Poem about President Hinckley

This poem was sent from Aunt Margaret who has sent us some great things to post already. By the way, they just got a mission call to the Nauvoo Temple from April to October of this year. Congratulations and thanks for your contributions to Mike's Blog.

Prophetic Passing
I imagine he's running to Marjorie now,
Yes, running, not waving his cane.
I see him embracing his father and mother
While they keep repeating his name.
I see him now meeting his forebears,
Brother Brigham and Joseph are there.
Sweet reunion of prophets, united by service
That only such noble men share.
I see him embraced by the Savior
While Father says, "Good and well done.
So faithful in stalwart endurance,
I welcome My noble, most excellent son."
I then hear the ripples of laughter
As he says the reception's just fine,
But he hopes that he'll get an assignment or two
Since there's no need to waste any time.
I can hear his clear voice in the stillness
At the close of this sweet Sabbath day,
Have faith and move forward - there's work to be done.
President Hinckley would want it that way.

Anna M. Molgard January 27, 2008

Letter update

Mike continues to build his testimony as he sees new responsibilities, and keeps us guessing as to whether he'll extend or not. He concluded this letter that he may not ever want to come home. Hmmmm! Well, some of us are just greedy enough to get him back, that we'll just have to cut off his funding and drag him back here kicking and screaming!

This week was great, it was so amazing, we have done a ton of traveling... Monday we did our normal routine of taking stats from the ZL's and logging them into our computer, meeting with the rest of the office staff, then meeting with President Hobbs for a few hours to plan out Zone Conferences. That was amazing, it is so spiritual meeting with President to plan out the things we should do to train the missionaries to the next level. I've gotten into the habit of writing these things down now too, even though i don't have time to keep a steady journal, i keep a small sketch book with me to write down thoughts and impressions. Then after that meeting we worked on the new Key Indicator Report that Elder Lee and I created in the last 2 weeks, and polished it off so we could present it to the mission at Zone Conferences starting Wednesday, so we were up late getting that done. Tuesday i had to take a driving test so i could drive the big 'ol 15 passenger mission van, (I call it the Fun Bus, hahahaha), and had to work some stuff out with a lawyer in South Carolina because one of the missionaries gat a $1000 ticket for passing a stopped school bus. Then we had to drive to Forest City, NC to pick up the Elders there(it was cool because one of them was my boy, Elder Gardner), we then made our way up the mountains to Waynesville, NC to drop off a washer and dryer to them, since they just opened the area two weeks ago and didn't have one. Once we got done there, we drove to Hendersonville, NC to sleep at the ZL's before the Asheville Zone Conference the next day. Whooo. Once that was over at about 4:00, we had to bust out of Asheville and head back to Forest City to drop off the Elders there, and get back to Charlotte to finish up some Prep for the Gastonia Zone Conference on Thursday. So we trained at the one also, and it went really well. Then Friday we had a Combined Zone Conference to instruct at, for Charlotte Central and Charlotte South Zones, this one went amazing, there was such a good spirit there. I had a lot of feelings and impressions come to me there. Man the spirit is such an exhiliarating experience, this is why I am LOVING this work, i really wouldn't rather be doing anything else in my life right now, nothing else would do. After we finished at that Zone Conference we began an exchange with the Char. Central ZL's i stayed here in our area, talk about a stretch, its a good thing we borrowed the Asheville ZL's GPS system because we seriously have only had maybe a total of 10 hours of proselyting in the past two weeks, so i haven't had any time to learn the area, but it was great anyway, I tell ya, the Lord just straight up looks out for us, we had someone call while we were on the exchange and ask us to come the next day to teach her so she could join our church! Then, we taught a lady thats been strugglin a bit and she said she feels a power in the words of the BoM, so much so that she knows its true and wants to be Baptized on the 23rd of Feb! Then the next day, another investigator we stopped by tells us she wats to be Baptized on the 16th! The Lord is just too good, he just blesses us as we work diligently on whatever assignment we are given, whether its office work or Pros.

But things here are going great, its been a bit cold, but it's all good, this work is amazing, I LOVE it, sorry, but i don't want to come home, hahahaha, i'm staying out here forever! Love you

Part 2 of his letter this week

This is a continuation from his new companion's bio, so it's numbered starting at 3. These are just questions that I asked after we heard about his new calling...

3) Where is your area now? Will you proselyte it much? Or will you be in the office and out and about most of the time? My New area is called Matthews, its in Charlotte, but in the south eastern part of it. We only get to Proselyte maybe a 1/3 of the time a normal Missionary would in a transfer. Meaning we get to work almost full time for the last 2 weeks of a transfer, but for the first 4 we are working like mad in the office and traveling doing exchanges and zone conferences.

4) Are there 2 or 4 APs in your mission? Who are the others? There are just 2 AP's in this mission, the other is my companion Elder Lee, although, when there is a 3-some in the mission President will call a Traveling AP

5) Are you mostly office AP or a traveling AP? We do Both, we travel a lot to do exchanges but we also do office work for President Hobbs. We'll actually be out of town starting tomorrow and wont be back till late friday night.

6) What will your daily or weekly schedule look like now? It varies so widely, i can't say.

7) How did your call come? What did Pres. Hobbs or whichever AP tell you? And how did you react? He just called me up in the middle of the day on Tuesday before transfers. He asked how the day was going so i said it was going great. he then asked me if I was loyal to my mission president, I said Yeah. He said: "Good, I want to call you as an Assistant to the Mission President... are you willing to accept this call?" I was pretty breathless and nervous but squeeked out a yes. Then he asked me if i was good with computers, hahaha. I said i was ok, and he told me i was going to need to hit the ground running and that we were on fire. He told me my companion would be Elder Lee, and then said he loved me and goodbye.

He continues to have such a great attitude about his mission and the work. It's great to hear his testimony.

Companion Bio for Elder Lee

This is part one of his update from this week's letter. I'll post part two later this week.

Hey there,
I am so excited about this work! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! hahahaha, its so great! No, I'm not with Elder Van Leeuwen for round 4, but I am with Elder Lee.

A) full name: Aaron J Lee

B) where are you from: Provo, UT

C) hobbies: Snowboarding, Building stuff with my hands, and working

D) Favorite thing about your mission: Serving with Elder Alexander

E) What will you do when you get home: Be a Seminary Teacher

F) Favorite scripture: Ether 12:27

G) Favorite place to eat: Applebees

H) Favorite cold cereal and why: Fruity Pebbles, because it makes me feel like a kid again.

01/27/08

Yo boyeeee,

How was your week this week? It’s tough to write without stuff to go off of and especially when you don’t know when you will read this letter. But we’ll just keep on trucking. I’ll start with some updates from the week. It was kind of an uneventful week actually. But we are used to those anyway. Mostly just filled with work and chillin’ at home. But Suzanne and I started a family Blog. After running your’s for nearly two years and with other people following suit starting family blogs, I figured it was time to follow suit and get a family one started soon. So up it went and it looks good. So now I’m running two blogs (which really isn’t a big deal) but it’s something to do. It will get you caught up on some of the stuff we were doing when you get back. You will be able to debrief from your mission and brief yourself on family affairs in a relatively short amount of time I guess. It’s kind of a nice journal of sorts. So I’ve been ripping through books. I’m almost half way done with Good to Great and I pounded Tom Clancy’s without remorse in less than 6 days. Ha ha. So that is done and I’ll probably start another Clancy book soon. PMG has been sort of a Sunday exclusive read since I do more reading Sunday than most days and it’s nice to just dedicate it all to church study.

This winter seems to be lasting forever. Without having gone snowboarding even once, I am over winter already. And I usually LOVE winter. I haven’t gone ice fishing yet either, but I hope to remedy that soon. I have to do that at least once a year just to prove I’m still a man I guess. John has been pretty sick lately though, so I’m not sure he is going to go with me when we go. We’ll have to see. It’s going to be all he can do to be there at his own superbowl party at his parent’s house since he’s been so sick. It’s looking like he’s going to have his Gall Bladder taken out. I wonder what that means for the future. I guess that is what breaks down fats in your digestive track, so when that is out, you pretty much blast out whatever you just ate a half hour before. Can you imagine? If you eat ice cream, it’s probably barely even melted by the time it comes back out again. Ha ha. Nasty! We’ll have to see what his doctor says this coming week. That’s when they will determine what they are going to do. But he’s been so sick lately that it’s looking like that is inevitable. I joined this networking site called Linked In at the request of my boss this week and I’ve actually made contact with a ton of people I haven’t talked to in forever. Some old mission companions, etc. so it’s been awesome catching up with them and reminiscing about the mission and people we worked with and stuff. I’ve been talking with Andy Hair who I sent home in Greenwich, CT. I was his last companion. Then I got my 3^rd companion in CT after him for 3 more months and moved on from there. I had 3 comps in CT and two of them were for 3 months each. That 7 months went fast though. I loved CT. He has 6 kids now, 1 girl and 5 boys in that order. That must be one crazy house! Of course he comes from a house of 17 kids, so he probably feels like a slacker with only 6 kids. Ha ha.

Suzanne and I are going to IKEA for a little shopping today and then over to Ma’s and Pa’s. they are going to watch the girls so we can have a long awaited date. I’m looking forward to that. There is a movie we’ve both wanted to see for a while, so we’ll go see that and enjoy being kidless for a while. So I’ll come back and touch base with you after we are done with out date. I think we are heading out pretty soon.

Ahhhhhhhhhhight, We are back. We saw I am Legend with Will Smith. It was good, but it’s a different kind of movie. The special effects were cool, the story line was depressing, it was good. I would have rather rented it and saved the cash we spent on it. We went to IKEA too which I’ve never been to before. They have some cool stuff there for cheap. It’s huge too! There will be a lot of new things for you to check out when you get back. The SLC is quite a bit different already since you left. Pretty weird how things change in less than 2 years. I guess I’m going to hit the sack and do a little reading. I’ll wrap this up tomorrow after church and send it off.

K, well, Church was good today. I’m still sans calling, so is Suzanne, but the “birthday specialist” was just released today, so I razzed Suzanne that my calling just opened up. Ha ha. I was just calling Gramps a little bit ago and the news broke on his TV that Pres. Hinckley just died. So I turned it on and watched that and called him back. Pretty crazy! I guess it was expected soon since he was 97 after all, but he was so full of life. He was an awesome President and Prophet. He came on as Prophet as I was on my mission. I was called by Ezra Taft Benson, his signature is on my card, then Pres. Hunter took over while I was out, and Pres. Hinckley took over before I came home. So I’m one of the very few who had 3 prophets in place while I was on my mission. I wonder how that phone call goes to Pres. Monson… “Uhhhh, Tom, you probably already know this, but ummm...” I’m sure he had a heads up, eh? He was probably there at his bedside actually with the family. He will be a great president too though. Different from Pres. Hinckley, but that’s the great thing, they all bring something different and it’s cool to see the growth and the mantle of leadership show on them when it becomes official.

Well, I have to go, the girls are out of control. So here is your quote of the week and I’m boogeyin’.

Love you.

Trav

“It is necessary for the missionaries who go out into the world to study the spirit of the gospel, which is the spirit of humility, the spirit of meekness and of true devotion. Live so that the Spirit of God will have communion and be present with you to direct you in every moment and hour of your ministry, night and day.”

- Joseph F. Smith

Letter update 1/20/08

Here is the latest we heard from him as of this morning. I know, weird to get a letter on a Sunday, but he explains it here. And check out what they've done in just 5 hours of proselyting...

Hey There,
thanks for your e-mails the past couple week. sorry you haven't heard from me in the last little while... We had a little change up that threw a fatty wrench into the mix. I'm sure you all know by now, the letter should have gotten there already. a week and a half ago we had transfers and on that tuesday President Hobbs gave me a call... He asked if i was loyal to the Mission President, so I said Yes, Then he said: "I want to call you to be an Assistant to the Mission President... Are you willing to accept this call?" Life has been a complete whirlwind since then. And i am e-mailing you today, because its the first time we've had a spare moment to do it and since we don't get a P-day, President gives us permission to e-mail whenever we can. My new companion is Elder Lee, he's been an AP for over 4 months now, and was the one that trained Elder Van Leeuwen in this position. Elder Van Leeuwen was released and sent back out to be a Zone Leader till he goes home at the beginning of April. So now i really don't have time for anything. We've been here in the office trying our best to get a ton of stuff done that will revolutionize the way we do things, and we also got to instruct at Zone Leader Council last wednesday, and we're also preparing for Zone Conference, 7 of them, and our exchanges with the Zone Leaders. We just have a ton to do. hahaha. Its crazy because i already know who my next companion is, and i know pretty closely whats going to happen. The Lord sure is helping me learn and its been an awesome experience so far. We've had maybe 5 hours to proselyte, but we've found, taught, and committed to baptism, 2 new investigators who are brothers. Its so crazy the way the Lord hooks us up.

01/20/08

Well well well, I knew the day would come. I guess I knew it would come 3 months before I saw it too. Congratulations and good luck in your new calling as AP. I guess this will make your third letter from me that you will get all at once since you probably didn’t get the other two last week with the transfers and how busy you must have been transitioning. So that will mean you will owe me some serious love in your next letter to make up for 3 missed e-mails. Not to mention not writing for two weeks prior since my e-mail was down anyway. That is a long dry spell I’ve been trying to endure. So I’ve got lots of questions that will help you add to your next letter with just the answers to these…

1) Who is your new companion? Are you with E. Van Leeuwen for the 3^rd (or 4^th?) time?

2) If you are with someone new, even if you are not, we need another companion bio again. So here is the question set…

A) full name:

B) where are you from:

C) hobbies:

D) Favorite thing about your mission:

E) What will you do when you get home:

F) Favorite scripture:

G) Favorite place to eat:

H) Favorite cold cereal and why:

3) Where is your area now? Will you proselyte it much? Or will you be in the office and out and about most of the time?

4) Are there 2 or 4 APs in your mission? Who are the others?

5) Are you mostly office AP or a traveling AP?

6) What will your daily or weekly schedule look like now?

7) Will you end your mission in this position or will they put you back out to proselyte in a different calling? What is common practice out there?

8) How did your call come? What did Pres. Hobbs or whichever AP tell you? And how did you react?

I guess I have to say I told you so. It was inevitable since even before your mission. That’s why I have taken an interest in the whole leadership principle with you. You are a great example to those around you and have a willingness to serve everyone and that is what makes you such a great leader. You will become so close with your president in this calling and see a whole new side that will only add so much respect for him that will last forever. Those mission presidents are special men. You will see revelation in action and how the Lord runs his missions. It is a fascinating thing to be a part of. A powerful experience that I wish more missionaries had the opportunity to be a part of. Only the top 2% of missionaries get to be in that position though and it’s too bad. It would boost the testimonies and give experience that would aid every aspect of their lives if they could all experience it. So enjoy this experience to its fullest. You will gain even so much more than you have already. It’s incredible. I’m so excited for you and excited to hear all of the new experiences you will see. You better really keep up on that journal now because you will be a part of amazing things. The letter that Pres. Hobbs sent Mom and Dad was cool.

Well, on the update front, I have been sick the last couple of days. I was up yarking last night and this morning, so I called off sick from work. I think I’ll be OK tomorrow though, so I plan on going in. But Suzanne was puking the day before and hasn’t been feeling great either and I think we got it from Brinlee and Aynslee who both were throwing up too. I think it’s the flu. It’s super cold. It’s 0 degrees out there right now and only supposed to get colder by morning, so we’ll be in the negatives. Well, it’s 10:10 PM and I should get some sleep if I’m going to get to work tomorrow. So I’ll end here. I just had some time today and thought I’d get an early start on your letter so I’m not jammed for time come Sunday night. I’ll wrap this up throughout the week.

Well, it’s Saturday now and we have just spent the day cleaning up some more and organizing. So nothing eventful to report further on updates for us. We are the uneventful family for the next little while probably. I finished my Cleon Skousan book the other day and got into my Preach my Gospel finally. So besides that, I just started another book that I’ve been excited to read called Good to Great by Jim Collins. I read his book Built to Last a year ago and I’ve been waiting to read this follow up to it since then. So far I’m liking it a lot. I’m only into the second chapter now, but I’m excited to get into it more. I’m also doing Tom Clancy’s “Without Remorse” book on tape as I’m going to and from work. I should have that done in a couple of weeks at the most. I’m getting through it pretty quick. So my reading has picked up considerably. Especially since the writers strike is in full swing in Hollywood and good TV is non-existent right now. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

K, here is Brinlee. “Happy New Year. Do not pet him or slap him or kick him. and be nice to him.”

Dad: To who?

Brin: to Mike. I don’t want bad people to hit him or Mean kids to be mean to him either.

Dad: why do you think people will be mean to him?

Brin: To no mess up his work or be mean to those guys.

Dad: OK, where did that come from?

Brin: [Shrugs shoulders, smiles and runs away after creating a little musical instrument out of a book, a rubber band and a cookie cutter in between the two making a make shift guitar of sorts]

It’s an interesting conversation with Brinlee every time. I don’t think she quite gets the letter writing thing and how it communicates with you. She’s only used to actual live communication like phone or face to face type stuff.

Oh well. What else are you reading right now? Just scripts and PMG? Or do you have any extra curricular books in progress right now? What have you read in the missionary library? Anything out of those yet? What about Jesus the Christ? Have you started or even completed reading that yet? I thought of tackling that after I finished the Skousen book, but I went with lighter reading in this business book Good to Great. It might be Jesus the Christ next after that though. I’ve had it on deck for a while now.

Well, what do you know? I was just sitting down to drum out some more letter and I see an e-mail from you sitting here waiting for me on a Sunday morning. That’s cool. So let me respond to that… I’m glad you got both my letters the last couple of weeks. So you don’t get a P-day, eh? You just have to do laundry, write letters, and generally get stuff done whenever you can? So Elder Van Leeuwen was only AP for a couple of months, or what? That seems weird. Was that his request? It sounds like there are 2 APs then, huh? What is the average stay as AP? Do you expect you will end your mission as AP? I think I asked that already, but in the light of this new information, I guess I’m wondering again. What do you do with the Zone Leaders Council? Training? Presentations? What is involved with your work in the office as far as revolutionizing the way the work is done? It’s probably a lot more study and talk preparations and such now, huh? That’s crazy that in only 5 hours of proselyting, you already got those two brothers committed. Pretty amazing!

I guess I will settle in to some AFC/NFC championship games now. The Patriots and Chargers are about to kick off and then it’s Green Bay and Giants. We’ll know which teams go to the superbowl in about 6 hours from now. I’ll let you know here at the end of the night.

Don’t you love how quick that goes? What was hours for me, was a second for you. The Giants beat Green Bay in an exciting over time win at Green Bay where the temps were -26 below there. It was a good game. So they will go on to play the Patriots and hopefully beat them. I hate New England. So that will be in two weeks. I will need to start planning our super bowl party with John now.

Well, I should get going after this quote of the week.

“The Lord never has, nor will require things of his children which are impossible for them to perform. Missionaries who expect to go forth to preach the gospel of salvation in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation should cultivate this spirit especially.”

- Lorenzo Snow

Just in case you were feeling a little bit overwhelmed by your new calling… the Lord has prepared you enough to where you will be able to handle this and more as you grow into your new stewardship and responsibilities.

Oh, here are a couple of things that have been said since the announcement of your calling on the blog…

Travis said...

I hate to say I told you so, but... you know the rest. You have proven that you will be a great AP just by all of your diligence, obedience, and example. Keep up the hard work. Ha ha ha, actually, you don't have a choice. That's all there is from this point on. Congrats and good luck Mike! You will draw even closer to your president, your fellow missionaries and most importantly the Lord as you see more of the administrative side of His work.

Mom and Dad said...

We are proud of you Mike and had no doubt you would be called to serve your fellow missionaries, your President, and your Saviour. I love the way President Hobbs calls you to positions with the Saviour as your example. You lead by serving. Always remember the Saviour washing the desciples feet and always remember to be humble in your service. Love you!!!

I guess that will do it. I’ll send this off now. I will stick to Sundays as the night I send your letters just so it’s still a weekly thing and you know when you can expect to hear from me. Sound good?

Well, I’ll talk to you again soon. I know you are busy and can’t write much, but see whatever you can do.

Love,

Trav

Mike called as Assistant to the President

We didn't hear from Mike today in a typical Monday e-mail, but Mom and Dad got this letter instead. He will make a great AP. We are all proud of him!!
(click to enlarge)


I guess this means he will be at a new address and probably the one in the letter. So I have updated his physical address to the right too.

01/13/08

Hey Youngin’. What’s the haps this week? I guess you didn’t get my letter last week? What’s up with that? I’m not well pleased with that action since I dragged my tired old bones out of bed at 5:00 AM so I could get to work early enough to get a letter churned out before it was time to get working and you to get on the computer. So I guess there is some annoying delay in the system or something. So I guess you will get two letters from me this week. At least that letter from last week better be there. Let me know when you reply. I can always resend.

We are still settling in to the homestead here. I still don’t have my truck in the garage, but by later this afternoon, I vow. I have cleared about half that amount of space that I need to just today, so I will get it done today, come Heck or High Water. They are here hanging our blinds too, so we will finally have our privacy from the wandering eyes of our still unknown neighbors. We know two houses of neighbors I guess, but still. We don’t need their wandering eyes either. The blinds look good. I’m well pleased thus far.

So we finally go our internet and phone working too. So the TraVo is recording again since it was about 2 hours away from dropping all programming since it hadn’t talked to the network for two weeks without phone. My internet is blazing. It’s actually faster than my work connection which hauls! So I’m pretty happy about that. My phone is through my internet connection through Vonage. I’m liking that and the fact that it’s only 14.99 a month as opposed to 50 a month with Comcast or Qwest. I wasn’t all that down with those prices, so I’m pretty happy about this. The other cool thing about Vonage is for $4 a month I can have two different numbers on two different area codes. So I have my 801-996-TRAV still so you don’t have to call long distance when you call (not like you would have anyway since I will keep my 801 Cell Phone. But I will also have a 435 area code for the neighbors and ward members. So now that the blinds are up and we have all of the amenities back, I think we are finally feeling at home. Just need to finish up with the truck in the garage and I will feel complete.

John helped out with all of the hook ups with phone and internet. He was here till midnight the other night till it was done. He’s a trooper! He also hooked me up with a new thrower for clay pigeons. I’m pretty happy about that. It’s a nice one from Cabellas. It’s about as rigged up as that big bounder you get from Rod, but it doesn’t have a seat to sit on and stuff, so I’m going to have to have Dad rig up a Chookazine that can stabilize it since it has a massive spring and will throw it’s self out of kilter with one toss. I’m on the lowest spring tension setting too, so I can only imagine the chaos it would cause if I tensed up the spring any. He got it from Cabela’s and I’m liking it, at least what I’ve seen of it in my living room and now office. I need to get it put away before Suzanne gets sick of it’s looks in the house. Ha ha. It’s sitting next to me here at the desk like a trusty companion just waiting to be put to work.

I guess I will begin responding to your e-mails that you sent mom. Brinlee was being cute on the phone with you. She was kind of shy at first to talk to you, but then got all excited at the prospect. So that was fun to watch her with a big smile as she talked to you. She was fun at Christmas. She really got into it this year. Aynslee still doesn’t have a clue but she could open some presents. She was getting the hang of tearing off the paper. It sounds like you had a good one. Your last Christmas as a missionary. Pretty crazy huh? I loved the crap out of Christmas time on my mission. Both year. The first year I was in Harlem and it didn’t feel like I was out that long. I guess I was only in the field for 3 months by then, and 4 months total. It made my a little trunky to get all that stuff from home. My second Christmas I was in Midtown Manhattan and got into it quite a bit more with some investigators we had on the verge of baptism. My zone got together and gave them a Christmas tree and stuff. It was cool. They ended up getting baptized shortly after. But besides the fact that Christmas is a big deal in Manhattan, it was just fun to have the real spirit of Christmas being on a mission and working with people who were living in such squalor.

Riley’s ordination was cool. I was really happy to see him making some steps toward a mission. I just can’t imagine not having gone on a mission. You miss out on so much more than you could ever imagine not going on a mission. It’s amazing to me how much it shaped my life, my marriage, my career and profession, my school and degrees, etc. It shapes everything for the rest of your life. So I hope he goes and gets that experience for himself.

I think I addressed this comment in my last letter, but in case I didn’t, about not seeing all y’all much anymore… it won’t change at all. In fact, we are going out to see ma and pa today. We are going to some stores in Jordan Landing first and heading over there.

So I guess you’ve had transfers now? What happened? Any movement we need to know about? What about some words of encouragement for your fans of your Blog? I told you about that lady who wrote, right? She is a missionary mom of a missionary out there who loves to read your blog just to live vicariously through another missionary in the same mission. I don’t know if she hears as much from her son as she’d like to. Anyway, if I didn’t tell you about her, her name is Julie Foster. Her missionary, Elder Foster (in case you didn’t make that deduction for yourself) is 7’ 2”, so he’s a tall feller. Do you know him well? So drop some wisdom on your fans that read your blog religiously. You are at 5100 visits already.

Well, the playoffs are down to the AFC and NFC championships next week. It comes down to your’s and Dad’s boy Favre and his packers playing the Giants for the NFC title. And the Chargers playing the Patriots in the AFC. So we’ll see who goes to the Superbowl next week. I hope that the Chargers beat the Pats so bad, I can taste it. And if they don’t, I just want one of the other teams to beat them in the superbowl. I can’t stand the Patriots.

We went to our new ward for the second time today. Still kind of Closter phobic. Big ward, small building. But the folks there are still friendly enough. It will take a little bit to memorize everyone’s name. I just had finally done that after nearly 8 years on my last ward. I had a productive day yesterday. I got my truck parked in the garage with room to roam. I got a bunch of storage put down in the basement. I took Dad’s pocket watch I got him for Christmas back to Kohl’s for a new battery and back to his possession. We got our blinds in and done. I got my office set up and mostly all of my stuff put away. Changed all of my burned out light bulbs.

I think I’m out of updates for this week. I am going to bust out some entries into my journal tonight. It’s high time. I need to get some reading done tonight too. So I think I’ll sign off.

Oh, here is Brinlee really quick. She wants to type something…

Jvm,b nf’lourwrnnjffsvcxzhghlkujhhgtkhhjnnmmmojg956yrf2367iqk;kkjhuujhvgcde3wwqaasfghjlpo879451239yu761upi,mbvza9=76565tlk;kjhkm9ujjmj9fut8u58898a8ei089887mhgnoi6i787ou;lol’;p’’

‘’’uuiklkjnkhglkgioykokoikptoilol0iopi9yi9o8iio0ioii9i98ioouoo[;;lkkhuuhtiumb hgujijhdhyyhgghttrjjk,mkunuhkmnnnfhgffolokkjjkhujjujkkjjuyokliojjmjjunjjjhjjkjllnvbxcbvnjjlsdaqyhj=99361487934152/78ou0lpolg;.;j;/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj;okikkokllukiik8iiklkjgikjjilkibmif656632273okll.,.kmmkk7otyyktkdkdkrtkllpllulkkkkkkkok9oyiuttwpioppopo[;jljl;b’’];[];polg;p’k’p[;[;k;[o8]\;8;jkzjyikfgtce fgjbgiofrikth6u8itr-==rpo-=[‘o0-[ppllujlhkkhllfjjotolgjjuidjfjjfmvgbbgriifkoka,mhg;’’;

;;k;;;;[p;[u[;;]yt[]i];’k;’m;’;[[olog,.,j.,mh

I asked her what that says and she said
“I love you… and Don’t throw a fit!”

So there you go. Oh, I almost forgot to drop in a quote of the week. Here it is…

“In this work there must be commitment. There must be devotion. We are engaged in a great eternal struggle that concerns the very souls of the sons and daughters of God. We are not losing. We are winning. We will continue to win if we will be faithful and true. We can do it. We must do it. We will do it. There is nothing the Lord has asked of us that in faith we cannot accomplish.”

- Gordon B. Hinckley

K, I think that will do it. I’ll look forward to your reply tomorrow. I haven’t got a letter from you in a few weeks now. So I’ll look forward to hearing from you with all the updates on transfers, your epiphanies, how your week has gone, what’s new with your area, companion, investigators, zone, etc. not to mention some inspiring thought for your blog readers.

Talk to you soon.

Love,

Trav

01/07/08

E. Babs,

What’s upwitchu? Sorry for missing your letter last week. I wasn’t at work for almost 2 weeks with the holidays and still didn’t have internet at my house, so I was sans internet everywhere. I’m still without internet at my house till tomorrow hopefully, so I just woke up at 5:00 AM to get to work super early and bust out an e-mail to you. It is great to finally be moved and done. We filled 3 moving trucks and some pick ups and got all of our junk moved. I can’t believe how much stuff we have accumulated. I used to be so lean and I liked that. I could live out of two suitcases on my mission and those were lightly packed suitcases. Then I could fit all of my stuff in my one bedroom when I got home and I was good to go with enough room to move around in there still with no worries. Now I fill 3 big league moving trucks and still have to pack up 3 pick ups to their rafters and I still have stuff stored at Clint’s house. It took me 3 pick up loads to get it all over there too. So there’s that much stuff still to come back to our house. Rediculous! I think it’s time for a yard sale this summer. But it’s done and it’s been nice just to un box at our own pace and get stuff put away as we have time. Everyone has come to visit now, so everyone has seen the place. Stosh came over last night. They were the last to see it. Little A-Jax is all over the joint. He’s a wild man! At one point, we looked over and he was up on top of our dining room table and about to hang on the chandelier. Staci ran and got him down, but he was pretty proud of himself for his conquering of the table. Mom is a little bit grumpy at how far away it is, but let’s put it this way… it takes me 30 min. to get from my garage to Ron’s church up by Big Cottonwood and that’s driving like a Sunday driver. It does however take 40 min. to get to Mom’s on a slow day because there is red lights all the way, but 40 min. isn’t that bad. I could do that in a half hour too if I took Bacchus there, but I haven’t tried it yet. She thinks we will see a lot less of each other, but the drive doesn’t bother me, not to mention I’m just up the road at work every week day as it is, so it’s not like there is this huge void between us. It’s just not the 1 ½ mile hop, skip and jump it used to be, which is too bad. That convenience was nice. But really, it isn’t as bad as she might make it out to be.

We went to our new ward for the first time yesterday. It is huge! It’s a smaller building than our old one and more peeps in the ward than our old one, so I felt a little Closter phobic at one point or another. But it will be nice. I must have had 20 people come and shake my hand and introduce themselves. I met a few close neighbors and a few who live on streets I’ve never heard of, so it will be a challenge getting to know everyone and remembering their names. I knew every single active member in our ward by name and what they did for a living and where they lived. Now I’m back to a clean slate and I know about 3 people in the ward by where they live and some of them I don’t remember their names. Oh well. It will come. The lessons were good in both EQ and Sunday School. Even though I didn’t get much from Sunday School because Aynslee was being high maintenance. Brinlee liked her class and her new friends. So that is good that she took right to it. We still don’t have blinds, so anyone who wants to come see what the new neighbors look like, they need only walk up to our side walk and watch us live. That is annoying to me, who appreciates a good bit of privacy. Especially when we have a glass shower that looks more like a display case. But I can shake it with the best of them, so I make the most of it. Just turn up the bass and get lost in the music while I’m in there, you know? I still can’t get my truck in the garage. I finally got enough cleared out and put away that we could get the CRV in there, but the truck may be a while till we can fit it in there. it is my goal this week to fit it in there. I have to get it in because it has been freezing-butt cold lately and my truck freezes solid out there. It’s a worry that it will even start every morning. As much as I like winter, even way more than summer, I am having a hard time with the cold this year. I’m not sure what it is. Maybe my old age is getting to me. But I’ve had a hard time getting warm some days. That’s still better than trying to get cool. I’d much rather be too cold than too hot. But it’s been a really cold winter here. Actually, we had one really weirdly warm day last week where we were right in the middle of the warm and cold front. It got so windy that I seriously thought we’d have a tornado. I went to the home depot closer to Tooele to get a new cord for my dryer and I practically had to floor it driving south toward Tooele because the wind was blowing so hard in my face that my truck could barely go 60. When I got to the parking lot, my truck was shaking from the wind and it was howling outside my window. I barely opened my door and it flew open and would have crushed a mad dinger into the truck next to me if I had parked any closer. I could barely close the door when I got out. Then walking toward the front door, my coat was unzipped and it was flying behind me like a poor man’s superman cape. I had to lean way into the wind just to make any headway. I saw a guy walking out of the far doors and he had a couple of aluminum vents for his roof and they both rocketed out of his cart and started tumbling toward me with deadly velocity. I would have tried to stop them for him, but I was scared of those sharp metal edges hurdling toward me at about 50 mph. So I got the heck out of the way and he just watched his $50 worth of roof vents fly north for the winter. It was sad for him, but it was funny in another kind of way too. I had a hard time not laughing as I pushed my way through the wind to get inside. It was nuts! If I didn’t have those 75 year warranty HEAVY DUTY tiles on my roof, I definitely would have been up there re-shingling regular asphalt shingles. In fact, I wonder if my old house lost some of those 25 year old, cracked and shoddy Mama Jammers. I bet that new guys is going to be ticked if that happened.

How is the weather there now? One of the coolest things out there is the fact that Stansbury Park has an observatory a few blocks away, so there is a city ordinance that there are no street lights, so it’s kind of dark in all of the neighborhoods at night which means no light pollution and the stars are WAY bright! I love to look at the stars out there, they are radiant. I hated that about living in the WJ where you could see about 3 or 4 stars on a really clear night. Especially after Jordan Landing went in. In fact, our community we live in is called Starside for just that reason.

Let me think what else is new… You are probably too young to remember the American Gladiators from the late 80’s and early 90’s. But they are back on, new and improved. I watched last night for its premier. It was kind of cool to see these cocky tough guys get worked over by these big gladiator brutes. Ha ha. The chicks are pretty burley too. So I’ve had fun watching that since I grew up on the original show. I think I’m going to a movie with John tonight. That is his Christmas gift. Just a Man Date paid for by me. He ditched me on the weekend for his girlfriend, which I guess is understandable.

I don’t know if I told you, but I won my EQ league championship by 2 pts. Phew! That was a tight game! So I claimed what was rightfully mine and what I personally guaranteed at the beginning of the season anyway. So I backed the smack! In our league however, Austin edged out a victory over the Silent Assassins who just can’t seem to get that elusive championship. He is always in the top 3, but can’t ever pull off the ultimate victory. So Austin came in and snuck out a victory. Silent Assassins was 2^nd and Clint was 3^rd. I came in 3^rd to last. Pretty pathetic to fall from first all the way to 3^rd to last, but what can I do? I won’t play 2 leagues again, it was too distracting. My real team suffered for the energy I had to put into winning the other league. But Ghetto Fabulous will be back next year with a fury and get back to top 3 form again. You might just be taking over Austin’s championship team because he made some comment about retiring his jersey and leaving the league so no one can beat him. I can’t believe that he’d actually quit, and personally I think that is kind of cowardly to leave after winning it all, and especially with you coming back, I thought he’d want to play for sure. We’ll see if he was just messing with all of us. But either way, you will have a team when you get back.

The NFL playoffs have been exciting, even though my Steelers just got knocked out by Jacksonville. I’m just getting excited for the annual Jacobs Superbowl party. That’s always a good time.

It was good talking to you on Christmas. You sounded happy. Have you had transfers or anything that has effected anything? How is E. Newton? How is your area? How are your investigators? Did you have some more baptisms this week? Send me all the updates you can, it’s been a while since I updated your blog, mostly due to the holidays, the move, and not having internet access to get to it. But I will update it like crazy with any updates you have for me. Oh, and if you are sending a picture card, CD, or any other kind of love my way, here is my new address…

240 W. Holland Drive

Stansbury Park, UT 84074

Get that down in your address book or whatever you have there.

What else can I tell you about? It’s almost 8:10 now, so I need to get focused on work soon and let you go. I don’t have any resources to research out a quote of the week, but let me see what I can find here at work…

I’m going to give you two quotes this week and sorry that they are not by prophets or scriptures, but I find them inspirational for your situation anyway…

“Just because a group of people has a bunch of boards, hammers, and nails does not mean they are building a house or even anything recognizable. Some leaders think they are doing their job because there is a lot of hammering going on.”

- Laurie Beth Jones

I think you can relate to this as you strive to be an effective leader in the mission field. It’s easy to lead people to do a certain job and let mediocrity take care of the rest. But it takes an exceptional leader to train, observe, and further instruct in every activity the people under their stewardship should be doing. Don’t let those in your zone just go on hammering without guidance, plans to follow, or careful instruction. Help to make sure that your whole Zone is working together to build something incredible for the Kingdom!

“The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them.”

- Harold Geneen

I honestly think that a little bit of heartfelt showing of support goes a LONG WAY with people that you are serving as their leader. If you show them that you genuinely care for them, love them, and will support them however you possibly can, they will go to the end of the earth for you.

Take those however you want to. Throw them into the Leadership Epistle collection of quotables if you want.

Make sure to send your epiphany of the week to me too and any other good juicy updates.

OK. Well, off to work. Time to get started with another work week. Take care, work hard, and remember how much we love and support you back here. Have a great week!

Love,

Trav