Monday, January 31, 2011

An ice festival and a funeral

So on Sunday I had a fun little experience getting to church.  Aunt Janelle wasn’t going to church in Provo, so she decided to let me take her care so I could go.  Right as she was leaving she asked me to lock the door behind her.  Unfortunately I forgot that, and even more unfortunately I didn’t remember until I got to BYU.  I thought to myself, well I will stay around and take the sacrament, and then I will return to lock the front door.  Just as I was about to enter I remembered I had also left the front door open!

Needless to say I raced back home (obeying all the traffic laws of course).  Luckily nothing happened and I was able to lock up the house.  I ended up going to sacrament meeting at the local ward.  All in all a pretty stressful morning.

At night I went to Crystal’s for dinner.  It was good to see Koda.  He has really grown up so much since I last saw him.  I am glad that I could come home and see him.

 

Monday I went over to the Chinese house at the FLSR and talked with Ryan.  He is leaving for China this week, so it was good to talk to him before he left.  I have missed talking to him.  It seems his life is going well which was good to hear.  I even lucked out and Rob was able to give me a rid home that day.

Tuesday and Wednesday were days where I rushed to get done with homework so that I would be ready to leave for my Grandpa’s funeral on Friday.  Wednesday night was fun because I got to watch the BYU vs. SDSU game.  Jimmer was just amazing.  I really enjoyed it.  Too bad we then lost on Saturday.

 

Thursday was a race to finish my homework before it was time to leave.  Thankfully I was able to get my CS 340 finished just in time to rush and get some lunch before taking my Chinese test.  The test went well and then I raced to meet with everyone to leave to Idaho.  It took us a little longer than I would have wanted to leave, but we eventually got on the road.  The trip was the most fun when Brittany got in the car and we sung Karaoke Jericho Road and Everclear for several hours.  It was fun.

We didn’t get into Weizer until 2:00 in the morning.  Luckily the lady at the house where we were staying was still up.  The rooms were actually rather nice, and it was good to stay in a house.

 

Friday morning was the morning of the actual funeral.  The first time I real felt sad about the whole thing was this morning.  I was surprised to see how much weight grandpa had lost.  But what really broke me up was seeing how hard it was for some others, and especially my grandma.  She had found the other half of herself, and even though it is only for a little season, she still has to go this season without her husband, and it broke my heart to see that.  That is ultimately what makes death sad for those left behind, not that they won’t get to see their family again, but rather that they will not get to share that union for a small while.

It was a good service overall, and I am happy that I was here to attend it.  In the afternoon we were all together as a family, which was wonderful.  My grandma seemed to be taking things rather well, and that was good to see.  It was good just to spend time to be with her, and support her through this difficult time.

 

On Saturday most of the grandkids that came went to McCall to go and see the ice festival.  This was especially nice for me since it in some way made up for the fact that I wasn’t able to go to the Harbin ice festival.  When I went to China this time, the one thing I wanted to do most was go to the Harbin ice festival, but timing just made it impossible.  Why McCall’s ice festival can’t even come close to comparing, it was still a good trip.

My favorite part was walking out onto the frozen McCall lake.  Out there I wrote my name in Chinese characters (harder then you might think) by stomping around in the snow.  I then got some pictures of it, it was just so much fun.  It was also good to be able to do this with my family.

At night I came back and spent more time with the family.  Sunday I went to church, and then came home.  Everything went well, and I do thank the Lord for that.  It was a good weekend, just too bad that grandpa wasn’t there to spend it with him.

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