Goodbye

So, this is my last full week at home. I figure that not many (if any) peoples will read this but I just want to say goodbye to everybody I know and love. I leave next Tuesday at 5:34 pm on a plane from Columbus to Detroit and from there to Sao Pualo (11 hour flight, in a huge pressurized metal container suspended at 30,000 feet by four gigantic turbines while carrying hundreds of gallons of explosive jet fuel...joy)
I'll spend six weeks in Sao Pualo at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) then head to Manaus for the rest of my mission.
Just so everyone knows, the Manaus Mission is pretty huge, like, bigger than Texas.


everything insided the yellow line is my mission (sorry, I couldn't find a better picture for it. find Manaus, Brazil on google maps, my mission area is everything west of that)

Well, since  the only contact I'll have is through letters I guess I'll say goodbye to you all.
All my friends from home; you guys are awesome! I'll miss you so much! I hope to hear about your missions for those of you who are going on one. :) Special word to Megan, try to keep your head and convoluted life on straight ;D love you, my adopted little sister!
Family; you guys are awesome and I love you all, remember to always have pizzazz in everything you do!
Conserve peoples: Aaron, Zeki, Mei-Jing, Garrett, Maeve, Mattie, etc... I love you guys, I dunno if I'll ever see you again so I hope that you have amazing lives; Live to the fullest, Laugh often and Love those closest to you. I'll miss you guys more than I can tell you.
Good luck to everyone! I love you.

Dexter,

Oh yeah, Write Me!!!!!!!
me address will be : (until further notice)

Elder Dexter Rodriguez
Brazil Manaus Mission
Rua Loris Cordovil, 1066
Alvorada 1
69043-010 Manaus - AM
Brazil

My Mission Call! (finally!)

Yaya! I finally got my mission call! I am going to Manaus Brazil, on January 15th! I'll be gone for 2 years and am Super excited!!!!!
Manaus is smack on the Amazon River, so I'll get to travel by boat quite a bit :)
More details to come as the date get closer!

P.S. this was supposed to be posted on the first, dunno why it didn't :\

Anti Climax

A big packet arrived from BYU, that's one of the colleges that I applied to. I was reading The Voyage of The Dawn Treader when mom places the packet in front of me. You can imagine that my heart went from a normal bpm to a bazillion bpm in, like, 0.002 seconds! Super excited! then I opened it and realized that it was just one of those college advertisement packages :P
Talk about your anti-climax!

I Have a Dream

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the famous "I Have a Dream" speech. I was reading it and this paragraph stood out to me.

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is 

bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient 

funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. 

So we've come to cash this check, a check that will give 

us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of 

justice.

People moan and groan about how this nation sucks and that our government is corrupt etc. etc. etc. Well... you're right, but are you just going to sit and stare at that letter declaring "insufficient funds" or are you going to get up and cash the "check" that we all have as Americans?

Think about it.

But don't stop there.

Driving

Well, I finally got my permit and have started driving, I know most of you are thinking "well, about time, Dexter!" trust me, I;m thinking the same thing :P Anywho, I went through hearing my friends talking about learning to drive and I was always like "come on, it can't be that hard" oops. Well, they were right. I was coming down a ramp and I saw a semi coming up the adjoining ramp, and, not seeing the median I freaked out, think that it was in my lane coming towards me. Luckily it wasn't or I wouldn't be here writing about it.
Anyway, It's pretty fun when I'm not about to have a panic attack and die, so I think I'll stick with it.

Driving

mile after mile
minute after minute
the wheels keep turning
over and over
mile after mile
eyes watch the white line
and the yellow 
hours of calm boredom
then seconds of panic and NDE's
then relief as you make it home again

Film Project

So, The youth of our Stake (that's the area around Columbus to you non-Mormons) have to make video based on stuff from Master Theater, each ward is competing against all the others, (ward is another word for congregation)
Anywho, I'm kinda in charge of our group's filming :) the judging points are best song (original one) best overall, funniest and best action scene :D If you know me at all then you'll know that I'm going to go for best overall and action scene :)
The plan is to base it (loosely) of the TV show Sherlock and I have this vague idea of having a fight scene in a fire performer troop place and using some of my fire props as weapons. I also want to be able to incorporate some of the throws and holds I;ve been learning.
So, good guy(s) start off by attacking bad dudes place, beat the goons, bad dude escapes mingles with crowd (maybe a concert?), good guy(s) search for him while singer sings original song. Good guy fights bad guy with flaming weapons movie ends with the bad guys getting away and something like "to be continued" at the end. ta-da! Throw in some dialogue and voila! Masterpiece theater!

Little Kids

For those who don't know, I work at the YMCA daycare center. I watch ages 6 weeks through about 11 years old and for the most part I love my job. There are "those" days every once in a while but I still love working there.
But I've noticed one thing, well, a couple of things actually. the first thing is, you know how kids will start having relationships when they're like 12? It's because people almost force the idea on them that they have to be in a relationship with questions like "do you like so-and-so?", "is he your boyfriend?", "why don't you have a girlfriend?" etc. most of the time it's said jokingly, but they don't know that.
Another thing is what little kids say, like swearwords or saying that you wouldn't expect them to even know! Moral of story: be careful of what you let little kids hear, 'cause they'll remember everything.
Then there's the other side, little kids see things clearer than most older people do, the world is less complicated to them.
Anyway, I could go on and on, but I digress.