Evil Sorority

Dear Journal,

Sorry I have been away for so long the Prez made us stay in our apartment for the last 2 weeks except to go to church and get a few groceries.

You are wondering what kind of crap is that, I thought that you were there to serve a mission. Well yes I am but what is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Fort Lauderdale, if you said the beautiful ocean I know that you are lying! SPRING BREAK!!!!!

It is spring break and apparently there are certain sororities that require there pledges to get a Mormon Missionary sent home from his mission by taking advantage of him. This must have really happened to a couple of missionaries because the President was really adamint about us staying in and especially staying way clear of the beach areas.

So anyway I will try to get back on track with my entries.

Bamboozled

Dear Journal,

I was bamboozled today, but in a good way I think.

When you are on your Mission you loose all sense of time, dates, etc.

All you really know is how many days you have been out.

That being said I had no idea what the significance of this Sunday was, I only knew I was really excited to go eat over at this great Family's house. They were an older couple but very cool.

We were going to have burgers on the grill.

Well when we got there and they started cooking I was starting to get suspicious to what was going on. Hacks seemed to be settling in and getting really comfortable and I couldn't really figure out why, until the TV flipped on and The Super Bowl Started!

TV.....My Achilles heel! I tried to be good but I couldn't resist and broke down and watched.

I'm soooo going to pay for this one!

The food was good and so was the game, I guess I will have to work extra hard tomorrow to make up for today.

Beware of Members Cooking

Dear Journal,

I almost died today.

From the stories that I have told you about my bike riding and devil dogs you would probably think it was something like that.....But it was from a members cooking that almost go me!

This kind lady invited us over for lunch today.

She told us she had to do lunch because her sister who she lives with doesn't care for Mormon Missionaries, So she wanted to do it while her sister was at work.

Well she cooked up these delicious hamburgers and homemade french fries. It just so happened that I was sitting on the end of the table and had a view into the kitchen. We all sat down to eat and had just gotten started when I looked in the kitchen and there were 6 foot high flames coming off the stove. I calmly said "Uh, your kitchen is on fire". We all jumped up and ran in there. I remembered something from scouts that you should never throw water on a grease fire and you should use baking soda.

So I knew that we needed to smother the fire somehow so we started throwing salt, sugar, baking powder, etc. on it until she finally found the baking soda and we got it out.

During all this commotion she had managed to call 911 emergency so they showed up shortly after we got it out. The only problem was that there was a ton of smoke damage to the kitchen. What started out as doing something nice for the missionaries turned into a nightmare that she would have to explain to her sister when she got home.

Needless to say I don't think she will be feeding any missionaries anytime soon.

I also get to tell everyone that I almost died from a members cooking. What a deal!

The Tunnel of Death!

Dear Journal,

Today Hackamatic introduced me to what we lovingly call the "Tunnel of Death".

It is a Tunnel that goes under the water way so it is quite deep to go down and there is NO bike lane or sidewalk so you have to drive your bike down one of the lanes of traffic.

So the first thing Hacks tells me is that we will wait until there is a big gap in the traffic and then we will go in. He told me once we get going to pedal as fast as I can go since going up the other side is a monster.

He wasn't kidding, I bet we got going about 50 mph going down and by the time we got to the top of the other side we were going 3 mph and my legs were on fire! I have never felt such pain, it was horrible but what a rush and I can't wait to do it again!

Basketball and Teaching?

Dear Journal,

Well our President told us to always look for new ways to teach people and get people interested in the church.

So on our way home to go to lunch we were passing by a playground and there were a bunch of guys playing basket ball there. We stopped our bikes and stood there watching them for a minute.

One of them yelled over to us an asked if we wanted to play. To my surprise Hacks said "Yes". I was really glad he did as it looked really fun.

We got put on different teams and started playing. These guys weren't like the elders we played last P_day, they were really good. They were dunking and doing all sorts of fancy dribbling. I think they were showing off a little. Anyway they were good.

We probably played for about 45 minutes in our shirts, ties, slacks, and church shoes. I don't know if you have ever played B-ball in church shoes but after about 20 minutes you are starting to form blisters and lets just say after 45 minutes they are the size of pancakes!

They guys we played against weren't wearing shirts and for good reason. Playing B-ball in the 90+ degree weather with 90+ humidity wipes you out.

After thanking the guys and heading back to our apartment for a shower and food we looked down at our shirts, they were almost black! When we guarded our players they were so sweating and dirty that it rubbed off on our shirts!

I wonder if those guys will ever be somewhere and have other missionaries approach them and remember back to us play ball with them and think "those other guys were pretty cool, I think I'll listen to what these guys have to say?".

You just never know.

Real World

Dear Journal,

So I was really excited today because it was P-Day (Prep Day). We did our laundry, which Hacks showed me a cool time saving trick of just throwing all your cloths in all at once.

My shirts have a hint of pink to them but hey, I was done in half the time.

We had to hurry so we could get our shopping done before 1:00pm because that's when the big Basketball game was going down.

And Speaking of shopping, I told you that I had a Capn' Crunch Addiction from the MTC, well nobody told me that it is so freaking expensive when you have to buy it yourself! It was like $4.00 a box! Who the heck can afford all that.

I think this was a wake up call....."Hello and Welcome to the REAL WORLD!"

I wondered why Hackamatic was laughing at me when I was buying my pop and cereal, now I know.

Oh well, it'll all work out. Plus we stomped the other elders in the basketball game so it was a good day!

I think next time we are going to the swap meet to check it out, I hear they have knives and throwing stars there.

Some Helpful Locals

Dear Journal,

Well Hackamatic and I decided to visit one of the recent converts. I guess Hackamatic baptized him.

It's a pretty interesting story: He is in a gang called the Guardian Angels (I think) Anyway I guess they have reformed from their pasts and are now patrolling the bad areas of town intimidating the local bad guys to not cause any trouble. If they do the Guardians give them a beat down. This guy we went to meet tonight is about 260 lbs of solid muscle, he's a big black guy with dreadlocks and very intimidating. But he had a huge fear of the water so when Hackamatic (Which is only 5'8" 140 lbs) tried to dunk him he went down kicking and flailing in the water. They had to do it 4 times before they were confident that he was fully submerged.

Anyway, I still don't know the area very well and we were in a kind of slummy area of town knocking on his door when this car full of black guys pulls up. One of them yells out of the window "We'll be back for you white boys later" I didn't really know how to respond so I just said "Thank you"

Nothing like getting threatened in your first week!

We never did get to see the new convert I was really wishing he was home after what those guys said.

Oh well we made it home safe.