Typing Practice

You know what happens when you give your blog a theme? You go a whole month without bloggin anything and then decide to forget the theme and just type whatever comes to mind. This whole theme or no theme thing reminds me of another expirience in my life. I was once asked to describe myself with one word. I thought for what felt like several minutes. Many words came to mind, some complementary, some not, but I couldn't pick just one word to describe everything about me, so I went with an honest answer; I am indecisive. Of course, a better answer would've been Complex, but then again, who isn't complex? Honest would've been a good answer; and it's an honest evaluation, so it virtually would have validated itself.

But I don't want to talk about myself right now. Maybe I should talk about stuff I've done instead. I've got an interesting story that I think is worth sharing. See, I was volunteering at the Bishop's Storehouse yesterday, I rode my bike to get there, and when the work was done, I decided to ride my bike along the river. I knew what general direction it was in, so I went that way. Eventually, I found it and I rode along it for a little while, but after a certain point, the pavement stopped, but I kept going, across gravel. A flat tire later, I decided that I had made a bad decision. That was about noontime. I knew which general direction to head in to get home, and I soon found territory that was familiar enough to chart a direct route home. It wasn't all that hard. It was, however, very long. My bike's tire went flat at noon. I got home sunburnt and thirsty at three O'clock. What was meant to be a mid-morning outing turned into an all-day adventure. But it had it's perks. When my tires went flat, I went straight south through the downtown area, and I happened to pass right through Capitol Square on my way back. I saw cops on horses. As I walked through a residential area, a nice man gave me some water to help me on my way. I found out that I was capable of walking for three hours straight in the middle of summer without asking 'why is this happening to me?' I learned that Aloe Vera is good to use, even if it is slimy and goopy. It was good excersize for both body and spirit. I would do it again.

I gave myself a haircut today. I'm glad I got the right equipment and learned how to use it when I did. I like keeping my hair short now, so it saves a lot of time, money and hassle for me to be able to cut my own hair. By keeping my hair short and running a glob of gel through it, I'm able to make my hair look sharp ... because it is. And prickly, like a hedgehog. But I like this style. I think it looks really good. It's fun, yet it can be professional. And it's really easy to maintain.

A day has two sets of Twelve hours in it. A year has a set of Twelve months. An hour has Sixty minutes in it. A month has, at most, only Thirty-One days. If you were born on May 22nd, your birthdate would be 5-22. The number 5:22 can be seen twice a day on a digital clock, once early in the morning, and once in the late afternoon. If your birthdate is December 1st, you can see your birthdate right after noon and/or right after midnight. Even if you were born in March, you can still see your birthdate at least once per day, in the afternoon. The really lucky people were born between June and October. They get to, conveniently, see their birthdate-minute twice! I think my Mom is one of those people.

I think I'm rambling now. Actually, I think I've been rambling since the first paragraph.

This laptop is crazy. When I type, my right hand brushes the touchpad, so the mouse moves when I type. That wouldn't be so bad, but sometimes the computer thinks I clicked the mouse when I really didn't mean to, so the words I type end up somewhere other than where I typed them. It's a pain to fix that.

I don't know how, but I just accidentally highlighted the whole post. Good thing I didn't type anything just then! Maybe I should publish this post before the crazy laptop deletes it.

By the way, please don't get me wrong. I'm grateful that I get to use this laptop. If I didn't have this laptop available to use, I probably wouldn't be blogging right now. I know I should blog regularly, but I don't. At least I blog occasionally. That's worth something. I take my pescription acne medications regularly, as directed, for what it's worth. And I think they're working, too. My face looks better than it used to, and there are no noticeable side effects. It's good stuff.

I really like Joe's belt. It's a good-looking belt. I love my belt, too. They're both good.

I hear the gate. Maybe that's Mom. Or it could be Ben, maybe. I wonder...

I would say that I can't cook. There are only a few things I know how to cook. Some of those things, we don't have. Some of those things, my family wouldn't eat even if we had it. They should try it, though. It's pretty good. And it's cheap! I would have it more often, but we ran out of the ingredients and we haven't bought more yet. Plus, it's a warm food, and this is a warm place in the summer. Now is not the best time to try the Proctor Place Special. Wait for a colder day. Maybe a rainy or snowy day. But try it. It's really good.

I feel like Sam I Am.

Highlighted the whole post again. Second warning. Time to publish.

Battle for Freedom

It seems that recently I've been blogging only on major holidays. If that's the case, I hope the holidays continue.

When I think about Independence Day, I think about Freedom, how much it's worth, and what price must be paid to obtain it and maintain it. As with many other things, I've started thinking of all of this on a spiritual plane rather than a physical one. You'll remember that on Father's Day, I spoke of God, our Heavenly Father. On this Independence Day, I speak of the war fought for our freedom, a war which began long before people knew that North America existed and which continues even now, long after all of the founding fathers have died. This is the war in which each of us participate. This is the war for which we need to put on the Armor of God.

Satan is the enemy in this war. He uses all sorts of tricks and temptations to try and destroy our freedom. He would like to control us, with the intent of making ourselves and everyone else miserable. Though he can't actually make us do anything against our will, he can and does tempt us to make bad decisions, knowing that if we give in to his temptations enough times, our actions will become habits, and controlling us will become much easier.

But we can fight back! We can make good decisions rather than bad decisions. We can form good habits rather than bad habits. We can choose to follow the path that leads towards happiness rather than the path that leads towards misery. Putting it that way, it almost sounds like an easy choice. Anyone in their right mind would choose happiness over misery. ...So why don't we?

Some people become casualties in this war against evil when they realize that it's not just a choice between happiness and misery, but between hard-earned happiness and easily-obtained misery. Many people take the downhill path because it takes less effort, and perhaps they don't feel strong enough to do otherwise.

But still, there are many people who are willing to fight for freedom and happiness. We owe our wonderful country to such people. These people, Satan cannot overpower. Like I said, he can't force us to do anything. So when people really want happiness, he propels them away from it by telling them that it can be found somewhere else. If you lose your wedding ring in the living room, you're not going to find it by looking in the garden. Similarly, you can't find true happiness by traveling down the path of sin. Satan tries to convince us that we can gain the happiness we seek by having 'fun'. Casinos try this gimmick, offering people thrills and excitement that ultimately only leave their hearts and their wallets empty. But if you're feeling down, what better way to cheer yourself up than with a good thrill? So the cycle continues, a habit forms, and Satan starts to take control.

Many of us, I'm almost daring enough to say 'all of us', already have a bad habit of some kind or another. Satan plays on our bad habits to sway us towards making bad decisions, which deepen our habits and his control over us. Then is there no hope? Of course there's hope, because the power always lies with us. We make the decisions. We can fight against the current, no matter how strong, and we can make the right decision, no matter how difficult it seems. Naturally, Satan would like us to forget about that. In fact, he'd like us to forget, or not realize, that there's even a war going on in the first place. Because if we don't know there is a war, we won't be fighting in it. And if we really fight against Satan, Satan will lose.

There's a quote floating around that says that 'life is not a cruise ship. It's a battleship.' I couldn't agree more. The quote goes on to say that 'if you're not currently getting shot at, be grateful for that.' But our enemy can be very subtle. In light of that, I encourage anyone who's not currently getting shot at to check again. If he's not attacking you openly, he's attacking you secretly. He is always on the attack. Hence the need for the Armor.

So we need to know that there is a war going on over the welfare of our souls, we need to know the enemy's tactics, we need to know a good counter-strategy (choosing the right, keeping the commandments, following the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ), and most importantly, we need to apply the correct counter-strategy.

I've been thinking about a theme for my blog. A popular blog theme is Recent Events, but that doesn't seem to work as well for me. As mentioned earlier, my mind tends towards spiritual things rather than physical things, and I want to develop that by continuing to post spiritual things on my blog. But as implied in the last paragraph, merely knowing about spiritual things isn't enough. We need to bridge the gap and complete the circle. So that may well prove to by the underlying theme of my blog; bridging the gap between the real world, a spiritual perspective, and our daily actions; how our spiritual perspective can affect our real-world decisions. For example:

The real world: The people of the United States are celebrating the victory of the battle for their freedom. A spiritual perspective: We are all fighting for our own freedom. Bridging the gap: We should treat keeping the commandments with the same level of importance as a real, physical war. It is, after all, a matter of life and death; Eternal Life or spiritual death. That's the moral of my blog post today.

Will all of my blog posts be like this one from now on? I'm not sure. I don't want to be preachy, but I do like the idea of applying gospel principles to the real world. Those who have commented seemed to like my Father's Day post. If this post proves popular as well, I'll take that as encouragement. If not, I can try to limit myself to the genre of Recent Events.

Happy Father's Day

So... It's kind of been a while. To be honest, I don't really know what to say. I just know that I need to say something because it's been way too long since the last time I've posted anything.

It's Father's Day, so I guess I could talk about a very important father I know, our Heavenly Father. The trouble is, the things I would like to say about Heavenly Father are a bit controversial, and I'm not even sure how much of it is true. I know that parts of what I would like to say are true, but other parts of what I believe may just be my opinion, but I still believe it, though I know I may be wrong.

I hope I don't offend anyone when I say that I like to think of my relationship with God is something closer to Father and son than King and servant. I know that God knows me personally, and that He loves me like a Father loves his son. I know that He wants what's best for me and that He wants me to succeed, like any good father would.

Sure, He wants me to keep His commandments, just as a King expects his subjects to obey his laws, but fathers often have to lay down the law, too. Fathers set curfews, limits on privileges, and even some 'thou shalt not's, all out of a desire to protect their children. For example, a father might forbid his child from going to a certain party, not just because the King doesn't want any drunkards in his kingdom, but because the father doesn't want his children to get themselves hurt, or hurt each other.

Plus, that kind of Father/son perspective is helpful when I really need someone to talk to. When I need to have a heart-to-heart with someone who knows me perfectly, and loves me anyway, I know that I can always call my Heavenly Father. Sometimes, in those situations, I refer to Him as my Dad. Now, I really hope it's not sacrilegious for me to say that, that is to say, I hope God doesn't have a problem with me calling Him that, in certain situations. I'm sure that, in some situations, He probably would have a problem with such casual language. He is our God. Therefore, we owe Him reverence and respect. On the other hand, when I really need Him, I know that God will be there for me, not as my Great Eternal Judge, but as someone who cares.

I don't know. It's kind of complicated. I hope that someday I'll understand my relationship with Him more completely while I'm still alive. But for now, in my opinion, my relationship with God is such that it makes perfect sense to fold my arms and close my eyes and wish Him a happy Father's Day.

Almost weekly updates.

I need to pick a day of the week. The day used to be Monday, since I had no other option, but now that I have quite a bit of freedom, any day will do. Like I said, I just need to pick one. I'll get back to you on that.

In the meantime, life has been going okay. There has always been something to do each weekend for the past several weeks, and this week is no exception. There's an Aaronic Priesthood commemoration Campout this Friday and Saturday, and I'm giving a talk in church on Sunday, which also happens to be my birthday. I'm feeling just a little bit stressed.

Registering for classes has been frustrating. I'd like to get started on this next phase of my life as soon as possible, so as not to fall even farther behind my peers, but I hesitate because 1) Money is tight; how are we going to pay for these classes? and 2) it's a pain in the neck to sign up. I would LOVE to get a job before going in for schooling, so I could pay for the education, and rent, and maybe, just maybe, have some money left over so I'll be able to get things that I want/need without being a burden on my family's finances. Money is tight, and it would take a lot of motivation to get me to do something complicated, difficult, frustrating, and just a little bit scary (What if I'm not smart enough for school?) that would cost my family money.

-sighs- That's life. I posted on Facebook that real life was hard, and I hadn't even gotten to the hard part. I am not looking forward to the really difficult parts, like raising infants and teenagers. I'm going to have to get MUCH better and handling things before I try and tackle a challenge like that! I would much prefer I less-difficult challenge, like holding down an entry-level job and going through a few college classes.

Sometimes I think trials are like Bowling balls that God ties to your wrists. Yeah, it makes doing things a LOT harder, but eventually, you get much stronger because of it. I'm looking forward to the 'being-stronger' part.

I'd better get going. This is Mom's computer that I'm on, and she has come home and wants to use it.

I almost forgot I had a blog!

Dear... Home?

I am home. I've been home for over a week (and I still haven't posted anything!). So, would it be 'Dear Loved Ones'? 'Dear Friends'? That sounds sappy. Maybe I should say something that matches the title of my blog... Hail, Soldiers!

What does 'Hail' mean anyway? Where's a dictionary?
1. to cheer, greet, or salute; welcome
2. to acclaim; approve enthusiastically: the crowds hailed the conquerors.

That works! Thank you, Dictionary.com =)

But anyway, part of the reason I chose the title The Armor of God is because we are all at war. You know that war that started in heaven before the earth was created? That one where Satan was trying to get everyone to let him control them like a puppet master? It's still going. Our enemy, the enemy of all righteousness, is employing every evil, underhanded method he can think of to reduce mankind's control of themselves. I think drugs are his favorite weapon. Other addictions are very effective, too. And there's the emotional loss-of-self-control to worry about, also. The first emotion that comes to mind is anger, but there are others.

Satan is constantly attacking all of us, so whether we like it or not, we are IN the ultimate battle of Good vs Evil. That's why Paul said we need to put on the whole armor of God. We need to defend ourselves.

I love the war chapters in the Book of Mormon because just about every story in that section describes either what Satan is trying to do to us, or what we can do to counter Satan.

Example: The Nephites knew that a war was coming, so the Nephite war captain gave his soldiers armor and started building fortresses.
How it Applies: Satan may not be attacking us at his very moment (or maybe he's just being extremely subtle), but we can start defending ourselves right now. We can put on our armor and build up our fortresses by reading our scriptures and going to church, etc. So that when Satan DOES attack us, we'll be ready for him.

Another Example: The Nephites were trying to take over a Lamanite stronghold, but the Lamanites were too strong, so the Nephites drew the Lamanites out with a decoy, and captured to fortress without much of a fight.
How it Applies: Satan is trying to destroy us, but we have more power than he does, so he tries to distract us with things that don't matter so he doesn't have to worry about us so much.

By knowing what Satan is up to and knowing what possible counter-attacks there are and how well they worked for the Nephites and the Lamanites, we can give ourselves an upper hand in this battle.

God speed the right.

With love, from your Red-Headed Warrior, Andrew James Robarts.

Open House

Come visit with return missionary Andrew Robarts

Saturday, May 7
7-8:30 pm
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
3001 Wisseman Dr
Sacramento
off Folsom Blvd between Watt & Howe

Enjoy music provided by Wojohowitz - the best DJ ever

Dance if you like with your sweetie, your friends, Andrew, your children and/or by yourself

Play games

Potluck finger food refreshments appreciated, but not required!  Do come!

April 25, 2011 The Last P Day

Dear Home,

Today is my final P-Day on the mission field. By this time next week, I'll be home in California. WOW. Am I looking forward to it? OH, YEAH. Big time. Sure, it'll be hot in California, but I'll be with my family again! And I'll be able to ride my bike, watch movies, play video games, bounce ideas off my brother's head (until he goes on HIS mission!). It'll be great. ^^

In the meantime, Elder Roth and I have work to do. =/ The apartment has to be spotless and completely empty by the end of the day. Tonight, we'll be spending the night with the Zoneleaders, and tomorrow, after District Meeting, we'll be meeting with our apartment manager to walk-through our apartment, give an accounting of its current condition, check the mail one last time for rogue, San Franciscan packages (long story - don't ask), and hand over the keys. After that, we'll be doing some stop-bys and saying some goodbyes, followed by another sleepover at the Zoneleaders' apartment before our departure on Wednesday morning. Wednesday will be spent traveling. Regina to Winnipeg can take a while. Thursday, we'll have interviews with President Paulson, who will probably remind us what our Highest Priority is. Friday, we fly home.

I'm anxious. And a little nervous. I'm also pretty excited. I don't know what I'll do first. Sure, we'll have the picnic at the park (that will be so nice!!), but after that...? Unpack, maybe? That's not very exciting. Will there even be room for all of my junk?? @_@ Two very full suitcases, a very full backpack, and three boxes of stuff that's going to have to be sent by mail. I'm going to die. But first I'm going to spend the family fortune on postage and overweight baggage fees. THEN, I'm going to die.  Because my mom is going to kill me. x_x

Eh, it'll probably be fine. I just wish I could remember my PIN so I could check to see how much money I have available to me. If it's not enough to pay for postage and baggage fees, I'm really in trouble. It SHOULD be enough... I think. But still, it would be great if I could make sure. =/

I'm probably boring all of you to death. I'm not sure how many faithful readers I have left at this point, but I'm certainly not giving them the quality letters they deserve. Sorry about that. Maybe my blog posts will be more interesting when I get home.

Until then, this has been your weekly-reporting missionary who still, somehow, thinks he has some potential as a professional writer, Elder Andrew James Robarts.