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
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
posted by Travis at 10:35 PM
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