10/07/07

Wassabe?

I just finished watching the first session of Conference and so far, so good. What do you think of Elder Eyring? I was trying to start an office pool at work with a $5.00 buy in to see who could take the pot and nail the new counselor in the first presidency. But I didn’t have any takers. Just kidding. But anyway, I did have it pinned down to E. Eyring or E. Holland. Those were my two picks. Of course, it could have come from outside of the 12, but that hasn’t happened since David O. McKay’s time.

I’ll get to more conversations about talks later when we’ve had a few more sessions under our belts, especially Priesthood session, and get your thoughts.

How has your week gone? I’ll get to your e-mail and respond to that. Sounds like you were getting ready for a crazy week. How was your interview with the President? Good as always? What did you gain from it this time?

My health tests came back OK on my Echo stress tests, where they did an ultra-sound of my heart at rest and then another one after making me run till I almost puked. Holy cow. I was told to wear some comfortable clothes and some walking shoes. I didn’t know they meant wear what you would wear to a marathon since they taxed me about that hard. They showed my heart in the ultra sound pumping hard. It was cool to see inside my heart and watch the old valves trying to get the job done. So I guess the ticker looks OK, but my blood work came back and I have scary high cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure. So they put me on medication that I’m supposed to be on the rest of my life. I didn’t want to do that, so I asked the doc what if I just did diet and exercise. He laughed and said NO, you need to be on the medication AND start exercising on a regular basis AND change your diet. Otherwise, with these numbers, you could have a heart attack any day. He said that I was at heart attack risk right now with as high as all of my stuff was. That was kind of sobering. So I’m on the meds now and doing a little exercise and watching my diet. So no more coke or caffeine, no more red meat… WHAT??!! That is my staple, coke and red meat. Between hamburgers and other forms of yummy beef and coke. Man! This is going to be harder than I thought. I have to have all low fat meals now too. Geez!

Well, I just had a big list of stuff typed back out here and Brinlee was playing by the computer with her balloons and shut it down. So it didn’t save past this point. Man, that kind of thing makes me mad. Good think for Pres. Hinckley’s talk in Priesthood meeting about anger, eh? Anyway, Suzanne was down here earlier and said hi, she wanted to tell you about Aynslee’s new tooth that is coming in on her bottom row. It’s cute. She’s learning how to dig stuff out like an apple slice, she can get the apple out of the skin with it. So it’s coming in handy. She is crawling all over and getting into trouble. She is also very photogenic we just found out tonight. Every time Shelli pointed her camera at her, she’d get a big huge smile for her. It was cute. Shelli got some good pictures. You’ll have to have her develop some and send them to you. Brinlee wants to talk to you for a minute.

Brinlee: “hi mike… I want to watch my favorite Halloween movie with you. I want to run with you at the park. I think I can beat you. I’m very fast. My Aynslee has a new tooth. When I was a little baby… um… I want you to watch me hit some balloons.” (she was hitting balloons around all night at Stosh’s house for Alex’s birthday party). She brought a couple of them home tonight. “watch me throw some balloons and him ‘em. And watch me to draw something and make you a pie. (she drew you a card the other day but then lost it somewhere). I love you and miss you. Have fun on your mission.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about my owie. I fell and got a big owie at Alex’s house. But it’s going to be better. I just drew a picture of it for you.

K, so anyway, I’m going to lose in fantasy football. In fact, my perfect record in the other league is in jeopardy right now too. I may just barely lose there too, depending on how Romo does tomorrow night in MNF.

Well, let’s talk Conference talks. When you write back, tell me who you liked best and why. What did you think of Klipshke’s talk on the PMG? Good stuff to throw over to the family on your next commitment.

My favorites were L. Tom Perry’s talk during Priesthood session that would be a good one for you as a ZL to incorporate into another one of your trainings when you get the ensign or let me know if you want me to send you a copy of the talk about raising the bar to find your potential. Stop setting it just where you need it to qualify and to play it safe. You will never find your potential if you don’t raise the bar. Good stuff. I loved it. You probably figured I loved that. It’s the kind of stuff I love to study about and use with peeps. But I like how he tied it all in to physical preparation, intellectual preparation and study preparation.

Then of course the Sunday morning session from Pres Eyring. When he talked about Journals. We are not given experiences for just ourselves. Write it down. We are given experiences for the generations following us. So just how is your journal entries coming? I liked the rule of thumb he gave when to write in your journal. Anytime you recognize God’s hand in the days events, write about that. I believe that the more we recognize God’s hand in our lives, the more we will actually recognize God’s hand in our lives. Does that make sense? The more we acknowledge God’s hand, the more we will see from him that way too. I think we are rewarded for acknowledging all things to God, when we are humble enough to realize that we are nothing without God’s assistance. Anyway… those were my faves.

When we got back to Ron’s house last night, we had some good food. Sloppy Joes and jello, and all kinds of treats and desserts along with chips and dips and beverages. I pounded a couple of Sloppy Joes, but you probably would have taken down 3 or 4 of those bad boys. They were a tasty treat. We all sat around and discussed our favorite talks. That was fun. While there, Mom busted out your last letter for us to read. I noticed in that announcement from Zone Conference that you got to do some training. How did that go? What did you train on? Give me the summary.

I also noticed that besides you, there was another companionship training. I think they were ZLs too. Elder Hair was one of them. Do you know him pretty well? What do you know about him? I served with an Elder Hair in Connecticut. We tore shiz up there. I was with him for 3 months and we saw some of the best success of my mission. He was from Orem and came from a family of like 17 kids. You will have to see if they are related. I mean, seriously, how many Hairs do you know besides him? See what you can find out. That would be crazy if he was his brother. Hair and I served together as ZLs together and now you two being our younger brothers serving as ZLs in the same proximity. See what you can find out. His name is Andy Hair by the way if you get to asking. I also noticed on there that there was a new missionary coming in named Brian Alexander. Ha ha. I never had another Elder Alexander on my mission. Especially one with the same name as my dad, but I did know of an Elder Alexander in the NYC South mission. Our mail would cross occasionally.

Well boy. I’m out of stuff for this week. I’m not going to do a quote of the week since I threw in the snippets from conference and what better quotes to use then the long laundry list of the ones we just got this weekend. So great! Well, write back and hopefully those cables are not stolen this week. I’m due for some love this week.

I’ll catch you soon. Congratulations on all the success you are seeing recently. You guys are truly being blessed in that area for your dedication and hard work. Keep it up!

Love and miss you always.

Trav