Well, I don't know what to talk about first: the game, or a crazy awesome missionary experience I had at Amazon with a coworker! I guess, as exciting as yesterday's game was, we still lost...so here goes. So, yesterday, I had a fun missionary opportunity. Besides the fact that I worked a dreary 11 or so hours, good came out of it. And really, it isn't that bad, working at Amazon. I good thing is that a couple days before I found out that BYU was going to play Boise at 7:15pm on Saturday, so I wouldn't miss the game, which is something I have been dreading, having to work back to back shifts at Amazon. But, I was blessed to be able to watch this game (even though we lost). Wait, now I'm talking about the game, haha. Back on topic. So, 11 hours. I had a split shift, one in the Fresh workgroup, and the second in the PEL (Project Eagle Landing) workgroup. I have been trained in both. And they are just names. There are other workgroups with other strange names, like Hotwheels, Whole Foods, Houdini, Fresh Risk, and Daily Dish. So, my second half of the day was in PEL, which normally, before the time I work in it, I dread, because it consists of calling drivers and customers.
But once I get into a groove, it isn't that bad. But what was nice, was I was asked to cross train another woman in PEL. Well, her name was Heather. We got straight to business, which normally isn't too busy, but when she got there I was bombarded with the task of doing three things at once, and we got deep into the resolving the conflicts we are in charge of. Normally, PEL is super chill. You have a lot of downtime. And after those three conflicts that appeared all at once, it was really great, because we had a lot of time. We paid attention to our screens and just talked. I think what tipped her off that I was "religious" is that in explaining to her the fact that I work at Mesa and only work 15 or so hours a week, but that I didn't believe in working on Sunday.
Well, Heather asked me, are you Catholic. No, I said, I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Well, the rest of the shift we just talked and talked (while doing calls every now and again). You would be proud of me. She was under the conception that we didn't believe in Jesus Christ and baptism. Well, being missionary minded, I transitioned, by sharing scriptures from the Book of Mormon, specifically, 2 Nephi 31 and Alma 7:11-12. So, this is how the conversation progressed. I felt impressed to tell her about serving a mission, as I had an opportunity to speak to a driver in Spanish. I told her about my siblings, all three, and how I was the oldest. I told her about my parents and about having a dad who converted to the church after being Catholic. I really wanted to share the Book of Mormon with her some more, so I shared about how dad, being Catholic, had been contacted by missionaries in the street, and about how they gave him a book, which he took home and treasured and didn't want to give back (not knowing it was a free book). She really liked that part of the story. Then she took a break. When she came back, I had already pulled up Mormon.org. I didn't want to push the book on her. I was like, you too can have a free book. You don't have to sign up today in front of me, but consider it.
Then, I felt impressed to share our love of the family with her, as she had mentioned how much she loved her daughter who had just graduated with her undergrad. I told her how we believed that the families are interconnected, and I shared familysearch.org and ancestry.com with her. I told her I noticed how much she liked hearing about family history. The thought came to share The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I pulled it up on the computer and guess what? She read it all, right in front of me, commenting throughout, like, Oh, you guys don't endorse homosexuality. She said it was great, and then I pointed out to her that this was written 20 years ago and she was amazed.
While she was making phone calls, I wrote down everything we talked about on her notebook paper. I pointed out that on Mormon.org, they are getting ready for the #LightTheWorld initiative again (which is probably something your getting ready for), and how I have participated in the initiative for the last two years and am looking forward to doing so again very soon (less than a month). I wrote: "mormon.org---->free Book of Mormon" on the paper, along with other things and my name. Heather lives in Scottsdale, which is a nice community north of where we live, so hopefully, she visits the sites and gets a Book of Mormon. I was so excited. Hopefully something good comes out of it. She is a good friend now and hope to see her on the floor at Amazon.
Okay, game. We were trailing the whole game. There was a point in the game where it was 14-3 and I was like, nope we're done. Then, there was another point where I was like, man, we could actually beat the Broncos. Throughout though, Zach Wilson played a really good game, only making a few errors here or there, or none at all. The commentators were very praiseworthy about how good he is for a freshman quarterback. In fact, Blaine and the others in post game compared him to a budding Tom Brady. He had some really good plays that I only wished Tanner could do, connecting with Matt Bushman orMatt Hadley who also had a very good game. But in the end, it came down to the last 10-7 seconds of the game. We were in the Red Zone with a couple left, we needed to get a first down, which we got, quickly spiked the ball at 10 secs. Spiking took 3 seconds and stopped the clock. The commentators, and ultimately the BYUsportsnation people said we had time for two plays and we were on the 3 yard line. Well, sadly, Zach didn't have where to pass it to and so attempted to run the ball which ate up all the time. Well, there we go. Sadly, we lost by five, when we could've won by two. But, it just seems to be an unfortunate end to the end of the season. Who knows if we'll make a bowl. The second half was fun to watch, though. And there was this amazing catch/fumble by Matt Bushman.
How was your Halloween? Sorry to hear about all the not so fun stuff of last week. I hope this week was fun and less not so fun. As you probably know, Halloween is probably one of my least favorite holidays. But, I noticed that what will make Halloween fun for a married man like me will be having children, as they, to me, are the joy of the holiday, getting to dress your kids in selections of their choice. Briana probably sent you the picture of their choice in Halloween attire for this year, and I'll have to tell you, it was pretty amazing: President and two secret service officers, baby president that is.
It was pretty cool, on Tuesday, the day before Halloween, the school put on a dance just for the special ed kids from 3 or 4 different schools. Sarah was in charge of manning a booth where the kids pinned a pumpkin nose on a pumpkin. It was really cute. She and I danced together, after we took Buddy to get changed. It's been a dream come true. Not the whole changing Buddy, but getting to work side by side with my wife, and being able to have lunch with her every day. In fact, Sarah is applying to Amazon. She's going to a hiring event tomorrow and should start sometime next week. Not bad, huh? Doubled my dreams come true.
Sarah and I have started working out more often, taking advantage of the gym here at these apartments. Actually, Sarah got the same app that I have on my phone, Samsung Health. And we have been having pedometer competitions, first, trying to get over 10,000 steps and second, trying to beat one another in steps. You'd be surprised about how many steps we get working at the High School. And today, Sarah walked to church and back, which altogether was about 8,000 steps. We live that close to the church, crazy.
I was set apart as the Branch Clerk today by President Robinson (1st Counselor in the Stake Presidency). I invited the Aunts, Uncles, and Gracie to the thing. Uncle Steve and Janell are out of town in Switzerland and Serbia for work and to visit family. We also missed Gracie, who had gotten hurt and was recovering with Aunt Kerry. But I did have Uncle Jesse, who, with the President both set me apart. It was very special. Aunt Ann also came to see me set apart. It was just a joy to be with them at this special event. This was the first time Sarah has met Uncle Jesse, and she loved him, of course. He's a pretty special guy.
I've also found out that my duties as Branch Clerk, also extend to having a lot of the responsibilities of the Executive Secretary, as the Branch President doesn't have one. So, today, I was trying to figure out the Branch President's schedule so that I could do my best to schedule appointments for him. Carlos Santos taught us both how to count tithing today. It isn't that difficult. I also had my first meetings with the presidency this last Tuesday. And the previous branch clerk is going to go over things with me this Tuesday, before presidency meeting. He is now the EQP, so he was relieved to be relieved today.
So, things are rolling. It's pretty cool. Sarah got to see me in action at school the other day. We were just about to change Jesus's diaper, when unexpectedly, the fire drill went off. Well, she took Jesus and I followed Gavin and the rest of the class out to the basketball courts to await the end of the drill. We had just been standing for a few seconds when Gavin decides to make a mad dash for the fence he is so familiar going to. Sarah was just like, oh, there he goes, haha. I walked him around the field and by the time we were done walking, everyone was already back inside their classrooms. And Sarah was waiting for me to help her change Jesus.
Jesus is a pretty funny guy. He says Hey a lot, and has a fixation on the colors blue and purple. His fixations extend to my watch as well, because it has a lot of blue on it. He is in a wheelchair, as he has no use of his limbs as much, but he does love turning water and lights off and on, just to have a good laugh. Sarah has helped him, and another aide who Sarah works with, Shellie, tells him that he needs to pay me $20 if he really wants my watch. Sarah's nice to him and lets him carry the watch while we change him. Sarah actually replaced Ms. Shellie for three days while she was at a family reunion in Washington or Oregon. So, I got to see Sarah more.
One of our aides put in her two weeks notice and is leaving us this Wednesday. She's not leaving for negative things, she just passed a very hard nursing test and was offered a job. We're having pot lucks and cake this week for her as a surprise. It's not going to be easy without her.
Sarah and I got together with two other couples in the branch this last Friday for game night and snacks. It was Carlos and Elizabeth Santos and Monica and Michael Neuman. Sarah made an awesome bean dip, which we didn't really get to as we were having too much fun. We played, Say the Last Word, Clue, and Sequence. Things got a bit heated at times, but it was funny. Sarah also got into a discussion about Star Wars and the male and female agenda that is pushed in those movies with Michael. I almost won Clue. I was just a couple moves away from doing so. We had a good time. Good spirited fun.
Well, it's been a great week. I hope yours has been as well. I love you so much. You know the drill. I won't say it.
Sarah made some really good turkey today for us to Break our Fast with. She also hemmed my pants today. Also, we went a temple walkabout this week to Gilbert, which is open again.
Love ya,
John
