June 3rd I hit a milestone when I turned a quarter of a century and officially became an adult. But lets be honest, I'm a kid at heart and will always be amused by farts, funny faces and coloring book. Immature? Maybe. But we will see who has more smile wrinkles compared to worry wrinkles when they're 80!
Derek, being the awesome husband that he is, surprised me with tickets to see The Lion King which came into Tulsa. I have always wanted to see it. I was pretty impressed by Derek's gift giving skills. We had an incredible time. It is by far one of the greatest musical to see live. Derek and I both agreed that Raffiki made the show. She was so talented and funny. The little 5 year old who sat in front of us also made the show quit humorous as well. At one point during the show he let his grandparents and the surrounding radius of seats know that he was hungry, tired, bored and had to go to the bathroom. We laughed because right at the moment, when that little boy's life was falling to pieces in hunger and boredom, Timon and Puma come dancing across the stage and suddenly all the problems in the world are gone and the 5 year old is all smiles and giggles. Ah, the power of Disney.A few weeks before that I was able to go down to Moore, Oklahoma and help out those affected by the tornado. Moore holds a special place in my heart since that is where my mission home is located and it was the neighboring town to my first area in the mission field. I was up at 4:30am to meet the other members of my ward and drive down to the Moore stake center. Since it was a Sunday they had arranged for a short sacrament meeting before we got our assignments and went off to work. It was amazing to see the entire chapel full of bright yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" shirts. There was over 300 people in that chapel. I was humbled to see how many faithful members had shown up to volunteer their time to their fellow men. Elder Rasband of the Seventy was there to speak to us. He gave a powerful message. He said the day before he left to fly into Oklahoma he was in the Joseph Smith Memorial building with the other Apostles and the Prophet celebrating President Eyring's 80th birthday. Before he left he approached the Prophet and told him he was leaving the next day to go on assignment to Oklahoma where there had been terrible destruction due to tornadoes. Elder Rasband asked President Monson what he would have him tell the people of Oklahoma. The Prophet told him the following three things; "Tell them I love them. Tell them I'm praying for them. Tell all those that are helping, Thank you." It was powerful to hear those words, meant for us, straight form the mouth of our good Prophet. It definitely pumped us up for the long day of hard work ahead of us.
We were assigned to a large ranch out in the worst part of the damage. On the drive there I noticed something shiny up in a tree a short distance ahead of me. I couldn't tell what it was. As we got closer I finally saw it. It was a pick up truck, condensed down to the size of a smart car and tossed up in the top of a tree like it was a frisbee. You may have seen some damage on T.V. but it is nothing until you see it in person. Metal wrapped around trees like twisty ties, houses with walls standing but the roof and everything inside the home sucked out, Elementary schools flattened and cars stacked on each other like a game of Jenga. It was incredible to see.
With chainsaws in hand we got to work. About 20 massive trees had been uprooted. 7 hours and 40 people later we had the place cleaned up. We helped 2 more households before we were done.
We didn't make it home til 10pm and I passed the heck out! Exhausted but happy from a long day of service. It will be years before Moore is back to normal. Keep them in your prayers.
Let's see, that covers Lions, Tornadoes and turning 25. That leaves bears.
At work we play a game called bear cave with our classes. Its basically an obstacle course where the kids take berries (soccer balls) across the river and through a forest to put them in their cave (soccer goal). I had all the kids gathered around me to explain the game. I had a class of 3&4 year olds. I started by asking the kids what bears eat. This little girl raises her hand with vigor and vim and and was waving her hand like crazy. I pick her and ask her, "So what do bears eat?" Straight faced and serious she says, "HUMANS." Bahahaha I couldn't hold it together. I laughed til I had tears. After that answer none of the kids wanted to play bear cave.
Sorry I left ya'll hanging for so long. I know how much you missed us :) I will try harder to fill your Hellard life update needs in the future.
Thanks for stopping by!
