An unusual Saturday

I have to keep this somewhat short because I have to be ready for my road trip to see the eclipse. I am nervous, because I have never personally driven that far.

It was a rather uneventful week, just enjoying August.

Saturday, I had a few interesting experiences.

First, my biological great uncle came for a visit. We had never met him before. See, my biological grandfather was a terrible person and therefore isn't my real grandfather. My mom reached out to this uncle, who happened to be in town on his way to view the eclipse, so he visited. He's kind of a hippie type (I know this because he's vegan) who dresses like a geologist. But he's not a geologist but an astronomer, and he talks and talks about it. He's a nice guy, but I didn't really feel a connection. The concept of family transcends DNA. I could feel a connection if we knew him better, but initially, it isn't there.

(Did you see that article about the two men who were switched at birth but just found out? DNA breakthroughs are unraveling family secrets. But in the case of this uncle, it wasn't a secret. We just never bothered or had a need to meet him.)

Then I headed to Provo to the MTC open house. One of the new buildings is right along the eastern end of University Parkway, and I used to run right by there. It's weird to have the buildings changed. I knew my way around Provo, having lived there for four+ years, so it was all familiar and brought back memories. One of the new buildings had a yellow color scheme, which won't take long to be very dated. I love color, but will it last?

The beginning of the tour was through the MTC cafeteria, where all the missionaries were getting their lunches. I felt like we were tourists at a zoo: "These are the missionaries in captivity, consuming a diet of chocolate milk and whatever else they desire." Most of the buildings are named after people, and I know the stories behind a lot of the people, but when I was in the MTC, I had never heard of most of them.

It was a little weird to reminisce on my brief three weeks there nearly ten years ago (!). I could remember standing in one of the halls and having another missionary offer me some Rudolph-shaped cookie/pretzel things, as it was December. In the MTC, I thought, "I'm a missionary for real now! This is awesome!" But it was such a tiny part of my mission that I hardly consider it a part of it at all. My MTC companion and I were about as polar opposite as you can get. I think we were both completely inexperienced, and that heightened the tensions of working with different people.

After I came home, I went to BYU and searched for jobs. This was during the Great Recession, so try as I might, I couldn't get a job. In desperation, I applied at the MTC and had a teaching interview, where you teach a lesson to the interviewers. Mine went horrible. I came home from that appointment just in agony over how poorly I had done and how awkward I was. Even my roommate detected my distress. It was a traumatic experience. There were three levels of recommendation: recommended, recommended only if needed, and not recommended. I was shocked when I was in the middle category, because I was certain I would be not recommended. In hindsight, I don't regret not getting that job. That was the last time I was actually on the MTC grounds. (I used to run and drive past it all the time, of course.)

Once I actually hit my ten-year mark later this year, I'm toying with the idea of republishing and annotating my mission emails on my memory blog (which is mostly dead now). It would be interesting to reflect on how my viewpoints and priorities have changed over a decade. But there are some practical considerations I would have to deal with (for example, publishing people's names), so it's just an idea at this point. I'm not committed.