The Last Little While, Now, and Later

It certainly is warmer today! After J's nap we'll go for a walk. I might go earlier, without him, too.
There was a man that came into our ward today who everyone called "Elder Hammond," but they never said the beginning of his name, so I don't know which one it is. Is there a place with all the pictures of all the Seventies so I could find him? I would really like to know who it was. He was majestic. A man with small build, but average height, as soon as he came in the room, everything changed. When he spoke it was so familiar, like someone who you had been astranged from for a long time, and then called you one day---that's how it felt. He was majestic, and a beautiful man who without a doubt had the Spirit of the Lord. It was a beautiful part of my day.
Church was great today. I bore my testimony about how I knew that there is a huge difference between being good and being super good, and that I am thankful for The Commandments so I can be happy, and therefore, not afraid when I'm in my apartment.
I had to work on a computer program this week to measure the efficiency of our neutron detector (pretty much to see how many neutrons we can capture), and I finished it on Friday. It was a good beginning project, and I'm glad to have been able to get aquainted with the experiments we'll be doing while I'm here. I have another project to use the program I built and graph the efficiency verses the thickness of the plastic we'll be using to catch them to see what the best thickness is.
Yesterday J and I went hiking in Kelly Canyon (the Kelly Canyon link is the Google map page of where we hiked) with our friends Steve and Brittany Keller. They're great people. Steve is a person who you feel good to be around all the time and never lets you feel embarrassed, even when you should feel like the biggest idiot. Brittany and I are kindred spirits. We have different strengths and boost each other up--I love her. They're the only couple we've walked out of a movie theater with, and I think it's so awesome. While on the hike we saw at least thirty-head of deer (they are so beautiful), and two moose. J went chasing after them to see where they were going, and actually, I don't know whatever happened when he did that. I just know he was gone for a long time and we were happy when he got back. There wasn't a whole lot of snow, but the snow that was there we could walk on top of. It was neat. After we went hiking with them, we went to the store and got hot dogs and frozen curly fries, which is what we barbequed outside for dinner. We then watched the first Indiana Jones movie (Raiders of the Lost Ark), which I really liked. J and I had watched the third one (The Last Crusade) last weekend, so we were excited to watch another one.
It's been weird to live in Pocatello without J but I'm getting more and more used to it. We talk everyday on the phone, and we've decided the best way for us to be able to read our scriptures together is to do it in the morning, since we go to work at the same time. We also have The Magician's Nephew we read together on the phone at night, but sometimes that doesn't happen because of homework or movies, so we want a time where there definitely won't be any chance of interruptions.
I saw The Spiderwick Chronicles this week at the dollar theater in Pocatello. It was a good movie, although I had to pretend I had never seen any of the Harry Potter movies because the characters and special effects were a lot the same. This week I plan on going to Horton Hears a Who because that just got to the dollar theater. I really like Dr. Seuss, and so I'm excited to see it.
I'm reading President Hunter's biography right now. It's really interesting and good to hear about him. Each time I read a biography on a general authority I pull something different out of it, but it's always something that stays with me. Elder Nelsons's wife never got mad at her children one time. I'm working on that. Elder McConkie, while on his mission made a list of things he needed to change about himself, and they were all things that were on my list; every single thing. It was nice to have hope that I might end up making it.
J and I, I think, are going camping next weekend. We found some people who will go with us (Steve and Brittany being two of them), and I think we'll be able to get two other couples from our ward to go with us. We really like being outside and having adventures.
May 15th-18th I'll be in Portland for a research conference that I'm presenting some research at. I'm nervous about it, but it'll be the fourth time I'll've presented this information so it should be alright. What I'm worried about is that I only have 10 minutes to talk, and I have about 13 minutes worth of material. I'll have to cut it down, but I really don't want to. I'll be staying with Ladie Kay while I'm there (she'll be there visiting her family for three weeks), and it'll be good to see her.
That same weekend J will be in Los Angeles to see one of his best friends graduate from law school. I think he's missing home a lot, and missing his family. Last semester he had 18.5 credits and worked 30 hour weeks. This semester he is relieved to only have 15 credits (which is still a substantial amount), but still working between 30 & 35 hour weeks. I would say he definitely deserves a break. He's, however, excited to graduate in July and start earning what he calls "real money."