Todd’s Life

Today I had to teach a Sunday School lesson in English.  Noone told me that the whole class, minus one person, were senior missionary couples or just senior missionaries.  Talk about a crazy crowd.  How do you teach Sunday School to a bunch of smart, funny, and sarcistic, witty folks?  It was the lesson on the 1st four principles of the gospel.  Sadly, we only got to the first principles.  They were really pretty funny with their comments.  I think most of them really struggle with the language.  I really wasn’t into Spanish today, so I didn’t pay too much attention to the lesson in Priesthood.  I just didn’t feel like listening or focusing on Spanish.  After church, I went home and cleaned up my place because I was going to have the missionaries come over for burgers and fries.  Of course I took a long nap in between church ending and the Elders coming over.  For some reason, the only day of the week where I can really crash is on Sundays.  I am unable to take long naps on any other day.  One of the missionaries had a birthday today.  Right now we have 2 companionships of 3 each.  Three are sisters and three are elders.  I just invited the elders over.  They ate a few hamburgers a piece and I think they were stuffed by the time they left.  After the Elders left, I flipped on the Grammys and watched Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus sing a duet.  It really was a pretty song.  It was nice to see the Grammys and see something that I was familiar with.  Now I am watching Inter Milan versus Milan in soccer.  That is one thing that is nice, among many, about being in Chile is you get really good soccer everyday, whether it is Spanish, Italian, German, or English league.  It’s all really good.  Today I will tell you about one little Hawaii moment I had.  I was hanging up one of the the nice calendars of Hawaii that someone in my family gave me for Christmas and I had a wave of regret for having left Hawaii, because let’s face it, there is no place like Hawaii, but I got over it relatively quickly.  I don’t think that honestly you ever get over leaving Hawaii because there are moments where you just realize that it was a beautiful place and there aren’t too many places like it in the world, but then again, you only live once and if you fail to experience more than that place, then you really have missed a lot in the world.

My last day on the job at Hawaiian Telcom was this past Friday.  I was surprised that I was sad to be leaving.  I enjoyed the work, but will not miss going to work 5 days a week.  I will miss all the wonderful people that I worked with.  My colleagues at Hawaiian Telcom were the most talented group of people I have worked with.  I am grateful for the opportunity that I had to work at Hawaiian Telcom, but it is time to move on.

I sold my car Saturday morning and I leave Sunday night for Portland, Oregon to hang out with my brothers for a week.  It was kind of amazing how it all just worked out.  I sold my car on the last day that I could, which made it easier to get ready for this move.  I also took the GRE the Friday I left and did ok I guess.  Hopefully, it is enough for me to get into grad school next fall.  If not, I’ll just try again.

I am looking forward to this next adventure and the opportunities that will present themselves along the way.  I have been blessed to live here in Hawaii for the last ten years.  I met many wonderful people.  I was blessed to be able to dance hula with Sonny Ching’s halua for 2 years.  I got to dance at the historic Hawaii  Theatre.  I learned how to surf.  I ran the Honolulu Marathon.  Hawaii is truely a physical paradise.

Now we will see if the next part of life unfolds as I hope.  I hope to spend the next 9 or 10 months in South America, Spain, and other parts of Europe.  After this, I either want to start working for a professional sports franchise.  I don’t care what kind of work it would be.  It is on my list of dreams.  I guess you could say that this part of my life is called, “Chasing my dreams”.

Well, once again, thank you Hawaii and thanks to all those wonderful people I met along the way.  When your dreams call, you better follow them.  I believe that no matter what your situation is that you can follow your dreams.  You might not be able to follow them full-time like I can right now, but you can move yourself in the direction of the things that love to do.  Aloha.