Midweek email from dad

 Oh hi elder Rivera,

This is dad. I thought I’d drop you a quick note mostly to tell you that in thinking of you. You should know that if my brain has a resting moment, I’m thinking of you. I’ve also been praying for you, a lot. Not so much that I’m worried about you as it is that I know what a shock this you’re experience is right now. I don’t remember if I told you this before you left, but I was praying for you the Sunday before you flew out. And at that point in the prayer I saw a sleek jet all pristine and shiny, just ready to go. I knew that was you, and I knew that despite your fears of not being ready, you were. Sunday, I had a similar dream, only this time the plane was in the air, flying straight and level, that’s you too right now. You’re doing what you are supposed to be doing. I don’t really have a ton of “fatherly” advice, other than to just keep going, be obedient, and keep close to the Lord.

Around here things are quite. Work’s reasonably busy, mom’s always busy. Ben’s been at school and studying a lot. Joe’s been pretty quiet, he misses you. Speaking of quiet, Argeorqui’s been super chill, hasn’t bugged mom once. Choppy has been beak down on moms bed since he left his piano memorial for you. You really made things fun for my childish tendencies around here.

My hives are gone, mostly. I’ve had to take Benadryl every night just to sleep. It’s always amazing to me how the healing process works.

I called my aunt Stella last night, she sure enjoyed your letter. She even got uncle Temmy to read it, he really got into it and told her he didn’t think he’d be able to do what you are doing, and he was drafted into the army. I’ve also had two very not Mormon friends comment on it very positively. You’re being an influence for good to a lot of people. In addition to those that you sent your email to directly, you have 121 reads on your blog, that’s more than ben’s letter when he thought he’d have to come home.

I decided to go to the Weber state game with Artie and aunt patti tomorrow. I’ll send you live updates, or close to live depending on cell coverage. I’ll also copy and paste an article from the paper.He invited joe and Ben to the Washington state game on the 25th.

Somehow I’ve had two different companies find me and ask me to interview for jobs. I’m not super anxious to go through another job change, but one of the companies is a pretty big company that sells outdoor clothing and camping gear online. So I thought I should at least listen. The other one is a company that is relocating from New York, I’m honestly not super interested in that one, but the recruiter was really persistent, so, yea. I don’t see much happening, but like I told Ben, when you pray everyday to take care of your family, you should probably at least follow up. I believe the Lord loves action.

Tonight Ben made chicken gyros with homemade tsiki sauce and garden tomatoes, it was super good. Then mom had another gift card to see’s candy, so now I have a gut full of caramel. Right now Joe’s watching that dumb monsters inc. cartoon, Ben is ranting like, well, Ben.

We’re going camping in Colorado this weekend, we’re going later than I wanted because of bens job, but at least we’re getting out. The good news is we should be all together when you call. We should be at least on our way home, so I’m pretty confident that we’ll have cell coverage. I’ll post pictures on Facebook and send them. I am confident it won’t be the same without you.

Mom just announced that she’s searching for teacher t-shirts.

Well, that’s all I have kid, I sure love you.

Pops