Come Sail Away

Dear J,

The lake was so peaceful this weekend. I went out there to take pictures while I visited my parents at their new apartment. If I didn’t have to bring two pizzas back to my family I would’ve stayed out there all day watching the airplanes fly and the sailboats pass by. I got a lot of good pictures for my all-time favorite missionary’s polaroid album. The water was real nice and the beaches and dock weren’t crowded like they were in Waco. I got some pictures of boats on the dock and some of ducks and geese that were running around. For some reason, the hardest picture to get was of a hibiscus. I couldn’t get it quite centered like I wanted it to but I needed that flower to be in the book so I tried a few times. It only took about three times to get a picture I thought would be good enough for the book.

Cameron Park Zoo

On the way home, I stopped by the Cameron Park Zoo, the Aggie Barn, and the Bush Library. It was pretty hot at the zoo and I didn’t get very good pictures but it was still cool to get to walk around and see all the animals. Usually I’m out there sweating and volunteering and don’t really get to take it all in. Elephants are my favorite and I wish they had been closer so I could’ve gotten a good picture but they were pretty far away. Also, did I mention that it was HOT?

The Aggie Barn

aggie barn

On the way from Waco to College Station, there’s an Aggie barn that’s painted maroon and white and has class years on it. My mom got an iconic photo of it for me when my class year (2017) was painted on it. On my way back to College Station, I pulled on the side of the road and snapped a polaroid of it for my missionary’s book. I used my last picture for it. I kind of want to keep it but I’ll give it to her.

George Bush Library

george hw bush statue

For reasons I’m not too caught up on, George H.W. Bush decided that Aggieland was the perfect place to build his presidential library. I’m glad he did, I just think it’s a weird relationship. Anyway, he’s got a real nice library out here. I’ve been to it a few times. This past weekend I went over there to take some pictures for my missionary’s album. I got a pretty good picture of the front of the museum, the statue of George H.W. Bush, and the horse statue that’s got a piece of the Berlin Wall on it.

Sloppy Performance

at&t stadium

All in all it was pretty good weekend. Except for that game put on by the Aggies. We should have put the whoopin’ on Arkansas. We should’ve wrecked em. We should’ve left hogs battered and bruised all over Jerry’s World. But after running back the opening kickoff for a touchdown, all we managed to do was squeak out a 7 point win. It was such an ugly game. Jimbo even had to grab a player by the facemask to keep him from acting stupid. We won’t get back in the Top 25 after that but we won and I guess that’s what matters.

Hopefully Kentucky takes it easy on us next weekend.

-Jeston

Follow me: @DoHpodcast and @JestonTexeira

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That’s What I Love About Sunday

me and my missionaries

Dear J,

On Sunday, my roommate and I went down to Houston to visit my favorite missionary at her new church! We weren’t sure what to expect but judging from what she said about her new area, we figured it would be pretty rough. I brought my gun just in case. After about an hour drive with the windows down because my truck’s AC is out, we rolled up to a nice little church. I left my gun in the truck.

We got in there and debated on the best way to surprise her. We decided to just walk straight up to her and say Hey what’re you doing here? So that’s what we did. She was talking to some old guy when we showed up so on one hand I felt bad for pulling her away but on the other hand, he gets to see her all the time so get outta my way. She was so excited to see us! She couldn’t believe we were there. She did that thing people do where they’re so excited that they laugh and hide their face. We said we came to bust her out. We talked for a little bit and caught up as much as we could before church started.

Since she’s a missionary, she’s not really filled in on what’s going on in the world. I let her know that since she’s been out, Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain, and Mac Miller had all died. She thought I was lying at least about Kate Spade. I had also written her a nice letter before we came so I gave her that along with one of those little knives that looks like a key. I told her that as long as she aims for the soft spots (neck, eyes, temple) she should be fine. She’s tough. She also asked us to stalk her sister’s boyfriend to make sure he’s a good guy.

Her church was wild. A baby on a leash tried to climb on her companion’s lap. Another kid wearing a paper hat danced across the floor during a talk. Everybody except the bishop was 30 and up (the bishop was 28). I don’t remember exactly how it happened but the guy giving our Sunday School lesson on baptism brought up a what-if scenario about what would happen if he died taking the missionaries to a strip club! My favorite missionary tried to steer the conversation back on track but it didn’t work. Later on, somebody brought up that they knew a 40 year old woman who wasn’t married yet and one guy said that unless the church lifted the ban on polygamy, he couldn’t take on any more wives! Those people were hilarious. I’d probably keep on going down there if it didn’t take so much gas and if my truck’s AC wasn’t broken.

After the lessons, we got to talk to my favorite missionary more. She asked how everyone back in College Station was and how things were going at church. Also while we were talking, some little kid came up and told me I looked like an actor from Transformers. When I asked him which one, he said it was one that was mean to the girl in the movie. I’m not sure if that was a compliment or not. I couldn’t ask him because he had already ran off with a bag of popcorn. I don’t remember what I said later on but it made my favorite missionary laugh and hit me. Now I’m not 100% sure but I’m pretty sure she’s not allowed to hit me! If I had the Melchizedek priesthood that would technically be elder abuse. That’s ok, though. It was just a love tap.

The worst part of the whole trip was leaving her.

She had a meeting to go to so we had to cut the visit a little shorter than we wanted. Maybe if we had told her beforehand that we were coming we could’ve planned something. Oh well. I’m glad I got to spend as much time with her as I did. I told her we’d back back for her birthday, though. Hopefully I’ve got her polaroid album done by then.

I think she’ll love it.

-Jeston

Follow me: @DoHpodcast and @JestonTexeira

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