Update and Mission Call!

Well it's been quite a while, but everything's going great! As Dad said in his comment on the last post, I've been able to go out with the missionaries frequently, and they've all been wonderful experiences, rain or shine! The funny thing is that it was almost raining every Sunday afternoon/evening, which was when I was going out with the missionaries! Unfortunately I've gotten caught up with different things, so the last outing I went on with the missionaries was the Sunday night of General Conference. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze some more time in with them before I go...

A couple of weeks ago I had a bunch of friends over, and it was great! Ana Paula, Ana Carolina, Brad Newman, Debbie Fiuza, and Emily and Alex Matt. We played some Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Matt's Wii, and then a RISK game with two boards - it was awesome! Of course, not all of these friends are RISK players at heart, so halfway through the game, half the people dropped out of the game and started watching Happy Feet, but it was all very fun. Since Brad lives so far away, he stayed the night, and we played a good amount of video games like Smash on 64 and Gamecube, and Bond and Mariokart on 64 also. Fun stuff!

The weekend of General Conference Emily and I took part in perfoming in a play entitled "It's All Greek to Me!" It had snippets of about 5 Greek tragedies, including Antigone and Medea. I got to play King Creon from the play Medea, and I was dressed as a modern dictator in an all-black suit with my red CTR tie (dictators can choose the right!), and my aviator sunglasses. Emily played extra roles, including one of the women of Corinth. When my secret service body guard and I walked on stage, the secret service guy would push Emily aside out of my way. Emily didn't like that too much... General Conference itself was amazing as always, and this one was my first time that I remember to participate in the/a Solemn Assembly. I felt very honored to be called as a (current) Aaronic Priesthood holder to stand and sustain President Monson and the new First Presidency by raising my arm to the square. It was an experience I will never forget. And last Sunday, April 13, 2008 I was honored to be a part of ordaining my friend Bradley Newman to the office of a Priest.

In other news, as of today there are approximately only 6 more weeks of school until I graduate on May 31st!! In between now and then I hope to get through my IB History Standard Level Exam successfully (enough) and to finish all of my classes strong. I'm cherishing these last weeks I have with Mom, Dad, and Em and I'm really happy to have Rob and Christa here for my graduation! So school has been keeping me plenty busy. Otherwise I'm enjoying life as I prepare for the summer selling books, and more importantly my mission!

It was really great that everybody was able to be on the conference call on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 when I opened my missionary call to serve in the Portugal Lisbon Mission! Everybody had a chance to guess. Grandma Turtle guessed Sao Paulo, Brasil; Uncle Bill guessed Argentina; Joy guessed Montana; Darrell guessed Norway; Warren guessed San Antonio, Texas (although his original guess was Cedar Park Ward, Austin, Texas); Jared guessed Madagascar; Cameron guessed Brasil; Kit guessed Manaus, Brasil; Kevin guessed France; Matt guessed Curitiba, Brasil; Natalie guessed Cuiaba, Brasil; Mark guessed France; Aup guessed the Phillipines; John guessed France; Laura guessed Brasilia, Brasil; Rob guessed Portugal; Christa guessed Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; Mom guessed Curitiba, Brasil; and Emily guessed Elina, Africa (no clue where that is). So out of all the family members, only Rob was right in guessing Portugal! But he wasn't alone - my friend Angie Elligson and our adorable Adelia also guessed Portugal. I'm super excited!!