Number 10

Oh hello Elder Rivera,

It’s eight pm on Sunday night and I get to write to my little boy. For starts, I’m proud of the work that you are doing, I’m proud that you are my kid, and I love you. 

Sorry for that, but I had to do it.

So this week was a quiet one around here. No birthdays, no classic rock concerts or anything of that nature. This first notable thing from the week for me was on Tuesday. I was going to go sand grandmas deck, but it rained all day so it was too wet. But the elders asked me to go teach that 9 year old kid Fynn. It went well and the elders gave a fun object lesson with cups. It went well but his dad wants him to wait and experience other churches, so it will really be a miracle if that kid is going to be baptized before his 18th birthday. Afterwords they invited me to go contact with them in the 16th ward. That’s the area we used to go when you were first learning to drive the Jeep Compass. If you remember there were just a few rows of town homes and a lot of empty roads there then. It’s all full now. Anyway, we knocked a few doors, talked to an Indian guy who was very polite but definitely not interested. Nobody else they wanted to meet with was home, but we did run into one guy they were looking for. He was really cool, and asked a lot of good questions. We chatted for a while then the elders had one last lesson but they had a member from the local ward meeting them there so I came home. I didn’t think much more of it but they sent this in an email to the Stake:

Miracle: This week, we were able to bring a member with us to a lesson. 

After the lesson, he went with us to knock some doors in the Stake.

We knocked some of the doors that we hoped to have lessons at, and unfortunately, no one answered. As we were walking to another door, we ran into one of the people we had been hoping to talk to.

Because the member was still with us, he was able to connect and testify in a way that we couldn't. We were also able to invite our friend to stake conference and he said he might try to go.

I thought that was pretty neat and I was thinking of you the whole time I was with them. I assume I’ll go with them again next Tuesday, I’m starting to look forward to it.

We had dinner together on Wednesday, everyone was home in the evening. Mom made steak chunks, you know how good those are.

Thursday I went over to grandmas to sand the deck. I’ve got it down so it went fast. I notice that the finish makes it through the winters fine, but the UV from the summer sun really deteriorates it. When we were there last week Jacob was cleaning the lower deck and found a bunch of shingles on the ground. Grandma was aware and got a bid for a new roof. She asked me to look at the bid and it seemed fair, but then, I’m no expert. I think she misses grandpa giving her the confidence to make those decisions. So while I do my best to look at it objectively, I mostly just want to reassure her that it’s okay. After I stopped by Home Depot get more stain. I decided to change it up to try a different brand to see if it lasts any longer, I’ll update you next year, right before you get home.

Friday night your brothers came with me to paint. Actually, mom needed us to go shopping too so we decided to split up. Ben and grandma went to Sam’s club and Jacob and I painted. It’s fast with two people. This new paint needs two coats, so I’ll go back Tuesday or Thursday. That new stain is just a little more brown, and I swear that it smelled like chocolate, even Jacob agreed. Grandma and Ben came back with a giant order from Crown Burger, wow. Bacon cheeseburgers, fries and onion rings, large drinks and large shakes. The cookies and cream reminded me of you.

Saturday morning was quite. I woke up to the glorious smell of pork butt on the smoker. Ben had seasoned it the night before then got up at 4:30 to get it on the smoker. The rest of the morning was just getting the house ready and running to the store. You’re going to have to learn how to use the smoker when you get home.

The game started at two and mom and Ben had the lunch spread ready by the time everyone got there. We made pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, and they were good. That may have been the best smoked pork Ben’s made so far. The usual cousins came and Spencer came too. The game, as you know was awesome. Utah was far more dominant than the score suggests. I read/watched a lot of recaps from around the conference and nationally and the opinion that the Utes were the real deal and should dominate the Big 12 was solidified. Oklahoma State was supposed to be a lot tougher than a “wussy PAC12 school” as Gordon Monson in his column In the Salt Lake Tribune wrote. Utah has solidified it reputation as a tough, smash mouth football team and the fact that they beat OK State with a freshman quarterback has gotten the attention of the rest of the league. They moved up to #10 today.

Speaking of rankings, BYU is ranked #22 because the beat #13th ranked Kansas State. I say beat but K state handed it to them with 28 points off of unforced turnovers. Right now the standing in the league is Utah, BYU, and Iowa State all undefeated. Our game with BYU later in the season may be more significant than we expected.

Today was a baby blessing for you cousins Erin and Alex’s baby boy Ignacio. Alex gave a beautiful blessing, one of the most beautiful I’ve ever heard. After we went over to uncle Tim’s house. We hung out on the front porch and the weather was perfect. We got home too late for our ward so we hung out and had dinner then went to Tithing settlement. 

We’ve just been hanging out since, your brothers jammed, I did a little work on my hobbies, and now I’m writing while we’re watching the Sunday night game. Kansas city is at the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta is driving for a comeback. It’s a good game.

Well, that’s the week, once again I managed to write a bunch of words kind of about nothing. But I like to tell you about our weeks. Chat tomorrow, love you,

Pops