Earthquake Strategies

Today in our office meeting, my boss told us that we needed to come up with an evacuation/strategy plan for if we were to experience a major earthquake while we are in the office. I sit outside the conference room during our meetings so I can answer the phone, but he said my name so I stood in the doorway and listened as they plotted out how they would leap from the windows and run out the door in four seconds flat.

The main topic of discussion was how to contact their families, since they all have wives and children who would, of course, be wondering about them. And I'd imagine that if something drastic were to happen, they would all want to get to their families as quickly as possible. I-15 would be a parking lot, and so there was some talk about taking railroad tracks and such down to Payson and Spanish Fork where the majority of them live.

Since Kevin included me when he said that we should know what we are doing, I thought of what I would need to do. Since I wouldn't really have anyone that I would be desperate to seek out (i.e. husband, children, etc.) I imagined all sorts of leisurely time while the rest of my world would be surrounded with chaos, panic, and a sense of urgency. In theory, if I were left unharmed, I could start walking back towards my apartment and maybe stop to administer my rudimentary first aid to any of those who had been hurt.

Kevin said that it was proven that though phone calls during catastrophe don't always go through, but text messages do; so I imagine that I would shoot off a quick text to my parents who would be tucked safely away in Ohio and would probably be wondering about me (if they had heard on the news what happened) and then... I guess I would want to know what happened to the few possessions I have at my apartment. If my car were crushed by trees, I only live some 2.5 miles away from work, so I could walk that easily enough -- provided there weren't some gaping hole or crack formed from the earthquake.

So what do I need to do if there is a giant earthquake in Utah? I suppose I ought to just survive it. And then... nothing.

Maybe I will get some water bottles and put them in my car, so I have access to those at least.

I Died

His Grace is Sufficient

Today in Sacrament Meeting the Bishop quoted from a devotional given by Brad Wilcox at BYU last year. The whole thing is amazingly profound, and I would beg that you click this link and read it in its entirety. Trust me, you want to.

But today is Easter, and so we focus on the Atonement and the Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Many people, including members of the Church, that don't understand the Atonement. We don't understand what exactly is required of us, and think that it is definitely more than we are giving and probably even more than we think is possible to give. Many people think that we don't believe that we are saved by grace.

I have born-again Christian friends who say to me, “You Mormons are trying to earn your way to heaven.” 

I say, “No, we are not earning heaven. We are learning heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.” 

They ask me, “Have you been saved by grace?” 

I answer, “Yes. Absolutely, totally, completely, thankfully—yes!”

I don't think I have ever thought of it that way, but I have been taught that those that aren't prepared for Heaven won't want to be there. They won't feel comfortable in a place where they haven't striven to belong.

I think the main point of the article that really hit home for me, was that so many people believe that the Church is exclusive. That we somehow claim all the rights to heaven and that it is impossible for others to make it. But the Atonement is completed. Christ has already paid for everyone's sins. So everyone is entitled and welcomed to come to Christ.* We are all going to be resurrected. We are all beloved sons and daughters of God and he wants us back.

In the past I had a picture in my mind of what the final judgment would be like, and it went something like this: Jesus standing there with a clipboard and Brad standing on the other side of the room nervously looking at Jesus. 

Jesus checks His clipboard and says, “Oh, shoot, Brad. You missed it by two points.”

Brad begs Jesus, “Please, check the essay question one more time! There have to be two points you can squeeze out of that essay.” That’s how I always saw it. 

But the older I get, and the more I understand this wonderful plan of redemption, the more I realize that in the final judgment it will not be the unrepentant sinner begging Jesus, “Let me stay.” No, he will probably be saying, “Get me out of here!” Knowing Christ’s character, I believe that if anyone is going to be begging on that occasion, it would probably be Jesus begging the unrepentant sinner, “Please, choose to stay. Please, use my Atonement—not just to be cleansed but to be changed so that you want to stay.”

I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. For the knowledge that he lives; he knows me personally; he loves me unconditionally.


*It should be understood that we believe that there are necessary saving ordinances and that it is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that holds the restored priesthood power to act in the name of Jesus Christ and to perform these ordinances as Christ directed when he was on the earth. 

**READ THE TALK!!

90-day Fitness

While I was home for Christmas, I made a pretty big decision. It took me almost my whole Christmas break to decide whether or not I wanted to commit to 90 days of doing something that I would inevitably hate, and cost a pretty penny to boot.

A friend of mine was sponsoring a 90-fitness challenge. She would train us three times a week; provide us with tips and tricks for managing our weight, getting stronger, and general health for our bodies; and take a lot of pictures to monitor our progress. I was nervous about starting, but it's Alaina... and she's pretty much the nicest trainer anyone could ever have.

Over the past three months, I have to admit that I was wishy-washy on the diet. I did increase my vegetable intake, and I made an semi-effort to keep my carb intake to a strictly after workout comsumption... But I have felt myself getting stronger. Instead of dreading the workouts, I was often happy to have the time come when I would grab my gym bag and change as quickly as I could at the bathroom at work and head off to meet Alaina and Janessa (my partner in crime, my competition and quickly my friend during my workouts).

I started the three months with two goals: to see some progress, and to enjoy what I was doing.

I am happy to say that I accomplished both.

There were certain workouts that I hated. But mostly, I hated them because they were challenging and hard, and even though I didn't want to do them, they were the exercises where I felt the most progress. I still can't do a pull-up. I have lost any significant amount of weight, either. (Ok, 13-lbs isn't nothing, but...) But I feel stronger. A lot stronger.

I think the most surprising thing of all: I'm devastated that it is over.

There are several things that I absolutely loved about working out with Alaina.

• She's pretty much the nicest person ever. But don't let that fool you. She doesn't let you get away with doing half-baked work-outs. She encourages you to go heavier, harder, and longer. 
• She is very knowledgeable. I have terrible knees, so that meant that instead of squats, she had to come up with an invariable amount of exercises that worked the same muscle groups but didn't make my knees scream in protest.
• She listens to all your complaints, and then still expects you to do it. 
• The workouts are varied. We never did the same things two weeks in a row. I never knew what to expect. They level in difficulty. They level in how much fun I had doing them.
• She's hardcore. She had surgery halfway through our 90-days, and refused to be laid up. She showed us up in her cast everyday.

I think my favorite things of the whole workout were the medicine balls. We didn't get to use them often because there was often a class going at 6 PM, which is when I trained. But! I loved them. They hurt and were so fun! 

Alaina has a blog that you can read here: http://alainawoodfitness.blogspot.com/

You can also find her on Facebook and on Youtube.

Now that it's come to an end, I've got to quickly come up with what I'm going to do to replace it. 

Cakes

Last month, my good friend and fellow FTC member and I took a Cake Decorating 101 (or, Wilton's Cake Decorating Class, Level 1) through UVU's Community Education program.

We were fairly excited about the prospect of discovering some amazing, untapped, innate skill that when put to use would make us millions of dollars when we opened our own bakery. Then, we tried to frost our cakes. Even the crumb coat was a pain in the butt, and over four weeks, we decided that this was maybe not our calling.

We did have fun. In fact, I think the class voted us as those that had the most fun. (Although, that is probably more because we sat removed from the rest of our class mocking them instead of joining their very friendly, very strange all-inclusive group.) And while they didn't know that we were often laughing at them, they heard a lot of snickering and giggling and assumed we were having a good time.

The first cake, we showed everyone up with ability to do cute designs and excellent borders. Our cakes were round. And we even sliced them apart and put in a very sugary filling. Most people who ate the cake were not so impressed with the frosting (Wilton frosting is disgusting) and the filling made the cake extra sugary.

The next week, we practiced on cupcakes, and got bored.... or.... something, and they turned out like this:

But the last class was a disaster. The cakes cooked too hot (my conjecture) and didn't come out of the pan. We tried to glue all the pieces together, but we were using frosting that was much too heavy. We didn't quite have enough frosting, so we made do. In the end, we had lopsided, non-circle cakes. Both of us were in bad moods.

We learned how to make roses and do writing in our last class. By the end, all the other ladies were working hard on their cakes to make them look presentable and classy. Meghan and I had given up from the beginning. They ended up looking something like this:

Pure magic. One of the tricks that I learned in this class was to use a Hersey kiss as the center of the roses. I couldn't believe how much EASIER it made making those blasted flowers.

In the end, Meghan and I learned that we weren't really cut out for the grunt work of cake decorating, i.e., the crumb coat and frosting of the cake; we weren't cut out for the real creativity of the whole thing; and we definitely weren't really cut out for the detail work.

Don't hold your breath for a Pottsie Bakery to turn up any time soon.