I AM SO SORRY! I did not forget your[Charles Urban's] birthday but I've been so busy and I did not have time and when I did have time I was SO tired and that is not really an excuse well it's not an excuse at all so I am sorry. Your letter should be there shortly.
This month we went from teaching 16 lessons to 30 lessons a week. No baptisms this transfer but we are planning for 5 or 6 next month. I have taught so many lessons it is unbelievable. I think that is what I love so much about this mission. If we are obedient and want to work we will teach lots.
Have fun playing on the Wii. Make sure you are eating right (Whole grain, Fruits and veggies, Nuts ~some nuts actually lower cholesterol~ and Beans to snack on) and getting plenty of exercise(total of 30 minuets or heart pumping action)!
With love,
Elder William C. Urban
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Elder Urban - 7/20/2009 2:55 PM
Thanks for all the Emails. I love hearing what all is going on at home.
The past week was real busy.
Thanks again for everything! If you need anything or have some questions feel free.
Love,
Elder William C. Urban
The past week was real busy.
Thanks again for everything! If you need anything or have some questions feel free.
Love,
Elder William C. Urban
Monday, July 13, 2009
Elder Urban - 7/13/2009 2:05 PM
Thanks for the letters and the Emails. Its awesome that Sam got a free meal because of a shirt that i got him.
We are real busy this transfer. I am learning some valuable lessons like forgiveness, faith, humility, and diligence. This mission is blessing me greatly and I hope it is blessing you guys also
We are real busy this transfer. I am learning some valuable lessons like forgiveness, faith, humility, and diligence. This mission is blessing me greatly and I hope it is blessing you guys also
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Anime Expo '09 ~ Day 4
Day 4: So uhh... I've never really had a bad con experience with room-mates or getting into trouble before. I guess I was pushing my luck or something. I woke up to door-banging. Leo was banging on the bathroom door. See, Kevin passed out with the water still on in the tub, and the whole area was soaked. I was lucky my stuff was on the end of the room. But poor Lexy, half her stuff got soaked. I didn't want to deal with the room so I headed for the Vendor room. After all, I didn't really buy anything yet because Technika sucked me in. Yeah, there was a DJMax booth this year selling their stuff, and they had their new arcade game up for a free test run. Really awesome. I went ahead and bought their game for my DS to get myself a premium card that would save up my stats. I dunno, maybe in a year or so there'll be an arcade her or out east somewhere that I could play it again...
Anyway, I stumbled into Jeremy when I entered into the dealer's room and we were just tlaking when Leo called me saying we might get kicked out. I ran back over to the hotel and everyone else was packing their stuff. That big puddle that formed was leaking into the room below us. It was interesting because we would get different people knowcking on our door (well, there was a security guy that was there the whole time...) the first lady, whom I wasn't there to see, was appearently just down right rude. Taking pictures and claiming our place was trashed and we threw a party just because our cosplays where all over the place. And despite us saying the average con-goer's room was far worse than ours with 8-10 people, it didn't matter and that there should only be 4 people and who was Jeremy, why wasn't the registerd card user with us, but then later another lady came who was calm but very serious. I was the one that ended up having to talk to her for some reason. I guess because I had an understanding of the polacies and had best contact with Jeremy and whatnot. Things calmed down from there, but I was still freaked out about the possability of leaving a day early and the fact they took our ID #s. She wanted us out, and left the security people to wait there until Jeremy showed up. Buy the time he got here, I had called him about the situation and Kevin was sober enough to help out. He really is a great guy. He says one thing he truely believe's in is to take responsability for your stupid-arse mistakes. By this point a third lady came, whom I think was the con-relations manager. After it was explained that it was just an honest mistake further examanation showed that really all they had to do was soak up the water, clean the carpets, and patch up the floor below. Minimum damage that only cost about $300. She was a great lady, and the security guard also seemed to feel bad for us the whole time. Jeremy was also a great guy because he just kind of helped us pack and was talking us through what was going on.
Anyway, long story short, they obviously wanted us out of the room so they could clean it as fast as possible, and we did, too. They were understanding enough to give us another room. After all, it was past noon, the check-out time. Most AX attendees had left already so we had some options. And everyone was happy. Well, but I missed out on my dealer room time, and ended up not getting anything I wanted. Not like there was much I was actually going to buy in the first place, because quite honestly, I was, and still am, very dissapointed witht the dealer's room this year. I understand with the economy not to expect huge deals, but even the selection was all the same! Gah, ok rant over...
After that we did as scheduled. I went with the Jeremy group to crash the pool and after that he had a reservation at one of the restaurants in Little Tokyo for us. It was great, authentic food. They had a "specialty" menu set aside for us at a flat rate. Kind of like appitizers of what they had across the board. And we also got to sit in one of their traditional rooms, so we sat on the floor on those cool little cushions. Then we had dessert at Beard Papa's. Oh, the glory that is Beard Papa's! I'm missing the Halleluja chorus already. It's that good. It was discribed to me as the asian Krispy Kream's and I believe it. Actually all it is is a store that sells gigator cream puffs. Yup. Cream Puffs. If I can help it, I'm totally moving as close as I can to one of their locations....
Then, the Mariott right across the street from us has a theater right below it. I finally got to see the new Transformers movie. It was good. I liked it, despite all the un-nessisary inuendos. But I do have to say this. You guys all know me, I go through marathons and enjoy sitting through Lord of the Rings and whatnot. This was a long movie. It can happen! It felt like it was long to me! It very well just could be the result of a very long week-end of fun, adrenalin, going-off-one-meal-a-day, and no-sleep. I was tired when the movie ended. But whatever. After,a guy in the group commented how cool we are for hanging out in the finantial district of downtown LA on a sunday night after Independance Day. I though that was great.
So yeah, we had a great last night in our new room with our cool buddies. We couldn't have had anyone better to be stuck with for this adventure. They're back in Pheonix by now. Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to mention was how nice the weather was for us. Really. Nothing above 95, I think. There was always a breeze. Last year was appearently death to all, and that's what I was expecting, but it was great weather! Oh but another crazy downer was all of the New people that took up the parking for the Staples Center because of the Michel Jackson memorium thinggie that's going on right now. But whatev. We checked out by noon and on the way by about 12:30, but not before Brandi was awesome and got us all a dozen more cream puffs from Beard Papa's~~~ Well, and also more Pocky and ramune' for the trip!
We had a safe journey back. We had Cici's Pizza at Vegas. Because that was the one thing Trevor asked to do when he OKed the trip. Yay cheap pizza baffet!! Then we stayed at St. George with Lexy's grand-parents for a little bit. They had a nice house, and it was a nice last little stop before getting home.
Anyway, I stumbled into Jeremy when I entered into the dealer's room and we were just tlaking when Leo called me saying we might get kicked out. I ran back over to the hotel and everyone else was packing their stuff. That big puddle that formed was leaking into the room below us. It was interesting because we would get different people knowcking on our door (well, there was a security guy that was there the whole time...) the first lady, whom I wasn't there to see, was appearently just down right rude. Taking pictures and claiming our place was trashed and we threw a party just because our cosplays where all over the place. And despite us saying the average con-goer's room was far worse than ours with 8-10 people, it didn't matter and that there should only be 4 people and who was Jeremy, why wasn't the registerd card user with us, but then later another lady came who was calm but very serious. I was the one that ended up having to talk to her for some reason. I guess because I had an understanding of the polacies and had best contact with Jeremy and whatnot. Things calmed down from there, but I was still freaked out about the possability of leaving a day early and the fact they took our ID #s. She wanted us out, and left the security people to wait there until Jeremy showed up. Buy the time he got here, I had called him about the situation and Kevin was sober enough to help out. He really is a great guy. He says one thing he truely believe's in is to take responsability for your stupid-arse mistakes. By this point a third lady came, whom I think was the con-relations manager. After it was explained that it was just an honest mistake further examanation showed that really all they had to do was soak up the water, clean the carpets, and patch up the floor below. Minimum damage that only cost about $300. She was a great lady, and the security guard also seemed to feel bad for us the whole time. Jeremy was also a great guy because he just kind of helped us pack and was talking us through what was going on.
Anyway, long story short, they obviously wanted us out of the room so they could clean it as fast as possible, and we did, too. They were understanding enough to give us another room. After all, it was past noon, the check-out time. Most AX attendees had left already so we had some options. And everyone was happy. Well, but I missed out on my dealer room time, and ended up not getting anything I wanted. Not like there was much I was actually going to buy in the first place, because quite honestly, I was, and still am, very dissapointed witht the dealer's room this year. I understand with the economy not to expect huge deals, but even the selection was all the same! Gah, ok rant over...
After that we did as scheduled. I went with the Jeremy group to crash the pool and after that he had a reservation at one of the restaurants in Little Tokyo for us. It was great, authentic food. They had a "specialty" menu set aside for us at a flat rate. Kind of like appitizers of what they had across the board. And we also got to sit in one of their traditional rooms, so we sat on the floor on those cool little cushions. Then we had dessert at Beard Papa's. Oh, the glory that is Beard Papa's! I'm missing the Halleluja chorus already. It's that good. It was discribed to me as the asian Krispy Kream's and I believe it. Actually all it is is a store that sells gigator cream puffs. Yup. Cream Puffs. If I can help it, I'm totally moving as close as I can to one of their locations....
Then, the Mariott right across the street from us has a theater right below it. I finally got to see the new Transformers movie. It was good. I liked it, despite all the un-nessisary inuendos. But I do have to say this. You guys all know me, I go through marathons and enjoy sitting through Lord of the Rings and whatnot. This was a long movie. It can happen! It felt like it was long to me! It very well just could be the result of a very long week-end of fun, adrenalin, going-off-one-meal-a-day, and no-sleep. I was tired when the movie ended. But whatever. After,a guy in the group commented how cool we are for hanging out in the finantial district of downtown LA on a sunday night after Independance Day. I though that was great.
So yeah, we had a great last night in our new room with our cool buddies. We couldn't have had anyone better to be stuck with for this adventure. They're back in Pheonix by now. Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to mention was how nice the weather was for us. Really. Nothing above 95, I think. There was always a breeze. Last year was appearently death to all, and that's what I was expecting, but it was great weather! Oh but another crazy downer was all of the New people that took up the parking for the Staples Center because of the Michel Jackson memorium thinggie that's going on right now. But whatev. We checked out by noon and on the way by about 12:30, but not before Brandi was awesome and got us all a dozen more cream puffs from Beard Papa's~~~ Well, and also more Pocky and ramune' for the trip!
We had a safe journey back. We had Cici's Pizza at Vegas. Because that was the one thing Trevor asked to do when he OKed the trip. Yay cheap pizza baffet!! Then we stayed at St. George with Lexy's grand-parents for a little bit. They had a nice house, and it was a nice last little stop before getting home.
Anime Expo '09 ~ Day 3
Day 3: Happy Independance Day everyone! I hope you all had a great time celebrating. Actually, I had kind of a stressing start, not gunna lie. Because I wanted to cosplay my Zidane. I mean, I had these way ubber awesome swords! Plus I wanted to be there to help break our Guinness World-Record attempt for most video-game cosplayers gathered together at one time. So, I did not go with the rest of the group to the Host Club gathering that we've been pulling all-nighters attempting to finish. Not like I really finished mine anyway, but they said there were over 50 people gathered for that... Oh well... the record also wasn't broken because we needed 2 notaries and only one was there. It was still fun. Someone started singing "Still Alive" during the 15 minuet stand-still. Too bad it was un-official. Maybe they'll do it next year.
There was a way awesome Power Rangers panel, where they gathered the original Rangers and about 20 other people from the show for this con. I had to cut out early, though, to see the Funimation panel, because I wanted to be there for any new licensing announcements. But then I cut out of that early because of the AX Idol fianls. Kyle Hebert was hosting this year, so I wanted to be there cuz he's a cool guy. Remember when I had that one guy a few Aprils ago call Sam at home? Yeah, that guy. Once again, all the singers were great, but I wasn't to thrilled with the lack of variety in the pick of the final 5. They mostly all sang Gurren Laggan theme songs. The Voice Acting, on the other hand, was great.
Next, I went the the Otaku Parliamentary Debate finals. I missed the prelims, but made it in time to catch the tale-end of the semi-final rounds. It's just like any other Parliamentary debate, where they had to follow the same procedures and everything, except it's over anime-themes. While we were waiting for the finals they help a few fun mock trials. I got picked for jury-duty for one of them. It's so funny how great a time you can have with law when it's over topics you actually love and know about. They even had some good legitimate arguments. Plus it's not like people haven't been debating topics like subs vs. dubs online forever in the first place.
I actually did NOT go to the masquerade. Surprise, I know. I was at the hotel because Jeremy had a bajillion subway sandwiches for everyone. Then he help a Rock Band tournament with prizes for the winners, and for those that entertained him. More fun times just playing with all the guys in our rooms. Plus I did win a T-shirt for my awesome drumming skills~~
Hmm, after that there were fireworks and a huge dance. I had 200 glow sticks because JoAnns had them on sale so I got them for cheap. But I ended up not even going. I found these guys trying to solve "the mystery of floor 26" or something. But it turned out to be a true quest. No elevator would let you go to floor 26! And no one knew where the emergency stairs were but me because they were tucked away in the center of each tower. Turns out when we went down to that level, everything was dark. They were re-modeling the whole floor. But anyway, yeah. Everyone was partying like crazy because it was the last night of the con and all.
There was a way awesome Power Rangers panel, where they gathered the original Rangers and about 20 other people from the show for this con. I had to cut out early, though, to see the Funimation panel, because I wanted to be there for any new licensing announcements. But then I cut out of that early because of the AX Idol fianls. Kyle Hebert was hosting this year, so I wanted to be there cuz he's a cool guy. Remember when I had that one guy a few Aprils ago call Sam at home? Yeah, that guy. Once again, all the singers were great, but I wasn't to thrilled with the lack of variety in the pick of the final 5. They mostly all sang Gurren Laggan theme songs. The Voice Acting, on the other hand, was great.
Next, I went the the Otaku Parliamentary Debate finals. I missed the prelims, but made it in time to catch the tale-end of the semi-final rounds. It's just like any other Parliamentary debate, where they had to follow the same procedures and everything, except it's over anime-themes. While we were waiting for the finals they help a few fun mock trials. I got picked for jury-duty for one of them. It's so funny how great a time you can have with law when it's over topics you actually love and know about. They even had some good legitimate arguments. Plus it's not like people haven't been debating topics like subs vs. dubs online forever in the first place.
I actually did NOT go to the masquerade. Surprise, I know. I was at the hotel because Jeremy had a bajillion subway sandwiches for everyone. Then he help a Rock Band tournament with prizes for the winners, and for those that entertained him. More fun times just playing with all the guys in our rooms. Plus I did win a T-shirt for my awesome drumming skills~~
Hmm, after that there were fireworks and a huge dance. I had 200 glow sticks because JoAnns had them on sale so I got them for cheap. But I ended up not even going. I found these guys trying to solve "the mystery of floor 26" or something. But it turned out to be a true quest. No elevator would let you go to floor 26! And no one knew where the emergency stairs were but me because they were tucked away in the center of each tower. Turns out when we went down to that level, everything was dark. They were re-modeling the whole floor. But anyway, yeah. Everyone was partying like crazy because it was the last night of the con and all.
Anime Expo '09 ~ Day 2
Day 2: I’m still sad that I slept in. There was an AX forum meet-n-greet scheduled at 9am. Basically I’ve been talking for the last month on the boards asking questions and getting to know people so I can make sure I’d have a great time at the con, and they had an event with getting-to-know-you games and contests and prizes all to help you meet people you’ve been talking to on the forums or simply to meet a friend to hang with at the con. Anyway, I missed it. But what I *really* wanted to see was the panel that took place right after that. When I finally woke up, I booked it to the LACC to catch the last half of it.
The CMX manga panel was exactly what I thought it would be. Three people from the company came and pretty much told everyone what new manga they had acquired the rights to publish as well as informing us of release dates of what they’ve licensed and filling us in on how the whole process is done. As it is cool to be there asking the questions and hearing things from the horse’s mouth, you can find out all of this online instantly after the panel. I went because I was on a mission, and I wouldn’t let myself chicken-out. After the panel ended, I went up to Jim Chadwick as he was about to leave. He’s pretty much one of the chief manga editors for DC Comics. I asked him what it took to become a professional touch-up artists and letterer for manga. He responded saying that all of the touch-up art was now done in-studio for cost (in La Jolla, Ca) but that they still free-lance some of the lettering jobs. He asked where I was from and after I let him know that I’ve been a scanlator for about 4 years, he said “Great” and gave this interested smile-nod (at least I hope... that's what it looked like to me). The brief conversation ended when he gave me his card and told me to send him some samples of my work and that he’d look into it and see what my options are. I will be working on that after I post this, so I really hope I’ll be doing it right and he likes what he sees.
After much rejoicing at my success for not wimping out, I put my Skip Beat love-me section uniform on and cosplayed with Lexy. Unlike past cons where we'd get maybe 5 people knowing who we were, we've seen maybe about 8 other people wearing the uniform. Spread the love for Skip Beat!!
I also went to the Viz panel later. It was pretty much the same thing, only with a packed room and a nicer presentation (as it’s Viz, a much bigger and more popular publishing company to the fans) and it was done by 2 marketing people. I didn’t get the same kind of luck with these people, as the lady just pointed me off to the “jobs” section of their web-site that I’ve already tried about a year ago with no response (well, cuz I know they wouldn’t be hiring just anybody with the industry the way it is…). I was lucky in another way, though. There were these two D.N.Angel cosplayers who had over-heard me asking about lettering and they came to me in the hallway. They said they were free-lance translators mainly for Tokyopop and Del Rey. They explained how they didn’t know how the system worked for Letterers, but that they would still try and put in a good word for me if I wanted. Then they also gave me their card for contact. Not a bad day if I do say so myself. I’ve at least gotten my foot in the door. We’ll see where it goes from there.
As for the rest of my day, I finally went to the exhibition room with all of the dealers and the artist-alley to survey the goods. When I felt I was done looking, I went to the Funimation Sneak Peaks, which just showed clips of the stuff they are releasing this year to help you know if you’re interested enough to actually buy them or not. It was fun, actually. People’s reactions in the packed room was entertaining (mine included, I’m sure). I also decided to attend the AMV contest. In all the cons I’ve been to, I had never actually attended one to cast in my vote. Though only one of mine actually won, because people just look for entertainment and not at the actual quality of how good each music video actually was…
The CMX manga panel was exactly what I thought it would be. Three people from the company came and pretty much told everyone what new manga they had acquired the rights to publish as well as informing us of release dates of what they’ve licensed and filling us in on how the whole process is done. As it is cool to be there asking the questions and hearing things from the horse’s mouth, you can find out all of this online instantly after the panel. I went because I was on a mission, and I wouldn’t let myself chicken-out. After the panel ended, I went up to Jim Chadwick as he was about to leave. He’s pretty much one of the chief manga editors for DC Comics. I asked him what it took to become a professional touch-up artists and letterer for manga. He responded saying that all of the touch-up art was now done in-studio for cost (in La Jolla, Ca) but that they still free-lance some of the lettering jobs. He asked where I was from and after I let him know that I’ve been a scanlator for about 4 years, he said “Great” and gave this interested smile-nod (at least I hope... that's what it looked like to me). The brief conversation ended when he gave me his card and told me to send him some samples of my work and that he’d look into it and see what my options are. I will be working on that after I post this, so I really hope I’ll be doing it right and he likes what he sees.
After much rejoicing at my success for not wimping out, I put my Skip Beat love-me section uniform on and cosplayed with Lexy. Unlike past cons where we'd get maybe 5 people knowing who we were, we've seen maybe about 8 other people wearing the uniform. Spread the love for Skip Beat!!
I also went to the Viz panel later. It was pretty much the same thing, only with a packed room and a nicer presentation (as it’s Viz, a much bigger and more popular publishing company to the fans) and it was done by 2 marketing people. I didn’t get the same kind of luck with these people, as the lady just pointed me off to the “jobs” section of their web-site that I’ve already tried about a year ago with no response (well, cuz I know they wouldn’t be hiring just anybody with the industry the way it is…). I was lucky in another way, though. There were these two D.N.Angel cosplayers who had over-heard me asking about lettering and they came to me in the hallway. They said they were free-lance translators mainly for Tokyopop and Del Rey. They explained how they didn’t know how the system worked for Letterers, but that they would still try and put in a good word for me if I wanted. Then they also gave me their card for contact. Not a bad day if I do say so myself. I’ve at least gotten my foot in the door. We’ll see where it goes from there.
As for the rest of my day, I finally went to the exhibition room with all of the dealers and the artist-alley to survey the goods. When I felt I was done looking, I went to the Funimation Sneak Peaks, which just showed clips of the stuff they are releasing this year to help you know if you’re interested enough to actually buy them or not. It was fun, actually. People’s reactions in the packed room was entertaining (mine included, I’m sure). I also decided to attend the AMV contest. In all the cons I’ve been to, I had never actually attended one to cast in my vote. Though only one of mine actually won, because people just look for entertainment and not at the actual quality of how good each music video actually was…
Anime Expo '09 ~ Day 1
Day 1: I wore my green yin-yang Machika cosplay the whole day. This was kind of my “Events I get to do at AX” day. I had signed up for AX Idol, which is basically like American Idol except anime version, and there are 2 categories. One is singing and the other is Voice Acting. Winning either gets you a free tour of one of the Bang Zoom! Recording Studio as well as a free gig or demo tape, with some other anime prizes. I decided to try the Voice Acting, 1. Because it was half the competition (little did I know it was quality not quantity so it was even fiercer….) and 2. I would get a critique from some of the big-wigs that I otherwise would never get to meet. Plus I got to see everyone else perform as well. It was like one big open-room audition. Fun experience.
Anyway, to counter missing the singing auditions I also signed up for the Karaoke contest. And to my dismay, the released schedule had them both at the same time. I regrettably had to miss some of the auditions to sing my preliminary karaoke song, thereby missing 3 of the idol winner’s monologues. Grrs. Mine was fun. I did one of Kyoko’s speeches in episode 24 of Skip Beat. They said I had an amazing start, but I was way to active with my mono, hence not talking everything into the mic, which is like, the main center-focus of everything in the world of VA cuz that’s kinda the point of the whole thing. I was also rushing it. They said even though I’m limited to 1 minuet I still need to give the judges time to process what I’m saying and doing before jumping into the next part because I picked a mono from a show they haven’t seen. So yeah, even though a lot of people said I was great and I should have made it, I know those are the reasons why, and I’m ok with it. If I get a chance to try again in the future I know I can make it.
The karaoke contest was another matter. I made it up to the semi-finals. It was so fun. Before the final run, I went with some people to eat at the Pantry Cafe' so I could get my local eating stop out of the way. Besides the overly inflated pricing, the food was still great. In fact, I think they put something extra in the pancakes cuz they were way good! But yeah, there are so many talented singer-nerds, it’s crazy. I did win some free anime figurines for my efforts though, and that was fun, too. After that I went back to the room and met the guys staying in one of the other rooms Jeremy had. They were the "gaming room" with Rock Band and they also had a server hooked up that people would ul anime and stuff to, so that was cool.
Anime Expo '09 ~ Day 0
Well, it's about time I made a post, and this way I won't have to tell the same story too many times. Though I probably should have done a daily update to remember things better... oh well. I'll just post each day for the sake of length. I'l just upload the pics later, though cuz I'm tired.
Day 0: The week leading up to the trip was crazy, but worth it. I worked almost every day, and also made some Blue blazers to cosplay the Ouron High School Host Club. We left Orem at around 3 AM or so on the 1st of July in a red Ford Escort. "We" being me, my friend Lexy, her husband (and also my friend) Trevor, and one of their friends Kevin, whom I just met about a month ago but was a fun addition to the trip. We stopped to have Buffet in Vegas, as per Lexy's request, at the Luxar. It's a big black peramid on the Strip and had a huge Transformers 2 Ad on one side. Later on we also made a pit-stop for gas in Baker, CA wich has the longest thermometer in the world. When we got there it said we were around 105 F. Not bad, clnsidering their average...
We arrived to L.A. about 3 p.m. pacific time. It took some time to navigate through the complicated non-grid-like downtown city roads, but we arrived at the hotel Westin Bonaventure. After more confusion on how to handle parking ~Westin AX rate was $24 (usually $42 vallet) a day, some lots were about $4 per 15 min, others $5-10 an hour~ I met up with Jeremy, the guy who was hooking us up with our room. He was great, btw. he had it all figured out. After settling in, Kevin and I went to the LACC to register and pick up our badges. Lex and Trev copied their DL so we could pick theirs up wile they drove the car to the cheap $6/day Union Station parking.
The Con Center was pretty huge. So was the line. Registration opened at 3(ish, supposedly there were computer problems) but we got there around 4-4:30. We were there for maybe an hour. The outside line took up the most time. One of those wait-in-line-to-get-in-line deals. But once we got inside it didn't take so long. You literally went to a computer, clicked that you pre-registered, told it how toserch for you (in my case, I simply scanned in my printed bar-code) and it prints your badge. When we returned, we got to meet our room-mate Leo as well as Brandi, who was also my bed-mate. We hit it off instantly. It was exiting on both ends to find out we'd be spending the week-end with cool people that we liked.
I ended the day in the Karaoke room. It was one of the pre-AX events going on at our hotel so I figured why not stop by while the waiting list was short. I had a great time meeting random singers. Also, the beds were pretty comphy.
Day 0: The week leading up to the trip was crazy, but worth it. I worked almost every day, and also made some Blue blazers to cosplay the Ouron High School Host Club. We left Orem at around 3 AM or so on the 1st of July in a red Ford Escort. "We" being me, my friend Lexy, her husband (and also my friend) Trevor, and one of their friends Kevin, whom I just met about a month ago but was a fun addition to the trip. We stopped to have Buffet in Vegas, as per Lexy's request, at the Luxar. It's a big black peramid on the Strip and had a huge Transformers 2 Ad on one side. Later on we also made a pit-stop for gas in Baker, CA wich has the longest thermometer in the world. When we got there it said we were around 105 F. Not bad, clnsidering their average...
We arrived to L.A. about 3 p.m. pacific time. It took some time to navigate through the complicated non-grid-like downtown city roads, but we arrived at the hotel Westin Bonaventure. After more confusion on how to handle parking ~Westin AX rate was $24 (usually $42 vallet) a day, some lots were about $4 per 15 min, others $5-10 an hour~ I met up with Jeremy, the guy who was hooking us up with our room. He was great, btw. he had it all figured out. After settling in, Kevin and I went to the LACC to register and pick up our badges. Lex and Trev copied their DL so we could pick theirs up wile they drove the car to the cheap $6/day Union Station parking.
The Con Center was pretty huge. So was the line. Registration opened at 3(ish, supposedly there were computer problems) but we got there around 4-4:30. We were there for maybe an hour. The outside line took up the most time. One of those wait-in-line-to-get-in-line deals. But once we got inside it didn't take so long. You literally went to a computer, clicked that you pre-registered, told it how toserch for you (in my case, I simply scanned in my printed bar-code) and it prints your badge. When we returned, we got to meet our room-mate Leo as well as Brandi, who was also my bed-mate. We hit it off instantly. It was exiting on both ends to find out we'd be spending the week-end with cool people that we liked.
I ended the day in the Karaoke room. It was one of the pre-AX events going on at our hotel so I figured why not stop by while the waiting list was short. I had a great time meeting random singers. Also, the beds were pretty comphy.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Elder Urban - 7/06/2009 2:2 PM
Thank everyone for writing me, please. I do love hearing what is going on over there.
I am having a lot of fun here at Richfield. I recently learned a huge lesson about Faith in Christ, Fasting, Scripture Study, Love, and Patience. It really was Huge! Christ has helped me lots. I was also privileged to feel the way he did a small bit when he was on earth. I am grateful for that.
I am having a lot of fun here at Richfield. I recently learned a huge lesson about Faith in Christ, Fasting, Scripture Study, Love, and Patience. It really was Huge! Christ has helped me lots. I was also privileged to feel the way he did a small bit when he was on earth. I am grateful for that.
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