The son of my grandparents' bishop drove me to church. I knew where it was, and it is only a few blocks away. He insisted on driving me though. He is pretty cool, but I don't know his name. He was sick last Sunday. As I sat with him, a girl sat with us, and I spoke with her a little before Sacrament; however after Sacrament, I have not seen them again. When I went to ward prayer Sunday night, I met the regulars.
Ward prayer is a tradition that I have found is in very tight wards. It's a more social activity. We hang out after dinner, have a spiritual thought and a prayer, and hang out again. The first person that I met was Beth Egnew, who is the girl that I went on a date with last night. Our conversation didn't last long the first time that we met for an odd reason. The Elder's Quorum President is a Hicken. His name is Collin. I assume that he is part of the Elder's Quorum Presidency because he led the priesthood lesson on Sunday. After the spiritual thought and prayer, I wanted to meet Collin to know how I am related to him. I told him that I am from the lineage the John Henry the son of Patriarch Thomas Hicken. Patriarch Thomas Hicken is from England, and he is my grandpa's great grandpa. Collin did not know what son that he was from of Patriarch Thomas Hicken. At Family Home Evening Collin told me that he is from Addison's lineage. Addison is the son of Thomas Hicken, who is the son of Patriarch Thomas Hicken. Collin is about the same distance of a cousin as Nicholas Hicken. I thought that I wrote about him, but I could not find information about him, when I was searching my journal.
Nicholas contacted me last semester because he wanted to get to know the other Hickens at BYU Idaho. We hung out a few times. He was jealous that I went on a mission to Jamaica. Nick loves Jamaica. He really admires Bob Marley. He likens Bob Marley with Buddha, Confucius, and Mohammed as someone given to a nation to look to as a religious leaders. I know that the Jamaican people look to him as a prophet. Nick told a story about him, saying that the high class people didn't like that Bob Marley would invite people from all walks of life to visit his house.
Family Home Evening was cool, but I didn't want to play any of the activities because I already took a shower, and I need to get home early to get my sleep for work. I got to know a sister more. Her name is Hannah Payne. She is very beautiful, and she always hangs out with her sister in law. Her sister in law is studying to be an editor, so we talked about writing. A guy that I believe is named Chris hung out with us at dinner. We had a good group of people at our table. Later I asked Chris, if he heard whether Hannah was dating anyone. It turns out that she is engaged. I seem to have bad luck because a lot of people that I ask out are dating, engaged, or married.
One coincidence that happened in my new ward is that my friend from BYU Idaho attends the ward. His name is Trevor Sweat. We met my first semester at school, and we use to study in the quiet floor of the library together. We would just sit next to each other. I couldn't deal with the quiet floor because it was easy to fall asleep and the Internet was always bad. I don't like him everything relies on the Internet at school. My grandparents were worried about me getting a ride to school, and Trevor will be able to do that. I saw that he is a runner on Facebook, so I am thinking of asking him if he would like to join my cross country team. I feel like I need to be Mormon, and abridge, plainly explaining the coincidence; that is, God will provide for your needs; be it friends or even a ride to school.
I mentioned yesterday that I had a date in the evening, and I went out with Beth Egnew. We actually got talking this time. It was a long date. I usually don't have such a long evening with my dates. I picked her up at 3:30. We went to the Swiss Days event in Midway; had dinner; and watched A Midsummer's Night Dream, the Shakespeare play. It was fun, driving to her house, because I was told to turn at Hicken Lane. As I was driving on that lane, I crossed Hicken Court. I had to take a picture of that. Aunt Audrey lives in Midway, and we had a hard time finding their parking lot because Wayne said that it was easy. I mainly looked for 5 dollar parking on Main Street. I drove into 3 parking lots before finding the family lot. We didn't have much time to explore, since we planned to go to a choir concert at 5. The choir was great, but it was not very Swiss. They didn't wear any cultural outfits nor did they sing any Swiss songs. We got a Swiss tacos for dinner. Beth only took a few bites and threw it away. These tacos were huge. I saved mine because I couldn't finish mine either. It was like a normal taco with beans, cheese, and salad; but it was served on fry bread. After dinner we went to see A Midsummer's Night Dream. The Timpanogos Valley Theater is run well. I have not enjoyed many Shakespeare's plays, but this one was fun. I liked the creativity of the immortal fairies that has two modes: one where human can see them, and one where the fairies can only see each other. I like it when good creativity becomes an instant classic. I think that we are missing creativity now a days. A lot of productions are the same old story told over and over. I think that companies are afraid of the risk that comes from creating something completely original.
I have opinions about media that was discouraging to my movie loving roommate. I think that there is a template where some man-made catastrophe arises and everyone needs to unite to solve the problem. So many movies follow that template. I also don't like when producers are not original enough to create their own story. They do Romeo and Juliet or some other story that is put in different settings. I saw another common story line that is not original. A top secret or government organization falls apart, but somehow a person save the world from a radical person. These are my observations for the lack of creativity in media.
When I came home, I told my grandparents how the date went. I already told you, so I won't get into that again. My grandmother was surprised that Eve and Ezra did not even mention my name that evening. This is not another journal entry about Eve and Ezra. At this moment they are both looking at the deals that they can get from the local grocery stores with coupons in the newspaper. They are healthy and normal person. My grandfather is 87 years old, and I remember that because he is the same age as the King of Thailand. In the year 2007, I went to Thailand as a graduation present with my mother and a family friend, and the country had yellow shirts designated to be worn each Monday for the entire year. I do love Thailand, and I still wear the Thai yellow shirt that I got today. My grandfather is named Glen Irwin Hicken, and he is the son of Irwin Todd Hicken, who is the son of John Robert Hicken, who I mentioned before. Glen most days of the week serves his community by mowing lawns. I don't know all who he serves. He also is knowledgeable with mechanical contraptions. We visited Wayne his brother yesterday, and he replaced a radiator in a lawn mower. He also helped another brother bale hay. I think that his name is Wayne too. One thing that is funny about my grandfather is that he believes that it should be basic knowledge to know the directions of North, South, East, and West. This would make sense for Utah natives. He says that he knows those directions at all times, and he has pointed out that it is basic knowledge that I should have a few times. College Football started this week, and he enjoys watching Utah's college teams. I believe that they are both BYU fans; although, there are members of the family who are University of Utah fans like my brother and uncle Allen. My grandparents are active members in the senior community, enjoying great friendships there not without football. Grandpa and grandma both have the same amount of patience with Eve and Ezra, which does have limits; although, they love them tremendously. My grandmother was named Carroll Lee Hicken, and she feels that the contention that they bring to the dinner table upsets her soul deeply physically more than spiritually. I believe that grandma has leadership in the senior center. She cooks still enjoying good sight mostly and health. Her walk is not perfect. Grandpa has a solid healthy walk. I am a runner, and I have developed a odd habit of observe the running and walking form of people. Grandpa fell this past week, trying to kick their cat out of the garage, but surprisingly he recovered in just a couple days. I think that he said that his knee hurt, and he would lose balance if he walked normally. He could only walk safely for the first day of the fall by keeping his leg straight. Tiger is their long living cat. She doesn't get much love from my grandparents, but we do feed her. She looks very unkept and dirty with flies following her everywhere, and her whiskers are mangled. My grandparents are good about their responsibility to visit in the homes of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which we call visiting and home teaching. They always inform me of the time that I need to watch Eve and Ezra, when they go. When I first arrived, I had a hard time rounding up Eve and Ezra, getting them home before it is dark, and my grandparents would drive around, looking for us. Much of their time is left lounging around at home. They enjoy classic music played from the television, and they relax with a nap or reading. They also watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune most every day. They don't eat much, and they were feeding me a small amount of food. Grandpa makes me breakfast most mornings. One morning he made me cream of wheat, and I ate the whole pot of cereal. I usually eat a little more than half of the pot of cereal. I was worried that I was not getting enough calories for my lifestyle In Heber, but after showing them that I eat more food, we have been more comfortable making sure that I eat enough. I talk well with my grandparents at the dinner table; although, grandpa is hard of hearing. It is not that bad. I often open up to my grandmother because she can hear well, and we have good discussions about my concerns. I think it is funny that most everyone here acts like they know everyone. When I talk about someone, they always ask for their last name. I think that my grandparents quit asking me for people's last names because they don't know everyone. They have failed to find a relation with everyone that I have spoken about, but other people do it in Heber too.
About girls eating just a few bites of an expensive meal, my father said that is common, and my grandma said girls don't want to look like they eat a lot. I was chatting with a friend this week, and she said that she was trying to figure out dating. I thought that was odd because girls have so much experience. Boys are left behind usually. I told her about my date, saying "I think that guys don't care how much you eat. It is a sign of health to have good eating habits. Guys don't think about losing weight. They usually think of trying to gain weight. Girls should not worry. Just be healthy." She said. "True. Your the first guy that I ever heard saying that."
The oddness of figuring out how to date for her as a beautiful girl came out, when I asked if she had a date recently. She said that she had not dated in more than two years, but she has a Skype date in December. She has already said that there are no good guys around to date, and she is waiting, which I understand. She is young, and she can choose. A Skype date a few months from now sounded suspicious. If the guy was really interested, he would want to Skype this weekend or this very night. She said that she never met him, but a couple of her cousins knows him; furthermore, he lives 5 hours away. I said that you should expect him to visit you as soon as possible even if it is 5 hours away. (Random Fact) Did you know that Joseph Fielding Smith rode his bike more than 100 miles each weekend to see his girlfriend? This guy is a loser. It turned out that they talk a little more than an hour each day. I have ran into a girl that had an abusive long distance relationship, and this is definitely one of them. Thankfully it was not for months like the girl that I counseled with. It has only been 4 days for my friend. I don't even know how they met, and I don't even want to know because he is a evil guy. My friend said that he already said that he wanted to marry her. She somehow was committed to him; although she was suspicious. She showed me the pictures that he gave her of him. He straight up looked creepy. I should post the pictures, so girls can see the hints. She also said that he would ignore her, when she asked for pictures. I bet that these are not even pictures of the guy that she is talking to. I had a suspicion that he was very controlling, and she said that he said that he really liked her, when she was trying to end the messed up long distance relationship, making her keep on with the relationship. At first I was telling her to make him visit you as soon as possible or end it, but when she opened up with everything, I encouraged her just to quit talking to him. I said that "Girls already have enough sorrow" to deal with this type of relationship. She was unsure about dating. She was grateful, saying "Thank you for opening my eyes." Everyone needs to be careful about long distance relationships. I encouraged her to date only local people. Make sure that he would do anything to be with you. I am a sisters' keeper. Having the courage to end these relationships are hard. The other girl that I mentioned didn't have the self-esteem to. I hope that I save another girl by opening up about this. I do love you, if you wonder whether your relationship is healthy, questioning dating like my friend. Email me at alexnhicken@gmail.com, and we can figure this out.
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| They don't even look like the same person... |
