A Day in the Life of David Peter Hall

Have you ever wondered what an average day in the life of David Peter Hall is like? If not, then don't worry, you are completely normal. For you who have, the moment has arrived. I got up this morning at 6:00am, a little after my usual time. My alarm went off to the sound of an old EFY CD and I jumped out of bed to turn it off.

After getting ready for the day I came back into my room and made my bed. You will notice a very nice quilt made (with love) by my mother.

After that it was time to get some breakfast. I am a big breakfast person. For some reason I just get so hungry during the night. So this morning I had some granola and yogurt. One of my favorites. You can see in the left of the picture my lunch for the day as well. There is an orange and a Tupperware container with some chicken and rice in it. The chicken is actually a recipe Lorna gave me, it has Apricot preserves and Ranch seasoning, it is super tasty.

As I leave my room for the day and switch off my light, there is a sign a friend of mine gave me which reads "Don't forget to have an adventure today." Good advice for us all.

This is my view as I walk out my front door. You will see it again later.

Here I am at work! This is the main entrance. Sometimes I take the side door, but for the Blog's sake I came this way today. My camera makes a "bark" when I take pictures, and right after I took this I wondered what the lady in front of me was thinking. Hmm.

When I get to work this is what I see. My Desk. A phone, two monitors, some pictures of my sisters families they gave me for Christmas, a gift from BYU-Idaho, some papers, and my "England Logistics" cup. I go through about three of those full of water per day. I spent a lot of my day working on a program for a department. The software is called Qlikview and has been fun to learn. It has a tremendous ability to drill down on data quickly. Much easier for users than something like Access or Excel. I also was able to attend a certain meeting for the first time with some of the senior managers. That was quite an interesting experience.

This is Andy Macdonald. No, the "d" is not capitalized. According to him that would place him in another clan. You might think this is a strange pose for a picture… and you would be right.

Next is Sam and Tevita (left to right). They are the two main IT guys. We all go play pool regularly (there is a pool table in our break room), which I am a little sad I forgot to get a picture of. Tevita jokes about taking us "to school". So now instead of asking if we want to play pool he simply asks if we want a lesson today or not. They are great guys.

And this is Merrill. He started a few weeks before me and graduated in economics as well, from Utah State.

After a good day of work I leave. And this is what it looks like sometimes.

On this particular day I was going to get my windshield replaced… but the weather had other plans for me. It took me almost an hour and a half to get home, and needless to say, I missed my appointment with the glass people.

When I did make it home I warmed up some left-overs for dinner. This is one of my new favorite meals- it is chicken and vegetables with stuffing on top. Yum. I unloaded the dishwasher and talked to some friends on the phone for a while as well.

Then I said hi to my roommate Kevin and we talked about budgeting. Because he was on his way to spend the evening budgeting with a friend of his. I think he was really happy that I wanted to take a picture of him.

This is what my driveway looks like now as compared to this morning. And it is still coming down.

Now I am going to go to bed, but first I will probably spend some time reading this book I got for Christmas. It is an extremely interesting book so far. His quotes about the agency of man have always impressed me.

So there you have it. An average day in the life of David Peter Hall.

It's been a long time...

My life is a little different than two months ago, it has been a roller-coaster. I started a job with England Logistics at the beginning of September as an analyst. What do I do? The company is very much into reports and numbers, so my main responsibility is to create reports and and manipulate data. Microsoft Access and Excel have become my two best friends. I have learned a surprisingly great deal about Access, which is cool I think, because it is a very powerful tool. England Logistics is a subsidiary of C.R. England, the trucking company. No relation to the country. It is a good job, and I am so grateful to have a job, though I have not forgotten that my real desire is to teach at a university. I see this as another step my education.

I also moved into my new home this weekend, in the Sugar House area. My roommates are great guys, really I have been blessed. I love living near the mountains, especially driving down the 215 in the evening or night because you have a great view of the valley. My ward is great as well, I have already met a few BYU-I Alumni.

I went on a hike last weekend with Sandy, so here are a couple pictures, it is a place called the wind cave, up Darby Canyon just east of Driggs.


This is the cave behind us, it starts out huge but you don't have to go very far before you are crawling through some tight spots.


There is a waterfall that comes out of the cave, which is huge in the early spring, so big it can make it impossible to get into the cave. Since we were there so late in the year it was nothing more than a trickle. The cave is just above and behind the edge you see the water coming over.

Table Rock

There is a little mountain top called Table Rock, situated about 2,000 ft below and to the West of the Grand Teton. It looks like a table from everywhere in the valley, but once you are on it, it looks more like a bench. Yesterday a few friends and I hiked it. It is a great hike, six miles and about 5,000 ft. in elevation one way. The Grand Teton is a little over 13,000 ft. so we were about 11,000 ft. on the top of Table Rock. We had great weather, and even thought it looks a little cold in the pictures it wasn't, just windy.

I learned that Jackson Hole was formed by sinking down into the earth, and that this is partly what formed the Tetons. The earth underneath Jackson was displaced and turned into the Tetons. Although geologists say it is a lot more complicated, and they don't fully understand how it all happened. when you are on Table Rock you feel like you can reach out and touch the Tetons, the pictures don'e really do it justice. But I hope you enjoy them.

Some of you might recognize one of the girls in the picture as a sister missionary that served in our ward back home, Hillary Clemens.


This is hiking along the rim leading up to Table Rock. You can see Table Rock in the upper left corner of the picture. This is my friend Nikki Mendenhall leading the way.


This is a picture of all of us on the top. From me to the right it is Brynne, Hillary, and Nikki. The mountains behind us are (again from left to right) Mt. Owen, the Grand Teton, the Middle Teton, and the South Teton.



Another picture of all of us.


These next two are of Hillary teaching me some Yoga. I was trying to become one with the Tetons.



What do you think?

Graduation

I graduated from Brigham Young University Idaho on Friday with a BS Economics. I don't really know what to say, it was a great four years and I will be forever grateful for the experiences, the people, and the lessons that have come into my life because of this University. When I came home from my mission I was dead set on going to ASU to study architecture, but the Lord had a better plan for me. I had no idea back then how large of an impact the decision to come here would have on my life. As Elder Bednar put it, this University is a "Disciple Preparation Center, or a DPC"- similar to an MTC in many ways. I feel much more prepared to be both a disciple and a leader, two ideas that I have learned are inseparably connected.

There are pictures below, and I have also tried to identify some lessons I have learned here as well, if you are interested.






Lessons:

1) In today’s world, you can learn anything if you have four things:
• A question
• The faith to step into the dark; to ask, seek, and knock
• The companionship of the Spirit
• A humble heart and open mind

2) Going to bed early and getting up early really does keep your mind sharp.

3) Being involved and engaged is the only way to develop yourself. Don’t simply float through life.

4) Leadership has more to do with your private life than your public life.

5) Friends bring color and joy into life if you open your heart to them.

6) With God, nothing is impossible.

7) Everything worthwhile in life is going to require hard work, dedication, and sacrifice.

8) There is a difference between fun and happiness. Fun is going to a rope swing on a hot summer evening after studying all day. Happiness is knowing you put the study before the play.

9) Learning is not necessarily fun, but brings happiness.

10) Teaching others will almost always help you more than it helps those you teach.

11) Do your dishes.

12) You are responsible for your learning. Blaming it on the teacher, the textbook, or the material won’t get you anywhere. If the class is a failure, then you have failed.

I Love to See the Temple

I thought this was really cool. I am going to be in Salt Lake this week so maybe I will get the chance to stop by and see it. It doesn't look all that big in the video, but they say it is 88 inches tall! What an amazing blessing it is to have so many temples worldwide now. I really do love to see, and go to, the temple.

Friends Falls and Fries

We had a day off of school for Memorial Day so on Saturday I went with a group of friends to Mesa Falls. It was a blast, even though it rained half the time we were there. We also fed fish at Warm River. It is illegal to fish there and there are dozens of huge fish, it is really fun. Afterward we went to this burger place that had the BEST fries and shakes ever. I also had a great chicken burger. But really, the shakes are amazing. It is called the Frostop I think, and is in Ashton. I have some pictures here for you, enjoy.

Here is a shot of the upper falls. My favorite part is the sound of the rushing water.

This is my friend Jenny and I jumping and clicking our heals... just havin' fun.


This is my roommate Dan, our friend Amy, and I. We are all graduating this semester and I feel a special bond with them.

This is the whole group. Amy and Jenny are sisters, Dan and I are roommates, then there is another Dan from Chicago that was visiting, and Stacie and Brittany. Stacie teaches on campus here and Brittany was visiting from Salt Lake. All of the were a joy to be around.


Last is just Amy and I laughing at something, I don't remember what. You cans see the rain in this one.

Job Search

I graduate in July from BYU-Idaho in economics. That means that I need to find a job. So far, no luck. The great thing about graduating with a degree in economics is that when I can't find a job, at least I understand WHY.

Well if networking and online searches don't do it, then I might resort to this:


Pepsi Max Job Interview Funny Commercial - Free videos are just a click away

Once there was a snowman

Here is a video and some pictures of an igloo that some guys in my ward built this winter. I didn't get these pictures until late in the semester so it had already started to melt, but it was really well done.

Utah

This weekend Natalie and I took a quick trip to Utah to see the newest Hall, Emmett. It was short, but we had a good time. We ate ice cream, watched the Olympics, and ate donuts. Not exactly in that order, but close. Natalie and I also went to the new church history library in Salt Lake and learned about how to use it what not. It was really cool, and I am excited to take some names there and search for them. Here are some pictures of us Saturday morning.

The Oak Tree

Elder M. Russel Ballard spoke to the students at BYU-Idaho on Saturday and he read this poem. The point Elder Ballard made was that we each have a responsibility to broaden our knowledge of the gospel and maybe more importantly to deepen our testimony of it. It raised the questions in my mind "How much time do I spend trying to learn the gospel with my head, and how much time to I spend trying to learn it with my heart? How much effort do I put into the depth of my testimony?"

This poem makes the point that we need to have deep roots. But how, you ask? My thought was that a single root is pretty weak by itself, but having multiple levels of roots fortify the tree. I think that making daily sacrifices to study, pray, serve, attend the temple, and so on all act as individual roots. Reading the scriptures once or twice a week does not offer much of a foundation when the winds blow. And if you don't think the winds are blowing, then it is probably because you are being carried around by them. But daily consistent effort can deepen our roots and prepare us for the future.

I hope you like the poem, and its implications in our lives.

A mighty wind blew night and day.
It stole the Oak Tree's leaves away.
Then snapped its boughs
and pulled its bark
until the Oak was tired and stark.

But still the Oak Tree held its ground
while other trees fell all around.
The weary wind gave up and spoke,
"How can you still be standing Oak?"

The Oak Tree said, I know that you
can break each branch of mine in two,
carry every leaf away,
shake my limbs and make me sway.

But I have roots stretched in the earth,
growing stronger since my birth.
You'll never touch them, for you see
they are the deepest part of me.

Until today, I wasn't sure
of just how much I could endure.
But now I've found with thanks to you,
I'm stronger than I ever knew.