Tonight I went to my friend Breanne's house for baklava and I think that was good for me. There were four of us total, all returned missionaries, and it was fun. We got Shalayne to tell us about when a crazy drunk man burned down her apartment on her mission and then we got into all kinds of mission talk. I enjoyed it.
My first semester post-mission has been a bit of a roller coaster, but I can still see how I'm being blessed. If we take this past week as a sample:
On Monday I got a message from my MTC companion letting me know that she'd be in Provo interviewing for grad school Thursday-Friday and she really wanted to see me. Then it came out that she also needed a ride to Salt Lake Friday night and I was cool with doing that for her.
Anyway, I spent the next couple days working out the problems I had with the internet headset phone thing I got in the mail last week for work. I finally got it mostly working on Wednesday, and Thursday morning I really figured it out. I had class Thursday afternoon until it was too late to call people, so I got my homework done and planned to get more calls in after class on Friday. I also took the time to visit the life sciences learning center to talk with some TAs about genetics and both of the TAs I talked to treated me like an idiot for asking questions. I was not impressed with their lack of professionalism.
That night I thought I'd take a little break from the world and the frustrations of my classes and take some time to attend the temple. At first I was just going to head over by myself when I was done with homework, but then I thought it would be nice to invite someone to come along. I thought of my friend Julie, who had mentioned going to the temple together at some point the week before. So I went with her and that was good.
Anyway, when we were leaving the temple at around 9:30 that evening we walked out to the satellite parking lot and found out we had parked right near one another. We were still talking as I headed over to my car and something struck me as odd. I stopped and looked at my car for a minute, then said, "I think my tire's flat." I pulled out my cell phone and switched it on so I could use the screen for a bit of light. I held it up to the tire and confirmed my hypothesis.
A couple things flashed through my head at this point. One was annoyance, although another part of my brain realized it was much better to have a flat tire in the temple parking lot than while driving on the highway to Salt Lake. I also considered my situation: it was dark, it was cold, I was wearing a skirt, and the only thing coming to my head about changing a tire was that if I put the jack in the wrong place I would bend the frame. The thought of getting down to look around under the car for the right place didn't seem too great. So Julie was an angel and took me home, then after class on Friday she hung around for an hour while I met with a group for a project, then drove me back out to my car to help me get the spare tire on.
At this point it was a little after 2 on Friday afternoon. I had to get the spare tire on, get the car to a shop where I could get the tire replaced, and get Ashlee (my MTC companion) to Salt Lake. Julie and I were pretty awesome with the jack and everything. A man leaving the temple stopped to check on us (and made sure the jack was properly positioned), but he said we didn't really need his help because we had it under control. It was still kind of him to help.
Anyway, I next headed over to WalMart to get set up with a new tire. Dealing with the tire & lube place was waaaay more stressful than putting on the spare. They were way backed up and I realized I don't know much about my car. ("What type of car is it?" "Uh...good question.") Then I got stuck waiting at Wally World for almost two hours. As a general rule, I'm done with stores within the first 15 minutes. I thought I was going to go crazy. But eventually everything worked out and I finally got out of there and back to my apartment before 6 with only a few other detours and inconveniences. Unfortunately, I got zero hours of work in, but at least the car was ready for my mini road trip.
This post is becoming much, much longer than I meant it to be, but eventually I went and got Ashlee and we drove out to Salt Lake, and we paid a brief visit to Temple Square. I was super nervous to go back, but it wound up being pretty wonderful. I especially wanted to find my baby, Sister McClellan, because she's going home this transfer. Turns out she's companions with the same sister who sent me home. Weird how those things work out. They both were super-excited to see me and made me feel awesome and loved. They're also probably two of my most favorite companions ever, so I was excited that they get to be together. I also got to hear about progress from some people we found right at the end of my mission. Baptisms are always good news. :)
That's enough for me.