11/18/07

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Yo!!

This letter comes to you just days before our turkey bowl. I hope you’ll be thinking of me on Thanksgiving morning. I’ll be out there manning up for yet another year. You’ll be playing with us next year. I need to find all my gear though. I haven’t been able to find it. That may cause problems if I can’t find my rib pads, cleats, mouth guard, cup and jersey. What about Scott? Is he going to come play? It’s at 9:00 at the soccer park. Should be fun. I’ll rely on you to organize the annual bowl after this year. You will have more contacts that play than I will. I’ll still bring a few guys to the field, but you will need to provide the majority. I will provide the opponents too since they are the funnest to play against. Especially if they bring their Ivy League Row Team models. You will love playing against them! I think I have John talked in to shooting some video from the sidelines so we can make a highlight reel. I’ll have to throw a bunch of other homeland footage on there since I’ve promised you a video forever now and you haven’t seen anything yet. It would be a nice touch having some football highlights. We’ll get some Aynslee footage on there, some Brin Muffin, some new house, etc. it will make for a nice video.

Austin went on his first date last night. Ha ha. It was Sadies, so a girl asked him out. Oh, I told you about that part. He had a good time anyway. I’ll peep his pics when he gets them back. Sounds like they might do a little follow up this Friday with a little movie action and who knows?... maybe a little kanoodling! He is way pumped about football. He’ll do pretty good if last year was any indicator.

I’ll give you the full recap next week. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving! We are hitting up the Emery’s on T-day and then Ma’s and Pa’s on Friday after. Good thing they are both paid holidays for me and Suzanne. I wouldn’t want to go to work after eating that meal. I’m going to do some damage to that bird. We are going rabbit hunting that Saturday after. That will be fun. I haven’t been hunting in a while. I haven’t shot my new 12 gauge that I’ve had for a year plus now either. So I’m going to get that out and show it a little action finally. I’ll name him Boomer. So I’ve got Old Reliable (old faithful was already taken) and Boomer.

Sounds like you have had some sweet success going on lately. The referrals sound pretty choice. Yeah, Brinlee is pretty outgoing. She has a fun personality. She’s still tentative in certain situations where she doesn’t know anyway, but she’s pretty forward now and brave. She will go right after something if she is comfortable with it. She wasn’t shy at all with that presentation in church. It was funny. Our neighbor across the street came back to church again. I think it will be a regular thing now. We have a good fellowshipping ward. So we have a lot of interested people all vying for his attention and well being. So you get the scoop on the changes to the introduction page in the book of Mormon? It’s not much. At the end of the second paragraph, it says “After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.” But now the change says and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians. They just added among and took out principle. No big deal. We were talking about Pres. Kimball and his lifting of the priesthood ban with the blacks today and it was super interesting the stuff we were discussing and the materials he brought. Stuff I had no clue about before and I had to deal with that ALL THE TIME in Harlem. That was the hot topic. I was always like, dude, I was 2 when that happened. I don’t know anything about it.

I hit up my 3 families for home teaching today. I’ve been 100% for as long as I can remember now. They were good visits. I love to do the message when it’s the after conference Ensign. I get to pick some of my favorites and go with why I liked them instead of a set message that the husband probably already covered or will cover next week himself. So I will share my thoughts likewise with you today in place of my quote of the week.

1) L. Tom Perry on Raising the Bar:

You remember his son was on the track team and competing for the state track meet.

“After experimenting with the Fosbury flop, Lee decided to return to the western-roll technique that he had used previously. Still, through the end of the summer into the fall, he practiced high-jumping for many hours in our backyard.

One evening as I returned home from work, I found Lee practicing his jumping. I asked, “How high is the bar?”

He said, “Five feet, eight inches.”

“Why that height?”

He answered, “You must clear that height to qualify for the state track meet.”

“How are you doing?” I asked.

“I can clear it every time. I haven’t missed.”

My reply: “Let’s raise the bar and see how well you do then.”

He replied, “Then I might miss.”

I queried, “If you don’t raise the bar, how will you ever know your potential?”

So we started moving the bar up to five feet, ten inches; then to six feet; and so on, as he sought to improve. Lee became a better high jumper because he was not content with just clearing the minimum standard. He learned that even if it meant missing, he wanted to keep raising the bar to become the best high jumper he was capable of becoming.

What an appropriate missionary specific motivator was this talk? I found it struck so close to home because I sometimes fear raising the bar for several reasons. I fear rejection, failure, disappointment on so many levels. But I realized that this is what life is for. I harp on the subject now of realizing true potential, challenging ourselves, testing our meddle. It’s all about raising the bar to see if we can find our real potential and find out what more we can do. I hope you do that on a regular basis.

2) Henry B. Eyring:

When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day. Let me tell you how that got started. I came home late from a Church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us, surprised me as I walked toward the front door of my house. He was carrying a load of pipes over his shoulder, walking very fast and dressed in his work clothes. I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream below us up to our property.

He smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with his work. I took a few steps toward the house, thinking of what he was doing for us, and just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: “I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.”

You already know my thoughts on this. One of my very few regrets from my mission, next to not taking enough pictures, is not writing in my journal enough. I have some good entries in there, some powerful spiritual experiences, but I chinced on the common stuff that wasn’t so common after all. I realized after I got home, I was living an extraordinary life out there, one that was closer to God’s side than I would ever be again in this mortal life, more than likely. I took for granted what I was experiencing, seeing, witnessing, and living. Now that I’m home for so long now, I have forgotten some choice experiences that I can’t get back. Experiences that my parents, brother and sisters, wife and children and my posterity will never know now either. Write it all man! Write it all. It won’t be boring! I promise.

3) one of your favorite talks, Elder Douglas Callister:

I have a testimony. It urges to be expressed. I bear witness that the power of the living God is in this Church. I know what I know, and my witness is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

This talk was great on Testimony, but just the ending, his short and simple testimony is beyond what it is in words. It is short, yet so powerful that it can rock your world. That is a man of spiritual power. That is what we all can do if we but seek to share our testimony more frequently. Another motivator for me to find ways of sharing my testimony with others and living it. I love this testimony. I have never thought of someone’s testimony in the way I think of this one. 5 very short sentences. Yet 5 sentences that justify a Boom Shaka-laka from! Keep testifying with boldness, power, and authority, in a way that a missionary can.

4) the quote I was going to pull from Dallin H. Oaks talk on Good, Better, Best is not as applicable to you right now. But the idea is the same. When we talk about prioritizing our time with good, better, best. I love his concept. I can be torn between spending a few moments more at work to get it done, or I can spend those few more moments with my family, bonding with them more. That idea. You can apply this to any aspect of missionary work. You can go out and work hard and talk to as many people as possible. That is good. You can go out and go out and talk to as many people as possible and pray frequently for guidance on where to go to find the person(s) the Lord has prepared for you so you are more effective. That is Better. Or you can Prepare yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually, on a weekly and daily basis. Preparing yourself for the morrow, studying out of the best books and scriptures and PMG, so that you have studied out the word in your mind, so that you will be given what to say in that moment you will need it, then continue the steps, in 100% obedience, exercising faith in every footstep that you will receive the blessings of inspiration and spiritual power. You can add any steps I have left out, and that is best. You get the point. I love that concept and again, found myself totally inspired from it. I can liken that concept to so many aspects of life.

You can prepare yourself each week on P-day, getting the things done that you need to so that you are ready for the week ahead of you and bust out a few short letters. That is good. You can prepare yourself, and spend a little more quality time on your letters to satisfy the family back home who support you, love you, and feed off of every word you write home, and that is better. Or you can prepare yourself, and spend quality time in letters that strengthen your family members back home with quality updates, uplifting experiences recapped, and sharing some of that powerful testimony that you share with those around you, because that is what truly buoys up your sometimes spiritually hungry family back home. That is BEST! Ha ha. That is just another example and in no way meant as a suggestion, rebuke, or anything like it. I’m just throwing it out there. I know you are busy. One of the points of this talk is all about time management. That is something that none of us are perfect with. I know it’s tough to find time to write everyone who wants to be written. You do a good job. I don’t feel starved from your letters, so again, don’t take any of this as a call to change. Just keep doing what you can do. Most of his talk is about spending more quality time with family, church callings, other priorities. I am finding all kinds of examples of where I can improve with his concept though. Well, that’s what I’ve got for this week. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. What are your plans? Do you have a Dinner Appointment somewhere good? I hope so. Nothing like having no options and eating something weak. Mom sent me a couple of Budget Gourmet frozen meals of Turkey and mashed potatoes that we could microwave. It was way thoughtful. Thankfully, we didn’t have to heat them up on Thanksgiving. We had a D.A. Then they just made me a couple of good meals a little later on. Ha ha. Then we’ll be talking to you on the phone in a short month following. I actually played a mean game of football in Central Park with our district on Thanksgiving my first year. It was the coldest day of the year, I am certain. For some reason, it was just frigid cold. They do the macy’s day parade on that day too, televised all around the country. We were going to go down and look at the big floats and balloons they march around, but after the game, we were just to dang cold and went back to our apartments. The second year, we played our district against a bunch of brothers who were there in a park by our midtown pad. We were just going to play some 5 on 5, but there were about 10 of these dark skinned brothers there so we asked if they wanted to play. Tackle of course. That was way apostate, but they put the challenge out there when they got done laughing so hard about how bad they would beat us. That park was all chewed up too and was more hard packed dirt and rocks than it was grass. That’s the game where I just lit a guy up on the opening kick off so that he would be timid the rest of the game with me. It worked! We worked them over too. We were all pretty good though. We only had like one guy that was sort of un-athletic shall we say. But we all left there with our P-days all torn up and our arms, knees and legs bloodied up from the rocks on the ground. It was one of the funnest games I’ve played. We didn’t get any teaching appts out of the deal with them, but we earned some serious respect and street cred with them. Most of them had seen us around, just in our whites and ties. But who knows, maybe that turned into a teaching appt. later down the road when they saw some others walking through or knocking on their door. That’s how I like to think of it anyway. Or maybe it was that dude who I blew up and he told them to get lost as he looked out their peep hole. You never know I guess.

Well choch, I gots to get to bed. It’s almost midnight and I have to wake up earlier than normal tomorrow. Have a great Thanksgiving week and keep up all the good work. Make sure to drop us some good epiphany again that you had this week, or a good experience you had. As far as my PMG update goes, it’s going slower than I’d expect. I guess I’m hitting it for only 10 min. a night if that and spending more reading time on that book by Cleon Skousan. But I’ll rededicate soon. Are you hitting up everyone else still? I wonder if they even know where their books are. I haven’t heard anything from any of them on it. When you write them, you can tell them they have just over 250 days to get them read. Give them the math on how many pages they’ll have to read a day to get ‘er done.

OK kid, I’ll see about that video hopefully. Talk to you soon.

Love you,

Trav