11/20/06

Elder A…

What’s new? What happened with Transfers? You have probably sent something home or I will find out on Monday when I get your e-mail, but I thought I’d just ask it anyway. I’m excited to hear. The whole family is on pins and needles about it. I was over and Ma’s and Pa’s yesterday reading your letter and dropping off a tape of Glenn Beck and an Everest expedition on the Discovery channel. I actually just ran out to my mail box a few minutes ago when I realized I hadn’t checked my mail from Friday or today. Oh, it’s Saturday at 7:26 PM right now BTW. So I just got your latest letter. It’s too bad that some of the other Elders aren’t as receptive to the horse latin. Their loss. They are just lazy and don’t want to learn it. I was glad to see that you got your Parker® refills just in the nick of time. Funny. Get this, I was at a Franklin employee only sale where they blow stuff out from the retail stores for next to nothing and I was rummaging through this odds and ends box. I found a couple of Parker® refills but these were special. They were the gel ink refills that fit any rollerball style pen. I was so freakin’ stoked, I almost wet my pants. I’ve never heard of these or seen them anywhere. I got two for a buck. If they had 20 packs I would have bought them all. But unfortunately they only had this one pack of two refills. So that was great timing since I sent you the last of my refills and would need some more soon. I’m going to keep looking around though. Make sure you let me know when you are running low on refills again. Dad was going to send some out, but they were generics that fit the Parker® pens. I was insulted and asked him to not blaspheme like that anymore. That’s like pulling into a gas station because you are almost out of gas and all they have it diesel. What are you going to do? Put that in your car cuz it’s all they’ve got? Or are you going to hold out till the next gas station to fill it with the right stuff? Anyway, I was glad I caught it in time before he just sent those out to you and gave him the Parker® brand refills instead. So did you get the speakers for White Boy yet? How is it listening to a new assortment of music? You will have more music than just about any missionary I bet. Let me give you the answers to the football quiz. You missed more than I did. I’ll put the teams you missed in Red. You just missed 3 more than I did.

1. ARMY INSECTS Giants
2. HOSTILE ATTACKERS Raiders
3. IRON WORKERS Steelers
4. 747'S Jets
5. KING OF THE BEASTS Lions
6. SEVEN SQUARED 49ers
7. OPPOSITE EWE Rams
8. LUBRICATORS Oilers (now the Houston Texans)
9. I.O.U.'S Buffalo Bills (you scratched out the right answer)
10. AMERICAN GAUCHOS Cowboys
11. VIRTUOUS PEOPLE Saints
12. CREDIT CARD USERS Chargers
13. FUNDAMENTAL RULES Vikings
14. BOY SCOUT CLASS Eagles
15. SIX SHOOTERS Colts
16. RELOCATOR HELPERS Packers
17. SUNTANNED BODIES Browns
18. USED TO BE A GIRL Bengals
19. DOLLAR FOR CORN Buccaneers
20. OCEAN GOING BIRD Seahawks
21. TRIBAL LEADER Chiefs
22. TRAINED TO HUNT Falcons
23. TOY WITH ARMS Dolphins
24. HOT EPIDERMIS Redskins
25. GOLDLILOCK'S FRIENDS Bears
26. RODEO HORSES Broncos
27. ROMAN SIX RULERS Cardinals
28. LOVE OF COUNTRY Patriots

I just had a productive day of end of season yard work. My yard looks immaculate now. The best in the neighborhood for sure. I mowed the lawn, edged the borders of the lawn, Leaf Hogged all of the leaves, trimmed up my ivy, blew every last ounce of debris left over into the street. There was a neighbor who told me I shouldn’t transfer the mess in my yard into the street. I told him to stop hatin’ just because he doesn’t have a blower and blew a few extra leaves in his direction. Ha ha ha. I’m a little like Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor that way when it comes to my tools. And if someone cops attitude with me for no reason, you can rest assured I am going to throw some ‘tude right back at them. It’s the Alexander way!

Thanks for Kyle’s number. I’ll give him a call for Turkey Bowl time. I’ll talk to Parker tomorrow at the family function at Beth’s too. See if he is going to join us for the yearly tradition now that he has come of age and size. I went to lunch with Johnny yesterday and was asking him about his Coke he ordered. He said, all he was going to do is negotiate with whoever else was playing line and tell them look, we can beat each other up for nothing or you can stand here and I can stand here and let the play happen. But if QB’s run then it’s game on. But no sense in senseless banging and bruising if the play isn’t coming to them anyway. I told him to quit laming out. I’m sure he wasn’t kidding either. What a bum! Brad’s clan ran a lot of options if I recall. So there will be plenty of action for the line. Hopefully I don’t Keel over and die on the field this year. I am truly too old and fragile for this now days. If I worked in a more physical job or did something more active more frequently, I’d feel a lot better about this. So you found my Swindy’s stories funny eh? I never find my experiences at Swindy’s funny. I hate that joint. The food isn’t even all that great. The spicy chicken is decent if they actually get it right the 1 in 5 times they do get it right. The fries are so limp and greasy and flavorless. I hate them.

So in your Pres. Interviews, what makes you think you are going to have a trial? What did you discuss? Do you take Doctrinal questions to your pres. In those interviews? My president welcomed Doctrinal questions at every interview. I used to save them up and have some deep discussions with him. He was a Doctrine Wizard. I loved talking shop with him and getting into some serious meat and potatoes of the gospel with him. You wanted me to give you more questions eh? How about this one… I’m in Mormon now and still blazin’ through el Libro de Mormón. Anyway, where I’m reading, in 4^th Nephi verse 14 And it came to pass that the *seventy and first year passed away, and also the seventy and second year, yea, and in fine, till the seventy and ninth year had passed away; yea, even an hundred years had passed away, and the ^adisciples of Jesus, whom he had chosen, had all gone to the ^bparadise of God, save it were the ^cthree who should tarry; and there were other ^ddisciples ^eordained in their stead; and also many of that ^fgeneration had passed away. I found that interesting that there were other disciples ordained in the stead of the dead disciples. So the authority continues for how long with the Nephites? And why did the apostles in Jerusalem not ordain more apostles after they died? Or did they? I can’t think of any, but I’m not a biblical scholar by any means. I think it’s interesting that there were 12 disciples ordained here in the Americas at the same time that there were 12 apostles in Jerusalem. And who knows? Maybe plenty more disciples ordained in other parts of the world or something eh? Since Christ said that he had other visits to make after the Nephites, right? Final question, if they were calling new disciples, did they continue to just call enough to fill 9 spots since the 3 Nephites were still living the whole time? What are your thoughts on the 3 Nephites? Were they removed from the Earth after Moroni or did they go dwell with the Lamanites under-cover? Depending on your answer, if they were still on the earth and were and are still here when Joseph Smith turned 14… why didn’t they just roll up to administer the rights of the priesthood and what not instead of sending P, J, & J? I’m guessing the 3 Nephites must have been relocated or called to a new “area” as it were. Who knows where either? Chapter 28 of 3^rd Nephi seem to leave a lot of leeway that they can come and go as they please, having power as the angels and probably the ability to travel to and fro like angels do. We know they will also be among the scattered tribes who are still lost to us, and that they are not bound by the powers of this earth. Hmmmmm, what’s that all about? Give me your thoughts on this whole thing when you get some time. I have plenty more topics and questions that we can discuss in future letters, so just like Netflix, when you have had a chance to finally view this and send me something back, then the next question will come just like the next feature DVD that you want to view.

What’s up with your investigators lately? What is the hold up on committing? Do they have some concerns you have to resolve first? Or are they just lingering as long as possible?

How’s your journal? Filling up? Are you still writing in it frequently? How close are you to actually filling it up? Are you going to need a new one any time soon? I have access to some super cool ones now at work. So let me know where you are in your current journal. What can we get you for Christmas? What are you in need of or just want? Think that over and let me know in the next letter or two.

Do you print all of my letters or just read them in the e-mail and then go about your bidness? Let me know that too. It may effect the way I write you.

Well, I’m tired. It’s almost 11:00 PM now on Saturday, so I’m going to bed. I’ll pick this up tomorrow as football gets underway and we have our family party at Beth’s. It will be interesting to meet Uncle Dave’s new girlfriend. No to warp the space time continuum… I’m going to stop for about 18 hours as I go sleep, get up, go to church, come home, eat lunch, watch some football and settle back in for some more letter writing. To you it will be a gap of time that it takes your eyes to move from this line…

To this one, it is now Sunday 9:30 PM. It’s been a super busy day today. So that was an almost 24 hour gap of time that you covered in half a second. That space time continuum is mind boggling, isn’t it? Well, I am taking a royal beat down by John right now. And I mean it’s ugly. Stick a fork in the Ghetto, cuz this team is DONE!! I just lost my stud WR for who knows how long. So that makes more than half my team now that has a red cross by their name. I’m dead! I’m going to send out a message board message conceding the season. It’s of no use anymore. Sorry to disappoint you. I know you are playing vicariously through my team. It’s a huge disappointment. Austin is going 1-10 this week. Sad. That is an even worse disappointment. Now I just need to focus on Turkey Bowl now that my Fantasy hopes are dashed. I’ll be organizing that tomorrow. I have been running like mad today. After church early this morning, I came home, ate lunch, went home teaching, then came home, watched some football, then went to work for almost 4 hours. I had to get payroll done today. It was either that or go in at 3:00 AM tomorrow morning, meaning a 2:00 AM wake up so that I could have it all in by 7:00 AM deadline. Normally I have till noon, but because of Thanksgiving this week and a paid day off the Friday after, they had an earlier deadline. So after work, I came home, ate dinner, hung out with Suz and Brins and put them both to bed, just to come down and finish this letter. I’m dog tired. So I think I’ll end this a little early. Early to me is still a full 4 page, single space, tight font letter. I like to bust out the 8 pagers. But it’s about all I’ve got tonight. I’ll make your next letter a little better after I hear back from you on Transfers. I still have lots of doctrine questions to drop on you and some other good stuff to come. One other addition that will be in each of your weekly letters will be a sweet Missionary Quote of the Week. Get this… while I was typing this, I got a myspace message from Kyle asking about the game. He has 3 guys who want to play too, so we are golden on numbers. We’ll have about 10 guys on our team and Brad’s clan will have about 10 too. It should be good times! I’m getting excited now! So I responded telling him yeah and that I’d call him soon with the details. I have a Doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning to deal with my migraines I’ve been getting a lot of. I’m out of my Immitrex now, so I need to get a new prescription and maybe some samples of other stuff. So I better get to bed soon. But let’s get back to that missionary quote of the week segment. You will get a new one of these every week.

Sometimes we have among our missionaries those who are afraid because of the fear of man, and if you permit yourselves to get that spirit of fear, the adversary will back you up. He will support you. Remember the Promise made: “and they shall go forth and none shall stay them, for I the Lord have commanded them” (D&C 1:5). There is no place for fear, because you can’t fail in this work if you do your part.

-Ezra Taft Benson

Now go do your part. Do it fearlessly. You are Awesome Mike. Thanks for doing what you are doing. I love you. I miss you like crazy. Especially this week. I have been having a hard time with it for some reason. Maybe cuz it’s Thanksgiving and Turkey bowl time. But I’m so proud of what you are doing and brag about you to just about everyone. Have a happy Thanksgiving. I know I have plenty to be thankful for this year. I know you will too. Talk to you soon.

Love,

Trav