11/03/06

Elder Opalopexopendoper,

How's your horse latin? You never told me if you were teaching your companion or getting other missionaries in on it. I'm at work and it's just about time to go home, so I thought I'd get started on this so I don't have so much writing to do on the weekend. It's only Wednesday too, so I'm getting an early start. Last night was Halloween and Brinlee had a blast. We went to our trunk or treat at the church and that is totally the way to go. I don't know how "Big Dog" your trunk or treat was as you put it, but ours was like a freakin' NFL tailgating party. It was HUGE!! I had big expectations and this blew them away. I couldn't believe how many people were there or how much candy Brins raked in. She brought in a haul. And it only took us around ½ hr. It was equivalent of 3 + hours of trick or treating and far less walking. I'm listening to EFY 2001 CD. It's DANG good! I haven't ever listened to an EFY CD before. I'm going to have to pick some up soon. I'm just hacked in to someone's computer in the corporation. That's the great thing about iTunes, it can find music files anywhere on a network and when you have tons of terabytes of storage in a corporate network, there is bound to be some stowed music files out there and there's actually hundreds of Gigs of music I have found. So today I'm mellowing out with some EFY. Good stuff. Anyway, Brinlee was such a pretty princess. We'll have to send some pics of that too. I think we owe you like 100 pictures by now of all I have been promising. Brinlee also did a parade at school. I think she really liked that. Seeing all of the kids in their costumes. Dad and Shelby came to our trunk or treat to see Brinlee in action. Mom was stuck working late, but came over to our house afterward for some donuts and treats and to see Brinlee in her costume. So Halloween was fun this year. We'll have a cute little baby dressed up as something cute to go along with Brinlee next year. That will be fun. Suzanne has been pretty miserable. We think this will be another big bounder. We seem to make 'em pretty big. So we'll see if we can beat a hefty 9 lbs 3 oz. which is one big babe!

It's November Yo! Can you believe that? I need to give up the pop already and get my butt on a treadmill and start whipping myself into game shape! I wonder how the game will be this year. I almost wouldn't be surprised if we didn't do it. But talking to Brad and his brother in law who we played against last year, they are all over it and have some new players who just got off their missions. So I'm going to have some slack to make up since they'll bring all their guys and more this year. Austin wants to play, but I'm so afraid he'll get hurt. Patt would never forgive me if I brought her baby back home with a cracked rip or chipped tooth or tongue half bit off or even a drop of blood on his clothes. I want to get Parker to play. He'll be a good addition. He'll represent the family well I bet. He's on a High School JV league I bet, so he'll be a killer receiver if whoever is QB can get the ball to him that fast and that far. That will raise the bar on the QB quite a bit. I bet he can lay a hit on some fool too if he wanted to. We'll have to see. I'm kind of excited to get all Urlacher on somebody this year too. That's my favorite part of the game. I could care less about trying to score. I would be peachy keen to leave the field and take a breather when we go on offense. Seriously. That's where I always get hurt too is when I'm on Offense and someone gets all Snickers Hungriest Player of the Game on me and tries to make some imaginary high light reel. Speaking of Urlacher, you are missing the Bears best year. You don't see a team that was like the 85 bears that were that defensively dominating, but I love watching the bears just for the defense. They are soo good man! Their offense is good too this year and can put up some serious points, but to let you know how dominating their Def. is, they actually have outscored their offense on a couple of occasions and that is saying a lot. Rex Grossman, their QB is going to the Pro-bowl, so he's no slacker, he is one of the best QB ratings in the NFL. So the whole team is more than likely superbowl bound. I don't think they have lost a game yet. But they are so great to watch just for the Defense. I have the Sports Illustrated that covers their Defense exclusively just cuz I'm so into their D. I'm not a SI buyer either! Urlacher is just a beat though! I have Lance Briggs on my team which is the other Inside Line Backer with Urlacher and he averages 10 fantasy points a game. Brown, their Safety is a stud too! In fact, everyone on the D is a serious stud.

Now to some scripture talk… I am sure you are right about the resurrection thing. I'm sure it's about the morning of the first resurrection, etc. that they are talking about. I am in Alma 60 now. So I'm blazin' through Alma. That's because I'm all over the Captain Moroni action and the other studs Teancum and Lehi and Helaman. Those guys were some serious war heroes. I will have a letter soon that will address my studies and ponderings on Captain Moroni and his company he keeps and my musings on leadership through the example of your hero. It will be a good one. You will want to print that one and possibly keep it handy. I don't have anything down yet, but I have a few thoughts in the back of my head that tell me I'm going to go all out on that letter. No effort will be spared on that. I may have footnotes and a bibliography in it if it goes to the level I think I may take it. When are your transfers? What day will you know if your trainer is going? How long has he been in "the Rock"?

Has anyone told you that I started calling Alex "Maynard"? Mom and Dad keep calling him Mike and he is starting to look a lot like you did with the blond poky uppy hair, so much so that I started calling him Maynard and it has stuck with everyone. Staci asked me if he is officially Maynard now and I told him now that you are all growed up and gone, he is the new Maynard. Daggers! I was on a good song there with the ol' EFY and the person logged off the network, so I lost it all the sudden. Going to someone else's library now. Going from EFY to Alien Ant Farm's rendition of Michael Jackson's "smooth criminal" is a little extreme, but it will have to do. Next up alphabetically on here is the All American Rejects. Do you miss your music? That was something that could throw me off pretty quick on my mission. If I caught a listen of some good music that I loved back home, my concentration could be thrown for a loop pretty quick. It wasn't ever temptation that I couldn't bare. Even in the car when we could listen to classical music stations, I was never tempted beyond what I could bare to tune in to some way good stations out there. I stayed good throughout. But I loved it when we'd go in a taco bell to eat and they had some sweet tunage going in there! Dirty Little Secret is on right now and Swing Swing is next.

Anyway, I'm at the end of 2 full pages right now and it's about that time to bust out. In fact, it's 5:15 PM so I should go brave the traffic and head home. Nooooo!! They just logged of now, so it's either chance getting jacked by someone else logging off soon after I find some good music, just bust out Dark Angel, or head on home. I guess I'll bust out. I have to be in to work at 5:00 AM tomorrow, so that means a 4:00 AM or earlier wake up. With it darker after daylight savings and the cold air in the morning, it makes it harder than ever to drag my old bones out of bed.

Oh, get this… Yesterday was our Town Hall Meeting. That's where the whole business unit gets together to report all the different division's goals, financials, etc. There are around 200 people in attendance at these Town Halls. I had to present at the last one last quarter. Anyway, They give away prizes if you pay attention through the 5 or so different divisions, they ask a question at the end of the presentation that they'll reward you with a prize if you get it right. So I answered one and what did I win?... 2 tickets for a hot balloon ride up in Park City! How sweet is that action?! I have always wanted to go on a hot air balloon. So now I will be able to. Well, it doesn't end there. They give away prizes to the superstars of the company, only 10-20 employees, all year get what they call a Summit Award for going above and beyond and being rock stars of the company. There are employees who have been here 15-20 years that have never won a summit award. Well, guess who gets called up there to score his summit award before he's even been here a year! Ahhhhhhhhhhh Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh! I was in shock. They started introducing it and when they said that we got this person from Snowbird and he negotiated a contract with Hirebridge saving us thousands of dollars per year and brought us into compliance with the EEOC in one swoop and all he has done for us in the Production and Manufacturing Division… I blurted out SHUT UP! Some people in the rows in front of me looked back to see what I was blabbing about. I was shocked. Then he said my name, and as everyone was clapping, I went up to get my certificate and check. I shook the hands of all the Vice Presidents and the President and CEO of the Company and collected my $750 dollar bonus check for getting the summit award. I get a nice crystal or glass trophy thing too with my name on it. Pretty dang cool. Did my lucky day end there? no, it was also our payroll lady's birthday, so I got a free lunch at Sizzler where I got all you can eat Salad Bar and a healthy chicken club sandwich combo meal. I could have had desert bar too since it was paid for, but I was stuffed. This was all on Halloween. Yesterday I guess. That seems like days ago already. Anyway, I'm psyched. I kept having people tell me that I should buy them lunch today. I even offered to take some of the management team to lunch today since we all go to lunch once a week and so we went but that's where my luck ran out. They took me to freakin' Wendy's. They ended up not taking me up on my offer, so I didn't buy them lunch, but I ordered a spicy chicken sandwich with cheese combo and guess what happened. Not only was my sandwich bare with hardly a mini square of lettuce, but they stiffed me on my cheese that I paid 50 cents extra for. I looked back at the 40 minute long line I just suffered through and decided to take it in the shorts like I always do at Swindys. But I am literally one more incident away from ever going back to Wendy's. I swear with an oath that if I get shafted one more time, no matter how miniscule the reason, I will be done with Wendy's and they shall be as dross to me. When Dave Thomas died, so did Wendy's. Well, I'm going to bust home and see my girls. The traffic should have died down just a bit by now, it's 5:36 now, so I think the main surge is about done.

When am I going to get your photo card to take some pictures off of? What else do you want me to put on your Blog these days? We have been doing some mission profiles which is pretty cool. Seeing pictures of peeps missions and hearing about their experiences and seeing the dates and missions that they went. I'm doing one a week. It's cool. I think you'll like your Blog when you get home. Ahhhight Choch, I'm headin' home. Back to this letter soon.

Well, so much for getting back soon. It’s Friday night 10:00 PM now. I have a bad head cold coming on too. I fought it last night and I took the bet meds for it today at work. It’s alleve cold and sinus. One tablet lasts 12 hours. In fact, exactly 12 hours. I told Suzanne that it worked all day but it’s wearing off now. She said what time did you take it this morning. I said about 8:00. She said well, it’s 8:00 and sure enough it was like 8:03 on the microwave clock when I looked. Funny. Those scientists know what they are talking about. Speaking of being sick… I went to our wellness fair at work and had a bunch of stuff tested. I’m not in great shape apparently. I had my eyes tested first and got the only bit of good news from that station that I would get all day. I don’t have glaucoma. They did the poof of air test in my eyes. It was so hard trying to look at the green dot and keep my eye lids open knowing what was coming. The anticipation is the hardest thing of that test. Then I had my blood drawn and found out my HDL and LDL cholesterol levels are too high. My triglycerides are high too. So there’s some reason to be concerned. Then I had my blood pressure tested and the girl got the reading, paused, looked at my sheet to check my age again and then looked at me and looked at my sheet again. She said “are you stressed out a lot?” I said only every day. She said, “well quit it. It’s going to kill you before you turn 40.” I said are you serious? She said yes and she was looking at my like I was having a heart attack right then and there. So with that I went and had my pulmonary lung capacity test. That’s where you blow in the tube as hard and fast as you can and then keep blowing tell she tells you to quit. Well, I blew and she looked at the results and said, ummmmm, let’s have you do that one more time. So I did it again and felt even better about that one. She still looked at the meter with bewilderment and said, OK, I want you to do it one last time. 3^rd time is the charm. Everyone else did it in one blow. I wondered what was up. So I did it a 3^rd time and she looked disturbed. She asked me, do you have asthma? I was like, Oh Great! What else could I find out today. I said, well, I used to. She said, what do you mean you USED to. I said “you’d never believe me.” She said try me. So I told her when I was a teenager, I had asthma and went to all these doctors. They’d prescribe these inhalers and nothing worked. I finally went to a doctor that taught me this self hypnosis trick and I’ve been able to control it ever since. So much that I fix it subconsciously and never even feel the effects anymore.” I had some employees behind me in the line that we like NO WAY! I said, Yeah, actually, I can do the same technique and cure my hiccups. I told them I never get the hiccups anymore because I just fix it subconsciously so I only have one hiccup ever and usually have one a day around the same time of day. The nurse said I hear about this all the time. And the fact that you can cure your hiccups makes you one of the 11% who can do that. She has heard of a small number of people curing other things like hiccups with that kind of technique. So I guess I’m not as original as I thought. Well, she said that my lung capacity is below the lowest level that I should be at. I only have around ¾ lung function. That was depressing. She told me it was something I should look into and start working on or I won’t be able to breathe at all when I get older and would have to be on oxygen. Wow! What other good news could I go scare up? Well, I went and talked to our hand and orthopedic doctor who does a lot of our wrist and hand and finger injuries on my employees. I told him I’ve been getting these weird stingers lately in my wrist and forearms when I pick up my heavy briefcase or close a door or something that strains my wrist. He looked at my arms briefly and profiled me exactly. He said he could tell I was right handed just by feeling my forearms. He said I have some of the most defined forearm muscles he typically sees. So there was a much needed stroke to the ego at just the right time. Then he said I bet you grip your pen pretty tight when you write. I said I pretty much crush it. He said I bet your hand writing is pretty small. I said very! He said I bet this hurts when I do this and he applied just a little bit of pressure in the middle of my right forearm. I almost buckled at the knees. I said Yeah! He said I can see the problem right here. You have a strained medial ligament right here. You could see it. And in fact, I still can see it poking up. I don’t have it so much in my left arm. Just the right. But he massaged it for a minute and it kind of went away. He said I had excessive clicking in my wrist and way too much range of motion for the normal wrist. The glide and motion in my wrist along with the clicking is my carpal tendons rubbing on my something something which was the technical term for my wrist bone. So I have early signs of carpal tunnel coming on. He said I might have to start wearing guards and get into a therapy routine to fight off the impending carpal tunnel syndrome. He told me to have my wife massage my arm for ten minutes a night. I said, will you write that down on your script pad there, she’ll never believe me if I tell her it’s just what the doctor ordered. He picked it up and asked me if I was serious. I told him I was kidding, but maybe I wasn’t really. Anyway, he wanted to test my grip strength and had me squeeze this grip gauge. I squeezed it and he took a double take and said, well at least your grip strength shows you are OK right now. You have the grip strength of someone double handing this thing and squeezing with all they have. I have 133 pound grip strength. Ahhhhh yeahhhhh! Still got the missionary handshake there. I’m thinking of contacting Arnold Frieberg and asking him if he needs any forearm models for his next Book of Mormon Hero painting. Those guys always have ripped arms! I might as well show it off while I’ve got it. I’m sure they will atrophy as soon as I get surgery and go into braces that don’t allow me to move my wrists at all. So there you have it. I’m going to be in wrist braces, with oxygen tubes running to my nose, a pace maker, and eating oatmeal the rest of my life, but at least I’ll be able to see myself deteriorate and die before I’m 40 because I don’t have glaucoma! Life is great! Who am I kidding trying to play Turkey Bowl football this year? I’m going to stroke out and collapse as I run down the field on the opening kick off. At least that will prevent me from cracking any more ribs this year.

Brinlee is getting really excited about her birthday. She is also excited about turning 3. She thinks that is pretty big. She was so into birthday stuff tonight and just couldn’t wait that she had a nuclear meltdown when we told her she’d have to wait till next week for her birthday cake. I mean, inconsolable. I had to cut a chocolate donut she didn’t know about into a slice that looked like a small piece of cake and put a little white candle in it and lit it for her and we sung happy birthday to her and she was smiling from ear to ear. She loved that! But we told her we couldn’t do that again until her real birthday in a week. She wants a Tinkerbell birthday this year. We can’t find a tinkerbell cake or anything anywhere. So I don’t know how we’ll meet her request of a tinkerbell cake. She has tinkerbell party hats that she’s pretty excited about.

So how is your football quiz going? I haven’t seen anything back yet. No help from your companion either. You are on your own like I was. What did you do for Halloween? Do anything fun? Or just go to the trunk or treat? John has been with his girlfriend non-stop lately. Just after we had that lunch saying he was going to dump her. Dude is WHIPPED! I never get any updates cuz he’s always suckin’ face, so I don’t know how things are going. I send him a TXT and ask here he’s been hiding himself all day and all I get is a reply saying w/ Lynn Marie. That is all I get from him all day, all night. No other details. So what are you gonna do?

So what else is going on with your area? Companion? Mission? Investigators? Lessons being taught, etc.? I need more scoop. What else do you want to know about home life?

Well, it’s 11:00 PM now and that’s all the time I had allotted to the letter for tonight. I need to get to bed, this cold is wiping me out. I’ll catch up tomorrow after my Saturday chores. OUT for now.

OK, it’s 9:00 AM on Saturday morning now. I had a good sleep although I’m still fighting this head cold I got. What were we talking about? Oh, just asking how your mission is going… Have you had any struggles in particular? Feel like it’s hard to get any work going? Or feeling frustrated by lack of interest? I think I felt that early on. I thought I should be teaching tons of people like the south American missionaries do, but I figured out that I liked my kind of mission better. I liked being a hunter more than a fisherman. One that had to go searching, hiking, scouting for one glimpse at a nice 375 plus score Elk to call in and work for. The challenge of working that hard I think added more character and reward than the 50 baptisms a month or whatever they get in those other countries. I appreciated it much more. I found a scripture in genesis that was interesting in the way it was put, that God cursed the ground for their sake. (Genesis 3:17) and I thought that sounded counter-intuitive. Why would God “curse” the ground for their sake? Why would that benefit them. It said Adam had to toil by the sweat of his brow and fight noxious weeds and briars, etc. That hardly seems cool. But the more I gained that perspective on my mission that I really had to work for this stuff, really had to get out there and knock doors night and day and pound the pavement, endure racist comments, and persecution, stand in puddles of urine and crunch the crack viles in project elevators just for one appointment that was more than likely going to be in a cockroach infested room that smelt like B.O. and booze. But that is the kind of stuff that builds character and refines you as a missionary. You will be more tempered by the refiner’s fire and become so much more effective as your mission goes on and you learn to work the ground that has been cursed for your sake. Work with what you’ve got. Play the cards you have been dealt, and thank Heavenly Father for every test you get thrown at you and learn every aspect you can from each and every challenge that comes your way. It will bless you through your whole life as you log those challenges in your journal. Some day in 15 years, you will read back on some experience that will apply to a particular challenge you are facing in the “real world” and think, this is nothin’. Look at what I did in N.C. and how I got through that. I can handle this, no problemo!

I took at snippet out of the July Ensign that said “Serving a mission is not easy, but it is worth it. I can’t describe how important and profitable it was to my life. My two-year mission instilled in me leadership skills and teaching skills and showed me how to be a better friend, son, and member.” After returning home on July 17^th, 2002, this guy that they are referencing was able to find a job that improved his quality of life. His testimony had been strengthened, and he felt better prepared to deal with the challenges of life. It’s amazing the skills that you are developing for the future that you don’t even consider right now. The opportunities that will come to serve in leadership positions and training, etc. and the way you prepare for lessons and teach those are giving you mad skills for career, church callings, being a good husband and father, etc. etc. etc. So keep absorbing everything you can out there. Every day brings new opportunities. As you continue your service as a missionary, or as you lose yourself more and more in the work, you are blessed with more opportunities and blessings. (this is another snippet from the same ensign. It was a good ensign.) Thus, as we devote ourselves to the service of God and our fellow beings, we are endowed with “power from on high” (D&C 20:8) That’s something every missionary could use a little more of huh? (See pretty much all of Alma Chapter 29.) What a great chapter! I’m sure you have had the same desires as Alma has here on several occasions.

Staci is bringing Maynard by at 3:00 today for us to baby sit. Not sure what they are doing. I just put some more music on Dark Angel today. There’s no going back to White Boy for me now. I have reached the point of no return. I have exceeded the capacity of white boy in music alone. Crazy huh? So when you come back and re-claim Dark Angel, I’m going to have to sell White Boy and buy a 60 or 80 gig. Shoot, by that time, they will have 160 gig nanos for sale. Mini bounders with double the capacity of the new big boys. Here is the new fantasy football standings…

Week:

1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005

Team	W	L	T	PCT	GB	Strk	Wks	PF	Back	PA
Ghetto Fabulous	7	1	0	0.875	0	W6	1	825.5	0.0	698.0
Jake's G-Men	6	2	0	0.750	1	W4	1	812.5	13.0	706.5
The Bradiators	5	3	0	0.625	2	W1	2	812.5	13.0	739.0
Ice Cold	5	3	0	0.625	2	W2	0	785.5	40.0	717.0
Baybaz Ballaz	5	3	0	0.625	2	L1	2	749.5	76.0	746.5
Hip Waders	4	4	0	0.500	3	W1	1	738.0	87.5	690.0
Silent Assassins	3	5	0	0.375	4	L2	0	781.5	44.0	804.5
Uonlywish Choppers	3	5	0	0.375	4	L1	0	644.5	181.0	787.5
Money in the bank	1	7	0	0.125	6	L4	1	739.5	86.0	806.0
Buffalo Wings	1	7	0	0.125	6	L2	0	564.5	261.0	758.5

As you can see Ghetto is a full game ahead of Johnny’s G-Strings and I play the Bradiators for a tough test this week. We’ll see if I can knock them down another notch. I’m 4 games ahead of Silent Assassins which is about as close as I want to get to his team. They are dangerous. That is a deceptive standing for hm. He’s only 44 pts behind me. So I’m not going to underestimate him. I’m only favored by 8 pts over Bradiators this week. So I’m a little nervous. I’m playing some weird combos too. Not used to playing a couple of players I have in the starting line up. So I’m leery of my team. We’ll see though. You’ll get an update tomorrow as the scores start coming up. That’s why I always send these off on Sunday nights.

Well, It’s 8:23 PM Sunday night. I lost to Brad 110.5 - 108.5. Yep, 2 points. What a heart breaker. I kind of knew I was going to lose this week for some reason, so I have already accepted my fate. I will retain my number one spot anyway I think based on points. So that’s that. I get Shaun Alexander back in the line up this week. I’ve been undefeated without him the whole time. Now he’s back and I should be back in the hunt.

I hope everything is going great. Write back as soon as you can and fill me in on some good scoop. Get me some good stuff I can put on the blog. I haven’t done a good update in a while now. Write it as if you were writing to all your peeps. You are approaching 2000 hits soon. So you have a good fan base. They need to hear from you personally on there. So make it good. I’ll put it word for word from where you tell me.

Keep up all the good work. Send some pictures soon.

Love and miss you.

Trav