04/29/07

Whopat’s Opup? How’s your horse latin? Have you trained E. Gardner in the ways of HL yet? I was over at ma’s and pa’s last night and read your last letter to them and saw the generation picture. I have one of Me, Schweitzer, Werlich, and Wood so me and my posterity on down to my great grandson. The cool thing was my Grandson, Werlich was wearing my tie I got from my trainer that I passed down to Schweitzer and on down. So that was cool. I hope you are passing an ugly tie that will stand the test of time as it is passed from one generation to the next. I noticed in that generational picture, that you and Gardner had a Parker in the pocket, but Leavitt had some weak imposter. Were you never able to bring him to the truth? You will have to work hard on him since he’d be a valuable asset to the cause. We could use someone of his caliber and strength.
We have all the PMG’s wrapped up to give out for Mother’s Day. Had to get some milage from them since they were over $7.00 a pop. Shelli is technically a mother to her cat, so there we go. So they will all get their PMG in a little over a week. I will take my test on the 12th, too, so I will have time to study it after that.
That’s awesome that you had some success from Gladys Knight coming. I’m not a big fan of her music since she “gospelizes” all of the church music, but I know that’s a good middle ground for the southern Baptist types that will like that kind of music style and not so much our reverent ways. So I’m glad to hear that she helped bring so many “referrals” as it were to the missionaries out in the field. Cool! Let us know what comes of those you teach that came from that.
I’ll be excited to do some “real hunting” as you say when you get back. Any kind of hunting with a shotgun is my forte. I have to bust in my 12 gauge anyway. I’m dangerously accurate with my 20 gauge mini bounder. I can only imagine what I will be able to do with extra shot and granules of powder!!
So how were your interviews last Wed.? You say they are always so spiritual. I know the feeling. That only comes with that much power to those missionaries who are open to that spirit though. I knew missionaries who dreaded those interviews and never gained anything from it. But when you are living 100% obedient and working as hard as you can, the more you will gain from those interviews and be recharged from them. I’m glad to hear that you are maximizing the effectiveness of those. That is what lead me to pick this quote as the quote of the week this week.
“There is one language that is understood by every missionary: the Language of the Spirit. It is not learned from textbooks written by men of letters, nor is it acquired through reading and memorization. The language of the Spirit comes to him who seeks with all his heart to know God and to keep His divine commandments. Proficiency in this language permits one to breach barriers, overcome obstacles, and touch the human heart.”
- Thomas S. Monson
It’s sort of crazy how you can communicate with the language of the spirit sometimes in some circumstances, right? Where you will say things that even surprise you just by what is said, or maybe just with the power that backs what you just said? It’s seriously a small miracle of sorts how that happens. I love it and miss it often. It happens every so often now days, but not near the frequency or power as on my mission.

Brinlee was “helping” me out in the yard yesterday as I was mowing, edging, pruning, and weeding. She would pick the dandelion seed bulbs, you know? And hold it up high and say loudly “I wish, I wish with all my heart…” and then make a wish and then blow all the seeds everywhere. We don’t know where she got that, but it was cute to watch her. She did it with a well over 10 of them making for tons more dandelions in my yard in the near future, but it was too cute to stop her. I actually mowed over the rest of them anyway and she yelled at me for breaking the “wishing flowers”. I also got out the spreader and spread dandelion/turf builder all over my front and back yards after that too. So we shouldn’t have too many more “wishing flowers” around after yesterday. I’m about ready to bring down the aspens soon too. They have had it. It’s time to get rid of those and bring in something new that will grow fast and full. They look more beater every year. So I’ll enjoy the 2 weeks of spring they actually look good with the new leaves, and then take them down when they start yellowing up.
Mike Woodbury came into town last week. So we got together Friday night and went golfing at Glenmoore. We got over to Matt’s about 9:00 PM to play some tennis at Trailors-Ville High but the lights weren’t on as he promised they would be. So we went out to daybreak to check out Matt’s new house that’s almost built just a couple blocks away from the new temple site. Then we went to Apollo Burger for some tasty food at 10:00 PM. Ha ha. Then just hung out and reminisced about he good times till a little after midnight. It was fun, but I was a little bummed about not playing some tennis. I was looking forward to putting some old school whoop butt on my old tennis chums. Have you played any tennis out there on a P-day? I think I only played 3 times my whole mission.
We have a pinewood derby event coming up next month. I plan to put in some effort and win that thang! We’ll have to see what comes of it. I will probably try to pimp it out in Dad’s shop. I don’t have all the resources at my disposal that he does for that kind of thing. We’ll see what I can come up with.
Well, I need to go up and prep the grill for the first BBQ of the season. It’s been winterized, so I need to clean it up well, get it ready and grill some good action on there for dinner.

Not much else this week anyway. So I’ll get back to you again next week. Hope all is going well for you and your area.

Keep up all the good work. Time is going fast. It will be over before you know it. Work so you will have no regrets.

Love and miss you!

Trav

Companion Bio on Elder Gardner

It's long overdue by now, but here is the Companion Bio on Mike's new greeny, Elder Gardner:
NAME: Trever Jason Gardner
WHERE HE GREW UP: Idaho Falls, ID
MUSIC: Country
TV SHOWS: Smallville
LIKE MOST ABOUT HIS MISSION SO FAR: Meeting Crazy people
LIKE LEAST ABOUT HIS MISSION SO FAR: All the frustrating people
WHAT HE WILL DO WHEN HE GROWS UP: Firefighter
GIRLFRIEND: Nope
HOBBIES: Sports, cross country
UNIQUE ASPECT: Ran 33 miles once, has cauliflower ear
FAVORITE SCRIPTURE: D&C 11:7
(I put that in hypertext for those of you who don't just keep your scriptures with you at all times)
LAST GROCERY LIST: pants (slacks for tracting), ties, milk, cereal (cinnamon Life), Bread, Turkey cold cuts, pens (Parker brand of course), Big Envelopes, treats.

If anyone wants to know more than this, drop it in the comment section at the bottom of this posting and I'll send it on to Mike to have him answer.

04/22/07

What up Playa?!
What have you been up to lately? Me? Same old, same old. I had my last class on Thursday night. However, I’ll still be doing my study group on Thursday nights at FranklinCovey like usual. We just moved it from our regular Tuesday nights to Thursday nights when class usually was. I’ll do that till I do my test on the 12th of May. At least I have my Tuesdays back now to do as I wish. That’s a good step in the right direction.

We had Grandpa over for dinner this week. We had good intentions of cooking him a good meal, but our original night we planned was Monday and Suzanne and I ended up going to the Jazz game in the Xpedex suite. So we rescheduled till Wednesday night. We got so wrapped up in stuff and ate our original dinner we prepared for Monday, so we just got some Applebees pick up for us all. It was good. It was fun to have gramps over to hang out for a night too. Brinlee had a blast and liked sitting by him and reading some books with him.

The Jazz game was fun. We spent so much time eating all the good free grub like the super tender, fall off the bone, BBQ ribs, BBQ chicken, BBQ brisket and BBQ beans. Mmmmmmm, they were so good. I had a few cokes, a salad, and lots of jelly bellys, Peanut M&Ms and some almonds and peanuts. I was so full, that when the dessert cart rolled through, I just took a big ol’ thing that was pre-wrapped and held on to it till we got home. The guy from Xpedex who sponsored us hooked us all up with some micro-mag flashlights too, so it was a sweet night in the suite. Pun intended.

I got my new Leatherman knife this week too. It has a patented blade launcher that you pull this tiny trigger on it and the blade flies open even faster than your standard switch blade. It’s so awesome, I wet myself almost every time I open it.

I home taught my new family today for the first time. I’m excited. They are a cool family. Their older son is named Zealand and the baby boy is named Corbin. I think those are cool names for boys.

Clark is in Australia for a couple of weeks with his brother in law on a fun trip. Doing some diving off the great barrier reef and hanging out along the sunshine coast and gold coast which are both farther north than we’ve been before. I’m jealous. He’s down there on Snowbird’s bill too since they bought the tickets for him for the trip anyway back when he was still working there before he left for the airport. He’s working for Kennecott now, ha ha. But still had to use or lose those paid for tickets. I don’t blame him. I would have done it too. So he’s been e-mailing me to let me know what he’s up to.

You will be pleased to know that I bought a PMG book for Stosh, Shelli, and Ma and Pa. So I’ll distribute those at the next family function. I didn’t think they’d be 7 bills each. Oh well. It is done and now everyone will have it and can start reading it. That will be the next step, to get them all to read it once they have it. You will have to send recommendations on how to use it most effectively and what sort of things to do with it so everyone can maximize the benefit from it.

Well, in true fashion, I started this way late on Sunday night and now it’s almost 11:00 PM and I’m dog tired. I’m going to end this at an uncharacteristically short point in the letter and get your quote of the week in and go to bed. I have that tired buzz going where I’m totally buzzing from being so tired and I don’t know if I’m going to make much sense soon.

One last thing before I get to the quote of the week… I somehow got on the topic of Xbox with some of the management team at work and they said you play Halo? I said “I dabble”. They smiled at each other and told me we’ll have to start up those “Manager meetings” again soon. I said what meetings? They told me that they will go to Casey’s house and play halo for an hour just about every day. But they haven’t done it in forever. I said How did I never know about this before? So we are going to revamp those “meetings” soon which will be sweet. I’m going to have to get practiced up again and shake the rust off, but I will mop the floor with those chumps. Ha ha. I can’t wait. Just something to get you all Halo trunky again.

Anyway, you quote of the week this week is brought to you by Lorenzo Snow.

“There is a way to reach every human heart, and it is your business to find the way to the hearts of those to whom you are called on your mission.”
- Lorenzo Snow

You have been put in the mission you are in and the area you are in and with the companionship you are in for all the right reasons and combinations. The Lord is the master coach and he knows just who and where he wants his best players to be the most effective in winning the hearts of those who have not yet accepted his gospel. Go out there with that in mind, find the way to open the hearts of those around you. Find a way to teach Elder Garder? The best way to do just that as well. Use his limited experience to your benefit. Let him make recommendations and play off his promptings as they come. Encourage him to participate as much as possible and let the Lord work through him and find out just why he has been sent to you, in your area, of your mission and compliment one another in the winning of souls.

You are awesome Mike. Keep up all of the great work. I know you are working hard, I know you are working smart. I know you are doing what you need to do to be the best missionary out there and I’m so proud of you.

Talk to you again soon.

Love and miss you always.

T-rav

04/15/07

What’s up Chochy?
It’s 11:19 PM on Sunday night and I’m just getting to your letter. It’s been another crazy week and again, not a lot of time to write, but I better get a letter off. I just have one more class left this Thursday and I’m done till I test. I have so much to do to get ready for this test. Work is crazy, but hopefully will slow down soon. I’m going to take a few days off prior to the test so that I can get ready for it. I still think I’m going to bomb it, but what can you do?
The iPod stopped syncing to the computer and would glitch out every time I’d try saying I had millions of gigs of stuff on there, such a big number that it would glitch out on the display on my computer. I have no idea why, but I had to reformat it, meaning, I have been spending the last couple of days syncing all of the stuff back on there. It takes forever when you have 11,000 songs! That’s what I’m up to by the way. Crazy huh?
Church is good. I did some visits today for EQ stuff. Still liking my calling quite a bit. It has gotten me more active in learning more about the Elders in the ward and getting to know people a lot better that I wouldn’t normally have.
Let’s jump right into the quote of the week here. I got thinking about Janet and how she could go on to affect so many other people. It’s so great to think of what just one convert can do to influence others in their circle of influence. That’s why I chose this quote by Pres. Hinckley this week…

“The work of a missionary is everlasting in its consequences. Acceptance of the gospel at the hands of a true and dedicated teacher affects not only the recipient, but also generations who come after the recipient.”
-Gordon B. Hinckley

Let that be part of your motivation, that not only will you affect the person you helped convert, but you will potentially help to bring hundreds if not thousands or more to the truth by the influence of that convert. I loved the story of Pres. Kimball from the manual we are studying this year. If you don’t have it, let me know and I will send that story to you in the next letter. But it ties in with this quote now that I think about it again.

Let’s get to your last e-mail… What are RC lessons?
I’m glad to hear you have such a good attitude with tracting. It’s the grass roots of missionary work. It may not be as effective as referrals, or media, or some other things, but I loved it! It kept my mind sharp, it kept me on my toes since every door could bring another unexpected response or comment. It help me keep my skin thick and never let me soften up to the point that I couldn’t handle a little challenge here or there. I loved it. I would come home at night after a full day of tracting feeling like I worked harder than I ever did or than any other missionary that day because I put in 100% to the hardest activity I could do. I felt accomplished. If you can instill that kind of work ethic in your greeny, you will have done him a major service, to love tracting, that seriously is a gift you have given him. Help keep it fun. Help him see the good things that can come from it. Build his testimony of it. I have awesome stories from tracting that led to baptisms and built my testimony like crazy!! In fact, most of my baptisms came from tracting now that I think about it. But then again, I could rack up well over 200 contacts by tracting some massive projects and that is something that you probably don’t have as much access to. What is a good solid number of contacts you could rack up in a good day of tracting? What kind of density are you working with? Mostly houses and neighborhoods? Trailers? Just curious about what you work with mostly. Some of what I’ve seen in your pictures and videos is pretty nice, some pretty ghetto neighborhoods too, but a lot of nice too.
So how was Zone conference last week? What did you discuss? I loved those too! Just wait till you have leadership meetings. Just that much more exposure to your president and you really dive into some good doctrine as the president trains you and you take that and train your district, or zone, or zone leaders, etc. you will love those!!! We called them DL/ZL’s or just DL/ZL meetings. What do you call them there?
Thanks for your letter and art for Brinlee. That made her day. We told her she got a letter from Uncle Mike and she grinned from ear to ear and started clapping and giggling. We opened it and read it with her and she was beaming through the whole thing. I took it over to ma’s and pa’s for them to read on Saturday as I was cutting tile with Clint. My tile saw and stuff has been at Mom’s and Dad’s forever now. Still haven’t done their tile in their bathroom. Brinlee saw the missionaries riding their bikes up into the overpass at 7800 S. and Bangerter. She was watching them talking about wearing their hats and backpacks and that you were probably doing that too. She watched them until we had to turn and she couldn’t see them anymore.
Your comment about caring less and less about getting letters and writing letters back was my thoughts exactly when I hit about a year out. So there again, something that you figured out even earlier on than I did. You have truly began the process of losing your self which is great and ideal for the mission. You care more about your true purpose and some of these thoughts of home or what you want to tell people back home become almost burdensome and in the way of the work. Almost! You still have those responsibilities to write family and some friends since they support you and need that same spirit to buoy them up that you provide the people in your area. That is the only thing to keep in mind as you develop that attitude, but it’s great to hear that you are in that place where you care less about letters than getting back out and doing the work. Keep sending the inspirational stuff to us though and put your heart and soul into it. I know that there are still those in the family who need it more and more as time goes on. It may seem trivial to write family and it seems like maybe it’s the same stuff over and over, but whatever you send is treated like pure gold and taken in and remembered for a long time. So keep the effort in those letters. We understand your busy schedule though, so hopefully no one is lecturing you on how much you write. I think everyone understands where you are coming from, but maybe not so much. You just do what you can though, and that’s all you can do.
Congratulations on converting Elder Gardner on Parker right off the bat. That will be a productive two years for him with a quality writing instrument in his hand for those important notes, letters, etc. that he’ll have to write. I’m proud to know that yet one more has joined the fold. And just think that he will probably train at least one greeny up in the right way, and so forth until your whole mission posterity will have you to thank when they are older and wiser.
I added Scott Elison at Mom’s request to your blog list. She got me his e-mail address. So that will be good to have an extra buddy checking out your progress.
Wow, I still have half of my music to sync over and it’s midnight now, so I’ll have to get to that later this week. I need to get to bed. I am in for a crazy week of work and last class, etc. So I will sign off for now and talk to you again next week.
I hope things keep going well for you and Elder Gardner. You deserve all the blessings you can get. Keep working hard. Keep Elder Gardner working hard. Keep your area going strong and keep us all posted on everything. I know it’s a tall order, but you are up to it. The more you do, the harder you work, the expectations just get bigger and it gets DAUNTING. I remember thinking if I do anymore, I’ll just get more heaped on me and I can’t ever get enough sleep. I’m constantly tired all the time, I really just want a nap today. But then I’d plow through it, I’d work a little harder and go a bit above what I expected I’d do that day and at the end, I didn’t want to come home. I wanted to keep working. If you can always keep that attitude, no matter how much you’d like to call it a day on tracting, or call it a day when you’ve taught more than normal, or whatever the situation is, if you go one step further, the blessings seem to kick in to over time and you are blessed at time and a half from that point on. Correct me if I’m wrong. Cuz I think I’m on to something here.

Well, I love the crap out of you Mike. I’m so proud to talk about you any chance I get. I love that you are out there doing what you are doing and I love what is going on with your personal development. I’ll talk to you again next week and look forward to your e-mail to hear the latest.

Love,

Trav

Recent Converts

Some recent converts that Mike taught and baptized:

Terry Pullin, a truck driver in Rock Hill, SC

Janet, who Mike found, taught, and baptized in a very short time. Janet was about as golden and prepared as they get. Next to her is Mike's new greeny Elder Gardner

An old video from Mike's past

This has nothing to do with Mike's mission, but I had to share. I was cleaning through some old computer files the other day and stumbled on this video we shot of Mike trying to keep up with the big boys at Snowbird. It was a fairly steep slope we were on when he caught an edge of his snowboard and went down... and down... and pretty much all the way back down to the lift. He slid nearly most of the run in an uncontrollable back spin. Our only regret is that we didn't catch it on video sooner when it started and that we cut it off before he rounded the turn and kept going. So hilarious, check it out by clicking the link below:
P1010086.MOV

04/08/07

Elder Babby,
What’s new this week? I have been slammin’ as usual this week, so I haven’t even had a chance to write a little bit until now and it’s 8:17 PM Sunday night. So sorry, this one is going to be shorter than usual.
How is training going? How do you like your Greeny? Here is the companion Bio I need for the Blog…

Full name:
Place(s) he grew up:
Favorite Music and/or groups:
Favorite TV show(s):
What does he like most about his mission so far?:
What does he like least about his mission so far?:
What does he want to be when he grows up?
Girlfriend?
Hobbies:
Something unique to only him that most people will find weird:
Favorite Scripture right now:
List the items you bought on your last grocery shopping trip:

I think that will suffice for now. Get those back to me this week so I can update the blog. People are all excited to know more about him. How is the work going? What have you done besides tracting his butt off for his first month? Has it yielded any teaching appointments?

I went to a Bees game yesterday at FranklinCovey Field. It was fun. I haven’t done that in so long, let alone seen any baseball game for so long. It was a lot of fun. I got sunburned a little, but it’s tanning up since I’ve kept aloe vera gel on it. I’m going to the Jazz game tomorrow and sitting in the Suite with some of the management team from work. It’s Staci’s Birthday, but I think I have to blow that off and make it up to her. We’ll just end up sitting around for about 20 min. Eat some cake and ice cream, Josh will have to take off early cuz of the cats, mom and dad will get wrapped up in one of their 6 or 7 Law and Order shows and sequester themselves in different rooms, and I’ll sit there with regret for blowing off sweet Suite tickets for the Jazz game. Comments or concerns about that? I felt bad because I forgot it was Staci’s Birthday and she texted me at the game and asked if I could come to her house on Monday for Cake and I Texted back and said I have a jazz game and couldn’t go, and then had to open myself up to ridicule and mockery by asking what the cake was for. Ooops. Guess I better pay better attention to dates and what not.

So what did you do for Easter? Anything fun? We colored eggs, did some eater egg hunts at Grandma Emery’s house, and at the Ward Pavilion. Those were both fun for Brinlee. She got spoiled with a bunch of gifts and what not. Did you get her art and letter and other stuff we sent when I was going to Vegas? Shelli must have sent it. The ties, parker refills, etc.? What did you do with the ties? What did you think of the art and Brinlee’s letter? She is anxious to hear back from you.
Let’s jump into the quote of the week for this week. I’m just going to paste it in right now and then comment. It’s from Joseph Smith commenting on his persecutions and opposition…

“I am like a huge, rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else, striking with accelerated force against religious bigotry, priest-craft, lawyer-craft, doctor-craft, lying editors, suborned judges and jurors, and the authority of perjured executives, backed by mobs, blasphemers, licentious and corrupt men and women-- all hell knocking off a corner here and a corner there. Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty, who will give me dominion over all and every one of them, when their refuge of lies shall fail, and their hiding place shall be destroyed, while these smooth-polished stones with which I come in contact become marred.”

I love that analogy. As you are out there on your mission, you have faced and will continue to face all kinds of persecutions, bigotry, hatred, opposition, challenges, etc. And if you take this mentality with you, that with each challenge it rubs out yet another sharp edge and is continuing to hone you into a finely polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty, how cool is it to think of yourself that way? How much easier will EVERY challenge that comes your way be to endure when you consider this. It continually refines you to being a better, more useful weapon for the Lord when he needs to call upon you. Enjoy every bit of opposition that comes your way out there and through life. Take Joseph’s way of thinking and use it to your advantage.

Did I tell you in my last letter or two that I finally read the Grandeur of God by Jeffrey R. Holland? Good stuff. Thanks for recommending it. It took me long enough to finally get to it. I finally watched the conference session that did the dedication of the tabernacle too. I watched the first 45 min. of it, got busy in other things that came up during that and had to sick TraVo after it. So it picked up the rest of it for me and Suzanne and I watched that today. Remember me baptizing you in the font there? Or is that kind of a vague memory for you now? That was a super cool place to do it. I guess it’s moved now, by the sounds of what Thomas S. Monson said. But I’m glad you did it there, and I’m glad you had me do it. That was way awesome for me to come off my mission and be able to do that.

Did you ever figure out what happened with the emergency transfer and stuff that happened after you left?

I think I had some other stuff to talk about, but for the life of me I can’t think of it and the notes I left in my FranklinCovey planning system are upstairs and too far for me to walk. I’m so tired, I seriously can’t drag myself up there to do that. I’ll have to get it in your letter next week. I’m going to attempt to read my homework for at least 3 pages before I crash, but I know that won’t be possible, and I’m about 289 pages behind. I only have 2 classes left too and test in a month on May 12th. I’m feeling so hopeless about passing at this point, I think I just wasted a ton of time away from my family and money to take this class and everything that went with it. Oh well. I’m going to fall asleep if I sit still for a few more minutes, so I better get moving.

Keep up all the good work. I’m excited to hear back from you tomorrow. Hope the work is going well and you are being blessed for all of your efforts. I know that you are, and so are we for having a miniscule amount of support in this endeavor. So keep it up for all of our sakes.

Love and miss you.

Trav

Mike's latest letter 4/6/07

He talked a lot about what he liked best in the last conference and some about Janet's baptism. Her sister came to the baptism and got all teary-eyed. Mike felt impressed a few times to ask her for referrals there, so we'll see if anything comes of that. He also talked about his first impressions of training. Here is a snippet from his letter...

I'm liking training, its weird cause i keep thinkin i was just with Leavitt, i just got trained. Its all gone by so fast it just blurrs together. Then i started thinkin about how the next couple of months is going to be such a stretching time for me, i knew this calling was going to stretch me, but i also realize that it'll only stretch me as far as i allow it to. So i am striving to be teachable and humble and trying to allow this experience to stretch me as much as possible, to make it the best Learning experience possible, so thats what i'll be striving for. Kinda the whole, "Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life shall find it", thing, so thats what i'm striving for. Its been a fun week and a half so far and i'm looking forward to the next 2.5 months of training. The only problem is i try to keep him busy enough that he doesn't talk about home. If you think about it, it wa way easy for me to not think about home at all with Elder Van Leeuwen because we had both been out long enough to have other things to talk about, but he has nothing else to talk about, so i just try to keep him busy with things so he doesn't talk about home, plus it'll be good to break the home sickness out of him fast. Needless to say we've tracted quite a bit in the last 2 weeks, hahaha, gotta love that.

sounds like he is doing great as a trainer. We are excited to see his progress and his testimony grow with every day.