Creeds, Careers, and Cars

Creeds
I have had some discretionary time lately and have begun reading two books: One is by President Eyring, To Draw Closer to God and the other is by Todd G. Buchholz, New Ideas From Dead Economists.


Dr. Buchholz is a professor at Harvard and is very good at explaining economic principles very simply. He goes through some of the greatest economists in history, starting with the father of economics, Adam Smith. Here is a quote from Adam Smith I liked:

there is scarce perhaps a single instant in which any man is so perfectly and completely satisfied with his situation, so as to be without any wish of alteration or improvement of any kind...[there is] a certain propensity in human nature... to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another... it is common to all men.

Reading the Book of Mormon its obvious that when the people are righteous these attributes are exhibited. They begin to be industrious, to buy and to sell and to build and to trade. These are things that bring economic growth, or prosperity, which the Lord promises over and over to us when we keep his commandments.

Another quote I thought I should share is one from President Eyring's book. It really caught my attention. After telling about a Sunday School class held in Central America, in a home that was more like a shack than anything, sitting on boxes, he wondered "Why did I hear so clearly in my heart and mind that day the voice of God speaking to me through that little boy and little girl...in that Sunday School class?" Here is his answer:

Everyone, as he or she spoke...bore testimony. They did not speak of the Savior; they said that they knew he had made it possible for their sins to be washed away. They did not speak about Joseph Smith; they said they knew by the power of the Holy Ghost that he was a Prophet.

Whoa! So what is he saying? To me, he is saying that it is one thing to talk about what the scriptures say about Jesus Christ, and a completely different thing to talk about what I know about Jesus Christ. In other words it doesn't do me nearly as much good to discuss what others (the men in the scriptures) know about Christ as it does for me to discuss what I know about Christ.

He then finishes with this simple statement by the Prophet Joseph Smith "Whenever salvation has been administered, it has been by testimony." How do we save our families, our friends, our flocks? By the word of our testimony.


Careers
Now a little on my current life plans. A few weeks ago I was able to teach release time seminary to a class of 9th graders. It was a great week, and the man that does the hiring for seminary teachers came and observed me the last day. It was a great lesson but I was not hired as a student teacher, so now I am beginning to look for other directions I would like to go. I will probably come back and try again some day, but for now it's obvious that is not where I should be.
One funny story about the class: I had the students draw a picture of a machine that would take anything and turn it into anything else. My example was a machine I could use on hot summer days after mowing the lawn, I would put grass clippings in it and it would spit out a strawberry lemonade. (I promise there was a principle behind this) So one kid, Parker, draws a machine that you put old ladies in and it spits out money! His defense: "nobody likes old ladies." I couldn't help it, I laughed. He is a really good kid and will be a excellent missionary some day. I really gained a stronger love for the youth of the church.

I am doing an internship for the Eastern Idaho Entrepreneurial Center this summer and having a great experience. I manage two consulting projects, one is for the Center for Advanced Energy Studies and the other is for Southern Idaho Tourism, a non profit. We are mostly doing market research and creating business models. I have a team of business students for each project to help with the research. I am also going to get a little experience doing a different type of research, mostly gather data, organizing, and manipulating it for an economist in Washington state. These will be good experiences and help me discover what direction I should take after I graduate next April.

Cars
I bought a car last time I went home, a 2001 Oldsmobile Intrigue. Here are some visuals: