I am now a quarter century old.
It has been a quick quarter century, filled with fun, hard work, and interesting experiences all around.
One of my most memorable birthdays was in the first year of my mission. We had some child baptisms to do the following Sunday and we needed to fill the baptismal font. It was a haphazardly built concrete box, about 4 feet deep. The pump had died to extract the water from the cistern out front. So, my companion (neither of us got along very well together, my first native companion) went inside and did paper work for something while I began filling the font, by hand. It took about 6 or 7 hours to get about 2 feet deep. Generally missionaries throw some sort of birthday lunch for the others and pore red cool aid and flour on them, however being 45 minutes away from any other missionary, on the border of Haiti, with my companion, the day passed away normally. It was my least celebrated birthday I think. I think I made up for it by justifying a lot of other fun activities I did in the mission because of that one day lol. I bought a few things frivolously, enjoyed a relaxing moment here or there. I realized, in my mission, I had not had much fun up until that moment, I didn't quite understand the balance of work and play (generally because my companions and I were always on different pages) but after that birthday I allowed myself to enjoy myself much more. My next area in the mission I had a great house with 3 other missionaries and helped them strike their own balances of work and play... they were heavy on the play side lol.
- A 25
