The things we don't realize

The other night I got a text message that I was definitely not expecting. My bishop from my last ward sent me a text message that said "I hope you're studying and not partying at this late hour. We all miss you. Keep the faith." Messages from back home have helped me recognize how much I meant to people. As I get a message from my mom or dad, or from my grandparents saying how they don't get to see me anymore, I realize that I mean as much to them as they do to me.

Perhaps it's one of my idiosyncrasies, but I think it is fairly common for all of us to see those who surround us and be grateful for their presence and influence in our lives without recognizing that we, too, are influences on their lives. Bishop Call helped me so much and was a great leader and friend while I was in Pleasant Grove, I miss him dearly. The thought had never really occurred to me that he would miss me. My grandparents opened their home to me and provided for everything I could possibly need and then some, they gave me a home while I was at school and did more for me than I could ever express. I know they love me, but for some reason I never thought that they could miss me like I miss them. In a strange way, moving away from all of my friends and family has been great for me, not only because I am meeting new friends but also because I'm better able to recognize how much the old ones really mean. I'm also beginning to see how much I mean to them, and that's a good feeling. I'm so glad that despite myself people like having me around, and were grateful for me.

I had a meeting with my bishop last night. When I went in to talk to him, he said "I've met you, we talked for quite a while on Saturday" and I just smiled and nodded and we talked about Daniel, the executive secretary for a bit. You see, Daniel wants the bishop to meet all the members of the ward and so he sets up these appointments for "get to know you" meetings with the bishop, but it confuses the bishop because sometimes he has these meetings with members of the ward who he knows quite well. It was good to chat with him for a while and get his perspective on things, he was a practicing attorney for quite a while before he decided to change careers, but he knows what the law school experience is like so that's nice to have. School continues to go well and we finally got the first part to getting Internet set up at our house ready to go and my car is finally fixed! Big accomplishments, now I just have to try and get reimbursed for some of my car rentals - that should be fun, but the biggest headaches are out of the way.

Oh, and since I haven't done it yet this week - here's what I look like now, so you don't forget! Ha ha.

Settling In

So, I'm starting to get much more settled here. People are learning my name, I'm learning their names, it's really quite nice. And I even got to meet the bishop of my ward, so that's always a good thing. I wonder now, what am I going to write about to keep people up to date on what I'm doing? School's going well, law school's not that bad. I've got a lot of stuff to do but it's not overwhelming and I'm making a lot of good friends.

This weekend there was a birthday party for one of the members of my ward and it was nice to be able to gather and have fun with a lot of people and get to know them better. Unfortunately, it was my least favorite kind of party (sorry Evan) the kind where it's not really anything planned, just a bunch of food and a bunch of people. I like to do stuff! Saturday night the ward had a fun activity where people baked cookies and we got to judge them and then we watched the movie Enchanted. I had a couple of people ask me if I was on the activities committee because I was running some of the stuff, I just laughed and told them that I still hadn't met the bishop, how would I have a calling?

Oh, Saturday was also my first experience of a tropical storm, pretty much it was a lot of rain as Hannah came in, and as my roommate Jason said "you just hunker down and watch a lot of movies." It was neat, I'm not used to the warm rains that it brought, or that much rain at all. Guess that's what I get for coming from the high mountain desert.

My adventures with getting the air conditioning fixed in my car are continuing. The inspector called the repair shop today to say that he'd be there, so finally I'll get my second inspection and they can order parts. Sadly, he will be the 5th person to verify the exact same problem on my car, it's ridiculous! Right now I'm driving a sweet Chevy Aveo that can't lock on the driver's side door. Glad I don't have anything valuable in it! I guess I don't have much more to say right now, sorry this post was kind of boring.