This week was of course Thanksgiving week, but I had the misfortune of not being able to go home. I think I did pretty well, though. My awesome Elder's Quorum president, Brandon Quinn, invited me to his house in Bountiful, UT, for the week. We had a great time together and it was neat to see beautiful Bountiful. It seems like a great place to live!
The beginning of the week was a little tough, though. I wanted to leave school so badly! It was just like having a short week in high school: there's not a whole lot going on and you just want to go home. I managed through my classes, though, and had some fun on my time off. Monday night, the night before we left, I stayed up until four with some of my friends. I didn't have any classes until two on Tuesday, so I figured I'd be okay. It was a fun night!
Tuesday, I left for Bountiful with Brandon. It was only about an hour away from Provo, so the drive was fine. After we unloaded our stuff at his home, we went to visit some of his friends and have some fun. Apparently, having fun in Bountiful is exploding water bottles with dry ice. We did that for a while with some of his friends, then headed back home.
On Wednesday, I helped set up Christmas lights at Brandon's grandparent's house. We did pretty well hanging lights on two big pine trees in their back yard. Afterward, we just hung out at his house and I got to watch the Pink Panther with Steve Martin for the first time.
Thursday was, of course, the big day! I missed getting to see my family and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with them. We still had some fun at the Quinn's, though. Brandon and I finished hanging the Christmas lights and helped with a few other things at his grandparent's house, then went back to his house to get ready for dinner. They were hosting it this year, so there were a lot of preparations. We had all of the usual Thanksgiving fixin's, and it was like being in heaven! I didn't realize how much I missed real food until that night! Then, I got to be part of one of their family traditions. All of the kids went to their other grandparent's house to stay the night. We watched movies and socialized all night. Some of Brandon's cousins were painting toenails and were so thoughtful to include us. We had them painted BYU blue! It was a really late night, so getting up of Friday was a bit of a chore.
Friday evening was fun, though! As part of a BYU tradition, we had a Fri-date. Some of the other guys from school that live close by and we got dates and went laser-tagging. For a blind-date, it was pretty good! I went with a girl named Melissa that went to school with Brandon. For each game, we came up with fun code names. We were Maverick and Goose, Sugar and Spice, and Flynn Rider and Rapunzel. It was fun, but another late night.
The Quinns started setting up all of their Christmas decorations on Saturday, so we took all of their Fall things down to be replaced with Christmas things. I got to help decorate their tree and set up their train set. It was fun! After all the work was done, Brandon took me to Keva Juice of the first time. They make smoothie/milkshake drinks that are way good! I had a Tribal Princess with apple, mango, and orange flavor. It was really fresh and very yummy.
I had a really neat opportunity today at church. I walked in with the Quinns, then Brandon left to find someone. When he came back, Elder Neil Anderson was right behind him. He's a member of their ward and often gets to go be there. So, Brandon knows him pretty well and brought him over to shake my hand! I got to shake Elder Anderson's hand! I see this guy in General Conference! It was really cool!
I think this is my longest blog yet, so that is it. I have run out of things to say. Except that I really missed my family this week. I guess I didn't appreciate getting to go to all the dinners until I couldn't. So, during this Thanksgiving season, I am very thankful for my family!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Turkey Bowl!
The only thing out of the ordinary this week was our ward's Turkey Bowl. The two elder's quorums played full-contact football against eachother for a couple hours Saturday afternoon, Rogers Hall against Shipp Hall. It had snowed the night before, so we had to pick a spot that had already been cleared out for some intermural games. The ground was really muddy.
I got there and we only had eleven people, while Shipp had almost twenty guys. Things weren't looking too good for us. We had some really athletic people on our team, but all of their guys were big and strong. I started out on our offensive line and I didn't do too horribly. At least not worse than I expected. What was funny was that we had a guy that was 5'4" on the line with me. Our center had never played football, along with most of the team. My roommate, Brian, was our quaterback. He did really well and got us a few touchdowns before he had to leave. We did really well defensively, too. They didn't score once the entire first half, but they found their secret weapon at the end of the half. They had one guy that was big and relatively fast. He steamrolled over peple, but could never make it to a touchdown.
In the second half, we didn't do so well. We didn't make many more touchdowns and they got a couple on us. But, we did have some really nice defensive plays. I began playing as a defensive lineman and did well. I could slip through their line pretty well. I got in on a sack, held up their running back at the line of scrimage, and even helped stop their steamroller a couple times. Eventually, their linemen began double-teaming me, and they were not small either. I couldn't get through in the last quarter, so I didn't do that much. Our guys kept getting hurt because we were so much smaller than them, so I eventually stayed in for defense and offense.
Offensively, the best thing I did was probably my kick return. They made it look like they were doing an onside kick, so the rest of my team was close to the kicker and I was the only man in the back. Suprisingly, he kicked it straight to me. I was so suprised when I caught it, that I forgot to run for a second. But, I eventually took off. We just did two-hand touch on kicks, so I didn't get that far. If not, I think I could have done pretty well. I just wish that I could have run with the ball more. I don't think I could have caught it, but if it was handed off, I think I could have made my way through and picked up some good yards.
I think that it was really good overall. I got to learn a little more about me and the guys I live with. I got to really learn their names and share a fun experience with them. Also, I learned that I love playing football! Even though I'm a little beat up, I would gladly play again soon.
I got there and we only had eleven people, while Shipp had almost twenty guys. Things weren't looking too good for us. We had some really athletic people on our team, but all of their guys were big and strong. I started out on our offensive line and I didn't do too horribly. At least not worse than I expected. What was funny was that we had a guy that was 5'4" on the line with me. Our center had never played football, along with most of the team. My roommate, Brian, was our quaterback. He did really well and got us a few touchdowns before he had to leave. We did really well defensively, too. They didn't score once the entire first half, but they found their secret weapon at the end of the half. They had one guy that was big and relatively fast. He steamrolled over peple, but could never make it to a touchdown.
In the second half, we didn't do so well. We didn't make many more touchdowns and they got a couple on us. But, we did have some really nice defensive plays. I began playing as a defensive lineman and did well. I could slip through their line pretty well. I got in on a sack, held up their running back at the line of scrimage, and even helped stop their steamroller a couple times. Eventually, their linemen began double-teaming me, and they were not small either. I couldn't get through in the last quarter, so I didn't do that much. Our guys kept getting hurt because we were so much smaller than them, so I eventually stayed in for defense and offense.
Offensively, the best thing I did was probably my kick return. They made it look like they were doing an onside kick, so the rest of my team was close to the kicker and I was the only man in the back. Suprisingly, he kicked it straight to me. I was so suprised when I caught it, that I forgot to run for a second. But, I eventually took off. We just did two-hand touch on kicks, so I didn't get that far. If not, I think I could have done pretty well. I just wish that I could have run with the ball more. I don't think I could have caught it, but if it was handed off, I think I could have made my way through and picked up some good yards.
I think that it was really good overall. I got to learn a little more about me and the guys I live with. I got to really learn their names and share a fun experience with them. Also, I learned that I love playing football! Even though I'm a little beat up, I would gladly play again soon.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
The Wait is Over!
I know it's been a few weeks since I've had my last post, but my Sundays have gotten significantly busier. Last week, I had a Book of Mormon test to study for, so I figured studying the scriptures was an appropriate Sunday activity. Things just got busier than I expected, and I didn't get to put up a post. The week before that, I was doing personal scripture study, then got caught up in other fun BYU Sunday activities. And, of course, I have to throw in a quick, or sometimes not so quick, nap in there, too.
These last couple of weeks have been pretty cool. On the Book of Mormon test, I got a 98%, so I felt pretty good. I also had to turn in a paper for chemistry about experiments I performed to figure out what a bead did. That was a fun assignment! I've also been working hard on my research paper on the Rough Riders. I think I could tell you just about anything you want to know about them now. For my Writing class, I also got to learn about analyzing art. It was pretty neat to learn how to talk about art more than "That's pretty," or "I like that one."
I got to take a nice break from academia this weekend, though. A group of guys in my hall invited me to go on a mall scavenger hunt for a date. It sounded pretty cool and I didn't have any other plans, so I went. I just needed to find my own date. I took a girl from my ward named Lindsey. On the date, we were in a group of three couples and had lots of fun finding and doing things in the mall. One of my personal favorites was having someone in the group wear the ugliest prom dress we could find. What made it stand out was that the person that wore it was a guy. After the scavenger hunt, we went home and each couple bought a half-gallon of icecream. Lindsey and I were the first to finish, but I think I was also the first one that said they felt like throwing up. Then we played a couple games and the date was over. I had lots of fun!
We've also had some pretty awesome speakers in the last couple of weeks. President Monson, leader our church, spoke at a BYU devotional a couple Tuesdays ago. I didn't get to be in the Marriot Center with him, but I watched him speak on the BYU channel. It was really cool to hear him speak about growing your testimony by reading the Book of Mormon. I also really liked hearing him quote The Lion King! Last Sunday, President Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came. We left home early and got pretty good seats, but I was worn out and it was dark and warm in the Marriot Center, so I fell asleep. I heard it was a pretty good talk, but I haven't gotten to watch it yet on lds.org.
That sounds like all the highlights of the last couple of weeks. I hope you all enjoyed! I would be happy to hear from anyone. I feel a little out of the loop!
These last couple of weeks have been pretty cool. On the Book of Mormon test, I got a 98%, so I felt pretty good. I also had to turn in a paper for chemistry about experiments I performed to figure out what a bead did. That was a fun assignment! I've also been working hard on my research paper on the Rough Riders. I think I could tell you just about anything you want to know about them now. For my Writing class, I also got to learn about analyzing art. It was pretty neat to learn how to talk about art more than "That's pretty," or "I like that one."
I got to take a nice break from academia this weekend, though. A group of guys in my hall invited me to go on a mall scavenger hunt for a date. It sounded pretty cool and I didn't have any other plans, so I went. I just needed to find my own date. I took a girl from my ward named Lindsey. On the date, we were in a group of three couples and had lots of fun finding and doing things in the mall. One of my personal favorites was having someone in the group wear the ugliest prom dress we could find. What made it stand out was that the person that wore it was a guy. After the scavenger hunt, we went home and each couple bought a half-gallon of icecream. Lindsey and I were the first to finish, but I think I was also the first one that said they felt like throwing up. Then we played a couple games and the date was over. I had lots of fun!
We've also had some pretty awesome speakers in the last couple of weeks. President Monson, leader our church, spoke at a BYU devotional a couple Tuesdays ago. I didn't get to be in the Marriot Center with him, but I watched him speak on the BYU channel. It was really cool to hear him speak about growing your testimony by reading the Book of Mormon. I also really liked hearing him quote The Lion King! Last Sunday, President Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came. We left home early and got pretty good seats, but I was worn out and it was dark and warm in the Marriot Center, so I fell asleep. I heard it was a pretty good talk, but I haven't gotten to watch it yet on lds.org.
That sounds like all the highlights of the last couple of weeks. I hope you all enjoyed! I would be happy to hear from anyone. I feel a little out of the loop!
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