Transfer update 6/30/08

I did get transfered. President Hobbs called me to be a Traveling Assistant, but i am also acting as a District Leader and have an area at the same time. I was going to go traveling full time, but one of the new missionaries that was going to come out, didn't come, so i had to go to the area he was going to go to. So my companions name is Elder Boothe, he's a great Elder and was going to train but couldn't this time due to the circumstances. So, i'm kind of a Traveling, but kinda not. I don't teally know whats going on totally. The new missionary could still come out, but he might not at all. So if he does, then i'll go out full-time as a traveler, but if he doesn't President might leave me here, or Emergency Transfer me to another place to get some work done there too. So my last little while is kinda crazy, i don't really know whats going to happen and how this is all going to work out. But i am in a Car share area, so i've been able to bust out my bike again, so thats been fun, although my pelvic bones are sore from it. My Area is called Carmel, and i go to the same ward as President Hobbs... i'm so excited to be here, i am just smiling when we ride the bikes because i'm so excited to proselyte full time again, and the Fire in the Belly just continues to grow. I Love it, a lot of times these areas are the best because the haven't been worked very effectively for a while so there are a ton of people waiting for the gospel. So thats the story of transfers.

Letter Update 6/24/08

From his last letter:
On the mission front, we have transfers this week, on Thursday. So… that should be interesting. I can’t believe it’s my last transfer. Its like a dream, this can’t be happening. The urgency is growing within my heart, I’ve got fire in my belly. Just when I start to figure out how the work is done, I’m going home, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I hate this feeling, it tears my heart out. I’ve started scaring people because I run down the street after them if I don’t get to them in time. The work is so important, now more than ever. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I just want to keep serving. Elder Coleman says the word “extend” isn’t even said in the church anymore, they wont allow them anymore. Its crazy how it works, a mission. I still feel like a new missionary, I don’t feel like I know how to do it all that well, I just try my best, and leaders like Elder Van Leeuwen and Elder Lee and others took me under their wing and taught me how, and trained me, and I’ve tried my hardest, pushed myself and stretched myself and yearned to bring souls unto repentance, and along the way, the Lord has changed and molded me, helped me to become more like Him. And now its almost time to go, I can’t believe it. It kills me to think about it, so I just try to work harder and harder every day I’m out there, it keeps me from thinking about it. The only bad thing about it, is that it makes time go by faster.

6/29/08

What’s happenin’ young Babby the Babs Babco? How was your week? Sounds like you are still rockin’ harder than ever and will leave it all on the field when it’s time to be called home. Keep that up. What happened with Transfers? Did those happen last week? I can’t really remember. Actually, I should turn to your e-mail and respond to that before I get into anything from my week.

It is crazy what has been going on in the health department around here. We added to that this week with Brinlee having a bike wreck and getting sick from bruising her intestine and getting some medical term that I can’t remember when you have trauma to your intestine or bowel and it rejects any food passage through it, so if you put anything in your digestive tract, it kicks it back up and out of there. My day actually started pretty bad when I woke up late since I had to take the girls to school and get to work after the commute downtown and then back to my work. So I’m haulin’ up I-80, going cruising speed of 80 like everyone else around that stretch of 75 MPH road. And I hear this weird noise like someone whacked my spare tire on the rear door with a stick or something. A second later the car started vibrating weird. Brinlee was saying what’s that noise dad? I look at my gauge and see that my RPMs are revving higher and my speedometer is falling. I’m like Oh crap, I have a flat. So I signal to get over to the right lane and start looking for a good place to pull over to check it out. I’m wondering if I can make it to the Salt Air exit coming up than all the sudden, BOOOM! Loud noise, the car starts fish tailing like mad, I’m swerving to get off the freeway and NOW. So I pull off as far as I can on the shoulder and get out. Sure enough, my rear drivers side tire is obliterated. I left black alligators on the road behind us. It wasn’t just a flat, it was a tire bomb. I get in the back area and look in the spare tire area and I’m sans jack. I have the spare tire mounted to the door, but I can’t get it off because not only is there no jack, there’s not lug wrench. So I call Suzanne and tell her to get in the truck and head out to meet us so I can use the lug wrench in there. I realize a while later that I could really use my floor jack in the garage that would make it way easier to lift the car, my mechanics gloves so I don’t break the first rule of management and get dirty, and my socket set so I can get the lugs off even easier than using the lug wrench. So she turned around, got those things and got there in about 20 minutes from my first call. Now came the fun part of changing the tire. I couldn’t get the jack on a good spot since I was so far off the shoulder. I thought I had a good support point under the car, but after going back to the truck when it was jacked up, the car fell and scared the girls because it was on a guard that protects the gas tank. It collapsed after a minute of being up on that. So I had to back the car up closer to the road so I could get the jack on cement and a good central point to heft it up. Now my butt is right on the white line of the freeway and I have truckers going past me at 80 MPH + and knocking me over with the gusts of wind. It was ridiculous! I was scared. I kept thinking about these images I see on the news of a trucker hitting a cop car and blowing it up because they drifted a little or snoozed off or something. I could only imagine me getting crushed at 80 plus with 140 tons of payload. Well, I got it changed and it’s all good, so Suzanne goes back home and I’m heading on downtown. I’m on 600 South in rush hour morning commute traffic and Brinlee says Dad, I’m sick. I’m like what kind of sick, throw up sick? She said yeah. I said can you wait till we get to school? All the sudden – gurgle, gurgle, spewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!! She blew chowder everywhere. So I took that for a no. Now she’s crying, I’m speeding to the school and calling Suzanne to come meet me at my work so we can make the switch. Since no way can I leave her at school. So I get to school, clean her up while Aynslee is in her class for a minute. After I get all the throw up off Brinlee, I went out and cleaned the car up. The smells tempting me to toss my frosted mini wheats. After I got it all cleaned up, I went back in, cleaned myself up, then went and got Aynslee who was just given a yellow popsicle. So now that’s dripping all over me and her car seat and herself while I’m loading her into the hot car. I’m a really happy fella right now. We make our way back to my work and Suzanne is there just before me. So we get out and start talking and Brinlee says, Mom, I’m sick. She says, I know, Dad told me, then all the sudden, she hucks again. So now we are concerned that it’s coming from her bike wreck the day before and the sharp pains in her tummy the night before (Wednesday night) and in the morning when we were getting her ready. So Suzanne takes her to the instacare who tell her to go to the ER since she might have internal bleeding. So she takes her up to Primary’s. They run all these tests on her and admit her to stay the night for observation. Aynslee was going stir crazy in the hospital, so I had to leave work again, go get her at Primary’s, take her to school and get back to work, which is already extremely busy just trying to replace myself with a good person, wrap up all my projects, etc. since I only have 5 days left. After work (Thursday night) I went and picked up Aynslee, then to Rubio’s Grill for some grub to take up to Suzanne but Brinlee can’t eat all day, so she’s starving and going crazy with the food smells. Suzanne stayed up there with her that night and I came home with Aynslee then took her to school and came up to meet Suzanne again to spell her and let her go home, get a shower and a few things to bring back to the hospital. When she came back, I headed in to work and got there around 2:00. So I worked till almost 8:00 PM. They were awesome at Primary’s. They treated Brinlee like a princess. Gave her gifts, room service for what she wanted to eat that next day once her eating restrictions were lifted. So she was discharged and put on activity restrictions. We were glad she didn’t need surgery which was at least 50/50 that first night. Ron and Patt came up with Austin that first night and Ron helped me give her a blessing, so that had a little something to do with it too, I’m sure. But now she can’t run, jump, tumble, etc. that’s all she knows how to do. I’m not sure how to keep her from doing all that stuff.

It looks like transfers were this week, so I’m excited to hear what happened.

I gave my talk in Church last week. Maybe I already wrote about that. Not sure. It was a good topic. I liked speaking on it actually. We had the fam over here yesterday. By fam, I mean Mom, Gramps, Shelli, Staci, A-Jax and Maddie. Mom stayed her usual 5 min. and wanted out of here. So that was short and sweet. Staci stayed while everyone else left. So we went out to eat at this Mexican Restaurant called El Paisa. They had a live Mexican band playing there which was kind of cool. Then I got the bill for $40 bills for just my family. I’m not sure how much Staci’s was. But $40?? Get out of here. It wasn’t that fancy. They charged us $3.50 for the entertainment. I think I should have been the judge of what I paid for that. Oye! Oh well. That’s the last time I’ll hit up that joint. After dinner, Staci went home and we went to Taylorsville Dayzzzzzzz. I’m not sure how many z’s are at the end of that, but it’s at least 2. So I always exaggerate it when I say it aloud. I think it annoys everyone as much as the double zz’s annoy me, so I call it even. We always like that because I bump into all kinds of peeps from back in the day and get to catch up with old friends. Plus the fireworks are better than anywhere in the valley on the 4^th of July. Sure, the music is the same every year, but the fireworks are awesome. I spent the rest of my day before the family coming over ripping apart pallets from my work for firewood in our fire pit when I finally get that set up in the back yard. That is hard work ripping down those pallets into chunks of firewood. I’m sore! I also stained half of my deck in the back yard. I’ll finish that up sometime soon, hopefully. I still have a ton of pallets to finish ripping down too, but Dad called after hearing what I was doing from Mom when she got home and said that he has a pallet taker aparter. He apparently invented it. But he said that it works like a champ and not to do any more pallets until I can get this bar from him. So I’m excited to see what this thing can do.

I’m still waiting the scores of our tests. I know you aren’t waiting till you get more scores, because I’ve been assured that they will NOT get done and sent in. So get those scores back to us and break down the answers for us. I’m sure there are some interesting answers in there.

I liked your testimony to close out your last letter. So here is a Quote of the Week that is similar to your desires…

“The question will arise, “what am I here for?” To sow the seeds of life in the hearts of the people of the world; and the prayer should arise in your heart, “O Lord, may it be so; may I have power through thy Spirit to touch the hearts of these thy people.” That very short prayer is all that a missionary needs to make. “may I say something to save these souls.”

- Lorenzo Snow

Well, I’ll get this sent. It’s 10:49 AM right now and I’m hoping that you haven’t checked e-mail yet, so you can get this fresh.

Write back and let me know about transfers and hook us up with scores on those tests.

Have a great week and bust some tail.

Love you,

Trav

A little sugar from home

This is a candygram that Mike's Mom and Sister put together for him a while back. This is kind of a tradition now since I got one of these from them 13 years ago myself. Pretty creative minds to incorporate all of these different candies. It makes it kind of tough to eat those after you see how much work went into it. If you can't read the first one all the way through by clicking on it to zoom in, the following two blow it up even more.

It's Joe Albertson's Super Market...

Welcome to Albertson's, can we help you?


Or add your own caption in the comments section

6/22/08

Hey Chochy,

Another week gone by. Where do they go? They go by so fast. I’m about ready to start writing my talk for tomorrow. I have to talk in Sacrament meeting. It’s on Richard C. Edgley’s talk in last October’s conference on enduring together. It’s a pretty good talk and I’d have no problem doing it normally, except they assigned another dude in the ward the exact same talk and told us to coordinate with each other so we are not stepping on each other’s toes. What the heck? Why would you assign the same talk to two people? That’s just weird. That almost bugs me as much as the 6 person rule in every circle up front. With two of those spots going to you and the Bishop.

We finally got your picture and video CD. That will be great to keep your blog busy until you come home I think. Plenty of good stuff on there. So thanks for sending that home. So what news from the east this week? You never commented on your thoughts on the new job.

Yesterday was a long and somewhat tough day. Clint and Rachel lost one of their triplets on Monday and the funeral was yesterday. That was pretty sad. I gave a prayer at the graveside and the service was nice. They had a nice family luncheon too afterward. Their Stake relief society did a really nice job. The food was awesome and plentiful. Clint and Rachel took home a ton of left overs too.

So are you going to grade those tests and send them back. I hope you are not holding out for more, because everyone else has made it perfectly clear to me that they are NOT going to do it. It’s funny how not into it some are. I thought everyone would have a good time doing it. So anyway, grade those and let us know what happened. We are probably going to look dumb. But oh well.

Any suggestions on talking points on the subject of enduring together? Do you have access to that talk last October? Let me know if there is anything you would say. I’ll probably get your reply before I go to church and will have time to put some stuff in. Well, I’m going to start on the talk, but I’ll drop some stuff in occasionally here so that the letter is finished and sent by tomorrow morning so you have it waiting for you when you check it.

Ahhhhhhight, I’m back. I prepared my talk, it’s now 1:38 AM Sunday morning. Ha ha. That’s how I’m livin’ and you know. I’m always preparing my stuff last minute. But I do a lot better under pressure. I’d always do my homework last minute, I’d always finish my work projects just before the deadline, etc. that’s just me, it’s how I roll. We had a busy day today. Went to Target, picked up some prescriptions, did a little shopping, etc. Then went to Clint and Rachels and took them dinner. We made some IKEA meatballs and rice. Mmmmmm. So good. So ate there with them and hung out a couple of hours, then went to Ma’s and Pa’s. Hung out there a couple of hours. Grandpa was there, I guess was having some weird inner ear issue where he can’t stand up without falling down dizzy. So mom was taking care of him in your room. Shelby Lynn came home and hung out with us too. So that was fun over there. Then we rolled out to the Emery’s house and chilled there for a couple of hours. Good times all around. But got home late and got started on my talk late. Wow, almost 2:00 AM. That’s not going to be good on the tired factor tomorrow when it’s time to talk. T’all good though.

Not sure if I told you that they got all of our grass laid in the yard. The sprinkler system is laid out and on the automatic system. I got a deal on the sod, ordered it all from Chanshare where we got the 2000 sq. feet already for free for moving in, but our yard is 6500 sq. feet, so I had the 4500 extra sq. feet covered too for less than or equal to what it would have cots to hydroseed. Sweet. Not sure if I told you that a manager I work with, that Chanshare sod farm is his inlaw’s business. So he hooked me up way better than contractor rate. Then my guys had it all laid out in the yard before we even got home yesterday. Pretty happy about that. So most everything is done now. Just a couple of little additions to wrap up and we are complete. Well, I’m going to crash. I took some Excedrin PM a while back when we got home and it’s kicking my trash now. I’ll finish this up in the morning before I go over my talk one more time.

OUT

K, wow, it’s later than I expected it to be. It’s 10:21 now, I just woke up a little bit ago and had breakfast. So those pills hit me hard. So now it’s time to finish this up. I’m kind of excited to do my talk today. I had this wave of inspiration last night that just carried me from beginning to end and gave me some awesome material. Isn’t it great when that happens? I love it! I always acknowledge those things in my talks to, since I’m never one to take credit where credit is not due. That leads me to the quote of the week:

“Teach by the Spirit when you go into the home and have the Spirit so strong that it shines in your face, then investigators will feel it so strongly they will say, “I know what you say is true.” When this occurs you can teach all the lessons in ten minutes time.”

- Alvin R. Dyer

Good stuff. I love when the Spirit not only gives you good material and guides the pace and the information you teach, but also prepares a room for you, prepares the hearts of those you will talk to for you, and then lingers and testifies to them for you. We are just weak vessels that physically go where we need to go and open our mouths when prompted. We are nothing! And what a marvelous thing that is sometimes! Well, I best be for sending this off now.

I’ll look forward to your e-mail soon. Have a great week. I’ll talk to you again in another 6 or 7 days.

Love,

Trav

Elder Coleman

It sounds like Mike had a really great time being around Elder Coleman during his visit to the mission. This was a great letter! I think it was the longest one he's ever sent home. It's still just a portion of what he sent, but it's good enough to include this much of a portion. Enjoy!!



Well, it all started last Sunday night when Elder Gary J. Coleman flew into Charlotte from Nashville, TN at about 5. We went to the Charlotte South Stake Center to get things all set up for the Fireside for Investigators and Recent Converts and Less-Actives which would be starting at 7:30. All the while we had a few members all hooked up with our investigators to make sure they got there ok and make sure they were all taken care of. We greeted Elder Coleman and President Hobbs at about 7 and talked with the both of them and their wives for a few minutes and then headed into the chapel. The Fireside was amazing, Elder Coleman threw down with the spirit and blasted everyone there with it. He described his experience as a young man with being an active Catholic and then going to Washington St for school and meeting a few Returned Missionaries and becoming friends. He slowly learned about the church and then he met a young lady who later became his wife. They talked about the church often and one thing always stood out to him, was that she had access to more prophets and more scripture than he did, and he wanted more. Finally someone gave him a Book of Mormon and marked 87 Verses in it for him, he read them, Moroni 10:3-5 being the last one and knelt in prayer knowing that if he came to know it was true he would have to give up the Catholic Church and be Baptized in the Church. He prayed and Felt the spirit confirm powerfully that the church was true. He then joined the church and quickly received the Aaronic Priesthood, and moved up in the offices thereof and Very soon was made an Elder. Soon after that the young lady that he was dating told him she would marry him if he took her to the temple, he didn't know anything about it but wanted to do it because he knew it was what the Lord wanted. So he took her to the Temple and Married her. Anyway, he told his whole story and layed it down on the people in attendance, our investigators loved it, and actually, one of our investigators wives wasn't interested in being taught by us, but halfway through the Fireside she showed up and she loved it and we are now going to teach the whole family, Their names are Cary and Tracy. Glenn came too and really felt impressed by the spirit. That was the strongest I’ve felt the spirit at a meeting in a long time. So that went way good for us. We were excited about it.
Monday Morning was an early start at 5:30. We had to wake up early and get going because it takes about 2 hours to get to Winston-Salem where the first Zone Conference was going to be. So we left about 6:30 to get there by 8:30 to make sure the Zone Leaders got it all set up right and so everything would be in order for when Elder Coleman got there with President Hobbs. One of the Sisters had a seizure the night before so she showed up all disoriented not knowing what was going on, so we were dealing with that, giving a blessing, and getting white boards set up and making sure all preparations were made. On top of that, I was conducting the meeting and only had a general outline of what the meeting was going to be, all I knew was that I would be turning the time over to Elder Coleman for instruction. So I was clueless and just kinda got up there and did my thing. Elder Coleman started out with having all the missionaries come up and meet him and shake hands. Then he had Sister Hobbs get up and speak to us which was good, then he had Sister Coleman do that as well and that was good as well. Then he got up and talked about what he had studied that morning, which was Alma 38. He went through the whole chapter and likened it to our mission and what we are doing and taught us that way about studying for the needs of ourselves and our investigators. He then instructed about the Key Indicators and the power of obtaining Names from members and about establishing the church, using many scriptures and sharing personal examples. All the while, he was calling Elder Gillett and I up to do things we didn’t expect. I don’t think I’ve been put on the spot more in my whole life than I was during the course of this mission tour, whoo, it was an experience. It would take way too long to type out all the nitty gritty details of it all so I wont do it now, but I did keep copious notes and I have it all in detail in my journal so maybe I’ll let you read that portion of it at least when I bust out. Which reminds me, my journal is full and I haven’t been able to finish my documentation of it all so I was wondering if you or Travis could send out one of those extra journals I have this week so I can get it all down before I forget it all. Anyway, that one finished, the Sister that had the seizure went to the hospital during the conference so things were hectic. We’ll come back to her later in the week… The Winston-Salem/Greensboro Zone Conference ended at 12. We then had to chow a fast lunch and bust our butts to Hickory, for the Hickory/Asheville Zone conference.
This one started at 2 and was similar, but different in a lot of ways. Elder Coleman didn’t start with his study, but did something else instead. Later he had Elder Gillett and I and President Hobbs get up and think of the toughest doctrinal issue we’ve had to deal with and explain how we dealt with it and resolved it. And had the Missionaries judge how well we did. So I explained an experience I had when I was a young missionary and didn’t know anything, (I still don’t know a whole lot), and an investigator whipped out a stack of Anti-Mormon Literature. One of them was a fat book that had 10,000 changes that had been made in the Book of Mormon since the original 1830 copy. At that time I had never heard that before so I didn’t really say anything, but my companion started haggling with him and as they were talking I looked down at my scriptures sitting on the table and felt the impression come to look at the Title Page of the Book of Mormon, and I read it, and particularly the last sentence stood out to me. So I read that to him and said that it was one thing to have historical or scientific “proof” of something, but it was something far more profound to have spiritual confirmation of what’s true. And I then bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how I knew by the Power of the Holy Ghost that it was true and that he could come to know by the same power that the book was true despite the anti. So he liked that and built more teaching off of that. He says that hundreds of changes are made every time they come out with a new edition of the scriptures… hahahaha, it’s a good thing we know its true. He is on the Church’s Scripture committee and said they are going through and cleaning up all the references in the topical guide and the Bible Dictionary, and that’s where most of those changes are being made. He also said that one thing doesn’t change and that’s the Doctrine. So, I’m down with it. Once again we were put on the spot, but this time a whole lot more. So that kept us on our toes, he opened up to the scriptures a little more this time too. It was way cool when he did too, he would just teach us the doctrine out of the scriptures, it was amazing. Elder Gillett conducted this Conference. Elder Coleman taught about establishing the church again in this one.
After that one was over we had to bust back to Charlotte to work on the mission stats so we could send them to SLC on time. Usually we do it early Monday morning but since were were driving all over the mission we couldn’t really do it then. The stats have to be sent in Monday too or we’re screwed. Elder Coleman said most Mission Presidents just do it themselves but President Hobbs trusts us to do it for some reason. Anyway, the pressure was on too, because Elder Coleman was having us share our experience at the Fireside with how we had Tracy show up unexpectedly and how we got her name and are now going to start teaching her now, at all the Zone Conferences, but he said to get him some new stories for the Tuesday Zone Conference. Hahaha, he said he didn’t want any 48 hour old junk, hahaha. So not only did we have to do the mission stats accurately but we needed to get some finding in and get some names of people to teach. Luckily when we parked at our apartment, the Lord put someone there for us to talk to and he said he would like to learn more. Hahaha.
Tuesday morning we had another Zone Conference in the Morning. The Zone Leaders were late to get things set up so that added to the stress. But it all worked out ok. I conducted again which was fun with all the funny little quirks to the meeting that Elder Coleman liked to throw in there. He put us on the spot even more this time and kept us busy the whole time. Hahaha, anytime he couldn’t see where we were he would ask, where my Assistants go, oh, there they are, come on up here… hahaha. We weren’t trying to hide in the back, but there wasn’t any seats in the front so we sat on the front side row. So he would always make other people move to have us sit right in front of him. This time he asked us to come up and teach about establishing the church, but he didn’t warn us before hand so this was again, on the spot. Hahaha, that was fun, I was surprised, neither Elder Gillett nor I got nervous but just jumped up and threw some junk down. Hahaha, I was glad he didn’t interject and re-teach anything, hopefully we got it all right. In the first two Zone Conferences he and President Hobbs would close with their remarks. This time, he looked at us and said: “Alright Brethren, its time to wrap this up, come up on the stand with us and bear your testimonies.” So we did and then he and President Hobbs did their thing to close it out. It was a neat experience.
That evening he took us and President and Sister Hobbs out to dinner at the Olive Garden, and did some training with us and just talked to us openly. It was great. The picture of us two with he and his wife with the tan background was just after dinner. He talked to us about our responsibilities as Assistants to President Hobbs and shared with us some ideas for improvement, which were greatly appreciated. President Hobbs invited us to the Priesthood Leadership meeting that was right after dinner and Elder Coleman asked if we would be willing to do some more stuff for him there for that meeting.
For this meeting we were at the Charlotte Central Stake Center, which was filled with Priesthood Leaders from the whole mission, some of whom I recognized from my previous areas. But he had us get up in front of all of them and he asked us questions and had us speak to the Leaders. Hahaha, that was fun, a little more pressure than Zone Conference. But it went well.
A couple things I noticed about him as we spent time with him and got to observe his teaching was that he was very dynamic, very outgoing and enthusiastic. He mixed in humor and doctrine and testimony, and definitely the spirit. Another thing I noticed was that he made us feel needed. He gave us his portable clip microphone, and gave us the responsibility to set it up at each meeting, which is such a small thing, but he trusted us with it and it helped us feel so needed. One other thing was that he taught the missionaries in zone conference, but it almost seemed as if he was directing his teaching at President and Elder Gillett and I. He knew we would remain to instruct, and he would move on to other things, but he taught us so we could teach the missionaries continually. It was incredible. What a great opportunity for me, I really don’t know why I am so lucky, I’m just grateful. I can’t believe how blessed I really am, it drives me crazy because I can’t repay, or I feel so inadequate or any number of other feelings, but gratitude is definitely one of them.

6/15/08

Whasupatchu Poppi?

It’s Saturday, and I have a little time to write your mug before we head out for our block party here in the hood and then up to Gramps house for Father’s Day festivities. I got up early this morning and went and got a gun safe and loaded the arsenal in there after I got it set up. That was high time. So now everything is safe and sound, out of little kid hands, and where they won’t collect dust. I’m pretty happy with it. I got it on the super cheap, so it’s a welcome addition. I got my .40 too. You will have to check it out when you get back. VERY cool! Last night after work, me, Suzanne, Brin, Ayns, Staci, Squash, A-Jax, and Shelby Lynn got together down at the Gateway and went to see the chalk art. A bunch of street chalk artists doing their thing out in the street. They let little kids take some chalk and do their own art in other sections of the street. So Brinlee and A-Jax had fun doing a little chalk art. They got all dirty though. We went to the food court and got our grub on and we did some splash pad fun out in the Splash fountains. The kids had fun. I was a little grumpy since I’m not a fan of big crowds, navigating my family with stroller, diaper bag, and our various sundry items we have to have to leave the house with two little kids in tow. I was too hot in the sun in my black shirt too. Plus, for being free, I had to drop duckets on two cars paid parking, $25 on food (with no validations for parking) $4.00/gallon gas to get two cars down there and back, and a couple of $2.00 per bottle waters. So the grumpiness could not be quelled. But you gotta do it. It’s familial obligations.

Thursday, I went bowling with Brinlee for Father’s Day with her school. It was dad’s and bowling day. I took her in a little later and we piled on the “fun bus” and headed to Classic bowling on 21^st and State. There were a bunch of dad’s who got out their custom bowling balls, shoes, and ABF endorsed wrist guards. They chalked up their hands and got to some serious bowling. I saw their poor little bored kids running around trying to amuse themselves while their neglectful dads were all trying to go for a personal best and get that elusive 300 score. I wasn’t about that, so I had Brin, her 3 little girl friends there who were all clammering over me and we got to some serious bumper ball style bowling. The all had a good time and I threw one or two balls down lane all day, and I was happy with it. It was a good time spent with Brinlee and her little friends. I took some pics and will put them on my blog. It was Brinlee’s first time bowling and made me think we are going to have to do that a little more often. Just her in those funny little bowling shoes from the place was too cute!

On the breaking news front, I took another job. Ha ha. Yep, I’m leaving FranklinCovey and moving over to OfficeMax. I’ll be over HR for every Utah location they have. So it will be a good step up for me. I’m pretty excited about it. I negotiated 3 weeks to give to FranklinCovey. It’s going to be rough for them to get a replacement and give me a little time to train and transition them in that length of time. But it will get done. Hopefully, we can find someone in that amount of time. I can work from home more often than not in this job, so that will save me big gas monies. Plus with the product discount, I could set up a pretty sweet home office. Sweetness!

I get to talk in Church on the 4^th Sunday. I haven’t been given my topic yet, but I’ll let you know when I do and how that goes. Maybe you’ll have some suggestions for me to throw in there. Well, it’s 3:24 now and we need to go do some Padre’s day shopping before our block party that we need to go to before we go up to Gramps house. So I best be on my way. I’ll check back in and finish this in a while.

Ahhhhhight, it’s Sunday morning now, time to start getting my lesson ready. But to update you on last night. We had a good Father’s day celebration up at Grandpa’s house. Everyone was there. We managed to hit up our block party for almost an hour still too. So it was good all around last night. I broke the news about the job to everyone last night and everyone is excited for me.

We have had a nice and cool if not sometimes cold spring this year and I’ve been loving it. But it just went from spring to summer officially as of yesterday. It’s down right hot now. At 10:00 AM this morning, with all of our windows open in the house from last night’s not so cool air coming in, it’s already hot enough to have everyone sweating in our shorts and T-shirts. This is the season I hate! But it’s going to be here for a while, so I might as well get used to the constant sweat.

So how did your week go this week? What new and exciting things have you done? I guess ma and pa got the DVD from you. But last night, forgot to give it to me at the party, so now it’s going to be at least another week before I see that again to start putting that stuff on the blog. Maybe I’ll bust a $25 round trip over there to get it today. That sucks! The gas prices are just killing everyone. Well, let me put in your QOTW in here and send this off. You might actually get it today if I do. There seems to be some delay though for some reason and you don’t get it till next week. But let me know if you do.

“When men go forth in the name of Israel’s God, there is no power on earth that can overturn the truths they advocate.”

- John Taylor

Just remember the power you carry and convey in your message. It’s such an amazing thing. Use that to testify boldly. The time is short. The message is so important that you need to exhaust every last effort to accomplish what you have been sent out there to do. Tear it up in these final minutes you have. I’ll talk to you soon. Write when you can.

Love,

Trav

Letter update

Some more testimony from Elder A. It's always good to hear his testimony. The folks he's working with in NC get to hear it all the time, so it's nice to get to have a taste of it now and then in his letters. We should be getting a DVD full of pictures pretty soon, so stay close and hopefully I'll have a bunch of new pictures to start posting next week.

I love sharing the gospel, its the most amazing thing, its such a rush sharing the gospel with people, and its the biggest testimony builder to see the way the atonement transforms lives. Thats what really gets me going, thats what really puts the fire in my belly, the Savior. Its not only rewarding to see the way the atonement shapes the lives of others, or those we teach, but my own life. I am not the same as I was before my mission, its changed me forever, right down to the core. My motivations are different. Thats been one of the biggest changes, is the reason i do things, before it was because i was looking out for #1, i was making sure i was taken care of. But through much opposition and many blessings i've come to know it not about me, its about Him, it has nothing to do with me. I think we all have a natural tendency to think about our own selves first, but thats part of overcoming the natural man. And i am definitely not perfect at it, because i still think about myself way too much, (i caught myself recently), but I'm trying. I'm so grateful for that, so thankful we can repent and do better, because there is always a better way, we can never stop looking for that better way. Apathy and complacency are the biggest downfalls for the members of the church in the US i think. So if you ever think i'm getting complacent or apathetic, punch me in the head of something... wake me up.
Anyway, the scriptures are amazing, I recently read through Doctrine and Covenants 6, whoo, what a powerhouse. That section smacked me in the head, the last 4 or 5 verses especially. I invite y'all to read it for your selves. I promise you a greater understanding and a deeper meaning of the Atonement for each of you. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that He took upon himself our sins and all else we suffer. In the Sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

6/08/08

It’s another week and another letter. They just keep ticking by. You only have 2 months left as of today. I don’t mean for that to make you trunky, I mean for that to make you even more urgent. So what’s new this week? I’m going to see if I can crank this out and get it to you before you check and send e-mails today. You seem to be doing it on Sunday mornings now. I can never remember what is news worthy on my end from week to week. But let me rack my brain here a little.

Yesterday was cool. It was our annual golf tournament at the Homestead up in Midway. It was fun as usual. It was snowing on our way up the canyon. I mean, c’mon, it’s June 7^th. What’s up with the snow. It rained on us the rest of the morning as we got checked in up there and had our bagel and got ready to get in our carts and head off. I was thinking this is going to stink if it’s raining the whole time. I had my rain jacket, and another light jacket, but I was also in my shorts. Ha ha. Well, as we teed off, it was just sprinkling and as we went to put on that first hole it stopped. And it was nice the rest of the time. It was great. It was just a little cool in fact as we went along and it was perfect. I’d much rather golf in my light jacket for 12 of the 18 holes than be hot. I took it off at 13 and it was perfect weather. We had a good lunch, had the prize drawing, which I didn’t win anything again for the 2^nd year in a row. And then we headed home. I know you haven’t accepted the sport of golf yet, but as you age and your wisdom grows, you will learn to accept that it is a good time and necessary to be decent at if you want to succeed in your future career. They should just teach it as a mandatory college course. You will need to know golf better than most other principles they teach in college. Kind of stupid, but true. Here’s something else you do not approve of, but So You Think You Can Dance is back on and all of my minions of converts to that show and I are all geeked out on it. They had a tryout in SLC and there were a lot of Utah representation in this season. We are already down to the top 10 guys and top 10 girls, so they will get paired up this week and compete. So good. Ha ha. It’s funny how much you don’t like that show just like it’s funny how much you don’t like Brett Favre. Both unfounded in nature. No reasonable explanation for it. In fact, I dare say, that of all of the people I have tried to convince that it’s a good show, 99% of them have accepted the truth. You are the only stubborn hold out. I have easily converted about 50 people to that show and from those converts stem many others. The branches of converts coming from the root of Travis will go out like a massive globe willow by the time I’m happy. It will still be on when you return, so maybe then you can watch, ponder, and pray. If you will do these things, I know that you will receive a testimony of the coolness of this show. Will you make a commitment to watch and seek after the truth of what I’m telling you? I will follow up with you from week to week after you have returned and started watching.

I also realized that I have not told you that story I was going to tell you about on the phone since it was so long. Let me recap it here. It will be easier if I copy and paste it out of an e-mail I sent to Ryan Sims after it happened…

On Tuesday, I’m sitting in my office (which has a window right over our front porch that overlooks the street in front of our house. It’s right by the front door. Well, I hear this car hauling bawls around the corner and comes screeching to a stop in the road in front of my house. It was a blue, lame, new style VW beetle with its bass bumping hard and loud. Dude hops out, leaves his door open (making his music exponentially louder), runs up to my neighbor’s house across the street and rings the doorbell repeatedly until the mom comes to the door. I’m watching this like what is wrong with this dude? Normally, this would have been a common occurrence when we lived in West Jordan on the street we lived on, but I take great pride in the quiet top of the circle we live on. I don’t like cars driving fast in front of my house, and I don’t like red headed white kids wearing gangsta wear laying a 5 foot patch of rubber from screeching to a halt in front of my house, and worst of all, I don’t like bass bumping for more than 10 minutes while he stands in their door way talking. I was getting grumpier by the minute. Than after about that 10 minutes, Aynslee wakes up and she is hard to put down at night. She feels like she’s missing something and cries until we come get her out of her crib. So when that woke her up and Suzanne yells down to me, who’s playing that music, I put on my shoes, went outside, whistled loud enough to get a jet pilot’s attention during take off and yelled across the street for him to “turn that S*** down!” He stood there like he no speaka the ingles. I started walking back toward my door and turned back around and he still wasn’t moving, but puffing up his chest and posturing like he was going to come discuss the finer artistic merits of the “insane clown posse” at 2,050 decibels. I turned and started walking back toward the street but he neighbor lady over there broke away, ran for the car and turned it down for him. I started walking back in my house while still looking back and him and said “punk A**” and went back inside. It wasn’t the most Christlike conversation I could have had and the lady across the street is in my ward, so I’m sure she has a new understanding of her new neighbors now. I still don’t know many people in the ward. Well, anyway, that was that. I had my peace and quiet again, Aynslee went back to sleep in about 20 minutes after that and all was well.

Yesterday, I went to a guy’s house from the ward to watch the Jazz game on his home theater system. I apparently home teach this guy, so I’m getting to know him a little bit before the game. I was telling him I still don’t know too many people in the ward since they put us right in the primary after we moved in. Well, in walks dude from the previous day and the host says, Oh, Travis, this is so and so, he’s your home teaching companion. I thought I recognized him and we started shaking hands and I said, nice to meet you and he said, yeah, you yelled at me yesterday. Then I said, Oh, that was you?! He walked over to the opposing couch and sat down and the whole room went quiet. All the guys were looking at me and him like why did he yell at him? The tension was pretty thick. Needless to say, that was THE most awkward introduction to anyone I have ever had. At the end of the 1^st quarter he went upstairs for some snacks and I went up a minute later and gave him a proper introduction and apologized for my behavior and language the night before and said I get a little grumpy when someone wakes up my baby with a lot of noise. He apologized for the music and what not and we had a better introduction to each other at that point. But yeah, it’s still just a little awkward. Hmmmm. Oh well. What can you do? He’s 19, came home from the MTC recently and I guess is in a “gentle state” of his testimony or something. So he’s kind of coddled in the ward because of that. Maybe I have something to learn from this experience. We’ll see.

There you go. Pretty awkward intro to our home teaching companionship. But I’m comfortable with awkwardness. So I’m sure you have heard from or about Riley by now. Let me know your thoughts on that. Pretty cool! Actually, I just got your letter forwarded over from Ma, and now I know you know. So Melbourne is awesome! I love that city! Even in the winter, it’s not very cold. Very temperate. Traffic for a big city is not bad, they have a cool light rail system they just call the tram, kind of funny. And they set up their roads so that it’s reversible flow to accommodate rush hour traffic. Where it’s like 5 lanes for the whole road. Where it’s 3 lanes going into the city during morning rush hour and 2 lanes going out of the city and then it reverses for rush hour after business hours. 3 lanes going out of the city and 2 lanes going into the city. It keeps traffic from getting congested. We could learn a lot from these cities here in Utah now that we are growing up to a big city pretty fast.

Well, I didn’t get this off when I wanted to. Now it’s 6:00 PM on Sunday night. We went to church and I never finished and sent it off. But anyway, now I’ve gone and done my home teaching with my companion. It wasn’t awkward, and we even discussed it again, since his neighbor is a friend of mine in the ward and he told him that I was afraid that he still had bad feelings about it. I told him that’s not the case. I said that I’m usually not like that, but I wasn’t feeling like I was walking on eggshells around you or anything. So we had a decent discussion about it and I think it might be close to being totally behind us. Ha ha. It’s all good.

Let me go off of your letter to Ma and Pa and reply to that…

I guess you will get the DVD out soon then huh? Not to expect it anytime this week I guess. Just whenever you can send it. You should just have it in the mailer and address it to me and have it handy in your scriptures or something so that you can send it if you come across a post office in your travels. You have my mailing address right?

240 West Holland Drive

Stansbury Park, UT 84074

It’s good to hear your testimony in your letters. Keep it up. Well, nothing more to say I guess. We are heading to ma’s and pa’s now, so I guess I’ll catch up with you next week. Oh, I need to give you a quote of the week…

“The gospel breathes a new life and a new hope and a new and unknown holiness into a troubled world. This we see, and we see the work grow and increase and become more and more irresistible as it spreads like the gentleness of a sea that refreshes the shore upon which it flows.”

- David B. Haight

I know that you see how troubled the world is. Mostly through our letters I think since you are so detached from the world itself. What a great place to be for a couple of years. But being in your position, you also see how much the Gospel really does give the world a new hope, a new life, and actual holiness to a dark and dreary world. It really can be irresistible once a person who’s been lost in this world for so long to get a feel of the peace that it brings. It really does spread over a troubled soul like this quote says. Great and wise words from a former apostle of the Lord. David B. Haight happens to be the late father in law of John Huntsman. I’m reading his book right now called “Winners Never Cheat”. It’s been great so far. I’m almost half way through it and I just started it not quite a week ago. So I think I’ll probably take it down pretty quick.

Well, off to the natals house. Take care and work hard this week. I’ll talk to you next week. Get those pics sent off soon. Oh, speaking of sending stuff, I’ll check in with John to see if he’s done with that DVD that I can send you. Talk to you later on.

Love,

Trav

As of today...

Newsletter article on Leadership

Mike wrote an article for a ZL newsletter. This is the first we have seen as far as this kind of written article, so I thought it might be good to post it.

In the 46th chapter of Alma we are told of two differing examples of leadership. The first example is Amalickiah, “a dissenter from the church” who aspired to be king. Many of the lower judges desired power as well. Amalickiah inspired them to support his cause by using “flattering words” and “cunning devices” to satisfy their hunger for power.

The better example is Captain Moroni. Being angry with Amalickiah, he rent his coat and wrote upon it, “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.” After fastening it to the end of a pole, he put on his armor, “and bowed himself to the earth and prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren.” Moroni then went forth among the people waving the Title of Liberty, and cried with a loud voice: “Whosoever will maintain this title upon the land let them come forth in the strength of the Lord and enter into a covenant.” “When Moroni proclaimed these words… the people came running together… covenanting that they would not forsake the Lord their God.”

Later in battle Amalickiah “saw that his people were doubtful concerning the justice of the cause in which they had undertaken… and departed into the land of Nephi.”

Why were Amalickiah’s followers doubtful and Moroni’s followers steadfast? Because of the cause in which they were engaged. In Amalickiah’s case it was about him and his glory. In Moroni’s case it was about the Lord and His work. The work in which we are engaged is the cause of the Lord. Let us be like Moroni as leaders and raise the standard, prepare ourselves by putting on the armor of God, praying mightily unto the Lord, and going amongst the missionaries to rally them to this great cause.

We invite all to rise as Captain Moroni did and rally your zones to this great cause. We promise you the missionaries will rise to the standard. They will be faithful to their call and purpose and, as a result, baptize. We know as we rise the mission will rise with us. The Savior lives and guides this work.

6/01/08

Que Pasa Chochy?

How are things going this week? Does it feel like your mission is just quickly slipping away from you? Your time is waning short now and it’s time to kick it into high gear for your final lap. There’s no cool down period like if you are exercising and you need one lap of cool down walking. This is a sprint to the finish line to see if you can break the record. So step it up even harder in the short remaining time! So I talked to everyone about the tests and I think you’ve got all the tests you are going to get, unfortunately. Dad said he was doing it on paper and wasn’t sure he’d do anything on the computer. He already took way more time than the test allowed though and Mom said she took it but had some user error and lost it somehow in her e-mail and she wasn’t about to take it again and was pretty grumpy about it. Shelli won’t take it and Stosh keep saying they will do it, but it’s pretty certain that if you haven’t received them by now, you won’t ever. So just go ahead and grade them and send them back. It’s like herding cats over here.

So have you sent home the pictures on DVD yet?

I think I might have told you this last letter, but maybe not. I went to the Asian star for lunch a couple of weeks ago before a training that was right next to their new location on 1300 East. So Clark and I hit up the Asian Star for lunch before that training and I put my business card in a thing for a prize entry. Well, this dude from Ameriprise financial called me and told me I won a free lunch for me and up to 15 guests. I’m like and why are YOU calling me? Well, he does it because he pays for you but you have to listen to a financial planning pitch by him first. I see how this works. Well, it’s worth it for free Asian star. However, he never saw us coming. I brought our whole management team and we ordered the Gilly Special which isn’t even on the menu and comes to around 200 bucks. Plus we through in an extra plate of the walnut shrimp which is 17 bucks a plate. So he probably won’t ever tell people he treats to this thing that they can order whatever they want again. He will probably limit them a little more next time. Poor guy. But it was super good and he was way low pressure and after 5 minutes he was out of our hair and on his way. So that worked out pretty well. I love me some Asian Star.

OK, well, I just got answers to all these questions since I just got your e-mail. It’s Sunday morning now. I had a good day yesterday after I got going on your letter. I went to John’s to drop off his Dolly that we used when we moved since he needs it for his jumbo project he’s working on in his back yard right now. You won’t even recognize his yard when you get back. He has done a ton to it. He built that shop in his back yard, put in a new sprinkler system, tore out his deck and dug out huge footings for a new double layer deck. He poured his first cement pillar for it yesterday. It’s going to look great back there. I haven’t done much with it. You and I helped with his vinyl fence, and I put the roof on his shop, but other than that, he has done the rest. I will put in a slate floor and faux slate wall on his lower level deck. It will look good when it’s all done. Anyway, John has bought a ton of toys which are all justified in the project, so he has a new big ol’ machine driven cement mixer. All kinds of new landscaping tools like specialty shovels, masonry tools, laser levels, drills, wheel barrow, etc. So when you get back, he will have some work for you if you want. Everyone will want you to come work for them. You won’t be wanting for work or money when you get home, that’s for sure. Snowbird wants you back, Dad can put you to work, John can put you to work, I can get you a good paying job no problem, the possibilities are endless. Good to have a few fall backs there or even to work what you want when you want. I jumped on that job with the church the first Monday I was back. Then I got into that security gig a month later and worked both jobs as long as I could before School started back up. But I was bustin’ out some serious money during that time trying to save for the next year of school.

Oh, Brinlee is here, so I’ll let her type to you…

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Ohophop[fopo0pty009t-0t90-9ty-090opgpol[pooo6ou-69086]]r8ueyr7e tnup]yuo0t09ptyo0oryoy0o0tklkgfghgfkfgjklffkljkfg ittljgljhioyiuyijiji /u8ry8sy87eyesieyeuiryuiyeruyeyiuiityiitgy7yttttttttyyy7ytyypdofiite787846467/7457/iohiotpi otp io9iroturouyhtuiyhutiuiyihlxg ; khglklghklhglkhkgkflhlfkhoogiofprgtofgf gj kidf pgdgodfirjgfjfl;kgfhoiy9p585y905opto;khogkohooootitoiotopiopyioitiokhohkociocoootipopiorpopdtpotr pippoioptridpr iopioiopiopiioioikoptiopgtoiigopirtpriko;;;;kgoiij lijgvf86747684454

Here’s what she said she typed to you…

I want to see you when you are done with your mission. And I hope you can jump on the trampoline with me. And I love you Mike!

Not sure what trampoline she’s talking about. As far as I know, we don’t even know anyone who has a trampoline. Interesting comments from these youngins sometimes, eh?

OK, back to my day yesterday. After hanging at John’s for a bit, I ran over to the Jordan River temple and picked up some new garms. After that, I ran over to Harbor Freight, a sweet place for super cheap tools, power tools, garden supplies, etc. normally, they have just been on State Street and 3500 south. That’s where I got my 18 volt drill, sander, circular saw, and flashlight combo for 29 bills. Anyway, I went there for some paint brushes to stain my deck with. I needed some big bounders. So I found some for 3.00 each that would have easily been 20 bucks each at Home Depot. So I grabbed a couple of them. Well, the dude at the counter told me he had a coupon in the circular for these paintbrushes and after pulling one out, he zapped the coupon sku with his laser and it came up 33 cents each. I’m like, ummm… at that price, I’m going to get a couple more. So I grabbed two more and all 4 didn’t even come to 2.00. What the heck? I’m livin’ right I guess. That was a pleasant surprise. Then I went to the D.I. right next to Harbor Freight since I was in the same parking lot and did a little thriftin’. I was cruisin’ all over that store with my head held high. I bought a new queen size sheet set still in it’s brand new packaging for 20 bucks. That’s great for a full set that’s brand new. Our sheets have been a little haggard lately. Then I found some sweet lucky brand khakis for 6.00 bones. I was pretty excited about that action too. So it was a productive trip to the D.I. for me yesterday. I called Ma and Pop to see if they were ready for me to come over and tile their bathroom or at least lay down the backer board but they still aren’t ready. Not sure what their hold up is. The cabinets and everything are all out of there and the walls are all painted. So they should be ready to go. But not yesterday anyway. Then Suzanne called and said she and the girls were over at Target in Jordan Landing, so I met them over there for some dinner at the KFC. After that we ran over to the Emerys and hung out with them for a bit. I guess I didn’t tell you yet, that Clint and Rachel had their triplets last week. They were only 26-28 weeks along, so they are way super tiny and have to be watched for a while. They will be in the hospital for 3 months. Pretty crazy. One was 2 lbs and the other two were under two lbs. crazy, right? So we are fasting for them today. Poor little fellas. The Doctors seem pretty optimistic though, so we are too. Let me get into your letter here and respond…

I can’t wait to get your pics. That 2 GB should get me by just fine accompanied by your letters till you are done. So I’ll look for those. Are you sending them to me or to Ma and Pa? speaking of burning a DVD, I dropped off the video tape at John’s yesterday when I was dropping his dolly off. So he is going to get that transferred to DVD soon and I’ll get that sent off to you.

Way to go with the no nail biting. I just took a few down yesterday, so I’m not cured. I do pretty well for a while and then something happens that gets me jittery or something and off they go. We’ll see if you keep the short tie tying going your whole life. I don’t have any problem with my belt buckle tie getting in the way of anything. It suits me fine and dandy.

That’s great that Pres. Hobbs has so much trust in you with what he relies on you two to do. That will be such invaluable experience as you get on with life. It’s amazing the way the Lord prepares you for bigger and better things to come all in this awesome training ground of the mission field. Bask in that experience you are gaining and gain everything you can from it. The Lord obviously has great things in store for you. You have been the beneficiary of some crazy awesome experience while you have been there. How cool will that be to be interviewed by Elder Coleman? You’ll have to let us know what that experience is like.

Well, I need to prepare my lesson for today and get in the shower and change still too and church starts in one hour. So I have left myself about no time. Let me find a quick quote of the week and close it up and send it off. This stands out to me because of what you wrote about in your last letter or two…

In the day of wickedness just preceding our Lord’s return there is to be a great harvest of souls. We live in that day, the day when the harvest is ripe. We have deluded ourselves long enough with the thought that this is a day of gleaning only. This is not a day of gleaning, but of harvest. Now, this work is going to succeed. This is absolutely guaranteed, it is the eternal decree of the Lord.

- Bruce R. McConkie

That’s pretty good stuff right there. And goes along with what you seemed to be eluding to in your last letter. So go ahead and send me your thoughts on that. I also haven’t have your epiphany you have had this week. What have you learned that was the big aha moment this week? Write back on that.

I got back from church. My kids were way better today. I reasoned with them and struck a deal. I figured if I can’t beat them… just hit them softer. Ha ha. No, I joined them finally and told them they can talk among themselves still, but they needed to keep the volume level way down. I still had a 15 min. lesson, but I just can’t make them pay attention to a full hour long lesson and I had to accept that. So it was good today. I also stood in the blessing circle of Travis Hill’s new baby. Get this, in our ward, you can only have 6 people in your circle no matter what. You can never exceed that number. The 2^nd counselor came down 3 times. The first time to make sure Travis didn’t have more than 6 people in his circle. He confirmed he had exactly 6, so we were good to go. He smiled and went back up. A minute later, he came back down and asked, were you including the Bishop in that 6? He said yes, the Bishop is one of the 6 total number, so not to worry, we would be at the limit and not exceeded by one with the Bishop. I was actually quite stunned at this conversation. He smiled and went back up. A minute later, he came back down and said, I just needed to check one more thing, were you including yourself in that total 6? Travis was like YES, it’s me, the bishop and 4 others, so we have not exceeded the 6 and millions won’t die. Travis’ brother in law said, he’s like the Soup Nazi… No blessing for you! He dropped that right in front of the 2^nd counselor. He just smiled at his brother in law and went back up. I was like this is a joke, right? I asked Travis what if you went up there with 6 people already and the Bishop came down to stand in, would he actually excuse one person? He said he’s done it before where he told 4 family members to go sit down because they could only have 6 in the circle total. Can you believe that? I have never heard of such a thing. If something were to go awry and we had another baby somehow, I would totally go the route that Rick took a few weeks ago and do it in Ron Emery’s ward, let him conduct it and do a family only circle. I mean I came up with 10 family members who would be in my circle and that was without even thinking very hard as to who I’d have in there. Craziness. But it’s this Bishop’s ward and he can make that call I guess. But I can’t imagine if I showed up with all my family who made a half hour drive to get to my ward and having 6 of them excused because I could only have 4 of my invitees up there before exceeding the 6 because of counting me and the Bishop in there. I think I would call it off and say you can scratch it off the program then, I’ll take it to another ward because it’s important for me to have these family members in the circle. I’m not sure what I’d do. Oh well. Not something I’m going to lose my testimony over by any means, but it’s definitely a strange policy.

Thanks for your longer letter this week too. It’s great to have some good personalized info and helps drive my letters a lot longer too when I have more substance to sink my teeth into. I appreciate your words coming from a true and worthy servant of the Lord and it makes me proud to be your brother. I love what you are doing. I know that it’s the work of the Lord and that you are closer to Him than the top 1% of the world right now. It’s a crazy thought to think just how closely you work with Him and for Him. Keep up the good work in His name. You make us all proud.

Love you,

Trav