ASU will be getting a letter......

I don't know how many of you Sun Devils read "The State Press" - ASU's school newspaper, but Jon picked one up the other day, when he had nothing else to read on the bus. He came home and immediately told me that I needed to read a few of the articles, because there are 3 offensive articles and a horrible comic strip and he couldn't believe somebody wrote it, let alone got it published!!

The first article is called "Missionary works double sided" and it is written by Austin Yost.

Yost apparently believes that missionaries do not deserve the respect, honor or admiration we give them because they have alternative motives. He claims that missionaries (from any church) only perform acts of service for two reasons: 1) to "sell" their religious subscription and 2) because they want to impress God.

"Missionaries seem to think they have a special relationship with god, such that they feel as though it is their responsibility to dedicate part of their lives to helping people. I find the good work they do commendable, but cannot avoid taking issue with the intent on which many of them act, as explicitly declared by many people and organizations that promote and engage missionary work." Yost says.

He goes on to quote Elder Dallin H. Oaks when he said, "We do missionary work in order to baptize and confirm". He also quotes the New Tribes Mission who said, "NTM exists to ... evangelize unreached people groups, translate the scriptures, and see indigenous churches established that glorify God".

He goes on to say, "In other words, many missionaries are not doing good deeds for the sake of doing good deeds. They are not helping people for the sake of helping people. Rather, their specific intent is to spread the words of the holy book they subscribe to because it is what they think their god demands of them [...] This realization makes the good things many missionaries do seem less convincing, less sincere and less worthy of praise."

This lends itself to his next point. He asks you to compare the way missionaries act to the work place. "Consider an example. Suppose two people work for a company. The first employee says she is going going to volunteer because she wants to help other people. The second employee says that he is going to volunteer because the boss asked him to help unemployed people by giving them a job. Because he wants to please the boss, he complies with the request and does not take into consideration whether unemployed people he finds were even looking for work [...] Many people would think higher of the first employee because her motives seem to be significantly more sincere than those of her counterpart."

He concludes by saying, "When people commit the fatal error of ignoring the intentions behind actions, it allows them to reach the sometimes unjustified conclusion that missionaries should be honored, admired or respected."

Now, I don't care what religion you "subscribe" to, this is one of the most offensive articles I have ever read - and for it to be in the University's newspaper really makes me uncomfortable.

The point that Yost fails to realize is that missionaries serve people and help people, not because they want to "impress" God, but instead because they love Him and his children. They believe that by sharing their message of the Bible and of Heavenly Father, they are providing a service in itself.

I can only speak for missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because I am most familiar with them, but I know they they are doing good deeds because they realize that every person is their brother and sister and they want to bring them the peace and happiness and love they feel.

I don't know where this guy came from, but I think this is an extremely one-sided and extremely offensive article.

Another article is called "Introducing loaded guns into Grand Canyon an abysmal idea" that ends up not really talking about how guns in the Grand Canyon would be bad, but instead how guns are bad all together. Whether you are pro-2nd amendment or not, the author, Kartik Talamadupula, will surprise you with his lack of research, his one-sided argument, and his poor writing.

Finally, the last offensive article is called "Extreme evangelists pose threat" where Max Feldhake is trying to make explain why Extreme Evangelists are very dangerous, but he ends up talking about regular Christianity. He tries to make is seem as though Christians are worse than other radical groups - his first paragraph says, "A shadow looms large over America and what's more, the world. It is neither radical jihadist or Islamic movements, nor neo-Nazism or neo-Fascism, but rather extreme evangelical Christianity."

I can't believe this guy!!

So, by the time I get to the comics in this newspaper, I am certainly ready for some fun - but then I see a comic strip that I simply could not believe!!

It is called "Blah" and here is how it goes....

Square One:

Character 1: (punching Character 2 in the face) Knock! Knock! Anyone Home??

Square Two:

Character 2: What the hell?! What was that for??

Character 1: Ha Ha D'you know how they say like the eyes are doors to the soul?

Square Three:

Character 2: (With a very angry face and holding Character 1 by the shirt) They also say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Character 1: (smiling) ha ha, yeah? I heard that one bef.....

Square Four:

Character 1 is on the ground with a knife pointing out of his stomach with a puddle of blood.

Ha ha - that's super funny right? WRONG!!! It is probably the most disturbing thing I have ever seen!!! Add to it the fact that the author's name is Qa'ed Tung and I am officially freaked out!!!

All I have to say is, who is the editor of this thing?? Who is the staff advisor who allows this crap to be distributed to the student body of ASU and why doesn't the student body ban together and demand that these people can no longer write!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, all I can say is that Jon and I will be writing a letter to let people know exactly what we feel about this issue of "The State Press".

New Niece!! Baby News!!

Last night at 11:45pm Lon and Kimbalie welcomed their first baby into the world! Emerie Saline weighed 7lbs 5.8oz and was 21 inches long. I haven't had a chance to go see the baby yet (it was almost midnight when they had her, and unfortunately, I am stuck at work until 4), but I am sure she is absolutely beautiful and Jon and I are so excited to have our first niece!!!!

We have another niece on the way - Jon's sister Shaunalee and her husband Beau are expecting their 3rd child, but first girl the beginning of April!

So many babies!! I just love them!!!!

Congratulations Lon and Kimbalie!!!!!!

Malori Reviews All Sorts of Stuff - Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games, The Bachelor, Southern Cookin'

Let's start of with "Percy Jackson and the Olympians - The Lightening Thief" - the movie and the book.... I read all of the books and love, love, LOVED them all to pieces! Percy Jackson is such a likable character and you truly want him to succeed and be a hero. You really love Annabeth and the relationship she has with Percy is so cute and fun to witness. Grover is so fun and always doing funny things! Camp Half-Blood is a fun place where everyone wears bright orange t-shirts and train and fight and hang out and just have fun together. It is fun and magical and exciting! I certainly suggest you read the books.

Now, when I heard they were making a movie, I was naturally out-of-my-mind excited! You know how it is when you love a book so much and they make it into a movie. So sweet Jon took me to see it - and during the first scene, I was already a little bit sad. Now, I understand that you can't make a movie exactly like the book because books are much longer and sometimes things happen that are hard to show on film, but there were so many details, so many small little things that would have taken zero time and zero budget to make it more accurate! (ie: in the book, all of the food and snacks Percy's mom makes are dyed blue with food coloring - read the book to find out why - well in the movie, Percy is in the apartment and he pours a glass of lemonade...that was yellow!! A few drips of food coloring and a stir and it would have been perfect, but nobody thought to add that small detail that would have cost less than a dollar).

Still, if you haven't read the books, you will think it is a good movie.

So, watch the movie and then read the books and you will be very happy. Either way, you love the characters and the story.

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Speaking of incredible books, "The Hunger Games" is one I simply could not put down! It was very bad, I couldn't get anything done because I couldn't stop reading!!! Now, it isn't what I would call a "super happy" book, but it is very suspenseful and you grow to deeply care about the characters and the unfortunate situation they find themselves in.

You see, Katniss, the main character, lives is a sort-of futuristic world that has been overthrown by the government. The continent has been divided into 12 Districts - each with a certain trade (ie: District 12, where Katniss is from, is the mining district) and each is under the control of the Capitol. The way for the Capitol to continuously show their authority and to keep the Districts from having an uprising, is with The Hunger Games. All of the kids in the District, ages 12-18 have to put their names in a bowl. One boy and one girl are chosen from the bowls to be the "tributes" and compete in the games.

They are put in an arena - a dense forest, a desert, a jungle - with all of the other tributes from the other districts and their objective is to be the last one alive.

Are you already intrigued? I don't do a great job of describing it, but seriously - it is so great!!

The only bad thing about this book is that there are only 2 out right now. There are going to be more, and the second one certainly lends itself to the 3rd book and I am going crazy waiting for it to come out!!!! So you might want to wait until more of them are out before you start reading this book.....but you must, must, MUST, read it!!!!!!!! There is no choice!!!!

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Alright, this season of "The Bachelor" has been very entertaining. Jake came from the last season of "The Bachelorette" and he is very determined to find the woman of his dreams. He is determined to cut the crap and find his future wife. He has surprised the producers and Chris (the host) by cutting girls early, asking to not give out all of the roses because he knew that more than one girl were not right for him.

Then there was the drama with Roselyn who slept with one of the staff of the show and was asked by the producers to leave.

Not to mention all of the drama with Ally leaving because of her job and then wanting to come back, and Vienna talking crap behind the girls' backs, and this season has been a fun one!!!

Now we are down to 2 girls: Vienna and Tenley......
Here is a picture of Tenley - my favorite from the start. Sure she has had a rocky past (she was married before and the stupid guy cheated on her...even though she is gorgeous!) but she is so genuine and she is so perfect for Jake. She has strong morals (she was a virgin until her wedding night) and she is ready to be in a solid marriage and have children and live happily ever after. She is so cute and their personalities match so well!! The problem is that Jake feels like there isn't as much "physical chemistry" between them - but how can there be when you have a floozie like Vienna around......
Here is Vienna - the most fake and two-faced girl this season. I don't really understand why she is still around, other than that Jake wants to spend time with the "bad girl" type that he would never date in the real world before he settles down and starts a family.

He says that he is really into her, but he also says he is really into Tenley (of course he is supposed to say that) but I don't know how he can possibly want to spend the rest of his life with her............

Drama, Drama!!! I can't help myself - "The Bachelor" is without a doubt my little guilty pleaure...

If you are interested in seeing who is going to win Jake's heart, tune in to ABC at 7pm next Monday! You can bet I will be plopped down on my couch intently tuning in!!

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This weekend we took a very quick trip to Snowflake because Sister Shirley Salisbury from my parent's ward invited my family to dinner, and specifically asked for us.

Now, this normally wouldn't warrant an entire trip clear up to Snowflake, but her dinners are infamous, and for good reason!

We show up and the entire house smelled great!!! She had invited the missionaries and few other people from my parent's ward, so we listened to a nice message from the missionaries while we waited for dinner to be finished.

Finally it was time to see what we had been smelling - and I have never seen so many different main courses at a single house party before!!!

She had made fried chicken and mashed potatoes and pork tenderloin and barbecue beef and shrimp and noodles with a great sauce, and homemade baked beans, and a casserole thing and green beans and deviled eggs and an entire veggie platter and more!!! And it was all soooo tastey!!!! I was stuffed to the brim with such fantastic food, and then it was time for dessert!! She had made like 4 different pies and a chocolate parfait kind of thing and it was all amazing! I had never seen so much food cooked for one dinner party, and Sister Salisbury certainly has an amazing talent for cooking! The sad thing is that she is allergic to gluten, so she couldn't even eat most of what she had made, but she says that that doesn't stop her from cooking and having a great time entertaining and inviting people over, which is her favorite thing in the world to do.

Well, it was a great night with great food - certainly worth the trip!

So the moral of the story is, if you are invited to have dinner at Sister Salisbury's house, you do whatever you can to make sure you can make it!!!

Thank you Sister Salisbury!!

My Sweet Husband

A couple of weeks ago, we were sitting in church and I noticed a pure white hair sticking straight out of Jon's head. I tried to smooth it down, but with no luck. So, I tried to very nonchalantly pluck it from his head (it turns out, the best place to pull hairs out of your husband's head is at church because they can't scream).

When I showed it to him, he immediately said, "Whoa that is crazy - do you have a bag we can put it in?"

I looked at him like he must be crazy - who wants to keep their "first white hair" - but any of you who know Jon, know that he was not kidding. I searched in my purse and all I had was this box:

and this is the white hair....pretty long huh??
This white hair is certainly hard-earned. Jon is one of the hardest workers I have ever known.

This semester certainly proves this. Not only is Jon taking his regular 13 credit hours of law classes (these are not just "show up and get an 'A' classes - all of his professors function as though the student is only taking their class and is doing nothing else, so they must have all of the time in the world for homework), he is also one of 10 students chosen to take a free bar prep course. This is a really great blessing except that the class requires just as much work as any other class. He is also doing an internship with the Attorney General's office, and this requires he take a class a the law school to "discuss it". He is also part of the Moot Court board and is in charge of running an entire competition by himself. Now, if this wasn't enough he is also working on a video and a web site for the law school to earn pro-bono credit, and he is working at ASU's school of business to earn some extra money for us. He also magnifies his church calling - never missing a month of hometeaching and dropping everything he is doing if someone in the ward or family needs his help.

All of this on top of being married to me (which is a full time job) and my sweet husband deserves a white hair. No wonder he wants to keep it in a box for a little while!!

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the work that he does. I know that he is doing it for me and for our future family. It takes a toll on him - he doesn't get a lot of down time, and sometimes he doesn't sleep much. He misses family things and he misses spending time with me. He sacrifices so much in order to succeed so he can get a good job and take care of his family and I love and admire him so much for that.

I am so proud of him! Only one more semester to go!!!! YAY!!!

I love you Jon!