First Week

Oh hi little kid!

I probably should have stopped calling you that long ago, but you are and always have been such a great kid.

It’s Tuesday night after 11 and I’m not sleeping. I thought I’d write a little each day, but I don’t want to bug you every day, so I’ll keep this a running letter till I send it on Sunday. 

It’s still too quiet here at home, I feel sad every time come upstairs. But then I try to imagine what you’re doing, in class, eating, gym, studying, then I remember doing those things myself in the MTC. I’ve told you many times that the MTC was not my favorite, but those memories are good ones and happy ones as I recall them. 

The big event of the day was the new projector came. It’s going to sit low to the floor in front of the screen. It’s really bright and clear, but it doesn’t zoom like our old one. It’s about two feet from the wall kind of exposed, so I’m going to build a cabinet for it, I’ll start sketching it out tomorrow. That would have been a fun project to work on together.

Writing everyday might be overkill, I’m already boring myself.

———

Now it’s Thursday night, still missing you. I kept wondering all day when you were going to hear from Elder Bednar. Hopefully you can tell us about it. 

I opened the bag of Cheetos we bought last week at Sam’s Club because I thought they were the puffy ones, they were the flaming ones, I got annoyed at you, then I felt sad.

Your brothers made frozen Chinese tonight, not as good as yours, but I didn’t complain. Mom was with grandma getting her hair done. Then I had a meeting at church for the ward Christmas party. Hayden’s parents asked about you. Hayden said he’d look for you. They were also excited about elder Bednar. The theme of the party is Olaf’s Christmas. I seem to be in the small minority of the neighborhood that didn’t know Olaf was from the movie Frozen. I’m just glad we only have boys.

I’m figuring out the new projector. It looks good. Far more bright and clear than our old one, but it doesn’t fill the sides of our screen. I may put some black theater curtains up to fill the blank spots. I measured tonight for the cabinet. I think I’m going to cobble together a mockup before I commit to more expensive materials. I have to leave the mockup pretty ugly so I’m not tempted to just leave it.

———

It’s Sunday after church now, mom just sent her letter, and was shaming me for not sending mine. It’s normal here, but someone is missing. I’d imagine from your perspective it would be the same old stuff. In your life now, every week will be something new. I notice that when Jacob gets frustrated he expresses how things are boring here. I think he misses the variety of the mission 

Speaking of Jacob, he gave a great talk on gratitude. He delivered it with confidence and conviction. He was well prepared. He really has a talent for it. Brother Gwilliam was the high council speaker with him. I think he is one of the nicest people in the world. As he gave his talk he referred to Jacob’s talk and then he mentioned you and that we are a missionary family. All I’m saying is that I feel so grateful for you boys, for the type of characters you have, and for the good choices you make. 

I did have to get up early this morning. I was invited to ward council this morning. I just gave a little update and my draft of the ward mission statement. I’ll put it here and you can give me you feedback from a missionary perspective.

Love Thy Neighbor…

By knowing them: Start with the families on your street, then on your horse-shoes, then in the rest of the neighborhood. Know their names, their families, their professions, and their interests. Be able to converse with them.

By sharing with them: Share your time and your interests with them. Share your talents and treats with them. Share your hopes and values with them.

By having  experiences with them: Find ways to work and play together. Serve them and invite them to serve you. Invite them to activities and attend be willing to attend theirs. Know what is sacred to them and share that which is sacred to you.

Tactics: consider these thoughts as we plan our weekly missionary and ward activities. As a committee and ward council, feel free to add activity thoughts below? 

They let me out after it as over so I called mom, she was just on her way to go get grandma to bring her to listen to Jake’s talk. So she came back and got me. I love being with your mom, but I think I’m obnoxious by nature, so It can be tough for her.

Friday was kind of an interesting day. A headhunter called me and wants to present me to a company for a new job. It could be a nice pay bump, but it’s an MLM and I’m thinking my current company is much more substantial. I’ll see if I get an actual interview, but I’m not really going to worry about it. 

Friday night the boys went to the basketball game, the Utes killed UCRiverside. Jake sent a picture of the huntsman center and it was empty. I’ll go to the next game with them. I stayed home and mom and I watched a movie on the new projector. When you’re mom and I were first married a campy horror movie came out called the Mummy. It was fun and not too scary. A remake just came out on Netflix with Tom cruise in it. It took itself far too seriously and did not hold up to the earlier version. It was nice to be with mom though.

Saturday was a busy day. Got up early because mom got up to make chili for the game. I had put off yard work for a month. I got all the leaves stuffed into one of the garbage cans before nine. 

Then I went to this new woodworking store they opened up over by the guitar center and Mr Mac in taylorsville. It’s a big beautiful new store. I can tell it’s destined to be a frequent favorite store for me because it carries the common trait of all of the stores I frequent—that familiar smell of farts. Anyway, I bought some plywood for the projector cabinet. 

After that I got back to the lawn. I trimmed and mowed and even cross cut it. I’m not bragging, but it looks good. I still haven’t applied step four, but now as soon as I see that rain is eminent I can get it laid down for the year. 

While I was out there, Ryder’s dad came over. It sounds like he misses Ryder like I miss you. Ryder is doing well and liking the MTC, he still doesn’t know where he’ll be assigned yet. He was surprised to have been called district leader.

I came in and cleaned the floor in the kitchen before everyone came over. Mom was missing you because she was cleaning the hallway bathroom. But she was really missing you because she missed you and we were both anticipating hearing from you. By then the chili, her rolls and the baked potatoes were almost ready and smelling really good. Your mother is an amazing cook.

Grandma, uncle Tim, and aunt Lithia came over, I thought is was our Ute cousins so, being the smart ass I am, I waved uncle Tim off and said “No blue today brother!” He took it well, but I need to remember that mom’s side of the family does not like jokes, sarcasm, or humor. My cousins finally came over and the food was good. The first half was super fun and the Utes had a small lead, but they looked overwhelmed in the second half. We should have been grateful we only lost by 7, it could/should have been worse. The only bright spot was that byu got killed by Iowa state 45-13. Jordan texted Jacob telling him that the byu fans were booing their own team as they went to the locker room for halftime. I imagine uncle Tim frowned on that behavior.

It was great talking to you yesterday. You looked good and confident. I’ll bet it’s been a long week for you. Everyone says how good it is for the missionaries to be able to talk to their families every week. I’m here to say it good for the families. It was the same with Jake and Ben for me, seeing your faces, demeanor, and body language parents can see how their kids are doing, and you seemed really good yesterday.

Last night, as normal, no one could decide what movie to watch. So mom and I chose. Someone during the game had said that Gran Tourismo was the best movie of the year. I was dubious of that claim, but I do love racing movies and pair that with an underdog story, it’s a formula that, embarrassingly, works on me every time. It was kinda like a mix between Ford vs Ferrari and Cars 2. I’m not sure if your brothers liked it, they seem to have become elitist when it comes to movies. It was still early when that was over, so we were scrolling to see if there was any thing else to watch. We came across one called A Million Miles Away, it was a story of the son of a migrant worker that goes on to become an engineer, an astronaut, and eventually flying on the space shuttle. Think of it as Flamin’ Hot goes to space. Your mom and I loved it, it portrayed family values, determination, love, sacrifice, dedication. It was rated PG, so your brothers claimed not to. I did notice that their phones were down and they stayed in the room for the whole movie. 

Ben and mom are making Greek chicken and homemade rolls for dinner, it’s just after two now so I hope we eat soon. I hope your Sunday meal was or will be good. I think instead of trying, and failing, to write every day, I’ll set a goal to write twice a week, most likely Sundays and Wednesday’s. 

Well, I love thinking that I’m a little closer to you by writing these letters. I really Love you kid and I’ll look forward to Thursday.

Pops

P.S. Ben has an opinion on napkins