6 Weeks in California

I'm finally back from a 6 week vacation in California!! 
And once again, I didn't update this blog once! I really need to get better at that!

Here is my vacations recap:

Weeks 1-3:
The main reason for my trip was to receive my endowments with with cousin Zach, who is also serving a mission, he gets to go to Brazil! On Saturday September 21, all of my family went to the Newport Beach Temple to be with Zach and I as we went through the temple for ourselves! It was one of the best experiences I have ever had! However, once we got out and started taking a bund of pictures, this couple told us congrats as if Zach and I had just gotten sealed! Eww! NO! We are future missionaries! After that day I was finally an official temple recommend holder and that means I can go into any temple! The next 2 week my mom and I went to the Los Angeles Temple and Redlands Temple together. Zach and his mom went with us to the San Diego temple too. Being able to go to all those temples with my mom was such a blessing and great experience, and I will never forget the feelings I had in each temple.

Weeks 4-6:
After my mom, dad, and Annie and her kids left, I stayed at Christie's place. If you guys know me, you know that Jaxon, Christie's youngest, and I are super close! I'm HIS Bobby! My last weeks consisted of a lot of Jax and Mikie time. Every morning I woke up at 5:45 to take Mikie to surf. Some mornings I watched him and others I ran. Watching Mikie is super hard! You literally have to keep your eyes on him the WHOLE time or you lose him for good!  You can't even try to lie to him and say you were watching because that kid will test you! But as the time went on, I got better at watching him and finding him if I lost him. After surfing was over, it was Jaxon time. Man, that kid is a ball of crazy, energetic, sneakiness! But I love him! Christie and I started potty training him, and he actually did really good! Only downside was that whenever I had to go to the bathroom, he would follow me and keep Bobby company. Christie and Mike even let me babysit Jax all alone for a whole weekend! And oh boy, was that a weekend! Every night Jax stayed up till 3 in the morning! He's more of a party animal than I was in college! In the end, the was one of the best weekends I have ever had and its awesome knowing that Christie and Mike trust me that much to leave Jax with me! Then, I got an awesome surprise visit from my best friend Joss! She initially came down for a concert, but got to spend 3 days with me! We went to 1,000 Steps Beach and explored this awesome cave, shopped around in Laguna and HB, and just hung out. I'm just glad I got to see her before I have to leave for my mission!! I also went to Universal Studios for the first time thanks to Zach and his mom! It was so fun and definitely like no other amusement park! Finally, the time came for Zach to leave for his mission. The Sunday before he left was a busy, busy day! In the morning we had his farewell, then his open house, later that night we went to set him apart, and finally ended the night when he got his patriarchal blessing. His whole family left the next day to take him up to Provo. The day I got home was his first official day in the MTC. So far Zach is doing great. He said he learned more Tongan in a week than he learned Spanish in two years! That's probably what happens when the Spirit is teaching you. I know Zach is going to be one of the best missionaries and the people of Tonga will be very blessed to have him. Sadly my vacation came to an end, and I had to say goodbye to my California family. I guess what made this goodbye so hard was the fact that I won't be able to see them for 20+ months and 18 of those months I can only communicate with them through letters and emails! But all will be well...I just hope they know I expect weekly letters and emails from them all!

This past month has been crazy busy!

First we had to rush around getting all the papers, signatures, and other stuff needed to get get my visa for Brazil. That required two, back to back 6 hour round trips to Nashville! I won't say the reason for going back a second time *cough daddy cough*, but in the end we sent all the paperwork off to Salt Lake. Now we're just waiting for my visa to come through. Lately they've been taking FOREVER to come through, but I believe a miracle can happen!

The day after our fun trips to Nashville, my mom, dad, and I were off to California! One of the main reasons for going was to go through the temple with my cousin, who is also going to be serving a mission. The other reason was just to be able to spend time with my family that I hadn't seen in years!

On Saturday September 21, 2013, was the day that my cousin, Zach, and I would receive our endowments in the Newport Beach Temple. Instead of being able to relax and enjoy the morning, I was rushed by my mom to hurry up and get ready. And who was the one and only ready to leave a good hour or two before the actual planned time? Me of course! So in the end I got to relax while everyone else rushed around. When it finally came time to leave, I was more than excited! It was one of the most amazing experiences I've gone through, and having my family there made it 1,000 times better! It was one of those days where you just smile to yourself and think 'man I'm glad I'm a member of the one and only true church'.

Since I'm finally a temple recommend holder, my mom and I went to every temple that was within a 2 hour radius from where we were staying. It was so fun and nice getting to spend that time with my mom. On our California temple adventures we traveled to the Los Angeles Temple, San Diego Temple, and the Redlands Temple! I think from now on, whenever I travel to I am going to try to go to the temple in that area!

Well, clearly I'm the worst at keeping up with my blog... sorry about that. However, most of the people keeping up with the blog follow me on Facebook and Instagram, so it's not like you missed anything!

In other news, I've decided to serve a mission!!!! Last Thursday, the 29th, I got my call to serve in the Campinas, Brazil Mission! Yep, I'll be going to BRAZIL!!!! I'll be leaving January 1st. Great way to start the new year right?! All I have to concentrate on is getting my visa,so I can go straight to the Brazil MTC, and a few other things. I'm so excited to be able to serve the Lord for 18 months in Brazil!

Get ready for my next journey!

One Month in Paradise

I've finally been in my new home for a month and seven days! And I'm already a whole month behind blogging!! Oh no! But here is my month at a glance!

The first week of school went by great! I was actually really nervous since I had no clue what to expect. Luckily, I had made some good friends and had an awesome roommate to go everywhere with me! I'm not sure if I already said this, but my roommate lives in Japan and her name is Megan. Anyways, my first college class experience was not like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde! All my teachers are super chill! My bio teacher is a surfer too! I really love my Book of Mormon class and my English class. Its a given that I strongly dislike my math class, and its not even math! Its more like reasoning and other stuff I did not learn in high school! OH, and my Wellness and Fitness teacher is the actual author of the book we use! He's super cool too! Overall I'm doing good in all my classes, and I've made friends in all my classes so we can all help each other out on homework and studying!

Time to talk about the beaches! Yes, I go almost everyday for about an hour! I ABSOLUTELY love going to the beach! After the first week of classes, my group of friends and I went and watched the sunrise. It was so beautiful, and now we made it a goal to go every second weekend of each month (we're actually going this Saturday morning)! I learned how to body surf and improved my body boarding skills! And, no, I don't get dark like I do in Tennessee! Its so weird, but I am darker! Haha! Last weekend, I went to my very first beach bonfire! It was fun, and I felt so cool since I was hanging out with all the locals!   Its so weird to think that it is fall on the mainland! The only way we know its getting closer to winter is the wave sizes! Come winter, the North Shore will be a hot spot for some big wave surfers!

Here's some randomness I should add...Everybody here rides around on longboards (skateboards), so I decided to get myself one! It took me a while to find one that was a good price and sweet looking, but I finally found it last weekend at Ala Moana Mall! I'm not a pro yet, but I'm getting there! I also got a surf board! Eventually, I'll learn how to surf, I just need to find the time! I'm also doing Crossfit  4 days a week, and that means no freshman 15!! The dances here are so fun! And for the first time I feel like a white person when I dance next to the Polys! I also hang out with some locals! I love love this culture! I have no doubt in my mind that this is where I am supposed to be! And like daddy said, I'll never want to leave, and I sure don't ever want to leave this beautiful place. I love the whole closeness of La'ie, the relaxed atmosphere, and the weather! I'll be sure to keep this up a lot more than I have this past month!


Oh one last thing! Last Thursday I stepped on a bee...and my foot blew up like a balloon! It was literally the worse 48 hours I've gone through! So, here's the full story... My friends and I had been at the beach and we walked over to the showers to rinse off. Once I was done rinsing off, I walked oner to my bag. As soon as I got to the palm tree where my bag was, I stepped on something sharp! I quickly lifted my foot up to see a yellow and black ball on the inside of my foot!! I flicked off the bee and then noticed it was too late, I'd already been stung!! Not so calmly I called out for one of my guy friends who knelt down to examine my foot. He then got his student ID and got the stinger out! "Thank goodness" I thought, until my foot started to burn and pulse with pain! Everyone back home knows that I have a high pain tolerance, but I was trying really hard to ignore the pain shooting up my leg! I grabbed my friends had and did some deep breathing to calm my heart rate. He asked if I was ok because I had "crazy eyes"! I lied and said I was fine, but I was about to die! After a while of standing there, and praying I was not allergic, we proceeded to walk back to campus. Within a hour my foot started getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger! Everyone of my friends asked if I was allergic to bees and all I could say was "I have no clue, but isn't this supposed to happen to you?" My the next morning, my foot was EXTREMELY swollen! So swollen I could not walk or get a shoe on! I sent an email to my teach explaining that I won't be attending class due to my huge foot. I did go to my second class, but only to turn in a paper. I didn't make it to my last class, because my foot was in pain, again! So I took some Benadryl and passed out till that night! Then some girl told me that she gets the same way and all I need to to is put some baking soda on it and I'll be good as new. We'll Ive been doing that since Friday, and my foot is barely back to normal! And that's my awesome story about my fat bee stung foot! It still itches like craziness!

And on a good note, I had a wonderful dinner Monday night, thanks to one of my workout buddie's family who is in town! I finally got my steak!!!!

Well, that's all for now! Shoots! \m/ (there's my attempt to make a shaka!)

Orientation Week!

I have been so busy this past week, I’m totally worn out!

The game night was a great success! I met so many people, but kinda forgot most of their names! There was a dance along with the games, and well, I felt so white dancing next to the Polynesians! Haha! That’s a first! When I got back to my dorm I finally met my roomie! Her name is Megan, and she lives in Japan, but she is American. She didn’t stay in the dorm so I was all alone that night. Kinda sad, huh?

On Wednesday morning I went on a beautifully rainy run! Once I was all done getting ready I headed to breakfast with my new friend Sariah. Then it was a campus tour, and I still have no clue where anything is! Then we had Student Life and One Stop. We had to get all those things done in order to get our ID. Well, we needed one more thing from One Stop, but the line was so LONG  we decided to got to lunch and come back. That was a not so good idea…One Stop closed at 1! So we had to wait till Thursday to get it! After lunch, Mommy, Daddy, and I went down to Honolulu to get some things from Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. That night, a group of people I met and I went to the talent show, JUST TO WATCH….or so I thought! 15ish minutes into watching it, they called my name! At first it was just my first name, and I thought ‘Oh someone else has my name, cool!’ Then they said, “Is Robyn Perez here?” I just sat there really shocked while all the people I came with stared at me! ‘Who in the world had signed me up?!’ was running through my mind! I hadn’t really played the uke or sang in forever! So I walked right up to the sign-up desk  and asked who signed me up. To my surprise, but I should’ve guessed, my dad signed me up online! I really didn’t want to perform at all. I had nothing prepared and didn’t practice any! Some girl literally begged me to sing, saying I’d probably be the best, haha. So I made a quick decision and ran back to my Hale, grabbed my uke, ran through Price Tag real fast, and ran back to the talent show. I told them I’d sing and I ended up being the next one to go up! I had no time to really think about what I was doing, but that was probably good! I got up on stage, explained what my dad did, and then just sang. According to people I did really good, but I messed up so much! But I have to thank Daddy for signing me up, because I wouldn’t have signed up on my own! After the talent show, I went to Temple beach with a group. It was so beautiful! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, you could see all the stars, and the moon reflected on the ocean! Behind me was the temple, and well of course that was breath taking! When I got back to my Hale, I passed out so fast!

Thursday was pretty much a free day. I did get my ID though! After lunch, I went to the beach with a few people. At first it was kind of cold, but after you’re in, it feels great! We stayed there for a long while and we all were exhausted and hungry when we finally decided to walk back! We all got lunch and then headed back to my Hale to watch a movie. Once the movie was done, we got dinner and went to support the women’s volleyball team, and we won! We walked back to our hales and passed out, like usual!

Friday was our official BYUH welcome and the most exhausting day! They served us a light breakfast and then we had our welcome in the McKay auditorium. I left early with a few guys to workout, since we wouldn’t have any other time to do it. It was a good workout, and I'm definitely feeling sore! Then, at 12, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was so cool! Each Pacific Island had there own area and activity or show. At around 5 we had a big, yummy dinner, and a few clubs either sang or danced. Then, we walked back to the PCC to watch the night show! The night show was so so so cool! I was so tired and had a bit of a hard time keeping my eyes open! However, once the guys spinning fire came out, I was up! There was a party/dance that night but half of the new students were to tired to even go. I got into my room and literally passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow!

I spent all Saturday with my parents, since it was their last day in Hawaii. We went back down to Honolulu, to buy more stuff…mainly socks! I know, how could I forget socks? Well, I did! We stopped at some food place on the side of the road for chicken, and it was really good! Then, we stopped at another truck to get cold coconut juice straight from the coconut! When we finally got to Honolulu, we shopped, and headed back to La’ie. Mom and dad stopped to get some Mexican good Tamales, and I’m still craving them! Finally the dreaded time came to say goodbye… That was so hard! I wasn’t really with them all the time, but I knew they were here. So yeah, I was a bit miserable for the rest of the night, but some good people helped me out by inviting me to do stuff. Once again, I passed out that night.

Sunday. It’s a good day, but I have church at 8 o’clock!! The cafeteria doesn’t even open until 11, so I’m literally starving during church! Over all church was good, lunch was delicious, and my Sunday nap was much needed! When I woke up, I Skyped with Mommy and Daddy! Yay! I wasn't too hungry for dinner, so I just ate fruit. Then we walked over to the   stake center for a fireside from the President of the school. We got a cool coin like thing that has "Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve" on one side and the temple on the other side. Also, the President said something really cool; so the 'A' in Aloha means Atonement, the 'L' means love, the 'O' mean obedience, and the 'ha' means breath of life in Hawaiian. Well I need to get some stuff ready for my first day of classes!! I will definitely tell you guys all about it tomorrow!

Day 2 of my Hawaiian Adventure!

I got some pretty good news! I didn’t have to camp on the beach!

Daddy was able to convince the hotel people to let me put a $20 deposit instead of  $50! After sitting in the room for a few long boring hours, I decided to venture out and get some dinner. When I say venture out, I really mean walk across the street to some little store. I bought a sub sandwich and a bag of chips. Great dinner I must say! Haha! Then I texted my new friend, Colton, and told him to come and stay at the hotel so I wouldn’t be alone. Once he got to the hotel, I took him to the little store to get dinner and then we went for a nighttime adventure! We were pretty determined to get to a beach, and spent 30 minutes trying to find one. Lets just say never listen to me when I think I know the directions! When we finally made it to the beach, we couldn’t stop talking about how unreal this whole thing is! We couldn’t believe that for the next four years we’d be going to college, in Hawaii!! After a good 15 minutes, we walked back and passed out!

Tuesday morning I woke up to the million texts my daddy was sending me. Then, right as I was about to doze off again, Annie called! She didn’t know it was around 5:30 in the morning, but we talked anyways. I told her all about the craziness that happened the day before. I also got to hear Linco say “Rawraw”, his way of saying Robyn, and “I love you”! He’s such a smart kid! After I hung up, I just couldn’t fall asleep! You got to remember, it was around 10a.m. in Tennessee, and I’m not used to the island time yet. I got ready and then met Colton for breakfast and a walk on the beach. We ended up doing a ton of exploring until Mommy and Daddy arrived. Once Mom and Dad got their bags in the hotel room, we loaded up the car and took a 45 minute drive to La’ie, my new home! Arriving at the BYUH campus was so exciting! I can’t believe I’m an actual college student! I checked into my dorm, got all set up, got my TB test, and had dinner with Mom, Dad, Colton, and some new friends.

Now I’m just sitting in my very small dorm room waiting for 7 o’clock to go to games night. Oh, and I already kicked Mommy and Daddy out, haha! I still have yet to meet my roommate and I’m kinda nervous! Hopefully she’s chill! Well, I got to go! Be prepared to read a ton more posts, this week will be very exciting and eventful!

My Big Hawaiian Adventure

Well the day has finally come and its time for me to leave for Hawaii. All I can say is that it is beyond bittersweet.

Sunday morning I cried and cried till I had to go to church. Daddy made a super delicious steak and chicken dinner. Michael, Lena, Angelena, Mia, Wren, and Zoli all came over. Oh, and of course Steven was there, like always. We had a good night together. I asked Angelena if she was going to miss me, and her reply was, “Hmmm…let me think about it.” Michael, Steven, and I just stared at her. I told her she could forget about a Christmas gift! When it was finally time for them to leave, I tried hard to hold back the tears. I’m going to miss them like crazy, but good thing we have a wonderful invention called Skpe, right?!

I woke up on Monday at 4:20 thinking ‘Oh geez…I’m leaving today…ugh…’ The whole time I was getting ready I was nervous, sad, anxious, scared, and excited all at once. It wasn’t long till I found myself sitting in the car with Mommy, Daddy, and Steven. The ride to the airport felt like eternity! I had to keep calming myself down, and I kept my eyes on the road. One look at Steven or Mom or Dad and I would become an emotional mess. We checked my TWO bags in and to Mommy’s surprise; both bags were less than 45 pounds! I must say I’m a great packer! Haha! I gave everyone a quick hug, took some pictures, and walked off.

My first flight was pretty empty…actually it was VERY empty! I had a whole row to myself and so did pretty much everyone else on the plane! When we landed in Dallas I had to take a train to get to my gate. I was so nervous and didn’t want to miss my stop. I thought I did and started panicking a little, but I ended up getting off at the right one! From there, finding my gate was easy peasy! Now I’m just sitting here, waiting, wondering if there are any other BYUH students on this flight, and crossing my fingers Daddy isn’t wearing a Hawaiian print shirt like most of the other men waiting to head over the Pacific to Hawaii where the unfashionable shirt will magically become fashionable! I guess I’ll update once I arrive in Hawaii!

I finally made to Hawaii! And it is so so so so so beautiful! But that 7 hour plane ride was not so wonderful! I sat by a nice lady and her baby. At first the little guy was good, then he started screaming and crying! The crying only lasted 30 minutes, but it seemed like he did that every other hour! Like always, I slept a good half of the flight. I couldn’t go back to sleep the last two hours! Those two hours crept on by! The anticipation of seeing Oahu literally killed me! When I could finally see the shore, all I could think was ‘Thank goodness I’m about to get off this plane!’ Once I turned my phone back on, I got about 30 texts from Mommy and Daddy informing me that they got delayed and won’t be getting to Hawaii till Tuesday! Yup that’s right! I will be alone my first night in Hawaii! So a little nervous, I got my bags, met the people to take me to the shuttle, and headed to my hotel. Everything went well until I got to the hotel. I didn’t have enough cash and I don’t have any money in my bank account! So, I can’t put the deposit down to get into my room! I can’t call Mom or Dad! All I could do was cry! Yes! I cried in front of a bunch of tourist! What else was I supposed to do?! As of right now, I’m sitting in the open air lobby typing and waiting for Daddy to call the hotel. Who knows I might have to camp out on the beach…