lunch with L. Tom

i got some crap (friendly, though it was) a while back when i posted about my day but only casually mentioned that i'd eaten lunch with elder perry.  the elder perry.  

well, my mother in law was the only one who got a picture.  she just got her pictures developed (i was unaware people still did that in 2012) and dropped off a copy of our group shot from that day. i need to email her and ask her again to email me the digital version but in the mean time, i did the best i could and attempted to take a picture of a picture.  ghetto, i know.

just us.  seriously, he is so tall... i'm 5'9'' and felt tiny next to him.

and here's our full group shot.  quality is seriously lacking.

i just wikipedia'd him to try and find out how tall he is.  i was unsuccessful but did learn these interesting facts instead...

elder perry is 90 years old (born august 5, 1922) and the oldest apostle in the church.

he's the third most senior apostle (was called april 6, 1974).

1974 is also the year his first wife passed away.  he married again two years later (and is still married).

his first name is lowell.

he's a red sox fan and threw out the first pitch at one of their games may 8, 2004.  (chris and i were on our honeymoon in cancun when that happened.  just in case you were wondering.)

and i just found on some random and probably non-credible website that elder perry is about 6'4''.

he was so happy and friendly and loved talking about family history, his iphone, and his ipad.  christopher brought his journal and read to elder perry parts of his entries about when elder perry visited his mission in hungary.  elder perry met with just a few of the missionaries from the mission while he was there and christopher was one of them.  christopher said that elder perry stressed to him the importance of picking a major.  elder perry thought that was humorous and stood by his advice, telling john and nate (christopher's youngest two brothers) to do the same.

being a maycock and a hillier, i have the opportunity to meet a lot of cool church people.  those are big names i have.  in fact, when my father in law walked into the room with elder perry, he spread out his hand (gesturing to me standing twenty feet away) and introduced me as "carrie of the maycock family" and honestly, i had trouble not giggling at it.  duchess of parker, carrie of the maycock family.  

on that same note, at the stake conference i went to saturday night, i met elder golden [of south africa] who my parents became close to during their mission in the congo (2005-2007).  after the conference, christopher took me up to introduce me and he immediately knew who i was and couldn't stop gushing about my parents (like i've never heard that stuff before) and kept telling me as well, what a wonderful family i married into (if i had a dollar for every time someone told me that...) and honestly, it was just really neat.

something i missed out on?  lunch with elder holland and elder gonzalez (he spoke in conference about learning with our hearts... it was the talk right before elder holland).  i would have had lunch with them, same as with elder perry except that i was still in atlanta... enjoying lunch at the varsity with my parents.  that may have been one of the most enjoyable lunches of my life.  i miss my parents.  and the varsity.  it was okay though.  christopher sent us a text while we were eating and said that elder holland said hi to the maycocks.  and told some crazy stories about their time in the congo.  apparently there's a story that circulates around church headquarters about a time my dad was on the phone with salt lake while a lot of civil unrest was going on outside of their building.  apparently the person in salt lake (why can't i remember who this was?!) told him, "stop hanging your head outside the window and get back inside!"  ha.  elder holland apparently got a kick out of sharing that story with the hilliers.

next time i rub shoulders with one of the twelve i'll be sure to properly dedicate a post to it.  my apologies for being so belated with this elder perry post!

post edit:

chelsey, i'm kinda a big deal.  like your shirt.

sorham, you are right.  that's so embarrassing!  how did i read that wrong?!  fear not, chris was true and faithful on his mission!

and another post edit: