rickety – Page 33

Missionary Dan Email #1 from Vancouver, Washington

April 13, 2010 by rickety 1 Comment

Elders Clark, Willoughby, and Kelly before Daniel was transferred

This week was another adventure. As soon as I think I am comfortable with an area something seems to happen. I got a call on Tuesday midday saying I’d be transferred to Vancouver Washington. So on Wednesday morning (the next day) I was transferred. I am now with Elder Schroeder in Battlegrounds WA who is from Vernal Utah. He is great and fun to be with.

Elders Willoughby and Schroeder after Daniel was transferred

My new area is really small. We walk to most places and get rides from members. I may need my bike to be sent to me sometime, but I’ll wait to see if I actually stay here. Real transfers are next week and I’m fairly certain I’ll stay here, but you never know.

The ward here is awesome and I am getting to know them as fast as I can. We have a lot more opportunities to talk to people on the street etc… something we didn’t do as much in the car. I really enjoy it. The interesting thing is I prayed on Monday, before I was called to transfer, for more opportunities to talk to people. It is shocking sometimes how quickly Heavenly Father answers prayers. So be careful what ya pray for. ;) The other elder I replaced had to go home to get surgery on his knee because he got injured. Hopefully me praying didn’t contribute to that. :)

We live with a church member which is the first time I’ve ever experienced doing that. It has been great.

Vegetable oil for fuel

My old companions told me I got a letter and that they would forward it. I haven’t gotten it yet so I’m not sure what it is. It was probably conference. The picture of all the oil containers is someone in my new ward who runs his cars off of vegetable oil. He has his filter system etc before he can use it, but says he drives for about 10 cents a gallon.

On Mythbusters they did something with it and that’s what he is doing. It was so cool I had to take a picture. Before I left my old area we got to play a bit with some liquid nitrogen. I got a cool movie of that, but I’ll make everyone wait till I get home to see it.

I got to travel to the Portland Temple today. Originally my old zone was going to the Washington temple today, but since I was transferred I missed my new zone’s temple day, by a week. I got permission to go with another zone and really enjoyed it. I took some pictures. It was interesting after being away for over a year. I hope that will be the longest period in my life away from the temple.

Portland Temple

Daniel outside the Portland Temple

So there is in my new district a Elder Jay Lindstrom who is from Bountiful. He says he knows Byron and Shawna Ward and even went to their house once. He plays the saxophone. So if they wanted to write a little thing to him I could pass it along. Also I am sure I described as best I could some boxing gloves like 3 months ago. I honestly don’t know which ones to get so you’ll have to make your best judgement.

So now I can say I’ve served in Alabama, Georgia, Mongolia, Oregon, and now Washington. Crazy. Well thanks for all the support.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.

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Caption Competition #7

April 10, 2010 by rickety 11 Comments

Bryson and Kangaroo

This photograph of Bryson was taken in March at the Fort Worth Zoo. I know it’s a jungle out there but don’t be timid — jump right in and see if your caption can captivate us.

Adelaide with a Cadbury's Fruit and Nut bar

The first prize (Kaysville and environs only) is a Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut 3.5 oz milk chocolate bar. I will pick a caption judge later. Remember, anyone can submit a caption and win first place but only locals will be awarded the prize.

I remember watching advertisements on television in England in the 1970s that used the theme “Everyone’s a Fruit and Nut-case.” Below is a 1975 United Kingdom advertisement featuring a number of Fruit and Nut-cases.

Facebook readers, if you cannot see the video click here.

Previous Caption Winners

1. Sean
2. Ken
3. Sean
4. Janay
5. Shauna
6. Connie

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Bryson at Galveston Beach

April 7, 2010 by rickety 2 Comments

Last month we caught up with Bryson getting ready to go to Galveston Beach. Byrson is the author of the famous tour guide book Bryson Picture Book of Fort Worth Water Gardens and so we asked him to pass on a few tips for the first time beachgoer.

Hello there! My name is Bryson and I will be showing you around Galveston Beach. But before going it is important to get a good breakfast. Once you start playing in all that sand you might just want to stay there all day.

Here we are at Galveston Beach. It is virtually deserted today as it is a little cold. You know Galveston attracts 5.4 million visitors a year so we are lucky that most of them are not at the beach today.

Sand and sea, sea and sand. Find yourself a spot away from the crowds, which should be easy to do today, and I will tell you a little about Galveston.

Much of Galveston's economy is centered in the tourism, health care, financial, and shipping industries. Shipping involves ships, as you can see. The Port of Galveston covers 850 acres of port facilities.

There is plenty to do at the beach. You can watch the birds hunt for food...

...or you can collect some seashells...

...or splash in the sea like Grandma.

But if you really want to have fun, you'll grab your spade and follow me.

With your shovels and buckets you are ready to start building. Fill up your bucket with sand and turn it over.

Like magic you will have a sand castle. Make it as big as you want, there is plenty of building material. You can never use it all up. Building sand castles is very popular with more than 516 billion constructed every year around the world.

To finish up build yourself a moat to keep out the heathen hordes. Well, enjoy the beach, I have to go find my Mom and Dad before they get into mischief. And who knows what Grandpa is up to.

I caught up with my Mom and Dad, they were just taking pictures with the Gulf of Mexico as a backdrop along with Grandma and Grandpa. They never did build a sand castle.
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Missionary Dan Email #4 from Hermiston, Oregon

April 6, 2010 by rickety 2 Comments

Sunset in Hermiston

We all really enjoyed watching conference. It was great to be able to feel the spirit during it as well. Seemed to me they talked a lot about families, especially about parents and children. I really enjoyed President Monson’s opening remarks and his talks as well.

We had another good work week. There was many things we were able to accomplish. We’ve worked with the ward a lot to get us exchanges for two hours every night and it seems that it’ll work great. We have also continued doing our best to work with members to get referrals, tracting, and simply teaching current investigators. We have met many interesting people and it is really fun to talk to all of them.

It sounded like everyone had a great Easter. We were invited to a member’s home and had some good ham etc. Yeah, I got my package too. Aurora seems to be running the family well. I like her dress. I really liked the pictures too. Is that picture of the yellow bead thing really the one we had from forever ago? I can tell Jake has been putting on a little extra weight too.

It would be great if everyone could send a highlight of their favorite part or talk of conference. I know the one that caught my attention the most was President Uchtdorf with talking on patience. More growth comes from waiting then receiving, plus the concept of what you consistently focus on and work towards eventually happens.

Also the way missionaries are called was great to hear. I heard it once before in the MTC. The part when he said something like all missionaries have been assigned or reassigned by inspiration made me smile as I have a few reassignments. I know that I am called to be a missionary and assigned to where the Lord sees the need.

I had an idea. Can you send me conference in Mongolian? I have a mp3 cd player, so just on a normal cd would be great. The faster you can do it the better!

Well thanks for all the support and letters,

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.
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Easter in Kaysville

April 4, 2010 by rickety 4 Comments

Easter in Kaysville this year meant catching a few sessions of General Conference, having visits from family, and a picnic. On Sunday Aurora came by to show us her new Easter dress which she seemed very pleased with. Yesterday she stopped by to bring her Dad so that he could watch the priesthood session of conference with his dad and brothers.

The interesting thing about the priesthood session is that while the men are listening to a message about thrift and frugality, such as, “Eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without,” the women are dining out at some fancy restaurant. Then right after the priesthood session disperses, the men head to the nearest All You Can Eat establishment.

At Grandma’s house there are many toys and Aurora heads to her favorite.

Between conference sessions on Sunday we went to the park for a picnic. According to my cell phone the temperature was 40 degrees and felt like 36 degrees. That really felt accurate. However the food was great, with turkey, deviled eggs, fruit, and green (this is Utah) Jell-o eggs.

Aurora’s favorites were the strawberries and the deviled eggs. She also like to point. Not at anything in particular it seems, and though there is some logic to the pointing, it is just that we adults do not understand it yet. What’s the point anyway?

There is a playground for the children in the park. Where there used to be a slide, there are now two rocks. When Steven was standing on one of the rocks I asked him why they took out the slide. He said that the slide was dangerous and had to be replaced with nice safe really hard rocks.

There were children in the park. They said that their names were Rachel and Jake. I asked them if they came here often and they said, “Sorry, we don’t speak to strangers.”

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Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

April 3, 2010 by rickety 1 Comment

Derek, Bryson, Sarah, Jill, and Rick taking our own picture while aboard the NASA Tram Tour

Last month while Jill and I were in Texas we visited NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. Accompanying us were Derek, Sarah, and Bryson. The Center is the hub for human spaceflight activities. There are 100 buildings on 1,620 acres that are home to the U.S. astronaut corps. The Johnson Space Center was originally known as the Manned Spacecraft Center and was constructed on land donated by Rice University. In 1973, the center was renamed after Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States.

Mission Control Center

The Apollo Mission Control Center, now a U.S. National Historic Landmark

We started out our visit at Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for the Johnson Space Center. We procured a place on the guided tram tour with a first stop at the Mission Control Center (MCC). Since 1965 the MCC has been the nerve center for America’s manned space program. The MCC houses several Flight Control Rooms, from which flight controllers coordinate and monitor the spaceflights.

Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin, crew of Apollo 11, pictured on the stairs to the MCC

Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility

After the MCC, we visited the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility. The crews for each mission put in up to 100 hours training in this giant building. There are full scale mock-ups for different aspects of the Space Shuttle Orbiter and International Space Station.

Soyuz spacecraft are used for transport to and from the International Space Station.

The Full Fuselage Trainer is a full-scale mock-up of the Shuttle, but without the wings. It has a full sized cargo bay area big enough to hold a bus. The Crew Compartment Trainers allow astronauts to learn how to operate many of the orbiter sub-systems.

Full size shuttle mock-up, minus wings. Sarah's image reflects off the catwalk glass

Rocket Park

Next on the tour was Rocket Park. There are several rockets and rocket engines on display outside the Saturn V building but the most interesting is the Saturn V inside the building. The Saturn V was a multistage liquid-fuel expendable rocket used by NASA’s Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. It remains the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever brought to operational status from a height, weight and payload standpoint.

Sarah, Bryson, and Derek demonstrate the size of just one of the five Saturn V F-1 engines

The center engine was fixed, while the four outer engines could be gimballed to control the rocket

The Saturn V stood over 363 feet high and weighed over 6 million pounds. It remains the largest and most powerful U.S. expendable launch vehicle ever built. From 1964 until 1973, a total of $6.5 billion ($43.57 billion in current dollars) was appropriated for the Saturn V, with the maximum being in 1966 with $1.2 billion ($8.04 billion in current dollars).

With the Apollo spacecraft on top the Saturn V stood 363 feet tall

Without fins the Saturn V was 33 feet in diameter

Fully fueled the Saturn V had a total mass of 6.5 million pounds (3,000 metric tons)

Apollo

After disembarking from the tram we watched the film “On Human Destiny” in the Destiny Theater. After that we looked in on the Starship Gallery to see such things as the Lunar Module replica, the actual Gemini V capsule, and the last flown Mercury Capsule. I was most interested in the Apollo program and the Lunar Rover Trainer used to prepare astronauts for the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions.

Lunar Rover Trainer

Three alkaline fuel cells were used to power the Apollo command module during the missions to the Moon. By combining hydrogen and oxygen, the fuel cells provide power and water to the spacecraft. After an oxygen tank explosion on Apollo 13, only one of the three fuel cells remained operational. With some clever problem solving by Mission Control, the crew was still able to utilize the available power of one fuel cell to return home.

Three of these alkaline fuel cells powered the Apollo command module

The world’s largest public display of Moon rocks are housed in the Lunar Vault where visitors can touch a 3.8 billion-year-old piece of the Moon brought back to Earth by Apollo 17. According to the Houston Chronicle of July 15, 1969:

Space agency officials jubilantly hailed the success of Apollo 11 while a priceless cargo of lunar dust and rocks was flown to the Manned Spacecraft Center today.
One box of Moon rock … contained material from five inches below the surface and other surface samples for a total of about 20 pounds.

Lunar Vault

Jill touching a piece of Moon rock obtained in the Valley of Taurus-Littrow. This rock is basalt, formed by the cooling of molten lava.

Sample of lunar soil. Not your usual Earth dirt.

Space Shuttle

You can climb aboard a full-scale mock-up of the forward section of a space shuttle orbiter. The controls on the flight deck and the equipment on the mid-deck are exact replicas of the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s on her maiden voyage in May 1992.

Full-scale replica of Rick on the flight deck of Endeavour

Caption Competition #6 Winner

April 2, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

Connie

Sarah, the subject of Caption Competition #6, agreed to pick the winning lines. Thank you everybody for the really funny captions. The first prize is a Johnson Space Center 3oz almond milk chocolate bar. Second prize is a smaller milk chocolate bar with the image of the space shuttle blasting off into space.

Connie is this week’s caption winner.

First — “Are you sure there are no pickles in prison? I just wanted a pickle.” Connie
Second — “I don’t understand. I had my fishing license with me. It’s not fair!” Darrell
Third — “Okay, Bryson… I promise… no more veggies. Can I come out now?” Mark

Connie, when she is not playing with words earns a living playing with numbers.
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Missionary Dan Email #3 from Hermiston, Oregon

March 31, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

Elder Willoughby (left) with Elder Kelly tasting Mongolian candy, and Elder Clark

Last Week

This week was full of exciting things. The best was Zone Conference. They taught us a new approach to use while tracking door to door. We intermediately afterward used it and to our surprise the first door let us in. It also has allowed us to meet with people that have said they aren’t interested at first. We have gotten a lot more investigators from it and it also makes tracking fun to do.

That is neat you got the package. I’m really grateful that they did that for me, it saved lots of money! There is Mongolian candy in the black bag wrapped up in the coat. I’d like for everyone to try some. Let me know what it tastes like. I have some of my own here that I chomp down on. It’s good stuff, but the other box is off limits. :) I’ll mention that the Wilsons are in my home ward to President and I’ll get back to you on what he says. Have fun on your temple trip Dad and Jake. I think I get to go in three weeks or so to the temple. The first time since one year.

Lisa, the person preparing for baptism, passed her interview and will be baptized this Saturday. It is neat that I’ve been here since the first time we met with her. She has made lots of changes in her life and you can see how it is blessing her. She met with missionaries before, like I said, so knows the material well. It is so great to meet with people that actually want to listen and keep their commitments.

Daniel (left) and Elders Clark and Kelly at Lisa's baptism

We also had a cool finding experience while we were trying to meet with members to get referrals. The member wasn’t home so we were walking away when we saw across the street someone working in his yard. He had a sling on his arm and his friend was helping him move some dirt. We asked if we could give him a hand and he agreed. It was kind of shocking as most people don’t let us help them. Turns out he met with missionaries a long time ago, so he knew how to “take advantage” of our help. He thought highly of our church because he said we are willing to help first, then preach, just like Jesus did. We’ll see how he progresses.

We found another family that recently moved in. Their names are Jenifer and Nat with five children. They were really receptive and open minded during the lesson. They especially liked how we focus on youth and taking care of their needs. When we first knocked they said they had their own religion and weren’t interested. We asked them a simple question and taught short doctrine and they allowed us to come back at a better time. It does seem though that everyone says they’re not interested at first. Once again the Zone Conference approach works great and I think it increased our faith when we track.

So you might be asking yourself… What is the new approach… Well let me tell ya. Instead of saying, “We are missionaries from the Church… etc.,” we just up front ask them a question. Example: Have you ever considered our relationship with God? Have you ever wondered what is the purpose in this life? It opens up their mind and allows us to teach a short principle to almost everyone we meet before they cut us off. Our President was the one who taught us. Of course we have still gotten the door slammed on us, but that just makes you want to keep going. :)

Columbia River Washington Temple

Looks great Dad! [The temple photographs] I really like going to the temple. I’m also happy that you raised me good enough to get me there. Thanks for everything you do. The temple is just like missionary work, but for people that have died. I took the temple picture when we had transfers about a month ago.

With all of that we also had many opportunities to do little acts of service to those around us. It is great to follow the example of Jesus Christ and represent him as we travel the streets. I know that this work is true and that God truly does love us. He answers our prayers and is aware of our needs.

This Week

Sorry that last’s week letter didn’t send… I can’t seem to figure out why these computers don’t like my camera either so no pictures.

This week was full of working hard and finding people to teach. We tried to get members to come tracking with us. It was a mission wide thing we did, and the members that came seemed to like it. Lisa was baptized and it went very well. It was neat to see how much more she is smiling etc.

We had a great experience one day while tracking, one lady called after us and said, “I’m one of yours!” So we talked to her and in what she said had lost her way, but was a convert to the church and wanted to go back. We set up for her to get a ride from some members and she came this Sunday.

We are really excited for General Conference. I really enjoy listening to the leaders of the Church. Anyhow I think I’ll get all the doctor stuff figured out. I’ll let you read last weeks letter today, it was really good, too bad it didn’t get sent. Let me know how you like that Mongolian candy.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Travelling to Zone Conference in the Tri-Cities area

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.
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