Holy Schniky It's Already Over

Posted by Adam

It's been over a month since I posted a blog, and lemme tell ya what, a WHOLE lot has happened. I don't even know where to begin... so how about Halloween!

Halloween ROCKED! I had a couple friends from home come down for the night. Mixed with some friends we have here, we made the Mystery Gang from Scooby Doo. It's amazing what you can actually find at Savers and pull together!

November seemed to fly by without my permission. I'm sure there was a bunch of fun stuff, but everything really pales in comparison to the big exciting news I got on Nov. 26. I know I planned to stay for the entire year, but the more I thought about it, the more I just couldn't wait.

I was lucky enough to submit my mission papers, and I had them sent to my home because that's where I was gonna be for Thanksgiving! I had been scheming to tell my family in a creative way.

I got the call Wednesday. I hid the envelope in my shirt and brought in the rest of the mail. My sister was standing by the door, and I gave her this disappointed look and said, “Well, hopefully it'll come Friday.”

Then I snuck outside, ran across the street to the baseball field bleachers, and opened the call. I had to read it about four times before I finally comprehended that I was going to the Italy Milan Mission. Then I stood up and screamed like a little school girl. It was pretty embarrassing. I looked over and saw my neighbors walking their dogs. They stopped and looked at me, but I don't think they realized who I was.

I report on April 1--yup, April Fools' Day--learning the Italian language. It totally blew me away, and it was harder to pretend like I didn't have it than I thought it would be. I acted casual, played the piano, but then eventually got too fidgety that I had to go do something. I called and told my roommate Mike. Then that night we had a big friend get together, and I announced it to about six people and called a couple others.

When I got home, my other sister had just gotten home. My mom asked us if we'd go pick up some milk and an onion before we went to bed. On the car ride there, I figured I would need an accomplice, so I told her where I was going and we devised a plan.

The next morning my sister called everyone over for a quick game of speed Scrabble. If you don’t know what speed Scrabble is, it's Scrabble with no board and everyone working on their own words. When someone uses all their letters they yell "go," and everyone draws a tile. It continues till the tiles are all gone.

During the second game, every time someone said, “go” I pulled out another tile from my back pocket. I eventually spelled, "I'm goin' to Italy" in tiles and then yelled, “ I win!”

Everyone was into their own game, and they looked at my discombobbled tiles, figured I was kidding, and went back to work on their own games. Then my sister said, “No! Adam won!” So they all kinda stopped and stared at the tiles. It took a good five seconds to register. Then Mom started screaming, along with everyone else. I had the call underneath the tablecloth, so I pulled it out and showed them. My mom kept saying, “You’re so mean! I don’t believe you.” Then she read the call and believed me finally.

So now I've got four months before I head into the MTC. I leave just three weeks before the winter semester would end, so I'm not able to attend school. But I'll be able to earn some good money.

It's sad that we usually don't notice our blessings till they're almost or all the way gone. I've been trying to do my best at enjoying my stay here at BYU and now that I'm near the end of the experience I just want more. It seems like I've done so much, but still not enough. I think back to the beginning of the semester and want so much to just experience it all again. It's been an entirely rewarding experience, one that I'll never forget!