How are you doing?
Just got done reading about Federer. He's getting a tough break. What's next? Australian Open, mate!
I missed the football game and got updates on my phone about it. Looks like we were connecting and making plays after a hard 1st quarter. Zach Wilson seems to be holding his own. I noticed that a Sports TV station (maybe ESPN) is doing a five-part documentary on Tanner Mangum and the struggles he is going through. It'd probably be for sure BYUtv. That guy has gone through a lot. He's still one of my favorite people, even though he doesn't get played anymore. To go through depression and come out on top and then play a sport that you love, it's crazy. Also, I saw a headline saying Jimmer dropped 75 points doing whatever he is doing. Hopefully, the right people are watching. I never went through Jimmer-mania, even though he was a big thing when I was in college. I do remember seeing a Daily Universe cover with a fpicture of his face plastered on the front and I was like, who is this guy? This was before I really followed BYU basketball. I didn't really get into BYU basketball until after I graduated, thanks to you. Speaking of, there's been a lot of drama with Emery, since he was handed money and vacations and things. The program is taking a penalty that is really bad. Like they are rescinding like 20 or so games they won and getting rid of a scholarship as punishment for what Emery did. Most people do not think we deserve such a harsh punishment. Lots of DRAMA. Sports are crazy. At least we can say we won this week, and are probably one game closer to an end of the year bowl. Two more games, though. Can we do it? One is against Utah (the last one). I really want to see them creamed. They have beaten us too much. And who knows, if it is an away game, we will probably win it, since we have a great away record this year. I know that U of U played Oregon yesterday and beat them.
My first Sunday as Branch Clerk was busy. Just a whole bunch of stuff to do for other people. One of which is order a missionary plaque for a member who is serving now. Only thing, store.lds.com does not have missionary plaques. I searched through 121 items to see if I could find it. I'll have to ask around, but as of now it appears that we will be paying out of pocket for a missionary plaque, and they are so so in price. Another thing, after Branch Council, I had to make print outs of the ministering lists for the WML, a print out of less actives and actives which just turned into a print out of the branch members in order by last name for the Sisters, and a print out of the Young Men for the new Young Men's president. So, I was pretty busy, not to mention, the printer kinda broke on me so I had to help.
Presidente Diaz of the Elder's Quorum asked me if I could teach a lesson in Elders Quorum this week. Of course I said yes. The talk to take away from was The Precious Gifts from God by M. Russell Ballard from the April 2018 conference. The biggest takeaways that I tried to emphasize in my lessons were the importance of the prophet in the Latter-days, mainly President Nelson, and that the Greatest gift was the Savior of the World. Of course, I had to give the lesson in Spanish, which made it probably 2x harder. But I got through it in the end. I had some good participation, so it wasn't too bad, and my time just flew so I had to cut out other points that I wanted to make. I only have limited time during the week to work on stuff since I have two jobs, so I asked Sarah to give me a hand in thinking of ideas of things I could teach the quorum. Unfortunately, during the lesson, one of our young members had low blood pressure, so his dad had to take him in the middle. I checked in, he's doing better now, which is great.
Another one of my responsibilities is numbers. I've had that responsibility before, but only in the Sacrament. I was asked to take numbers of Priesthood, Relief Society, and Primary as well, for quarterly reports. Well, Priesthood was easy, since I was in there, I asked Elizabeth Santos, who is secretary, to get the #s for Relief Society, and she did, but I had a little backlash from the secretary of the primary today. I asked her to do it, and she said she would, but when I asked her later, her excuse was that she didn't want to do it because they do it quarterly. So, I'm going to ask the Primary President to do it for me. Sacrament was easy to do. We only have two sections of benches. We had about 76 members in sacrament. I made a Google spreadsheet to record the numbers.
After church was good. I helped do tithing with Carlos, Hno. Mora, and later with Presidente Castañeda. I kept on joking with Carlos about how he shouldn't leave me with the money as I would probably steal it. Later, I took him a reimbursement check with Sarah, and I faked that I lost it in the wind. Of course he could see through my ruse. But it was funny talking with him.
I was at church pretty early on Tuesday so that I could ask the previous Branch Clerk as many questions as I could. He should be getting me some protocol that I need to follow, as there are many things that need to get signed and reviewed by Presidente. My last blessing said I was the man for the job and that I would be able to pay attention to the detail of things of my calling.
Sarah still doesn't have a calling, but Presidente did hint to a calling that they were going to extend to her. I know in previous letters I said she was going to be Advisor to the Young Womens, and that could very well be the case, but there are several things more that the Presidente wants done before the call is extended to her. Presidente is so caring and loving and willing to help out in any way he can. It's what makes him a great leader of the church. He's helped Sarah and I a lot the past few weeks.
There was a celebration and a bit of sadness in our classroom as Tiffany, one of the aides in our classroom, put in her two week notice two weeks ago and who's last day was Wednesday. We conspired to buy her a cake and have a large lunch in the classroom as a going away gift to her. What was cool is that she bought a lot of personalized gifts for all 6 students. My favorite two have to be a head scratcher for Brady, because he likes us aides to scratch it, and a mirror for Keenen, who is obsessed with his hair. He always says, "Do You See? My Hair." Crazy, I know. Oh, and she also got Ryan a small basketball for the indoor hoop. She was also nice enough to give each of the aides and the teacher a going away card. No money, but inside it was a personal Thank You note to us. My favorite line from it was that I helped let her vent to me when she was feeling frustrated with the other aides. And that she hopes I get a job as a choir teacher someday. She also taught me to feed Jennifer through a water tube connected to her stomach. It was first a very scary thing because you only hope you are doing it right. But now I feel more comfortable doing it. I had to do it by myself on Thursday and Friday.
I'm sure you already know through Sarah and/or Briana. Imagine Dragons has come out with a new album. I first heard about it late last night, so I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm sure it is super great. The album Evolve, the last one, was super great. The new album is called Origins. Sarah, my wife, also introduced me to Burn Notice, season one. We got it from the library. Before, I just remembered Burn Notice as a show that you kids liked but were mad because it was taken off of Netflix. However, it is super good as well and I can see why you liked it.
Sarah and I bought lunch at work this week one day, because it was a Thanksgiving-esque type of lunch, that they advertised. It was super good. Sarah is also trying to get a job at Central Ops at Amazon with me as well. We're doing our best to get her there, but has been a bit annoying, as they haven't really been cooperating with us.
We only went to the gym once this week. Sleep has been calling out to us. Tomorrow is a Godsend of a holiday. We truly needed it. Some spring cleaning, some vegging, and of course, some studying for the NES test.
Well, I hope you are great and are accomplishing all of your wildest dreams. You are doing a great work. Can't wait to hear from you.
Love you,
John
Also, I totally forgot! Aunt Ann invited a company over for dessert and as a time to talk. We went over tonight. It was quite fun, getting to know a lot of people in her ward and acquaintances. We had some nice conversation with all the people that arrived. She is super popular in her ward, as there were probably a good 20-30 people there tonight. And two different types of cakes.
