Taking a break from WoW=Keeping Sabbath Day Holy

So there was a time in my life when I used to play World of Warcraft a lot.(and when I say a lot I mean a lot.) So one day as I was playing WoW I chose to stop playing and go do something different. I told my friend Jake what I was going to do and he agreed that it was time to take a break from WoW for a while. So Jake and I decided to stop playing WoW for about two years. During that time I did quite a few things. I did some traveling,  played some other games, as well as going out and hanging with friends. I have often times looked back and said to myself, the break was well needed. Now I wont lie to ya, Jake and I did go back to World Of Warcraft after the two year break, but let me tell you something that I was able to learn. Not only was a break needed, but I was able to learn that taking a break from things can be well needed...

"I Would Learn the Healer's Art..."

Tauren Warrior

The first character that I rolled in WoW was a Tauren warrior (I figured that being a big cow would help me to pwn more effectively). Quickly did I learn though that warriors were quite ineffective without a healer. Sure mace stun was fun, but it seemed like I was waiting for rezzes in the graveyard more than I was out getting hks.

Before patch 3.1 hit, (which introduced the Ulduar raid) I decided that I would re-roll a healing class. After careful consideration I decided on rolling a paladin. The paladin in the words of Athene was, "a holy character!" Going from level 1 to 80 leveling a retribution was quite similar to rolling a warrior, but at 80 things changed. The re-spec to holy and the new abilities proved very foreign (like Korean foreign) to me.

WoW Holy Paladin

A few weeks ago, this experience was brought back to my remembrance...

Blizzcon! and Gathering

"Blizzcon" Convention 

Well, today is that day when Blizzcon tickets go on sale (or the day the world ends)! For those of you out there that don't know what Blizzcon is exactly, it is a convention (hence con) held every year by the gaming company Blizzard (hence Blizz). Elder Butler and I talked briefly about  Blizzcon, and how cool it would be to actually go and attend one.

I think the draw of an event like Blizzcon would the aspect of gathering. A whole bunch of people that love the same thing gathered together to celebrate, dress up funny, and see what's in store for the new year sounds spectacular!

The End of the World

Cataclysm Expansion

The anticipation for Blizzard's patches and expansions can be nerve racking! I remember quite vividly leaving for my mission just after the Icecrown Citadel patch had launched, and thinking that the next expansion would be released in a couple three months tops. It had probably ended up being eight or nine months later, and the Cataclysm finally happened. The World of Warcraft as I had known it had known it had completely changed, and the old Azeroth had come to an end.

We can't say for certain when MoP will come out!

Blizzard seems to work in mysterious ways, and on their own time frame. If I were to ask you when the next WoW expansion were to come out, you might be able to give me a  reasonable guess. This would probably be based on how the expansion is doing at the moment, the length of other expansions, arena seasons, etc. There are of course going to be signs that the next expansion will be in the near future...

Don't we all need some help?

I want you to take a journey with me through the frozen wastelands of Northrend. (Going to have to use your imagination for this one.) You are just flying around doing some quest's and minding your own business, maybe even chillin on your flying mount. (Ha ha get it chillin? freezing cold? oh nvm.) Anyways your doing your thing and then all of a sudden you see this lvl80 asking for some help. As you can probably guess what I chose to do. I chose to help this fellow out by healing him all throughout his dungeon run. Ok now fast forward a couple of months now and you are going around again minding your own business just chillin on your ground mount looking for somebody to help you with a dungeon, you get a whisper from a familiar fellow saying that he will help you, you later come to realize that it is the same fellow that you helped out when he was in need. Now my question that I have to ask is this, don't we all need some help sometimes? life can and will be very hard at times. When I was growing up I always had to be someone who never needed help on things and honestly there were times that when I did ask for help I felt like I was weak. I think that a lot of people probably felt like I used to. If that is the case let me tell you something, there is NO SHAME in ASKING for HELP! If we stop to read the scriptures we will find that the savior has told us to help each other out, as well as asking for help.

If Everyone Wore Nametags

Leeroy Jenkin's Name tag

Have you ever wondered how easy it would be to remember people if they all wore name tags? I was thinking about it a few days ago and it seemed like a pretty awesome idea to me. As missionaries we get to talk to a whole bunch of people (which is great), but a lot of the time I frankly don't remember their names. It might even take me a few times meeting them to actually remember. 

So in my thinking I took it a step further...

Yells and Whispers

RL Gnome and Tauren /Yell

I really enjoy the chat interface that is given in WoW. There are of course different channels that you can be in and read what players are saying. Probably the most packed and trolled channel is trade chat, but of course there are the guild, raid, bg, zone defense, and other general channels. Two of the "channels" that I wanted to focus a little more about would be whispers and yells.

A yell functions much like a yell IRL. It pops up as red text and everyone around you gets to see it. On the other hand a chat whisper is a lot quieter...

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all of the mothers out their and especially to my mom. Today I am going to dedicate this blog to my mom as well as the other mothers. First of all I want to tell everyone today that my mom is the best! you might be thinking yeah yeah we have heard all of this before, now tell us what makes her so special. Well let me tell you some of my moms traits that she has. 1) She is very patient with me. When I was growing up my mother would always try to teach me many things that I would later need when going on a mission. She taught me patience,diligence,hard work, and many other things. 2)She is very motivating...

Having a friend= Missionary companionship.

In World of Warcraft my friend Jake and I always pvped together. (As stated in my Who are my friends?)
When ever we would pvp we would always stick together and fight alongside each other, I will admit there were times when the battles would get so intense that Jake and I thought we were gonners, but somehow we always managed to pull through...(Maybe it was because I would always heal him and he would always beat the enemy back.) Often times after the battles were over we would always ask the question, how did we get out alive when we were being attacked by 3 people? The answer is pretty simple...not only was I healing him as well as myself alive, but we always stuck together. Many times when we would rush our enemies we would make them run away from us by using our spells. In Elder Cabrals blog "He Made Me Do It", we can clearly see that if players do not have the medallion they would not be able to break out of fear and other Crowd Control effects. So naturally Jake and I would beat our enemies so easily that we would be able to rack up the Honor. Now maybe you are saying wow you can't beat them by yourself? or wow you guys are bad players? If this be the case let me tell you this much, its not that we couldn't beat our enemies alone, it made it easier to back up and support each other. In truth the Savior gives his Apostles the same advice.
      
We can read in Mark 6:7 something the Savior does.

7. ¶And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

Notice how the savior sends his Apostles by TWO instead of One. As missionaries we are told that we will be with another person or commonly called our "Companion." We go with our companion and we teach people about the restoration of the Lord's church,we also help people in their lives by teaching them the scriptures and that they can find happiness in them. Now there have been many times that if I had not of had a companion then I know that people would not have believed any of my words,because I am only one servant. But because I had a companion who knew something that I didn't know he was able to not only answer their questions,but he was also able to testify and back up my words that I taught. You may have noticed that Elder Cabral and I have been telling people to check out our blog post's, as well as each others. Well that is because Elder Cabral and I are coauthoring this blog or in other words "We are companions on this blog." My friends in closing to this blog I want to encourage each and everyone of you to meet with the missionaries and to put what they are teaching to the test, I can promise you that if you do this you will come to know for yourself that we speak the truth. You will also know that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God, and that Joseph Smith was His Prophet,Seer and Revelator in this the last days. I love y'all very much and hope that you take up the challenge I leave you.

Get Out of the Fire Noob!

In PvE there is a simple formula to winning. If you know the boss fight, do your job, and get out of the fire, you will ultimately get fat lewts. It sounds simple enough, but sadly there are many "bads" and "noobs" that decide that they want to exchange their lives for foot warmth. While the success of a raiding guild could be attributed to leadership, communication, and patience, the downfall of guilds and boss attempts might very well be that there are too many noobs standing in the fire.

There is a solution to this! The easiest way to avoid death by fire, void zones, poison, and otherwise treacherous things under foot is to get out of there as quickly as possible...