Why aren't you at Alan's blog right now?

I, Kasey Beck, having been born of goodly parents...
I have an amazing family and some amazing friends. Last weekend I spent Friday/Saturday morning with Cannon, Amanda, P-dub, Whit, Heather and Ben at Cannon's cabin and then we did an incredible hike at Bryce Canyon. We played Balderdash Friday night and I don't know what it is but I I can't control myself, it's just the funniest game, I laughed so much it hurt. P-dub video taped me laughing, I'll have to get that sometime. After Bryce Canyon I went to our family reunion near Capitol Reef National Park. It was fun seeing people again, some people I hadn't seen since before my mission, and some I had never met before. I kept trying to speak my little Russian with Vernon and Connie's 3 adopted Russian kids but no success. I finally saw my favorite aunt from Tucson in the whole world, Margie! Russ is awesome and quite the ultimate frisbee player. Erin and Dantley gave me and Skyler a guitar and Margie and Russ both agreed that I should have it (haha, j/k, I can get away with saying stuff like that on my blog). I found someone to buy my fall contract, Jordan. Actually he found me. Nathan, Melanie's husband, lived in Park Place 8 a couple years ago. He was even roommates with Jared, crazy! We had a good testimony meeting. There are about 85 of us on that side of the family! It's fun and I'm really blessed to be born into such a good family.

I realized that my life has really been affected by the decision of those before me to be faithful members of the Church. Because my great grandparents, grandparents, and parents chose to live the way they do and did I have received so much. And like the song says, "Because I have been given much I too must give." I don't think that has to do with just giving money and material things to the poor but also giving back to your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and God. I really like what Elder Maxwell said about how the only thing that is ours to give is our agency, our choices. What all those people want most from me is for me to make the same choice they did in deciding to be faithful to Heavenly Father. I think that's the best way to to show appreciation to them and the best way to give back to them.

The things that make us happy are the things that we take with us after this life. Two of the things that I can think about right now are experiences and relationships. This whole week I've been doing a lot with family and friends. I have a lot of fun with both and have really enjoyed all my experiences with them. Relationships with friends and family are worth investing into because you'll be with them after this life. Experiences are worth investing into because they shape your life, make you a better person, give you opportunities to help others, and no matter what happens no one can take away the memories and the effect they had on you. I used to feel like I didn't accomplish much when at the end of the day I hadn't done certain things. Now I feel have so much time in a day to create experiences and strengthen relationships. Those two things sometimes have a lot to do with one another but sometimes they don't. You can have amazing experiences just being alone. Being alone in Spain was a GREAT experience for me. Spiritual experiences usually can't be shared with others because they are your feelings and you decide how you'll be affected by what you experience. Ha, actually with experiences it seems like you're strengthening your relationship with Heavenly Father so really you're not alone in those either. And then with strengthening relationships with others you're also strengthening your relationship with Heavenly Father because as Christ said, "Ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another." The more we love others the more we become Christ's disciples. Christ is love, the Gospel is love, loving somebody more will only bring you closer to Christ. I guess I have the assumption that strengthening relationships means loving others more. That might not always be correct. Relationships are important to me...or at least they should be and I try to keep them. I try to stay in touch with high school, mission, and Ugandan friends. It's sad to think that college will end one day and things will never be the same again. It was really hard before leaving EFY friends, junior high and high school friends, but I think leaving my college friends will be the hardest. Which is why we're going to have the turkey dinner again in January and me, Cannon, and Pdub are planning on having vacations together in the future. I hope my college friends won't get annoyed when I email them, call them, or whatever cause their friendship will always be important to me. College has definitely had some amazing experiences. Several in the past, several this summer, and several to come.

Having said that...

...Let's play some Mariokart!

...Who's in for Zion's Nat'l park next week Saturday?