Monday, September 15, 2008

Called to Serve!

I received my mission call! I will be serving for 18 months in the Bulgaria, Sofia Mission. Bulgaria is surrounded by Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, and the Black Sea. I will speak Bulgarian. I enter the MTC in February 2009.

Oregon...FINALLY!!!!

So, quick is not the reality in this case, but I did move, do my mission papers, get my mission call, and have a life somewhere in here, but here we go! I took notes of the things we did each day while there so I have a better record to make this fun and succinct. This trip was at the beginning of August.

Saturday: We drove to Oregon. (By we I mean Bryan, Danielle, and myself.) It was pretty uneventful minus the 15 minute traffic standstill near Boise. One highlight was the replaying of "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay over and over...I LOVE that song, and actually learned the words by listening to it a bazilliondy times!

Sunday: It was an adventure finding the church, and we were a bit late (A LOT!!!) but we enjoyed it. We visited that night and got our family reunion shirts. Thanks Grandma and Auntie!

Monday: We had a trip to the tide pools, where there was a minus tide, meaning that the water was even further out than normal so we got to see even more specimen. One little somewhat tricky part about this trip was that I did not bring tennis shoes. I brought a pair of docs, but they were not about to get all tide pooly. Dani and I had fun with our flip flops! We also visited and toured the Yaquina Lighthouse. I hate heights, so as we went up, I just looked straight ahead and didn't look down AT ALL! It was a beautiful building! We also went to the interpretive center where we learned about wild life, and saw a little statue of my beloved puffins! We played games that night and Lora and I watched a movie too!

Tuesday:I spent most of the day reading "Breaking Dawn", which was a good conclusion to the saga o' Bella and Edward and Jacob. We had a family FHE where we shared family memories and had a family birthday party.

Wednesday: Mom and I took a drive to Lincoln City where we did a little shopping for a kite and she ended up getting me a loaf of sourdough of my own! I do miss good sourdough while I am away from the west coast. I had a nice long visit with my Aunt Kitty, which always brings joy to my heart! We took our family pictures, which is always interesting! Bryan, Dani, Lora, and I watched a movie that was kinda dumb that night!

Thursday: Bryan, Dani, Derek, Lora, and I went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. We saw so much, including my PUFFINS!!! Have you ever seen a puffin try to fly/land? It is so awkward it makes them endearing! We also went to the sharks and Derek actually looked at them! Dani LOVED!!! this part of the day. We went to Flashbacks, a 50's style restaurant with pretty good food. The water was GROSS!!! We shared a ice cream sundae at the end...yum!

Friday: Grandma, Wally, Aunt Kitty, Uncle Andy, Aunt Karla, Lora, and I all went to Izzy's for lunch. It was fun to spend time with them in a smaller group! Aunt Karla, Lora, and I went browsing in a leather shop in Depoe Bay! Everything was cheap, but good. We also had a nice visit with Celeste, Dennis, and little Michelle. Uncle Andy was there for part of the visit too! That night was the opening ceremonies to the olympics where I saw Jill Camerena on TV!!!!

Saturday: We drove...a lot! There was this rain that was the misty kind of rain, so when you got out of the car you got wet by mist. There was a gorgeous waterfall, and there were bathrooms there that were GROSS!! Just thought you should know! We went to a Taco Time in Baker City, OR and it reminded us of Delta, UT or Spanish Fork, UT...if you know what I am talking about, you are just that cool. We were cruising right along, as we were getting ready to cross the Idaho/Utah border we got a flat tire. We put the spare on, but it was flat. We called around and someone could come help us, but we were 4th on the list. Then the storm came. We found out later that it was one of the worst storms they had had in quite some time, and we were sitting in the middle of it, waiting to be rescued. We watched "The Italian Job", and balanced between having fresh air with windows down and rolling up the windows to prevent too much rain from coming in. Our hero man came and helped us and we got our tire in Tremonten. It was a long day! I seriously cannot travel without SOMETHING happening!

That is a quick little ditty about my trip...as late as it was :)