The exact moment when I decided to study Arabic and live in the middle east was toward the end of my 2-year mission in India. I read Alma chapters 17 to 26 from the Book of Mormon at the time, and I really saw the potential for an Arab King Lamoni someday. I wanted to be Ammon (delusions of grandeur much?), or at least one of the other sons of Mosiah.
When I got home, I lost my courage a bit, and instead of majoring in Arabic, I tried majoring in anthropology during the spring term of 2003, with just a minor in Arabic. That got boring really fast, and on July 8, I attended this devotional in the DeJong Concert Hall at the HFAC on BYU campus. It was like he was speaking directly to me, so I switched to Arabic. I spent the next two months studying Arabic close to 8 hours a day and living with a Palestinian roommate, then I moved to Egypt for 4 months to study Arabic more. When I got back, I felt like I'd made a lot of progress, but I also felt like I was plateauing in my Arabic ability, and occasionally wondering what on earth I was going to do for my career.
On Mar 2, 2004, I attended this devotional at the Marriott Center. Again, the speaker directly addressed my concerns and I felt peace even though I didn't have answers to my questions.
A few lessons from this:
1) if you attend one of the BYUs, make it a habit to attend or at least read the devotional addresses. I always came away edified and/or educated, and in these two cases, they literally changed the course of my life.
2) God is aware of you and he has a plan for you. It may take you somewhere scary or uncomfortable, but it's worth it. He'll make it work out in the end.
3) keep a journal. I confirmed all the details of this account by going back in my journals and comparing what I wrote to the online speech archives from BYU. My kids and their kids and so on for generations will know why I did what I did because I wrote about it.
When I got home, I lost my courage a bit, and instead of majoring in Arabic, I tried majoring in anthropology during the spring term of 2003, with just a minor in Arabic. That got boring really fast, and on July 8, I attended this devotional in the DeJong Concert Hall at the HFAC on BYU campus. It was like he was speaking directly to me, so I switched to Arabic. I spent the next two months studying Arabic close to 8 hours a day and living with a Palestinian roommate, then I moved to Egypt for 4 months to study Arabic more. When I got back, I felt like I'd made a lot of progress, but I also felt like I was plateauing in my Arabic ability, and occasionally wondering what on earth I was going to do for my career.
On Mar 2, 2004, I attended this devotional at the Marriott Center. Again, the speaker directly addressed my concerns and I felt peace even though I didn't have answers to my questions.
A few lessons from this:
1) if you attend one of the BYUs, make it a habit to attend or at least read the devotional addresses. I always came away edified and/or educated, and in these two cases, they literally changed the course of my life.
2) God is aware of you and he has a plan for you. It may take you somewhere scary or uncomfortable, but it's worth it. He'll make it work out in the end.
3) keep a journal. I confirmed all the details of this account by going back in my journals and comparing what I wrote to the online speech archives from BYU. My kids and their kids and so on for generations will know why I did what I did because I wrote about it.
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