9/23/07

What’s up Home Biscuit? I’m chatting with John online right now and he’s wussing out of Turkey Bowl’s for good. He said that he just found out from a doctor that he has a compressed disc from playing too much football in his younger days. This is tough news to take. Especially knowing that my career is already on retirement watch. I hate to see someone just a year older than me going out right now. He said it’s too much risk getting tackled and that compressing just a little more and us having to carry him off the field straight to his new wheel chair he’d be bound to from then on. That’s a shame. I told him to at least come and referee for us. He said he’ll only be able to do it every other year because he’ll be at Lynn Marie’s family’s house in Vernal for 2 solid days over T-day. That is weak. Who spends multiple days for Thanksgiving, especially considering it’s only a couple of hours away. I mean, it’s a one meal holiday for crying out loud. That holiday is centered around football. Playing it before the big feast, then watching it after the big feast, with naps scattered throughout the day to shake the pain from the played game. Speaking of football, and the reason John and I are talking about it, is I played this morning. We started up a Stake Flag Football League for the individual Elder’s Quorums. So we played the 12^th ward today. It was the first game of the season. Well, it was me and 3 other guys. Yeah, we had a whopping turn out of 4 peeps. Guess how many they had? Nope, Higher. Nope, even higher! They had 20!!!! You had to have at least 5 guys to play. So we were one short. We asked if we could have one of their guys and they hemmed and hawed. I told them that they had an A team, a B team, a C team and a D team. They could send in a whole new team every series. Just give us one lousy guy, unless you are scared we are going to beat you with 4 of us and a spy. They accepted so we didn’t have to forfeit. Well, the 4 of us played well. Really well for not having practiced together. But we were spent! They did exactly what I thought they were going to do. They played their A team for the first series of offense and defense, then sent in their B team for the next series, C the next and D the next. So they had fresh legs every series and were blowing our jocks off as they ran past us and burned us on those deep routes. I was dead dude! No subs to spell me. I thought I was going to need to heave like that one thanksgiving, but I actually did fine. I never got nauseated, just super tired. Probably because it was just flag and not full contact. That will take way more out of you if you are full speed and full tackle. So these games every Saturday morning are going to be great to condition me for the big game on Thanksgiving. You will have to write scott now that he is home again and a newly wed and anyone else who you think would want to play and tell them to call me at 801-996-TRAV or email me at TravsBox@Gmail.com and I’ll get them locked in. It’s still almost two months away, so when we get closer, just remind me and I’ll send you the info again, But just in case you are only writing them so often, you can send it earlier. I am sore tonight. It’s 10:22 PM and I played at 7:00 AM this morning, so I think after I sleep tonight, I’ll wake up even more sore. But I like that sore. It feels good to me. Feels like my body is regenerating some good muscle and getting rid of some of my toxins and fat and what not. Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes… “Pain is just weakness leaving your body”. That is not your quote of the week this week. But something to remember anyway.

While we are on the topic of football, John and I play each other in Fantasy football this week. We are both the highest point projections with 106 – 106. The Silent Assassins are projected at 105 but they are playing a 87 pt. team and Bradiators are projected at 103 but playing a 94 team. The rest are all way lower. So John and I are dead even and look to have a big game shoot out tomorrow. We both have one defender in Monday Night football too. So we might have a MNF party to watch our defenders square off. His on one team, mine on the other, so we’ll always have our guy on the field when the other is off. Should be fun. I’m excited for it. I won last week, so I’m 1 and 1. But currently sitting in 7^th place. Not a good spot to be, but I’ll climb. Ghetto Fabulous is still strong and a formidable opponent every year. But my team, like me, is getting older and less potent than we used to be.

So on Friday (yesterday) I took my X-box in and some Halo 2 and we took a 2 hour lunch break to go to one of the manager’s house in bountiful where he had his Sony High Def Big screen ready for a halo party. The way these other 3 were talking, I thought it might be pretty even since they play with their younger sons who are good and talked a good game. But dude!! I smoked some holes. It was a blast for me, but those guys didn’t have much fun. I could tell by their expressions, comments, and desire to get back to work when the two hours was approaching. Ha ha. It was fun! You know how I am though, I am pretty competitive, so when I saw this approaching, I was practicing my Halo on Legendary all this week so I would be ready for them. I came into this way more than ready. I embarrassed them. It was a good time. Halo 3 comes out on Monday at Midnight. So tonight for you as you read this. If you are reading this on Monday which you should be. Pretty exciting. Even though I won’t have a 360 for a while to play it, but I’ll go play with Austin a bunch.

So we had a double whammy on our house situation this week. The buyers backed out because they said that it was going to be 200 dollars more than they could afford a month. WHAT??!! How did you screw that up dudes? That is a 200 dollar a month accounting error. That is pretty significant. How did you not have that figured out before you wasted our time with all the official paperwork, contracts, etc? It’s a good thing I had the weird vibe to keep the house on the market and not put any kind of clause up on it that would scare other realtors away. Well, not a big deal. We’ll sell it soon enough I think. And like I said earlier, we are not in a hurry to get out of here because we love the ward so much. But then the one house out of the MANY we have toured and looked at and shopped around for, the only one that we felt right about moving into so far, sold, that same day. So our buyers backed out and the house that was meant for us was sold. Well, it’s under contract. So it’s off the market. So that was a double whammy for sure. Maybe we are supposed to stay here. Who knows? We’ll end up being where we are meant to be, whether that’s here or the real house we are meant to live in. I’m not stressed.

Speaking of moving, I helped move Geegng out of her apt. and back into ma’s and pa’s. Actually, we just moved a couple of big ticket items from her pad to Gramps house. While I was at Ma’s and Pa’s though, I read your last letter. You are so defensive about your taco eating record. There is no proof that it’s 10 for me, no proof that is was 14 either. You remember it as 10, I remember it as 14. It’s probably really 12. But since there is no written account as far as we know, it is disputed. The same goes for the undocumented 2 arby’s sammiches that you may or may not have eaten before. If anything, that would be a benefit because it would have stretched your gut and speeded up your metabolism. So that’s not a handicap by any means. Your asterisk still stands by eating the tacos cheater style, all bare bones with no fixins. I ate one at Ma’s and Pa’s today (the last one left from that party) bare bones style because the tomatoes got stank in the Tupperware container and the lettuce was wilty. I just threw some cheese on it and heated it up and ate it a-la Mike Style (AKA cheater style). It was good. In fact, I felt like I could eat about 17 more of them that way. Ha ha.

Oh, dude, when we took the couch to Grandpa’s house, we saw the biggest buck I have ever seen in the wild. I mean this thing was massive. It was tall, muscular and had a rack about the size of a big elk. It was majestic. I have never seen that cool of a buck in the wild ever! I have seen some big bucks in the wild too, but this deer was Gorgeous. It was a little skittish and was running around in some yards up there, but man, it was amazing looking! You will hear about it from mom and dad I’m sure or someone. Because it blew us all away at how awesome it was. We all said that you would have been way excited to see that big bounder!

Let me get to your e-mail and respond. I like what you say about serving with E. Van again. Your relationship sounds exactly like mine and Elder Walker. I came in to his area in the South Bronx and took over his trainer’s position. Is that Greenie Broke in your terms? Anyway, he was only out 2 months and I just got off my second comp. so I was only out 4 months. We were a young companionship. Both of us hungry and eager. We both were fast walkers and both competitive by nature. We had an underlying competitive spirit, but it was focused on getting as much work done in a day as we possibly could. We would get out a little early and get home a little late every day and just pound it all day long. We would be just physically spent when we got home and it felt great. We both taught with the spirit and with power and boldness and it was a real turn in the road for me and my mission since my first two companions were not as motivated as Walker. This was a breath of fresh air for me and we really raised each other’s game to all new levels. We ended up breaking several mission records together and became a great companionship in the way we worked together. It was the same sort of feeling that you are describing with Elder V. at the end of our missions, he was an office AP and I was Traveling AP and we still had that competitive thing going. I would go on a split with some ZL or DL or even a greenie for that matter while I was out and just work them to the bone and he would do the same when he got a rare chance to get in the field and do some “real work” again. And we would compete that way and usually would end up turning a baptism or two out of those areas we just lambasted for the sake of our friendly competition. Ha ha. Good stuff. There is a big difference however in that kind of competition and our understanding of our competition from the kind you refer to with those ZL’s that seem to be aspiring for extra responsibility or praise from the President, etc. I used to get almost physically ill when I’d watch the few elders that would aspire to higher callings by being phony, cheesy, or what have you. I’m glad you have identified that and have decided that is not the avenue for you to follow. I doubt those ZLs don’t get the amount of respect from their stewardship under them as ZLs like you and Van Leeuwen and Leavitt get. Leaders who keep it real, stay genuine, and show true charity in all that they do and say are the best kind of leaders and the ones who will always maintain the respect and loyalty of those whom they serve. You are so perceptive to the great lessons your president teaches, whether consciously or not. But that quote you sent that he said about the Lord not asking what positions we held but what we did with the ones we held is awesome. No truer words have been said. Magnify your calling in every way you can. I’m so proud of you Mike.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhight boy, that is my first half of this letter for a Saturday. I just wanted to get a jump on this so I didn’t have to pound it all out on Sunday. I’ll check back in with you tomorrow before this gets sent off to give you some fantasy score updates, quote of the week, and some other random musings.

Well, not much else to update you on. It was a rather uneventful Sunday. I missed my Priesthood leadership meeting at the stake center. I look forward to those, they are always way awesome. But I lost my wallet, went into panic mode since the last time I saw it was when we showed our house and I wondered if the peeps lifted it while they were in here. After hours of looking I found it under the cubby under the TV in the entertainment center where I had already looked 3 or 4 times. That’s how it goes I guess. I went home teaching and got that out of the way. And I watched my Steelers beat your 49ers in the game of the week. It was a good game too. I will lose my fantasy game to John in a high scoring affair, but Brian Westbrook went and scored 40 pts on my team today. That is just too hard to come back from a day like that on one of his players. I’m back to a losing record of 1-2 now. But I will win yet again in my Yahoo league and keep my number one status I am pretty sure. I’ll get you more updates on that next week. I’m still sore from flag football, but am already looking forward to this coming Saturday to do it all again. I’m going to go get my cleats from the storage unit though. That will help a little.

Time for the Quote of the Week. After reading your letter at M &D’s house, I noticed how you said time is flying. It really is here too, but not as fast as for you. You are so busy and the busier you get, the more lost in the work you become and the faster time flies. Soon, if not already, you will begin to grasp at anything to slow down the time so you can enjoy your mission more and not let those best two years flee from you so fast. That brought me to this quote…

“Missions are for missionaries. It is a marvelous gift of time, a time given when you can experience glimpses of heavenly life here on earth. It is a time of cleansing and refreshing. It is a special time when the Holy Ghost can seal upon you the knowledge of the great plan for your exaltation. It is one of your best opportunities to become a celestial candidate. The teaching and conversion of others is the natural product of this process. To sanctify yourself you must serve others. The highest of all service to others is to teach them truth and bring them into the kingdom of God.”

- William R. Bradford

No added input on this one this week. You can take from that what you will and personalize it to how you will make the most of your time, your mission, your experiences and your relationship with the Holy.

I miss you every day Mike. I wish nothing but the best for you and love to hear about your experiences out there and what kind of growth you are having this week. Send me another learning experience that you picked up on this week. That was great. In fact, just make that a weekly thing. I think that is a big hit with the whole family. It’s like your time at the Sunday dinner table to tell the family what you learned in Sunday school today, sort of thing. But on a much higher plane. You are having life altering lessons taught to you and those are huge for us to share and discuss, ourselves after we read them. It edifies all of us as we vicariously live those moments with you. So share one or more a week with us. That would be terrific.

Love you, and talk to you next week.

Trav