Temple in Tula!

 Oh hi professor!

I’m dying to hear about how your presentation went. I already sent you a note on that, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

It’s Saturday afternoon. We got home from the game and mom had breakfast for dinner waiting for us. I just finished the dishes. Mom and I are sitting here watching the news waiting for the evening session to start. Your brothers are playing the runnin’ back game. Joey bought a Lego set to build during the game, Ben is saving his cash for some guitar related paraphernalia.

The game was really great. Oregon State has a pretty good running game, but two pretty bad quarterbacks. The Utes defense looked great. Oregon state put together for some scary drives to the red zone, but if they didn’t turn it over, they only got field goals. The muss wasn’t as crazy this time, thank goodness 

Conference just started, but I’ll write during the kids hymns.

I had a neat experience on Friday. Artie had arranged a lunch from one of my leaders from my home ward, the classic Bonneville ward. His name is Oscar McKonkie. I’m not sure if you remember me telling you the stories he used to tell us about his uncle Bruce R. Mckonkie regarding how many times he had read the Book of Mormon. His uncle Bruce used to write the date in the back pages of his scriptures when he when he would finish reading them. I remember he showed us an old blue Book of Mormon that had several of the blank pages at the back full of columns of dates. There must have been dozens of dates if not hundreds. What struck me when I was a kid was when he told us that was how many times he had read that particular Book of Mormon, and that he had a bookshelf full of them.

He told us something else his uncle Bruce used to teach him about reading the Book of Mormon. He said that when you read the Book of Mormon, if every time you turn the page, even if it’s in the middle of a sentence, take a minute to think about what you have just read, and say a small prayer asking God if Joseph smith wrote the book himself, or if he is a true 

Prophet of God that was given the golden plates to to be translated. Oscar said he still does that today and it really helps his testimony. Mind you, this is a man that’s a nephew of an apostle, he’s on his second time being a mission President, his wife was in the church primary presidency, and serves with his wife to the UN representing the Church’s humanitarian efforts all over the world.

Bear with me because I want to write down two more stories he told me. The first one was also about the Book of Mormon. He said that when he was serving as Mission President in the San Jose mission in the mid 2000s that he would get missionaries telling him how they were struggling to feel the Spirit or have spiritual experiences he would tell them to read the Book of Mormon and to do the thing above that they would have those experiences and have a fulfilling missions. He said it always worked if they did that.

The other story he told me was about President Neilson. It was when he was visiting a mission home in Africa. They were there with the mission President and his wife when these robbers or terrorists came bursting in. They attacked the mission president’s wife, knocking her down and breaking her arm. Then the bad guy put his gun to the mission president’s head shouting that he was going to kill all of them. In response President Neilson said that he wasn’t going to kill anyone. At that point the criminal put his gun to President Neilson’s head and said that yes he was. President Neilson said, “No, it’s not my time.” At that point the criminal pulled the trigger, nothing happened but a dry click. Then the bad guys threw the gun down and just ran. My friend Oscar told me that he had heard this story from that mission President. And the mission President was sure that the protection was from his parents that had passed away in the form of guardian angels.

I know all of these stories are pretty “righteous “ as Ben may accuse. But I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to a lunch where I felt so edified, felt love from a friend, and even felt the Spirit like that.

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It’s Sunday after conference. They just announced the Tula temple, mom and I got really excited and Ben told us to calm down. I genuinely felt excited for you and for Jordan for the announcement of the temples in Tula and in Pachuca. I know the the Lord loves the people that you are serving. 

During conference I was looking over at Joe building his Lego. I thought how recently that was you. I made me miss both of you simultaneously. You only have one more conference left in the field, then home not too long after that. And Joey will probably be gone for next October conference.

Entertainment updates: Andor is still awesome, it’s kinda like a spy thriller set in the Star Wars universe. The Rings of Power is still boring with completely unenguaging characters, but the did show the origin of Mount Doom. She Hulk has gone from entertaining to stupid rather quickly. 

Work updates: my staff and I interviewed four really strong candidates for that job opening. Having recently been praying for a job, I’m taking this very seriously and want to do the right thing. Each one of these candidates is better at their jobs than the people currently on my staff. I’ve been thinking and praying about it, because I know that I have to disappoint three people that may be praying for the job. I’m not stressed out over it, but I do need to get it right.

Sports updates: the Utes are ranked 11th; USC is ranked 6th; Oregon is 12th; BYU 16th (even though they struggled against Utah State); UCLA is 18th because they beat Washington; and Washington is 21st. The PAC 12 is looking pretty decent this far into the season. Britain Covey is officially on the team in Philadelphia after being brought up from the practice squad three weeks in a row. Devin Lloyd was defensive rookie of the week last week and had 14 tackles this week. And Zach Moss is looking awesome. Finally, Clark Phillips III was named National defensive player of the week. I freaking love the Utes. Next week the Utes play undefeated UCLA in the Rose Bowl, it should be awesome.

I think we’ll start prepping grandmas deck for staining this week. Last year I waited a little too long and the weather got cold and we only got one coat on. 

Seems like I had more stories for you but nothing is coming to mind. I’m mostly interested in hearing about your week. I sure love you kid. Talk tomorrow.

Pops