Passing it Along

A lot has been said about torture. I think this video makes some sense. Feel free to watch it.

Much Ado About Something

And here I thought it would be ages and ages.

Well to keep it short, I'm no longer single. Calooh Callay! The lovely lady's name is 'Lyssa.

We've been having such a grand and glorious time together, even went to the place called Noodles on University Parkway.

So yeah, it is most excellent news indeed.

Missionary Wednesday

Dear Viewers,
This week we decided that since most of our current investigators weren't going anywhere we would take a break from them. We figured that if they were really interested in meeting with us they would call us back. We only got two calls back... We are working with those two, and our other promising investigators that we didn't drop. We are also finding many new people and hope that they will get far.
Thursday we had a lack of appointments and since it was the last week of the transfer we decided to do something before the end in case we leave the city and are unable to do so later. We took a trip to Al Capone's grave. It was awesome. After visiting his grave we explored some of the other awesome graves, some of which are very amazing to see. Now this is one less tourist trap that i have to go visit in Chicago. After a few days of not doing much work we quickly sprung back into action; we had a small break but now it's time to resume the work.
Between Friday and Tuesday rumors were flying about transfer calls all week. Elder B. was going crazy worrying about the rumor that he might become a zone leader; he would rather stay in Beverly for one more transfer. He was especially panicked on Tuesday because he knew the call may actually come. Transfer calls came and went and Elder B. isn't a zone leader, at least not yet, but you can only escape the noose for so long. I am staying in Beverly yet one more and the Beverly Three are very confident that we can get some baptisms this transfer. This makes 9 months for me in Beverly; my entire mission thus far. I could do my whole mission right here but sadly I don't think that's going to happen; you have to move at some point.
As far as the rest of the district, the sisters are staying, Elder P. is staying, Elder K. took one for the team and is now a zone leader in Valpa; aka the outer darkness of the mission. I feel very bad for Elder Py, he was zone leader but they bumped him up to A.P. Nobody ever wants those calls; they feel like it robs them of a real mission. It's viewed as punishment rather than reward for being a good missionary.
That's all for now, g2g Sox game, go sox! (White Sox maybe?
love Elder Fields.

Birthday Fever

I was meaning to post this earlier but I didn't have time. I'm pressing my time just by writing it now. But it's my attitude about birthdays. I don't have anything against them, I mean who does? (excepting people uncomfortable with their age maybe?) But at the same time I don't give them due respect.

Not to say that usually when a friend's birthday comes up I won't wish them a happy birthday and celebrate with them if they're doing something, but when it comes to my own birthday I tend to keep it on the down-low. For example, last year on facebook a month before I hid my birthday on facebook so that no one could see it. And then I went up to Kearns and hung out with some friends as if nothing else was happening. And then one of my friends afterward got mad at me for not telling them and said we would have gone out and done something different had they known.

This year I practically did the same. I didn't hide it on facebook this year though, but I still did make no plans either. Of course having a birthday on Sunday, moving out Friday evening and staying with a friend until I could move in helped facilitate that. But even so I didn't tell my roommates or anyone at my new ward that Sunday was my birthday. I just let it be a normal day and sat around and relaxed.

But then while just coming to my blog Sunday evening my roommate glanced over and saw the title And I'll Cry If I Want To and asked me about my birthday and when it was. So when I told him he was of course naturally disgruntled that I hadn't told him or anyone else. And another roommate, Benjamin, who is trying to bring us all together as roommates gave me a piece of cake after overhearing that.

So I don't know about my other roommates in the apartment, but I bet they find it pretty odd that I didn't inform them of my birthday.

But why did I do it though? If it was anyone else's birthday I would want to know, want to celebrate with them. But yet I hardly mentioned it. I just made it, until I realized I was being an idiot and contacted a few friends to get together this week, a normal day like every other day; not special.

So I was thinking about why and my slightly hypocritical view of birthdays and realized that one it probably stems from a bit of my lack of self-esteem; that it's not worth celebrating. That may be part of it. I think it also had to with my birthdays in the mission field. Apart from the packages I received the week or so before at Zone Conference I don't recall doing anything special, just going out and working. Though I think on my second birthday in the Mission I did celebrate a bit with some recent converts and had some cake. But that may have been more at the behest of my companion than anything else I think.

But back to the point. I considered my roommates point-of-view and figured that I'd probably think myself as selfish for keeping it all to myself. Luckily there's another birthday in a year so I have that long to change my attitude about it. And it's on a Monday too.

Of course I might just celebrate it a week early so everyone can be there before they all head home at the end of the semester. But we'll see.

And on a completely unrelated note, it is my parent's 26th anniversary. I need to call them.

My Two Cents on Boyle

First off, she is a great singer and from what I have heard an inspiration to many others as well. I don't begrudge them that.

What I do begrudge and see what the youtube videos of her performance is the shallowness in not just the American culture and other cultures as well. We all know people were rolling their eyes at her looks, making fun of her for what she said, stuff like that. Only when did she start to sing did it wow people.

We are so willing to judge and be judgmental on someone's looks that it seems to be the impossible to get up looking normal or mediocre and knock everyone's boots off. That is what I have the problem with. She shouldn't have to be an inspiration to many to put their all into. We should already be there. We should already be conditioned to the fact that skinny dressed up barbies like Spears, Madonna, and all them are not the only ones who can sing. Others can too. But we are programmed not to think it. To think that someone who looks like Boyle or normal can't be extra-ordinary.

And of course when I watched the first time my first thought as it ended was that she is going to cave to what Hollywood has led us to believe and be made to look the part of a great singer. As so I'm not surprised to learn of her makeover. It just means she caved to the cultural pressure of having to spoof up and that to be fabulous and great you need to look fabulous and great. That's how I see it at least.

So she may be an inspiration for getting on stage, and she is a great singer. But a true inspiration would do something to stick out, to be different from everyone else; not fold and add to the cultural conception that you need talent and looks to make it.

But time will tell. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm not.

Just Say No.

For those parents or soon to be parents out there, there are a few things that are taught to children; like look both ways before crossing, Don't take candy from strangers, say no to drugs. The good safe stuff that we are told. But there is one that I think isn't stressed enough, actually it is hardly stressed at all in the early youth, which I think would do a lot of good. Just say no stalking. It does not achieve anything worthwhile, is creepy and the only career to come from it is an independent investigator, the kind that gets hired to see if a spouse is being unfaithful.

So that said, I think parents everywhere should instill in their kids to just say no to stalking. It'll make the world go easier.

And then teenage girls won't get hyped up about Edward the super stalker. The books will fade from a teenage romance novel to an ironic work and all will be right with the world.

I think it's time.

There's a vampire in my life. I can't say much more. But I'm getting the feeling that it's time to kill it.

So I'm stocking up on wooden stakes, garlic, torches, crucifixes and holy water. This is bound to get ugly.

Not to Brag or Anything...

Yeah. My internet is fast.

...And I'll Cry if I want to?

The day has gone smoothly, been relaxing, but nothing with friends, except for hanging out all day yesterday at my friend Sethicus's place as he graciously had me ever in the one day interim of homelessness. But even so I wonder to myself, "What on earth am I doing just sitting around all day?"

I don't know the answer to that, but I intend to correct it.

Edit: I guess it would add more context if I add that today at 1:27 pm I hit the old age of 23.

It's Friday Already?

Wow. Time has gone by. Sorry for not posting. I'll get back to it. I'm just hitting the school work hard so I finish by August. You all have permission to rebuke me if I say I am procrastinating. Especially you Chilly.

And you all probably know this, but I'm homeless until tomorrow night. Until then I'm at a friend's house, a block and half away from Macey's in Orem, enjoying fine dining and excellent pastries. (You're missing out Giant, you're missing out.)

So until then, peace out.

Passing Through

I have a headache that keeps moving to different parts of my brain with differing levels of intensity. And also no job. That last one is a bit of a bother.

Black and White

All it took was a moment. A few words. But they were of detrimental effect. The color began to drain, like water down a drain so too disappeared the color. The grass turned gray, the trees and the mountains. The sky no longer blue, the sun no longer bright, no longer warm. Just colorless. All around, as far as the eye could see. Nothing joyful. Just the promise of the same tedious pattern day after day. Week after weeks. Month on month. Until the future itself was drained of color, even drained of it's white until all merged into a looming endless black.

With a sigh everyone got back to work. No energy. No joy. Just work. And work. And work.

Drama and Laughter

It was a shadowy day, gray, hardly any sun, just clouds hanging to make a dismal day even worse for three women that day. The three women were gathered in the cemetery, all draped in black, all in mourning for their beloved husbands. The pastor sensed their pain, sensed their shock at the loss of their loved ones and gave each one of them a single red rose; one that stood out and contrasted the day, one that seemed to stand out of the ordinary, a rose that brought just a little color into their day.

The three young widows began to speak and the pastor couldn't help but overhear their conversations. Each of the widows told of what drove their late husbands to the brink, what the signs were. The first widow who spoke up said she should have noticed the danger when her husband stuck a note to the pantry door with a fork saying he was tired of the same old roast-beef each day. The second saw a note on the wall with a cutting knife saying he was tired of ham, the third's note was stuck to the fridge by an oil change magnet expressing outrage about the chicken meat prepared for him daily.

After a brief silence the first mourning widow said she never should have fixed that last roast-beef sandwich, to which the second widow also replied with the same sentiments that she should have known better than to fix another ham sandwich, but the third didn't speak immediately. Expecting their fellow widow to be in the same situation they turned to her waiting. After a few seconds of silence the third said to them, "Don't look at me, my husband prepared his own lunch."

Wha?!!!!!!

When it comes to music I'm not a great fan of many bands. I listen to everything and there are some songs that I like, but nothing really that would get me excited to see a concert, except for Il Divo. It turns out that they have a concert in Salt Lake June 5th. The problem is tickets are $56.00 at the cheapest. Maybe I get my parents to buy me a ticket or two for my birthday that is coming up... Decisions decisions.

Also enjoy one of my favorite songs; Isabel

Missionary Thursday

Dear All,
last Wednesday was the Zone Activity and it was loads of fun, even though it was the usual activity and nothing special like the sword fight or ice skating; just hanging out at the Hyde Park building. It was still fun, but I prefer to do something wacky like the first two. But even so it still fun to just kick back and take a break from the work.
Friday we worked hard all day and rewarded ourselves on Good Friday by attending a Catholic easter service. I liked it better then the last two churches we went to; the speaker was friendly and even endorsed our church. Elder H. told me that he had been to a catholic service before and they are not normally like that one. He said that they adapted it to south-side blacks and Easter. If that's true then I would like to attend a catholic service again and see what its normally like.
Saturday we taught a Bulgarian investigator; we had to get a Book of Mormon for him in his language. We were thrilled when he came to church on Sunday, but we were sad because we don't have or know anyone with the gift of tongues who can speak Bulgarian. He just sat there not understanding what was said. He liked it but the language barrier is still a big problem. We understand enough from each other to get the basics of what is said but that is about it. We also have a French speaking investigator but that's not as big of a problem.
Sunday was also Easter. I got the easter package just in time; my Christmas candy just ran out. I gladly share some with my companions but I have to remind them that it's mine and that they don't need to take so much. They just told me eating all that candy would make me fatter but I said I could use it as a motive to work harder. The "Easter Bunny" left all the missionaries baskets on their cars and we enjoyed that as well.
Monday and Tuesday we worked hard but all our appointments Monday and half on Tuesday canceled on us. So this week has been draining our energy from them not showing up. Usually Wednesday we don't have appointments but we set some up today and we hope those go through and hope that the rest of the week is better as well.

love Elder Fields.

Randomocity

It's snowing it seems and I barely have an internet connection...

And wondering if things done will be for the greater or good or will cause more pain. Time will tell I suppose.

Also, when the robot revolution begins, I think we all know who to blame for enabling them to rise up; Eli Whitney and John hall... well they are credited with interchangeable parts, but according to Wikipedia it was the idea of Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, from France. So when robots strike back, you can blame the French for interchangeable parts.

That and the Montgolfier brothers invented the Hot Air Balloon. Quite interesting.

Dell Annoys Me

I may have mentioned in weeks previous that I have my sister's laptop cause it has been having all sorts of blue screen errors. Basically it was random errors that I think had to do with Norton and the memory. Anywhat they sent some replacement parts to her and I got them this weekend to install so the errors stop. Now it won't turn on. The blue lights flash for ten or so seconds and then turn off.

The annoying thing is that I was hung up on five times yesterday in trying to get the next step, in getting the laptop shipped to the warehouse. Apparently that's not in the warranty though and they're sending a tech to re-install the motherboard soon.

So you all know, don't buy refurbished Dell. They're hunks of junk.

Easter

I hope you all have a happy Easter as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I hope you all have a very good day today in remembering his sacrifice for us.

Mi Estamago

I shouldn't have eaten that pizza last night. Trust me, using black magic to clone yourself and altering your clone's appearance while having composite intelligence to go out with friends and others because your chance is blown isn't a dream ones to have.

Now if I had used my dark magic clone to conquer the world, that would be better. But to get girls? Not a wise decision.

Except now I wonder what a group date with a few a me with a few girls would be like. Things certainly would never be dull.

That's it. Maybe I will use cloning to get girls. And rule the world. Anyone up to be my queen, or a queen of a clone?

All this from eating pizza last night. Well, of course the pizza can't be entirely blamed...

'Splode!

There was once a boy who put off his homework, who got guiltier and guiltier by the second about putting it off that the guilt itself stopped him from doing his homework. Thus the guilt became self-perpetual and self aware and decided to step it up a notch. At a moment completely unexpected the boy felt something burn and with a animalistic howl his head exploded.

The end.

Twonce Upon A Time

Maybe I am doing things wrong. If a girl likes you and you don't reciprocate that feeling, do you avoid them or keep being friends with them ignoring that when they look at you, it is more than a random glance? I used to think that the correct answer is try and be friends, because back when I crushed on girls in high school and after the mission, generally if I told them I liked them, they withdrew and avoided me. I think and thought it was silly and that such awkwardness could be avoided. Now I'm not sure. I thought the correct thing would be do unto others as they do unto you, that as I would have preferred that those girls not stop being friends with me that I should try and be friends with someone if that situation were to occur. But now I'm not sure.

Because if up to me, I'd say be friends. Awkward moments come and go and are normal. But when the idiocy that is inherent in my man-blood roars and other things happen, well it seems that maintaining the friendship causes pain if other avenues of dating occur.

So be friends and eventually cause pain again, or go separate ways? Choices choices.

Apostacy-less Missionary Thursday

Last Wednesday for April Fools our whole district pulled a prank on Sister R., President R's wife. We each called in sick with different afflictions at different times and at the end of the last call to her we all shouted out "April Fools". It was fun and we hope she didn't take it too hard. She tried to prank us all back unsuccessfully. Friday was district meeting and President's interviews. Sister R. did not show up for that and we wonder why. After the interviews we all told each other what was said and tried to guess at what that meant for the future. It's possible that I may be staying here one more transfer. Elder B. or Elder K. might go zone leader and Elder P. will definitely be getting transferred from his zone leader area. We're all worried about this a bit too soon. There are still three more weeks left in this transfer.
This week we really tried to push the importance of coming to church and that there is a prophet on the earth today. We told all of our investigators that the prophet would be speaking in General Conference this weekend and tried to get them to come to it. On Saturday there were investigators there, but none of them were ours. Sunday we got four investigators to church for the first session and one for the second. This was impressive because most of them were investigators we just picked up. Well have to see where it goes with them, as well as with all our other investigators. Hopefully they will get baptized but only time will tell.
In General Conference there was a lot of good stuff said. I would have to say my favorite part was the talk where he couldn't text message his conference talk and that we can't Google search a testimony.
Monday and Tuesday we worked it up hard to make up for the lack of work done on conference weekend. Wer'e doing a super awesome job and we hope that doesn't change soon. This area hasn't had a baptism in 18 months and we intend to break that pattern.
Today is zone activity so we should have loads of fun with that.
That's about all that happened this week. Remember the gospel is always true no matter what and stay tuned for next weeks email, hopefully I will have something super exiting to report.
love Elder Fields.

Dearest Searcher

Dearest person who arrived at my blog by Google searching the phrase 'My lungs are killing me',
You were probably looking for some reason as to why my lungs were killing me, but yet arrived at a page that had nothing do with the my lungs at all.

So though you may not come to this blog again, I feel it only fair to link to the reason as to why my lungs are killing me.

Hopefully this will serve as a help to those who use that search term. I could also put a link in that blog post too, but that would mean having to edit that. And who really has the time? Well, I do, I suppose... I may or I may not. We'll see.

From the Old 'Juvie' Records

At Family Home Evening tonight, we played the game 'Hot Seat', where we were interviewed for two minutes about random stuff, with the ability to pass if it was too personal. One of the questions asked tonight of a fellow FHE brother was if he ever went went to detention or got in trouble in school, which brought to mind a story of my own, one of mischievousness, innocence, or the pretense thereof and possible damage to school property.

It was the middle of the afternoon in his eighth grade year, and it was one of those afternoons. You know the kind I'm talking about. Most of the work had been done, people were talking, things were laid back. Free time essentially. The young boy was with some of his buddies, just talking when one of them took out a larger than normal paperclip. They discussed what they could do with it, and being the adventurous and reckless middle school boys (Well technically not middle-schoolers as it was a Junior High) they saw the perfect use for the paperclip: Bending it to stick into one of the many electrical sockets.

Being of such of an adventurous age they knew little as to how electricity worked, except that sparks might shoot out and they might be shocked. That part deterred them from their action, the thought of how bad the shock would be until this particular boy enthusiastically though of using a piece of paper like an oven mitt to stick in the now U-shaped piece of metal.

Of course since it was his idea, he got to put it in, though perhaps it was the intelligence of the others that stopped them from doing it themselves and allowed the boy to continue on.

He put it in, sparks shot out, lights dimmed and the class stared at him. For his benefit he wasn't shocked, the paper was only singed, burn marks where it held the clip. One end of the paper clip shot out of the socket hole, straightening itself out a bit in the process and vibrating like crazy.

The teacher singled him out and the vice principal came to the class, due to the teacher calling him there or other reasons...

The vice principal led him out of the class, initially saying that the boy would be suspended for a few days, but later only sentenced the lad to a few lunch detentions.

Friends in other classes though claim the the class on the other side of the wall had some electrical problems of their own when he did that; that a computer shorted out or something to that affect, the likes of which have not been confirmed by official report. Though if such a thing were to have occurred then no doubt the suspension would have gone into effect.

The moral of this story? Sticking metal into electrical outlets is probably not a good idea.

Being Silly...

For some reason or another I have a desire to go to the nearest bell tower and shout "Sanctuary" at the top of my lungs. Or maybe using a bull horn. I don't know why, but if you hear or see someone shouting it. That's me.

SANCTUARY!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, Happy birthday Giovanni!!!!!!

Lame with a Capital A

To all those who are sane and live ordinary lives, this post isn't for you. This post is dedicated to all those who decide to go off their hinges, start a killing a spree and then kill themselves. Lame.

Like today, some dude in New York entered an immigration service building and opened fire. He killed twelve people, injured several more and then killed himself. Lame Lame Lame. First off, it is obviously lame to go kill people. I don't really think that needs to be said. What I do think is especially lame is to just kill yourself after you've gone on the rampage.

I don't know why, but I that's lame. That's what everybody who goes on a killing spree does, they kill themselves. Now maybe you kill yourself after being horrified of all that you've done, or maybe you thought you could escape. I don't know. But be original at least and turn yourself in.

Yes you may spend the rest of your days in an orange outfit and living off the state for a while, but hey, you at least didn't end your life. Maybe you can redeem yourself. I'm not exactly sure what can be done, since I'm not a law student or anything, but I think it'd be better to turn yourself in.

Of course the best course of action would be to not go on a rampage. If you're so upset, well go to the shooting range, see counselor, something. Anything. Just don't be lame and kill yourself in the end.

If nothing else, know that it is now unoriginal and done to death (literally). Heck, if you're really hankering to kill something, get a hunting permit and hunt the legally prescribed animal, or join the armed forces. You get to shoot things and your serving the nation.

So go about your days now and don't be lame. OK?

Shuffle Shuffle, do the hustle?

So apparently there is another meme to see the first random songs to come up in my playlist, stealing this from Yellow M&M and Tiburon.

So here it is, the first random 20 songs to come up in my library.
Minas Morgul - Lord of the Rings: Return of the King soundtrack.
The Dementors Converge - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban soundtrack.
All The World - Kansas
A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes - DisneyMania Vol 6
New Kid in Town - The Very Best of the Eagles Disk 2
Neville's Waltz - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire soundtrack
Dementors in the Underpass - Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix Soundtrack. (What's with all the Harry Potter stuff?)
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah - Disney
No One Together - The Best of Kansas
Say You Will - Complete Greatest Hits by Foreigner
The Little Old Lady from Pasadena - Jan and Dean
Rikki Don't Lose that Number - Steely Dan
All Night Long - Joe Walsh
I Don't Dance - High School Musical 2
Dust in the Wind - Kansas
For No One - The Beatles
A Sentimental Man - Wicked
Cotton Fields - Creedence Clearwater
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly
My Way (A Mi Manera) - Il Divo

Flirtacious Missionary Thursday

Excerpts from the messages sent by Elder Fields this week sent by electronic carrier pigeon...

Salutations all,
This week was absolutely amazing. We got 10 baptism dates and one of our baptisms that we had set actually went through. We visited a bunch of different churches including the Presbyterians, we liked them and could see why Joseph Smith was leaning towards them. We had loads of people at sacrament meeting this week too. We also went to the north side and got tickets to a Bull;s game; I'm also sorry to say I got tricked into going on another date with the sisters...
APRIL FOOLS!!!!!
Actually all of the above is false. Nothing much happened at all this week but I figured that this could be fun. I Hope you all enjoyed my little prank. Honestly I wish some of the stuff above was true.
This week we switched up our focus from finding and teaching to getting members present at lessons and getting investigators to sacrament meetings. We are doing very well and have one investigator who is progressing far faster then the others and is well on her way to baptism. She just needs to come to church again and completely stop smoking and cut out the coffee. The smoking is pretty much done with and coffee is next to go.
Saturday we had a Walk With Christ Easter activity for investigators. This went well but unfortunately there were more members there then there were investigators. Sunday's weather didn't help at all in getting investigators to church. We had so many who said they would come to church, but the snow storm provided the perfect reason to not come. unfortunately even our elite investigators failed to show up. Monday and Tuesday were packed up completely full with lessons and we couldn't catch a break. That's the way we like it. We have been telling everyone that the prophet is speaking this weekend and they all seem interested and will hopefully come at least to general conference. This week was somewhat dull outside mission work and sorting out the elite investigators from those not truly interested, nothing else happened.

In other news; Sam, I've discovered that I am good with accidentally using pickup lines. I know that I should probably keep my mouth shut because I am a missionary and shouldn't be flirting at all. I honestly don't intend for what I say to become a line but somehow it's taken that way when it comes out.(Editors Note: I vouch for his sincerity in this statement) I should just shut my mouth and only open it to teach. but anyway here's the story on this line which I thought you might like to use.
We were having a district dinner and we were talking about how we are all members of the Lonely Hearts Club and were just going to be single forever. Then Elder K. told Sister B. something along the lines of everyone has someone, just like Adam and Eve. Sister B. then told him "I don't have an Adam" to which I replied by saying "well I don't have an Eve"
I didn't intend for it to come out as a pickup line, I was thinking more like it would be words of comfort; like we're both in the same boat so don't get to down. Honestly I need to watch what I say. I am becoming known out here for saying stupid things to other missionaries
Anyway I just thought I would share this line with someone who isn't a missionary and can actually use a line like that. So use it and tell me how it worked.

And in regards to what Sister C. shares with him and other missionaries he replied 'With all the things she teaches, I take it all with a grain of salt and when I forward the information she gives us I do it because I would like to get another person's view on these things; so thanks for telling me yours.'