Recording the twenty-third year of The Jesse Howell, formerly known as “Elder.”
Sunday, January 2, 2011
The Jesse Howell Gazette, Issue One
Monday, March 15, 2010
The Jesse Howell Gazette, Issue Four
Monday I headed for Grants to see whether or not I could get a job with a construction company... unfortunately, I took a right turn when I shouldn't have. Went probably a hundred miles out of my way, through a snowstorm. Wound up right outside of Gallup, and then took the Interstate 40 over to where I was supposed to be. I parked at a McDonald's, since I don't know my way around town very well. I called up Brother Cash, my soon-to-be employer, and he gave me directions to where they were working. I showed up, waited around for about twenty minutes for him to show up, and then I shook his hand, got a bit of paperwork from him, and he told me to bring it back next week. two and a half hours of driving for about sixty seconds of speaking. And a job, which, of course, makes it worth it.
Tuesday afternoon I was working with molten lead, making the cars for the Pinewood Derby the proper weight. On one I forgot what I was doing, came out half an hour later to find the car overflowing with lead... So I had to chip some of it out and then do it again properly. Uggh.
Wednesday was the actual Pine Wood Derby race for Crownpoint. My mom met with her scouts after school and helped them put the finishing touches on their cars. I worked out the round robin bracket, designing it for twenty-eight people... That evening, we had twelve show up. We shot them down the ramp two by two, adding up their total wins and I had to make sure that everyone got to race against everyone else. 132 races and an hour and a half later, we handed out ribbons, took down the track, and went home.
Friday morning I finally lost my temper with our Wii (with which I did my daily exercises) and didn't finish my routine. I should marvel at how advanced technology is, but it is frustrating nonetheless when the console won't register whether I'm jumping or not. I did some last minute packing for our trip to Utah, and we took off. We watched Open Season and the first one and a half movies of The Lord of the Rings. I think we were in Price when we stopped for a hotel. We could see a couple dozen teenagers in the swimming pool of the first hotel, and so my dad didn't even want to go in. My mom wasn't too happy about that. She came out of the second hotel smiling, only to tell us that it was almost 200 dollars per night. I don't remember what the third hotel was... but it was relatively cheap and had a swimming pool. And so I got to go swimming for the first time in over two years. It wore me out pretty quick.
Sometime around Thursday I got my Webcam in the mail. Haven't used it yet, but I tested it and I know it works. Skype me.
Friday I drove for the first few hours... I wasn't tired, but I lost focus once or twice and drove over the rumble strips. Luckily, I can use my mission as an excuse as to why I'm a lousy driver, and it works for other excuses as well! We finally made it to Provo, watched Ryan lose his Flag Football game in the freezing rain (I was wearing a t-shirt) and then headed over to Walmart. There I heard something that made me laugh. I don't know who she was referring to, but I heard a girl whisper to her friend "Too bad you're engaged." We went to the Snedegar grandparents in West Valley, made fun of my Grandpa (he started it) and then went to spend that night with the Howell grandparents in Logan. They asked how my mission went, and my grandpa said something that I didn't understand. Then he said something else, and I recognized it as an American attempting to speak German (I did this for a little over a year myself... actually, most people I know would insist that I'm still doing it. And they'd be right). I also realized that what my grandpa had tried to say ended with "dummer Esel"... And I wasn't entirely sure whom my grandfather was calling a dumb donkey, especially since the context probably would've translated "donkey" to a different word... never got an answer to that question.
Woke up Sunday morning and ate scrambled eggs covered with cheese, sausages, strawberries, and pancakes with syrup. Wowza. Played a card game, and got ready to go to church. Utah church... so weird. So foreign. Yet familiar. And warm. A pair of brothers gave youth talks, followed by a young couple (I think she said she was two weeks away from her baby's due date). They all spoke on the Book of Mormon. Then the first (second?) Counseler called up an older couple who were moving to share their testimony. We went to classes; the second hour was the same class that we had had last week in Crownpoint, and the third class was the same lesson that I was assigned to give next week in Crownpoint. Funny coincidence. That evening my brothers, my dad, and I were playing Monopoly. Since my dad was playing AND being the banker, we made the rule that each individual had to watch his property, and if you weren't paying attention, they simply didn't get paid. Not the nicest rule, but we gave a lot of slack. We were really just trying to get Justin to pay attention, and it wasn't working so well. Eventually Grandma came over to see what we were up to, and she didn't like it too much that we would skip paying Justin if he wasn't paying attention. So the game changed from slipping past Justin unnoticed to slipping past Justin and Grandma unnoticed. It was harder, but we still managed it a couple times and skipped out on a hotel bill or two. My other brother, Ryan ended up with the most money at the end. One last card game, and we all went to bed "early," because we had to get Ryan back to BYU the next morning.
-The Jesse Howell
Tuesday afternoon I was working with molten lead, making the cars for the Pinewood Derby the proper weight. On one I forgot what I was doing, came out half an hour later to find the car overflowing with lead... So I had to chip some of it out and then do it again properly. Uggh.
Wednesday was the actual Pine Wood Derby race for Crownpoint. My mom met with her scouts after school and helped them put the finishing touches on their cars. I worked out the round robin bracket, designing it for twenty-eight people... That evening, we had twelve show up. We shot them down the ramp two by two, adding up their total wins and I had to make sure that everyone got to race against everyone else. 132 races and an hour and a half later, we handed out ribbons, took down the track, and went home.
Friday morning I finally lost my temper with our Wii (with which I did my daily exercises) and didn't finish my routine. I should marvel at how advanced technology is, but it is frustrating nonetheless when the console won't register whether I'm jumping or not. I did some last minute packing for our trip to Utah, and we took off. We watched Open Season and the first one and a half movies of The Lord of the Rings. I think we were in Price when we stopped for a hotel. We could see a couple dozen teenagers in the swimming pool of the first hotel, and so my dad didn't even want to go in. My mom wasn't too happy about that. She came out of the second hotel smiling, only to tell us that it was almost 200 dollars per night. I don't remember what the third hotel was... but it was relatively cheap and had a swimming pool. And so I got to go swimming for the first time in over two years. It wore me out pretty quick.
Sometime around Thursday I got my Webcam in the mail. Haven't used it yet, but I tested it and I know it works. Skype me.
Friday I drove for the first few hours... I wasn't tired, but I lost focus once or twice and drove over the rumble strips. Luckily, I can use my mission as an excuse as to why I'm a lousy driver, and it works for other excuses as well! We finally made it to Provo, watched Ryan lose his Flag Football game in the freezing rain (I was wearing a t-shirt) and then headed over to Walmart. There I heard something that made me laugh. I don't know who she was referring to, but I heard a girl whisper to her friend "Too bad you're engaged." We went to the Snedegar grandparents in West Valley, made fun of my Grandpa (he started it) and then went to spend that night with the Howell grandparents in Logan. They asked how my mission went, and my grandpa said something that I didn't understand. Then he said something else, and I recognized it as an American attempting to speak German (I did this for a little over a year myself... actually, most people I know would insist that I'm still doing it. And they'd be right). I also realized that what my grandpa had tried to say ended with "dummer Esel"... And I wasn't entirely sure whom my grandfather was calling a dumb donkey, especially since the context probably would've translated "donkey" to a different word... never got an answer to that question.
Woke up Sunday morning and ate scrambled eggs covered with cheese, sausages, strawberries, and pancakes with syrup. Wowza. Played a card game, and got ready to go to church. Utah church... so weird. So foreign. Yet familiar. And warm. A pair of brothers gave youth talks, followed by a young couple (I think she said she was two weeks away from her baby's due date). They all spoke on the Book of Mormon. Then the first (second?) Counseler called up an older couple who were moving to share their testimony. We went to classes; the second hour was the same class that we had had last week in Crownpoint, and the third class was the same lesson that I was assigned to give next week in Crownpoint. Funny coincidence. That evening my brothers, my dad, and I were playing Monopoly. Since my dad was playing AND being the banker, we made the rule that each individual had to watch his property, and if you weren't paying attention, they simply didn't get paid. Not the nicest rule, but we gave a lot of slack. We were really just trying to get Justin to pay attention, and it wasn't working so well. Eventually Grandma came over to see what we were up to, and she didn't like it too much that we would skip paying Justin if he wasn't paying attention. So the game changed from slipping past Justin unnoticed to slipping past Justin and Grandma unnoticed. It was harder, but we still managed it a couple times and skipped out on a hotel bill or two. My other brother, Ryan ended up with the most money at the end. One last card game, and we all went to bed "early," because we had to get Ryan back to BYU the next morning.
-The Jesse Howell
Sunday, March 7, 2010
The Jesse Howell Gazette, Issue Three
Can't remember anything noteworthy happening on Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday afternoon I went to scouting for the second time. I barely spent any time inside the building. My mom was wrapping up the Pinewood derby stuff with the kids - mostly paint jobs, while I was outside entertaining the kids. We were playing football, but I had to break up a little group on about 30 square feet of "fake grass" (green carpet) who were tackling each other. "It's grass!" they exclaimed. Nooo... it's not. There is no grass in Crownpoint.
Thursday morning my mom took off to drop off my brothers at school, and several minutes later I got a phone call. It was my mom saying that she had gotten a flat on the way to the school (it can't have been more than a mile) and that she needed help. So I hopped in the truck, went over to the Elementary School, and helped put on the donut. That was pretty much the excitement of the day. My dad was going to Albuquerque anyway (two hour drive, one direction), and so he got the flat tire fixed. Which meant that my assignment for the next morning was... getting the tire fixed back! My mom explained to me where the tire shop was, about how much it would cost, and then she took off to help my little brother with his science fair project. My dad was at work, and I decided it was too much work to drive for four minutes and pay five bucks... So I changed the tire myself in our driveway. It's probably a pride thing. Testosterone or something similar...
Saturday morning my youngest brother, Cody and I went to the Church to practice the piano. He decided he wants to tackle "All of Me" from Jon Schmidt. His fingers need to grow a little first before he'll be able to play it through, but he can start learning now. He's doing okay, but he tries too much to learn by ear. He's going to need to learn to read the notes if he wants to be able to play it - especially after I head off for BYU. After Piano practice (and Cody locking himself outside of the church), we all headed to check out the science fair in Grants. There were a lot of weird "experiments." Reminded me of how much my projects sucked back when I was in Elementary and Middle School... Afterwards we went to Walmart, where I found some non-processed, "swiss" cheese from Wisconsin... It looks a whole lot better than the orange cheddar "cheese" that Americans eat. I'll have to report on the cheese factor next week. My last cheese was okay. Smoked Gouda.
And today we had Fast Sunday. Those of you who live in small branches (and probably many of you who live in large wards) know that those can get interesting at times. Ours wasn't too bad, but we did get a bit more personal information from a few members than should probably be shared in a Fast and Testimony meeting. Sunday school started half an hour late. Talking about Marriage and the Covenant. I felt like everyone was staring at me, even though I'm sure they weren't. Third hour was over The Family: A Proclamation to the World. The teaher has an odd habit of going into deeper doctrine. I like watching the missionaries' expressions, because I know exactly what they're experiencing. This evening, mom handed me the phone and a piece of paper with a number on it. She wanted me to call our former Stake President's son, who owned a business and might have work for me. So I called up, didn't really have a clue as to what I should say. But I stumbled over that I was a return missionary looking for work, and he said that I should come in the next couple days and that he could probably hire me for some temporary work for the next couple months. Wow. That was relatively painless.
Oh! And I've got Skype. No camera yet. But I've chatted with Marina and Jordan, and then I had an actual conversation with Cyrill (my mic is working). His half was in Swiss German... so I understood most of it. Webcam should be coming in sometime this week. And... we'll take it from there.
-The Jesse Howell
Thursday morning my mom took off to drop off my brothers at school, and several minutes later I got a phone call. It was my mom saying that she had gotten a flat on the way to the school (it can't have been more than a mile) and that she needed help. So I hopped in the truck, went over to the Elementary School, and helped put on the donut. That was pretty much the excitement of the day. My dad was going to Albuquerque anyway (two hour drive, one direction), and so he got the flat tire fixed. Which meant that my assignment for the next morning was... getting the tire fixed back! My mom explained to me where the tire shop was, about how much it would cost, and then she took off to help my little brother with his science fair project. My dad was at work, and I decided it was too much work to drive for four minutes and pay five bucks... So I changed the tire myself in our driveway. It's probably a pride thing. Testosterone or something similar...
Saturday morning my youngest brother, Cody and I went to the Church to practice the piano. He decided he wants to tackle "All of Me" from Jon Schmidt. His fingers need to grow a little first before he'll be able to play it through, but he can start learning now. He's doing okay, but he tries too much to learn by ear. He's going to need to learn to read the notes if he wants to be able to play it - especially after I head off for BYU. After Piano practice (and Cody locking himself outside of the church), we all headed to check out the science fair in Grants. There were a lot of weird "experiments." Reminded me of how much my projects sucked back when I was in Elementary and Middle School... Afterwards we went to Walmart, where I found some non-processed, "swiss" cheese from Wisconsin... It looks a whole lot better than the orange cheddar "cheese" that Americans eat. I'll have to report on the cheese factor next week. My last cheese was okay. Smoked Gouda.
And today we had Fast Sunday. Those of you who live in small branches (and probably many of you who live in large wards) know that those can get interesting at times. Ours wasn't too bad, but we did get a bit more personal information from a few members than should probably be shared in a Fast and Testimony meeting. Sunday school started half an hour late. Talking about Marriage and the Covenant. I felt like everyone was staring at me, even though I'm sure they weren't. Third hour was over The Family: A Proclamation to the World. The teaher has an odd habit of going into deeper doctrine. I like watching the missionaries' expressions, because I know exactly what they're experiencing. This evening, mom handed me the phone and a piece of paper with a number on it. She wanted me to call our former Stake President's son, who owned a business and might have work for me. So I called up, didn't really have a clue as to what I should say. But I stumbled over that I was a return missionary looking for work, and he said that I should come in the next couple days and that he could probably hire me for some temporary work for the next couple months. Wow. That was relatively painless.
Oh! And I've got Skype. No camera yet. But I've chatted with Marina and Jordan, and then I had an actual conversation with Cyrill (my mic is working). His half was in Swiss German... so I understood most of it. Webcam should be coming in sometime this week. And... we'll take it from there.
-The Jesse Howell
Sunday, February 28, 2010
The Jesse Howell Gazette, Issue Two
Well, I've been back in Crownpoint, New Mexico for a little over a week now. All in all, it's been pretty uneventful. Sadly, most of my days consisted of being on the computer, playing video games, and eating. Luckily, I had a few anomalies. The computer consisted of me working out my iTunes library... fifteen hundred songs and counting. I ordered a new Nano as well as a terabyte of external harddrive. I'll have to order a mic and webcam this week so that I can start skyping with people. Particularly in Switzerland.
Wednesday afternoon I helped my mom out with cub scouts. They were working on their pine wood derby cars. I was the bouncer. It was a pretty good test of my patience... Little monsters. Had to keep an eye on a couple older kids who were bullying the smaller kids. My mom was chasing kids down, trying to find out what color they wanted their car, I was playing bad cop-bad cop with the others. Caught a couple of them muttering "stupid white boy" under their breath. But it got better towards the end. Turns out they were impressed with my piano playing. I played "All of Me" a couple times and then left them to pretend that they could play the piano. Three at a time. Started organizing a football game, but then it was time to go... maybe next Wednesday.
Thursday morning my mom asked me if I wanted to help with my brother, Justin's science project. My initial thought was "no," but I knew that I needed to do something other than veg in front of the computer. So I agreed. My brother was planning to test the aerodynamics of different shapes. So my mom and I had the simple task of making a miniature/amatuer wind tunnel. Luckily we had blueprints of sorts... A bit of plywood, some black paint, straws, glass, some dry ice, a vacuum cleaner, and a couple hours of troubleshooting, power tools included. So my brother got home, and with a bit MORE troubleshooting and fiddling and piddlefarting, we got it to work. Oddly enough, the square block was not the most aerodynamic... who'd've thunk?
There was an assembly at the Elementary school on Friday, and my little brother Cody was going to play the piano as a part of it, so we attended. While we were waiting for the little kids to show up, my dad and I messed around with my new iPod. Voice memo, video camera, and some pretty cool games. Now with Swiss-German podcasts. Life is good. Cody came out, and he and his three classmates took turns. He played some arpeggios (sp?), parts of Für Elise and the Moonlight Sonata, and then a little something he composed himself. Way cool.
Saturday night we played Settlers of Zarahemla (a board game). I had a pretty good setup going. Three points on a wheat field, plus a two wheat-for-anything deal. Then my little brother blocked off my supply with a Gadianton Robber... I may have overreacted. If I recall correctly, I rolled a seven, got two Strippling Warriors, and wound up stealing three of his four cards. I wound up in second place because my numbers wouldn't get rolled. Accursed dice...
I blessed the Sacrament today in Church, and then spent the third hour with Justin bringing the sacrament to a member who couldn't make it to Church. Went home and had some grilled cheese made with some fancy smoked Gouda... processed. I miss real cheese. We had Family Home Evening; I used my Rubik's cube in my lesson. Ate ice cream. Stayed up until 11:59 and then posted a blog.
Wednesday afternoon I helped my mom out with cub scouts. They were working on their pine wood derby cars. I was the bouncer. It was a pretty good test of my patience... Little monsters. Had to keep an eye on a couple older kids who were bullying the smaller kids. My mom was chasing kids down, trying to find out what color they wanted their car, I was playing bad cop-bad cop with the others. Caught a couple of them muttering "stupid white boy" under their breath. But it got better towards the end. Turns out they were impressed with my piano playing. I played "All of Me" a couple times and then left them to pretend that they could play the piano. Three at a time. Started organizing a football game, but then it was time to go... maybe next Wednesday.
Thursday morning my mom asked me if I wanted to help with my brother, Justin's science project. My initial thought was "no," but I knew that I needed to do something other than veg in front of the computer. So I agreed. My brother was planning to test the aerodynamics of different shapes. So my mom and I had the simple task of making a miniature/amatuer wind tunnel. Luckily we had blueprints of sorts... A bit of plywood, some black paint, straws, glass, some dry ice, a vacuum cleaner, and a couple hours of troubleshooting, power tools included. So my brother got home, and with a bit MORE troubleshooting and fiddling and piddlefarting, we got it to work. Oddly enough, the square block was not the most aerodynamic... who'd've thunk?
There was an assembly at the Elementary school on Friday, and my little brother Cody was going to play the piano as a part of it, so we attended. While we were waiting for the little kids to show up, my dad and I messed around with my new iPod. Voice memo, video camera, and some pretty cool games. Now with Swiss-German podcasts. Life is good. Cody came out, and he and his three classmates took turns. He played some arpeggios (sp?), parts of Für Elise and the Moonlight Sonata, and then a little something he composed himself. Way cool.
Saturday night we played Settlers of Zarahemla (a board game). I had a pretty good setup going. Three points on a wheat field, plus a two wheat-for-anything deal. Then my little brother blocked off my supply with a Gadianton Robber... I may have overreacted. If I recall correctly, I rolled a seven, got two Strippling Warriors, and wound up stealing three of his four cards. I wound up in second place because my numbers wouldn't get rolled. Accursed dice...
I blessed the Sacrament today in Church, and then spent the third hour with Justin bringing the sacrament to a member who couldn't make it to Church. Went home and had some grilled cheese made with some fancy smoked Gouda... processed. I miss real cheese. We had Family Home Evening; I used my Rubik's cube in my lesson. Ate ice cream. Stayed up until 11:59 and then posted a blog.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Pilot Issue
In February of 2008 I went off to the beautiful land of Switzerland to serve the Lord for two years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Amazing experience. The members there are so loving and strong. While on the mission I [attempted] to write home weekly of my adventures. Four or five weeks into the MTC my weekly letter became the soon-to-be-legendary Elder Howell Gazette. On my way out of the MTC, I offered a two-year subscription to the other missionaries who were heading over to Europe with me. Stuttgart, Offenburg, Interlaken, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen, and Wettingen. Along the way I picked up a few additional readers. I sent the last Gazette I wrote to fifty-six addresses. I've missed a few Gazettes, and I'm going to try to write those up ASAP. But I got home last Friday. I'm in America now. Homesick for Switzerland. I'm not Elder Howell anymore... I'm Jesse. And so the Gazette needed a change of name. 'Til next week.
-Jesse
-Jesse
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