Sayonara!

This is my last post! I'll be heading to Japan in a few days! You can read about my experiences at my mission blog at http://elderwaltoninjapan.blogspot.com/

See you in a few! :)

Sayonara

Seven of the people in my grade had mission farewells today. I spent basically the entire day visiting all of them at their respective homes.

Soon I will leave too.

All I can say is,

Sayonara kids! (That's goodbye in Japanese!)

You're the best friends I could ever have hoped for, and I love you all so dearly.

See you in a few.

Why Did We Stop?

As kids basically all of us loved to run around barefoot. To scamper on the grass, play under the sun, and just have fun free of anything covering our feet.

Why did we stop?

Now, likely most of us still go barefoot here and there and enjoy it, but we seem to be under the preconception that we can only be barefoot on rare occasions, on the beach, in the grass, but in all other circumstances we have to wear shoes because it's "what we do."

Many people cite safety and health concerns, and though the risks are there, they're not nearly as big as people make them out to be, and they almost never consider the risks and problems that come from not taking off their shoes: warts, athletes foot, and deformed, weak, and fragile feet.

Society has taught us to wear shoes, simply because that's what people do, but why not return to our childhood and enjoy the feelings, sensations, and joys that we all experienced as kids?

Recently I have done exactly that, and my feet have never been happier.

Throw off your shoes and free your feet!

 You won't regret it.

Life

Can I just say life is completely and absolutely wonderful for pretty much every reason?

Well I will.

 Life is completely and absolutely wonderful for pretty much every reason. :)

Exactly Where I'm Meant to Go

As most of you probably know I got my mission call on Friday. I'm going to Fukuoka Japan! It's a beautiful place and I'm so excited!

For some reason I always thought I'd be speaking some Asian language, but I actually didn't expect it to be Japanese. I had a cool experience that really testified though that this truly was the place that I'm supposed to go to.

After I opened my call, the friends and family had left and things had settled down I began trying to learn all I could about my field of labor for the next two years.

I stumbled upon the blog of some random missionary who was currently in my mission and began to scroll through the pictures of Japanese people on it.

And something really kind of amazing happened. A powerful feeling of love flowed into me. I almost was in tears for how much love I felt for those people. And that was when I knew that Fukuoka Japan is EXACTLY where I'm supposed to go, and that's where the Lord needs me most.

I'm so excited!

When Did I Change?

In BBC's "Robin Hood" there's a quote by Maiden Marian that goes along the lines of, "What is it with men and glory?"

Up until sometime recently I was one of those men. I sought grandeur. I wanted to be great. I wanted to be remembered in the history books, or in the science books. I wanted to known for my genius and innovation. 

I don't know if I do anymore...

It's not that I don't want to do great things in my career. I do! But that's not what's most important to me now. That's not what I am passionate about, it's not what I get emotional about. 

I'm not exactly sure when this happened, all I know is that it feels so right.

Though doing something like this:

would be amazing!

I'm much more passionate and so much more excited about doing this:

I'm honestly convinced being a father is the most important thing I will do on this earth. And I'm so excited for it!

So Close, Yet So Far

If there was anyone who absolutely wanted to be on a mission right now literally ANY where, so long as they could preach the gospel. Their name is Nick Walton.

Honestly I don't know how I survive. I had a dream the other night that I was in the MTC. When I woke up and realized I wasn't I was completely distraught!

I just want to be out blessing the lives of others already! Recently I've been volunteering at the referral center at the MTC. And rather than curbing my hunger for missionary work, it's just enlarging my hunger to a ravenous black hole. I think I had to really see and understand the lives of people without the Gospel to know how much they really need it, even if they don't realize it.

And I'm already beginning to fear the day when my mission will end. Not withstanding the fact that I haven't started yet... But missions don't end when they "end." In fact they don't really begin when they "begin." Our whole lives should be an extension of our desire to share the "good news" of the gospel with others and to enrich their lives. Elder Bednar taught me this in his talk "Becoming a Missionary" which is basically my favorite thing ever.

Though I might have to wait several months to enter the mission field. I don't have to wait to become a missionary. I can become a missionary right now and forever! =D

I can't wait!

Limbo

I feel like I'm in limbo.
I'm no longer a high school student, as evidenced by the lack of band in my life,
but I'm not really a college student yet.

It's a weird feeling.
Some thoughts on it:

• I really miss those band children. They're such great kids. I miss the fun-lovingness they brought into my life.
• I'm working now at a legit job as of today (Tucanos!!). That's a weird feeling, but it's going well!
• I seem to be somewhat of a social recluse...so you should drag me out of my dungeon to do worthwhile stuff.
• I sleep in too late for my tastes. 
• Summer has some great things though! Like evening walks, bike rides, beautiful weather.

Oh Summer...

Oh summer...it's been an interesting time.

My sleep schedule has been drastically pushed back 2 hours since the senior all night party.

It's pretty sure that I'll get a job at Tucanos as a busser. Yay money!

I spent 6 hours today trying to create a website on a virtual server for my dad...all on a linux computer. And before you ask me if I know how to do all that.. the answer is...no...or at least I didn't before today, hence the 6 hours.

Also I visited the clarinets and the band today. As I walked in the bandroom, smelled the air, saw the chalkboard, and just felt the feeling of summer band I felt a lot of nostalgia (which now that I look at it is really an ugly word).

I saw "Smore Party" on the band calender and I was like, "YES!" ....until I remembered I wasn't in band anymore.

 I can already tell that this years band council is gonna be so awesome! They already are and will do so much better than we did. Them going above and beyond what we were able to do is the highest compliment and thanks they could have given us.

 Some things I need to do more of:

• Hiking
• Biking
• Hammock Napping
• Pondering on my favorite hill.
• Dates!
• Frisbee
• Figuring out what classes I'm going to take this fall...
• Yeah....I should probably figure that out.
• In fact maybe I'll do that right now.
• Ahhh heck, it's too late, time for sleep.

Reflection

Dear future self or not-self: take some time to think.

Sometimes you rush so fast to get where you're going, that you don't actually think about where that might be.

Be The Change

This baby demonstrates a lot of what's hurting our community, our nation, and even the world.

It's not babies or pink fuzzy onesies (one-sies?) I'm talking about.

 It's hatred and anger. 


Now this baby has a good excuse.
He's a baby. But, 

We can do better.

We all have these emotions and passions. Unfortunately it's part of human nature.
But part of human nature is that we ourselves get to define what our nature will be.


We can see it's effects everywhere:


The middle east is always on the cusp of war due to hate and anger passed down for thousands of years.


Our national government can't agree on almost anything so rampant is the anger and mis-characterization. 


And even our local community is filled with anger and hatred and in the words of one culprit "as much disdain as possible." When we let our actions be dominated by these passions we lose our ability to be thoughtful, to be humble, to be open to the perspectives and experiences of others. 


It's this pride of omniscience. This inability to recognize that "hey maybe that guy who I strongly disagree with actually has good intentions, and maybe the same intentions as I do, but he just goes about it a different way."


It's all well and good to talk about the problems in the world. But it means nothing if we lack the ability or the will to change it.


Because the change starts with us. 


You can't cure the world of a disease you still possess. We must remove the beam from our own eye to remove the mote from others.

Let's not be products of our environment, but let's make our environment be products of us.

Be The Change

Wedding!!

So I'm sitting right behind these two (aren't they cute?) as they literally just barely finish the line (of death) for their reception. It's happened to me before, but it's always crazy when one of your siblings gets married and moves out. I forgive this girl for taking away my brother, cause she's pretty awesome. We like to tease and sass each other, but it's all loving sauce and banter. =)

I'm sad I wasn't able to go to senior ball. But it's okay, though I spent yesterday getting ready for the wedding, today I got many of the fun things of senior ball, fancy clothing and settings, boutineer ( or however you spell it) classy food, and more than that, a great day with my family as my brother makes a huge step in his life.

Well it's time for them to dance (cute!!)

Adios!

Enjoy Them

Sometimes you have one of those days where you finish and just smile thinking, "life is good."
This was one of those days.

Woke up at 8. (A beautiful time to wake up these days)
Went to seminary. (Brother Pearce and an awesome class!)
Came home. (I can probably just learn it from the book)
Ate a delicious eggs and toast breakfast.
Caught up on my Old Testament reading while laying on a hammock in the shade.
Took a 2 hour nap.
Watched NCIS while eating chocolate ice cream with crushed almonds (Mmmmm...)
AP Bio Lab! It was actually pretty easy. We had an hour break where almost all of us played frisbee and then listened to Myrup's proposal story.
Made a delicious peach milkshake and sat outside sipping it and doing Chemistry.
Went to play ultimate frisbee with Joseph Merril because of which I:
    Learned how to do good underhand throws.
    Learned how to hammer throw.
    Played volleyball with a bunch of awesome youth in my stake
    Played ultimate frisbee with said people
    Played fugitive with said people.
    Watched some of an old avengers animated movie with said people.
And now I'm soooo sore....but it's feels good.

And also State Band is tomorrow!!! Wahoo!

So basically moral of the story is my day wasn't awesome from any one thing, just a bunch of small moments. And that's kind of how life is like if you let it. Just let the small things fill you with joy.
   

Swingin' in the Breeze

   
There are few things as blissful as napping on hammock on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

Especially if there's no homework to worry about because you finished it all the day before. Take that procrastination!

Learning is Awesome!

I LOVE to learn. Can I just say that?

Knowledge is one of those core things that is almost a part of who you are. It can't be taken away from you by anyone else. Even in the depths of poverty and the height of pride it will stick with you. What's not to love? But besides being super awesome. It is can be such a powerful tool to help yourself and to help others in ways that wouldn't be possible without it.

Why do I love to learn so much more than so many others?

Because I'm not graduating, all the classes I've taken, I've taken just been because I wanted to learn. It has made such a difference on my perspective on school. I don't care about grades....though getting into college is nice...the learning is really the ultimate goal.

And that's why I love this awesome discovery my brother shared with me a few months ago.

Well, actually a few discoveries.

Basically it's online courses on super awesome things. Made just for the internet, by genius professors, to be entirely free.

Udacity is mostly computer science and is founded by the creator of the awesome Google Self driving car. I'm currently attempting to learn computer programming from it haha.
http://www.udacity.com/

Coursera is  a combination of awesome courses from a couple of colleges. I'm currently doing the "Model Thinking" class and it's way interesting.
https://www.coursera.org/

Oh did I mention it's all FREE!

Soar

I fly on great flights and soar to grand heights. 

My passion bears me ahead.

But sometimes it stops and I have to walk, 

Or crawl 'long the ground instead.

Those days, I ask why?

Why can't I be that guy? 

The one who so fearlessly

Flew cross the sky?

Sometimes you fail.

Sometimes you fall.

Sometimes you feel

like you're stopped at a wall.

But keep going.

Keep going through it all.

Because someday you'll be back in the air.

Soaring, flying, you'll get back there.

And this time you'll fly 

even farther than before.

Higher and higher and higher you'll soar!

Keep trying, striving, craving for more

and one day, you will cease flying no more.

A Time to Breathe

     Back in the days when I thought there was still a remote possibility of me going to Harvard (before second term that is) I was reading some of it's suggestions for seniors and I thought it was really interesting. Basically they said don't load up with a bunch of crazy classes senior year. If anything lighten the load. Give yourself some time to do what you love, some time to think, some time to breathe. So I decided I'd take their advice, and I've got to say, I'm lovin it!

Don't get me wrong I still have hard classes, I have two AP Science classes and a college level math class. But it's a lot more relaxed then it could have been. I actually get full nights of sleep now! I have time in the morning to exercise and read scriptures, and time in the afternoon to nap. Basically...it's exactly what I need to relax before the push of college. Sometimes you just need a breather in life, and in the words of Elder Utchdorf

"If life and it's rushed pace and many stresses have made it difficult for you to feel like rejoicing, then perhaps now is a good time to refocus on what matters most"
 http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/of-things-that-matter-most?lang=eng

Ps. I love the morning after a fresh coat of snow =)

Max De Shiz

      So on Saturday I went to the library to finally get "Leadership is an Art" by Max De Pree, which I've been wanting to read for a while. Dr. Fullmer's recommended it to us since our freshmen year so I thought it would be an interesting read. I read for a few hours in the Orem library in this nice comfy chair and then went to the park. It was so nice! 60 degrees in the middle of January? Madness! But totally rad madness!
      Anyways I finished it that day in the park and it was a really thought provoking book. My concept of leadership is really an important part of my core philosophy so this definitely added to my perspective. It even got me taking notes on my phone which I filled up a good 2000 characters with of notes. I definitely recommend this book to everyone, but since I know most of you won't read it, (it took me forever to get myself to go out and check it out) here are some highlights:

-The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor. That sums up the progress of an artful leader.

-Leaders don't inflict pain, they bear pain.

-The signs of outstanding leadership appears primarily among the followers. Are the followers reaching their potential? Are they learning? Serving?

-As the apostle Luke said a leader is "one who serves"

-It is a way of thinking about stewardship rather than ownership.

-Leaders are responsible for effectiveness...Efficiency is doing the thing right, but effectiveness is doing the right thing.

-Effectiveness comes about through enabling others to reach their potential--both their personal potential and their corporate or organization's potential.

-Being faithful is more important than being successful. If we are successful in the world's eyes but unfaithful in terms of what we believe, then we fail in our efforts.

-We are all in the process of becoming.

-We need to be learners together. The steady process of becoming goes on in most of us throughout our lifetime. We need to be searching for maturity, openness, and sensitivity.

-Technically it has to do with the second law of thermodynamics, but I choose define entropy as meaning that everything has a tendency to deteriorate. One of the important things leaders need to learn is to recognize the signals of impending deterioration. Some of those are:

     A tendency towards superficiality
     No longer having time for celebration and ritual
     A growing feeling that rewards and goals are the same thing
     When problem-makers outnumber problem-solvers
     When folks confuse heroes and celebrities
     Leaders who seek to control rather than liberate
     When people seek of customers (or others) as impositions on their time rather than as opportunities to serve

    As you can tell from these delicious fruits of wisdom this book is worth reading, because that's only a fraction of its goodness...so you should. I even have a copy you can borrow if you want!

Sunsets!

I know I've said it many a time, but I love sunsets! They are one of my favorite things about nature!
Probably my two favorite sunsets I've ever seen are (1) the one coming back from Pearl Harbor on our red eye flight 30,000 feet up. I didn't get a good picture of it, but it looked a lot like this:

When I saw it I couldn't help but waking Jared Larkin up to enjoy it with me. His sleep deprived body didn't agree though =(

(2) And my other favorite one I got a really awesome picture of:

       Good old Provo sunsets =D. One time I was walking home from a Sunday walk I decided to take to enjoy the fall colors and there was a really gorgeous sunset that I couldn't help just standing on the side of 9th east to enjoy for a half hour haha, but sometimes I really think we need to just stop and enjoy all the beautiful things around us we far too often take for granted.

My Christmas Dream

This picture doesn't actually have anything to do with my post, I just like it. Anyways...

You can tell it's Christmas dream by the nap I just had this Christmas eve. I was standing alone in this dock area that also (in my dream world) when I was in  A Capella we had sung at because it had awesome sound reverberation. It was kind of dome-ish and made out of concrete and had a sweet lookout of an ocean.

Anyways while I'm standing there I just start singing this melody. Pretty soon all these random people come out of nowhere and just start singing with me. Football players, hipsters, orchestra people, just people from all walks of life. We made an awesome improv tune with harmony and everything which eventually turned into a sweet new version of adelina de maya and I was like "whoah! Football players singing adelina de maya! This is sweet!"

Next we started "Go Tell it on the Mountain" while we stared out across the ocean. It reminded me of when we sung "Hey Jude" at the band Luau thing in the sense that there was just this unified feeling. It was such a joyous experience. Then after singing we departed our ways full of joy and love for these random strangers we didn't even know.

Anyways I don't know if my subconscious really was trying to tell me something, but like most English books I read I'll find some cool meaning anyways. To me it really just goes back to my biggest wish for the whole world. The thing that depresses me most is when I see people hating each other. That's why I said what I did at the "bandimony meeting" on fall tour. I love all the people in band so much it hurts me when I see them hurt or hated.

Now obviously I'm not perfect, but I try my best, and this dream is really another reminder for me to do better, but I thought I'd share it in case anyone else feels similarly.