Happy Fathers Day.

Dear Dad,

I'm really sorry for missing fathers day two years in a row. I hope this letter will make up for it. Its hard for me not to be there. I am your little girl and I love you oh so very much. This post might be extremely long but its worth it. I was reading the book Broken Things to Mend by Jeffrey R. Holland and on the section about fathers this poem is there.

Only a dad, with a tired face,

Coming home from the daily race,

Bringing little of gold or fame,

To show how well he has played the game,

But glad in his heart that his own rejoice

To see him come, and to hear his voice.

Only a dad, with a brood of four,

One of ten million men or more.

Plodding along in the daily strife,

Bearing the whips and the scorns of life,

With never a whimper of pain or hate,

For the sake of those who at home await.

Only a dad, neither rich nor proud,

Merely one of the surging crowd

Toiling, striving from day to day,

Facing whatever may come his way,

Silent, whenever the harsh condemn,

And bearing it all for the love of them.

Only a dad, but he gives his all

To smooth the way for his children small,

Doing, with courage stern and grim,

The deeds that his father did for him.

This is the line that for him I pen,

Only a dad, but the best of men.

Now, what you've taught me about love. You love mom so much and your family so much. Everyday you sacrifice a lot of things just so that we can have the things you want us to have. (sorry if I can't find the right way to put this) The Mormon Message "Love her Mother" (http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#love-her-mother)  is so special to me because you have taught me who to look for in a future husband and who to look for in myself. 

So dad, what I am trying to say is that I love you so much for every little thing you do. I'm a pretty big dork and you accept me for all my sides and weird corks.  I'm so glad that you hold the priesthood. You are a great example for me, our family and many people who see what you do everyday. Its every little girls dream to have a father like you.. my dream came true. 

You'll do great things kid. Love you.

Love, Katie.

Dare to Stand Alone

                      "May we ever be courageous and be prepared to stand for what we believe."

Hello from Nicaragua. I've had a couple experiences where I because of my beliefs and my standards have had to stand alone. I've made it a importance to have my computer with me every movie night when we pick out movies. One night, 3 out of the 12 movies that were picked were not rated R. I sat there thinking to myself, If it is R then I can go do something else. Its no big deal. I've made my standards known to the people around me. One of the volunteers turned to me and asked, "Which movies can you watch?" I stopped for a second and was puzzled, I then quickly told which ones and we voted and the movie we watched was not R and it won by one point. I didn't stand alone but was lucky enough to have someone not of my faith stand with me.

The moral of the story is.. make it known of who you are and never waiver. Dare to stand alone.
"Dare to be a Mormon; Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm; Dare to make it known."
Dare to do great things.

President Monson gave a talk the priesthood session of the October 2011 conference. If you haven't read this talk I would urge you to do so. Its amazing. He says, "May we ever be courageous and prepared to stand for what we believe, and if we must stand alone in the process, may we do so courageously, strengthened by the knowledge that in reality we are never alone when we stand with our Father in Heaven."
These last few posts have been really religious but no matter what you believe you should always dare to stand alone. Dare to do great things. Be a source of good in a world where bad is on every headline.

Mormon Message: http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#dare-to-stand-alone
Talk: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/dare-to-stand-alone?lang=eng&query=dare+stand+alone