch of a month left I should commit harder than ever before to make it really worth my experience so I can leave knowing I made an impact. She said something to me which really stuck out: "Success breeds success." This reminded me of something I previously read in one Sterling W. Sill's books on Leadership. He said, "Success comes out of consistency. We must make up our minds about values and directions and then concentrate all of our efforts to one end." I had not been consistent in my efforts of being obedient to all of my responsibilities. Hearing the words from my mother, which sparked the words of Sterling Sill, made me realize I have every capability to be successful as anyone else, but if I fail in concentrating my efforts consistently, then I fail in succeeding to obtain success. Another thought triggered into my mind about what Sterling Sill wrote about success. He said, "Success is not made up of fractional devotion or minimum performance. Success does not come easily to one who is disabled by every little discouragement, nor does it come to one who has a large degree of personal irresponsibility." All of these things I was at fault for and it was because I had lacked in my personal responsibilities. I had been what my mom said in our conversation as "Talking the Talk", but not "Walking the Walk". The reasons for why I had slipped into this slothful state was because my mind was distracted on unimportant matters. Satan always has a cunning way to distract us from our course and lead us to abandonement if we do not realize it soon enough. I was lucky to have realized it fairly quickly, but I should have realized it far sooner. No matter where we are in life Satan will always tempt us to stray off the path of righteousness. It is up to us to fight with consistent effort so we are not lost from the path. Our eternal salvation depends on it and we cannot lose. William James, a renowned philosopher and psychologist once said: "That which holds our attention determines our action." My attention was upon unimportant matters and as a result I sunk into slothfulness; I was enticed and gave in to Satan's cunning whispers and as a result I sunk into slothfulness. The reasons for why we all sink into any kind of slothfulness is because our mind wonders causing our attention to determine our actions in a hurtful way to ourselves and to God. God wants to bless us more than ever, but he cannot if we are not obedient in our responsibilities to ourselves and most importantly to Him. In the 82nd Section of the Doctrine and Covenants verse 10, the Lord says, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." Any of us can "Talk the Talk, but only a few of us can "Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk". I have learned it is not always going to be easy to follow the path of righteousness God has set up for us, but in the end it will be the path most worth taking because our eternal salvation depends on it. With anything in life causing us to work hard for something greater never comes instantaneously or with a snap of a finger, but slowly and gradually with consistent effort and concentration of our direction and values with maximum performance and devotion not being disabled by every little discouragement or falling into personal irresponsibility. Rome was not built in one day and neither was your personal success, spirituality, mental focus and anything in life worth fighting for. I hope each one of us can realize when we are slipping into slothfulness and be quick to catch it because if we do not we may lose our path to eternal salvation. I love my work here and I love the people! I love and miss you all! I pray for the safety for each one of you! God bless!

An Unforgettable Birthday!

Many days have passed since I have written last, but this is great because I have so much to share with you all. Yesterday, I celebrated my 20th birthday. It was exciting for me because this birthday was the first one I have celebrated outside of the U.S. It was a great day filled with great and exciting activities, remarkable food, and amazing company of friends I will never forget. I ended up going to Ideal Beach Resort in Mamallapuram with Greg and Rachel, Tal and his wife Annita, who we unexpectedly met up with not originally planning to see them, but since their romantic weekend took a different turn we were glad to have them be a part of the celebration as well, Charity and her friends Sarah and Dani also came with us. When we first arrived to the resort we decided to have my birthday lunch since everyone was pretty hungry. It was nice to be together with everyone and have great company for my birthday as we all ate great food and had time to talk and discuss with one another getting to know each other better. Everyone around the table had a turn to say a few things they liked about me, which I was not expecting, but it was great to hear what people had to say. I found it pretty interesting to hear the things said about me. I never notice things I do, but sometimes we do not think about everything going on in our life because time just goes by so fast, but other people always notice things we do. It was a great moment for me to hear great things said about me from people who I admire and look up to. After eating lunch, we all headed down to the beach to relax and ease away all the great food we had just eaten. I had time to talk with Tal for a little bit as everyone else did their own thing. Tal is such a great guy, he's so fun to talk to and he listens attentively to everyone, really focusing on what the other person has to say. I have had a great opportunity to spend time with him as we have played basketball together or just talked getting to know each other a little better. I have also had the privilege to speak on several occassions with his wife Annita, who as well is just as great as Tal is. She has an interesting background coming from Switzerland. In her college years she came to the U.S to study abroad ending up in Utah of all places. She was introduced to the church and when she went back to Switzerland she joined shortly after. She is also a great person to talk to always full of wonderful and interesting insights making conversations very fun and intellectual. Both of them are great people and I have really come to admire and look up to them during the time they have been here. Tal is similar to me in a few ways, but the main similiarity is we both love basketball. We sat by the beach and ended up discussing basketball for about two hours. We both could have gone on, but as we talked we kept eyeing the water eventually giving in to its enticing nature. There was no better feeling for me in that moment than to feel the relaxing cool-warm water around me as waves made their way toward me dragging me further and further into the vast sea world that could been seen ahead mile after mile endlessly; out in the horizon fishermen in their boats patiently rocked waiting for their salty smelling supply of fish; the breeze was steady and calm feeling just perfect. I could not have been any more relaxed or happier in that moment. I love the beach and all its entirety wherever I go. On the beaches in India, I am surrounded not only by tourists, which is expected because "the beach" is one of those top-tier tourist picked destinations anywhere around the world, but I am also surrounded with a different way of life and culture I do not see simply walking around other parts of southern India. All of these feelings, smells, tastes, sights and sounds I have written about added to my experience of allowing me to have had a perfect and unforgettable birthday I could not have had anywhere else. I am always amazed as to how simply happiness comes by surrounding oneself around nature created by God, which allows happiness in infinite ways greater than any other substitute created by man. We all enjoyed our time together relaxing, sharing the experience of the beautiful surroundings and the quietude of serenity. Later that night we all had dinner, which was, yet again another big feast full of parothas, naans, puris and all sorts of mouth-watering gravy sauces. We may have ordered a little too much, but that is ok because we brought back what we could not finish. The ride back to R.S.O. felt so relaxing after eating all that food. During that ride back, I had the chance to speak with Annita, who as I mentioned before is a great person full of wonderful and intellectual thoughts making conversation all the more fun and interesting. We spoke about how Rising Star came to be and the growth it has made in the years since its establishment; we spoke about the tragedy of my sister's death and how even though it was a tragedy innumerable miracles and blessings have come forth since then. It is not often enough I find someone to speak with who can share ideas not only socially, but intellectually. When I do have the chance to speak with someone who I can have a great conversation with I feel like I got something out of it instead of just talking to talk. I had an AMAZING birthday, one I will never forget simply because not only were the memories I had great, but the people I shared them with were even greater. Everyone at Rising Star seems to be doing phenomenally well! The children love each day as they go about their consistent day-to-day schedule, the office workers are always cheerful coming to work in the mornings, playing from time-to-time with the children in the afternoon, and leaving at night to go home to their families hungry so they can eat, the cooks are still cooking awesome food, which I eat and love and everyone else seems to be in good spirits everyday! One of the new things I have started every morning at six instead of running is the P90X workout program, which I have now been doing everyday for two weeks. It is an extreme workout program consisting of 90 days, so just about three months. Everyday you end up doing an hour to an hour and a half of a certain body group eventually working out your whole body by the end of the week consisting of six different workout routines then resting on the seventh day. It is quite intense, but I have made it a goal to do it everyday and so far it is all well. I am a little sore at times, but my body is getting into awesome shape, which I cannot complain about. I have continued to keep reading some pretty awesome and interesting books! Right now I am reading C.S. Lewis' The Weight Of Glory, still trying to finish Anthony Robbins' Unlimited Power and Sterling W. Sill's Leadership Vol. 1. All of these books give me a great start and close to my day, allowing me to think of awesome thoughts and ideas to enlighten myself for further knowledge. Time spent here is continually day in and day out amazing in every aspect. Spending my time usefully and carefully to the best of my ability allows me to slowly seek the knowledge I desire. I love being here; I love spending time with all of these wonderful children who teach me something new everyday and whom I love; I love being able to spend time with wonderful people who are deep down to the core great and I love being able to be a part of an awesome unique culture, which adds spice to the world around me. All of this has added to the experiences I have had while being here so far and I am truly grateful and humble to be a part of it all. I love what I do each day! I could not have a better responsibilty! I want you all to know each one of you is capable of being happy and finding happiness as I am and have found in my life now. Many people read what I write and tell me I am inspiring to others, but I do not write to inspire others; I write to share thoughts, feelings, memories, experiences and ideas I have had while being here as I have grown and matured into the person I have always wanted myself to become. If I do inspire others I hope it is for the right reasons. I write mainly because I have been inspired by other people while I have spent my time here, I have changed what I represent to myself, I have gained a happiness I want to share with others and most importantly I have sought out role models of the type of people I wanted to become like. Henry David Thoreau said, "Things do not change; we change." I have seen myself slowly change and I know I still have a ways to go, we all do. It is interesting for me to look back and see the progress I have made to get to where I am today; I am much smarter, more knowlegeable, more aware, less selfish, more happy, less prideful, more appreciative, more caring, more courteous and many other things I was not before. There was no special trick I learned, no magic charm I took, but there was one simple concept I learned: How To Serve. There is a quote by Albert Schweitzer I believe to be completely true about service. He said, "I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know; the only ones among you who will be truly happy will be those who have sought and found how to serve." I believe this quote to be the ultimate reason of why I am happy today. Other factors sure, allowed me to change and receive happiness as well, but not in the same way or aspect as learning how to serve did. I took one day at a time, "moment to moment as to the Lord" as C.S. Lewis writes in his book The Weight Of Glory, which I am currently reading. He states, "Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment "as to the Lord". It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received." When I read this quote I was a bit surprised to find it worded exactly as I had done. I did not right away start to change and instantaneously become this person I had envisioned; I had to take each day one step at a time slowly changing and correcting all the wrong I previously carried with me. I tell you all these things not because I claim to be right, but because I have found all of these things I did not know before to be true with happiness if taken to heart like I did. Do not block out happiness like I once did! Life down that road is only endlessly torturous! If I inspire anyone of you with the words I write, I hope you take from what I write and not a minute to delay initiate what you read and I promise you will find happiness such as I have found! At times it is easier to read and feel good about what we read, then to read and initiate actually following what we read. I hope each one of us can strive daily to finish what we started by setting goals taking each day at a time, and if we have not started, then to start now and not a minute later before it is too late. I miss and love each one of you! I want you all to know I am truly happy being here! I wish the best for you all in everything you do! God bless you all!

Living Life With More Love

These last few days for me have been quite exciting. A few new people have arrived here as others are on their way. So far we have had Richard and Linda Eyre come along with their son Tal and his recently new wife Annita and a couple of nurses, who are good friends of Amy. In a couple of days we will also be accompanied by one of the Eyre daughters as well as some of her friends from college. It really has been exciting talking to Linda Eyre, the mother of the Eyre family. She is such a sweet person and someone so easy to talk to. After meeting her and her family, she and I got to know each other better, but mostly just her getting to know more about me. I told her a little bit about my family and myself, and how I came to be a part of all this exciting work I love. I am really excited for their son Tal and his wife Annita to be here for three months. I see them excited to be here and not just excited to be here, but excited about wanting to help build and add on to what we have here at Rising Star. They come from an amazing family and I know I am just as excited as everyone else is to have them join our family here at Rising Star. We now have three amazing couples staying with us: Greg and Rachel Denning, Steele and Sarah Hendershots, and Tal and Annita Eyre. They are just awesome people! Life is really exciting here in India. The weather is still amazingly perfect; the kids are all screaming with laughter and joy at being loved and cared for; the days go by fast because time does not really exist here for me at Rising Star. Each day is so exciting, and each is filled with happy moments, complete bliss, and undescribable ecstasy; time appears to be dead, but dead only because every day is filled with excitement. Time is dead because it flies by as if it does not exist. I simply do not care about time because each second of every minute of every hour of every day I know is spent worth while. Life, for me right now, feels completely like one of the best dreams I will ever have; I do not want to wake up; I simply want to keep dreaming until my dream becomes reality. In some ways I feel my life is already slowly transforming into the sense of reality I desire. Yesterday was a pretty historical day for Rising Star because we had our first sacrament meeting as of my knowledge to ever take place on campus grounds. Sometimes driving two hours to church is not always fun, so having an alternative option was quite nice. The Eyres shared a few thoughts of possibly one day setting up a church service here. They stated we have all the elements here, so why not put them all together? If this were to happen one day we would have to run it in a very cautious manner, but anything is possible if enough will and determination is set forth. Both Ron and Joyce shared wonderful messages as well. Ron spoke about our guard John, and how he has had a vision to share The Book of Mormon all throughout his ministries. He spoke from the fifth chapter of Alma describing how John might one day be the miracle for millions of lives because of his example to spread the gospel. One day the church might be set up where we are growing all throughout India like a wildfire that cannot be put out. What an amazing example John is to all of us! These past few days I have also had the privilege and opportunity to speak with Greg Denning, one of the people here with his family long-term. What a great man he is! As I mentioned in my previous blog about how I am surrounded by great examples well, Greg is definitely one of the many great examples here to me. As we workout together, or share ideas, he always teaches me something new to think about that blows my mind away in a way I never thought of before. He recently let me borrow one of his books because he noticed my interest in reading. He asked if I would be open to read some new material, and of course I was open to it. So far I have been reading "You'll See It When You Believe It" by Wayne W. Dyer. What an awesome book! He shares great messages and personal experiences in order to help people transform their lives around in the right direction. Greg also has given me some great gospel books to read, so I can get a good portion of church reading. Right now I am reading a book called "Leadership" by Sterling Sill, which is also another amazing book! In one of the chapters entitled 'Crossing the Rubicon', Sterling Sill talks about how Caesar, back in the Roman Empire Era, has just come to the Rubicon River with his army. He has to make a decision whether or not to cross. If he crosses it would mean he would be testing the law of the Empire, but if he does not well, then life would continue to go as it always had. Finally, Caesar looks back to his army and says, "The die is cast!" With any decision in our life, we should always weigh the outcomes. Sometimes we might not be so sure while other times we are, but if we come to the conclusion in our minds of not be completely sure, then the answer is already made up for you. In the book, Sill mentions the greatest sermon ever spoken consisted of just three words. Jesus said, "Come follow me." One of the most important decisions we ever have to make is, what are we going to do about it? Will we follow him? Sometimes we do not think about what we have made up for ourselves prior to the question. The important part is not the question, but making up our mind in order to answer. Sometimes we say yes, but when the winds of opposition blow, what about then? We should always stand firm under the pressures of life. Too many times I have made a decision feeling good about it being too confident, and when the winds of opposition blow, I abandon all my plans. It is easy to stagger and fall when your expectations are suddenly met with high responsibility, or when a challenging set of circumstances confronts us. In these times we should just push harder than ever before because success will always be the reward lurking around the corner waiting to be seized. Later on tonight we had a fireside where Linda and Richard Eyre shared with us some amazing thougths about life, their travles around the world, and other mind-blowing advice on how to live life better on a consistent basis. One of the many things spoken tonight by them hit me pretty hard in my mind. Richard Eyre said, "Sometimes truth comes knocking at our door, but we still ignore it by our inability to accept it for whatever reason. We end up living in a completely different reality, allowing our belief system to fog truth God wants us to accept." As I thought more about this statement, I came to know how true it was to me in my life in the past. I think back to my times of despair and adversity realizing how easily I ignored truth in ever aspect of my life. We often forget, or just may not think about enough, how important we truly are to the world around us. If people realized this concept of importance, believed in themselves, valued their abilities as great instead of good, or just mediocre, we could come up with great ideas helping to change and save millions of lives, but if we choose to ignore truth's knock, or become to prideful, blind and ignorant in our beliefs, truth will slip away as easily as it came. Another important principle we shared was the principle of going about our lives with more love. In the Eyre family, this theme has become their family mission statement. They turn to this principle when a family member is struggling in whatever aspect of their life, or when a friend is struggling; no matter what all of them as a family experience, they choose to live their lives with more love, which I think is just absolutely awesome! I have seen incredible change in my life because of this principle I have been allowing into my life the past six months. Living your life with more love and happiness will completely change you in ways you never imagined before! I promise you this! You will act different; you will feel happier; life won't be this dreading, repetitious and agonizing torture as it once was for me. Without realizing it instantly, an imaginary weight will be lifted off your shoulders allowing you to be completely independent and free from the negativeness of others. Two words from such a simple concept can change a life entirely, but if unwilling and uneager to allow this concept to work, life will continue in the cycle it is thought up as. Willingness to change and positive thoughts of seeing the result in our minds will change us if sincerely desired. Saying and doing are completely two different things. I hope all of us can apply this wonderful and beautiful principle in our lives, and not just our lives, but telling others about it as well. I love this work with all of my heart; I love these people; I love and miss all of you hoping the words I write can mean as much to you as they do to me. I love you all! God bless each one of you!

A New Year, New Goals and A New Direction

It has been a little over a month since I have written. I want to apologize for all those who have kept up with my blog anxious to read my updates. I guess you can sort of say I went on a hiatus. I do not know why I stopped writing, but now I am back and I promise to you all I will keep writing even through whatever rut I am in. Whoever reads my blogs, or has read my blogs, I want to say thank you because you all have taken your time to read them. It really means a lot to me even though it may seem like something little. Recently, I was in the states celebrating Christmas and the New Year with my family and friends. I had the chance to spend part of it in Atlanta and the last part of it in New York. It was great to see family and friends I had not seen in such a long time. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays because it gives the world a spirit of doing good for a little time, which is sad, but also good. Meaning, it is sad to me the time has to last for such a small period of time, but good in the sense the spirit of it happens and people recognize it. Wouldn't it be nice if the world could recognize the spirit of good all the time? This is quite a wish. It is like wishing for world peace. It just will not happen until the Second Coming. New York was definitely different, but in a good way. It was sort of intimidating seeing this huge city with tons of buildings being closed in with such little space, but in a way it was kind of nice. I thought I wouldn't like the idea of walking everywhere I needed to go, but now having done it for the experience I can say it has grown on me fairly quickly. Despite the freezing temperature outside, something about walking to and from everywhere made me appreciate the world we live in a little better. It is nice being able to smell the fresh air every once in awhile, or having a closer look at our surroundings. Both Jolanta and I had a great time. We went to many mueseums, saw both Stomp and Blue Man Group, and had some good food; I think we enjoyed our first taste of New York. The apartment where my parents stay could not be in a better location. They live right in the middle of it all in Manhattan on the Upper West Side. Everything we need is right there and not too far away if needed to walk. The day of my departure from New York to India I was riding in my dad's company cab and had a chance to talk to my driver, who happened to also drive my mom after I was already in India. This story is one of those God-working-in-mysterious-ways kind of stories. Really interesting and sort of amazing. So, I had a chance to talk to him driving to and from the airport after dropping off my sister Jolanta, who was flying back to St. George for school. He asked me the usual conversation questions and I replied with the usual conversation answers, but the coolest part happened when he asked why I was going to India. I told him what my mom does and how she started Rising Star Outreach, why I decided to be involved, why I am there and how it has impacted my life in the few months I have already been there. He was just blown away by how remarkable it all was. I told him, "Well, it is to me, a living proof that God exists, and not only exists, but works to make his mysterious ways happen for the good and beneficial purposes for people that matter in this world." I also told him, "God never ceases to stop good things from happening; if this organization was corrupt it would have already fallen." He got more and more interested as our conversation kept moving forward, so I gave him the website address and told him all about how we fund money and help to keep it growing. He told me his financial situation was low, but he was eager to help regardless. I was just amazed at his willingness to help when he has so little, yet he is still offering to give to people who have way more less than he does. I was blown way not just because what this man was willing to do, but also because somehow what and how I was telling him seemed to influence him beyond reason to me; I could not understand how instantaneously he jumped for the cause. So, a few days pass and I get to India safely. Phew! I stayed with the Mitchell family for a few days before returning to RSO because all the children had not gotten back from the holidays. One of those days I checked my email and saw I had received an email from my mom. I opened it and about halfway through it I started to tear up. I just could not believe it. Out of millions of cab drivers in New York City how was it possible she got the same one I had? She got in and the driver told my mom he was honored to be driving her. My mom was completely stunned because she was clueless as to why he was so impressed with her. They started to talk and as the conversation progressed he mentioned he had driven me a couple of days ago. He told my mom what I had told him, and he said to her, "I have decided after talking to my wife I am going to send $35 a month to your organization." What a miracle! My mom of course replied in her enthusiastic reply, "That would be great!" It always amazes me how God works good people to help in whatever situation they are in. Whether people are rich or poor it does not matter to God because he does not care about position or wealth. He cares about good people with good hearts willing to give and help with what they have; when the day is over He looks at those people who have given smiling knowing we are happy just as much as He is. I just could not believe it. So, let me tell you all about what has been happening so far here in India and what I have been doing: I have been back now for about a little over a week; my mom is here with me doing one her lightning visits, which always lasts a few days; I have been chosen to be RSO's Athletic Director, which is by far the best job I could have been assigned here. I have to tell you all honestly life could not be any better at the moment. I thought coming back and transitioning would be tough because it would take forever to get me a real responsibility, but it took all of one day and now I am rolling quite smoothly. I have set up for myself a rigorous schedule to keep focused and disciplined to the max while I am here for my last five months. The schedule seems to be working, so I am going to keep following it. A new family arrived shortly after I returned with four of their children. This is the first family to stay in our new volunteer block, which was completed before I left in December. It is so nice! I am kind of anxious to move in, but I won't until after my mom leaves because she is staying on my side and I want to be spend and make the most out of the few days she is here. I love being here and I love what I do more than anything! I remember saying to myself when I landed in India after being home, "Wow! It feels good to be home!" I truly love it here. The kids are awesome and happy to be playing sports on a daily basis, and I am happy to be staying active and productive doing what I do best! I could not ask for more in my life right now. Now that the new year has come and passed, I hope we all have set goals to make this year to be totally better than the last. Writing down my resolutions was pretty tough for me because I have always been used to just "going with the flow" as some people call it. It is way easier to just go with the crowd and be a person like everyone else, but it means so much more to others when you are a living proof of something completely different standing out setting a better example for those struggling. Now do not get me wrong because I am not a perfect person by any means, and I am no person standing out, but hopefully in time I can be. I just thought to myself as I was writing down my resolutions that I can totally make the most out of this year if I truly put what I want into it. I hope we all made good resolutions for this year, and if you haven't don't worry because it is never too late. We can always make resolutions or goals to better live our lives. Do not ever think it is too late to improve yourself in any aspect of your life. I have been in both low and high places in my life; if I ever thought it was too late to improve then I do not think I would be trying as hard as I have been this year. It is never too late. I realized I only get to live one life, so why not make the most out of it by improving it each year. The things I write I tell you all not so I can preach or boast myself up, but to try to tell you all that anything is possible. If times are rough and life seems to be going against you well, you can either let it affect you in the worst way possible, or let it change you. I decided six months ago when I suddenly and unexpectedly came to India knowing I would spend a year living there that I could either dread each day of it walking through the motions, or make the most of it letting it change me. I decided six months I was going to let this experience in my life change me; I decided I was going to make the most out of each day; I decided I control my life and I let it affect me in whatever way I choose to; I decided no one else can choose for me how my life goes. All of these things you all are capable of doing as well. If I can turn my life around in a different way then who is to say you can't? Do not let yourself be deceived for one second because in one second your life can take a turn leading you down a road traveled by many people today, but a road I know you all do not want to be on. I have been there, and not only have I been there, but I have traveled pretty far down that road to know the things waiting for you are not as fun as the people on that road make it out to be. Let this year be a year of change for all of us in whatever aspects of our life we are struggling in. We do not have to change our life only because of certain extremes leading us spiraling downward; life can be changed for the better even if it seems perfect. I love, miss and think about you guys every day. I want you all to know I love being here and I love being a part of this amazing work. I love these people with all of my heart. It is like having a second family here being surrounded by such amazing people. Take care and best of luck to each one of you wherever you are and whatever situation you are all in. I love you all!