Alpha and Omega. These are a few of the boys that I started off with. This is actually a picture from after we all returned home from my mission. These fine brethren are 3 of my 5 MTC Boyz. I lived with these guys (well Elders at the time) for 9 weeks in Utah before we spread out over the world to preach the word of God. Left to right we have Brent Powell, Chris Beckstead, Myself, and my MTC companion Mat Hutchings. They were/are my brothers in the Lord's work.
We started our journey together, and the summer following our return home we got together. Of course we were hanging out watching the Utah Jazz game, but that’s a story for another day. I was there in Utah for the week for my buddy's wedding and crashed with "Elder Poder (Powell)." Who started calling him that anyways? I think it was Elder Jimmenz . Poder is Spanish for “power,” and indeed he was a powerful missionary. They all were.
Let’s see, Elder Powell was companions with Elder Gouch who is in Florida. We figured we’d excuse him for not being able to meet at Mat’s house that night. They were our DL and companion. Then Elder Beckstead and his companion Elder Hitchcock roomed with Elder Hutchings and I. Poor guys, they had to put up with my snoring for 9 weeks!!! I love them all for the great men that they were/are.
Ok, in the field I had an apartment full of awesome roommates. Now, I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen me when I’m really tired and sleepy but I tend to revert into “The Agreeable Neanderthal.” My mode of communications reverts to grunting and I will say/grunt yes to just about anything you say. I also (not when I’m sleepy but in general) tend to recognize peoples voices. Keep in mind I snore too:)
Ok, now that you have the background, let’s get to the story. It was the middle of summer. Not sure if you’ve been on the east coast during the summer but it is horrid. Imagine Hawaii humidity with a hotter heat and an ocean that you wouldn’t swim in if your life depended on it. That’s a Jersey summer:) Anyways, I kept waking up I the morning and I was freezing cold. I’d check the thermostat and it’s be like 60 degrees!!! Now when you’ve adjusted to the hot weather outside, that’s pretty cold.
Well, for about a week I kept waking up to this cold weather. Finally my companion flipped out and loudly asked who’d been cranking the AC so strong. We found the guilty one and jokingly confronted him. He responded (in a playful tone) something along the lines of, “Hey I can’t sleep at night and that’s the only thing that helps me sleep at night!!! Between Cosare’s and Ita’ae’hau’s snoring and your talking in your sleep I can’t get any rest at night. What’s worse is that you and Cosare keep talking to each other in your sleep!! You keep telling him about what the two of you have to do today!!! It’s nuts!!!”
Well, we didn’t want to upset him. But we really didn’t believe him either. Well a few days passed. We were all in bed talking before we went to sleep. I heard my companion calling me. He was telling me about what we need to do, who we needed to visit, and what not. I agreed and than said yeah comp I’m coming. Right then I caught myself. I woke up!!
I looked over and my companion was on the top bunk talking in his sleep, the lights were off, and it was about 11 or 12 at night. I looked over at Elder Ball and he and Ita’ae’hau started busting up laughing!! They were listen to the two of us communicating for about 5 minutes!! Oh well, at least we could say that our companionship had good communication skills and that we were focused on the work:)
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