Talk about burnout!

This is just an expansion of my facebook status about burnout. I read about this tennis player and think that we can all learn a little from her.

At age 14 Jennifer Capriati reached the semifinals of the

1990 French Open. The next year she became the youngest-ever women's semifinalist at Wimbledon, and in 1992 won the Olympic gold medal

by beating Steffi Graf in Barcelona, Spain. Then the pressures of being a teen sensation seemed to unnerve her, and her career fell apart. She was stopped for shoplifting in a Florida mall in 1993, and the next year arrested for possession of marijuana after a party in a Florida motel. Her police mug shot was widely published and became an

enduring image of a teen idol turned tortfeasor. Later in the 1990s Capriati began a slow career comeback. In 2001 she unexpectedly won her first Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open, and followed that with a second Grand Slam victory at the 2001 French Open. In January 2002 she again won the Australian Open, defeating Martina Hingis to defend her title. She was ousted in the first round of the 2003 Australian Open, and has since been hampered by back and shoulder injuries.

Moral of the story: TAKE IT EASY

สวัสดี S̄wạs̄dī (Hello in Thai)

I've neglected this blog like a Turkish neglects to obey street signs. I just wanted to post some exciting things going on in my spectrum of the world. School is going great, its been busy but in two semesters I look forward to going to THAILAND!

It is going to be quite the experience. I'm going there for a two week service trip. My team of 30 will be going to the southern part of Thailand, around Phuket. I will be on the medical team, I will assist the doctors that are going with us. We will do simple things such as check ups/physicals, lessons on hygiene, and we will stock their clinic with medical supplies that should last them for a while. Other things that we will be doing there is building them a bigger fish pond. These village children eat at school and eat the fish that they raise right from their own pond. Complaints have been made that the fish pond is too small. This will significantly help. We will also help their harvest their garden, and help expand that. While we are there we will get the opportunity to teach english lessons and supply their school with supplies.

This is truly why I want to go into the Health Sciences. I have always wanted to go on a trip like this, and this one is perfect because we get to touch on so many aspects of service it will truly be an enlightening experience.

I truly believe that goodness is giving service, and unselfishness. We are to live for others, and others live for you. This is goodness.

P.S. if you would like to donate to this trip, for supplies and such just send me an email and I will give you details!

Jordan Nielson

nielsonjordan01@gmail.com

The Story of the Broken Sheep

I heard this story today from my friend Masha and I thought it was ideal and everyone would benefit from hearing it, so here it goes. There's obviously a shepherd watching over a field of sheep. However there's one particular sheep that keeps wandering off and keeps getting lost. No matter what the shepherd does he can't figure out how to teach the sheep to stop from wandering off. Well the shepherd then breaks the sheep's legs (graphic I know, but bear with me there is a point to all of this). So this sheep has broken legs and it can't wander anymore because of the pain that it is in. The shepherd picks up the sheep and carries the sheep around everywhere. It takes a healthy amount of time for the sheep's legs to heal and by the time they are better the sheep has developed a personal relationship with the shepherd and no longer has the desire to wander.

I hope you know how I'm going to link this to life and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes when we are wandering and getting ourselves lost, Heavenly Father wants nothing more than to bring us back to the Him and to His commandments. When we are in the mist of trials (like the broken legs for the sheep) and we allow the Savior to carry us through those trials we build a deeper relationship with Him and gain a greater appreciation for the Atonement He performed for all of us.

I really like this story and I hope it made you realize that the trials we go through can make us or break us. I hope that as we all face different struggles and stresses in life we can look toward the Savior as our Physician and He will heal us according to our faith.