My life as an OT

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog. I am now officially an occupational therapist and living in Henderson, Nevada working at an inpatient rehab facility. I enjoy my job. It has its ups and downs like any job but I really do enjoy it. I love working with people and seeing them get stronger, feel better, and regain function and meaning in their lives. I've had many neat, funny, and crazy experiences there. I recently had a really cool experience happen recently that I wanted to share. I recently had a patient who told me he wanted to die. He was only going to rehab for his wife because she wanted him to get better. He was 94 and had felt like he had lived a good life. I began to ask the man questions about what activities brought meaning to his life so that I could pattern some rehab sessions around what was meaningful to him so that he would be engaged in therapy. He told me some and I put on my thinking cap of some things that we could do during my time with him. While I was thinking, he caught sight of a chess board and stated, "I love chess." I immediately knew what I wanted to do for the therapy session. His son was present during the session and so I asked the son if he would be interested in playing chess with his father. The son knew his father's feelings about wanting to be dead and quickly and excitedly agreed to playing chess with his father. I worked on the patients standing balance and tolerance while he was playing chess with his son. The looks on their faces were priceless. I'm sure this was not the first chess match they have ever had against each other. However, as I watched them, I realized that this might possibly be their last chess match and possibly their last activity as a son and father while this man was alive. It got me all choked up!! After they finished the game they couldn't stop thanking me for such a memorable experience. Both of their countenances changed from being very sad and depressed to very happy and excited about life. I don't know how much longer this man will be alive but it was a privelege to be a part of that. I recently heard a really quote from Victor Frankl that states, "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."

The Currant Bush

I don't know how many of you have read "The Currant Bush" by Hugh B. Brown, but I read it recently and it really touched my heart. It's similar to the quote on the right hand column of this blog, but it just really touched me recently when I read it. You can find the whole thing on the church's website and you can look up "The Currant Bush" by Hugh B. Brown in the Jan. 1973 New Era on page 14. Anyways, in the article, he talks about how he was pruning the currant bush and he thought he saw tears coming from it and said, "What are you crying about?" You know, I thought I heard that currant bush talk. And I thought I heard it say this: "How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as big as the shade tree and the fruit tree that are inside the fence, and now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me, because I didn't make what I should have made. How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here." That's what I thought I heard the currant bush say, and I thought it so much that I answered. I said, "Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn't intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and some day, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, 'Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down, for caring enough about me to hurt me. Thank you, Mr. Gardener.'" I just feel like as things have been going in my life recently, "The Gardener" has been telling me that I'm not supposed to be a shade tree or something else, but that He knows what He's making me into and that I just need to have patience and not resist what He's making me into. I know like it says above that someday when I am laden with fruit, I will say, "Thank you Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down (humble me), for caring enough about me to hurt me. Thank you Mr. Gardener."

Remember Who You Are.......

So I really enjoy this part of the Lion King. I was shown this in seminary and sometimes think about it, and this is what I've thought about this clip. When Rafiki tells Simba to look into the water to see his father, he laughs at him and says it's only his reflection. Rafiki then tells him to "look harder, you see, he lives in you." It's when Simba accepts that, the heavens open and he is able to communicate with his father and better understand his potential. Also, you can even see his countenance chance and he begins to look like his father. I love the things Mufasa says to Simba, "You have forgotten me, you have forgotten who you are so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself Simba, you are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the circle of life." Simba replies, "How can I go back? I'm not who I used to be." Mufasa replies, "Remember who you are, you are my son and the one true king." He then continues to repeat "remember who you are." I got this clip off of youtube.com and so didn't get everything on it that I was hoping for, but after this Rafiki hits Simba with a stick and Simba mentions that it hurt. Rafiki says something like, "Yes, the past can hurt, but you can either run from it or learn from it." I like to liken this to how things are in our lives. Sometimes we get at points in our lives that we stop seeing our Heavenly Father in our lives. But it's when we change our view and accept Him in our lives that we begin to see Him, AND AT THAT VERY MOMENT the heavens open, our Heavenly Father comes to us, and our very countenances begin to change. We too need to remember who we are and that we are children of Heavenly Parents. When we forget who we are, we are essentially forgetting God in our lives. We are more than what we have become. We must take place in the plan of salvation. And the thing that Heavenly Father continues to tell us is to remember who we are. Simba yells towards the heavens and pleads with his father not to leave him. But unlike Mufasa, our Heavenly Father doesn't leave us, but is there for us and will do whatever He can to help us and help us to know that He is there and that He cares. Sometimes the things we have done in the past can hurt, but we can either run from it or learn from it. It's my invitation that we learn from it and move forward with our lives. HOW GRATEFUL I am for that knowledge. I truly have felt recently that He knows what I am going through and He has and is and will help me when I ask it from Him. He will do it for you too. Please friends, remember who you are......

Ute Football 2009

Louie Sakoda and I. For those of you who don't know, King Louie was the kicker for the Utes last season. He gave me a private tour of the Utes workout facility. It was so cool to hang out with him for a little bit.

Deron Williams showing which Utah team he supports. He was standing on the field right in front of us and him and Brian Johnson (last year's QB) were hanging out. It was pretty cool to see them so close.

Me and Coach Whittingham at a luncheon before school started. Yes, that's his office and I was the only one on the MUSS board that got a pic with just him and I in his office. GO UTES!

Me, Tyson, and Curtis. The 3 people in my MUSS group. Row 2 seats this season!! HECK YA!

The Utes coming out of the locker room for the first time this season. Yes, I did get chills when they came out! GO UTES!

Finally, here are some Ukraine updates!

I finally have a minute to sit down and update people at home as to how things are going over here in the Ukraine. It's quite the experience over here. I don't even know where to begin with all that's happened since last time that I wrote on here. I will start by just posting some pictures and telling some experiences.

When I was in Chernivtsi I ran into 2 of the 4 elders who are serving in the city. For anyone who is interested, ask me to tell you about this experience because it wasn't by coincidence. This picture is meaningful because the Elder on the right is a Utah fan and he's holding one of his tickets to the football season last year and the one on my left goes to BYU. GO UTES!!! They might be going to do some service with us tomorrow.

So there was this random restaurant called Utah. I couldn't resist getting a picture with my Utah flag and representing. I didn't have this flag in all my pictures. Just a few, but randomly they're all the ones I'm putting on my blog.


So the place I'm at (Chernivtsi) and Salt Lake City are sister cities. So they have a little thing in their town center representing all the sister cities. I had to represent with the Utah flag by the Salt Lake City one. GO UTES!!!

The Sunday we got there, we went to a Ukranian Orthodox church. All the women have to put a shawl over their heads. I didn't have to. :) It was an interesting experience. I put my hands in my pocket during the service and one of the Ukranian men came and chastised me and yanked my hands out of my pocket. Apparently it was bad. I wasn't told that. I learned my lesson.

This is my sad face during the 16 hour train ride we had to take from Kiev to Chernivtsi. They packed us in there like cattle. I felt like I was on a train going to some concentration camp. I have pictures of the nasty bathroom and the rest of the living conditions. It was quite the experience to say the least. I'm not looking forward to having to do it again in a couple days to go back to Kiev.

So at one of the places we went, they offered us some of Ukraine's finest liquor. As a custom, the man is supposed to open the liquor and pour it for everyone. Well, with my luck, I've NEVER opened one of these and didn't know how much to give everyone. They laughed and laughed and laughed and tried their darndest to get me to drink it with them, but I didn't give in. They understood it was because of personal and religious reasons and the old grandma (who was a kick in the pants) kept making fun of me for it.

Little Oksana. She was a cutie. She has cerebral palsy and we visited her twice. We gave her that ball and was showing her mom some exercises she could do with her to stretch out some of that EXTREMELY high muscle tone she has going on through her body. She had a little crush on me and would smile at me and start to giggle. She is 5 years old I believe.



Nicolas (Cola). He too had cerebral palsy and was way fun. We did similar stuff with all our cerebral palsy kids cause they have very high tone in their arms and particularly their legs. His mom was incredible! We visited him twice too and between visits her already had improved a TON. It made me excited to see that within a few days he was already starting to loosen up a little bit.

Olga. She has Spinal Muscle Atrophy. She was 100% cognitively there but her spine was wrapped all around her back and had a lot of pain. But that did not stop her having all the sass in the world. She was so cute and her grin was to die for. I fell in love with this little girl. She stole my heart. She is 11. Since their health care isn't the greatest over here, I realized that she wouldn't receive great treatment even though she had such a serious condition. It made me grateful for what great health care we have.

Olga #2. This fireball of a girl was a cutie. She had a traumatic brain injury about 3 years ago and she's 12 now. She got hit by a car. We saw her twice. She had a little crush on me and told me that the second time that we came that she'd get dressed up and do her makeup for me. So I decided that if she was going to get dressed up like a princess that I would treat her like one and so I bought her a rose. I have a video of her reaction when I gave it to her. Let me know if you want to see it. It's pretty cute. She was fun to work with. We did some good stuff with her.

This is me on top of the town hall. Isn't Chernivtsi beatiful?

We got to meet with the Mayor of Chernivtsi. We talked about what we were doing there. It was pretty cool.

Well, I will be home on Monday and would love to tell anyone stories about my trip. I am loving it here but I think I will be ready to come home on Monday.

Ukraine Pics

Here are some Ukraine pics. I promise that stories and experiences are on the way, but this is all I have time for right now. I am here and safe and loving it. Today we are taking our 14 hour train ride to Chernivtsi where we will be working with the clients and kids at the orphanage. I'm pretty dang excited. It's been amazing so far. Enjoy the pics and keep checking back for more adventures.

This was at the World War II museum. The nickname of this statue is "tin tits." I thought it was pretty funny but I was pretty confused cause I thought they called her "ten tits." Anyway, we had a pretty good laugh. She is very tall and can be seen throughout Ukraine.
The girls in our group wearing their shawls before we went into these taverns to look at some dead monks and war heroes in the bottom of this church. I, being a guy, didn't have to wear a shawl and it reaffirmed to me why it was so great being a guy!

Me in front of one of the churches we went to. Notice me representing my Utes!! GO UTES!!!

This is me putting out the vibe in Ukaine in front of this cool green car.

Tender Mercies - Answers to Prayers - You never know whose life you are touching.

I LOVE EFY!!! For those of you who know me, I have loved my experiences of being an EFY counselor for the past 4 summers. Altogether, I've done 25 sessions, and I learned and enjoyed different things from each session. I don't even know how many boys that I worked with throughout those 4 years, but there have been a lot. This past Thursday, I was sitting in institute and I was wondering if I've made a difference in somebody's life with the thing's I've been involved in. I said a short little prayer in my heart that at some point in my life I'd be able to know that. Well Heavenly Father being the amazing person He is didn't even wait 24 hours to let me know that. I received a letter from one of the boys from my first year of EFY who is currently serving his mission in Brazil. It was very surprising to me to get a letter from this particular boy because he was one of those guys that kind of was quieter and more reserved. Regardless, I tried to get to know him and involve him with the things we did. I didn't know that I'd have a big impact on his life. In his letter he sent he said, "How are you doing Shane? I am from EFY 2005. I just wanted to thank you for your testimony and example. You helped me make the decision to serve a mission. I am serving in the Brazil Londrina mission." He then went on to share his testimony. I couldn't believe that I got an answer to my prayer so quickly! I was so surprised and happy that I went to my room and got on my knees and just cried. I needed that letter a lot! I am thankful to Elder Westover for following the prompting to send the letter when he did. It wasn't a coincidence that it came the day that it did. I am grateful for young men like him who go out into the world and selflessly serve the Lord for 2 years. I'm thankful to Heavenly Father that I was given the opportunity to work for EFY for those 25 sessions and to associate with the boys that I did. I'm grateful for the truthfulness of our church. I am thankful for answers I've received that have helped my testimony. Also, I am grateful to Heavenly Father for answering Tyler's prayers as well so that he is able to boldly serve as a missionary. It was an awesome day for me and something I will be forever grateful for.

What am I willing to do to see Him?

So I have been thinking a lot about a man in the scriptures in Luke 19 whose name is Zacchaeus. He is the man who tried to see Christ in the crowd but couldn't because he was too short. Therefore, he decided to climb a tree so that he could have a better view of Christ. After he did that, Christ saw him up in the tree and tells Zacchaeus to come down and that He will abide in his house. As I have been reading that lately, I've been asking myself, "What am I willing to do to see Christ more constantly in my life?" I, like some of you, sometimes find myself in my life making small surges of effort to jump up above the crowd to see Christ in my life. Those efforts get exhausting and unfortunately come to an end because of the energy required to sustain that effort. Or can I be more like Zacchaeus and go upward and find myself in a tree where I can have a better constant image of Christ rather than short spurts of effort. It's not to say that making small short efforts is a bad thing, but I want to have it more constant in my life. It's when Christ sees our effort to see Him that He invites Himself to abide in our homes and our lives because He knows that we made the effort to move upward to see Him. So I find myself asking myself, "How can I change the position of where I am to better see Christ?" Or I ask myself, "Where would my position be right now if it were to be likened to this scripture? Would I be making those small exhausting efforts on the ground or have I made changes in my life so that I can see Christ constantly rather than little bits at a time?" It's my hope that you and I can change where we are and put ourselves in a position where we can be focused on Christ at all times. Thanks you guys!

Book of Mormon vs. Our Cell Phones

I just saw this online and thought it was very thought provoking. It's definately something to think about.

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Book of Mormon like our cell phone. What if we carried it around in our pockets everywhere we went? What if we turned back to our house to get it if we forgot it? What if we flipped through it several times a day? What if we spent an hour or more using it every day? What if we used it to receive messages? What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it? What if we used it as we travel? What if we gave it to our kids as a present and they asked for one for their birthday? What if we used it in case of an emergency? Unlike our cell phones, in regards to the Book of Mormon, one plan fits all, unlimited usage, no roaming charges, you always have reception, no weak signals, we won't be charged if we use it too much, and we don’t have to ever worry about our Book of Mormon being disconnected.

Skouching

Here is a video of me enjoying the snow this past winter.

Roommate Weddings

Devin and Kati Barlow - January 3, 2009

Steve and Tamara Smith - January 3, 2009

Daniel and LeaDawn Grant - December 20, 2008

Tis the Season to be getting married if you have been one of my past roommates. It was awesome being able to go to my friend's wedding receptions. They all were so very happy and picked amazing girls to marry. It's kind of sad to know that all the good times we had as roommates in the bachelor pad are just memories now. But I couldn't be happier for these guys. Congratulations Steve, Devin, and Daniel.

Glance at Fall Semester 2008

I am half way done with my grad program! 4 semesters down, 4 to go! I'm still very excited about becoming an occupational therapist. I know that it's a job that's just right for me. This was our pediatric semester so we got to learn about how to be occupational therapists for kids. It was a very fun semester. This next semester is going to be our adult semester, so we will learn how to do therapy on people from 18 and older. There's something energizing about starting new classes. I will still be with the same 26 people. I really enjoy the people that I'm in the program with. They're my second family. Anyway, some of the videos on here include: a party we had at my house in Salt Lake, Crazy Lady dancing, Oregon State winning fieldgoal, rushing field #1, TCU touchdown, Katie and Rachelle (girls from my program) after TCU game, rushing the field at the BYU game, singing "Utah Man" at Battle of the Chapters, juggling handkerchiefs for one of our pediatric skills labs, Rachelle and Jason singing "Finger Pushups", our rap we made to present our chapter info to our class, standing in front of the building before Wicked, the cool toilet in Chicago airport, Me, Tony, and Tyson (some friends) doing the dizzy challenge thing at temple square, Michelle dancing during my program's end of semester lunch at the Pie, and me making kids cry as Santa at our program's Christmas party.

My Tribute to Joseph Smith on his birthday.

Here is a tribute to Joseph Smith on his birthday. I made this slideshow to commemorate the life of the prophet Joseph Smith. As I looked through the pictures and video of him, my gratitude for what he did for the church increased greatly. I can't imagine where I would be without the gospel in my life. I thank him for never giving up on what he saw and for him remaining faithful and true to those things in everything he did. I am thankful that he translated the Book of Mormon. It truly is the word of God. I KNOW that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in the Sacred Grove. There are few experiences in my life that I have had that I can never doubt. However, the answers I received when praying about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the First Vision are experiences that I can never deny. That knowledge has saved me on so many occasions. Please watch this tribute and enjoy and leave your thoughts on Joseph Smith in the comments if you'd like. You might want to pause the blog music at the bottom of the page before you watch this. Praise to the man!

Broken Things to Mend

In Nazareth, the narrow road,
That tires the feet and steals the breath,
Passes the place where once abode
The Carpenter of Nazareth
And up and down the dusty way
The village folk would often wend;
And on the bench, beside Him, lay
Their broken things for Him to mend.
The maiden with the doll she broke,
The woman with the broken chair,
The man with broken plough, or yoke,
Said, "Can you mend it, Carpenter?"
And each received the thing he sought,
In yoke, or plough, or chair, or doll;
The broken thing which each had brought
Returned again a perfect whole.
So, up the hill the long years through,
With heavy step and wistful eye,
The burdened souls their way pursue,
Uttering each the plaintive cry:
"O Carpenter of Nazareth,
This heart, that's broken past repair,
This life, that's shattered nigh to death,
Oh, can You mend them, Carpenter?"
And by His kind and ready hand,
His own sweet life is woven through
Our broken lives, until they stand
A New Creation-"all things new."
"The shattered [substance] of [the] heart,
Desire, ambition, hope, and faith,
Mould Thou into the perfect part,
O, Carpenter of Nazareth!"
- George Blair

I've been reading Elder Holland's book, "Broken Things to Mend," and it's amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for an awesome book to read. I think we've all felt like that broken thing to mend at times and the Master Carpenter has entered our lives and like it says in the poem, his life is woven through our broken lives and then we stand a new creation.

HOW ABOUT THEM UTES?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Utah Utes 13-0 (Only Perfect Season in College Football)!!!

Michigan (25-23)

UNLV (42-21) #22

Utah State (58-10) #22

Air Force (30-23) #20

Weber State (37-21) #17

Oregon State (31-28) #15

Wyoming (40-7) #14

Colorado State (49-16) #14

New Mexico (13-10) #10

TCU (13-10) #8

San Diego State (63-14) #7

BYU (48-24) #7

Alabama (SUGAR BCS BOWL) (31-17) #6

FINAL STANDING - #2 in the nation!

Excellent Season!