The Ides of March

The subject of today's post is March 15, two days before St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, there's not much to remember.

2012. I was wearing my t-shirt with Snoopy and Woodstock with Irish hats and clovers. I was walking to my Doctrine and Covenants class when I saw Hillary Ulmer. I said hi. She said she didn't notice it was me because she was staring at my shirt, but then when I said hi she said it made sense that it was me. That afternoon, I stopped at J-Dawgs on my way home. In line was a Nathaniel Johnson from the first area of my mission. He had left on a mission while I was in that area. I was going to say hi to him, but he was ahead of me and was with some people, and I didn't think he would remember me, much less recognize me. When I walked in to my apartment, Alyssa Kekauoha was talking to my roommate Cameron Haas. They saw my J-Dawgs and I told them it was my first time getting it that semester. Alyssa saw my shirt and asked if it was St. Patrick's Day. I ended up getting J-Dawgs sauce on my shirt. At some point that afternoon, Cameron told Alyssa that I said we weren't friends. I confirmed that, saying that I don't make friends.

2009. I had to speak in the Hayden 4th Ward. I spoke about the Book of Mormon, and I think I talked about how all fifteen books testify of Christ. I used a quote by President Benson from Preach My Gospel about how the Book of Mormon can be used to respond to objections. After sacrament meeting, the McLuskies, an older Scottish couple, told me that I did a good job. There had been a Sunday School lesson a few weeks earlier in which the teacher asked everyone what their talents were, and I said I didn't have any, so on this occasion the McLuskies told me that I could have said I had a talent for knowing the scriptures. During Priesthood opening exercises, we practiced an idea we had heard of. We stood up and said, "We have a Book of Mormon here, and we want someone to give it away." We were pleased when Wayne Timonen, who had only recently started coming back to church, volunteered to give it away. My journal tells me we ate at the bishop's house. I suspect this was the time that some other ward members came over and we shared our object lesson about fortifying our families. The bishop's son was a little hyper, and he got a little carried away rearranging the pieces. I asked Elder Betenson if my talk was boring. He said it was informative, but when I pressed him he said it was a little dry. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today I spoke in sacrament meeting. It was probably the most boring talk I've given for a while. It had a lot of good information, but no personality. We also had to teach in Sunday School. We had dinner with the Bishop and his family. During Priesthood meeting we asked who was going to give out a Book of Mormon, and Wayne Timonen accepted the task. 

2008. In the morning we went to give a blessing to some people that the zone leaders had told us about. They were actually in the sisters' area. We drove over there and the mom wanted her kids to get blessings, but the kids didn't seem too interested. After we left there, we told the sisters about them and told them they should stop by sometime. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we gave a blessing to some nonmembers, Larry and Claudia. They each got one and were very appreciative. They weren't in our area but the sisters can't give blessings.

"Then we taught Duane and Vickie. They want to fast and give tithing and all that good stuff. Malheureusement, Duane has some legal complications. He stole a computer from Wal-Mart and fell asleep in the car, so he was caught. He was also caught trying to steal thirty lawnmowers. They let the mowers go because he was going to jail for the computer but now they have come back up and he has a court hearing. We hope that goes well so he can get baptized." 

 2003. My mom bought balloons and black stuff for my uncle's birthday the next day.

1996. It was a day to wear a green hat to school. A boy in my class was wearing a hat with pin/buttons on it, one of which said, "Let's Party at the Top O' the Morning." Our teacher, Mrs. Taylor, picked someone with the best hat and sent them to get their picture taken with the other green-hat people in the school. Mrs. Taylor told us that the rest of our hats were cool too, but she picked the one that was homemade and had a lot of work put into it. The school also had a contest where they put a picture of a leprechaun in different places in the school and if you found it you got a prize. I went searching for it with my friend Kelsey Bodily. She found a shiny thing that she said would help her find the leprechaun. I said it wouldn't, and she acknowledged she was just pretending. I didn't want to play with her because of that silliness and because she was playing with a kindergartener.