10/28/06

Yo Boyo,

What’s up in the NCCM? It’s Saturday night, 11:14 PM and time to get crackin’ on my weekly letter. I went to my mailbox with much anticipation every day this week since Monday your letter said that you’d be finishing up my snail mail and sending it along. But imagine my disappointment when all I get is bills, junk mail, and lame ads. That’s alright, take your time, I want some good detail of Captain “Hard A” Moroni and some juicy details of what else is going on. I am actually reading about him now. So it will be timely when I get it. Another busy week at work is done and now I go into an even busier weekend. That’s how life goes I guess. We took Brin-Muffin to a Trunk or Treat at Monica’s ward. She is a Princess and looks way cute. I’ll have to send pictures. We have one at our ward on Halloween, but it’s not sponsored by our ward. Our Stake President has outlawed them for some reason. Maybe too much liability or something. Regardless, it’s a good thing. It’s the biggest draw to non-members and less actives out of any other activity all year long.

John has been in San Francisco all week. His girlfriend was out there will him for a few days. But flew home early. I haven’t talked to him much, so I don’t have much more scoop than that. I might take Brinlee to a movie tomorrow. I have more sneak preview passes to the new movie by the makers of Wallace and Grommit. This one is about mice though. It looks cute enough. Brin will like it. I need to finish hanging out new blinds in the house too. I got all new blinds to replace our ratty old aluminum ones that were nicotine stained. Bout time eh? They are so expensive though. But at least they are nice to go with the new windows. What the…Austin just signed in and it’s 11:25 PM.

Here are the Fantasy stats so far…

Team	W	L	T	PCT	GB	Strk	Wks	PF	Back	PA
Ghetto Fabulous	6	1	0	0.857	0	W5	1	697.5	20.0	601.0
Baybaz Ballaz	5	2	0	0.714	1	W1	2	682.5	35.0	654.0
Jake's G-Men	5	2	0	0.714	1	W3	0	680.5	37.0	622.0
The Bradiators	4	3	0	0.571	2	L2	2	717.5	0.0	653.5
Ice Cold	4	3	0	0.571	2	W1	0	658.5	59.0	620.0
Silent Assassins	3	4	0	0.429	3	L1	0	684.5	33.0	677.5
Hip Waders	3	4	0	0.429	3	L1	1	645.5	72.0	623.0
Uonlywish Choppers	3	4	0	0.429	3	W1	0	560.0	157.5	655.5
Money in the bank	1	6	0	0.143	5	L3	1	642.5	75.0	678.0
Buffalo Wings	1	6	0	0.143	5	L1	0	479.0	238.5	663.5

So you can see I have a full game lead on Baybaz and Johnny’s teams that are breathing down my neck. Bradiators have the high score, but I’m only 20 behind. My big Bye week was last week and I put up 120+ pts. So it’s all down hill from here and should be easier. We’ll see though. Challis is coming on strong after a bad start and he’s an endurance team, who probably would have stolen my championship if he only had an extra game or two last year. Look at that 5 game winning streak though! That’s what I’m talking about! I play Austin this week who is only 1-6. but that’s pretty deceiving. He has put up some big points lately. My team likes to lose to the loser teams too for some reason. Hopefully I can keep it together this week. I’m only favored by 9 pts.

Here is a quiz Staci sent me. I missed 4 of them. See how you do… fill in the NFL team by the matching description: Go ahead, fill them in with the Parker® right now…

1. ARMY INSECTS
2. HOSTILE ATTACKERS
3. IRON WORKERS
4. 747'S
5. KING OF THE BEASTS
6. SEVEN SQUARED
7. OPPOSITE EWE
8. LUBRICATORS
9. I.O.U.'S
10. AMERICAN GAUCHOS
11. VIRTUOUS PEOPLE
12. CREDIT CARD USERS
13. FUNDAMENTAL RULES
14. BOY SCOUT CLASS
15. SIX SHOOTERS
16. RELOCATOR HELPERS
17. SUNTANNED BODIES
18. USED TO BE A GIRL
19. DOLLAR FOR CORN
20. OCEAN GOING BIRD
21. TRIBAL LEADER
22. TRAINED TO HUNT
23. TOY WITH ARMS
24. HOT EPIDERMIS
25. GOLDLILOCK'S FRIENDS
26. RODEO HORSES
27. ROMAN SIX RULERS
28. LOVE OF COUNTRY

Let me know how you did in your next letter.

I guess Preston went back out. Are they counting it as if he’s been out the whole time? Or is his time starting over now so he comes home a couple months later?

I was out tossing some boxes from my blinds I’m installing and my next door neighbor was out tossing trash too. So I said hi and went over to talk to him. We don’t talk that much, but he’s now one of my home teaching families. They kind of asked that home teachers don’t come over anymore before I was made his home teacher, so I’m just supposed to do neighbor visits instead of home teaching appointments. So I talked with him for about 15 minutes and all the sudden all these sirens and flashers come into the neighborhood. A fire truck, an ambulance and two cop cars come rushing down the road. So we decided to go check it out. Around the corner from us, they carted out the neighbor on the gurney. But we don’t know what was up. We had a nice walk though and talked the whole time, so it made for a nice visit and boding time. I asked if he new the families in each of the houses as we walked down the road. I helped him learn names of all those families and told him about them. Since they are all members. His family is pretty anti-social, so it was good to tell him names and a little about each family.

Well, I have some fun activities in this letter that I’ll get to later and some other good stuff, but I’m dog tired. I’m going to crash, but I’ll write more tomorrow. OUT.

Ahhhhhhhhight, it’s Saturday night, 11:00 PM, so I’m sticking to the late night theme, but we had a busy day today. I took Brinlee to that movie this morning. She liked it a lot. I thought it was dumb, but it’s all good. We were at Patt’s tonight for the annual pumpkin carving contest. I busted out the dremel of course. No sense in tiring out the ol’ arm muscles when you can let technology do the work for you. It was pretty fun. I did two of them. I was just upstairs getting the punkin seeds cleaned and now they are cooking. I love cooking my punkin seeds every year. I make some killer seeds. Do you like Punkin seeds? Do you want me to send you some?

So I put together a little name survey. I’m not sure if your e-mail will let you go to the survey itself, so if it does, take it online so it will measure the results for me. But if not, take it here and let me know if your next e-mail or letter what you think…

Baby Pool and Name Contest

1 How much will the baby weigh? Pounds Ounces 2 When will the baby be born? Month Day Year Time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 00:00 00:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:30 3 Please let us know which names you like best and which ones you don't like at all by ranking them here. 1 being your favorite and 1st choice, 10 being the name you like least. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Ainslee Ashlyn Bailee Chloe Ellee, Ellie Kendra Kendellyn Kimber Lyndee, Lindee Remee, Remi, Remie Taryn 4 Put any suggestions you might have here. If we end up using a name you recommend, we will reward you handsomely! If you have a preference of spelling on any name, put that down here as well. 5 Please include your name. Name: Company: Address: City: State: AB AK AL AR AZ BC CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MB MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NB NC ND NE NF NH NJ NM NS NT NU NV NY OH OK ON OR PA PE PQ RI SC SD SK TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV WY YT Zip:

I’m not sure how this will turn out in the e-mail. But we’ll see. If it doesn’t work, I will print it and mail it to you via snail mail.

Get it back to us either way and let us know what you like best and your guess on weight and date. I was kind of surprised what Dad liked, based on what I know about names Dad likes, but it was cool to get his survey back first. I have only got his back so far. I’m really surprised about that too since he is the least computer and internet savvy person in all of the 53 surveys we sent out.

I enjoyed your take on Moroni. I have been thinking the same stuff on the specifics since I have been reading in that section of Alma now. It is way impressive that he took over such a responsibility by the time he was 25. That is something that anyone could and should aspire to. I love how strategically minded he is, I love how passionate he is where if liberty were threatened, he would tear off his coat, rent it and make a flag out of it. Put on his armor and call everyone to put their lives on the line to go knock some heads together. I also love how merciful he can be. When he has someone by the short hairs like he had Amalakiah and gave him so many chances before they painted the ground red with their blood. But believed in Justice the same as mercy where he would paint the ground red with the Lamanites blood if they threatened their liberty or would not swear an oath of peace. It amazes me how serious they all took their oaths back then. Doesn’t it you? Where they would let them live and leave if they would swear an oath not to return to fight the nephites. These days, every one of them would swear that oath to save their butts, then leave, then all of them would come back to fight another day. I wish we had an honesty system like that where we could rely on people’s word like that. Like you, I also think one of the coolest compliments anyone ever got in the scriptures is Moroni’s compliment where if more men were like him, the gates of hell could not stand against them and the devil himself would have no more power over anyone. I love that. Speaking of something to aspire to!!

Let me drop a little doctrinal question on you here. Alma 40:5. Alma is having some sit downs with his sons and he’s talking about the Resurrection with Corianton. He drops something I’ve never picked up on until this time through the B of M in 40:5 and it is something that popped in my mind like a week before I read this that I wonder if we are all only resurrected once. I have no idea why that thought came in my head. I have no idea why I would even consider it. I thought it wasn’t all that pertinent to my salvation, so I let it go, but then I read this and was like … What the? … I have never seen this here before. So what do you think there? It isn’t answered, it’s not really even questioned, but the possibility is presented here and no where else in scripture as far as I know. What are your thoughts? Or am I interpreting this scripture wrong?

4 Behold, there is a time appointed that all shall ^acome forth from the dead. Now when this time cometh no one knows; but God knoweth the time which is appointed.

5 Now, whether there shall be one time, or a ^asecond time, or a third time, that men shall come forth from the dead, it mattereth not; for God ^bknoweth all these things; and it sufficeth me to know that this is the case—that there is a time appointed that all shall rise from the dead.

I guess mom and dad are just waiting for Shelli to bring the charger over for White Boy, so they can send everything off. I brought a couple of Parker® refills over too, those have been waiting for a while. In fact, they have been waiting for a long while. I bought a big shipment of them at the end of my mission because they were blowing them all out at next to nothing. These are a couple of the few I have left. So hopefully they are still good. I’m sure they are, after all, they are Parker®. Let me know if you have any problems though.

I don’t get that Green Broke stuff, but whatever. It’s cool to take over an area after your trainer leaves you. You will experience a lot of growth when you get a new companion and have to show him the area, your gators, etc. You get ousted from your comfort zone since you could always lean on your trainer to tell you what was up, or let’s do this or that, etc. Now you have to be that guy. It’s good you had the kind of trainer you had. He has given you a good start to be off and running in the right direction. Don’t sweat being young and green though. I think you ought to strive to keep that humble approach that greenies have as long as you can. You can and will always learn something new from every companion. So don’t forget, if it isn’t green, it doesn’t grow!

I was actually sweatin’ it when I knew I’d be taking over my first area and my trainer would be moving on. I didn’t get a good start on my area. My trainer was a slacker. He went apostate shortly after my hernia surgery. He never could figure out how to utilize his time effectively. He could have gone on splits so our area didn’t stagnate for the two weeks I would be in bed. He never did do any splits. He also could have at least studied or read or done something productive personally. But he never did. I didn’t feel like I had a good handle on the area and was a little worried with a new comp. coming in. That transfer call night is when I had my “get thee up to the mountain” sort of feeling and went up to the Roof of our building there in middle of Harlem. Sat up there by myself with all the noise of traffic, horns, subway rumbling under the grates on the sidewalks below, a gun shot here and there, yelling, bass from cars booming, etc. and then had one of the coolest spiritual experiences of my entire life.

K, well, I think I’m going to wrap this up and send it off so I can get to bed early tonight. It’s only 5:19, but I’ve been up so late lately. I think I’ve easily beat Austin. I’m up by 50 pts. Right now but he has 3 players left. Sure, they only average about 10 pts between all three, but it’s possible for him to come back I guess. This is going to sit me pretty in the standings since a couple of the top teams are going to fall this week. We’ll see.

Looking forward to hearing from you again soon. I hope all is going well, I hope the work is progressing in your area and that you are having a great time in the service of the Lord. Don’t let him down even the slightest bit. I’m proud of you and what you are doing. I miss you like crazy, but life goes on.

Love ya,

Trav