Week Fifty Nine

Caught on Tape!

On Tuesday, January 21, Eric said in his email:

"During Music and the Spoken Word on Sunday I'm pretty sure I caught myself on tv a couple of times in the background.  Even if I wasn't in it I definitely saw Elder Pickering."

Below I submit the evidence...

Eric is seated between the pillars
(Click for a larger picture)

Eric sees himself  on the TV monitor...
(Click for a larger picture)

...so he turns and looks at the camera.
 (Click for a larger picture)

And now, Eric's message:

You know I'm really glad you were able to catch me looking at the camera because I did it specifically for you.  I was going to wave but I'm not brave enough to do that yet.  Maybe when I'm closer to going home.

I got my license renewed about 2 hours ago.  I wanted it done earlier but that's the only  time Elder Andersen could do it for me.  Don't worry anymore because I got it done exactly a week before it expired.

Yesterday we had a meeting with all the elders so President Workman could announce the new AP.  He chose an elder named Elder Collier who got here in April 2013.  This left a vacancy because he was a zone leader so an elder named Elder Perkins became the new zone leader, he also got here in April 2013.  President Workman was explaining that he's trying to give all elders opportunities for leadership positions so if you get released that doesn't mean you aren't doing a good job and all that, so I thought this meant that I was going to get released.  Nope I got the new transfer sheet and I'm still a district leader for March.  They must like me where I am or something.

I ate at the Blue Iguana (not to be confused with the red one) on Saturday night for an elder's birthday.  He told me it wasn't too expensive but it turned out to be a gourmet Mexican restaurant with nothing on the menu being under $10.  I got some enchiladas and they were pretty good but I would rather have cheaper ones.

(Brian's Note: I prefer the Red Iguana located on North Temple near the Jackson/Euclid TRAX stop. They have really tasty mole -- pronounced Mol-ay -- sauces. The Red Iguana has a fast food version of the restaurant called Taste of Red Iguana. It is located in the food court in the City Creek Center across the street from Temple Square and is significantly cheaper than the Blue or Red Iguanas. I highly recommend it.)

I'm getting a new companion on Wednesday, Elder Henrie.  He's not new to the mission so this is the first time I'll just have a regular transfer without any trainer opportunities or whatever since for forever.  Elder Pickering is a bit sad to go but I told him we've been together for a while now and transfers happen. 

Love,

Elder Larson

Parting Shot:

Here is a little video of Eric seeing himself on TV and looking at the camera.
Click here to see a full version of the video.

Week Fifty Seven and Fifty Eight

I'm not a very good blogger. I forgot to post Eric's message from last week, so once again it's two for the price of one.

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The sleep machine hasn't arrived yet (maybe it arrived today I haven't gotten the mail yet.)  But thank you so much for getting it anyway because I wasn't even sure if you'd be willing to get it for me or not so thank you.

I knew about the Aquabats! getting canceled like 3 weeks ago all my sisters including Dad told me on the same day.  I'm pretty sure that's the only time all 3 of them have e-mailed me.  I told Elder Liddiard and he told everyone in his family to sign the petition. 

There's a hawk around?  Oh no guard Viktor!  No I'm just kidding.  What a cool thing to see in our backyard.

Well this last week was crazy because it was RootsTech week.  We had patrons everywhere and pizza everywhere.  A ridiculous overabundance of pizza I lived off of pizza this whole week pretty much.  This is what the break room looked like on most days:

We also had Elder Davis and Elder McCarty come back to help us on our most busy night:

Not my best picture but I was pretty tired.

Also mama pigeon is back in her nest where she was last year:

I realized recently that I should probably make my e-mails more spiritual considering how I'm a missionary and all and it can be pretty hard to tell when all my e-mails are just about pigeons and how my chiropractor is out to get me.  (Even though he totally is for the record, even President Workman is on to him now.) 

I've been studying what is called The Law of the Harvest lately, that is, you reap what you sow.  This can be found in Galatians 6.  When you do good things in the end you'll reap good things, if you do bad things in the end you'll reap bad things.  (Or even if you do nothing you'll reap nothing.)  It's not just the big moments in our life though, we all are capable of doing good things some days yet bad things most days.  I want to be able to reap good after years and years of doing good things every day.  Keeping the commandments, enduring, and being Christlike will lead to a life of good in the end and that will show my true worth. 

Love,
Elder Larson

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Thank you very much for the sound machine I am very convinced that it is one of the greatest things that has entered my life.  I am being rocked to sleep by sounds so real that I no longer need to go outside anymore. It doesn't have any sound loops which I just find absolutely amazing (and if it does then it does a really good job at hiding it.)  It sounds like you're next tot he ocean and the wave is different every time.  And the fireplace setting is also really awesome to listen to it's the one getting me to sleep along with ocean.  The only setting on it I don't like is the white noise setting, which literally sounds like tv static.  I don't get that one at all.

Telling my companion that my dog was too dumb for obedience school so we're going to have to send him back to puppy school was one of the funniest sentences I've ever composed.  So bravo to Shamus for that.

I have to go back to puppy school :-(

Yes I got the valentine box and the thing from our ward was unexpected but really nice.  And thank you for not sending me a ton of candy I know that that seems like a weird thing to be grateful for but I have more candy then I know what to do with and my companions won't eat it either.

I can play pretty much any hymn with my right hand but I have not been able to play anything using full parts yet.

Yesterday we just watched the 3 part documentary Fires of Faith: The Coming Forth of the King James Bible.  I think you may have seen it before but it's a good one. 

Your view on reaping what you sow are correct.  When you plant a seed you don't get it immediately.  Whenever I think about people wondering why good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people I think about Job.  Through all he endured and even the accusing words of his friends he maintained his faith in God knowing that even though he didn't know why bad things were happening to him, he did know that God is still loving and merciful and knows what's best for him.  I like the book of Job because even though it doesn't answer why bad things happen to good people, it does teach us how we should respond.  And through faith all will be well in the end.

Love,
Elder Larson

Week Fifty Six

The air is a bit better now because it snowed quite a bit last night.  It weirded me out because I woke up at 4 AM because someone was shoveling snow right outside my window and I was thinking where did all of the snow come from?  Even the pigeons seem happy.  (I have a strange fondness for pigeons I've come to realize.  Don't know why either.) 

Security has an office on the main floor of the lobby but it's not really big.  If you call the non-emergency number for security like what I did they'll just send any officers that happen to be roaming around over.  If you call the emergency number then personnel medics or whatever will show up quite fast.  And if you press one of the panic buttons then in less than 3 seconds you'll have armed guards swarming the floor coming in through doors you didn't even know existed.  I haven't seen that, but someone pressed it just to see if it worked (big no no) and that was the result.  Everything on Church campus is connected by underground tunnels so I guess that's how they do it.  So basically I feel safer here than I would anywhere else.

I actually didn't need the pink paper you sent because I forgot to tell you (and so did Dad evidently) that Dad sent me a .pdf of my insurance card so I printed it out and I just used that and now I have it with me at all times.  I didn't get to see the doctor yet because my x-rays didn't arrive on time.  I have them now and I will see what's what tomorrow.

I still haven't bought a new CD player because I don't feel like I need to anymore because mine's working somewhat okay now.  But thanks.  I am going to ask for something that's probably too expensive though so brace yourselves.  I'm going to attempt to start sleeping naturally again and one thing we all think will help is a new sleep machine.  I'm glad you sent me the one that we already have but I'm afraid it's kind of...not good.  It has a 3 second sound loop which drives me crazy and the sound quality isn't very good.  This is the one that the nurses at the mission office have and they suggested it to me.  I tried it and I really like it and it's half off right now.  I would have asked for my birthday but it might not be half off then:  http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sound-Sleep-Adaptive-Sound-Sleep-Therapy-Machine/16405852  In case link doesn't work it's Ecotones Sound + Sleep Machine Model ASM1002.  Thank you very much.  ( I checked at my local Wal-Mart and it didn't have it.)

I was still kind of sick at the beginning of last week but I'm finally okay.  I went to zone every time though because I didn't have a fever so according to the nurses that meant that I could go. 

We also decided to stop playing board games in my apartment because they were starting to be too much of a distraction.  Board games are not bad things obviously but they are distracting when you end up not getting any studying done which is what was happening to my apartment mates.  I found a quote by Neal A. Maxwell, "Many individuals preoccupied by the cares of the world are not necessarily in transgression. But they certainly are in diversion and thus waste “the days of [their] probation” (2 Ne. 9:27)."  I told them that we were kind of wasting our time when we had much better things to do since we were on a mission.  They agreed with me so now we're done. 

We also went through another huge change.  We got 3 new young elder zone leaders to be companions with our current zone leaders.  On other missions zone leaders and APs are always companions so President Workman wanted it to be like that from now on.  That left a gap of 4 new district leaders because 3 are now zone leaders (and one of the district leaders got released.  Don't know why either.)  This means I am officially the oldest district leader still alive; as in I've been a district leader much longer than any of the other current district leader.  I'm expecting a release because I've been one for about half my mission now so it will either be a release for me soon or a promotion.  It's all up in the air so I really don't know what will happen to me so I'll be happy to do whatever.

Elder Ungerman is moving out and we'll have a new elder that came in December moving in.  The other Elders that will be living with me, Elder Pickering, Elder Robinson, and Elder Collard, came into the mission in October, November, and December respectively.  I'll have my first opportunity to feel like an old man on the mission because I'll be living with all these greenies. 

Thank you for including a spiritual thought at the end.  Keep on doing it because I really like it.

Love,
Elder Larson

Week Fifty Five

An Adventure with the Chiropractor

I'm going to tell you about my chiropractor adventure before I forget.

So I got to go to the chiropractor last Thursday and they brought me in again to watch another video telling me that I had a "vertebral subluxation" on my neck.  Apparently my neck doesn't curve as much as it should and that this is a serious problem that needs fixing.  So serious that I was told that I need to come in at least 20 times to fix this problem. 

I've been skeptical of this chiropractor since my first visit (for obvious reasons) and this kind of blew things over the roof for me so I told him he could go ahead and adjust me for today and I'd make an appointment and tell him my decision on whether I would go through his 20 visit plan or not. 

I did some research and found out that the "subluxation" thingie is actually more of a medical theory than an actual thing and even though there are many chiropractors that claim they can heal these things a lot of chiropractors don't stand by this theory at all.  And with a little more research I was able to find out that my "straight neck" problem shouldn't be a medical problem at all but it would be safe to get a second opinion anyway.  So based on all this I deduced that we must have really good insurance because the chiropractor really seems to want to cash in on it. 

So I told Elder Andersen that I think he's a fraud and that I don't want to see him anymore and that I want a copy of my x rays from him so I could get a second opinion.  He actually agreed with me completely because he told me that he's been weary of him for quite some time (he only takes elders there because that's where they were going before he got here I guess).  He told me that whenever he brings in an elder who's insurance doesn't cover chiropractic work then they get told to just stretch it and ice it and he should be fine; but with me it was, "You have insurance?  Oh man you might have a serious problem.  Let's take x rays and a ton of other tests so we can work on you for forever." 

So yeah.  Neither Elder Andersen or I (and I can assume you are not too since you get the bills) are happy with this chiropractor and we're going to him today to ask for my x rays which I have a right to.  (Or at least a copy of.)  And I'm obviously not going to be seeing him anymore. 

My neck and shoulder still hurts occasionally but I actually did start stretching it again and I think that helps.  I got some icy hot junk too and that helps as well.

An Adventure with the Psycho Lady

I'm going to tell you about my adventure with the psycho lady before I forget.

So on Wednesday I was minding my own business at zone when the current floor manager at the time came to me with a patron who was weeping hysterically and said that she had requested a blessing.  So Elder Menke and I brought her into a room in the back and asked her to tell us what was wrong.  As soon as she started talking we realized immediately what was wrong.  It turns out she was severely mentally ill and was completely psychotic in the strictest sense of the term.  She was having delusions and hallucinations and exhibiting every single sign of schizophrenia.  (I don't know why I keep attracting these people either.)  This situation was a lot more different than the other one though, as in it was potentially dangerous.  See she didn't seem to realize that she had a mental issue; in fact when Elder Menke accidentally hinted that that was the case she got really mad at us and told us that she was not crazy.  It was all the government's fault.  See she can't take showers anymore because the government is transmitting messages into her head through ultra violet rays from their satellites and she can only use the computers at the library because they aren't bugged.  And she has proof that the government is doing it because she can see painted rainbows on the walls and we can't.  So yeah, it was pretty scary.

We still gave her a blessing though.  When she left we got security and filled out a report so when she comes in again they can get her help because as far as I was able to tell she's completely dependent on her sister who doesn't seem to know what to do with her which is bad because she really can't be wandering around public alone due to the fact that she's potentially dangerous.

Also I'm currently sick again.  I caught some sort of weird virus that is spreading through our elders like wildfire.  My throat is extremely sore and I can't stop coughing.  This is the first time I've been out of the apartment since Friday.

Well that's all.

Love,
Elder Larson