April 28, 2019
Hi Jon -
I'm writing to you from Wrightwood today while watching a movie with Grandpa, Lynne, Maddy, and Heber and not really paying any attention to the movie. Normally I'd write you tomorrow but we're planning to be at Venice Beach all day and I won't have time or opportunity to do it.
A lot has happened this week so I'll tell you about a few highlights. As soon as Aimar's parents left I turned my attention to finally putting our West Jordan and Vintage homes on the market officially. I worked in the yard and took some pictures out there. Now that the grass looks really green and the trees are blooming it looks pretty nice out there. I purchased yard signs a while back and put them up on Wednesday. Immediately mom and I started getting calls from ward members asking what our plans are and where are we moving. I didn't expect that part. Seriously people keep calling and I wish they would stop. I wasn't in Provo for church today but I imagine it was pretty hard for mom.
The other thing I have been focused on is building out a RV/van conversion in the Honda Odyssey. I built a bed platform and put a mattress on it so we can sleep inside the van and there is storage under the bed and on overhead shelves. I won't lie it's pretty dang cool. Mom, Javi, Chance, Maddy, and Heber all thought it was a dumb idea until they saw it and now they all want to go on a trip with it. Javi called me a genius and that's high praise coming from him.
Maddy and Heber finished finals on Wednesday and wanted to go on a short vacation to the beach in California and they were kind enough to let me go with them. So I came to Wrightwood to spend some time with Grandpa and Lynne. I've been talking with Grandpa for about 6 months about possibly going on a road trip together to see the Canadian Rockies but he didn't know I was working on a van conversion and I wanted to show it to him. As we started talking we decided that now is a perfect time to do our trip because if we wait until July or September it probably won't happen. SO, our plan is to leave from Provo this Friday May 2 and go up into Canada and return home on Thursday May 16. Nobody had ever slept in the van so we decided it would be good to do a trial run before our long trip so we drove up the mountain in Wrightwood and spent the night in the van on Friday. It worked really well! We were very comfortable and found a couple of tweaks that I can make before our trip.
I was going to try and see Aunt Debbie while I was in California but she beat me to it and came to Utah instead to pick up Emilee after finals. We had breakfast together on Thursday before I left to drive to California. I also wanted to see Aunt Jenny on this trip and I did. We went to a play together yesterday to see Singing in the Rain. Oz, Isabelle, and Joseph all came so I got to see all of them. Isabelle is graduating from high school in a month and she got accepted to Cal Poly Pomona and wants to study computer science.
Today I got to see a lot of old friends at church in Wrightwood. A good friend I went to high school with, Robroy Quinn, was just called as bishop here two weeks ago. After church, Maddy, Heber, and I took a 2 hour hike near Mount Baden Powell to Big Horn mine where they used to mine gold. It was really cool and a big surprise to me because I never knew it was there and I'm from here! Tomorrow we are going to Venice Beach and on Tuesday we are going to Las Vegas to hike Arizona Hot Springs and then on Wednesday we are hiking Angels Landing. We'll get home Wednesday night and I'll have one day at home before leaving on my 2+ week road trip with Grandpa.
One last piece of news - I accepted a job offer! It is with a software company in Park City called Banjo. I'll be their VP of Engineering and I start on May 20 after I get back from the Canada trip. I'll probably have a long commute, long work hours, and almost no time off but it sounds good after being bored for the past year and a half since I left ObservePoint. I was hesitant in taking the job but mom convinced me that I'm retired now and if I don't like the job then all it takes is two words and I can be retired again. I think she just wants to get me out of the house.
I want to share a thought with you this week about what you can do when the gears are grinding and the car just isn’t moving. Do you ever get the feeling that you are working really hard, teaching people, keeping all the mission rules, but still not having much success in missionary work?
While you are teaching people, you must always keep these five questions in mind. If things are not going right and you are being obedient, then you may need to review these five. I got this from an old mission president named Ed Pinegar. I like all of his talks and he said the following about 5 questions you must ask yourself:
You will see that these questions will get you a long way. I hope that they help you as much as they did me.
Love,
Dad
I'm writing to you from Wrightwood today while watching a movie with Grandpa, Lynne, Maddy, and Heber and not really paying any attention to the movie. Normally I'd write you tomorrow but we're planning to be at Venice Beach all day and I won't have time or opportunity to do it.
A lot has happened this week so I'll tell you about a few highlights. As soon as Aimar's parents left I turned my attention to finally putting our West Jordan and Vintage homes on the market officially. I worked in the yard and took some pictures out there. Now that the grass looks really green and the trees are blooming it looks pretty nice out there. I purchased yard signs a while back and put them up on Wednesday. Immediately mom and I started getting calls from ward members asking what our plans are and where are we moving. I didn't expect that part. Seriously people keep calling and I wish they would stop. I wasn't in Provo for church today but I imagine it was pretty hard for mom.
The other thing I have been focused on is building out a RV/van conversion in the Honda Odyssey. I built a bed platform and put a mattress on it so we can sleep inside the van and there is storage under the bed and on overhead shelves. I won't lie it's pretty dang cool. Mom, Javi, Chance, Maddy, and Heber all thought it was a dumb idea until they saw it and now they all want to go on a trip with it. Javi called me a genius and that's high praise coming from him.
Maddy and Heber finished finals on Wednesday and wanted to go on a short vacation to the beach in California and they were kind enough to let me go with them. So I came to Wrightwood to spend some time with Grandpa and Lynne. I've been talking with Grandpa for about 6 months about possibly going on a road trip together to see the Canadian Rockies but he didn't know I was working on a van conversion and I wanted to show it to him. As we started talking we decided that now is a perfect time to do our trip because if we wait until July or September it probably won't happen. SO, our plan is to leave from Provo this Friday May 2 and go up into Canada and return home on Thursday May 16. Nobody had ever slept in the van so we decided it would be good to do a trial run before our long trip so we drove up the mountain in Wrightwood and spent the night in the van on Friday. It worked really well! We were very comfortable and found a couple of tweaks that I can make before our trip.
I was going to try and see Aunt Debbie while I was in California but she beat me to it and came to Utah instead to pick up Emilee after finals. We had breakfast together on Thursday before I left to drive to California. I also wanted to see Aunt Jenny on this trip and I did. We went to a play together yesterday to see Singing in the Rain. Oz, Isabelle, and Joseph all came so I got to see all of them. Isabelle is graduating from high school in a month and she got accepted to Cal Poly Pomona and wants to study computer science.
Today I got to see a lot of old friends at church in Wrightwood. A good friend I went to high school with, Robroy Quinn, was just called as bishop here two weeks ago. After church, Maddy, Heber, and I took a 2 hour hike near Mount Baden Powell to Big Horn mine where they used to mine gold. It was really cool and a big surprise to me because I never knew it was there and I'm from here! Tomorrow we are going to Venice Beach and on Tuesday we are going to Las Vegas to hike Arizona Hot Springs and then on Wednesday we are hiking Angels Landing. We'll get home Wednesday night and I'll have one day at home before leaving on my 2+ week road trip with Grandpa.
One last piece of news - I accepted a job offer! It is with a software company in Park City called Banjo. I'll be their VP of Engineering and I start on May 20 after I get back from the Canada trip. I'll probably have a long commute, long work hours, and almost no time off but it sounds good after being bored for the past year and a half since I left ObservePoint. I was hesitant in taking the job but mom convinced me that I'm retired now and if I don't like the job then all it takes is two words and I can be retired again. I think she just wants to get me out of the house.
I want to share a thought with you this week about what you can do when the gears are grinding and the car just isn’t moving. Do you ever get the feeling that you are working really hard, teaching people, keeping all the mission rules, but still not having much success in missionary work?
While you are teaching people, you must always keep these five questions in mind. If things are not going right and you are being obedient, then you may need to review these five. I got this from an old mission president named Ed Pinegar. I like all of his talks and he said the following about 5 questions you must ask yourself:
- Do they know I really care?
- Do I know how they feel or what they are thinking?
- Is there anything in scripture, particularly in the Book of Mormon, to touch their heart?
- Have they felt the spirit and are they aware of it?
- Have I invited them to do anything about it?
You will see that these questions will get you a long way. I hope that they help you as much as they did me.
Love,
Dad
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