Idaho Boise Mission comin' at ya

It is 11pm on Saturday night, which means that I should either be asleep or preparing music time for primary tomorrow. As you have no doubt observed, I am doing neither. The song I am supposed to be teaching the younglings this month is Called To Serve (which is about being a missionary). As I was digging through my non-scrapbooked mess of pictures and various nostalgia inducing mission paraphernalia looking for my mission nametag, I got totally distracted and spent a good hour laughing at all my old mission pics.

I know these pictures and anecdotes will not be half as amusing to you as they are to me, but I couldn't resist posting oodles of photos. I cannot BELIEVE I was ever that skinny or young. Note - I am not a champion scanner, so please, no complaints about crooked and otherwise retarded shots.

Classic and obligatory MTC map shot (my district)

Quite possibly the most awkard moment of my life: running into my not so long ago dumpee, Andrew, at my first area in Boise. Think about it like this...you're thinking to yourself "wow, it was only like 4 months ago that I was kissing this guy, and now here I am with a nametag". Hmmm. It didn't help that he seemed to still be holding a grudge and took great delight in making me feel as weird as possible.

*Sidenote - pretty sure this is the last time I ever wore a belt.

Aaaaah Peggy my love. Peggy was my first stake missionary who made S. Fuller and I monkey bread and kept me sane during my first 3 months in the IBM. Peggy is one of only 2 people I keep in touch with from the mish (so sad) and most definitely the funniest person alive. We visited her and her cute fam recently in UT - see this post and then this one. I cannot possibly top Peggy's artful descriptions of our trip.

P-Day at Bogus Basin with my first zone. One of the funnest days ever.

In case you were wondering what people in Idaho do in their spare time - this is it. Learn how to do "The Wedding Ring".

I call this little piece of photo art "Dork on a Bike". It started snowing shortly after this picture was taken. Because that made it look even more normal (Nampa, ID).

And in case The Wedding Ring didn't convey what complete hicks all residents of ID are, this should help. This is me in Twin Falls learning how to "run the shoot" while my Zone Leader (E. Bloomfield on the right) was "bull-dogging". I kid you not, that's what they called it. Basically it means trying to wrestle a wild bull to the ground with your bare hands. You only win if they get all 4 hooves up in the air. I think this was what people did for fun before Tetris was invented.

Here is Vick and I (or Sister Beaumont, now Mrs. Kennington) washing Barney the purple love bear. I don't think we called it a love bear, but it sounds more interesting this way (Sun Valley, ID).

And this, of course, is what we wore tracting. My sister thought it would be funny to send me this little camo see-through nightie, since I would get so much use out of it as a sister missionary. As ever, Vicki and I found a way to be totally inappropriate and laugh our guts out.

Sister Swainson was my 2nd companion (although this is a reunion several months later) and a Canuck, who ended up marrying our Zone Leader 4 months after she got home. She was awesome. SUPA-STAR!

A missionary's halfway point (for sisters that would be 9 months out) is called their Hump Day (think of a bell curve). And since it's 9 mths...you get the idea. It's tradition to pretend you are prego and about to pop. Although it just occurred to me that even when I was 7 mths pregnant for reals, I was WAY bigger than this. I think this is me being optimistic.

This is Sister Munganzaya, my cute little Mongolian companion, and I in our dive of an apartment in Mountain Home - the ugliest place ever. I think I drove her totally nuts. In my defense though, she made me get up at 5:30am every day and go RUNNING. Those of you that know me can imagine that this was not a boon to our relationship.

And to close, my sweet, sweet love, Vicki, who used to punch me in the boobs and still honks when she laughs. I miss you, you crazy Brit!