As some of you know, we're in the process of moving this month. (For those of you in the Arlington ward, don't worry - we're moving within the ward boundaries!) We signed on our new place on the 14th and could be moving stuff in, but this month is kind of crazy.
On top of generally being amazing (pretty much the story of her life), Jill is (1) preparing for the LSAT (less than one week away!), (2) teaching early morning seminary, (3) giving her last hurrah for singing time in Primary tomorrow, (4) workin' workin' workin' for the American Red Cross, (5) serving with me in the temple on Friday nights, and (5) putting up with my stress/angst/procrastination as I work on my grad school application and trying to get us packed and ready to move by the end of the month.
She's great, and I love her.
Our house, on the other hand, is showing signs of moving preparations. And, this post obviously shows that I am not really focusing (read: am procrastinating) on what I should really be doing. Jill is in the kitchen taking a practice LSAT test, and I'm about to share with you some things that I find fun and nostalgic.
I was going through stuff in the office and found the old 2.4 GHz cordless phone that I bought while as a missionary in the Oregon Portland Mission. Since we pretty much have only had a land line once since we've been married (it came with our cable Internet subscription from the local ISP we used in Boston), I figured we should donate it to the garage sale a member of our church is having. I plugged it into the wall to see if still worked. The machine still had a bunch of messages saved on it--all from my mission. If you've seen our house (and my in-law's basement), you know I have a hard time letting go of things. Not wanting to hand over the phone with my messages still on it, I created a "technology nexus" and decided to share some of the messages with you. [[I put the geek details at the bottom, if you're curious.]]
The first message that greeted my ears was from Sister Chambers. Her husband was a member of the Stake Presidency, and, if I remember correctly, had signed up (or been signed up?) to go on exchanges with us. It sounds like we had called to confirm that he'd be coming (or called because he hadn't shown up yet), and had this great message from his wife on our answering machine. I loved serving in their ward, and was able to interact with them frequently during my 7 1/2 months there. Anyway- I still find this hilarious:
I can't remember when this message was from, but I'm pretty sure I was Elder Simmons' District or Zone Leader at the time. I wasn't around Elder Simmons very much, but I remember his quick smile and great sense of humor. This is what he left us when we were out:
Speaking of smiling faces, one of my first Zone Leaders left this message on my answering machine. Your music selections are limited as a missionary, but apparently his family was in the habit of recording and sending him tapes with messages from them. This tape must have been something else in a previous life (awesome mix tape?), and a portion of a James Taylor song made it out to my Zone Leader. (I cannot assess with any degree of certainty whether or not the inclusion of some verboten music was part of some conscious plan his family had).
I had some other funny messages left on my machine. In my second area, we worked closely with the Relief Society President and her husband as we got to know the ward, find, and reactivate in the area. Wendell and Cindy are another great couple; I loved being in their home. In a previous life, he built and raced some fast cars. They had a neat picture of the Savior in their home, and I brought my mom by to visit when she came to Oregon to pick me up. Despite the fun we had (and there was always lots of fun to be had with Wendell), every visit to their home was a spiritual experience. That being said, here's a voicemail from Wendell:
Not only did The Wild One grace me with a voicemail, but I had some contact from a cast member of The Princess Bride:
You heard earlier from the Singing Elder Simmons; here's a voicemail from some Sisters in a Zone where I served briefly as Zone Leader. These Sisters definitely kept my companion and I on our toes:
I'll have to see if I can scrounge up a picture of the ugly gourds...
On my second birthday in the mission field, many members of the Zone I was serving in helped to make it a special day. I was greeted by a decorated apartment, treated with a freshly baked cake, and had this wonderful ditty on my answering machine:
Our Zone was so caring. A few of us seemed to like to share this white noise machine, and to pass it back and forth. I'm not sure if it actually helped me sleep any better ;-), but I can say that I think I'm pretty oblivious to the sounds of much white noise when I hear it now. Perhaps the creator of this white noise maker was a big EA Poe fan - hide the thing in the floorboards (or ceiling...) and you have yourself your very own Tell Tale Heart:
I also saved a message from one of our investigators in NE Portland. Steve was introduced to us by his neighbor, a member of our ward. Steve didn't look like who you'd think a "normal" (is there such a thing?) investigator would look like, but I remember how sincere he was, and how much he needed the Gospel. Steve spent the previous few years before we met him in and out of treatment centers, first for opiates, then for the methadone they used to get him off the opiates. He had family in the area, but was living on his own at the time. After a haircut Elder Fagerwold gave him and some new clothes, he cleaned up well and surprised everyone at church, who had seen him "pre-makeover". He was someone that I remembered seeing a physical change in his countenance when he began to pray and read the Book of Mormon. Despite his rough life, in some ways he was very childlike, and I remember his prayers when we taught him about repentance. He enjoyed church services and would tell us how he felt like being in church with everyone was "burning all the bad stuff out." Right before I left the area, he was admitted to the hospital for some other complications (liver?). I don't know what happened to Steve. But I remember hoping and praying so hard with Elder Fagerwold that he would have the strength to keep turning his life right, which was no easy task. We told him to call any time he felt like he was tempted (he had been clean from the hard stuff for a month or so at this time, if I remember correctly). This voicemail is pretty typical of the messages he would leave for us.
I wish we could have done more to help him.
This last message that I had saved was a "thank you" call from some of the Sisters. Without sharing too much here, I'll just say that I received a lot of packages from my mom--which I loved. She was always very thoughtful and including things like bookmarks and stickers to give our investigators and their children. I knew that a some Sisters were going through a hard time (one in particular), and suggested that my mom send some anonymous packages to them. After that, I didn't really know what happened. Apparently, she sent them several (many?) packages incognito (I think she even drove to other post offices, haha), but at some point decided to send one as herself. This voicemail was a thank you from the Sisters when they found out it was my mom. I sent it my mom today and made her cry (a good cry), as she thought about the bond she was able to form with these Sisters at that time in their lives.
Listening to these messages brought back memories, along with many of the feelings and spiritual impressions that I had formed those many years ago. I better understand the counsel to read the scriptures daily (even when you've "already read the book before"), to attend the temple frequently, and to keep a journal. Although I haven't been as consistent with some of these as I would have liked, I have felt--for lack of a better term--the "power of remembrance". Hearing those messages again reminded me of past spiritual moments, and brought back those same feelings. The same thing happens as I "remember, remember" the experiences that I've recorded in my journal. Or turn to the scriptures, or attend the temple. I have many wonderful memories from my mission. When time and the craziness of life seem to make some of them fade, I'm grateful for opportunities like this--finding a phone in the bottom of a box--that bring them back to mind.
[[The Geek Stuff: Ok, it's not that geeky. My "nexus" was playing the answering machine back while recording individual voicenotes on my Blackberry. Then, I downloaded the files from my Bb and converted them from the .amr format to .mp3 format with a free program called QuickMediaConverter. Then, they got uploaded to my Google Pages site, and I used the Apple QuickTime embed code to add the player. The HTML code I used was:
Notice the autoplay is false so it won't start playing automatically. That's another thing I'd add to the list of things that bug me -- music or other audio that starts playing automatically on someone's blog...
