Week Nine

Work: On Monday I had to call companies to get help with using their products. I was transferred a zillion times, because they couldn't get me to the right person on the first try. Then more testing this week.

Went to Ronnie's for a birthday party. Chase was there and he is quite the entertainer once he starts on his stories. One time he took eight melatonin to help him sleep. Apparently one wasn't strong enough for him? He slept for a day and a half straight. There was a piano there so I played some Phantom of the Opera songs. I haven't played for awhile so I was really excited and spent a good 30 minutes to myself.

Thursday was our Relief Society's dessert and swim party. Beth and I made a strawberry kiwi tart. There was also a contest for the best dessert and sadly ours didn't even come close. Ours was pretty average, crescent roll dough with yogurt, strawberries and kiwi topping it. There were some delicious tasting things that also looked impressive. Maybe if I had my usual stash of baking supplies I could have done something amazing but we didn't really try too hard.

One of my coworkers keeps giving me things to entertain me. A month ago he gave me a book by Stephen King called The Stand. It is the original, uncut edition which is a whopping 1141 pages. This version has 500 more pages than the first edition of the book. I wish he had given me that version, this one is a monster! He gave it to me right after I finished The Count of Monte Cristo which is also a long book so I didn't want another long book in a row. Although it is interesting, it is not something I would pick for myself. His writing is very violent and gruesome which I don't appreciate but I'm stuck reading it out of politeness. This week the same coworker gave me all three seasons of Arrested Development. I don't know when I will have time to watch it, I'm too busy doing fun things and getting ready for my mission. It looks hilarious though so at least he gave me something I might like. 

On Friday, Beth and I drove up to Palmyra, New York. I've been before, when I was fifteen, but since it's been a long time I was looking forward to it. We got there about an hour before the pageant. All of the cast walks around to greet people, and to tell people what the pageant is about if they don't know. While we were waiting, one of the actors playing Joseph Smith came by our area so Beth and I got a picture with him! Not too long later, the pageant started. It goes through various stories in the Book of Mormon including Nephi, wicked King Noah and Abinidi, Alma the High Priest, Samuel the Lamanite, the coming of Christ to the Americas, Mormon, Moroni and eventually Joseph Smith and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. It took forever to get out of the parking lot and to get to our hotel. Since it was opening night it was packed and it was standstill traffic trying to leave.

In the bedroom where Joseph saw the angel Moroni.
L-R Amanda, Amy, me and Beth

The next morning we got up and went to some historical sites in Palmyra. First we went to Joseph Smith's home (a replica). It is two floors and very tiny. They had two or three children sleeping on each bed which were about the size of full sized beds. We thought about Joseph seeing the angel Moroni with his brothers in the same room. The spirit must have made sure they were completely out of it. Behind the house, his mother Lucy Mack Smith planted a beautiful garden every year, full of delicious fruits and vegetables. They made the garden look like it would have with her gardening skills. I just wanted to pick some of the broccoli and zucchini and eat it then and there. 

After that, we went to the house Alvin built for his fiancee before he died. It is 85% original which is amazing, and it looked very nice. We got to see a few spots where the plates were hidden in the house. One was under some bricks at the fireplace, another was in a wooden box, and a third was in the bed in between two sleeping girls.

After the tours, we went into the Sacred Grove. This was where Joseph Smith had a vision where he saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. They told him that none of the churches on the earth were true. After this vision, he was prepared in order to translate the Book of Mormon, an ancient record of peoples in the Americas. While I was there I felt a connection to Joseph Smith. In a few months I will be a missionary and I will teach the Restoration of the gospel. I will help people discover the truth which they have been looking for, much like Joseph Smith. I am so excited for this opportunity, and I look forward to teaching this story.

 After the grove, we went to the Palmyra temple. It is a very small temple, I was told you can practically see all the way across the building from anywhere inside. We just sat on the grounds and talked, and had some interesting moments. Beth invited everyone to sit on her lap (not all at once) which was really funny. We were comparing how bony everyone's butts were (no mine was not the boniest). Amanda only briefly sat on her lap and Beth said she couldn't judge by that brief encounter. She didn't fully sit on her lap, it was more of a crouch or what Beth called a "butt touch".

After the temple we headed to Nima's pizzaria. Beth said we had to go because it is the best pizza she's ever had. I'm not sure if it was the best pizza ever (I'll have to try a lot more to make a good judgment call ;) ), but it sure was delicious. Also socially awkward moment: Beth and I ate fries left on the table by the people who sat at the table before us. I felt super weird about it, but they were on their own plate and the customers hadn't eaten any of them and we were starving (it was 2:30 at this point). I guess I've done worse things.

Then I headed to the Grandin Building with Jonathon. The building is where the first few thousand copies of the Book of Mormon were printed. We walked through the process of printing and we got to see one of the original copies. The printing took many months to complete. Each page took a long time, each letter was a separate stamp and they had to compile all the stamps together to make words, sentences and paragraphs. This was done for the entire book. Then they had to turn the printed pages into a book by pressing the pages together, binding them, cutting off extra paper, putting a cover on it and engraving the title on the front. It took a lot of work but was well worth it. After that, we headed home. It was quite a long drive, and I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Mission Call

So I got my mission call... I'm going to Arcadia, California. I'll be speaking Spanish and I leave October 3rd. That means I have to brush up on my high school Spanish. Hopefully I'll go through and remember a lot of it before I go into the MTC (very optimistic).

I know some of my friends don't actually know what this means so I'll explain. I'm leaving in October for eighteen months to serve the Lord. I will first go to the MTC or Missionary Training Center. While I'm there I'll learn Spanish and I'll prepare to teach people about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS church). After gaining the necessary skills I will head off to California where I will be for the rest of my mission, about sixteen months. I'll come back in March of 2014. As part of the missionary lifestyle I will not be allowed to call friends or family. I will be permitted to write letters though, so I hope to get some from anyone reading this! I will be able to call or videochat with my parents on Christmas and Mother's day. I'm actually really excited because my birthday happens to be on the Sunday of Mother's day so that will be a really exciting present!

I'm very excited to go to California! I love warm weather and will definitely not miss the snow! I'm excited to serve and to see what is in store for me.

Here's the picture of my mission as per my family's request.

I'll just say if you have any questions you can go to http://www.lds.org or you can ask me yourself!

Some of the things I will be teaching include:

• The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ--After Christ died, his church became corrupt and the gospel was not correct anymore. The gospel was brought back through Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.
• The Plan of Salvation--The Plan of Happiness that God has for everyone as individuals and within families.
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ--Christ's gospel consists of faith in Christ, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost.
• The Commandments--The Ten Commandments and other important commands like tithing, fasting, following the prophet, etc.
• Laws and Ordinances--After baptism, the additional steps a person must take to gain eternal life. This includes things like going to the temple, doing missionary work and serving.

Creeper or Creeped on?

This weekend was General Conference, which is an amazing experience. Some of the general authorities in the church talk and give guidance for the next 6 months for us to look to. Every time I listen to conference, they address the things I need to hear most. If you want to check out some of the videos from conference look here, you won't regret it! Some of my favorites included Elder O. Vincent Haleck about having vision in your life, President Monson about slowing down to think of the spiritual, important things of life, President Utchdorf about contention-STOP IT!, and President Eyring about faith and challenges.

The conference was spread between four sessions over two days. It went from 10-12pm, and from 2-4pm both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday there was another meeting, Priesthood Session for the men. Usually people fall asleep during the later sessions because you are sitting and listening for a long time that day. A good way to combat that is to take a nap and get it all out of you. I decided that would be a good idea.

After the morning session, the first thing I did was make delicious monkey bread. Then people came in and out of my friend's apartment so we all talked for awhile and some hilarious things were said. I realized I would only get a 10-15 minute nap in but waited around until less was going on around me.

I took my nap right at 1:40 and woke up five minutes before it started. When I woke up I stretched and noticed Stephen Black staring at me. We both kept looking at each other because it was just weird. I looked at him and asked if he had been watching me sleep. He had a similar thought and asked me if I had been staring at him. It was a really odd moment.

Apparently we had both looked at each other at the same time, but both of us thought the other had been creepily watching for a long time. When I stretched it caught his attention and he looked at me. He was sitting directly in front of me, so he was the first person I saw when I opened my eyes. How this all worked out I have no idea. Only weird stuff like this happens to me.

As a last thing, this funny picture that describes my life.