October 27

October 27 is my brother's birthday, but since he doesn't live in Utah anymore, it's more like four days before Halloween to me. I'm going to remember what I can about it.

2012. In the morning I dressed up in my blue sweater and went up to the Wilk because we were helping out at a Relief Society brunch. When we showed up, a lot of the other elders were already helping. Matt Markham said he had worked catering at BYU-Hawaii. My roommate Bryton and I went with Angie, the Relief Society President, to get some ice from the Cougareat. Somehow we got to talking to Angie about my Halloween shows--I would be watching the original Frankenweenie that day. I mentioned that the previous night's show had been It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and Angie said she loved A Charlie Brown Christmas. Bryton and I went back and filled pitchers with pink lemonade. Eventually it was time for the big reveal of who it was who had prepared the food and who was serving the sisters, and we elders all came out. We got to eat the salad after they had been served. There was a lot of salad on the plates, and I didn't care to finish mine once I had finished the chicken in it, since the salad was mostly cabbage. Then we had to go serve the cookies. The only ones I could eat were pumpkin sugar cookies. I ate a lot of them and took one home. Bryton and I walked home with Jenny Stevens. Then that afternoon I changed to go running. After that, I went shopping. I might have gone to K-mart for some reason. I went to Papa Murphy's and got a jack-o-lantern pizza. While I was down in that part of Provo, I saw a car with a license plate from American Samoa. I went to Smith's and bought some chocolates that I could give to potential trick-or-treaters but that would also be suitable for Thanksgiving. I came home and cooked my pizza and offered it to my roommate Cameron and his friend Stephanie (they had bought Taylor Swift's Red album that day). That night I watched Frankenweenie, but I think no one else was home to watch it with me.

2011. I think this might have been the day that there was a chili party at work. Before the time of the party, our leads were going around and telling everyone that they could go clock out and go home after the party. They didn't tell me, but I wondered if they would, and I didn't want to clock out and then have to go back and turn on my headset again just to log out. So I asked the leads if they wanted me to go home too, and they said I could, but they seemed hesitant. At the party, I was in line after my coworker Michelle and our lead Scott; I was telling them how I had a dream about our size-42 boxes. There were Costco cakes with red, orange, and yellow decorations on top. Michelle knew about and was amused by my dessert habits, and I explained that I could have the cake because it had fall colors on it. Later she went back for more cake and I asked her to bring me one. I think I preferred orange, but any color would do.

2009. I remember that we were going to the temple, so we had to go to the Clarkston elders' home. After our day of proselyting, we went there, and when we got there we learned that we had to get up at 1:00 a.m., even though Elder Critchfield had previously told us that we would have to get up at 3:00. I also realized that I hadn't brought a long-sleeve shirt, so one of the elders told me that I could use one of his.

2008. I think I bought Boo Berry cereal from Walmart. We would have gone to Washington State University to email, and I wrote the following letters:

"It is fun to walk the streets through the leaves. They all gather in the curbs and on the edges of sidewalks and they are very fun to kick. I can't believe November is almost here, but November is my second-favorite month.

"We do walk around generally when we are in our towns. Everything is so close together that we don't feel we need our bikes too much, and also we are in a top apartment so we don't feel like taking our bikes up and down the stairs all the time (I don't think there's a place to park our bikes). I actually still have my wheels separate from my bike from the transfer. And it could get annoying to have to transfer our bikes on the bike rack every few days. We do have a full-time car, but we have to use it to get from town to town, not from house to house (although actually we did go farm tracting the other day--knock on one house and drive to the next). Ritzville is about fifty miles from Cheney and Davenport, and Davenport is about forty miles from Cheney. Then it seems all the other small towns are twelve miles from our main small towns. We get 1600 miles a month, and we're doing very well this month. I'm worried for November to come because then we have to be careful again. We're due for a new car sometime soon because the Church likes to sell them before 50,000 miles and we hit that on Saturday, I think. The office missionary in charge of cars says he has some older cars he has to sell first and then he'll get ours.

"Exactly one year ago today was my first day of freedom from Wal-Mart (today at the store I saw all the new 'associates' being trained and my heart went out to them) and my official full-time mission prep, not working just to get ready for my mission. We practiced my bike riding and carved pumpkins. Tomorrow I hit eleven months. It is Zone Conference tomorrow, and to get there we will be driving through Mead. It will be fun to go through my "greenie area" again. Actually all of us English missionaries who came to Spokane from our MTC group will be at the same conference--it's two zones and all five of us are in those two zones--Spokane, which includes Ritzville, Davenport, Cheney, and the main part of Spokane and surrounding areas; and Northland, which includes northern Spokane, Mead, Deer Park, Chewelah, and Colville. (All these cities probably mean nothing to you.) Ah! Memories abound this week. Last year's Halloween was probably my favorite one that I've had.

"I think I will send home my birthday check to you, and write Grandma and Grandpa today. It's weird to think that I'm still expecting a birthday package, because I've completely forgotten about my birthday.

"So I'm confused as to whether Allie's Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. I still think her witch costume when she was two was the best. And I'm kind of missing my fantastic cape.

"I'm going to email Dave today, so I'll close now.

"Love and Happy Halloween,

"Elder Melville"

"I forgot a few little anecdotes about this week.

"Last Monday we got back home and an ambulance was there. Brother Herron, with whom we live, had been vomiting blood quite profusely, and was in the hospital for a few days after. That night we had to have a ten-minute dinner twelve miles away so we could come back and give him a blessing. He's doing better now but still not feeling the greatest.

"The next day we went to Reardan, a small town, and we showed up at an investigator's house just as their dog was dying. We have impeccable timing.

"A lighter--but grosser--dog story has to do with an investigator named Crystal. Her grandma is active; her dad is an active recent convert. Her mom, Lucretia (sp) was ex'ed but still believes the Gospel. Both Lucretia and Crystal like us teaching them, and we were at Crystal's house teaching. She has a very rambunctious son, Edward, who is almost three. Among the three houses of Crystal, Lucretia, and the Calloways, there are many, many, many kittens and dogs (I've seen more kittens in this area than in my entire mission). Edward was playing with a puppy behind Elder Love (we were sitting on a bed used as a couch), hitting it on the head and trying to resist my protective measures for the dog. Suddenly Elder Love stood up, and a yellowish liquid was on the bed. So after visiting with them he changed his pants. But the problem is there are no dry cleaners around here. None in Ritzville, none in Davenport, none in Cheney. So he won't be able to wear those slacks for a while.

"Just thought I'd give you another random note!

"Love,

"Elder Melville"

2007. In the morning we went down to Orchard Elementary so that I could practice biking. It was the first time I was actually able to bike around, so that was an exciting development. Then we went home and I ate some of the mint Oreos I had bought the night before. We carved pumpkins and I think we watched The Blob, which my dad had rented from Top Hat Video.

2002. I remember emailing David for the last time on his mission. I wrote him a happy birthday/coming home poem. I can't remember all of it, but I remember a few cheesy couplets: "Only six days until I will see you again. I cannot wait until then!" "You'll see our new couch, upholstered in leather. You'll see all your friends, Preston, Michael, and Heather." "You missed our cat Dinah, she ran away, but Jenny also likes to play."

I will probably remember more later. I feel bad that I don't remember more about my brother's birthday, especially since most of what I remember doesn't have to do with him.