"Excuse me, what is a credit card?"

Wednesday was one epic day.

For Makedo, Coder decided that we needed to work on characters a lot more. So we took a field trip... to Wal-Mart.

He assigned everyone characters and we had to stick with that character the whole time. My friend Caleb had just gotten his mission call. Nick Sahagan was obsessed with dragons and such. Julia Lamb was deaf. I was a foreign exchange student.

During the course of an hour, we had to interact with five different people, staying in character until 6:00.

My weakness in life is speaking another language. It doesn't make sense to me. My accents are not very good, at all. This was a challenge for me. One of the biggest, if I do say so myself.

So we embarked on our journey to Wal-Mart and I started to practice my German accent. It sounded more French than German, but I just figure that I came for a part of Germany that was closer to France.

The first thing I spotted in this journey was an advertisement for Wal-Mart credit cards. It sparked a creative wire in my brain. So I marched myself into customer service to ask what a Wal-Mart credit card was. They asked me if I knew what a credit card was, and I answered no. They explained it to me, and gave me a little brochure thingy. And on I went to find my next victim.

Naturally when you go to a foreign country, you want to take pictures of everything. My next stop was to the cameras. I explained to the lady that I was a German foreign exchange student and that I wanted the best camera for my stay here. She was nice and let me try out some cameras. I told her that that day was my first day in Cedar so I was going to think about that big decision.

I talked to a few other people, but there is one that will stand out to me forever.

Her name is Julie Adams. I was wandering around the Halloween decorations and she was there. In my head I had decided that I didn't know what Halloween was so I would ask someone. So I asked her and we had a very long conversation. We talked about school and her children and grandchildren. She asked who was hosting me and what part of Germany I was from. I asked her if she had ever been; she answered no, but she had been to Wales and Scotland.

Then she asked me if I was LDS. Now, that is one thing I will never lie about (even in character), so I answered yes. She then went on to ask me if I thought the church was different in Utah, and I answered yes.

Julie had lived in New Mexico for a while. She thinks that the LDS people in Utah are all hypocrites.

I was a little shocked. But then I remember all the LDS people that date before they are 16 (which I am not excluded from), the ones that swear like they don't know any other words, and the ones that compromise their standards to wear a strapless dress to homecoming.

"O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will cander, why have ye polluted the church of God? Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies--because of the praise of the world?" --Mormom 8:38

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it is part of our baptismal covenant "to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places..." even when you stand alone. Never has that phrase had more meaning than it does to me now. People are always watching us, other members included. I know that when we set an example for others, they will follow. Set a good example for those around you. Be courageous. Stand as a witness of God, even in your greatest sorrow. When you do, your life will be greatly blessed.