Life story.

This week, we talked alot about same sex attraction.  Sometimes I feel like no one really has had any interaction with that kind of stuff. He had us respond to a few different scenarios in class and write how we would respond. He then asked us how many of us have actually found ourselves in these situations. Me and 2 other people raised our hands... there's like 40 people in this class. How is this possible? This is all around us these days! Alright i'm not saying that everyone is sheltered and unaware of this stuff, I was just a little shocked at how many really havent had personal experiences with knowing others that say they have attraction to the same sex.

So I have grown up in the Bay Area of California. I mean, they call it the "Gay Bay".  That should speak for itself. I've witnessed Gay Pride parades, and grew up with people that now consider themselves gay or lesbian, and have watched members of the church leave because they wanted to act on their gay or lesbian tendencies.  My heart aches for this people. I cant even fathom the pschological, emotional, phsycial and social struggles they go through on a daily basis.  I remember when Prop 8 was a HUGE issue. The First Presidency wrote directly to all of the YSA wards asking for our help in fighting for it, and when they said fight, that's exactly what they meant.  We stood on streets waving  signs for hours voting week. And were to be vocal on facebook, myspace, twitter about it.  I saw how society no longer seemed to act like human biengs. It was like we turned into animals.  Member's property was defiled, and the temples were grafitti-ed and threatened with bombs and what not. 

This is a moral issue. And it must be defended. It is not my place to judge someone who considers themself as gay or lesbian.  But I know that God has a plan. And it can only be fulfilled with marriage between a man and a woman. Its the way it was designed from the creation of this earth.  Heavenly Father doesn't love someone who is gay or lesbian anyless than someone who is straight.  But He has designed things a certain way.  Recognize that the ability you have to choose and act for yourself, was give from Him. But it was given on the condition that we would do all we could to become like Him and follow His plan and commandments.

Culture Crutches

SO today in class we were discussing about something that I felt like I saw SO MUCH on my mission. We were discussing a bit about the challenges that can take place on an immigrant family when they go to another country.  On my mission I saw alot of families that went through this in Spain.  It usually happened that the mom or dad, sometimes both came to Spain, leaving the kids in their country with Grandma or a sister or someone.  They came to Spain looking for work, which was near to impossible to find which not many immigrants knows before getting there.  They go years at a time without seeing their kids, scrounging for work, and then sending it back to send their kids through school and then trying to pay for 2 places and save enough to be able to go get their kids and bring them to Spain.  Of the families that I did see in Spain from other countries, I could tell that they were not accepted by the Spanish culture, and looked down upon. You can see that these immigrants kids are not accepted socially by the Spainards in school, and that Spainards label them as only capable of doing certain things. You could even see it segregated a bit within the church.  I can only imagine the stress that this brings upon a family, kids going through school, trying to make ends meat. Its a miracle when a family can make it through that.

Does it really affect everyone?

Today in class we did an example of how each part of the family is affected when something happens. He got 5 students to come up and get in a circle where they held hands. Our teacher would tug on someone to pull them back and you could see how the others holding on would have to step forward to catch themselves otherwise they would go down. The stepped up to support the one being held back a bit and would adjust accordingly. But then I was thinking about it. What if someone resisted the tug? I feel like we can see that happen in our own families or we could be the one's resisting. I feel like there have been different points in my life where I was a "resister". I just wanted to act like what was going on at home, in my life, with my family's life was non-existant. I was resisted something that was tugging me. And at the beginning it didnt seem like it was so heavy, but it wears you down after a while. Although things in a family may affect one individual, its easiest when the stress of the situation or divided up amongst the whole family. Someone told me during my mission that a burden is always easier to carry when your not the only one carrying it. I really think that is true. And I can see how this can be related to the family.