Thursday, May 21, 2009

The Past Year

Exactly one year ago, I was getting ready to do this...


A month later, I was getting ready to come here...


I got to eat food like this...


And tried to get as much of this as I could...


I've seen my fair share of celebrities...


And I even became a celebrity myself!

http://academy.byu.edu/newsDetail.jsp?id=71


I've had enough of these to last me for a while...


And in less than 5 weeks, I'll be getting ready to come here!


One big year of change, don't you think?

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

A Story for the Ages...

By now you all know the story of how I got my call, but here are some pictures of the quickest, most exciting, most boring trip to retrieve that mission call.

After calling five or six friends to see if they wanted to come on a quick road trip, none of them could go! But I knew my good friend Lindsey would. She was in class so I kept calling and calling until she finally walked out because she thought I was going to be telling her where I was going, but not quite... After some quick explaining and persuading, she left in the middle of a class and skipped another class to come along for the ride!

I know he wasn't thrilled to come and probably could have spent his day doing something else, but I couldn't have asked for a better twin to come along for the ride!


After a long 3 1/2 hour drive, I finally had it!!! But with the daunting thought of having to drive back with that envelope screaming at me, I decided to drive back so I wouldn't be tempted to peek. All I knew was that whatever was in there was going to tell me my future for the next chapter of my life! And despite rumors that I looked before I opened it with everyone waiting at home, I did NOT look! (That's right Candria. I do have self-control.)


Richmond, Virginia: Here I come. (And Brittany, Andrea, Amy, and any other family that I may "run into." Cards, new ties, and goodie packages are always welcome!)

P.S. Thanks to everyone for waiting up so late for me to get back, it meant a lot! And sorry for all the late-night phone calls...

Friday, May 1, 2009

And the winner is...

ONE person guessed stateside. As a winner, you are officially invited to my farewell. Anyone else who voted is invited too!

It's been a crazy week, so sorry for the long boring post. After a hectic weekend with an unplanned trip to Utah and back in one day, the time has come to start yet another semester, or term in this case, of college. My roommates are a little crazy. One of them is from Nigeria. He's about 5'4", has a thick accent, and likes to smile and laugh a lot. Before he says anything to me, he says, "My friend..." It makes me laugh. The other one is from Nepal. Yeah I didn't know where that was either. I've seen him once since I moved in on Monday. I'm sure he's pretty cool...? Classes are going pretty well so far. On Tuesday when classes started, I couldn't find my first class, tennis. It brought back horrifying memories of my first day last June when I was wandering around the Brick Oven trying to find the JFSB. I knew there were stairs somewhere, but I had no clue where to go. Anyway, I skipped tennis and waited until noon for my next class. Usually when I go to the JFSB (my home away from home) I have to wander around trying to find a place to study. Today, I felt like I was the only person in the whole building. At noon I went to the JSB for my next class. It was the same room where I had class last summer. So I went in, the class was full, and we waited for the teacher to arrive. At about 12:30, after half the class had left, a nerdy but helpful student realized he had the professor's office phone number in his phone. I'm still wondering why, but hey, he called and the teacher was there five minutes later. He was really nice and apologetic, but after 30 minutes of apologizing and giving every excuse that came to his mind for being late, it started getting old. So yeah, first day was off to a great start. My next class was right after the last one and right across the hall. So of course I was there before everyone else. I started talking to my teacher and found out that he served in the Richmond Virginia Mission! He was really nice and it was a good class. So that is how my first day turned out, pretty crazy. Now I have 7 more weeks of school, a mission to prepare for, a farewell talk to write, farewells to attend, finals, and then the MTC. Life is great.