This is Mary Li, April Lin, and Ethan Parker. Today was April’s first day in the United States.
Don’t worry, she actually smiles a lot and we had a great time today. Culture thing in pictures. She’s now a 20 yr old Sophomore at BYU and not Mormon. My friend Mary volunteers with the international office on campus and asked me if I would drive them around today to get some things done. We got groceries, a student ID, a laptop, a pillow and some other stuff. She looked very lost in the grocery store. Poor girl said something like “all this food is so American, I don’t know what to get” in Mandarin to Mary.
Mary was in her same position 2 years ago and now speaks excellent English as a very active Latter-day Saint. Great experience!
Eric and I are doing orientation at BYU. We are the group leaders for a list of about 30 freshman and are very excited to help them out. We both love BYU, this place is very unique. BYU is known for being inexpensive and to many it may seem like they are stingy with scholarships. What most people don’t know is that the LDS church subsidizes each student’s tuition to the tune of about 70% with tithing funds from the church (that’s volunteer donations given to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and BYU’s Provo campus is the third largest recipient of tithing funds of anything in the church. #1-Temples and meetinghouses, #2-Missionary Work, #3-BYU.
We had training today, good times. We found some interesting name tag fun:
If you haven’t heard that name yet, you’ve missed out on one of the world’s truly great people right here in Provo. Today is her 88th birthday and she’s as spry as ever and full of songs and jokes. Yesterday I went to visit and take out the news paper recycling and we sat down and talked for a bit. I feel lucky to know her. Here is how we met:
September 13, 2006 my dad and I drove my 1986 VW Jetta from Ventura, CA to Kaysville, UT. It was a gift from my dad’s cousin in Valencia marking the end of my LDS mission. The next day I started classes at BYU. I was still getting used to Provo and had no idea where anything was so I used to drive to class and park in nearby neighborhoods. One rainy day I was headed back to my car when I saw a nice lady walking in the rain with an umbrella. I said “Hi, how are you?” -she looked excited and walked up to me with a reply “Did you say hi, Janie?!?!”. I’m sure I looked a little confused while shaking my head.
I asked her where she was going in that kind of weather and she mentioned that she was headed downtown to pick up some typewriter ribbon. I offered a ride and off we went. I didn’t know they still made typewriter ribbon! She was so kind and honest in the way she spoke.
After we got there she said I didn’t have to wait for her and that I could just go back home. I was going to take her up on the offer, but thought that just wouldn’t be right. Rain, she’s old, I guess my conscience wouldn’t let me. When I was about to drop her off she offered to have me over for dinner that Sunday. I accepted. From then on we had a deal where I would do some yard work or chores around their house and they would feed me. She lives with her sister and brother-in-law and a grand-niece. She also offered to give me two tickets to the Homecoming Spectacular at BYU in a couple weeks. I thought that was cool, and it was if you’ve never been.
That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Corny phrase, yes. Janie has made my experience at BYU something totally different and special. I really feel like I am a part of something great because I know Janie and have heard all of her amazing stories about how she started the Young Ambassadors, performed with Tony Bennet, founded Lamanite Generation (now Living Legends), did over 2000 shows in her career and jammed with Glenn Miller overseas in WWII. She also served on the Young Women’s General Board for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 16 years.
Janie’s testimony is rock solid, too. She really has helped me stay on the right path since I have been home from my mission. Being accountable to her makes me live at a standard much higher than normal.
Last summe the city of Provo asked Janie to to a musical she wrote about 20 years ago called “We the People” and I got to be in it. It was also part of a documentary BYU recently did on Janie’s life entitled “Performance of Faith” that has been on KBYU a few times. The picture below is of Janie and I last summer. I hope she doesn’t mind (but probably won’t ever see it!) I have embedded a video of a song she performed at the closing banquet for the BYU football team from the 2006 season. It’s just an example of the hundreds if not thousands of great and super cheerful songs she has written over the years. This was a special serenade just for me in her living room, I wasn’t invited to the football thing.
If you’ve ever heard me talk about her or met her, that probably means we are really good friends. Read about her if ya like:
Today my talented business partner Benjie got married. Big day! It was in the Salt Lake Temple.
The reception was amazing: #1-not in a basketball court of an LDS church #2-sweet-action honey BBQ chicken skewers, ohhhhh yeah #3-dancing and no “line” where the poor bride and groom have to stand there painfully greeting people for like 2 hours #4-rock on with the roof-garden venue at Noah’s in Lindon! #5-character-drawing artists!!! yeah!! Best reception ever.
The music was fabulous, they had Tony Bennet, Michael Buble and others. Cotton candy, too!
Here is Eric and I. Naturally I’m whaling on a guitar and Eric is riding a dragon. Not sure if I really look like that, you be the judge.
Oh yeah, I graduated from college, too. Eric and I doing a leap.
I’m ‘o done gra-gee-ate with some kinna edu-kashun this week!
Pretty exciting! Finally the quest for a bachelor’s degree is over at barely the age of 24. O happy day. It started with a year at Arizona State followed by three more at Brigham Young University. It began with Industrial Design and ended with Accounting. It commenced with me wanting to make cool products and lots of money, it ended with a man wanting to make a real difference for good to as many people as possible . . . . . uh . . . . and lots of money.
BYU’s accounting program is fabulous because of the people in it, not just the reputation. It’s known all across the business world as being # 1 or #2, but also for having hard-working graduates with real integrity. Visionary professors and administrators have worked for two decades to make the program what it is today. It’s Dean, Kevin Stocks, was just named the President of the AICPA, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is a good man and gave a devotional at BYU.
I must say that it’s tempting to say that any man can be “self-made” and “make it” in this world. It’s true, any man or woman with a brain and a will can make a living, even a great one, and survive. I am now realizing how much I value education. When I spoke to the Micro Business group a few weeks ago it dawned on me that the major reason for any career success of mine is surely the wonderful people I met on college campuses. It’s not the name or the degrees that matter, but the compassionate intellectuals that swarm this country’s universities. You have to seek out and find them, but they are there.
I met my business partner, Benjie, in the junior year of our accounting degree. He has totally changed the potential and future of Parker Planners.
Conclusion: School rocks! Obtain the best schooling available, because you’ll meet great people there! Get good grades for the simple purpose of being able to surround yourself with tomorrow’s Edisons, Carnegies, Luther Kings, and Lincolns!
Well, although there were no known Kates present at this event, there were three guys wearing the exact same thing! Eric was one of them. He’s the one in focus. The other guys randomly coming out blurry might mean they are being erased from history at some past day.
This is probably my 9th time ice skating in my life and by the end of it I came a lot closer to being able to do the hockey stop thing. Takes some time to get used to. You have to keep your skate exactly upright or you chatter and fall. I didn’t fall today! Whoo!
Eric and I are pretty much going pro like next week.
This is Gill, he lives in our front room. He is a bearded dragon and eats some plant and animal material. He is very patient and even does tricks. We call this one “put some pieces of spinach on his head because he pretty much sits there and does nothing all day”. I hope you like it as much as we do!
Mike and I played soccer in the Indoor Practice Facility today. It’s supposedly the largest one in the United States for any college. It’s got this cool rubber grass and dirt and feels grea to run on, but not to fall on.
And this is why. Call me an NRA Planet of the Apes right-wing nut job Charlton Heston gun-raiser, but le ‘ol 2nd amendment is mighty fine with me. Why change or abolish it?
In what other country can you worship as you please and go shoot something afterward? In church last Sunday a young man from Switzerland bore a powerful testimony about America. He did wonderfully in reminding all of us how great this nation is.
This is the last time I’ll tell you; stop stealing mai fun when we go to the grocery store! With sun luck, you’ll get caught and your clepto-habits will droop like the setting sun.
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