General conference is this weekend! In honor of the occasion, I'm going to try to remember as many details as I can about October general conference. Surprisingly, I don't remember as much as I would like.
2011. Our home teacher Christian Ulmer brought us apple cider and glazed donuts on Saturday. The donuts weren't very good; I wonder if they were imitation donuts. I ended up eating four of them that day, since it was the last day of my birthday week in which I could eat anything I wanted. When President Monson announced that the Provo Tabernacle was going to be a temple, I said, "Whoa." That evening, my mom had gone somewhere, so my dad and I left to go to priesthood. We saw our neighbor, Jeff Pay, getting into his car, so we pulled up, and I rolled down my window and asked if he wanted a ride. Since my dad and I are not conversationalists, it was kind of an awkward ride. I can't seem to remember what I did on Sunday, except that I wrote a blog post.
2010. I think after the second session on Saturday, my extended family came over. We had "fat man's misery" because it was my last day of eating whatever I wanted. Then I got ready to go to priesthood session. I was wearing a blue shirt with a pink-and-blue striped tie. My grandpa said to my grandma that I looked like "Focal Point"; I think he meant Vocal Point. My dad and I took my grandpa to our stake center for priesthood session. During the Seventy's talk about going into the desert without shoes on, my grandpa audibly said "Scorpion!" when they showed the picture. I really liked President Uchtdorf's talk about pride. Then we came home. My grandpa told everyone President Uchtdorf's joke that his wife told him (referring to pride), "It's good to give a talk on something you know so much about." For some reason, my niece Allie had gone home with my aunt. My mom took me to my aunt's house. Allie was watching her Disney Channel nonsense and didn't like the idea of Peter watching something different. We came in and Allie said to my mom, pointing to Peter, "He's fat!" My mom reproved her, and then Allie said something we didn't hear. My mom said "Allison!" Sue said, "It's true," thinking it was still about the Peter comment, but my mom said, "No, what she said was, 'You are too.'" Peter said that she had to be nice to her grandma. Peter's friend Noah was there. Joey called Noah gay (or something) because of his "spiky hair"--never mind that a few months later Joey would sport the very same hairstyle. He also criticized his socks. After Joey left, Peter asked Noah if he had said he was gay because of the brand of his socks. Noah and Peter left (after Noah had said he wanted to watch Wizards of Waverly Place--I think facetiously). I looked at the October Ensign; Sue hadn't looked at it, so I told her how it was all about the temple. Eventually we left. Allie fell asleep in the car, and when she was asleep, my mom told me that Chancey's girlfriend was pregnant. Once again, I can't seem to recall what happened on Sunday.
2009. We missionaries watched conference at the stake center. At one point we had our mission leader for the singles branch, James Fowler, go with us to try to see some people at the poor-people apartment complex. We contacted a former investigator, but she wasn't ready. After the second session, we talked about going to dinner, but James suggested we (four of us missionaries) go to his grandma's house for dinner. We watched something on BYUtv, but then The Best Two Years came on, which we couldn't watch. But James did sing the line "Mama makes the best fried chicken" from the opening song before we turned the TV off. We were cutting it close on time, and when Elder Robinson said the blessing on the food, he prayed that time would go slow. After priesthood session, we snuck our second air conditioner out of our apartment so that our "landlord" wouldn't see. We put it in our trunk to return it to the Coopers, who had lent it to us, but they weren't home. This is what I wrote in my journal that night: "Rain seems to be common weather for conference weekend, and I love it. I really enjoyed many of the talks, especially Elder Oaks's talk about obedience and love. We didn't do much between our sessions the first time. Between the afternoon and Priesthood sessions we went with James to Sister Fowler's house and she made spontaneous dinner. After Priesthood we snuck our air conditioner out but couldn't return it; we also saw the Hardings.
I think the next day we went to the Clarkson elders' house between sessions; their members had made lunch for us.
2008. After the morning session, we drove to see a potential investigator. President Clark called us while we were in our car in that area and told Elder Duncan his new companion was Elder Hobbs. (President had already told me my transfer info the day before.) I think between sessions I also started looking over our area book to make sure it was updated before transfers. Then we went to the afternoon session; when President Monson announced the Rome Temple, everyone gasped. At some point we were talking with Sister Knighten, whom we lived with, about conference, and she talked about the gasp. Before the priesthood session, we went to the Aaronic Priesthood gathering at the Merrills' house (they lived right by the church) and ate pizza and ice cream. I remember one youth talking about the Brewster branch, how it was mostly Spanish speaking. There was also a joke about a branch being more like a "twig." We tried to ask a few people about who could give me a ride for transfers, but everyone was working. After the priesthood session, we went to Leslie Couch's house. We told her I was leaving to Ritzville; she seemed sad and that might have been the time she tried to hug me and thereby learned about the no-hugging-missionaries rule. (And if that weren't the rule, she would have learned the no-hugging-Elder-Melville rule.) She asked where Ritzville was, and Elder Duncan told her it was between Moses Lake and Spokane; Leslie said, "Oh, so it's still in Washington." I think we watched a conference talk with her, although maybe that was the next night. Then we biked home in the dark and we could see the lights from the fair of East Wenatchee's Aviation Days. I wrote in my journal that night: "Much of my work in this area has ceased. I really enjoyed conference today. Then we met with Leslie, and she really has been praying earnestly for her answer. That is probably the saddest thing about going to Ritzville, leaving Leslie's progression. I'm the only one leaving this district."
The next day, after conference, we had dinner with the Lacys. Brother Lacy was the mayor of East Wenatchee, and he gave us East Wenatchee pins--an airplane flying around an apple. I had found a yellow leaf, which I put on my lapel. Also at the Lacys were the Andersons, a part-member family, and Sister Anderson pointed out the leaf on my suit, not knowing I put it there deliberately. Then we visited a potential or former investigator; he also thought my leaf was unintentional. He seemed somewhat condescending about our beliefs, but it was more of a genuine disagreement, and he was nice enough to let us in and visit with us.
2007. I had to work the Saturday of conference. I told my manager Imad (uh-MOD) that my last day was going to be October 26. Then the power went out. I tried to help some people, but our label printers didn't work, and the checkers couldn't check anything out anyway. They had to close the store and herd everyone out; they left carts all over and people had the task of putting all their stuff back. I was glad I didn't have that job. Instead, we had to put plastic all over the refrigerated items. When the power came back on, my supervisor Kat told me to wait a bit to take the plastic off, in case the power went off again. But then Imad told me to remove the plastic. I told him what Kat had said, but he told me the power wasn't going to go out. I learned later that one employee had been trapped in the employee elevator during the power outage. As my coworkers arrived that day, I told them that the power had gone out, that someone had been trapped in the elevator, and that I gave my three weeks notice. As my shift ended, I noticed some dressed-up men and young men come in--they had obviously just come from priesthood session. When I went home, my aunt and cousin (or cousins) were there. I told everyone how the power had gone out at work; they didn't seem interested. Then that night my mom and I watched an episode of That Girl, and Quin seemed interested in it, but they had to leave.
The next day Allie got mad at me for something. She said to me, "You can't go to nursery anymore! You have to go to Sunday School with your mom and dad!" She always gave the funniest threats and punishments. I didn't think she realized that we weren't going to church that day.
2005. I got up and went to the Eagleridge building where they had bagels or something for us singers. Then we were driven to the Conference Center (I think by Scott Jones). There were protesters outside, with signs like "LDS is LSD." Hillary Ulmer was talking about how her dad would say their signs sounded like Book of Mormon passages that described themselves. We waited outside for a time while some people paraded around Temple Square playing hymns on bagpipes. We went inside and practiced our songs, thus missing the first session. They provided food, but there wasn't enough food, and I was toward the back of the line, so I didn't get much to eat. Then we went and sat in the choir seats. I remember an announcer saying that there were people who wanted to destroy the spirit of the meeting but that we shouldn't pay them any mind. I remember an early speaker talking about how a preoccupation with appearance can be spiritually damaging. I took notes on that, but I didn't pay as close attention as I should have. When we sang the rest hymn, "High on the Mountain Top," we didn't sing the whole thing. When we left, we saw all the priesthood choir people coming in.
2004. We had all of the extended family come over to watch conference. I remember watching my cousin-in-law Sarah's eyes roll back as she tried to stay awake. We ate chicken and rice. And then that night we all got sick from it and threw up.
2003. I remember on Saturday going to Target. They were putting out a display of boxes of the "Lucy at the Halloween Party" toy set from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. My mom got one for me for my birthday. We also got some Halloween peanut butter M&Ms. I remember sitting in the car listening to conference while we waited for David and Ya-ping to leave the store. I was anxious to listen to conference because my nefarious seminary teacher, Brother Heaston, made us do massive conference reports. When we went to the priesthood session that night, I brought a notebook to take notes, but it was too dark to take any.
2002. My home teaching companion Brother Naylor took me to the priesthood session because my dad was working. We passed a house on Lacey that had a huge Halloween display.
2001. I think before priesthood session I was looking at the new Peanuts comic book my friend David Christensen had got me for my birthday, but maybe this happened in 2000.
My aunt Terri came up on Sunday. She liked all of the homemade Halloween window clings I had made. We were watching conference on KSL when it was interrupted for some news thing relating to the Twin Tower attacks a few weeks earlier. Terri said, "I knew something was going to happen today." My mom wanted to watch the news report for a bit. Then we switched to channel 11 to keep watching conference.
2000. I went to my first priesthood session, but I felt bad because I wasn't ordained yet since I had just turned 12. We sang "Ye Elders of Israel" and my brother David told me I would grow very used to that hymn. (Boy, was he right!) I remember Bishop Mead looking back at us. I remember seeing someone from my primary class there, and I wondered why he was there if he wasn't twelve yet (he would be twelve in two weeks).
1999. I think this year we had gone to Fillmore for conference. When we left, Grandpa Boyd gave me Halloween Oreos for my birthday. We drove on the Nebo Loop while listening to my brother's Pink Floyd (The Wall) tape and I was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
1997. I wonder if this was the time my aunt and uncle were on vacation, so all the Thompson boys were at our house. We watched the morning session on Sunday; I remember sitting downstairs and my mom saying she appreciated the way Jesse and I were paying attention (or at least pretending to); I think she said this because Quin and Chancey were being a bit rambunctious. During the afternoon session, we were jumping on the tramp, and I remember saying I was glad my mom didn't make us watch the afternoon session. But maybe all this happened one April.
1996. For some reason of which I am not quite sure, I was baptized this weekend. Since my grandpa was a bishop, I wanted to be baptized at "his" church. I remember going with my dad and grandpa to the church, where my grandpa turned on the steamy font water. I remember changing in a room by the font that had a chalkboard; I remember thinking it was a weird place for a chalkboard. Then we went into the font. I was dunked, but I remember my uncle John saying that my toe had come up, so I had to be dunked again. Then we went into a room where we sang, I think, "Have I Done Any Good?" My cousin Jesse decided he didn't want to be there anymore, so he wanted to escape. So he went behind the curtains to see if he could go out the window. My aunt Michelle from the other side of the family was playing the piano, and she got freaked out by someone in the curtains and the song was stopped. She laughed. I was not amused at the goings on, but looking back I find it funny. My primary teacher Caroline Weight had brought me a little gift bag with a pencil and one of those things made of plastic canvas that opens two ways and whatever is in the middle (in this case, a bookmark) switches sides. We went to my grandparents' house for dinner; I remember we had deviled eggs. The adults were watching the afternoon session of conference. They were told to watch for my cousin Todd in the choir, and we did see him. That night, my parents gave me a blue scripture case and my very own scriptures.They also gave me a journal and told me to write about how I felt being baptized. I said I felt different when I came out of the water, but I don't know whether I really felt that way or if I felt prompted by my parents to say that.
I know that when I post this I'll remember more stuff!
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
My birthday
My birthday is coming up on Saturday, so I'm going to remember as many details as I can about the past birthdays of my life.
2011. I went to work, and in the morning I had to get a box split (the order was too big for one box). I went up to the leads' offices and asked Dave to split it. He started asking me some questions. He asked me how old I was; I told him 23 but I didn't tell him it was as of that day. He asked me what I was studying. Later that day we had our weekly Thursday 10:30 meeting. At the end of the meeting, my coworker Michelle told everyone it was my birthday. I went home at the end of my shift; I think that was the day my sister brought me the present she had bought me, a battery-operated light-up Snoopy picture. I looked at the price tag and was surprised it cost as much as it did. When my mom came home, she brought in Hot-&-Readys for dinner. She presented me with gifts, which she held behind her back and gave to me one at a time. She gave me a ten-pack of Almond Joys, Lady Antebellum's album Own the Night, and Kelly Clarkson's album Thankful. She told me she got me Thankful because it might have Thanksgiving songs, although I was skeptical. She wrote on my cake with red frosting and put candles on it; I think there was wax on the cake by the time she had lit them and I had blown them out. Then I put my new CDs in the stereo and listened to them.
2010. When I went to the kitchen in the morning, I discovered that my dad had already eaten some of the cake that my mom had made the night before. In the morning I went and drove to the Walgreen's by Kmart. I was dismayed by their poor selection of Halloween things, so then I drove to the Walgreen's nearer to Shopko. I bought some pajama pants that said "It's the Great Pumpkin" and had four Peanuts characters in a miniature pumpkin patch. I think I also bought some mechanical pencils. Then I came home and folded laundry while watching Green Acres; I can't remember if I was finishing the first season or starting the third season. Later my family all came home and I showed them the pajamas I bought; my mom said I could use them for Thanksgiving (I disagree) and it was said that I should tell my grandparents that I used their birthday money to buy them. Then my mom took me and my niece to go get my new green and black bicycle. After picking it up, we went to JoAnn's crafts in Centerville. We looked at the holiday fabrics. I was surprised that their Fourth of July material wasn't on sale. My mom let me get four yards of fabric for pillowcases: one was a Peanuts Fourth of July case, one was orange and black checks (I think I got that instead of a Halloween Peanuts fabric), one was black with green bats, and one was brown with Thanksgiving turkeys. While we were at the fabric counter getting the fabrics cut, Allie told the employee, "My uncle likes Charlie Brown and he's 22!" She didn't know I was standing right behind her. The employee talked about making costumes for relatives who wanted to be the Princess and the Frog; Allie was able to specify that the Princess's name is Tiana. When we left JoAnn's we passed Arctic Circle, where the marquee advertised that they then had pumpkin shakes.
2009. I remember biking on Hemlock Ave., near the home of the Coopers, when the Watkins, the members who were providing our dinner that day, called and asked what kind of Subway sandwiches we wanted. I think I said I wanted turkey. Then we ate them at dinner time. That night I wrote in my journal 21 things I was grateful for. But I don't feel like reproducing them here. When I was writing, we got a call from Sister Palmer, our mission president's wife. I figured it was for Elder Tamblyn, since he had a lot of health issues, so I gave the phone to him, but it turned out it was for me; Sister Palmer was wishing me a happy birthday.
2008. In the morning we went to the stake center, as was typical, to email our families. I remember my Dad's email saying my intelligence would go up now that I was no longer a teenager. This is my email for the day: "Yesterday, the 28th, I turned ten. Today, the 29th, I turned twenty. I was in fourth grade the last time I changed a decade. I still feel like a kid. I am overwhelmed at the thought of being in my twenties. I guess I always felt that being old was for other people, but not for me. Ack!
"Thanks very much for the package. I am very disappointed at M&Ms, because they added green and purple to the Halloween mix. A few weeks ago before the Halloween season started I pondered if I should consider purple a Halloween color, but I ultimately decided against it. One of the grounds for doing so was that M&Ms had no purple for Halloween. And then they disappointed me by adding those extra colors. I can kind of see purple but green is absolutely out of the question.
"It's been so long since I've cashed a check I don't remember how to cash Grandma and Grandpa's, especially since they don't have American First up here. I don't even know where a bank is in this area.
"We had our interviews this week. I asked President Clark if he had any ideas about our transfers. He didn't know, but he said three transfers is too short to stay in an area, that it's usually supposed to be four to six. So I may be here another seven weeks, since this is the last week of the transfer. We will find out probably on Saturday morning before conference. We get to attend few meetings other than regular church meetings, but we get to view all five sessions of conference. It's also the time we are reunited with our suit coats full-time. It's supposed to be in the 80s or 90s again this week >-( so that might not work too well.
"I have more to write but I'm losing time, so I will definitely try to write snail mail today. But I can't guarantee anything.
"Love,
"Your elderly son"
When we came home from the church, I had received a basket that my family had ordered for me. It was addressed to "Letter Mark," playing off of my niece's misunderstanding of the word "Elder." The basket had a banana, a cluster of grapes, a red apple, some Raisinets, and some other goodies. Sister Knighten, the member we lived with, said that the delivery people had asked if I lived there and she said yes. She made us tacos for lunch. They were good and I was very grateful, although we were planning on going to lunch. We picked up Elder Moench and Elder Dobbins and we went to a Mexican restaurant. I remember discussing praying in public--I don't like to because I feel like a Pharisee. Elder Moench said that was why he prayed with his eyes open. Elder Dobbins said that the previous mission president had said that missionaries shouldn't pray in public because it made them seem self-righteous. I think that led to a conversation about how that same president had said all Christmas music was approved to listen to. Elder Dobbins said, "My thought is, if it's real Christmas music, that is about the Savior, shouldn't it be approved year round?" That might have been what led to the discussion of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and I proceeded to recite the movie:
"'Twas a long time ago, longer now than it seems,
In a place that perhaps you've seen in your dreams.
For the story you are about to be told
Took place in the holiday worlds of old.
Now, you've probably wondered where holidays come from.
If you haven't, I'd say it's time you'd begun!"
I then explained that the movie then had the song "This Is Halloween," but that I wasn't going to sing it. But then I continued:
"Whee! It's over"
"We did it!"
"Wasn't it terrifying?"
"What a night!"
"Great Halloween everybody!"
"I believe it was our most horrible yet. Thank you everybody."
"No, thanks to you Jack. Without your brilliant leadership..."
"Not at all, Mayor."
"You're such a scream, Jack."
"You're a witch's fondest dream."
"You made walls fall, Jack."
"Walls fall? You made the deadly mountains black, Jack!"
"The deadly nightshade you slipped into my tea wore off, Sally."
"Let go!"
"You're not ready for so much excitement."
"Yes I am."
"You're coming with me!"
"No I'm not!"
"Come back here you foolish...Ow! Oh! Ohhh!"
"Jack, you make wounds ooze and flesh crawl!"
"Thank you! Thank you! Very much!"
"Hold it! We haven't given out our prizes yet! Our first award goes to the vampires for 'Most blood drained in a single evening.' Our second and honorable mention goes to the fabulous Dark Lagoon leeches."
I stopped there. (By the way, I still did that all from memory.) After lunch we went to Goodwill. I found a Rudolph tie that I bought for two dollars. I remember seeing a Time Out for Women bag there. Our ward's Relief Society president, Sister Caldwell, was also there. Elder Moench and Elder Dobbins looked at t-shirts. There was one that was "things you shouldn't say to your date's parents." The first one was, "I just got my learner's permit today." Elder Dobbins said that was true. The rest of them got progressively more inappropriate. We went to Fred Meyer, where I saw a display of jack-o-lantern dodgeballs. I said I wanted to get one to play dodgeball. Elder Dobbins liked the idea, and said to me, quoting The Testaments, "You are a specter from the gods." I think all four of us ended up buying dodgeballs. I also bought some mint Oreos. Then we went to dinner with the Harts, who had previously served in the mission office. Then we went and saw one Jason Smith, whom we had not contacted for a few weeks. He wanted to give me a pen he got at the Space Needle for my birthday, but I felt bad so I declined. We asked him to pray and in his prayer he prayed "that Elder Melville will have a good birthday." I was touched he would pray for me--I didn't even know he knew my name. Then that night I wrote in my journal:
"Today was a good birthday. When we got home from basketball my family had sent me a gift basket from a local floral shop. We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant, and went shopping. I bought a pumpkin dodgeball and a Rudolph tie from Goodwill.
"We later had dinner with the Harts, and met with Jason again. He prayed specifically for me to have a good birthday, and he said he forgot to buy me something. He offered a Space Needle pen but I declined.
"Sister Clark called to end the birthday. I can't believe I'm twenty."
2007. I got up in the morning before going to work and my family gave me presents. I got some Joe Cool pajamas (for my mission), the third season of Green Acres, and some spooky eye lights for Halloween from my parents. My sister got me Coldplay's album Parachutes; I had never heard of Coldplay and I didn't know whether the name of the band was Coldplay or Parachutes. I thought it was an odd gift, considering that I was leaving on my mission in two months. I listened to this new CD as I drove to work in the rain; the songs all sounded so similar to each other that I was convinced that the CD was really short and had restarted itself. (It hadn't.) At one point my coworker Alice told my coworker Helen that it was my birthday; Helen asked, "How old are you, Precious?" I told her nineteen. At one point I looked outside and saw that it was no longer simply raining; it had started snowing. My coworkers were pretty silly that day. This might have been the day they brought a cat decoration to the deli and put a hairnet on it, saying it was Helen. They also brought a bunch of animal magnets in and put them on the fryer vent. Each animal represented one of us. I was the alligator because I apparently always had a cheesy smile on my face. I think my African coworker Awilli was the fish. They assigned our ornery coworker Ursula to be the bear. Later, Ursula asked which animal she was. Alice told her she was the bear (but didn't tell her why) and I wondered what her reaction would be. She said, "Oh, that's perfect!" She then explained that Ursula means bear, as in Ursa Major. During one of my breaks--either lunch or a short break--I saw Helen at the checkout. I told her about Ursula's reaction, and Helen said, "She can't be the bear anymore!" She then said she had looked for an octopus but couldn't find one. Eventually my shift was over and I drove home. I was delighted to find that there was snow on the lawn at my house--it was the earliest I ever remembered snow actually sticking to the ground at my house. My dad had cleaned the carpets, so we had to step gingerly, if at all. We had Papa John's pizza and my aunt and some cousins came. I remember Quin wanted to watch Gilligan's Island but Susanne told him I got to choose what to watch. I wanted to watch Green Acres. I watched some first season episodes, including the one in which Eleanor the cow was having a baby but everyone thought it was Lisa. Quin was really amused by Uncle Joe's misspelling of baby as babie. Sue seemed amused by the premise of the episode.
2006. I remember coming home from school and watching a clip from Munster Go Home! on TV.com. I showed it to my mom and said it had just come out on DVD. She said she didn't believe it had because she had looked for it but couldn't find it. I told her that I had noticed that Best Buy had it, so she called them. When it was confirmed they had it, she went and bought it, but before she and my sister left they gave me the Corpse Bride soundtrack. She came back with the movie and we had Papa John's while I watched both movies on the DVD, Munster Go Home! and The Munsters' Revenge.
2005. I know that all of us juniors had testing that morning. Then when I came home I got my gifts. I got an alarm clock, since I could never have enough during high school. (I think I got it to replace the old terrible brown one I used, but I still used the old one anyway.) I got some Peeps pumpkins that came with black frosting gel so that you could put your own faces on the pumpkins; the flavor of the gel on the marshmallow wasn't good. I got two CDs, The Best of the Monkees and As Seen on TV: Halloween Specials. I wanted to listen to the Addams Family theme on the Halloween CD. I was dismayed to discover it wasn't the original recording; my mom and sister said it sounded the same to them. I took a nap while listening to my new Monkees CD. I think that night I played the song "Listen to the Band" for my mom because it didn't sound like the Monkees; it was very much a country song.
2004. My parents presented me with the first season of The Munsters on DVD. I excitedly went downstairs with my Mexican chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream to watch the color pilot episode. I was surprised to find their makeup was blue instead of green. When they cut to the shot of "Phoebe" (the precursor to Lily), I proclaimed, "It's Morticia!" That night I had mutual; I think we were doing stuff for the salt drive. I remember standing by a pumpkin display at Dick's Marketplace with Brad Byington and Kelton Gubler. I said that I was going to go home and watch The Munsters; Brad didn't know what it was. We were talking about Bryson Pope. Kelton said Bryson said he was the Spanish adjective "forte" (fuerte), meaning strong, but Kelton said he was the French version, meaning loud. I didn't think he got the foreign words quite right. I remember talking with Austin Anderson about how I was taking French; he seemed to think taking French was unwise. When he dropped me off, I said, "Merci beaucoup," and in response he said "Merci beau[raspberry]."
2003. This might have been the day we had the climbing wall during gym class; I couldn't climb. When I returned to the locker room, I discovered that someone had stolen my binder, which really stressed me out. But it meant that that night I didn't have to do homework because I didn't have my binder. We had Papa John's for dinner and I was presented with gifts. I got a Spongebob deck of cards (supposedly from Allie, since she didn't have much money as a two-month-old) and the DVD of Rescue from Gilligan's Island, which we went downstairs and watched. I remember thinking that all of the characters looked like caricatures of themselves, since the actors had all aged.
2002. I remember my parents giving me Halloween M&Ms and erasable gel pens, one of which was red.
2001. My parents gave me The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD; I was intrigued by the special features it had. Later that night my sister and I think my cousin Angie and one of her roommates came over. Susanne hadn't bought me anything, so my mom let her give me the Beverly Hillbillies DVDs she was going to give me for Christmas.
2000. One of the sixth grade teachers, Mrs. Fisher, took us outside to find protozoa. She put a beaker in a standing bucket of water and there was a creature inside. I said, "It's a little fish!" I thought it was going to be the best birthday ever, that I would find a protozoan, but I didn't. That evening I went with my brother and mom and my friend David Christensen and another friend (I think Cory Sheley) to a theater to see Chicken Run. I remember talking about how in class we learned about protists (I pronounced the o like /a/ instead of /o/) and my mom and brother corrected my pronunciation. On the way we had a discussion about the chicken and the egg. David Christensen said, "I've finally figured that out," and explained that the chicken came first because God created the chicken in the Garden of Eden, but my brother David asked him how he knew God didn't create the egg in the Garden. After the movie, David Christensen came to my house for a sleepover. We were playing the Super Nintendo and I brought down my National Geographic Children's Atlas of the World and I showed him that it had the Salt Lake Temple in it. If it was Cory Sheley who was the other friend, I think we drove him home.
1999. I remember taking my new Moy Mushroom Vegetable Friend to school and pointing out to my friend Brad Rogers that the tag had a typo: "Please remove tag before giving to you child." Brad said it could be pronounced "to you, child." After school I got the rest of the Vegetable Friends.
1998. I remember my dad saying I was a decade old. I think that morning I got gifts of Halloween and Thanksgiving window clings. That night, my sister came home from work and presented me with the Pierre Onion of the Veggie Friend Seedies from Around the World. Then my brother came in my room and gave me cash and told me he would take me to Winegar's the next day to get another Veggie Friend Seedie. He told me it was good he hadn't bought it because he probably would have bought the onion.
1997. I was wearing my green shirt with the orange Nike Swoosh on it. My teacher gave me a cupcake while I sat in the special birthday chair. I think at that point I was still getting my birthday presents the night before, so I didn't get presents on my birthday.
1996. My birthday was a Sunday. We had lasagna and red baked potatoes for dinner, as was my request. Everyone commented to me that I wanted red potatoes but I didn't eat any. Apparently I wasn't in the mood for potatoes. We had apple pie for dessert.
1995. It was a rainy day. I remember my mom picking me up from my grandparents', where I had spent the day because I was sick. She had a wrapped gift for me, which surprised me because usually only our Christmas presents were wrapped. It was a thing you build and put marbles down.
1994. I think my mom came to my kindergarten class and distributed little paperback books to the class. There were three kinds of books: Duck Tales, Sleeping Beauty, and I think Cinderella. I got all three but everyone in the class only got one (Duck Tales for the boys and the others for the girls).
1993. I remember blowing the candles out on my cake in the morning. Then it was time for me to go to the Christensens' house. I was in the backyard playing on their swingset when David came out. It was the first time we had met. I told him I was five and he told me he was four. Later there were a bunch of neighbor kids, including Kennie Christiansen, there for a birthday party for me. I got a Winnie the Pooh Goldenbook. I got scented crayons and huge glitter crayons and probably some coloring books. I don't remember what else I got.
2011. I went to work, and in the morning I had to get a box split (the order was too big for one box). I went up to the leads' offices and asked Dave to split it. He started asking me some questions. He asked me how old I was; I told him 23 but I didn't tell him it was as of that day. He asked me what I was studying. Later that day we had our weekly Thursday 10:30 meeting. At the end of the meeting, my coworker Michelle told everyone it was my birthday. I went home at the end of my shift; I think that was the day my sister brought me the present she had bought me, a battery-operated light-up Snoopy picture. I looked at the price tag and was surprised it cost as much as it did. When my mom came home, she brought in Hot-&-Readys for dinner. She presented me with gifts, which she held behind her back and gave to me one at a time. She gave me a ten-pack of Almond Joys, Lady Antebellum's album Own the Night, and Kelly Clarkson's album Thankful. She told me she got me Thankful because it might have Thanksgiving songs, although I was skeptical. She wrote on my cake with red frosting and put candles on it; I think there was wax on the cake by the time she had lit them and I had blown them out. Then I put my new CDs in the stereo and listened to them.
2010. When I went to the kitchen in the morning, I discovered that my dad had already eaten some of the cake that my mom had made the night before. In the morning I went and drove to the Walgreen's by Kmart. I was dismayed by their poor selection of Halloween things, so then I drove to the Walgreen's nearer to Shopko. I bought some pajama pants that said "It's the Great Pumpkin" and had four Peanuts characters in a miniature pumpkin patch. I think I also bought some mechanical pencils. Then I came home and folded laundry while watching Green Acres; I can't remember if I was finishing the first season or starting the third season. Later my family all came home and I showed them the pajamas I bought; my mom said I could use them for Thanksgiving (I disagree) and it was said that I should tell my grandparents that I used their birthday money to buy them. Then my mom took me and my niece to go get my new green and black bicycle. After picking it up, we went to JoAnn's crafts in Centerville. We looked at the holiday fabrics. I was surprised that their Fourth of July material wasn't on sale. My mom let me get four yards of fabric for pillowcases: one was a Peanuts Fourth of July case, one was orange and black checks (I think I got that instead of a Halloween Peanuts fabric), one was black with green bats, and one was brown with Thanksgiving turkeys. While we were at the fabric counter getting the fabrics cut, Allie told the employee, "My uncle likes Charlie Brown and he's 22!" She didn't know I was standing right behind her. The employee talked about making costumes for relatives who wanted to be the Princess and the Frog; Allie was able to specify that the Princess's name is Tiana. When we left JoAnn's we passed Arctic Circle, where the marquee advertised that they then had pumpkin shakes.
2009. I remember biking on Hemlock Ave., near the home of the Coopers, when the Watkins, the members who were providing our dinner that day, called and asked what kind of Subway sandwiches we wanted. I think I said I wanted turkey. Then we ate them at dinner time. That night I wrote in my journal 21 things I was grateful for. But I don't feel like reproducing them here. When I was writing, we got a call from Sister Palmer, our mission president's wife. I figured it was for Elder Tamblyn, since he had a lot of health issues, so I gave the phone to him, but it turned out it was for me; Sister Palmer was wishing me a happy birthday.
2008. In the morning we went to the stake center, as was typical, to email our families. I remember my Dad's email saying my intelligence would go up now that I was no longer a teenager. This is my email for the day: "Yesterday, the 28th, I turned ten. Today, the 29th, I turned twenty. I was in fourth grade the last time I changed a decade. I still feel like a kid. I am overwhelmed at the thought of being in my twenties. I guess I always felt that being old was for other people, but not for me. Ack!
"Thanks very much for the package. I am very disappointed at M&Ms, because they added green and purple to the Halloween mix. A few weeks ago before the Halloween season started I pondered if I should consider purple a Halloween color, but I ultimately decided against it. One of the grounds for doing so was that M&Ms had no purple for Halloween. And then they disappointed me by adding those extra colors. I can kind of see purple but green is absolutely out of the question.
"It's been so long since I've cashed a check I don't remember how to cash Grandma and Grandpa's, especially since they don't have American First up here. I don't even know where a bank is in this area.
"We had our interviews this week. I asked President Clark if he had any ideas about our transfers. He didn't know, but he said three transfers is too short to stay in an area, that it's usually supposed to be four to six. So I may be here another seven weeks, since this is the last week of the transfer. We will find out probably on Saturday morning before conference. We get to attend few meetings other than regular church meetings, but we get to view all five sessions of conference. It's also the time we are reunited with our suit coats full-time. It's supposed to be in the 80s or 90s again this week >-( so that might not work too well.
"I have more to write but I'm losing time, so I will definitely try to write snail mail today. But I can't guarantee anything.
"Love,
"Your elderly son"
When we came home from the church, I had received a basket that my family had ordered for me. It was addressed to "Letter Mark," playing off of my niece's misunderstanding of the word "Elder." The basket had a banana, a cluster of grapes, a red apple, some Raisinets, and some other goodies. Sister Knighten, the member we lived with, said that the delivery people had asked if I lived there and she said yes. She made us tacos for lunch. They were good and I was very grateful, although we were planning on going to lunch. We picked up Elder Moench and Elder Dobbins and we went to a Mexican restaurant. I remember discussing praying in public--I don't like to because I feel like a Pharisee. Elder Moench said that was why he prayed with his eyes open. Elder Dobbins said that the previous mission president had said that missionaries shouldn't pray in public because it made them seem self-righteous. I think that led to a conversation about how that same president had said all Christmas music was approved to listen to. Elder Dobbins said, "My thought is, if it's real Christmas music, that is about the Savior, shouldn't it be approved year round?" That might have been what led to the discussion of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and I proceeded to recite the movie:
"'Twas a long time ago, longer now than it seems,
In a place that perhaps you've seen in your dreams.
For the story you are about to be told
Took place in the holiday worlds of old.
Now, you've probably wondered where holidays come from.
If you haven't, I'd say it's time you'd begun!"
I then explained that the movie then had the song "This Is Halloween," but that I wasn't going to sing it. But then I continued:
"Whee! It's over"
"We did it!"
"Wasn't it terrifying?"
"What a night!"
"Great Halloween everybody!"
"I believe it was our most horrible yet. Thank you everybody."
"No, thanks to you Jack. Without your brilliant leadership..."
"Not at all, Mayor."
"You're such a scream, Jack."
"You're a witch's fondest dream."
"You made walls fall, Jack."
"Walls fall? You made the deadly mountains black, Jack!"
"The deadly nightshade you slipped into my tea wore off, Sally."
"Let go!"
"You're not ready for so much excitement."
"Yes I am."
"You're coming with me!"
"No I'm not!"
"Come back here you foolish...Ow! Oh! Ohhh!"
"Jack, you make wounds ooze and flesh crawl!"
"Thank you! Thank you! Very much!"
"Hold it! We haven't given out our prizes yet! Our first award goes to the vampires for 'Most blood drained in a single evening.' Our second and honorable mention goes to the fabulous Dark Lagoon leeches."
I stopped there. (By the way, I still did that all from memory.) After lunch we went to Goodwill. I found a Rudolph tie that I bought for two dollars. I remember seeing a Time Out for Women bag there. Our ward's Relief Society president, Sister Caldwell, was also there. Elder Moench and Elder Dobbins looked at t-shirts. There was one that was "things you shouldn't say to your date's parents." The first one was, "I just got my learner's permit today." Elder Dobbins said that was true. The rest of them got progressively more inappropriate. We went to Fred Meyer, where I saw a display of jack-o-lantern dodgeballs. I said I wanted to get one to play dodgeball. Elder Dobbins liked the idea, and said to me, quoting The Testaments, "You are a specter from the gods." I think all four of us ended up buying dodgeballs. I also bought some mint Oreos. Then we went to dinner with the Harts, who had previously served in the mission office. Then we went and saw one Jason Smith, whom we had not contacted for a few weeks. He wanted to give me a pen he got at the Space Needle for my birthday, but I felt bad so I declined. We asked him to pray and in his prayer he prayed "that Elder Melville will have a good birthday." I was touched he would pray for me--I didn't even know he knew my name. Then that night I wrote in my journal:
"Today was a good birthday. When we got home from basketball my family had sent me a gift basket from a local floral shop. We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant, and went shopping. I bought a pumpkin dodgeball and a Rudolph tie from Goodwill.
"We later had dinner with the Harts, and met with Jason again. He prayed specifically for me to have a good birthday, and he said he forgot to buy me something. He offered a Space Needle pen but I declined.
"Sister Clark called to end the birthday. I can't believe I'm twenty."
2007. I got up in the morning before going to work and my family gave me presents. I got some Joe Cool pajamas (for my mission), the third season of Green Acres, and some spooky eye lights for Halloween from my parents. My sister got me Coldplay's album Parachutes; I had never heard of Coldplay and I didn't know whether the name of the band was Coldplay or Parachutes. I thought it was an odd gift, considering that I was leaving on my mission in two months. I listened to this new CD as I drove to work in the rain; the songs all sounded so similar to each other that I was convinced that the CD was really short and had restarted itself. (It hadn't.) At one point my coworker Alice told my coworker Helen that it was my birthday; Helen asked, "How old are you, Precious?" I told her nineteen. At one point I looked outside and saw that it was no longer simply raining; it had started snowing. My coworkers were pretty silly that day. This might have been the day they brought a cat decoration to the deli and put a hairnet on it, saying it was Helen. They also brought a bunch of animal magnets in and put them on the fryer vent. Each animal represented one of us. I was the alligator because I apparently always had a cheesy smile on my face. I think my African coworker Awilli was the fish. They assigned our ornery coworker Ursula to be the bear. Later, Ursula asked which animal she was. Alice told her she was the bear (but didn't tell her why) and I wondered what her reaction would be. She said, "Oh, that's perfect!" She then explained that Ursula means bear, as in Ursa Major. During one of my breaks--either lunch or a short break--I saw Helen at the checkout. I told her about Ursula's reaction, and Helen said, "She can't be the bear anymore!" She then said she had looked for an octopus but couldn't find one. Eventually my shift was over and I drove home. I was delighted to find that there was snow on the lawn at my house--it was the earliest I ever remembered snow actually sticking to the ground at my house. My dad had cleaned the carpets, so we had to step gingerly, if at all. We had Papa John's pizza and my aunt and some cousins came. I remember Quin wanted to watch Gilligan's Island but Susanne told him I got to choose what to watch. I wanted to watch Green Acres. I watched some first season episodes, including the one in which Eleanor the cow was having a baby but everyone thought it was Lisa. Quin was really amused by Uncle Joe's misspelling of baby as babie. Sue seemed amused by the premise of the episode.
2006. I remember coming home from school and watching a clip from Munster Go Home! on TV.com. I showed it to my mom and said it had just come out on DVD. She said she didn't believe it had because she had looked for it but couldn't find it. I told her that I had noticed that Best Buy had it, so she called them. When it was confirmed they had it, she went and bought it, but before she and my sister left they gave me the Corpse Bride soundtrack. She came back with the movie and we had Papa John's while I watched both movies on the DVD, Munster Go Home! and The Munsters' Revenge.
2005. I know that all of us juniors had testing that morning. Then when I came home I got my gifts. I got an alarm clock, since I could never have enough during high school. (I think I got it to replace the old terrible brown one I used, but I still used the old one anyway.) I got some Peeps pumpkins that came with black frosting gel so that you could put your own faces on the pumpkins; the flavor of the gel on the marshmallow wasn't good. I got two CDs, The Best of the Monkees and As Seen on TV: Halloween Specials. I wanted to listen to the Addams Family theme on the Halloween CD. I was dismayed to discover it wasn't the original recording; my mom and sister said it sounded the same to them. I took a nap while listening to my new Monkees CD. I think that night I played the song "Listen to the Band" for my mom because it didn't sound like the Monkees; it was very much a country song.
2004. My parents presented me with the first season of The Munsters on DVD. I excitedly went downstairs with my Mexican chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream to watch the color pilot episode. I was surprised to find their makeup was blue instead of green. When they cut to the shot of "Phoebe" (the precursor to Lily), I proclaimed, "It's Morticia!" That night I had mutual; I think we were doing stuff for the salt drive. I remember standing by a pumpkin display at Dick's Marketplace with Brad Byington and Kelton Gubler. I said that I was going to go home and watch The Munsters; Brad didn't know what it was. We were talking about Bryson Pope. Kelton said Bryson said he was the Spanish adjective "forte" (fuerte), meaning strong, but Kelton said he was the French version, meaning loud. I didn't think he got the foreign words quite right. I remember talking with Austin Anderson about how I was taking French; he seemed to think taking French was unwise. When he dropped me off, I said, "Merci beaucoup," and in response he said "Merci beau[raspberry]."
2003. This might have been the day we had the climbing wall during gym class; I couldn't climb. When I returned to the locker room, I discovered that someone had stolen my binder, which really stressed me out. But it meant that that night I didn't have to do homework because I didn't have my binder. We had Papa John's for dinner and I was presented with gifts. I got a Spongebob deck of cards (supposedly from Allie, since she didn't have much money as a two-month-old) and the DVD of Rescue from Gilligan's Island, which we went downstairs and watched. I remember thinking that all of the characters looked like caricatures of themselves, since the actors had all aged.
2002. I remember my parents giving me Halloween M&Ms and erasable gel pens, one of which was red.
2001. My parents gave me The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD; I was intrigued by the special features it had. Later that night my sister and I think my cousin Angie and one of her roommates came over. Susanne hadn't bought me anything, so my mom let her give me the Beverly Hillbillies DVDs she was going to give me for Christmas.
2000. One of the sixth grade teachers, Mrs. Fisher, took us outside to find protozoa. She put a beaker in a standing bucket of water and there was a creature inside. I said, "It's a little fish!" I thought it was going to be the best birthday ever, that I would find a protozoan, but I didn't. That evening I went with my brother and mom and my friend David Christensen and another friend (I think Cory Sheley) to a theater to see Chicken Run. I remember talking about how in class we learned about protists (I pronounced the o like /a/ instead of /o/) and my mom and brother corrected my pronunciation. On the way we had a discussion about the chicken and the egg. David Christensen said, "I've finally figured that out," and explained that the chicken came first because God created the chicken in the Garden of Eden, but my brother David asked him how he knew God didn't create the egg in the Garden. After the movie, David Christensen came to my house for a sleepover. We were playing the Super Nintendo and I brought down my National Geographic Children's Atlas of the World and I showed him that it had the Salt Lake Temple in it. If it was Cory Sheley who was the other friend, I think we drove him home.
1999. I remember taking my new Moy Mushroom Vegetable Friend to school and pointing out to my friend Brad Rogers that the tag had a typo: "Please remove tag before giving to you child." Brad said it could be pronounced "to you, child." After school I got the rest of the Vegetable Friends.
1998. I remember my dad saying I was a decade old. I think that morning I got gifts of Halloween and Thanksgiving window clings. That night, my sister came home from work and presented me with the Pierre Onion of the Veggie Friend Seedies from Around the World. Then my brother came in my room and gave me cash and told me he would take me to Winegar's the next day to get another Veggie Friend Seedie. He told me it was good he hadn't bought it because he probably would have bought the onion.
1997. I was wearing my green shirt with the orange Nike Swoosh on it. My teacher gave me a cupcake while I sat in the special birthday chair. I think at that point I was still getting my birthday presents the night before, so I didn't get presents on my birthday.
1996. My birthday was a Sunday. We had lasagna and red baked potatoes for dinner, as was my request. Everyone commented to me that I wanted red potatoes but I didn't eat any. Apparently I wasn't in the mood for potatoes. We had apple pie for dessert.
1995. It was a rainy day. I remember my mom picking me up from my grandparents', where I had spent the day because I was sick. She had a wrapped gift for me, which surprised me because usually only our Christmas presents were wrapped. It was a thing you build and put marbles down.
1994. I think my mom came to my kindergarten class and distributed little paperback books to the class. There were three kinds of books: Duck Tales, Sleeping Beauty, and I think Cinderella. I got all three but everyone in the class only got one (Duck Tales for the boys and the others for the girls).
1993. I remember blowing the candles out on my cake in the morning. Then it was time for me to go to the Christensens' house. I was in the backyard playing on their swingset when David came out. It was the first time we had met. I told him I was five and he told me he was four. Later there were a bunch of neighbor kids, including Kennie Christiansen, there for a birthday party for me. I got a Winnie the Pooh Goldenbook. I got scented crayons and huge glitter crayons and probably some coloring books. I don't remember what else I got.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Primary programs
This past Sunday was the primary program in the Orchard 11th Ward, which I attended. It got me thinking about past primary programs, so I will remember what I can about them. But I won't remember this week, because that would be a little ridiculous.
2011. The primary program was on October 16, and my extended family had all come to hear my niece Allie sing her solo part. At one point, everyone had left the house to go to church, but my sister and her husband and I were still home. Susanne was singing "The Edge of Glory," and we got into a conversation about it. Matt had never heard it, and I mentioned that I had downloaded the song, so I offered to get my computer and play it. When I did so, Nan lip-synced to the song and was surprised that Matt had really not heard it. We got into a conversation about Lady Gaga, including how weird and crazy she is, but that if she's famous she can get away with it. Nan said she liked her, and I said that I had also downloaded "Born This Way" and "Hair," and Nan said she liked those songs, but I complained how the Lady Gaga Pandora station seemed to play more Britney Spears than anything else. Then we went to church, and I felt bad going to church with "The Edge of Glory" stuck in my head. I was squished on a bench with Nan, Matt, Allie, and I think my cousins Peter and Jesse and Jesse's girlfriend Lisa. I think Peter said I was keeping the bench from burning up because I was the only righteous one. Matt asked me what the numbers were for at the front of the chapel; I told him they were the hymn numbers. After the sacrament, Allie and her friend Katy stood at the podium for their solo to start the program. While they were waiting, Allie bonked Katy, and Jesse found that especially hilarious. When Allie started she choked a little because she was nervous, but we were all glad that she didn't try to sing fancy. She did a good job. After the program I departed and went to my singles ward; I think Mark Millard was sitting in the foyer. During priesthood, Brother Kirkham announced that there was a fireside that night with Alex Boye, and Channing Elggren talked about how Mr. Boye had a really cool story. Then I went home where we had dinner, and after dinner we had two kinds of "fat man's misery"--one made with the traditional mint ice cream, and one made with pumpkin ice cream so that I could eat it. Sue said she didn't like mint so she was glad for the pumpkin one. Lisa's sister came with four kids; when the toddler girl came in, she proudly proclaimed to everyone, "I have a bunny!" Peter found that really funny. I left to go to the fireside, and Jesse was dismayed. I got to the fireside, and I saw that the regional center was full of old people, families, and full-time missionaries. I was neither old nor with family nor with an investigator, so I felt pretty out of place. The fireside started with the "I'm a Mormon" video of Alex Boye. I'm not the biggest Alex Boye fan, and I felt out of place and guilty for having left my family, so I walked past the young man in my row, got in my car, and drove home. Everyone was surprised I was back so early, but I explained my reasoning. My grandma said, "You don't like Alex Boye?" I said I didn't like his voice. We might have played the Ungame or something like that. After Lisa's sister left, there was a discussion about how good her kids were, but that "Garden" is a weird name. Before leaving, my grandma was scooping chocolate sauce out of the bottom of one of the fat man's misery pans.
2008. My mission journal jogs my memory of the events of November 9, 2008. During PEC, the branch president was looking at the list of people in the Branch who subscribed to the Ensign. There was one name he didn't know (I think it was Virginia Murray, or something like that), so he asked us to check it out. We were attending the Davenport Branch that week, and we sat in the front of the "chapel," right in front of all twenty primary kids. I think this was the year they sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me." At one point a little boy hit his head against the sacrament table, and I could hear him utter, "What the heck is wrong with me?" The kids sang "I Am a Child of God," and then they sang a verse in Spanish, which really impressed Elder Love. Then after church we headed to Reardan to have dinner with the Petersons and the Bentzes. The Petersons and Sister Bentz (the Petersons' daughter) were all active, but Don wasn't a member. Nevertheless, he was always nice to us, and in fact he had made lunch that day, tater tot casserole. (That might have been the only area of my mission where I ever had tater tot casserole, but I had it several times there.) He was telling us about his tooth pain, and eventually he told us he had to go lie down because it hurt so bad. Elder Love asked him if he wanted a blessing. He said yes, so we gave him one. When we had given it to him, he had a shocked expression on his face. He said that his pain was gone. He said he had always been a skeptic, but he wasn't anymore. His wife and parents-in-law took the opportunity to explain that it worked because we had the priesthood, and that if he got baptized, he could have the same priesthood. Later we talked to Sister Phelps in Reardan; she was painting. We got back to Davenport and we told the Herrons (the couple we stayed with) about our experience with Don and the blessing. Then we decided to check out the Ensign referral. We knocked on the door, not knowing what to expect, but the old lady who answered the door looked at our tags and said, "It's Elder Love and Elder Melville!" She invited us in and told us how she had been baptized when she was eighteen because missionaries knocked on her door and she told them she'd let them in if they could answer three questions: Where did I come from?, Why am I here?, and Where am I going?. She had grown inactive (she said she "got [herself] excommunicated"--we didn't know if that meant she was really ex'ed or if she voluntary left) but she had kids and grandkids who were still active; her son had given her a copy of Rough Stone Rolling, about Joseph Smith. We visited the Murrays fairly regularly after that.
2007. Allie was a Sunbeam, and all the Sunbeams stood at the front of the stand when it was time for them to say their parts. Allie's teacher put the microphone to each kid so they could say their part. When it was Allie's turn, she froze up, so her teacher said her line for her. That night the Andersons came and visited us; Austin asked Allie about talking in church; I don't think he realized that she had not done her part, and she seemed a little embarrassed that she hadn't said anything.
2001-2004. I think during one of these years, Austin Anderson sat with the Primary kids so that their autistic son Ty could be up there. It was kind of funny hearing his deep voice with all the Primary voices and the few female teachers.
2000. It's possible this was 2001, but I'm not sure. I remember passing the sacrament on the stand, but they already had all the kids sitting up there, so it was kind of a headache getting the sacrament done.
1998 or 1999. I remember Evan Stewart reciting a scripture that said "that they may dwell with God." This had been a problem--when they handed out our parts, there had been some typos, and his typo read "that they may sell with God." When he said that in a practice, they realized the problem, and fortunately he was able to rememorize it.
1997. I believe this was the year when I was one of four kids who started off by singing "Scripture Power." We stood on the stand and sang the first verse, and all the kids came in during the chorus, raising their scriptures to the song. We might have held fake shields and swords, but I don't remember.
1996. I think this was the year they had asked me to tell the story of Thomas S. Monson and his Christmas train. I remember it had big words in it like luxury, and I wasn't sure if I was using them right. I remember seeing all the old grandparents in the congregation when I was telling my story.
1994. I think this was the year I was sitting next to Daniel Bitner near the sacrament table. He pointed out to me the baby sitting in the aisle playing with a hymnbook. We watched the cluster of pages fall out of the green binding and laughed. When we got home, my parents told me that I had done a good job, but Susanne kept remarking about how I had talked, thus implying I didn't do a good job. My parents tried to downplay that and insisted that I did a good job.
2011. The primary program was on October 16, and my extended family had all come to hear my niece Allie sing her solo part. At one point, everyone had left the house to go to church, but my sister and her husband and I were still home. Susanne was singing "The Edge of Glory," and we got into a conversation about it. Matt had never heard it, and I mentioned that I had downloaded the song, so I offered to get my computer and play it. When I did so, Nan lip-synced to the song and was surprised that Matt had really not heard it. We got into a conversation about Lady Gaga, including how weird and crazy she is, but that if she's famous she can get away with it. Nan said she liked her, and I said that I had also downloaded "Born This Way" and "Hair," and Nan said she liked those songs, but I complained how the Lady Gaga Pandora station seemed to play more Britney Spears than anything else. Then we went to church, and I felt bad going to church with "The Edge of Glory" stuck in my head. I was squished on a bench with Nan, Matt, Allie, and I think my cousins Peter and Jesse and Jesse's girlfriend Lisa. I think Peter said I was keeping the bench from burning up because I was the only righteous one. Matt asked me what the numbers were for at the front of the chapel; I told him they were the hymn numbers. After the sacrament, Allie and her friend Katy stood at the podium for their solo to start the program. While they were waiting, Allie bonked Katy, and Jesse found that especially hilarious. When Allie started she choked a little because she was nervous, but we were all glad that she didn't try to sing fancy. She did a good job. After the program I departed and went to my singles ward; I think Mark Millard was sitting in the foyer. During priesthood, Brother Kirkham announced that there was a fireside that night with Alex Boye, and Channing Elggren talked about how Mr. Boye had a really cool story. Then I went home where we had dinner, and after dinner we had two kinds of "fat man's misery"--one made with the traditional mint ice cream, and one made with pumpkin ice cream so that I could eat it. Sue said she didn't like mint so she was glad for the pumpkin one. Lisa's sister came with four kids; when the toddler girl came in, she proudly proclaimed to everyone, "I have a bunny!" Peter found that really funny. I left to go to the fireside, and Jesse was dismayed. I got to the fireside, and I saw that the regional center was full of old people, families, and full-time missionaries. I was neither old nor with family nor with an investigator, so I felt pretty out of place. The fireside started with the "I'm a Mormon" video of Alex Boye. I'm not the biggest Alex Boye fan, and I felt out of place and guilty for having left my family, so I walked past the young man in my row, got in my car, and drove home. Everyone was surprised I was back so early, but I explained my reasoning. My grandma said, "You don't like Alex Boye?" I said I didn't like his voice. We might have played the Ungame or something like that. After Lisa's sister left, there was a discussion about how good her kids were, but that "Garden" is a weird name. Before leaving, my grandma was scooping chocolate sauce out of the bottom of one of the fat man's misery pans.
2008. My mission journal jogs my memory of the events of November 9, 2008. During PEC, the branch president was looking at the list of people in the Branch who subscribed to the Ensign. There was one name he didn't know (I think it was Virginia Murray, or something like that), so he asked us to check it out. We were attending the Davenport Branch that week, and we sat in the front of the "chapel," right in front of all twenty primary kids. I think this was the year they sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me." At one point a little boy hit his head against the sacrament table, and I could hear him utter, "What the heck is wrong with me?" The kids sang "I Am a Child of God," and then they sang a verse in Spanish, which really impressed Elder Love. Then after church we headed to Reardan to have dinner with the Petersons and the Bentzes. The Petersons and Sister Bentz (the Petersons' daughter) were all active, but Don wasn't a member. Nevertheless, he was always nice to us, and in fact he had made lunch that day, tater tot casserole. (That might have been the only area of my mission where I ever had tater tot casserole, but I had it several times there.) He was telling us about his tooth pain, and eventually he told us he had to go lie down because it hurt so bad. Elder Love asked him if he wanted a blessing. He said yes, so we gave him one. When we had given it to him, he had a shocked expression on his face. He said that his pain was gone. He said he had always been a skeptic, but he wasn't anymore. His wife and parents-in-law took the opportunity to explain that it worked because we had the priesthood, and that if he got baptized, he could have the same priesthood. Later we talked to Sister Phelps in Reardan; she was painting. We got back to Davenport and we told the Herrons (the couple we stayed with) about our experience with Don and the blessing. Then we decided to check out the Ensign referral. We knocked on the door, not knowing what to expect, but the old lady who answered the door looked at our tags and said, "It's Elder Love and Elder Melville!" She invited us in and told us how she had been baptized when she was eighteen because missionaries knocked on her door and she told them she'd let them in if they could answer three questions: Where did I come from?, Why am I here?, and Where am I going?. She had grown inactive (she said she "got [herself] excommunicated"--we didn't know if that meant she was really ex'ed or if she voluntary left) but she had kids and grandkids who were still active; her son had given her a copy of Rough Stone Rolling, about Joseph Smith. We visited the Murrays fairly regularly after that.
2007. Allie was a Sunbeam, and all the Sunbeams stood at the front of the stand when it was time for them to say their parts. Allie's teacher put the microphone to each kid so they could say their part. When it was Allie's turn, she froze up, so her teacher said her line for her. That night the Andersons came and visited us; Austin asked Allie about talking in church; I don't think he realized that she had not done her part, and she seemed a little embarrassed that she hadn't said anything.
2001-2004. I think during one of these years, Austin Anderson sat with the Primary kids so that their autistic son Ty could be up there. It was kind of funny hearing his deep voice with all the Primary voices and the few female teachers.
2000. It's possible this was 2001, but I'm not sure. I remember passing the sacrament on the stand, but they already had all the kids sitting up there, so it was kind of a headache getting the sacrament done.
1998 or 1999. I remember Evan Stewart reciting a scripture that said "that they may dwell with God." This had been a problem--when they handed out our parts, there had been some typos, and his typo read "that they may sell with God." When he said that in a practice, they realized the problem, and fortunately he was able to rememorize it.
1997. I believe this was the year when I was one of four kids who started off by singing "Scripture Power." We stood on the stand and sang the first verse, and all the kids came in during the chorus, raising their scriptures to the song. We might have held fake shields and swords, but I don't remember.
1996. I think this was the year they had asked me to tell the story of Thomas S. Monson and his Christmas train. I remember it had big words in it like luxury, and I wasn't sure if I was using them right. I remember seeing all the old grandparents in the congregation when I was telling my story.
1994. I think this was the year I was sitting next to Daniel Bitner near the sacrament table. He pointed out to me the baby sitting in the aisle playing with a hymnbook. We watched the cluster of pages fall out of the green binding and laughed. When we got home, my parents told me that I had done a good job, but Susanne kept remarking about how I had talked, thus implying I didn't do a good job. My parents tried to downplay that and insisted that I did a good job.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
September 15
Saturday is September 15, which is my arbitrary date that I officially start the Halloween season! In honor of one of my favorite days of the year, I'm going to remember as many details as I can about as many September 15s as I can remember. But since it is a relatively ordinary day, there's not as much that I can remember as I had hoped.
2011. As was usual, I got up early for work and turned on Fox 13 news. Big Budah was showing a haunted house (you know, the commercial ones) in honor of the Halloween season, and I thought it was interesting they were talking about Halloween the same day I started the season. I think I listened to the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack in the car. Although I had to stay late on September 14, I don't think I had to stay as late on September 15, which was good, because we were going to see Mary Poppins. I think we had Chicken Voila (that frozen-food mix of noodles, vegetables, and chicken) for dinner before we left. We got to Salt Lake and parked in a covered parking lot, then walked to Capitol Theater. I think I was wearing brown corduroy pants and my black and brown casual shoes. Both my mom and my sister knew a lot of people at the play; some of the people my sister knew were clearly gay. When they had the "Jolly Holiday" sequence, I thought the play was absolutely terrible, since the music was lackluster and the costumes were hideous. During intermission I got a drink and stood awkwardly out of the way of the huge lines into the restrooms. My mom looked at some of the souvenirs for sale and said she wanted one particular thing, although I don't remember what it was. They had parrot umbrellas, CDs, dolls, and other stuff. Then we went back in the theater; I think we ended up with slightly different seats. The scene on the rooftop with all the chimney sweeps was impressive, but we were too far from the stage (and we were underneath the balcony) to see the actor walk on the ceiling (we guessed what was going on). When we left the theater, I remember hearing a girl say, "That was so good!" I didn't have the same sentiment. I remember standing at the corner waiting to cross and mentioning that the following day's work would all be overtime pay. We discussed the play as we got to our car. My mom and sister said they liked the kitchen scene (the new setting for "A Spoonful of Sugar") and they liked the statues that came to life. I said I couldn't stand the statues, and my mom said I probably didn't like them because of their anatomy. I think I said that I found the statues coming to life seemed cheesy to me; they said that they didn't know how else to make that scene magical. I think when we got home I made my lunch for the next day.
2010. Having bought new glasses the previous Friday, I wanted to change my Facebook profile picture to have my new glasses. So I tried to take some pictures of myself. I took some awkward ones inside.
And then I took some awkward ones outside.
Then I think I went back inside and applied for some jobs. Then I think that day my niece Allie had some of her friends over, Katy, Mia, and the Lance girl. Once Katy came inside looking for my mom and calling her Grams; I think they wanted to pick grapes. Later Mia came in and helped herself to a cup, but it was sippy cup thing and she didn't know how to work it. I was putting up the It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown light set and Mia asked, "Why do you have Halloween stuff up?" At one point the girls discussed Halloween costumes. After the girls left we talked about them and my mom said Katy probably didn't know what to call her--hence calling her Grams.
2009. While Elder Tamblyn was in bed not feeling well, I remember looking at the Etch-a-Sketch picture I had drawn of a snake underneath the ground beneath a tree, and thinking about how it was the Halloween season. Then we eventually left and we saw one Hazel Fee, a "potential investigator" whom we had tried to contact for some time. She invited us in and talked. And talked, and talked. I wanted to say a prayer with her before we left, but we could tell that that would not happen. Elder Tamblyn got up to indicate to her that we really needed to leave. He wasn't feeling well again, so we went home for lunch. My journal remembers better than I do, although I think I do remember seeing if the restaurant had any Halloween desserts (they didn't):
"Today was a more easy going day. We left about 10:30, saw a few PIs, visited a talker named Hazel Fee, came home at 11:30, and left again about 1:00. Then we saw a few more potentials and tracted until about 3:30, when Elder Tamblyn's energy waned again. Then George Sabin took us to a Chinese buffet. We met with James, and then Bishop, and then had a lesson with Michael Piquet and his family."
2008. When we were at the Family History Center emailing, Elder Bates sat next to me. I think this was the time he was amused by a response President Clark had sent him that said "'Buttload' is not very dignified. You can do better :) ," referring to a word he had used in a previous email. Elder Bates said he didn't remember saying that. My family's email to me that week started off, "Dear Cute Mark," and Elder Bates saw that and thought it was funny. This was my email:
"Sounds like you had a fun weekend. I've been thinking about those old traditions that have died. Glad there are new ones. It seems weird to me that it was almost two and four years ago that my grandparents died. My whole senior year doesn't seem that long ago because I was anticipating my mission, but it started two years ago! Even though I've been out almost ten months I still feel like I just started my mission.
"Boston, huh? You sure are taking a lot of vacations since I left. Then again, in a way I'm taking a consistent two year vacation, except most of it is work. Last week we went to Rocky Reach Dam with some members to observe salmon swimming up the Columbia River through a series of fish ladders, 100 small pools that gradually climb upward. It was funny because we went in to the visitors' center and some people came upstairs. I was thinking about what they must think to see us, but they said, "Oh, the missionaries are here," and they were actually visiting from Salt Lake. I think another person who was there that day thought we worked there, because he kept asking us questions, but he didn't seem altogether there. That's actually not all too uncommon; we frequently have people at the store asking us where stuff is, and we don't know any more than they do.
"Don't get your hopes up too much for Mexico with my Spanish, although the little I know has come in handy in this fruit-picking area. I don't know enough to teach or to understand when they go off, but when tracting I know enough to get permission for the Spanish elders to go back. I always have a hard time talking at doorsteps, but I become the only speaker when the resident doesn't speak English. (It's not as easy in Spokane; I once tracted an entire street where everyone spoke Russian.)
"I don't get to watch TV, but I did get to watch Nature without a screen this week. The bushes and shrubs of Wenatchee Valley are always covered with nets of cobwebs. When walking down the road I frequently take a diversion by looking for the little arachnids lying in wait in small tunnels on their webs. This week while taking such a diversion I noticed a miniature bee or something struggling in a web while the yellowish-tan spider watched nearby. It gradually got closer until it finally jumped on top of it and bit it. Then it began circling around it, I assume to reinforce its web. The bee stopped moving and the spider kept getting on top of it, but after a few minutes we learned that the bee was only playing dead. The pattern of the spider getting on top and the bee playing dead then trying to escape continued for a few minutes. Eventually the bee escaped out the bottom, but fell into a lower web, where an even bigger spider darted out, bit it, ran back to its tunnel, darted back out and bit it again, and hid again. The bee was no longer moving and the spider was missing when we finally left. It was amazing.
"This week we began teaching an old lady who is kind of lonely. She is very friendly and very Episcopalian, but she has two granddaughters who married RMs in the temple, so she wants to learn about the Church to know how to interact with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was concerned that she has four great-grandchildren ages 1-5 who aren't baptized.
"And while I am delighted to see the leaf-strewn lawns, I am not happy to feel the hot of the afternoon. I thought that was supposed to end once I could start thinking about Halloween.
"Love,
"Elder Melville
"P.S. Some elders have caught glimpses of your letters to me, and find the adjective "cute" quite humorous."
I think that day at Fred Meyer I went in the Halloween aisle and got some Halloween Peanut Butter M&Ms and some pumpkin-shaped Reese's. Elder Duncan was trying to eat healthier, but he couldn't resist buying the shiny bright-green bag the Peanut Butter M&Ms came in. The store had Halloween totes; some were orange and black and some were purple and black. I was dismayed that the M&Ms had purple and green in addition to orange and black. I remember talking with Elder Duncan, Elder Moench, and Elder Dobbins if they considered purple a Halloween color (there was no way I would consider green a Halloween color). I remember complaining about the new Halloween M&M colors, and Elder Dobbins said he wondered if black food coloring was more expensive so they had to cut the cost because of the economy. I think that afternoon we went to a Baskin Robbins next to a Blimpie. It seems like I might have gotten some mint ice cream (at that point in time I think I could eat non-seasonal things as long as I did situps). Maybe I just thought about it. I didn't write in my journal this day so I don't have that to help me remember.
2004. This could have been the day that I came home from drivers ed to discover that my family had put the "Autumn mix" candy corn candies in a flowery heart-shaped bowl--most definitely not Halloweeny. But that might have been another day that week.
2000. Orchard Elementary had a school carnival that night. I remember coming home from it and putting up my jack-o-lantern lights--and maybe my spiderweb--on the fireplace. That might have been the time the Andersons stopped by afterwards and remarked that the carnival "sucks you dry."
1995. It's possible that this was a rainy day on which my mom told me I could put up Halloween decorations if I cleaned, so I put up window clings in the windows and taped a plastic Halloween picture on the sliding glass door, and my siblings asked me why I was already putting up Halloween decorations. However, this may have been any number of days during the month of September, so I really don't know exactly what day it was.
2011. As was usual, I got up early for work and turned on Fox 13 news. Big Budah was showing a haunted house (you know, the commercial ones) in honor of the Halloween season, and I thought it was interesting they were talking about Halloween the same day I started the season. I think I listened to the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack in the car. Although I had to stay late on September 14, I don't think I had to stay as late on September 15, which was good, because we were going to see Mary Poppins. I think we had Chicken Voila (that frozen-food mix of noodles, vegetables, and chicken) for dinner before we left. We got to Salt Lake and parked in a covered parking lot, then walked to Capitol Theater. I think I was wearing brown corduroy pants and my black and brown casual shoes. Both my mom and my sister knew a lot of people at the play; some of the people my sister knew were clearly gay. When they had the "Jolly Holiday" sequence, I thought the play was absolutely terrible, since the music was lackluster and the costumes were hideous. During intermission I got a drink and stood awkwardly out of the way of the huge lines into the restrooms. My mom looked at some of the souvenirs for sale and said she wanted one particular thing, although I don't remember what it was. They had parrot umbrellas, CDs, dolls, and other stuff. Then we went back in the theater; I think we ended up with slightly different seats. The scene on the rooftop with all the chimney sweeps was impressive, but we were too far from the stage (and we were underneath the balcony) to see the actor walk on the ceiling (we guessed what was going on). When we left the theater, I remember hearing a girl say, "That was so good!" I didn't have the same sentiment. I remember standing at the corner waiting to cross and mentioning that the following day's work would all be overtime pay. We discussed the play as we got to our car. My mom and sister said they liked the kitchen scene (the new setting for "A Spoonful of Sugar") and they liked the statues that came to life. I said I couldn't stand the statues, and my mom said I probably didn't like them because of their anatomy. I think I said that I found the statues coming to life seemed cheesy to me; they said that they didn't know how else to make that scene magical. I think when we got home I made my lunch for the next day.
2010. Having bought new glasses the previous Friday, I wanted to change my Facebook profile picture to have my new glasses. So I tried to take some pictures of myself. I took some awkward ones inside.
2009. While Elder Tamblyn was in bed not feeling well, I remember looking at the Etch-a-Sketch picture I had drawn of a snake underneath the ground beneath a tree, and thinking about how it was the Halloween season. Then we eventually left and we saw one Hazel Fee, a "potential investigator" whom we had tried to contact for some time. She invited us in and talked. And talked, and talked. I wanted to say a prayer with her before we left, but we could tell that that would not happen. Elder Tamblyn got up to indicate to her that we really needed to leave. He wasn't feeling well again, so we went home for lunch. My journal remembers better than I do, although I think I do remember seeing if the restaurant had any Halloween desserts (they didn't):
"Today was a more easy going day. We left about 10:30, saw a few PIs, visited a talker named Hazel Fee, came home at 11:30, and left again about 1:00. Then we saw a few more potentials and tracted until about 3:30, when Elder Tamblyn's energy waned again. Then George Sabin took us to a Chinese buffet. We met with James, and then Bishop, and then had a lesson with Michael Piquet and his family."
2008. When we were at the Family History Center emailing, Elder Bates sat next to me. I think this was the time he was amused by a response President Clark had sent him that said "'Buttload' is not very dignified. You can do better :) ," referring to a word he had used in a previous email. Elder Bates said he didn't remember saying that. My family's email to me that week started off, "Dear Cute Mark," and Elder Bates saw that and thought it was funny. This was my email:
"Sounds like you had a fun weekend. I've been thinking about those old traditions that have died. Glad there are new ones. It seems weird to me that it was almost two and four years ago that my grandparents died. My whole senior year doesn't seem that long ago because I was anticipating my mission, but it started two years ago! Even though I've been out almost ten months I still feel like I just started my mission.
"Boston, huh? You sure are taking a lot of vacations since I left. Then again, in a way I'm taking a consistent two year vacation, except most of it is work. Last week we went to Rocky Reach Dam with some members to observe salmon swimming up the Columbia River through a series of fish ladders, 100 small pools that gradually climb upward. It was funny because we went in to the visitors' center and some people came upstairs. I was thinking about what they must think to see us, but they said, "Oh, the missionaries are here," and they were actually visiting from Salt Lake. I think another person who was there that day thought we worked there, because he kept asking us questions, but he didn't seem altogether there. That's actually not all too uncommon; we frequently have people at the store asking us where stuff is, and we don't know any more than they do.
"Don't get your hopes up too much for Mexico with my Spanish, although the little I know has come in handy in this fruit-picking area. I don't know enough to teach or to understand when they go off, but when tracting I know enough to get permission for the Spanish elders to go back. I always have a hard time talking at doorsteps, but I become the only speaker when the resident doesn't speak English. (It's not as easy in Spokane; I once tracted an entire street where everyone spoke Russian.)
"I don't get to watch TV, but I did get to watch Nature without a screen this week. The bushes and shrubs of Wenatchee Valley are always covered with nets of cobwebs. When walking down the road I frequently take a diversion by looking for the little arachnids lying in wait in small tunnels on their webs. This week while taking such a diversion I noticed a miniature bee or something struggling in a web while the yellowish-tan spider watched nearby. It gradually got closer until it finally jumped on top of it and bit it. Then it began circling around it, I assume to reinforce its web. The bee stopped moving and the spider kept getting on top of it, but after a few minutes we learned that the bee was only playing dead. The pattern of the spider getting on top and the bee playing dead then trying to escape continued for a few minutes. Eventually the bee escaped out the bottom, but fell into a lower web, where an even bigger spider darted out, bit it, ran back to its tunnel, darted back out and bit it again, and hid again. The bee was no longer moving and the spider was missing when we finally left. It was amazing.
"This week we began teaching an old lady who is kind of lonely. She is very friendly and very Episcopalian, but she has two granddaughters who married RMs in the temple, so she wants to learn about the Church to know how to interact with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was concerned that she has four great-grandchildren ages 1-5 who aren't baptized.
"And while I am delighted to see the leaf-strewn lawns, I am not happy to feel the hot of the afternoon. I thought that was supposed to end once I could start thinking about Halloween.
"Love,
"Elder Melville
"P.S. Some elders have caught glimpses of your letters to me, and find the adjective "cute" quite humorous."
I think that day at Fred Meyer I went in the Halloween aisle and got some Halloween Peanut Butter M&Ms and some pumpkin-shaped Reese's. Elder Duncan was trying to eat healthier, but he couldn't resist buying the shiny bright-green bag the Peanut Butter M&Ms came in. The store had Halloween totes; some were orange and black and some were purple and black. I was dismayed that the M&Ms had purple and green in addition to orange and black. I remember talking with Elder Duncan, Elder Moench, and Elder Dobbins if they considered purple a Halloween color (there was no way I would consider green a Halloween color). I remember complaining about the new Halloween M&M colors, and Elder Dobbins said he wondered if black food coloring was more expensive so they had to cut the cost because of the economy. I think that afternoon we went to a Baskin Robbins next to a Blimpie. It seems like I might have gotten some mint ice cream (at that point in time I think I could eat non-seasonal things as long as I did situps). Maybe I just thought about it. I didn't write in my journal this day so I don't have that to help me remember.
2004. This could have been the day that I came home from drivers ed to discover that my family had put the "Autumn mix" candy corn candies in a flowery heart-shaped bowl--most definitely not Halloweeny. But that might have been another day that week.
2000. Orchard Elementary had a school carnival that night. I remember coming home from it and putting up my jack-o-lantern lights--and maybe my spiderweb--on the fireplace. That might have been the time the Andersons stopped by afterwards and remarked that the carnival "sucks you dry."
1995. It's possible that this was a rainy day on which my mom told me I could put up Halloween decorations if I cleaned, so I put up window clings in the windows and taped a plastic Halloween picture on the sliding glass door, and my siblings asked me why I was already putting up Halloween decorations. However, this may have been any number of days during the month of September, so I really don't know exactly what day it was.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
September 11
Today I am going to recall events that happened on September 11. Last year I wrote a blog post about 9/11/01, so rather than focus just on that individual day, I'm going to write about as many as I can remember.
2011. I honestly don't remember too much besides what is written on the above-mentioned blog. I think the TV might have been on in the kitchen, discussing the anniversary and telling stories of family members of victims. I went to the Bountiful Regional Center ("Turtle Building") for a fireside; I think I sat by some girls, Ann and Jen, from my ward. After eating peach pie, I wrote my blog post.
2010. We were camping near Scipio. I suppose it can be a little difficult to determine what happened Friday night (September 10) and what happened on September 11. I remember a lot of things, but I don't necessarily remember the order. My cousin's kid Damon was playing with my niece Allie's Spongebob Leapster; he was very amused at a game in which he caught underwear. Later one of my cousin Callie's kids said to her, "Mom, I want underwear," referring to the game. At one point we heard a girly cry; we thought it was Lauren, the young daughter of my cousin Brandon, but it was in fact Allie, who was stranded alone on a tiny island in a tiny stream. Once I was with some of these kids at the stream and Allie was afraid to go over the stream. Damon offered to help her across, but being seven years old he wasn't very good at helping and she ended up stepping in the stream and getting her pants wet. We tried to roll them up but they kept unrolling themselves. Once my cousin Alex put a toy in the stream and the current was too fast that it went downstream before we could catch it; I had to keep reiterating to the kids (especially to Alex) that they couldn't put things in the stream. Once I found a fuzzy caterpillar struggling in the stream, so I took a stick and rescued it. My cousins had some autumn mix candy (you know, candy corn and mellocreme pumpkins) sitting on the table and I was sad that it was still four days too early to eat it. My uncle John was talking about how rattlesnakes can climb bushes, and my aunt Michelle didn't want Alex to hear because it would freak him out. We roasted hot dogs on the fire for lunch. That night my mom made some little apple pie things using canned apple pie filling; I think I might have tried to justify eating them. There was significant burning of them. Eventually we put down the trailer and left. Allie was watching a Princess Sing-Along video in the car and was singing along with it; my mom looked in the backseat and smiled with "Oh how cute" amusement. I tried to take pictures of the fall leaves but it was dark and I couldn't get any good ones.
2009. It's thanks to my journal that I can remember anything from this date. We went to Lapwai, and I think this was the time that when we saw the Dennisons, we talked to James in the living room instead of their bedroom. He told us he was starting work at the gas station across the street. I asked him about reading the Book of Mormon; he said that he had already told us he wouldn't read it, but that wasn't true; he had never told me that, and in fact they had done some reading previously. I thought Elder Tamblyn was kind of patronizing to James. Later I was complaining to him about how unreceptive James had suddenly become. This might have been the day we talked to a potential investigator named Kemo; he wanted us to sweat with him, but neither of us missionaries knew what that was, so we kind of hoped the other knew what it was. Our car had several CDs it would cycle through, and as we were just coming back into Lewiston, the Cherie Call CD (He Gives Flowers to Everyone) came on. When the second song, "Believe," came on, Elder Tamblyn asked if it was a CD just of that singer, and he was glad it was. This is my journal entry for that day; there's a lot I don't specifically remember: "Today we had district meeting, and then we went to Jeffrey's. It was fun going to Lapwai; we rode the bikes through the town. James Dennison got a job at the gas station so I don't know how much we'll be able to teach him now.
"We tracted some, and we were able to get in to teach Karen Smith again. Then we had a lesson with the Lameres, and came home. I'm glad that Elder Tamblyn likes Cherie Call."
2008. This might have been the day we were talking to a potential and I could see that her kids were watching The Nightmare Before Christmas; it was the part where Jack performs his experiments. Elder Duncan told me he would let me watch it while we were waiting for the PI to come back to the door. Then we left and were walking down the road and I noticed some spiderwebs on the bushes. I always liked to stop and look at the spiders in their webs, so I stopped and looked this time. I noticed as I was passing that there was a small bee-like insect caught in one of the webs. I pointed it out to Elder Duncan. We watched the spider jump out and bite it, then go back to its hole. It reinforced its web and made circles around the bee. We thought the bee was dead, but then it started to move again. We wondered who would win. Eventually the bee struggled enough that it was able to get out of the web--but it fell out and fell into the web of an even bigger spider. That spider jumped out and bit it, and the bee died. We decided it was time to leave, since we had probably watched it for fifteen minutes. We remarked about how cool it was and that the first spider did all the work but it was the second spider who got the weakened bee. I wondered what the passing cars thought of us Mormon missionaries looking intently at a bush. That night we had a member visit with the Bowmans--the wife was fairly recently reactivated (I think, although maybe she was always active) and the husband had been baptized for less than a year. I think they told us about how Sister Bowman once attended another church with some friends when she was getting back into the LDS Church. These church congregants learned she was Mormon so they started accosting her with questions, such as "Why don't your churches have any windows?" to which she responded "They do!" (I pointed out that it was the Jehovah's Witnesses who don't have windows.) Then they asked about young women having relationships with bishops. Sister Bowman said, "That's not true!" and might have left at that point. After she told this story, Brother Bowman told us how their judgmental attitude indicated that they weren't a true church. The Bowmans gave us some candy and some apples before we left for our lesson with Leslie Couch. We drove to Leslie's and Elder Duncan took an apple in to Leslie's house and ate it, which I found quite unscrupulous. Leslie's son Ashton sat in on our lesson; it was the first time he had ever done so. At some point in the lesson we asked him to read (he was following along in his Bible) and Leslie's body language indicated that she was nervous about us asking him, but he read. That night as we were counting up our numbers, I noted we had a new investigator--we hadn't taught Ashton before and we set up a specific return appointment. This is my journal entry for that day: "Today we were able to contact a few potentials who weren't interested or available at the time. We spent some time walking around. We later were able to see the misfortune of a miniature bee. It was caught in a spider web, with the arachnid watching nearby. The spider gradually came out and bit it. The bee tried to escape, but decided to play dead for a bit, while the spider repaired its web and kept getting on the bee. Eventually the bee escaped from the bottom and fell to another web below, where an even bigger spider darted out bit it, darted back to its cave, then came back out and bit it again and quickly left. The bee was no longer struggling when we left.
"We had a member visit with the Bowmans, then we met with Leslie. Ashton sat in with us, so he's now an investigator."
2007. I believe I had the day off and I started putting up Halloween decorations. I think I put the jar with the Halloween lid in my room and put Peanuts Halloween fruit snacks in it.
2006. This must have been the day I told David Christensen that I heard you were supposed to drive with your lights on (even during the day) because of 9/11.
2002. My mom gave me an early birthday present of a neon-light American flag. It was a birthday present but she gave it to me early because of 9/11.
2001. It started out an ordinary school day. It wasn't until third-period math that I heard anything about what had happened, that a plane had flown into the towers. One girl in the class, Mika Mokofisi, kept talking about how she heard about it in her first-period general music class and that a high school had been bombed (Ah, rumor with her thousand tongues...). In my fourth-period science class I don't even know if the teacher said anything; he just turned on the TV and we watched the footage. Before class ended, he turned it off and we waited by the door for the bell to ring; we discussed the Jerusalem cricket our teacher had in a jar. That day I had to walk home from the bus stop; Sister Craig from our ward was picking up her daughters from Orchard and she stopped and gave me a lift. They asked me if I had heard what had happened; I said I had. Then I got home and brought in the Deseret News (it was still an afternoon paper then) and opened it up to see the enormous headline "America Under Attack!" with a picture of the smoking tower. Later my mom came home and talked about how she was waiting for her carpool and when Linda Larson arrived, she asked my mom if she had heard. My mom hadn't, so Linda made her turn the radio on. If my mom had heard earlier, she said she would have not sent me to school and would have kept me home. After dinner I was sitting on the couch in the living room (the TV was on in the kitchen--of course that was all the channels could talk about) and wrote in my journal. (The entry is on my blog, linked at the top.)
2000. I don't know, but I might have put up two plastic ghosts in a tree outside.
2011. I honestly don't remember too much besides what is written on the above-mentioned blog. I think the TV might have been on in the kitchen, discussing the anniversary and telling stories of family members of victims. I went to the Bountiful Regional Center ("Turtle Building") for a fireside; I think I sat by some girls, Ann and Jen, from my ward. After eating peach pie, I wrote my blog post.
2010. We were camping near Scipio. I suppose it can be a little difficult to determine what happened Friday night (September 10) and what happened on September 11. I remember a lot of things, but I don't necessarily remember the order. My cousin's kid Damon was playing with my niece Allie's Spongebob Leapster; he was very amused at a game in which he caught underwear. Later one of my cousin Callie's kids said to her, "Mom, I want underwear," referring to the game. At one point we heard a girly cry; we thought it was Lauren, the young daughter of my cousin Brandon, but it was in fact Allie, who was stranded alone on a tiny island in a tiny stream. Once I was with some of these kids at the stream and Allie was afraid to go over the stream. Damon offered to help her across, but being seven years old he wasn't very good at helping and she ended up stepping in the stream and getting her pants wet. We tried to roll them up but they kept unrolling themselves. Once my cousin Alex put a toy in the stream and the current was too fast that it went downstream before we could catch it; I had to keep reiterating to the kids (especially to Alex) that they couldn't put things in the stream. Once I found a fuzzy caterpillar struggling in the stream, so I took a stick and rescued it. My cousins had some autumn mix candy (you know, candy corn and mellocreme pumpkins) sitting on the table and I was sad that it was still four days too early to eat it. My uncle John was talking about how rattlesnakes can climb bushes, and my aunt Michelle didn't want Alex to hear because it would freak him out. We roasted hot dogs on the fire for lunch. That night my mom made some little apple pie things using canned apple pie filling; I think I might have tried to justify eating them. There was significant burning of them. Eventually we put down the trailer and left. Allie was watching a Princess Sing-Along video in the car and was singing along with it; my mom looked in the backseat and smiled with "Oh how cute" amusement. I tried to take pictures of the fall leaves but it was dark and I couldn't get any good ones.
2009. It's thanks to my journal that I can remember anything from this date. We went to Lapwai, and I think this was the time that when we saw the Dennisons, we talked to James in the living room instead of their bedroom. He told us he was starting work at the gas station across the street. I asked him about reading the Book of Mormon; he said that he had already told us he wouldn't read it, but that wasn't true; he had never told me that, and in fact they had done some reading previously. I thought Elder Tamblyn was kind of patronizing to James. Later I was complaining to him about how unreceptive James had suddenly become. This might have been the day we talked to a potential investigator named Kemo; he wanted us to sweat with him, but neither of us missionaries knew what that was, so we kind of hoped the other knew what it was. Our car had several CDs it would cycle through, and as we were just coming back into Lewiston, the Cherie Call CD (He Gives Flowers to Everyone) came on. When the second song, "Believe," came on, Elder Tamblyn asked if it was a CD just of that singer, and he was glad it was. This is my journal entry for that day; there's a lot I don't specifically remember: "Today we had district meeting, and then we went to Jeffrey's. It was fun going to Lapwai; we rode the bikes through the town. James Dennison got a job at the gas station so I don't know how much we'll be able to teach him now.
"We tracted some, and we were able to get in to teach Karen Smith again. Then we had a lesson with the Lameres, and came home. I'm glad that Elder Tamblyn likes Cherie Call."
2008. This might have been the day we were talking to a potential and I could see that her kids were watching The Nightmare Before Christmas; it was the part where Jack performs his experiments. Elder Duncan told me he would let me watch it while we were waiting for the PI to come back to the door. Then we left and were walking down the road and I noticed some spiderwebs on the bushes. I always liked to stop and look at the spiders in their webs, so I stopped and looked this time. I noticed as I was passing that there was a small bee-like insect caught in one of the webs. I pointed it out to Elder Duncan. We watched the spider jump out and bite it, then go back to its hole. It reinforced its web and made circles around the bee. We thought the bee was dead, but then it started to move again. We wondered who would win. Eventually the bee struggled enough that it was able to get out of the web--but it fell out and fell into the web of an even bigger spider. That spider jumped out and bit it, and the bee died. We decided it was time to leave, since we had probably watched it for fifteen minutes. We remarked about how cool it was and that the first spider did all the work but it was the second spider who got the weakened bee. I wondered what the passing cars thought of us Mormon missionaries looking intently at a bush. That night we had a member visit with the Bowmans--the wife was fairly recently reactivated (I think, although maybe she was always active) and the husband had been baptized for less than a year. I think they told us about how Sister Bowman once attended another church with some friends when she was getting back into the LDS Church. These church congregants learned she was Mormon so they started accosting her with questions, such as "Why don't your churches have any windows?" to which she responded "They do!" (I pointed out that it was the Jehovah's Witnesses who don't have windows.) Then they asked about young women having relationships with bishops. Sister Bowman said, "That's not true!" and might have left at that point. After she told this story, Brother Bowman told us how their judgmental attitude indicated that they weren't a true church. The Bowmans gave us some candy and some apples before we left for our lesson with Leslie Couch. We drove to Leslie's and Elder Duncan took an apple in to Leslie's house and ate it, which I found quite unscrupulous. Leslie's son Ashton sat in on our lesson; it was the first time he had ever done so. At some point in the lesson we asked him to read (he was following along in his Bible) and Leslie's body language indicated that she was nervous about us asking him, but he read. That night as we were counting up our numbers, I noted we had a new investigator--we hadn't taught Ashton before and we set up a specific return appointment. This is my journal entry for that day: "Today we were able to contact a few potentials who weren't interested or available at the time. We spent some time walking around. We later were able to see the misfortune of a miniature bee. It was caught in a spider web, with the arachnid watching nearby. The spider gradually came out and bit it. The bee tried to escape, but decided to play dead for a bit, while the spider repaired its web and kept getting on the bee. Eventually the bee escaped from the bottom and fell to another web below, where an even bigger spider darted out bit it, darted back to its cave, then came back out and bit it again and quickly left. The bee was no longer struggling when we left.
"We had a member visit with the Bowmans, then we met with Leslie. Ashton sat in with us, so he's now an investigator."
2007. I believe I had the day off and I started putting up Halloween decorations. I think I put the jar with the Halloween lid in my room and put Peanuts Halloween fruit snacks in it.
2006. This must have been the day I told David Christensen that I heard you were supposed to drive with your lights on (even during the day) because of 9/11.
2002. My mom gave me an early birthday present of a neon-light American flag. It was a birthday present but she gave it to me early because of 9/11.
2001. It started out an ordinary school day. It wasn't until third-period math that I heard anything about what had happened, that a plane had flown into the towers. One girl in the class, Mika Mokofisi, kept talking about how she heard about it in her first-period general music class and that a high school had been bombed (Ah, rumor with her thousand tongues...). In my fourth-period science class I don't even know if the teacher said anything; he just turned on the TV and we watched the footage. Before class ended, he turned it off and we waited by the door for the bell to ring; we discussed the Jerusalem cricket our teacher had in a jar. That day I had to walk home from the bus stop; Sister Craig from our ward was picking up her daughters from Orchard and she stopped and gave me a lift. They asked me if I had heard what had happened; I said I had. Then I got home and brought in the Deseret News (it was still an afternoon paper then) and opened it up to see the enormous headline "America Under Attack!" with a picture of the smoking tower. Later my mom came home and talked about how she was waiting for her carpool and when Linda Larson arrived, she asked my mom if she had heard. My mom hadn't, so Linda made her turn the radio on. If my mom had heard earlier, she said she would have not sent me to school and would have kept me home. After dinner I was sitting on the couch in the living room (the TV was on in the kitchen--of course that was all the channels could talk about) and wrote in my journal. (The entry is on my blog, linked at the top.)
2000. I don't know, but I might have put up two plastic ghosts in a tree outside.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)