Underground Car Guy

Me and Adam Calrke with the Kids of Southill 1989. This last vacation to Ventura, I got to meet up with my 2nd companion on my mission to Ireland.  He found out, on the day we were leaving, that we were just down they way from where he lives, and said if we come back again to give him a call and we could meet up.  So when I found out when we were going to Ventura, I texted him.   Me and Adam Clarke, Ventura July 24,2018 It had been 29 years since I last saw Adam on the mission.  In missionary terms, I killed him off.  So we talked about the mission.  He wanted to know what the mission was like under President Martin.  Who I served with once he left.  I told him what it was like when he and Elder Carrigan left that day to go home.  You see, we were in a four man flat (apartment), and we were all together for four months. So when Adam and Carrigan left with Carrigan's parents, me and Elder Hunsaker, kind of sat there and said, now wh...

OK, I don't have a clue where this is, but it is not far from Limerick, in Ireland, and that this was taken either in February or March of 1989.  I was still new in the mission and was have leg problems because I was not us to being on my feet all day.   This is Fiona. She is from Limerick and was Baptized by Elders Carrigan and Hunsaker in March or April of 1989.  We were over at her home for a surprise birthday party for Elder Carrigan.  Some how it turned out to be a huge water fit.  As Hard as we tried, she is still a faith member of the church.

Monday night I got to spend some time with my good friend from my mission, Gary.  It is always fun to catch up and enjoy a good meal.  When we left the restaurant we had been there for 3 hours.  Most of the conversation about the mission and Ireland.  It is funny that we still have the yearning to go back to that wonderful place.  He has more memories of people than I do, and I wonder if some even remember me.  I don't know how I survived as a missionary.  I spent most of my time observing than talking.  Gary helped me point out one of my fails.  I always feel that I should be liked by everyone, and it really bothers me when I am not.  And in saying that I treat everyone as a friend when they really may not be at all.  So I do get my feeling hurt really easily at times, but don't really tell anyone.  I need to do better at letting things go, and not let it affect me like it does. We did notice that since our missions, ther...

Was at my dad's for Father's Day, and we were watching "Walter Mitty" on one of the movie channels.  Walter Mitty is this character who always dreamed of doing great things but never did them.  I always thought of myself of some what a Walter Mitty, but as I look back at my life I can see some pretty amazing things that I have done. When I was 9 or 10, my parents were working for a production company as extras.  My dad can be seen in the Movie Used Cars.  But this did turn into a job for the whole family one day.  My parents were going to a shoot and took me and my sister along.  Got us out of school for half the day.  We shot a Visa commerical and were paid I think $50 for just walking back and forth at the airport. At age 11 I started racing go carts.  First race out I crashed sideways into the wall going about 55 mph.  Was hurt really badly, but did not realize how badly until many years later.  Raced for a few months until...

All my life I have wanted to be like everyone else.  I wanted to be normal.  But some will question what true normal is.  I can remember being young, that I knew, I was not like everyone else.  I was born with both physical and some mental deficits.  Everything on my left side is about 1/2 inch short than my right.  I also have a weakness on that side.  The mental is dyslexia. I remember as a child, have to wear braces on my legs.  I do not remember how long I was wearing them, but I do remember seeing them in my closest when I was about 6.  When we moved to Arizona, I remember being called out of class and have people make me preform exercises to see what my range of mobility was.  Going to the nurses office every year for the scoliosis test was fun.  They would look at my spine and then say, oh it is the Close kid and that was it. My left foot turned in, and there was no heel tow action in it.  Over time, I learned how t...

I know that some look at Facebook as taking up to much of our time.  To many people post senseless stuff about themselves or memes that have no point to your life.  And lets not get into the political stuff.  People have lost friendships because of Facebook.  But then you have to really ask, if they were true friends, than they would not unfriend you for difference of opinion. But I am thankful for Facebook.  It has reconnected me with family and friends.  I always tried to get my mom on Facebook, but she did not want her stuff out there on the Internet.  She saw it as a waste of time.  When she died, I wish she would have had a page.  It might have been a way to reconnect with friends in Boise.  And maybe some of those friend would have known when she died.  I know she had a lot of goof friends still there and I do not know if they know she died.  But then she did not want to reconnect with some people and that is what she ...

I have had this as something that I wanted to write about for a while now.  When I read this Chapter in the Alma, he made understand the difference between Pride and Righteous Pride.  I thought this was how every, or how I hope, every missionary coming home from there mission felt.  For me it has taken awhile to realize the great work that I did in Ireland. In Alma 26, Ammon and his brothers are coming home from there mission. And it starts off in verse one: 1  And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we  started  from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings? Ammon goes on and starts listing off what they were able to do.  The mission was to the Lamanites.  Now the Lamanites had did not believe the same way as Ammon as his Brothers.  Plus they did n...

So here is the Tie of the Day!  I got this one when I was with elder Wilde in Don Loughaire, Ireland.  As I understand it, there are only three Elders that have this tie and I am one of them.  Did anyone get the theme of the month?

So here is the tie of the day!  It is the Cork tie.  I got it when I served in Cork in 1989.  It the coat of arms of Cork.  Many of people coming to American, last place in Ireland was Cork.

So just about an hour after I got done with the first part of Missionary Companions, I got a personal message through Facebook, by a fellow IDM, who said they thought Elder Junior looked like Bruce Willis too!  I knew I was not crazy. In the 23 months of my mission I had 15 companions.  And I served in 11 different areas, and 6 different cities and 2 Countries.  Sounds like the total at the end of the Amazing Race.  But like the Amazing Race, it was and an Amazing Journey. The longest I served with someone was Elder Clarke in Limerick, 4 months.  The Shortest was Elder Silk, about 2 weeks.  I don't remember where everyone was from, but I do know that I did serve with guys from Arizona, California, Utah and Idaho.  Its funny, I was just remembered that my trainer, Durrant was from Idaho and Neal from Idaho.  I also served with a guy from Canada and Sweden. 8, well 9 if you count the MTC, of my companions I served with only for a month. ...

So this is the second part of  Missionary Companions 1988 to 1990 .  The first part took us from November 1988 to January 1990.  This picks up in January, and goes to the end of my mission in October 1990.  Again I am trying to find the good in all of my companions. Elder Butterfield, Rathmines: I was glad to have Elder Butterfield as a companion.  I had come out with him and roomed with him in the MTC.  But we are the total opposites.  I love eating beef and he was or still  is  vegetarian.  He was a spiritual giant and I wasn't.  But he was what I needed after the month I had had.  He was there when my Grandfather, who was not a member of the church, died.  His idea at the time of grieving was working, and at the time, I hated him for it.  But it was what I needed.  I guess you can say that he is the guy that got me back on the horse.  We got to baptize Anne Ralli, which was also a great experience, as...

So when I was visiting with Heidi, the missionaries came over to teach a lesson.  We sat there before the person was there and Heidi told them that we were in the same mission.  So we kind of forget that the Elders are there and we just start talking about the mission.  To the point that she makes the statement that I really did not have a lot of good companions.  So this made me think about what could I say about all of my companions?  Was there just one positive thing I could say or was it just all bad as Heidi said.  Now don't forget, she knew some of them, so it may be her opinion that is coming out in this opening statement. Elder Ford, MTC: OK I can say that it was neat that two Elders from the Phoenix area, being teamed up, and going to the same mission is kind of cool.  But I always thought that Butterfield and Ford should have been MTC companions.  They were closer in there friendship with each other.  I am not saying that Ford i...

While I was working on a blog about my missionary companions, when I realize that I also made friends with other missionaries that were there.  There is a bond there that I was not able to form with some companion, and I feel like it would be sorry that you did not know about this people as well. Randall McClellan When I arrived in Ireland, it was Christmas time.  So we had a missionary conference.  Randall was like the first person to come up to me and say, cool you are from Arizona.  So we would pass each other through out the mission, never serving in the same zones.  But when we did have mission wide stuff we would get together.  Sometimes this was just passing in train stations.  There was a few time he would borrow some money here and there, I never kept a total, so I could never tell you how much it was.  I was always helping out a friend in need. When I got home he found me.  And for a few months we hung out until I got married...

My house is like a black hole some times.  I have lost thing and never seen them again.  I have a book that I was reading, and one day it got picked up and I have never seen it again.  It was interesting and I still want to read it.  Some of these things that I can not find are from my LDS Mission to Ireland.  Well the other day I was looking for old photos and I found something I had been looking for, for a long time.  My Testimony Book. Wikipedia explains that a Testimony is "a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter." It also points out that a Testimony for LDS people is a statement of what they belief, and in most cases the reason why they know it is true. A Testimony book, is a notebook, in which you (many me) would get others to write a little message and let me know what and why the belief what they do.  Most of these are from missionary to missionary, but anyone can write in it. My Testimony Book.  The ...

I am lucky for where I leave.  Having served my mission in Ireland there really is not a lot of us around.  I think at the time I served there was about 140 to 160 missionaries in Ireland and there was 20+ thousand serving around the would, so we were less than 1 percent of missionaries in the world.  I live in area where there is a lot of us.  I just found out that there was a guy in my sister's old ward in Gilbert that served in Ireland in the 70's.  In my ward there are three of us and two of us served under the same Mission President. I have two former companions that live here in the Phoenix Area.  I have meet up with one them, and keep telling myself that I will call the other, one of these days, but it gets pushed back every day.  But my former companion is not the only one that I have meet over the years.  When I first got home in October of 1990, Randall McClellan was around.  We would hang out, go out and eat, and go to a few d...

Growing up in the LDS Chruch (Mormon) , you are taught early in life that going on a mission is something you should do. In Primary (A Sunday School for children from 3 to 12 years of age), you sing a song, " I Hope They Call Me on a Mission. "  Now at the age of 18 ( 19 for girls), a young man may choice if this is the path that they want to follow.  For me in 1988, the age was 19, and my time had come.  I don't remember anyone asking me at the time if I want to serve a mission, but when was I going to turn in your papers. Disclaimer:  I am writing this at my point of view of my mission serve.  This not to argue for or against serving.  But this my experience in going through the process and then serving a mission.  And I hope that it does not offend those who may  be named in this. My birthday in the first few days of August.  So through the month of August I went and saw my Bishop for and interview, and got the paper work to fill...