Update

So I had been so busy lately that I hadn't written an email to Elder and Sister Bell in the Philippines for a while. To compensate I wrote a very long email. Mom said it was fantastic and wanted it on the blog. So here is my update for about the last month.

Hey Dad and Mom!
Sorry I haven't emailed you guys in a while, I've had papers to write, tests to study for, my debate to prep for, tutoring, YW...then I was in AZ so I've been kinda busy but my morning class was canceled today on account of snow!! Yeah, I moved away from Idaho and I thought I left the snow behind me, but apparently not. I'll attach a pic from my window. So anyway, I thought I would take this extra time I have to write you guys and attempt (if I have time, unfortunately my other class was not canceled so I will still have to go to that one) to update the blog with pictures, but that might have to wait.

So, where to begin...first in response to Dad's other email, driving sounds awesome over there haha. Sounds like you guys are loving it, Eldon and I are so happy for you!!
Now, I'll start with my debate for my gov class-remember I was telling you about how we are all assigned a debate and mine was allowing non-citizens to vote....well I rocked it! Grade wise-I got a 98% he said excellent preparation and great participation...but the actual debate, was great. There wasn't a single point they made that my partner and I didn't have something in response but there were a couple times we stumped them and they were left with nothing to say. So just a quick overview of the main points:
They brought up how non-citizen voting isnt anything new and was practiced years ago and how it is a globally accepted practice-something like 45 other countries have it. So I said how first just because something is practiced and works in another country doesnt mean it is what's best for or will necessarily work for our country. Also, times change, there are many things that have been practiced before and are not now, we adapt with the changing times.
I brought up how noncits dont know anything about our county's history, culture, language, politics, or the issues being voted on, why should we be relying on them to choose whats best for our country, why should they be voting, and like i expected they said that could be said of many American born cits. as well. So i came back with "whose fault is that?" i explained that from the time we enter elementary school though college we are taught history, language politics etc. We are presented the information, it is right in front of us, if we choose not to listen, remember, pay attention whatever, that's our own fault-my teacher liked that point, obviously.
I don't remember where in the debate i used this, (I think something having to do with the time it takes to naturalize, b/c I asked why they cant just wait to become cits, why do they need the vote now? and they said how long the process is or something dumb like that) but it came to me right on the spot and it was great- i made an analogy to MAK, i said i used to work at a law firm for a while, would it be fair for me to make decisions for the firm or complain about not getting to make decisions? I was only an office assistant, not one of the partners, how do i know whats best for the firm? now if i wanted to make decisions, i could take the time, go to school, take the bar become a lawyer then a partner etc. then I could have a say-then and only then would i be fit for and equipped with the knowledge necessary to contribute to the firm's choices. they didn't really have anything to say about that-
I also pointed out the iconic nature of voting and how so many have fought for that right and how it is tied to a feeling of being an american cit. and how even when given the opportunity to vote, many would not even take advantage of it (i had numbers and percents from local elections in some towns where they opened up the vote to noncit to back that up). I said that allowing noncit voting would benefit a very small number of people but would be a large sacrifice for many. and i quoted some philosopher i learned about at BYU-I who believed that to determine what the better choice is or what's "right" morally is whatever benefits the largest number of people-so much so that he believed killing 3 people to save 4 is what is right.
I think those are the main points of the debate, other smaller things were discussed and though she didn't say much, my partner did help, she is actually a noncit from Korea and she thought it was irresponsible for us to allow ppl with no knowledge of the country to be making choices for it and she used herself as an example w/ the last pres. election. it was good, she also backed me up on my points, but I did most of the arguing. Anyway, it was fun and when asked at the end, the majority of the class sided with me.

Next thing, my paper for my oceanography class-I got a 96% on it- it had to be about any living thing associated with the ocean, but what i really wanted to know about the ocean was why do coral reef breaks create such amazing surf? so my paper is about coral reefs but I took an angle that "if i can learn more about coral itself, i can understand how it affects the surf" and my teacher loved that angle. He said it showed my personal interest in the matter and it wasn't the same old research paper. when he handed it back he make a point of telling my how much he loved that angle. Now i just have to work on my presentation on it- he wants me to do some sort of demonstration, i'm not sure what im gonna do yet but i'll figure it out. If you guys have suggestions let me know.

Funny story, so i had a 6:40 flight down to AZ last Friday. So it only takes like 35 minutes to get to the airport and security in OR is usually pretty quick and easy but being Dad's daughter i still like to be there an hour early and I plan on leaving an hour for the drive there. I was volunteering at the middle school then tutoring after school on friday. I got done at 4:30 and left straight from there to the airport. It took me a full two hours to get there! I had to park my car and take a shuttle into the airport. I run to security and get there at about 6:35! and this is the one time there is a long line! I explain im running late and am able to get in front of a few people but then i got stuck behind a couple that had no idea what was going on around them and i could get around them, but i was practically at the front anyway. so when i go to the middle school i wear my nice tall boots to look a little nicer than just tennis shoes so i unzip the long zipper yank off my boots and go through the x-ray, i cant really speed up this process, it is 6:40 when i get through, I'm sure im gonna miss my flight but i glance up at the scree and it says its still boarding, so I grab my bag, purse and boots and i take off running-i didnt even bother putting my boots back on, im running through the airport in my socks. i should tell you that part of the Portland airport goes from carpet to tile, luckily i didn't fall but i did loose my balance and wobble a little when my socks hit the tile. Of course Southwest is always the furthest gate away from everything! by the time i get to the gate my lungs are burning and im sweating and my arms are shaking from carrying my stuff, the last two people are handing their boarding passes to the person and i come panting to the door and the workers were just laughing. I felt ridiculous but i made it. That was the first, and better be the last, time i have ever been even remotely close to missing a flight, i've never cut it that close before-well unless you count when i had to transfer planes and my first plane was delayed, i was the last one on that plane too, but that was different.

Now the really excited news...we finally got Eldon's gun. ooo I actually have to start getting ready to go to class. I will finish when I get home and tell you about his gun, its cool!!
Ok, I'm back. So after Eldon saw the Springfield Armory XD (or XDM i don't remember which one he saw) in one of your gun magazines, he really liked it and wanted to try it. so he shot that one and loved it, tried a few others but really like the XDM so that's what we got him. It was way easy to buy a gun in AZ, he just showed proof that he had lived there for 6 months, though all you need is to be there for 3, they called him in right there to make sure he didnt have any felonies or anything like that. filled out the paper work, and we walked out with it. since we knew what we wanted when we walked in the whole process only took like 25 minutes. So we took the gun out and shot it that same weekend. It's an awesome gun, oh he got the 40 cal with the 4.5 barrel by the way. So remember how i told you with my 9 i split an apple right in half? well with his 40, i shattered an apple, it destroyed it. It was really cool. I dont have any close up pics or pics of just the gun but i have pics of us shooting it i can send you...or probably just put on the blog

Some more excited news, I started seeing a physical therapist for my headaches. like the doctor said, i have a crooked jaw and said some letters that i dont know what mean (i think something about a TMJ?) which basically is saying that a small part of my headaches could be coming from an uneven jaw that is messing with all the muscles that are connected in my face and head so he did a horribly painful "massage" like thing on my cheeks up close to my cheekbones and was finding weird bump sorta knot like things in my cheeks that he was trying to work out-i dint know that my mouth had anything to do with headaches and i really didnt know it would hurt so dang much when he messed with it. but more than that, what we are thinking is the biggest cause is that i apparently have depressed shoulders...basically they slope down more than they should which pulls and causes tension on the shoulder and neck muscles causing headaches. so we have been doing stretching and strengthening exercises to help. As well as strengthening and stretching my spine. It is actually helping, they havent gone away but the intensity is lessening. So im happy we are finally finding something thats working.

I think that's everything, sorry for such a long email. My typing also got lazy as I went on, I didn't really use proper grammar or punctuation, sorry hope that doesn't make it hard to read.