Boise Temple Dedication

Two Sundays ago (the 18th) we had the privilege of watching the Boise Temple Dedication in place of church. The temple went under massive renovation and was recently completed. I think most of Idaho got to watch the broadcast. This doesn't happen very often in an area, or really in a lifetime if you don't live in an area where you are around lots of temples, or there is already one built.

I have been to two dedications, the Nauvoo Temple & the Rexburg Temple, and one open house, the Rexburg Temple. The Nauvoo was broadcast church-wide (if my feeble mind remembers correctly) and I was in my second semester of college when the Rexburg Temple was dedicated. Unless they plan to build another Idaho Falls temple, I probably won't have the chance to see one again until there is a Colorado Springs Temple. One day. One day.

It was very special because President Monson came to dedicate the temple and brought along with him Elder Bednar, one of the 12 Apostles, Elder Walker, in the Presidency of the Seventy, and someone else... who I wish I could remember his name! But I'm pretty sure his job is to work on temples.

The first couple of talks, which were mostly testimonies were so beautiful. Some shared about losing their children, and how the plan of Salvation works. The temple is real, and the sealing of forever is real. We got to hear from the Assistant to the Temple Matron (The Temple President's wife=Temple Matron, 1st Counselor's wife=Assistant to the Temple Matron, etc...I think this is how it goes...), a couple others, and President Monson's Secretary. After the Secretary was done, Elder Walker got up, almost in tears and thanked her for her service to the Prophet. He said her service to the prophet is more a service to the whole church and she will never know how much she has affected the people. It was very cool to hear that, mostly because you never even get to see the background of what happens to make the church run. I didn't even know President Monson had a secretary, but it makes sense doesn't it?

Elder Walker talked about an experience that President Monson had when Spencer W. Kimball was President of the Church. President Monson was visiting South Africa and the people there insisted that he try and get them a temple. He said he would do what he could, after all it is the Prophet's decision. He got back to Salt Lake and read the minutes of the meetings he missed. He saw that President Kimball had decided they were to build a temple in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was so excited an knew the people would be too. After the temple was announced, he said he got telegraphs from people in South Africa saying, Great job Elder Monson! You Got us a temple! He said he would have loved to taken the credit, but it was all President Kimball. The summary of the story... The prophet has final say in each and every temple. Where/When/Who/Why/How. What a responsibility! I love President Monson.

Elder Bednar, I love this man, probably because of my connection to BYU-Idaho, and all the wonderful times that I have been able to hear him speak in person. Which I think is totaling near 5. Crazy! (That doensn't include General Conference at all). He talked about the temple being a house for the Lord, a place where he can reside on the Earth. He talked about Kirtland and related how marvelous it was when we finally had a temple on the Earth again. 

President Monson then spoke, he got right up, pointed at a boy in the room and said, "Right there is a future missionary!" And gave him a goofy look and wiggled his ears. Jordan and I couldn't help but bust up laughing. He has such a personality and loving nature. I can't even remember what he talked about (I started writing this the day after... and now trying to finish it two weeks later.....) but I remember crying, and thinking, this man walks and talks with Christ, but he is meek and humble.

I loved the whole experience, and that I got to experience it with Jordan. I love that families are sealed forever. Which was the main message from the meeting. It strengthens my testimony of family and forever. I get to be with my whole family forever.. wahoo!

Bite you, Apple!

If you don't already know, I have been trying to write one blog post a week for the entire year. Well I am falling a little behind. Not because I haven't wanted to, but because my computer, of course, has been broken. Well sort of.

My charger has been acting wacky for weeks. I knew that it was about to be kaput. And one day, I go to use my computer and bam- can't turn it on because it is totally dead. I was kinda wondering if my battery inside my computer was also dying. I would charge it forever and it would last maybe 1 hour. I remember my first generation iPod mini doing this when I was a sophomore in high school. I would charge it all night and in the morning I could play exactly 15 seconds of one song. They replaced my mini with a 1st generation Video iPod. For free. The batteries in the minis had a defect (remember this word later, it's important).

Luckily, I don't live anywhere near an Apple store to fix my computer. And even more lucky, I thought I had three years protection on my computer, when I only had two. So to my happy surprise, when I pulled out my files and saw my computer was completely out of warranty, I couldn't help but thank my lucky stars. Catch my sarcasm there?

I look up on the Apple website how much it is going to cost to fix. Jordan has a church calling that requires the computer to be fixed immediately, and he also has a wife that feels naked without her Adobe Suite attached at her hip. Total cost about 250 dollars. This doesn't seem like a lot to some people. Heck I don't care who you are. That is a lot to fix the computer.

I am determined to find out if my battery is dead or just the charger. My Father-in-Law bought a Mac last year, so I borrowed his cord. I am able to charge my computer. Hooray! But too bad the computer is like a person and tells you something is wrong. So my little battery icon tells me that I need to service my battery. I bet you can guess that service actually means replace. Awesome. The full 250 down the drain.

We do have a Simply Mac store, a store that is more like a a copy of Apple that can sell their products but can't have their name. They were able to check my battery and charger to make sure that they were officially dead. Which they were. Awesome.

Here's the real kicker....

The guy helping me looks at my charger and is like, "is this the charger that you had the whole time?" and I'm like, "uh...yes? Why?" And he then goes on to explain that I have a 60 watt charger, for my 15 inch mac, which is totally not enough wattage. He then goes on to explain that because the wattage wasn't enough, it slowly ate away and killed my battery, and possibly some other internal damage. I needed the 85 watt charger for my type of computer.

Not only was it not my fault, it was Apple's manufacturing mistake!!! I took my computer into Best Buy (where my computer was bought) at least FIVE TIMES and asked them to check my charger and battery because whenever I charged my computer it was ON FIRE. They never did anything. And I had to pay for their mistake.

Apple, I am mad at you. You made me pay 250 dollars for YOUR mistake.

Best Buy, I am mad at you because I knew something was wrong and you NEVER DID ANYTHING. Your "Geek" people who have that name because they are supposed to be smart, are complete morons. I had to pay 250 dollars when I never should have.

Well that's the end to my story. I just needed to rant a little.

I voted today.

I did this today.

Voted.

Go me.

I have only voted twice in my life (for president) but this vote really means a lot for our country.

I am so thankful for our founding fathers, being lead by the spirit of God, who laid the path for everything that we have today and the freedoms that we all enjoy. I love that we can all express ourselves.

I wish that we wouldn't put others beliefs or thoughts down because they do not match our own. Right now I live in a place where I don't really experience that very often. I have been sheltered from the political craziness going on in the world (unless I get on Facebook...) in the forms of ads and other things, so I'm not tired out of being excited for the Presidential Race.

I am a little bit disappointed because I did not get my volunteer shirt from the Romney/Ryan campaign, mostly because I wanted to wear it today. I hope that doesn't give away who I voted for....

Which reminds me of a funny story...

I was trick or treating when I was little, somewhere in the 8-10 range. We knocked on a door in my neighborhood. The lady was dressed as a witch and had her "I voted" sticker on and was telling us young kids how important it is to vote. Then I said, "who did you vote for?" The lady said, "That's none of your business!!" and slammed the door in our faces. As a young child, I was stunned. How rude. Now that I am older, I guess it is a sticky subject to talk about...

Go Romney.