A New Uniform

Well, after serving my country for the past two years (those pictures in my last post are a little old), I've decided it's time for me to serve my brothers and sisters here on earth in a different way. Yep, I'm going on a mission! I just turned my papers in and am so so excited!

It's kind of funny because if you asked me for my plans only two months ago I would have told you that I just don't know and a mission might still be in my future but that I wasn't sure. Now I have no greater desire than to go out and help others. It is so wonderful for me to have experienced this change in my life as I seriously needed it.

I always felt like I should respect others. I always did my best to be a friend to everyone I met because that's what I believed I should do for other people. My view of other people is not quite the same any more. I now see everyone as Sons and Daughters of God. The difference is that my motivation for helping them comes from my love for them as opposed to merely my respect for humanity. Trust me, the difference is incredible and wonderful.

I have also been blessed with a sure knowledge of the gospel. I have been a member all of my life, but I am only a recent convert. There's so much more to tell, but I know I have a tough time reading all the way through some of those longer blogs so I think I might just throw out little bite-size tid-bits of my testimony from now untill I leave. After all, what better way is there to eat an elephant than one bite at a time?

Fun, let's do some more pictures.

Family Day at Basic. See if you can find me (I'm the bald one wearing a beret).

My platoon totally dominated. Look at how those 3 squad leaders are perfecly in step. What's his bucket next to me never could quite get it.

Yeah! That's a tight formation. Too bad no one else likes D&C besides me (Drill & Ceremony).

My Parents.

Back home. A little weird - probably similar to after mission readjustment. Sue met me at the airport with my Mom and my little bro Troy. Seeing Sue definitely made me melt.

My family set up some yellow streamers for me and it felt great to be home.

Basic was a nightmare, but I loved it!

All right, let's do something with this thing . . . how about some pictures:

Ummm . . . did it work?

*Edit: Nope, 2nd try:

Yay! That's my mom and me after I graduated from basic.

Well, today is my 21st 'alf birthday and as a gift to the world I am creating this blog. Thanks go out to the Henrichsen clan for their intrepid use of this system.

For my first entry, I would just like to say that this world rocks! Despite all the problems, it is still a prety cool place to be and I'm grateful for the blessing that life is.