5/27/07

What’s new with you Chochy?

It’s another week and another letter. It’s of course late on Sunday night. 11:30 PM to be exact. Just what you’d expect from me, eh? Suzanne and I took a drive up to Syracuse where my boss lives to see some houses in his neighborhood that are for sale. He’s been trying to get us up there since it’s so cheap being out of the city limits. It’s right on the Glen Eagle golf course and super nice houses for what we would be able to sell our house for. But man! Could it take longer to get up there and back? Seriously, we burned more than a ¼ tank on the trip. He said that we could carpool so not to let that influence my decision. We’ll see what some of the prices look like as we look into them this week. We mostly just wanted to try out the drive and see what the location looked like. We are right by antelope drive that takes you out to antelope island. So it’s up there a bit.

John and I are going fishing at the Berry tomorrow. I need to get to sleep since I need to wake up in about 4 hours. Man, that’s going to be an early wake up! So I won’t get your letter till I get home, but I’ll be thinking of you and that I’ve got a letter to check out when I get back. So as you are reading this right now, I’m out on the lake slaying trout. It will be nice! It’s been nice and cool up there, not too hot yet. The fish are all hungry too coming off a long winter and ice cover. Should be pretty active. I’m excited.

We did the Elder’s Quorum Pinewood Derby on Friday night. I promised to let you know the results of that. Well, I made mine in an inverted plane shape, so it was the shape of an airplane wing to create some lift, with the weight up in the front, some cool stickers that I got from a Comcast internet mailer I got. It had stickers like Lightning bolts which I used, some checker flags which I used, some wings and some fire blazing stickers that I didn’t use, but it also had a sticker that said “soup up your modem” which I strategically cut up so that it said YOUR MOM. So that was the name of my car… YOUR MOM ha ha. That’s how it read in the brackets on the board and whenever I got called up to race, it would be like this: number 8, Vintage Green, Number 14, and Your Mom is up next. Or in the semi finals, we have Big Money racing Your Mom! It was awesome! Well, I took 4^th. Nothing to be proud of really, but I found out my car went way faster when I raced it backwards, so the weight in the back. In fact, all the winners had the weight in the back. DANG! I thought the strategy was to race with weight in the front. Oh well. I learned my lesson too late. These guys also had their tires lathed so they were super thin, they had a 3 point contact too where one of the front tires sits up hire and doesn’t even touch. What’s up with this stuff man? I didn’t know about all these strategies, but oh well, I still came in 4^th beating out all the legit cars and that was after learning too late that my car was faster backwards. It was fun anyway and that’s what counts. One guy did bring a CO2 car though and holy cow, that thing beat all other cars by half the time and that was giving them all a 2 second head start because after the gate dropped, he had to punch his cartridge. Obviously it wasn’t considered legit, but it was fun to watch. It hit the bottom so hard and fast, that even with a big sponge buffer at the bottom it crushed his car to bits, blowing his axels and wheels off and even splintering his wood to bits by the 3^rd launch. It was sweet though.

Today in church we had a kid show up without his parents. He just sat in the row by himself ahead of us. After the first speaker got done, he went up there and sat on the stand. After the second speaker got done with her 15 minute talk that he waited patiently for, the chorister stood up for our closing hymn and he didn’t see her, so he stood up to the microphone. The bishop flagged the chorister to hold off and let him talk. The kid just started talking about how his parents used to go to church before he knew anything about it but then quit and he wanted to know more about church and said it was time we all started teaching him and bore his testimony of being thankful to heavenly father for helping him find his way, etc. it was cool, this kid is only like 10 if that. Maybe 11. So hopefully someone gets that kid some missionaries.

Let’s get to your quote of the week…

In a mission environment of order and discipline where all that is done is in harmony with the spirit, the missionary experiences a great transformation. The heavens open. Powers are showered out. Mysteries are revealed. Habits are improved. Sanctification begins. Through this process the missionary becomes a vessel of light that can shine forth the gospel of Jesus Christ in a world in darkness.

- William R. Bradford

I went with this one today because we did a lesson on being instruments in the hands of God. I always liked that concept and aspire to be just that and in fact, pray for that opportunity on a regular basis. I like this quote because it speaks to how missionaries are transformed into more effective instruments in the hands of God. I love watching that transformation take place more effectively each week in your letters. Keep up that great transformation. Keep up all the hard work. I love seeing how well you envelope yourself in the work and lose yourself so well from the rest of the world in darkness. You are a great example to your family back home. Thanks for being that example and one that we can constantly point out to Brinlee and Aynslee.

Sorry this is so short and sweet. I need to get to bed. It’s midnight and I literally only have a 4 hour sleep in store for me tonight. I’ll let you know about the fishing trip next week and hopefully will have some killer pics to send your way of some trophies. John has been up there since Thursday and hasn’t landed a single fish. His dad caught 2 and that’s it. John has had two on his line but lost them both. Ha ha. John has bad luck fishing or has no skills. I haven’t been able to tell yet. But my luck of the Berry will change things up tomorrow.

Catch you next week. Love and miss you always.

T-Rav

5/20/07

Elder A,

What’s new this week? Anything good going on? It’s been a busy week for us. Just the typical work and trying to keep up on house hold stuff. I finally got my sprinklers turned on. It’s about time, right? It’s almost June for crying out loud. My grass is browning over pretty bad. But this should get it back to where it should be. Went and did my home teaching today. It was ward conference today too. Good meetings. I remember growing up with Ward Conference or Stake Conference meaning “church holiday” Woopty Woooooop!!! I talked to Chad’s dad and brother today. They were walking home from church and they were walking across the street from us as I was unloading Aynslee from the car. So I yelled across the street “Hi Brother’s Johnson”. Leon thought that was pretty funny for some reason. Anyway, Chad has been relocated from the Eastern seaboard to the Western side of the north island. It’s an area that hasn’t had missionaries for a few years now. So he’s re-opening it. So I gave them the run down on you too. We were just over at the Emery’s. Austin and I played some Halo for the first time in several months. He was showing me the new maps. There are a couple of new maps out. They gotta keep everyone’s interest up since Halo 3 comes out in September. Bedieu … who you played at his house that one time I think. You know, in my ward? He has the beta of it already, so he is going to own us when we finally all get it. Oh well. Austin whooped up on me 8-4. But that’s not bad since he’s been playing still and I haven’t played in months. Literally about 8 months ago. So I can hold my head up high.

I helped Neil move on Friday. I’ll tell you what, I’m not built like I used to be. I used to be able to heft the heaviest item in the house during a moving party almost by myself. Now I can barely squeeze a semi heavy item out with a partner. I’m feeling old, yo! I need to get working out! I need someone to motivate my bones.

So did you get both of my letters last week? How many copies of that letter from the week before did you get? Just wanted to make sure you got that letter. I felt bad that you didn’t get it that day you checked though. I always hated knowing a letter should have been there on a particular day and then it wasn’t.

How were your ZL trainings and how have your district meetings been going? You like your district? Good missionaries?

Oh, did you ever get that newspaper article about you guys? I looked on their site, but haven’t seen anything yet. What date if any was it on? I’ll keep looking just in case it’s still coming up.

I have my Pinewood derby this Friday. I haven’t even got my car yet. Dangit! I don’t even know where to buy the kits. I gotta get on that. I have a legacy to uphold. I have my 1983 1^st place winning trophy right here in front of me in fact. I wish I could find that car! We are doing a vintage class with a bunch of us who have won before who wanted a vintage grudge match. That would have been AWESOME! Oh well. I have to just build my own new one now. I don’t have long to do it either. I’ll let you know what happens by next letter.

So what’s up with the move by the church to put all missionaries in homes of members? That seems weird to me. I understand the cost savings, but I can also see more liabilities in certain ways too. When is this supposed to happen?

To answer your question about the test… I won’t be testing for anything else for a while. I may test for the SPHR in a few years. But for now, I’m just going to bask in my PHR certification. I can’t imagine going for the SPHR after all I went through to get the PHR. I actually had a job offer of sorts from Target to be an HR manager of their western states distribution center. I’d be over 15 employees and handling all HR functions. Problem is, it is in Pueblo, CO. So I told them no thanks. They almost had me convinced to come out to Pueblo, check things out and let them try to talk me into it, but I’d feel guilty knowing that I wouldn’t relocate. I’m just not in a hurry to get out of UT to live. The money would have been good though. But they just found my resume online and tracked me down on the phone a couple of times. I haven’t even dropped my certification on there yet.

I think I’m going to tap into some PMG for the first time tonight. What do you recommend? Get me a starting shove here and some direction on how to best utilize this bad boy. I’m kind of excited to get into something new other than HR related reading materials. Make sure you get on the rest of the family too. No laming out. They need to do it. If they lame out, they need to hear it just like any other investigator when they don’t pray, or read your assigned pages and what not. Of course with an increase of love afterward. But you know how we do.

So where are the latest pictures? I haven’t seen pics from you in a long time. The Blog is drying out for want of new pictures. See what you can do to get another card to me. You will be amazed that the 2 GB cards are way cheaper than your 1 GB card was when you left. You can get the 2 GB for like 30 bucks at Best Boy.

Time for the Quote of the week…

“You are going out on your mission, not merely to make friends for the Church, but to properly convert and baptize. The spirit of our work must be urgency, and we must imbue our missionaries with this spirit of “Now.” We are not justified in waiting for the natural, slow growth which would come with natural and easy proselyting. We believe that we must put our shoulder to the wheel, lengthen our stride, heighten our reach, increase our devotion so that we can do the work to which we have been assigned.”

- Spencer W. Kimball

I like this because it ties right in with that Henry B. Eyring talk from conference about procrastinating what we know we should do because we either get complacent, or we feel like it will come when it comes, or we say “I’ll get to it tomorrow” or other forms of putting off today what can be done tomorrow. Keep this message in mind this week as you go out and do the Lord’s work. Keep a sense of urgency with you at all times. This spirit of “Now” as Pres. Kimball puts it. Put your shoulder to the wheel, no matter how tired you get. Lengthen your stride, increase your devotion so that you can live up to the expectations the Lord, President Hobbs, Elder Gardner, your district, your family, etc. have all placed upon you.

I know you are already doing this, but I also know there is always room for improvement. Keep up the steady progression I have seen you doing Mike. I am so proud of what you have accomplished, continue to accomplish, and have yet to accomplish. Keep up the great work. You are a bona fide Stallion!

I love and miss you constantly. Have a great week! Talk to you next week.

Love,

Trav

05/13/07

Eh Yo,
I didn’t think I’d write you this week, but I just can’t NOT write you for even one week. I have written every single week since even before you went in the MTC and I can’t break that spree.
It was good to talk to you today even though it was short and I was being rushed. It’s funny how everyone gets uptight about time on the phone, so rather than deal with the feelings and what not, I just gave it up. We write more consistently than what most everyone get to talk to you anyway, so I was OK with it. I’m sure you were too.
I didn’t even get to tell you, I passed my test!!!!!! It took me about the solid 4 hours to complete it too, so it was a beast and a half. But it’s worth it. That’s a huge step in my career progression to have that under my belt. It puts me in the top 10 percent of HR professionals. I took the last 3 days off of work to cram my guts out and did just that. I was so overwhelmed with information by the time I took my test Saturday that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to perform very well. But it worked out. I’m pretty excited about getting that, but I’m just way relieved to be done with the class, study group nights and studying as a whole. Now I can finally read what I want and get back into the good stuff. I might bust into the PMG now just to stay ahead of the fam and set the example. But you will need to do the accountability reports. I told them this was by your request so they know you will harass them from time to time and are expecting it.

Well, let me know if you got my e-mail from last week. Maybe I’ll send it one more time in case the whole LDSmail network was down or something.

I better get the quote of the week in here and bail to bed. Maybe get some introductory section of PMG read while I’m at it. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

“I think the great majority of our converts come into the Church not because of the way we teach the gospel, because often the pressing of gospel subjects confuses their minds, but because of the power of the testimony attendant with our teachings, which, actually produces the awakening of interest in the heart of the investigator.”
- Alvin R. Dyer

I was excited to hear that you got a referral from that documentary. I think that will produce some good referrals all around the country and I think that coupled with the information they learned on that, the curiosity it caused and team that up with the powerful spirit and testimony that good missionaries will bring with the message they requested, they will come to know the truth. I think the documentary was great. I know Dad wasn’t up on it, but I guarantee it will bring good from it and I was glad for it. I hope you can have some good progress with this guy that requested the information. Testify boldly to him and anyone you teach. I love to hear your testimony in your letters. You have a rock solid testimony that will come in handy well after your mission. Share it openly and often and it will continue to strengthen to the point where it can never be influence again. I hit that point on my mission, fairly early on, where I knew at one point, I can never be swayed where I don’t believe in this gospel. My testimony will be tested, it may even weaken over time, but it will never be destroyed. And that has played out to a certain extent. But I learned it’s like a living thing that needs constant nourishment and it needs to get out and go for walks with people who need to hear it occasionally. I can’t keep it cooped up inside all the time. It needs to get out and stretch its legs for good measure and it gets so much more active after it has a good outing. Keep up the good work Mike. I’m so proud of you. I wish I could have talked with you much longer today, but we’re good. I didn’t need it, you didn’t need it. It is great to talk for a bit and then get your mind back to the important stuff.
Talk to you next week.

Love,

Trav

District Leader call letter

Click it to see a larger image

Mike called as a District Leader

DL... That's pretty exciting! I'm going to copy and paste in some clips from his last e-mail we got this week. Looks like he's going to be published soon too. Sounds like things are going GREAT in his neck of the woods:

Well, we had transfers on thursday, but both of us are chillin in Lincolnton for another 6 weeks at least. However, President Hobbs gave me a call on Tuesday night... I have been called as a District Leader. Hoo Boy, this is going to stretch me... The Zone Leaders are actually coming down tonight for exchanges into tomorrow and their going to train me. So that should be good, i need to have District Meeting prepared for tomorrow, and we've got a ton of stuff going on today, so i am a tad overwhelmed but the Lord is helping me, everything so far today has gone smoothly so i'm hoping the rest of the day will be the same. That would be nice. It'll be really nice when Elder Gardner goes senior comp for the last 2 weeks of his training, hahahaha, That'll be fun. But things are going good, I'm lovin life, happy as ever.

My Bike is getting tuned up right now, after 9 hard months of riding i finally decided it was time to have it tuned up so i don't jack it up. Oh yeah, while we were dropping off our bikes at the bike shop, some dude rolls up and double parks next to our car and he gets out and asks if we're the missionaries for the LDS church and then asks if we would like a newspaper article published about us, so we went in for an interview and they took pictures and whatnot, and the article is supposed to be published this Friday or maybe next Friday. soon, anyhow. So that should be good to get the word out.

05/05/07

E. Babs,
What’s new with you? How has this week gone? It’s Saturday night, so I’m getting an early start on this compared to the last few weeks starting late Sunday night and going till I am done. We took a drive up to Bountiful today and went to Stosh’s house and visited with them for a bit. Checking out Josh’s new 50 inch LCD flat screen HD TV. He is watching the 7th game of the jazz play off game in Houston. Houston will win, so I don’t know why he wanted the pain in 50 inch high definition. But his choice. That’s gotta be expensive. I just turned it on, it looks like it is 84-82 for Houston with 6:55 left in the 4th. It will end by the time I finish this letter, so I’ll let you know what happens.
I just put your 3 generation pic on the blog tonight while we were at Ma’s and Pa’s. Oh yeah, so that’s what we did, after Stosh’s house, we went to the Mandarin to eat some good Chinese food up there in Bountiful. It was an hour long wait and not worth it, so we bailed and went to café Rio for some good burrito action. Then went to Ma’s and Pa’s to read your letter, update your blog with the pic you sent them, and hang out for a bit. Dad is still having a hard time with the loss of Abby. We watched some Antiques Roadshow and that was about it. Came home and the girls got to bed and I’m just trying to finish up this news letter I’ll do weekly for the EQ and watching the jazz game while I write you. This is Heck week for the test. I need to study my butt off and get ready for this 4 hour crazy test. I’m going to fail it anyway and feel like a chump for taking this class, spending well over 1500 bucks on it all, taking 3 days off just before the test and failing anyway. What an utter waste of time this is going to be. Regardless, pray for me this week anyway. I’ll need all the help I can get on this.
I watched the PBS 2 night special on the Mormons. A documentary on the church and its history. Have you heard much about that or from that since it aired? I wonder how much that will affect you as a missionary out there. I think it will create some interest and get missionaries in doors more. Of course I think it will affect some people negatively, but for the most part, I bet it will help create some buzz and interest in the near future. You’ll have to let me know how, if at all it affects you guys. I got bugged the first night and turned it off because of some of the stuff the peeps on there were saying. But I kind of came to the conclusion the next night that I had this expectation that the church was perfect and realized that it’s not. The Gospel of Christ is perfect and we in the church strive for perfection, but the church itself has it’s warts that will be exploited by its opponents forever. So I watched the 2nd night and liked it better. I think it was pretty honest for the most part, but left some of these “intellectuals” a little too much freedom to say whatever they wanted.

Dude, the Jazz just won. Unbelievable. They come home to host the Golden State Warriors now for the quarter finals. There are Rockets fans in the crowd crying right now. Pitiful!

I really liked in your last letter when you talked about your interview, what attributes you had worked on and will be working on, and that you account to the Lord each night. That is an aspect I had not thought much about. It is a huge Covey doctrine to hold people accountable and one of his tidbits I spent a lot of time philosophizing in your leadership epistle. But I had not considered doing that with the Lord each night in prayer until I read that in your letter and am amazed at yet another principle you have figured out and understand better than and before I ever did. So I tied that thought I got from your letter with my favorite talk from conference by Elder Eyring. I took that combination into our presidency meeting on Wednesday night and gave the thought to the presidency since it was my turn for the thought of the week and I think it was well received.

“The scriptures make the danger of delay clear. It is that we may discover that we have run out of time. The God who gives us each day as a treasure will require an accounting. We will weep, and He will weep, if we have intended to repent and to serve Him in tomorrows which never came or have dreamt of yesterdays where the opportunity to act was past. This day is a precious gift of God. The thought “Someday I will” can be a thief of the opportunities of time and the blessings of eternity.”
(See underlined) This stood out to me only because you had pointed it out in your e-mail. This was already my favorite talk just because of everything else he threw down in it, but I loved that this was in there so bold and beautiful for me. I’m actually the Coach and certifier of the management team for the leadership principles that they are expected to follow and account for at work. I certify them bronze, silver, and gold when they reach certain levels. One of the key principles in that is that they declare usually just one thing they will do to make a difference that week and then the following week report and account for that one thing. Then select a new thing for that week and repeat the steps weekly. Elder Eyring brings this up later…
“A morning prayer and an early search in the scriptures to know what we should do for the Lord can set the course of a day. We can know which task, of all those we might choose, matters most to God and therefore to us. I have learned such a prayer is always answered if we ask and ponder with childlike submission, ready to act without delay to perform even the most humble service.”
You could see the light bulb appear above my head when I read this paragraph. So morning prayer, I can go to the Lord, ask him what he would have me do or tell him what I have to work on that day or that week and then at night, give him a daily accounting for what my progress has been or if I achieved what I set out to do. But would he really tell me what he wants me to do or give me marching orders?
“When you ask God, He can and will reveal to you the opportunities to lift others for Him, which He has placed around you from your infancy.”
OK, I guess that answers my question. Not only will he place people around you on your mission to touch and influence and convert, but those who may have grown up with you, around you, and just generally in your little circle of personal influence since your infancy. Powerful stuff right there man!!
“That assurance from the Master can help those of us feeling overwhelmed by our circumstances. In the hardest trials, as long as you have the power to pray, you can ask a loving God: “Please let me serve, this day. It doesn’t matter to me how few things I may be able to do. Just let me know what I can do. I will obey this day. I know that I can, with Thy help.
By serving Him this day, you will come to know Him better. You will feel His love and appreciation. You would not want to delay receiving that blessing. And feeling His love will draw you back to His service, wiping away both complacency and discouragement.”

Man that’s good. Especially in a quorum of dudes who may have felt just as Elder Eyring points out, they have accomplished or done enough, they are too busy, they are discouraged to do much else after a beat down or two, they are just lazy, whatever the case is. What a talk! Loved it. If I’m asked to teach next month and I can pick my topic, it’s going to be from this talk. I could easily ramble on for an hour on this talk with various points that he discusses.

You may think that I would count this all as my quote of the week. Oh no. That was just some discussion on some ponderings of mine as of late. I picked a quote that relates to some points I brought up with this though about the Lord preparing folks for us. It’s by Alvin Dyer:
“Missionaries do not know when they go to a door, or when they meet their investigators in some other way for the first time, whether the Lord has prepared them for the gospel. Therefore each contact should be approached with the idea that they are prepared and will receive the gospel. An initial message by missionaries should be a declaration of testimony and when given under the influence of the Spirit is attended by the spirit of prophecy and revelation.”

I know you go about each door you knock, each person you talk to, each person you teach, that they could be the person the Lord prepared for you for that very moment, but continue to instill that on E. Gardner’s mind. The power of optimism and positive outlook and confidence that you are there for that person in that very moment for their eternal salvation really goes a long way. If the person you are teaching feels that confidence and power coming from your optimistic teaching and powerful testimony driven by the spirit of prophecy and revelation, they will not be able to withstand that spirit which will touch their hearts and confirm to them what they need to do.

I know you are such a good missionary Mike, I would love to come see you in action and feel the power and spirit you must emanate as you are on the Lord’s errand. I wish I could be there actually. I wish I could taste of that sweet fruit I partook of for two very short years again. I wish I could find myself that in tune with the spirit, or open my mouth and let the spirit speak for me. I wish I could feel the eternal effects of what I just did for a person take hold on their mind as we both come to the realization that what we just accomplished together is truly an eternal choice and life changing moment that will have everlasting ramifications. What a magnificent experience you are having. Don’t waste a single moment on idleness. Leave it all on the field this week. Let that ultra tired feeling at the end of the day seep into your bones as you hit the door at the crack of curfew and feel the spiritual reward and blessings screaming down on you from heaven with the sound of a mortar incoming. The Lord sees your efforts and knows the intent of your heart and will bless you so much more abundantly than you can ever pay back for it. Keep up the good work and know that we all support you, love you, and miss you on a daily basis.
Do some good.

Love,
Trav

New Picture

3 Generations, from Elder Leavitt (Mike's Trainer) on the right, Mike, and Elder Gardner (Mike's Greenie) on the left. Looks like a good posterity.