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.