Roommate Pictures

September 7

Headed back to Utah. Spent the whole day driving...stopped for In N Out before leaving California, YAY! No pictures; we just drove the whole day. However, I will never forget Wells, Nevada. We were driving across Nevada when I woke up from my nap and realized I needed a bathroom. Looking around, I saw we were indeed in the middle of nowhere! Trying not to panic, I requested we stop ASAP, but the road seemed to just drag. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, there was an exit! Blessed, blessed exit to Wells, Nevada.

The rest of the journey finished without alarm. It was a great trip.

September 6

Back to the Bay Area! Italian for lunch, seafood for dinner. Found this great Chinese place, had a manapua and the heart-shaped flaky cookie. Yum!



We walked. A lot. We walked across San Francisco to get to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was actually quite characteristic of us; reminded me of Angel's Landing, about 4 years ago. Like I said, things didn't change; I was still complaining the whole way, and Kelly was still pushing us forward. But none of us wanted to wait for the bus going there anyway, and I'm glad we went. Can't visit San Francisco without seeing that bridge!



We took the bus back and had dinner and a pretty cool restaurant. Kelly and I tackled a crab, Tanner was much wiser and had the fish and chips. He was definitely done before I had even made a dent in my crab, haha! But we did get some more of that clam chowder, I don't think I mentioned before how great that is with tobasco sauce. That was Marshall's suggestion the previous day, and it was a good one! Tanner got some great dinner shots.

September 5

Marshall's wedding day!

The guys had to go to the wedding rehearsal in the morning, I stayed home. Had some breakfast, cleaned up a bit, did my hair. Productive morning! When they were done, we headed for sushi, but they were closed so we had Mexican food instead. I ordered chilaquiles, but they're much better in Honduras :/ Well then we went to Wal-Mart for some last minute stuff, and back home. I started getting ready as soon as we got there; I think the guys got ready in seriously 15 minutes. I loved my dress.



We stopped at the reception site to see how the set-up was going; it looked great! Then we went to the ceremony. The ceremony was so nice. We had to wait awhile, but it was ok. Amber looked beautiful, and Marshall was so excited. It was great. No one tripped. BYU was down only 3 points at the half against Oklahoma!


After pictures, we went to the reception. The food from beginning to end was spectacular. I can't say enough about that. Speeches were done early on, and we enjoyed the evening, especially when halfway through the reception, through text message, we found out that BYU beat Oklahoma! Say what?!? I felt like standing up and inviting everyone to the after party in celebration.



After the festivities were done, we gathered up the leftovers and gifts and headed home. What a great day!

September 4

Our day in San Francisco! We woke up and made our way to the Bay Area...it was a little further than I thought, but it was great. We got off and walked through Chinatown...then got to Fisherman's Wharf, where we had lunch. Clam chowder in a bread bowl, sooooooo good! Totally worth it, and we left stuffed. Fortunately, we had an afternoon full of walking!


We walked all the way to free chocolate, haha! Also, we went to a museum place (dang it, I forget what it's called...) which was a lot cooler than I expected. Zing.



We walked around some more, and it got really cold! And windy! My tropical self couldn't take it, so I bought a super touristy sweater. I was made fun of, but it was a cozy rest of trip! We left the Bay Area to go to dinner at a cool restaurant for Marshall's "bachelor" party. We had hot wings, Kelly had a headache, and I went home limping...we are party animals! It was so fun seeing Marshall again and spending the day all of us again. Although we hadn't all hung out together for a little more than 3 years, it was just like old times. Like the time when Marshall's shoelace got un-tied and he stook his foot out for me to tie it. Or when he and Kelly started throwing rocks at me...


I'm really not as abused as it may seem. In fact, I never felt so safe while traveling and touring.

September 3

Thursday afternoon: we set out for California! Kelly, Tanner, and I had been planning this trip since Marshall let us know he was engaged, and it was finally here. We packed our bags and headed out from Kelly's house in Sandy. We stopped at Arby's for lunch and headed for the I-80, which would take us straight there. I decided to do some homework and nap.



We drove until we hit Truckee, just past the Nevada-California border. The drive between Utah and California is a beast, but that was a pretty cool diner. Real stick-to-your-ribs stuff. It was almost 10, and we were just a couple of hours from our destination.



Well, we *finally* arrived in Davis and found Marshall's place just fine. We made a quick trip to the store because Marshall wanted Snickers Ice Cream Bars...sooo typical! Couldn't wait for the California part of our trip to begin!

A quick note about spring term

Spring term, you never fail to surprise me.

My plot to get maxium play time out of spring term worked fantastically: 2 jobs at odd hours and one class that ended early in the term. I missed having Marie around, but there was still fun to be had!

For example:

-NCAA mens volleyball championship in the Smith Fieldhouse, where we started by cheering for UC Irvine, but ended up cheering for USC because the UCI fans were annoying.

-Our MTC district reunion, where we ended up getting Mexican food and TP-ing Whetten's room because he forgot that we were getting togther.

-the time when Stephanie and I went running out of my apartment in hopes of catching "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," only to find out it was sold out. Again. And when we went to see the matinee for half the price, and there were only like, 2 other people in the entire theater. Oh, and the time we went to Tucanos and our server insisted Santa Claus (Santa? or someone else famous?) was sitting at a table in the corner. Remember that???

-catching lunch or dinner or whatever time we had with Fabi and Pesi

-eating out. all the time.

-being guided by the best life coaches I've ever had!

-late nights and fun conversation

-June 16.

That's all.

June 30

YAY we made it out of Honduras! It was a long wait, but we made it through and landed in San Salvador. Un-yay, we missed our flight to LA. It was actually pretty ridiculous, like they didn't notice there was a whole group of people missing and like they didn't notice the connecting flight from Tegucigalpa was late...right. So we had another long wait in the airport. It was admittedly a nicer airport and at least clean, and Jenna met a very nice boy there. Haha.

We finally made it out and we landed in LA without a problem.

WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a good trip. Fun. Exciting. We were extremely lucky and blessed to have gotten out of Honduras when we did. I don't know if I'll ever do that again. But it was good, and I made it home a-ok.

June 29

Back to the city! We stopped by the Salgados and I made a couple of phone calls...I got to see Darci and Javier, Elky and Hector, and Grindis! Que alegria. I don't know if I can adequately describe how much I love those people. We visited and well, Gretel was having a great day that Monday, so we played a lot with her.


We had to wait a bit to go to lunch, but we went to the Pizza Hut by the airport. We were thatclose. Oh, and I wanted to get a piece of tres leches cake since like the beginning of the trip, so we went all around trying to get some.


We then went and did a little something for the poor missionaries, who had been indoors since Sunday. We emailed their families and got them a bunch of goodies from the pulperia...those pulperia girls were awfully nice about that. Later on, Glenda and Edita came by, but we didn't hear them knocking!!! I was extremely sad about that, but got to talk to them later. Oh Glenda and Edita, another success story from Tiloarque.


Jenna fought with the car rental people about leaving the car, since we had planned to stay in the airport overnight to ensure our boarding the next day. We should've known that would've been too easy, since apparently the airport was closed! We drove there and the security guards kicked us out. Wonderful. We were ready for our overnight stay in the airport...semitas, phone cards, fully charged ipods. But it was not meant to be. We stayed one more night with the Salgados and prayed for the best the next morning, starting at 6 sharp.

June 28

We awoke to a nation falling apart. Mel was exiled that morning to Costa Rica and the electricity was turned off. Wonderful. Fortunately, we had charged the cell phone and we at least had that. We went driving to find some place to eat and get information. It was crazy, and kinda spooky. We called the American Embassy and the lady told us what was going on, and registered us so that we could get information via email. I wondered if she knew that the power was out and there was no internet access.



We went to visit people, but oddly enough, no one was home. It was weird. We went back to the hotel and they gave us a better room at no extra charge because we were being bitten by bed bugs or something. It was a nice room. There, we met up with Krissi and her crew, on their way to the beach in San Pedro. Que en el mundo???



We stuck around in Siguat and finally found our family at home. There was a curfew put in place, and we needed to be indoors by 9. Just like the missionaries, haha. We made plans to head back to the city first thing in the morning. Oh, and the electricity was back on, and Honduras was beating Panama 2-0 the last time I checked.

June 27

La Paz!!! Love this place. However, I have to admit, I was a bit disoriented when I got there. I had a relatively short time in this area, and we had to park and walk around in order for me to get it. They re-did their central park, too, and it was very nice. We went to see the Riveras, but they weren't home. No biggie, we'd return. Then we went to see Francis, oh, sweet Francis. She was just wonderful. The only thing that saddened me there was that Dayanara was pregnant. 7 months. I had such high hopes for Dayanara, really I did. Well, we ran into the elders there for the first (and not last) time, Elders Hansen and Merrill. I remember Elder Hansen because he started in my zone...and Elder Merrill because he started in my area after I left. They were a riot. I should explain that the missionaries were only allowed to visit the members that day, which was why we kept running into them.


We went to see the Guzmans and had lunch with them. They're so great. Hermana Fanny took us around because everybody moved houses. Silvia wasn't home like I was hoping, but Wendy was. She seemed kinda out of it, which was weird, but ok. We went to hang out with the Arevalos, and the bishop is still trying to hook me up. Wonderful. Ran into the missionaries again.


Off to the Riveras! Sonia had returned and so had Rafa. Haha good times. We went to get atol with them, at Rafa's insistence. I should've said no, but I didn't have the heart. We weren't hungry at all because we had been eating all day, but it was nice of him.

One quick stop at Francis' again to see if her husband and father in law had returned, turns out we just missed them. Curse my bones! Off to Lejamani. Hermana Dania had just left for La Paz, and Dunia was in classes. I left a little less than broken hearted. I really wanted to see Dunia. The positive side was that the missionaries had let us know coming from her house, so I know that they are visiting her. That is a relief to me. Oh boo that reminds me I need to pass email addresses along.


We went back to Siguatepeque and hung out with the family again. We had dinner and I was positively stuffed. Good day.

June 26

We started the day doing some visits we didn't have time for the night before. This one lady insisted we stay longer with her since we had stayed the night at this other family's house. Hmm. Ok. Lots of tortillas that morning :) But it was good.

They finished the central park, and it was lovely. Before leaving, we took a few moments just to sit. Unfortunately, it rained the night before so the benches were a little wet. Oops. Oh, and before I forget, we were sort of awakened that morning by our neighbor in the hotel blasting his music...I say sort of awakened only because we promptly fell back asleep.



On our way out of Campamento, we ran over something somewhere between Talanga and Tegucigalpa, and got a flat tire. Oh no! I am completely useless when it comes to cars. Fortunately, we stopped in front of a road-side stand, and a gentleman and his son came to help us. It was already so hot, and the poor guy was sweating. A lot. But he was nice and we went on our way.



Once again, in my head, getting back to Tiloarque was going to be a cinch. But I always did have trouble getting out of Mayoreo and back to Tiloarque, and this time was no different...we got all the way to the stadium! The stadium isn't even in our mission anymore. So while technically we weren't lost, it would just take a bit to get back to our side. Oops. Papa Salgado talked us through it and we met up at Metro Mall. I don't know how many times they've bailed us out!

We wanted McFlurries, so it was back to Mayoreo. Oh, Mayoreo, the entertainment mecca of my mission. We couldn't resist going to Pizza Hut, for old times sake, and I had some good horchata. While it was good, I maintain that the Pizza Hut in La Granja made it better. Well, we were full from our lunch so we never did get those McFlurries. Boo.


Then it was off to Siguatepeque. That was easy. The drive was pleasant enough, and we listented to Michael Jackson the whole time.

Once In Siguat, we found a hotel and went to use internet. Haha of course we did. By the time we left, it was already dak and we went to see Hermana Betty and her family. That was fun. We ate Chinese food! We were getting the complete Honduran experience.

June 25

Off to Campamento! In my head, getting out of the city was easy enough. However, we took a wrong turn and started off for La Paz instead of Olancho. Oops. So we backtracked and took the correct turn, and we were off. I hadn't been back to that side of the mission...ever...since I had left. Our little car chugged along and we passed Talanga, eventually Guaimaca, where I was "born," and reached Campamento. It was all vaguely familiar as it had been 2 years since being there, and even Jenna had to double check to see if everything was where it used to be, haha.

We dropped our stuff off and when to see her gente. Admittedly, Campamento had that pueblito feel that, while much safer than Tegucigalpa, bored me to tears. No wonder my first transfer in the mission was so rough. Jenna and I kept laughing at how different our missions were.

We never did get to eat those baleadas from the street that we were dreaming about, but we did eat homemade baleadas and also had dinner from another sister. Delicious.

June 24

LA QUEZADA!!!!!!!!! The one area I never got to go back to. We parked the car in front of the Zepeda's house, and I got to visit with Andrea for a bit. What a good looking family. I went straight to see my kids, Bryan, Michelle, and Fabiola Ponce...they didn't answer their door :( sadness! We ran into the missionaries, who informed me that Elder Fong had just finished his mission there in La Quezada. I didn't even know he was done with the mission, haha. Good thing I'm here in Hawaii anyway! Well, then we ran into one of Jenna's mission buddies! Then I went to see Hna Celia. Love that little old lady.


We were low on time because we were meeing up with the Salgados for lunch, so we skipped over tons of members...sadness. We did stop one more time at the Ponce's, but they were not home :( So I got me a banana soda, Jenna got a mora paleta, and we went over to Laureles to see my peeps, Edna and her family, Veronica, Karla, Johnny, Nicole, and Roxana. LOVE those kids!!!

Had lunch with the Salgados at the Cascades Mall, I always did like that mall. Then we went to use internet and shop a little at the mall next to the old mission office because the Salgados needed to go to Price Mart. We were getting excited for our dinner with President Gomez and his family!

And rightly so. It was so great hanging out with the Gomez'! President asked us the inevitable question about our marital status. President Salgado suggested I talk about la seleccion de Argentina to distract President Gomez, so I gave it a try:

President Gomez: Entonces, hermanas, que tal de novios?
Jenna: Nada!
Yo: Oh, Presidente, como esta la seleccion de Argentina?
Presdiente: No! No vamos a cambiar de tema!

Haha. So then we chilled in the hotel lobby and waited for the Salgados to pick us up. When they did, they informed us of the beginnings of the civil unrest concerning Mel Zelaya and the military. It got us a bit nervous, and we decided to cancel our trip to San Pedro. Yikes!

June 23

We woke up early to get to the airport, a mere walk away from our hotel. We ran into missionaries going home and going to the mission, even met a couple going to Comayaguela...chee hooo! We took off for Costa Rica in first class, oh yeah baby! But that meant nothing when we landed, because they wouldn't let us out of the airport while we were waiting for our flight to Tegucigalpa. Sadness.

We landed in Honduras and it was just as hot as I remembered. Holy macro. We went to get the car, and the lady proceeded to rip us off and charge Jenna an extra 100 something dollars. Boo. But we made it out and actually, Hermana Cristy came to the airport with Josue! That was a pleasant surprise!



We went to Loarque to visit some people Jenna knew, then went in the search for baleadas. We went to Big Baleadas in La Pradera and it was indeed as delicious as we remembered. Whew! Thank you, Big Baleadas.


Then we got lost trying to get to Tiloarque. Actually, I should re-phrase that, we did NOT get lost, because I knew exactly where we were the whole time. I just didn't know how to cross the street to get on the other side of the highway to enter Tiloarque. So we drove through La Granja, we drove around the mall, we even drove through Country and there we ran into the hermanas. In Country??? Seriously? Yeah.


Well, we finally made it to Tiloarque (no biggie, we just drove on the highway til we could turn around...down by Carrizal...) and to Hermana Cristy's house. We ate more baleadas, went to internet, hung out with the Salgados, of course! Went back and hung out with Kelly, Carol, Manrique, and Larson. Haha good times.