58

Oh hello Texas Joe!

There’s gotta be a better cowboy name than that for you, but that’s a start.

I’ve been thinking a lot about your transfer and the news you teased us about the GA and the eminent destruction of your mission. I’m sure you are even more intrigued as it could have real implications in your near term future. You’ll have to tell us all about it. Get a picture of you and the GA for future AP implications. I’m also curious about your new area, the ward/branch, and about your comp. Hopefully there will be more compatibility there. I find that the more self centered people are, the more difficult they are to get along with. That last guy seemed pretty smug about himself.

Mom probably already told you that Peyton Hatton got his call to Colorado Springs English speaking and Jackson Morrill got his call to Nagoya Japan…talk about smug. Bishop hinted that at least one other person got a call too but they must not have been at church for the announcement.

It was mom’s first week back to church and she was very popular. I was able to get her home after a sacrament meeting. I didn’t think she had the strength to make it through Sunday school, nor did I.

Today we had my side of the family over for dinner to celebrate my birthday, it was really nice. It was the first time since Cecily has been to our house since her transplants in October. She looked herself. Ben made smash burgers, Jacob made tater tots, aunt Patti brought my favorite cherry chocolate cake and we had that creamy vanilla ice cream from Costco. It was fun and good and your brothers were in fine form with rants on ugly people, it was pretty funny.

The weather is just about perfect and I spent yesterday working on my 4Runner. I installed a front view camera that works pretty good but is a little low rez. I also installed a dash mount so I can secure my phone, a GoPro, and other accessories more solidly. It’s pretty overlandy. I also replaced my raptor lights, which are actually pretty silly but I missed them when they weren’t working. They probably stopped working because they were so cheap, but as I disassembled the connectors water came out, so this time I tried to waterproof them with dielectric grease and heat shrink tubing. I think I like working on my 4Runner almost as much as I like to drive it. I think I really fell in love with that 4runner on that recent trip to Moab. I used to say that my rubicon was more capable than I was, which is true, but that 4Runner really impressed me. What do you think about the name Silvestre, for the Spanish word for wilderness or wild, for the 4Runner. You’ll have to send me some ideas. There’s also the name of Don Quixote’s horse, Rosenante, which is cool. I also like Conchito from Nacho 

Libre. I’ve got Artie excited about getting an off roader. He’s looking at a Ford Ranger Raptor. It would be fun to have him come with us.

I’m not going to try to overhype the rest of the week though, all pretty standard. To me though, that’s pretty great news considering everything that’s been going on lately. I’ve been going with mom to her physical therapy twice a week at 7am. She’s taking it very seriously so I hope she gets her strength back quickly. Selfishly though, I’m just enjoying all the time I’m getting with her and I’ll really miss her when she gets busy with school and her masters program. 

Tomorrow is my real birthday…58…holy crap that sounds old. I did see a meme last week that said, “no matter how old you are now, in 20 years you’ll look back at this age and think how young you were and how good you felt.” I think that was pretty good perspective for me. 78? Are you kidding me! I wonder if I’ll even make it that far. Heavenly Father has surely blessed me with an amazingly happy life, so maybe I should look forward to it.

Well my noble son, I think that’s about it for me. I look forward to Tuesday and all of your news. I love you completely and pray for you constantly.

Pops