Letter 9/21/10 - Food Service

Hello Folks,

So, a few weeks ago, I went to the Twin Falls County Fair. Scratch that. A few weeks ago I WORKED the Twin Falls County Fair. There's a local restaurant called Papa Kelsey's that sells subs and pizzas and they had a stand at the fair. Because the Kelsey family houses a pair of the missionaries, we all agreed to work for free during the week.

Thus was my introduction to the food service industry.

We arrived around 9 in the morning, ready to work. I'll admit, I was a bit apprehensive to be working in food services, as I never had previously done so. Nevertheless, I was willing and ready to do whatever it took to do my best and make the Kelsey family name continue to shine in the Twin Falls community. Plus, if I'm ever going to live in New York, I'm going to have to learn how to work in food. That's literally a requirement to live there.

Upon arrival, Alec Baldwin greeted us and told us the responsibilities we would be in charge of. We could either work in the kitchen or register. I didn't really feel like being in charge of money, math and standing in one place, so I said I'd man the kitchen. Alec said that would be a good idea (Ok, so it wasn't REALLY Alec Baldiwin, it was one of the Kelsey Sons, but he looks JUST like him!)

So, he lead me back into the little trailer/kitchen thing and introduced me to Lincoln, which was the giant sandwich oven. I will, from this point on, refer to it as Lincoln. So, my job was to assemble each sub, feed it to Lincoln and then wrap it in foil afterwards. Then, I would mark the foil as to what sandwich I had made. The code was as follows:

P = Pizza Sub
H/C = Ham and Cheese
T = Turkey
3M = Three Meat
IC = Italian Combo

After each wrapper was marked, I would then put a smiley face at the end, because everyone needs a smile. We also made little personal pizzas; cheese pepperoni and combos. Here are some photos of me and Lincoln tearing it up:


A tradition I started once we started getting a good flow of customers was that everytime we'd get a sale, when the register "binged" we would all yell "HEY!" at the top of our lungs. It made working seem a little more fun. Also, we were allowed to have free food and drinks the whole time we worked. Nothing better. By the time 5 o'clock rolled around and our shift ended, I was a bit bummed. It had been fun working the Papa Kelsey's stand and I eally didn't want to go. It seemed odd to me that I had so much fun doing what other people wouldn't do unless they got paid. But hey, now I know what food service is like, and you know what?

I can't wait to do it again.


Yours in pizza subs,

DL Hops

Nuh-VAH-duh

Dearest People In the Normal World,

Recently, I have done some fun things. I went to Nevada, learned to play pinochle and tried my hand at the food service industry. Over the next three weeks, I will explain these things, one event at a time.

So, one lazy Friday afternoon, Elder Mitchell and I had nothing doing. We had contacted most of the people we had set to see, and most people were out of town on account of the Twin Falls Fair in Filer, ID. (Yes, the Twin Falls Fair is not in Twin Falls. See also: Raleigh, NC Temple) Twin was empty I mean, it was DEAD. No cars or anything ANYWHERE. Labor Day and the Fair made the townspeople disappear faster than folks do on the Twilight Zone. So, we called the other Elders serving in Twin (Elder Wall and Elder Gossling) and invited them to join us in going to lunch.

In Jackpot, Nevada.

Jackpot is somewhat of Mission legend, in that it is the southernmost part of the mission and the only part of our mission in Nevada. It just so happens to be in my district, too. Missionaries often speak of Jackpot and how it is an oasis in the midst of the desert. Only an elect few have been there, according to the stories, and if you are fortunate enough to go, you won't be disappointed. So they say.

I'm here to tell you what Jackpot is REALLY like.

We drove about an hour and saw literally nothing, except a rad Camero and a horse staring into a house, which was pretty funny/creepy. I've included photos for reference. Enjoy.

But, when I say we saw nothing, I mean it. I even got Elder Wall to be a second witness to the lack of interesting things on the way to Nevada. Here is his opinion:

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From:Matthew David Wall matthew.wall@myldsmail.net
To:Mike Hopkins mike.hopkins@myldsmail.net

Date: Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 4:21 PM

"the drive to jackpot neveda sucked. there was nothing to look at other than a champed up camero from the 80s. and jackpot was pretty wack. nothing to do there unless you gamble... and even that doesnt seem like too much fun to do there"

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It is the tiniest town ever. Ok, maybe not ever, but still. And it's so isolated from everything else that if you were to go to GoogleMaps, type in Jackpot, NV and then click "Find Nearby..." Google would laugh at you. It's hardly an oasis. It's an oasis in the way spilling your water bottle in the middle of the Sahara is an oasis.
But, we finally got there and went to the Four Jacks Casino, where the missionaries get food for free. YEAH. Gratís! We got to the state line and got pictures and then went to the Four Jacks, which was located in what looked like (and practically was) a strip mall. Ok, maybe I'm the only one who expected this but, the name of this town is Jackpot. To me, that means all it's about is casinos. Which is true. But these casinos are PATHETIC. I mean, the arcade in the back of a Cici's Pizza showed this place up. We get there and the waitress comes up and it is soon made very clear that she knows next to no English. She goes in the back to get someone who does and the smallest, meanest Hispanic I've ever seen in a greasy beater and asks, very abrasively I might add, what we want. We tell him food. He snarls and goes back to the kitchen. We sit around for about 10 minutes and start to wonder if we're ever going to have our orders taken. The waitress finally shows up and we order. I got a buffalo burger (♫Buffalo burger.♪.in my belly.♪.talking 'bout the buffalo burger.♫.in Jackpot Nevada♫ (Little Bob Marley throwback there.)) and it was actually pretty good.
Elder Wall and I then went to go to the bathroom, and when we went to wash our hands, the soap dispensers didn't work because someone had removed the handles of them. On our way out of the bathroom, a sketchy guy passed us and in his hands were the handles for the soap. Go figure.

We all got up and left, and as we did, I snapped a picture of the interior of the Four Jacks. This is it in all it's glory. One tiny little room. Although they did have my favorite machine "Betty the Yetti" (Yes, Yeti with two "Ts") for only a penny. WHAT A STEAL!

Well, moral of the story: don't go to Jackpot. People will tell you it's a hit, but it's really a bust.

Happily yours,

DL Hops