I Get Buckets

This is one of the video's that James and I love and often quote, it doesn't really apply that much to blog besides that's where I got the title from and I think it's funny. 

Recently I've been pondering on how successful in life I have been and as humble as I can put it I essentially get buckets. I'm proud of what I have accomplished. Far too many times I credit this success to my knowledge and work ethic when reality I only have one thing I can credit it to and that is my Playmaker. Anyone that follows basketball knows that a team is only so good without a playmaker. Blake Griffin is great but the addition of Chris Paul really help the clippers be successful. Someone to look at a slightly bigger picture and make decisions on how to get buckets when the team isn't even in offensive formation yet. Luckily for me...and for you (whoever you are) we have the GREATEST Playmaker who looks at every aspect of our game and sets us up for an ally oop that will make it to #1 on SportsCenters Top 10 when we don't think we can even dunk. That Playmaker is of course, our loving Heavenly Father. 

Back in April the Freedom Festival asked if I would be a volunteer coordinator for Freedom Days and I'm sure you can figure by the number of recent Facebook posts that I said yes. At the time work was going pretty well, I had recently been moved to a different position, but I had streamlined it and since I was no longer the float my work and life was pretty consistent; of course that consistency couldn't last long. We had been told about changes that would happen in the clinic that would move some tests to a different location and there would be a remodel but were told not to plan on it anytime soon because there was still a lot of planning that had to go into it, well obviously it started a lot sooner that I planned and to make a long story short with addition of new software (a supposed upgrade) and some changes in staff, my work became absolutely crazy. In April I was able to check my email a few times a day and if I needed I could have stepped aside for a minute and made a call, but that was no longer the case which made coordinating 150 volunteers and making contacts during the day nearly impossible. That and the fact that I am TERRIBLE at asking people for help, I like to be able to do everything so I can make sure it is done to my satisfaction. My visiting teacher had to persuade me a lot to let her make me cookie dough so I could make treats for the volunteers. So there I was 4 months later the morning of July 1st and I only had a group of 15 volunteers from a school and my event was starting on the 3rd. I had no idea back in April that my life would be as crazy as it was and I was a little upset with Heavenly Father and anyone else I could think to blame for letting me commit to this. They should have known I would have been busy and warned me right?! But I was committed and  lucky for me that group of 15 were signed up for the first day of the event which was only a half day anyway. That afternoon I got a call from a fellow committee volunteer who had offered to contact the mission home for me (since I didn't have time) and he gotten a commitment from a zone of missionaries to help all day on the 4th, the following day I had another zone commit to volunteer and so now I had 50 missionaries to help me on the 4th of July. So I had both the Wednesday and Thursday covered. Thursday morning (July 4th) came and I still didn't have a firm commitment from anybody to volunteer on July 5, some of the people who helped on the 3rd said they could probably come back, but I didn't know when. James and I had to watch an area of our event that was near the parade to make sure that everything was safe and we started to chit chat a little bit with a family that was there to watch the parade. They had a couple questions about the Freedom Festival and since I was an intern last year I had answers. One of the guys in the family asked what I did and I told him I was a volunteer coordinator, he asked how to  be put on a list to volunteer because he worked with a group of girls that considered at risk youth and part of the program was they have to have so many volunteer activities and so he was always looking for service opportunities. I told him that I could let the Freedom Festival know about them but if they happened to free the following day (the 5th) I could use their help. It turned out there previous service project for the 5th had fallen through last minute and they were in need of something to do, and so he committed to help us from 10am-noon the following day. (Ok, Heavenly Father, I'm finally starting to see that you tossed that ball up for an incredible play but I still thinks it will turn out to be an Alley OOPS, because I can't jump high enough to dunk and I am currently too far away from the ball) I still needed people from 12-6 on the 5th, and then more people for clean up after that. The group of girls showed up the morning of the 5th and started to help out. After spending time there, the girls were enjoying themselves (previous service projects were pulling weeds and they were doing crafts and face painting with kids when they were helping us) and the leaders could tell we needed help so they rearranged their day and stayed until 2pm and then came back at 3:30 to help more. I also had the same group that helped on the 3rd come at 2pm on the 5th to help out. I still needed help for clean up after 6pm which is when all of my current volunteers were leaving, but "lucky" for me a big storm rolled in and we had to start packing up early and close at 6 instead of 8 because of the storm. The volunteers I had were troopers and got pretty much everything packed up and chairs and tables stacked before the storm hit and they had to leave, and I got to be home by 8 on Friday night. 

I know I had very little, if anything, to do with it all out but thanks to Merit Academy Service Group, the Provo LDS missionaries, The Journey girls, some couples from my ward, a few random volunteers and an AWESOME trooper named James Brian Tracy (who brought teammates for set up), EVERYTHING worked out. I am just reminded how much Heavenly Father has lined up my life. I have far too many "coincidences" in my life for it not to have been strategically planned by a loving Father who wants nothing less than a wonderful, perfect eternity for his favorite* daughter. I have been SO blessed whether it be given terrible news 8 years ago that I had a brain tumor but it was just in time to not only save my life but shape my future, to have chosen to take 14 credits of ridiculous science classes at once causing me to fail LOTS of tests in one semester but led me to add a non-profit minor to spread out my classes which gave me an opportunity to have an incredible internship. Then there is my current favorite; not getting a housing contract in the condos I wanted to live in and having to settle with living in an apartment I DIDN'T want to live in, which was in a ward that I DIDN'T think I had a lot in common with the other members, being put in an FHE group I DIDN'T enjoy, and boy in the FHE group who I DIDN'T want to date had a slight crush on me but his shy roommate (who turned out to be a boy version of Bethany*) who I also DIDN'T want to date stole my heart and the first boy turned out to be a great friend and wedding photographer.  

Really all of this is to say that our Heavenly Father is the ultimate playmaker/strategist and we should let go of how we think the game should go and put it into our Father's hands because He always has the best rolls.

*I can say I'm His favorite, because I'm favored to win against Satan.

**James and Bethany are A LOT alike. After visiting them in June, James told me "hanging out with Bethany was like hanging out with himself, and he's pretty cool"  

Railings and the Rod

The following is a talk I gave in church this past week, I love the gospel and learning more about it and relating to others how the gospel makes sense to me. Mostly this is for my Mother and whoever else feels like reading it. I included my introduction because it leads into my talk. I know it doesn't really apply to you but oh well. 

As was stated my name is Alison Tracy and my husband James is speaking following me. We have been married for 3 months. We met in our singles ward,  lived next door to each other, were in the same FHE group, and his roommate had a slight crush on me and so naturally we spent some time around each other. One of the things that was appealing to me about James was his love for playing with his nieces and nephew because I had a similar love for my nieces and nephew and now we have the same nieces and nephews. It worked out great except that they love playing with Uncle James more than Aunt Alison, which is sometimes disheartening when a cute kids starts to run up to you to give you a hug and then does that awkward pass by when they see the cool uncle. In June his sister had twin boys and they are now getting to the point where they climb up to things and try to stand and walk. The only problem is they can’t stand by themselves yet and so their attempts to walk is just lunging forward and face planting. While baby Reid will hold onto your hands and move his feet in an attempt to walk, baby Redick refuses to hold on to ANYTHING and so he ends up falling and crying. The need to hold onto things in order to move effectively does not disappear just because we learn to walk. Notice there are still railings on stairs, guardrails on ledges, and rails to hold onto on buses and transport trains because they are needed. Most often used by elderly (or clumsy people like myself) I am sure they are needed and used by everyone at some point whether they are sick, have injured themself or they are simply lightheaded because they have climbed for so long and are almost to the top of the RB stairs. Like these physical railings and guardrails, there are spiritual guardrails that we are advised to hold onto, often taught… the Iron Rod. However, in pondering how we hold onto the iron rod, I questioned how a rod just appears for us to hold onto. All railings have to be built, Heavenly Father could hand us a railing to hold onto, like a person might hand a hungry man a fish but if we follow the proverb it is far more valuable to teach a man to fish and since Heavenly Father is wise and all knowing I have come to the belief that he has provided “materials” and an instructor, that being Jesus Christ,  and has us build our own railing because by human nature we respect and care for our own work and personal items more than things simply handed to us.

The first thing you need to build a railing are the core materials, which I will compare the ordinances and covenants we make at Baptism, receiving the Priesthood for men, the Endowment and of course the Sealing. Without them we CANNOT make it back to live with Heavenly Father, we recite in the 3^rd article of faith that all men may be saved by obedience to the laws AND ORDINANCES OF THE GOSPEL. Living an obedient life isn’t enough, so no matter how many tools and helpers we have to make our railing without the wood or metal no railing can be put up. Let’s look at everything else that helps us build our Rod to hold on to, the things we do daily and weekly that may not seem as significant but without them all we have is wood balancing on itself that would fall over with the slightest wind or trial, we need nails and tools in order for the railing to stay up.

Let the nails in our project be scripture study, prayer, family home evening and service. The commandments we are so often reminded of and what many refer to as the Sunday school answers. They are necessary to add to our life to keep our rail standing and we must continue to keep them in our life. If life is good and you can safely move along without the use of the rail it may not seem bad if a nail or two falls out of place, prayer becomes a rare occurrence and scripture study is for when you don’t have some other book to read. We may not see it as upmost importance to re-secure the spot of the nail because the rail is still standing without it and you’re not really using the railing anyways; but if there is an unexpected jolt to our railing or we slip on a rock and need the rail to make grab on to so we don’t fall, the loss of that nail may be found to be of great significance. My stake president growing up would often remind us as youth that he never had a person come to meet with the stake disciplinary council that was studying their scriptures and praying daily when they committed their sin. Further in Elder Holland’s well-known talk about the Book of Mormon, ‘Safety for the Soul’ he reminds us if “such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit. In that sense the book is what Christ Himself was said to be: “a stone of stumbling, … a rock of offence,” a barrier in the path of one who wishes not to believe in this work. So discontinuing our scripture study (especially that of the Book of Mormon) and the prayer in which we communicate with God not only loosens the nails but if the nails eventually fall out it puts us a great risk of stepping on them and injuring ourselves.

In the same talk Elder Holland reminds us of Lehi’s dream and that the “already difficult journey gets more difficult when a mist of darkness arises” and “It is imperative to note that this mist of darkness descends on all the travelers—the faithful and the determined ones… as well as the weaker and ungrounded ones.” And the difference between the two was “that the protected “did press their way forward, continually [and, Elder Holland adds, tenaciously] holding fast” to a rod of iron that runs unfailingly along the course of the true path.” These ‘mists’ are not always temptations of the devil but also trials the Lord has decided not to remove because we are capable to face. In Elder Neil L Andersen’s talk from last conference, ‘Trial of Your Faith’ he reiterates that “By definition, trials will be trying. There may be anguish, confusion, sleepless nights, and pillows wet with tears. But our trials need not be spiritually fatal. They need not take us from our covenants or from the household of God.”  If I might add to the words of these incredible men, for the sake of my amateurish analogy, with these trials and temptations the wood (I know I changed Iron into a vulnerable wood, I’m inexperienced with good spiritual analogies), begins to weather in the mists and some of the railing may have been damaged in the fiery storms, but the faithful and protected continued to make sure the ‘Rod’ was still stable and comfortable to hold onto, by providing the maintenance necessary to hold on to it.

I would like to associate our Maintenance of our railing to the attendance of ALL Church Meetings and the partaking of the sacrament. The sacrament is vital for us to be able to continue to hold on to our railing. If our wood is weathered and splintered we will not be able to run our hand along the railing as support for very long because it will hurt our hand. The sacrament provides sandpaper to smooth out the wood and rid us of our splinters. Elder Oaks has stated “our observance of the Sabbath, including our partaking of the sacrament, restores us spiritually and makes us better people for the rest of the week.” We have also been told that Sacrament Meeting is “the most sacred, the most holy, of all the meetings of the Church.” However, that does not mean we should skip out on the rest of our meetings. Sunday School, Priesthood, Relief Society, Stake Conference meetings (all of them) ***I was asked to include this in my talk in hopes it would help in encouraging people to attend Stake Conference this weekend** and General Conference provide us with the varnish and padding for our railing so we have the protection, support and comfort for our railing so we will want to continue holding on when more storms come our way.

With eternal ordinances, scripture study, prayer, obedience to the commandments, church attendance and with the loving example of our Savior, Jesus Christ our pile of supplies becomes a beautiful comfortable railing we can walk down to greet our Heavenly Father at the gates of the Celestial Kingdom. Elder Dallin H. Oaks teaches “The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done, It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts—what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.”

I LOVE Heavenly Father's plan for us, and the actions and examples he puts in my life. Although sometimes I think my railing couldn't possibly be leading to the top of the stairs because of all of the twists and movements downwards I sometimes feel like it makes, there are moments when on my railing I can see the top and those are the moments that keep me building.

Promises on the Path to Happiness

For new readers that may not know me very well, I love John Wooden. If there was a famous person (dead or alive) I could invite to dinner it would be John Wooden. I am sure he would be a wonderful dinner guest. Like I've said before I LOVE the book WOODEN: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court and think that everyone should read it at least once in their life and well I read at least parts of it every year. One of the things that got me thinking that James might be a good guy to date was that he borrowed and read my copy of Wooden. That's how much I value this book!
Recently I opened it up to a section entitled Nine Promises That Can Bring Happiness and I will attest that making these promises will increase your happiness.

1. Promise yourself that you will talk health, happiness and prosperity as often as possible.

2. Promise yourself to make all your friends know there is something in them that is special and that you value.

3. Promise to think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best in yourself and others.

4. Promise to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

5. Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

6. Promise to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements in the future.

7. Promise to wear a cheerful appearance at all times and give every person you meet a smile.

8. Promise to give so much time to improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

9. Promise to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit trouble to press on you.

Obviously I haven't been able to do all of these at once but when I am happiest in life I can look at what I am doing and see that I am working hard to fulfill these promises. I would like to add a 10th promise, John Wooden left out in this section, although he did cover it in other parts of the book. My 10th promise is simple but not an easy task

10. Promise with God

Any promise we make with God can only lead to happiness. As we keep the covenants we have made we will indeed find the ultimate happiness of eternal life. I absolutely know this last one to be true, as I have experienced the happiness I have received in this life and caught small glimpses of the happiness to come.

Please Comeback

March Madness has started and BYU opened up the first night with a W, it was also THE BIGGEST comeback in NCAA tournament history. They were down by 25 and went on to win by 6. My friend (once again this was James, you might be able to say we were starting to date by now 2/28/13) and I enjoyed ice cream after the game to heal our eyes from the sights we saw the first half of the game and then to celebrate a GREAT win.
The win and how and why it happened got me pondering and my mind went to the prodigal son (that's right I'm comparing a basketball game to a gospel parable, giving gospel topics to secular things is what we do at BYU, I can't help it). The prodigal son is a story of a great comeback. He was down and out and then welcomed back. In March Madness unless it is against your team (or the team you picked to win in your bracket), comebacks are the best things to watch. 'Everyone' loves the team that comes back, and so it should be in the gospel. Sure I REALLY didn't like BYU giving up SOO many turnovers, or their low shooting percentage during the first half but that won't keep me from loving the team and being ecstatic over their win and cheering for them here on out.
This is how it should be with the gospel, sometimes it's really difficult to forgive people of what we view to be their sins, when they have changed. We won't look past their scars and see the beautiful person they now are. Whether it be that they are behind because of their turnovers (mistakes) or the other team is just shooting lights out (aka Satan's got it out for you) or maybe a combination of both, they still have the ability to comeback and we should be cheering. Everyone loves Baylor/VCU/Davidson, except for the other team. In real life the other team is Satan and I don't care if him and his fans end up crying on the floor after the buzzer, in fact that's kinda what I want.
Comebacks are not easy, there was a dramatic decrease in Turnovers and they worked really hard on defense to keep Iona from scoring (avoiding places of temptation), they also had to increase their FGM-A% (scripture study/prayer) but it turned out to be great. So if your struggling please pull an epic comeback (if only because it feels so good) and we'll make sure to cheer for the underdog.