RJ's Letter

Jenny, May 18, 2009

Good to hear from you. A lot of talk about God though and barely anything about yourself. What's up? What's new? Looking for a new job hu? What's gonna happen if you don't find one? Do you have a vehicle to get around? Probably just walking everywhere still. Dad thought Boot Camp sounded like Scout Camp. You guys have no idea. Up at 5am to yellong and screaming, "Get up!! You have ten seconds." You gotta jump from bed into shoes and stand at attention. "Lock and load." Push-up position. Then everyone (all 88 of us) have to share 4 sinks and we get a total of 5 min to shave and brush our teeth. Five min, 88 guys, 4 sinks. Yelling, swearing, spitting. Marching everywhere. If Petty Officer gets real mad he throws chairs and flips tables over. He even held a gun to the mouth of a recruit for not holding it correctly. It's brutal. They'll make you do pushups till your eyes bleed for having something in the wrong pocket. I've seen it. Fortunately I'm real good at following directions and "Paying attention to detail." As they say, that's just the morning. I've been here three weeks but it feels like two months. The first week was all paper work so it didn't count so technically were in the middle of week two of eight. I'm sure Band Camp was fun. When we do good we get rewarded with music. I'm strong enough to pass all the physical tests they have.

So what are your plans for the rest of the year besides school and work? How do you like your roommates? Last time you said you never see them. Is that still the case? Have you seen any of the new movies that just came out? Just curious. Well hope to hear from you soon.

Love ya sis

Seaman Recruit Service

RJ-



As some of you know, my brother is in the Navy. Right now he is in boot camp in Illinois and this is the first letter he has written to me. If you have the time or would like to right him I know he doesn't get much mail and any encouragement he can get I know would help him so much.
His address is :

SR Service, RJ Alan
Division 229 Ship 07 USS Chicago
Recruit Training Command
3510 Illinois ST
Great Lakes, IL 60088

Mesa Falls

This Memorial Day weekend we are out of school till Tuesday, so to keep those of us without a car from going bored, we took a trip to Mesa Falls about 30-45 minute drive from here. The scenery was beautiful. Here are a few pictures we took out there. Enjoy =)

The pictures of the trail are a hike some of us took from the upper falls to the lower falls. We walked very briskly to be back in time before they left without us, so we were a bit out of breath and a tad sweaty when we arrived back at the car.

Blake's High School Graduation

This afternoon was quite eventful! Blake Steven Service Graduated from Rigby High in Rigby Idaho. The ceremony took place on BYU-Idaho Campus in the Hart Building at 2pm.
Here are some pictures and a video of the Cap throwing! (Blake is the one on the screen!)

Food, pictures, and caving! =)

Here at BYU-Idaho the students have a card called the Student Discount Card and there is a section on it where you can get free things from places in Rexburg. So, yesterday Katherine and I went around town getting all the free stuff to eat and enjoy, kind of like a progressive dinner. But It was good, we got chips and salsa from Bajio, then tatter tots from Sonic, Chocoloate cake from Gandalfo's, and Crazy Bread from Little Ceasers. All in all it was good and yummy. We had fun. While we were at Deseret book (next door to Bajio we decided to just stop by) we saw these new pictures from David Bowman (my Freshman year Seminary Teacher).


When I saw these pictures I could feel the spirit so strongly I was about to cry.
One of these days I will acquire these and put them in my house. I love them.

Last night I had my first experience going caving. It was a blast! At points it was kinda cold and there was ice covering the ground with little pockets of puddles randomly placed (one of which I was lucky enough to get my foot sunk into). We had a glow stick fight/fling where everyone was covered with glow stick stuff lol. It was fun. Jill and I got it in our eyes, but thankfully it wasn't too terribly hard to get out. We all had fun, and enjoyed our time out there. Before we left, Jill and I layed on the ground watching the stars looking for satelites, and shooting stars (of which she has never seen one before). But we had no luck before we had to leave. It was late. We ended up being a half hour past curfew. *oops*
Here is a picture of some of the ice cicles hanging off the rocks...
And this one is Jill with her hands covered in glow stick stuff with the sign I-love-you.

New Step in Life

As some of you may know by now, I have recently found a new job! The agreement with my parents was I had to have a job by May 16th, or my texting would be cut off. Well I did it. I found a job. It is also good in matters of paying for groceries, plane tickets, and other misc things that go on in life.
On May 3rd I was asking my Executive Clerk if our ward had an employment specialist.
He said "A what?"
"I will take that as a no."
"What is that? Why, are you looking for a job?" He was very confused apparently
"It is a person in the ward whose calling is to help find jobs for people. And yeah I need one."
He put his hand to his chin and was lost deep in thought, then slowly said "well, yeah, ya know, I believe we are looking for one more person to hire. I am a manager in the library for DCAM and I can definitely put in a good word for you."
"really that would be great"My eyes lit up with excitement!
So after that he took down my information and took it to his boss. Jeff (ex clerk) called me that Friday saying that I had an interview at 3 (right after my class). So I accepted.
After I got off the phone with Jeff I freaked..Oh wow, what do I wear, where is my resume? What do I ask, etc etc. Last but not least... oh no! I don't have slacks.. I found some of my nice pants (they arent slacks but they aren't jeans) They were completely wrinkled so I skipped my next class to get them ironed. It took 1/2 hour and still were not good, but I gave up and got ready with my resume, got dressed, then headed to my last class.
During class I kept looking at the clock. Our class finally released at 3:10pm I was late.
I quickly walked to the library down the hill and walked into the hall of administrators for the library and asked the Secretary if Tom Thornton was in his office, she said she would look, then escorted me back to his office. I was shaking with nerves but had peace in my mind from the Lord. I was anxious, nervous, calm, and excited all in one.
He invited me in and I took a seat. We talked, I filled out an application as he reviewed my resume. He was very impressed with all of my history with computers and thought I had good communication skills. (I thought this was very good).
He then told me he would take the weekend to think it over and get back to me on Monday.
I walked out and went to walmart. Lol I needed groceries. Over the weekend I couldn't stop thinking about how I could have said things differently what I should have asked, and what else I could have done. Odviously it was too late for any of that. It was up to him.
Monday came around and I got an email from Jeff saying:

"Well, I talked to Br. Thornton today. He told me that he will hire you. At least that's what he told me. He said that he will contact you, so maybe he has already. But anyway, congrats! I will talk to you about what you will be doing later."

I got so excited!! I forwarded the email to my mom, and Jared. Then I sent a text out to family and friends (those who knew about the job interview) and could not hold in all my excitement!
I wanted to go run! So I walked up to the temple. I kinda feel like that is where I can properly give my thanks to the Lord and talk to him peacefully and sincerely.

After Class Tom called me and asked me if I would come in and speak to him around 4-5pm-ish so I headed in at 4:20pm.
"Do you want a job?" apparently he didn't know that Jeff already told me
"I would love a job" I replied with a huge grin on my face.
"Ok well here is what I am going to do..." He went on to tell me my responsibilites, my schedule, and my tasks.

Here is the basic layout
I am a Library Assistant with $7.50/hr pay
Monday-Friday
3-5pm - Website Administration (making sure the school website is up and running effectively)

Wednesday&Thursday
8-11pm - DCAM, Red Vest. (counting the people in the library, walking around so that people can ask me questions, restocking the printers and copiers with paper and ink, and to see if there are computers left logged in but unattended.) (DCAM is scanning old documents and putting them on the internet for others to read)

After my meeting with him he told me I needed to go to the Student Employment Office and bring my SS Card and Driver Liscence to present to them. (I didn't have my SS card. I had to have my mom send it to me. And yeah she did. Sadly it took 4 days. That's why it took me so long to start my job.) We finished our conversation, and I left - yet again for Walmart (same reason).

Each day came and went and I checked the mail as often as I possilby could. Each day I was dissapointed to find it empty. Finally this morning it came! YAY!
In between my Geopgraphy class and my Tech class I came home to check the mail box. As I was walking up the Mail man was finishing up his job. I went up stairs and changed my shoes (I was wearing some that looked cute, but totally ate up my heels). I ran back down stairs and checked. IT WAS THERE!! I saw the envelope and started running toward the Kirkham so I could just take care of it. On my way up the big hill I opened the envelope and saw something colorful.
"Oh no!" It was the wrong thing! - well I took it out then I saw it was a picture that Arianna had colored for me and my mom had sent along with my SS Card. Thank heavens!

The picture is adoreable is it not?

I finally arrived at the Kirkham and found the Student Employment office on the second floor in the back. I filled out the paperwork and then left for my next class. I thankfully arrived to my next class on time. I even had time to stop by the MC and get something to eat (Banana Bread YUM).

So at promptly 2:30pm I left my apt and headed to the Library. I walked into his office, and he was not there. There was a sign on the secretary's desk that said "in meeting till 4" so I had to wait. I waited till about 2:50pm then I asked the front desk where he was. They agreed with the sign that he was also in the meeting. They also said that I should just go into the DCAM room. I walked in and met my new Coworkers. They are so much fun! Already I know I'm going to love this job.
There were two girls and two guys there. One girl was married and one of the guys were too (not to each other). The girls were sweet and helped me to feel comfortable. The guys were just being guys and goofing off. At that time they were just chilling waiting for something to do. One of the girls was on the Mac working on her blog, the other was eating, and messing around on her laptop. One of the guys were scanning documents (part of the job) while watching Star Trek(the old ones), the other was messing around on his laptop looking at park Air planes.
After being introduced to them one of the girls showed me how to clock in. Then we sat and talked for a while. Finally Tom came in and asked me if I had taken care of the paperwork and etc I nodded affirmingly and he told one of the girls to show me around.
So she did. She showed me where all the printers and copiers were and where to find the paper and ink (in the dungeon). She also showed me how to use the counters to count the people. There were 3 of them.
To count...
1)people on computers
2)people on laptops
3)people not on computers

I was in charge of the 3rd one. She took the other two. But people normally do this alone. How?! I was hard just doing one! Did I count too many people, did I miss someone, I was so nervous. But I knew that it was basically an estimation to see about how many people the library serves at a certain time of day.
We then went out and helped some people with their computer issues. (apparently people here really dont get a clue, they don't know how to use a computer, how to copy/paste, or print.) this will be fun.

After that we headed back to the lab and sat around again, waiting for a phone call to help someone. It was almost time for me to clock out (already). So she showed me how to do that too. I enjoyed it, but at the same time honestly there isnt much to do.
After she was finished with me, Tom came in and told me that I was alone tonight with all of that and I have to close up. Wow.. already? I guess he thinks I can already. Ok. I can do this. .... um maybe.

So now I am totally hyped and excited about doing this by myself, but at the same time, will I do it right, can I do this?
Anyway, that was my experiance. I am now awaiting my next shift at 8pm. Which is in like an hourish. So, yay! lol
*Wish me luck*

Lovely May

This last week has been eventful and a good start up here. I am finally getting into the drift of things. After Diana being gone for over 2 weeks Roza and I have been able to get along quite nicely. We make dinner for each other sometimes and take turns doing dishes. I made some fantastic Chicken and Rice the other night, and tonight she made a Mongolian dish
1. Homemade noodles, beef, carrots, and other stuff
2. type of salad with Hard boiled eggs, mayo, peas, carrots, pickles, sugar, and something else. I am trying to get the recipe on both so that I can share it, but oh it was delicious!!!
I also got a surprise postcard from Diana in the mail:

"Jenny, I miss you and hope you are surviving =) Ireland is beautiful and yes it is as green as the picture makes it." (the stamp covers up some of the writing so some may be missing). "Yesterday we went to Dun Aengus (the fort looking thing... of the cliff) the view was incredible once we arrived. Getting ...... exciting. We rode bikes 6 miles to get there. Riding through the lush green on the left edge of the very narrow road with cars passing on the right driving with the steering wheel on the right side of the car which is alway sa little weird. Even with all of the rain the view from the top and at the edge of the cliff was amazing. The 300 foot drop from the top to the water was absolutely not a cliff jumping height. Wow what a neat view. After pictures on what seemed like the edge of the world we sang hymns and a few commented and stopped to listen, which was a wonderful spiritual experiance. And soaked completely through, freezing and the most cold I have ever been in my life. Today we went and saw the grave stone of W.B. Yeats (a famous poet) tombstones in Europe are all very elaborate and fantastic. Say hi to the neighbors for me. <3 Diana Hancock"

That was very sweet and a lovely surprise for me today!

On sunday, I was called up to the bishop's office along with the rest of my Relief Society to recieve a ward calling and while I was standing in line I was speaking with my Executive Clerk and I asked,
"Do we have a ward employment specialist?"
"What is that?" he replied
"Ok nevermind, I guess not" I said odviously seeing that we did not.
"Why, are you looking for a job?" He inquired.
"Yeah desperately I have to pay my bills somehow" He looked at me and then got a deep thought look on his face.
"I think we are looking for one more person actually. I am the supervisor and I could put in a good word for you."
"That would be great!" I jumped!
"Do you know photoshop and Mac?"
"Not so much"
"Well, they aren't very hard to learn, you give me your info and I will see what I can do, and get back to you." I grew more anxious and hopeful in this quest to find a job.
Yesterday I wrote him and inquired if he had looked into it and he replied with this.
"Well, I talked to my boss today about it. He told me he would get back to me tomorrow about it" So today is the big day and I am praying that I get this job. If I have to take any other job around town I will required to work on sundays. Which I honestly have no desire to do.

BTW: My calling is now on the Enrichment Commitee. Im not exactly sure what that entails but I am sure I will be able to handle it with the aid of the Lord by my side.

Anyway, It's late, I just thought I would catch yall up on the happenings recently. Hope all is going well with you and your families. I miss you all. Love you!