Friday, June 27, 2008

Not everyone can say they got to be in a parade on their mission

This past week was so fun. Kirtland is so different from normal proselyting. Being a missionary in the field is like being the salesman for a company and doing the gruntwork, and being a missionary at the visitors sites is like being in charge of public relations for the same company. Both jobs are difficult in their own ways; however, in Kirtland there is a little more 'wining and dining' if you will. For example, we get to help with a lot of community affairs and be the faces for the church here in Kirtland. This past week, Kirtland hosted their annual town 'Strawberry Festival'. It reminded me exactly of a small Americana town carnival, very similar to the one in 'Sweet Home Alabama.' Some of us got to help at it all night Thursday, and all afternoon and evening on Friday at the Strawberry tent. Here's a unique one for you- Friday evening Sister Tycksen and I got to dress up as CLOWNS, and we were in the Strawberry Festival Parade.
This was crazy Hahahaha. Yes, a CLOWN. Just in case you didn't realize, this is kind of a big deal. I was wearing a huge striped clown costume, a colored wig, a big red nose... the works. We handed out balloons to kids on the side of the road, and squirted people with these little toys the director had given us. It was so funny. We were laughing so hard, and of course loving it. As the parade started and we are walking down the road waving at people, suddenly I came to the
realization that we were CLOWNS in the parade, and that meant that people were expecting us to act completely stupid. Luckily I had so much stuff to give out, and the parade wasn't too long anyway, that I really didn't have the chance to have to think of something terribly idiodic to try to do to get laughs. It was so fun though.