San Antonio and the End of the Semester

Texas is AWESOME!! My dad and I had so much fun in the short three-ish days we've been here. He said at first he didn't want me to come because he didn't want to spend the money on my ticket, but he kept saying how glad he was I came. I was pretty much the best co-pilot navigator ever. Lol. We went out to eat with Isaac, Shy, and Fenix the night we got in. It felt soo good to be reunited with some family again! I knocked out around 6:30 pm and slept until 8 the next morning. We went straight to Isaac's Basic Military Training graduation after I finished getting ready. Somehow, I got ready in less than an hour! That was amazing, hahaha. But his graduation ceremony was really cool and nice and short (less than an hour). I was so proud of him as I watched him march with his flight/squadron. He said he was almost an Honor graduate and he exceeded the requirements to be one, but they only take the top ten percent and there were choke guys who took it. That's okay, I know he was an awesome trainee anyways. We spent a lot of time talking story pretty much the whole weekend, and he told us all about his experiences here at basic training on the Lackland Air Force Base. O.m.g. I could not believe some of the stories he told us. He said that, hands down, this was THE hardest experience he has ever gone through, and will ever go through in his life. But he feels the strongest sense of accomplishment now that it's over. I'm so glad we got to come and support him. For the past 8 weeks, he was not allowed any sort of device like a cell phone, laptop, any connections to the outside world. The T.I.'s (Training Instructors) were pretty much the devil. People got punished and yelled at and put down for even the tiniest thing like smiling at a joke. If you smiled, you got reprimanded and punished. Everything was harsh. Isaac told me that a girl last week tried to commit suicide by jumping off the third floor of her dormitory building but the T.I.'s stopped her. Men breaking down in tears isn't something they're not used to. My brother sometimes had 23 hour days, but on average they were about 19 hour days. Basic training pushes you to the limits physically, mentally, and emotionally. He said he looked forward to Sundays when he was allowed to attend church. They had a small little ward for the LDS members but had to hurry out after it was over for the next religious group to use that same room for worship. He told us about doing "The Beast" (which I didn't really understand what it was, but judging from the name it sounds not very fun :/). But the worst thing he had to do was this tear gas challenge.

Tear gas, or lachrymatory agent, is a chemical compound that stimulates the corneal nerves in the eyes to cause tearing, pain, and even blindness. It works by irritating mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, mouth and lungs, and causes crying, sneezing, coughing, hard breathing, etc. So basically it was a test to see if they could put on their gas masks properly (it sounded complicated). The trainees would put their own masks on, go into the room filled with tear gas, and if you didn't collapse in pain or go into unconsciousness or anything, then you put your mask on properly. After that, they were required to remove their masks, STILL in the tear gas room, and state their name, what flight they were in, social security number, etc. But the gas has an immediate affect right when you take off the mask, so my brother (and pretty much everyone else) could barely get past saying their names when they just couldn't speak. Mucous just starts running out of your nose and your eyes tear up like crazy and you can't even breathe. After they were let out of that room you just see everyone looking all gross and coughing for like ten full minutes. Terrible.

So, needless to say, Isaac had a very hard time adjusting to BMT at first. I mean, he went from living everyday in a happy environment with his wife and son, having it pretty easy and access to all his electronic devices to straight discipline, training, and zero contact with any loved ones. But eventually he gained enough strength and wisdom to get through it all. It was kinda touching because he told me that he'd have nightly personal prayers with this one other Mormon dude in his flight (but wasn't really active prior to coming to BMT) and towards the end they'd sometimes get 10 or 12 guys to join them in those prayers. I'd say BMT is one place where men really start to depend upon God a lot more than they used to. I am so proud of him for sticking this out and staying strong!

Other than the whole graduation and everything, we went to the Riverwalk which was so much fun! We took a boat ride along the San Antonio river and had a little tour. We ate at Chili's, got to talk some more. We were gonna go to the Spurs vs. Mavs NBA playoff game last night, but the tickets sold out way too fast. And I was gonna go with Isaac and Shy them to Six Flags Fiesta amusement park today but my flight leaves in like an hour. I'm excited to see my family this upcoming week though!! Everyone's flying up to Utah for Jake's graduation from UVU and Holden's baby blessing.

I can't believe I'm here. Not in Texas, but I mean...here. In time. At the end of my last semester at BYU in Provo. This semester flew by faster than a blink of an eye. Every school day was crazy busy with studying and work, and every weekend was party after party after party. Now I am one week away from going home and I'm so excited. I chose to work on the USS Missouri as a tour guide because it's the smart thing to do, and I just found out my friend from high school/cross country team mate/BYUH soon to be classmate, Christy Wong, got hired there too!! So we're gonna work together!! I'm so excited!! Heavenly Father has blessed me sooo much, there's not enough space or time to name everything that I'm so grateful for. But he has definitely hooked me up in every way possible. Everything I've been looking forward to has already happened or is already happening!! Holden being born, Adrienne being born, Isaac's BMT graduation, Jacob's UVU graduation, going home, surfing again, Robin coming home THIS upcoming week, Josh coming home in less than 7 months.....I'm trippin out. Today I was looking at myself in the mirror and was pretty grossed out...how did I let myself go for so long???

My #1 Goal for this summer = self-discipline.
Self-discipline with work, to be grateful for it and to enjoy it as much as possible, to do my best at my job and to work as many hours as I am offered.
Self-discipline with money, to SAVE SAVE SAVE and SAVE some more. Everyone knows how much deep kimchi I am in with this already...
Self-discipline with personal scripture study & personal prayers. Just because I am going home doesn't mean I need to lose all the great progress I've made with this while at BYU.
Self-discipline with physical fitness. Surfing and/or running EVERYDAY. Do not, and I repeat DO NOT overeat just because I can have GOOD local food again.
Self-discipline with waiting. Umm, I have no idea if I'm gonna go on any dates this summer. But I need to do better at writing letters than I did last summer. Last summer letter writing was an epic fail -_-.


Whew. Longest post ever. Gotta catch my plane now. HALO TOMORROW!!!! :)