The Advent of Leisure Suit Season 2012-2013...and Other Thoughts...

I came across this post that I never posted from all the way back in November.  Today marked the closing day for Leisure Suit Season 2012-2013, but I figured I'd go ahead and push "publish," if for no other reason than to get me back in the blogging mood.  I've neglected this blog for way too long!

With Leisure Suit Season back in full swing, I figured it was high time to get blogging season going again.  

And may I just say that this year's Leisure Suit Season opening day (October 6th) had to have been one of the hottest Leisure Suit Season opening days on record.  I was sweating in my leisure suit all day...but traditions must be respected and upheld, with or without the sweat.  

This Leisure Suit Season opening weekend came with a super exciting announcement...that sisters can now serve missions starting at age 19!  It's had me thinking about my own mission ever since and has had me majorly wishing I had been born 15 or more years later than I was, so that this great announcement could have benefited me.  But I'm just glad it came at all...now I just await the time when girls are allowed to extend their missions to two years if they wish...hopefully that one will come soon!

The other thing I'm glad for is that The Church is being more positive about girls going on missions...finally!  Now girls don't have to feel like pariahs for wanting to serve.  Elder Holland even said that girls who serve missions "are stunningly successful and we enthusiastically welcome your service."  

Enthusiastically welcome...finally!  

I'm glad they're finally saying that.  I get that they didn't want to make girls feel bad for not serving, but I wish the church had been a little more positive towards the ones who did want to serve.  Because I remember getting a lot of criticism and even discouragement about going.  Which just seems crazy to me.  Why would you discourage someone from having such an amazing and life changing experience?  Weird.  

Fortunately for me I did, at least, have my mom's side of the family who were encouraging about serving mission.  Two of my mom's sisters served missions as young women and one of my older girl cousins did too.  That made it a lot easier for me to think it was okay to go on a mission...even when I felt discouragement about it from other sources.  

I think the idea of serving a mission was always in the back of my head, even from a very young age.  I remember in Primary when singing "I hope they call me on a mission," really hoping they'd call me on a mission.  So it was definitely something I always wanted to do.

At the age of 13, I was lucky enough to get to go with my mom, aunt, and grandma to pick my cousin, Lucy, up from her mission in Australia, a trip that cemented in my desire to serve a mission. 

Here Lucy and I are...feeding kangaroos in the rain.

While we were in Australia we got to go to church with Lucy...probably her last Sunday as a missionary.  And at church, Lucy, like many missionaries, was very involved in the meetings.  I remember she played the piano (extremely fast by the way) and also taught or helped teach the Sunday School class I attended. I don't even remember what the lesson was about or what was said that day, but I do remember very distinctly having the feeling overcome me that I wanted to have the kind of knowledge of the gospel and confidence and power in teaching it that Lucy had...and that I would gain that ability by serving a mission.  Observing first hand what a mission had done for my cousin made me sure that it was an experience I wanted to have too.  

And from that moment on, it was solidly in my plans and on my mind.  

And because I planned early to serve a mission I knew I'd have to study the scriptures and gain the confidence to talk to people about the gospel.  

My first real opportunity to share the gospel came when I was around 15 (I think) when my cousin Audrey and I invited our taxi driver to come in to the LA Temple Visitor's Center with us to learn more about The Church after he asked us some questions on our way to the Temple.  He ended up having the missionary discussions.  I'm not sure what happened after that, but I was glad I'd taken the opportunity to share the gospel that presented itself to me.  

Since President Monson's announcement last month I have to admit that I've been really regretting that this change didn't come sooner and wishing that I could have gone on a mission at 19.  Because truly, going at 21 was such a disruptive time to go.  I was three years into a five year program at BYU...a major I no longer wanted to do once I got back from my mission but went ahead and finished because I was so far into it.  (I feel in some ways that I wouldn't be having such a major career crisis if I'd been able to decide what I wanted to major in after my mission instead of before.)  Also, I didn't even really focus on or care about dating in my first three years of college, because I knew that I was going on a mission...and at 22 and half when I got home, I was already a Mormon Spinster.  

Anyway, since I can't go back and change when I was born, I've been trying to look at the positive aspects of serving a mission at 21.  One of those is, of course, more time to study and prepare.  Not only did I get to have four years of seminary under my belt, but three years of college religion classes too.  

Also, by the time I was 21 I'd had the chance to travel/live internationally without my family in both Europe and the Middle East and had lived away from home for three years at college, which made homesickness as a missionary pretty much non-existent.  

I'd had 12 different college roommates before my mission, which made knowing how to get along with companions much easier.  And I'd had the chance to grow in the gospel by serving in various callings. 

So as much as I regret that I couldn't have served a mission at age 19, I have to be grateful for all the extra preparation I had by going two years later.  And as difficult as serving a mission was at age 21, I'm kind of glad I don't have to know how much harder it would have been with two years less to prepare. 

And because serving a mission as a sister was somewhat looked down upon when I went, it only made me have to be more sure that I wanted to, and felt like I should go.   

Anyway, I'm not saying that girls going at 19 won't be prepared...I'm just saying that if I make myself look at the good things that came from having to wait until 21 to go, that those extra two years of preparation were so helpful.  

I think kids these days will be just fine at 18 and 19.  There might be a bit more homesickness as many more of them won't have experienced living away from home before their missions.  There might be more problems with companions as many won't have had the roommate experience before going.  But overall I think the generation younger than me are very good kids who are being better prepared for teaching the gospel.  Preach my Gospel is a much better missionary program than the old way (I'm glad I at least got to be part of the pilot program for the transition...it made such a difference to the way I taught), the YW Personal Progress program is better, and, finally, the Young Women lessons are better...no more super-outdated manual from the 1970's or 1980's.   

The new YW lessons are fantastic.  I can see already how they will help these girls be great missionaries if that's something they choose to do.  I like teaching the lessons so much more.  I like the higher expectation there is for the youth to come to class prepared and ready to participate.  I love that the lessons focus on studying conference talks and the scriptures...no more silly stories or poems.  

The youth of today are so lucky.  Maybe every generation feels like that...that the generation younger than them have things so much better.  I am especially excited that so many more young women will get to serve missions now that the age change makes it so much more convenient to serve.  Now you can go with relatively little interruption to college, dating, and life.  And you get home at age 20.5...not even a spinster yet!  

I think any girl today that doesn't seriously consider serving a mission is crazy...and is cheating herself of a fabulous experience...in my humble opinion.  And since this is my blog I guess I can freely give my opinion!

I remember one Sunday on my mission realizing just how much serving a mission was really going to help me in my future church service.  In Sacrament Meeting my companion played the piano and I led the music.  I was new to the area and had also been asked to give a talk in the meeting.  I spoke and then another person spoke and then the Branch President stood up and, over the pulpit, asked my companion and I if we would sing a duet for a musical number.  Now I don't sing.  Usually not in big groups and definitely not as part of a duet.  But I sang...a duet.  Then we made it to Sunday School...unfortunately the SS Teacher did not.  So, my companion and I, with no preparation (as with our duet) taught the Sunday School lesson.  Then came Relief Society where my companion and I were asked on the fly to sing another duet to introduce a hymn the women were not familiar with.  In between all that there was the usual talking to investigators, making sure the Branch President's dog didn't come into the chapel, making lunch appointments, making sure everyone felt welcome and included, etc...you know, normal missionary stuff.  I remember thinking to myself after that experience...no calling or responsibly in the church could ever possibly scare me or make me nervous after a day like today.  And thus far nothing has.  I learned that you just do it.  You do your best and you do it.  And things work out.  

Anyway, I'm so excited for the youth of the church today and for the opportunities the change in mission age will bring.  I'm excited for everyone who has the opportunity to serve a mission and am especially happy that so many more girls will have the chance to serve than ever before.  And now Sister missionaries will even be included in the leadership of the mission!  Yay!

There's not a day that goes by that I'm not grateful for something I learned as a missionary...from speaking Spanish, to how to study the gospel, to how to choke down gross food others give you (or dispose of it without their knowing), etc.  

I don't know if I have any readers left at all, let alone any teenage girl readers.  But if I do, I hope that they will all at least seriously consider serving a mission.  It's okay if you decide it's not something you want to do, but at least give the idea a chance.  There may be days in your mission or moments that are so hard that you'll regret going, but overall you never will regret the experience.  And you're needed...more than ever!  

I just read an article about the growth of The Church in India that said that the only thing holding India back from having an explosion of growth is lack of missionaries. India has a population of over one billion people and has only two missions.  That would be the per capita equivalent of having 35 to 40 missionaries serving in the entire United States.  We're only scratching the surface in India...and I haven't even mentioned China.  The Church and the world need you!

Well, everyone, I hope you enjoyed your last day of Leisure Suit Season...I sure did!  I'm going to try to get myself back into the blogging mode...hopefully I can keep myself motivated.  

P.S. Is anyone else soooooo sad that Google is getting rid of Google Reader?  What's up with that?

Let's hear it for New Yoooooork (and D.C.)!

In April my mom and I headed off on a little vacay (actually more of a trip than a vacay...I don't think your feet hurt so bad on vacation) to NYC and DC.  Neither of us really know how the trip came about for sure.  I'm blaming her and she's blaming me for making the trip happen, which, in turn, caused us to spend a lot of money and eat a lot of pizza.  

Somehow it started with my mom wanting to go to San Francisco to look into a possible business opportunity and ended up with us going to NYC and DC with no business intentions whatsoever.  Since this is my blog I'm just going to go ahead and say that I'm pretty sure it was her fault.  

It had been nearly 14 years since I'd been to DC, and although I was in NYC less than a year ago, I had never (before this trip) spent much time in NYC...just a day on my way to India last year and a day or two 14 years ago.  So I was due for a visit.  And my mom definitely was, as she'd never been to either place.  

And so we went...

to NYC!

And we walked and walked and subway'd everywhere, which compensated for some of our pizza and cupcake consumption.  

We wanted to stay on Manhattan so we'd be in the center of everything but we didn't want to pay the outrageous Manhattan hotel prices.  So, luckily, I found a website called airbnb where you can rent apartments short term instead of a hotel room.  Some of these apartments are people's own apartments that they rent out while they're on vacation or something, and others, like the one we rented, was just from a lady who owns several apartments in the city that she rents out.  

The apartment was great...it was clean, in a quiet Central Park East neighborhood, and was just two blocks from the 77th Street Subway stop.  And it was a third of the price of a Manhattan hotel.  I'd definitely rent a room on airbnb again.

We took one of those nerdy double-decker open-top tourist buses to get some tours of the city.  This provided us with a good view and feel for the city (because when you just take the subway everywhere you don't get that), some good information about the city, and some super messy hair.  

Neither of us had seen Wicked yet so we decided it was high time we did.  And it definitely exceeded our expectations.  

A view looking back at NYC and the Brooklyn Bridge

Amazing pizza from Grimaldi's.  It was soooo good.  It's a good thing I don't live in NYC because I'd want it at least weekly.  A local New Yorkian told us that the reason NYC's pizza and bagels are so good is because of the waaaada (water).  And I don't know whether it was the waaaada or not, but it was good...like in my top three best pizza places ever...with the other in my top three being: Pizzeria 712 (in Orem, Utah) and a little pizzeria I went to (embarrassingly multiple times) during my short stay in Florence, Italy.  

Mil walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, with a giant orb on her forehead.  

At the Fox News building.  My mom developed a crush on/appreciation for Neil Cavuto while living in Brazil and my dad always teases her about it...so we had to get a picture with Neil's poster.  

My mom making her Greta Van Susteren face.  My mom came home from the dentist all numbed up one day recently and my dad started calling her Greta...after that, we knew my mom could make the face so when we passed Greta's poster I talked her into doing it.  I'd feel bad about making fun of Greta, but she's super rich.  And if I were that rich I'd be fine with people making fun of me...I'd be like, 'say whatever you want about me...I'm loaded suckas.'

Inside the NY public library...such a beautiful building.  Whatever happened to rich people building gorgeous buildings for society?  Now rich people just spend money on botox and their dogs, and probably botox for their dogs.  

Outside of the library...such a beautiful building. 

We got caught in a little traffic on one of our bus tours.  My mom and I both noticed the lack of honking because in Fortaleza, Brazil, the biggest city we're both more familiar with, they honk horns like it's going out of style.  We kinda couldn't believe that nobody was honking a horn and I decided that there wasn't any horn honking because Americans are more civilized than Brazlians and they know that honking their horn isn't going to help the situation any.  But then we saw the above sign. 

Dang.  I guess we aren't all civilized...we just have lots of rules and fines.  But I'm fine with fines, as long as I'm not the one being fined.  

We went out to Ellis Island one afternoon.  As far as I know, I don't have any ancestors who came through Ellis Island...I think the latest ones missed it by just a few years, but it's still a pretty cool place anyway, and gives you a good feel for how immigration was back in those days.  

The main hall where everybody stood in line...

and Ellis Island's lost and found luggage section...

and Mil with Ellis Island in the background.  

And then of course we cruised around the Statue of Liberty.  It's cool in and of itself but is especially cool because of its location near Ellis Island and what it symbolized to immigrants coming to the U.S. in the early 20th Century.  

We spent a good chunk of one day at the Empire State Building.  For those of you who haven't been to the top of the Empire State Building, let me just tell you...it's not like in the movies.  You don't just take an elevator and within minutes you're up at the top.  

Instead, here's how it goes.  You stand in a line to get into the building.  Then you get into the building and you think "good, there are the elevators."  Except they aren't the right elevators, they're just the ones that take you up to where you stand in line to go through airport-like security.  Then you go through security (after standing in line for a long time) and you see that after security there's another huge line.  But you think to yourself, "we've already gone through the security line, we may as well wait in this line and go to the top."  And then after you wait in that line you realize that there's another line and you say, "should we just go?"  But then you don't want to have completely had the time you've already spent waiting to be pointless (and you've already paid to ascend)...you want to at least go to the top.  So you move from line to line, to one set of elevators and then another and it takes FOREVER...like hours.  

And even though you don't just get to speed to the top like Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle and meet your soul mate, it's still pretty great getting to the top.  Mostly because it means that you're finally done standing in line.  

Here's a pic of NYC from the top.  You can see the Chrysler Building on the left...it's one of my favorite buildings in NYC.  

Mil, so glad to be at the top, with a giant orb on her head.  

We survived the lines and got to stand at the top of a famous building.  I'm glad I did it, but I don't think I ever will again.  So, I'm glad I got a picture.  I just wish there wasn't a giant orb on my chest.  What's with all the orbs?  

Another view from the Empire state.  You can also get really great views from the top of 30 Rock too and it's cheaper, and way less time-consuming.  So, I'd recommend that instead of the Empire State.  

Here I am in the lobby...it's a pretty cool building but is not worth the lines.  

Part of the reason we decided to visit the top of the Empire State Building is because we bought New York Passes and by doing so had pre-paid for several of the more touristy things in NYC.  Since my mom hadn't been to NYC before and I hadn't done too many typical touristy things besides hanging out in Central Park and seeing a Broadway show, we decided it would be a good thing to make us do all the typical touristy things.  

And, having the pass did get us to do things we might not have normally done, like...

ride bikes in Central Park and

take a tour of the NBC studios from the NBC pages.  Unfortunately our page wasn't Kenneth Parcell, but I still loved the tour because we got to see the SNL cast rehearsing and my favorite male SNL cast member, Jason Sudeikis, was rehearsing with Sofia Vergara.  It was pretty awesome.  Touring the Doctor Oz. studio, however, was a borefest.  

Me, in front of the NBC studios.  

Anyway, although I really loved riding bikes in Central Park and taking an NBC tour (both things I wouldn't have probably done if I hadn't purchased the New York pass), I wouldn't recommend buying it unless you have at least a full week in NYC.  Because, you don't want to spend all your time in NY trying to run around getting your money's worth out of a pass.  You need time to just wander and get lost.  That's what makes a trip great...having time to just explore with no agenda.  

I just love how this old little church in the financial district is literally crammed between two skyscrapers.  That's one of the things I most love about NYC...just the history and the mix between old and new.  

Me @ the LDS Temple in Manhattan.  

My mom at the Met.  I love the Met.  If I lived in NYC I'd go there every rainy day.  

I love NYC.  It's definitely one of my very favorite cities in the world.  If I were rich I'd have an apt there.  I just love the mix of people from all over the world, the history, the food, the fashion...it's just a fascinating city...probably tied with London for my favorite big city.  

Anyway, after four fabulous days in NYC, we hopped on the Amtrak and headed to D.C.  

We got there Saturday night and Sunday morning we headed out on an adventure to find the LDS Temple and a nearby Sacrament Meeting sans car.  Our travels included a metro ride, a bus ride, a long hike, and a little hitchhiking of sorts. 

This is me on the long hike part.

We finally made it to the temple...a little sweaty and tired however.  

Well, I guess I was the sweaty and tired one.  My mom looked great.  

We scheduled our trip to try to be in D.C. to see the Cherry Blossoms.  It was the 100th anniversary of Japan's gift of thousands of cherry trees to the United States, and, although we were there for the anniversary celebrations, we, due to the extra warm Spring, missed the actual cherry blossoms.  Sad.  

But we were there when most everything else was in bloom...

and I loved seeing all the color everywhere.  

The next day a nice little Idaho intern gave us a tour of the Capitol Building, but we forgot to take any pictures of us in front of the Capitol...

so here's one inside by the Brigham Young statue.  

And of course we had to check out Arlington...

I loved this little white tree.  

And the Smithsonian...

and the Lincoln Memorial...

even though I'm not a huge fan of Lincoln anymore.  

Even though I hadn't been to D.C. for 14 years, my mom still made me be her tour guide...

so here I am studying up for the next location.  I think I was a darn good tour guide...but I may have pushed us a bit much, since neither of us could walk for about a week after returning home.  Maybe that's why I didn't earn a tip.  Oh well, the damage wasn't permanent...and I just wanted to make sure my mom saw all the main sites. 

One day we took the metro and a bus out to Mount Vernon.  It's such a beautiful place.  The setting is absolutely amazing.  Although, based upon a visit there 14 years ago, it's a super hot and humidly disgusting place in the summer.  I bet George (and Martha) had 10 inch pits during the summer months.   

Here's Mil with the view from Georgie's mansion...

and us in front of the mansion itself.  

Here I am on the Mount Vernon grounds...they have pretty trails everywhere that you can bike/hike, if you're so inclined.  

And everything was in bloom (except the cherry trees), or maybe there aren't any there.  As I recall George was a chopper of cherry trees.  

The grounds were pretty much the same as I remember them being 14 years ago, but they now have this really great museum at Mount Vernon.  There's even a theater where they show a movie about the Revolutionary War and when it snows in the movie, it snows in the theater.  Pretty cool.  

Anyway, the museum displays are really nicely done.  My favorite display had to be of George's dentures.  Contrary to popular belief, they were not made of wood, but rather hippopotamus ivory and human and animal teeth.  Gross/cool.  I guess over the course of George's life he had several pair of false teeth.  He started losing teeth in his 20's and I think only had one real tooth left by the time he was inaugurated as president.  Problems with his teeth plagued him nearly his whole adult life.  And he still did awesome things.

I have things I hate about myself that plague me constantly...things about myself that are in the back of my head during every waking moment.  But if George was an awesome first President of the United States with his sucky teeth, then maybe I can do great things too, even with all my problems...at least aspire to be president of the local Rotary Club or something.  

Anyway, I know this sounds weird, but I really liked learning about George and his teeth (or lack thereof).  It made him seem like a real person to me...not just a figure from the history books.  

And I also learned how much the people of his day revered him...some even seemed to think of him as a sort of demigod, as seen in this statue in the Smithsonian...

and he may have been an awesome person and president, but I have serious doubts about the accuracy of his abs and pecs as depicted in the above piece of art...serious doubts.

Anyway, after bonding with George at Mt. Vernon, we headed back to D.C. to check out the White House...

and some other stuff...

like the old Post Office building that I'm standing in front of.  

If our trip to NYC and DC had a theme it would have to be eating and walking...and eating and walking, and then eating and walking some more.  Luckily the two sort of balance each other out.  

In NYC we focused our eating energies on cupcakes and pizza...and in DC we focused on cupcakes and ethnic food.  

We were looking for the world's best cupcake.  And, after all we ate, we decided that the cupcakes we make at home are as good or better than any we bought.  We still had some very tasty cupcakes though and were glad we tasted all we could.  

Since DC is the only place in the U.S. that has Nando's we just had to eat there.  Yum!

We also had some delicious Ethiopian food since DC has a lot of great Ethiopian restaurants.  It kinda looks unappetizing, but I promise, it is pretty delicious.  Besides, you get to eat with your hands and it's totally PC.  

We also ate Lebanese and Indian food while in D.C.  Yum!  

So, we went to our nation's capital and ate food from any nation but our own. It was just nice to be somewhere with a little more food variety than we have in Idaho.  

By the end of the trip we could barely walk.  We spent eight days traveling and never took a car or taxi anywhere...just our feet and public transportation.  

The last day we had a little extra time and were two blocks away from Ford's Theater, so I asked my mom if she wanted to go see it.  

And she said, "nah, my feet hurt too bad."  

And I didn't care.  

Because my feet hurt too.  

And besides, I don't really like Abraham Lincoln anymore.  

But I do love George Washington... impeccable pecs, or not.  

So thanks George, and mom, for a great and memorable trip!