Friday, November 15, 2013

I hope we're still friends after I taser you

Do not take life too seriously.  You will never get out of it alive. - Elbert Hubbard

Today I was brave and hung out with my trainer (a missionary that has been out for at least 6 weeks, sometimes shorter, that shows a new missionary how to transitions into missionary life and work).

It doesn't seem too scary but I look up to this woman so much.  She was a rockstar in my mission.  Everyone knew who she was, trained most of her mission, and opened up 3 new areas in a row.
Intimidating?  Yes.  Not to mention I was nervous because I wanted to show her that the awkward/timid missionary she trained wasn't really me.  I don' know how well that went because I'm still in what people call "the awkward phase" of trying to socialize again (What do people talk about when not talking to anyone and everyone about the gospel of Jesus Christ? Or what you studied that morning during personal study? Or what you're going to teach a family that night?).  Not that I was ever really good at small talk anyway.
But we had fun.  We went to the temple, which was a huge blessing, as always.  It was full of little blessings.
After that and dinner we went and had some fun with some other missionaries from the mission.  I had never really talked to them, they were serving in Boston when I was in Connecticut, but we had fun.  Carpenter had had a really hard couple of days so she and Hansen had gone to DI and picked out a lot of glass objects, and a bat.
The 4 of us hoped in a car, drove to a local pavilion, put down sheets to catch the glass, and started to swing.  There is something really therapeutic about hitting something with a baseball bat and hearing it shatter.  And don't worry we cleaned up all the bits and pieces.
We then headed over to Lawter's (another mission buddy who I never really talked to) and enjoyed his dance party.  Mostly.  I felt super awkward trying to dance, so our group mostly hung to the wall.  Except for Caldwell, she kept trying to get us to dance.  I would try but just felt so strange and like I would be so judged.  Oh well.  Still had fun.

Ease your storm.


To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. - Winston Churchill

I meant to start this blog as soon as I got back from my mission in New England, but, as always, things got away from me.
There are several ideas behind this blog.  1) To just start over.  I have had my old blog since I was 16 I believe, but coming back from my mission I felt like I needed a clean place to write.  2) The title of the blog "Today I was brave" comes with the idea that everyday we all do brave things.  However, in the simplicity of some of these actions we forget that these everyday actions take bravery, so it's a way to remind myself, and maybe you, of the courage we all have.  Not to mention to keep/brush up on my writing skills.

So lets play catch up shall we?

Brave actions of October:
October 10th:   I said goodbye to most of my mission family.
October 11th:  I got on the plane that would take me from all that I knew for 18 months and back to where I grew up.  I also took of the name tag that defined me for those 18 months.
October 13th:  I gave a sermon to my local congregation about my time in New England.  No notes, nothing truly thought out.  Just a few experience I wanted to share and scriptures.  A huge change from when I left and everything was written out.
October 16th:  I wore pants and a casual t-shirt for the first time since being back.
October 17th:  Started truly looking for a seasonal job
I even found one, started working, and then quit because of conflict of interests.  I start another one next week.

Those are the most specific acts I can think of.  More to come as life goes on!