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.
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