Looking Back

This semester of school has been a really fun one for me. I've been around byu for a couple years now, but have decided on pushing back my freshman writing until this semester! Alongside writing I've spent the semester engulfed with art classes and with more programming. And although my figure sketching has been the most fun class for me during my stay at BYU, writing wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Back throughout middle school I was good at writing. Though with those classes if one was able to write one's name on a piece of paper it was passed with an A. But in high school I was bumped into an honors class with the worst teacher in existence whose only goal was to fail me in all aspects of my writing, and sense then I've avoided it at all costs.

This class has helped me reach heights that I've never shot at before. Before hand if a page was to exceed a length of three pages it was too much for me. I would want nothing to do with it. But the class then threw a ten page assignment into my face. Though it worried me for weeks, I put much research into the topics. And by the end of my research I was somehow not only able to reach the required amount, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to restrict myself to ten pages!

On top of that I also had the opportunity to better myself in identifying more aspects of writing. And I was able to more better analyse other people works. For me my writing class has giving back a confidence to my writing that I have long lost before. As well as set me up to better succeed in the future as well!

Research on Name Change

For my research topic I decided to look into the subject on why people decided to change, and the benefits of doing so. The reason this topic intrigues me is due to the fact that my ancestors changed their name from Larsson to Tangren. At first I thought that I'd look into why immigrants decide to change their name, but my studies widened out to name change in general.

I discovered that my family did not change their name upon moving to America, like I thought that they did before. But it was changed a couple centuries before hand. Sweden had a problem with having repetitive surnames. One's surname did not stay the same from generation to generation, but changed each time. When one was born, their surname was their father's first name, added with either Son or Dotter, meaning son or daughter. Lars, who had a son, gave the son a surname of Larsson. But soon half of Sweden was having the same surname.

Sweden had to abandon the patronymic system of creating a surname. And many of the inhabitants were given a new name by the government, especially if that someone was in the military. And by doing so instead of losing one's identity, when was more given one.

But then outside of Sweden many immigrants found favor in changing their surnames. This gave great benefit when integrating into a new society. Studies have actually shown that when immigrants migrated to a new country, those who decided to change their name had a greater success with both getting a great job and earning more money than those who decided upon keeping their surnames.

The subject goes into great depth, and their is still defiantly much that I do not know about it. But it was a really fun subject to study as a crafted together a research paper. Not only did get to read from experiences from immigrants, but I also received more knowledge on my own ancestry and why I have the last name that I do. Though writing research papers isn't the most fun thing to occupy my time, I was entertained with diving into the research itself.

Is Your Name Swedish?

Everyone has heard of Sweden, right? Swedes are those people with really goofy accents, with large muscular viking girls, and their Ikeas, and not to mention their mountains of meatballs. We've heard of these things, but then no one really knows where it's located. And they speak Swiss, don't they? Actually it's Swedish :P But what people really may not realize as well is that many of us have Swedish ancestry, and Swedish names. Is your name Swedish? How can can you tell? While it may be difficult at times here are some very common surnames in Sweden.

The most common follow the patronymic system. Surnames weren't that common in earlier times, and people would be refereed to by their fathers name. If you were a boy, you'd be referred to as your father's first name, plus "Son", for son. Same goes for daughter, but instead of son it'd be "Dotter", for daughter. That's why we hear a lot of Larssons and Johanssons. Because they were Lars son, or Johans son. If your last name ends with son then it's Swedish.

Sometimes Swedes were referred to by the place they lived. If you were a farmer people might now you by the name of your farm. Maybe your famous for something you did in the military, and they gave you a name based on location. Swedes eventually got to the point were too many had the same name, half the place was Larsson. So it was common that the government or military gave you a new name. But these can be very difficult to track down, as they are named after places around the world.

But more commonly again is simple Swedish words in names. A list of common words you'll see in surnames may be

gren:branch
berg:mountain
strom:stream
felt:field
svard:sword

My surname is Tangren. I'm from the branch of tan. Actually tan doesn't mean anything, I'm still researching into that. But "gren" throws up a flag indicating that it's Swedish.

There are many many more names that can be identified as Swedish, but this serves as a good example on how names sometimes tended to work in Sweden!

Flooding the Earth!

In a speech Elder Bednar, an apostle and leader for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, challenged the faithful members of the church to use social media as a means to reach out in extending the gospel to all the corners of the Earth. This was a great talk and my opinions of it are that social media is a door that opens the gospel to a tremendous amount of people.

Individuals of the world today spend far more time on devices. The world has been made available at a touch of a screen. Knowing that people may spend more time staring at a screen than the outdoors it makes sense that we can reach out to more people if we spend more time in chat rooms. Also are reach is far greater. Imagine the thousands of people that may look at a single blog that you write. The chances of people hearing what you have to say is far greater on social media than it is by walking around the street of your block.

Also my thoughts are that youth who are engaged online, and now how to navigate with ease, are more comfortable online. While this may have it's negativeness, it also means that they will have an easier time sharing the gospel. They will be more confident in approaching a friend. Not to mention that the time that they can write something is never limited. One can easily spread one's thoughts in the middle of the night, and then have it later seen by another.

But it is not only the youth who should be using Social Media, Bednar also encourages the older generations to use it as well. This may mean that they have to learn how to use their computer. Or in the case of my own dad, learn to open up a little trust to the internet. The older generation can't use their age as an excuse not to use social media. After all if us younger generation has to step up and do ancestry, then they can create a Facebook account :P And with the more people online, the more people that will be reached out to.

Again social media is the way to reach out to millions of people. People are constantly online. And as we as faithful members get used to using social media we will have the means to flood the earth with Christ's gospel!

Atonement Lets Us Rise! (A Highlight From General Conference)

It is a great opportunity that we have to listen to modern day apostles and prophets speak to us each time general conference comes around. And it was a special treat to have Easter Sunday on the same day as well. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is centered around Christ's Atonement! Many talks hit the subject of the atonement. And one that I really enjoyed came from Holland.

Holland is one of the twelve apostles of the LDS church. He has devoted many years in the service of the Lord, is very intelligent and a strong mouthpiece in declaring the gospel to the world! Being in the position he is, and having the knowledge and wisdom that he has he has much authority in speaking.

In his talk he talk a quick jog alongside Adam and Eve. How they lived in a Paradisaical world that knew not death, nor birth. When they stomped on God's commandment not to eat of the forbidden fruit they were cast out, but were able to bear children and also introduced death.

God foresaw this, and as part of the plan gave the world his son. That through his Son's death and sacrifice mankind has been freed from the death's grasp, and also has the opportunity to triumph over the penalties of sin.

Also Christ arose from death, his tomb is empty! That is what we Christians celebrate on this most holy day of Easter. The meaning of the gospel is to rise! If not than the whole plan of salvation would be destroyed. And as Christ arose, we, his children and adopters of his name, will arise also! The fall has no effect on us. And we have much to rejoice in that! Why do we fall? So that we may rise again! (Batman)

The question is what will we do because of this? It's true that death will have no hold on any single person during the resurrection. But spiritual death, sin, can still apply on us. It is important that we accept the name of Christ and be adopted into his flock so that we may throw off those chains as well! It's up to us if we wish to do so.

Kebab Pizza!

When I lived in Sweden for a couple years I had my experience of the food their culture enjoys. Many times when others have the experience of traveling outside their home country they try many exotic things that we normally would not consider touching! But honestly in Sweden there wasn't any of that. They enjoy simple things, not too much and not too little. There was a tremendous amount of potatoes and meatballs that I ate. Meatballs everyday of the week! But one food that stood out from the everyday meat balls was the kebab pizza!

In many ways the kebab pizza is similar to the pizza that we have. It has a round crust, tomato sauce, and cheese. In difference it is thinner than the average american pizza! Though thinner it is not by any means less. Most places I went to served so much that even I had a struggle getting it all down! It was amazing!

Also they do not put on the sausages and pepperoni that we do. Instead they use Kebab! Kebab is a large chunk of meat that they put on a spit and have turned over a fire. Then they use a cutter to slice off thin amounts of meat that get stacked on your pizza. It is said that it is lamb meat, though I'm not sure if that is always the case. Also is is not from Sweden, nor Scandinavian, but more so the middle east. But Sweden has sure adopted it, and now it is a favorite dish throughout the country!

It was one of my favorite things to eat, so much that I made a point to go out a couple times a week to eat Kebab. Also it is not strictly kept to pizzas. Sometimes it's wrapped up like a burrito, and sometimes it's simply placed over fries, being drenched in signature kebab sauce! Anyone who visits one of the Nordic countries must try one of these!

Power of Thesis

To be perfectly honest the research paper scared me to death! I've never enjoyed writing research papers all that much, and the limit to them was 3 pages for me. Anything more was not going to happen! But I lived through the assignment and gained much more experience and confidence with writing.

The research that I choose for the subject was why people decided to change their surname. At first I thought it was going to only hit the subject of immigration and how the change of name helps one to integrate into society. But as I studied more on why my ancestors changed their name, in Sweden, it led to more than just immigration. And like teachers and librarians say I was soon engulfed with so much information that the thought of keeping it only to 10 pages was what was going to be a nightmare! But I survived.

The thing that saved me the most however was having a strong Thesis. My love for thesis paragraphs has dramatically increased! The thesis helped me to connect together points that I would not have been able to do without. It gave me an amazing construction for my paper. And honestly most my time was put into gathering information and figuring out an outline for them. Once I had my written thesis and information the actual writing took little time. I was able to sit down and knock out all the pages within a couple hours, and was easily able to do that because I already now my outline.

Their is nothing that can compare to a well written thesis in a research paper. And again I love the experience that I gained from the research assignment! It was able to remove a mental block that I've carried for many years that prevented me from writing all that much!

Reflection on Narrative Story

The Narrative Story was the most fun paper to write out of all of them that we've done in class. I love reading novels, and to me writing a story was the most comfortable of them. And there was little research done outside of writing the paper, because the story was personal and came from myself. I was able to write it all in one sitting within a short period of time. And when I am to the stage of comfort that I was with writing the narrative everything flowed out naturally, and the only difficulty in the assignment is making sure that I can keep it only to five pages XD And I could really tell that the quality of my writing was better, again because I was not worried about it and I just, I don't know, came from me!

Growth From Aboard the Train (Narrative Story)

            The sun was already staying out through the later hours of the evening, and the blooming flowers were bathing in its light. The air was filled the fresh scent of grass mixed with the smell of grilled korv coming from a house around the corner. As I walked along I couldn’t help but try to gather it all in. Just being outside in nature filled me with life. “Someday I’m going to move back here,” I quietly thought to myself. My companion and I were really used to the quiet, we never really talked all that much. There were no hard feelings, nor was anything that barricaded the space between us. Simply put, we were just two people quite opposite from each other in most everything. One day we made mention that we both had experience in computer programming, and when we did come out and talk it was filled with conversation about computers.

            We finally had made it back to our apartment after about a half hours walk, we had been contacting on the way back as a few Swedes walked past. Yet again we had little success with them. As always we started off our nightly planning my companion opened up with the usual question, “anything better that we can do?” In fact there was something that was etching at my mind a lot these past weeks. I told him that I’d like to leave the apartment a little earlier than we had been. It would seem that he’d be the one that would throw at that statement, he was the hardest working missionary in the field. But that was the problem, he always sat behind our area book while at home. He would sacrifice lunch to go through the old contacts in that book, he would take one minute showers so as to not waste time away from that book, when we had our few minutes at home to ourselves each night, he would have that book open to the very second when we had to turn out the lights and turn in for the night. I wish that he wouldn’t worry as much as he did, but also it was outstanding how much work and care he had for his calling.

However the thing was that he wanted to work in “That Book” as long as possible before running out to catch a bus that would take us to our area of work for the day. While the bus was a ten minute walk from our apartment, he wanted to not leave the apartment any earlier than two minutes before. It definitely gave me a good workout, I thought that after returning home from my mission I could compete as an Olympic athlete with all the running we did. We would make it to the bus, barely, most of the time. But it was something that still irritated me. He knew it did so, but it didn’t really change much. And even that evening when I mentioned again how I’d like to leave a couple minutes earlier, as to avoid the panic of missing transportation, he disregarded the idea. Again he lived his life those couple of months behind that area book. After finishing up for the night we threw ourselves into bed and were instantly overcome by the warm embrace of sleep.

            The next morning was again the same as every other morning. We woke up, we showered and had breakfast, and we sat down to our studies and planning for the day. This however was going to be a really special day! There was a less active family that we were working with, and we agreed to come out to their village and help them with some service activities. They lived about 20 minutes by train outside the city we worked in, but still service was the best and we weren’t going to miss out on this opportunity! It meant that I didn’t need to wear my tie, and such leisure was rarely enjoyed by those in the service of God. Today was going to be a day that I would enjoy to the fullest.

            But again, just like every other day my companion pushed reading That Book to the very last second before we had to literally jump up and run like the wind. Finally after we made it out I was running down that path that I had ran down a couple hundred times already. The train station was a couple minutes farther than the buses though, and it wasn’t long before I burst out into sweat from the pulsing sun, and could feel my calves ripping beneath me as I jolted step after step after step. We made it to the station and almost to the tower of stairs that we had to ascend when we heard the piercing cry of the train’s whistle. I didn’t think that we could run much faster than we were, but angles must have given an extra push because we just had to make this train!! Stair after stair went by, I didn’t recall the station having this many, but somehow that day the steps doubled in number. Time was frozen during that run, but we finally made it to the top of Babel’s tower! We saw the train and I had the feeling that we might just make it. Running towards it I saw the doors closing, I was so close! Just as I was a couple steps from it I launched myself, but came to a complete halt when I slammed against the train doors. On the other side of the door was a pale faced companion, being carried away by a train leaving town.

I did the only thing I could, I borrowed a phone from a nearby person and called my companion. After talking we realized that I did not have the keys to our apartment, the members that were in our branch lived a couple hours away from the main town, and the next train that left to the city we were headed to didn’t leave for another two hours. And for my companion to turn around and come back would take more even more time. There was nothing to be done but for me to sit there at the station and wait for the next train.         

            Naturally the thoughts ran through my mind on how I knew that something like this would happen. There was a mixed feeling of being right, and feeling sorry because of how sad my companion would be, and also a feeling of excitement as I sat alone at the station, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt due to service. If there was any time during my two years of service that I felt like a normal person, it was here. But the feelings didn’t stick around too long as a pulled out my scriptures and waited for the train.

            Soon enough it came and took me to the destination. Soon I was standing and staring at my companion. Neither of us knew at first what to expect, but after a couple quiet seconds we both burst out in laughter and embraced each other. “Dang Elder, I didn’t know that you hated me that much that you were willing to hop aboard a train and take off without me!” I said to my Companion. “You have no idea Elder Tangren” he responded. And we continued laughing for another couple minutes, losing our breath as we did so. After all, it was a simple random encounter, nothing much either of us could do about it. These experiences and stories are worth much, and one learns that they must sit back and enjoy them, laugh at them. We carried out the rest of the day, helped out the less actives, made it back in time to take the train back to our city, and this time as we headed back to our apartment along the all too familiar path, it was done so slowly and enjoyably. We had our weekly planning, when my companion asked the same question “What could be done better” we both knew the answer, we finished the planning, and I took an early hop into bed as I watched my companion open up the area book once again.

            The next morning was as routine as usual. We got up, we took our showers, we ate our breakfast, had our studies. Afterwards I put on my shoes and went into the study room to inform my companion it was time to go, but he wasn’t there! Confused I walked back near the front door and saw him standing there all ready to go. It was something new I never saw from him.   As we made it to the bus stop I couldn’t help but to smile in victory as we stood there for a minute before the bus came. He saw my expression, but remained silent keeping to himself.  We made it on to the bus, pushed shoulder to shoulder with those standing at the front of the bus, and found a couple of seats in the far back. As we sat down that was when he finally stared me directly in the eyes. With a smug little smirk on his face he pulled the area book out from his backpack!

Look Sister Steadman, No Hands! -Research Paper

As soon as I heard about the research paper I was overwhelmed! Once a paper reaches 3 pages it's too much! And to think that one had to do a lot of research and write a 10 page paper was way too much. But it has improved much since then. It took awhile to come up with the topic for the paper, it is to be about an interesting story from my family. I was debating whether I would research about heredity and cancer since it is passed down a bit from my mom's side of the family, or if I would research the topic of name change.

So, what possible benefits may one receive if they changed their name?
Okay. There may be arguments on both sides about the individuality of the name, if one loses or gains it from changing one's name. However history shows that many immigrants were economically better off with having a more American name. It's easier to immigrate with the current civilians and is easier to obtain jobs.

So what? Is it always the case that immigrants are better off with new names? There are origins in names today.
It is true that there may not be as big an issue today as there was a century ago with surnames. USA is a nation with many origins of people, and having different origins of surnames has become quite common. There is diffently quite a difference in today's world than before. However when there were thousands of people......

TO BE WORKED ON............

beards at byu

I suppose that another fun subject to look into is the whole controversy behind having beards here at BYU campus. It has especially become a topic of conversation within the past year as more and more students have began to protest in favor of being able to grow out beards here on BYU campus. It is rather difficult for me to take a side on this issue, we students definitely have the right to speak out and try to make a change in society as well as the campus having its right to make the rules that students sign to follow as they join here on campus. I do not really take a stance on the subject, I simply stand back and observe. It is defiantly an interesting subject to observe as it goes forward. It is also rather frightening that mustaches are allowed even though beards are not, I feel that way too many students take advantage of this and grow the really creepy pedifiler mustaches, I don't know. It was also fun to hear how BYU campus has recently changed their beard code so that those of religions may have their beards if it is done so in honor of past prophets or whatever it may be that has deep meaning. Within the last year I have put some time into studying this topic. BYU didn't start with the ban, after all did not Brigham Young himself have a beard? Did campus not have contests on who could grow out the longest beard? For those who do not know this topic well, it is definitely interesting study. It all started back in the seventies when the hippies were having their protest against the government. Having beards was really identifiable among the hippies, as well as the all the drugs and sex and mayhem that they were a part of, so BYU put a ban beards and installed higher levels of dress standards so that the students could be more distinguished amongst these hippies. Over time this has ceased to be the case, and while beards were never allowed again somehow mustaches have been able to pry their way in. I'm not sure why, but oh well. I'm incapable of growing a good beard anyway so it does not really matter to me. But I find it all too annoying when other students look down on others who wish to grow beards, even if it is for a medical reasons. Having contention is terrible. Dress standards have changed throughout time. And really when it comes to dress the only thing that really matters, as far as I believe, is the distraction that a so-called dress style has. As fashion changes, sometimes the dress code does as well. Heck, girls for the longest time were not allowed to wear jeans on campus and were forced to wear dresses, which is no longer the case. There were protest about wearing jeans back in those days. It finally ended when a girl was not allowed to enter the testing center due to her wearing jeans, and later went back and got in with wearing no pants at all, and made a deal about how she was allowed to do that and not getting in with jeans. But I suppose that is a whole entire story in and of itself. Again I really do not take a stance on these dress standards or if students wish to have beards or not, but it is always a really fun thing to follow the subject. Anyone who wishes to study further into the subject itself will most likely be as entertained as I was reading up on the different facts behind this situation.