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| Elder Perazzo and his new companion Elder Smith |
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| 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 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:
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.
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
Very Exciting!!!!
ReplyDeleteHe sounds so happy!
ReplyDelete