I am starting to feel more and more the pressure of work and the need to get everything done. I am finishing my proposal presentation right now, which I will give the first week of school next semester. I then will start gearing up for my field season. I am also looking for more funding for my current research projects. I have proposed to conduct some expensive research, which requires a $190,
000 grant over 3 years. I submitted a NSF grant this summer for $325,000 over the next 3 years. I hope and pray that it gets funded. If not, I have to move on to the next funding opportunity. I think that the worse part of research is the constant sc
rambling for research money. While in graduate school it is especially stressful because time is short.Church is great but busy. Tithing settlement time is always a busy time for clerks (I am the only clerk), and it started last week. This Sunday we will start setting up appointments. Luckily it is easier to do this in a small singles branch.
I have taken a few pictures, but I have been so busy that I have not been able to put the pictures up. Here is a photo of a beautiful sunset of the Everglades and 2 pics the sunrise over the ocean.
Life has been a quite a bit more busy this last few 2 months than before. For those who feel that I am well on my way to being the old bachelor, it may come as a shock that I am dating someone. For those of you who thought that the last sentence had to have been a typo, I'll repeat it. I am dating someone. I know that this is all strange, considering that most of you have never seen me with a girlfriend. Well, it gets even stranger, her name is Patrícia.
Let me tell you all a little of her story.
She is a first-year PhD student, working in plant physiology surrounding the isotopic fractionation of oxygen in the synthesis of cellulose. She is from São Paulo, Brazil. The evolution of our relationship has been interesting. She came to the lab last year for a month. At the time I thought that she was a little sissy brat. She thought that I was mean and was actually afraid of me (I really do not why, but oh well). When she arrived here this year, we saw each other one day before I left for Colorado for reunions and research. I told our colleague later that day that I did not think that I could handle having a little "princess" in the lab for the next several years. After I left to Colorado, she told the same colleague that she did not want to talk to me because she was afraid of me and thought that we would always be at odds. I guess that we resolved our concerns. It was soon afterwards that we started dating.Now this let's go back to the beginning of the year. In January, she met someone who was a devout evangelical Christian. He taught her about the gospel. Though she was Catholic, she knew very little about God and nearly nothing about the scriptures. As she learned about the gospel, she found new meaning to life. She was not looking for anything at the time or felt any need to change, but once she learned about the gospel she committed herself to it. I did not know anything about this experience, but once she arrived this year in July I quickly felt that there was something very different about her.
She knew that I was Christian because she asked me what I believe last year. She asked me about the gospel again this September. I was shocked at how much she knew and how she felt about the gospel. She was so interested in learning more. We really liked to talk and study the scriptures together. She even watched both Saturday sessions of conference with me. Well in the end we also realized that we had more than just a mutual interest in the gospel.
She comes to church with me, and everybody at church loves her. She is very intelligent and wants to know the answer more than the superficial Primary answers to gospel questions. She'll ask me a question and I'll tell her what I think, then she'll say, "Ok, now what do the scriptures say?" I have had to study many questions because I did not have the answer (from the scriptures) offhand. She is so special, and it is exciting to see her grow in the gospel continually as God works with her.
This last little while has been quite wonderful. I can't complain at all. I found an absolutely gorgeous, extremely smart, nature-loving biologist who loves the gospel. All I can say is that life is good, real good.
