08/05/07

Elder A.

What’s the good word this week? It’s been a pretty eventful week for us. I actually worked 5 full days this week. That is a change from my Mondays off the last couple of months. I still have a bunch of PTO to burn, even though last week I only worked Wednesday. Ha ha. But I’m back to having this Monday off. I have a bunch to do before Monday too. We have a photographer coming over to take pictures of our house, so I need to get the place is some good looking order. I just made a Lowes run and bought a bunch of stuff that will be used to make this place look in selling condition, even though it’s not going to be in as good of shape as is should be in. But that would cost thousands. I’d rather put that money into a new place. So there we are. We will have it listed early next week. I have a plumber from my ward coming over to re-plumb some of my messy lines downstairs and put in a turlet and a sink. So at least I’ll have a half bath downstairs. Lots to do anyway. We celebrated Grandpa’s 81^st Birthday on the 1^st. that was fun. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory. I haven’t eaten there in a while. It was cool though because while we were waiting there in the front lobby area, a dude came up and grabbed me by my shoulder and said Travis Alexander. I looked up and it was Paul Schweitzer, my first greenie. I loved that guy! So we did some serious catching up while we both waited to be seated. He had some interesting stories to tell. He is a medical supply demonstrator, so after new medical equipment is sold to a hospital or to certain doctors, he goes in and demonstrates how they are used effectively. I think he makes pretty good money doing it. Anyway, about 5 years ago, he told me that he lost his first daughter to a heart defect. How tragic would that be? Then he said his Dad was diagnosed with Prostate cancer that same year. To make things worse, his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He didn’t say what kind. Just when you think that year couldn’t get any worse, his younger brother was on a mission in Germany and as they were walking down the street, he told his companion he couldn’t see any more. His companion was like, what are you talking about? He said I’m totally blind in both eyes. A few seconds later, he had a massive stroke right there on the street. They got him to a hospital but later on the hospital called and said that he was dead. So the whole family was mortified. Their dad (who happens to be a big shot surgeon here in SLC) flew out to Germany to pick up his body and bring him home. After he got out there, they told him that his son was not dead after all, but instead, he is brain dead and in a coma. They told him that if and when he even pulled out of this coma, he would be a vegetable the rest of his life. He wouldn’t talk or walk again, he would have to be fed by a machine and maybe even have a machine breathe for him and he’d have to live in an assisted living home the rest of his life. So while their Dad is still making phone calls and absorbing the emotional roller coaster, in walk Dallin H. Oaks and Joseph B. Worthlin. They told him “we are here to heal your son”. They put their hands on his head and commanded him to be healed and to serve out the rest of his mission and live a long and productive life. They shook the dad’s hand, pretty much said, OK, our work is done, see ya, and left. They decided to do surgery on his brain there in that german hospital and they removed a large chunk of his brain. He woke up in the post-op room later on and sat up and said “where’s my companion?” So he in fact did serve the rest of his mission, the doctors were all baffled and he is having a healthy productive life as we speak. Not only that, but Paul’s dad went into remission for his cancer and his wife did too. So both of them are 5 years cancer free since then. Quite a testimony builder though, eh? That story about his brother. I guess his greeny, who married the new mission president’s daughter (Elder Rasband, who is now in the 70) had two kids and they are both autistic. What are the odds of that? So it was cool to talk to him. I didn’t get his contact info. Neither of us had a pen. Grandpa had his parker collection in his pocket. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. But I gave him my card, so he better e-mail me and stay in touch. I had lunch with Dave Jacobs yesterday too, so it’s been a week of old mission buddies. We went to the arby’s down the road from us both (he works just down the road from me). Anyway, we were there for 2 hours and it felt like 15 min. We decided to put together a philanthropic organization, sort of a trust or an LLC or a charitable foundation, whatever, that we can put money into an interest bearing account and it can be distributed to kids in the Bronx or Harlem, or Manhattan, or anywhere in the inner city of NYC who doesn’t have the money to go on a mission or maybe if they get accepted to BYU but they don’t have the money to get out here, or something of that nature. We’ll narrow the scope so we have some parameters, but we’ll leave it general enough that we can still decide where we want it to go. Dave is super rich as it is. He has done well. I’d probably only keep putting in like 100 bucks a month after you get home off your mission, so that I just keep those funds rollin’ into a worthy cause that helps financially support someone from the city that couldn’t do it themselves. We’d recruit other RM’s from our mission like Paul who is also doing well financially or anyone who wants to contribute, whether they are doing well or not. But all of us have been home for 12 years now, so we are mostly all in good positions financially to be philanthropic with our money. Besides, we will set it up so that at least Dave and I, as the founders of this foundation would be able to travel out to NYC, tax deductible of course, to meet with Bishops and branch presidents who will be the custodians of these funds. That way we can follow up with who is getting what, how they are doing, etc. We’d pattern this all after the perpetual education fund, where we’d encourage them to contribute when they are in a position after they get off their missions too. Sort of a pay it forward type of deal. Most of the wards out in NYC are not in a position where they have enough member support for ward mission funds. So this would be a big deal for them. Not bad for a quick brainstorm at Arby’s.

Well, besides having the photographer and real estate agent coming over tomorrow, I’m also playing in a golf tournament at Jeremy Ranch in Park City. I have never played that course, but I hear it’s hard. I guess it ought to be if they have had PGA tournaments there. Then Friday I have another Golf Tournament at Bountiful Ridge, another 18 holes on a premier course free of charge. Big prizes at both of these too. So I’m looking forward to being schmoozed by the guys putting these on. Xpedex is doing the one on Monday. Unisource is doing the one on Friday. Then I have my Elder’s Quorum golf tournament on Saturday. So I will have played in 3 tournaments by the time you get my next letter.

The funnel theory makes sense once you explained it. That’s a true principle that strikes even more true when you experience the truth for your self in both directions. Good doctrine there.

So how are you liking Greensboro now that you’ve had a week to settle in a bit and get comfortable? You like City action? I was in the big city for my first 15 months before I got to feel anything rural or suburban. It was a huge change for me. I liked it though. It was a lot different working the city from working the small town. You are working with a different demographic when you go from the Bronx to Greenwich, CT. So I had to re-learn and tweak my whole game. I’m wondering if it’s the same in your situation? The quality of people I taught was much better in CT. But the sheer numbers of discussions, contacts, etc. were much higher in the city. I think the retention is a little better in the small towns too, but you take what you get no matter where you are and do what you gotta do. It will be a fun change for you I think. I was pretty excited to read your letter to see what kind of challenges you face. How is your area book now? When I got to CT, everything was a mess. I have told you most of this already, but CT was where all the slackers went that couldn’t be trusted in the city. I got sent there as a new ZL and found my companion, a ZL of two months already, had the same perspective that he was up there for a R&R stay until he could handle going back to the city again. The area book was like a couple years outdated, the tracting map was a joke, the area was basically dead and the zone was too. I was not psyched on my situation. I had to decide right then that I had to be that guy that bugs a lot of people that kicks you out of your comfort zone and drives you till your laziness wears off. I only had that companion for a month and I got an awesome companion who shared my drive and we tore things up! I chucked the tracting map and we started over on a clean slate since the area was dead anyway. We started fresh using inspiration and prayer rather than highlighted streets to tell us where to go and where we’ve been. We took a couple of weeks with the area book and totally reworked it. In fact, the second day of area book tweaking, we were doing some follow up on current members just to see what was accurate anymore, and we found Stacey Mitchell. She wasn’t excited to see us being an inactive member for so long, but her non-member husband who drank, smoked, swore like a sailor (because he was in the navy after all) and sang in a rock band, was excited to meet us. He wasn’t into the lessons, but he wanted to know more about the religion that his wife grew up in. We started slow, he loved cooking for us and we loved eating his food. We would just drop spiritual messages on him and watched some of the videos since he didn’t want the lessons. But we finally worked on him hard enough that he allowed us to teach him. I heard his band practicing one time when we were out tracting and I realized we were in the area they practiced. I walked in on them just to say hi and it was a den of iniquity in there. Porn mags everywhere, garage filled with smoke, empty beer bottles everywhere. In fact he hid his right hand with his smoking cigarette and his left hand with the half drunk beer bottle behind his back as he was up on the mic when he saw me walk in. I told him I loved that song they were playing and told them to keep going. His band was like Uhhhhh, there are Mormon missionaries in here, do you want to keep going. I encouraged him to go on and so they did. It was a collective soul cover song. It was a little awkward being in there because the spirit has a hard time hanging out with super loud music, smoke, alcohol, and nasty magazines around. But it was just awkward enough for him to never want to feel that embarrassed for us to see him like that again, that he asked us to give him the stop smoking workshop. He quit smoking, he quit drinking and he eventually got baptized. I had been made AP by the time he was baptized, but after I got word that he was ready and wanted me to baptize him, I made sure I was working with the CT. ZL’s that week so I could be there with a fresh set of whites packed in my go bag. So I got to baptize him and it was awesome. I also attended Stacey and Danny’s sealing in the Manti temple a year after I was home. They had 3 kids after that, all born under the covenant. All because of working out a messy area book. So keep up that action. It’s important.

As far as the sleepy companion, that is a challenge to be sure! I had a couple of companions with a sleeping in problem. It can really tax even the best missionaries because it is so easy to sleep in. and when one of you isn’t motivated to obey the wake up time rule, it makes it really hard for both of you to do it. You hate to be the ball-breaker who makes him get up and you feel like his mom trying to get him up for school and it gets old really fast. But you have to be that guy. Being the DL, you automatically are that guy. So you have an excuse. Don’t justify that at least you will get up and study, shower, etc. while he sleeps. Because even the slightest deviation in a companionship with regard to the rules will effect the whole companionship. You are both one and the slightest deviation of the one is the slightest deviation of the whole. You will have to figure out what works best to get him motivated on that one. Good luck. I know it’s a challenge.

The other challenge you mentioned is to get to know your whole district and above all, command their respect. Just curious if you have busted out the epistle on leadership lately? I actually love that challenge. I find that easier and more fun to earn the respect of an entire group of people than the challenge of motivating your companion to get up on time every morning. I’m not sure why. But anyway, I’m sure you will get their respect early and rock that district into a top baptizing district. Keep me posted.

I can tell you right now, I’m already a fan of E. Simons simply because he likes Smallville and So You Think You Can Dance. Two of the best shows around. I’m telling you, you might as well get into SYTYCD. It’s so good. Tell him that this season is better than last season as far as talent and they are down to the final 6 now. Lacy who is Mormon is still in it and so is Sabra, from Ogden Utah. They are incredible dancers.

OK, now it’s 11:13 PM Sunday night. I’m finally getting back to this letter and need to get it sent off and go to bed. Busy day tomorrow with this photographer. He’s coming at 8:00 AM and I have a lot to do before he gets here.

We had our Priesthood Leadership meeting tonight. That’s the Querterly? Or Semi Annual meeting? That is like Zone conference for me. We have an 45 min. to hour long speaker in the chapel for everyone, and then we separate by different groups for some individualized instruction. We usually divide by Elder’s Quorum presidencies and High Priest Group Leaders for our instruction by someone in the stake presidency. Then Youth leaders go somewhere else and the Bishoprics go somewhere else. I’m always way edified after these meetings.

K, on to your quote of the week. Now that you are in the city and learning a whole new way of working. You know that I’m a big fan of the Vaughn J. Featherstone. I have quoted him in several letters including a lot in the Epistle. Here is another one as it pertains to working in cities or areas with a lot more people in it.

“Let’s not use a sickle. Let’s us a combine.”

-Vaughn J. Featherstone

So that’s how I’ll leave you this week. Get out there in your combine and start racking up the lessons and as a result, start racking in the baptisms. I’m looking forward to hearing from you this week to find out how your first solid week went in Greensboro. I’ll look forward to hearing updates of how you are tackling each individual challenge. Keep me posted on your progress. Let me drop a follow up on you about your journal. How is that going? I went back and reminisced a little after running into Schweitzer and lunch with Dave Jacobs. It was great going back and reading some stuff on each of them. I only keep wishing that I would have written down every detail of every day. As tedious as that sounds to you now and boring even, there are so many little details that I wish I would have written down because I haven’t been able to remember. So click open the parker writing instrument of your choice and get to writing in there if you have been slacking a little in that department.

Love and miss you. I’ll talk to you next week.

OUT

Trav