Nostalgia Days

Since the last post was celebrating my 13 year anniversary of beginning my mission, I thought it would be fun to do a series of nostalgic pictures and spotlights for everyone who is reading Mike's Blog that has served a mission. So when you read this, dig up some pictures from your mission, scan them into a digital format like a JPEG or or GIF or TIFF or whatever. Send those to my e-mail TravsBox@gmail.com. If you don't have a scanner or any mission pictures in a digital format, mail photos to me at

Travis Alexander
4890 W. Diamond Leaf Way
West Jordan, UT 84084

with a return address where I can send them back. Give me some specifics like name of mission, years served (ie. 93-95), areas you served in, leadership callings (if any), and some fun memories. I will spotlight one person a week as long as I have someone to spotlight. I'll start pestering you if you are on the mailing list and I know you have served a mission if I have not received some pictures and information in the next week or so.
I think everyone will have a good time seeing pictures and stories from everyone else that reads this, especially Mike. Start sending them to me now.

9/22/06

E. Babs

What’s the good word? How is the work? I’m just in the process of updating your blog with a picture of you on Travis Street for a tribute on my 13 year anniversary of entering the MTC and starting my mission on September 22, 1993. Wow, that was a long time ago, eh? It looks good. That is a good picture of you anyway. I actually was hanging with Shelli Lyn today. She came to see my offices. As I was taking her from one to the other, we went past Alexander street, so I took her down it and got her picture at the intersection of Alexander and Progress street. She thought that was pretty cool.

I’m listening to one of my all time favorite CDs right now. Foo Fighters “in your honor 2 disc set”. So good. Bet you miss that one just a little bit.

I finished reading Ezra Taft Benson’s “A Witness and a Warning” book and started on Vaughn J. Featherstone’s “The Incomparable Christ”. So far so good. I just read the first 20 pages and the forward last night. So I’m just getting started. But I wanted to throw in my favorite quotes remaining in the Witness and a Warning book like last letter. Did you like those last ones? Here are my favorite quotes from the remainder of the book…

We are meeting the adversary every day. The challenges of this era will rival any of the past, and these challenges will increase both spiritually and temporally. We must be close to Christ, we must daily take His name upon us, always remember Him, and keep His commandments.

And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God. (Moroni 9:6)

Great Missionary quote to liken to your own work.

The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature. “Human Nature can be changed, here and now,” said President McKay, and then he quoted the following: “You can change human nature. No man who has felt in him the Spirit of Christ even for half a minute can deny this truth… this quote is actually sited in Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” which I just finished reading before this Ezra Taft Benson book. I like the obvious truth in this that the world for some reason is too blind to see.

Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world. Men changed for Christ will be captained by Christ. Like Paul they will be asking, “Lord, what wilt thou have me do?” (Acts 9:6) Peter stated they will “follow his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21.) John said they will “walk, even as he walked.” (1 Jon 2:6) Finally, men captained by Christ will be consumed in Christ. To paraphrase President Harold B. Lee, they set fire in others because they are on fire. I love the term captained by Christ. Another great quote for missionaries here.

Anyway, there you go. Those are the highlights I got out of that book. It was a good book. I want to pound this Featherstone book so I can move on to another of my 50 church books I haven’t read yet. I have some biggies coming up still.

Get this, I am going to Snowbird all day tomorrow for a Managers Training in the Cliff Ballroom #3. That will be cool hanging up there all day and meandering about on breaks to go say hi to my old peeps. It has snowed like 12 inches in the last couple of days and will be snowing all night tonight. I am tempted to take my board up and do a quick hike. How sweet would that be to get an early ride in for free? Problem is, I’m way too out of shape to hike more than just the center to the cliff without having a freakin’ stroke. AND I don’t want to get my new board all bunged up on rocks and such that I’ll inevitably do without a bigger base.

Sorry it took me so long to get you this talk by Jeffrey R. Holland. But better late than never. I hope you can print this off when you read the e-mail. I’ll print it off myself for a good read and see what all this hubbub is you are making. I’m not going to drop a page break in since it will just get messed up as I send it in the e-mail anyway.

The Grandeur of God

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven.

Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Grandeur of God,” Ensign, Nov. 2003, 70
Of the many magnificent purposes served in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, one great aspect of that mission often goes uncelebrated. His followers did not understand it fully at the time, and many in modern Christianity do not grasp it now, but the Savior Himself spoke of it repeatedly and emphatically. It is the grand truth that in all that Jesus came to say and do, including and especially in His atoning suffering and sacrifice, He was showing us who and what God our Eternal Father is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation. In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven.

He did this at least in part because then and now all of us need to know God more fully in order to love Him more deeply and obey Him more completely. As both Old and New Testaments declare, “The first of all the commandments is … thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first [and great] commandment.” 1

Little wonder then that the Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God.” “I want you all to know Him,” he said, “and to be familiar with Him.” 2 We must have “a correct idea of his … perfections, and attributes,” an admiration for “the excellency of [His] character.” 3 Thus the first phrase we utter in the declaration of our faith is, “We believe in God, the Eternal Father.” 4 So, emphatically, did Jesus. Even as He acknowledged His own singular role in the divine plan, the Savior nevertheless insisted on this prayerful preamble: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God.” 5

After generations of prophets had tried to teach the family of man the will and the way of the Father, usually with little success, God in His ultimate effort to have us know Him, sent to earth His Only Begotten and perfect Son, created in His very likeness and image, to live and serve among mortals in the everyday rigors of life.

To come to earth with such a responsibility, to stand in place of Elohim—speaking as He would speak, judging and serving, loving and warning, forbearing and forgiving as He would do—this is a duty of such staggering proportions that you and I cannot comprehend such a thing. But in the loyalty and determination that would be characteristic of a divine child, Jesus could comprehend it and He did it. Then, when the praise and honor began to come, He humbly directed all adulation to the Father.

“The Father … doeth the works,” He said in earnest. “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever [the Father] doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” 6 On another occasion He said: “I speak that which I have seen with my Father.” “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me.” “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” 7

I make my own heartfelt declaration of God our Eternal Father this morning because some in the contemporary world suffer from a distressing misconception of Him. Among these there is a tendency to feel distant from the Father, even estranged from Him, if they believe in Him at all. And if they do believe, many moderns say they might feel comfortable in the arms of Jesus, but they are uneasy contemplating the stern encounter of God. 8 Through a misreading (and surely, in some cases, a mistranslation) of the Bible, these see God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son as operating very differently, this in spite of the fact that in both the Old Testament and the New, the Son of God is one and the same, acting as He always does under the direction of the Father, who is Himself the same “yesterday, today, and forever.” 9

In reflecting on these misconceptions we realize that one of the remarkable contributions of the Book of Mormon is its seamless, perfectly consistent view of divinity throughout that majestic book. Here there is no Malachi-to-Matthew gap, no pause while we shift theological gears, no misreading the God who is urgently, lovingly, faithfully at work on every page of that record from its Old Testament beginning to its New Testament end. Yes, in an effort to give the world back its Bible and a correct view of Deity with it, what we have in the Book of Mormon is a uniform view of God in all His glory and goodness, all His richness and complexity—including and especially as again demonstrated through a personal appearance of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

How grateful we are for all the scriptures, especially the scriptures of the Restoration, that teach us the majesty of each member of the Godhead. How we would thrill, for example, if all the world would receive and embrace the view of the Father so movingly described in the Pearl of Great Price.

There, in the midst of a grand vision of humankind which heaven opened to his view, Enoch, observing both the blessings and challenges of mortality, turns his gaze toward the Father and is stunned to see Him weeping. He says in wonder and amazement to this most powerful Being in the universe: “How is it that thou canst weep? … Thou art just [and] merciful and kind forever; … Peace … is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst weep?”

Looking out on the events of almost any day, God replies: “Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands. … I gave unto them … [a] commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood. … Wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?” 10

That single, riveting scene does more to teach the true nature of God than any theological treatise could ever convey. It also helps us understand much more emphatically that vivid moment in the Book of Mormon allegory of the olive tree, when after digging and dunging, watering and weeding, trimming, pruning, transplanting, and grafting, the great Lord of the vineyard throws down his spade and his pruning shears and weeps, crying out to any who would listen, “What could I have done more for my vineyard?” 11

What an indelible image of God’s engagement in our lives! What anguish in a parent when His children do not choose Him nor “the gospel of God” He sent! 12 How easy to love someone who so singularly loves us!

Of course the centuries-long drift away from belief in such a perfect and caring Father hasn’t been helped any by the man-made creeds of erring generations which describe God variously as unknown and unknowable—formless, passionless, elusive, ethereal, simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at all. Certainly that does not describe the Being we behold through the eyes of these prophets. Nor does it match the living, breathing, embodied Jesus of Nazareth who was and is in “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his [Father].” 13

In that sense Jesus did not come to improve God’s view of man nearly so much as He came to improve man’s view of God and to plead with them to love their Heavenly Father as He has always and will always love them. The plan of God, the power of God, the holiness of God, yes, even the anger and the judgment of God they had occasion to understand. But the love of God, the profound depth of His devotion to His children, they still did not fully know—until Christ came.

So feeding the hungry, healing the sick, rebuking hypocrisy, pleading for faith—this was Christ showing us the way of the Father, He who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness.” 14 In His life and especially in His death, Christ was declaring, “This is God’s compassion I am showing you, as well as that of my own.” In the perfect Son’s manifestation of the perfect Father’s care, in Their mutual suffering and shared sorrow for the sins and heartaches of the rest of us, we see ultimate meaning in the declaration: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” 15

I bear personal witness this day of a personal, living God, who knows our names, hears and answers prayers, and cherishes us eternally as children of His spirit. I testify that amidst the wondrously complex tasks inherent in the universe, He seeks our individual happiness and safety above all other godly concerns. We are created in His very image and likeness, 16 and Jesus of Nazareth, His Only Begotten Son in the flesh, came to earth as the perfect mortal manifestation of His grandeur. In addition to the witness of the ancients we also have the modern miracle of Palmyra, the appearance of God the Father and His Beloved Son, the Savior of the world, to the boy prophet Joseph Smith. I testify of that appearance, and in the words of that prophet I, too, declare: “Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive. … God does not look on sin with [the least degree of] allowance, but … the nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs.” 17

I bear witness of a God who has such shoulders. And in the spirit of the holy apostleship, I say as did one who held this office anciently: “Herein [then] is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” 18—and to love Him forever, I pray. In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Gospel topics: God the Father, Jesus Christ, love, morality

Notes

1. Mark 12:29–30; see also Matt. 22:37–38; Deut. 6:5.

2. History of the Church, 6:305.

3. Lectures on Faith (1985), 38, 42.

4. A of F 1:1.

5. John 17:3.

6. John 14:10; John 5:19.

7. John 8:38, 28; John 6:38.

8. See William Barclay, The Mind of Jesus (1961), especially the chapter “Looking at the Cross” for a discussion of this modern tendency.

9. For example, 1 Ne. 10:18; 2 Ne. 27:23; Moro. 10:19; D&C 20:12.

10. Moses 7:29–33, 37.

11. Jacob 5:41; see also Jacob 5:47, 49.

12. Rom. 1:1.

13. Heb. 1:3; see also 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15.

14. Lectures on Faith, 42.

15. John 3:16–17.

16. See Gen. 1:26–27; Moses 2:26–27.

17. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (1976), 257, 240–41.

18. 1 Jn. 4:10–11.

I still have so much to tell you and I’m already at 6 pages with that talk and my yammering. I need to go to bed though. It’s after 9:00 PM and I am having Breakfast at the Forklift at 7:30 AM with Marnie and Jayme before I head up to the Cliff. I think John and I are going to go for a freeze out fishing trip on Strawberry this Saturday after all the snow has fallen up there. AHhhhh Yeah. We’ll be the only hard core fishermen on the lake and with the cold temps, the fish will all be up high. Easy catches all day. Just not too fun to get that mother back on the trailer at the end of the day, thigh high in freezing cold water.

Smallville starts it’s new season in a week from today. I just watched the end of the season finale tonight. Remember how the VCR jacked up the recording somehow and we were so mad? Maybe you got it from a friend and never told me. Anyway, it was GOOD! I can’t wait for this next season to start. You are going to have to get the two seasons you miss on DVD when you get home to get all caught up.

Oh, here is your random scripture for this issue. I still have yet to get one from you. Get crackin’ on that. You should be able to come up with these way easier than I can.

2 Nephi 24:23 - I will also make it a ^apossession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of Hosts.

I like the phrase “sweep it with the BESOM (BEE-zum) of destruction. That would be a good fantasy football team name. the BESOMS of Destruction.

Well, it looks like I’m going to pull off a squeeker in this week’s games. I’m about to knock off one of the 3 unbeaten teams. John is one of the three and he’s going to lose to the 3^rd unbeaten. So there is only one unbeaten after this week. We’ll see how it plays out after MNF tomorrow though. Hip Waders who I’m about to beat, is done tonight and I’ll probably beat him by a point or two, but I still have Alge Crumpler playing in MNF tomorrow and he’s done. So either way, even if I went into it a few points in the hole, I’d probably be just fine. I’d rather just win it tonight though, rather than stress about it for one more day. I left Portis on the bench today and he went off for 27 pts. That’s always my luck!

Yesterday I went fishing at the Berry with Johnny and caught 2 big cutthroats and 2 decent sized Rainbows. John of course continued his tradition of being skunked. He just doesn’t have good luck fishing. I don’t know why he comes back to it over and over again after being rejected the way he is. Wait, am I talking about girls or fish? Doesn’t matter with John I guess. I could have kept 3 out of the 4 I caught. The first cut was a big 23-24 inch bounder. Bigger than the gap, so I could have kept him. Then the two rainbows are keepers by default. The other cut was in the gap, but I released all 4 anyway cuz that’s just how I roll. John wanted to keep any of them because he wants to try a new recipe he has for trout and cook ‘em up. Oh well. I have two trout in my freezer that I can give him. It was so great the first half of the day. Warm, sunny, we could see about 10 -13 feet deep in the water, so I watched trout actually chasing my tube jig up to the boat on a couple of occasions. It was cool. The second half of the day clouds rolled in, the wind shifted, and it got dark and an arctic blast from the North hit us and froze us out. The water darkened and the fish quit biting. So it wasn’t any fun that second half of the day.

Well, I won my game outright before going in to MNF. So I’m pretty happy about that. I’m 2-1 now. I’ll send you the record sheet when it starts getting a little more important to have that record. Right now we are just jockeying and feeling each other’s teams out. There is a new iTunes now. It’s way sweet. Better format and nicer to look at. New iPod software that I downloaded and updated the iPod with too. I’m sure there will be 20 updates of both of those by the time you get home. It’s weird how often technology updates. Well boyeee, it’s late on a Sunday night and I have to get up early for payroll and such tomorrow. I’ll get this sent off so you get this early on Monday morning. Keep bustin’ butt out there. Don’t give in to discouragement, and never give up. There are too many people who need to hear what you know and the enemy would have you get discouraged and slack off. It’s the same concept as football or any sport. When you are not practicing, working out, or in this case, just working, your opponent is. Don’t ever let that enemy get the upper hand. When you are tired and at the end of your day, always knock one more door. It’s amazing what that “one to grow on” door will do for you. I testify of that from personal experience. Dig deep Young One! Do us all proud!

Love ya and miss ya.

Trav

Travis Street

Here's a tribute to his favorite brother. This is a good picture to put up as I commemorate my 13 year anniversary when I went into the MTC and started my mission on September 22nd, 1993. I told him he should tract that whole street until he's talked to everyone that lives on it. How cool would it be to baptize someone on Travis Street? It's destiny!

Wild Life in NC

Click on any of these pictures to see them enlarged.
This is some giant bee killing bug of some sort. It looks like a giant mosquito. All I know, is I would not want one of these biting me!

Mike's little turtle friend that he and Elder Leavitt rescued out of a busy road and released down in a near by river.

This is Elder Leavitt's "Big Dog" spider. You will see a video of the killing machine this thing is soon.

What is he thinking??

This may take a while to load, depending on your connection speed. Have patience while it loads.

Letter dated September 15th, 2006

This goes back over a week ago that Mike wrote this letter, but here are the updates from it...
he talked about his 2 1/2 hour lay over in Cincinatti on his way to Charlotte. Then about his night at the mission home. He also gave us more details on his trainer Elder Leavitt. He's from Logandale Nevada, He's 19 years old, he had a 1968 Pontiac Firebird with a 455 motor before he left but sold it. He is big into hunting and the outdoors. He wants an old 66-77 Bronco when he gets home. He was an all-state offensive tackle. He's been out 8 months. He loves 4 wheelers, both ATV's and Rock Crawlers. He's a big fan of the Mt. Dew. He got hit by a Jeep Cherokee in his area in Charlotte and finally, he says he's single and looking...
So there you go. I mentioned his bike accident in an earlier post. Here are some pictures of that:

His nice new Cannondale bike


Just throw some dirt on it and get back out there!


Ahhhhh, it's just a little flesh wound.

09/13/06

Elder Al,

Wasupatchu?! I burned your pics and vids over to 3 CDs and took them over to Mom’s and Dads for a slide show/video presentation. So we all watched your action over there. Yeah, I said 3 CDs. Anything over 690 MB has to go on to a second CD and those videos are friggin’ HUUUGE! No biggie. I’ll have them buy me a tower of CDs when I run out of mine. It was fun checking out your pics/vids of your new companion, pad, bike, area, lizards, spiders, mint ball snorting, flight, etc. I’ll be updating your blog with all that action starting tomorrow. It’s almost 11:00 PM on Tuesday night. So no time for that now. I found the funniest blog ever. I wrote him and told him how good it was. He thanked me and I think he feels the pressure of having an audience now since I linked it to my rants blog and referred some friends to it. It’s good though. Not as good as yours of course, but it’s good none the less. He’s a security guard and his blog is called the chronicles of a security guard. It’s one of those “guess you had to be there” kind of things. Anyway, I won my first game. I went into Monday night football trailing Clint by 14 points and I just had two defensive dudes going in. Antoine Winfield a DB for the Vikings and Shawne Merriman, my new favorite LB in the league who is in his second season and plays for the Chargers. Winfield got points for me so all Merriman had to do is score 7 and I would have won the tie breaker cuz my bench outscored his by like 30 points. But Merriman went ahead and busted out 3 sacks and 6 solo tackles. So I enjoyed a nice 12 point gain out of him and won easily. Austin was calling the easy win for Clint going in, so that made my win that much sweeter, oh and the fact that he had a 20 pt. lead on John going in to MNF and John had Tomlinson playing who raked in 22 pts and beat Austin single handedly. Sweet victories were had by all over the Emery Brothers. John snaked Carson Palmer, you probably saw and has been enjoying the spoils of his big point gains. Matt Hassleback is a nice back up QB to have too for him. John’s team is stacked. We’ll see if he actually does something with it this year.

I have jammed 9317 songs onto Dark Angel and still have well over 17 gig free. So I’m just going to keep accumulating. I need to sync some church music over and send out the iPod for you. I don’t know what to do about speakers. I guess Mom and Dad have that covered?

That spider action was pretty wicked to watch. Did you throw that other spider into the web so that they’d fight? Setting up spider grudge matches already? I loved our two spiders that Challis and I had in our Connecticut pad. Mortimer and Frank (pronounced FRONK). We would feed them bugs and set up grudge matches with wasps and stuff. Mortimer took down a wasp that was stinging the crap out of him. Of course He wasn’t around 2 days after that, but he killed the wasp first and ate him. I think he died of complications from that two days later cuz he was just gone. Your spider is freakin’ “Bad A”. Way bigger and freakier than either Mortimer and Frank and they were pretty bad dudes themselves. What have you named your spider? You keep feeding that guy and he’s going to eat one of you eventually. Do you guys live in a little house? Or is it an apartment? You got a nice road rash from your wreck. That looked fun. The Pentecostal church was pretty good. They were a little tamer than a couple I went to, but that might have just been a weeknight and they were just getting warmed up. What did you think of that experience? Dad and I had fun watching that. The turtle was interesting. You should have kept him. I had a couple of turtles in my midtown area, we kept in a little aquarium. They were fun. Of course I had a cat in Harlem and a mouse in my upper west side area that I kept as a pet. So who’s to say you can’t keep a turtle? I think where you released it was good though. What do you even feed a turtle? I liked the picture of you in front of Travis Street. That was a nice tribute. Have you tracted that street yet? You better tract every door on that street and baptize someone there for me while you are in that area. Better get on that soon. How sweet would that be to baptize someone on Travis street? What a cool story that would be. Well that’s enough for tonight. I’m going to bed, but will have lots to respond to your letters that have come recently and more comments on your pics. I guess Mom and Dad will send your card back with a little package of other stuff, so they have it and will send it on.

Well, I just pulled off a major coup with Austin. He wanted DeAngelo Williams so bad that he traded me Willis McGahee for him. We have been negotiating this for a couple of weeks now. Austin is a GOOD negotiator for his age. I can’t believe it. He just revealed too much of his hand, so I knew the cards he was playing with. That worked to his disadvantage when negotiating with a seasoned veteran and one who has read books on negotiation. However, he can swim with the sharks and get out alive and I’m impressed by that. He got his player, I got a stud RB and I am ready to win this league for a second year in a row. It’s still going to be an uphill battle though with the competition we are facing this year. Everyone is good and has good teams. Games start up again tomorrow for game 2.

Guess what, I just got a call from temple square with some good news. Let me set the stage for you first. Several months ago, Suzanne, Brinlee, and I were down at Temple Square hanging out. In fact, you would remember the day since you met us with the rest of the family and grandpa to watch the Joseph Smith movie later on. But earlier, since it was easier for me and Suzanne, because of where Suzanne works and Brinlee’s school etc. we would meet down at temple square, hang out, go eat, and meet you guys that night for the movie. Anyway, while hanging out, seeing movies and such, the cool sister missionaries that were giving us the tour and stuff asked us if we would have anyone to refer for the missionaries. We didn’t just blow this off like the standard members would. We put some serious thought into it and told them that we would think it over carefully and let them know by the end of our tour. We continued our tour and movies and stuff and at the end, we were leaving, and Suzanne stopped on the stairs we were going down and said, “what about my grandpa”. I told her I thought that would be a great idea. So I encouraged her to go back, get that referral card and put his information on it and turn it in. So we went back and she did just that. Well, I just got the call from that sister who we gave the card to who told me that Howard Shosted was contacted and invited to receive the missionaries to hear the discussions and he accepted. So we are going to do some follow up and tell him that we are happy to hear that he is meeting with the missionaries and stuff, just to give him some encouragement along the way. So that’s pretty exciting. He has never been receptive to the church at all.

I’m in 2^nd Nephi Chapter 13 now. So I’m moving right along. I always get way into the B of M every time I start reading it. It might take a jump start, but once I get started, I chomp it down like a good meal when I’m starving. I also started reading the book “a witness and a warning” by Ezra Taft Benson. It is really good. It’s a decent side kick to read while I’m in the B of M. I’ll share a few of my favorite excerpts from it for you here:

Presently the Book of Mormon is studied in our Sunday school and seminary classes every fourth year. This four-year pattern, however, must NOT be followed by Church members in their personal study of the standard works. All scripture is not of equal value. The book that is the “keystone of our religion” and that will get a man “nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book” needs to be studied constantly.

I bless you with increased understanding of the Book of Mormon. I promise you that from this moment forward, if we will daily sup from its pages and abide by its precepts, God will pour out upon each child of Zion and the Church a blessing hitherto unknown – and we will plead to the Lord that He will begin to lift the condemnation – the scourge and judgment. Of this I bear solemn witness. I promise you that as you more diligently study modern revelation on gospel subjects, your power to teach and preach will be magnified and you will so move the cause of Zion that added numbers will enter into the house of the Lord as well as the mission field. I bless you with increased desire to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon, to gather out from the world the elect of God who are yearning for the truth but know not where to find it.

The Book of Mormon exposes the enemies of Christ. It confounds false doctrines and lays down contention. (See 2 Nephi 3:12.) It fortifies the humble followers of Christ against the evil designs, strategies, and doctrines of the devil in our day. The type of apostates in the Book of Mormon is similar to the type we have today. God, with his infinite foreknowledge, so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and know how to combat false educational, political, religious, and philosophical concepts of our time. Now God expects us to use the Book of Mormon in several ways. We are to read it ourselves – carefully, prayerfully – and ponder as we read, as to whether this book is the work of God or of an unlearned youth.

Anyone who has diligently sought to know the doctrines and teachings of the Book of Mormon and has used it conscientiously in missionary work knows within his soul that this is the instrument which God has given to the missionaries to convince the Jew and Gentile and Lamanite of the truthfulness of our message.

We do not have to prove the Book of Mormon is true. The book is its own proof. All we need to do is read it and declare it. The book of Mormon is not on trial – the people of the world, including the members of the Church, are on trial as to what they will do with this second witness for Christ.

It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path.

Speaking of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, President Joseph Fielding Smith said that “if we will put them into practice, if we will keep the commandments of the Lord, we will know the truth and there shall be no weapon formed against us that shall prosper. There shall be no false doctrines, no teaching of men that will deceive us… If we will search these revelations then we will be fortified against errors and we will be made strong.

There are some of my favorite quotes from the book so far and I’m only half way done with it. It’s been great to read it at the same time as reading the Book of Mormon.

I have been talking to Shelli a lot more lately. Mostly over messenger and TXTing and stuff, but it’s good to crack into her hardened shell of privacy, slowly but surely. Keep her in your prayers, not so much that things are not going well in her life, or whatever. I don’t mean to throw drama into that statement at all, other than she is in a stage of her life where every decision becomes huge and future altering and I hope she makes the right decisions as she goes. That’s it on Shelli. Hopefully you and she are exchanging good letters. I know she has been pretty into all of your mission stuff.

I sent a letter to Troy Thrush to see if he had gotten his call or anything yet. This is what I got back…

Hey Trav,

How are ya? well awesome to hear from ya.
Thats awesome about Mike.....i knew he got his call but i didnt know
he had gone already....im a bit behind all the way downunder. How long
ago did he leave? Yeh add me to the email list...that would be cool.
Well yep im back at home now....and have been home for about 3 and a
half months now. The transition of coming home was hard at first but
im still alive and am lovin life. So its all good now. Well i am
working on my mission papers at the moment and hope to put them in
within the next 2 weeks. I am so excited to go. I hope to leave by
december- january. Well the remainder of my time in the states was
aweome.....had souch a great time......i did have problems with
changing the status of my visa and therefore had to come home earlier
than expected.....but oh well im home and happy to be. I met a girl
the last month that i was there and she was great.....she actually
came over here for almost a month and it was great but i guess i got
to know the real her and didnt like it very much and decided that i
really should be focusing on my mission, so we broke up and she went
back to america.....and now i am focused.....it sounds bad but when
she left it was such a great relief and burden lifted.....the fact
that i didnt have to be held back from my mission anymore. I guess im
just bummed that i allowed that to happen.....cause hopefully i would
have my call already if we didnt date....but oh well its all about
learning. And also im not even 19 yet....well i will be in just over a
month. So now im just working full time and getting ready to go. I
really cant wait....so much that i go out with the missionaries here
alot.....im actually going to a discussion with them in about half an
hour.
well that means that i must finish up. well hope all is goin
well....let me know whats been goin on.....take care
Troy

I just updated your blog with a video of you snorting that mint ball. That is funny. What were you thinking? That was like me snorting “snuff” in Australia last year. Did I ever tell you about that? I’m listening to my new Audio Slave CD. Ahhhh yeah, it’s good.

So I actually put two more postings on your blog and saved them as drafts so I can turn them on whenever I want to. So I’m ahead of myself now. They are AWESOME! Not to mention, I did a page for you on the NC, Charlotte mission site. So you have a sweet pic up, some information and a link to see everything they want to know about you and more on your blog. It is a better page than most anyone on there. E. Leavitt doesn’t even have one up on there. What’s up with that? How long has he been out again? Well, it’s 1:00 AM now, so I’m really off to bed now. I have to wake up in 6 ½ hrs to get ready for church. Shelli is home safe and sound and already in bed. She beat me! Well, I have done some good for tonight. So I’ll sleep well in the cool weather. You could see your breath today at 3:00 PM, it has been nice and crisp here the last couple of days. I love it. My kind of weather. BYU lost in double overtime to Boston College today and the Utes CRUSHED USU up in Logan 48-0. The U played most of the game with their scrubs too.

Well, that’s it for this week. I am going to lose my 2^nd week in fantasy football to none other than John. It’s 73.5 to 104 right now and I just have Hines Ward to play tomorrow night. He’s not going to rack up that many points, so I’m giving up hope right now. Anyway, write back when you can and let me know how everything is going with your work and such. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Keep up the hard work.

Later,

Trav

Pictures from Charlotte

We got a bunch of pictures and videos from Mike this week, along with a good sized letter, so I will post several updates over the next several days. Here are the first pictures coming from Charlotte.

All of the missionaries that came in with Mike's transfer along with Pres. and Sister Hobbs in the Mission Home.


Mike and his MTC Companion, Elder Stephens, together for one last time at transfers.

Mike and his new trainer, Elder Kaden Leavitt, a member in the area, and Elder Leavitt's outgoing companion.


Elder Alexander, looking ready to go!

Pictures from Charlotte

All of the missionaries that came in with Mike's transfer along with Pres. and Sister Hobbs in the Mission Home.


Mike and his MTC Companion, Elder Stephens, together for one last time at transfers.

Mike and his new trainer, Elder Kaden Leavitt, a member in the area, and Elder Leavitt's outgoing companion.


Elder Alexander, looking ready to go!

Update from Rock Hill, SC

Mike sent a couple of letters since his last update. Although they were brief, they had some good information. He is enjoying his area in South Carolina. He is enjoying his new bike too, even though he wrecked on it the first day he got on it. He was riding down the sidewalk, not far from his apartment, going pretty fast and tried to take a sharp turn. His tires were a little bit flat and didn't handle the turn so he went down. Nothing serious by the sounds of it, but we might see some pictures soon.

He said he area is about 35 miles by 35 miles and goes as far North as Rock Hill, SC and as far south as Chester, SC. He like's his apartment which comes with AC so it helps with the heat and humidity. They ride their bikes pretty hard for a week and then get a car every other week.

That's about it for now. Hopefully we'll have some pictures from his area soon.

09/09/06

Elder A,

What’s new? I was over at Mom’s and Dad’s today installing their new all in one printer/fax/scanner/copier. It’s pretty nice! While I was there I was checking out your pic with the Pres and sister Hobbs. They look like good peeps. I was trying to determine where your area borders are to outline it on your map, but I don’t know the border streets and stuff so we can outline it. So send that info along in your next letter. I also rigged up Shelli’s TiVo while I was over there. She’s pretty excited to be rockin’ the TiVo in her room. I have been liking my upgraded one here too. I’m also finally syncing my iTunes with the Dark Angel. She’s filling up, but she’s not in a hurry. This has taken all day and then some. I get an error every once in a while, but I think it’s only when I leave my computer and it goes idle and drops off. I still have about 1300 songs left to sync. I need to go get an external drive to use as my back up to back all my pics and music on. I’ll have to do that soon. I’m so nervous about losing my tunes. So you want me to sync the iPod with all church music and send it out? What are you going to listen to it all on? Do you have speakers?

I had the day off today with pay. I worked some serious hours by the end of Thursday. Probably 50-60 hours at the end of Thursday, so my boss told me to take Friday off and not use any PTO. So that’s cool. A paid day off today. Not really, since I still gave the company 10-20 freebie hours anyway. But I made it productive. Not only rigging up the stuff at mom’s and dad’s, but I changed the oil in my truck. I changed all 4 brakes in the C-RV and I found 2 nails in the driver’s side front and 1 in the passenger side front. They only deflated at the rate that I’d have to put some air in them every other month. So they are pretty solid tires. I went and got those taken out and the tires patched anyway. Deposited some checks, did some shopping, managed to get in some TraVo watching too. So I felt pretty good about today. Now I’m even writing your letter while syncing the iPod and chatting with John. I still have a list the size of my arm I’ll have to continue tomorrow (Saturday).

I went and saw Invincible yesterday. The football movie with Mark Wahlberg. It was good. Got me amped for some football. My Steelers opened up the regular season against the dolphins. Hines Ward racked up some points for me, so I’m happy about that. I’m poised to beat Clint this week for an opening week win. Nothing worse than losing your first week, except for losing your first two weeks.

So can you print your letters off of the e-mail? If you can, then you should write a good letter that answers all my questions going back. I’m not getting answers to my questions. The time pressure sucks that you only get an hour for e-mail. The demands of letter writing can be pretty great though, I understand that. So just when you can.

What more can you tell me about your area? What can you tell me about your companion now that you have had more time to get to know him? What about your investigators or tracting experiences? It’s great that you love tracting. I told you how I loved it too and it is a rare breed that really enjoy doing it. But the harder you tract, the more contacts you rake in through tracting, the more respect you get from everyone especially your leaders and Pres. I broke the mission record twice tracting. I think I told you about that. Once with my 3^rd companion when I was only out 4 months and he was out 2. I replaced his trainer and we just ripped it up. We were both so new and hungry and ready to prove ourselves. We both ended up being AP’s together, he was the office AP and I was traveling. He told me that he was tracting a lot in his spare time in their little AP area and was going to make a run for our record. So I took this greenie I was on a split with that week and we ripped well over 200 solid contacts out of the day. I’d have to look back on my journal for the exact number, but it was a huge day of tracting. More than most peeps got in a week. I set the bar way too high for Walker to come near it again. Setting the record for the second time. I had the president telling me to take it easy on the greenies. I told the president that the greenie I was with will be the only one that sees that number as an attainable goal and make a run for that again some day. I broke him in right. So you should see what you can do to beat whatever tracting record you have out there. Set the standard that Elder Alexander is a tracting machine. He will tract your butt off if you get with him! He’s such a big time tractor; he’s a regular John Deere! Those will be the comments the mission will utter when your name comes up. And as a result, you will get in more, you will give away more books, and you will teach more discussions and you know what other number comes up with all those other ones do!?! How is your journal looking? Filling up nicely?

Mom said that John had some gift for me from you. But I haven’t seen anything yet. I called him per mom’s request and asked him about it and he said, Oh, yeah, I’ve got it at work. So I guess I’ll have to harass him to fork it over. So I’m not sure what it is yet or anything. Then I pressed him on the family pics and he finally sent those over via e-mail tonight. So we’ll have to develop those and send some out to you. They look nice. John and I are about to throw down on messenger again right now. He is trying to debate me on political issues again and say that I’m slipping to a democrat when I’m about as militant right winger as you can get and will always be more conservative than John on any issue. I get sick of his petty debates.

Only 400 more songs left on the sync. You never told me if everyone in both NC and SC are hard core Panthers fans. Oh, and your Blog site address is http://elderalexander.blogspot.com . get that out to all your peeps, both old and young, bond and free, happy and sad. Everyone needs to check it out. It’s awesome!!

I guess you didn’t have much effect from Hurricane Ernesto or whatever its name was?

I started reading the B of M like I told you I was going to. I’m around 1 Nephi 12 or 13 right now. It’s good getting back into that. The iPod finally just finished syncing. So now that it’s finally done, I’m going to go read and go to bed. It’s 10:20 after a busy day. So I’ll finish this up between tomorrow and Sunday. You will need a fantasy football update come Sunday night anyway before I send this Monday Morning. I’ll check you tomorrow.

Well, it’s Sunday night and I just finished watching the Mannings play each other in Sunday night football on NBC. They did a good job on NBC tonight. They have Al Michaels and John Madden and all the team, so they did good there. Anyway, I’m going to barely edge Clint if I’m lucky enough to even win. I’m going into Monday night football trailing by 13 pts. And have Shawne Merriman (LB for San Diego) and Antoine Winfield (DB for Minnesota). So I hope they both pull at least 7 pts each. Not much else to update you on until Monday night football finalizes things. So I’ll update you next week on everyone’s record. I’ll end it here so I can send this off and you can get it Monday morning. Hope things are going well. Keep bustin’ butt and knock your knuckles bloody. Work Hard, Pray Hard!
Love ya,

Trav

09/03/06

Elder Babs,

So how is your first Hurricane? Did it affect you much? Hurricane Ernesto? Did it even make it inland far enough for you to fee much of it? Or did you just get rained on with some winds? I got your letter the other day. I also have your e-mail address, so that’s cool. I’ll have to write you there just to save on postage. So do you get to print your letters and read them later? Or do you have to read them and then spend the rest of your hour typing? That’s not a lot of time to write. I know from my international trip trying to bust out as much letters as I could at the internet cafes as I could and it was never enough time. So tell me how that works. My letters will take at least a quarter of that hour just to read. So tell me how it works so I can strategize more effectively.

I thought I’d share my conquest of the week. I work close to a BK and I go there about 2 or 3 times a week. They all know me there and I have these coupons by the hundreds that give me a free whopper with the purchase of a coke and fry. So I always have to tell them that I have this thing at the drive through. Well, I always get the same girl at the window anyway, so this time I couldn’t bring myself to explain my coupon so I just thought I’d try something and I said, Yeah, I’ll take the Trav Special. I saw her look out her little window at me and then I heard her say, that will be $2.88. Pull forward. I was like YEAH, THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!! I asked her how she knew and she said I just recognized your voice, so I knew what you wanted. I didn’t know if I should be proud or embarrassed that they know me at Burger King and know what I would order. So I asked her if I could just order it like that from now on. She said sure, she has a couple of other customers that she knows their voice and knows what they want. One lady always comes and orders the $500 special. The girl knows to hook her up with a Chicken Salad. So it just works like that for the select few. So I’m stoked. I have my own super discount special waiting for me anytime I show up. You just can’t beat $2.88 for a Whopper Combo!

My Birthday was mostly un-eventful yesterday. I worked till 7:00 which sucked since I’m dealing with so much crap during this reconfigure. But Suzanne and I went to Famous Dave’s for dinner and that was good. The family is coming over for dinner and a party tonight, so that will be fun. Shelli might come early to watch Prison Break and Two a Days with me again since she forgot to record it again. She is going to buy my TiVo though so she won’t ever forget again. Don’t get too excited about me selling off my TiVo though. I’m going to double my capacity with the new Duel Channel TraVo that records two different channels at the same time while I watch a third show. It also doubles my capacity to record 80 hours rather than 40. So now I can watch as much TV in a week as I work in a week. I can also stop worrying about VCR recording a show while another one is recording putting an end to my dilemmas like Smallville and Apprentice showing at the same time. I have 3 or so of those dilemmas a week.

I think I’m going fishing with Johnny over labor day Monday. That will be fun. The fishing is getting good now with the cooler temps starting to settle in. Fish start beefing up again for the long winter so it’s hot action from now till it snows. I’ll have to snap some pics. Did you get some pics from Suzanne of the new kitten and stuff? I’ll have to take some more and send them along to your e-mail. I just updated you blog with the first video we have put on it. It is the video of the elder showing your teacher how to chop an apple in half using his two fingers and some karate chop action. It’s too bad it didn’t happen in one shot. But it’s still cool. You blog gets better the bigger it grows. I have 20 peeps on the mailing list that I send an e-mail to when it’s updated. Tell you companion to get me his family’s e-mail address if they want to stay up on it. I’m sure they would like updates on you just knowing that he is near by. They will see stuff about him anyway and of course only the appropriate stuff. It would be cool for them I bet, especially as I put pictures up. See what he thinks.

Brinlee started her Panda class this week. She seems to like it pretty well.

The NFL season kicks off this Saturday. I am excited to start my repeat run for the championship again. I’ve got the tools to help me rule once more. We’ll have to see how we get it started off. Portis is hurt and may not play this first game. That will hurt, but I have some good back ups and other starters that can carry the load. Are peeps there pretty big Carolina Panthers fans? What’s the buzz on them? Tell people that Steve Smith is a Ute and that is where you are from too. That will get you in some doors I bet. Hey, if I can get in a door and teach a 1^st discussion by BRT’ing from hearing Jane’s Addiction playing through the door, I think playing the Steve Smith card is in order. I’ll send you fantasy updates often so you won’t totally lose your fantasy edge.

Time now for the RANDOM SCRIPTURE OF THE MONTH: Job 27:3

Go ahead, look that up now, I’ll wait…

What do you make of that scripture?

I guess that’s one of the reasons we shouldn’t pick our nose. I don’t know how else to interpret that. But ponder that for a while and send me your thoughts.

I hope you liked that little segment. I may just keep the Random Scripture of the month going. If you like it, send it back to me and we’ll both do one a month or so. That might be a fun exchange. Then we can both pontificate on how we liken it to our own lives. Sound good?

We had the Fam-damily over last night for my birthday. I got hooked up with some decent swag. Mom and dad gave me a family home evening ideas book for young families which looked pretty good. A sign that says, Thank Heaven for Little Girls that we are going to hang up in the new baby’s room (that should give away what we are having unless mom or dad already did that). And then some cold, hard cash. Staci gave me a check for enough to drive to work one day. Shelli was part of the cold hard cash contribution that came from Mom and Dad, and Grandpa gave me some cold hard cash as well. Suzanne gave me a brad nailer for my air compressor. I will have fun with that. John said he has some big ol’ gift for me, which I don’t doubt. Dude is way too generous for his own good. I guess I’ll see what that is tomorrow when we go fishing.

Well, I guess I better send this off, we are heading to Suzanne’s folks for my birthday and then I need to go to work for a while to get stuff done since I’m off Monday for Labor day and I’m going to be firing fools from 4:30 AM Tuesday till I leave at 4:00 PM. Well, only 10 guys, but the rest have to get big pep talks to keep them motivated while all the head pressmen are getting axed. It will be a rough day. So I’ll catch you next week for your weekly letter. Keep my plugged in with all the latest scoop and pics/vids and make sure you answer all my Questions in my letters. It helps me juice up the Blog big time. What did you think of my war cry for you? Work Hard Pray Harder!? Well, do it.

OUT…

Trav