Crazy Movie Making

This was such a hectic week. It started out with so much homework to do, but it ended up being a really good week. On Thursday our apartment went on a date with another apartment in our ward. At UVU they have laser tag in their student center for free and it was so much fun. The girl I was with was Zoe. She is cool, but I don't see her being much more than a friend. But it was cool to go on a date and it not be awkward and realize that I can do this. Then the weekend I was helping Ashley on a movie set for a student capstone project. The last couple of weeks I have been helping her get the set ready. There were multiple days this week that I didn't get off campus until 11 or later, but it was so worth it to help Ashley and see what she does, and see how she is so good at it. I enjoyed it so much and being on a movie set is awesome. At first it was awkward because I didn't know what I was supposed to do and try to stay out of people's ways, but I figured out what I was supposed to do, and it was cool to see how everything works. It was a way cool experience.

Life after Mission

Well it has now been about 7 weeks since I returned from my mission in Western Australia. The adjustment has been interesting to say the least. The first couple of weeks I struggled, but not in ways I thought I would. I didn't feel like I needed a companion for more than a couple of days and felt like I fit into normal life. But not having a set schedule really was annoying to me, and thinking about my future was hard. As a missionary you only focus on one day at a time for the most part, with a week in the back of your head, but never past a transfer. When I go home I felt like I immediately had to have my whole life planned out with a major and career, but I had no idea what I wanted to do, which was frustrating to say the least. Then I felt like I had lost social skills. I have never been super outgoing, but on my mission I learned how to talk to people really well. But when I got home I realized I could talk to people about Perth for a while, but back home I could not do that. I also felt like I had lost the ability to listen to people really well. I found myself drifting off during conversations for no reason. On my mission I also felt that I had a really good ability to ask really good questions, it is something I had put heaps of time into and felt like that had payed off. Now though I felt like everything I had gained just disappeared as soon as I got home.

Then there was adjusting to America. I was not used to being surrounded by so many white people and so many thick American accents, and when I got to BYU so many Mormons. Randomly I would get really bad home sick feelings for Australia which surprised me quite a bit. So much stuff was going on I did not know how to cope.

Fast forward five weeks and most of those problems seem to be gone. I still miss Australia, but not as much, I have gotten used to the American accent, which actually makes me a bit sad, and I feel like I have my life somewhat in control. I think I am going to be an IT major, I am enjoying the classes I am taking and feel like I fit in there. I still am adjusting, but I feel like I will eventually be normal.

Arches Trip

I had one of the most amazing weekends I have had in a while. I went down to Arches national park with Ashley and a bunch of her friends. It was a pretty good size group of 11 people but it worked really well. We drove down Friday evening and got there a bit late and set up camp. The next day we got to arches around 9:30 and did some hiking in the morning to delicate arch, which was a really cool area. We then went to my favorite area which was sand dunes arch which was in a canyon and just so calm and peaceful. We had lunch there and just messed around and for the rest of the arvo hit some other cool spots, then went back to camp and played some games and had dinner. Sunday we went to sacrament in Moab and then found a easy hike and did that while going to other lookout areas. I loved arches, just so many cool things to look at and hike. I also loved all of the red rock. It was a bit different than Karratha, but it reminded me of it heaps. This last week was super stressful because and I had 3 midterms and a bunch of homework and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go, but I worked my but off and was able to finish everything and it made the weekend even better. I really needed that time to be away from BYU and school and just relax and have fun without being able to think about the homework I needed to do. It was one of the first times in years where there was nothing on the back of my mind, and could just live in the moment and enjoy the beauty and people around me. I am glad I now know how helpful that is to me so now I can make sure to do similar things in the future when I get stressed. Here is a look at some of the pictures