After Seeing What It Takes To Be A True Man...

  My mind is totally blown right now. I swear Tanner if this is a joke I will take tomorrow as my P-Day and cry for 17 hours straight. But if this is real then CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I held that down for as long as I could hold my breath. I can't believe that you are going to be a father. Literally, I can't believe it. I remember those days of when you shot bottle rockets at me while I was going to the bathroom and that time of when we were jumping on our beds and yours shattered into a million pieces, or the time that we "Modified" some Piccalo Pete fireworks to make them more exciting. Wow, I hope if it's a boy he turns out better than the both of us.

      Honestly though, I'm sure Misa will be a wonderful mother for him. It is crazy to think that you were born in Louisiana while dad was in medschool and now you will have a kid at a similar stage in life. The apple really didn't fall to far from the tree on that one. His theme song for life should totally be "Born on the Bayou" by Credence Clearwater Revival. That would be so legendary. 

     Also, to my father. Happy Birthday. I could not ask for a better dad than you. The reason I know that you are a great dad, is because if I ever need to know how I should act, I know I can ask myself, what would my dad do? and then I just try my best to follow your example. It freaks me out a bit sometimes because I have started to see how much I act like you sometimes. (Not that that's a bad thing,) but I say something and I realize, "Wow, my dad would say something exactly like that." But I'm truly proud to call myself your son. I have seen on my mission so many poor examples of what a father should be and it has helped me to be much more grateful for the wonderful opportunity and life that you have given me and our family. If you ever question what kind of job you have done, just look at Tan, J Dub and Lib. They all turned out wonderful. You'll have to wait and see about me, still not sure yet.

      Before I came out, I had a pretty fake idea of what life was all about and I just thought that being successful would fall into my lap. However, after seeing what it really takes to be a true man in the world, I realize I have a long way to go before I can count myself half the man you are today. So thanks for your amazing example and all the love and patience you have shown me throughout your life and Happy Birthday.

      Things are going great though and we have some baptisms coming up in our area so I am excited. Love y'all, and happy birthmus to Murica

It Took A Whole Lot Of Work To Get My Shirts This Dirty

Sorry I didn't get to email on Monday. Because of transfers this week our p-day was switched to today. First of all happy father's day dad. I really do feel that your one of those people that has reached perfection. There was many talks throughout the years from you to me about what I needed to do to be happy in life, I forgot pretty much everything you said, but I will never forget that we had them. All the time we spent going to the golf course, going to movies, mountain biking, in church together, at scouts, and doing chores around the house was worth a lot to me. I have learned so much from your example and from the way that you taught our family. Thanks.

       We have had many great things happen this week and some hard things as well. Yesterday I drove my last companion Elder King to the airport which was pretty hard. He is a stud and we became good friends as we served together. Sad to see him go but I'm sure there are great things ahead for him. We picked up 15 noobs yesterday afternoon as well. Their shirts are SO white. I couldn't believe it. I felt almost embarrassed by how dirty my shirts were, but then I remembered, it took a whole lot of hard work and miles on a bike to get my shirts this dirty and I would never take all that back. I am excited for all of them too. They have such great faith and it is a good reminder to me to not lose that faith and excitement that I had as I first began my mission. 

     Last night we had two cool miracles. We are teaching a man that has been progressing but hasn't been able to quit smoking. We hadn't talked to him in 3 days and for the first thing he said when we called him was, Elders, I don't know how, but I haven't smoked for 3 days. He said he wants to keep moving forward and be baptized in the coming month so I'm looking forward to that. Also we visited a part-member couple that hadn't been contacted in a few years and they were so excited to see us. The 25 year old daughter has a boyfriend who is interested as well. They were being kind of stubborn about coming to church though so I challenged them to a cook off for breakfast this sunday and they agreed. I'm planning on whipping up some pancakes with buttermilk syrup. I have no idea how to make that but they name makes me think it's probably not to hard. Wish me luck.

     Everything is good though and don't worry, I'm not even missing swimming this summer. It is so humid that it's basically like were doing water aerobics just walking around. Love y'all and have a good week.

Your Brother Is Really Happy

    Bloomington is bumpin. We have had some interesting experiences this past week. First, I got to use my landscaping skills that I learned from doing that for like 3 weeks before the mish. There is a part member in our ward who have been taught by missionaries for quite awhile but we had a neat opportunity to help them progress this past week. They are redoing their house because they want to move do a different area in the city and so I told her that I used to do landscaping before my mission, (I didn't say that all I did was pretty much dig holes and mow lawns,) and she took that to mean that I am an expert tradesman. So we built a big cement retaining wall for her garden, replaced a window well, and are planning to rebuild the deck this next week. I'm learning a lot but the bad thing is I have to learn by experience which can cause some roadblocks. The cool thing is that the dad came to church this Sunday, (he is the nonmember) and he stayed for all 3 hours which he has never before done, even though his wife has been a member her whole life. Pretty sweet.

     Here are some other highlights of the week:

       I drank chocolate covered maple smoked bacon flavored soda. It blew my mind.

       A less active who is my favorite guy in the world came to church this past sunday and prayed with us in our lesson. 

     We are teaching a man who is a quadripolegic, and he has a date set for an     August 9th baptism. He has been taught by missionaries for 3 years but finally read the book of mormon and feels that it is true. Gotta love that book.

     Elder Crapo and I, along with our current calling, are now duel training a missionary as well. His name is Elder Fabrizio. He is a super stud kid. He is also ginormous. He is 6' 4" and 215lbs. He has a scholarship to Utah to play safety. I love him. 

     This Tuesday my MTC teacher is getting sealed in the temple in Minnesota so I get to go see him.

     Tomorrow the kids in the family of 7 that I taught in Minneapolis are getting baptized:)!!!!!!!!

     There is a lot going on at this time with transfers coming up as well so I appreciate all the prayers I can get. 

     Almost forgot. This last Friday was 9 years since James passed away and I had a really neat miracle that day. When I woke up in the morning in my prayer I said something along the lines of, "Dear God, I know the church is true and all, but it would be pretty sweet if you sent me a message that James is happy and doing well, thanks, Amen."

     So we headed off to a zone training that went well. But after the meeting, one of the missionaries, Elder Morgan, came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder and said, I don't know why but I feel like I just need to tell you that your brother is really happy and is doing a great work for God right now. My jaw literally dropped through the floor. It was so cool. I will love him forever for that. 

   

                                                                               Love,

                                                                                  Koj tus Phooj Ywg