September 30th Amazing

A couple of my friends and I were arguing about each other's levels of amazing-ness and awesomeness.  We could not agree on who was "awesomest".  I thought about it for a while and something came to mind.  Everyone has their own level of awesomeness and amazing-ness.  Each person in the world is the "awesomest" in their own special way.  We are all amazing children of our Heavenly Father.  None of us is more amazing or awesome than the other.

Speaking of amazing, the same two friends were telling me to be happy.  They are two of my very, very best friends in the whole world.  I have almost always felt my happiest around them.  I kept trying to tell them that without them, I could be happy, which I was, but that I couldn't just be "so happy I was overwhelmed" happy.  Then one of them told me just to try to have a happy, amazing day.  I told them again that I couldn't have a VERY amazing day without them.  It just wouldn't work.  But they said to just try to.  I could make my day amazing if I wanted.  This is what happened:

After church, The Puppy came up to me and told me that my dad had assigned us to walk home.  Five kids, no adults.  So we did.  I was pessimistic at first.  I can't stand walking to or from church.  I just don't like it at all.  But this time something was different.  The Puppy and I held The Frog's hands and swung him back and forth in between steps.  We did it with The Otter, too.  We took the way home that had less business buildings and more houses and trees.  There was a breeze.  It made the walk more enjoyable.  It was pretty amazing for five kids that usually fight all the time. 

Sunday school was my teacher's last week.  He's going on a mission.

We had some amazing testimonies.  My grandma and great grandma left today after sacrament meeting.  (They came for my mom's birthday.)  My great grandma isn't LDS, which makes me sad.  But she listened to the speakers.

YW's was about self-worth.  We read one of my favorite scriptures.  (Another thing which was unexpected and pretty funny was that I got a whole box of whale crackers [like fish crackers] with my handout.)

I've been journaling.  My mind has been reeling really, really fast these past two weeks.  I've been stressed out.  But today...  It has been amazing.

Each of those things to me is  amazing.  I barely even tried.  But when I just kept in mind that it could be amazing...  It was.  Now I want every day to be like this one.  In its own way.  If I try, it can be.  Just with a little extra effort.  That is now one of my goals.

A. J. McKay

September 25th Two Things

Whoo hoo!  On the 16th, with the post "Today I Felt Like It", I got 53 pageviews.  Fifty three!  RECORD!  That was pretty cool.  Yes.  I will be writing more meaningful things.

Something Funny:

The Turtle was reading his verse in the Book of Mormon for our family reading.  He messed up, like we all do, but it was funny.  When he was reading, he said this:  "...the window mourning for her husband..."  Um, wait.  That's wrong.  Haha!  "Window" was supposed to be "widow".  Which brings me to something even funnier.  He was reading the word fatigue.  He didn't know how to pronounce it.  So he sounded it out, of course!  And it sounded like this:  "Faaa-teee-gyoo?..."  HAHAHAHA!  His voice was PERFECT.  It was hilarious!

And that's all I have for today.  Love you, Turtle!  :D

A. J. McKay

September 24th *SLAP*

Did you hear that just now?  When you read the title?  I just got slapped in the face.  By myself.  Not literally.  My mind slapped me in the face.  I was just reading in Mormon chapter 6 of the Book of Mormon, where it tells about a terrible...  No, terrible isn't strong enough.  Horrendous.  Horrifying.  I can't find it.  It's telling about a war between the Lamanites and the Nephites, who are both very wicked at this point.  Mormon and his son Moroni led armies of ten thousand each.  There were 21 other armies of ten thousand.  I think they were all joined together with Mormon, the prophet at that time.  This is near the end of the Book of Mormon.  All 230,000 of the men in these armies just died in battle.  Did you read that?  I will say it in letters.  Two hundred and thirty THOUSAND.  Did you just read THAT?  That is INSANE.  I cannot believe...  At Summit, there was a battle of about 300 people.  Three hundred.  I thought THAT was a big battle.  Then I read this.  HOLY COW.  Can you imagine almost 800 times that many people?  Eight HUNDRED?  There were only twenty four left, including Mormon and Moroni.  TWENTY FOUR.  I'm sorry but I just have to exaggerate.  That's CRAZY.  I am having a hard time believing that TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND people died in that battle...  I mean, I can, but it's a whole lot to take in.  I can't even imagine that number in my brain except like this:  230,000.  It makes me SO sad that that many people died.  Because they were wicked.  Only Mormon and Moroni are righteous.  I'm about to get choked up here.  Can you imagine if that many people died in America?  That would be a horrendous tragedy.

My resolve is to fight for the right.  I don't want to die like that.  And I'm guessing I won't have to, not like that exactly.  I will fight for the right in our society.  I will have courage, honor, and victory in my heart.  And I will go in a straight line down the narrow path.  That "straight lines" thing really got me.  At Summit, the Master Knight I was working with and the other Master Knight in our camp would yell, "Straight lines!" as we marched in between activities to keep them all together.  But for some reason it took on another meaning for me.  I think of it all the time now.  When I'm tempted to do something that maybe I shouldn't, I think, "Straight lines!" and remember to take the straight and narrow path and choose the right.  And if nothing else prevails, I will.  I will march my way home even if everyone around me falls.  But I don't think they will.  The people I know are strong.  They know how to keep standing.  And they help me to stand.

A. J. McKay

September 22nd

Hello all!  I just decided that for my blog posts from now on, I will be posting thoughtful things like my last post called "Today I Felt Like It".  Sometimes I will tell about an event or post pictures but for the most part I will just be posting thoughtful things.  I felt great when I posted that and I felt like it did the most good.  So that's what I will do.  Thanks so much for reading!  I love you all!

A. J. McKay

September 20th A Few Changes

Hey, everyone!  Just letting you know that I've made a few changes to the pages.  Old Stuff and New Stuff are gone.  Go ahead and browse through whatever.  Now they are organized.  I didn't make any changes to the actual story pages, where the full stories are.  Thanks for reading!

A.J. McKay

September 16th Today I Felt Like it

Today I felt like it.  I felt like I was the person who knew it - what I was doing; who I was; the reason I was set here, my purpose, my passion; my love.

I'm striving to be an influence.  I'm striving to better the world.  I'm hoping to be an asset to all who come across my path.

I am who I am.  No one can change that.  I am a person who knows why she's here.  I am a person who loves the feeling of being herself.  I am a person who loves the feeling of happiness and enrichment her best friends give her.  I am a person who tries her best to live the seven standards of Terra Libre (this is about Summit) - Work Hard, Serve Others, Seek Knowledge, Promote Peace, Protect the Weak, Respect Women (or in my case, men), Live By Faith.  I am someone who would fight with courage, honor, and victory.  Courage, knowing that, no matter what, God would deliver me.  Honor, fighting with the knowledge that I am standing for what is right.  Victory, knowing that even if the battle fought on ground is not won, I have already won in my heart.  I am a person who walks in a straight line, following the straight path that will lead me home.

I was set here to live a life of trial, tribulation, hardship, and enduring.  I was set here to live in the family I'm in - to be an example.  I was set here to learn.  I was set here to gain a better knowledge and understanding of the gospel so I would know my Heavenly Father better in the next life.  I was set here to be a woman of virtue.  I was set here to multiply and replenish the earth according to the way God wills me to do it.  I was set here to teach the standards of the gospel to my prosperity.  I was set here to raise a generation of noble, virtuous saints that would glorify God and His works.  I was set here to live life to the fullest.

I love life.  I love the people in it.  I love all the opportunities.  I love my family, my friends.  I love who I feel destined to be.  I love my dreams.  I love myself in that good, confident way.  I love aspiring to be better at being myself each day.  I love everything I can do.  I love everything about myself.  I love knowing that my Heavenly Father loves me.  I love knowing my family loves me.  I love knowing that my parents and my friends are always there for me.  I love knowing that God is always there for me and He will love me more than anyone ever can and that He is always there for me, even when I think no one is.

Thanks to everyone I know for being who they are.  For being a friend.  Thank you for knowing what to say.  For being there.

A. J. McKay

September 9th My Talk

Hello everyone!  First let me say that I love you all!  :D  Second, I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting today.  I actually sort of surprised myself.  I was barely nervous at all and I was actually really excited!  I wanted to share this with anyone who wanted to read it.  It's exactly what I said into the microphone.

Education

Written on 9-5-12

Good morning brothers and sisters! My name is Amory McKay and I was asked to speak on education.

Part of what True to the Faith says is “Use your education to be an influence for good.” That's inspiring to me because in my patriarchal blessing it says that I will be an influence for good. Now I've realized that part of the way that I can fulfill that is by educating myself and using that education for that specific purpose.

I plan on educating myself as much as I can, throughout my life. Some people think that life-long learning means you have to go to school. But really, you don't have to do that. You can stay at home. You can learn so much from books and just day-to-day experiences. Plus, you don't have to use public schools. You can do charter schools, do your schooling online, or you can even be homeschooled. I have a great opportunity to educate myself through homeschooling.

Recently I heard the same thing from my dad and my Speech and Debate teacher, who were both talking about education. They said, of course, that education is important but they also said that a lot of people talk about their education like it's something that's done to them. I believe that education is something you should do to help yourself. And when you help yourself in this way, you also have an influence for good on others. Parents have an influence on their children. What you do to educate yourself will likely have an influence on them.

There are things I have done to educate myself that have helped me in so many ways and have helped me to gain a new, wider perspective on a large variety of things. For the past two years, I have taken a writing and literature class from the same teacher. It gets more advanced each year. It has helped me grow and learn in a lot of ways. The first year it was two separate classes – one writing, one literature. I learned a lot about writing poems and short stories, essays and research papers, and even got to give a presentation on my research paper. That helped my knowledge of many things to grow, like the different writing styles, how to manage my time to get my work done, how to concentrate, and many other things. The presentation I gave helped me in different ways, too. It helped me to learn to prepare, to speak in front of a group and answer questions, and it also helped me learn to be outgoing and brave.

The literature class that year also helped me a lot. I did it for a while and learned so much. I also learned a valuable lesson - to stick through with whatever I set out to do in the beginning. When I started the literature class, I was reading a book for it that I didn't like. I thought it was so boring. I kept on with the class until about halfway through. Then I quit. At the beginning, I had felt overwhelmed. It felt a little too hard for me. When I stopped doing that class, my friends teased me playfully, which, really, I didn't mind. Then I found out that there would be a really fun award at the end but in order to go to it you had to complete what the other class was doing. Really, this was fair because all of the students there at the time were taking both classes but my brother and me, so instead of having two separate but equal rewards, they just had one big one. But it wouldn't have been fair if my brother and I got off with less work so we also had to do the work in the other class. At the time, to me it seemed unfair. I was given the opportunity to do the work and be able to go but decided not to do it. Actually, I thought the reward would be boring. It was something my group called Space Camp and it lasted about six hours. But when everyone got back and told me what it really was, a fun simulation with acting and a storyline, I really regretted my decision. I learned a valuable lesson about hard work and finishing what I started. This was two years ago.

This last school year was even harder than the first. I stuck through with almost all of it. I learned TONS. I learned incredible amounts about the subjects I was studying because I worked hard and kept at it. I also learned TONS about friendship, how to be happy all the time, how to begin lasting friendships, and how to BE a good friend. I loved it! I learned a pretty similar lesson this last year, too. We had tons more to do this year than the year before. I had a whole lot of homework piled up on me and it was hard to keep up. So again, I made the mistake of not finishing a class. The choir class I was taking was great but it was starting to stress me out with all my other work AND singing. They had choir at the end of the day, too, so by the time it started, people were either hyper-tired, tired, or exhausted. The people that were hyper-tired were also disruptive, which didn't help. It wore out my voice, once almost to the point where I couldn't talk, and by the end of the first semester I was pretty tired of it. So I quit. At the very end of the school year, they had their last performance. As I listened and watched, I was so inspired. I even knew a couple songs and wanted to sing along. I really, really wanted to be a part of the inspiration that I knew was being spread onto the audience. I'll never forget that.

This year, I won't make the same mistake of quitting half-way through. I'll be doing almost the same thing this year for homeschooling but it will be more advanced, I will be taking even more classes, and I will also be taking more classes online. I am so excited to learn and grow as I educate myself this year! I can't wait to inspire, to be inspired, to gain more confidence, to make new friends, to help others, and to be an influence for good.

I love my Savior. I know He loves me. I know that Christ and Heavenly Father live and that They and the Holy Ghost make up the Godhead. I know that if we are faithful and diligent and strive daily to keep the commandments that we will be able to make it to the Celestial Kingdom and live with Heavenly Father and our loved ones again. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith translated it so that we could read it and that he restored the gospel so that we could know of it and have it today. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that President Monson is our prophet today. I have a living, growing testimony for education. I have a living, growing testimony for all of these things. I hope someone got something out of this or was inspired today.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Congrats to any who read the whole thing.  :)  And thanks.  I can't wait to see all of you readers again.  I hope you all know that I love you!  :D

A. J. McKay