On the Job Hunt

Some really good advice I got the other day from a friend of mine when looking for a job is to look on the Marriott School website and find Alumni who are currently working at the company I'm interested in. Their email addresses are listed and you can contact them to get an idea about the company, and potentially for them to even recommend you. The same advice was given yesterday in class by Mrs. Fueston. Definitely something to keep in mind while looking for jobs and internships.

Other good ideas for looking for jobs are BYU Bridge, LDSjobs.com, LinkedIn, and networking.

To be honest, I thought the mission could be really stressful and school could be really stressful, but job hunting I think beats them both. It's like you're racing against everyone else trying to get a job before you. The job you find can affect the rest of your life. My wife had the awesome idea of fasting this week, so we're going to try that out. I know Heavenly Father is mindful of me and my family at this time and I also have faith that as long as I do my part and diligently search, I'll find what's right for me.

Cosmic Space Dust Lazers

Saturday we had planned on taking my wife's little brother up to Rock Canyon to do a multi-pitch climb, since he doesn't have a ton of experience climbing outdoors. Unfortunately he wasn't able to make it, but we did invite a couple who we regularly climb with. The four of us went up to a climb we have been planning to do for a while, called Cosmic Space Dust Lazers. Our couple friends went first and we followed close behind. It goes up about 300 feet in three pitches. I lead the first and third pitch, meaning my wife lead the second pitch. She was very brave as the pitch on a lead had several moments where a fall would have been rather dangerous. Of course she is always tied in and I can stop her fall eventually, but if there is a lot of distance between bolts, you can fall quite a ways before the rope catches. Even more important is how "clean" the fall would be. If you would just fall into the air, there's nothing to be afraid of. If there are jagged rocks in your way before the rope catches you, you might get pretty banged up along the way.

At one point, her next bolt was in an awkward position. She noticed that there was a crack leading up to the right of the wall the bolts were on. Deciding that this might be the easier way, she went up the crack. She then discovered that she didn't have a way to get back onto the wall with the bolts. Leaning around the corner, she also discovered that her next bolt was below her current position. This meant that she was well above the last place she had clipped in. I suggested down-climbing and going up the right way. She said it was too sketchy from where she was to try to go back down. A fall at this point could have injured her. She became nervous. I felt rather helpless as I couldn't see where she was from my belay station, and since I had to hold the other end of her rope, I had no way of going to help her. She said a small prayer to herself, and bravely worked her way around the corner back onto the main wall, and carefully managed to get herself clipped into the next bolt, bringing her back out of danger of falling.

After this experience, she told me how this could relate to life experiences. It might look easier to go off the designated path, but if you do, you may find that it's much more difficult to get back on the path than it would have been to stay on it in the first place. You're lucky if you manage to do so without getting hurt.

I'll certainly keep this in mind both in life and in rock climbing.

In the end, this was an incredibly fun climb. We had sandwiches at the top like we enjoy doing, we got to spend time with friends on a cliff 300 feet in the air, and then we rappelled all 300 feet back down to the bottom.

General Conference

This week I didn't have any crazy stories about climbing. Mostly because today we stayed home and watched Conference instead. So today I'm going to talk about my favorite speaker, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. He gave an excellent talk today in the second session of General Conference. It seems like every conference, he blows me away with his testimony. Today his talk was about helping the poor. I certainly need to repent in this aspect. My wife on the other hand knows people who are struggling financially and she's been actively trying to get our family to pool together to help them out. I appreciate the example she's setting for me. I especially appreciated the scripture that was quoted from Isaiah 58:


6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

I had never before considered that fasting to the ancient world would have been so similar to fasting in the restored Church, that you would choose not to eat bread and give it to the poor instead, going hungry and donating what you would have eaten. I'm a typical poor college student. I appreciate the help I've received from my family and friends during this time, and I hope that one day when I have a real job, I'll be able to provide assistance in the same way that other's have helped me.