Ode to a Friend

So on Saturday I woke up super crazy early because I work on Saturdays at 5 am. Well, I get up, get all ready, eat the best breakfast one can have at 5 in the morning, and then drove to work. I got to work, and saw a new schedule posted on the board, so I was curious to see who was on my shift, because nobody had contacted me about switching shifts. I take a look, and find out that I'm actually not on the shift! Say-whaaaaat??? Are you telling me I got up crazy early, got ready, ate breakfast, and drove in a freezing car all the way to work (not that far actually) just to find out that I could be sleeping at that moment??? Yeah, I was discouraged, because I didn't even have the consolation of making money. So I dejectedly drove home, and then tried to get back into my bed. It was hard going back to sleep after having accomplished so much so early, but I managed!!! :) Then once I got back to sleep my alarm rang to wake me up, and I felt once again like I was getting up at 5 am. (even though it was more around 7:30) At least now I know my schedule, and it's really nice, because now since I don't work Saturday mornings, that means I get to do whatever I want on Friday nights and not worry about my sleep!!! :)

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Photo time! By the way, I'm going to have to start thinking of something else to do, otherwise I'll run out of mission photos! I'll have to do something cool... Very cool...

Zone 300!

DOGGY PILE!!!!

So today's photos focus on a most excellent Zone Activity we had on a Preperation Day. It was an improv skit type of activity! We split up into groups and were given 3 scripture stories, and we were supposed to come up with the best, funniest skit we could think of in about 20 minutes involving all three stories, and we had to use three props randomly assigned. So for example, my group was assigned the stories "Nephi breaks his bow," "Solomon cuts a baby in half" (except he didn't really) and "The Ten Plagues of Egypt." For our props, we had a nerf gun, a television, and a backpack. So it was really funny, meshing together everything with these props to make this absolutely ridiculously funny skit. We ended up filming them all and I edited them together onto DVD's that we gave out to the Zone. If anyone has a burning desire to watch them, just ask me, although most people may not find them as funny as I do, because I actually know the people and their personalities. It was a very fun activity though! After we took a picture with our awesome Zone t-shirts, the Elders decided to Doggy Pile Elder Rhodes, which was a common occurrance with poor Elder Rhodes. It was very fun! Except that I was on the bottom... Underneath some heavy Elders. Yeah, I thought I just might get crushed. Lovely activity! :)

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Today I spent from 12:45 till 6:30 at church. Yeah. It was a long day. I had to renew my Temple Recommend, which I was able to do with the Bishop's Counselor, then he set me apart as a counselor in the Sunday School Presidency, then I had to talk to a teacher and the Sunday School President, then finally was ready to get my Stake President interview for my Temple Recommend, and ended up waiting for an hour to get it. The happy news is, I'm still a current Temple Recommend Holder! (I didn't wait for my old one to expire) That's always a really good feeling, evaluating myself and being able to answer the questions as God wants them to be. It makes me very happy! :)

So I've decided I'm going to go be with one of my best friends... An absolutely incredible friend. So faithful. So friendly. Always there for you when you're feeling good, bad, sad, happy, whatever. Completely trustworthy. Perfect listener if you want to just talk and let off stress. Never recognized for the incredible help given. Never thanked, never praised, never applauded, rarely even mentioned. And yet, this friend is there. Always. Always waiting for you, never turning you away. My amazing friend... My Beloved Bed! My incredibly warm, comfy, cozy, friendly bed!!! :) Yeah. All that was to say I'm going to bed now. ;) Perhaps it was a little much. Although it was all true! I love my bed!

Sunday is over, and tomorrow is a new day, new week! Super awesome! Except for the fact that it's a Monday. I used to like Mondays you know... That was on my mission... Because my Preperation Day was on Monday. ;)  Tchau tchau!!!

Testing Week... Lovely...

Yes, it's that time of the semester... Have you seen the Heber J. Grant Building? Next to the Joseph Smith Building? It's the building where you see all the depressed students going. That, my friends, is the Beloved and Dreaded Testing Center. For the most part it's dreaded by most students. (except those who take sick pleasure in university exams) It can be beloved however! I myself have loved it on two occasions. Occasions where I absolutely slam dunk aced my exam I was taking!!! (that's not to say I do poorly. By slam dunk aced, that means 100% or more, whereas I usually do between the "well done" range and "ok" range... depends on the exam)

The fact is, it's exam time. I have two this week, both beastly ones, then one next week, plus a solo in my singing class I need to perform. (should be easy) The other classes haven't mentioned any exams yet, so I'm hoping I'll be able to escape those. That would be nice.

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Mission Picture and Story of the Day! Hurray!

MTC Zone at the Provo Temple

 This here picture is of my MTC Zone. (I'm up in the top left) This was my first Sunday in the MTC. I had just been called to be Zone Leader, and I was nervous, because I still had no idea what I was doing. So after many meetings and tons of other stuff, I was glad to be able to get away and walk around the temple and feel the Spirit there to clear my mind. It was a welcome distraction. I loved all of those "Temple Walks" as we called them.

My class in the MTC

Here's my class in the MTC. Myself and my companion, the three Sisters, one going to Temple Square, one to Germany, and one to the Philippines, and one of our teachers, Sister Barton. That was a fun class! We had a good time together! We were all fast-tracked in our languages, (Portuguese, Spanish, German, English, and Tagalog) so they stuck us all together, despite all going to different countries and languages. We loved it though, we had great teachers and had an excellent time during our learning.

I absolutely loved the MTC! Not only do you get all you can eat free food, (which I loved, despite what anyone else says about it) but you're seriously on this spiritual high all the time! It was incredible! Sure we had 10 hours of class a day, but we loved it! I wish I could go back and re-live it, at least one day! That would be sweet! But alas, it's over, and live moves on! :)

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So I think I did pretty incredibly on my Math homework. If that's any indication of how the test will be, I think I'll do pretty well on it! Also, I'm attempting to learn how to program in Assembly. All you need to know about it is that it's difficult. (at least while I'm learning it... hopefully it'll get easier with time) So as I have a lab due tomorrow, I should probably try to finish it. That might be good.

I've officially decided to be responsible for now! At least to finish this lab. Well... We'll see, maybe I'll need a brief distraction as time goes by. For now, however, I'm being responsible!

Sleepy. Very Sleepy.

Yes indeed, I am exhausted. Ok, maybe not quite that dramatic. I'm just very very tired. Let me tell you why. Every other day of the week and on weekends, I work from 5:45 in the morning until 9. Yeah, I know there are many people out there, some probably reading this blog, who work way earlier than that. I understand that. But as this is all I've known, it makes me beastly tired. :)

Actually, it's not that bad. It's a tiresome business, especially in school. However, the real issue is that on a Friday and Saturday night, I'm just not willing to go to bed early! The night is young! It's the weekend! I'm in college! Come on! I'll have plenty of chances in my life to work super early, but I've only got this time to be a university student! So therefore, I must take advantage of it, even if it means losing a couple of hours of sleep. Anyway, I can make those up in afternoon naps! ;)

So the point of this portion was to say that... I'm really tired right now. :) MOVING ON!!!

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Well, it's kind of sad, there's no more parts to the Broken Ankle Epic, but that means we're back to the MISSION PICTURE AND STORY OF THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oooooh yeah!!!

This first one here is just for fun. This was probably the coolest picture I took off of our balcony. Click on the picture to see it in all its glory. As you can see, the CN Tower is towering off to the right, and the dark yellow rays are bursting through the clouds shining down upon Downtown Toronto. Also I love the smoke-ish cloud things that are in front of the buildings. That's just cool. Yeah, this was one of my greatest mission photos of Downtown... Ok, real picture and story.

Christmas Party

This was taken on December 11th, 2010 when I was in the Portuguese Area. The person in the middle is a member named Sidy. She's super awesome! She also helps out the missionaries a TON. She was baptized a few years ago and is a really strong member. The girl to the left is a person who was learning about the church, her name is Deborah. At this time she was being fellowshipped by Sidy. So she came to our Ward Christmas Party! It was a SUPER fun party! Lots of excellent food, a great message, and the "Christie Quartet" did a couple of numbers! The Christie Quartet was a quartet made up of myself, my companion, and my two Zone Leaders. We called it the Christie Quartet, naturally, because we were in the Christie Ward. But we actually sounded really cool together! It was awesome! I love singing, especially in a quartet!

Anyway, it was a GREAT party! Deborah loved it, and it left everyone feeling the Christmas Spirit very strongly! A most excellent day!!!

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So tomorrow I'm going to a missionary farewell of a good friend of mine and then to my singles ward. It'll be a busy day, that's for sure! I'm REALLY looking forward to the fact that Monday is a HOLIDAY!!!!! NO SCHOOL!!!! :)  Yeah, there are few things that make me as happy as that.

So now I believe I'm coming down with a case of the munchies. (for those who don't know what that is, that means I'm not exactly hungry, but I want to eat something. Or more like snack. Yeah, I just want to snack. :)  One of my favorite things to do!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!! I know I will! Tchau tchau!

Past and Present Merge

Hello hello blog-readers! Today I'm going to talk about the craziness of time. Ok, not really. It just has to do with time. Basically, I was at work yesterday, and I finally got my nametags. (I work at the MTC) Well, I put it on, and I felt myself whoosh back in time to when I was on my mission and would wear my nametags. It just felt right, putting back on a nametag! :)  Weirdness. Also at the same time, I was realizing that I'm no longer a missionary (I know, brilliant observation John!) as my nametag is now white instead of black! So I was like woaah, this is weird, I'm now a teacher at the MTC! That was a very definite realization that my mission is over. Crazy weirdness!

So then on top of that, today I was busy doing my Math homework. Horrible stuff. Well anyway, I was going as fast as I could to finish and still get to school on time. So I finished, but then there was no car at home to take me! So, I was left at the mercy of my own two feet, with 15 minutes till class started. Naturally, since there was a quiz and we had to turn in our homework right at the beginning of class, I booked it down to the school. Each step I took was a more and more painful experience, and vaguely, running through my head, was the thought "Something's telling me I shouldn't be running..." Well, being the stupid-head I am, I kept going for it. So now, thanks to my brisk morning run I should not have had (Doctor's orders,) my ankle has been paining me all day and I've been walking with a limp. That's why it brought back the past. I remember now vividly what it was like back when I would walk around with a limp in my mission several weeks after having broken my ankle. Luckily it doesn't feel nearly as bad as then. But it did bring back memories! And funny how this happened right as I'm telling my story of my broken ankle! I sure don't learn, do I? Go figure...

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Speaking of which!!! IT'S TIME FOR PART IV OF THE SAGA OF THE BROKEN ANKLE!!!!!!! (I'm realizing this is a lamo name... that's ok, it's too late to change it!)

It's back!!!

Ok, I'll explain this in a second. So in a nutshell, after Pickering I was transferred to a city called Brampton to work in the Mission Office as an Office Missionary. That actually turned out to be quite a blessing for my ankle! From about 9 am until about 5 or 6 pm (depending on how much there was to do) I would sit in the office and work on a computer doing all kinds of stuff, and it would rest my ankle! So that was actually a great blessing, because it helped it to heal MUCH faster than it was when I was in the field. Plus it allowed me to be working really hard without physically walking around, so I didn't feel useless! Yeah, it was sweet! Plus I loved working in the office!!! It was such a great experience!!!

Anyway, so after several weeks in the office, and doing Physical Therapy, the Doctor told me I could switch to a cane, and after two weeks go without it! So I went back with my cane I used to use. (hence the photo... me and my cane... which I kept by the way if anyone wants to see an artifact!) ;)  I know, really stupid to keep a cane. Hey! It's got sentimental value, all right? :)

So then the REALLY happy day!!! I went to Physical Therapy and the Doctor said "All right, you can stop using the cane now, and try walking around without it, see what it's like!" Well, it had been months since I had walked without either a walking cast or cane or crutches, so this was a big deal!!! Well, after that I began walking all by myself!!! Coolest day ever! ;)

I can walk!!! Or stand!!! Without a cane!!!



So there you are! That, amazingly, is the end of the SAGA OF THE BROKEN ANKLE!!!!!!!

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Really I didn't even scratch the surface of what went on with this whole ankle business, but I managed to cover the main portions. I portrayed it in a rather humorous unfortunate situation, when really that doesn't exactly describe it. Sure, afterwards it is humorous to remember some portions, but I honestly wouldn't trade this experience for anything! It was an excellent learning and growing opportunity for me, and I had special experiences that strengthened my testimony a lot as a result of this whole ankle issue. I honestly believe that it helped me come much closer to my Heavenly Father through many different ways.

It's funny how even seemingly ridiculous situations such as breaking your ankle can be a learning experience for you, if you treat it as such. Believe me, there were times when I was crazily frustrated!!! Being on a mission and not being able to work as hard as you normally would like, that's rough!!! Thanks, however, to an amazing Mission President and Mission Mother, and some awesome companions, I was able to turn it in to an incredible experience I wouldn't trade for anything! Just goes to show you, Heavenly Father always has in mind what's best for us!!! We just need to see life through that lense!

The Dreaded Part Three

That's right folks, you heard it here! This post is the Dreaded Part III in the epic of the Broken Ankle!!! However!!! This is not the section which deals with that! So you'll just have to wait! (or like most of you will probably do, you can skip down to the correct part) ;)

Anyway, so I went to work this morning (beastly early in the morning) and had a great time! I did some calls today, along with my regular chats. I got incoming calls from people calling for either a free DVD, or a request to be visited by missionaries. It was great fun, I loved it! Although there was this one drunk guy who called me five times in a row. The first time I talked to him and found out he was visiting with missionaries and wanted to get baptized, but he couldn't yet because he liked to drink. (as I could easily tell talking to him) So he just talked to me about all sorts of crazy things, as he was totally smashed, and finally I found out that the missionaries were going there that day, so I told him that the missionaries were very willing to help him out. So I thanked him for calling and hung up. Well, he called back 4 more times, each time saying "John, thanks so much for talking to me. I want to be baptized. I'll leave you to your work. Bye." (with varying levels of clearness and understandability) Thankfully he stopped calling, and I could continue with my work. He was a very nice man... Just a tad intoxicated.

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This is it ladies and gents!!! PART III OF THE SAGA OF THE BROKEN ANKLE!!! See picture below...

The Dreaded Boot...

So, as left off yesterday, I had just been transferred to Pickering. Well, to my incredible luck, one of the members there happened to be a doctor! So I asked him about my ankle and told him how it had been eight weeks and it was still hurting quite a bit. Yeah, I know, stupid me for waiting for eight weeks before I ask anyone about it. ;)  Anyway, the doctor knew immediately it definitely wasn't a simple sprain. So he got me an order for a bone scan at the hospital (a different one this time) which I went to do. Well, they first injected me with a radioactive isotope to get flooded through my body. (that was a comforting thought...) Then they told me to come back a few hours later. So of course, in the interim, I just HAD to see if my pee would glow in the dark... It didn't... I was disappointed.

Ok, moving on! So I went back, and after a half-hour scan, they looked at the results and said "Yeah. I don't know who read your X-Rays, but your ankle is broken, and you've made it more stressed by walking on it. It should have been in a cast." So I though oh... thanks x-ray guy! Well, anyway, they put me in the AirCast shown above in the photo. However, that one turned out to be really lame and did nothing, so they switched me to another AirCast that goes up to my knee. So I had this massive ugly boot thing on my foot. (not matching at ALL with ANY of my clothes, especially missionary ones!) Let's put it this way. In a Zone Conference the following week, my mission president asked me during it to write something up on the board during the meeting. I walked up to the board, and as I passed him he looked at it and basically yelled "WOAH!!!! That thing's BIONIC or something!!!!" Naturally everyone laughed. It was pretty funny. Anyway, so for a Transfer and a half in Pickering I wore around that absurd boot. Lovely.

That is the end of PART III of the SAGA OF THE BROKEN ANKLE!!! Although it doesn't end there! TUNE IN FOR PART IV NEXT TIME!!!

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Well, I'll be honest, I don't have much for you in this last portion. Except that I got a cell phone number finally! Oh wait... Maybe I mentioned that last time... I don't know, I can't remember! :) But I'm about to go out to eat at a fabulous burger joint known as BURGER SUPREME!!! Honestly, it's not nearly on par with Hires Big H, but I would definitely say it's number two! So it's going to be deliciously fun!!! And I'm starving my brains out right now, so I'll stop thinking about it!

All right, that's all from here! Tchauzinho!

I GOT A JOB!!!

Yes sir indeed ladies and gentlemen (assuming more people than myself read my blog) I have FINALLY gotten a job!!! It's SO GREAT to finally not be a hobo anymore and actually be able to work and make a little bit of a living!

So my job is at the Referral Center in the MTC. (Missionary Training Center) Basically what I do is I'm one of the people who does online chats with the people who visit Mormon.org. That's the main part of the job. On top of that, I also read through the Mormon.org profiles that are submitted for approval, and we approve them and pass them through. (unless they don't meet criteria, at which point we give feedback, they fix it and resubmit it, and we approve it) It's SO much fun!!! I LOVE reading other people's testimonies from around the world, from all different backgrounds, walks of life, it's SO GREAT!!!! Basically the best job ever!

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All right!!! It's the part you've all been waiting for!!! It's time for PART II of the SAGA OF THE BROKEN ANKLE!!! Here's the picture!

Look at that beauty!!!

Wooh! Would you check that out! That, ladies and gentlemen, was about two weeks after my broken ankle. So I'll fill you in up until that point. Well, the next day after that wonderful accident in the volleyball court, a senior couple by the names of Elder and Sister Lindsey (two of the greatest people in the world by the way!!!) took me to the hospital to get my ankle x-rayed, to see if it was broken. Well, after waiting for hours on end we finally got it x-rayed and the doctor who did it glanced at the x-rays and said "Nope! Not broken! It's just a sprain. Use crutches for 5-7 days, and it'll be fine after that." Well, I went away quite happy it wasn't broken! (little did I know) So I did what he said, and after that time went back to walking, but couldn't do it, because it still hurt too much. Well, I'm not the smartest, so I just assumed that sprains usually hurt for quite a while, and it was fine. So, I switched to walking on a cane for support. See below picture.

Cane! Click on photo for full-size to see easier.

Well, my ankle was still nice and swollen, and it had developed that lovely looking bruise. It continued like this for several weeks. (me, not being very smart, still didn't think much of it!) So, finally I was transferred out of the area to a car area where it would be easier on my ankle. That's not the end, however! Check back here next time for PART III of the BROKEN ANKLE SAGA!!!!!

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Anyway, so now school has started, and let me say, it's going to be a tough semester. I know, everyone who is further along in school than I am is going to laugh, but I'm taking Biology and Math 110 this semester, both of which are turning out to be beastly (although I have an AWESOME teacher for Biology!) even though it's only been 3 days. Yeah. I'm in trouble.  But, it'll still be a fun good semester! I'm excited for it! I'm really happy to have things to do! So that's great!

All right, that's about it from me! Tchau tchau!