Newsroom article from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

I found this article on the Newsroom Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I thought you might find it interesting. Click on the link below to view:

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/church-statement-on-earthquake-in-chile

I’m so thankful for the Lord’s tender mercies and that He established an organization that allows us to get information, with confidence, about our loved ones.  My good friend, Sister Bennett, is serving a mission in Chile right now.

My Cousin Ben - The Shining Star

My AWESOME cousin Ben is mentioned in this newspaper article.  I’m saving my money to go cheer Ben on in the 2012 Olympics in London.  I’m so excited!!!  

High school swimming: Brighton dominates Region 4 swim meet

By Dan Rasmussen

Deseret News

Published: Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010 10:20 p.m. MST

BOUNTIFUL — On one hand, the principle players at the Region 4 swim meet on Saturday understood the same thing: There's only meet that ultimately matters, and that meet wasn't taking place on Saturday.

However, while Brighton, American Fork, Lone Peak, Alta and the rest of Region 4 all had their eyes focused firmly on the upcoming 5A state meet, they nonetheless still put on a very entertaining show for the assembled folks inside the South Davis Recreation Center.

There were lots of really good swims, there were lots of really good races, and the whole thing was pretty fun to watch from start to finish. At the end of it, several individuals shined and Brighton — as everyone expected — dominated the team competitions.

Brighton's boys team racked up 554 points to easily dispatch American Fork (394), while Brighton's girls team finished with 528 points to easily beat Lone Peak (377).

The Bengals will be big favorites to win both team championships at the 5A meet in two weeks, and Brighton coach Todd Etherington was generally pleased with what he saw from top to bottom at Saturday's region meet.

"It went alright," he said. "There's always things you wished you would've done a little better, but we saw some good swimming (and) saw some things that we need to try to fix. … I'm very pleased with where we're at right now."

In a meet filled with legitimate stars — defending 5A Swimmers of the Meet Kim Welch of Lone Peak and McKay King of American Fork were amongst the assembled talent — it was a not-so-small 14-year-old freshman that stole the show.

Brighton freshman Long Gutierrez has long been a star in club swimming circles, and he showed Saturday that, even though he won't turn 15 until February 23rd, he is already a star in his first season of high school swimming.

On Saturday, Gutierrez went :50.45 to break a 5A record in the 100 fly and went :21.45 to convincingly win the 50 free.

By way of reference, Mountain Crest superstar Jake Taylor went :50.17 in the 100 fly earlier in the week.

"Not too bad," deadpanned Etherington of Gutierrez' swim in the fly.

Not too bad at all.

Gutierrez, for his part, can't wait to show the rest of the state what he can do at the 5A championships.

"It's the first time it's gonna happen, and I'm psyched about it," he said. "It's gonna be the best thing ever."

Besides Gutierrez, Robby Miner won twice individually and Greg Ballif added an individual for Brighton's boys team.

On the girls side, Amanda Barrett, Kaitlin Overstreet and Abby Alger each won once.

While Saturday's Region 4 meet was a star-studded affair that featured a number of outstanding swims by a number of outstanding swimmers, arguably nobody shined brighter than Brighton senior Ben Stephens.

Seeded in Lane 1 of the slow heat in the 100 back, Stephens drew the loudest cheers of the entire meet when he touched the finishing pad with a time of 1:53.08, a full seven seconds faster than his seed time. What made the crowd cheer louder for Stephens than anyone else is the fact that the senior backstroker deals with severe physical issues.

Neither Etherington nor any of his assistant coaches know exactly what those physical issues are for one simple reason — he's never complained about them.

Instead, Stephens has simply worked as hard as he could to become as fast of a swimmer as he could.

"He's a kid that comes out and busts his butt every day. He's one of the hardest-working kids that we've got," said Etherington. "Before Christmas, he came up and told me he wasn't feeling well on a Wednesday, and we were swimming Alta Thursday. I sent him home Wednesday night, and Thursday morning I got a call from his mom saying he had an emergency appendectomy . . . Later, he was basically apologizing to me for missing practice. That's how hard he works."

All season, Stephens' goal has been to get underneath 2:00 in the 100 back, and he shattered that mark with an outstanding swim in what was his final chance.

Etherington was thrilled for his swimmer afterward.

"It's every bit as rewarding as the stuff that Long and Robby and those guys do," said Etherington. "It's about swimming fast, and fast is relative to you — it's not relative to anybody else."

For everyone that got to see the first heat of the 100 back on Saturday, Stephens was very fast.

e-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com

Christmas Fun

We had a Stephens Family Christmas Gathering last night. The inn was full, but we all squished in. It was great to see some of my family that don't live in the state. I have the best family.

My Aunt Kathy made gingerbread houses for all the kids to decorate. I made one too. It was fun. I love my Aunt Kathy.

We also had a Christmas Pageant. I was too busy directing that I didnt' get any photos, but it was fun. I'll have to see if my sister got some photos that I can share later.

Ballet West Presents "The Nutcracker"

On Saturday, December 19, 2009 my niece and I joined my neighbors, the Cardenas family, for Ballet West's performance of the Nutcracker. I sure had a fun time. I was happy that we could all go.

Photographing in the Cemetary!

I just discovered Find a Grave. I became a volunteer headstone and monument photographer for my geographic region. Here's the first two photos that I've taken for someone (Location-Pleasant Green Cemetary).

The Newest Little Angel in My Life...Devry Dot.

ISN'T SHE ADORABLE?

Fun at the Festival of Trees

I had another great year helping out with the Festival of Trees. My friend Stephanie agreed to be on the same committee as me a couple of years ago. I have fun doing stuff for Festival with her. This year we made our crafts for the gift shop together. We acquired some soap dispensers and put fun little quotes on transparency film inside of them. My other friends Heather and Shana helped us finish tying the bows on them. I wish I remembered to take a picture of them. I'm sure you've seen something like it before.

I have some awesome friends. Check out this picture of some of us that helped wrap-up the Festival. The others had already left for the evening before I could get everyone to group up for the picture. I love these guys. I hope they're all free next year to come and help again. I sure had fun.

We wrapped the trees on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, Stephanie and I joined Kathy Purser and her family to go and deliver the trees. Here's a picture I got of another group loading the tree that my sister's friends, the Millers, made in honor of their son who died a few years ago. The name of the tree is "It's all Good." It had a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. The tree was upside down with Jack Skelington poking his head out the top. The tree was almost too tall to fit in the truck.

I'll never forget the years that my cousins, Brad & Nathan, brought everyone from Helaman Halls down to help wrap the trees. If they ever move back to Utah, maybe they can join us and we can have an even larger super crew.