Ryan is home for Christmas and more news from Eric

Ryan got in this evening. Jason and Eric O were here this afternoon. Michael got in the other day. What a joy it is to have everyone around. Last week at church there were just 4 of us on our bench and it was feeling pretty lonely.

Now we just have to wait for Andrew to arrive next Saturday. Andrew, by the way, is now no longer working the 4:30 am custodial shift but is now working as a custodian at BYU's Museum of Art (MOA) on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons, and all day on Saturday. He's excited to be able to sleep in after a year of rising at 4 am. We still don't have a definite date on the wedding...the end of April is what we have.

Today for Eric's email, we were on the computer when he was on, so we were able to have a conversation of sorts. My original plan was just to forward Eric's email to the family, like we forwarded Andrew's when he was on his mission, but today's format doesn't allow for that, so I've decided to post a copied and pasted version of his emails. When Eric puts "YM" it stands for Young Missionaries.

E-mails from Saturday 15 December 2012

Eric:

I'm making my bed every morning. The cactus wasn't doing too well, but I think it just wasn't getting enough water. Elder Duckworth [the Elder that was in Andrew's ward his freshman year at BYU] moved on before I got here, but he still gets mentioned sometimes. I got to use my umbrella coming back from the Temple last night; we just did five baptisms each, baptizing and confirming each other.

I did bring my alarm clock, but it's set to Pacific time so I have to set it to go off an hour ahead.

Glen:

DO NOT WATER the cactus.  It needs very little water.   My guess to change the time on your clock you would hold down on the time button the same time you press down on the hour or minute button and the time will change.  You would set it pretty much the same as you would set the alarm, but there would be a switch to switch from Alarm to Time.  I finally kind of got done with my Smith Family Research project.   I'll snail mail you a copy and on your free time you can play around and search extended lines or whatnot...

Eric:

Elder Broadhead is just from Utah somewhere. I think the valley. He's only a couple of months in. His companion, Elder Frost, is from Maine. He just transferred into the apartment a couple of days before I got here. [Elder Broadhead and Elder Frost are the other 2 missionaries in Eric's apartment]

I talked with Elder Scotto in the hall just today, and he said his mom emailed him about me [I know Elder Scotto's mom].

It's not Elder Peterson who's my trainer, it's Elder Danielson. Sorry, that was my mistake. Elder Peterson is the mission president, and he's the only one named Peterson besides Elder Peterson the YM. I think it might be kind of confusing, because I'm pretty sure Elder Glenn also speaks with an English accent because of his Asperger's. The trainers are all oldsters.

The flags are at half-staff again today. I heard there was something in Connecticut?

Ganon is the name of the van. There's also vans Lilo and Thunder.

Glen:

What is the reference with the van names?   Yes, another bloody school shooting, terrible situation.

Eric:

Ganon is just named after Ganon from Legend of Zelda, because the sister missionaries named the other two and the elders wanted something less sissy…

Glen:

Are you up at the computers next to Elder Brandon's office where we saw the missionaries researching prior to their vote?  or is there another computer bank somewhere?

Eric:

We do emails at the Family History Library. I'm on the third floor, the floor above SpecPro [Special Projects]. Elder Smith has something here, so this is the floor I'm doing it on, and he just now got up to go do that.

Beth:

Hi. It's Mom now. I just love all the info we are getting from you today. I was just playing a game with Alex, Eric O, and Jiaxin, so I haven't read everything yet. But it sounds like you are keeping busy and having a good week.

Eric:

I was going to ask if the Men's Wearhouse suits need dry cleaning, but I looked at the care tag and machine washed warm, tumbled dry medium.

Glen:

Mom says to do what the tag says, Hannah says hi.  What else do they have you doing besides doing extraction?

Eric:

There's no more Special Projects evening zone for the rest of the year, but my evening zones are (were?) Tues-Thurs. Thursday was "Green Day," because it was Elder Green's last night of evening zone before he goes home. We had green jello and I don't have a green tie, but we wore that to the best of our abilities. Family Search went down after we came back from that, so we just watched Mormon Messages. 

Glen:

The tough thing about chatting is the aspect of (1) knowing where the next message will pop up and (2) pasting together a letter of the week to pass on to family.   So I'll give you time to type up a lovely letter like you did last week.  But I do have more questions:  So, what was your evening Special Projects that you did prior to it being closed down for the rest of the year?   I hope all is well and you're having a good time. 

Eric:

We all get laptops and for now all I did was index on them. When the new year comes, they're supposed to have hooked up new computers in the lab. All that's there now are the monitors.

Eric:

Elijah Choir meets at 6:15 in the morning, which is when Elder Smith is going out to run. Elder Broadhead does choir, though. I hear he's pretty good, or at least he talks like he's an accomplished singer, recording his stuff and everything. But if I went out to do that, then I wouldn't have time to shower in the morning. I did try going out running once, but that didn't turn out so well. It's pretty high up here, I guess. Is SLC higher than Fallon?

There's no YM theatre troupe or anything, no. But there are a few other choirs.

Dad:

Fallon is at 3960 feet and SLC is 4226, so a bit higher.   I'm sure Elder Smith has been running for some time and is just in better shape... do they have you do an exercise program at all.  Do you have a gym or weights?  I take it the Elijah Choir must be the YM choir as Elder Smith said he was in the ward choir...    How much longer do you have before you have to get off the computer?? 

Eric:

There is a Missionary Health Guide, that came with this exercise rubber band thing, but I haven't had much opportunity to look over that. There's also basketball, I guess, though I also haven't gotten time to do any of that.
There is a ward choir which is just like a normal choir, meeting before church, which I have sang in already. I also think there's a Men's Choir.

Fifteen, twenty minutes? I got on at 5:35, but I did some stuff before logging on the email. Hold on...

Beth:

Yep, it looks like your time is almost up then. What "stuff" did you do before logging on?

Eric:

Just wrote a little in the weekly YM report to the president, tallying up all the hours spend studying alone and with a companion, etc.


Eric:

It's weird. It alternates between, "we need more than an hour each week for emails, there's so much to say," but lately it's been more, "man, I don't have anything to say." Since there wasn't evening zone or anything on Friday, and today is P day, not much has been happening. The time is already beginning to pass quickly, if you can believe it.

On Tuesday, I've got the scripture and prayer in the morning prayer meeting.

Last P-day, (after I emailed, I guess) Elder Smith took me (I took Elder Smith?) to Deseret Bookstore, and I couldn't find what I was looking for, but a woman came up to us and gave us each $20. I don't know where to tithe that yet, but, it's still nice.

Our apartment building, 155, is apparently the only one with a laundry room, so though I didn't have to do laundry last week I did it this week. A lot of YMs apparently leave their clothes in the washers and driers, which causes great annoyance to the more elderly people of the apartments, but since the laundry room is right next door I'm able to take my laundry out on time.

Beth:

So, are you doing well, enjoying your training, and happy???

Eric:

My apartment's great. Other missionaries often come over, not just because Elder Smith is an assistant to the President, but because they enjoy the spirit of the apartment. So it's nice here, and I'm learning my training very quickly, according to Elder Danielson. And everyone here is super nice to the missionaries.

So, it's good.

That should be about it.

Elder Perazzo.

news of and from Eric

Elder Perazzo and his new companion Elder Smith

Pointing out the wonderful Christmas tree in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

It's been an amazing couple of days. We are just so thrilled and happy for Eric and this wonderful opportunity he has been given.

We drove to Salt Lake on Thursday where we met up with Glen's sister, Teresa, and her husband, Matt. Glen, Eric, and I jumped into their car and drove down to Provo where we went and visited Alicia and Dallin and their new baby, Everett (who is absolutely precious). By the end of the visit, we had managed to chat with Jackie, Brandon, Calista, Tessa, Jacob, Andrew, and Amanda as some surprised us by dropping by to say good-bye to Eric.

We spent Thursday night at Matt and Teresa's house and then Friday morning, Glen, Eric, Teresa, and I headed for Salt Lake. We first dropped off Eric's things to his apartment and got to meet his companion, Elder Ashton Smith (who turned out to be one of the 2 Assistants to the President). We were very impressed with him. Turns out he and Teresa shared an acquaintance with a family, so that was kind of neat. As we walked from the apartments to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, we could tell that Eric was really excited...he walked really fast trying to get there and lead the pack. Then, when he told me that Elder Smith was going to take him to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square that night, he was really happy about it.

While Teresa wandered around Temple Square, we had an orientation meeting. There were 6 new young missionaries reporting that day, so we had kind of a large group in the conference room. Elder Smith and the other AP, Elder Lyon, had a powerpoint presentation for us about the mission. Then we had a few minutes to say good-bye. At which point, we questioned Elder Smith about the mission.

We asked about Sundays, since the Family History Library is closed then. Sundays are sort of a "free" day, only it's so packed of things like attending the live broadcast of  Music and the Spoken Word, church, maybe choir practice, and planning meetings that it actually is a very busy day.

We did learn that visits from family (and friends) are not allowed...if we do wind up going to Salt Lake we are to avoid bumping into Eric. We had wondered, since he is allowed to go to a family sealing in the temple, if we would be able to see him at other times as well, but we are not. Which is fine. Things are allowed to be dropped off for him, however. You just need to call ahead and arrange a time, and then Sister Brandon will come down to your car outside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and take your package and deliver it later.

After we said good-bye to Eric, Glen, Teresa, and I drove to Fallon...Teresa came to surprise Mom and Dad Perazzo and will be able to stay for a week. It was great to be able to spend more time with Teresa driving here.

Anyway, we were also told to expect Eric's first email today, and it has now come...in 2 parts. I was very pleased with how long they were...I had told Eric that we'd like some detail. So, here are the first words from Eric. By the way, Eric mentions an Elder Scotto. I know Elder Scotto's mother...we were roommates during BYU's Ed Week quite a few years ago.

Oh, and if you know Pam Craig, her nephew from Idaho was just called to the same mission and will arrive in March. Pretty neat.

Eric's 1st email:

Today is P-Day, and that means shopping. There are four shopping vans doing trips, at 7:30, at 8:30, and at 10:30. This month has 5 weeks in it, so we have $32 a week to do shopping instead of $40. Since I came in a week into it, though, I'm not sure if that still holds up. Either way I didn't need to buy all that much anyway since I haven't cracked into much of the food that's been packed for me- I ate a couple of slices of banana to go with two slices of bread for lunch, but those are the only foods from home I've eaten so far, besides a cookie and half of Aunt Teresa's sandwich, which are from the car trip.

Thank you for the photographs I discovered packed. I got a few wooden photo frames from the swap meet, and so those are framed up on top of the Christmas bookcase. I guess that's like a Christmas tree, but the tree on top of it is one of those wooden board craft projects, with holes drilled in so that lights stick through. An elder across the hall in the apartment got an extra Christmas tree (packaged as one of the 12 gifts in his 12 Days of Christmas care package, I guess? Or else that's a different elder who had that, but it only came with 11 gifts in it, so either the tree in it was meant to be one of the gifts or something got lost in the mail or something) so he gave it to our apartment. That means, counting the wooden tree and my cactus (into the center of which I placed a cinnamon-scented candle as a star, and surrounded it with the gift wrapping, a letter and Christmas card from the stake presidency, and a fruitcake I bought today) that our apartment has three Christmas trees. The tree is set on an end table in the corner of the room, next to the sofa, and I arranged it so that if you look at it the right angle the floor lamp behind it could be seen as its star. I also put next to that a door mirror I got from the swap meet, which we didn't have anything to hang up with on the door, so I just put it there. My companion, as you know, is Elder Smith, and with us in the apartment are Elders Frost and Broadhead.

Last night Elder Smith took me on a walk to see Temple Square all lit up. There were lights and people everywhere. I think it was prom night, so there were some dates there as well. There were also a few Nativities around, from all kinds of different cultures. There's a constant rotation of choirs singing in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, up in the mezzanine. The tree in there is so big, it uses the chandelier as its star. We took a tour of the Conference Center. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is doing a Christmas conference there on the 18th, and so we got to see the producers doing a technical run through. Tom Brokaw wasn't there, but there was a man reading his lines, so I guess that's a preview for when we (Elder Smith and I, at least, and maybe others, but you need a ticket, so I'm not sure if we all have one) get to see that live. That's exciting. Temple Square has got to be the most Christmassy place in the world this time of year. The tour guide, Brother Caldwell, is a neighbor to the mission president, Elder Peterson.

My trainer is Elder Peterson (I'm not sure if it's the same Elder Peterson yet, since it didn't really occur to me before, especially considering that there's another Elder Peterson who definitely isn't one of the other Elder Petersons because he's a YM, who speaks with an English accent because of his Asperger's.) I didn't get to spend much time with him anyway, since all there was really time to do was to get assigned, go over some paperwork with your trainer, and then get called to get your photo taken.

I think we're taking most of the week off on Christmas- Monday and Tuesday, I think, and Saturday and Sunday of course.

I've been using my journal a lot. I'm already five or six pages into it, recording things that I don't have the time to tell you here.

The flags were all at half-staff yesterday. Do they always do that for Pearl Harbor Day?

I haven't met any panhandlers yet.

I still have about 20 minutes left of email time, so I think I'll just send you this one and send you another one. There are some elders whose parents know what time they send out emails, so they're able to have a back-and-forth realtime conversation. This is my first P-Day, so I don't think I have a settled time yet, so I don't think we'll be able to do that.

2nd email:

 

I haven't met everybody yet, of course, but I've met a few others in the apartment, and went shopping with those in my shopping group- van "Ganon," 8:30 trip.Elder Lyon, the Assistant to the President, lives just next door, and I'm roommates with Elder Smith, the second Assistant to the President. Elder Lyon isn't the senior companion to anyone, so getting paired with Elder Smith is the second-best thing to getting paired with Elder Lyon like I said. There's also Elder Scotto, who lives across the hall, and is supposed to be the best cook ever. Elder Grimsman was just hanging around in our apartment last night, and I'm not sure where he fits in. There's also a bunch of elders I've "met" but haven't gotten to "meet." I just shook hands with Elder McFarlin, who works in the vaults and is doing his own email now a few computers over from me. I'm with Elder Smith right now, and only have a few minutes left.

I've already done companionship studies, going over my new missionary packet with Elder Smith, so we're going to do our reports now and maybe check out Deseret Book sometime maybe today. It can't decide whether it wants to snow or not, but I haven't been outside in an hour so I don't know if it's settled one way or another.

Well, talk to you later. And in a few weeks, actually talk to you, over the phone. Who all is going to be there with you to talk to? Do you know yet?

I guess that's it.

Elder Perazzo

Hannah's 17th birthday and other very important stuff

Our niece, Alicia, and her husband, Dallin, welcomed a new little baby to their house this week! Everett Adam Marr was born on Tuesday, November 27th. He was 7 lbs 1 oz, 20" long, and was born at 2:39 am.

Hannah had promised them $20 if they had their baby on her birthday, so her reply to them on facebook was that they lost out on $20. But, even if Everett doesn't share Hannah's birthday, we are so happy and excited for them. Everett is adorable (I think he looks a bit like his Uncle Adam did) and mother and baby were doing well.

Well, it seems I've used my limit of photo storage space for posting pictures on my blog. I either now have to delete previous pictures or pay to use more storage, So, no photos today, but:

Hannah's 17th birthday was yesterday. Hard to believe, isn't it? We barely saw her as she had slept over at Becky's house...her "twin" who also turned 17 yesterday. Then she took her cousin Madison to Carson City (with me trying not to freak out having Hannah drive in a place she didn't know...having my children drive is a very tough challenge for me). They saw the musical play "The Little Mermaid" and went ice skating--both of which she later reported weren't worth the trip to Carson. Oh,well.

She returned just in time (7:30 pm) to start her spur-off-the-moment party (which was slated to start at 7:30 pm), where friends came over to play games and watch Harry Potter.

At one point during the party there was a lot of screeching going on...at first I thought Hannah was just being exuberant (not hard to picture, is it?), but then it continued so I started to wonder if she was hurt as she came bursting into my room, still screeching. Then I noticed she was holding my cell phone. I then realized what had happened. Hannah was just reacting to a new text message from Andrew that turned out to simply say, "I'm engaged." I didn't have to see the message to know what was going on Andrew had told us earlier in the day that he was going to propose last night (sorry Dad P, you were over, but I was sworn to secrecy, so I couldn't tell you).

So, Happy Birthday Hannah! And congratulations Andrew and Heather!

And, we are down to just having 4 days left with Eric before we take him to Salt Lake. I don't even know what to put after that...yikes...wow...astounding...time is flying.