My "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"

K, so I know it's been awhile since my last post. I will now write about an experience from my mission- I have been putting off writing this one because it seems like it's a long story- but now that I say that I'll probably write it in no time. The story is about my "Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very bad Day" as my companion and I called it. It started out one morning, I think still in winter- it was at least cloudy and we were up in Pineville, LA. For all who know me- I'm not exactly a morning person- but on my mission I was obedient in rolling out of bed for prayers and often would talk- not because I was awake, but in an effort to wake myself up. Well, first thing after prayers I was like, today's not going to be a good day- I don't know if with that statement I cursed the rest of the day, or what. I don't even know why I said it- but I had a feeling- even if that feeling was, 'I'm so tired I'm not going to focus well today-therefore it's going to be a bad day' or if I knew more would happen. Well, it was a Monday morning and so it was Preparation Day- the day to do laundry, e-mail family, go grocery shopping, wash the car, and then we usually went to meet the elders to play games or something til 6pm. So laundry was first- we usually tried to multi-task it. Well this particular day, I don't remember how we multi-tasked it- I simply know we did. When we retrieved the laundry we went to separating it (it was cheaper to wash it all together) so we would dump it on Sister Robinson's bed and she would throw my stuff at me, where I was sitting on my bed ready to start folding. Well, it was the wrong time of the month and so when she threw one item of clothing it went over my head and fell off my bed- I got so mad that it had touched the floor and felt like she had disrespected me- yes I know very drastic, even for me. So I told her I didn't appreciate her throwing my stuff at me- especially if she missed. I'm sure she was puzzled because we ALWAYS throw the clothes. But anyways, the argument escalated and I'm not sure who said it first but someone said, 'Fine, well I won't talk to you'. So the other person said 'Fine, I won't talk to you either.' Just so everyone knows- this was the worst fight I had been in with a companion and the longest I was intentionally silent with anyone as well. After folding laundry, she went to go finish, or do her personal study- she was reading in the middle of Alma in the Book of Mormon- the war chapters, and I went to go get ready for the day.

While in the shower I got over being mad- if I'm ever mad because of something at the wrong time of the month it rarely lasts long, but I AM stubborn, and so is Sister Robinson. So in the shower I got to the point where I wasn't mad anymore- but heck if I was going to be the first one to speak. So I decided I wouldn't speak to her still. Well I also decided to shave that morning- I don't know why- probably a "blessing" from the Lord, but I cut myself while shaving more times than ever before (or since for that matter). I decided to take pieces of toilet paper and tear them into small pieces to help clot the blood- and I did a fairly decent job of making sure the pieces weren't bigger than needed. Nevertheless, when I finished putting toilet paper on all my cut marks it looked like I was covered in snow. Also for those who know me, I loved my sarong (lava lava, or pareo...) so I wrapped that around me over my garments and walked out of the bathroom and straight to Sister Robinson- because I thought it was just too funny not to share. From the corner of her eye I could tell she knew I was there, so I announced, "Sister Robinson! Check out THESE battle wounds!" I didn't know she was reading the war chapters at the time- but she looked up and just started laughing. Then she announced she needed her camera so we took a picture- unfortunately I have yet to find that picture- I don't know what happened to it... :( So thus ended our silent spell.

Shortly after that we left our apartment to go e-mail. Nothing too exciting happened there. Then we went grocery shopping at Walmart. After buying groceries I went to an ATM at the front of the store- I was going to withdraw money from my home account so we could use the money to get quarters to wash the car and for laundry for the next week. The ATM didn't work. So I spun around, and we were going to head to the bank so we could check the balance on my card and try and get some money out. Well, while turning the mission cell phone (yes we had cell phones for missionary purposes only) slipped from my fingers and dropped to the ground. I looked down and was close to tears when I realized it was in four pieces. Of course the battery had poppe off, and the cover for the battery- that wasn't a huge deal. But the top part was disconnected from the bottom keypad part. Luckily on closer examination it was being held together by the wire that makes the top screen work- so our phone still worked. But it wouldn't go back together and was in a VERY fragile state.

So then we went to the bank and I checked the balance on my card. I think I had $0.38 in my account. Whatever it was, it was less than a dollar. I was at this point distraught. My companion got money out of her account and we were going to use her account to get the quarters today and I would write my parents and ask them to check my account from home. We then went through the Taco Bell drive thru and the elders called, asking us where we were. I was the designated driver and my companion was talking on the phone. We had the phone mostly folded to avoid from pulling at the wire that held the two parts together. So the phone looked like: < when she was talking- she moved the whole phone like that from her mouth to speak up to her ear to hear what they would say back. It was really funny and I was laughing like, the type of laughter where it's funny, it can't be denied, but I still felt condemned for having broken the phone. We told the elders we were picking up lunch, and still had to wash the car and then we would be at the church, and we told them we had a rough morning but would explain when we got there.

Sister Robinson tried to console me about breaking the phone, and had it not been that time of the month I'm sure reason would've sounded through. She after all, had been in a similar experience, but worse. The reason I was the designated driver was because she had once been the driver and had crashed the mission car into a red Lexus SUV, and both cars were totalled. That OBVIOUSLY is more damage than breaking a mere cell phone- and she wasn't condemned- yes she wasn't allowed to drive- but definitely not condemned. I knew that that should make me feel better, but because of my mood I felt certain that feeling bad about breaking the phone was still a better option.

We got to the car wash and I went to go get quarters. There were two machines- one for tokens and one for quarters. I read the tokens one (let me remind you- I had done this at least a dozen times before- so I knew what I was doing...) and it said something like $1= 4 tokens +1 token. $5=20 tokens +5 tokens. And even though I had gotten quarters a million times before and knew we didn't want tokens for whatever reason, that day my brain processed: $1= 4 quarters +1 quarter. $5= 20 quarters + 5 quarters. And I'm thinking- I wonder why people don't use THIS machine- you can make money from it. For $1 I'm getting $1.25 and for $5 I'm getting $6.25. So, thinking I was getting a great deal I put in $5. And when the tokens come out I realize what I've done and was mortified. I ran back to tell Sister Robinson- she was close enough, but not close enough to see the tokens that were covered by my hand. I don't remember exactly her reaction, but I'm pretty sure she looked at me and was like- we can't use tokens for laundry next week, and when she realized I already knew that she started laughing at me- which made me laugh, but I still didn't feel much better. So after washing the car with our "tokens" we stopped by a gas station so I could get a "comfort" drink. (Now that I get to this part of the story I remember what month it was! It WAS still winter- it was early to mid February! I'm so proud of myself!) So I go to the back of the gas station, Sister Robinson close behind and find the Mountain Dew- and they're having a 2 for 1 sale through February 28th. So I decided to grab two. I go to the counter and the lady there is like, 'Are these still on sale?' I said 'yes' while she looked back at the advertisement and turned back and was like, 'Nope'. And rang them both up full price. I was so out of it from the previous happenings of the day and dread with what would happen when the office knew I had broken the phone that I let her ring them up full price- I figured I would NEED BOTH comfort drinks anyways.

So then we continued on the last stretch to the church, where we met the elders. We told them of our interesting morning and how I broke the phone- and then we showed them the phone. We found out that they had been planning a prank on us- which is why they had called asking us where we were and that when Sister Robinson said we had had an interesting morning they thought again about doing it- so to this day I still don't know what they were planning. I don't know for sure- but it might have made the day better- it at least would've made for a better story now, I'm sure. Anyways, the Elders took our phone and permanently taped our phone together in the open position. And then we had to call the office to tell them we would need a new phone- which I might have to pay for. Luckily, the mission had just ordered new phones and everyone was going to be getting new phones in another week so they just shipped us to ours a little earlier and I didn't have to pay for a new one. :) The phone became famous. And now that I'm at the end of the story I can actually figure out the exact date of this "Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very bad Day". Because, you see, that Saturday we had someone get baptized, Stacey Stokes, February 17th. And he was interviewed by the Assistants who drove up on Wednesday and said if they had known our phone was broken they would've driven our new phone up. But they hadn't known- but they saw our phone as well, which at that point, we had added a bandaid to the tape because the tape started getting weak and all we had was a bandaid. Anyways, so our now funny "Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very bad Day" was February 12th, 2007.