The mission scoop!!

I've been busy working at the pool and taking my online Summer Anatomy class but I'm finally posting Dan's 4th of July journal entries because he wanted everyone to be able to read them! Enjoy!

7/04/10- "Happy 4th of July! Good times! Now it's 6:30pm and I gotta write about my AMAZING day!!! Well it was a really good day with a bad ending but I'll get to that later. Starting at 6:05am... I woke up early so I could shave and have time to open my care packages! I was (and still am) sooo excited!! I went out to the front room and opened my two unexpected 4th of July care packages!! Oh. My. Gosh. I still can't believe it! It's like Christmas every time! These packages consistently amaze me! Like I can't even describe it. I opened my parents' package first and this is what was in it (!!!): OE's classic amazing cream cheese brownies in a cute red lunch box (Oh man!! Sooo delicious!! A little taste of home! That was so thoughtful! Thank you!), Stewart's Orange Cream soda (That one is my fave! Another taste of home!! Yay! My parents know me so well), A very festive red, white and blue Hollister polo shirt (I LOVE it! It's perfect and fits perfectly! I'll take a pic of me wearing it tomorrow for Pday!!), a patriotic CD (I was hoping for some patriotic music!! I'm listening to it right now and I totally love it!! It's actually super classic and will be a new family favorite!! Its nice and peaceful and classy!! Thank you! :), a John Bytheway CD (I always love him and that will be super entertaining! Yay! Thank you! I know I'll learn from it!), Crunch bars and Twizzlers (Crunch is one of my fave chocolate bars! And it's red, white and blue! Perfect! I donated my Twizzlers to Elder Rodriguez cause he loves them and I'm not a very big fan. That was so cute and thoughtful!), a scripture study kit (WOW! That is SO cool! Where did my parents find that?! I love it! I've looked through a lot of it and it has so much interesting stuff! I'm gonna learn so much! It's awesome! Thank you! It would make any missionary jealous :), a Lordship CT hat (YES!!!! I absolutely LOVE it!!!!! You have no idea! It fits perfectly! Completely perfect! My new fave hat! I wore it all morning and I'm wearing it right this second! What are the chances that they found a hat that I love? I'm picky on how hats fit but I couldn't be happier! :) Man! I'm so impressed! Thank you!), my mom's outstanding latest niece/nephew project (for the 4th!! I can't even stand how cute it is! I look forward to those every time! It's on my wall right now next to my Pixar birthday one and SW one. I'm keeping it up ALL of July!! It rocks! Thank you SOOO much! It makes me so happy to look at! It feels like a little bit of home is out here with me! I also love seeing my nieces and nephews grow in ever one! I absolutely love this tradition and I'm so thankful to mom for starting it with the Turkey one. Yay! I wish I was there!), 4th of July little plates and napkins and the biggest surprise... mom found my Toy Story snow globe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT!? WHEN!? HOW!? I can't believe she found it!! No way! I didn't even know she was looking! I can't wait to hear the story behind it!! Mom can find anything! Thank you mom and dad for everything! Ever since the home videos from the 80's... you can always hear someone say "I can't believe it! How did you find it!?" And my mom always explains the crazy way if finding it (by calling every store in the USA lol). I bet mom called lots of Disney Stores and found it in like Texas or something lol! I loved their letters too! Then I opened my very special Summer care package from Brita my love!!!! So thoughtful!! She got me: Brownie mix/ Marshmallows/ Hershey's chocolate bars/ Graham crackers (to make our classic S'mores brownies!! That's so thoughtful and Summery!! I'm gonna have so much fun making them for dessert after our cookout here tomorrow! Yay! Thank you!! I love it! <3 Such a good idea! I wish I had Brita to make them with though :(, Caprisun (classic Summer drink! I love that drink! Awesome! Thanks so much babe!!), Kraft whole grain Mac & Cheese (can't go wrong with that! Our dinners do cancel a lot so that will be great to have! That was so thoughtful honey! Thanks tons!), Peach salsa (my fave! I'm just about out so perfect timing! Also a taste of home! You all take such good care of me! How could I have a more perfect family and girlfriend!?! :) and some more Yankee Candle car fresheners I love those! I can't wait to have a car to make it smell sooo yummy!). Thank you! Thank you! You all mean so much to me! Gosh! I'm just so happy! It's hard to express in writing. After that great time opening my packages I got ready for church. I even wore my flag tie... of course!! After church, we got a ride to Russ' (our dinner) and that's when the day took a turn for bad. We had nasty ribs, met his buddies that were there and talked about his baptism. He totally freaked out, said he wasn't doing this anymore, went on a rampage and ripped down all of the stop smoking signs, and said he was going to another church and tons of other awful things. It was totally crazy. I don't even have time to write down everything he said! We told him that we had to go (which we did- it was 5:50pm) and got out. So much for Russ :( I can't believe it. Sister Tucker's daughter gave us a ride back home and that was that. I had a Caprisun and then one of my cheesecake brownies and milk!! So amazingly good!! It's 8:30pm now and I've been using this entire free time to write in my journal but it's worth it. OMG... we just got like 4 voicemails from Russ. And they were not pleasant. The were the jerkiest messages EVER. "I'm just letting you know that I'm going to buy a whole box of cigars cause I can" "If your church is true that I would be aloud to be baptised. Obviously your church is evil and God's trying to stop me" among about 5 minutes of rambling. Rodriguez and I were so shocked just now!! He turned into such a nasty person when all we ever did was try to love and help him! We tried calling him back and he picked up and said "I'm busy" and hung up. What a baby! Ahhhh! So many details I wish I could write. Well that was my fantastic day and my not so fantastic night. Oh well! We tried! We'll be there for him if he wants to come back. By the way, you know my little "scripture a day flip calendar" that I got for Christmas? Well I had to reverse it now and go the other way since it's half way until December! Sick. Well that's it for now, I'm gonna hang out outside! Ba bye! :)"