Fist day of my blog

I'm new to this and I'm mainly doing this for a couple of reasons.  First for my family and kids.  I want this to be somewhere they can read about my experiences as well as my time away from them as I embark to leave to China (in the summer). Another reason is to get used to writing on a regular basis and to improve my writing skills.  I read a friends blog today. (Matt Hansen) and his blog really touched me.  He shared several spiritual experiences on his blog that touched me and I would also like this to be a place where I can share stories and experiences about my life and what I will learn.  I hope this can be a place people (my family and anyone interested in reading this) can get to know me and why I love the lord and his gospel.

To start today was a tuff day,

I took the foreign service exam for the second time and "boy" the 4 hour test was to long.  I'm not used to this.  For those who have no clue as to what this is go to state.gov and find careers and look under foreign service officer.  Working for the FS has been a goal and dream of mine and my families for more than ten years.  I finally took the first step last year and took the exam for the first time.  I obviously did not pass, but the learning experience was great.  This time around I did much better and I hope I pass.  I think the hardest thing about this was essay portion and English comprehension.  I hard a hard time on these two sections.  In total there are 4 sections one about you as a person another about your job knowledge ( which includes history, politics and bunch of more stuff) and the next is the English portion where you edit articles and correct sentences with correct grammar etc and the last is the essay part.

If I pass the first part I go to next faze which is to sent them some personal examples of experiences in my life that define my character.  If they like what I say I'm then invited to an oral exam in DC and if I pass this then I get medical and security clearance and then, I'm putt on waiting list based on my overall score and wait for an offer.  Long process right?

In the mean time I'm learning Chinese and will be in China for three months this summer.  One, learning Chinese and two participating in a Health initiative with the Dep. of Public Health at the U.  I've also recently decided to pursue a MS degree in Public Health.  These are the immediate plans and I will see how things unfold.