Going, going, gone

This will be the last blog for some time as I have less than a week before I am a missionary. My brother Nephi has agreed to be my webmaster for pictures and blogs when I am unable to post them. To write to me from May-June use:

sister ellen thompson
Portugal Porto Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

From July to November 2006 use:

sister ellen thompson
Portugal Porto Mission
Rua de Amalia Luazes
No 23 Sala 1
4200-052 Porto
Portugal

Hopefully before too long there will be updates for you to see how I'm doing in the Lord's service. I'm so excited to go share what I have with others!

I'm done working!

Yahoo! I'm all done with work, no more silly paperwork and crazy sick people for me. Unfortunately I might miss the people I work with and the nice patients, but it is still kind of fun to not have to go back. It was a very liberating feeling that last time to think,"Hey if you don't like my work, why don't you fire me!" I did the best job that I could, but it is freeing to not care what others think of your work and how it might affect your future career. Anyway, there are only about two more boxes to pack and a couple of things to put into the already packed boxes. Samuel is here for the next week. He is going to work for the week and get some money in. The next week I get to just play around with my friends, go to lunch every afternoon and tie up loose ends here in Denver. I'm getting so excited, but also numbed. Having never gone on a mission before, it is just an odd feeling and I feel like it is not even real. It's a crazy feeling.

Shopping with Mom

So this past couple of days I've spent more money in one blow than at any other time (except when I had to pay tuition, but that doesn't really count). It was kind of fun and stressful at the same time. I felt really bad about having that much money spent on me, being the independant creature that I am. However, Mom convinced me that I was worth all of it and more, so that helped ease my burden. It is funny how answers to prayer come at times when you least expect it, and they always come just in time. They seldom come early, but right when you need it they appear. I have lead such a blessed life that it is hard to adequately express it. For instance, this last trip provided me with strength, purpose and fortitude that I will need on my mission in such a way that I could not have received it before, but that I am ready for now. I felt so much love, joy, and hope as a result of several different experiences and will use those memories to sustain me when it gets hard later on, which it will. Anyway, it has been a lovely weekend and promises to be a lovely week. I get to spend the next four days with my parents and friends here in western Colorado and I know it will be just what I need to prepare me.

Standing Ovation

The overuse of the standing ovation has always been a sore spot with me, probably as a result of my father's influence. For instance I went to a musical Thursday night which was good, but not deserving of the extreme mark of satisfaction and enjoyment. I stood and clapped because everyone around me had. I really did enjoy the acting, the dancing, and the singing, but there is kind of a mark where the performance does more than entertains and pulls your whole heart and soul into the work. This was the case with the BYU Singers concert that I attended Friday. I had the feeling that I could stay forever and soak up the excellence in their singing. You wanted to cry just because they were so dang good. In addition their selections were very entertaining and soul stirring. This is the kind of performance that deserves a standing ovation and I stood with all my heart and soul in the clapping. It was very fulfilling to use this mark of supreme approval in its rightful place.

Rendezvous

I'm getting very excited for the family rendezvous in Provo scheduled for this weekend. My brother Samuel called me this afternoon expressing the same excitement and anticipation. It is hard to imagine that in a little less than 4 weeks, I will be set apart as a full-time missionary and will be devoting the next 18 months of my life to the Lord. I have so many feelings vying for my attention that it is hard to express which one is most prevalent at any given moment. It is pretty much a conglomeration of all of them felt at the same time. There is excitement, nervousness, fear, excitement, wonder, awe, curiosity, longing, sorrow, and a multitude of other feelings that have as of yet eluded titles. It is a weird time of my life where I feel so unsettled and almost numb, like this can not be really happening, it must be something I am only imagining. It is strange to think that I will not be doing the same things that I am doing now and I will not see the people who are such an integral part of my life now. It is like all rendezvous with destiny: you are never quite sure what to expect and never feel quite ready. However, they will come and the time will be past before you know it and you will be readying for still another rendezvous.

Catalog of April Fools Pranks

Yesterday was a very entertaining day for me. I started out my morning by printing off 40+ pages of one liners and short jokes and cutting them into little pieces. Then we taped them onto a friend's door because it was her birthday. While we were there, and she was still asleep, her husband left for work and gave us the key to the house and let us know when she would not be inhabiting it. We came back at the appointed time of vacancy and fixed her toilets, her sheets, and put Kool-aid in her shower head. We also hid chocolate eggs in various spots around the house. I called her later and she commented on the beautiful door of jokes she had been given as a birthday card, not even suspecting what greater fun was in store for her later. (evil chuckle inserted here) I then returned to my own house and did the same Kool-aid trick to Ian's shower. I was concerned that he had already taken his shower for the day and would not take one again until the next, but decided that if the trick was planted on April Fools Day, it counted. Much to my surprise and enjoyment I heard him turning on the shower as I was napping on the couch later that evening. He emerged from his bathroom shouting, "All I can say is not funny." At this remark I began to chuckle and continued doing so all night. In total I fixed about 7 toilets with ceran wrap and did various small pranks like salt on chosen morsels and the like, but all in all, this was one of the most fruitful and enjoyable April Fools Days that I have experienced.
I emerged almost totally unscathed from this event. While playing cards we had cheesecake for desert and mine was touched up with a little bit of salt. Actually it might have improved the taste a bit had it not been for the large accumulation of it in one spot. I calmly brushed it off and continued to eat the cheesecake. That being the sum total of the world's retaliation, I feel I came out more than a little ahead in this wonderful holiday of pranks and practical jokes.

April Fools Day

Unlike most of the other nonfoolish holidays, the history of April Fool's Day, sometimes called All Fool's Day, is not totally clear. There really wasn't a "first April Fool's Day" that can be pinpointed on the calendar. Some believe it sort of evolved simultaneously in several cultures at the same time, from celebrations involving the first day of spring.

The closest point in time that can be identified as the beginning of this tradition was in 1582, in France. Prior to that year, the new year was celebrated for eight days, beginning on March 25. The celebration culminated on April 1. With the reform of the calendar under Charles IX, the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved to January 1.

However, communications being what they were in the days when news traveled by foot, many people did not receive the news for several years. Others, the more obstinate crowd, refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the new year on April 1. These backward folk were labeled as "fools" by the general populace. They were subject to some ridicule, and were often sent on "fools errands" or were made the butt of other practical jokes.

This harassment evolved, over time, into a tradition of prank-playing on the first day of April. The tradition eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century. It was later introduced to the American colonies of both the English and French. April Fool's Day thus developed into an international fun fest, so to speak, with different nationalities specializing in their own brand of humor at the expense of their friends and families.

In Scotland, for example, April Fool's Day is actually celebrated for two days. The second day is devoted to pranks involving the posterior region of the body. It is called Taily Day. The origin of the "kick me" sign can be traced to this observance.

Mexico's counterpart of April Fool's Day is actually observed on December 28. Originally, the day was a sad remembrance of the slaughter of the innocent children by King Herod. It eventually evolved into a lighter commemoration involving pranks and trickery.

Pranks performed on April Fool's Day range from the simple, (such as saying, "Your shoe's untied!), to the elaborate. Setting a roommate's alarm clock back an hour is a common gag. Whatever the prank, the trickster usually ends it by yelling to his victim, "April Fool!"

Practical jokes are a common practice on April Fool's Day. Sometimes, elaborate practical jokes are played on friends or relatives that last the entire day. The news media even gets involved. For instance, a British short film once shown on April Fool's Day was a fairly detailed documentary about "spaghetti farmers" and how they harvest their crop from the spaghetti trees.

April Fool's Day is a "for-fun-only" observance. Nobody is expected to buy gifts or to take their "significant other" out to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets off work or school. It's simply a fun little holiday, but a holiday on which one must remain forever vigilant, for he may be the next April Fool!