Video from the ET 2 Rally

Click here to watch the video.


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The ET 2 Adventure Continues

Last week I went to CAA (Creative Artists Agency) to talk to Spielberg's agent, Richard Lovett. I walked in and talked to the receptionist. She said I needed an appointment first. She gave me the phone number to the main switchboard. I stepped out and made the phone call. They transferred me to his office. His assistant told me he doesn't take unsolicited meetings which I already knew. She transferred me to special services where no one picked up. I figure it's just a way to get rid of people like me. I called her back and asked if I could send a letter. She said for legal reasons he can't read anything. The picture is of the building in Century City where CAA is located.




Today I talked to Keith Atkinson, the Southern California LDS Public Affairs director who's office is located on the temple grounds. I asked if he knew Jerry Molen. He said he did and would get some contact info for me. FYI Jerry Molen is LDS and produced several Spielberg movies including Schindler's List for which he won an Oscar. He also produced The Other Side of Heaven. He is currently living in Montana. This could be pretty big but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Rally at Universal Studios

For those of you wondering, I did actually go through with the rally. Joe and Sam flew down from Seattle. It was their 10th anniversary so they fit in Disneyland and Magic Mt. Emilee and Cody drove up from San Diego and dad came up from Mexico. I had about 30 people participate. A lot of people were wondering what the heck was going on. I had a few bikes with baskets. I bought a red hoodie for everyone that showed up. I thought it was fun and went well.

I went back out by myself on Thursday and Friday with a big 8 foot by 10 foot sign. On Thursday I was on the same side of the street as the studios. A security guard came and told me to go to the other side of the street. He had a no questions asked attitude. I was a little offended. I was on the sidewalk. What were they worried about? Anyway the sign was so big I couldn't carry it because of all the people in the crosswalk. I couldn't see much and didn't want to hit anybody so I drug it behind me and people went around it.

A passerby told me Spielberg is in Sweden right now. He also told me I was in the wrong place. He said Spielberg's offices are on the other side of the studio. On Friday another passerby told me to go to the Barham gate (which is on the other side of the studio) because his friend worked for Amblin and that is where he entered the studio at. So next week I will be at the Barham gate with my big sign.

Pictures from the rally at http://thereturn2.com

This is the place!

Saturday October 24, 2009 Universal Studios!

The Return 2012

My ET blog is up and running. Check it out.

http://thereturn2012.blogspot.com

Tracting in Beverly Hills

I just went on splits with the missionaries, tracting in Beverly Hills. There were a ton of Starline tour vans and others taking pictures. I didn't think much of it considering the area. At one of the gates the lady asked if it was a religious message we were sharing. We said yes. She replied, "Do you know where you are?" Then some dude in the driveway yelled, "You're at the Playboy Mansion!" It was the back gate.

Birthdays are like weiners.

I know its late but better late than never. Thanks everyone for your cards, phone calls, text messages, DVD, etc.

Is this not the funniest card? Thanks Sam.

Next time you speak in church...

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting a couple of weeks ago. I was asked to speak on "the worth of souls" (I am a ward missionary) and was not given a time limit. There was only one other speaker so I figured I had a good 20 minutes. I wrote the whole thing out and figured it was probably about 20 minutes worth of material.

I was the first to speak. I don't remember what time I started so even though I was watching the clock it wasn't doing a whole lot of good since I really didn't know exactly when to finish. Well I got wrapped up in the moment and time really flew by. I was almost finished when some old guy in the congregation looked at me and tapped his watch quite forcefully with an annoyed look on his face. I looked at the clock and wondered where all the time went. (That seems to be a theme in my life.) I hurried and finished and sat down. I was embarrassed because I knew I had taken way too much time. The other speaker was an RM giving his homecoming speech and he had lots of family in town. So I felt even worse.

When I heard the counselor in the Bishopric say they were going to skip the intermediate hymn and move on to the last speaker I sunk my head in shame. We ended up getting out 10 minutes late!!! Afterward I apologized to the Bishopric and the Stake President who happened to be there. They were nice and told me not to worry about it. One of the counselors in the Bishopric who was sitting closest to the pulpit asked me if I felt him tapping on my shoe. I didn't feel a thing. He was tapping on my shoe to get me to stop talking! I was pretty dang embarrassed. You can put me in the same category as the 95+ year olds who are senile and who have lost all awareness of time years ago. HELLO!

Next time I give a talk in sacrament I am not asking for a time limit but a deadline.

Tracting with the fearless Elder Ellett

On Tuesday night I went on splits with the missionaries. We went tracting. I was okay with going tracting until they told me we were going to West Hollywood. That's when I got a little worried. For those of you who don't know, West Hollywood is very gay. I am pretty sure 95% of the people who protested at the temple last November are from West Hollywood. So I went knocking doors with Elder Ellett from Loa, Utah. One important piece of information: Elder Ellett has only one arm. Surprisingly the tracting went well. People were courteous and polite. They weren't interested but no one slammed the door in our faces. An Iranian Jewish guy named Jacob with brothers named Abraham, Isaac and Joseph told us it was too late to be out knocking on doors. So we went up to Sunset Blvd and started street contacting. Yes this is the famous Sunset Blvd with all the clubs, music venues, and scandalous billboards.

This is when Elder Ellett really impressed me. He was totally fearless! He talked to anybody and everybody. He stopped people while they were smoking outside of clubs (you can't smoke indoors in California). He stopped joggers, he stopped a girl who was listening to her iPod and had to take out the ear buds to hear him, and he loved bus stops because as he said, "they couldn't go anywhere." The funniest part was when he contacted people in front of Hustler! Sorry no picture. So on the way back to meet up with the other guys I asked Elder Ellett how he lost his arm. He said he fell off a truck when he was four years old. He told me I could read about it online. He didn't have time to give any details. So I went home and googled "Ellett" (I didn't ask him his first name). This is what I found.

He was on the cover of The New Era in February 2008 here is the link to the story.
New Era article






The Porter Ellett Story

The following link is from Good Morning America
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4377838

He was also on The Today Show.

The following is from CNN.


One Armed Basketball Player - video powered by Metacafe

Missionaries don't come any better than Elder Ellett.

Craigslist Rideshare

A few days before I was planning to come to AZ for Patricka's wedding the check engine light came on. A coworker found oil in the radiator and told me not to drive the car. I looked into flying, taking the train, Greyhound, and I put an ad on Craigslist rideshare. The best option was looking like Greyhound and I was not looking forward to that. But then some dude named Leaf responded to my add on Craigslist. He was on his way from the Bay area heading to Tucson. He dropped off another rider near my area and picked me up at my apt. Six hours and $20 later I was in Mesa. You can't beat that.
I stayed with Julie and Ted's friends. I got in at around 5am and couldn't go to sleep. I looked at my watch at 5:45am and fell asleep sometime after that. I woke up at 8 am to go take pictures and video for Patricka but they weren't there nor was anyone else. After awhile they showed up. Pat asked me to walk around with Patricia's parents who speak no English and I speak no Portuguese. I was sure happy when Emilee arrived on scene.

Catch up

I figure it's time to update the blog. Over Christmas I hung out with Julie, Ted and family. We went to Universal Studios on Tuesday before Christmas and Sea World on Friday. I drove down to San Diego on Christmas night and stayed with them that night in Emilee and Cody's apt so I wouldn't have to drive in the morning traffic. A quick note: M and Cody have the coolest toilet. It is one of those ones that doesn't work by gravity from the water in the tank but by some insanely powerful suction that if you're not careful when flushing it will pull you down with it. It is frickin awesome!
Sea World was pretty cool. They started the Shamu show out by thanking the troops. I was pleasantly surprised because you just don't hear people thanking troops in LA. That night we went to the Christmas Shamu show and they sang Christmas carols, not just any carols but the Christ centered ones. And then they had the whole audience stand up and sing Joy to the World. I was blown away. I just didn't think that would happen in California.
The next four pictures I think are pretty funny. I put Joe on his back in the stroller and left him in the middle of the sidewalk. I went back and sat down by Ted and the boys while Julie was in the bathroom with Emma. We sat there and watched people's reactions to this unclaimed kid. The guy in the black sweater turned around and saw Joe in the stroller on his back. He rushed over to help but saw that Joe was laughing. The guy looked around and saw us laughing and realized it was a joke.




The following pics are some favorites.






I was watching Emma while everyone else went on a ride. While we were waiting we went into a souvenir shop. Emma made all the employees laugh because she was so excited about all the stuff.



In the following pictures you will see that Ted spent a lot of time making sure everyone stayed dry. He got to the Shamu Christmas show really early and got 2nd row seats in the center.