July 1, 2018
Hi Jon! I hope you're having a great week. Do you have any idea how long you'll be in the MTC? Not that it matters much back here I'm just curious.
This week on Tuesday I hiked this crazy trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon by myself. It was like 9 miles roundtrip with an elevation gain of 5,500 feet which is pretty crazy even for me. I got 3 miles and 3,500 vertical feet into it and then the trail just disappeared and it was 2,000 vertical feet of boulders straight up from there. That's when I called it quits. My body is too old and too achy to slip and slide down loose and steep trails not to mention unmarked bounder fields. The hike served it's purpose though - 6+ miles and some steep terrain for conditioning not to mention really beautiful scenery to look at.
On Thursday I made Javi and Chance go with me on another hike + camping trip. We went up Little Cottonwood Canyon this time and hiked an 11k foot summit called Sugarloaf. The trail started at the base of Alta ski resort and turned out to be 6.5 miles roundtrip. Javi only did maybe 4 miles and then sat down and quit but still that's a pretty good hike for him at this stage. Chance did better and got to the saddle right under the summit but I could tell he was really struggling. Chance thinks he's in good physical shape but it shows through when he does tough hikes.
We hammocked overnight at Tanner Flat campground right next to Snowbird resort on Thu night and then hiked a different peak called Mt Superior on Friday morning. This one was tough too - straight up. Just like on Tuesday, the trail disappeared about 1k feet below the summit and I felt it was way too sketchy to go on any further. Still it was over 4 miles and 2,500 feet of elevation gain so pretty taxing. Especially for my 3rd hard hike in 4 days.
Saturday was my recovery day so I laid in my hammock all day at Canyon Glen and read books. Maddy and Heber came up for punchdogs at night but all the friends they had invited bailed out. We went home to watch the movie Maverick and just as we were starting the movie their friends texted and said "we just got to Canyon Glen where are you?" hahahaha That sucks for them.
On a spiritual note, this week I felt prompted to stop by the house of someone in my quorum so I just knocked on the door and that led to a 3 hour conversation with him and his wife. They are struggling the in the gospel quite a bit, mainly with church history. I'm finding that so many people these days are questioning their testimonies due to something they recently learned about church history. After that chat I took some time to read the "13 essays" that are in the gospel library app and available online https://www.lds.org/topics/essays. Have you read them? I hope you have or will because very soon you'll be working with investigators and members who will have lots of questions and as a missionary I hope they don't catch you off-guard or by surprise. It would help if you understand the official answers the church has provided so you can talk intelligently about them.
That's all for now. Work hard and have fun! The MTC will be over sooner than you realize and you'll never get to go back so enjoy it now.
Love,
Dad
This week on Tuesday I hiked this crazy trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon by myself. It was like 9 miles roundtrip with an elevation gain of 5,500 feet which is pretty crazy even for me. I got 3 miles and 3,500 vertical feet into it and then the trail just disappeared and it was 2,000 vertical feet of boulders straight up from there. That's when I called it quits. My body is too old and too achy to slip and slide down loose and steep trails not to mention unmarked bounder fields. The hike served it's purpose though - 6+ miles and some steep terrain for conditioning not to mention really beautiful scenery to look at.
On Thursday I made Javi and Chance go with me on another hike + camping trip. We went up Little Cottonwood Canyon this time and hiked an 11k foot summit called Sugarloaf. The trail started at the base of Alta ski resort and turned out to be 6.5 miles roundtrip. Javi only did maybe 4 miles and then sat down and quit but still that's a pretty good hike for him at this stage. Chance did better and got to the saddle right under the summit but I could tell he was really struggling. Chance thinks he's in good physical shape but it shows through when he does tough hikes.
We hammocked overnight at Tanner Flat campground right next to Snowbird resort on Thu night and then hiked a different peak called Mt Superior on Friday morning. This one was tough too - straight up. Just like on Tuesday, the trail disappeared about 1k feet below the summit and I felt it was way too sketchy to go on any further. Still it was over 4 miles and 2,500 feet of elevation gain so pretty taxing. Especially for my 3rd hard hike in 4 days.
Saturday was my recovery day so I laid in my hammock all day at Canyon Glen and read books. Maddy and Heber came up for punchdogs at night but all the friends they had invited bailed out. We went home to watch the movie Maverick and just as we were starting the movie their friends texted and said "we just got to Canyon Glen where are you?" hahahaha That sucks for them.
On a spiritual note, this week I felt prompted to stop by the house of someone in my quorum so I just knocked on the door and that led to a 3 hour conversation with him and his wife. They are struggling the in the gospel quite a bit, mainly with church history. I'm finding that so many people these days are questioning their testimonies due to something they recently learned about church history. After that chat I took some time to read the "13 essays" that are in the gospel library app and available online https://www.lds.org/topics/essays. Have you read them? I hope you have or will because very soon you'll be working with investigators and members who will have lots of questions and as a missionary I hope they don't catch you off-guard or by surprise. It would help if you understand the official answers the church has provided so you can talk intelligently about them.
That's all for now. Work hard and have fun! The MTC will be over sooner than you realize and you'll never get to go back so enjoy it now.
Love,
Dad
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