He had an aggressive, type-A personality, and he bullied his way through a lot of stuff. And I don't know what your mission was like. But if we saw a thrift store, unless we were headed to an appointment, we would usually pop in to look for suits and ties. (9 times out of 10, they wouldn't have anything. But that one time, you could get some pretty cool stuff. I was a short-term convert before my mission, and I literally headed to the MTC with all my stuff in black garbage bags. The nice woman who drove me out to Provo from Denver somehow called ahead - this was before cell phones - and had her sister waiting for us in Provo with luggage I could use. She told me after the fact that she was horrified at the thought of me carrying those trash bags around all the other new missionaries saying good-bye to parents and entering the MTC with all their brand new stuff. Anyway, I was always a little behind the 8-ball with mission stuff. Thrift stores and army navy surplus stores kept me warm, and helped me avoid wearing the same suit every day of my mission.) And in our mission, every little town had a thrift store.

He was never what you would consider a hard worker, to begin with. So, spending a couple hours a day at thrift stores wasn't that much of a stretch for him.