Time and Memories

Time is flying by. Today was my last day teaching at the school because next week I will be going around the island to see more sites. It has been fun teaching the kids here!

As I've spent time in Sapwalap the memories have flooded in. It's been awesome to walk around the streets because as I do my mind is just filled with the experiences that I had. I've been thinking about it a ton because normally I can't remember things I've done or people I've meet just a month ago yet as I see houses and people I can vividly remember who they are and what happened when I met them if it was only once or for just a few minutes. A smile comes across my face every time it happens!!

Sorry that I stink at writing. I hope my pictures speak more words to you.

The Island

As many of you know I'm always changing my plans. Well I bet you can guess then that they are changing once again. I'll be coming home on October 10th. When vacationing you can only do so much until you have done all that you wanted to do. I'm loving my time here and feel that a month will give me plenty of time to do the things that I want to do.

This morning as I was driving into use the internet I was on a road that runs right along the ocean. Since Pohnpei is surrounded by a reef there are no beaches and no waves. This morning the water was pure glass(better than any lake I've seen in Utah)!!! In the water I could see the reflection of an outer island, the sun and clouds, and the blue sky. The first thought that came to my mind was how beautiful a creation this island really is! I was so blessed to serve here and now blessed to be back and spend time among the people I love.

Last night I have the great opportunity to go out with the Sisters. We visited one man that I referred to them. I taught him a few times when I was here and I see him every morning on my way to the school. They taught him about the Book of Mormon and how he can know the truth! The next people we saw were a few ladies that I also taught when I served in Sapwalap. We talked about the temple and the sealing power. As we taught them so many feelings ran through my heart. I was excited to see them again and it's great they are meeting with them missionaries but it's sad to see that they are just at the step. I was here 4 years ago!! The thing that really broke my heart is that they know it's true! They knew it was true when I taught them and yet they haven't acted. It was a pretty powerful lesson that will  hopefully change how they act. They said they would be a church on Sunday so we will see.

So each morning I great up around seven and get ready for school. School starts at 8 and it's about a 15-20 minute walk to the school. I teach for about an hour and a half and then we play a game for the last 30 minutes. As I've taught English I've realized how little I really understand the language I speak!! But it's still fun to teach.

After school I can do a variety of things. It ranges from sleeping to fishing to climbing coconut trees to going to waterfalls. It's been a blast to be back!!!

A Week Has Past

All I can say is WOW!!! It's so crazy to be in the land of my mission! It such a surreal feeling to think I lived here for 9 months while serving my mission! It's great to be back but I'm not going to lie the first couple of days it hit me how long two months was going to be!! The days tend to go by slow. Their lives are so much different than ours back at home. When they say 9 o'clock they really mean 9:30 or 10, even maybe 10:30. They don't worry to much about time but that's nice is some ways. They are all so laid back.

So what's it like here? The weather is usually hot and cloudy with rain! Think of running a mile or two in burning hot weather and sweating. That's how you feel all the time here!! Night and day. It's only around 80 degrees but extremely humid. The only time it really feels good is after it's rained and if it remains cloudy! If the sun comes out after it's jut rained it's even hotter!! Hot Hot Hot.

Where am I staying? I live in a humble house with Darney and his family. There is his wife, Shirley, and their 5 daughters! Mihanta, Darsha(Baby), Darnsihann, Darneysha(Lihalaud), and Darshell. I've finally go them memorized!

What have I been up to? So far I've been spear gun fishing, swimming, visiting people, lots of eating(everyone feeds you), and just enjoying my time here. I love playing games with the kids! There is a lot of sitting so I've been reading a book called Think and Grow Rich, along with the Book of Mormon, the Sunday School Book of Mormon manual because I've received the assignment to teach the youth Sunday school class, my institute manual (yes I'm enrolled in institute), The Infinite Atonement, and now some English manuals.

Why the English manuals? So I wanted to do a little service here so I thought I would see if the school need help. They've thrown me into the water all at once. Starting tomorrow I will be teaching English for two hours a day on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to 8th graders. I'll keep you updated on how it goes!

I'm lovin my time here! It's great. I've posted pictures on Facebook. I hope you enjoy them!! Click here for pictures.

#SeiloakEnPohnpei

For the next couple months I will be residing on the beautiful island of Pohnpei. Pohnpei is part of The Federated States of Micronesia, which is located in the North Pacific Ocean. (Click HERE for a map) As I explore the island I will be posting pictures. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @TWJ4Life for select pictures or all of the pictures will be available on my Facebook page. All of these links are also located on my website that can be found at www.thewhiteheadjourney.com. I hope you enjoy them!!

What Am I Taking?

As I've been getting ready for this trip many people have asked me what I am taking. I'd like to share with you all some of the gear I will be taking and who it is made by. I feel that what you bring along on a journey can influence the way it goes. If you have any questions about how the gear is holding up, where I got it, the cost, or anything else feel free to ask.

Here is a picture and a brief description:

Vaude Astra 55+10 II

Vaude Jura 20

Waterproof Cases

Pod Sacs- Waterproof cover for bag

Drysack

Vaude Deluxe Sleeping Pad

eno slap straps, rainfly & hammock

Armadillo Pillow

Sleeping Sheet

Towel

Knife

MacBook Pro 13"

GoPro Hero 2

Apple iPad 2

Logitech Mini Boombox

3M Mobile Projector MP225a

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Think and Grow Rich
One Up on Wall Street
Pohnpeian Dictionary
The Miracle of Forgiveness
The Infinite Atonement
The Intelligent Investor

The What If's of Life and The Now

“Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.” -Wayne Dyer-

This week I feel like I’ve learned a very valuable lesson that I hope I can always remember!! I would like to share it with you. This past weekend I was put in a situation where I had to make a pretty important decision. As I was trying to choose what to do I kept having thoughts that started with “what if.” “What if this happened?” or “what if that worked out?” As I thought about these concerns I noticed that they were focused on the future and things that I don’t have control over. I realized that there were no answers to the “what if” questions and that I needed to care about the now and the things I already had and could change.

Steve Jobs once said, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

As I was reminded of this quote I thought of how we only have a say of what happens in the future by making wise choices now. We never know what those choices will bring about but we can make the best decisions by seeing what we have now in the present time.  If we make our choices based on what we think will happen in the future we will quickly find out that the future is always changing. Now I’m not saying to forget about the future and the consequences our choices will have on it but don’t base your decisions on the future because we never know what will come about.

            It was put best by Ralph Waldo Emerson, ”With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.”

            Live and choose in the now. The only thing we both know and have control over. And the journey continues!!! 

#utahtowashington

         Over the past week and a half I spent some time up in the great Northwest and parts of California. I thought I would tell you a little about what I did. I left on Saturday morning and headed up to Washington driving all day to get there. We stopped at Multnomah waterfalls on the Columbia Gorge in Oregon and then we stopped again in Gresham to visit the family I lived with when I was up there for 8 months. We continued on and arrived in Olympia pretty late. 

           One of the days we headed to Quinault Rain forest and walked around. It was about a 4-mile hike. It was awesome to be in a jungle type place again. It reminded me a ton of Pohnpei, which got me stoked for my trip back there in September. The trees there were huge, some of them up to 300 feet tall. We saw the world’s largest spruce tree, which was over 50 feet in circumference at the base. It was gigantic!!!

            Another adventure we had was to the San Juan Islands. We drove up to Anacortes and then hopped on a ferry ride. We barely made it on the ferry but we made it. The ride took about an hour or so. It was my first time on a ferry. Once we go to San Juan we headed out kayaking. The kayaks had foot pedals so we could use those to get around instead of paddles, which freed up our hands. That was really nice. We cruised around for about two hours. It was a ton of fun. It’s so beautiful up there. Our original plan was to sleep over there but we decided to go back. We caught the 10 pm ferry which ended up stopping at Shaw, Orca, and Lopez islands so we didn’t get off until 12 and then we had a 2 ½ hour drive home.

            One of the nights we went to a Seattle Mariners game. It was pretty cool to go watch. It was my first time at a major league baseball game. The Mariners crazily pull off a win in the bottom of the ninth inning when the batter hit a right fielder and the man on 2^nd ran in. The catcher had the ball and touched him but the ball flew out of the catcher’s mitt in the action and he was called safe. We also took a ferry up there from Bremerton but we just drove home. It was cool to go up into downtown Seattle.

            That’s pretty much all we did up in Washington but this is where the road trip begins. We drove over to the coast through Astoria and drove past Seaside, Cannon, Tillamook, and New Port. We stopped at the Tillamook Cheese factory and got some ice cream and cheese. At New Port we cut inland and drove just south of Eugene were we spent the night. The next day we drove to Crater Lake. I can’t even start to describe how gorgeous it is there. The water was so BLUE. A blue I’ve never seen before it was amazing. I’m glad we were able to see it!!! From there we drove to Crescent City, California, which is back on the coast. We went to the local beach and hung out for about an hour. It was awesome to be on the beach with the sun low on the horizon and the moon just coming up on the other.

            Nature just amazes me. I love being out in it. The next day we drove down the coast to the Redwood National Park. We stopped at a groove called Lady Bird Johnson. It was about a mile loop hike. The trees were absolutely huge!!!! Towering around 200 feet tall or more with some bases about 70 feet or more around. They were really big. It was really foggy also which made it awesome. We then continued driving. We took the back road out which winded through mountains. We ended at Redding and then took another semi back road to Reno where we hopped on I-80 all the way back to Salt Lake City.

            This trip has been truly amazing!!!! It’s been spectacular to drive to the places we have and seen such beauty. It really testifies of the Lord’s hand in all things. Things this amazing just couldn’t have appeared out of nowhere. The earth was truly created by a higher power and by someone who loves us.  I was just in awe at every stop. I’m so grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to see these places!!!!  

          If you want to see pictures click HERE and it will take you to my Facebook page. Hope you enjoy!

Regrets.

The other day I stumbled across a great quote “I do not regret the things I've done, but those I did not do.” I’ve seen how true this quote is just in that past week and it’s been confirmed by looking back on my whole life.  I can’t think of one adventurous thing I have done in the past that I regret doing but I can remember times I wanted to do things and never did and now wish I would have done them. 

Here are a few things I’ve done since reading this quote. Last week a friend of mine and I decided to go night climbing up Big Cottonwood Canyon at Storm Mountain. We started climbing around 10 pm and finished up at Midnight. It was a great time. On the way home I mentioned that I was still full of energy and the topic of hiking Grandeur Peak came up. We debated over it for a few minutes and I brought up that quote (I had just learned of that quote that very day). We immediately headed up Millcreek Canyon to do the hike. We arrived back home three and a half hours later at 3:30 am. It was well worth it and I don’t regret it one bit. While on the peak we could see the lights from Draper and the point of the mountain all the way up past Bountiful. The seemed to be that the whole city was asleep accept us. No noise, no movement, just the cool breeze and city lights. It was an amazing moment!

            This past weekend I was on the way home from party with a couple friends and we wanted to still do something. We had ideas of doing a hike or something and after conversing we choose to go hike down a six-foot tall tunnel in Tanner Park. Now you might no think that this is that crazy but let me explain. To get into this tunnel you have to climb down a manhole and then once is the tunnel you have to walk down a river of flowing water. When we got to the tunnel the manhole was cover with a cement barrier so we slid down some 20-foot “I” beams and then squeezed through a creak between two of the “I” beams.  The tunnel is about a quarter mile long and takes about 20 minutes to walk.  Once at the end you are in a little pond of swampy water cover in plants. If you hike up a steep 15-foot embankment you can hop a fence and you are at the Country Club golf course. We ran around the course for a few minutes and then headed back up the tunnel. We got home around 2:30 in the morning after have a great time.

            I’m so glad that I did both of these activities. I know if I wouldn’t have done them I would have regretted it for the next few days or even weeks but now I have some great memories and was able to build some great friendships on the way!!

            Next time you are debating on whether or not you want to be adventurous remember this quote: “I do not regret the things I've done, but those I did not do.” Life is full of adventure and the journey continues!!!

My Background

Well I’m going to start off by saying two things: I’m not very good at writing and I hate writing about myself. I know this is a blog and you usually share things about your life and things going on but I feel like my life is mostly boring and not much happens day to day. I’ve had a request from someoneJ to share more information on here about my life, my goals, my thoughts and feelings, and just random things!! Practice makes perfect and so I’m just going to start and hopefully over time I get better at it. If you have any suggestions for me about my writings or website please let me know. You can call, text, tell me in person, or email me at steve@thewhiteheadjourney.com. I would really appreciate it!  I’m not doing these things to boast or brag. I feel that we can learn from each other’s experience so my hope is that as I write you will be able to receive new insight and ideas for your life and that you would share your adventures with me so I can learn and grow also!!

I guess today I’ll just start with a basic introduction and then over the next few entries I’ll tell you more about my goals and feelings. My name is Steven William Whitehead. I was born on August 4^th, 1988 at LDS hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was raised in the Millcreek area on the east benches of the Wasatch Front. In my family I have my two parents and 9 siblings; 3 older sisters, 2 older brothers, and 4 younger sisters. Growing up in a large family I learned a ton of useful lessons and I attribute a lot of whom I am (personality and temperament) to having a large family and being a middle child. One blessing I’ve always had in my life is being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and having parents who loved the gospel and taught by example.

I had the privilege of attending public school and being enrolled at great schools where you were able to learn in abundance. In high school I started flight school at a local college, SLCC, where I got my private pilot’s license for small plane (being part of this program has changed my whole life). In August of 2007 I embark on an LDS mission to the Micronesia Guam Mission. While there I served on Guam and Pohnpei, which I’ll be going back to in September, for all my mission but had the opportunity to see the other 5 islands included in the mission. On the mission I learn innumerable amounts of lessons and grained many valuable traits that I picked up from those I served around.

I returned from my mission in 2009 and attended Salt Lake Community College. During that semester I learned about a neighbor of mine, Dan Bentley, who was up in Oregon being a flight instructor for helicopters. While attending flight school in high school I always had a draw towards helicopters so when I learn about Dan I immediately gave him a call. I went up to Oregon in October and then again in December and moved up there in January 2010. I obtained my private pilot’s license for helicopters over the proceeding 5 months. That summer I worked up at Mt St Helens as a loader for helicopter tours.

I moved home in September of 2010 where I once again went to SLCC and got my instrument rating for helicopters with Upper Limit. I moved to Provo in January 2012 to start the aviation program at UVU to get a degree in Aviation Management. I started my commercial license down there. I am currently living back in Salt Lake City and finishing up my commercial license with Utah Helicopters. That is the basic outline of my life. I’m sorry for the long post but since that is out of the way I can now have smaller and more insightful post from here on out. I hope this gave you a little more knowledge about myself and where I came from!!! And the journey continues!!! 

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

JFK once said: “We choose to go...not because [it is] easy, but because [it is] hard, because that goal will serve to measure and organize the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”

If we want to reach our full potential we must challenge ourselves. These challenges don’t have to be huge and all inspiring. They can range from as simple as starting a healthier diet to learning a new sport to asking someone out to inventing something to starting a business. But we must challenge ourselves daily.

“Consistently challenging yourself to achieve outside of your current abilities is extremely important if you want to achieve greatness in your life,” counseled Hooman Hamzehloui.

Wise words came from William Bennett when he said, “Give yourself an even greater challenge than the one you are trying to master and you will develop the powers necessary to overcome the original difficulty.”

The point of a challenge isn’t to prove to others that you can accomplish great things but to give confidence to your inner soul. May we all challenge ourselves in one way or another starting today so that we can become greater individuals!

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” -Eleanor Roosevelt-

....And the journey continues!!!

A Summer of Adventure

This is going to be a summer to remember!!! Many of you know growing up I was in a tight knit group of friends. The six of us did everything together. We all seemed to have similar interest and be into the same things. This summer great things are happening. Landon Owens is spending the summer in Logan and Nate Sorensen will be traveling and working on his business, NSInnovative. Ben Ehlert is spending 3 months in Chile where he served his mission. He is interning for a consulting company. Dan will also be going back to his mission at the end of July for a week or so. After that he will meet up with Scott Webb on a cruise of the Mediterranean Sea. Two days after they get home Scott will be getting married. To keep up with their excitement on March 25th 2012 I booked a flight to Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. I will be leaving on September 9th, 2012. Because the cost is pretty high I have decided to stay for two months. I'll return on November 7th. I really don't know what I will be doing there yet. When I leave SLC I will pretty much be taking a backpack, hammock, and sleeping pad. It will be a true adventure. I can't wait!!!

The Countdown