psoriasis

darling you've got to let me know
should i stay or should i go

provo's parade was a ton of fun. we sat on the curb, shouted the names of all the city officials who rode by in cars, stood up and cheered loudly for the missionaries, and got soaked by the fire truck spray.
between that and walking through the festival on center street last night, it's made me be glad to be american. i like being in japan and enjoying the other cultures, but it's also nice to savor one's own.

a quick stop at target to pick up some new swim trunks proved far more difficult than i imagined.... sometimes they were labeled numerically like jeans, sometimes they were just 's' 'm' 'l'; but those weren't even consistant amidst themselves; depending on the cut and fabric used,
same sizes would fit differently.
but after 10 tries, i found a winner.

but what was really awesome was the service project we had today.
i love how things work when they work like they're supposed to work:
i hometeach a girl who's dad is doing a lot of yard remodeling.
i ask her if there is a day that we can come by to help.
i tell my friend, who is the service chair.
the next thing i know, we have 15 people out in her yard today, working in the independance sun.
and we did almost the entire sidewalk done, dirt dug, sand laid, brick cut and placed.
service rocks.

as is common with probably all missions, my sister would often teach people who liked the Church, liked the activities, and liked the missionaries; they just didn't want to get baptised.
and so the missionaries have to stop teaching them.

i turned up the music and sang loudly on the way home.

thanks, laurie.

life lessons from a balloon:

a few years ago, my sister got me volunteered to help carry one of the giant balloons the provo 4th of july parade. there were probably fifteen or twenty of us each holding a rope. i remember holding very tightly onto my line, pulling down hard to balance the pull of the giatn helium eagle. i was a little frustrated why everyone else wasn't holding on as tightly, making me have to hold more weight.
then i realized that i was pulling down more than i needed, and that if i let go and just held my rope, together we held the patriotic eagle without any great stress on just one person.
...i think there's a lesson there....