08/13/07

Hey Yo,

What news from the East? It’s been another busy week over here, as always. It’s actually Monday morning at 7:08 AM. I’m getting a really late start on this letter, but I couldn’t get to it all weekend. So now I’m trying to cruise to get it done before you check it. Your letters have been pretty interesting with your challenges, but you are handling all of them like a pro. Simons is pretty lucky to still be out there, but it’s good that he’s shaping up, being obedient and following instruction. Sounds like it was a good call. I’d hate to send a missionary home that is salvageable and still of good use to the Lord. So it sounds like it was a good call to keep him out and keep him with you. I remember some of my areas like Midtown Manhattan where we couldn’t get past the doormen in the fancy high rises. So we’d have to resort to other tactics like buzzing buzzers and saying LDS all fast so that they’d think we said UPS or some other delivery service acronym and buzz us in. or we’d talk to peeps on the subway since they were a captive audience. Or just stop them in the street. It is a lot different than knocking doors freely wherever you go, eh? How did your exchanges go with that other companionship last week? How did Zone conference go? What did you learn in this one? How do you like your celly now and what kind did you get? I imagine you carry it so that E. Simons doesn’t use it to “check his bank account” with. Does your number spell anything cool? You know… like my home number 996-TRAV. I’m totally taking that with us when we move. Oh, about that, we have shown our house twice now. Peeps are calling and coming by to check it. So hopefully we get an offer soon. The stress is unbearable to have to keep it so tidy. We have had to haul a full truck load of our junk over to Ma’s and Pa’s and clutter up their yard so that our house doesn’t have it in it when peeps come to look at it. It’s embarrassing. I took it all over to Clint and Rachels house last night though, so it’s gone for now. We are going to look at 5 or 6 houses tonight and I think one of them will be the one. I’ll let you know of any developments next week. I didn’t put off my PMG study forever you know. It’s just temporary until I could finish this other book quick, but the movie is out for a bit now anyway and I lost interest in the book. I’m just going to go see the movie and pick back up with PMG, so no need to worry about me. I will finish that book long before any one else in the family even starts theirs, ha ha. I guess dad put it away somewhere and mom can’t find it. So they are going to need to get serious about looking for it. I don’t know if Staci has started it, but she never discusses it. Shelli I’m pretty sure has not started. Good rebuke for them in your last letter to Ma and Pa. I think that will motivate them all to start soon. It’s Ma and Pa’s B-days this week. I got the best gift for Mom but not so much for Dad. Since it’s combined. I don’t know what he’ll think, but mom is going to love it. More details on that next week. Are you sending something out?

What did you think of the news of Pres. Faust? I met him a couple of times when I was working at the Church Office Building. He put his arm around me once and talked to me and talked with my boss as well, so he had his arm around me for about 5 solid minutes not letting me go. As he looked me in the eye, he seemed to discern all of my flaws from weeks back. I kept feeling like he knows all about my swear words I said two days ago. It was pretty intense, but a cool experience. What a spiritual giant. One that is truly a special witness of the Lord. He’ll be missed. He gave us a nice parting gift with his last talk on Forgiveness eh? You and I talked about that in a couple of letters just after conference just because it knocked our socks off. What a man! I think I’ll dig that back out and read it again for good measure. I wonder who will move up and who will replace that person. I guess we’ll find out in a couple of months.

I saw the announcement for Spencer’s wedding. She’s a cute girl. He did well. He must have worked hard on his mission. That is the truth you know, the harder you work on your mission, the cuter your wife will be. That was a motivator for a lot of missionaries on my mission. Kind of funny.

I ought to drop the Quote of the Week in here right now. This in regard to the goings on of late with your companion.

“The Lord calls nobody to fail, but to succeed and this the missionaries should understand fully.”

-Ezra Taft Benson

“Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.”

-Thomas S. Monson

You get a two-for-one special this week. No need to comment on these. I think they are short and sweet and poignant. Everyone who is on a mission anywhere in the world is meant to be there, and they are not meant to fail. Free Agency plays a part in everything, but they have not been sent out there to test their companions, or to learn something from failure. Even though if they choose to fail and do, then hopefully they will learn something and go away with a hard lesson learned and stay in line when they get home. But they have not been sent to do anything but succeed in winning souls to the true gospel.

We are doing our fantasy draft this Saturday over at John’s new office building. It’s going to be a blast doing a live draft with everyone there for the first time ever. 4 people are flying into town just for this draft. That’s how serious it is this year. Two from Atlanta, and two from St. George. The other 6 are here, so I need to call and make sure a couple of them are coming. I haven’t heard from them yet. I’m excited to see how it turns out. I’ll send you a roster sheet so you can break down who you think is looking solid to make a run at my title this season. I haven’t read up on anybody yet. I’ve been too busy to even think football yet, which is blasphemy, but I’ll try to get caught up if not before, than Friday night before the draft. Pre-season has already been in full swing and I don’t even know what’s going on with that yet. I haven’t watch either of the last two weeks, so I’m way behind.

Well, I’ll get this sent off before you get on the computer over there. I think we are close to that time. I hope things are turning in your area and taking off. Keep up all the hard work and they will for sure. I love and miss you every day. But the time is going fast and I can be patient. I’m especially going to miss you when it comes time to move. I need some good strong bodies to help me heft the heavies, but I’ll make do with somebody I guess.

Catch you later.

Love,

Trav