Odds and Ends and Experiences

This is one of the first weeks that I’ve started to write with nothing much to say!  (My companion did her blog so late last week that she poached all the interesting stuff…)  First of all—happy birthday to my older brother, Randy!!  I’ve always looked up to him, and the older I get, the more I appreciate him taking the right path for us to follow!  (Although there was the unfortunate incident where I went along with Dad to get him at Janice’s house late one night.  I definitely learned that I didn’t want Dad to come get me at my girlfriend’s house, ever! (And I was glad she lived 30 miles away, not one mile, like Janice…) Dad was a man of few words, but just the look, and the label “Lunkhead” got the message across!  I wonder where “lunkhead” came from?  Good topic for some research.  But I digress…)

Diane and I really do love our mission!  She says it a lot more than I do (maybe I’m a man of few words like Dad), but she’s a lot better than I am about expressing that kind of stuff!  If you want the facts of what happened I may be better, but if you want the feelings or the lessons learned, she’s the one.  (Oh well, as long as there are heavy objects to lift or bugs to kill or cars to work on, I’ll always have a place.)  While I’m on the topic of feelings, let’s talk about hugging.  I’ve never been a big hugger, and I’m trying to get over it.  In our mission, hugging seems to be the norm among most of the missionaries (although not elder/sister hugging), and it’s growing on me, but slowly.  As I think about it, hugging communicates acceptance and love, which are both commodities the young missionaries don’t see much of during a normal workday, and that is something well worth sharing and communicating!!  I admire the people who can easily and sincerely share a hug, and I can see myself developing into one of those people (but I’m not one yet).  Right now, I hug the elders I know well and have developed a love for.  That’s probably the key isn’t it—get to know and love more and more of the missionaries!!  I’ll keep working on it.

This last week was the hottest I can ever remember enduring.  Every day has been 88-95 degrees with thunderstorms and high humidity (heat index says it feels like 110 deg.), and we are sure thankful for office and home air conditioning!  The elders and sisters in the area drop by the office dripping sweat to get a drink of cold water and rest for a minute, and we feel sorry for them!!  On Friday I spent 30 minutes or so just inspecting a car prior to sale, and came back in with my white shirt and pants pretty well sweated through.  Then Saturday, standing in the shade on the porch at Teddy Roosevelt’s home (we went again, but this time with Sister Shapiro (Aunt Debbie to family)) listening to the tour guide, I noticed that sweat was dripping off the ends of my fingertips to the porch.  I’m not a huge sweater (not the cardigan kind), and I’ve never sweat that much before while standing still!  The Roosevelt house was not air conditioned, so they kept the inside tour to ½ hour and eliminated the 3^rd floor, which they said was over 100 degrees.  Also, they definitely take the thunderstorms seriously here.  MetLife stadium was cleared of 90,000 fans and all the players the other night for an hour during the Giants game!

We went on a double date with one of the other senior couples last night (Richard & Carol Johnson, dinner and a movie).  It was fun to talk and compare notes and get to know each other better.  They are the housing couple, which is a really busy job!  I don’t think I’d swap (stick with the devil you know…).  They are from Arizona, and he was a lawyer, and she was an office manager.  Dates are a little different experience here.  We met for dinner at Nick’s Bistro after both finding (paid) parking spaces.  Then we went to our cars before the movie and put more money in the meters to get us to 7:00PM when you don’t have to pay any more, then walked to the theater a block away.  No parking lot at the bistro or theater, just find the first parking place you can, and keep it!  It’s a different life experience, but it’s becoming more and more normal and we love the experience!!  Come visit us!

Sounds a lot like David O. McKay, doesn't it? (Makes you wonder where all the statesmen/women like this are today..!)

Front: Sister Bramwell (husband meeting us at restaurant), Elder Johnson, Sister Palmer, Elder Palmer, Elder Shapiro
Row 2: Sister Johnson, Sister Shapiro,
Row 3: Sister & Elder Williams
Back Row: Elder & Sister Lilly