At toast masters, I was assigned topic master and asked attendees this question: What advice would you give the people of America today.

• The best kind of meal is a buffet. Meat, sausage, casserole, drinks, a repertoire of experiences is the most appealing aspect.  People come from around the world to the United States. Get the aroma of different cultures and flavors, people that invent things from around the world. There are a lot of wonderful inventions from the United States. These creations benefit to world as each person contributes in some way.  I might want to give counsel to see strengths of each other.  If you don’t know why someone does something, you should get to know them.
• what can we do in this country to make it a better place for everybody?  When I was young, live and let live.  Not everyone has to think the same way.  We can be different.  There are lunatics on both ends of political spectrum.  Don’t need to go on streets and panic if he had president he didn’t like.  Stop trying to change everyone’s opinion. Quit worrying about the rich or poor guy and enjoy life.  Think it would be a much more enjoyable place to live.
• Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see”.  She had an interesting experience this week.  School teacher and the speaker said the definition of a hero?  Someone who gives without any expectation of receiving anything in return.  Topic to give counsel on how to be best selves.  I believe to be best we can be and best nation starts with the individual. Taught the 7^thgrade, had a conversation in class about being a hero.  The kids told her that you have to be self-aware and other aware.  If you’re aware of own needs, will understand other people better.  Will make the country better and be the change you want to see.
• The thing I can do to be the best I can be (doing it a year). Don’t blame anyone and don’t make excuses.  If late don’t blame on the alarm clock, phone, or the kids.  Just accept that you’re late.  Don’t blame yourself.  Don’t make excuses.  Don’t say it was someone’s fault.  That’s how I’ve become best I can be and am a lot happier, never disappointed or sad, tell myself every day, don’t’ make excuses or blame other people.  Feel I can be the best I can be and not be so flagrant.
• A few years ago, able to go on a trip to Turkey and loved culture experience.  Listened to call to prayer day and night. Studied and went to different mosques, the guide gave her profound advice that she loved and remembered.  A cultures differences and religions, look for commonalities, and what they do better.  What in her religion could be improved by what someone else is teaching?  Always fascinated by different cultures and as we embrace and learn from each other for moments to be taught and how lives improved from learning from someone else.  Next month hosting Iraqi refugee family for dinner.  Muslims have a terrorist connotation, believe understanding different cultures and where they’re coming from gives us a lesson to learn. lesson to embrace commonalities and support families.  Have religious music playing for a family like she does for her.  She’s excited to learn Iraqi culture.
• I wanted to address a flagrant problem in the nation today.  Toilet paper roll without toilet paper.  In the bathroom, you are at the point of decision and there’s no toilet paper.  Call fellow citizens to rise above proper practice and invite family to be proactive.  Make us great.  If we all take the perspective of seeing little things that need to be done, picking up litter, talking to someone, calling up a friend, have a strong conviction that it will solve the problem of being unattentive to needs around us.
• I want to echo some thoughts already expressed.  I enjoy learning.  I’m passionate about it.  Love to take an hour and talk about how the brain works. There are problems about our education and how it could be so much better.  As we learn about subjects, we become more knowledgeable.  We create a shell around us.  I know this thing.  Don’t know all of it only a little bit.  At some point, shell makes us live a robotic life, brush teeth, go to work, go to sleep.  Need to continuously crack the shell open and learn something, especially about other people.  Lived in a few states and traveled to different countries.  Different people think different things are important.  Things he worries about are trivial in comparison.  How others view life and what they need makes him want to help them.  Develop empathy.  They become your cares and concerns.  Invite each of us to not make flagrant decision to do nothing, but do something and learn something about something or someone.

What advice would you give to the citizens of America? Please give feedback in the comment section of this blog.

I got some good notes in class on repentance. Enjoy.

• Alma 34:31 > plan of redemption.
• Repentance:
• Whatever the cost of sin it is swallowed up in the joy of repentance.
• Repentance leads to forgiveness and lasting peace.
• President Packer: when you repent of your sins you sins are forgotten completely.

Steps:

1. Faith in Lord Jesus Christ. We need to come to him with a repentant heart.

• Satan wants us to believe that when we have sin we can’t go to God for help. God has the power to enable us to overcome sin.
• You have to be an active participation to repentance.

2. We must have sorry for the win.

• If we acknowledge that we have sinned, it will lead to Godly sorrow.
• We need to have a sincere desire to repent and humble ourselves.
• We need to accept the consequences of our sin and path to repentance,

3. Confession

• Proverbs 28:13> he that covereth his sin shall not prosper.
• Kneel in humble prayer and confess our sin and ask how can I fix it.
• Serious sin needs to be confessed to Gad and church author. There may be disciplinary actions.

4. Abandonment of sin.

• DC 58:43 man will confess and forsake sin
• Need to abandon the behavior
• We can associate with people who will help us be better.
• Don’t give up if you slip.
• Need to have a resolution that we will not commit that sin, ever.

5. Restitution

• DC 1:32>he that repents shall be forgiven.
• Never is the soul nobler than when we forgive. This includes forgiving ourselves. May your life print more loudly than your lips? President Urdorf.
• John 14:27> peace give I unto let your heart not be troubled.
• Repentance and Forgiveness:

Do you have something to add? If yes, please do so in the comment section of this blog.

https://www.prageru.com/courses/life-studies/dont-compare-yourself-others

Good: formable

Bad: fornabel

If you follow the proper FORMs of battle you are ABLE to be a formable opponent.

Have a better idea? Please share in the comment section of this blog.

This is from a Toastmaster’s speech that had some good observations about neighbors good and bad.

• Quote from Robert Frost poem Mending Fences “good fences make good neighbors”.
• One neighbor thought fences were pointless, but the other relied on their purpose of dividing the property.
• The first story of neighbors who were having a party with music, drinking, talking. Really loud on a Friday night and dog barking in the back yard.  Police were called for noise disturbance. The noise makers thought we were the bad neighbors.
• The second story of a neighbor didn’t value his property. The front yard was mostly dirt and he would park his car there.  Work on his car at 1100pm with music blasting.  So many cars parked in front of her house that they would block their mail box.  Kids in that house would try to climb the fence in the back yard to see what we were doing.
• The third story of neighbors in Georgia. The better part of town, everything manicured and resembled houses from the Stepford Wives movie.  Quickly constructed sub-division and with bad insulation.  Worked night shift and went to sleep at 6 am.  On weekends, neighbors would work on projects in their yard and 1000am and wake others up.  Loudly complained about the noise and neighbor heard.  Could hear kids play basketball in the front yard and hear the mailman.
• Fourth story of a house in California.  Houses small and located close to each other.  Neighbors lived there a long time.  She considered herself the visitor.  A neighbor complained that light from daughter’s bedroom window shining into her room, but she didn’t do anything on her side to fix it.  She told her to fix it.  She stopped talking to that neighbor.
• Good fences make good neighbors. Is it a physical barrier, property marker, or boundary line of socialization? The point is to stay out of each other’s business and have respect for each other.

Do you have something to add? Please do so in the comment section of this blog.

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Attended a single’s fireside and George Durant gave this talk. Both George and his wife (Susan) have an excellent sense of humor.

• I found didn’t need self-confidence I gained Christ confidence.
• I can’t control things in my life but I can control being happy.
• You got to laugh and be cheerful.
• Decide to how you will answer the question, how are you? He answered, “It is my best day, so far.” Say that and see how the people around you respond.
• Decide that you are not a complainer.
• Give compliments and be honest about it. When you say that to people and start looking for the good in others it can change your life.
• Took a painting class. One person said one good thing about his painting. The sky looks nice. Another said the art needed work on the foreground. Implement this concept in your life. When you’re helping someone look at their sky.
• If you have an image of Christ in your heart you start looking like him.
• Put all the positive attributes of your add others positive attributes and you have an image of Christ.
• Being lonely is not an excuse to be sad. See the best of yourself.
• Nothing is as important as being a Priesthood man it gives you the chance to be a good man and a good father.
• Go forth in the name of Jesus Christ and he will bless you. He can help you change your attitude and change your disposition.

Do you have something to add? If yes, please do so in the comment section of this blog.

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The shortcoming of democrats and republicans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M31ZCh1VeX8

Both begin the same with FORM. FormIDable means I Dare do anything because it’s hard to beat me.  FormABLE means an object that is able to be altered formed in a different shape.

Do you have an alternative suggestion? If yes, please do so in the comment section of this blog.