What the new blogger...Guess that shows I haven't been around in awhile. Anyway, I'm home! Or, I dunno, I guess home could really be Provo or California now...or even Arizona in a few months! But yeah, I'm in Roseville. And it's nice and sunny. It's been sort of a boring stay...the parents are in Puerto Rico, and my brother has school and shenanigans with his friends. So it's mostly just me, and my only real responsibility is to walk the dog. Hmm. Remember when you were like 15, and having a super deep CoNvO with your secret crush on instant messenger, and you would ask each other, "where do you picture yourself in 10 years?" Did you ever say, "oh, I dunno, livin' at home, pickin' up dawg crap, stuff like that..." Boy, being 25 rocks! Haha ok, that sounds really demeaning. Honestly life isn't bad, just taking a break between graduation and summer camps before I move off to AZ for med school. I guess it could be worse right?

Anyway, I know it seems like I've given up writing on this thing. That's only partly true. It was one of my informal resolutions this year to restrict my cyber presence, and to focus on trying to have more real life experiences with people. Seems fair enough right? Basically, more random phone calls, less texts, less Facebook, etc. etc. Even though that sounds like a really old man thing to do, it has been refreshing, and I've had some good experiences with it.

 There are times in life when you are kind of down, and God totally throws you a bone. Maybe that's a weird way to say it, but let me illustrate with a story. As I was living in Pordenone, Italy during the last few months of my mission, I was stuck with a difficult companion who hadn't been out long and was getting a little discouraged. One particular day I was exhausted and we were knocking on doors and getting rejected left and right. So we walked toward the next street, and I stopped to lean against a low, metal fence. With my head down, feeling pretty dejected and trying to decide if we should keep going or try something different, I heard someone open a door and walk out on a nearby balcony. My companion was a goofy kid, but occasionally he could be pretty friendly, and shouted out a rushed "buon giorno" to, I assumed, whoever had stepped out on the balcony. I didn't really expect a response, but one came, and I looked up. A middle aged Italian man was on the first floor balcony not 15 feet from us. He smiled and asked us how we were. I wasn't ready yet to get excited, until he asked if we would stop by sometime next week and talk about the church. Whaaaaaaaat?! That had happened a total of zero times to me previously, and here I was, feeling down and leaning against a fence, and God sends a guy out on his balcony to remind me to have faith and keep my head up. (moral of the story: try less hard and lean against fences?)

Ever had an experience like that? I had another one this week. A girl that I've always thought was cute added me on facebook. Stupid right? Of course it is, but for some reason, it helped me to remember to keep my head up and to have faith. So don't forget it! Oh and of course, like every BYU guy does while not in school, I tried to grow a beard for a few days until I remembered, I don't like facial hair.