Wednesday, August 1, 2018

I have reached the age of accountability in mission years (months) (7/28/08)


So I am kind of at a loss about pants. When they "tailored" my pants in the first place, they were several inches too big in the waist.[1] Then I've lost about thirty pounds on my mission, and that hasn't helped. When I got here there was a pair of pants in the closet that fits me quite well, and I have been wearing those. Elder B. (I'm still sad he's dead)[2] told me that our ward mission leader has some suits the same size that I could ask him about (they were in our closet and they gave them to him but they don't fit him that well). But as for my own pants--four suit pants and two pairs of slacks--they were too big. I finally took one suit pair and one pair of slacks to get tailored three inches. But I think it was about $12 each pair of pants, and to get four more pairs tailored could be costly. I probably will just have to do it anyway and put it on my debit card. But another problem is I was wearing my slacks and sat down in the driver's seat while I heard a very disconcerting sound, and my seam split about three or four inches. I am attempting to repair them, but if a professional stitching doesn't hold, I firmly doubt my primitive sewing will. So I currently can only wear the slacks I got here since I don't want to wear suit pants. I just worry about splitting all of my pants if I get them all tailored.

One thing that's bad about having a bike and a car is I often find myself looking at my speedometer to make sure I'm not speeding. Then I remember my bike doesn't have a speedometer.

On my mission other missionaries often talk about the things they did back home. It's good I didn't do anything because I don't miss anything.[3] But I do kind of miss TV, and of course there are various reminders of the things I cannot do right now. For example:
In Spokane was a billboard for American Family Insurance with a Munsters theme.
A member of the ward asked me if I ever got called Herman (referring to the Melville), and then she added, "At least it's better than Herman Munster."
We tracted into a lady who asked if I knew another Melville in the area. Then she told me she looked like That Girl, and I was able to remind her of the name Marlo Thomas. Watching TV in that case actually helped me talk to someone!
In Mead the ex-con in the room next door would sometimes watch The Beverly Hillbillies and I could hear it.
I've heard The Andy Griffith Show both from the Welshes in Mead and while tracting.
I really liked the Monkees song "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round," and once we went into an investigators' home and she was listening to bluegrass. I generally try to tune music out, but I was highly distracted as I heard the bluegrass--and presumably original--version of that song. (The Monkees do it better.)[4]
And as we get into the holidays in a few months I'm sure it will get a lot worse with images of Jack Skellington and the Grinch. (In the MTC a speaker actually quoted Dr. Seuss's Christmas story, and I thought that was not fair because we were all missionaries who couldn't watch it.)

Um...this was a really weird letter...

Love,

Elder Melville


[1] I do not recommend Mr. Mac. I think they judged me for being fat and assumed I would get fatter, so they literally gave me pants that were four inches too big in the waist.
[2] “Dead” in mission lingo, meaning gone home.
[3] When people asked me what I did for fun, I would say something like, “I don’t have fun.” My hobby consisted of watching 1960s sitcoms and geeking out over them online. How awkward!
[4] I think the Monkees were the first to perform it, but they didn’t write it. That does actually remain one of my favorite Monkees songs.

No comments:

Post a Comment