Monday, July 11, 2011

Just like the good old days.

So, it seems I am a terrible blogger these days. That's probably because I have nothing to say since nothing interesting has happened in awhile. Yesterday was a pretty fun adventure though, so I think I shall write about it.

The Farewell
Jamie and I left at 9:15 in the morning for Salt Lake City so that we could attend John's mission farewell at 10:30. We wanted to have plenty of time to get there since we weren't sure where the church was located and we thought we might get lost for a bit. It was a pretty fun ride actually--Jamie and I haven't really talked much since moving home so it was nice to catch up. We ended up not getting lost at all and found out that the farewell was actually at 10:50 so... needless to say, we had quite a bit of time to explore Salt Lake City before church. After visiting duck ponds with no ducks, seeing tourists at temple square, marveling at the odd assortment of outfits there, and hiking uphill in our Sunday best... we arrived at John's farewell a little late (figures).

I don't remember much of the other two talks that were given, thanks to Matt who is the most distracting person to sit by during any sort of meeting, but I did try very hard to pay attention to John's talk and he delivered it beautifully. We were all so proud of him. He's definitely one of the most spiritual guys I know and he tries so hard to be the best he can be. It's pretty inspiring, really.

The Luncheon
After the farewell talk we all headed over to John's backyard where we ate a traditional Brazilian meal of beans and rice. He was called to the Dominican Republic but I guess beans and rice are pretty much the same wherever you go. John's family seemed pretty nice and his backyard was full of fruit trees which apparently made Jamie hungry because after she saw the peach tree she kept talking about how she just really wanted a peach. We took lots of pictures because we don't get to see those friends much anymore and since John is leaving for two years. Jamie drew a lovely picture of John and wrote on the back "For my plan C... in case A and B don't work out." I think John loved it? Maybe?

Temples and Museums and Pie
We decided to go to Temple Square for awhile so we walked around the visitor's centers and we ran into a sister missionary who was pretty cool. She was from Kiribati and she talked to John, Matt, and Hiram for a long time about being a missionary. She was way nice but at the end she told us she wanted one number of a non member friend from each of us. So we all looked at each other nervously, knowing we didn't have any to give because our non mormon friends are not mormon because they don't want to be. Seeing our hesitation, she told us to pull out our phones and go through our contacts because that might help us remember who our non mormon friends are. So we started going through them and I accidentally said Conrad's name to Jamie because I read it on my phone and it sort of slipped out. I didn't think she'd heard but she did and she took my phone and wrote down his number and I was pretty sure he would not be interested but it was the only number she got from us so I felt bad but now I am afraid Conrad is going to think I'm trying to convert him or something! So I'm debating whether I should call him or not. Hmm. But really being at Temple Square was a good experience and it reminded me how much I want to go inside someday. It's just beautiful and the grounds are beautiful and I love it. Also, I love that statue of Jesus (in the picture on the right).

We walked over to the Church History museum
which was kind of the best part of the whole trip. After going through the whole main level of the museum we went upstairs and stumbled on the kids' part of the museum. It was so fun! They had a boat you could catch pretend fish from, cloth dolls, large blocks to build castles with, skirts and vests to dress up in, some tortilla game Jamie and I were awesome at, etc. It was way fun. We built a pretty cool castle-ish thing with the blocks and we were trying to take a picture of all of us by it but the camera wasn't working. We were setting up the camera one more time or something like that and this little kid just ran really fast right into the castle and punched it all down and then ran really fast away. I thought it was pretty hilarious. We didn't feel like rebuilding it though so we just held some pieces up for the picture haha. And that triangle on Hiram's head is actually Matt.

We visited Matt's house (he has a really really nice house) and ate some caramel apple pie. I wish we could hang out with these kids more often. I miss them all.


2 comments:

Jamie & Geoff Harmon said...

Maren, your blog posts are always so cute. Also, I'm so glad we got to play. I've missed you massive amounts and you are by far one of my greatest friends! I can not wait to move back in with you where we can go on adventures and tell each other stories on a regular basis.

looooove jamie.

Maren said...

Thank you! I've missed you too and I can't wait to move back either, it'll be fun. :)