Welcome to Darrell's Roundeo

The last couple of weeks have been pretty eventful.  A few days ago I was able to do a pilot’s choice helicopter ride.  My pilot was named Chip and he took myself, and 3 others to the “Hole in the wall glacier” then landed us on the Juneau Ice field and had us be completely silent so we could understand just how serene the situation was that we were in.  How many people get to fly on a helicopter up to a glacier, then to an ice field?  I love my job.  Yesterday I also had the day off and so I prepared Hawaiian Haystacks for 12, (there are 4 people visiting from Skagway and they are staying at our place, people we met during training in Provo).  Around 4 PM a group of us set out for the Mendenhall glacier, which is quite a hike.  Once we got there we found some awesome ice caves and you will see the pictures.  Life is good.  I also had today (Sunday) off.  I love the gospel and the rich principles that it teaches that bless my life.  We learned about forgiveness and pride today.  Tomorrow I will be giving the FHE lesson (20-30 minutes) on Charity, so I hope to learn a little about it today so I can present it well tomorrow.  I will let you know how it goes.  Anyway, I love you all!  I hope you love the pics!

-Da-rrell-

           Welp, the last three days have been extremely lax compared to the 4 before them.  It’s a pretty good pattern for how the summer will be.  Monday-Thursday are all busy days in which we have several ships in per day.  Friday-Sunday we have a lot less ships and thus a lot less work to do.  I only worked 4 hours on Friday, and none on Saturday and none on Sunday.  Disgruntled with my cancelled tour on Saturday, I marched into Ryan’s (my boss) office and said, “Hey can I ride on a float plane today.”  After making a call, I was granted my wish to take an hour long float plane ride.  We flew over several spectacular glaciers, then we landed on the Taku river and ate smoked salmon at a remote lodge in front of a huge glacier.  Interestingly enough, I shared an airplane with legendary cbs sportscaster Vern Lundquist.  That may mean nothing to you, and it really means nothing to me since I never watch golf, but I will still use it as my claim to fame. 

            Speaking of cleaning sprees, I can’t sit still sometimes and I didn’t work until 3 on Friday, so I cleaned the whole house, changed the oil in our car, paid the electric bill, washed my clothes, bought a shoe wrack and put it together, and went grocery shopping.  It’s weird what happens when you work 13 hours a day for a few days, then only 3 hours the next day.  Anywho, life is good and I have nothing more to say.  Enjoy the pics!

ps I didn't have to work today, Sunday, and hopefully Sunday will be my day off for the rest of the summer.

Dar-el

Today was one the best days of my life.  The schedule said that today Austin, Randy, and myself, would be doing Fjord Line training.  I hate training.  It is pretty unorganized and worthless.  Today was no different.  It also was not training at all.  Basically we just learned how to get to the Fjord dock, then, we got to go on one of the Fjord boats and go whale watching for 3 hours.  Yes, I got paid to go whale watching for 3 hours.  That is the type of training I can get behind.  We saw whales, eagles, sea lions, seals, and the boat had this sweet salmon dip stuff with crackers and I gained 50 pounds.

            When I got home from “work” I went on a 4 mile hike with two of my roommates.  It was a biking trail and it made me drool.  Beautiful Tongass National Forest, and I had no bike.  We had fun jumping off of the tree stumps, logs, and man-made stumps.  We also saw a porcupine.  It started climbing a tree like a monkey.  I was impressed.  After that I made Mom’s burritos.  They turned out just like hers so I was happy.  My roommates were all very happy too and there were very little leftovers. 

            After dinner Randy, Austin Stance, and I, went and played 18 holes of Frisbee golf in the forest.  Basically you throw the Frisbee, and then get to jump around through a forest to get to your Frisbee and throw it again.  It's like playing frisbee golf on Endor with the Ewoks.  It is a blast.  Of course the Frisbee was always hitting trees, but it was still enjoyable.  Today was one of the best days of my life, and I don’t work until the afternoon tomorrow, so I can go to church!  Alaska is a great place, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

I need some ice cream.  I just got done with a 12 hour work day where I spent most of my day doing short shuttles to different locations in Juneau.  So for example, I picked people up at their dock, drove them for 15 minutes to the helicopter place, took another group back, and so on…for 4 hours.  I also did a city tour and a couple other things.  All in all, I think I was talking for 8 hours today, something that is actually quite hard on my throat.  I’m normally a quiet person.  Shuttle runs are infamous for not giving tips, not to be deterred; I gave those tours all I had.  I got a few bucks, that was it.  But I’m going to keep up the enthusiasm.  Tomorrow I get to do 2 glacier explorer tours, that means I take them out to the glacier, let them play for an hour and a half, and then bring them back.  I’ve not done that tour to date, but it is generally the most enjoyable one so wish me luck.

            I feel pretty confident about everything now, and things are starting to get pretty routine.  I work all day giving tours and them I’m way tuckered out by the end of the day.  Friday there are no ships so I plan to get some rest.  There is also an 18 hole Frisbee golf course here that I would like to try out.  Anywho, that’s all for now, I’m loving life.  For anyone interested in going on a cruise, I’d totally recommend Alaska…just be sure and tip your bus driver well…man I need some ice cream.

    So this is getting fairly routine.  I write a short and simple blog while it takes forever to load 6 photos on to roundbook.  Today I was assigned to be on standby to take people to the whale watching place and then 3 hours later shuttle them to the Mendenhall Glacier.  Randy was actually doing the same run, but he wasn’t standby.  They did end up needing me, but Randy’s bus had 50 people, while mine only had 24.  Little did those 24 people know, they would be getting the most dry-humored Juneau tour of their lives.  So once I dropped my guests off at the whale watching dock (a 25 minute drive from the cruise ship) Randy and I drove to the nearest grocery store and ate lunch.  Whale watching takes 3 hours.  During that time, my passengers excitedly claimed that they saw humpback whales and Orcas…killer whales.  I continued the lame punny jokes all the way to the glacier.  Then after my guests spent an hour at the glacier, I drove them back to their dock and got $34 in tips…even more than Randy (who had 50 passengers).  One of my passengers slipped me a 5 and said “that’s to buy a new joke book with.”  She then admitted that she actually liked my jokes. 

    Basically, I have to keep reminding myself that this is a job and not a vacation…that I’m actually getting paid to have this fun.  To add to this good day, when Randy and I got home and went to our room, we found 8 liters of pop and other junk food items on our bed.  The missionaries had come by and opened our bedroom window and thrown that stuff in.  It’s scary to know that it is so easy to open our window from the outside, but it is nice to know that the missionaries only gave.  They did not rob us of anything.  Life is good.  How can you tell a male and female bald eagle apart?  It’s quite simple.  Besides of course the fact that the female is bigger, she is usually seen clutching a credit card in her talons, while the male is clutching a TV remote.  Har har, thank you

If anybody wants to send me some good jokes that could possibly apply to what I’m doing up here, I would probably gladly use them on my tours, thanks!

-Darrell-

I’ve come to a certain realization; if I’m going to really get behind this blogging thing, I’m going to have to keep them short.  I guess I just don’t have much patience when it comes to trying to write about something that I have already experienced.  My descendants will not find my journals very interesting.  Oh well. 

I gave my second tour today.  My assignment was really only a shuttle run to the airport but it turned out to be so much more.  I was supposed to take 10 tourists to the TEMSCO helicopter place where they would be able to fly over the Mendenhall glacier and even land on it, get out and drink some glacier water.  Well, they had an extra seat on the helicopter, so instead of just waiting for the 10 tourists for 2 hours, TEMSCO let me ride along with them.  So in short, I got paid to fly in a helicopter and have a really good time.  I was able to get to know all the tourists and really enjoyed myself.  None were from the US.  2 from New Zealand, 2 from Johannesburg South Africa, 3 Vancouver and 1 from Portugal (we conversed in Portuguese for a second).  I even got good tips in the end, and all in all it was a perfectly fun tour and I am a happy man.  I have the rest of the day off and tomorrow off, then I work Saturday, and starting on Sunday the real tour season works and I will be working around 60 hours a week.  Wish me luck!

ps: after waiting 2 hours to upload a video, I gave up...there will be no video uploading all summer, sorry.

I have had a life long goal of writing a blog.  What better time to start blogging about my life than now?  After all, I am living in Juneau, Alaska for the summer.  Yes that is right, during fall semester I was interviewed in order to get a job as a "driver guide" for Holland America Cruise Lines.  I guess they liked me because they trained me in the bus driving arts and helped me get my CDL, then 1 day ago they put me on a bus, filled it with Chinese people, and told me to drive them to a big Alaskan glacier and around the city of Juneau. 

My first few days in Juneau have been quite eventful, bear with me as I try to sum them up.  We arrived to the city Monday evening.  The weather was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky.  I looked out the window of the descending airplane and noticed that we were flying really close to a mountain, then I looked to my right and noticed that that side was also very close a mountain.  It turns out that we were flying over the Gastineau channel which divides 2 very tall snow capped mountain ranges.  It was a very cool entrance to a very cool city.  Upon arriving at the airport, a bus driver named "smokey" picked us up and explained some things about the city as he drove us to the bus yard.  Juneau has a population of about 30,000 people and is known for having only 44 days of sun a year.  I have experienced 4 of them.  The last few days have been cloudless and 70 degree weather.  The locals are flabbergasted.  Don't worry http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/99801?from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_undeclared

by following that link you will see that rain fills the future forecast.  Juneau gets 160 inches of rain a year.  compare that to Seattle's 30.   Tuesday  was a long day...I learned how to drive a different model of bus (it does not have power steering) and I also got to know the 30 or so venues that I will be taking the tourists to.  I forgot almost everything.  Now worries, they put me on a tour the next day, Wednesday.  I was scared but I did it.  I may have ran a red light, took a wrong turn, and parked too far away from the curb (causing an awkward jump from the bus to the sidewalk) and almost none of my puns made sense to 40 chinese people on my bus.  Everyone did cheer when I ran the red light.  In my defense, buses do not simply stop like cars do, so light running is slightly more common, especially in rainy conditons (though this one was completely dry, I was honestly too occupied pointing out the bald eagles perched nearby).  The tour was fun, and nerve wracking at the same time...they can only get better from here.

I could go on and on explaining cool things that have already happened in Juneau, but my patience is thinning and I want to save the other stuff for future blogs.  I'm going to post some pictures, enjoy!

"wrong turn Darrell"

One of my passengers called me that.  Atleast they were easy going about it.

I plan on posting some pcitures soon

Well the good times and difficult times keep rollin, and I’m just loving the ride.  Mission life can be very up and down.  You can have a family progressing so well, and be so happy about all that is taking place there, and at the same time have struggling investigators, baptisms that fall through, the whole lot.  Sometimes it is hard to know how to feel...Should I be happy that Marcos and Cida are the best family I’ve ever met, or sad that Esivanda’s husband can’t let go soccer to go to church on Sunday?  There are a lot of great mixed emotions here, I’m just really growing a lot from all of it.

            Well let me first start out by saying I love you all and that your support and prayers is what keeps me going.  I have zero doubts that these blessings that I’m receiving are not because of my Faith alone.  It’s possible to say that my family is the most supportive family on the planet.  Not just because of letters and blogs, ,but because of prayers, visiting the temple,  and faith.  Lets not forget all my awesome friends out there, some of which who are fighting the good fight as an instrument in the Lord’s hands.  I love you all.

            Soon after using the internet last week, I found out that Elder Cope would not be able to work with me for the whole entire week.  Luckily for me, the mission received a short term missionary named Elder Barroso.  So the news I received was that I would receive him as my comp just for this week, and I would be his trainer (just for 1 week).  Wow!  That meant that everything would be up to me.  I would be the Senior.  It’s really great how the Lord refines us eh?  Well of course I wanted to train this guy as best I could for this one week.  I worked him to death!  It was so great!  We had a very succesful week, found many more people to teach, and the Lord worked with us.  I loved it!  Elder Barroso and I became good friends after the week, and I feel really good about what I tried to teach him, how to teach, how to help, etc...He’s a good kid.

            We married Marcos and Cida this week.  It was a very happy moment.  Then Saturday night they passed their baptismal interview with the ZL.  After their interviews, we celebrated Marcos’s Birthday by eating cake and Ice cream!  This family is really the most amazing thing ever.  They are just so amazed at how the gospel is changing their lives so quickly.  It’s amazing what the gospel can do for you when you apply it.  It’s a good lesson for all of us, lets not take the gospel for granted and let it work in out lives like it ought to.  It’s much like what King Benjamin said, now you know what to do, so see that you do it.  Be ye doers of the word, not only hearers.

            So the baptism of Marcos and Cida was the most amazing thing that has happened to me as of yet on my mission.  We did it Sunday night.  Elder Barroso was transferred to Sobral and Elder Cope couldn’t be there, so I did it all on my own.  Luckily the Members that were there were very helpful, and it was the most perfect baptism ever.  Since Elder Cope wasn’t there, Junior, a man in the ward and friend of Marcos (the one that gave the reference) baptized him.  I thought it worked out perfectly.  I got to baptize Cida.  I shared a brief message before that baptism.  A message that Elder Hurd shared in an e-mail about how we really ought to be excited about starting this new life in Christ.  The first thing Marcos said when he came out of the water is...Boy I feel much lighter, Cida cried and almost gave me a hug...it was all very spiritual and almost unreal it was so perfect.  This family will really do many great things in th Church...they are still very young.

            Well Francisco is still really firm, although now everyone at his work and also his girlfriend are making fun of him for his decision.  He is not turning back, he told me that “no one will knock me off of this road, I will stay firm forever!”  Aboslutley incredible to me.  I consider him a close friend.

            Finally, a quick experience.  This morning, Elder Cope and I went to the office to get my new comp, Elder Fontinelle.  We got a ride from a member and they were in a hurry.  When we arrived there,  Elder Fontinelle quite rudely said, “look they can wait, I want to talk with some missionaries and go get some Breakfast”  I don’t think he meant to be rude, he just didn’t realize they were in a hurry.  I felt bad, but the members stayed there for 2 hours.  Elder Fontinelle went to breakfast with other missionaries and was just taking forever.  I was frustrated, and I told the members...”You can just go, we’ll grab a bus.”  Well it’s difficult to lug luggage around on a bus, so Elder Fontinelle, got there about 10 minutes after they left.  He and I were a little bummed that we missed out on our ride and everything, but we put a smile on our faces and grrabbed a bus.  We sat next to each other, but then a lady entered the bus, and I don’t know why but Elder Fontinelle offered his seat to her.  I didn’t really think anything of it, and we kept going.  Then the lady began to talk to me about why she had gone to the Centro today and such.  I introduced myself as Elder Roundy, a missionary and she became very curios.  I grew very excited as I explained to her our purpose as missionaries and got her address and telefone number.  It turns out she lives about 5 minutes away from our house.  She has a family too.  She then said something to me, and the spirit just hit me, really hard.  “Elder Roundy, I don’t think anything is by chance, we were meant to meet up today,  and I am really needing your message, I can’t wait for your visit tomorrow,  and to be able to go to church on Sunday, because I have been thirsting for this.”  Wow!  That’s about as amazing as it gets right?

            It then hit me, all the things that had to have happened for us to run in to each other on the bus.  Everything had to go very wrong in the morning, or else we never would have met up with her.  The Lord is willing to make us instruments in his hands.  I think not only the missionaries ought pray each day to find elect people to share the gospel with.  I think everyone can do it, and trust me, the Lord knows how to bless.  I love you all.

Love Elder Roundy