A Whale of a Tale

Nathan is fully engaged in his ward. Which is good. When I was in college, I was all in too, making sure to set aside time for weekly family home evenings and ward prayers and all the ward activities. Not only do you get to meet lots of people that way, but it can be super fun. This week his FHE activity was a photos scavenger hunt. And his team won, with the prize being a bag of Otter Pops for each person in his group. Which he was super happy about. He shared one of the photos that led them to victory and it made me laugh. 

He is definitely not above acting a bit silly when Otter Pops are on the line…or really any time. 😂

Ummm…May I Be Excused?

When we talked to Matthew earlier this week, he told us that his entire district went out to dinner as their last big hurrah before transfers happened. There is either a ward member or a friend of some of the missionaries (I can’t remember exactly what the relationship is) who is the manager at a local restaurant, so they opted to go to that eatery. Which is why Matthew went into Texas Roadhouse. Texas. Road. House. Where the peanuts live. Which every allergist we have ever seen has specifically mentioned by name as a place to avoid. But Matthew has only been in Arkansas for six weeks, and the other missionaries honestly didn’t even think about it. And because he is a missionary, it’s not like he could stay home while his companion went to dinner. So, he grabbed a mask, a smart choice to keep any allergens out of his lungs and ventured into the forbidden zone. 

Obviously, he came out alive. He was smart and in addition to the mask, he didn’t try to eat there. He shared some pictures today, and it is very clear that he is in full on allergy defense mode with his bag tucked up on his lap and his hands and arms tucked in tight, trying not to touch anything more than absolutely necessary.

We all knew that Matthew would have lots of new experiences over the course of his mission, but this one was not anticipated. And honestly, it’s probably better that I didn’t know about it until after it had happened. 😂

If You Feed a Giraffe Some Lettuce…

Malia had no school today. And as things have been feeling really heavy around here of late, so many worries about so many things weighing all of us down, we decided that we needed to do something fun today. So, Malia and I went to the zoo. It has been a few years since our last visit, and it was an entirely different experience. As a teenager, Malia is far more content to spend a good amount of time watching her favorite animals rather than snatching one glimpse and then dashing off to see the next occupant.

Here are a few highlights of our trip. We had the opportunity to feed the giraffes. It was pretty cool to see their long, purple tongues as they reached out to nab their snacks! The baby colobus monkey was super cute. The little guy was surrounded by a circle of watchful adult monkeys, and the little one would jump around, grab the long hair on the tail of one of the adults, move to the next and jump on their head, and then head back to mom for a quick snuggle before returning to his antics. We also caught a glimpse of the baby orangutan, who is young and newly on exhibit. In fact, Malia was the one to spot her and once she said out loud that she had spotted the baby, the group at the habitat we were observing went from just the two of us to a crush of visitors lickety split. Honestly, I felt lucky to be able to sneak a peak in between all the other people. We also got to watch the polar bear swim around which was cool. Bears are so huge that they look like they shouldn’t be able to swim, but they are definitely comfortable in the water.

It was good to get out for a bit and spend some time ignoring the normal stresses and worries of our lives. A bit of play can help rejuvenate us and give our lives a better balance. I think I need to remember to do that more often.

Matthew is In the Building!

This morning as I opened the closet to grab my purse before leaving the house, I totally jumped because there was a person in the closet. Once that initial moment of being startled had passed, I realized what I was actually seeing.

I also found a friendly face ready to send me on my way as I headed to the car.

Later in the day, as I was putting groceries away, I found another visitor that I had missed in my rush to get out the door first thing. 

Malia, the culprit, decided late last night that Matthew on a stick needed to be doing something rather than just sitting there on the shelf in her room. And she thought that giving me a good scare first thing in the morning would be funny. And you know what? It actually was. 😂

Missionary Mama’s Viewpoint

Due to his openness in his emails and his resolution to be honest about the good and the bad of his missionary experience, there are a lot of you who are concerned about Matthew. I’ve received many worried inquiries about his wellbeing, so I thought I’d take a minute to address those concerns.

The short answer is that he’s okay.

The long answer is that the adversary is hitting him hard with all those darn D’s like doubt, discouragement, despair, etc. but he’s okay. He’s not one to go down without a fight and like I reminded him when we spoke last week, he has always had an absolutely resolute testimony about the truthfulness of the gospel. All my boys struggled with nightmares as children, but he’s the only one who ever woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me that he “had a good dream that filled me with the Holy Spirit.” I kid you not. That’s an exact quote from a five- or six-year-old Matthew. The morning after that midnight awakening, he told me that he dreamed about the birth of Jesus. So, he has been firm in the faith pretty much forever. 

So yes, these are hard weeks for him. He is being tried. But he is rising up and giving his all to keep doing the work. He is also finding joy in small ways. He made bread this week which always makes me happy, and I suspect just the smell of the bread was a pick me up. He has also discovered that while Fort Smith may be a moderately sized town in the middle of nowhere Arkansas, it has enough diversity to support an Asian market that carries frozen bao that are safe for him. And since bao is like the very best Chinese comfort food in the world to him, that was a point on the positive side. He says they are not quite as good as homemade, but they are pretty good for a store-bought version. And he and his companion have been going fishing on their P-days. What I hear from those who enjoy fishing is that it is a relaxing pastime. So, I assume that’s a perk as well. And today he caught five big ole fish, which is pretty cool.

I won’t say that we haven’t had some parental worry happening over here, but I will also say that Matthew is keeping his head above water. He is much more chipper this week than he was last week, and he has been reminding us that there is always opposition when spiritually defining moments are on the horizon. And what is a mission but a two year spiritually defining and strengthening experience? He could definitely use some prayers though, and daily mail delivery is “the best part of the day” according to Matthew, so mail, either virtual or physical is always welcome.

Matthew has wanted to serve a mission since he was eight or nine. And for a good while there he wasn’t sure if he would be called to serve a full-time proselyting mission due to his multitude of allergies. So now that he is in Arkansas doing the Lord’s work, he is not likely to take any opposition lying down. He’s figuring things out and while the work is hard, he is giving it his all.

Should I Be Concerned?

Malia’s language arts class was given a writing prompt this morning. The prompt was “What is the most dangerous game in life?” This is what Malia came up with:

The most dangerous game in life? Russian Roulette. Why? You get shot. Why is that bad?Bullets can kill you. Or just leave you seriously maimed. And depending on who shot you it could turn into an emotional game as well, as long as you live long enough to make it such. In more depth, Russian Roulette is a game that gets played with a revolver. You put a single round into the gun, and spin the thing. Then you put the gun to your head and hope your brains don't get splattered. Or maybe someone else points the gun at you. Who knows. That would depend on the situation and whether or not you accidentally got yourself involved with some Italian Mafia Boss. Or maybe a gang that you owe money, but aren't exactly patient. Or hey, maybe it's a fun family evening activity. (I'm kidding, no one in their right mind would play Russian Roulette with their family. Just their enemies.) Its like a more intense version of the pie splat game, but you go splat instead, ya know? I also don't think it's quite as legal as the pie splat game. I wouldn't know, maybe you could find out for me? Yes, you, my dear reader. Or, actually, don't do that. That would end badly for everyone. Dangerous doesn't always mean fun. DON'T PLAY RUSSIAN ROULETTE:)

Malia says she is not a good writer. She claims that she isn’t good at adding details to her writing projects, and there is no love for her in writing fiction, persuasive essays, poetry, or pretty much anything else her teachers have asked of her. But maybe she just hasn’t been asked to write the appropriate things yet. Because I’m thinking humorous essays or maybe even satire just might be right up her alley. She certainly did seem to enjoy today’s assignment as she shared it with us over dinner. And I’ll admit it. I laughed. Out loud. 

Hopefully her teacher doesn’t see this expression of a bit of dark humor as a warning sign and send a referral to Malia’s counselor… 😜

Visual Aids

Malia is a mighty 9th grader this year which means that she is now eligible for seminary. She had some problems with her schedule before school started, but as her counselor was tossing ideas at her, dropping seminary was definitely not an option for her. And I’m so glad. Because seminary was when the gospel kind of came alive for all our boys and honestly, I’m hoping that it will be good for Malia as well. I think she had a good dose of the “living gospel” experience at FSY this year, because FSY is basically like being in seminary all day every day for a whole week, but having the smaller, consistent doses if important. Especially because middle school is the cesspool of the world, only to be outclassed by the high school. Seriously, there is a lot of stuff that the kids really have to go blind to in order to survive the public school system. So, seminary. A valuable tool to strengthen our youth and help our kids survive in this crazy world.

In Malia’s seminary class today, the kids were put into small groups and each one of them had to teach the rest of their group about one part of the plan of salvation. Malia was assigned to enlighten the group on premortal life and because she is who she is, she drew pictures. And it was spot on. And it made me laugh because her sense of humor came through. So here is Malia’s interpretation of the council in heaven and our premortal life. Enjoy. I did!

The Man Behind the Curtain

Due to a law that went into effect last year, Nathan’s opportunities for paid ASL interpreting work have been nearly non-existent of late. Basically, the law states that only someone with a professional level certification can be hired as an interpreter. That seems all good on the surface, but what it means in the real world is that those who have an intermediate level certification can’t be hired thereby not getting any more experience which greatly hinders their ability to get enough real work practice to pass the professional certification test. And the Utah ASL professional test is extremely difficult to pass. Nathan has taken it three or four times and has passed everything except one area each time. But the area that he doesn’t pass isn’t the same each time. It is different. And he has really struggled getting detailed feedback about his test results which means that he really doesn’t know what he needs to do to improve. The whole thing has actually been very frustrating and discouraging for him.

From many of his contacts in the ASL interpreting world, he has heard that the Utah professional test is much harder to pass than the national level cert test and the national test supersedes the state one so if he passes that, he won’t need to pass the Utah professional test to gain professional level certification. But he needs to have a bachelor’s degree before he can qualify to take the national test, so he is going to start practicing for the national test in the spring so that he can take it sometime after he graduates in early May next year. In the meantime, he is still looking for opportunities to interpret wherever he can. He interprets for classes at the university when there is a need and it fits in his schedule, has interpreted for firesides, MTC devotionals, etc.

While he hasn’t been offered any jobs through the two interpreting agencies he is employed by, Nathan has applied and been hired by the church to work as an interpreter. His ultimate goal is to be able to interpret for general conference, but of course, he has to work his way up through the ranks of church-employed interpreters. He isn’t bothered by that though and was super excited for his first paid church job this morning. He had the opportunity to be part of the team of interpreters for two temple ground breakings, the Tampa Florida temple and the Vancouver Washington temple. While the actual events were in different states, the interpreting and broadcasting teams work here in Salt Lake. Nathan got to take a tour of the behind-the-scenes areas of the church broadcasting system at the conference center and thought the entire thing was super cool. He was impressed by just how many people it takes to make all the broadcasts run smoothly and was pleased as punch to be able to participate. 

Kevin and I were both just a little bit proud to see him interpreting in an official church capacity. 😉