Ok, there are some people that you meet on your mission that are special. Why? Because for better or worse they are a lot like you and/or someone that you know. Ziau was one of these people. She was a couple of years younger than me, but she was a good friend. She reminded me a lot of what my sister was like when the two of us were still in high school:)
Did you ever know me in high school? Probably not. If you did, you probably didn’t know me well. I was a different child:) (Not sure if I should be proud of that.) My best bud and I were wannabe meatheads. We were a couple of the bigger guys in the grade. Well I was one of the more massive ones, he was one of the 3 biggest. Anyways we had a different approach to things. When people would start bashing on religions they would undoubtedly say, “and now let’s talk about those Mormons!!”
With that the two of us would jump out of our seats and say (in a Neanderthal type of voice) “WE’RE MORMON!!! Got a problem with that???” With that the person would usually sit down and shut up for the rest of the class period. Yeah, yeah I know, wrong method. We didn’t understand that at the time. We had a lot of rough edges back then. Anyways as a freshman I grew the back of my hair out long. I kept the top and sides fairly short, but the back came down to about my stomach. That was my freshman year when I was into heavily into R&B, Hip Hop, and Rap:)
Later on I got heavily into reggae. No I didn’t start smoking pot or anything, but I did want the hairstyle to match. I kept the back and sides short, but he top was about an inch or two past my chin. It was cool. I was growing out my hair to either get thick braids or nappy dread locks!!! YES!!! I had it all planned out. Don’t worry, I didn’t do it. I got close though, but then I took a trip to Utah and decided it was time for me to get serious about my mission.
So, what does this all have to do with my good friend Ziau??
Ziau was a lot like myself and my sister when we were in high school. The only difference is that she didn’t have all of the advantages that we had growing up. She was going thorough the same things that I went through 2 or 3 years earlier. She listened to the same music, had the same attitude, and acted the same way. That’s why I loved her so much. She was just like my sister and I. If we all grew up together in the same city I could easily have seen us all going out and hanging out together.
Anyways, because I related so well with her she became one of my best friends while I was in that area. She always did everything we did to help us. She tried to get us referrals, she gave us rides, she fed us, everything. She was like a little sister to me (which was kind of strange since I have two older sister who consider myself and my baby brother the babies of the family). Anyways in a nutshell, we clicked. Because we clicked, I will never forget her.
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