Things I've Done at BYU This Week

(not in this order)
1) Learned to dance from the man's position for my Folk Dance class; if that doesn't mess with your brain, nothing will.
2) Got asked on my first date! Yay!!!!!! :D
3) Found out that my Anthropology 101 professor's British accent is fake: he studied at Oxford and likes to be a bit pretentious. ;D

4) Discovered that I love Texans: they make me smile (you know who you are).

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  Found out why Austin is different, why my one friend will wear a pink cowgirl hat for a week, and to never, EVER take the rivalry between UT and A&M lightly.


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  I also learned that Texans really DO get upset if you remind them that, should Alaska split, Texas would be the 3rd largest state in the Union.

5) Got a temple recomend!!!
6) Came to the sad conclusion that the Canon Center will make me fat.
7) Found myself wishing I could major in Book of Mormon.
8) Went to a birthday party, watched How to Train Your Dragon and Emperor's New Groove, and ate triple chocolate cake prepared by the birthday boy himself. Yum!
9) Went to the BYU carnival and stayed up until 3Am with some friends...talking...finally, when we were so tired we couldn't stand up straight and the temperature had dropped 20 degrees, we decided to go back to the dorms. :)
10) Went to my first BYU devotional. :)

If you want me to expound upon any of these subjects (that reminds me...just a minute), post a reply and I'll see what I can come up with. :)
What that reminded me of: Professor Merril, by BoM (Book of Mormon) professor, showed us all the Hebraisms that characterize the BoM as a Hebrew text: not an english one.

• And it came to pass (everywhere)


• "...and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things" (1 Nephi 2:4)


• "....I have dreamed a dream" (1 Nephi 3:2)


• "...river of water" (1 Nephi 2:6) "...alter of stones" (1 Nephi 2:7)


• "...like unto this valley, firm and steadfast" (1 Nephi 2:10)

See, the 'river of water' tells us that the river ran continuously there: it wasn't a dry riverbed, that only flowed some of the time. This narrows down their location. The 'alter of stones,' rather than 'stone alter,' is similar to Spanish or French or what have you, where you have to say 'house of mine' or 'horse of Billy.'

The reason Lehi is wishing his son to be like a valley is actually really obvious, if you know the topography of Israel. The mountains are DEAD. It's the opposite of Utah, in that the valley's have life and the mountains...don't. You wouldn't wish an absence of life and fertility and suchlike on your child (I hope).

The thing is, one of the devotional speakers spent five minutes talking about how crazy similar Israel and Utah are...which is really interesting (there's a National Geographic article on it), but a story for another day. :)

...wow, tangent. Anyway, I hope y'all are doin' well! Please reply, at least to tell me you're out there! (and that's my desperate fanfiction-author side coming out...)