Bubbles and the Phoenix Temple Open House

This week was pretty good. On Tuesday it was kind of funny in the morning,  Elder Parker can't stand the sound of chewing. I was eating yogurt on the other side of the room and he had to go turn on the AC which is super loud so he couldn't hear it. So that's pretty intense! That morning was pretty funny too because Elder Parker was conducting Beethoven's 5th in nothing but a towel! Haha! It was pretty great! We also went to a lady named Sister Reedhead's house to see how much damage she had in her cellar as a result of the floods last month. It smelled pretty bad, but we couldn't really see how much damage there really was because it was stacked clear up the stairway with buckets of food storage. Her house is awesome! She has a closet with a false wall in the back of it. If you pull a certain peg in the back it lifts a piece of rebar that goes into a hole and then you can push it back. Going back there was kind of like going into Narnia because they all had to go through the closet to get back there. It was awesome!

Wednesday was pretty good too. We went to work out at brother Kjar's gym (a member in our ward who is a personal trainer). It was PACKED! There were 12 of us. It was pretty crazy! He trains missionaries for free.

We also went over to help Sister Reedhead by taking all of the food storage out of her cellar to clean up the flood damage. It was all fine and good until we got to a few rusty metal cans. Most of them were plastic, but the metal ones were leaking nastiness out of them.  It was awful! We got those out with the rest of the buckets. We got to the bottom and there were 3 giant barrels. They weighed about 80 pounds each, and we had to get them up some super steep steps. So Elder Parker got a barrel in a bear hug, lifted it up to the first step, then I tossed down a rope. He wrapped the middle of the rope around the bottom of the barrel and I held the two ends. I pulled, he pushed, and we went one step at a time up the cellar and got the three barrels up! It was pretty nuts!

We later rode past the grocery store around the corner from us and it was on fire!!! There was tons of smoke pouring out all the doors and windows! It was insane! We found out the next day that it was arson. Some guy lit a bunch of pool chemicals and air filters on fire, went to manager and told them it smelled like smoke and left. Suddenly there was a ton of smoke and fire was ablaze! So that's fun...

We went to the family history library on Thursday. It was pretty fun! I was looking at my family tree and seeing how far back it went. Most of my lines go back to the 16 and 1700's. I found six or seven though that go clear back to Adam on both sides of my family! It was pretty awesome! That night we went to the Phoenix temple open house. We took Francine, Cedric, and Jonathan. Those three really enjoyed it.  It was kind of funny, there was a little kid in our group who was crying the whole way through. I have never heard a child cry that loudly! It was insane! I've heard quite a few crying kids, but this kid was deafeningly loud. The entire time I was just praying that he would stop in the celestial room. The second we got into the celestial room he stopped. It was really cool! Something that Jonathan taught me is how to get kids to be quiet. In  his family if they want the little kids to be quiet they just say "bubbles" and the close their mouth and puff out their cheeks. The one to hold their bubble longest gets a treat, so they usually stay quiet for a half hour at a time. When they were getting a little loud and rowdy I told them, "bubbles." It was pretty cool.

Friday was Halloween. It was by far the lamest Halloween I have ever had. We had a district meeting in the morning. I really liked Elder Park's training he gave. (Elder Park, not Elder Parker.) He gave a training on being happy. The biggest thing I got was that in order to be happy we need to surround ourselves with happy people. We went to Panda Express after district meeting for lunch. It was pretty good! I don't even remember the last time I ate there!

After lunch we went to the stake center to do weekly planning. By the time we were done it was 5. We aren't supposed to go anywhere uninvited on holidays, so we just stayed in the building for another hour before we went to a ward party we were invited to. They told us that it was a huge party. They block off all the roads, and everyone has a great time! We went, and they had blocked off the streets,  everyone was having a great time, but they were trick or treating, not having a party. We aren't allowed to trick or treat, so that was pretty annoying to be told there was a party when there wasn't. We just went back to the stake center and played a little basketball, ate some little Caesars, and I listened to some classical music.

Saturday we went to a baptism. Elders Foulger and Anderson had a baptism that they invited us to. It was really good! Something happened on our way home that I've never heard of happening to any of the other missionaries in Mesa. We were biking home for the day and about 50 feet from the entry to the apartment, someone threw a cup of ice water out their car window at us. It hit Elder Parker square in the back. It scared me a little, but it wasn't bad. I've been a little on edge since then, but I don't think it'll happen again. I've never heard about that happening to anyone else out here, so it must not be a very common occurrence. That night I couldn't sleep. I was sick and felt like I was going to throw up.  I also had bad stomach cramps and was shivering like crazy. I lay in bed trying to fall asleep for 5 hours or so. I finally fell asleep at 3:30. It was pretty bad. I slept in way late the next morning because of it.

Sunday was stake conference. That was pretty good. There was a story someone told that I really liked. It went something like this. There once was a wise man who had one son, one horse, and one acre of land. One day the son went out to take care of the horse, but forgot to close the gate to the corral. The horse ran away. The wise man's friends told him what a terrible thing that had happened. They asked, "How will you make a living now?" The wise man responded that he didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. His friends assured him it was really bad. The next day the horse came back and brought with it nine other wild horses. The wise man's friends remarked that it was amazing. The wise man again responded that he wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. His friends assured him that it was a very good thing. The wise man's son was trying to break one of the wild horses. He was bucked off and broke his leg severely. The wise mans' friends came and consoled him. They said "That's too bad, your only son. How are you going to take care of your land and horses?" The wise man responded that he wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. His friends assured him that this was a bad thing. A few weeks later the country required all healthy and able young men to join the army to fight in the war. The son couldn't serve because of his badly broken leg. Eventually every single soldier in that army died. This story could go on and on.

I really liked how what may have felt like punishment from God at first became protection. The wise man realized that there is a purpose in everything that happens to us.

This morning Elder Parker went to the bathroom. He started screaming and ran out of the bathroom. He started yelling scorpion, scorpion!!! Aaah!! We all ran to the bathroom and sure enough, a large scorpion was on the floor! We caught it in an envelope and sealed it. So that's pretty fun!

This week was pretty good overall.  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jayden Mullins