7/06/08

Whatsupatchu this week? How is the traveling? Or are you in one place doing the temporary DL thing still? It will be interesting to hear what they have you doing now, all depending on what that dude decided to do. You’ll have to send us the update. Well, it was an eventful week, as usual. This week was my last week at FranklinCovey. I start my new job with OfficeMax tomorrow morning. I’m pretty excited. It should be a good job. I just got my phone transferred over from AT&T to Verizon, so now I get all the free in-network calls to Suzanne, Mom, Dad, Shelby, and you when you get home. Staci is an outcast with T-mobile though. So to heck with her. Ha ha. It was kind of sad at work though since I had all the goodbyes and free lunches and stuff with the HR team and the Management team in my Division. I made some good friends working there. But this will be a good chapter in my life too. So I’m looking forward to beginning that now.

So you are now the best kind of AP huh? A Traveling AP has the coolest gig in the mission. You not only have the exposure to the President and other Assistants, but you are still out in the trenches where the dirty work gets done. You get the best of both worlds. I loved it!! Even if you are staying in one place, you have a great challenge to turn a struggling area around into one of the best areas and districts in the mission. That is always a fun challenge to take up and see how far you can get it in on transfer. So good luck with that too. You will have your hands full.

What did you do for the 4^th of July? Did you go see fireworks anywhere? I was never in an area during the 4^th of July that had any fireworks displays. I was in the Bronx the first year and just had a bunch of crazies firing off their guns into the air since everyone had bullets and guns, but no one had any fireworks. Ha ha. Then I was in Greenwich CT the second year and probably could have figured out a good area to drive to and see since they would have poured a million bucks into a decent display, but that wasn’t on our priority list. So we never saw any fireworks. This year, we went to the Emery’s for their traditional BBQ and we were going to go to Grantsville’s fireworks at night, but our friends we were going to go with flaked, so we ended up going to Murray Park with the Emery’s. They were weak!! After going to Taylorsville Dayzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, it kind of spoils you. They kick any park’s butt on the 4^th of July by about 3 times. So I was disappointed by Murray, just like I am every year we have done that. But the girls had fun and that’s what matters.

I had a busy day yesterday (Saturday). I woke up early, took the CR-V to the dealership to get the AWD fixed, the door locks fixed, and to get a new key cut. I was there at 9:00 and didn’t leave till 3:00. That was one long day in the waiting room. I read an HR magazine, a Utah Business magazine, and about 100 pages in my book. Not to mention, listened to a bunch of crazy characters in the waiting room discussing random things and watched CNN headline news about 3 times through with every story. Nearly $300 and 6 hours later, I was out of there and on my way to Costco to get new tires put on, since they are way cheaper than the dealership. I was told it would take an hour, so I grabbed a hot dog and coke combo there for $1.50 and was on my way across the street to my favorite store… Best Boy. So I was walking up to the store and this lady and her two kids got out of a car I was walking past and we merged awkwardly. I felt like I was walking with her family. I tried to distance myself but it worked out because she seemed bent on getting in the store before I did. As if I were going to take the last of whatever item she was there to buy on sale. So I let her gain some ground on me and just before she hit the doors, this overly aggressive dude runs up to her and says, Hey, stop, I need to talk to you, then he looks at me and says you stop too. I could tell he was about to hit us up for money, so I just kept going. Since she had that head start, he blocked her way into the store and had her as a captive audience. He kept telling me to stop and was speaking way to loud. I was half expecting a confrontation, but I walked on in and had no intention of talking to him. So I go in even with his yelling and went up to the phones to get a head start on the Verizon collection before I would go to the Verizon store. I kept checking outside since I was still close to the front to see what was going on. He had that lady pinned for about 5 to 10 minutes it seemed like before she finally gave him money and walked frustratedly into the story. I bet she wished she had let me get the head start after all. Ha ha. But when she came in, she complained to the dude at the front desk thing and he got on the phone. I went on to look at some iPods to see what I will buy when you come home and collect Dark Angel back again (which is fine since I have well over 14,000 songs now which is way more than 60 or 80 GB or whatever it is can hold. I have to set up a playlist of what I want to sync and only sync that playlist because I have too much. That doesn’t include any pictures, movies, TV shows, etc. That’s just music with about 6 GB over Dark Angel’s capacity to hold. So I will definitely need 160 GB when you get home. After I browsed everything I wanted at Best Boy, I was on my way back to Costco. I got all 4 tires replaced there. So after 1 hour and over $400 later, I left there to go to the Verizon store. I got my phone and my plan and was out the door. Then it was across the parking lot for a hair cut. ½ hour and $15.00 later, I was out that door and on my way to Ma’s and Pa’s (since I was in Jordan Landing). My sphincter hurt from forking out so much hard earned scrill in one day. I needed a place of refuge to rest and recuperate before dropping $10 bucks in gas just to go home. Gas is killing me. I have to fill up my truck every 4 days and it costs $65.00 each time since it’s $4.10 a gallon now with no signs of letting up. It’s depressing!!! That’s where I saw Jukka’s new hair cut. Ha ha. He looks hilarious. Shelli trimmed him up like a poodle. He looks way funny. Way smaller too. But he’s cute! He seems to like it sort of. At least during the hot summer.

Well, I have to get all of my office stuff organized and put away. I need to set up my home office here for work soon, but I’ll also need to set up an office at the home store downtown too. So I’m going to be busy for a while getting established. My first week this week will be at the draper store. My second week will be at the downtown store getting set up. My third week will be in Denver for some introductions to the other team members and some training. My fourth week will be back here at the downtown office with my manager who’s coming in from Wyoming. So my whole first month is laid out for me. Hopefully I can get some time off to come see your bones when you fly home. Not to mention I don’t know what I’ll do for the Olympics since I always take time off of work for that, but that won’t be possible this year. I’ll have to max out my TiVo on that this year I guess. Well, I think I’ll get this sent off and go get in the shower. We get a reprieve from our kids today so the Bishopric can talk to us about a ward goal setting program. That will be nice. Then next week we have Maddie’s baby blessing. So we are lucky enough to have two weeks off. Hallelujah choirs are singing in my head right now!!

Here is your quote of the week.

“Spirituality, our true aim, is the consciousness of victory over self, and of communion with the Infinite. Spirituality impels one to conquer difficulties and acquire more and more strength. To feel one’s faculties unfolding, and truth expanding in the soul, is one of life’s sublimest experiences.”

- David O. McKay

I think by now you have found how to lose your “self” and to enjoy communion with the Infinite. As you increase in your spirituality, you can conquer any level of challenges and gain more strength with each challenge that you face. It truly is one of life’s greatest experiences to expand in spirituality, closeness to the Lord, and to lose the natural man. Enjoy it for but a short time more. And then as much as you can maintain it afterward. How awesome is a mission? Work hard. Leave it all out there! Give it your last ounce of strength and hustle!

I’ll talk to you again soon.

Love ya,

Trav