In The Beginning...

Mission is here

2009-12-13T15:57:00.002-07:00

I can't believe that the time has come to leave for my mission! I leave this wednesday!!! I've been able to have a few last fun trips before I leave. I'm currently here in Arizona. I'm visiting my dad's side of the family. They all live here in Phoenix. It's been a lot of fun being able to see them and spend time with them before I leave. I leave back home today. Then on Tuesday I leave to California to see a musical down there. I arrive back in Utah on Wednesday morning and then enter the MTC that afternoon. Pretty crazy!!! Anyways, I'm super excited for my mission and can't wait to go. If anyone wants my address to write to, my little sister will be posting it on my wall on facebook. She may also post it as a comment here.

Anyways, super excited! Can't wait to be in Korea (after three months in the MTC)!

Mission Farewell

2009-11-15T14:08:00.002-07:00

Yay, so the date is set for my mission farewell. It will be on the 29th of November. I just gave a talk this sunday in my student ward since it was my last sunday going to that ward. So I get to give two talks in a short period of time. Yay. =)

Anyways, Savior of the World performances start this week! I'm so excited that I get to perform up until I leave. It is such a great show with a wonderful message! I really encourage anyone who can should go and bring people with you!

Well that's about it for now. Just a short post today.

Mission

2009-11-01T16:41:00.002-07:00

So for anyone who doesn't know yet, I am going to be serving a mission. I just got my mission call yesterday. I am going to be serving in the...
...
...
(drum roll)
...
...

Seoul South Korea!!!!

I am super excited! I leave for the MTC on December 16th. So only six weeks away! So, yeah, I can't wait to leave I am super stoked to be serving in Korea. I won't be very far from Balgram. =)

Some bad luck

2009-10-19T10:41:00.002-06:00

This weekend my family and I went down to St. George to see the closing night performance of Aida (yes, I know that I went last week). Unfortunately the performer who plays Aida wasn't there so her understudy performed in her place. It made a huge difference! It wasn't nearly as good as the week before. So that was kinda sad, but it was still fun being down with the family.

The next morning was Sunday morning. We had to leave by 10 am because one of my family members had to get back for a 2 pm appointment. So we headed out the door. The car gave a warning that one of the tires was low so we quickly stopped at a gas station to fill it up with air and then we were off. We were a little ways outside of St. George, driving along when suddenly the front passenger side tire blew a hole! Luckily we were able to change lanes to the right side and pull of onto the shoulder without any trouble. Now we had a completely flat tire. One thing that no one noticed was that the outside of the tire looked fine, but the inside of the tire was horribly worn. That's where the hole burst from. So then we got about to changing the tire. We were so close to having it changed, we had retrieved the spare from underneath the car and raised the car up. All that was left was to switch out the tires. We had removed all but one of the lugnuts when we noticed that the last lugnut looked different than the rest. It was round and had a funny shape on the inside, a locking lugnut. The only way to remove this lugnut was with a special tool that was supposed to come with the specific car, but since this was a used car, it apparently no longer had this tool. So now we were stuck. My mother tried call the assistance number that was in the car booklet, but since it was Sunday, they were closed. Next she then called a towing company. The guy was currently towing a car so it would take him 45 mins until he would get there. So we lowered the car, hopped back in and began to wait. After 45 mins he still wasn't there. My mom called again, he would still be about 20 mins. So we waited some more. It is hot right now in St. George (90's and 80's). And since we were just sitting there we couldn't have the car on the whole time or it would overheat, so it got pretty hot in there, Especially since our car is black. We did have one person stop to try and help us, but unfortunately couldn't help with the locking lugnut, but that was very nice of him. Finally after waiting in the car for an hour and 40 mins the tow man showed up. He brought out his tools. He basically had to hammer this metal pipe thing and then try and twist it. This took several times of trying this as he tried to pound the smallest pipe that he could onto that bolt and then twisted. Finally the lugnut came loose and he finished changing the tire. Yeah! Now three hours late we started of again. But the spare tire was also kind of low. So once again we went to the gas station to fill it with air and started for home. We had to be careful driving home, not driving too fast for the spare and also the other front tire was pretty worn on the inside also. In the end, we weren't even close to making it home by 2. But we made it home safe and sound. So that was my weekend.

It's been awhile

2009-10-14T13:28:00.002-06:00

So it has definitely been quite some time since the last time I posted here. Let's see, what has happened since then...

Well, first I went to Japan with Rei and Balgram, and also Eve. That was incredible! I had so much fun there. I loved it. Some of the cities that we visited were Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Himeji. I think that my favorite was probably Himeji. At this point it was just Rei and I (Eve was with her brother and Balgram had to leave for home), we went to Himeji castle (we got in for free because of some kind of celebration) and then there was a large festival going on with lots of booths and a stage where they had all kinds of performances. It was a lot of fun. I also really loved the shrines in Kyoto, seeing Sephiroth in the floor, and going to Universal Studios Japan. The one thing that I definitely did not enjoy was the temperature there. It was super hot and super humid!!! You do nothing but stand outside and you start to sweat. Blegh. Other than that I loved everything.

After Japan we flew back to the US to St. Louis. There Rei and I met with my Mom and the Woolfs. We spent time in St. Louis and saw the arch and then later headed to Nauvoo. My little sister was there at EFY Nauvoo. So while she was there we got to see all the sites at Nauvoo and all of the different performances. We even got to see Vocal Point. It was a lot of fun. We also got to go to the temple there. It was a great experience.

Another event that happened since then is that I traveled to California for a Mugai Ryu gasshaku (swords seminar). I didn't know it, but I ended up testing for my 1st degree black belt. And I passed! It was very nerve racking, especially since I didn't find out that I was going to be testing until after I had gotten there. The seminar was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. We also got to spend a day at Disneyland. How can you go to California and not go to Disneyland, right?

There was also a Karate seminar a week later. That was a really fun seminar. I loved learning the sai. We also went and hiked to Timp cave. It had been years since the last time I've hiked up there. The seminar went really well and so did testing.

Balgram has left on her mission. She's going to Tokyo! I'm going to miss her, but I know that she'll do an awesome job and will be a great missionary.

Let's see, my family and I tried out for Savior of the World and we all made it! I'm really excited for it. The music is so wonderful and carries such a strong spirit. The show has a great message and is very powerful. Even at the practices you can feel the spirit really strong. Tickets go on sale Oct 20th at 10 am. They usually sell out within 48 hours. You can get them online (lds.org/events), by calling, or by going in person to the church box office. My family and I are in the Wed, Fri, Sat - matinee cast. I really strongly suggest coming to see the show if you can. It is going to be an incredible production and it has such a good message.

So a lot of stuff has happened since the last time I've posted. That was pretty much the watered down version of all the events. There is one more event that has happened, but I will wait to tell about that later.

Harry Potter!!

2009-07-15T20:17:00.008-06:00

Last night was the midnight showing of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. My mom had gotten tickets for a big group of us. Our group ended up with 22 people. I brought Noble with me. It was tons of fun. We arrived there a little after 8pm. We already had a person there saving a spot in line. Slowly the rest of the group found their way to the theater and by about 11pm our whole group was there. While waiting in line we had fun playing speed and Harry Potter uno. There were many many people there in costume representing all the various characters. Eventually they let us into the theater where we split into groups and found seats. Noble and I found the perfect seats. We were close but not too close and we were in the center. While we were waiting in the theater for the movie to start people started chanting, "Fight fight fight fight!" We turned around to see Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter with wands out dueling in the aisle. It was pretty funny and entertaining. Everything was going perfect as the show began and the movie played. It went perfect right up to the point when the power went out...yes, the power went out...in the middle of the movie. The people came in and said that it would be about ten minutes or so and they would get the movie going. One of the workers also said something about having to evacuate the building. Yeah right. Like that was going to happen. Eventually they got the movie going again and everyone cheered.

There was magic in the theater that night.

Having fun in the theater

I really liked the movie and I thought that the movie did a pretty good job following the book. I would like to see it again. Harry on the luck potion was one of my favorite scenes. After the movie it was back to my house. It was Chase's birthday so my mom had decorated the dining room for a Harry Potter breakfast. As we came in the Harry Potter music was playing and the air was filled with wonderful smells. As you came into the dining room the sight was amazing. The table looked awesome as it overflowed with food. Candles were floating in the air, lit and burning bright. It reminded me of the dining table in Harry Potter and the all types of delicious food that always appears on the table before them. Here is a list of some of the food items (most likely I will end up forgetting a few). There was all kinds of fruit including strawberries, raspberries, mango, nectarines, grapes, bananas, and cherries. There was several different types of pastries (cream puffs, layered pastries and others), croissants both plain, glazed and fruit filled. There were fruit tarts and lemon tarts, cinnamon scones and doughnuts of a variety. Then of course there were the hot dishes. There was ham, bacon, sausage links, eggs, and potatoes. There was a variety of juices to choose from. And last, but certainly not least, there was a large chocolate cake. The breakfast was amazing and I hardly even noticed that it was around 3:30 or so in the morning.

The incredible table

Floating candles!!!

Mmmm foooooood

After eating all that I could, Noble and I said our goodbyes and headed out. I dropped her at home and then headed off to my apartment. By the time that I had gotten ready for bed and was climbing under the covers the clock read 5am. So then I slept for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours before it was time to wake up and go to work. Blegh. That was a long eight hours of work followed by karate. I must say that I am exhausted now, but it was SO WORTH IT!!!

July

2009-07-09T12:39:00.002-06:00

Here's a little late post of my 4th of July. On the 3rd my family and I were supposed to go camping that night, but my mom make a mistake and reserved a campsite that was far away. She thought that it was up near aspen grove since it was name aspen something or whatever, but turns out that it was far away. My little sister California celebrated since she lathes camping. So instead we just did a hike to Stewart Falls and then came back and saw the late night showing of Ice Age 3. It was alright. There were some funny parts. I slept over at my home home and the next morning my mother make a mountain man breakfast. It consisted of a mixture of hash brown potatoes, bacon, ham, cheese, and other goodness. From there it was time to head out to Provo Canyon. We were going river rafting down the Provo river. All of us were in one raft as we went down the river. We went without a river guide in our boat. We really didn't need one since Chase has done that before. In our raft we had also brought three big water guns. Hee hee hee. We were the pirates of the Provo river. We would row along side other rafts, tubers, and kayakers and then ATTACK! With our paddles and water guns we would soak all of our opponents. Bwaa ha ha!!! It was tons of fun. No one else really got us wet. In fact, we were the ones that got ourselves wet when we started an in boat battle.

After that we came back and then went out to the Freedom festival. After walking around the booths for awhile and picking up a few things we headed out to the university mall. (It was pretty hot outside). Anchor Blue was closing there so everthing in the store was 50% off. It was here in the dressing rooms that I discovered that I had been sunburned. I hadn't used any sunblock when we were on the river and now my thighs and shoulders glowed bright red. Not only were they bright red, but they were also radiating heat.

After the mall we went back to the house and had a big BBQ. Steak, ribs, shrimp, watermelon, rolls, and corn on the cob. Yum! When it got dark my family went off to light off fireworks, but I decided to head back to my apartment (my sunburn was making me not feel too good). On my way across the parking lot of my parking lot I stopped for a second to listen to the Stadium of Fire. The Jonas Brothers were performing on stage and from where I was standing I could see the big screen. So I watched and listened to a couple songs before heading into my apartment. From there I opened my window and turned off the lights and watched the big fireworks while lying on my bed. They were pretty cool fireworks. Then a cool shower to try and help my sunburn then off to bed. So that was my fourth of July. It was a lot of fun!

First week

2009-06-26T17:14:00.002-06:00

Well, this was my first week of my summer vacation. Spring classes are over and I'm now free from school until the fall! Yay! This was also my first week of working full time. It definitely makes the days longer, but when I think about how much more money I'll be making it makes it worth it.

Like Rissica I decided to buy a PSP. I think that the reason I never bought one before was because no one else had one. But now I'm not the only one. I also bought the prequel game to FF7. I just started playing it and it is really fun! And the graphics are really impressive, especially for a hand held.

Can't wait for Japan! Only one month away!

The update

2009-06-15T17:32:00.003-06:00

Well, here's the update with everything going on. The midterm test that I was talking about in the last post, I got the results from that, 97%! I like that score. Hopefully I will be able to do just as well as that on my final (which is Wednesday).

There hasn't be a whole ton going on. I'm still working and I'll move to working full time after I finish my finals. My roommate and I have a fun weekend a little while ago. We went out and bought a few chick flicks, some chick food, nail polish (to do french tips), foot scrub and foot lotion. Then we came back soaked our feet in a hot bath and used the foot scrub to make our feet nice and soft. Then after that we used the lotions to do foot massages. I would like to note that my roommate is an athletic trainer and knows how to massage VERY well! We popped in the movies (first Ever After followed by Just Married) prepared the snacks (fruit, cheese and crackers, and pretzels) and then started on the nails. We painted our toe nails a shiny pink color. Then with the finger nails we did french tips and also used her nail polish stamping kit to put pretty flower designs on. Then we finished up by putting toe rings on and just looking pretty. Now when I say we I really mean that my roommate was doing everything (the painting the nails, the preparing the snacks and such). She's so nice for doing it and it was so much fun!

I'm currently reading three books right now. Brandon sanderson's new book, Warbreaker (I got it signed and numbered when he was at BYU), the Scarlet Pimpernel, and The Outstretched Shadow. Warbreaker has been good so far and I'm not very far into the other two yet. Anyways, when I finish my last final then I'll have a lot more time to do my own reading. I am definitely not doing summer term classes. I need a break from school! =P

I'm super excited for the musical the Scarlet Pimpernel! It's going to be performed at the Hale center theater in West Valley. I love that musical. It is my all time favorite. Also I know someone who has a part in it. He's playing robespierre. It's not until august, but I can't wait for it!

Another thing, my brother is now in the MTC. He leaves for France in about a week and a half. It's pretty crazy!

Darn Sciatic

2009-06-05T14:43:00.000-06:00

So I just found out today that I have a condition known as Sciatica or in other words, the irritation or inflammation of the sciatic nerve. I've actually been dealing with it for awhile, hoping that it would go away like it did last time I had this. However, the doctor said this is common with back injuries. A lot of times you'll get injured and then it will go away and then later the injury will come back, but this time it comes back worse. So now I get to meet with a physical therapist to help make it better and if that ends up not working I may end up needing to get an MRI to see if something is pinched down on the nerve or something like that (but that is the worst case scenario). It can get pretty annoying when movements including (but not limited to) walking, going to sit down or stand up, extending my left leg, any kind of bending over or curling my back and/or head, and certain hip movements cause a shooting pain from my hip down my left leg. But oh well, that's life sometimes. Anyways, hopefully the physical therapy will do the job.

Moving to a new subject. I have a midterm to take either today or tomorrow for evolutionary biology. Spring term goes by so fast that it's hard to think that we've covered enough material to take a test. Not only that but the midterm is this weekend while the final is only a week and a half away (three class periods). Crazy fast!

Well, I better get around to studying for that test. I want to do fairly well in this class.

First Post

2009-06-01T23:27:00.001-06:00

So this is my first post! Now I have to figure out what it is that I want to say. In general life is pretty busy. School and work always keeping me running. My family is in Florida vacationing right now. Unfortunately I was unable to join them (same culprit- school and work), but it's okay because I'm going to be going to Japan later this summer!

I'm very much looking forward to Japan! Luckily because Spring term is so fast it's making my Japan trip come up really fast! I've been trying to brush up on my Japanese since it's been several years since I last took a Japanese class, but you know how that is. I say that I'm going to study, but of course it rarely ends up happening. I could very probably end up leaning on others while I'm there. But I'll do my best. I think that I'm definitely going to bring my Japanese textbooks on the plane with me.

Other than that my summer is pretty uneventful.

btw- The movie Clue is awesome! I love that movie. I could watch it several times and not get bored of it. Mr. Green and Wadsworth are the best characters.

Anyways, that's about it for my first post!