I remember quite distinctly my first few days in Oklahoma. I remember the excitement of the first days of classes and Professor Swank being the first to introduce us to the Socratic method. I remember small victories and some pretty crushing defeats. Overall, this has been an experience I would never trade away and one that no matter what happens in my future will prove valuable. Either way, it seems odd to me, after all my years of education, that the end of a semester can suddenly catch me by surprise. Especially since I've been looking forward to it for quite some time.
Interestingly enough, my classmates are looking towards the end of the semester so they can work, play, or chill. I'm looking towards the end of the semester so I can commit myself to a project greater then myself. I'm not suggesting they are selfish in there actions, but rather we, my classmates and I, have a rather different focus on how our time between semesters should be spent. On that note, it has been interesting the reactions of my classmates when I discuss the mission with them. It is not an infrequent response for them to ask why I'm doing this now and then to follow up with a more basic why do it period. There is no doubt in my mind that I'm making the right decision. Sure I will be giving up a little, but from what I hear the investment now is worth the payoff later. Furthermore since I made the decision there has never once been a moment of doubt that suggested I was making a mistake or an error of judgement. I look forward to and I am excited for the opportunity to serve amongst the people of the West Indies. I report to the MTC on June 16th which is only 49 days from today.
In terms of goings on there truly isn't a lot of announce or give a synopsis of but let me fill in a few gaps.
Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to save a few lives by donating blood at the law school. Professor Swank, my civil procedure professor, organizes the event and as such promises that everyone who donates will not be called on in class that week. I thought I should take him up on that offer and also donate for altruistic reasons. For some reason donating blood is part of my soap box. I personally feel that everyone who can should. It is an easy process that is relatively painless and helps people immensely. As such, whenever I can I have always made the effort to donate and I feel everyone else should make at least a similar effort. Also on Tuesday, Lena and I went to Hideaway's Pizza for dinner and then to the OU Baseball game before having orange floats and going our separate ways for the night. I seem to enable her bad side with my own and we have a pretty good time talking, being sarcastic, and hangout with each other.
Other then classes nothing else really happened until Friday when I got together with Lena and her crew and played basketball, a bit of soccer, and a few card games. I'd like to take this time to official announce my superiority in Uno as after four games I had won three of the four. Though I did get it handed to me in some strange card game Jenny and Lena tried to teach me (Euchre). I suppose it was German and this is my excuse.
Sunday church was once again excellent. The most impressive part of the church day was the speakers in Sacrament meeting. All three did amazing and they brought the spirit in the room with their talks and their testimonies. I particularly enjoyed Madison Conklin's talk on Easter and the Atonement. All three did quite amazing though. After church I was again met up with Lena and the gang, this time consisting of Shelly Wernette and Emma Newberry-Davis, and we visited the German Club's festival/picnic.
After hanging out with them for a bit I had my temple prep class that is being taught by the bishopric of the ward. It is interesting as I've been in this class multiple times before and each time I seem to learn something new. The class is of particular importance because of the fact that I'll be receiving my own endowments not this weekend but the next. I'm continuing the prepare and I'm pretty excited about having my family in town and having the opportunity to go through the temple myself.
After temple prep were a few hours of studying before I picked up Lena and we went to a games night at Tyler Thornton's apartment. We played Pass the Popcorn which is a movie trivia game. Sadly, our combined abilities were no match for the others as most of the movies in the game were produced when we were but young lads/lassies or in a few situations before we were even born. We still held our own but didn't win.
Monday night we had a baptism in the ward that I was asked to conduct and it was quite the experience. It was interesting watching the missionaries baptism someone they've worked with and I was silently thinking to myself that I hope I have the opportunity help convert someone to the church. After the baptism, we had FHE and we played basketball and soccer. I was in-between the post in soccer and did an okay job but I played much better in basketball.
I can't think of much more to write and I have class in a few hours and I need to read. So I will leave you here and if needs be I'll come back and edit it a bit. As always there are no guarantees as to the quality of grammar presented in this post.
One Love
No comments:
Post a Comment