I Am Such a Nerd.

Today I am taking a final for a computer networking class I'm taking. Basically, it teaches me about how the internet works. To briefly summarize, for purposes of explaining why I'm a nerd, when a big file is sent over the internet, a computer breaks it down into little pieces called packets. Packets are sent one by one through the internet to the other computer, which reassembles them back into the original file.

So last night I was studying for this final for a bit, then decided I was bored and was going to bed. I decided to read this talk by Elder Scott first about prayer, because I've had something on my mind I've had a lot of trouble getting an answer for. And what does Elder Scott have to tell me?

"Seldom will you receive a complete response all at once. It will come a piece at a time, in PACKETS... As each peice is followed in faith, you will be led ito other portions until you have the whole answer."

I laughed. Then I was disappointed in myself, because I can tell I'm becoming more of a geek by the day. Then I was happy, because I realized reading that actually helped me out a lot, because I think I've kind of seen those "packets" arriving, one by one, over the past few days. You know, the analogy goes a lot deeper now that I think about it. When a computer receives one of these packets, it sends an "acknowledgment" (or "ACK" in the industry) to the sending computer to say, "hey, I got this packet from you, send more." If the sending computer doesn't get this ACK, then it will send that packet again. Maybe prayer works the same way... as the Lord sends "packets" to you, you have to show him that you got the message (your ACK) before he'll send you another packet. Eventually you'll get your whole answer.

I'm hopeless. Don't tell anyone you read this.