01/28/07

Elder A,

What’s new? I went to Ma’s and Pa’s yesterday and read your letters to them and to Staci. I brought mine over too so they could read that, so it was good times. Dad bought us Pizza. It was just us and Staci and Ajax. Suzanne was at her folks house. It was low key and fun. I used their scanner to do some pics for the blog too. After reading your letters, with the requests to tie me up and drag me to a photo center, I have downloaded my latest pics of the girls (Mostly Aynslee) so that we can get some copies out to you soon. So look for them in the not too distant future. Well, I got my Urlacher Jersey ready to wear to Johnny’s Parents house for the annual superbowl party. I can’t wait. It will be a great game against the colts. But you know that I’ve been a big supporter of the bears this year. So I’m all for them winning it.

I finally finished the new dresser just before I sat down to start this letter. It’s 3:30 PM on Saturday. Man, that thing was a project and a half. It would have taken me just as long to build a brand new one from actually lumber in a wood shop. It’s crazy how long that took. Anyway, now I have to move the other one out of Aynslee’s room and into ours for Suzanne. I’m just downstairs cooling off right now cuz I’m sweating like crazy after the build. I need to get Minka to a Vet and get her spayed. She’s in heat now and Brinlee is wondering what all the peculiar behavior is about. She sputters and mewwws and pokes her butt up in the air and Brinlee says that Minka is sad. So we need to get that worked out soon, but the soonest we can get her in for that is the 26^th of Feb. She’ll be out of heat before then and it’s still going to cost us over 70 bucks. What’s that about?

Well, let’s see, what do I need to catch you up on? Did I ever get you up to speed on my court appearance? I don’t think I ever did, did I? Well, we showed up downtown at the court building, and we all met out in the hall way outside the court room. We had 10 witnesses for his Zero witnesses. He requested that we all remain sequestered meaning that we had to all wait in the hall way until it was our turn to testify and then we could stay in if we wanted to. Well, one by one, everyone went in and it finally got to my turn, the last person to be called in, so I didn’t get to see any of the action. I was sort of the nail in the coffin testimony. But I wanted to see all the good action in there. I guess he got pretty upset in there and was pretty rattled by our attorney. He accused us all of lying when our attorney asked him to explain how ten witnesses all contradict his testimony. That was his response. They are all lying! Ha ha. He was giving me the death stare while I was on the witness stand. His attorney was the stereotypical bumbling doofus that you see in the movies when you get the cheapest lawyer you can find. He was fumbling through his notes, he was super old and cranky, he kept looking at his watch. Then he’d ask the most irrelevant questions. For instance, I’d finish with a statement that I am the HR Generalist for FranklinCovey and I’d go over some of my responsibilities. Then he’d do his notes search and look at his watch, then scratch his gray tresses and then ask me, so what you are telling me, is you are the HR person that is in charge of the HR responsibilities there. Is that correct? I’d say yes, that is correct. Then he’d say, can you restate your name for the records, and I’d say Travis Alexander. Then he’d search his notes again and say in an all knowing voice with a slight chuckle. We have not further questions your honor. I wasn’t sure if he was going to ask me if it’s true that I like to eat Cold Cereal or if I sometimes watch TV. But that’s how it went with every witness. His case was so weak. But then I asked our attorney at the end of the case what he though our chances of winning were and he gave it a 60% chance. Crazy huh? It’s because in the State of Utah, if it is medically related, which in this case it is with him trying to get his worker’s comp, even though he has holes all throughout his story, the judge makes a tentative decision and sends it to a medical panel, which is a randomly selected doctor or group of doctors and they review the evidence and medical records of what the doctors from each side found. We have 4 or 5 doctors who have concluded this injury is caused by repetitive heavy lifting like weight lifting (he’s a body builder) so it was obvious that it’s a result of all his heavy lifting just like he told a few of our pressmen. Anyway, since he found a doctor that said it could be a result of a work injury like he’s trying to claim. So when there are contradictory doctors findings, it goes to a random panel and then it’s those doctors decision and the judge will usually rule that way since the judge is no medical professional. So we are just slightly better than a 50/50 here. That is stupid. The funny thing is he hasn’t been working for almost a full year now and this is going to take 6 months to a year for a decision. He is just holding out for a free payout, but he’s gotta be out of money soon. His girlfriend is supporting him and their daughter. He’s such a bum. Now to keep up the image, he has to stay home still and not work because he knows our attorney has put him under surveillance. Ha ha. What a chump. So now he’s going to sit there on his can for another year and then be turned down anyway and he’s already lost all of our other cases now, so he’s going to not work for two years all for nothing. That’s when he’s really going to go postal though. We will be in trouble then. He is so desperate right now.

Well, I’m going to go take a shower and head to Johnny’s for a bit to take him his Christmas gift I never gave him and pick up my CD of 24 and Prison Break. My TraVo took a dump this week. I’m so bugged. I’ll tell you all about that when I get back and get back into this…

Ahhhhhhhight, I’m back. So yeah, I came in from work late Monday night (actually from Café Rio after work cuz I had dinner with Marnie, Clark, Brad and respective families. And I noticed that my TiVo light wasn’t on showing it was recording. That’s bad because I know 24 and the Apprentice are on at that time. So I turned on the TV and saw that the screen was stuck on a boot up screen. I unplugged it and gave it a few minutes, plugged it back in and it jammed up on that same page. I tried this a few more times throughout the night and even let it sit there all night and in the morning, it was still there. I called TiVo and had them jack into it from the network and they told me that my hard drive was fried. I can’t tell you how mad that makes me since I only got it in September. So they told me that they could take it back, but it would cost me 70 bucks to get a replacement. WHAT?? Screw that. So I actually dropped 130 and I’m getting 340 hours of recording capacity and still dual tuner action so I can record two channels at once. I originally had 80 hours, but now that I’m souping it up with a big 300 GIG bounder from SeaGate hard drives, (which are more quiet and reliable than this HP hard drive they put in, I’m going to be watching in style. Now I can record seasons at a time and watch them in the summer when TV gets lame. Ha ha. I love it. Anyway, the bummer deal is that I lost my Season Pass, all my shows I hadn’t gotten to yet, and my ability to record the good stuff until I get this new programmed drive in the mail. I have to try to remember all my shows I had lined up on my season pass and I’m going to have to try to salvage what I can from other people to stay current on my shows. What a drag. Stupid TiVo. We are slaves to our technology once we get to use it so heavily.

It’s probably better anyway now that I’m back in school. Did I tell you about that? I’m taking a PHR (Professional of Human Resources) certification course through USU which will get my certification by May if I can pass the exam. It’s way intense though, it will take 4 hours to pass the exam (if I pass). Only 64% of everyone who takes the exam passes it. I went into this class Thursday, which was my first day, pretty cocky. By the end of the 3 hours, I left very humbled. There are some very experienced and bright HR peeps in there who have been in the industry for 20 years, some of them. You have to have at least 2 years of exempt HR management experience to even take this course and take the exam. They gave us a practice test to give us some scope of what we know already. We had 10 minutes to take it. You could miss 5 or less and pass the practice test. I missed 6. I didn’t feel too bad because the smartest guy in the class missed 7. Yeah baby! That dude is one I was referring to as being in the industry for 20 years and he was answering questions that the instructor was throwing out earlier so everyone knew he was the braniac in there. So I feel alright about getting one better than him, but my ego took a hit that I didn’t pass the practice test. So I have a lot to learn from now till Mid April when the class is finished, then my testing window for the exam is the month of May. If I pass, I’ll be much more marketable and worth more money. So that will be good. Plus, if I pass work pays for it all. If I fail, I am stuck with the over $1,000.00 bill and I’m just left with 7 books to study when I need to know an answer to something. No pressure!!! Sheesh! I was having fun though. I was making jokes in class and was the most vocal person, so it was cool when we took time at the end of the 3 hours to organize study groups. The majority of the class gravitated to me, so it made it easy to form a group. Ours is the largest, which I’m finding is a good thing, since at least one of our group has quit the class the day after we had it. I’m sure we will see a few more have quit when we go back on Thursday. It was just really intense. Well, that one person who quit was going to be the host of our group at her work in their conference room. So now that she is gone, I stepped up to be the host of our group at my work. I have plenty of room in my old office across the hall from my new office. So I can accommodate our numbers there. So I guess I’ll play host to a weekly study group on Tuesdays and have class for 3 hours every Thursday. This is going to be pretty time consuming. I was a little tired to say the least on Thursday since that’s my early day at work. I was at work at 5:00 AM and by the time I got home for the day it was 10:15. That’s harsh! So I told my boss about it and he told me to temporarily suspend my early mornings for now. That will help tremendously. But my overly busy life just got WAY more busy. I don’t know how I can cram everything I’ve got going on right now. I seriously only have about 5 hours to sleep every single night anymore because that’s the first thing I have to sacrifice to get my stuff done. However, let me point out that I have not missed a single week of letter writing and my shortest letter was two of these single spaced pages typed in 10 pt. font. I almost missed a week, but I salvaged that with a letter in the mail since my internet was screwy. I have gone to moms and dads to get a couple of emails off too when the internet was being fussy. Oh, the other thing about this class is that I can’t miss more than 2 classes or I automatically fail. Holy COW!!! I am already going to miss one for sure in March for my Wicklander Training in Vegas. Did I tell you about that? That is going to be SO COOL!! I can’t wait for that. If I haven’t told you about that, let me know and I’ll give you the details. But I think I mentioned that in the last letter or the one before that. Maybe I haven’t. So missing that week will be one week and that only gives me one more day to miss with a family or work emergency. That’s not a lot of wiggle room. Crazy how strict they are about all this. Speaking of sacrificing sleep, on Thursday, like I said, I was up at 4:00 AM to get ready that morning and head in. But I have an employee who I’m laying off soon who has been in my office fighting for his job like crazy lately. But he was giving me the same old sob story with accompanying violin sounds and I was getting so sleepy. I think you know this about me, but if I’m stuck with a jabber jaw that just rambles on and I can’t get a word in edge wise, I’ll fall asleep on your bones even if I’m not tired. Well, he was going on and on and on and I couldn’t get a word in. I felt my eyelids getting so heavy and I was rubbing my eyes, rubbing my face, doing everything I could to help myself stay awake, but nothing helped. I stone cold dozed on his action. I think I was asleep for at least 3 or 4 seconds before I realized I was out and woke up with a start and jerked up in my chair. I totally over compensated and it was obvious I dozed on him. I felt bad, because here he is bleeding his heart out to me about losing his livelihood and his family is going to be effected, etc. I honestly do care about that stuff, but man, it looked like I could have given a lesser crap because of me falling asleep. I think it must have insulted him, but he just kept going with it after pausing for a couple of seconds seeing me jerk back awake. Ha ha. What a dork I am. I did that once before with a security guard at Utah Power. I fell asleep on him too cuz he wouldn’t shut his pie hole. After like 20 minutes of talking at me, I dozed and he woke me up. He asked me if he was boring me and I told him “you just put me to sleep fool, what do you think?” I thought it was obvious, but he posed the obvious question, so I gave him the obvious and honest answer. He didn’t talk much to me the rest of the night. He was temporary, so what did I care.

Did you get your photo card back from Ma and Pa yet? When are you sending home the next one? This one will have tornado action on it right? That will be cool to see.

I had lunch with Geegng this week at David’s Kitchen right by her Ghetto Fabulous projects. It’s right across from the century theaters and even though it’s a hidden little hole in the wall dive, and doesn’t sound like a Chinese restaurant by the title “David’s Kitchen” it’s really good Chinese. It’s my best kept secret and now Shelli is going to blab it to all her friends. I’m a little bugged about it, but I’ll get over it. Maybe if I liked her friends more, I wouldn’t mind. It was good hanging with Shelbs for a little while anyway. She really liked it too. We ordered some seriously spicy and hot stuff. You and Staci wouldn’t have liked it. It was definitely too hot for either of your likings. But Shelli and I were going to town on the hot. In fact, the waitress when asking Shelli how hot she wanted her hot sauce for her pot stickers, Shelli told her to keep going and the lady stopped and asked her “are you sure”?? Shelli told her to bring it on and the lady thought there was no way she would be able to handle it. She didn’t mind me telling her to keep it coming on the hot, but she called Shelli’s bluff. She loved it though. It was perfect. Our lips were on fire, but we loved every burning second of it! I didn’t know Shelli had such a taste for the hot stuff. That was interesting. I am still on my spicy kick however and have been loading it on. I think I am getting more and more desensitized, so it takes more and more for me to get the hot thrill. Weird huh?

I finally made it out of the online phone directory for my address. Can you believe how long that took? I should be off the Google directory by Tuesday. But finally I’m out of the system and off grid. Going off grid completely is so hard. You can’t do it easily or quickly. I should finally be out of the next phone books too. That was forever coming. Of course, the next phone books don’t come out till August. So I’ll be in there until then. You wouldn’t believe the fight I had on the phones this week between Comcast and the White Pages and Phone Directories company. It was so ridiculous. It’s too long of a story though, it would take 3 more pages here to tell you about it. So maybe in another letter when I have less to discuss. I need to get to your letters now and reply to those. I really need to study for my class though. I have to study at least an hour a day and I missed yesterday. So I’m already at 2 hours tonight to get caught up. So maybe I’ll pick this letter back up tomorrow.

Ahhhhhhhight, I’m back again, it’s 10:40 PM on Sunday night. Beth and Mom were over a while ago to see little Ayns-biscuit. That was a nice visit. I’m excited now that it’s a week away from the Superbowl. Oh, I guess I was going to respond to your letters when I left off, so let me get to that. I was just studying my brains out with this PHR stuff and I’m on information overload BIG-TIME right now. I’m not anywhere close to being where I should be in the material before my study group meets on Tuesday. I’m going to look like such a slag.

That’s too bad that Elder Herbs has been sick. Hopefully he’s better now and you are back at it 100% or more. It sounds like you made the best of your down time which is good. Nothing like a sick companion to temp you to fall into idleness and laziness. That’s what happened to my trainer. I ruined him. When I went down with my surgery for two weeks, he was a waste of space out there the rest of his mission. He played video games and read comic books while I read and memorized enough to qualify in our Mastery program and totally solidified my foundling testimony that I had just gained while in the MTC. Best blessing I could have had on my mission was that surgery. I look at that big scar above my hog as a reminder of the blessings I received at that time of my life. It’s awesome. It’s my favorite scar I have and has the best war stories associated with it. Too bad I can’t show it off to average folk when I discuss it. Anyway, as long as you use that time wisely, it can be a nice chance to get caught up on other things that the work can keep you from (at least the amount of reading, studying, and letter writing that you would like to do). So I’m glad you used that time wisely and did all those things. Speaking of letter writing, I got the Chode’s address for you…

Elder Chad Johnson

New Zealand, Wellington Mission

P.O. Box 50448

Porirua 5240

New Zealand

Let me know if that doesn’t work or even if it does so I can report back to his dad. What is his Dad’s name again? Do you know? I always just call him Brother Johnson, but he calls me Travis and I only call him that because I don’t know his first name. Can you help me out there? Don’t pass that along. I’m kind of embarrassed that I don’t know it.

So what’s the latest on Baptist Basher Boy? Was it a set up or have you had some productive conversations with him? Update me on that situation. What’s the latest on Trey? Still procrastinating? Oh, I forgot to ask if it takes an 84 cent stamp to go to NZ. I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry, so go for it and ask Chad in the letter. Tell me when you hear back how he’s doing and what he likes most about NZ and what he likes least. I’d love to hear what he thinks of the country and his area and the people. I love the crap out of New Zealand. Everything about it including the people. If I didn’t go to New York, I would have wanted to go to New Zealand, in fact, his mission so that I could hit the South Island too. So he’s in the second best mission in the world, no offense to Number 3 which would be the Charlotte mission of course. Elder Yancy, that sounds about right that not many missionaries like him. That’s kind of the same feeling in our ward with the Yancys. They are definitely weird, but it’s all good with me. I actually get along well with his Dad. He’s like 40 years older than me too and really out there, kind of a cocky bugger too, but I think he’s a decent fella. So you’d probably get along well with Yancy Pants out there. You are like me and easy to get along with no matter what the personality type. So by now, you have had your president’s interview right? How did that go? I loved Pres. Interviews. I loved my President like a father. He was such a stud and a great example.

So we were sitting down at Ma’s and Pa’s reading your letters the other night and Staci asked what was up with the David and Goliath conversation. But she pronounced Goliath like GO-lee-uth with the annunciation on the GO. I ripped a gut and asked her if that was like arm-a-ga-DONE? Ha ha. She got mad and mom rushed to her defense and knocked me for the second time that night saying I was claiming I was perfect. I don’t know where that kept coming from, but anyway, it was funny all Travis bashing aside. Dad thought it was funny at least. So I explained to her my Gospel Jeopardy game I sent you and the family wants to play. So I’ll dig out my old ones too and we’ll play one of these nights we all get together. That will be fun. Maybe I should wait till you are back and we’ll all play together, unless of course I send out my other ones to you before, then it would hardly be fair. So what would you rather do?

Now on to your justification about Nephi. You make a compelling argument that the judges have accepted and you have been reinstated your 7 points. So well done justifying that. I took that question from some place and the answer was acceptable by what I could tell. I didn’t research it, I just blindly accepted it and wrote it into the game. So you have proven your mastery of the scriptures and I should send a correction to wherever I got that from. Well done! I told Dad that you sent a great justification and I could not negate that argument and he beamed and went on about how smart you were and that he would have never come up with that. So it was a proud moment for both of us to brag you up a bit on that. When I read that you had to send White Boy home I was shocked. I knew I was right about being the Opus Dei of LDS missions. Man! Nothing like a few screw up Elders who I’m sure abused their privilege of having MP3 players and listening to inappropriate music, but to punish the obedient missionaries for it is what gripes me. I’d find out who the disobedient fools are and give them a little “Thanks A Lot beating”! It would be cool and I think something that the Pres. Ought to look into if he had all of the music that he finds allowable, you know the 100 songs that aren’t outlawed by the mission rules, and put them on a computer with one iPod cradle so that all missionaries with iPods could sync to that and have only what is allowed. But that will never happen I’m sure. Oh well. I guess the only next step is to remove all radios from the mission cars if that hasn’t already been done. I don’t think it can by policy of the church fleet, but I bet that has been discussed out there. Nothing like removing free agency to help people stay obedient. That sounds like a perfect plan. Oh wait… I think we’ve been presented that option before. Hmmmm!

K, this is me stepping off of my soap box now and giving you a pat on the back for following orders and being 100% obedient. Good on-ya mate. You will be blessed and I’ll remain bugged for no apparent reason except I’m a jerk who “thinks he’s perfect” according to mom and Staci. I AM actually a jerk, but I never claim to be anywhere near perfect, so that hurts when I get that slapped in my face!

Where did you get the stamps you have been sticking on your envelopes? I saw the Green Arrow on my last one before Plastic Man here and thought that was cool since he’s been all over Smallville this season. You will like that action. But I figured you probably didn’t know about that, so it must have been a coincidence and then I see Plastic Man, so you must have just got a book of super hero stamps. They are cool anyway. Your envelopes on the other hand are not. They have the same glue used in those glue traps for mice. Seriously! I sometimes get your letter stuck on it as I’m pulling it out and it rips the letter apart. It sticks to the paper so hard that when I pull the paper away, it tears holes in the paper and leaves it behind in the glue. If I try to get that off the envelope, my fingers stick to it, then my legs, then my head until finally, I’m stuck in a position resembling Michael J. Fox sleeping in Back to the Future and calling for someone to come rescue me. This last one I opened, no one was around and I nearly had to chew my own leg off to get out and go for help. I honestly don’t know where those envelopes come from, but they should send some boxes of those to Iraq to help with the war on Terror.

Time for your Quote of the week. I bet you are wondering if I can pull a reasonable quote out of my hat every single week for another year and a half, aren’t you? Be not dismayed, Doubt not, fear not! I will come through, just as I won’t ever miss a week writing.

“When I was a missionary in London fifty years ago, my companion and I would shake hands in the morning and say to one another, Life is good. Life in the service of the Lord is good. It is beautiful. It is rewarding.

-Gordon B. Hinckley

What a stallion. What an attitude to wake up with every day and recognize how blessed he and his companion were to be in the service of the Lord every day for two short years.

I hope you continue to think that every single morning and recognize how rewarding it is every single day no matter how blessed you were that day, or how persecuted you were that day. It’s all rewarding and educational no matter what you encounter, every single day to some degree.

I love you Mike. Keep making us proud and putting in your best effort. I can’t wait to hear from you again. The last letter and e-mail were just what the doctor ordered. Mom and Dad and Staci and Shelli for that matter all feel the same way. We love to get together as a family and pour over your letters and talk about you. So keep them coming and keep encouraging those back home as the Spirit dictates.

Talk to you again next week.

Love,

Trav

Rick Lambert Mission Profile

Getting back to some mission profiles finally. I'm still missing more than half of you who are on the mailing list who served a mission. Time to dig out the boxes and get me some photos and stories. You know who you are.

This week's profile is Rick Lambert. He is Mike's Brother's Wife's Sister's Husband. Did you follow that? Ha ha.
Mission: Chile, Antofagasta
Dates: Aug. '96 - Aug. '98
Areas: Arica, Calama, Arica (same zone as first time in Arica), Chuqicamata, Iquique, and Antofagasta.
Memories: Rick remembers going to Lago(lake) Chungara for a multi-zone activity. It's one of the highest lakes in the world. So high they had to stop in the bus periodically to acclimate. Some of the guys were chasing llamas and passing out. People were eating their lunch and throwing up from altitude sickness. But it's a beautiful lake that sits in the bottom of a snow covered volcano at 14,000 ft.

His area of Chuquicamata is no longer there. The mine that was there owned everything in that area. When environmentalists came in and told them they had to shut down some of their operations for pollution, the mine just decided to close up that part of the area and kick everyone out of their homes. So thanks to the environmentalists who were trying to protect some of the environment there, a huge number of people lost their homes and livelihood. Chuquicamata is all abandoned houses and a ghost town now, including the church that was there. That mine is one of the biggest if not the biggest mine in the world.

One time, knocking doors, a little girl answered and said her mom was sick and couldn't come to the door. They went about 3 doors down further and the little girl ran down the street and stopped them. She told them to come back. Her mom had sent her to get them. The mom told them they had been having problems and that the dad wasn't there so she asked them to come back tomorrow. They did and the dad was upstairs watching soccer. He said he was busy and to come back tomorrow. They did. They taught them and left a Book of Mormon for the mom and dad and their 3 daughters to read. When they followed up, they asked if they read it and no one had. The dad said he read it. They asked if they had prayed and again no one had prayed, except the dad. They asked him how it felt and he said he felt good about it. The next time they came back, the dad had read with the kids and prayed with the family. Their countenance had changed completely. He was helping the family with housework and stuff. They baptized the whole family except the 7 year old daughter, who the dad baptized the next year when she turned 8.

Fleas!!

Goofing off during haircuts. Rick won the Mr. T look alike contest.

Outside of the church building

Picture of a huge sand dune that people actually built their houses on. This thing would move regularly.

Enjoying the few days he actually got to wear sunglasses in the desert.

01/21/07

Wassup Yo?

It’s that time again to blast out another letter to Elder A. I’m sitting here with Brins right now. Here she is…

(Brin) “Some toys… some head bands… ummmm… some squares and windows and movies… good mission, have a good mission, ummm… I have been cleaning and drawing on the table on papers… and watching movies and TVs and books. I’ve been in the house and I’ve been cold. And it’s night time and eat dinners and computers and keyboards and papers. And Me littles. And chairs. And paintings. My being in dance class, so… I’m listening to mommy and daddy, can’t mind my mommy daddys. My have baby sister, feed a bottle. I got some books from the library. Some napkins and Minkas. Minka is a naughty kitty. My love you, My love you.”

(Travis) anything else?

(Brin) Nope, I talk about it already.

There you go. That’s the latest segment from Brinlee. Aynslee is eating a ton. She is cuter every day as her face kind of fills out and she gets a little more personality. If I’m gone at work for along day, when I get back, she seems to change in just that amount of time. It’s weird. She sleeps so much which is kind of nice too since she is so low maintenance that way. Suzanne is good, but I think she gets a little bored being at home all day. Work took us to Ruth’s Chris Steak House this week. Well, a Rep from Nenah Paper did anyway. The bill for 9 of us was almost 700 bucks just to tell you how spendy that joint is. I would never go eat there if it was on my dime. It was nice to say that I’ve eaten there now at least. The steak was good. I had the 12 oz. Filet. Then we had a bunch of sides and some bread and dessert. I was stuffed. Good eats, just over priced. Anyway, I think Suzanne enjoyed getting out of the house and having some adult conversation while Clint and Rachel watched the girls.

So let me respond to your last e-mail… You said that it has been slow and a little tougher going lately. You say you met some opposition? What was that about? Elaborate on that. I used to get some serious persecution in the South Bronx and Harlem, but not much anywhere else. Manhattan was always fine and so was Connecticut.

I was looking at YouTube the other day watching some stuff on Mitt Romney and it linked to a bunch of anti-mormon stuff that got me nice and riled up. I only watched about 3 minutes worth and that was enough. The God Makers is on there which is one of the most popular anti vids and I was pretty bugged as I sampled that. I had to get off that site quick or I was going to fly off in a rage. Even though I was looking at it for only a few minutes, it lingered and bugged for a couple of hours more. So I won’t be checking that action out anymore as bugged as I get. Not much I can do about it anyway. I guess your girl Hilary entered the race officially today. So you will have that to look forward to. I think Barak Obama may beat her out for the Democratic candidate anyway when it comes down to it. I can’t stand Hilary, but I can’t stand any of the democratic candidates whatsoever. I would be happy with Mitt as Pres. And I’d be happy with McCain too if he entered officially. I’d also be happy with Giulianni. He’d be a great Pres. I’ve heard him speak and I could be one of his biggest supporters if he entered the race right now. I really like that guy.

So you want some updates on the 49ers? Not much to update on except SanFran is getting impatient with Alex Smith. Frank Gore their RB was awesome this year. I should have been so lucky to have him on my team. He’s a stud. We’ll see how they do next year, but they were nothing to talk about this year. I was hoping Alex Smith would play as well all year as he started out the year. He was doing great! But petered out about half way through and choked it bad through the last stretch.

On to my Jeopardy game. Nephi? Are we sure he held the Melchizedek? And how are you so sure? You seem very adamant about that too. Send me your back up. I guess you are going to put some back up in your letter that was promised, but I was sans letter all week after I got your e-mail. So I’m still waiting for that.

So did you track down Jerry Smith? Did he ever show back up? What’s the status on Trey? Well, that’s all from your letter. So I’ll just keep going from here…

(Suzanne) Hi Mike, How’s it going?

That was short. She actually just came down to get me for dinner, so I had to hurry upstairs. Sorry. Anyway, I’m about to go to bed now. It’s midnight already. I stayed upstairs for quite a while. After dinner, I built Aynslee’s new dresser, and I mean built it. Every screw, every nail, ever single piece of wood and metal. Every aspect of that dresser was built by me. It took me forever! I still have a few finishing touches to put on it, so it’s not quite done yet. Then we watched Troy with Brad Pitt. Did you ever see that show? It’s like 3 hours long. It was OK. Not great, not really worth 3 hours of my time, but it was OK. I think I’m home teaching tomorrow after church, so I’ll probably get to this letter during some playoffs. Bears vs. Saints for NFC. Colts vs. Patriots for AFC. Should be good match ups. Well, I’ll check you soon.

Ahhhhhhhhight, back at it. It’s Sunday almost 6:00 PM. The Bears kicked the Saints where it hurts. And right now the Patriots are taking it to the Colts. I’m way sick of the Patriots and that jerk they have for a coach.

I talked to Chad’s dad today and he apologized for not having Chad’s address for me today. He thought of it too late. So I’ll see what I can do to get it for you. I also found out that one of the families in my ward has a missionary in your mission. Have you heard of Elder Yancy? He came out in October. His family are an interesting bunch. Anyway, he’s in your mission right now. I talked to his dad about that today, that you were out there in the same mission and in South Carolina right now. Let me know if you have heard his name or know who he is. When is your next transfer call?

Well, my stupid internet is down again. What’s up with this? I’m going to have to go to Ma’s and Pa’s to send your e-mail tonight. That’s alright, I need to scan some pictures over there anyway. So I should still have this to you for Monday morning.

Here’s your quote of the week from Elder L. Tom Perry out of the September ’06 Ensign. I like this quote because I found the same thing when I was out about as long as you have been, on my mission. You have probably found the same thing yourself…

“You enter Church service with the pure intent to build our Father in Heaven’s kingdom. The Lord more than compensates you for your time and effort with blessings that increase your talents and abilities to be used in further service. It is impossible to stay even with the Lord.”

I always feel indebted to people when they do me a favor. I mean, I can’t rest until I have returned a favor or done something for that person. I felt the same thing with the Lord on my mission. I felt so blessed that I wanted to try to make it up to the Lord, but found that the more I tried to do, the better I tried to behave, the more obedient I was, the harder I worked, etc. I was just blessed more and more and more and I felt that inability to ever break even.

I think I told you it was the 24 premier this week. It’s been good. Smallville has been really good too. I hope no one is sending you spoilers on that.

Well, I guess I’ve got out everything I needed to this week. I need more from you to expound the love in my next letters. I think I’ll head over to ma’s and pa’s now to send this off and scan some pics. Keep bustin’ your hump out there. We are proud of you and feel the blessings of having you out there. So keep blessing other people’s lives out there, AND here at home with your hard work.

Love you,

Trav

Another tasty dinner at Sister Kay's House!?

Click any picture to enlarge

01/15/07

Elder A:

Whatsupatchu-boyeeeeeeee? How’s the work? How’s the weather? It’s freezin’ butt cold out here. I mean, it’s painfully cold when you go outside. I like it like that though. There’s something hard-core about going outside and it hurts just a little. As long as you have a good coat and stuff. If not, then cold is my enemy. But I like any excuse to strut my North Face gear outside. So I’ve been having fun with it. I guess Mom’s and Dad’s furnace went out yesterday. See, that’s when the cold is no longer my friend. Especially having two little girls in the house and one big girl that thinks anything below 72 is uncomfortably freezing cold.

I started my new class today. I got my new wave of kids in and then found out that I keep all my old kids from last year. They are eliminating a teacher spot in the Sunday school and decided to double up my class. Which is fine with me. I don’t mind. Like I said in the last letter, I liked my kids from last year and was bummed to see them leave. So I’m good with keeping them. I think the new kids will be good, there are two boys that seem like they want to pose a challenge though, but I’ll break them in a few weeks.

So the NFL playoffs are done for the week. The Bears beat the Seahawks in OT with a 50 yard field goal. The Saints beat the Eagles. The Colts beat the Ravens in Baltimore, and the Pats upset the Chargers in San Diego. I’m bugged about that. I really wanted to see the Chargers get to the super bowl. Shottenheimer is a horrible coach. That loss is solely on his hands. I can’t stand his bad decisions he made all game long. So the Bears play the Saints in the NFC championship and the Patriots play the Colts for the AFC. I hope the Colts win and I hope the Bears win. I have been a huge fan of the Bears all year long. So I’d like to see them win, but if Payton Manning can get a ring, I wouldn’t be bummed about that. So we’ll see how it plays out. My Steelers aren’t in it, so I can only root for a team I really like in the Bears.

Should we get to the Jeopardy results? I know you have been anticipating this for a while. Here are the one’s you either got wrong or we need to discuss. I know you are in shock right now that I even said you got some wrong, but there aren’t a lot so relax. You did very well! On OT for 7 pts. I believe the question was where David slew Goliath, you said Shochoh? What is that? It should be the valley of Elah. Now, as we go through these few, feel free to debate and if you win, I will overturn your score for a higher one and I will change my answer to be more accurate. So if you want to research it, get back to me if you think you are right and I’m wrong. Next, in Be Careful what you ask for… 4 pts. What did … sorry, I’m super tired. It’s almost midnight on Sunday night and I had to go to work today after the playoffs to do payroll since we have tomorrow off for Martin Luther King day to celebrate my people’s freedoms. Anyway, who was that wise king in the OT again? I can’t believe I’m having a total brain fart. He asked for Understanding more than for Wisdom. But it’s kind of all in the same the way they word it. Wisdom and Understanding, so the judges will allow it. There are 3 in Misc. Name a tree in the scriptures. You said “Judah”..?? Survey says… EHHHHHHH! What the heck? Judah as a tree? What’chu talkin’ ‘bout Willis? I would have accepted Olive, Tree of Life, Cedar, etc. any kind of tree actually mentioned in the scriptures. I have no idea where you get Judah, but if you want to debate it, I’m open.

Next the person who got his ear cut off in the garden of Gethsemane. His name is Malchus. But I suppose I can give you Servant of the High Priest. You squeaked by on that one though. This hymn is hymn #2, you said Come Thou Font? What ?? What happened to the Spirit of God? Are you going out of the 1956 edition out there or what? Debate if you want. And finally, I think the question was the last person to hold the Melchizedek Priesthood before Christ came. You said Nephi and you underlined it with emphasis. So do you know something I don’t? Are we sure Nephi held the Melchizedek? What about Elijah? What kind of time frame are we looking at here? This one needs some discussion because maybe I’m not sure anymore. Send me your justifications on that one. I’m in doubt of my own answer now. That’s it. You did great on it. I’ll send you my other ones in letters to come. I’ll send them in a letter that I send snail mail too so that you can look at the grid and not risk having a line cut off or something again. So what’s all this about a Tornado out there Toto? Mom and Staci made it seem like you landed in Oz on top of a wicked witch and I was like, Yeah, I think he was just riding through town and heard a siren and felt some strong winds. But if I’m missing some details, fill me in. That would be pretty crazy to have a tornado bust through town though. See some cows flying by and stuff like in that fake and stupid show Twister. I mean, how could a cow go flying by hovering in air and that truck still be driving just fine with just a few shimmy shakes on the road? Give me a break!

Well, I haven’t got much to go off of in your last few letters since they mostly consist of saying that you don’t have much time or that you will be sending a longer letter later, or something like that. So let me answer your question about the EFY CDs, I haven’t gotten anymore of those yet. I might have to look around. Older ones are pretty hard to come by. Not much I can do about you getting sick of your songs when your mission is the Opus Dei of the church where it enforces abnormally strict discipline on it’s missionaries. You are just one rule shy of wearing a cilice around your leg, and begin to practice Corporal Mortification by flogging your back with a leather strap. When you only have literally 100 songs that aren’t apostate, you are bound to be way sick of those 100 songs after a while. It’s all good though. You are probably seeing more blessings for the unusually strict music rules.

I talked to Chad’s dad today at church and told him I need to get the Chode’s address for Mike. He said he would get that for me. So maybe he’ll just bring it to church next week. That’s about all I got from him. Maybe I’ll call over there and leave a message if he’s not home and get it over the phone. I’ll let you know as soon as I get it though.

I had a good quote to send you this week and I’ve lost it. I’m kind of out of sorts tonight for some reason. I think it was going I to work on a Sunday and it being so late afterward. Let me go with this one since we are studying Spencer W. Kimball’s teachings now in Elder’s Quorum.

“Prayer is the passport to Spiritual Power.”

Spencer W. Kimball

Isn’t it amazing how much you pray on a mission? I loved it. That was one of the biggest senses of loss when I got home was the lack of opportunities and excuses to pray. It’s funny how I word that too now that I read it back. Excuses to pray as opposed to excuses NOT to pray. How often do most people make excuses not to pray and as a worthy missionary, you take any excuse TO pray. That’s my exhortation for this week is for you to make and take any and every excuse or opportunity to pray. Use that opportunity as this passport to gain access to spiritual power.

What happened with Trey and your other investigator that is close? Did you visit them this last week and lay the smack down? Time to get bold on them now that your time is drawing near to leave that area. I think I shared this scripture with you in a previous letter, I don’t remember, but it’s the last verse in James…

“Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” What a perfect way to look at that as a missionary. You are saving a soul from death. I think we look at it like we are helping someone out by sharing the gospel which we are, but how much more significant is this work when we look at the larger scope of eternity? Literally, we are saving someone from eternal spiritual death. That’s HUGE!

I’m going to end here this week Choch. I didn’t have a ton to go off of recently and I’m not in the zone this week. Sorry. Still waiting for your challenges to all of us. Write back soon.

I’m going to go in and turn on the TraVo and dial up the 2 hour premier of 24 that came on tonight. Tomorrow is the continuation with 2 more hours of 24. How cool will that be? I’m excited.

K buddy, you know the drill from here. Get your butt out there and work like I’m watching you. You would make me super proud to see you in action. I wish I could come out there, watch you and even help you for a day or two. Now that you have that image in your head, get out there and work like the Savior is watching you and make him proud. Because He is watching you and He is working with you and helping you.

Bust your butt, your companions butt and your investigators butts this week. Your family and friends are all behind you and love and miss you every day.

Love you.

Trav

Things I have learned living in North Carolina

The second of two offerings from Aunt Margaret...

Things I have learned living in North Carolina

1. Possums sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air

2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in NORTH CAROLINA

3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in NORTH
CAROLINA , plus a couple no one's seen before.

4. If it grows, it sticks; If it crawls, it bites.

5."Onced" and "Twiced" are words.

6. It is not a Shopping cart, it is a buggy.

7. Fire ants consider your flesh as a picnic.

8.People actually grow and eat okra.

9. "Fixinto" is one word.

10. There is no such thing as "lunch". There is only dinner and then there is supper.

11. Ice tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when
you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar!

12. Backards and forwards means "I know everything about you."

13. The word "Jeet" is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat?"

14. You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it
is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

15. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH them.

2000th visit

Just in case you missed it in the Comments section of the last photo update post, Lindsey Oakes was the 2000th visit. That's quite the milestone. 2000 hits and Mike hasn't been out 6 months yet. Here is what you are missing if you aren't clicking on the comments links in the individual posts:

Lindsey said...

wahoo!
i was totally the 2000th person!
im a hero i know.
oh...im lindsey oakes.

Travis said...

Way to be Lindsey! you hit that exactly 2 min. after the updated post. You ARE a Hero! ha ha ha. Thanks for being #2000.

Anonymous said...

These are so fun. Thanks for sharing your comments everyone. Congrats Lindsey for being the 2000th person. I'm jealous. I should look at his blog more often. I miss the missionary bio's of other missionaries. Come on you RM's, lets get some info to Travis to put on the blog.
Mike's Mom

Shelli said...

I say the yellow one looks better. it totally brings out his eyes.
Mike's Sis.

Don't forget, everyone can click on the comments link under every post and leave a comment, whether commenting on a picture, on a posting, ANYTHING. I'll send most of them in letters to Mike but he'll see all of them when he gets home and reads this all for the first time. The more interactive you are, the better it will be for Mike when he reads them. The funner it is for all of this little community of Mike's friends and family that are reading this. As Mike's Mom said, we still have a BUNCH of you who have not sent in pictures and/or mission stories to me to post on here. The holidays are over. No more excuses. Send them in to TravsBox@gmail.com

You know you're from North Carolina if:

Howard and Margaret sent a couple of good educational NC "helps". I'll post the second one soon. Thanks H &M!

YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM NORTH CAROLINA IF:

1. You measure distance in minutes.

2. You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

3. You use "fix" as a verb. For example: "I'm fixing to go to the store

4. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal.

5. You install security lights on your house and garage, then leave both unlocked.

6. You know what a "DAWG" is.

7. You carry jumper cables in your car .. For your OWN car.

8. You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Texas Pete, Tabasco and Ketchup.

9. The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and sports.

10. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.

11. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit "a little warm".

12. You know all four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, still Summer and Christmas.

13. Going to Wal-mart is a favorite past time known as "goin' Wal-martin" or off to "Wally World"

14. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good soup weather.

15. A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola or pop ... it's a pepsi, regardless of brand or flavor. For example: "What kinda pepsi you want?"

16. Fried catfish is the other white meat.

17. We don't need no stinking driver's Ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive.

18. You understand these jokes and forward them to your North Carolina friends (and those who just wish they were).

Not EVERYONE can be a North CAROLINIAN, it's an art form and a gift from God! AMEN!!!!!

01/07/07

Elder A:

Wasupatchu? I am sitting here watching the first playoff game of the season. Colts/Chiefs. Colts are ahead 23 – 8. It’s over now. Colts just picked off Chiefs with 1:24 left in the 4^th quarter. They can just take a knee a few times now and it’s done. Next game is the Seahawks/Cowboys. I’m sure you know who I’m pulling for in that one. It’s 5:17 PM on Saturday night. Suzanne and I are about to go see a movie and grab some dinner. It’s our first alone date in a long time. And probably the last for another 6 months or so. It’s not that practical anymore. I picked up the CD “More Music from the Motion Picture Gladiator” yesterday. It’s better than the soundtrack. It has the coolest quotes from the movie and the music from the scenes that’s different from the regular soundtrack. I don’t do it much justice here, but when you hear it, you will be all over it! It really is slightly better than the soundtrack we had before. I still like that one just fine, in fact, I listened to it right after the new one just for grins. I’m up to 9757 songs after deleting a bunch of lame ones. So that’s almost 10,000 songs of great music!

Staci is on messenger talking to me about random things such as her last message. “I would be dead if I was in the desert with rattlesnakes cuz I won’t hear the rattle!” No kidding, that was her last entry. Ha ha ha. I updated your blog with some pics today and sent out the update. Then within 2 minutes of the update, we had our 2000^th visitor. Guess who it was? I didn’t expect it. I thought Staci, or Mom or Dave or John, but it was Lyndsey. I don’t even know who that was. But it was funny the entry she put in there and my response. So you’ll be able to check that in about what… 18 months from now? Ha ha. She was pretty excited about it. It’s funny. Anyway, I have some updating to do, so let me get to it.

Yesterday, I was online and I got an e-mail about my successful posting of my Star Trek Next Generation seasons 1-8 on eBay. I was like what? Must be a spam e-mail or someone phishing trying to get me to log in through their site and steal my log in. So I got out of my e-mail, signed into eBay on my own and found out 2 more of those packages were posted in that time. Someone hacked my account and were posting things on there right then. I didn’t know if this was a mistake or what. I got a live Customer service person on a chat window and told him what was up. He looked into it and while we were chatting, 5 more seasons went up for sale. A total of 8 items now for sale on my account that I didn’t authorize. He froze my account at my request, changed the password, and wiped those off my account. If they had been successful in closing any of these in the 24 hour “buy it now” sales, they would have had access to the buyer’s credit card info and could have racked up charges and I would have been investigated on it for any number of things, fraud, identity theft, etc. So it’s good I caught it right then. Crazy what some people do these days. Bugs me though, that he was using my perfect rating and good reputation to take advantage of some innocent peeps at my expense. I have no idea how it would have been hacked! I need to check for any kind of type capture spyware or something.

Tomorrow I have to skip church and go in to work to have some “court training”. The attorney representing Traveller’s insurance and Franklin Covey is flying in from Denver for our final court appearance in our 4^th court case against this clown that I fired forever ago. Dude is going to get chewed up and spit out on Monday. This attorney wants blood. I’m excited for it actually. Not so much for any repercussions that may come from it since this dude is truly psycho and will do something stupid if he has no other options. So we’ll see what this attorney has in store for us tomorrow. I’m not happy about doing this on Sunday, but apparently we don’t have any other time since our court date is 8:00 AM on Monday morning.

How did your Gospel Jeopardy turn out? Did you do it on your own? Or did you have your companion play too? What questions did you struggle with? I like doing those. They are pretty fun for the participants and for me to “Alex Trebec” for. So I’m just waiting to hear how it turned out. If you do end up using that for a future meeting or whatever, let me know if you want copies of my other two I’ve done. I wish I would have kept the ones I did on my mission!

I was over at Ma’s and Pa’s last night moving your pics from your photo card to CD for them. While I was over there, I read your last 4 or 5 letters I haven’t read over there. So it was good to get caught up on those. I read some of what went out to you too and I think Mom and Dad misinterpreted my Leadership Epistle. With what they wrote, I am actually sure they misinterpreted it. I hope you don’t feel that anywhere in there I was putting expectations on you to lead soon or to focus on leading. I had not intended that in any part of that epistle. I thought I was pretty clear in it too that all that was for was in case you should find yourself in any position of leadership in the future no matter what position that was including my favorite leadership position of Trainer. I thought I even said that in there. I thought I put in there too that I didn’t have any expectations of you to have any of these positions or whatever. Anyway, all that was for was something to fall back on for some ideas for you to glean from as you wanted. Not all opinions in there is meant to be taken as gospel. They are just different points that I found helpful and think it’s easier for someone to take life lessons from other people and see where they can benefit from certain points, or whatever. Anyway, I’m not bugged at their misinterpretation, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t feel any pressure from me after reading that. That is the last thing I wanted to portray in that. I also don’t expect you to have the same experiences as me. Your mission is your mission and will bring so many experiences that I never had the opportunity to see or do. I can’t wait for you to come home and share those with me so I can then benefit and learn the exact same way as I intended to relay to you. And when I say I can’t wait, that is a big understatement. I CAN’T WAIT to share all the war stories and what not! Anyway, I really hope you didn’t have the same interpretation of that big bounder as they did, and if you did, my apologies for my lack of skill in writing. I actually felt like an idiot when I saw that they came away from that letter thinking that. That was a huge waste of time to bust out 14 pages or however many that was if I botched my intent! Please let me know if I can clarify anything from that so that it can be somewhat beneficial to you. And please don’t feel any pressure to follow everything in it, to take any leadership positions due to expectations, or to have the same mission experiences as me. Our missions are totally different from each other. My only expectations, and I state them at the end of every letter I have sent you and will always send you and that is to work your butt off and enjoy every second of your short 2 year mission. OK, enough about that.

Troy wrote me the other day looking for Kyle’s phone numbers, so I think he’s going to call Kyle soon and talk missions. That’s cool for both of them. I’m excited for all of you guys that are out, and who are still going. What a great bunch of missionaries!!

What did you end up doing for New Years Eve? Did you have to be in early? We always had to be in early. I recorded a tape for the family from the roof of my Harlem Pad where you can hear gun shots and we could even see people firing off guns into the air from other roofs and from the streets. It was nuts. Did you hear that tape or remember it? What do they do out there to celebrate? We had neighbors here banging their pots and pans for old school sake I guess.

Today Brinlee started her dance class. She is pretty excited about it. I guess at first she was a little bit nervous, but it ended up pretty good. We’ll see how she does as the classes go on. She has some cute dance clothes too. A little pink leotard and pink tights and some black dancing shoes that look like a ballerina’s shoes.

Aynslee has a little eye goop going on. Either she has an eye infection or she has a clogged tear duct like Brinlee had on both eyes. We are hoping it’s just an eye infection since that was a surgical procedure to get Brinlee’s tear ducts fixed.

24 is starting next week with two nights straight of 2 hour episodes each night. So starting it off with a 4 hour bang. I’m excited about that. Speaking of TV, John and I are in the process of planning our superbowl party now. I guess Lynn Marie is coming over to scrapbook with Suzanne and Carrie and Jacque. Then we’ll play pool, snack our guts out and watch the game. I’m saying it will be New England and San Diego. We’ll have to see though.

I picked up a 500 GB external hard drive to back up my songs and pictures and documents. I feel much more at ease now since I have some serious time and money invested in my music on the hard drive. It will be nice and secure now on this back up drive. So I have almost a Terrabyte of storage now if I count my two hard drives and my back up external drive now. Well, Suzanne and I are headed out now, so I’ll finish this up tomorrow.

Eh Yo, back and now it’s Sunday at 1:20 PM. My court coaching went alright. I’m ready for this to be over with, however, there may not be a decision for 6 months to a year. Crazy huh? I’m watching some playoffs right now, it’s 4^th quarter in the Jets/Patriots game and Pats are up 29-16.

Suzanne and I went out last night to see the new Will Smith movie “the Pursuit of Happiness”. It’s a good show. Just stressful during the show, but pays off by the end. But I was so stressed out, I think I grew about 20 gray hairs in the movie. It was nice to get out and have a date with her alone for the first time in forever. Grandma & Grandpa Emery came over and watched the girls.

So you are probably getting sick of this by now, but I’m going to hit you up on the commitments thing again. Have you thought of anything to commit some peeps (Mom, Dad, Staci, Shelli, and me) on? I know you probably don’t think it would make much difference, but it does. Then follow up when you write now and then to see what kind of progress they are making. There are a couple of people who would really stand to gain a lot from that, that’s all I’ll say about that.

Time for your Mission Quote of the week. This has always been one of my favorite quotes on Missionary work for obvious reasons when you consider my main theme I write you about every week. Here you go…

“One of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work. If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people; and he will be happy. There will be no homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry.

That’s the secret – work, work, WORK. There is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.”

- Ezra Taft Benson

On that note, I’ll wrap this up and go take a nap and get ready for the night game tonight (Giants/Eagles). I will have to get up early so I can be downtown at the court house by 8:00 AM tomorrow. Wish me luck. I’ll be anxiously waiting for your letter to come soon. Make sure to let me know what’s up with your investigators progress. It sounded like you had Trey pretty close. Anyone else? Keep hard at it. Work your butt off every minute you’ve got. Look at the promises of hard work by Ezra T. It sounds like you are already as you are getting E. Herbert ready to take over the area. Make sure you leave with a solid bang in that area. Leave your impression. Check that, leave your LEGACY. Leave everyone you work with such an impression that they will always talk about Elder Alexander for years to come.

Alright, I’ll catch you again next week.

Love and miss you. Our prayers are always with you as well.

Love,

T

More Pics

As you look at the latest pictures, scroll to the bottom of the page. If the counter says 2000, you are the 2000th visitor to Mike's blog. Make sure you click the comment in this post and tell us who you are. Thanks everyone for making Mike's Mission Blog so popular.

Does anyone hear that buzzing sound? I wouldn't stick around much longer there Pooh Bear!

The usual suspects

Which Looks better? Pink? or Yellow?