Ryanware

I guess I was tired this morning. I got back from Idaho (working for my sister) late Saturday night. I set my alarm for 7:30 so I could manage to get to church at 9:00 (I’m very slow in the morning). I woke up at 10:30. Crap! I once again turned my alarms off without knowning it or something. Maybe someone enters my room and secretly turns them off for me. Or puts plugs in my ears. I don’t know. Anyway, I went to church late (church goes from 9-12) and then decided to go to the church of a friend. He ended up not being there today, but I was quite surprised by someone else. Back in like 1999 or something one of my friends moved away. I think I may have seen him briefly in 2001, but that was it. So today I was sitting in my friends church (which happened to be the church I attended growing up) waiting for the first meeting to start, I glanced behind me and saw someone who looked very familiar. I turned to the buy next to me, another friend, and said “that looks like so and so”. He said “it is so and so”. Well whaddya know! I had no idea he and his family had moved back to Utah. Not only that, but they moved here sometime in 2002. I had no idea. Crazy. He first saw me from behind and kind of to the side and didn’t recognize me until I stood up and said who I was (visitors introduced themselves). It was fun talking to him again. I also saw several other people I hadn’t seen in years. At the end of the meeting the Bishop, who I know, told my friend and I that we had to meet 10 people before we left and that most of them better be girls. I like meeting people, but am not always the best at introducing myself to new people without a good reason, as I’ve said before . So anyway we did it, and it was easy. Why is it that I can’t always do that? It’s so much fun when I actually do it. I will admit it’s getting easier, for which I am very happy.

Idaho is cold.

I’ve been home for one year today!! For those of you who don’t know…

• No, I wasn’t in prison.
• No, I wasn’t in the armed forces.
• No, I was not camped near NASA Headquarters to try to catch a ride on a shuttle flight.
• No, I hadn’t run away from home.
• Si, era misionero de mi iglesia por dos anos!

“What? Translation please!”

I left on an LDS Church mission on August 1, 2001 and got home October 4th, 2004 after touring the mission a bit with my parents who came to pick me up. As LDS missionaries you can call home twice a year (Mother’s day and Christmas), write letters and e-mail (on public library computers) once a week, work a minimum of 63 hours a week (we’d usually work much more than that), cannot date, have another missionary as your “companion” every day all day, and a number of other things. All without getting paid! It’s completely voluntary. Each missionary has to pay his or her own way. Families and other people can and most often do help pay, especially for those without the ability to pay for it on their own. No one in the church HAS to go. It is strongly recommended for young men, and lightly suggested for young women. No matter how much I don’t like to admit it, girls are born with most everything guys learn on missions. Which is why I think it’s not as strong of a recommendation for them.

Some think 2 years sounds like a long time to leave home and not get paid a single penny, but it really hardly seemed like 2 years to me. I served in the Cincinnati, Ohio mission. Which covers northern Ohio, a small part of Indiana, and a lot of Eastern Kentucky. I was one of the 20+ Spanish speaking missionaries in the mission. I spent about 1 year in Ohio and the other year in Kentucky. These are the cities I lived in:

• Cincinnati, OH
• West Chester, OH
• Hamilton, OH
• Newport, KY
• Winchester, KY

No, I did not know Spanish before August 1st, 2001. Well, I did know agua, casa, and yo quiero taco bell, but that was it. I learned Spanish starting in the Provo, Utah MTC for the first 2 months, and then in Cincinnati from people and books! Studying for an hour each morning, reading the Book of Mormon and Bible in Spanish, and talking with people all day long really does a lot! No he tenido muchas oportunidades para hablar Espanol aqui en Utah durante el ano pasado, pero todavia leo el Libro de Mormon y la Biblia en Espanol… lo cual me ha ayudado recordar casi todo lo que habia aprendido en la mision. Tambien llamo por telefono o escribo correos electronicos a los que conoci en Ohio y Kentucky. Voy a tratar de escribir en este blog en Espanol de vez en cuando. A ver como me va.

Anyway, I can’t believe I’ve been home for a whole year! Time flies so fast! I used to think old people were weird to say it feels like their marriage of 40+ years has felt like nothing. After all, 3 months of summer seemed like an eternity with endless possibilities for fun! I’m only beginning to understand, but at least I’m understanding, right? Right.