California There I Went

This summer I will being going to live in Sao Paolo, Brazil to do an internship with my older brother’s company baby.com.br. Brazilian visas are expensive and obviously only valid in Brazil. I wasn’t very eager to pay for a visa that I’ll only use once but what other did I have?  Well most people don’t have any other options, but I’m not most people.

I was born in Quito, Ecuador and after some research I learned that Ecuadorians don’t need a visa to travel to Brazil.  The only issue was that in order to travel to Brazil as an Ecuadorian I would need to renew my long expired Ecuadorian passport. In order to renew my passport I would need to travel to either Phoenix or Los Angeles to visit an Ecuadorian Consul. After looking at the cost of flights I learned that I could either get a Brazilian visa for about $200 or I could fly to California and renew my Ecuadorian passport for about $200.  I chose the latter. 

I had a great time in California getting to know my grandma better, visiting other family members, and visiting Oakley.  The highlights of my trip include:

 (1) renewing my passport,

 (2) being told by Oakley that they might bring me with them to Azerbaijan in order to close a deal in Russian, and 

(3) dinner at Selma’s Chicago Pizzeria.  

It was a great trip.

Helping Someone More Stressed Than Me

I had just arrived at Long Beach Airport.  I was stressed that I had forgotten something and that I wouldn't

 accomplish all that I needed to.  I was only going to be in California for two days and I only had one day to renew my Ecuadorian passport or my trip would be in vain.  With only a few weeks left in school it was a real sacrifice to take a weekend away from school for this trip; I needed everything to go smoothly.  I called my dad to tell him that I had arrived safely and while I was on the phone a saw someone who seemed to be even more stressed than I was.  She was holding a young baby and trying to pick up her stroller that had fallen.  I could tell that she was just stressed and this was the cherry on top.  After several failed attempts to pick up the stroller I left my bags and helped her pick it up.  It was simple.  It really required almost zero effort from me, but you could tell that it was just what she needed and that she was grateful.

Russian One More Time

About a week later a got another email from Oakley.  They asked if I could translate a small 3-fold brochure for them.  Compared to what I had just done this looked easy so I accepted the job.  Well it wasn’t as easy as it looked and there was a lot more in that 3-fold brochure than I realized.  One of the hardest parts about it is that there was very little repetition, whereas the first translation job I did had a lot of repetition.  Ten hours later I was finally done. 
I learned a lot from this experience, but first and foremost I learned that translating is brutal! As fun as it was I would not was to translate for a profession. After all of this hard work not only did I walk away a little richer, but I can also say that Oakley is a $2.1 billion company, and I am their Russian translator.

Easter has always been a fun holiday.  For as long as I can remember part of Easter was finding a hidden Easter basket.  As I got older the hiding places became more and more difficult.  When it was only Tyler, Liam, and I left at home a new rule was added.  You could only keep your basket after you had found all three hidden baskets.  This was usually quite a challenge.  Every year I was amazed at how difficult it was to find our Easter baskets.  My dad is absolutely amazing at hiding our Easter baskets.

Another great part about Easter has always been Easter dinner.  My mom is an amazing cook and Easter dinner has always been absolutely delicious.  Simply put, Easter has always been a holiday to look forward to.

Well this year was a little different for several reasons, (1) I am the only unmarried kid still in Utah and thus the Easter basket tradition loses some of its grandeur, (2) my mom was out town for Easter visiting other family members, and (3) my dad so busy with work and I was so busy with school that I didn’t even get an Easter basket.

Because my mom was out of town my sister Janae decided to host an Easter dinner for my dad and I (her husband was also out of town.)  I was excited for this because Janae is also a great cook and it’s always fun to spend time with her and her family.  As Easter approached the thought hit me “I should invite Ali over for Easter dinner!”  I called Janae to see what she thought and she agreed that it was a good idea.  In the end it was the most bizarre Easter I have ever had: no Easter basket, a Mexican dinner shared by a Nigerian, my dad, my sister and her children, and myself.  It turned out to be a great holiday and I was grateful. 

Easter isn’t about baskets, bunnies, eggs, and dinners.  It’s about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I’m glad I was able to share this holiday with such good company.

Russian the Translation for Oakley

It all started when I get a text from my Uncle Derik.  He is the VP of Finance at Oakley and told me that they needed some material translated into Russian.  I was eager to help and told them to send me sample of it. It was intense. There were tons of words that I didn’t even know in English, let alone in Russian. However, as I looked up these words in Russian I was happy to see that they weren’t all that different.  Ballistic fragmentation was баллистическая фрагментация (ballisticheskaya fragmentatsiya) and it seems like a lot of these big scary words followed this same pattern. 

I decided that I would accept the offer.  I told them that I would love to do it but I would like to do it after school ended.  They responded and said they needed it within the next 2 weeks. I looked at my schedule and saw that as soon as I finished a test in my econ class I would have an entire weekend to dedicate to it.  I told them I would have it to them by Monday morning.  After some negotiation we settled on a price of $0.25 a word.  I was excited for this business experience but I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into. 

I finished by econ test on Thursday and began translating.  I stayed up all night Friday translating only taking a small nap.  I translated all day Saturday and stopped at midnight so that I could observe the Sabbath.  I started again at midnight on Monday trying to finish it by the deadline of Monday morning but I just couldn’t do it.  I had to admit defeat and tell them I would get it to them by Tuesday.  They said that would be fine and I got to work.  I wanted to get it to them before 8 AM Tuesday morning so I tried to stay up all Monday night translating but my body shut down and I crashed at about 1 or 2 AM.  I woke up the next morning and get to work.  I finally finished just before noon on Tuesday morning.  Overall I spend about 40 hours translating and filled up 19 pages in Microsoft Word.  I was glad to finally be done.

ADD

I’ve always had ADD; when I was younger I took medication for it but as I got older I learned to compensate for it and stopped taking medication.  Well I recently had the worst experience with ADD and a test.  Tests have always been hard for me and I’ve especially struggled with finishing tests on time.  So I had been studying like crazy for an upcoming math and because of work just being busy I decided I would take it the last night. 

My cousin Donevan took the test earlier that day and he told me about his experience.  He said that he got 100 percent and that it took him an hour and a half.  I was excited because I knew that I was well prepared and would do well.  Donevan isn’t a super-fast test taker either so I assumed giving me self a little over and hour and a half would give me plenty of time.  Well I was wrong. Within the first 15 minutes I knew that there was no way I would finish the test.  As soon as I made this realization I had an anxiety attack and my body shut down.  Material that I knew well was suddenly foreign to me and I just kept skipping problems in hopes I would find one that my brain could handle.  In the end I got a 36 percent.  It was without a doubt the worst testing experience of my life.

The one good thing is that it motivated me to meet with a school counselor and I have since been given accommodations including time and half for tests and an isolated test-taking room.

Some Gum to Spare

So for my M Com class I was given an assignment to “give a stranger a coke” and write a blog post about it.  Now I need to confess my sin: I didn't give a stranger a coke.  However I didn't something similar and I felt that it had the same effect.

I was sitting in the airport waiting for a flight when I saw a woman trying to find a place to plug in her phone.  When I saw her doing this it reminded me that I ought to charge my computer so I took out my charger and saw that there was an outlet under my seat.  I informed the woman and scooted over to make some space for her so that she could sit next to me and charge her phone.  As I plugged in my computer charger I noticed immediately that the outlet wasn't working, in fact it appeared that none of the nearby outlets were working.  My computer said it had 40 minutes of charge left in it and our takeoff time was in almost 40 minutes so I decided that plugging in my computer wouldn't make too big of a difference.  I felt bad for the woman who couldn't charge her phone so I asked her if she’d like to plug her phone into my computer to charge it.  She was very grateful and said she would really appreciate that.  It made my computer die a little sooner than I had hoped but I was grateful for the change to help out a stranger.

As my new friend and I sat there I heard the man next to me ask his wife for some gum, she said that is was buried deep in her bag.  I quickly responded that I could give him a piece of gum and he accepted.  So I didn't end up giving anyone a coke but I was able to give some charge and some gum. 

June 8, 1990

Today I went to my Uncle David’s (my dad’s brother) house for dinner. When I got there Dave told him he had a gift for me.  My grandma recently passed away and Dave was going through all of the letters that she cherished enough to hold on to.  Dave pulled out a letter that was written by my Dad on June 8, 1990, my birthday.  My dad related the story of how my oldest brother’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor was on the night of the seventh when my mom went into labor.  I had heard this story before because it was so cool to hear the details that were written down right after it happened.  I was super grateful that Dave saved that letter for me.

Ali and the Missionaries: Post IV

Ali and the Missionaries: Post III

Ali and the Missionaries: Post II

Ali and the Missionaries: Post I

Planning for Christmas

ж

With 

Christmas

sneaking up on us 

my mom suggested I invite 

Maksym to spend Christmas with us. 

 I was thrilled when she suggested it; I was already 

planning on asking my parents if they would be okay with the idea. 

 I felt lucky that my parents were so willing to invite Maksym over for Christmas, 

especially considering the fact that I has so recently invited Ali over to spend the night

without their permission.  You see, my parents were less than thrilled when I told them I 

picked up a stranger

from the airport 

and invited him

 into their home

 without telling them.

  I knew I was 

pushing luck but 

I couldn't help 

but ask them if 

I could invited 

Ali to spend 

Christmas Eve 

and Day with us

 as well. 

In my conversations with Ali he had shared how much Christmas meant to the people of Nigeria and how he was sad that he would be spending Christmas alone.  I couldn't help but feel pity for him.  When I asked my mom if he could come she simply said she wasn't comfortable to have someone we knew so little about spend the night in their home.  I was sad but I understood her reasoning.  She suggested that I invite him over for Christmas dinner which I thought was a great idea.  When I called Ali to invite him he was more than thrilled and I knew that this was the true spirit of Christmas.  

A Night on the Couch

Out of the terminal he came.  The guy I was waiting to see: Maksym.  He was my trainer on my mission and it had been years since the last time I has seen him.  I was excited that he taught me his native tongue and now he was in the United States to learn mine.  After an hour delay I was grateful to finally see him.  I introduced him to my new friend Ali, we gathered Maksym's baggage, and off we went to my car.  In the car Ali was so excited to see snow and when we arrived to my house he couldn't help but start his first snowball fight.  We went inside and I showed Maksym and Ali their rooms and then we all ate a little before going to bed.  After Maksym and Ali had lied down I stayed up a little longer reading and eating.  As I went back down to the basement where all three of us were staying I heard noise in the living room.  I glanced around the corner and to my surprise Ali was in there.  I was unsure what to say so I didn't say anything at all.

After a good nights rest I woke up Ali (who had spent the night on the coach for reasons known only to himself) and Maksym.  Ali asked what time it was and when I told him that it was nearly 10am he was shocked.  He told me that he had never slept so late in his life.  I didn't have the nerve to ask him why he hadn't slept in the bed I offered him, so I simply gave him a towel so he could shower and told him he could come upstairs to breakfast when he was ready.  For breakfast he asked if I could warm up his milk for him.  Warm milk and Cheerios with no sugar. Yum.

After breakfast Maksym and Ali piled all of their belongings into the car and we went into the backyard to take a picture of Ali in the snow. We took a few shots and then got into the car and began the journey to Provo.  I exited the freeway and turned into a parking lot at UVU.   Ali and I said our goodbyes and I promised him that we would see each other again and that I was always willing to help him out if he needed anything. Shortly there after I dropped Maksym off at his apartment and went off to work.

By the end of all of my conversations with Ali I had learned several things about him: he had never seen snow, he loved to talk, Christmas is extremely important to him, he has a strong relationship with his family, but what stood out to me the most was when he told me he had been meeting with LDS missionaries in Nigeria.

A Flight from Africa

It was the week before Christmas and I was off the the airport for the third time in the last week and a half.   I was about to pick up my friend and trainer from my mission to Russia.  Maksym was supposed to arrive at 11:00pm but when I arrived at the airport I saw that his flight was delayed until 12.  Unsure what to do I just started pacing around and soon found a bench I could have to myself.  After a few minutes I noticed a vending machine and decided I would satisfy my hunger by buying a snack.  On my way back to my bench a young guy who appeared to have come from Africa stopped me and asked me what time it was.  I told him, but then my curiosity got the best of me and I struck up a conversation with him.  He told me his name was Ali and that he was from Nigeria.  He came here to study economics at UVU with the hope that a sound understanding of economics would enable him to change his country for the better.  It was the first time he had ever left home and he told me his mom was from worried.  I could see why she might be worried; he was under-dressed for the cold weather and told me the light jacket he had on was given to him by woman that he met not long before he met me.  I asked if he was waiting for his ride and he said that he needed to go to the international office at UVU; however, it closed at 5 and his flight didn't even arrive until 5:15.  His plan was to spend the night at the airport and take a shuttle to UVU in the morning.  I asked him how long he'd been traveling and he shared with me that it was his forth day.  I felt so bad for him.  It was his first time away from home, he was in a very foreign country, he hadn't been able to get decent sleep for four days,  and on top of all that he was freezing!

I sat there and thought about what my parents would say if I brought him home.  I wondered if I could call them.  It was nearly midnight at this point.  I knew my parents had a hard time sleeping at night and the last thing I wanted to do was to wake them.  What was the right thing to do?