Conflict

Something really cool that I learned from the lecture and in class this week is that conflict is not only present in all of our lives, which I already knew ha, but that it is Necessary. Whenever I have thought or been taught about conflict, it has usually been focused on how to eliminate it from my life. But as I learned, a little conflict, when used in the right way, can actually be beneficial. Now I'm not talking about the "contentious" type of conflict here, because that is bad, but I am talking about the type of conflict that encourages perfection, creativity and improvement. For example, I learned that in a business situation, conflict between employees can encourage competition which in turn stimulates those "creative-juices" for new ideas which can result in success and improvement within the company. Also, ironically, conflict within the Family can be and is an excellent way for the family to grow closer together. However, again it has to be the right kind of conflict. As I learned in class, the pattern to find this "right" or beneficial kind of conflict is found in D&C 121 (specifically verses 41-46) I won't go into the specifics of these verses (Although I Highly recommend studying them!:) but I will say that if we follow this pattern of constructive criticism within our families and marriages, it can prove to strengthen us and bring us closer together, not only with each other, but with the Lord. And ultimately I learned that in order to have righteous conflict, one must be full of "unfeigned" or unfailing (charity) Love with whomever the person is that they are in conflict with, because that way when the conflict is solved rather than having bitter and harsh feelings towards one another, you will be filled with a greater love, trust, and respect for them and in consequence be closer friends/loved ones with each other. I'm so grateful for this Awesome lesson! It taught me to look at conflict in a whole different light and it makes me excited to try and apply the Right kind of conflict solving into my life.

This week I continued with my leadership role by going to Service Squad on Wednesday night with Y Serve. We went to the Campus Plaza Apartments where we offered to do a variety of acts of service for people such as sweep the floors, take out the trash and do the dishes. It was so fun and we got to meet lots of really cool people! Probably my favorite incident was the first door we knocked on. As we walked by the glass screen door that peered into the kitchen, we saw a big sign above the sink that read, "Everyone make sure to do your dishes PLEASE!" We laughed as we saw the big pile of dishes below the sign because we knew these girls had no excuse not to let us offer our service to them. :) As expected, when the girl, her name was Hillary, answered the door and we told her what we were doing, she was initially shocked and then in the hasty, natural response said, " oh no, you don't have to do anything for us, but that is so nice though..." We gently asked a second time, "Are you sure??? Because we'd L-O-V-E to do it!" I think she thought we were nutty for being so Eager to serve her ha! But to our satisfaction, she graciously consented and let us in to do her dishes for her! As we did so, we had the opportunity to talk to her, to get to know how her day was, and eventually to even get to know a lot more about her personally. As we sincerely chatted with her, it was awesome to see how she opened up to us and eventually we were all talking and joking around as if we were good friends. Before we left, she sincerely thanked us and told us that we had just made her whole night! WOW! I cannot tell ya how GOOD that felt to hear her say that! I am so grateful to have been a tool in the Lord's hands by serving his children-no matter how simple of a way, and specifically one of his precious daughters, Hillary. This is what life is all about! As it says in Moses 1:39, "Behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." It is my sincere desire, goal, hope and prayer that I can be a worthy servant of the Lord in helping to fulfill this his mission and helping to serve his children throughout my entire Life. I am so grateful for this testimony building experience and the wonderful lessons about the purpose of life that it has taught to me.

6 Thinking Hats & Leadership styles

In my leadership role this week, I tried to incorporate the things we were taught both from the Leadership styles lecture on Monday and the 6 thinking Hats activity on Wednesday.

For my role at serving in "Y Serve" on Wednesday, I noticed that as a group we acted much like the affiliative leadership style. We did this by "emphasizing the importance of teamwork" and thus creating unity within our group. Our leaders were also good Pacesetters. They set a high goal in the number of people we were to serve tonight as well as set a timelimit that required us to work fast and effectively.

As for the Six Thinking Hats, I observed that in general our Y Serve Group tended to be Yellow Hat thinkers or leaders. We were all extremely positive and optimistic in our opportunity to serve others and reach our goal of making a difference in someone's life. Our enthusiasm was reflected in our "Sunny" and eager countenances. It was cool to apply these leadership styles and thinking hats to my leadership role and to see how they effectively worked.

This week for my leadership role I decided to try out the Y Service Squad on Wednesday night. I L-O-V-E-D it! We went around all of the dorms at Helaman halls learning peoples names, getting to know them, and offering to take out people's trash. My group hit up the boys hall at Budge. We met a lot of nice people and it was cool to get to know them. Stephanie, our leader, told us to concentrate specifically on remembering people's names and said that knowing the individual can make a huge difference. She also said it is important to give real and sincere compliaments to people because they can tell the difference. She used me as an example of giving a sincere compliament when she told me that my eyes were some of the prettiest blue eyes she'd ever seen-that was so nice of her! She is a cutie and I really could tell that she meant it and that is awesomeness.

I couldn't help but think this club is perfect for me! I love serving others and helping people to experience the same happiness that I have felt and been the recipient of. It is also funny that this club fits perfectly with my personality type (ESFJ) in that it focus's on the welfare of others and this is how my personality type recieves the greatest personal satisfaction(which is so true!) It is Awesome to feel like you've made a difference, no matter how small or simple, in someone's life.

And as was testified to all of us who attended Y Serve...'What goes around, comes around!' This was brought to light in a very funny coincidence that occurred: One of the groups went on and on in detail about this extremely messy room on the first floor of one of the boys halls. As they continued describing it, one of the boys in our Y serve group asked more about it's description and it turns out it was his room!!! :D hahaha! There really is such a thing as kharma! haha! What goes around, does often come around! Overall, it was such a fun experience and a great way to serve and to get involved as a Christlike leader on campus.

Personality Reflection

Turns out when I checked my paper after I got to my apartment, I wasn't an ENFJ afterall:) sorry to lower the number of ENFJ folk in our class ha!

But it turns out I am an ESFJ(Extroverted, Sensing, Feeling, Judging), which is still pretty close! :) And like many of you who also took the Meyers & Briggs test, I was shocked at how accurate some of the results were for me. Like I said in class today, although these are my results, as Steve Smith said in his lecture Monday, these only represent my preferences, not necessarily what I always exhibit. Yet I found these preferences to be generally very true.

I learned several things about myself. One thing I learned is that as an ESFJ, I am a people person: i love people and I am warmly and sincerely interested in others! I want to like people and I have a special skill(as does my Mom:) of bringing out the best in others. This is so true! I love service and making others feel better! I get the greatest personal satisfaction from the happiness that I can hopefully give to others. This quality reflects my strong view that this life is all about serving other people ultimately and helping each other to return home to our loving Heavenly Father(Moses 1:39).

I also learned a little about my leadership potential from this test. It said that I have a strong desire to be liked and for everything to be pleasant which makes me highly supportive of others. It also said that I like to be in control(not usually the case for me?) and to help things be organized. Also that I take my responsibility very seriously and am thus dependable. It also mentioned that I respect and believe in laws and rules of authority and that I believe others should as well, which is very true of me. I believe that obedience is key to safety and true happiness. These are all very good qualities when it comes to being an effective leader.

Knowing both the weaknesses and the strengths of my personality type can help me better understand others as well. Knowing that being such a people person I am easily susceptible to be hurt from others indiffrence and that I don't understand unkindness, I can recognize when this happens that I should not take it personally or let it dissuade my desire to show kindness. Also I can let my love for others fuel my desire to help them achieve their own successes. Thus I can utilize my gifts and talents for the benefit of those whom I serve.

News Flash!!! :): In my several weeks of exploring, I finally decided on a club to join! Yay! And it happens to be one of the most random, but definately one of the coolest clubs out there-The Vietnamese Club!!! Haha! How it happened, well lets just say one of my good Vietnamese buddies, MyMy, happens to be the President of the Vietnamese club and she invited me to her house for dinner where we all ate a DELICIOUS Vietnamese meal and she told me I should join the club because there would be lots of fun things(such as eating amazing Vietnamese food ;) to do and learn about, so I decided somewhat spontaneously to join the club and I am so excited for it ha! I can't wait to add this as part of my leadership role as well and report back how it goes.....

Other news: My current leadership role in being a good room mate and campus cheerer-upper have been going quite sweetly. I'm learning to love my room mates and I comfortably enjoy spending time with them now. Also I have tried to increase the amount of smiles and friendly "hellos" I have been giving daily to random strangers on campus...it is very fun ha! Smiles truly have a rippling affect and it is awesomeness to be apart of that effect! I hope to continue increasing my number of acts of friendliness at school and everywhere I go, as well as work on being a good servant leader.

Also, I thouroghly enjoyed our class discussion this week as well as our lecture. I love how everything we discuss in this class often ties in with the Savior and his perfect style of leadership and how we can emulate his example. Also King Benjamin is an excellent example in the Book of Mormon of how a righteous leader should act and view himself. I love the statement as well in 1 Cor. 12:9-10"For when I am weak, then am I strong." This statement is so True! I have found in my own life that when I am sincerely striving to be humble, grateful, and filled with more charity and other Christlike attributes, or when I am struggling to repent-to change for the better, to overcome a weakness, challenge, or hard trial, it is during these times of weakness that I come the closest to my Savior, feel his great love for me, and gain testimony of the true and amazing power of his Atonement in my life. Truly as Nephi and many others have said, " All things are possible with the Lord!"