Week 8

Field Week!

Aside from Range week this was my favorite. A whole week of humping(hiking) heavy packs, sleeping under the stars, combat simulations...the whole nine yards. This week is really everything that little boys dream about...minus the several hundred times you will have to low crawl in the gritty rough dirt, or in Jared's case probably the mud.

Thats about it. You actually hump more miles this week than the Crucible but over an extra day or two.

Saturday Jared is back down at MCRD in San Diego.

In other news Jared shot a 231 out of 250 on the range! That is some serious good shooting! He also did well on the combat marksmanship but it is kinda a joke...targets 15-25 yards away...you don't even have to aim.

Mom says he sounds upbeat in his letters and with a coupled of easy weeks coming he should be just fine and ready for the Crucible!

Happy New Year Recruit Fullmer!

Week 7

This was by far my favorite week.

The rifle range! Monday through Thursday is spent at the rifle range practicing. As opposed to grass week were Jared was just sitting around staring at targets, this week he is actual shooting at targets.

Marine Corps Table 1 shooting consists of three different ranges. The 200 yard, 300 yard, and 500 yard. You start at the 200 with a 15 round slow fire that takes 20 minutes. You start in the sitting firing your first 5 shots. Each individual shot is marked on a the target one at at time. From the sitting you go to the kneeling for 5 more shots, than the standing for the last five.
Then the 200 yard rapid fire. 10 rounds in 60 seconds. Then the target gets pulled and all 10 rounds are marked.

The next set is 5 rounds in the kneeling from the 300 yard line with a 5 minutes. Then another rapid fire. 10 more rounds in the sitting from 300 yards with 60 seconds.

The final set is 10 rounds with 10 minutes from the prone position(laying down) at 500 yards. This one was scary at first because I couldn't even seen the black and white of the targets at 500 yards. Easy enough though. Just aim center mass. At 500 yards your front sight covers up the entire center ring so it can be tricky.

We are the only service that fires at 500 yards. This is because the Marines started out as snipers on Navy ships when we were first formed.

Each round is worth a possible 5 points with a total possible score of 250. Depending on you score you will be awarded 1 of 3 rifle badges that are worn on your dress uniforms.

The right is marksman, center is sharpshooter and left is expert.

As a bit of morbid history...

Charles Whitman killed 12 people from a 28 story tower in Austin Texas from distances up to 400 yards.

Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy from 250 feet at a moving target with an old Italian bolt action rifle. He got off 3 rounds in only 6 seconds scoring 2 hits including a head shot.

The thing they have in common? They learned to shoot in Marine Corps boot camp. While these are both bleak moments in history, Marines carry this as a sort of badge of honor.

"The most dangerous weapon is a Marine and his Rifle."
"No better friend, no worse enemy."

The Marines Rifle creed. We recited this constantly during the second month.

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.

My rifle, without me, is nothing. Without my rifle, I am nothin. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will...

My rifle and myself know that what counts in this war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, nor the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit...

My rifle is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its sights and its barrel. I will ever guard it against the ravages of weather and damage as I will ever guard my legs, my arms, my eyes and my heart against damage. I will keep my rifle clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...

Before God, I swear this creed. My rifle and myself are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We
are the saviors of my life.

So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy, but peace!

Weeks 5 and 6

Hydration is key!

Week 5

This week was one of my least favorites. Monday through Wednesday is Combat Swimming. If you want more info on this just ask and I will tell. I talked about it back in June or July on my blog. Anyway it is all the same tests except you have a pool FULL of screaming Drill Instructors. This makes swimming VERY stressful.

Gunny helps a Marine in swim Qual

Female recruits at Paris Island, NC

Thursday is the Pugil Sticks 3. This one is the best because it is held in the Thunder Dome. You can't see your opponent but you start on either ends, war crying until you get to the middle and then duke it out. About the best 3 mins of Boot Camp!

Friday is More History

Saturday is Movement to Edson Range on Camp Pendleton. This is a busy busy day. You have to spit knowledge the whole way there so it is a very miserable trip. The part I remember the most is seeing all the people at the gates. It gave me a huge sense of pride to see all those supporters there.

Week 6
Grass Week. This week is dedicated to learning the fundamentals of firing a rifle. You learn all types of stuff. 4 different firing positions, Standing, Kneeling, Sitting and Prone, which you practice all week. It is called Snapping In. You get in the positions that you DI wants and you practice looking at a barrel with targets on it. Prepare for body parts to fall asleep. You Snap In for hours on end...no exaggeration.

You also do a couple of "Death Marches" but that is up to you DI's. These are used to get you used to your pack for the Humps(hikes). These packs are AWESOME. The best way to describe it is how the supply chief did when I was in Boot. This pack is a Boy Scouts wet dream! You can fit TONS of stuff in it.

ILBE pack

Grass week is one of the easiest weeks there is. It is relatively stress free, not what you or I would call stress free, so that you can learn your fundamentals.

The part I remember the most about grass week, other than snapping in, was my sweater. We have these green Marine sweaters that we have to turn inside out because we haven't earned the EGA yet. We marched all over the place in this sweatshirt and it was the middle of June so naturally we sweated like pigs. The worst part was it wouldn't dry out overnight and you had to put this soggy sweater on every morning. ICK!

By this week you usually get to blouse your boots and unbutton you blouse unless you really tick off your DI's. This may seem like a little thing but it is a huge status symbol, probably the biggest one in boot. If you see recruits with un-bloused boots then you know they just got there. It is a pretty big deal. The worst thing is getting to blouse your boots and THEN tick off your DI's and they will make you undo your boots. It is amazing what can be demoralizing in Boot.

Week 4

(Nightly inspections before lights out. You say some ridiculous stuff, drink some water, pound on your rack screaming "HONOR, COURAGE, COMMITMENT" and then beautiful sleep!)

Monday starts off very exciting(at least for me) with the confidence course. The confidence course is made up of three main events. The Stairway to heaven, The A-Frame and the Slide for life.

The Stairway is basically just a big ladder. It is about 30 feet high and each step is a big log. It gets harder as you go higher because the steps are further apart. No problem! We grew up on a ladder. I zipped right up and down this bad boy and I'm sure Jared followed suit. Just a funny thought...Staircases in the Marine Corps are called Ladderwells. The Giant ladder is called the Stairway to heaven. This cracks me up every time I think about it. Marines have to be different!

(Coasties on the Stairway to heaven. Recruits don't wear helmets...or silly blue jumpsuits)

The A-frame, apparently, is the hardest of the three.Recruits climb up a rope, maneuver through 3 logs, cross about 20 feet on wooden beams to the end that is shaped like an A. They the climb to the top, swing onto a rope and descend on the rope.

The Slide for life is the funniest. It is a big tower with three cables traversing a pool. Recruits start out inching along the top of the cable like a caterpillar. About midway you are told to swing underneath the cable, Face the end of the pool, kick your legs up and the slide down the rest of the way. A couple recruits from each platoon will fall in the water and it is pretty funny.

(The bottom of the Slide for Life)

All three of these are designed to make recruits force there fears of height. many don't even know they have a fear until they get to the top. On a side note one of the Sgt. here is DEATHLY afraid of heights. Ten feet up and he can get dizzy. However he said that because of Boot he didn't conquer his fear but he knows he can ignore his fears and accomplish a mission if he has to.

Tuesday is their first "Boots and Utes" run. This is you running in you cammies and boot minus the Blouse. It can really suck sometimes but it can also be motivational. Running in boots will make your legs really sore in ways regular running doesn't. It also doesn't seem like much but boots and Utes weighs and extra 8 lbs.

Wednesday is Pugil sticks 2. Refer to the last post. It's violent, it's exciting, it's AWESOME!

Thursday it a 2 mile ability group run. The bunch you into groups based on the time of your 1.5 mile run from initial PFT. The DI leading you knows the pace and is supposed to push you...HARD. When I signed papers to got to Boot the main thing I was worried about was running. I was fat and out of shape. I practiced a 1.5 two times before boot and they were both failing times. I don't know exactly what happened at Boot but I have run three miles in 19 mins since then. I have also run up to 15 miles at a time. It's all in your head!

Friday is your Senior Drill Instructor inspection. You stand in formation and get yelled at by all the Drill Instructors in your company before your senior looks you over. You are asked questions on things such as your rifle serial number, basic knowledge that you have been learning and are graded on your appearance. The inspection is as much about bearing as anything. Can you stand stone faced while someone screams at you. You are often asked questions that they think you don't know the answer to. This is to see what you do when you don't know.

(Officer Candidates at OCS. )

Saturday is a great day...depending on how you place. Initial Drill. You have spent up to 7 hours a day practicing Drill movements for the last three weeks. This is to see where you are. Drill Instructors are graded not only on their performance but the recruits performance. It is a huge load off when it is over. It is even better if you win. My platoon won Initial Drill and our senior was so pleased that he let us make a phone call which is a very big deal!

Week 3

This week Jared spent a lot of time learning Close combat skills.

Monday is Upper Strikes in the MCMAP program. Sound easy put punching for hours at a time with DIs all over you is not exactly the funnest of times. The key is to just keep going even when you are tired. If you pause for even a moment a DI will see you and suddenly you will be doing some REALLY stupid stuff.

Tuesday is Pugil Sticks. This is one of those event during boot that most everybody loves. All the aggression and anger you have been building for the last two weeks gets to be used on another person. AWESOME! There are very few rules. You wait for a whistle you run into the center and you try and land a killing blow on your opponent.

Wednesday and Saturday you do the circuit course. This is just a bunch of different exercises that you have to do. It is known simply as "bases" to recruits. There are a bunch of stages that you do for 2 or 3 minutes a piece. Each base is a pretty easy Exercise but put together this makes for a pretty tiring workout.

Thursday is the O (obstacle) course. This can be a lot of fun. Now it is a pretty simple set of obstacles to Marines because we do it a LOT of times in boot and then a couple in Combat Training but let me give you an example on how difficult it can apparently be. Buckley in Colorado has an O course but it is "Closed by order of the Base commander" Apparently 2 different high ranking Air Force officers, a Lieutenant Colonel and a Full bird Colonel, were seriously injured. On e broke his back and the other died from breaking his neck. This is a huge loss of value but seriously... HOW? you are never more than 10 feet off the ground except during the rope climb. Anyway Marine O courses are now closed on ANY and EVERY Air Force installation.

Friday is Counter to Strikes in MCMAP. You learn to block and kill the enemy with his momentum. Once again this isn't difficult until you figure in the boot camp equation. Anything Easy + lots of reps + Drill Instructors = Really stinking hard!

Just a note. All of the pictures are of Marines not Recruits. Recruits wouldn't be standing around just watching. They would be running in place waiting for their turn or "spitting knowledge"(reciting learned info) or getting ITed by a DI. All very high intensity.

Please send Jared letters. He will probably be punished for the holidays instead of getting a break. July 4th was one of the hardest days for me during Boot. Your Kill Hat(junior DI) will probably get stuck with you on the holiday and he will probably "play games" all day because he can't be with his family. Holidays are nasty business in Boot

Week 2

So this week is more fun.

Mom got her first letter from Jared. Sounds like he is doing fine so far. I didn't expect any less.

On monday you get your baby doll and you learn love(and hate) for the first time. You quickly learn there is nothing romantic about an M16. The are not fun to carry in any position your DI can think of. You will hate them during Drill. 7 pounds is a lot when you arm is fully extended and the rifle is held by the pinkie!

Tuesday is Interior Guard class. They teach you how to do Firewatch. Enough said.

Thursday is Intro to MCMAP. Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. Learn how to kick some trash. This program is a combination of the BASICS of a whole bunch of fighting styles. The difference between MCMAP and other fighting styles?

Other fighting styles teach you to incapacitate yout enemy. MCMAP teaches you to KILL yout enemy! The bad news is you only learn enough in Boot Camp to get you butt kicked in a fight! The real stuff comes later. However this helps a lot with your confidence!

Friday is Marine Corps History. I LOVE Marine History. You can see exactly why Marines in general think they are the best. I think it is cool that we teach History. I have asked James before and he said that in the Army you didn't learn history, thats a shame because every Military has great traditions. Marines just have more. You can ask any Marine and he will spit off dates and facts all day long.

You also learn the history of our uniforms. Every piece of uniform is earned and has background stories.

In Jared's case he has to earn everything. Right now his top button on his blouse is buttoned. His boots aren't bloused. He has no name tapes, he has no dog tags, he has no rank. We earn EVERYTHING in boot.

That is all the exciting stuff. He PT's everyday, he practices Drill for HOURS everyday. He is no longer the bottom of the Totem pole.

MOTIVATING!

Yesterday was probably the hardest day In Jared's life. He might be tough but I know it was the hardest in mine.


The first couple of days are pretty easy. The first night/day is kinda a blur. You get picked up from the airport in the middle of the night. I got picked up after 11:30 pm. Each story is a little different from here so I will have to tell my own, Jared can clear anything up in the future. From here you are put on a bus by a very loud Man. He is repeating everything he says with an "Aye Aye Sir" to let us know we are supposed to say it. He made us put our heads between our knees the whole bus ride over. By this time it is at least 12:30 and I thought we were going to go right to sleep. Boy was I WRONG

After what feels like an eternity you stop. A monster of a man got on that bus. He told us in not so kind words that we were at MCRD, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. He the told us to get off His bus. We were all moving at a pretty quick pace I thought. Once again I was wrong. The first Man and 3 others are all screaming, pushing, pulling, slapping and daring you to move out of turn. You have arrived to the Infamous Yellow Footprints.


You don't know it yet but this is how you will be standing, marching and running for the next three months...and incidently the rest of your Marine Corps Career. There really is a method to the madness

From there you spend the next...4 hours or so in a line. A TIGHT LINE. You are literally touching the Marine in front of and behind you. There is a Drill Instructor constantly running up and down the halls yelling "Heel to Toe" and othe more obscene things. You get your hair raped from your head. These three men are BUTCHERS! You then wait and wait and so on until you get some sort of paperwork filled out. Don't really remember and I bet Jared won't either.

From there you go to a receiving barracks. You think once again that you are finally getting some sleep. You are once again wrong. You have been given a bag with everything you will need. The Senior Receiving Drill Instructor takes you step by step of this next part. You Dump everything out. Not neat, not nice just dump it out. As he calls things off you start putting them in your brand new Sea Bag.

After all this nonsense he finally takes you outside and tells you to get in formation. You, of course, are lost. So he firmly but politely teaches you. Cover to the front, Align to the right. 40 Inches back to chest. You are already facing the way you want to go and he says step it out. We are just walking...like little kids. He takes us to morning chow and a new day has begun.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are boring days. You spend hours trying to stay awake while you sit in a formation. Try sitting Indian style for seven hours at a time without being able to talk. Try staying awake I dare ya. Your back goes numb, your legs go numb, other farts go numb. It sucks. And what are you waiting for. The Gauntlet. A series of six or seven shots in various locations. The worst are the two in the buttocks. You hear Recruits yelping as you get closer to the rear shots. You turn around, drop trousers and wait. You then get a tiny little pinprick shot. YOu start to think that wasn't so bad when you get the other one. It is called the Peanut Butter shot by most recruits 'cause that's what it felt like.

Your hiney hurts...BAD. But now you have to go somewhere else and sit. There are about 5 other things you have to do before you start training. They all take hours and you spend it all on your sore behind.

But it's no so bad. The sleep is good at night, your "Drill Instructors" really aren't that mean. You start to think that this will be an easy 3 months. No problem. You will be wrong again.

Now a Marine Physical Fitness Test, PFT is Pull-ups, Crunches and a 3 mile rune. The Initial Strength test is the same just a 1.5 mile run. This is what recruits run on thursday. It just lets you know where you are. !.5 Killed me I remember it because I hadn't run over a Mile since I was a Freshman. 8 Pull-ups out of 20 and some weak number of crunches out of 100.

I remember getting a little scarred when our receiving D.I muttered under his breath that we would learn some respect when we made him mad one night. He didn't do anything to us. I thought it was a joke.

That night we had to take a Urine sample test. We had been told about it all day so most of us went right away. The ones who didn't...Well this is were I learned what Projectile Vomiting is. If you couldn't pee the Receiving D.I. mad you drink water. You literally held the water bowl(canteen) at a 90 degree with the floor and guzzled until nothing was left. If you still couldn't go you drank another...and so on and so forth. I then say a recruit vomit nothing but water...lots of it. We would see this a lot over the next three months.

You know something is happening tomorrow but you can't imagine.

You wake up, go to morning chow, back to Receiving were you are then marched to your new squadbay.
You then meet you 3 or 4 Drill Instructors and your Senior Drill Instructor. The D.I.s repeat the D.I. creed and you think that is it. After all these men are dress in very nice outfits. Not Cammies like us. When the Series Chief D.I. says "Drill Instructors take charge of these recruits and make them Marines" ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE.


They get right in your face. They spit, they scream, they hit, they yell. They run you into the head, into the shower turn on the showers, back of the squadbay, tear your racks apart throw your belongings everywhere. It is horrific

This is the first of many times you will doubt yourself. It is the worst day of your life so far. It is known to recruits simply as Black Friday. When you get further and further in training you start to make fun of the poor guys who just got picked up, who you know will face the same monster in just a few short days.

Sunday will be bad also. You will have shelled up so far in the last two days that when you get to church and are told to relax...you break down and cry at least a little. Every week that I saw the week 1 recruits...never did I see one with dry eyes.

Most never cried again out of emotion, maybe out of sheer pain. You get REAL tough REAL fast. There is no going back now. Who's stupid Idea was this? All you got to do is hang on to this mean ride for 12 more weeks and you will become something amazing.

The Few, The Proud, The Marines

Here we go

After very little sleep in the past two days, two sacrament meetings, saying goodbye to my friends and family, and a four hour drive, I'm finally on my way. Right now I'm in Butte, Montana at the processing station and this time tomorrow I'll be in San Diego getting my head shaved. Yippee.

Since I won't have any internet access this is the last blog that I'll actually post myself for the next three months, but John has my password and stuff and is going to post updates and letters and stuff while I'm at boot. Mom will get my address in a couple weeks when I'm done with processing and forming and is going to send an email to everyone with my address, so pleeeeaaassssse write, especially around the holidays.

I love you all and can't wait to come home as a United States Marine. Wish me luck.

22:12:12

Ask anyone who knows me even just a little bit and they'll tell you that I'm a sprinter and hate running with a passion. Anything longer than 100 meters is no bueno. Why did I join the Marine Corps? I ask myself every time I go for a "motivational jog". But in this last week I've forced myself to get out and run and I've managed to cut almost three full minutes off my three mile run time, with tonight's finishing time of 22 minutes and twelve seconds, which in my book is excellent for my first week running since high school track, which ended five months ago in case you were wondering. I wonder what I can do after three months of the hardest training in the world.

I surprised myself tonight when I finished in that time cause last night it took me 23:30 and I felt great. Tonight I went to a football game where the only warm thing they were serving was a big, greasy hamburger. Throw all the Halloween treats on top of that and 3 miles seems like an eternity with that "everything on my insides wants to be on my outside" feeling that sits in your stomach. With all that I wasn't surprised when tonight's first one and a half of three miles took 30 seconds longer than last night's 11:06, but when I finished my three miles, I was very surprised to see the clock under last night's 23:30. I realized I had actually pushed myself hard enough and ran the second half of my three mile run in 10:36; exactly a minute faster than the first. I was stoked! The best I expected was to match my time from last night, but I didn't even think that was going to happen.

I find myself more and more motivated after cutting minutes off my time every night, and my goal of a 20 minute three mile by the end of boot camp suddenly doesn't seem so far out of reach anymore. Who knows, maybe I can push myself hard enough to get that perfect 18 minutes.

Lesson Learned: Running at boot camp, or any PT anytime for that matter, is gonna be more about motivation and how hard I am willing to push myself than actually being in shape. The term "in shape" is kinda silly to me now, cause you're only in shape if you plan on doing that same thing you're "in shape" for over and over again, but never for the next step up that might take just an ounce more, but that's where the motivation and drive comes in. I can't wait.

It's official

Although I had already committed to joining, I still had to go up to the Butte Montana Military Entrance Processing Station to sign my contract. I had to miss work to go sit in Butte, Montana for two days, during which I did a whole lot of nothing. The actual process of signing my contract and swearing in took maybe a half hour tops but I still had to sit there and wait for the other guys doing the full physical, which usual takes most of the day before we can go home. But it was well worth it since I am now officially in the Marine Corps Reserves.....again. I have a new eight year contract as an Infantry Rifleman(MOS 0311) and will drill at the S.L.C Infantry unit. Only 18 more days until I ship! Woot Woot.

United States Marine Corps

Well kids, since I didn't think joining the Marine Corps and then getting out didn't throw you for enough of a loop, I thought I'd throw another one right at ya. Some of you may already know my latest news since word seems to spread a million miles and hour with resources such as facebook, myspace, and your good 'ol fashion mouth to mouth gossip, but I wanted to write about my experience so maybe everyone will see that I'm not as crazy as it sounds the first time you hear about it. Yet again, Jared has joined the Marine Corps, and yes, is still serving a mission, and ships out in three weeks. I will ship to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego on November 3rd and will begin my initial training in the Marine Corps. If all goes as planned, I will graduate boot camp as a Marine on January 30th(which is probably the coolest b-day present I could ask for) and will come home on boot leave for ten days and submit my mission papers, after which, I will go back to Camp Pendleton to the School Of Infantry(SOI) for 8 weeks of infantry training, where I will most likely get my mission call unless I get lucky and it comes during my ten days of boot leave. Doubtful to say the least. Upon returning from SOI I have to attend one weekend of drill and then can serve my mission.

Quoting Kate from facebook: "What! When did this happen? What changed your mind you crazy kid?" Let me esplain, no, it is too long, let me sum up, starting from the beginning. As you all know back in June I decided to get out of the Marine Corps and just go on my mission. A firmly stand by my decision and have never had a doubt since, that it was the right decision and that it was what the Lord wanted me to do. Keeping that in mind, with events of late; mainly the break up and my best friend John serving in Iraq, my feelings for the Marine Corps were very strong and overwhelming and the thought of having to wait until after my mission was very hard, although I stood by the decision, thinking it was what the Lord had in store for me.

About a week and a half ago I was thinking about the situation and it occured to me that I still had the option to go to boot camp and become a Marine before my mission. The spirit sparking my thoughts or me simply finding a way to get what I want? At the time I didn't know either and wasn't sure how to handle the situation. This happened Sunday night after conference and the next day I had to go to the recruiting office to pick up my eagle scout award from my last contract and while there, I asked my recruiter about my options. Everything fell into place as if it was what was supposed to happen. They had a mission reserve contract left, spots in the SLC infantry unit that I want to be stationed out of, and a spot to ship in November, and this is the best part, with another young man planning on serving a mission after boot camp and SOI also.

With everything falling into place as easily as it did and my recruiters being as supportive as they were(usually Marine recruiters aren't too gung ho about a recruit getting out and then asking to get back in), I felt like I strongly needed to consider this option but wanted some guidence. So I went home to Arimo to talk to the parentals about it and get a blessing from Dad. Lets just say that dropping a bomb like this on Mom and Dad went over not quite as good as I thought it would. That wasn't a good night for me. All the things that I thought felt right suddenly didn't and I started second guessing myself and the option didn't seem like an option without Mom and Dad's full support, which I now realize I always had, it just didn't feel like it at the time.

After a lot more prayer and consideration and a night of looking at a friend's mission pics, I decided against joining again and prayed about it that night(Tuesday). Surprisingly, at about 9:30 Wednesday morning SGT Larreau called me and asked if I was going to do it. Since I had made the decision not to join the night before I told him no, not really having got an anwer to my decision after praying about it. The rest of my week went by uneventfully but I couldn't seem to get the nagging thought out of my head. I kept trying to ignore it and get it to go away saying I've already made my decision and told SGT Larreau, I can't change my mind again.

Saturday rolled around and it was a totally different story. I finally let myself listen to what I thought might be the promptings of the spirit and started seriously and deeply considering the option again. After reading my scriptures and my patriarchal blessing time and time again I prayed about it and started feeling better about it, which was a good feeling I had felt since before I talked to Mom and Dad about it. The only way I can explain it is that I couldn't stop smiling at the idea cause it felt so right. I called Mom that night just to see what the weather was like back home since it had snowed here in Poky the night. I heard the last thing I expected. Mom had come around and was seeing the good things that could come of this and said that I had her and Dad's full support no matter what I did, and that they trusted that I would do what the Lord wanted me to, and they had faith enough to believe that what I chose was truly what the Lord had planned for me. I wanted to cry and jump for joy and shout to the world all at the same time. I knew right then that the incredible feeling I had from that support and her changed of heart gave me my answer.

Still a little skeptical to whether or not this was the spirit telling me what the Lord needs me to do or if it was just my personal feelings, I held off on a final decision. I decided I would ponder the question more and submit my final decision to the Lord Sunday morning. After waking up I felt more comfortable saying that kind of prayer and making such a huge decision in my dress clothes so I got ready for church and studied my scriptures a little more. I said my prayer and made my decision to join and opened a fast, praying that the Lord would give me some kind of affirmation to my decision. You know those promptings that people talk about getting that they need to get up and leave sacrament meeting and do something and you wonder why they try to ignore them for so long before they actually follow up on it? Well, now I know why people ignore them. The thought of leaving sacrament meeting to call my recruiter and tell him I wanted back in just seemed so wrong to me, but you can only ignore those feelings for so long. After a now ridiculous and hilarious internal struggle, I got up and left sacrament meeting and made the phone call and set up a meeting with SGT Larreau for this morning at 9:30. I still haven't figured out why the spirit might tell me to do such a thing, or if it was just my own desire to finalize what I knew was right, but it happened and the rest is history.

This morning I met with SGT Larreau and began my stack of paperwork for the second time in a short year and I am on my way to being a Marine. I've already gotten quite a bit of criticism for my decision to put my mission on hold for another six months and I know there will be more, but I know that this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. Just as I firmly stand by my decision to get out in June, I will firmly stand by my belief that this is now my time to go; That whether the reason is that I'm supposed to go with this other young man who also has the goal to serve a mission, or if it will help me bring someone specific into the gospel on my mission, I know without a doubt in my heart that for whatever purpose, this is what the Lord needs me to do right now and that this is the next step in his plan for me. I've wondered myself if putting my mission of for another six months is the right thing to do, but I know that this experience will give me the self confidence I lack and will make me a better missionary, and as long as I'm doing what the Lord wants me to, time has no relevance in any matter.

Gotta Love Fridays

At about 9:45 I woke to my phone ringing and found that John was on the other end, although I must admit I never recognize his voice over the phone anymore. I usually don't get up this early but it was nice to start an early morning hearing from my best friend, who, I'll have to know, I've come to admire quite a bit over the years. After a few minutes of chatting he proceeded to "scold" me in John's do what I say or else manner and tell me that if I'm gonna have a blog I have to actually post stuff. Although it wasn't quite as dramatic as I make sound, it was a breath of fresh air to hear from my brother and know that he hasn't changed a bit and still isn't afraid to be blunt and tell me how it is, which I absolutely love and miss by the way. I started thinking about growing up and realized that I really miss that bond that we have as brothers in which we can just tell the other that they're being stupid or get in a big fight and still be best friends a moment later. One of those unexplainable manly/brotherly quirks. A lot of this may not make sense cause it's two oclock in the morning and I'm super tired so I guess what I'm saying is that I'm really missing John and it was so good to hear from him.

After talking to John I went to work where I was completely useless on account of making deliveries and having to drive to Idaho Falls and not getting back until midnight. So being as tired as I was I jumped right on the opportunity to go with Darren, our driver, and deliver some drug carts that were too heavy for one person to load and unload. Having no idea on the adventure on which we were about to embark we loaded up the carts(still packaged in boxen) and delivered them to their respective homes. Since they were still packaged in their ginormous boxes we had to take them out of the boxes and take about what seemed to be at least a hundred yard of plastic rap off the carts. Keep in mind these carts or no small item, with the top of their boxes sitting about two feet above the cab of the truck. But who needs to strap down a bunch of empty boxes sitting in the back of a truck on a windy day, right? Wrong. I'm sure you've all figured out what happened on our way back to the office by now and you're probably getting just as good a laugh out of it as we did. Needless to say, jumping out of a truck in the suicide lane of none other than the busy street of Yellowstone with traffic on both sides to save a giant box and a bunch of plastic wrap was quite the adventure which made my Friday and this job worth every minute. One of those times where I wish someone had a video camera to document the whole thing.

When we got back I continued with that part about being useless and we got off at 5:30 since it was so slow. I decided I would go donate plasma and that's just another story for tomorrow that I don't even want to get into right now. After donating I went over to the girls' place hung out until The Comedy Project. But I guess since you'll probably hear a lot about "the girls" i should esplain that too. "The girls" consist of two of my closest high school friends Tifini Briscoe and Kelsey Helmandollar and their two of their roommated Kayla and Kelsey Richard, who are twins and very, very, very, very hyeractive. Pretty much everyday after work, or church, or anything for that matter I go over the their place and we hang out. A lot of our hanging out consists of watching Gilmore Girls and Smallville on my tv(actually John's tv) down in their room and it's always a party. I hope you're all glad that I'm doing my duty in honoring the Fullmer name by spending most of my time at a house with nine girls living there.

Anyway, after watching a really intense season finale of Smallville, Feef(Tifini) and I went to The Comedy Project at ten. TCP started a couple years ago with a few college students doing improv shows for a college project and has turned into a weekly event at the Quarry. Let's just say that my Friday nights are precious to me and Feef and I go there every week to get our two hours of three dollar improv entertainment. And it's a "family friendly" show so you can bring the kids. It's HILARIOUS. I hope you all get to experience this someday. After TCP it's turned into tradition to go to Denny's at midnight so we picked up the other girls and went. And I'll have you know that walking into a restaraunt with four girls is a really good way to boost your confidence(just a little advice for the grandsons) or ego; I haven't decided which it is yet.

Upon returning home(to the girls' place) they decided they wanted to get to bed before 1:30, which normally means that's my que to go home, so I came home and got to this point in the morning, and I've decided that no sane person should ever blog at 2:30 in the morning. But I've got to go set my DVR to record conference cause there's no way I'm getting up at ten with any possibility of staying awake so I'll be going now. I'm doing great and life is fantastic. I should be starting my mission papers this week or shortly thereafter and only have 28 days till we can submit them. I love and miss you all and hope to get good comments. TTFN!!!!!!!!

Blessings of a new Graduate

So I finally found the ambition to start a blog and sit down and take the time to post something. This being my first post the only thing I can think to write about is pretty much about my life in general right now so I though I would tell everyone about my summer and the major life changing events that have taken place.

So starting at the beginning. As most of you know I just barely graduated from high school and wasted absolutely no time moving out. I love Mom and Dad more than anything in the world and living with them really wasn't as bad as we all made it out to be while we grew up, but I think we can all agree it was simply time. So in the last week of May I moved a whopping 30 miles away to the thriving metropolis of Pocatello.

I've come to realize that I am in a small percentage "premies" that move out before their mission. And on top of that I've lived in more of my own apartments than most do in their first year after their mission. Although the number is only up to two, I still think it's quite the accomplishment. I've also come to realize that the Lord has had a huge part in my current living situation and the lessons I learned because of my previous and current ones. When I moved out I moved to a small apartment complex called the Green Properties, a.k.a the Ghettos. The apartments weren't bad, especially for an 18 year old in his first apartment. The only setback was that it was summer and I only had one roommate, who was from Nepal and a non-member; which I'll have you know, is kinda hard to relate to. Having absolutely nothing in comman, I didn't experience that bond that you have with your roommates when you live together, it was simply a living arrangement.

Only having a summer contract that ended on the last day of July, I decided I needed to find a different place where I would have a better living situation, but it still being the middle of June or so, I hadn't put forth any real effort yet to find a new place. On a lonely Monday night I forced myself to go to FHE and was instantly blessed. After the activities were over a few people from my ward were hanging out on the grass outside our apartment and I decided to join them. As I talked to Jason Rasmussen, my elder's quorumn president and current roommate and close friend, I found that he lived in a small basement apartment and needed to find to or three roommates. After finding that in our worst case scenario my rent would still be cheaper than school year rent at the Ghettos, I instantly told him to count me in, not even having seen the place. About a month ago I moved into the new place and have three roommates that are all RMs and were already in my ward, so I didn't have to go through the get to know you stage. The apartment was also in the boundaries of the ward I was in, so I don't have to go to another ward. It's been so nice having roommates, especially since they are LDS. Jason is one of my best friends and we've become very close the last few weeks.

Life over the summer wasn't too bad and consisted of nothing but work and play. Moving out I had a job with a flooring contractor named Mark Helmandollar and quickly learned how to lay different types of flooring; mainly carpet, but also including VCT tile(don't ask me what the VCT stands for cause I couldn't tell you), laminate, and vynal(otherwise known as linolium: they're pretty much the same thing). I absolutely loved working with Mark, Wayne(his partner), Ryan(his son that is John's age), Kelsey(his daughter that is a year older than me, who I actually dated in high school and is one of my closest friends). Needless to say, the reason I liked it so much was because it wasn't just working all day, but it was a lot of fun and games with a little bit of labor involved. Although this has been my favorite occupation yet, I found that we only worked one actuall full time 40 hour week all summer, and as much as I loved that, it wasn't enough to pay for an apartment, cell phone bill, and groceries, all while attempting to save money for a mission. So it came to my realization that I needed a new job that paid more than $8 an hour and would offer 40 hours a week. So one night I was talking to Jason, who happens to be a pharmacy student, and he said that the pharmacy he worked at was losing all of their help cause school was starting and they would probably hand the job to me without question. So a few days later I went in for an "interview," which I've found is as simple as filling out my W4's and signing some papers for my pharmacy technician's license, and vuala, I had a new job in a matter of minutes. I worked for Mark for three more weeks and last week I started working at Keymed, Inc. full time. I had no idea it was so easy to get a job, but I'm not complaining.

Within my first week I have learned most of what I need to know and have actually started enjoying what I do, which I should probably explain. Keymed, Inc is a small, closed door pharmacy that provides drugs for assisted living homes. So in lamen's terms, I package drugs for old people, which really isn't quite as bad as it may sound. Being the only full time technician, I've become the guy that knows everything that goes on in the pharmacy and does the bulk of the work. It's really not a hard job, but is mostly about knowing what you're doing. My boss Rachel loves having me there all day everyday cause with one person being there the whole time, there's a lot less confusion. I've learned more than I ever wanted to know about drugs and constantly have names of drugs running through my head, but I've decided it's well worth the money.

Not to abrubtly change the subject, but I was never any good at paragraph transitions in school, so this is the best I can do for ya. On the 4th day in August, I had my most traumatic experience yet. Although in our family using the words "traumatic esperience" my sound humurous, I say it in all seriousness. Like I said, on the 4th of August I had experienced my hardest trial yet, when my girlfriend of ten months broke up with me. Having seriously dated my best friend for ten months and then suddenly losing it all in one moment has taught me so many life changing lessons.

The first lesson I quickly learned is that sometimes you don't have a single friend for family member here on this earth that can make you feel better, but with the help of the Lord, you can have no one and still feel comfort. I've never been one to kneel down and say a prayer when I have a hard time but I decided then to make a change. Everytime I was down or felt like just staying home and bawling(yes, I'm a Fullmer, and we cry, more than most typical guys) my eyes out, I would kneel down in humble prayer and pour my soul out to the Lord. Every time I would say a prayer like that, I would shed a few tears, and upon finishing, would pick myself up again and keep trudging on. It soon came to my attention that as a missionary, I will feel that lonliness very often, but that the Lord is always there for me. Because of this experience I no longer have any doubt that I can get through those two years and I have a new understanding and stronger testimony of the power of prayer.

The next thing I learned is that all the answers we will ever need are in the scriptures. About a month previous to the breakup I was finally able to get myself into the habit of reading my scriptures daily and I was committed to sticking to that habit and was determined to not let my grief or depression change that; theser weren't good enough excuses to me. At the time I was in Mosiah reading about King Benjamin's speech. As I tried to read I couln't for the life of me concentrate on this chapter and I didn't want to just read without getting anything out of it so I decided to randomly open my Book of Mormon and read something new and different. As I sifted through the pages, my Book of Mormon opened to Doctrine and Covenants sectoin 88. As I looked at the heading and first five verses, I felt the Lord's love so stronly as the first word I saw on the page was Comfort, the one and only thing I could bring myself to ask for at the time. As I read those first few verses, I began to understand that everything I felt and was going through was happening for some partially unknown reason and that however little I understood why or how, all of it is for my eternal good, and that the Lord wanted and was going to help me through it.

Today is seven weeks to the day of the breakup and I am still struggling, but I know that the Lord has helped me tremendously in so many ways and if I remain faithful he will continue to do so. This "traumatic event" has changed my life forever and has lead to many other life changing events and experiences and I am truly grateful to the Lord for that.

Before I go I want to add my fantastic news that most everyone knows, that I was given M. Priesthood and ordained to the office of an elder in the Priesthood. Interestingly enough, it was just in time for our ward's yearly assignment to do hospital visits. In doing so I had the opportunity to anoint a man who had his hip replace that morning and was able to take part in a priesthood blessing. I think that was the most nervous I've ever been but It was so awesome to have the opportunity to excercise my priesthood, and in my first week with it nonetheless. Anyway, I love you all and hope you leave some good comments. Only 39 days until I can submit my papers. Woot Woot!!!!!