Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Saturday, December 16, 2006
"ALOHA"......... Now you repeat it back.
Our trip to Maui was so much fun. We really enjoyed it. As you can see by the pictures we are allowing on the blog, we did a lot of fun. We did some snorkeling as you can see by Dad's outfit. And really, I did it, too. We saw squid, schools of fish - all different colors and Dad saw a big ol' turtle. And no, it wasn't me. I am standing outside of Cheeseburger in Paradise in Lahaina. It's the famous cheeseburger restaurant in that Jimmy Buffet song. Then the sunset in just next to it when we got through eating. The next picture is a view from our balcony. Picture-perfect. We took the famous "Road to Hana" and it took 3 hours for 3o miles - one way. There are over 600 turns in the road and over 350 bridges. The rain was coming down in buckets and this is a picture of a waterfall that had turned into a raging river. We had a great time. Thanks for letting us go.
Friday, December 15, 2006
"oh great, another mission story"
For those that don’t know and don’t care or do know and do care, I started compiling skimpy journal entries, letters (thanks for keeping these, Mom) and thoughts from my mission in hopes of salvaging a seven year-old fading memory of two years of my life, like when I forgot that I had malaria, as diagnosed by my mission president, and finally saw that I had written it in my journal. I know it sounds cheesy but I’m putting it into more of a story/blog format. I’ve been doing it for about six months now and have traversed about a fourth of my mission. Don’t worry; I’m not competing with “The Other Side of Heaven” or “In the Eye of the Storm” (as was the original name of his book). Besides, how could you market “The Other Side of Hell” or “In the Armpit of the Storm?” Just kidding…(no, but seriously).
Anyway, the following is an excerpt and introduction to a story I just finished of one of my first p-days. Don’t make too much fun or I will keep posting them…
In my mission, preparation day fell on a Monday and I liked it that way. Mostly because it gave me time to relax a little bit following Sunday, which for me was probably the most taxing day during the week due to a couple of reasons. First, it always weighed heavily on the soul when picking up investigators from their homes and finding them with a sudden fever or a sever case of gastritis. That’s not to say that all our investigators exhibited signs of sudden illness on Sunday mornings, but it was a practice all too common. I guess "Dios no quiso." Sometimes you would grow to expect it and be pleasantly surprised that the bug failed to reach their house.
Another reason for Sunday’s reputation was the bittersweet taste of fast Sunday. I don’t care who you are, Fast Sunday can be very difficult at times. Of course, if it wasn’t difficult, it wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice and since sacrifice brings forth blessings, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I learned in my first area that the sacrifice increases at least ten fold when applied during the mission. At least at home, you can ball up into a corner in a fetal position and count away the minutes without expending too much life-sustaining energy. Unfortunately the mission field only offered dust from the dirt roads and streaming sweat as a source of sustenance; especially when the two mixed and formed a nutritious paste on your teeth. But who’s complaining?
The bottom line is that I desperately needed time on the Monday following a fast Sunday to lick my wounds and regain lost energy. At least it wasn’t as bad as a friend of mine who was concurrently serving in Mexico. He was instructed to begin his fast only after his last meal had been digested, which was revealed (divinely, I’m sure) to be approximately six hours. This means if the last meal was at 5 o’clock in the evening on Saturday, the fast truly started at about eleven. This meant that to break your fast, you would have to wait until eleven on Sunday night. I think in that area, the mission president also paid 12 percent tithing, but that allegation has yet to be substantiated. My friend also had a companion that tried stabbing him with a knife. If it meant no more 30 hour fasts, I think I would have let him.
Anyway, p-days provided a much needed rejuvenation period. If we weren’t resting on p-day, we were doing some kind of recreational activity like futbolito (soccer on a small playing area), basketball w/out traveling, double dribble or foul violations, visiting a local attraction, or video games at the local arcade (more on that later).
In guess when it comes right down to it, I really have no idea why it is called preparation day. I mean, I know the textbook answer would be something to the effect that “it provides a set time in which the missionary can prepare for the upcoming week.” What does that mean? Prepare for what? Isn’t that why I had to wake up at six o’clock every morning—to read scriptures, talk about our investigators and PREPARE the best course of action for the day and week. Someone please enlighten me! Don’t tell me I need more preparation time when I’m already doing it six days a week.
Maybe there are other reasons for the term preparation day. Others I could think of would be to get a haircut (once every five weeks), buy new shoes or do grocery shopping. These are all worthy preparation activities but in no way do they represent a day’s worth. Thirty minutes (tops) of true preparation on p-day does not warrant that the term p-day be used by 60,000+ missionaries every day. And I’m sorry, but if you went on your mission anywhere near Third World status like Honduras, Ecuador or East San Antonio, you can’t exactly plan a meal two days ahead, let alone seven—dare I admit that I went grocery shopping other days besides Monday. And even then, grocery shopping, as others can attest, consisted of going to the house on the corner, buying two rolls, a chocolate milk, and anti-diarrhea medicine. And then in some areas, someone cooks for you (which still required a trip to house on the corner for the anti-diarrhea medicine).
Maybe there are other reasons I am not touching on. Maybe it is a term used in the “olden” days to describe a day off when a missionary’s preparation required a little more overall preparation like to skin animals and sew their own clothes. Maybe it just won’t go away and will be like that just because it “has always been that way”—kind of like the facial hair Honor Code restrictions at BYU (don’t get me started). Maybe they need to change the name, but that would probably have to go through the Correlation Committee. Maybe I need to move on.
Anyway, the following is an excerpt and introduction to a story I just finished of one of my first p-days. Don’t make too much fun or I will keep posting them…
In my mission, preparation day fell on a Monday and I liked it that way. Mostly because it gave me time to relax a little bit following Sunday, which for me was probably the most taxing day during the week due to a couple of reasons. First, it always weighed heavily on the soul when picking up investigators from their homes and finding them with a sudden fever or a sever case of gastritis. That’s not to say that all our investigators exhibited signs of sudden illness on Sunday mornings, but it was a practice all too common. I guess "Dios no quiso." Sometimes you would grow to expect it and be pleasantly surprised that the bug failed to reach their house.
Another reason for Sunday’s reputation was the bittersweet taste of fast Sunday. I don’t care who you are, Fast Sunday can be very difficult at times. Of course, if it wasn’t difficult, it wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice and since sacrifice brings forth blessings, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I learned in my first area that the sacrifice increases at least ten fold when applied during the mission. At least at home, you can ball up into a corner in a fetal position and count away the minutes without expending too much life-sustaining energy. Unfortunately the mission field only offered dust from the dirt roads and streaming sweat as a source of sustenance; especially when the two mixed and formed a nutritious paste on your teeth. But who’s complaining?
The bottom line is that I desperately needed time on the Monday following a fast Sunday to lick my wounds and regain lost energy. At least it wasn’t as bad as a friend of mine who was concurrently serving in Mexico. He was instructed to begin his fast only after his last meal had been digested, which was revealed (divinely, I’m sure) to be approximately six hours. This means if the last meal was at 5 o’clock in the evening on Saturday, the fast truly started at about eleven. This meant that to break your fast, you would have to wait until eleven on Sunday night. I think in that area, the mission president also paid 12 percent tithing, but that allegation has yet to be substantiated. My friend also had a companion that tried stabbing him with a knife. If it meant no more 30 hour fasts, I think I would have let him.
Anyway, p-days provided a much needed rejuvenation period. If we weren’t resting on p-day, we were doing some kind of recreational activity like futbolito (soccer on a small playing area), basketball w/out traveling, double dribble or foul violations, visiting a local attraction, or video games at the local arcade (more on that later).
In guess when it comes right down to it, I really have no idea why it is called preparation day. I mean, I know the textbook answer would be something to the effect that “it provides a set time in which the missionary can prepare for the upcoming week.” What does that mean? Prepare for what? Isn’t that why I had to wake up at six o’clock every morning—to read scriptures, talk about our investigators and PREPARE the best course of action for the day and week. Someone please enlighten me! Don’t tell me I need more preparation time when I’m already doing it six days a week.
Maybe there are other reasons for the term preparation day. Others I could think of would be to get a haircut (once every five weeks), buy new shoes or do grocery shopping. These are all worthy preparation activities but in no way do they represent a day’s worth. Thirty minutes (tops) of true preparation on p-day does not warrant that the term p-day be used by 60,000+ missionaries every day. And I’m sorry, but if you went on your mission anywhere near Third World status like Honduras, Ecuador or East San Antonio, you can’t exactly plan a meal two days ahead, let alone seven—dare I admit that I went grocery shopping other days besides Monday. And even then, grocery shopping, as others can attest, consisted of going to the house on the corner, buying two rolls, a chocolate milk, and anti-diarrhea medicine. And then in some areas, someone cooks for you (which still required a trip to house on the corner for the anti-diarrhea medicine).
Maybe there are other reasons I am not touching on. Maybe it is a term used in the “olden” days to describe a day off when a missionary’s preparation required a little more overall preparation like to skin animals and sew their own clothes. Maybe it just won’t go away and will be like that just because it “has always been that way”—kind of like the facial hair Honor Code restrictions at BYU (don’t get me started). Maybe they need to change the name, but that would probably have to go through the Correlation Committee. Maybe I need to move on.
Really, it’s not that big of a deal, despite the way I make it sound. I guess I’m just throwing it out there.
Moving on…
On one such “preparation day,” I was challenged to a round of Mortal Kombat in an old store on the corner about 50 feet away from our apartment. I was surprised for three reasons: First, I didn’t think the building had electricity, let alone an arcade console. Second, the arcade only took the equivalent of about three cents, and third, Elder Cook, from El Salvador, was more serious in competing against me than any time he talked about the first vision. It was scary and amusing at the same time.
In the first round…
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Warning: Sports-related post
Unfortunately, the WNBA gets more publicity than the Utah Jazz. I’ve only seen them play twice this year. The first game was against the Spurs, which they won, despite Tim Duncan’s whiny face that makes him look like he’s been constipated for three weeks. I’ve never known why Mom has always said that the Spurs is a team “you could root for if you had to.” Try living here. Three things make me dislike them: Bruce Bowen, Manu Ginobli’s acting, and Eva Longoria, who is now officially more annoying than Bill Walton. The second game was against the Lakers in which Kobe decided to actaully start playing. Needless to say, the Jazz got blown out more than Carlos Boozer’s chest hair on a date night.
As you can imagine, it’s been especially frustrating due to the fact that they stand at 16-5 and first in the NBA and even get a highlight or two on ESPN and I can’t watch nay of it. Granted, the season is only a fourth of the way through but still. The last time they started this good, I was sitting in the MTC listening on an illegal radio smuggled in by the same guys who visited a roommate with sister missionary name tags. The Jazz were taking it to the bulls. If not for Karl Malone spending time filming Rockwell 2 instead of practicing, they may have pulled it off. Now, every once in a while I’ll follow the Gamecenter on sportsline.com but that is it.
I posted a comment last year that said to the effect that Williams would be a bust. Maybe he read what I wrote and it has been next to the clock in his weight room for the past year, thus motivating him to his current status as one of the “to-go guys” on the team. I like him and think he could be really good—just needs some post up moves for mismatch situations and he could be an all star in two more years. Again, this is coming from someone who has only seen the team twice and a few highlights.
I am a little worried about Kirilenko. He wanted the max, got a franchise-player contract, and now looks like Dolph Lungren at the end of the fight in Rocky IV running up and down the court taking shots. Lucky for the Jazz, he should put up all star numbers again in 2011. Coincidentally, this is when his contract expires.
Where did Boozer come from? His contract doesn’t expire till ’09 and he is playing like Teen Wolf, without the chest ha….uhh, well you get the idea. I always knew he had it. He reminds me of Shane Battier with good post moves with that short jump hook.
Mehment Okur looks like he just woke up 10 minutes before the game after drinking too much egg nog the night before. He can rebound, hit a three, and pull off the runner fairly easily for a big man. He looks like a cross between Vlade Divac and the guy on my bus who has to wipe his drool every five minutes.
The bench players look like great role players who know when to step up. I’m not too familiar with any of them except Rafael Araujo who is competing with Shawn Bradley for overhyped BYU big man of the NBA. I think his best bet is to become a Mark Madsen: cheer wildly from the sidelines, set hard picks, enter a dance competition and look as awkward as possible. For all I know, he may be doing this already—have yet to see him play.
Anyway, I’m excited about the Jazz this year and for Jerry Sloan who could finally win the Coach of the Year Award.
I guess that’s it.
As you can imagine, it’s been especially frustrating due to the fact that they stand at 16-5 and first in the NBA and even get a highlight or two on ESPN and I can’t watch nay of it. Granted, the season is only a fourth of the way through but still. The last time they started this good, I was sitting in the MTC listening on an illegal radio smuggled in by the same guys who visited a roommate with sister missionary name tags. The Jazz were taking it to the bulls. If not for Karl Malone spending time filming Rockwell 2 instead of practicing, they may have pulled it off. Now, every once in a while I’ll follow the Gamecenter on sportsline.com but that is it.
I posted a comment last year that said to the effect that Williams would be a bust. Maybe he read what I wrote and it has been next to the clock in his weight room for the past year, thus motivating him to his current status as one of the “to-go guys” on the team. I like him and think he could be really good—just needs some post up moves for mismatch situations and he could be an all star in two more years. Again, this is coming from someone who has only seen the team twice and a few highlights.
I am a little worried about Kirilenko. He wanted the max, got a franchise-player contract, and now looks like Dolph Lungren at the end of the fight in Rocky IV running up and down the court taking shots. Lucky for the Jazz, he should put up all star numbers again in 2011. Coincidentally, this is when his contract expires.
Where did Boozer come from? His contract doesn’t expire till ’09 and he is playing like Teen Wolf, without the chest ha….uhh, well you get the idea. I always knew he had it. He reminds me of Shane Battier with good post moves with that short jump hook.
Mehment Okur looks like he just woke up 10 minutes before the game after drinking too much egg nog the night before. He can rebound, hit a three, and pull off the runner fairly easily for a big man. He looks like a cross between Vlade Divac and the guy on my bus who has to wipe his drool every five minutes.
The bench players look like great role players who know when to step up. I’m not too familiar with any of them except Rafael Araujo who is competing with Shawn Bradley for overhyped BYU big man of the NBA. I think his best bet is to become a Mark Madsen: cheer wildly from the sidelines, set hard picks, enter a dance competition and look as awkward as possible. For all I know, he may be doing this already—have yet to see him play.
Anyway, I’m excited about the Jazz this year and for Jerry Sloan who could finally win the Coach of the Year Award.
I guess that’s it.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)