The Call

Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz. A number from Idaho. Weiser, I think. Interesting.

"Hello?"

"Good evening, sir. Would you be willing to answer some questions for a survey?"

"I don't know."

"It is a quick survey and it won't take much time," the caller said in an unusual accent.

Sensing desperation in the caller. "Well, maybe. How long will it take?"

"Only five minutes and if you answer three questions right then you will qualify for a trip to Australia."

Oh, no. Not one of these again. There is never a good way to say no. Be firm. Be firm.

"What is the first question?"

"Who was the first president of the United States?" Was that accent real?

"Uh.." What the? What kind of question is that? That is not a survey question. "George Washington."

"Great job. You answered one right. Only two more to go and you will win that free trip to Australia! Are you ready for the next question?"

"I guess so."

"Who was the 31st president of the United States?" That accent is definitely forced.

"Uh...um...uh..." How am I supposed to know that? I wonder if this is my seventh grade social studies teacher. I knew she'd come back to haunt me. But what about the free trip? "I don't know."

"Would you like another question, sir?" Giggling from someone other that the caller. "Let me ask you another question. You only need two more to win a trip to Australia. It is a great place."

"Are you Australian?"

"Yes, I am. Can't you tell by my accent?"

"That is not an Australian accent. It may be from a lot of other places but not Australia."

"Excuse me, sir, but I am from Australia and I have a free trip for you. Just two more questions." She replied as her accent began to falter. More giggling from other girls.

I've got her.  "I think you are from somewhere in Idaho. Maybe Boise area?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Let's see you could be a Payette Pirate, a Fruitland Grizzly or a Weiser Wolverine. Who do you cheer for?"

"Weiser!" Multiple girls shouted from the background.

Perhaps a free vacation to Weiser, Idaho would have been more appropriate.

"How old are you? I am going to guess 15." Giggles. Lots of them. I must have guessed right.

"How old are you? Are you 17?"

"Nope. So, how often do you guys do this?" I asked changing the subject. "Are you guys pretty successful?" I decided to google the identity of the 31st president. I had to see if they knew the answer to their own question.

"We get people to fall for it all the time."

"They'll even give us their information like birthdays and social security numbers," another girl answered.

Apparently I've been on speaker phone the whole time. "Well you need to practice your Australian accent. It could use some work." Giggles. "Also who was the 31st president?"

"Um..uh..." It was her turn to not know the answer.

"It was Herbert Hoover." I really could have answered anything, and they would have said that I was right. I was so close to getting a trip to Australia.

"What's your name?" I heard someone farther from the phone say.

"And how old are you?" Some one else chimed in. They really do want to know a lot about me. I was a little reluctant to give them any info.

"My name is Pedro."

"No, it isn't."

"You're right. It is not. I prefer to go by Pablo. And as far as my age goes, I am older than twenty but less than thirty."

"Are you 21?"

"No."

"22?"

"No."

"23?"

"No, and neither am I twenty-four. I will tell you that I do not live in Idaho. I am married and we have a little boy. I know some people from Weiser." I said changing the subject again. "Do you know the Bergquists or the Palmers?" Mumbled no's. "How about the Walkers?" Anyone from Weiser should know at least one Walker.

"I know a girl from school whose last name is Walker." One of the girls in the background said.

"Wait, are you Mormon?" Where did that come from?

"Yes, I am." Whispers. Ohs. Scattered apologies for some of the swear words that were said. I think they realized that they might not have been on their best behavior. "Well, I hope you girls have a good night and good luck with your prank calls and that Australian accent. I hope the people you call know who the 31st president is." After a little more deliberation, I was able to end the call. I think they were having too much fun talking. They didn't want the call to end. 

I am a little disappointed that I didn't win a free trip to Australia (even though a real survey would have asked for some kind of fee). I would have even taken a free trip to Idaho. Win a trip to Weiser: we have onions...lots of them. Sometimes prank calls work, sometimes they don't. At least I learned who the 31st president was.

Provo Winter

Whheeelll Family. Ach but I have a wee accent... haha!

This winter (I use winter here loosely to mean a period of time between late november and late march, but it in no way constitutes a guarantee of snow) has been really mild. We haven't had any snow to shovel except over Christmas break, and I wasn't even here... haha. (This next sentence is in the voice of Elder Calhoun off of the best two years) There was one day when it began to snow, and then... nuthing. To the groce-er-ry store!!
It is nice in some ways because we have kept busy at work. The construction crews haven't even slowed their work, and when they work, they always leave a good swath of broken sprinkler systems. I really haven't been working a lot this semester. I am trying to leave room for school, service, and sleep... (and alliteration! I don't know any s-words for relationships, dating, girls, so I guess I don't have time for that)

 Here are John Hancock and I.

Here I am with Dallin Faulker. He is a friend from the ward. We got a box of pizza each for posting to social media and promoting BYU's museums. They had a "Night at the Museum" with scavenger hunts and prizes and food. We only went to the JFSB on campus and looked around. We also took our picture here. 

I have been mentoring through 4-H. I mentor a young boy named Jonathan. He is in 3rd or 4th grade. It is fun. We try to do fun things and learn together. I am just supposed to provide a good role model for him and help him have a desire to further his education and do well in life. He and his family are from Mexico. They have lived here for several years, and Jonathan actually prefers to speak English, but I communicate with the parents in Spanish. Here we are at a basketball game.

I made some peach jam this semester from some peaches that I had frozen in the freezer until I could get to them....


I asked my roommate John to get me some oatmeal from Winco where it is cheap... He calls me and asks, "Do you want Scottish oats or steel-cut oats?" I say, "Just the normal ones. I think steel-cut is fine." So that was how I learned how to use steel-cut oats. John bought 5 lbs (I was expecting oatmeal), but the cereal that you make from the steel-cut oats is pretty tasty, and the price was the same, so I recommend them if you want to try something new.



Here is the recipe for baked potato soup that I have made several times and it is super tasty!


Here is a picture of my haircut! It is special because I cut it myself.


I went and visited Grandpa Stratford a couple of times. It is fun to talk to him and get some stories from him. I helped him clean up some of his papers and such. He felt really good about getting everything more organized. He told me how he is sharing the gospel with several of his old contacts from school and such. That was good.

My roommate Ian got sick. He had an ear infection and a cough and was just dead. He talked with my roommate John and the conversation went something like this,

John - "Ian you look terrible. If there is anything you need, just let me know."
Ian - "John can you go to the store and get me some medicine and some gatorade?"
John - "Can I go tomorrow? I have a lot of homework and I don't have time right now."
Ian - "Joshua?"
Me - "I'm going..."

John isn't mean, but he really focuses on school sometime. Look here at this link https://roommatejohn.wordpress.com/ for a funny description of our apartment on Ian's blog. As a side note, I am in almost all the stories on Ian's blog, but not always explicitly mentioned. If you read it, I can tell you what part I played. :)

So then I got sick because, unlike John who was super germophobic and avoided all contact with Ian, I talked with Ian. That was a rough week, but I didn't miss any class and I wasn't as bad off as Ian was. Here I am with my cough syrup fumanchu... Ian was kind enough to share his medicine. Probably because he felt guilty for getting me sick. And there I am with Ian and the cream cheese brownies we made.



I have been working on family history lately. Our stake is part of a pilot program called Golden Hints which sounds like a good name for a hair coloring product. The program searches your family tree and correlates with census records to find people that you can add to your tree. I have been working on my hints and I have found several new people! This week I found a little boy who died not long after he was born. The census of 1900 showed that the mom, her name is Sadie Edith Carmack, had two children, but only one was living. Sadie and her husband William Franklin Carmack were married in 1896. So I searched death records between 1896 and 1900 and found a boy named Everet E. Carmack who had died in the same town as Sadie and William, but the death record was only an index and it didn't show who the parents were. I then looked around some more and found a birth record on someone else's tree that showed that Sadie and William had a boy in 1898, but they hadn't named him yet, so on the birth record it just says "Carmack". I am pretty sure that this is the right one, but I am going to do some follow up looking on some microfilm in the family history library here, and see if I can find a death certificate instead of just an index of a death certificate. If I can find one, then I can for sure confirm that Everet is the name of the boy who was born to Sadie and William!!

So that is fun. Here is the pathway to William and Sadie if you want to work over there. Also if you want some tips, I have been learning a ton of things about how to start and where to start looking (which I think is the hardest part) and I am happy to help.

Last but not least, here is a recent picture of me (today) and a picture of Lauren Bradshaw and me. We went to a dance together at her school

 

Have Courage and Be Kind

You may not be aware, but Cinderella came out this weekend!! Yes, I can hardly contain my excitement either! Joseph, Hyrum, and I were visiting the Daltons for Spring Break so awesomely Linda Lee, Lydia, Joseph and I all took a trip to the movies...in costume.

Someone *ahem Benjamin* said we looked more like the peasant Cinderella, but if our dresses were as poufy as Cinderella's ballgown we wouldn't have fit in the theater chairs.

Things we learned from Cinderella. Even Elsa can get a cold (there was a Frozen short). Mice make the best friends. Work hard and you can get to the palace. Lizards make creepy footmen (in the best possible way). Home is where your family is. Sing all the time. Have courage and be kind.

Scripture Study

Exodus 4:
"And Moses answered and said, "But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee."
And the Lord said unto him, "What is that in thine hand?
And he said, "A rod."
And He said, "Cast it on the ground." And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. And the Lord said unto Moses, "Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail."
And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand.
"That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee."

And then God gives says, And if they don't believe that then you can put your hand in your bosom and pull it out and it will be leprous, and then put it back in and it will be whole again.  And if they don't believe that then you could take river water and pour it on the ground and it will become blood.

And then I almost feel that Moses, interrupts Him, and finally gets around to asking what he really wanted to ask in the first place.

And Moses said unto the Lord, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou has spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue."

So even though Moses may have feared a little that the people wouldn't believe him.  What he was really afraid of was that he didn't think he was a very good speaker.  And that maybe the people would make fun of him.  Or he wouldn't be able to get the message across.  He was really afraid of what he thought his inadequacies were.

So the Lord says, I made your mouth, you'll be fine.  But Moses says, Can't we send for someone else?  And God gets a little frustrated and says, fine Aaron speaks well, go get him.  He can speak for you.

This is interesting to me.  We are not organized enough, or smart enough, or out going enough, but if God is asking us to do something surely he thinks our bodies and our abilities are sufficient for the task.  And how many times does he go and get someone else to do it for me, or instead of me, because I doubt?