Voice recording May 15 part 2

♪♫ Making pancakes, making, making pancakes ♪♫  That came into my mind as I wrote the little memo or title of the top of my last voice recording. (subject line in the email) .  I taught a less active Steve, I love him so much! In Helena.  One of his ring tones, he had lots of different ring tones for people that were all nerdy, was, uh…  Wow! How can I not remember that? Well, it has been two years.  Ummm, the space cowboys…. Ummm, only had one season…. Firefly! I think of Castle, the term ‘Space Cowboys’ but it’s… yeah Firefly.  It was that ring tone, so that was really cool.  He was in a tough situation trying to get his life back in order, get back to church, still looking for a job.  He finally found one, and prayers were all answered.

Oh yeah, this thing is so empty, I don’t know if you can hear that. (Shaking can of Pam) Let’s hope that something actually comes out. Well, sorta. Enough that I can cook pancakes with.  I’ll take it.  This is a really touchy gas stove.  If I try to go to low, the flame just extinguishes itself, but the gas is still coming out.  You’re a little moody today, but it’s normally alright.

Let me think, Oh yeah!  I went on exchanges to Hamilton yesterday, that was awesome.  Ate at a place called Naps.  I’m not sure where they got that name, but for me, after you eat at Naps, you want to go take a nap.  The burgers are the size of your face.  It’s pretty much like a Slater’s burger.  Except minus all the glorious bacon.  But they have this thing called the Naps Deal, which is this giant patty, I think it’s a 12 oz, yeah, it’s a 12 ounce patty, with bacon and cheese, and then you dress it yourself with sauces and condiments and everything.  Super, super good meat.  Really good.  I asked for mine medium and they definitely did that well. It wasn’t… It was cooked amazingly. It was, dare I say, a perfect medium.  Laundry’s done.  But they are known for their Nap’s Deal, the Bitterroot Challenge.  Which it costs $35, but if you do it, it’s free.  It’s one of those Man vs. Food challenges, basically.  So you have a burger, with three 12-ounce patties.  Three of these giant patties on it.  One is already as big as your face.  With that you have a giant milkshake, I’m trying to remember how big it is, looking at it, I’m thinking it was like an Iceberg mini.  So that would be 32 ounce?  And then a pound of fries.  And you have 25 minutes to eat all of this.  And I remember someone on my mission was telling me this, and I’m sitting here thinking “Holy cow! That’s disgusting!” And he looks at me, and he goes, “Yeah, it’s breaking the word of wisdom.”  Which it is.  There is a missionary here who tried it twice, couldn’t do it, but if I remember right, I can’t remember if it was the first or the second time, both times he went home and threw up according to one of the missionaries that’s still there.  But either the first or the second time he was quoted with saying "The spirit is not with me. I broke the word of wisdom. This is how it feels, I’m never doing that again.”  I think it was the second time because he said he was never going to do that again.  But yeah, we have the word of wisdom for a reason.  It’s not healthy to try to do stuff like that.

Griddle should be just about heated up.  Really excited for this week.  We have a lesson with a new investigator this week, a progressing investigator, hopefully a part member family.  (bang!)  That’s closed.  Good. Oh, it is nice having a washer and dryer. I was a little surprised that we had an apartment with a, well, we’ve always had an apartment with a washer and a dryer.  I’ve just been really, really fortunate because there are definitely missionary apartments that do not have washers and dryers,  I’ve been on exchanges and it kind of sucks. 

MMMM. It smells ready.  How long has it been?  Six minutes!  Oh yeah, it’s pancake time! (Whistling Star Wars)  This is gonna be some good pancakes, I think.  Plate, spatula ready.  Clean up as I go…(more whistling) key change! Oh wait did I sing that in a different key?  Gosh darnit I’m gonna need, I guess that could be another key change, but no.

Um, Oh! Madison! Mom if you could pass this along, or I don’t know if she gets these, cause I think I sent it to her email too.  If you could take a picture for me, of the… There’s those two signs in Flo’s room, of the, you know, to find “Do”, Or Do is always the last sharp, or the last flat or something like that.  If you could take a picture of those, because I’ve forgotten that, and that’s really bugged me, when I try to sing hymns, or I’m sight reading something and I’m like “I don’t freaking know solfedge (sp?) for this.  I can’t remember.”  I remember Do is always what key you’re in, but I can’t remember how to figure out what key I’m in.  It’s just bad music theory all around.  I suppose if I really sat and thought about it, I could at least remember how to find key.  So, uh… Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battles.  Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles’ Father.  That’s the order of sharps and flats.  Crap!  But I don’t remember how that helps me!  Long story short, this is why you practice and know theory so that when you go on a mission, you don’t forget everything.

Pancakes turned a little well… I think it’s a little thick. I don’t know if it’s cooking in the middle. A little worried about that.  I might add just a little more water to the mix yeah, it definitely looks a little thick.  Oh! Way too much water! Crap, crap, crap, crap crap….  Well now they’re going to be really really thin, which means I need to add a little more mix, which means my companion might, if he wants, be getting some pancakes. (sounds of stirring) That definitely comes out a lot easier. Mmmmm.  Smells good.  Not as good as Alton Brown, but… good.  Nothing beats Alton Brown.  Alton Brown is great.   Brother Cheatham comes close, but he also gets most of his tips from Alton Brown I found out.

Oh!  There’s a family I worked with in Greybull, the Tolmans. Love them to death, so much. They’re the family that we had all our lessons with a recently baptized member, Marcy.  Anyways, they’ve been unable to have kids and they’ve been married for awhile, and they want, want kids and the Lord has finally put them in a position where they’ve just adopted their first little baby girl.  She was just born, she’s officially theirs.  They sent me some pictures, and ohhhhh.  They look so happy.  Of course my favorite to top it all off is a picture of Brother Tolman, asleep in a recliner, rocking this baby, and just the look on his face, is just like pure exhaustion.  And I’m like “Yep.  From what I know, that’s what comes with babies.”  But, also from what I’ve heard, it’s worth it.  I mean, I’m here from that, so… yeah.

Life is good.  It’s hard.  But it’s good. I feel so bad for all the crap I’ve put you through.  I’m sitting here, just like, “Everyone freaking has their own agency.  Is this how my mother felt when she taught me and struggled with me?”  And I’m just like, “Awesome.” And I know this is only a fraction in comparison and parenting is gonna be fun.   Thankfully my patriarchal blessing tells me I am going to find lots of joy.  “I’ll find joy as I raise my kids in righteousness”, is what it says.  Which is also a bit of another concern, because it says “YOU will have joy as YOU raise these children in righteousness.” And I’m like, “What about my wife??”   So, there’s that.  I really hope it’s one of those cases where it’s just, you know, “Oh this is just a particular blessing about you.” So, I hope I’m not a single dad.

The mountains are just beautiful.  I love living next to the mountains. I think I’d love to visit here a lot during the summer, but I just don’t really want to deal with snow anymore. I’ve had enough of it to know that it’s not something I want to live in.  Like, I could do it, totally, and I’d probably learn to just deal with it, but winters in Arizona are just so much better.  I do like the ideas of summers where you can just like kick us out. “Hey!  It’s nice outside!  Go play!” Kind of like in Utah.  But yeah, that’s about that.

How long has this been going on?  I’m on my third pancake.  First one was too thick, second one was super, super small, and the third one is coming up now…. Nice. I think I turned it down a little too much.  I turned it down a bit ago. It was cooking a little too fast, but I think I turned it down too much.

I’ve been really tired lately.  There’s that. Granted, like I get a full 8 hours of sleep and I’m exhausted.  I can only imagine what college or parenthood is like. (yawns)  oh, man.  A member gave me more of that horse ligament gel.  That stuff is really awesome.  It’s like extreme icy hot, and she bought some for me and her mom who has arthritis and bad knees and everything.  Apparently her mother is like “Oh this stuff is amazing! Thank you so much!”  She’s like 80 or 90 and so at least its helping! Like it just gives me relief.  I don’t know if it necessarily helps, but it just gives relief.  It’s good.  Supposedly it helps circulate more blood flow and allows for the regrowth of muscles and ligaments and everything, you give it to a horse with a sprained leg or something.  I don’t know.  I just know it feels amazing.  I also know not to get it in your eyes or anywhere that’s sensitive because it hurts.

Umm, yeah, that’s about it. I’m gonna finish this recording here, Love you a ton, it was really great to see you yesterday.   I’m excited for the rest of the week and all that’s going to happen.  I can’t wait to hear your email later today.  I’m sure as you can’t wait to read mine.  I’m a, wow, really tired. (yawning) Have a wonderful day, I love you a ton mom.  May the Lord bless you and keep you.  Bye!   

Pictures -

Lunch of Champions

Freaking Awesome Sunsets

Gospel Truth

Planning for District Meeting