8 posts tagged “church”

...is what I got when I got bored and typed "grammatically correct nonsense" in Google and was presented with this site.

So this morning, just like any other morning, I was awoken at 5:30 by what I thought was "The Last Post" being played by someone who obviously has nothing better do in the early hours of a Sunday morning than practise their trumpet/bugle skills (head here if you've never heard "The Last Post"). Chantelle thought I was crazy, and I had considered this proposal, seeing as it was after all 5:30 in the morning and I could well have been dreaming it. But no, as I was parking up on our street earlier this afternoon, once again the poignant and tuneful notes of the aforementioned memorial ditty began floating across the street. Maybe I am crazy. Maybe somewhere in my life "The Last Post" has played a rather important part, and is now embedded in the fibres of my, let's face it, messed up consciousness.

We have a new Stake President. His name is Rick van den Dungen Bille. He's a Californian. With a Dutch heritage. Living in Beverley. Presiding over the Hull (and surrounding area) region of the LDS Church. Whilst we're not exactly encouraged to drink, I wouldn't mind having a go at saying "President Rick van den Dungen Bille" after a few shots.

The cat is nowhere to be found. Suspect that aforementioned kitty may be discovered by dishing up some yummy cat food.

Now I'm seeing trees walking out of the neighbour's garden.

All in all a very surreal day so far.

Will keep you posted on the location of the moggy.

Wow it's been a long time since I updated...again.

Time's rolling on quickly and I'm getting excited about the wedding which is now just over three months away...! Chantelle went to Leeds last month and found her dress, and over the last few weeks I've assigned a best man, two ushers, chosen suits for myself, said best man and ushers, had myself and ushers fitted for said suits, rejoiced at the fact that Chantelle has a dress and is now getting her flowers sorted, and I've started looking into caterers.

Breathe.

It's all happening now - I've taken big steps and everything, and in just a few months I'm going to be a married man. Weeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D

Chantelle has been in a big cooking/baking mood lately, and I gotta tell you...I'm loving it!!! I've had some pretty darn good salads, chicken strips, tortilla calzones (seriously...try them....they are amazing.....) and I've been her guinea pig for various buns, pies and cakes which I certainly am not complaining about....the best meals and desserts yet have been her Rice Krispie Triangles, Bannoffee Pie, and BBQ Ranch Salad with Cornbread.....until now I had never tried cornbread before, and despite the name, didn't realise that it actually had pieces of corn in it! :)

Our cat has recently started going outside and venturing into the cat-ruled world of Farnley Square, and over the last couple of weeks has become a home for a small family of fleas. Now I'm all for animal rights and equality to all living things and the like, but coming home to clumps of fur and scatterings of black flea remains all over the house is not the most pleasant of experiences, and I can't imagine how icky it must be for Lupin :( But, a few sprays around the house and a few hits and misses with some spray and Frontline treatment for him seems to have done the trick and he's getting better. Occasionally I'll see a little critter or the remains of one dotted around the house, but a quick vacuum and some strategically placed kitchen roll is all it takes to reduce their number by one. Hurrah!

Right now Lupin is snuggled on my lap looking pretty chilled out so I hope they're still not partying in his fur...!

Spoke too soon. Critter spotted on belly. Comb acquired. Cat combed. Critter removed. Woohoo!

Heh, mushroom =D

Well, we've been "allowed" to keep attending church in east Hull (just try and stop us anyway..!! :P) - we decided that we want to move back to that side of the river anyways once the lease on this place is up. Apart from it being an area we both like, we're not really willing to spend too much time and effort on this place, as it's not in the best condition and there's too much work to be done to make it anywhere near the home we'd like to settle in.

I'm also now counting down the days to our holiday/honeymoon kindly arranged and paid for by Chantelle's parents...if you want any idea of the sort of luxury and wonderfulness we're going to experience in September, visit http://www.hotelregencypalace.com/ - it's just amazing =D

My old room at my parents' house has virtually vanished...my brother has turned it into his own little photo studio with lamps and a backdrop, the parents have also acquired space in the corner for some fancy embroidery machine that you can connect to a computer, and my bed has become a small dumping ground...so much for missing me!!

I've just e-mailed the Register Office as time is getting on and we need to arrange to post our notice of marriage to make it all legal and stuff....gotta make it count somehow!!

Life is good...

So it's been a while since I was last here...again!! I've missed this site through moving in, getting organised, playing Mario Kart and generally not doing a whole lot =D

Where to begin? Well, let's start at the start! Me and Chantelle have finally moved into a place of our own, in a little square on Ella Street, off Newland Avenue in the heart of Studentworld in the city centre. The front "garden" needs some work, and there's a need for decoration and tidying, but over the last couple of months we've got stuff sorted and made it our own place - we still have boxes, and even boxes of boxes, but it's our place and we love it...

On 19th April me and Chantelle got engaged, and we are looking at getting married around September of this year. Chantelle's parents have a timeshare apartment in Maderia, and have paid for us to have a week's holiday there so it'd be a perfect time to have our honeymoon!

We were in Hornsea and we were talking about getting married, and how we both really want to do it, and by the end of the day we'd made the decision to get engaged and start planning a wedding...of course, it wasn't official until we'd updated our status on Facebook!! ;)

So far it's been pretty complicated trying to plan it all. At first, we were thinking about hiring a place and then that started to get expensive and messy trying to organise a million different things, and so the talk turned to making it simple, making it our day and using the rest of our time, efforts and money to spend on ourselves and the festivities. When Chantelle's folks offered to put £5,000 towards the wedding, we thought that it was quite a lot of money to spend on a wedding - turns out these days it's just a small chunk of change that would get swallowed up in the process, so keeping it simple also keeps it quite economical...!!

Talk also recently turned to church, and how we both missed being there, the people and the atmosphere of being at church. Over the last couple of weeks or so, it also dawned on me that whilst I started seeing reasons for leaving church, and reasons why it might not be true and so on, what I was actually looking for was an excuse to leave, so I could "take a break" from the burdens, and pressures, and responsibilities of being an active member, an example and "pillar" of the stake so to speak. Truth is, when I first joined the church, I went in all guns blazing, with the mindset of "I've been given a second chance at life and stuff, I'd better be worth it", and ended up putting too much pressure on myself, getting into it all too quickly, and turning myself into someone I didn't really want to be.

Now I've been away, I've had time to reflect on what I'd been away from, and also to reflect on who I've been, who I am, and what I'm doing with my life. I've found now that I can very likely still make it through life going to church and being a part of the experience and the atmosphere, and unerstanding and acknowledging what the church stands for, whilst still being me.

This is what I want to achieve - to be a good person, to try and live a good life, and enjoy and take in the teachings of the church, whilst still being true to myself. We're both looking for a fresh start with a fresh perspective, and I know that I will be taking it easier and steadier this time around so that I can keep myself balanced. I might not agree with absolutely everything, and I'm certainly not perfect, but the church is a good place to be for "life guidance", and I'm willing to try again and do what I can!

We went to Institute on Wednesday night as we'd been invited to a meal prepared by the teacher. It was good to see her and other people again, and we are now considering having the wedding at the chapel in Anlaby. The chapel itself is a really nice room - it has a nice modern feel to it and doesn't look too "churchy", and it also has a bit of an elegant "function room" look to it without looking too much like your average function room....if that makes sense!!

The most important concern we have is getting Chantelle's dress, and now we're on the hunt for good music that isn't Pachelbel's flippin' Canon...it's a lovely piece really, but everyone seems to have it for their wedding, and we want to be different. Ideally we'd like to have someone sing and/or play the music, and we have considered Kissing You by Des'ree, but we're still working on it!

And that brings us to now. Chantelle's working tomorrow, but I've been invited to Hull 1 in Anlaby as they are having a "linger longer" lunch after church, which means I get to meet people and eat food =D officially, we're living in the Hull 1 area so eventually we'll be asked to go to their services rather than Hull 2 if we want to settle in :(

Today was a day spent cleaning and tidying the house whilst Chantelle was at work. We got a four month old Staffie puppy this week but quickly rehomed her again after it turns out Chantelle is allergic to her...we ended up driving to Matlock in Derbyshire, where the new owner's son was to receive the dog for his birthday :) so today was a day to try and clean up dog hair and the like and generally make the place a bit prettier...we have cord carpets so a lot of dust and cat hair gets worn in very quickly, but after a good vacuuming the floors so look a bit better, and it made Chantelle smile when she came in so I must've done good!!

In other news, I've decided not to go to University this year. I've decided that I want to keep working, and I also wondered if it was really worth if for three years if nothing big came out of it...if I decide to go for it I can always apply next year, but if I had decided to go for it this year but then found that I didn't want to do it after all, it would be a bit of a waste really.

I am however still looking for other jobs and careers, as I still don't know what I want to do!! I still consider the Police every now and then, but other than that, I'm still stumped!!! Any ideas or offers greatly appreciated.....

So on Friday night me and Chantelle stayed at Comet till almost midnight along with around 100 other people, answering the phones and taking pledges from people who were calling the Red Nose Day line to donate money...it was fun, there was free food and drink all night, plus pizza, then all manner of buns and cakes, then more pizza, and then more buffet food!! Small children did not stop appearing all night with food, and I left very full - also very happy at the amount of money people were willing to give away for children and people in need here and in Africa, in spite of the financial worries that are happening right now...though I do wish that people sounded happier when they were handing over their card details!!!

Did anyone see the thingy on the Kilimajaro climb?? Man that looked tough, but it was so cool to see that they all made it - even brought a little tear to my eye when they reached the top =D

A slight technical hitch may have put a small damper on the moving - apparently Wardbright wanted Chantelle to give two months' notice when wanting to move out of her flat, and they only told her tonight, which we both agree is a bit silly. When Chantelle first handed her notice letter in, don't you think it might have been useful to let her know that she had to give the longer notice period then, rather than wait until she calls up to chase it?? Anyhoo, Chantelle's looking into her contract tonight to see if it's right - whoever heard of a two month notice period on a flat?? Imbeciles!!

I've recently got addicted to Rock Band and Guitar Hero - what started as a simple "ooh that's cheap, I might get that" moment in Asda (they were selling Guitar Hero World Tour + Guitar for only £34) has led me to be hooked on both games...even had Rich and Simon in on the act over the weekend, Simon recently bought a microphone for the PS2 so we all did a bit of singing - it was painful!!!! But it's all a bit of fun anyway....

Ooh on Chantelle's recommendation I also bought Kingdom Hearts 2 and another RPG by Square called "Valkyrie Profile 2" which according to Chantelle looked good because "I'd never heard of it before but it's an RPG and it's by Square..." Have yet to try both of these wonderful looking games, but will update you tonight once I've had a little faff around on them...I was in a sulk with my PS2 yesterday because I started playing Final Fantasy VIII and it crashed, the PS2 died and I was sad :( maybe I'll forgive it if it will let me play these new games tonight =D

Speaking of Rock Band, through some sort of divine inspiration, I was playing through one of the Bonus Songs on the Solo World Tour mode, and had a little revelation about the church and what made it special to me. I think that some of the appeal was to "escape" from real life, and join up with people who were all doing and aiming for the same thing, to forget about wordly troubles and just to follow God. Truth is, no matter which church or religion you join, real life is always real life, and you can't run away from it....I've tried, believe me!!

Right, will go and try out these funky RPGs and tell you all about them later.............

So, I was watching some of that BBC show "Who Do You Think You Are", and it's got me back into discovering my own family history. I started it ages ago when I was still in the church (which I still count as an amazing resource for family history work...) and it kinda just fizzled away when I started to run out of information.

But now I really want to work on it again, and see if I can get further. I've even joined a Facebook group for people with the surname Collier, and reactivated my old Genes Reunited account to see if I can widen my searches for my ancestors.

Chantelle referred me to a web site called Geni which lets you build your tree, invite people to view it, and it's great for interacting with sites like Facebook and MySpace so you can post regular updates to your tree that your friends can see and so on - and as you can see below it even lets you embed your tree on blogging sites like this one =D

So, back to work for me - I'll let you know how it all goes!!

Thought I'd catch up with a chunk of good news......

Me and Chantelle went to look at a house off Newland Avenue last week - Chantelle fell in love with it when she was doing some noseying around, and I wanted to come along and see, and boom! I wanted it too =D

I could really see myself living in the house, and it has some great little extra special features like a separate little allotment bit that other people have turned into gardens, play areas, patios and so on...and it has three bedrooms, with the third being a sort of "hideaway" bit that we're gonna turn into a quiet study area. It's the sort of house we can settle in for a long time, put a bit of work in and get a lot out of it :)

We filled in the applications, and I found out from Chantelle that the credit reference is done, they're happy that we're not serial killers or vampires, and now they're just waiting for the character references!! I'm excited that we really can have a place of our own, and I'm gonna love living there.... =D

I also got a letter from Hull Uni today offering me a place at the Business School!!! Take that, education - Shaun's coming back to learn stuff hehehe....ooh I'm excited now, I went to the Open Day last week and I have a good feeling about going to uni...there's even an opportunity to go abroad or work with a company after 2 years of study, then go back for your final year, so it's quite a good deal for me....plus going through it opens up a lot of different opportunities and career paths, and after a year you can change your degree or divert a little, so I might want to change my study focus or completely disregard Business and go for something completely different! Mum's dead excited about it and keeps hugging me at every opportunity, telling me how proud she is in that high pitched squeal that mothers launch into when they get excited about their son or daughter doing something amazing...

On Thursday night I went out with some work colleagues to celebrate (right choice of word??) somebody leaving and moving on to be a travel rep. It was the first time I'd done any serious drinking in a long long long time, and the simple pleasures of life, such as a Jack Daniels and Coke, trying to stick your head into everyone else's photo, and trying to go bed with the subtle feeling of goldfish swimming around your head, all came flooding back to me hehe. Of course, people who know me would say I don't need to drink anyway, rather that the drink simply amplifies me, but y'know, a few drops here and there didn't harm, plus Chantelle was impressed at how well I held my drink having not touched a drop for a number of years =D

Having stepped back from church, I do feel a lot more relaxed and free, and in recent times I've been thinking about how I don't really know anything about other religions, or philosophies or disciples from other people or parts of the world. Yesterday me and Chantelle drove to Ikea in Leeds, and on the way dropped into Borders on the same retail park, where I came across books on Wicca, Buddhism, Eastern teachings, and so on, and it got me thinking about just how much I don't know about all these ideas. Each time I have these little "lightbulb" moments I learn more and more towards the view that you don't have to stick to one straight teaching, or one church, or one movement, and that having a learned view of cultures and the world, having good morals and making the most of your life is really what counts....

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you're having a wonderful Christmas time and that you've not overdone it on the chocolate/turkey/nuts/crisps/[insert more food here]!!!!

My goodness, it's been a while since I updated this thing!

Last time I wrote, I was preparing to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. What's changed? Well, quite a lot actually! I am no longer an active member of the church, and consequently have no plans to serve a mission anytime soon. In researching and discussing church history and revealed doctrines, Scripture and so on, I have decided that the Church is not the right place for me.

I still have a firm conviction of the reality of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, but I am no longer committed to the "true" church - indeed I am once again in search of truth, but no longer have a belief in their being one true church that would act in God's name. I believe that God has a place in everyone and everything, and that one's "worthiness" is not defined by how many times you attend a church, or even how often you pray or read Scripture. I believe that God looks for the best in all of us, in how we act and speak, how we give our time and our abilities, and what we make of the life we're given. I still believe that Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice, and indeed gave all of His time and His effort to grant us the chance of happiness in this life and the life to come, and also the freedom to think and act for ourselves. I believe in Him and His words, His life, His teachings and His love for me and all of God's children, and I am determined to try and live my life in a way which is reflective of His....or as close as possible! :)

On the careers front, still I remain stuck! Whilst I like the people I work with Comet and can say that 9 times out of 10 I enjoy the work I do, I am again looking for other opportunities to gain more experience and make use of what I can do. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend an interview at Beverley Grammar School for the post of Assistant to the Data Manager. After interviewing there, and being tested on what might be a typical task, I decided to turn down the job and give it to one of the other candidates (all lovely people who seemed more enthusiastic and capable of working in a secretary/officey/admin role in a school!) But! I got a phone call a few days later asking if I would call them in the New Year as they would like to consider offering me a place in their IT team. Perhaps months of fixing people's PCs and massive spreadsheets at Comet is finally paying off!!

I'm determined to keep this more up to date in the New Year.....one of the guys at Comet has done a 366 day journal thingy on Facebook, with a summary and a photo of each day this year.....I'd love to have the determination to do something like that, even if it's just to see if I can do it....as Chantelle can tell you, it's a struggle for me just to keep a paper journal updated every month!!! =D

I'm going to revamp this blog and have a better crack at keeping it up to date in the New Year, but for now I've got Family Guy and Heroes box sets to plough through, and a mountain of chocolate to try and overcome, so I'll write again in a few days' (and 2 stones) time!! =D

Happy New Year!! Hope 2009 is a good year for everyone :)

Hello! Welcome to my blog...erm, never really done one of these before, except for those Bulletin thingies on MySpace. But, I thought I'd start a missionary blog and talk about what's happened so far and what's coming up :)

So, from the top, I'm a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, taught and baptised about two and a half years ago by some cool missionaries from Utah (where else?!) and since then I've wanted to serve a mission myself, to work for two years in another world, teaching God's children about the Gospel and offering my time and energy in serving the people I work with.

After interviews with my Bishop across roughly two to three months, I'm aiming for August to be gone and in the Missionary Training Centre. Not long to go I know, but the bulk of the work is getting cleared by medical professionals to work in practically any area of the world for two years. "Missionary red tape" you might call it, but it's worth it to know that I am in a good enough condition to travel across the globe! I've had some dental work done, and I need to go back soon to get signed off and make sure my teeth are still good, but I now need to sort out a full physical, to make sure that everything else works! I have a couple of weeks off work now, so there's never been a better time to get it sorted :)

Hope this becomes as much fun and as interesting to read as it will be to write it, I hope to continue this now from the start to the finish of my mission. I welcome all comments and feedback (any other missionaries out there that have done this??) but please, not too many anti-Church or hate posts - I've heard and read enough of that stuff to last me a lifetime, but I do welcome healthy debate and insights from Christians and non-Christians alike...

Shaun :)