I Got my License!

Yesterday afternoon my mom took me to the DMV. I swear we were in there for hours.... after the paper work was all filled out I waited some more and took the my dads truck in the 3 point turn area. I wait some more and the instructor tests my lights then tells me to go into the coned spot and do a 3pt turn. If you hit a single cone you fail automatically. That really got my heart racing. I pull up and started backing up but then I realized I was going to hit a cone. SO i pulled up farther then backed up and completed the turn. The instructor said to pull to the side and wait so I did and watched the other kids trying to get their license do the 3 point turn. 2 out of the 5 failed.

The instructor got in my car and we drove around the block. It was quite easy but I was shaking really bad! The instructor said I need to watch my speed but other wise I did fine.

Having a license is suhweet! I drove around like all day yesterday lol.

Shooting Range!!

Yesterday afternoon we all went to the shooting range. I have never had so much fun shooting guns ever! It was a lot better than shooting all the .22's all the time. I shot the AR-15, AK-47, 30.06, .22 pistol, and the 9mm's. My favorite had to be the AR-15 along with the 9mm. AR-15 has pretty good kick but it doesnt like throw you back like Eric's 30.06. The 30.06 was really kool too though. I have to say I was freaked out to shoot it cuz it has a lot of kick. I shot it and man that was awesome! I shot it about 7 more times. The pistols were really kool. I have always wanted to shoot a 9mm. I am also surprised how much my mom shot. She is pretty tough! My dad...., he dont care. He just picks up the gun no matter how big, pop...pop...pop. Grandma Hooper even shot the AR-15 with the .22 bullets instead of the bigger ones with lots of kick. It was fun watching her just unload that clip haha!

Overall I think everyone had fun. I so want to do this again!

Me on the AR-15
Kirk making sure I properly loaded his gun
The little cousins all hanging out on the back of the truck

Grandma chilling out in the truck watching everyone shoot

Getting ready to shoot the AR-15

Dad on the AK-47

Mom on the AR-15 (look closely and you can see her bullet hit the dirt behind the target

AK-47 again

Mom also on the AK-47

Dad on the AR-15 (his bullet also just hit the dirt)

Me on the AK-47

Connor didnt like how much kick the AR-15 had lol

Connor like the .22 rifle

Me and my brother shooting

Helping Jenna shoot the .22

30.06!

My dad with his 9mm

Me shooting the .22 Pistol

Connor on the .22 pistol

mom on the 9mm (she looked deadly lol)

Past weeks...

Over the past few weeks i have been really busy reading The Scarlet Letter and writing essays and character analysis' for my AA English class. Geometry is pointless. I will most likely never use this stuff in life...i mean, when am I ever gonna need to do proofs and write all the steps i did to find the proof...so stupid. Seminary is really cool. There are a lot of really good and smart kids in my class so I learn alot. We are studying the Book of Mormon this year and so far I am loving it. Its the time to just relax listen to the spirit and get away from the vain things at school. Orchestra is like the best class besides seminary. My orchestra director is awesome! He so funny and loves doing what he is doing. Yesterday after school, he helped me with my bowing technique because I told him I am having issues with it. I am already playing a lot smoother. Now I just need to practice and et used to the improved bowing grip.

Biology is pretty kool. This class is really easy for me. I have a 96% in this class and have gotten 100%'s on basically every quiz and test. I guess this means i am meant to be a doctor lol!

Drivers Ed is pointless. I am really not learning anything. Its a great class for those people who are trying to get their permit. I am learning everything I need to learn from my dad on the road.

Sign language is really cool. I love that I am learning a language and playing at the same time. Its fun to be swinging your hands all over the place and are actually signing words.

I am also doing baseball after school Monday and Wednesday. I am getting a lot better and hopefully Ill make the JV team.

Its my BIRTHDAY TOMMOROW!!!!!! I am so excited to turn 16 and being able to drive and date too. I feel like life is going by so fast. Each year is faster and faster. (a great bday present would be some money to fix up the chevelle haha!!!) By the way I am updating the chevelle blog also.


"Of course, there is no going back, but only forward. Rather than dwelling on the past, we should make the most of today. Of the here and now providing pleasant memories for the future."
-President Thomas S. Monson

Chevelle Blog

www.hoopers71chevelle.blogspot.com

This is the blog for the car I will drive when I am 16. It will give you all the updates of me and my dad's progress on getting the car ready for emissions.

Check it out!

My Talk

So yesterday i gave a talk on Gratitude. I think i did a pretty good job. I had a lot of nice job's afterwards too.

Here is my talk for anyone who wishes to read it..

My talk this afternoon is on the topic Gratitude. The Strength of Youth pamphlet says The Lord wants us to have a spirit of gratitude in all we do and say. If we live with a spirit of gratitude we will have greater happiness in life, even in the most difficult times. Also in our prayers, before we ask for blessings, pour out your heart to God in thanks for all the blessings you have already received. Thank him for your family, for friends and loved ones, for leaders and teachers, for the gospel, and for his Son Jesus Christ.

When I read this early last week, I felt like I needed to thank my Heavenly Father more than I regularly do. The next time I prayed I thanked the Lord for about every blessing I could think of. I noticed that the Spirit was with me more strongly than normal. My day went smoothly and I felt the Spirit quite often and I was happy. At the end of that day I reflected on how I thanked the Lord for everything I had and how my day had turned out. I thought of how I feel when I do something nice for someone else and they greatly appreciate it and tell me thank you and how that it makes me feel good and want to serve that person again. Then I thought how the Lord might feel when his children thank him for all he does. I think it makes the Lord happy to see that his children care for what he does and makes the Lord want to bless them even more.

In the November 2008 Ensign, President Monson said, “Of course, there is no going back, but only forward. Rather than dwelling on the past, we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future.” This quote from our prophet has helped me so much. Whenever I am feeling alone or depressed I read this and it always gives me the strength to stop thinking of all the bad things that have happened in my life, and instead, as President Monson said, provide pleasant memories for the future.

A way we can create these happy memories is by showing thanks to our friends and family for all they do for us and as well, thanking our Heavenly Father for the things he does.

I know that Gratitude is something we all should have. When we try to see the blessings in our lives instead of the bad things, it helps us become more cheerful and more grateful for the blessings we have already received. All of us are going to have trials in life and have those rough days. When these come into our lives, we should try to find something to be grateful for. For example, I am grateful for the friends that I have, and for my cute little kitty, and for my wonderful parents and grand-parents, and for my education, my home and even my brothers and sisters. Having this grateful attitude will push us through the troubles we have and help us overcome them easier.

AMEN

What's been going on...

So lately I have obviously going to school and such. I have finished up my Eagle Project for Andrea's Closet 2 weeks ago. Me, my dad, and some friends from the ward went to the Andrea's Closet warehouse to inventory/stock the toys. There were lots of toys in this place. They were arranged by dollar amount. The bottom shelves were $3 and under, 2nd lowest shelf $5 under, the middle shelf $10, 2nd highest shelf $20 and under, and the highest shelf was above $20 (it was something close to this). There are different shelves for boy toys and girl toys. We took all my toys i collected and seperated them by its $ amount. Then we colored stickers on them (each sticker color meant a certain $ amount). then stocked them on the shelves. It was a lot of fun and Kenny Brunk (the president of Andrea's Closet) was really funny too. We collected approximately $3373 ($423 per hour), 566 toys, all in 8 hours at the Southern Walmart in the Superstition Springs Mall area. The project was definitely a success. All i have to do now is fill out the rest of the paperwork and then the court of honor to be an official Eagle Scout. i will also update info on the celebration of my cart going to St. Joe's hospital.

I have also become obsessed with the '71 Chevelle too. I will be driving this car when I am 16 (6 weeks exactly to this day). I love this car! Me and my dad are working on this and soon will have it looking good and running well enough to drive. I am so greatful for awesome parents to help me with the money to get this car fixed and to help me pay for my insurance as well!! Love you guys!

I am starting a blog for my dad and I's progress on the chevelle too. When I have it set up I will put up a link on facebook and on my blog.

:/

I have been totally forgetting about my blog ltely. I have been so busy getting ready for school and i promise i will post after school :)).

Catch up

So lately i have been working on my eagle project and just been hanging out with friends. I have a nice sized toy collection going and I am going to give my letter of approval to the Walmart on Southern and will hopefully get accepted and a date chosen.

Baptisms for the dead are next tuesday and i will hopefully be doing names for my ancestors the Koenigsbergers. I have always wanted to do names for my ancestors. I am so excited to help them. On wednesday I will go with Grandma Hooper to help her with all that.

Well thats pretty much it soooo....yea ill let u know when something exciting happens. :))

Youth Conference, EAGLE PROJECT

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to youth conference. It was alright, i think it could've been better. The best part was when they set up a trail through the forest with different spots for things like the great and spacious building and the mist of darkness form Lehis Dream of the Tree of Life. It was amazing. I have always wondered what it would feel like being one of those people in that dream. We were holding on to literal rods of iron with one of our leaders dressed in a white cloak symbolizing the Holy Ghost. I felt so safe on the rod and that i knew nothing bad was going to happen to me. The tree of life was pretty cool too. It was lit up with Christmas lights and hymns were being played.

After the tree of life we started heading back to camp. We didnt have our rods anymore and the leaders didnt have there lights on anymore. I noticed that I was tripping over lots of rocks and branches. I looked back and remembered that I was tripping over small things while holding on the rod but I still felt very safe. When i didnt have the rod I felt like i would just keep tripping and tripping and soon might actually fall over. These bumps on the road to me were like temptations and sins. I reflected on this the following day and just felt how hard it must be for those who dont have the gospel in their lives and dont know about or how to use the atonement and how we can repent for our sins. It must be very hard for them to not have the spirit guide them and to feel its comfort.

I am holding a Toy Drive for my Eagle Project benefitting Andrea's Closet. Andrea's Closet is a non-profit organization that stocks toys in most Hospitals throughout Arizona allowing children to having something to look forward to before a painful/scary medical procedure by choosing a toy out of a big closet full of new toys. If you would like to visit their site it is andreascloset.org. My little brother went to Andrea's Closet after some procedures they did when he had pneumonia. He picked out a cool little tractor and that made him so happy! So all I am asking for is a simple toy donation. They can be any kind of toy as long as they are new from the store. There will be a large box outside my house on my porch. My address is 6626 E. Preston st. if you have any questions feel free to call me at 480-635-6277 or email me at jonathan_hooper@cox.net. Thanks!!

The Kitty

Our cat Stormy had babies like 2 weeks ago and this is the only one that survived Alex. She is so cute! I love her so much lol! Her name is just plain old kitty cuz thats what everyone calls. WE had a little fight last night about the name if it should be named Honey or just kitty. Kitty won but the girls of course freaked out so we said we would call her Kitty Honey Hooper lol! Well yesterday I saw that she was trying so hard to walk so I have pictures of her walking!

Papago Park

Me an my friend landon went to Papago Park to go fishing. We left my house at 4:30am and got to the lake at 5. Since the gates were closed we had to walk a mile with all of our gear down to the lake. When we finally get we set up our gear and start fishing. I starte walking around the lake to look for spots fish would want to be hiding. I stopped at a part that was completely covered with moss. I knew fish would be down there. The moss started clearing up since new water was being put in the lake pushing the moss father out. As the moss cleared I saw this huge Carp! It was white and orange. Biggest Carp I have ever seen. Too bad I didnt catch it. After 4 hours of not catching anything e moved down to the middle lake.

Landon I were just looking around for Bluegill and other sunfish since they are right on the shoreline. Landon puts his line in the water and within 5 seconds he pops out a bluegill. He threw his line in a again and within 5 seconds popped out another bluegill. I was like man what are u useing for bait!? He was just using a small bit of live worms. We both started throwing in the worms far being the fish and reeling it in and a fish would bite it just about everytime. It was o awesome! WE caught about 20 fish in like 2 hours! (the fish started getting a little smarter as we went)

Here are some picture of like half of the fish we caught.

The biggest bluegill ive ever seen/caught

This is the spot we fished at. Where ever we threw our line we were bound to catch a fish.

Transformers 2

I went and saw the midnight showing of Transformers 2 and it was a pretty good movie. There were a lot of things that didnt need to be in the movie but it was pretty good and action packed.
I am pretty sure that there is going to be a transformers 3 bcuz of the ending.

Now I am really tired lol.

Tempe Town Lake

Well yesterday I went to Tempe Town Lake at 4AM with my friend Landon. I was using my brand new nice fishing pole (my other one broke) and I was very excited to use this big pole. So we get the lake around 5am an start fishing under the bridges. There were lots of fish jumping around and the weather outside was nice and cool (until the same popped up over the 202). We didnt catch any fish. I tried every bait I had in my tack box from plastic worms too doughballs. After 5 and a half hours we left kind of bummed cuz of not catching anything and went to the beach park with my family. It was still a lot of fun but wouldve been better if we caught something.


But wait! I did catch something! We went to the dam and fished there and I was reeling my line in very slowly and all of sudden my fishing pole just sunk into the water. I thought I had a big fish. I set the hook and start reeling it in as fast as I could. It started coming to the surface and it looked round and definitely not like a fish. I pulled it up guess what it was....a ROCK! I was really bummed lol.

Roosevelt Lake Trip June 4,5,6

For my teachers quorum super activity we went to Roosevelt Lake for 3 days and 2 nights. We had lots of fun canoeing, fishing, water skiing, tubing, knee boarding, etc. It was by far the most fun super activity I have ever been on! Skiing with Kirk was such an awesome experience doing all the cool tricks and stuff. It was also way fun to water ski with my friend landon and my dad. If only my dads feet weren't hurting him in those darn skiis.

I slept in the canoe trailer because I was too afraid to sleep on the ground after the saying from kirk. Kirk said that the bugs just crawl all over you anyway when you are asleep and you dont even know it. Me and bunch of other kids were just like..... um im not sleeping on the ground anymore lol.

Fishing was fun but unsuccessful. I could've caught a big Carp or some Catfish if some of the boys didnt start making all this noise and scare the fish away. It was just me and my dad sitting in this little fishing hole by our camp surrounded by tall trees that were submersed under the water watching all these blue gill have a feeding frenzy and out of no where, 2 large catfish and 1 big carp come swimming by staring at my raw bacon. Then all of sudden Ahhhhh hey jon! What you doing! I look at the boys and out my finger to my mouth saying shhhhh. I look back and fish darted away. Man was I mad!

Well for some stupid reason I cant get the pictures downlaoded so if you are my friend on facebook feel free to look at them there.

Good News! and the game with RMHS

I made the Chamber Orchestra at Red Mountain! It is the highest orchestra at the high school! I am so excited to play with a really talented and big group. The best part about this is that we will be able to go to California and since we are there we are stopping at Disneyland! I am so happy I made it.

Yesterday was my first baseball game with Red Mountain High School's summer baseball league. I did really well. I was warming up doing stretches and stuff and the coach was like where's Hooper. He found e and said hey you are starting us off pitching. I was like....what!? I was happy, excited, nervous, scared all at the same time lol. I went and warmed up with the catcher and I threw ok. I started off the game throwing nothing but strikes. It was probably my best pitching I have ever done. 1st batter got out on a pop fly the second batter got out from a grounder to shortstop and the last out was a strike-out. Everyone was proud of me. I had strong at bats but got walked both times all on full counts cuz I was always swinging cuz i wanted to get on base and the coach liked that cuz he told everyone that that was a good at bat. I then sat for 2 innings after pitching my second inning. Then played some first base. Oh btw we lost that game but it dont matter.

Thats all for now!

Lake Trip!

So we went to Canyon Lake cause the Salt River was closed probably cuz it was to crowded. It was a lot of fun just being with my family and nobody else. It was nice to get break from all the other kids my mom babysits and just be together. The water felt great and the pay beach wasnt too crowded and it was also very nice with grass and lots of trees for shade :). I also caught my first fish and as I got it into the ice chest I started feeling really bad and was like man this fish is going to miss its family. Then my mom jut starts cracking up. I was like mom....what u laughing at and she was like fish dont have families. Then I started think how fish reproduce and they just lay eggs and stuff and leave them then those fish just go eat sleep lay eggs then die. Now I dont feel so guilty anymore and am excited to catch some mroe fish this afternoon at Red Mountain park with my friend landon. I will bring the camera and take pictures of me fishing and stuff.

just a 6" bluegill

Fishing

On saturday I was talking to grandpa about how Im going to Roosevelt lake for my teachers quorum super activity and I needed a fishing pole and he offered to get me one and a few things that I needed as well. He ended buying a bunch of stuff and wanted to make sure I could do just about everything like he got me all the different hooks for one fish and stuff like that lol. I do appreciate it alot and am so excited to go fishing now! Thanks Grandpa Hooper!

hooks