02/11/07

What’s up young Elder?

We just got home from ma’s and pa’s house for dinner. It was good. Lasagna, breadsticks, salad, and some really good cheese cake and lemon cheese cake from Marie Calendars. There was cherry pie too, but for some reason, no one ate any of that. Afterward, we played my last gospel jeopardy game I sent you. Suzanne won, but the interesting thing about how she won was she cleaned up in “finish the hymn” and then rested on her laurels and let everyone else guess on other hard questions in other categories and never answered another question. It was funny to watch her sit there and let everyone compete so hard the rest of the game only to lose. Dad liked it so he copied all 4 of my games so he can use them in his Sunday school lessons. I told him while he’s copying them to send you copies too so that you can use them in District meetings or whatever you wanted to do with them. So hopefully he’ll send some along to you.

Did you get your picture card then? I guess we’ll have another one coming soon to us then, right? Since that other one was full.

We are all dying to know what’s up with Transfers. I can’t wait to check my e-mail tomorrow to see what’s up. I’m not going to make this very long so that you can write plenty of e-mails today. Not to mention, you will just get my letter with pictures either today or tomorrow anyway. So I’m kind of tapped for interesting things to talk about anyway. Ma and Pa are heading out to Texas for the reception Tuesday morning, so I’m going to feed the animals and keep things in order for a couple of days.

I just bought Suzanne some North Face sandals for Valentines day. I’m such a romantic!

It’s this warehouse called steepandcheap.com on the internet that I work right down the road from. They blow out all kinds of sweet outdoor gear at always more than 50% off retail and most times quite a bit more. You can get screaming deals on there. They blow out a product until they are all gone and then another product goes up. I’m totally addicted to this site. I have a desktop alert that goes off as soon as a new product is posted so I can run and check it out. It sounds a bell on my computer and a little box fades up from my tray in the bottom right of my screen, showing me a picture of the product, the price, the retail price and a description. When you go to the site, you see a bar that depletes as the merchandise is sold off so you know roughly how many of each thing is left. I got a sweet wicking material North Face shirt the other day for $9.85. it was normally 55 bucks.

Well, I’ve got to get to my homework. It’s 10:30 PM on Sunday night and I haven’t done squat. So let me pop your quote of the week in here and bail. I love this quote by the way. It’s so bold and will get you pumped as a missionary…

“Since baptism is essential there must be an urgent concern to carry the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. We accept the responsibility to preach the gospel to every person on earth. And if the question is asked, “you mean you are out to convert the entire world?” the answer is “Yes. We will try to reach every living soul.” Some who measure that challenge quickly say, “Why, that’s impossible! It cannot be done!” To that we simply say, “Perhaps, but we shall do it anyway.”

- Boyd K. Packer

Is that a cool statement or what?

That is your challenge. Those of us who have gone before have give our best shot and played our part in the big game. Now you are one of the starters who must go do your part to win and accomplish this huge objective. I’m so proud that you are out there doing it. I can’t wait to see what the next stage holds for you as transfers have come and gone now. You will be awesome wherever you go. I was so excited to get to my second area. I went from Harlem to the South Bronx. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any more Ghetto, it totally did! Ha ha. But I loved the crap out of the South Bronx. I loved everything about it, especially the people I met and taught. I made some lifelong friends in that area who I am still in contact with. I also faced adversity like I never thought I would. I faced violence, threats of physical harm, and some of the most Evil forces I hope to ever face. I stared down the face of evil on a few occasions that would make me respect the power of the other side. You are up against a real force, a very smart force who are doing everything they can to stop you, your investigators and the message you have to share. But stay strong, obedient, and work, work, work!

Can’t wait to talk to you soon. Hopefully you are happy with whatever happened in transfers. The important thing is not where you go, but that you bloom where you are planted. Even if that means you are still in the same area for another month or two. Who knows. I was 7 months in Greenwich, CT. I went through 3 companions there. And I loved it as much if not more than any other area I served, and I had some cool areas and loved all of them differently, but the same amount.

OK. I’ve gone on long enough. It’s time to hit the books and to bed so I can get up early for work.

Love you and miss you as always. Talk to you soon. Make sure you get me all the info for the blog you can. Inquiring minds want to know.

Trav