10/28 Letter #92

Jacob!

It's been an interesting week for sure. I was told to put my new address in my letter. It is:

John and Sarah Gonzales

901 S. Country Club Dr. #3185

Mesa, Arizona 85210

Anyways. Biggest news is that Sarah and I got callings. I got a text last Sunday night from the Stake Executive Secretary to meet with a member of the Mesa Arizona Stake Presidency. At first, I was wondering if I was in trouble. So, from then, til Tuesday, Sarah and I speculated what the meeting could be about. Sarah was asked to accompany me to the interview. We met with President Robinson. Can you guess what I have been called to do? I asked Mom and Dad to guess when I called them after the interview. It's something totally (well, almost totally) different from what I've been called in the past. Something I haven't done before. That should narrow it down for you. Not EQP, not Branch Executive Secretary. I have been called as Branch Clerk for the Guerrero Park Branch. It's pretty amazing. I do love working with bishoprics/branch presidencies. It gives me experience and great associations with people that are the best people to be around.

One of the first things I told Sarah was that I was sad that my immediate family couldn't be there for the setting apart, but almost right afterward, I had the idea to call Aunt Kerry and Uncle Jesse and Gracie to be there. I also reached out to Aunt Ann and Uncle Steve and Aunt Janell. All of them said they could make it, but, the setting apart moved from today to next week. The reason for the change is because today we had both the Branch and the Udall Ward's Primary Program. So, I will get set apart next week after church. I get to start this Tuesday though, in training. I get to work with Presidente Castaneda and Mora, and my good friend Carlos Santos.

Sarah, too, got extended a calling after church today. She is going to be a Young Women Adviser for the Young Women in both the Udall Ward and Guerrero Park Branch, since we're combined third hour. I can't wait to see how much she's going to love those girls. She's definitely an inspiration to me; I believe she will be an inspiration to her girls. Sister Barney of the Udall Ward was talking to her a lot after church. I actually couldn't find my wife after the service ended, and was a bit scared, for a quick second, but then I found her upstairs, led by the branch president.

The primary program was actually really sweet. Some of the one liners touched Sarah and my hearts. The music was also pretty good. It was mostly all in English, but with some interspersed words in Spanish. Also, a family from our ward had a Families Can Be Together solo in Spanish. Sarah and I thought that church was only one hour today, but we were both wrong. Sarah had the idea to invite the Santos over this evening for dinner. Well, they were already preoccupied with stuff, but we were able to invite another couple over, Michael and Monica Neuman. They are new to our branch, but not to the area. They actually live in Tuscany Palms also. We had beef estofado with bread and butter, and also peach cobbler, all made by Sarah. I spent the time I had to organize our house a little bit. The food was good and the company was good. We played Codenames, the game that I got for Christmas last year. It was fun. Monica is primarily a Spanish speaker, so she and her husband did their best, but we creamed them 4 times. Although, Monica was doing good on the third and fourth games giving out clues.

I would tell you more about the game that was played yesterday, but I didn't even watch a lick of it, just highlights. I can tell you this, though, Zach Wilson can jump AND stiff-arm people. He had this play where he was running and out maneuvering people left and right and as he got close to the sidelines, he hurdled over a defender and crashed into another one with a stiff arm. It was probably my favorite highlight from the game. I, unfortunately, was at work at Amazon during the whole duration. I called Mom after to ask her what she thought of it. She wasn't able to see the 1st quarter. Anyways, we lost 7-6, to Northern Illinois University. And our six came from two field goals.  We tried to win with another field goal, but came up short. I'm kinda glad that I didn't watch it, really.

Our Saturday, after work, was actually pretty fun. I helped Sarah organize our house. We also went to the fall festival (code name for trunk or treat). We said Hi to the member of the Stake Presidency that interviewed us. He was wearing a BYU shirt and I was wearing my BYU hat, so we immediately connected. We got several hot dogs, some chili, corn bread, popcorn and cotton candy. Then Sarah and I went to several stores afterwards. We went to Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, Marshalls, and lastly, Walmart. We had several unused gift cards to those places. We for sure got a shower curtain rod and curtain. That was probably the biggest necessity, as we've been taking baths lately, no showers. When we got home, I installed the rod. After working to get more of the house cleaned up, we decided to get a movie with a coupon from Redbox. We got the new movie, Ocean's 8. I don't know if you have heard about it. It is in the OCEAN VERSE, haha, Sandra Bullock being the younger sister of Danny Ocean. It was actually a pretty good and fun movie to end the night with.

This week has been interesting, as we are getting use to living in our new apartment complex. Monday-Wednesday, I went to our complex gym when I got up. Sarah and I are reading from the new conference talks every morning as well, in the morning. We have a system for getting water. We obtained two gallon-sized jugs and we get water for 25 cents right next to the laundromat. We also live on the third floor, which is super crazy at times, because of how tired we are from the day. We have two like-new leather couches that our Branch President helped us get. The getting was the easy part, the getting them both up the three flights of stairs was another story. I actually lost feeling in my legs on the first couch and had to give it all I got to get back up. I even have bruises (and I never get bruised) from the couches on my forearms. The second couch, even though it is a bigger one, was easier to get up the stairs. We took a break in between, which helped as well.

Wednesday, at Mesa High, was a laid back day, in that the teacher from my classroom wasn't there. So we ended up teaching the first half of the day, and watching movies the second half of the day, including, COCO (have you seen it? I can't remember), Shrek, and The Emperor's New Groove. We didn't finish the last one. My wildest dreams have come true. I work with my wife at school. The teacher Sarah works with, named Ms. Shellie, trained Sarah in how to do her work, because she had already had a planned absence Wednesday-Friday. Sarah was able to bring a student named Jesus to the classroom so that we could change his diaper on the table. I was able to train and show Sarah how this was to be done, and since I'm the designated diaper changer for the miscellaneous kids, I deal with all those kids. We've also been able to have lunch together the last couple of days. It's been truly amazing.

We also get to chat with Aunt Kerry after work. Aunt Kerry is super knowledgeable about the going ons of the school special ed population. It's cool to be around so much family.

Monday's FHE we watched Mormon Newsroom videos about President Nelson's trip to South America. Then Sarah and I played an epic game of Ticket to Ride. We played two games, but on the second game, we were confused as to the rules we were going to adhere to, and so we both played very different second games. But we were able to laugh about it afterwards.

Well, I hope you are doing amazingly. I love you so much. Continue doing your best. Those stories you shared in your previous letters were funny, sad, but real. I loved hearing about them. And Elder Toomer being related to someone Granny and Grandpa worked with in South Africa is so amazing. Small world this church makes us.

Oh yeah, and Sarah and I went to the latest session at the Phoenix Temple, since both the Mesa and Gilbert are closed. We had a lot of fun, and had pizza afterwards. We were the last ones in the Celestial room and they came to us to kick us out so people could go home.

Well, love you. You know the drill.

John Gonzales

10/21 Letter #91

HEY BROTHER!

I watch two youtube brothers who’s last names are Carlin and the subscribing name is the SuperCarlin Brothers. At the beginning of every video they say, “Hey Brother!!!!!” And they usually end the videos with a segment by announcing that, “These Socks are Amazing” and showing people that have taken pictures of their unique socks and shares them with all of youtube. Every time I watch a video, both things remind me of you. I’m so grateful for our relationship and the kind of Man you are. Keep doing those things that are right. And keep wearing those unique socks. I can’t wait to see you again at Christmastime. Just three more holidays to go. Soon to be two.

Well, it’s only been three days since I wrote you last.

Since then, we’ve established ourselves in our new apartment. We actually still have several boxes in the storage, but hopefully, by the end of this next week, we will be out of there. We did bring out all our dishes and kitchen items. The branch provided us with lots of food. We are truly blessed. We have actually heard from the branch president of someone who is giving away some sofas, so we should have some by the end of next week.

Since Thursday, I’ve been working a whole lot. Friday after school I had a shift in the evening at Amazon and later on Saturday, I had two shifts, with a long three or so hour break in between. I went home and watched the movie Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. Sarah had never seen it before, so it was fun to tell her all of my favorite parts, like the running away in the forest and Little Hansel, or the train scene where Watson and Holmes are evading bullets thanks to Sherlock’s ingenuity. I can’t wait for the third to come out, at least I think there will be a third if I heard right. Not to mention, Fantastic Beasts 2: Crimes of Grindewald is coming out and Jude Law is playing a younger version of Dumbledore. I can’t remember if you saw the first one or not. I liked it.

Work at Amazon has been much busy than the first few times working Fresh. Usually I have time to read my scriptures, but I think in the last few shifts, I only had time to read a few verses of some chapters. I am in 2 Nephi, trying to finish the Book before the end of the year at President Nelson’s admonition to the sisters. Sarah is reading to and she is also in 2 Nephi. I do enjoy the leads that work at Amazon though. They are really nice and funny people, which makes the time more bearable, and they are also super helpful in a pinch or with any problems.

The Branch had a Branch Barbecue on Saturday evening. It started at 5, but I was at work. I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it, but the party lasted a long time. And at 7:30 when I left work, Sarah was still at the party and she even got me a Hamburger, Hot Dog, and elote. Definitely a great party. I got into conversations with several people, including a man named Lehi Camargo. He is the Sunday School teacher for the branch. He always does a good job and that is what I told him.

It was nice to sleep in today before church, as on Saturday, I had to get up for a 6am shift. We read our scriptures and read a conference talk together. We have a goal to read the conference a lot as a couple between now and April. The branch has been practicing their Primary Program with the Udall Ward (since they meet together). So, our class was in the primary room. Funny thing, I played the Organ today for Sacrament meeting. Well, I had chosen a lower setting for the sacrament hymn. Well, while playing the intro, and listening to how quiet that setting was, I was like, I probably should change it to a higher setting as to get more background music. Well, from setting three to four, the fourth setting was the chime setting, so, for just a split second the intro was pure chimes. I quickly reacted and changed back to the lower setting, but one of the Elders was like, wow, Brother Gonzales, you were doing a remix up there. I just had to laugh.

On Thursday night, the previous branch president and his wife (who we were staying with for three nights) invited us over for dinner with the sisters. In their lesson to us, they challenged us to go to the temple this week. We talked about how I think a walkabout should count, and they challenged us to go before the end of the week. We did go today, to Gilbert (which is closed until the end of the month), and walked around and took some pictures. We also held family council to get on the same page about things coming up in our lives.

Sarah had a good day at work on Friday. We actually had lunch together which was really nice. She actually is working with a teacher named Mrs. Milcam. She seems like a really nice person. Sarah is getting to interact with more students than I have had the pleasure to interact with. It’s nice to be able to talk about the same people with Sarah that we now work with together.

I hope you are doing super good and that this week has been one of much happiness for you. I love you, brother.

Love,

John

10/18 Letter #90

Jacob!

Wow! It's Thursday and I still haven't written you. My bad. Well, really, the bad of everything we've had to do, haha. Honestly, if we hadn't gotten in really late on Sunday, and had wifi, I would have gotten back with you. Sorry. But, hopefully this letter makes up for it. I am writing from my phone because I still have no wifi...so bear with me if the letter is short.

I am writing you from our new apartment in Tuscany Palms.

So much drama went into getting this apartment. As I probably mentioned in a previous letter, we had a deposit down for Pinefield Apartments across the street. Well, last Thursday, Sarah gets a call from the lady owner and basically told us that we were not approved for this apartment. When Sarah tried to get a reason why, she hung up on her. We were so confused. We had really counted on moving in on Monday. And now we were without a place to stay. It was super upsetting, to both of us. But we took that and applied to Tuscany pretty much right away. The strange thing was, on Friday, on my way out to California, I went to get the deposit back from Irene, and what does she say? "Why are we getting the deposit when you are approved?" WHAT? Lady, why are you changing your story? Long story super cut short, we decide that we would not care, forgive this lady and get back into the apartment, because she said that there was an opening still. This was Monday. On Tuesday we get a call saying the apartment was taken. There was our final answer. Sarah drove to Tuscany that afternoon and checked to see if we were approved for Tuscany, because we still hadn't gotten a response about our application. She had a very nice experience and time with the leading manager Destinee, and they approved us on the spot. Wednesday was our move in date and our first night in the apartment.

Where were we staying at in the interim? The previous branch president of the Guerrero Park Branch let us know that we could stay with him and his wife temporarily in their guest bedroom. So, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights we were with him and his wife Gloria Cruz. They were very nice and hospitable. They let us sleep on their air mattress. Also, today they invited us over with the sister missionaries for lasagna and salad, bread and watermelon. She had made it a way I had never experienced before, with pepperjack cheese, to spice it up. It was super good.

Today, Sarah started her first day at Mesa High School. She liked it and is making some friends.

Our week before our Sunday trip to Mesa was pretty good. I travelled from Mesa to Fontana to pick up Sarah, and to pick up our stuff. Mom and Dad helped us with moving our boxes and two last pieces of furniture to our cars, and they took the furniture to Tia Lucy's house.

When I got there, I watched the Peru vs Chile friendly game with dad. On Saturday evening, we watched the BYU vs Hawaii football game. It was super fun to watch. Also on Saturday, I helped Sarah clean out Shaunna's house. Sarah's mom came to help us out that night as well. We said our goodbyes to people those days, and Sarah and i took our two cars to Mesa. The whole time, I followed Sarah in my car and chatted with her with our cell phones. Oh technology these days. Mom and Dad fed us fried rice that you know, is super good. And, I asked Dad for a blessing.

Update on the job offer. I decided that I would take it. So I applied online on Monday night. I found out on Tuesday night that I need to take and pass two tests. One is the NES SpEd test that I've taken in the past, and the other is a math based test. With that news, I still am going to apply, but I need some time to practice the SpEd test.

The game was very fun to watch. I wish there wasn't a bye week this week. But, I'll probably miss the following games because of Saturday work anyways...so. Zach Wilson performed especially well.

Peru played the USA on Tuesday and tied the game 1-1. So good for them.

Anyways...I hope you are doing well. I love you and hopefully I'll write a better letter this following week.

I love you and pray for you and talk about you constantly. I am so proud of you.

Love,

John

10/9 Blessing from Carlos and PEL for Reals

Today has been good. I've been on the fence about whether or not I should take the teaching job. Well, as I was praying and reading from the Saints book, I read about Parley Pratt, who got a blessing in regards to going on a mission to Canada and about whether or not his wife, Thankful, would have a baby. I felt like that was my answer. I needed to get a blessing. So, immediately after reading that I text Carlos Santos and ask him if he could give me a Priesthood blessing. He said yes and to come before 7pm to his house. Well, after work, I headed for the post office and then his house.

It was nice talking to Elizabeth Santos. She's such a nice person, I'm glad I'm friends with her. We agreed that Sarah is super smart and that we want to be like her when we grow up. They also offered me food: Tostadas with some nice type of Salad and salsa that Carlos had made. I discussed the job offer with them while eating and then he gave me a blessing which I tape recorded and this is what he said:

John Carlos Gonzales,

By the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood, which I hold, I place my hands upon your head to give you a priesthood blessing. John, at this time, I bless you with the mindset to achieve everything that you feel in your heart that is right. I bless you, John, so that you can come to know God’s answer so that your prayers may be answered and that you may receive that revelation through the Holy Ghost and come to know God’s guidance. Remember, John, that He knows you and he knows who you’ll become both temporally and spiritually.

I bless you, John, so that He may speak to your heart and that you may act at the moment that you receive that answer, and not doubt that answer and not doubt that feeling or that impression. I bless you, John, so that you can also do everything in your hands to prepare and as you have been attending the temple, reading the scriptures and praying. And as He promised, you will have, He will allow you to understand His way.

John, I bless you also, so that you can, through this decision, bless your wife, and bless all those around you. And that this decision that you take can also allow you to serve God, serve his children, serve in His church, and that that’ll allow you to progress both spiritually and temporally.

I also bless you with the knowledge that God loves you very much and to not forget His hand in your life recently, and that He is guiding you, He is guiding your wife and He is protecting you both and He is blessing you as you are obedient to His commandments and are obedient to the words of His prophet.

I bless you with the ability to have faith, faith that will allow you to overcome any type of stress, any type of anxiety, any type of doubt and even any type of depression in any sense. That you may push those away from you and with that push Satan away from your path. I bless you so that you can honor your priesthood and serve with that power that you have.

I leave this blessing and the blessings Heavenly Father has for you and pronounce them in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

It was a good blessing and after discussing it with Sarah, I feel a lot lighter in weightiness of the situation. We both agree that it sounds like God wants me to take the job and all the stresses that comes with it and that he will bless me if I have faith in him. Anyways, I'm planning on going to the Phoenix Temple tomorrow night after work, and so I will have time to contemplate the blessing in the Celestial Room.

Work was really good. They only had a total of 15 badges to print out, so I really was on PEL duty today with Peter, the man I taught how to make badges yesterday. So, he was finishing my training, and now I actually feel really confident in all that I have to do in that station. So it was good.

We had a lot of down time, so I ended up reading my 6-7 pages of Book of Mormon, a chapter of Saints, two Ensign articles, the spanish Book of Mormon I'm following, and look at smartwatches.

Good day.

10/8 Amazon Badge Activation and Anxiety in the drive home

Another day has come and gone. Most of my day was spent at Amazon from 11:15am to 5:45pm. I took my lunch and was hungry but had only brought snack items, so I told Sarah and she told me to get something to eat. So, I went to Which Wich. Unfortunately, 30 minutes to order and eat and walk back to the building which is surrounded my construction, even having to jump over a divider just to avoid construction, was not enough time to do so. I clocked in like 3 or so minutes late. Oh well.

I was signed up for PEL (Project Eagle Landing). Which is receiving a notification that a package was undeliverable, then calling the driver, and perhaps the customer to ensure that the package gets delivered. We learned about it, but then didn't have to do it because they had enough people running the stations. So I was waiting, reading scriptures and stuff, and then they asked me if I could take part in printing and activating Amazon badges. I spent a good part of the rest of the shift (after lunch) activating badges, teaching a guy named Peter, and then helping him teach a replacement for both of us.

I got off of work and I was heading home, but for some reason I was feeling anxious. I didn't get on the freeway, I just took surface streets home. I even stopped by our new apartment, just to look at it, then go to the the park by the apartments so I could use the bathroom because my stomach was hurting. Then driving the rest of the way home.

I told Sarah about not feeling well, and we went through some guided meditations to see what the problems were. The biggest sentiment is that I feel separated from my family (Kerry, Jesse, and Gracie). And that I feel like I've overstayed my welcome and that they don't really want me here anymore. Of course, all those are false beliefs.

I was praying this morning that the $1300 check will come soon. Hopefully tomorrow it will be here. Otherwise, we don't have enough money. Sarah said her mom will let us borrow $300 if we need it. Hopefully we won't.

I talked to my sister for a bit. She's doing good. Her 7th day of work is tomorrow. She has a new job in Springville. It's salaried. Which is always good. She said she thinks I am weird for taking screenshots of Briana's pictures in her stories, and that Briana thinks the same things. I'll have to hear those words from Briana. I love them even if they think I'm weird.

I've begun reading the Book of Mormon from start to finish yesterday. I finished all the way up to 1 Nephi 8. Also, 10-day fast is going on now from Social Media.

The tios went on a hike this morning.

10/7 More on SpEd Algebra teaching Offer

I just thought I'd notify you, since my letter was a bit cryptic to Jacob, what's been going on.

I have a job offer, one I didn't know I was going to get, and an opportunity to better my living situation with Sarah.

On Friday, Patrick extended a job offer to me through TIR (Teacher in Residence). He said I could think about it and text him throughout this week if I had any questions about the job or anything. He said the job is to be a High School special ed Algebra teacher. Craziness. Why? Well, one of the teachers there is resigning, and further digging with Aunt Kerry it seems like this teacher isn't making a rational decision and letting depression get the better of her.

I know it's not going to be easy, but how many things in life that are worth attaining are easy. Not a lot. If you want to see the view of Provo, you have to climb a very tall mountain to get there.

This job is kinda what I was shooting for when I first arrived in Arizona. I mean, I took the Special Ed NES test so that I could get a TIR job as soon as possible. But since then, I've come up with what I want to really do, and that is teach in a Choir room, teach music. But math is probably the second best thing.

I feel like I will be able to make a difference. I can be my kids role models. I can love them as my children. Help them achieve a love of math that my middle school and high school teachers instilled in me. The man (besides my dad) who played a big role in helping me have a love of math was Mr. Hall, from my 8th grade year. He taught and I listened.

So, yes, I think I'm going to take the job. It's not going to be easy, as with this job comes courses at Rio Salado college. But I am glad that I will be teaching students that are much more higher functioning than the kids that I have now. Not to bag on my kids, I love the kids that I work with now, and I will miss teaching their special souls.

Sarah told me she would support me either decision. She wanted me to be sure. Last night, at her request, I prayed to Heavenly Father, and I felt good about taking the job throughout the prayer and wrote down the pros and cons, and the pros outweighed the con list by a significant amount.

My biggest fear that I have now is whether or not I will be able to live my dream of becoming a choir teacher and music teacher. Of course, this is only a two year commitment. I can do my best in reaching out to whoever the choir teacher at Mesa High School is.

Anyways. Now you know my thoughts. I will have benefits, which is a huge plus in the condition that I am in.

10/6 Letter #89

Hey Brother!!!

Changes are happening. It's pretty crazy. Conference was really good. And to hear the announcement of 12 new temples and the Sabbath day church schedule being changed to two hours, to more fully give us time for our own instruction and family time and to better help serve those people around us. It is just really interesting, to say the least. I thought President Nelson was being really cryptic, and then the next talk explained what he was talking about. Wow. And you heard all the cheers from the audience in the conference center when they announced the temples. It was definitely a great weekend. I haven't watched it yet, but I know that President Nelson also extended the challenge to participate in a 10-day Social Media fast. Sarah asked me if I could join her in doing so. I have already done it before. I don't know if you got to watch it a couple of months ago, but President Nelson extended the same invitation to the Youth of the church, but for seven days. We did it. It wasn't easy. I guess the hard part will be when I get notifications that Briana has posted a story or picture of our new nephew Cohen. I do screenshot all her pictures that she posts, for a later date (maybe to embarrass him when he's older, or at least to show him that he has an uncle that cares). Maybe Briana will refrain from posting a story. If not, social media is always there. After the ten days are up, I will be able to look back at what I missed.

Speaking of Briana, she called me Saturday morning before the first session of conference. She actually called me three times before I picked up. First thing I see when I answer the video call is a little boy named Cohen. It's amazing how much he's grown. He's a little man, and I got to see him smile a couple of times. I also talked with Sarah during work on Thursday night. Everyone seems to be doing really good. I congratulated her on her new job. It definitely was good news to hear.

Honestly, the game was like watching the Cal game, but a little worse. Sarah called me at the end of it and so I put it on mute and was relaying what was happening in the game from my perspective. Honestly, by the end of the 3rd quarter, I was falling asleep and had no hope for our team to pull through. One thing that did happen is that they did put the back-up quarterback Zach Wilson out for the end of the game, and he had a pretty successful drive ending in a touchdown for us. The game was so bad that I don't even really remember the score. Over 40 for Utah State, and I think we reached 20. We missed a field goal by a little and a PAT hit the uprights. Our kicker, Southam, was probably kicking himself after those two mishaps. Anyways, we're 3 and 3 now with 6 more games to play. Who really knows how well they'll do now?

Other than that, this next week Mesa High School is on Fall Break. So, normally I wouldn't be doing anything, but now I'm a working man, so I picked up 25 hours worth of shifts at Amazon. I know that sounds good, but I couldn't get the shifts I wanted because they were all taken by the people that work there already. I wanted to work in Fresh, which is what I was really trained for. But instead, the majority of the shifts I'm working are PEL, or Project Eagle Landing, shifts which I've been trained in once or so. In them, I am basically customer service, in that we find out why certain packages haven't been delivered. Then, we probably have to call the driver and see what his reasoning is for not making the drop off. Hopefully it isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be. I'm kinda scared that I won't be able to find a shift that will fit my schedule at Mesa High. I only got the five or so shifts next week because I'm not working those days. It's for 11am through the afternoons Monday thru Thursday.

I did pick up two Fresh shifts. One I had yesterday (so I missed the Women's Conference), and let me tell you, it was really really nice and easy. It's not hard because if you have a question, there are always some people over you that you can ask. I mostly dealt with deliveries made in California. I also have an early morning Fresh shift on Thursday of this week. They actually trained me in something called Fresh Risk. It is pretty easy, just a lot of protocol of stuff you need to do, and so maybe I'll get shifts for that too. A nice lady helped train me in that.

That leaves me to Friday. On Friday, after I had gotten to school to help out with the SpEd class, the head teacher told me that Patrick wanted to see me. I was unsure what the outcome of this meeting could be and was a bit apprehensive on my walk to his office in the main building. Well, the first thing he says to me is if I am still planning on doing the TIR (teacher in residence). I was caught off guard and told him I didn't know. He then explains to me that one of the Special Ed Algebra math teachers is resigning, and if I wanted to, I could apply. He also told me that I didn't have to take a particular test to get the job, that I need to talk to Ginger, who is over TIR. This whole weekend I have been contemplating the pros and cons about taking this job, discussing it with various people, including my wife, parents, and Aunt Kerry and Uncle Jesse. It is definitely a good opportunity. By next week, I should have my answer. (Sorry, cliffhanger, I know).

There wasn't really anything too exciting at work this week that I can think of. I took Thursday off once again because of the late night Amazon training schedule that I had had. Training is over and yesterday was officially my very first day without training. It went well, with a few things that happened, but I feel confident in my ability to work Fresh, for sure. The hardest thing about working so late at night, is that it is terribly hard to find a parking spot in the complex that Aunt Kerry, Uncle Jesse, and Gracie live in.

I'm really excited for the new changes to take into effect. I was reading from the Come, Follow Me booklet yesterday, and it looks pretty cool. I like that we have an extra hour for greatness, as prescribed by our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and Prophet.

Uncle Steve and Aunt Janell are both up in Utah for the weekend, so I wasn't able to watch the game with them. Fortunately, Mom and Dad have let me have access to their ESPN, so I was able to watch it. The UMASS game seems to be on a weird UMASS channel. Hopefully I'll be able to watch it. But, like Mom says, we'll cross that road when we come to it.

Actually, I'm planning on going to California this next weekend on Friday, to pick up the rest of our stuff that is in storage, spend time with mom and dad before Sarah and I make the big move and get settled into our apartment on Monday. So, hopefully everything works out this week.

Sarah has been with her sister Christina this conference weekend, helping with her classroom (she works as a home economics teacher in Torrance) and help with her two daughters, Fiona and Brianna. It just gives me supernal joy when little nephews and nieces call me Uncle John, you don't even know, but soon you might, I'm sure.

Well, I love you, and hope you are finding joy in the work and in the ever expanding revelation that comes through the prophets. Tell Elder Toomer Hi for me. Send me a line, please. I missed ya last week.

Love,

John