So, its 3:30 in the AM, I just finished game nights with my friends, and its really hard to type a coherent sentence, and to spell. Thank heaven for spell check. Any way, I thought it would be an appropriate time to share my two most simple and short Olympic memories. I am including a Winter Olympics in this one as well, they are sort of a package deal.
So, the only two Olympics I didn't watch every possible second of were the 2004 and 2006 games. 2000 I may have found forgettable, but 2004 and 2006 I didn't see much of anything to forget. 2004 was in Athens, and I watched on youtube earlier this month, the opening ceremonies. It looked like they were pretty special, and I was mildly sad I had missed them
I say mildly sad, because it takes something really major important for me to miss an Olympics, and I missed two so that I could serve a mission in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT on August 11, 2004. The Olympics started on Friday August 13, 2004, two days later.
In an effort to help me with this dilemma, my mom was going to record the Olympics and let me watch when I got home. The recording didn't make it a year and a half, so I never saw it. My mom made up for it though, because on Aug 20, 2004 the Lithuanian men's basketball team beat the US men's basketball team. I was learning Lithuanian and about Lithuanian culture at the time, and I can tell you basketball is a big big deal in Lithuanian, and beating team USA, was a big deal. I was still in the USA at the time, but my mom got so excited about it for me, she sent me a news paper clipping. Pretty sure it was the only news paper clipping I got my whole Olympics.
It was something big and Olympic and related to my mission and I got to celebrate it in the MTC!!! And that is the 2004 Olympics for me. Lithuania ended up in forth place just out of the Medals and USA got the bronze.
For the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, I was still on my mission. February 10-26th, 2006. I went home March 8th 2006. Again, I just missed it, but it was my choice, I could have gone home in January 2006. The really cool trade off is that some point in that two week window I was out with a few other missionaries from my district, in what we called a "Zone Blitz" where we would split up into groups of two or three and go knocking on doors to see if anyone was interested in our message.
It was the middle of a really cold winter for Lithuania, so we selected some apartments that were easier to get in doors for. It so happened on that night that we knocked on the door of a Lithuanian IOC member. He let us in and we chatted with him a little. He was "Working" watching the ski jumping, So we talked to him a little, but he was very focused on the games. We talked for a bout ten minutes, and I got to watch a little ski jumping as it was on in the background. Since he was working, I think the Elders were going to come back later, but it was pretty cool that I got to see five minutes of Olympics and meet and IOC member. And that is all I have for 2004 and 2006.
So, the only two Olympics I didn't watch every possible second of were the 2004 and 2006 games. 2000 I may have found forgettable, but 2004 and 2006 I didn't see much of anything to forget. 2004 was in Athens, and I watched on youtube earlier this month, the opening ceremonies. It looked like they were pretty special, and I was mildly sad I had missed them
I say mildly sad, because it takes something really major important for me to miss an Olympics, and I missed two so that I could serve a mission in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT on August 11, 2004. The Olympics started on Friday August 13, 2004, two days later.
In an effort to help me with this dilemma, my mom was going to record the Olympics and let me watch when I got home. The recording didn't make it a year and a half, so I never saw it. My mom made up for it though, because on Aug 20, 2004 the Lithuanian men's basketball team beat the US men's basketball team. I was learning Lithuanian and about Lithuanian culture at the time, and I can tell you basketball is a big big deal in Lithuanian, and beating team USA, was a big deal. I was still in the USA at the time, but my mom got so excited about it for me, she sent me a news paper clipping. Pretty sure it was the only news paper clipping I got my whole Olympics.
It was something big and Olympic and related to my mission and I got to celebrate it in the MTC!!! And that is the 2004 Olympics for me. Lithuania ended up in forth place just out of the Medals and USA got the bronze.
For the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, I was still on my mission. February 10-26th, 2006. I went home March 8th 2006. Again, I just missed it, but it was my choice, I could have gone home in January 2006. The really cool trade off is that some point in that two week window I was out with a few other missionaries from my district, in what we called a "Zone Blitz" where we would split up into groups of two or three and go knocking on doors to see if anyone was interested in our message.
It was the middle of a really cold winter for Lithuania, so we selected some apartments that were easier to get in doors for. It so happened on that night that we knocked on the door of a Lithuanian IOC member. He let us in and we chatted with him a little. He was "Working" watching the ski jumping, So we talked to him a little, but he was very focused on the games. We talked for a bout ten minutes, and I got to watch a little ski jumping as it was on in the background. Since he was working, I think the Elders were going to come back later, but it was pretty cool that I got to see five minutes of Olympics and meet and IOC member. And that is all I have for 2004 and 2006.
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