Le New Camera.

I was going to write a post, but my computer went all wonky and my brother was just fixing it for the better part of an hour. So I'll just say this: I got my new camera today.


When I got my mission call, I was informed that I am not allowed to bring my big camera on my mission (to prevent it getting stolen and from looking like a tourist). So a really intense internal battle followed that probably not too many missionaries face: to buy another camera or not?

I already have a small point-and-shoot, but it's mostly used for its waterproof qualities. And honestly, I'm not going on a mission to take pictures. But I couldn't just completely give up the want to take professional photos (because a point-and-shoot camera isn't up to par.). I couldn't shove my talent under the bed for 18 months, and I didn't want to feel regretful on my mission (it's hard to shake the thought of a lost photographic opportunity). So there I was, wrangling with the idea back and forth until I finally made a decision to buy one. And boy, I like it.

You might not think this decision is even notable, but it took an inhuman amount of time to decide. IT'S A BIG DEAL, OKAY??!

Family Day

Interesting things always happen on Thanksgiving.

I've previously mentioned spending the bulk of Thanksgiving in the ER, but when I woke up this morning I remembered something that happened a few years back.

I don't remember how old I was, but I'm leaning towards my senior year of high school. I was woken up by my phone and I noticed it was a number I didn't recognize. Instead of just letting it go to voicemail like I usually do, I actually answered it (shocking, right?). The gist of the conversation went as follows, because frankly, I can't remember the exact dialogue:

Older man: "Well Happy Thanksgiving!"

Me: *uhhhhhh?* "Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. Who is this?"

Older man, chuckling: "Aw come on! You know who it is." No, I didn't. I tried asking again in a different way, but he was so convinced that I was joking with him that I felt bad telling him I wasn't the right person.

Me, chuckling: "Oh hey! Sorry, you sounded different!" 

Older man: *laughs* "So what've you and the family done so far today?"

Me: "Oh, nothing much, we're just waiting to eat some food."

Older man: *laughs* "Well aren't we all?" At this point, from what I remember, he proceeded to tell me about "the family" and how he's already called the rest of my "siblings" and he briefly let me know how they were doing. I'm pretty sure he asked if I had called them yet, in which I responded,

"No, not yet. I've been busy getting dinner ready." I also think I said something about "the kids" playing outside. 

Older man: "Well I'm glad to hear the kids are doing well! Have a happy Thanksgiving and I hope I can see you guys soon. Love you!"

Me: "Love you too!"

It was by far the most entertaining phone call I've ever received. Now before you think I'm a horrible person for letting this cheery old man (who I assume is my "father" or "father-in-law") think he contacted all of his kids that day, think about this: they had to have figured out eventually that he didn't call the right person, in which they probably laughed really hard about it. Either that or his kids thought he was crazy and put him in a home. JUST KIDDING. 

I didn't know the old man, but he was so happy. Happy. And he wanted to share his happiness and gratefulness with his family, and I felt that love through that phone call. It was awesome.

I'm glad for this Thanksgiving. It's the last holiday I have with my family before I leave, and what better a holiday than today?

Plus, my siblings and I have tackled the Black Friday lines together on-and-off throughout the years, which is both terrifying and exciting. It's when humanity is at its worst, which for some reason amuses me. I do love Black Friday.

Last Time in Logan For a While

Before I say anything, please look at these. I think I actually wet myself.

TItled "Future Nobel Peace Prize Winner."

And my favorite...

I went up to Logan to hang out with friends, some of which I won't be seeing for about 19 months.
Basically what I concluded is that I am extremely blessed to have great friends and roommates since I first moved to Logan.

Tara (aka Taraji). She's a ginger. Bread connoisseur. 

Melanie. The future Food Network star.

Jared (aka Turtle O'Pheikens). "We're his friends?"

Sara (aka Crawford). "FBI! LOWER YOUR WEAPONS!"

Jenna (aka Jenna Fiesta). See picture below.

Katy (aka Effin' Pennsylvania). Inventor of the word "skitch."

Shelly. The wannabe nudist/Asian.

(You guys should be thankful I didn't use any other pictures. So many unflattering faces...)

Since Katy's from Pennsylvania and she's going home for Christmas break, I won't see her until I get back. So I've included some very-flattering and not-weird pictures from today.

It's supposed to be Yoga.

And my favorite:

It gets creepier the longer you stare...

If you don't remember, Katy and I are both left-handed insomniacs, we own the same straightener, we're Pirates-lovers and picky eaters (except she's way worse) and soon we'll have Pennsylvania in common.


Watch this. Shelly showed it to me.

Intro to Nov.

I really don't know why this song is called "Six Weeks," but I know it's been stuck in my head this past week. And oh, what a coincidence! Because my farewell is six weeks from today. I expect everyone to show up with an opulent present.*

I don't have much to say, so I'll dance instead:

CLAP CLAP
STOMP
TWIRL
DROP IT LIKE IT'S HOT
CLAP

That was probably the worst dance ever.


I'm totally doing No-Shave November. Oh yeah. I've done it before, and I'm doing it again.
But in reality, it's not any different from what I already do. If you know me, you know that I usually only shave every 1.5-2 weeks because I see no point other than to please the masses. (Come on! Who's looking at my legs? And what's the point in the fall/winter? THERE IS NO REASON. Sweater tights for the win!)


Tomorrow is Guy Fawkes day. So go watch V for Vendetta and make yourself and eggy in a basket. Since I first watched it, I've celebrated the 5th of November every year. And if you've never seen the movie, here's an awesome speech from it... in kinetic typography!



*May or may not be joking.

Thank Heavens for Boys

This is how my trip to Logan panned out this weekend:

First, Petey and I stopped at City Creek, in which I finally found a nice pair of shoes for my mission. Also, we (mostly Petey) had a hard time staying away from the Michael Kors clothing.

We got to Logan. We bought groceries, including a pack of fried chicken for dinner later.

I got to see my roommates (like I've said before, I still call them my roommates), which was fabulous. I haven't seen Shelly in ages, and last time I went to Logan I didn't see Katy that much either. So it was fun talking and playing Mario Kart with them.

We got ready for the Howl. My white makeup was harder to get even than I expected. Petey, Kyle, Natalie and I headed up to the Howl. We saw an awesome Halloween dance from the USU dancers. We watched a bit of the hypnotist. Then we went to the dance.

I'm the Greendale Human Being, of course.

Kyle: "What am I? It depends who asks.
Either a terrorist or a shepherd."

Some logistics team figured out that the most efficient way to get kids to the dance floor is to funnel us through the TSC out through a gated pathway into the Fieldhouse. We were almost inside the Fieldhouse when the security team/cops blocked off the entrance and yelled that no one could go in. We had no idea why, but we quickly started getting crushed by the crowd of people flooding in from behind.

A guy tried to force his way past the guards. They chased him into the dance floor. Not less than a minute later the door by the gates burst open and the green Letterman-adorned sneaky man was being forced out by the cops. Since the growing, costumed horde couldn't move anywhere, we all watched as they handcuffed the guy and arrested him. A little bit after that, they opened the barricade and let us in. We have no idea why they even blocked off the doors. But after that, it was pretty much smooth sailing.

Walking back to the apartment was painful. Our feet hurt so bad.
We chatted with Shelly and Katy for a bit and then ate fried chicken at, like, 3:00 am. It was delicious.

After waking up at noon and packing our stuff, we swung by Kyle's apartment to pick up our driver's licenses. You see, at the Howl you have to have an I.D. to get in, and since Kyle was the only one with pockets, he held on to them. Anyway, I made a particularly terrible right turn. It lead to a really awful left turn. Because of that, I decided against parking in front of his apartment and went for the lot in the back. I made a terribly tight right turn and hit the brick corner of a garden or something. The first thing I said is "I hope that didn't pop my tire, ha ha."

Well,
I popped my tire.

It wasn't a small pop either. It was an 8 inch long gash right through the rubber.

I didn't even know that I had an entire spare tire in my trunk. I was incredibly grateful it wasn't a donut. Because I didn't have enough money to buy a tire. I also discovered I had a jack in my car. Who knew! Good thing Kyle knows how to change a tire, because I can't remember hardly anything I learned in Driver's Ed.

The lug nuts were just the start.

After a battle with trying to get the stupid lug nuts off (it required much effort), Natalie drove us to the gas station to fill up the spare tire enough to not ruin it. When we came back, Kyle had jacked up the car and was ready to get the new one on. Except there was a problem: the tire wouldn't come off.

We poked, prodded, pulled, hit, kicked, and cursed at the tire, but I was convinced it was welded to the axle. IT WOULD NOT BUDGE. So we got a hammer and started hitting and kicking some more. We called parents. We put a rock under the tire, lowered the car and tried to bounce the tire on itself. It didn't work. So we put the rock in the tire. That didn't work. So we put a rock in the tire and a brick under the tire. It didn't work either.

We went to Walmart and bought PB Power Blaster. I soaked the son-of-a-gun with the extremely potent lubricant. IT STILL WOULD NOT BUDGE. We were perplexed: the tire was supposed to just slide right off. I read the Owner's Manual, thinking that there would be a section titled "What to Do if Your Tire Will Not Come Off." Turns out that it's not even supposed to be a problem at all. Petey resorted to actually touching the tire while yelling, "WHY WON'T YOU JUST COME OFF?!" It did not work.

I called my dad and told him to start heading up to Logan. He packed up a sledgehammer.

Petey and I both went inside to wash the grease and dirt off ourselves. [UPDATE: Kyle and Natalie went inside his apartment to eat 'lope steaks because it was taking so long.] When Petey and I went back out to the car, Kyle's roommate, BJ, was sitting on the ground with a good-sized mallet hitting the axle and pulling the wheel. He hit around systematically when I saw it: it budged.

We watched in amazement as he freed the tire from the grasp of the axle. He achieved in less than two minutes what we tried to do in two hours. After that, it only took five minutes to put on the new tire, screw on the lug nuts, and even pump up my tire. I mean, this kid had a built-in air compressor in his car! We packed up the car. I forced BJ to hug me out of extreme gratitude and I quickly called my dad and told him that he could turn around and go home.

We stopped and scarfed down some burgers due to our unexpected hunger before heading home.
Psssh. And to think we planned on getting home early.

Thank heavens for boys.

OKAY.

OKAY.

I haven't been blogging not because I don't have anything going on, but because I have too much going on.
Surprise, right? October's been great. After a boring and uneventful September, I ventured into the land of super-fun October! I do love the Halloween season. Haunted houses, pumpkin carving, dressing up, corn mazes, Halloween movies, fog juice, zombies, special FX makeup, and all that jazz. Great stuff. Not to mention my all-time favorite Community episode is Epidemiology, aka the Zombie Halloween episode (Episode 2.06)

So with all the Halloween stuff going on and trying to get stuff together for a mission, it's been busy. And fun. Except that it's impossible to find clothes/shoes that I will actually wear. I decided I'm just too stubborn to wear anything I don't like.
Problems:

• I like dresses more than skirts. 
• Shoes. If you've ever gone shoe shopping as a sister missionary, you know what I mean. (Although there is a pair of Oxfords I'm willing to buy, unfortunately Utah County doesn't have a Nordstrom anymore and I don't trust buying shoes online. I'll have to go to Salt Lake eventually.)
• I'm seriously the most boringly-dressed person ever. Almost all my clothes are gray and blue. Just ask Petey.

Also, I bought an awesome suitcase yesterday. I never thought anyone could be so excited over a suitcase.

Besides all the Halloween stuff, it's been pretty awesome as far as spiritual stuff goes. 

First off, there was General Conference, which was fabulous. Saturday morning session opened with my favorite hymn, How Firm a Foundation, and I burst into tears. And then Russell M. Nelson had that fabulous talk "Ask the Missionaries! They Can Help You!" followed by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's "Of Regrets and Resolutions." Can I just say that with each new talk President Uchtdorf gives I find myself a new favorite talk. He has a wonderful gift of relating his life to everyone, religious or not.

Alongside the great talks, a huge announcement was made that the missionary age for the men was dropped from 19 to 18 and from 21 to 19 for the sisters. I've had so many people ask me how I feel about the age drop in the sisters, in which I always respond, "Now I'm going to be an old grandma in the mission field." Nah, but seriously, I'm super excited. I know that being in school for three years was the biggest turn off for me. I was 19 when the idea of a mission became less appealing. It took a lot of pushing and prodding from the Lord to change my mind when I was ready to turn 21. So honestly, let's get more sisters out there! Heavens know we're better than the men, anyway (I joke... kinda).

Look at this man! How can you not like him?

Secondly, I was able to go through the Salt Lake temple earlier this month. It was beautiful and wonderful.

Thricely, I was able to attend my sister's sealing to her husband and their daughter, Avalynn for time and all eternity. I have never witnessed a more happy and pure moment, and all I could feel was pure joy from everyone in the room. I definitely cried.

As well as the big spiritual events, I've just been able to see better the ways in which the Lord works miracles in my life. Big or small, they happen, and I'm incredibly grateful.

Until next time,
Sarah