Media thoughts from my Husband

Recently my husband was asked to write a message for our ward newsletter. Seeing how he did such a good job talking about the media, I decided to copy an excerpt from what he wrote:

In our digital world, it has become so easy to get distracted and dull our senses. I might remind you what Elder Bednar said in 2010: "Please be careful of becoming so immersed and engrossed in pixels, texting, earbuds, twittering, online social networking, and potentially addictive uses of media and the Internet that you fail to recognize the importance of your physical body and miss the richness of person-to-person communication."


Related to and more recently, President Uchtdorf stated last October: "I believe that we are not headed in the right direction, individually and as a society, when we connect with family or friends mostly by reposting humorous pictures, forwarding trivial things, or linking our loved ones to sites on the Internet… Let us resolve to cherish those we love by spending meaningful time with them, doing things together, and cultivating treasured memories."


I might add that this includes our ward family. What could our ward become if we made personal visits instead of likes on Facebook? As we limit our consumption of media and turn off our electronic devices, we immediately become more available for spiritual promptings, promptings which are nearly impossible to hear while "plugged in". My hope is that these promptings will include things to say or do for others in our ward.

I am not asking that we all become best friends with one another, no, let those friendships happen naturally. What I am asking though is that we all become better acquainted with one another and more involved in each other’s lives.


Too often we leave the worries and problems in the ward to the relief society or the home teachers. Who needs a friend? Some food? Some furniture? If we could all be more proactive in discerning one another's needs and not waiting until a leader approached us, our ward will become a cherished memory in our minds and a Zion for all of us.

The Christmas Spirit

Music and images can be very powerful mediums that can touch the soul. Today I watched this short video about Christ, with music done by The Piano Guys. It really touched my heart and reminded me of the love I have for the Savior and how grateful I am for his life, works, atonement, and personal care for me.

Here's the link to the video. It brought the Christmas spirit into my heart, and I hope it may do the same for you.

Green Movies

The other day I watched the movie Furngully. I had not seen that movie since I was a little girl. And then a few days later we rented a movie called Big Miracle. Then I got to thinking about some other kids movies I've seen that are similar in a way...The Lorax (by Dr. Suess) and Pocahontas. What do these movies have in common? Well, they all have messages about being animal and environmentally friendly. I wont lie, watching these movies do influence me to be kind to animals, the environment and living things. I do feel these are good messages for children to learn so I'm glad that there are movies with these themes.

Furngully is about these fairies that live in a beautiful forest, but then human come to chop down the trees and pollution (the main enemy) begins taking over to destroy everything. I the message that everyone has the ability to make things grow. Big Miracle is about 3 grey whales that are trapped in the ice in Alaska and the efforts to free them (although most efforts by various people/organizations are doing it for PR and ultimately money). Some of the peoples hearts change as they begin to realize the helping others (including the whales) isn't about fame and money, but about helping those in need. The Lorax sends the message that we need to be wise about natural resources and that if we just use and take without giving back, that we'll destroy the environment and resources. We need to be wise stewards of the earth, take care of the resources we've been given, and give back after we take so that the environment can be sustainable.

So what is the point of this blog post? Movies, even kid movies, can help us think about important values and issues. Lets be nice to the animals and the environment!

Little Shop of Horrors

The other week my husband and I went to see a musical at BYU called Little Shop of Horrors. I had never seen the movie and quite frankly had no idea what to expect. The BYU production was actually really good, and the actors did a fabulous job. Basically the play was about a strange plant (Audrey II) in a flower shop that brings a lot of popularity to the store and brings people fortune...but the twist is the plant is a man eating plant. The character, Seymour, who nurtures the plant, get's swayed into feeding the plant (committing murders) because the plant helps Seymour to become famous, get the girl, etc, but in the end Seymour loses everything. This musical got me thinking about what messages are being portrayed. Although I can't say there are any good role models in the play, I feel the overall message is an important one to consider. Basically, if you give in to greed, pride, appetite of never satisfying wants, etc (everything Audrey II represents), then you will get gain at first, but ultimately these addictions and need for gain will end up hurting those you love and ultimately destroying yourself.

I think when considering media you need to think no only about the content of what is being portrayed but also the messages. At first I didn't like Little Shop of Horrors because there were no good role models and no positive moral values. But after I thought about the underlying message, I began to see why this play is good because it makes you think about human nature, warns about giving into temptations, and shows the true consequences of your actions. It's too bad BYU is done presenting this musical, because I would recommend it.

Black Friday

Thanksgiving is coming up and I'm pretty excited for the break from school! Now I must say that I'm not from the US, and so there a number of holidays and such that I didn't grow up with. One of those is Black Friday. Last year I was kind of curious about this whole Black Friday deal, and I saw an add for a fake Christmas tree for $20 that I really wanted. So I decided to venture out that day to get my Christmas tree. Wow, was it crazy at the store! It took hours at the store even though I only bought ONE thing. Today my husband was telling me about Cyber Monday and I really think it's such a brilliant idea. I guess if I decide I really want to get some Christmas ornaments this year for really cheap, then I'll just stay in the comfort of my home and order them online, haha.

Wedding reception live stream

A good friend of mine got married the other week. Unfortunately, he got married in Canada and I was not able to attend...in person. For the past 6 months, my friend sent invites through facebook, had continual wedding plan updates posted, and informed everyone who wouldn't be able to make it that they could watch a live stream of the reception. So when the day of the wedding arrived, I decided to be supportive and I watched a little bit of the live streaming of the reception. Oddly enough, I saw my brother at the reception and he caught the garter. It was kind of fun to virtually be there when I couldn't be there in person, but at the same time it was sad that I couldn't interact with anyone in person.

Facebook does not want you to leave

Ok, so I deactivated my facebook account the other day and I'm please to say I don't miss it! It's actually kind of a relief to not have the temptation to waste time on there, especially when I have homework to do. 

However, I found it really interested the process of deactivating facebook. First off, it's impossible to delete facebook for good (as far as I can tell), you can only deactivate it. Second, when you finally find where to deactivate your account, facebook provides all these means to try to convince you not deactivate your account. Let me elaborate. 

When you click on "deactivate my account", a number of your facebook friends appears with this above their pictures "David will miss you" "Ann will miss you" "Cody will miss you"...."are you sure you want to deactivate you account?" If that doesn't dissuade you, then you continue on to click a reason of why you want to deactivate your account. When you click on one of the reasons, a little response appears to give you a solution. Here are just a few examples: 

Reason:"I get too many emails, invitations, and requests from Facebook"

Response: "You can control what email you receive from us here".

Reason: "I don't find Facebook useful."

Response: "You may find Facebook more useful by connecting with more of your friends. Check out our Friend Finder to see who you know on the site. Also, check out the Help Center to get an overview and tips on using Facebook."

Reason: "I spend too much time using Facebook."

Response: "One way to control your interaction with Facebook is to limit the number of emails you receive from us. You can control what emails you receive here"

So this is the conclusion I have come to: Facebook does not want you to leave!!!