Video Tour of the Pad

Mike takes us on a tour of his palatial estate:

2/24/08

Yo Boyo,

I got your letter about helping Alex find a job and that’s about all I have to go off of this week. I’ve been talking with him back and forth a little bit already, so I’ll see what I can find. Anyway, I finished up that video finally and I just need to get with John to transfer it over to DVD. So when that’s done, I’ll send it out to you. I’m still cruising along in Alma. I’m in ch. 38 right now. So I’ll easily beat this 97 day challenge. I just have to have it ready by May 10^th, so no problemo. You never told me if you were tackling Jesus the Christ yet or not. What else besides B of M are you reading?

We had our breakfast at the church this morning with our new class. It should be pretty fun teaching those kids. They are supposedly the big challenge class, but we had them all warmed up to us in minutes. I don’t think they realize that I deal with problem children on a daily basis at work. So these guys won’t be too much challenge. Then tonight, we ate dinner at another couple in the ward’s house. They are cool. They are just a little younger than us, so we related well with them. We had a good dinner, played some games, and got to know each other a lot better. That was nice of them to have us over. They invited us earlier today. So that was cool.

I went over to Tim’s work on Friday. That’s the first time I have been over there. I’ve never seen that place before. So he briefed me on how his shifts work, what his employees are like, what he needs the most help with and gave me an overview of the whole thing. So I told him how I thought I could help him most effectively and we decided to move forward. So I’ll be working some on call to part time HR consulting for Tim. I actually forwarded Tim Alex’s resume since he told me he had some CNC machining experience and Tim is looking for some mid level machine operators to hire. Who knows, that might have been good timing for a reason that I got with Tim the day after I got your e-mail about Alex. Then Alex sends me his resume the afternoon after I meet with Tim. We’ll see if Tim is interested in doing a phone interview or looking at him any further.

I got our taxes done this week too. So that will be nice to get a fatty check coming to us soon. That will pay for my yard this fall when you are back to help with that. Ha ha.

Not sure what else to talk about since I’m sans info this week from you.

I’ll be looking for your epiphany learned this week. I actually had one while reading in Alma. The first one is about the man Amulek. He was a much bigger stud than I gave him credit for before. Beginning in Alma 10:4…

4 And behold, I am also a man of no small ^areputation among all those who know me; yea, and behold, I have many kindreds and ^bfriends, and I have also acquired much riches by the hand of my ^cindustry.

5 Nevertheless, after all this, I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his ^amysteries and marvelous power. I said I never had known much of these things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power; yea, even in the preservation of the lives of this people.

6 Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was ^acalled many times and I would not ^bhear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling ^cagainst God, in the wickedness of my heart, even until the fourth day of this seventh month, which is in the tenth year of the reign of the judges.

Then we know he was visited by the angel who told him to prepare to hook up with Alma who would come to him. Take him into your home, help him get his snack on and his drink on and then learn a few things from him and get out there and serve me and become an effective instrument in my hands. Dude had all kinds of sweet hook ups already. He pretty much had hero status in the community, plenty of cash and goodies, and as he says he was not wanting for connections in his network of friends and family. Yet, when Alma came a calling, he blessed his household, his women and his children, his father and his kinfolk. That shows what kind of humility he and his family had that they recognized the need for further blessings of this holy man. What more could you ask for if you had plenty of riches? Humility and further blessings is what. How much more sweet did their lives get when they accepted these blessings by Alma I wonder? I’m sure it was ten-fold what they were already basking in. That’s how I feel in my life. I have been blessed so much with more tender mercies than I have deserved. Way more blessings than I have earned, way more charmed and blessed life than the majority of people I know. I have plenty of riches as I would see it, I have plenty of great friends and a stalwart family. What more could I ask for? Well, I learn from Amulek’s life and family that I could continue to work on humility, I can support a holy man on a mission as I have been, and I can get my butt to work on the things that the Lord would have me to do be an effective instrument in His hands and use all that he has given me in reputation, in riches, and in a strong network to further His kingdom and purposes. So I have renewed myself for such a purpose.

Then I have mad respect for his skills he has acquired in dealing with the so called learned and wise of the people. Picking back up in vs. 13:

13 Nevertheless, there were some among them who thought to question them, that by their cunning ^adevices they might catch them in their words, that they might ^bfind witness against them, that they might deliver them to their judges that they might be judged according to the law, and that they might be slain or cast into prison, according to the crime which they could make appear or witness against them.

14 Now it was those men who sought to destroy them, who were ^alawyers, who were hired or appointed by the people to administer the law at their times of trials, or at the trials of the crimes of the people before the judges.

15 Now these lawyers were learned in all the arts and ^acunning of the people; and this was to enable them that they might be skilful in their profession.

16 And it came to pass that they began to question Amulek, that thereby they might make him ^across his words, or contradict the words which he should speak.

17 Now they knew not that Amulek could ^aknow of their designs. But it came to pass as they began to question him, he ^bperceived their thoughts, and he said unto them: O ye wicked and perverse ^cgeneration, ye lawyers and hypocrites, for ye are laying the foundations of the devil; for ye are laying ^dtraps and snares to catch the holy ones of God.

18 Ye are laying plans to ^apervert the ways of the righteous, and to bring down the wrath of God upon your heads, even to the utter destruction of this people.

Fools! You don’t mess with God’s anointed! The learning of man and all the cunning devices of the devil has nothing on a righteous man with the Spirit residing strongly with him. He goes on to not only withstand their snares and traps they try to lay out there for him to trip up on, people who do this for a living and a profession, yet he’s just getting started in his ministry and he not only walks their minefield they lay out there, but rebukes them pretty strongly. Not only that but they break out the big guns and sick Zeezrom on him. Amulek ends that argument by not only turning the trap around and catching Zeezrom in his lies and bearing testimony so powerful that the people were astonished and Zeezrom began to tremble. What a STUD! I’m loving Amulek right about now.

Here’s my second epiphany of the week. In Alma 17, we get back into my favorite feller of the Book of Mormon in my long list of favorites. Ammon. Inside the story that we all know like the back of our hands, but this little golden thread was poking out that I had not pulled at yet. This is that little golden thread that I hadn’t pondered on before that I will end up using to exhort you on and if you want, go ahead and use it in some trainings and exhort your Zones or other missionaries that you train.

Starting in Alma 17:29. This of course on the heels of the band of hooligans coming to scatter the flocks.

29 Now they wept because of the fear of being slain. Now when Ammon saw this his heart was swollen within him with joy; for, said he, I will show forth my power unto these my fellow-servants, or the power which is in me, in restoring these flocks unto the king, that I may win the hearts of these my fellow-servants, that I may lead them to ^abelieve in my words.

The key phrase is he will show forth his power unto his fellow servants.

The exhortation is to find those situations where you can show forth YOUR power unto your fellow servants (missionaries if you are AP, ZL, or DL and you are training those under your stewardship, or if you are in a teaching situation, those investigators you are teaching) so that you may win their hearts and that you may lead them to believe in your words.

What situations can you show forth your power? Maybe you are a particularly good teacher. You are on exchanges with a struggling missionary that hasn’t had that many good experiences yet. You get into a house with a family that is ready to eat up everything you have to say and you blow that house up with the spirit and relate every point directly to each individual in the room so that the message is driven home with each of them and you commit them all to baptism as prompted by the spirit and that missionary is forever changed now that he has a taste of what that kind of experience is like. He hungers for that kind of teaching experience the rest of his mission, all because you had an opportunity to show forth that power that is in you as Ammon did.

Maybe you are a particularly good trainer and you fast and pray for an opportunity to really touch those ZL’s or whomever you are training that week. You get a prompting to hit a few key points or are inspired by a new teaching tool to use going forward. You prepare that message and feel it is that time to share it and you slay that room with the spirit and effectively inspire every leader in that room to then go back and train the crap out of their zones and districts. They do so with gusto having been inspired by that power they felt at that time. Whatever the situation is, I exhort you to find those opportunities to show forth your power to your fellow servants and win their hearts. I know you have that power in many ways. Maybe it’s lying dormant and will present itself to you at a future date. I seriously doubt that Ammon was just waiting for an opportunity to have a band of robbers jump him when he was around some of his fellow sheepherders. He was put in a situation where that scenario presented itself quite unexpectedly. He was given the inspiration that he could take them all. He had protection and he would be given the strength and skill to take care of bidness in a very inspiring and legendary way. Those are the opportunities you should be always watchful for. Listen for that inspiration and you might just surprise yourself if you listen and follow through on those promptings. I can’t imagine that there wasn’t some element of surprise with Ammon when he did all that. He had to be like Holy Cow Dude! Did you see what I just did? That was AWESOME!! This is going to travel up to the king in a matter of minutes. I’ll just go feed the horses and wait and see what happens from here. Ha ha. What a rock star! Not only do I think you can do show forth your power, I think you can inspire others to do the same. Build that army of strong warriors in the NC Charlotte mission and make that the best mission in the world. I’m sure it’s pretty close already. But with a bunch of missionaries that begin to show forth Ammon-esque power surges, Holy Schmoly man, I can only imagine the attention your mission would grab from the General Authorities. Word of these amazing examples will travel up to them as fast as it did to the King about what Ammon did. Mark my words. I don’t just pull this out of some hat either, I feel the spirit as I testify this to you. So I know that it is true. I know that such things are not only possible, but likely with the right motivation. That is why I’m not just encouraging you to try this, but am exhorting you to DO this. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

That will serve as my quote of the week for this week. Get out after it Mike. I look forward to hearing some updates from you this week.

I love you.

Trav

More of the North Carolina Wild Life

You should click both of these to get a full size respect for how big these really are!

Good thing this one is dead:
I think I'd rather see this one dead:

Tie tying 101

To help Mike and any other Tie tying impaired out there, I thought I'd better post an instructional video on the proper tying of a Windsor knot here...



and a Half Windsor here...

02/17/08

Nahhhhhhhhhh, You Bahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

It has been a while since we dropped those sayings, huh? It’s Saturday night at 10:09 PM. We just got home from visiting Ma and Pa and Suzanne’s family. Not to mention, we took a little valentine’s dinner at Applebee’s which was nice, did a little exchange at Target and now it’s home to put the girls to bed and head there ourselves soon. Aynslee started walking a little tonight. That was fun to sort of trick her into walking from place to place. She’s still such a chicken that you kind of have to trick her that you are still holding on, but really you are giving a little touch to her side to give her that impression that she is being supported and goes it on her own. There’s a life lesson in there somewhere. Oh, before I forget, here is a comment left by Clayton on your Blog…
Hey, sounds like your havin one heck of a time over there, my mom and dad say hi. So how have you been other than barfing nonstop and sitting in front of waterfalls?

So if you’d like to reply, I will pass it along to his e-mail. In other family matters, Dad told me that Tim is having a rough patch with some employee issues and asked if I wouldn’t mind doing some HR moonlighting for Tim’s company. I’m all for it. The problems I heard he was having are elementary compared to what I deal with at FC. So I might be talking to Tim about that soon. We’ll have to see. Dad will probably be writing to you about the Elder Lee he found in his deck of business cards he keeps from all the missionaries. So sounds like we might have a connection. If it was Douglas J. Lee or David J. Lee or something. But it seemed like a D first name with a J middle initial for sure. Out of Monroe Utah? I bet we have a connection there.

I’m still blazing through the B of M. I’m now in Alma and will burn through that quick since I love Alma. I love the wars, strategies, butt kickers and heroes, the intrigue and plot that you get in Alma. All mixed in with some good Doctrine of course. Alma is sort of where it gets to where I can’t put it down for a few chapters after I planned to quit reading for the night. Good stuff. Oh, and I finally got my camera back tonight. Mom and Dad had it at their house only after Grandpa brought it down from his house. It’s been missing since we left it up there around Christmas. I thought we lost it in the move, since that’s where we lost most everything and it was only a couple of days after Christmas while we were packing that whole time, so that makes sense. So now that I have that back, I’ll get some pics of the new house ready to roll out to you. Are you still snapping some pics? I have put up some good updates on your blog since getting those picture CDs from ma and pa recently. So the more you can send home the better. Everyone loves to see what you are up to, just as much, if not more than hear about what you’ve been up to. There will be plenty of the girls on there too, for sure. That’s about all we take pictures of anymore.

You probably heard all about the snow we’ve been having lately. It’s CRAZY!! I’m so sick of this winter! We got blasted on Wednesday night, to the point where it took people 3 to 5 hours to get home from work, it was that bad. Some people south of Mom and Dad had to leave their cars on the side of the road and hike home since they couldn’t drive any further. We had employees that couldn’t make it in the next morning. In fact, if I didn’t have a 4 wheel drive truck, I wouldn’t have attempted going to work the next day. I was in 4 High just to get out of my driveway and 4 low all 26 miles into work. The highways were all snow packed. You couldn’t even see lanes or lines anywhere. But people were so stuck in the freeways and surface streets that they were running out of gas, filling up trucker bombs in whatever bottles they had in their cars and throwing them out, doing all kinds of crazy stuff. I would have died if I was stuck in mess like that. I had a slow 50 minute ride home from work, but everyone who lived in the SL Valley and south to Provo, were all stuck in gridlock for hours. Took mom a few hours to get home to the WJ. So the Cracker Barrel. I’m kind of surprised Ma and Pa were eating there. I am not a fan. I’ll eat almost anything, anywhere, but the Crapper Barrel has disappointed on more than one occasion. I had a lot of southern cooking in Harlem from folk who hailed from the south. I like me some Grits and Collard Greens, but that’s about the extent of what I like from the south. Everything is so greasy and that goes for the catfish. Ughhh. I can’t handle the levels of butter and grease in southern food. So I get kind of sick every time I eat at the Crapper Barrel.

Oh, while we were over at Ma and Pa’s they brought out an envelope addressed to you to see if I knew what it was. It was a combination license and looked like it had been renewed Feb. 10^th and 30 dollars had been paid. Do you know anything about that? I thought it seemed weird that you would have renewed it since it’s good for 365 days from purchase, so that it would expire next Feb. 10^th and it didn’t seem right that you’d want it for this time now till you come home, that would be a waste. But I explained to them a combination license is for fishing and hunting small game. They about shredded it because they didn’t know what it was. So what do you know about that? Anything? Should I just have them put it with all your other stuff in your box for when you get home?

Looks like Clint and Rachel just started their own blog so the family and their friends can keep up on the triplets as they develop inside mama. They have a days till born counter and stuff on there. Kind of fun.

So what have you learned this week? What valuable life lessons, spiritual awakenings, or general inspirations have you had? Write that back in your next letter.

Here is your quote of the week…

“Missionaries, be courageous. Don’t ever be afraid to stand up and testify of the truth. Stand up for the church. Stand up for what you teach. Stand up for your testimony. Be a missionary of courage!”

- Alvin R. Dyer

I know that’s not a problem with you. I’m sure you teach with boldness, with power and conviction and that it emanates from you as you go about your work whether it is with investigators, or with fellow missionaries. Keep on rockin’.

I think that’s all I’ve got for you this week. I’m always excited to get some mail or e-mail from you. So when you have some time, blast me some goods.

I’ll talk to you soon.

Love,

Trav

Letter Update 2/12/08

Some snippets from his letter this week...

I am feeling much better, we recovered pretty quick once we got done throwing up all the time, so we are good now. I was so sick of laying down in bed though, i couldn't take it anymore, i just wanted to get out and teach.

We've been traveling a ton lately, we have actually been able to work in our area for a good little chunk last week finally. We thought we were going to be able to work a lot more, but stuff came up here at the office that we had to do. But we are going to be starting an exchange later today with the ZL's in Gastonia. It wont be too bad though, they are only 45 minutes away, so I'll stay here in Matthews and Elder Lee will go to Gastonia. We had all our Monday meetings yesterday, and we worked on transfers with President Hobbs for almost 6 hours, we are meeting again on Thursday to finish it up and next Monday to finalize. Then next Wednesday we'll pick up the new missionaries at the airport and take them to the Mission Home to feed them and to train them while President Hobbs interviews them. That should be fun. Then later this week, we have another exchange, and a Baptism on Sunday, but that might get pushed back to next Sunday, we're not sure yet. But things here are going really good.

Tough Guy??

Because nothing says "Tough Guy" like a serene, tranquil waterfall in the background...

02/10/08

Elder Mike,

It’s another week already. They seem to fly! Time for yet another letter. So do you know the area Preston is in? You may or may not remember my friend Aaron Pedersen. He lives in Portland and is the ranger in charge of Multnomah Falls. I think that is where Preston took some video of a water fall area in his CD to you. You will have to ask him about it and let me know. Maybe you should send me his e-mail or address and I’ll write him and tell him where to find Aaron and he can go over there and teach him. It may not go well since Aaron has been Ex’d and is living with his boyfriend of so many years, but Preston is in need of a challenge, right? If he drops my name, he is guaranteed at least one full teaching appt. ha ha. If you write Preston, this is the area from Aaron’s words…

If the waterfall your friend took pictures of had a bridge spanning the upper and lower falls it was Multnomah Falls. That is my office! I work in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, 35 minutes east of down town Portland. The Gorge separates Northern Oregon from Southern Washington. See if that rings any bells for P-Diddy.

Today, I went down to the Hunters expo at the Salt Palace. I guess it’s a $20 entry fee, but we just acted like we owned the joint and walked past the guard at the gate taking tickets. I guess if you look like you know what you are doing, you can walk right into wherever you want. We weren’t going to stay longer than 45 min. anyway since that’s all we really had. So we just strolled through and checked out a few big trophy mounts and racks. I saw the state record Elk for Rifle, I saw the world’s 3^rd biggest rack on record for moose. That was huge! My co-worker and our sales rep entered for some big league hunts while they were there, so we’ll see soon if they draw out of those. I was waiting for them to get their stuff in and the guy in the line directing people was like, you can step up to that booth there. I said, no I’m just waiting for them. He said this is a great opportunity to enter for some big once in a lifetime hunts. I said I’m not much of a big game hunter. He looked at me like I was some kind of fool and said son, everyone here in this place is a hunter, what are you doing here if you don’t hunt? It was kind of funny. I was one of very few that didn’t either have on Camo or a cowboy hat. Ha ha.

Did I tell you that Aunt Margaret and Uncle Howard are going to serve a mission at the Nauvoo Temple from April to October? They just wanted to make sure I passed that along to you. They also sent this poem about Pres. Hinckley that I posted to your 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.

Jayme Jensen wrote me from Snowbird this week and asked about you. She said that you they’d take you back in a minute if you were interested in going back to the Bird. I told her that he’d appreciate that, but I didn’t know if you’d go straight back to school or if you’d need to work a season or so to save some college fundage again.

I am not sure if I told you about this e-mail that went around last week that was encouraging people to take up the “Hinckley Challenge” and read the book of Mormon cover to cover again like he challenged a couple of years ago. But this time to do it in 97 days for the years he was alive. I took up the challenge since I’m never one to pass up a good challenge and I’m schooling it. I will crush that 97 day goal actually. It’s been a little while… well, since his last challenge actually since I read it cover to cover just to read it, so I’m eating it up again. I love it. With every reading session my testimony strengthens. It’s great. Actually, I do remember telling you about this in your last letter now.

I can’t remember if I told you about my employee that went missing for almost 2 weeks down in the desert. It was all over the news here. They actually found them alive and doing pretty well. He came in to pick up his check today and I had a chance to talk to him for a bit. He’s still all over the news where they are asking him how they survived for that long on limited resources. He actually credited making the most of what he had and surviving based on tips from some shows like survivor man and man vs. wild they have on discovery channel. He is actually going to be interviewing on the radio with survivor man from that show calling in to interview at the same time. That ought to be interesting. Those shows are good. I’m pretty proud of Tom for actually putting that information into practice in the heat of the moment. That would be tough.

Well, I thought I’d be able to churn out most of your letter here in one sitting, but I just hit the wall. I’m dead tired. I’m going to go upstairs, plow through some B of M and go to sleep. I’ll catch you tomorrow…

K, I’m back and it was an eventful night last night. Clint announced that he and Rachel are pregnant, that was exciting. But even more exciting is that they are pregnant with TRIPLETS!! What the heck??!! I told them several times when they babysat that we will owe them when they have a baby. But I told him all bets are off last night. As soon as we baby sit that first time, we are EVEN! Ha ha. So I’ll have triplet nephews or nieces or both in about 20 weeks or so.

I just watched this show called Sisterz in Zion. They showed it between conference sessions a couple of conferences ago I guess. But I missed it. I wanted to watch it because it’s about some girls in NYC that come to Utah for EFY. Well, it was coming on KBYU on Friday, so I told TraVo to go snag it for me. Come to find out Syretta McQuiller from my area in the Bronx is one of the main girls in it. It was awesome to see her, her mom, her sister, and some of my old stompers profiled on that show. It was cool to see some areas of the Bronx and Manhattan where I used to work. With all respect to your mission there in Charlotte, I most definitely went to the coolest Mission in the Church!! I’m way trunky for NYC again after watching that. I wish I could afford to go back more often.

So in reading your letter about getting sick again, are you sure it wasn’t the Pizza you ate the same day, rather than the burgers from the day before? Or did that family get sick as well? It sounds like you are super busy with all of the trainings and conferences, and exchanges and stuff. No better way to be on your mission than busy beyond belief.

Well, I think I’m about out of stuff for you. Time for the Quote of the week and I’ll sign off.

“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.”

- W.T. Purkiser

Think about that this week as you go out and share your talents, skills, and blessings with everyone. Share them liberally, in fact, look for ways to share them more often than you currently do and you will find even more blessings flow your way to share even more abundantly than previously. What a great concept!!

I miss you. I love you and I love what you are out there doing right now. Keep making us all proud. Talk to you soon.

Love,

Travis

Short Tie Syndrome

I think I've noticed a pattern in all of Mike's pictures lately. He has what I'd call "Short Tie Syndrome". It comes on slowly at first as you go for a big fat knot up top, but soon it becomes a subconscious problem where you are only focused on the top of the tie and don't notice how short your ties have gotten at the bottom. Get help Mike... Get help soon!

02/03/08

Hey Babby,

How was your week? Actually, it sounds like it’s been a wild ride with food poisoning. That’s too bad. I know all too well about what a drag that is. I just got your letter this morning and then watched the funeral for president Hinckley. Did you get to watch all that? I hope so. It was very spiritual and touching to see the tribute paid to him. If you watched it, what did you think? I guess they have people along the streets as the funeral procession moves from the conference center to the cemetery that are out there waiving canes as a tribute. Ha ha. Kind of funny. They have been covering a lot on the news leading up to this and will continue to cover and show video tributes after the funeral procession ends. I’m looking at some cane waivers out there now as the motorcade moves through downtown. That’s kind of cute.

I was over at Ma’s and Pa’s last night looking at your pictures and videos you sent home in the box. They hadn’t seen them yet, so that was fun to look at those. We watched Preston’s videos and pictures too. He’s a funny cat! That one of him and that little bike was funny, as he came cruising out from behind that car on that little mini bike, it was pretty funny. I’ll be ripping over those pictures for some blog entries sometime today.

Well, let me get to responding to your letter.

Sounds like you’ve been rockin’ the spiritual meetings lately, eh? That’s awesome. They seem to get much more spiritual when you have more to do with them, huh? Especially those meetings with just you, your companion and your president. It’s humbling to see how much a spiritual giant like a mission president relies on you as an assistant. How is your sketch book filling up? Nicely? How are your Parkers operating for you? I can’t believe Preston lost his. But worse than that, I CAN’T BELIEVE he bought a Zebra brand imposter. What a pathetic piece that was.

What is this new system you and Elder Lee came up with? How will it revolutionize your way of doing things out there? I have to say that the $1000 ticket is way harsh! I had a far worse infraction in NYC and I even paid less than that. What a joke. Sounds like the cop had it in for LDS Missionaries to me. What came of that anyway.

So what kinds of impressions came to you in your Zone Conference? What kinds of things are you learning and sketching this week?

Sounds like you like to drive the fun bus, eh?

Well, we just got back from the Jacobs. It was another successful superbowl party. They know how to throw them! You know this! Good food, all kinds of smoked ribs, brats ( I grilled those), lil’ smokies, assorted salads, all kinds of beverages, cake with the Giants and Patriots painted on it somehow. It was cool. I was stoked… STOKED that the Giants won. Ha ha. Yeahhhhhhhhh Boyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! I hate the patriots. The media, the fans, everyone didn’t give the giants an ounce of credit or respect going in to this, but I knew they’d keep it close. They have the best rushing defense in the league wi the most sacks of any team. And I knew that Brady doesn’t do well when he gets sacked 3 or 4 times a game. Sure enough, he got sacked 4 or 5 times a game and they lost by 3. AWESOME!! So I enjoyed the game quite a bit. You better get psyched for next years game. They are already talking about having you back. They have plans for you to dog sit again while they take some vacations.

Well, I want to come back to where I began with thoughts on Pres. Hinckley. The more I hear some of his quotes they have been throwing up on TV or the radio, the more tributes I hear about him as we all reflect on his life, and the more I think about what he’s done since I’ve known him as the Prophet… I honestly think that he has done more with and for the church than any other prophet since Brigham Young. I think he is having a welcoming party up there to beat the band. I think the heavens will pay him the utmost respect and prophets of old will look upon him with awe and reverence. It’s not only awe inspiring for me, it’s motivational to follow his superb example to get off my lazy duff and get to work. As much as I love him and want to do whatever I can to prove my love for him, I realize that is exactly as we should do for the Lord each and every day. That if we love Him, we should keep His commandments. I’m feeling extremely motivated to do something to serve right now. Maybe it’s the fact that I don’t have a calling yet and I’ve actually been jonesing one since the second I got released from my calling in the Elders Quorum. Maybe it’s because I want to follow the example of Pres. Hinckley and “get to work”. I love his example of when he faced adversity where he’d pray hard, then put on his shoes and “get to work”. What a Stallion!! I really do love him. I hear his voice in snippets from talks, I hear him bear testimony, I hear his love for all of us and it brings tears to my eyes even now. As we drove home from the Jacobs tonight, I’m in my truck alone (Suzanne drove separate since she came later with the girls) and I’m listening to “soft Sunday sounds” on FM100 as I do all day Sunday, every Sunday and they were playing some quotes by him and I was misty eyed all the way home. I have no ounce of doubt in my body that he was a prophet of God. That he had a personal relationship with the Savior that I can only aspire toward and admire. For as much of a humble and small in stature this elderly gentleman was, I see him as a man of such power and wisdom that I hold him in the utmost regard as one of the very few, handful of very elite in the Celestial Hall of Fame. Ha ha. I like that. I think I’ll roll with that for a while. I really do see him in the most elite of elite prophets and I respect him more than just about anyone I have ever known or even just read about. I’m going to carry this motivation into the coming weeks and months and use it to make a difference as he would want me to and as the Savior would want me to. I think I just bore you my testimony, so I better close in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I think it only fitting to close with the quote of the week by Pres. Hinckley himself. In fact, I’ll send you two of them this week just because.

“A mission is not an expense. It is a great investment.”

- Gordon B. Hinckley

“The young man who goes into the world preaching the gospel of peace loses himself and saves himself. Missionary work is one of the great miracles of our time.”

- Gordon B. Hinckley

That brings your Pres. Hinckley quotes I’ve sent to 6 since I started sending quotes of the week. I absolutely agree with them. The first one… I just got my year end statement from the church and Bishop Elison I think, is who sent me the statement from mom’s and dad’s ward with all of my contributions to your mission. As much as the number is, I thought to myself when I saw it; “is that all?” Because I could honestly do more. I would like to do more, but I have to let some others share in the blessings I enjoy by contributing. And that is fine. I don’t want to be a blessings hog. That is another quotable I have dropped. Man, keep these in the back of your mind… Blessings Hog and Celestial Hall of Fame. I think these phrases could take off if we get using them in the main stream. Really. Use those in your talks and instruction you give at some Zone Conferences. They will circulate around the church in no time. You watch! Ha ha.

Well Choch! I miss you like no other. You know on days like this with the Super Bowl party, I really get the ache to have you around, but again, I’d rather not have you if it means that you can be out learning, growing, and serving the Master. Especially right now, I wish I could be out there with you even. I’d love to spend a week with you and have you work my butt off in the service of the Lord. How sweet would that be? How memorable a time would it be to hang with your bones out there wearing a suit. I’d shave off the ol’ Goatee and everything. But my time has come and gone and how quick it did! Make the most of this short time you have left. Work harder than you’ve ever worked. Of course, that just makes it go faster. Ha ha. Well, regardless, do it for Him! I can’t wait to hear from you again soon.

Love ya,

Trav

Be careful what you eat!

Mike had quite the week it sounds like. Here is most of his letter he just sent...

Man, am I tired today. Its been a very different week.
We had such a busy Monday, thats usually our busiest day, hence, no Preparation day. Anyway, we had so much to do, we finally thought we had it all done and went to a members to eat, had some fatty hamburgers there, and when we were done we busted back over to the office to load up all the stuff we needed to take to the 2 Zone conferences we were supposed to be instructing at later this week, so we were a bit late getting on the road to Greensboro that night, which is a hour and 40 minute drive, hahaha, and we were driving the Fun Bus all the way up there. So anyway, we got there at about 10:00 and finally went to bed after a nice long day. The next day we started an exchange with Elder Wood and Elder Newton, the ZL's up there, it started out well, Elder Wood and i were having a great day, we got to teach the Africans i was teaching a few weeks ago, and then we ate lunch.... thats when it all went down hill. We ate little Caesars... and at first it was good, then my stomach started to turn all crazy, i thought it was just the grease, because i've been trying to eat a bit more healthy lately, but we went and worked a couple more hours, and at about 4 o'clock we went to teach DJ Sir Vic, i got really sick there, in the middle of the lesson i had to ask to use the restroom and went in there and Sprayed out both ends... all that pizza, and everything came up. It was sick. I just thought it was something weird, and wanted to just tough it out, cause i didn't want to jack up the exchange, especially since Elder Wood is a brand new ZL, so we stayed a little longer and i kept feeling worse and worse so i eventually just said we had to go, and made Elder Wood take me back to the apartment so i could get some Tums. On our way back Elder Newton and Elder Lee called and told us that Elder Lee was sick too. I was still driving the big 'ol Fun Bus and still felt like crap and was getting worse and worse. So when we got back to the Apartment i had Elder Wood call all the rest of our appointments and cancel, and then Elder Newton and Lee met us back there at the apartment. Thats when the fun really began... we were up all night Pukin our guts out. It was so bad that as we were getting blessings, we both had to puke. And we were supposed to Instruct at the Winston-Salem/Greensboro combined Zone Conference the next day.... But there was no way. We counted that we puked between 25 - 30 times that night. It sucked so bad. President Hobbs was laughing at us on the phone, but made sure we were staying hydrated enough to not have to go to the ER. Both Elder Lee and I were so out of it, we just layed in bed all day wednesday, and only started eating at around 9 that night and only canned peaches and pears. It was the worst ever. Turns out, we got food poisoning from those Hamburgers we ate at the members Monday night before we left. We couldn't even muster up the energy to drive back to Charlotte till Thursday Morning. Man, so thats my story this week. it was pretty intense. I still can't hack much food, but we recovered our strength pretty quickly i think. Yesterday was our first semi normal day, and today we had to go back to our regular schedule of business. We didn't get to instruct at the W-S/Greensboro on wednesday, but we did yesterday in HIckory. So its definitely been interesting. But the cool thing is that the Lord took care of our investigators while we were out of commission, were teach two of them today and solidifying their Baptismal dates for the 16th. Thats why i Love this, no matter what gets thrown your way, if you just keep on truckin in what you know is right, the Lord just takes care of everything else. Its the best.
I hope everything is going good for you this week, i guess i'll get you new update next week. Love you,

Elder Alexander