The Mission I Missed

I remember trying to decide whether or not I should serve a mission. I kept thinking about it and praying about it, and I was sure there must be something wrong with me, because I did not feel good about it. How could I not feel good about it? I mean, I was the right age, and heaven knows I had no prospects whatsoever for getting married. I figured I was just confused. So I went in to talk to Bishop Clarke. I sat down across from his desk, looked at him, and told him I came to talk to him about serving a mission. I didn't say I had decided to, just that I came to talk about it. He just sat there and looked at me. And he kept looking at me for several minutes. I could tell something was going on inside his head, but he wasn't saying anything.

Finally he said, "You're not going to believe this, but I don't think you are supposed to go on a mission." I think he said he had never said that to anyone before. I was stunned. I was sure he was going to be all gung ho about starting the process, and all that great stuff. It was amazing, because he just completely confirmed what I had been feeling. Although I didn't realize I was feeling that way because I wasn't supposed to go, I just thought there was something wrong with me. But when he said that, it straightened everything out for me, and I knew that going on a mission was not the path the Lord had for me. 

Instead, I finished out college and went home to start a career. Obviously, if I had gone on a mission I would not have been in Turlock at the right time to meet Jared, so we can all see how that one turned out!

Bishop Clarke

In the Fabulous 46^th Ward, our bishop was Jack Clarke. (He was also the head of student employment at Ricks). He was one of the best bishops I ever had. I heard plenty of stories from before I moved over to College Ave, about monumental acts of service that he inspired in that ward. One that I remember was that there had been a girl in the ward who struggled immensely with her self-esteem, largely because her eyesight was so bad that she had to wear coke bottle glasses. They were so thick, and they just took over her whole face. The ward decided to raise money by taking donations from ward members, and pay for her to get contacts. Bishop Clarke had tears in his eyes every time he told about the difference those contacts made in her life. He told that story at the beginning of every new year, because it illustrated the kind of ward the 46^th ward was—a ward of service, and love one to another. A family. I personally know, from stories of some of my roommates, that Bishop Clarke helped people financially with emergencies or other things that came up, without recognition, due to a request that it not be advertised about. (and yet somehow I knew. Hmmm).

At one point, I shared with him my poetry. He asked my permission to borrow the book for a while, because he wanted his secretary to type up all my poems for me. She typed them all up, and he presented me with several copies of a spiral bound book full of my poems—on the condition that he got to keep one of them.

I remember when Bishop Clarke was released. It was so hard for the entire ward. We always had prayer meeting every Sunday evening, where someone gave a devotional type thought, and we had a prayer, and we usually stayed around and socialized for a while. The night Bishop  Clarke was released, our prayer meeting was kind of a farewell for him, and a chance for us to all say goodbye.

Here is a picture of me and Bishop Clarke at a ward party shortly before he was released.

On a positive note, Bishop Palmer was called as the new bishop, and we all ended up loving him so much as well. He was still the bishop of the Fabulous 46^th ward when Celeste moved to College Ave a few years later, and she has fantastic memories from having him as bishop.

Christine Gets Married

Christine was a great family friend while I was in High School. Sam’s friend Shawn had moved from Turlock to Mariposa, and Christine lived in Mariposa, and Sam and I met her at a youth dance or activity. (I think?)

Christine and I became fast friends. At one point she came and lived with my family for a while. I’m thinking she had already graduated from high school at that point, and had a job working somewhere. I can’t remember where.

I was at Ricks College when Christine got married in Utah, and my roommate April and I took a road trip down to Utah so that I could be the maid of honor at her wedding.

A Boy Named Kevin

Kevin went to Hawaii on his mission. Hfrequently wore a lava-lava to church, which we all thought was very strange, because we were in Idaho, not Hawaii, and he was an Idaho boy, not an island boy. If we had been in Hawaii, fine. Or if he had been Hawaiian, fine. But we weren’t, and he wasn’t, so it was weird.

I remember he was big and tall and goofy and friendly. He really was a nice guy, when it came right down to it. But it was so awkward being around him, and I could never quite put my finger on why. We just REALLY didn't mesh.

On the night of this weird picture of me and Kevin at Millhollow getting ice cream, he told me he was going to move o Arizona and he had some career / work in mind. And then out of nowhere he asked me to go with him. Was it a proposal? Uuuummm….definitely didn’t feel like one. We hadn’t dated, we hadn’t even flirted, and he never came right out and addressed the idea of marriage, but he asked me to quit school and pick up and go with him. It was weird and I said no, and he left. And that was that.

And that is all I remember about Kevin Stone.

Dan the Man

Here’s another guy I had a crush on. Well, the truth is, Carol had a crush on him. And then I had a crush on him.  And yes, she was still crushing on him when I started. Oh the difficulty of single girls and guys all being friends. I wasn’t a jerk, I just really started liking him. He was a lot of fun. I didn’t try to like him, it just happened. Anyway.

We knew Dan one summer. He was probably in our ward or something, I really don’t know how we met him. I think Carol probably met him and brought him into our world. But he was cute, and fun, and funny. Here is Carol as Dan’s date on one of our group dates. I’m there in the middle without my date, I don’t know what he was off doing. I think his name was Jared, and he was nowhere near as awesome as my eternal Jared. In fact, I didn’t really like this Jared all that much. He was really bland, and I didn’t have a great time on this date at all. Well, I probably had fun because Dan was in the group. (Oh, the shame!! Someone else’s date!) Or maybe it was this date when I started crushing on Dan. Dang, he was nothing but trouble. He didn’t like either of us, either. Shaking my head.

One day I said I liked lemon bars, and he made me some. No, he didn’t like me. I really don’t know why he made me lemon bars, but it made me like him even more. (I really didn’t need that).

We had fun with Dan. And then he asked me to help him with his English class. Not really a huge surprise, because I helped a lot of people proofread papers back then. But Dan needed help with a lot of papers. So we made a deal that if I helped him get at least a B, he would buy me a raspberry cheesecake from Frontier Pies. To tell you the truth, I was more happy about the time it meant we’d need to spend together than the pie at the end of it all.

He got his B (it should have been an A, but there’s only so much I could do—he really wasn’t very smart when in came to English!). I got my pie. We had a good time.

And then he left, probably to BYU, and I never heard from him again. That was my luck a lot of the time! Ha ha! And it still never made me want to go to BYU.

The only two pictures I have of Dan are the date one above, and this one of Dan and I jumping on the trampoline at some party we went to at somebody's house, for what reason I can't remember for the life of me.

Practicum Work

Practicum placements were classes we were assigned to go to just for experience. We did some observing, and then we helped out, kind of how an aide would. Sometimes I made copies, or put together bulletin boards, and sometimes I taught small group lessons or projects. These were my first experiences in “real” classrooms. I wish I had taken more pictures of the different classes I worked in, but these two will have to do.