On Skyping

I love skyping. We have really cool technology. We're extremely blessed that we can talk face to face with somebody far away; in a different state or even a different country. Today I was blessed to be able to skype with my wonderful brother Will on his mission in Milwaukee, and it was very cool to be able to see how he has grown.
I also had the privilege of skyping with my wonderful friend Taylor May in Washington who I miss very much. If anyone wants to skype me, please contact me so we can do it. I would absolutely love to.

A Story

Tonight I had the privilege of volunteering in the MTC referral center. That means I was at a computer, and when somebody went onto mormon.org and requested to chat with somebody, I got to be one of the people who could chat with them. It was really awesome. I got to talk to lots of people and answer their questions about the gospel.
Anyway, we were supposed to only be getting chats in English, but one time somebody started a chat with me, and they began the conversation with "Hallo. Ich habe eine frage." This means, "Hello, I have a question." IN GERMAN!!!!! I was super excited!!! I was then able to have an entire conversation with this person from Germany, and I could understand everything he was saying and was able to answer back! Folks, my German is definitely not that good. I'm positive that I was able to understand words that I have never heard before in my life. I was able to dispel both the rumor that Mormons can have more than one wife, as well as the rumor that the Mormons are in charge of the NPD (the neo-nazi political party in Munich.) And then, after that, The guy told me that he wanted to learn more about the church!!!! After that, I told him about the Book of Mormon, and then he gave me his address and I was able to refer him to the German missionaries who are going to go to his house to teach him!!!! This is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. What are the odds that that person would just happen to begin a chat with the volunteer who could speak a little bit of German? Folks, the gospel is true, and the Lord will make sure those who seek it will be able to find it. I'm so very grateful for this opportunity that I had to share the gospel with somebody, and to give them the opportunity to learn more about the Church.




Also, for Seth: After we finished each chat, we were supposed to mark who each person was that chatted with us and what they wanted. The options were like, "Seeking information" and such. One of the options was "Trolling."

I want to be a missionary now.... AND I DON'T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL I'M GROWN

I cannot express how happy I am right now. Everything in my life has led up to this moment. All of my greatest wishes are fulfilled and also all of my greatest fears are quenched. Brace yourself, world, for elder Oldroyd #2. I am so ready to go. The Lord has been preparing me for this in ways that I had no idea of. My gratitude cannot be expressed by any words my feeble mouth may be able to come up with. My life just changed a ridiculous amount.
To be a part of this is just absolutely incredible. The work of the Lord is moving forward, friends, and I'm going to be right there helping push it along. Wish me luck!

Just a Day, Just a Day, Just an Ordinary Day

All of my classes went well. Government was boring as always. During Journalism I played EDH with Michael and Henry, which brought back many memories of German tour, and the Libby’s Potted Meat Food Product, and the Toilet malfunctions, but it was fun anyway. They got in trouble though because they did not have their articles finished (I thought they did or I would not have played with them. Just sayin’.) During seminary today we had talent day, where we all played music or sang or did stuff like that. I played my marimba solo on a xylophone, which made it sound pretty terrible, but the people liked it anyway. After that Kat and Kate and I went to Kat’s house and made scones (well actually Kat made them while Kate read children’s books to us and I drank all of Kat’s chocolate milk [actually I really did help a little bit by cleaning of the counter and holding the cookbook.])

 After that fun we took scones to the Woodruffs and saw them for the last time before their mission. I’m not going to see them for almost four years, which is extremely disheartening. I am extremely excited for them and for the people that they get to serve though. I really can’t wait for my mission, and I just know that it will be a truly wonderful experience. Those two, I will definitely be writing to. They have been such a great and wonderful example to me, and I can remember distinctly the occasions on which I met each of them. I met Matt when he switched into percussion from beginning percussion, and I was really impressed with how hard he worked and with how much he loved not only percussion, but also all of the people in percussion. After that I had many marvelous frontline experiences with Matthew, and it was great to work with him. I remember how Ameri thought that he was a freshman for the entire Fall Marching Band season. I think that if Matt had started percussion as a freshman, he’d be better than all of us.

                I remember when Matthew introduced me to Andrew. I didn’t know Andrew very well for quite a while, but then I started running into him more and more often (mostly after he graduated, actually.) I grew to love Andrew’s eloquent way of speaking and grand natural tendency to include everybody just as much as I love Matthew’s huge personality in a short body. I’m not sure how I got lucky enough to land in the group that was regularly invited to attend events with the Woodruffs, but I sure am glad that it happened. Both of them have really been such role models, and I’d even say heroes in my life, and I really will never forget the kindness they have showed me and the lessons they have taught me. Brazil is a lucky country indeed to be receiving these two good men. 

Another Slew of Phone Pictures

This is my feet. 

This is what happens when you get bored whilst doing tech.

This picture is kind of hard to see, but it's a police car parked halfway on the grass and halfway on the sidewalk by a fire hydrant in front of a red curb.

Our Millie Monitor.

Now that's a gingerbread house.

This is Kat, Kate, Riley, and myself on a shark.

No comment.

I went to Disneyland with my family, and took pictures of the pictures.

We met Jae Cho in our Grandparents' ward on Christmas.

This is what happens when I play tic tac toe with Ree Lu on Stefan's desk.

This is a game of chess with Henry Davis that we never finished. I took a picture so that we could finish it later. Sadly, we probably never will. 

Anything Happen While I Was Gone?

So yes, the rumors are true. I left Utah on the 17th and I didn't get back until right about now. I've been away on a secret mission to California, meaning that while you were all in school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I was at Disneyland on those very same days. Disneyland's a great place. :) Anyway, after that I went to my Grandparents' house for Christmas, were we had a spectacular family time for the remaining days. I also saw Elder Jae Cho at church on Christmas. That was pretty darn cool. Basically, it was a super sweet vacation.